It’s a Love Hate Thing

Happens every single summer. I love summer. I love being outside, whether I am sitting enjoying the sunset, weeding, painting (and yes after all these years I might still again be up a ladder) or going for a walk.

Heavens to Betsies

In the sweetest little boy voice he says “heavens to betsies“. I do not recall the context but it makes me smile each time he says it.  Interestingly enough he’s used this phrase several times but I have no idea where he picked it up. His big sister’s favourite right now is “that’s so weird” when something seems off or mystifying.

This & That

I’ve been “off the wagon” so to speak in blogging. Honestly I am not sure why but we shall see if the thoughts and words can flow. It truly will  be some of this and that. Remains to be seen if I can tie it all together at the end.

On a Post

It’s a “real thing”, honest. The prescription is simple, “Post photos of fences on Fridays.” That’s the only rule of the Fenced Friday  group thst started on Flickr and moved to Instagram. The creator of the group said he didn’t like the “stringent and exclusive” rules of other groups, so he made it dead simple.

So here are some of my fresh off the post captures from this spring.

Thoughtful Thursday meets #What’s on your plate

My earliest memory, the winter I was 3, involves a cold winters night. I was bundled up and went to the barn to “help” dad milk cows. In reality I was probably driving my mother crazy and so she sent me outside which was standard practise. Single ligjt bulb from the middle of the barn. My dad hunched against a cow and the sound of the milk hitting the pail. The steam rising from fresh cow poop. And a cow calving. My response to dad was “I wondered how dat was going to get out of dere”.

Fast forward a few decades and many many farm visits with our children. They were lucky enough to see a few new calves being born. Three more decades later and we are repeating the process again.

The calf in front of Annabelle (lying down) was about an hour old.

The opening paragraphs and accompanying photo might seem like a weird sequel into a what’s on your plate blog challenge and a thoughtful Thursday post but hang in there and keep reading.

Because I want to talk about the correlation between eating and food. As a farm kid you know that most animals become supper in the fall. We spent time ensuring that our children knew where the food came from and now the grandchildren. Besides the animals each generation has/have been vegetable gardeners and so every child grows up knowing that carrots taste the best straight from the garden.

Raspberry picker in training. At this stage she eats more than hit the container but that’s ok

But back to the what’s on the plate, which this time is just rhetorical rather than physical. Which is how it meets thoughtful Thursday. I just want to encourage readers to think about eating local. I totally recognize that this can, up front, cost more than grocery shopping at Walmart. But, and it’s a huge but, the cost to the climate is smaller. Local fruit, veggies and meat in season taste better, support local agriculture and have a smaller environmental impact. Challenge yourself to look at your food footprint.

A really great book on this subject is by a local Saskatoon food writer. It’s called Prairie Feast: A Writer’s Journey Home for Dinner by Amy Jo Ehman. For an entire year they ate local like her grandparents would have. Kind of like how I decided to make “Cacciatore” because only 2 generations ago food was scarce, the dirty thirties were having a huge impact and most food did not come from a store.

A totally “outside the box” #whatsonyourplateblogchallenge. I often climb on a soap box and I’ve done it once again. I definitely have strong opinions about eating local and as anyone who has read this blog for a while or who knows me in person knows that I actually walk this talk.

What’s your favourite local food? Hands down for me it’s saskatoons. Fingers crossed that there is no frost and no crazy wind to blow off the blossoms like last year.

A certain little someone also loves them!

Bernie

Old school indeed

I wanted to make a fancy daily journal but didn’t find the items I had been looking for. So I went old school. Like as basic as it gets as I don’t even any gold stars like we got at school.

Grampa Dan and Nicky

This isn’t your average #whatsonyourbookshelfchallenge kind of post. But it seems very fitting and a lot of fun. And seems fun is important I decided it was worthy of a post.

Hit by a …

I’d have to say 2022 has started with a serious bang here in our household. Not of the fireworks variety unfortunately.

Beneath the seams

She walked into the store confidently. She knew exactly what she wanted and how to turn that into the vision in her head. She, of absolute faith.

#Sundaystills Snow “leaves”

The leaves are long down and are now nicely buried under the first solid layer of snow. Bonus points for being both moisture and brightening up the world around as November can seem dull and drab here on the prairies.