After the Rain

New Leaves on the Loquat Plant

The rain stopped on Wednesday!  It was a mostly cloudy day, but, the sun tried to shine through the clouds.  Gardener M was here a little after 11:00 a.m. to tend to the garden.  He did some weeding and pruned the star jasmine vine.  The old wooden trellis it had been growing on had rotted and collapsed, so we pulled it out.  I will buy a new trellis for the vine once I decide on one that I like.  

I had leftover French toast and bacon for brunch on Wednesday and for dinner, I had leftover rice and sausage stir fry followed by an apple for dessert.

On Thursday, it was bright and sunny, without a cloud in the sky.  I made a wreath with some bay laurel sprigs that M had pruned from another client's garden, texted with a cousin's daughter and helped her to identify some of the people in an old family photo, did a few household tasks, crocheted another granny square, and read.  

I finished the last piece of French toast and bacon for brunch; dinner was freshly cooked rice with chicken curry and peach chutney; another apple for dessert.

I am grateful for:

- A couple of sunny days
- M's help with the garden
- The garden is thriving after all that rain, with new growth and flowers
- Library books to read
- Emails, texts, phone calls, etc., with family and friends

Joyful activities have included gardening, reading, crocheting, and wreath making.

Hellebore Flowers

Plans for Friday include more reading, maybe doing a load of laundry, and more gardening with M in the evening.  

How is your week coming along?  Any special plans for Friday? 
 

Rain on Tuesday

Soggy Garden

Tuesday was another rainy day,  Mostly light rain slowing down to a drizzle, but, every now and then, it would rain quite hard.  I put on my old raincoat and brought in the trash cans and checked the mail.

Afterwards, I made myself a nice brunch of French toast, bacon, and a glass of juice drink (lemon juice, orange juice, and a little bit of passionfruit juice, diluted with water and sweetened with sugar) 

French Toast for Brunch

I made enough French toast and bacon for Wednesday's brunch, too.  Dinner was a bowl of soup, followed by chicken curry and the last yogurt roti.  I had another slice of the fruit cake for dessert.

Poor Dancer had some indigestion and threw up several times this morning (I'm so glad I have mostly hardwood floors that can be wiped up fairly easily, although he did throw up on the area rug in the family room!)  There were no signs of hairballs, so, I have no idea what was wrong.  He seems to have recovered from whatever it was and has been eating his canned tuna and beef pate without any problems.  

I took a peek at this week's grocery ads and there aren't any good sales, which is a little disappointing.  Oh, well, I have plenty of groceries on hand to wait another week or so to do my shopping.

On Tuesday, I was grateful for:

- More rain for the garden
- Working appliances (heater, stove, fridge, etc.)
- Having electricity
- Phone calls, texts, and emails from family and friends
- Weekly trash collections

Tuesday's joyful activities included reading and crocheting.

I've no specific plans for Wednesday.  It's gardener M's usual day to tend to the garden, but, I'm not sure how much he can do in the rain!  I might tell him to take the day off.

How was your Tuesday?  What are your plans for Wednesday?

It's Another Rainy Monday and a Meal Plan of Sorts

Uppuma (Indian-Style Cream of Wheat)

It was a rainy day, today, with some high winds in the afternoon.  Mostly light rain, slowing down to a drizzle, but, a wet and grey day.  

For brunch, I made my version of uppuma or Indian-style cream of wheat, which is a savory breakfast dish with curry leaves, dried red chilies, and other additions such as vegetables and nuts.  I added the last of a jar of roasted peanuts; if I didn't have peanuts, I would have added cashews.  I had listed uppuma on my meal plan a couple of weeks ago, but, didn't make it then.  I also made another freshly squeezed juice drink to have with my brunch - oranges, lemons, and passionfruit, diluted with water and sweetened with sugar as the juice was rather tart.  

I spent a good portion of my day reading one of my library books.  In between, I put away the last of the load of laundry I had done earlier, washed a pair of wool knitted socks by hand, cleaned up after Dancer, took the trash and recycling cans to the curb, watched news and some TV programs on one of the public TV channels.  

Dinner was soup and a deli meat sandwich.

Later, I video chatted with my daughter.

Today, I am grateful for:

- Rain for the garden
- Working appliances
- Hot water on tap
- Library books
- Video chatting with my daughter

Today's joyful activity was reading.

February Week 3 Meal Plan Options:

I am not following my meal plans that closely, but, I like seeing the options written out!

Brunches: Uppuma (Monday), French toast,  the last of the yogurt flat bread with chicken curry, soup, a sandwich with the last of the deli meat, peanut butter toast, scrambled egg and toast, muffins (if I feel like baking)

Dinners: Sausage stir fry with rice or pasta; baked chicken with corn and snow peas; baked salmon (from the freezer) with sides of rice and broccoli; leftovers!

Those are the meal plan options for this week, unless I change my mind and have something different!  LOL!

How was your Monday?  What are your plans for the rest of the week?  Are you doing a meal plan this week?

There are more flowers on the peach tree, now:

Peach Blossom

Cloudy Sunday

Asparagus Sandwiches

When Aunt T, the great-grandmother of the boy whose birthday we celebrated on Saturday, was alive, she was famous for her asparagus sandwiches.  They were her signature dish and she used to make them for parties.  On Saturday, her younger daughter, my cousin R, decided to make some of her mother's asparagus sandwiches for the party - slices of bread spread with a mixture of butter, grated cheese, mustard, and minced green chilies and rolled around a spear of canned asparagus (we always used canned asparagus because fresh asparagus wasn't available in Sri Lanka and, in my opinion, these sandwiches just don't taste the same with fresh asparagus).  So delicious!  My cousin gave me a few to bring home with me and I ate a couple of them for my dinner, and I ate the other two for my breakfast on Sunday morning. 

Sunday has been a cloudy day with light rain in the late evening.  There is more rain in the forecast!

I spent a rather relaxed day, partly because I just didn't feel like doing anything!  Eventually, however, I did a load of laundry (dried part of it in the dryer and hung up the rest to air dry) and I persuaded the robotic vacuum to clean the family room, operating the vacuum manually because it refused to connect to the internet!  I've tried all the steps suggested, including checking the other devises (computer, etc.) to see if they had a connection (they did!) and resetting the connection, with no luck.  I even dusted the charging station, thinking that there might be some dust that was interfering with the connection, but, that didn't do anything, either.  I will have to wait until my daughter comes down, next, and maybe she can figure it out.  In the meantime, I am able to operate it manually by pushing the buttons and that works well enough for me.  

I also made a grocery list and added some items to my online shopping cart, but, I didn't finalize it.  I finished my cucumber and two of the three bananas I bought, but, I have frozen vegetables and plenty of apples in the fridge (and oranges on the tree).  I might wait until next week, when the new grocery sales take effect, to order more groceries.  

Former neighbor T called when I was putting the laundry away and we chatted for a bit.  Later, I video chatted with my daughter.

Sunday's meals were asparagus sandwiches for breakfast, a bowl of some of the ham and lentils soup for lunch, a yogurt roti and chicken curry for dinner.  I had a slice of Sri Lankan "rich cake" (a type of fruit cake, based on the British Christmas cake, with the addition of more traditional Sri Lankan preserved fruits like chow-chow and pumpkin preserves and without any alcohol) for dessert.  I had bought it from the Sri Lankan store back in December, but, we had so many other sweets and desserts that I kept the cake in the fridge until today.  

On Sunday, I was grateful for:

- A relaxed day
- Working appliances
- Phone calls and emails from friends
- Delicious meals and treats
- Rain for the garden

Sunday's joyful activities included playing online games and video chatting with my daughter.

Monday is a federal holiday, here (Presidents' Day), but, since I'm retired, every day is a holiday!  LOL.  Plans for Monday include cooking, reading, and maybe some paperwork if I feel like it.  

How was your Sunday?  What are your plans for Monday?  

 

Winter Wonderland Birthday Party on Saturday

Wintry Table Decor

On Saturday, I went to my cousin's younger grandson's birthday celebration.  He wanted a Winter Wonderland themed party (the irony being he lives in New York, where there is actual snow on the ground, but, he came to his grandparents' home in southern California for the party!)  There was a big "Let it Snow" sign out in the front yard (I didn't take a picture) and in the patio, where the seating arrangements were set up, all the tables had these light blue tables covers and "snowflakes" table runners, plus tall glass vases filled with "snow" and silver painted twigs. 

The party started at 2:00 p.m. and I got there at 2:30 p.m. and was one of the first guests.  I was wearing my mask and I hadn't planned to take off my mask to eat anything, but, since the patio was more or less empty, I was able to serve a few snacks and sit at the end of the patio (away from the bouncy castle where some of the kids were playing) and eat.  Later, when lunch was served, my cousin said I could go to her bedroom, away from everyone else, to close the door and eat and that's just what I did!  There was pizza for the kids and rice and curries for the adults.  There were a variety of desserts, including birthday cake, set up at a separate table.

The Candy Station

It was nice to see some of the extended family and long time friends, some of whom I haven't seen since before the pandemic.  It was also nice that the party was held mostly outdoors, because only two other people were wearing masks, but, it was a cloudy, rather cool day, and I got quite chilled being outside!  Eventually, I went inside, but, even then, with the doors to the patio wide open, it wasn't that much warmer indoors, either.  

I left the party around 5:00 p.m., shortly after the cake was cut.  The party was still going on, but, I wanted to come home before it got dark.  Came home, turned on the heater, had a cup of tea, and then, I fell asleep in the chair in front of the heater!  Dancer, who is more sensible than I, stretched himself out on the love seat and napped!  I slept for about one and a half hours, I think!  Socializing is tiring!

After I woke up, around 8:00 p.m., friend R called and we chatted for a bit.  Later, I video chatted with my daughter.

In the morning, I got some housework done, using the robot vacuum cleaner to vacuum the living room dining area, and my bedroom!  I'm still getting used to its quirks!  The last time I used it, I received a message on my phone that it was stuck at the edge of a canyon and needed rescuing!  But, when I went to check on it, it was busily cleaning!  Today, it wouldn't connect to the internet at all, so I couldn't use the phone to get it to start or pause, but, I was able to manually operate it, so that was good.  I'm glad I got the vacuuming done before I went to the party because I was too tired to do anything once I got home!

On Saturday, I was grateful for:

- The robot vacuum!
- A safe drive to my cousin's house and back
- Being able to take a bag of lemons to my cousin
- Meeting family and friends
- A working heater and a warm house!

Saturday's joyful activity was attending the party!

Plans for Sunday include doing a load of laundry and vacuuming the family room.  I must also remember to set out my rain water collection buckets because there's rain in the forecast from Sunday evening through Wednesday!

How was your Saturday?  What are your plans for Sunday?

This and That on Friday

"Blue Aloe"

This is the newest addition to the garden - the "blue aloe" plant that M gave me earlier this week.

Friday was a partly sunny day with the afternoon highs in the mid 60s.  I spent a relatively relaxed day, catching up on a few things around the house and checking on the plants in the garden.

The peach tree has more flowers on it and I noticed that the bees have found them!  I hope the three days of rain in the forecast for next week, starting on Monday, won't damage the flowers!  Fortunately, there seem to be more buds waiting to open and they might open after the rain.

Peach Blossom

There were several hummingbirds in the garden; I think the crocosmia flowers and the aloe flowers in the front garden have attracted them.  I didn't have much luck photographing them, and my cell phone camera will only zoom in a certain amount.  This was the best I could do - the hummingbird is resting on one of the branches in the bottlebrush tree; do you see it?

Hummingbird

M was here to tend to the garden in the evening and he enjoyed one of the yogurt flat breads with some chicken curry.  Afterwards, he tidied up the garden, a little more.  

In the evening, I made a couple of cards.  My cousin's younger grandson is celebrating his 5th birthday this weekend and he and his family are flying out from New York to do so.  Both he and his older brother (aged 7) are into Pokémon and I got them two Pokémon themed gifts.  I needed two cards to go with the gifts.

A question - what do a canning jar lid, a bottle top, and a dime have in common?  If you guessed they are all round objects that were used as templates to make the cards, you guessed correctly!

"Pokéball" Cards

I need to practice cutting out circles with my scissors!  Hopefully, the boys will not notice!  

I had yogurt roti with leftover beef curry for brunch and again, with chicken curry and cucumber salad, for dinner, on Friday!  

On Friday, I was grateful for:
- A mostly relaxed day

- M's help with the garden
- My scrapbooking/card making supplies
- Fresh lemons and oranges from the garden

- Working appliances

Friday's joyful activities included being out in the garden and making cards.

Plans for Saturday include attending my cousin's grandson's birthday party.  

How was your Friday?  What are your plans for Saturday? 

Mid-February and Yogurt Flat Bread

Valentine's Day Flowers

Gardener friend M brought me a different variety of the Michelia Magnolia flowers (he told me the name, but, I didn't write it down and have since forgotten what it was!) from his garden and a miniature camellia (which I stuck in the lower middle of the arrangement), yesterday (Wednesday).  He also brought me a different variety of aloe plant, which he said was a blue aloe.  We tended to the garden and I did a little bit of weeding while he cleared an area with overgrown asparagus ferns and trimmed the passionfruit vine.  I took some of the passionfruit vine cuttings and made a wreath base.  It's hanging up to dry, now.  Neighbor S called to ask if her daughters could park their cars in my driveway overnight as they needed to keep their driveway free for some construction workers to park there in the morning.  I was fine with that as I didn't need to go anywhere.

Today, Thursday, I did need to take my car out of the garage, but, S's daughters had moved their cars by that time.  My friend R had ordered a package that was delivered to my address, yesterday evening, and today, I took the package to R, along with some lemons and curry leaves from the garden.  It was another quick, masked, curbside visit.

I did some weeding in the backyard, today, read for a bit, did the dishes, cooked a chicken curry with one of the trays of chicken thighs, portioned out and froze a beef curry I had cooked earlier, and made yogurt flat bread/roti to have with chicken curry for dinner, because I had some leftover homemade yogurt that needed to be finished.

So, approximately 3 cups all purpose flour, 2 tsp. baking powder, 1 tsp. salt, mixed with just over a cup of yogurt to form a dough.  Rest the dough for about 20 minutes, and divide into smaller balls of dough.  I divided my dough into eight portions.  Rolled each one out until it formed a thin round.  Heat up a skillet and apply a little oil to it, then, cook each round of dough, about 3 or 4 minutes on one side:

Yogurt Flat Bread Cooking on First Side

Then, another 2 or 3 minutes on the other side:

Cooking on the Other Side

I made eight flat breads:

Yogurt Flat Bread

Dinner was yogurt flat bread with chicken curry:

Curry and Roti for Dinner

In my opinion, the yogurt flat breads taste a bit like naan and they make a very acceptable roti to eat with curry.  I made a citrus drink with freshly squeezed lemons and oranges, to have with dinner, but, I forgot to take a picture.

Later in the evening, I watched news and video chatted with my daughter.

I am grateful for:

- More sunny days
- M's help with the garden and gifts of flowers and plants from his garden
- Being able to help neighbor S and friend R
- A safe drive to R's and back
- Fresh fruit from the garden

Joyful activities in mid-February have included gardening, crocheting, reading, and video chatting with my daughter.

Plans for Friday include cooking the other package of chicken, paperwork, making a birthday card, catching up on housework, and gardening with M.  

Have you made yogurt flat bread?  What are your plans for Friday?