My Masterpieces

I succumbed to the lure of Living Social yet again, so last Friday the four oldest grandchildren and I paid another visit to My Masterpiece Art Studio. 

This was Josh's first time and he refused to choose a project.

That's okay, I said, you can watch for a while and choose something later.

He gave me The Look.

In case you didn't know, Josh is not easily swayed.

The other three chose some masterpiece knock-offs.

Thomy chose coloured pencils as his medium and got right to work.

Kenzie chose Degas ballerinas, of course. With a little instruction from moi and a copy of the real thing she was well on the way to her own masterpiece.

She used pastel chalks and learned how to smudge and overlay the colours.

Do you want to choose a project Josh? she asked every few minutes.

He merely looked on.

Daniel used a variety of mediums.

Josh observed intently.

Josh, you ready to start something?

Thomy is an artistic savant and allows nothing to distract him from the work at hand.

He finished first and favoured the camera with his ohboyit'stimetosmileatthecamera face.

What's Josh doing?
I don't know.

Daniel got impatient and had to be cajoled into colouring the walls.

I helped.

But he finished it and made a present of it to Papa when we got home.

Kenzie stuck to it and I was personally quite impressed with the finished result.

She said it was for Natalie for Christmas.

The second project, chosen by all and sundry, was clay sculpting.

There was so much clay that I sat down and played with it too.

Do you want to make something with the clay, Josh?

Nothing but The Look as he cleaned out the potato chip bag.

I made a tile and persuaded him to put his handprint in it. The idea caught on and the other three made some too.

Josh warmed up and eventually made a few sculptures of his own.

Hah! Nana wins!

At which point I discovered I had left my camera's SD card in my laptop at home and its memory was all used up. 

So all you get is a pic of the brilliant fall colours we passed en route to....

...Coldstone Creamery, where we used up another Living Social coupon and bought ice cream for the kids and a caramel-pecan turtle pie to take home for the grown-ups.

Only the aforementioned kids were still hungry, so they ate most of it.

It was an enormously fun day with the grandkids. I love experiencing their personalities and watching the cousins interact. Because I grew up in a small family with no extended family nearby, I revel in my role as Nana and facilitator of memories like these.

Life is good and I have many blessing to count.
Care to hazard a guess at what my masterpieces are?

Metamorphosis of a crop

First, there was this:

In spite of all my whinging, the tomato crop ended up being quite fantastic this year. I give all the credit to my nifty my-Dad-would-be-so-proud-of-me tomato cages. If we had been home throughout the whole month of September, it would have been even better. 

Memo to self: quit planning extended trips for early fall.

I roasted about half of the crop and canned the rest. My freezers are absurdly full so I left a jarful of the roasted variety in my fridge. 

Last week, I had a hankering for homemade pizza. Actually, it was partly a hankering and partly my cunning plan to feed Jeff so well that he forsakes his cunning plan of sneaking-into-fast-food-joints-every-excuse-he-can-summon.

So I made a simple crust in the bread machine.

I sliced red peppers and mushrooms and red onions.

I chopped some Canadian bacon that should have been used long ago but was somehow still botulism-free.

I pureed those tomatoes and added some Italian seasoning and some of that nasty premixed spaghetti seasoning that tastes so yummy.

I pulled out the bag of Sorrento Unltimate Pizza Shred that is a hearty blend of Mozzarella, Bel Paese, Asiago, Provolone, and Parmesan cheeses. It is the best pizza cheese I have ever tasted.

I divided the dough into two pieces, slathered it with plenty of olive oil, and let it rest for a few minutes on two pizza stones. Once it had rested, it was easy to stretch it out in a semblance of a circle. 

Then I sprinkled the veggies and meat liberally on the crust. Just onion and C. bacon on my portion.

At which point I realized that I had forgotten to spread the sauce on the crust.

Oh well. I just dolloped it over the toppings and spread it out as best as I could.

Then, lots of cheese.

And, just a few minutes later we had this:

It was one of the best pizzas I have ever made.

In spite of the dolloped sauce.

Jeff took a couple of slices for lunch every day so far this week and didn't complain once.

Now I'm hungry.

Just havin' a little fun....

I know, I've been a slacker.

Blame it on Monarch of the Glen, my new Netflix addiction.

I think in a Scottish accent these days.

I spent some time editing tonight and here are the results.

Some of them are tacky, but I'm pretty new at this extreme editing thing.

At least they weren't all giant-sized!

Nothing to do around here but take pictures of the cute one

Mornings are frosty and sunny here.
Elsie loves her morning walk.

Annie thought I made the hat.
I didn't.
Anyone want to confess?

Playing Mommy's honky-tonk piano with one's cute baby feet is illegal, but mommy was gone, so who cares?

Elsie's favourite sunbeam.

And favourite corner.

Sweet baby kisses for Daddy.

I take Elsie for a walk every day. The scenery is not very scenic, but one of the roads dead-ends into an area of mown...well, I'd like to say grass, but what passes for grass around here just isn't. But there are some trees around the patch of...grass...and it was the best place I could think of for some pictures. My friend The Pirate did a blog post with some good non-technical advice the other day, so I thought I would test it out. I took a couple of hundred pictures. Not quite a thousand, but it was enough that I got some cute ones. I tried to work with the light, as the sun was getting low in the sky. The photos are only lightly edited, some not at all.

So, that's what I do all day.
Livin' up to my name.
Hope you're all having fun too!

What boys do

When the boy cousins construct a brilliant, um, construction, and they don't want the other boy cousins to deconstruct it next time they're over, they hide it in Charlie's room.

Thinking that no one will find it.

Then they forget it's there and one day in the future I will take it apart and sneak it back into the bin.

This is what Jeff does when he wants to finish a brilliant Lego construction and doesn't want the little boy cousins to destroy it.

He hides it in his room.

And there it sits.

Until I get tired of looking at it and sneak it back into the Lego bin.

But maybe this time he will finish it, because these are my bags.

I'm packed and ready to leave early in the morning. 

Two measly carry-on bags.

Only three pairs of shoes and no laptop.

Stupid American Airlines.

Jeff will be alone for eight days while I am off ingratiating myself with the youngest grandchild, so who knows what wonders I will behold on my return?

Stay tuned for cute Elsie pictures.

The Dying Year

Life has been really busy since we got home. 

Jeff and I were both back to work immediately. 

Then there were the tomatoes that had been picked by kind neighbours and were desperate to be roasted or canned. 

And the garden, though green, needs to be put to bed for the winter.

Come walk with me through the remains of summer.

The slugs are having a heyday with the hostas, which are fading fast.

The violet leaves are being shredded...

....by the same dastardly critters.

Only I am the one with the slug bait.

Mwahaha!!!!!

I take a wicked delight in the slime trails that streak the damp ground the morning after I lay out the bait.

Seed heads abound. Some will be collected for next year, like the marigolds, but some will be left a while longer for the birds.

Hips are setting on the roses.

They're setting on me too!

The last of the rhubarb has been picked and used in rhubarb cake or frozen.

Why do I love rhubarb cake so much? I have made three of them in the last two weeks.

This year I decided to try covering the roots with the slug-eaten leaves.

Asparagus seeds are turning a lovely shade of crimson.

I found out why some stalks set seeds and some don't. 

Male and female.

I call this Grape-ageddon.

The last bunch has finally relinquished its juice to my tender mercies.

The week after we got home it rained incessantly and temperatures dropped.

The tomato plants did not respond well.

Be warned, the photos are not pretty.

This strawberry bed will be gone next year. Jeff has instructions to smother it with grass clippings.

The results of my canning efforts are sitting on my counter.

I have friends who do 50 quarts in a sitting. That has never been my style. A batch or two a day is my limit. 

My strategy is to leave them there for a few weeks so that I can appear to be industrious for as long as possible.

And the freezer is loaded to capacity with rhubarb and peaches and tomatoes.

And tilapia and sausage and chicken and....and...and....

In six days I will be with my little Elsie.
Oh, and Annie too!