Visiting

One of the excellent things about retirement is that one can travel on weekdays, as opposed to travelling on weekends.

So last week Attila and I fixed Ginger up with copious sources of water and food, and headed out for a few days.

We visited my Mom, my sisters and my brother-in-law, who all live in close proximity to each other. I hadn’t seen my Mom or sisters or brother-in-law for a year, which is far too long between visits as far as I am concerned. We live hours and hours away from them.

We stayed overnight with my youngest sister, who had to go to work while we were there. We visited my Mom, and middle sister and brother-in-law during the day. Our first night there we all got together for a lovely family dinner at my youngest sister’s house. My Mom cooked a truly delicious roast beef dinner, with rhubarb pudding for dessert. It was lovely, my Mom is a great cook.

An added treat was that my niece and her husband and daughter attended the dinner. My Mom and my niece have birthdays close together in May, so it was a celebration of birthdays for both of them, and Mother’s Day for all of us.

It was wonderful to spend time with everyone. I had a lovely long chat with Mom, it was so nice to catch up with her news and just spend time one-on-one, how lucky I am. My youngest sister stayed up late two nights in a row, as she and Attila and I talked into the night. My middle sister had us over for visits during the day, my Mom lives with her, so we got to visit them both. My middle sister treated Mom and Attila and I to a lovely drive to Niagara Falls and surrounding parks, where we visited many lovely gardens, including a Lilac Garden. It was a lovely day for it!

My Mom is amazing. At 93 she is beautiful, as sharp as a tack, as feisty as a hot pepper, and as loving as only a doting mother can be. Spending time with her is one of the most wonderful things ever.

While visiting with my middle sister, she placed some goodies on the table before us. One of these was homemade Crunch Bars, and I had to have the recipe. Peanut butter, chocolate, honey, and rice crisps, these bars are candy and oh so good.

Crunch Bars (Sis’s Recipe)
Ingredients
2 ups rice crisps
1 cup chocolate chips
1.2 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup honey or maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla
Instructions
8 inch square pan lined with parchment paper
Mix cereal with pinch of salt.
Milst chocolate chips, peanut butter and honey together (30 seconds in the microwave). Add vanilla. Pour over cereal and mix gently till coated. Press into prepared 8 inch square pan.

My youngest sister let us taste her homemade Kombucha, it was very good! She even gave us a scoby, and some sourdough starter for bread. Her Kombucha is fermented twice, bottled with flavour for the second ferment, so delicious. So today I finally got a batch started in a one gallon jar. I hope it succeeds, time will tell.

I have the sourdough starter in the refrigerator, I think that will be a project for tomorrow, figuring out how to work with it. At one point long ago I developed my own sourdough starter and loved the bread, but Attila did not like it so I stopped. My friend Joannie sent me two starters some years ago, and since we don’t eat much bread I fumbled and lost them to neglect, sorry! I will try again.

Attila is well and truly into planting season. He started hundreds of plugs in his little greenhouses, and started to plant them in earnest yesterday, and continues today. Yesterday he worked until the light failed for the night. This morning he arose at 6:00 a.m. to get an early start. He is enjoying himself.

I’ve been baking bread, catching up with bill paying, filing, playing phone tag with the bank and the hospital re appointments, ensuring Ginger gets as much attention as he needs, and other odds and sods that don’t bear mentioning but take up oodles of time.

Worldly

Weather

Updated on Sun, May 19 at 2:17 PM
24°C
FEELS LIKE 29
Clear
Wind 10 S km/h
Humidity 67 %
Visibility 25 km
Sunrise 5:36 AM
Wind gust 15 km/h
Pressure 101.3 kPa
Ceiling 9100 m
Sunset 8:32 PM

Quote

Some are kissing mothers and some are scolding mothers, but it is love just the same.
Pearl Buck
1892 – 1973

I first read novels by Pearl S. Buck in my early teens, and loved them. I love that she points out that there are many faces to love, naming but two of them, all of them deep and abiding.