geez-time flies by!

Well, I WAS going to try to keep up with this blog. Guess what...

Anyways, a month later:

We spent the weekend getting most of the new kitchen settled. I love it..it is so light, scenic and clean!

It took us one whole day to get two appliances moved, set up and cleaned..but..tonight I was able to get crushed ice (never had the option before!) out of my CLEAN and relocated refrigerator and made Maple Pot Roast on my stove! What a joy to have light, running water and a dishwasher all in the same room!

The Mennonite company will be returning to finish putting up the upper cabinets and then we will only have cam lights, moldings and major unpacking of dishes to do!

Tonight, my legs ache from somethingorother and my eyes are going shut so I will sign off.

Here is the new pot roast recipe I tried. Yummy!

Maple Pot Roast

2 Servings
Prep: 15 min. Cook: 2 hours
Ingredients
3/4 pound boneless beef chuck roast (3/4 to 1 inch thick)
1/4 cup orange juice
1/4 cup maple syrup
4-1/2 teaspoons red wine vinegar
1-1/2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon grated orange peel
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1 medium carrot, cut into 2-inch pieces
1 celery rib, cut into 2-inch pieces
8 fresh pearl onions, peeled
1 large potato, peeled and cut into 2-inch pieces
Directions
In a Dutch oven coated with cooking spray, brown meat on both sides. Combine the orange juice, syrup, vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, orange peel, salt and pepper; pour over roast. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 1 hour.
Add the carrot, celery and onions; cover and simmer for 20 minutes. Add potato; cover and simmer for 20 minutes or until tender. Serve roast and vegetables with pan juices. Yield: 2 servings.

New Kitchen

This week has been exciting around our house! After living without a kitchen since June 2009, we are amidst the stages of getting our new finished. After totally demolishing the whole side of the house, my h has carefully and methodically put together a new kitchen, breakfast area, pantry, small bedroom and cellarway. The painting is almost done, the cupboards are partially in, the flooring is picked and will be installed next week and the countertop person is coming today to give us an estimate. The big window looks down on Lake Wobegone (the biggest of our ponds). It is wonderful to gaze out at the pair of nesting Canadian geese, see the mallards and occasional visitng ducks who swoop down to spend a few hours swimming around. On sunny days, we see a multitude of "shiny" rocks which actually are the painted turtles coming up for some rays. The colors in the fall will be breathtaking not to be outdone but the delicate greens of spring. The most beautiful sight, to me anyways, is the dark night when the moon is coming up over the horizon light the landscape with its glow - reflecting the trees and the stars in the pond. It is as if God has painted his own landscape right on our picture window!



I will be thrilled to have cupboard space, a dishwasher and counter galore! The last time I had an adequate and modern kitchen was in the early eighties. The Mennonites did a meticulous and beautiful job of puting the quarter sawn oak cabinets together.



I could not resist putting a bowl of fruit on the table even though, the room is not finished. I will tempt you, bit by bit with images, to give you a hint of what it will all look like when it is completed.



As Julia would say, Grande Appetif!

Spring Has Sprung

Am going to attempt to continue this blog I started long ago. It might be sporadic but I have found, writing is good for the soul, so...

It is 5:57 am. I am on the couch with one dog snuggled up next to me and the other snoring at the other end. It would be so easy to shut my eyes and join them but, today is a working day so I will slug my coffee and get on with it.

Peepers are announcing the arrival of the morn. Such a sweet sound that I have enjoyed since childhood. I guess you have to be a country person

to appreciate a peeper concert. Those of us who did grow our wings in the rural surroundings are the ones who always comment and smile when they have heard the peepers rally from amidst the last cold of winter. It makes me have stronger bonds with the earth and instills thoughts that "hope SPRINGS eternal". I even crack the window open at night when it is still a little chilly. just so I can drift off to dreamland with the sound of the peepers in my ears.

Song birds are abound filling the air with their sweet music as well. I have heard a few warblers but haven't gotten up in the woods to check out their identities. Their chords sway in the pine trees in the front of our property but they remain a mysterious traveler because I can not locate them.

Oh to end the trek I make every day to the working world. I long for the days when time is my own and I can explore every bird call I hear, follow every fish ripple on the pond and head to the woods with my dogs as my guides.

"My" spring is now becoming my autumn quickly. I have to pluck every joyful moment I can.