Organic Granny

Delicious Roasted Plum Jam I am very grateful to live in a place of bountiful fruit. In our yard we have grapes, thornless blackberries, a golden plum tree, hazelnuts, saskatoon berries, blueberries, apples, green figs, and quince. We have an Italian plum tree that has not yet been very forthcoming, but that's okay, because this year two friends gifted us with lovely dark blue, plump, little prune plums. Another friend sent over some sweet, delicious pears from her tree. We are blessed with delicious fruit and generous friends! So, what to do with all these plums?  It is true that I love fresh fruit.  I blame my un-fruited childhood in rural Saskatchewan.  Yes, we did have berries of many kinds, wild and garden-grown, but we did not, or at least on our farm, have any large tree fruits... crabapples don't count.  But here I am with a surfeit of fruit in my twilight years.  And I am adverse to all the work involved in making "preserves" in the traditional w

My current number one beef with the dollar stores might also be shared with a bunch of Pinterest and assorted website promoters: those neat little plastic organizers (containers, baskets, etc.) look good for about a year, and then they... disintegrate!  They have a much shorter life than the shopping bags we get from the grocery stores! Maybe they are made of corn starch or rice starch or ??  In any case, perhaps we should be putting them in our compost bins?? (I'm joking) I guess you do get what you pay for?  Who knew? I have begun to replace the plastic storage/organizational containers with wire baskets, also from the dollar stores.  I also use large pretty dishes and trays in our main bathroom (yes, made from glass, pottery, ceramics) that I purchased at my favourite thrift store (" Too Good To Be Threw " in Courtenay, BC-- the prices are reasonable and the profits go to support programs for women and children escaping abuse).  The work to bring down the cl

Healthy Aging: An Oxymoron? A Healthy Brain Workout A while ago, a friend who was doing some at-home care-giving for her husband who had a terminal illness, called to invite me to go with her to a "workshop about brain health" that she read about in our local paper. Like many "boomers"-- that is, people born in the 1940s to early 1960s demographic-- I am interested in layman's "brain science" where it relates to my being able to make some practical lifestyle adjustments to extend the life span of my brain's health, and, I hope, forego dementia and Alzheimer's disease. I said "yes" to her offer. When we arrived I was surprised to find that the workshop was being presented by the local chapter of the British Columbia Alzheimer Society. I have older relatives diagnosed with Alzheimer's and thought that perhaps this would be a way to learn about how to avoid getting that dreadful aging disease. The brochures laid neatly out on one

Ripe Green Figs from the first (breba) crop of the summer When we first moved to Vancouver Island (November 2005), my husband was in awe of the neighbour's wonderful fig trees.  So we planted our own.  One of the two we planted withered and died (cursed?    Early in the morning, as Jesus was on his way back to the city, he was hungry. Seeing a fig tree by the road, he went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves. Then he said to it, "May you never bear fruit again!" Immediately the tree withered. When the disciples saw this, they were amazed. "How did the fig tree wither so quickly?" they asked. Jesus replied, "Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and it will be done. If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer." Matthew 21:18–22  The Holy Bible In time, however-- maybe about s

Another hot day it would seem, although, you know how weather works... We are grateful to live in this dry, hot time WITHOUT wild fires nearby. We are grateful for the bounty of our small, disorganized gardens in the backyard: purple pole beans (that cook green), thornless blackberries (if you struggle while picking regular blackberries in thorny bushes, you would so appreciate these thornless ones!), red tumbler tomatoes (thanks to Ed's dear friend Alberto), and the yearly crop of small golden plums from a tree wedged between a fence and a shed. So grateful! If you are grateful for your good fortune and would like to see how that gratitude works in your life, you can find some great suggestions for GRATITUDE PROJECTS here for you and your family.

As you might have read already , I have begun to declutter my kitchen and living room areas as a ride-along with my husband's doing some painting in those rooms.  What to do, what to do-- I actually need to let go of items that were given to me, or harder yet, bequeathed to me, by people dear to me.  And the odd memento of some place and time that I will never more visit.  Dishes, mostly.  Please let me know what you think in the Comments below.  Would you give away something your |Grandmother gave you as a gift?  Would you give away a piece of bone china that you never use, that is missing a lid, but that is your all-time favourite Royal Albert pattern, and belonged to your Mom? The first article of some sentimental value is a pinwheel crystal pilsner glass .  Pilsner is a kind of brew for a beer.  It is a fancy beer glass.   There were six of them at one time, wedding gifts from an auntie. There are three remaining (not bad in our house for something that landed he

Some of the Clutter from my Cupboards WHY DECLUTTER? My husband moved here about 13 years ago this coming Fall.  We managed everything we packed up in the space of a cube van-- by selling and giving away anything that wasn't positively necessary (or that to replace at that time would be too expensive) or that had deep sentimental value (hmmm).  In the 13 years since it is evident that if we had any "policy" in our home about not accumulating (okay, hoarding) it must have gone out the window quite quickly after we arrived here. And we have precious grandkids-- who live afar-- which is meant to excuse the fact that we have raided the thrifts shops, Walmart, and Dollarama for stuff they 'collect', things they need need need (like water safety devices-- we don't have a boat but we do live near the Ocean), etc., for their time here.  I also had quite a respectable doll collection from forays onto EBay back in the day when I was addicted to doing that.  S