Statue of Liberty

 This is an interesting bit of history on the Statue of Liberty.

Pruning Tips and belated Happy St. Patrick's Day!

 I found this handy diagram showing how to prune trees.  It is the time to do it in early spring (or winter too).

And I hope you had a Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Sunday Smiles - Right to Broadband

 Linking to Gillena's Sunday Smiles.

Have a great Sunday!

A lovely goodbye

 My sister's 93 year old mother-in-law was laid to rest this past March 8th.  Husband M and I went to the morning funeral.  It was well attended and a lovely goodbye.  I was reminded again that weddings and funerals are like family reunions.  Two of the granddaughters gave moving speeches celebrating their grandma who had lived a full life.  We were unable to attend the burial and the restaurant meal after but I was able to take a video of my niece's speech.

Our plans for dinner that evening had to be cancelled because our good friends had gone through a difficult night and were facing the real possibility of putting their mature dog to sleep that day.  Dinner will be rescheduled and we will receive updates.  The dog had been lingering on since last Christmas and they knew it wouldn't be long.

Friday Art - Deer Portrait

 Welcome to Friday Art!  Showing my deer portrait ACEO (2 1/2" x 3 1/2") in watercolour pencil and acrylic marker.

Linking to Nicole's Friday Face Off and to Gillena's Art For Fun Friday.

Rains Thursday Art and Dinner Date - Boots and Cauliflower Carrot and Ginger Soup

 Welcome to Rain's Thursday Art and Dinner Date!  Here is my 'Boots' ACEO (2 1/2" x 3 1/2").  It is outlined with a black acrylic pen, and coloured in with watercolour pencils.  I added highlights with white acrylic pen.

For the dinner date, I made a cauliflower , carrot and ginger soup.  The ginger really adds flavour to it.  Warning that you can leave this out if you find ginger too strong a taste. This is a yummy way to get all your vegetable servings in.  And you can use whatever soup stock you want, vegetable, beef, or chicken.

1 cauliflower cut into florets including the stem

1 large carrot peeled and diced

2 cloves garlic minced

1 onion chopped

1 bay leaf

1 tsp dried parsley

1 tsp dried oregano

1 tbs lemon juice

4 tbs light cream

a handful of shredded cheese

1 900ml carton of low sodium soup broth plus 2 c water

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

1" fresh ginger peeled (with the back of a spoon) and sliced

3 tbs olive oil

Saute onion, carrots, ginger in olive oil then add garlic after the onions have browned.  Mix in salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, oregano and  parsley.  Add cauliflower and broth, lemon juice and water to just cover the vegetables.  Bring to a boil and simmer for 20 - 25 minutes until the vegetables are fork tender.  Mix in cream and cheese for a few minutes.  Blend with an immersion blender, I waited until the soup cooled a bit.

Wednesday Memes and failed to publish issues on blogger

Very frustrating on blogger lately, I keep getting 'failed to publish try later'.  Then usually it starts working later in the day.  If I haven't stopped by your blogs that is the reason.  Wordpress blogs are fine of course.