What is it?

Now you are curious why I would post a picture of this....

Last Friday my hubby came home with this item just for me. That was a surprise in itself because he isn't in the habit of buying things like this for me when there isn't a special day, i.e. birthday or anniversary.

Second surprise .... when I used it on Sun. I got lots of comments from other gals - more than on any other handbag I ever had.

The cloth is hand woven here in Winnipeg by refugee women from Minemar (Burma), the Karen tribe. they make the bags as well as table clothes and scarves. They are Christians and attend one of the chapels.

Marinated Chicken

This post is for my sister but anyone else that wishes to try this recipe is welcome to do so.






Quick Zesty Marinate-

1/2 cup of Zesty Italian dressing
2 Tbs. Soy sauce

Mix well until blended. Pour over four pieces of skinless, boneless chicken breast and let stand for at least half an hour. The longer the meat stands in the marinate the stronger the flavor. I usually marinate it in a Ziplock bag but any glass or plastic bowl will work. May need more marinate sauce if the bowl is too large.

Heat frying pan on lower medium setting. Melt 1 Tbs. margarine add meat lifted directly from marinate sauce and place in fry pan. Cover and cook slowly turning at least once but perhaps several times. Check it often to prevent burning. Takes 15 to 20 minutes depending on thickness of chicken breasts. I sprinkled a little bit of a " No salt" steak spice on them. You may use a little more of the marinate sauce part way through the cooking process. Do not save excess marinate sauce that was on the chicken and is not cooked as it will spoil.

Enjoy!

P.S. Same marinate sauce may be used on beef steak or pork steaks and chops. Can grill meat on the BBQ also.

Golden Linings

You have heard of clouds with silver linings - our clouds had golden linings one evening last week. These rolled up very fast one evening and just kept going without dropping any rain on us although a little way from us it must have rained because we saw a little bit of a rain bow in the southeastern sky for a few seconds. Views from our back yard.

Lacy Leaves & Caterpillars

This is one of our apple trees. If you enlarge the picture and look carefully in the center of it you will see at least two different caterpillars at work. they are the "creator" of the laciness of the leaves.










These little fellows start out pale green and turn a dark color as they get bigger. They can hang from very fine threads that they make themselves. So when you walk under a tree where they like to eat you will come face to face with many of them.

Since they particularly like our apple trees we have quite a few in our back yard. They also really enjoy Siberian Elm leaves so they are abundant along the place where I usually take my walk.

At the moment they are only about an inch long but as they continue to feast on leaves they become longer and fatter.

I picked these two off of the back of my neck while sitting here by the computer - they had hitched a ride indoors after I was out taking their pictures so now you see them close up on my desk.

They do not feed on humans but they tend to tickle and if there are many on you at one time they feel uky. I have seen people getting quite upset about them.

Ah, don't ask what their name is I don't know which ones they are.

Pine Bluff - Pebble Beach Lake

We really love having a home on Pebble Beach - it is such a famous location. This is our lake side dwelling on this very rainy Friday, June 6th.

In the top picture you see the car that decided not to try passing through the deep waters. The driver stopped right where you see the car backed up turned into our driveway and turned around to go back the way he/she had come from.

In the 3rd. picture you see the lake from south to north on the Pebble Beach Rd. it extends from our driveway at the back edge of the house to the drive of the house across the street from us - about one block.

The 4th. picture shows the length of the lake east to west from the curb (grassy area) at the bottom of the picture to the driveway of our next door neighbor - the lots are 60 feet wide plus about 14 feet from our lot line to the street and the width of the street.

5th. picture is a brave soul testing out the depth of the lake - the water comes to the top of his boots - when he told me he was going to wade out there I thought he was going to put on his swim trunks and go barefoot - I thought it was a bit cool for that. (We used to take our kids out to swim in this lake when they were smaller and it formed on a hot day.)

Last - most vehicles go right on through like this truck. It was fun to watch a little Smartcar driving through.

This lake has been here since early morning - it is 1pm. now and the city workers are out there now trying to figure out how to get it to drain. It continues to rain.

First Week of June 2008

The top and bottom pictures are of two of our four apple trees while in bloom last Sun. evening.

Then you see some of the first tulips to bloom on the east side of the house.

Next the lovely lowly chives that come up year after year near the back door.

One of my projects this week was to paint the enclosure for the air conditioner.

Abby enjoying a sunny afternoon - all the white dots on the lawn are the apple blossom petals.

Nature Study - Johnson Island Lac Lu, ON

Some pictures of our nature study on Sat. May 31, '08. Remember to double click the pictures to see them on the full screen - the details will be much better.

Starting at the top the first two pictures are a Bald Eagle that has a nest in a tree across a narrow strip of water from Hanna's cabin.

#3 is a small bird's nest that Helmut spotted on the ground near a little tree. It has five eggs in it . We were not able to determine what type of bird the nest belongs to.

#4 a small white flower.

#5 a Creeping Charlie plant and flower - there are lots of them in the lawn near the cabin.

#6 & 7 Wild strawberry plants and blooms.

# 8 Common blue violet

Nobody got a picture of the other water fowl, turtles and deer. I didn't want to take the camera when we went canoeing because of my tendency to fall in the water - of course this time I stayed high and dry. I guess I should invest in a waterproof camera.

Over-nighter at Lac Lu near Kenora, ON

I am sorry that the pictures are in reverse order to the text - these things seem to happen to me and I don't know how to fix them short of starting all over.



"and shall pitch it within and without with pitch" Gen. 6:14b.

Fri. May 30, '08 Hanna, Helmut & I arrived at Johnson Island, Lac Lu, (near Kenora), ON.

Unfortunately the boat hit a rock as we were landing at the dock and so a seam gave way causing a leak. First order of the afternoon when the rain stopped was to fix the leak so that the boat would not take on so much water as to sink. H & H were able to find some roofing tar in a tube left over from some previous patching of the roof. so Helmut pitched the boat corner ( leaky seam) within and without just like God told Noah to do on the ark.
the boat is on dry dock and Hanna is weighting it down while Helmut hangs over the end making the repair.











Sat. turned out to be a lovely sunny day. In the morning Helmut did various little repair jobs on the cabin and around the property. Hanna did some tidying up and all the cooking. I did some reading and knitting. Before lunch all three of us went hiking around the property to enjoy the spring growth, look for plants and animals and just get some exercise. We saw lots of wild flowers and in another post I will show you some of those pictures, there seemed to be about three deer on the island - sighted by one or the other of us at various times. After lunch Helmut & I went for a relaxing canoe trip to the west end of the lake - it took a little over an hour.

Hanna did the mowing and cleaning out some of the junk so that it could be removed back to the city to be disposed of.

After our canoe trip Helmut loaded all the "junk" in the boat in preparation for our return to the main land and the city in the evening.

We had a nice supper before leaving the cabin . We left the parking place for the two & a half hour trip to Winnipeg about 8:35 pm. Arrived at Hanna's home in Winnipeg about 11:15 unloaded her stuff and got on home before midnight. It was a very lovely over-nighter.