We have been here 10 days now and what an adjustment it has been. Everything feels different and yet it feels the same. The house is just the same as it always was but it is different too. A little bit more love is needed to bring it back to full health. This might come in the form of some fresh paint on worn down surfaces, outside paint on the sides of the house that are battered by the winter winds, and the inside deck that hasn’t had any love in several years. We have spent the better part of the 10 days just finding things and putting them back where they belong. Gathering all the linens, the silverware, the candlesticks, the bedroom items that were put away. It is amazing how much work we did before we left when we thought we would be back in 10 months or so. Never did we imagine it would be 31 months later.
Walking This Week
I have done a couple of hill walks and a couple of village walks. The village walks are fun because I run into people I haven’t seen in such a long time and we stop and have a visit and catch up on all the news. Surprising, a number of people have said all is right with the world again the dog walking lady is back. What a nice thing to hear. Some of the folks I know really well, some are people I have had an association with over the years and they really know me more in my capacity as a dog walker than anything else. The dogs are exhausted. They absolutely love our walks up here but it seems to drain them. Not sure whether it is the clean Canadian air, the hills (I suspect this might be it) or the excitement of exploring and connecting with other folks and their dogs. It has been a great week despite the rain almost every day. We would find a window when we could get out and go for a hike. When the sun shines there is no finer place on earth. When it rains, who wouldn’t love to snuggle in front of a fire with a good book. You can’t lose here.
Challenges
We have had some challenges in setting up the house once again. Two big things were to get the hot tub working again and to get the propane fireplace going again in our bedroom. The hot tub was emptied in September of 2019 and winterized by the folks from Club Piscine. It remained that way the whole time we were gone. We found that the chemicals we use are literally useless after 2 1/2 years so we start over. Funny, I got some new bromine and put it in the hot tub and the water immediately turned an awful color of green. Obviously some chemical reaction to what I had put in there that wasn’t doing the job but conflicted with the new stuff. We discovered to our chagrin that there are no filters in the hot tub. Where did they go? Now draining the hot tub to start over and guess what, I found the filters that I had so carefully put away in September 2019! On to the fireplace. First order of business was to get propane. The propane ran out in May of 2020. Since we had no idea when we would be up again we didn’t refill the tanks. Big mistake! It cost me twice what I normally pay to fill the tanks thanks to the prices increasing in the last couple of months. Yikes!!! Then I tried to find someone to check the stove and the lines and had a lot of trouble finding anyone so I went back to the people I used a few years ago and they came out two days later and got everything working again. We use the fireplace for heat and when we lose the electricity, which is how we heat this house, we need it. That combined with the wood fireplace can keep the pipes from freezing in the event of a major ice/snow/wind storm. We lost it for about four hours this week thanks to a big wind storm. So the ambiance is nice but it is essential to have a back up heat source.
Slowly but surely we are seeing signs of spring. Daffodils are blooming in protected corners, the blue cilla are blooming everywhere and the snow drops and plentiful. Just noticed the forsythia is just days away from blossoming which is a sure sign of spring. Lots of birds around and the loon is back on the lake. The fishing season started this week too. So nice to see boats on the lake again. Some record brown and rainbow trout have been caught. I saw the list this morning. And people wonder why I don’t like swimming! Those fish are big.
My big project is to paint the kitchen cupboards. They look old and sad. Hopefully I will have a couple of stay inside days this coming week where I can get the painting done. When the sun is out I am not that interested.
No Update on Jenny Lane
Other than a lot of the items that have been on order for a couple of months now are starting to come in. This is a good thing. We will head back to New Hampshire in about a week and hopefully a few things will have been installed. In the meantime all the daffodils we so carefully planted last fall are coming up in bunches and bringing a bright bit of yellow to the yard. Such fun to see the results of all our hard work. Thanks to Katie for the photograph.
Baking This Week
If you have followed along with me on my baking and cooking, I am not the most adventurous of people in the kitchen. However, when I get a recipe that I really like I tend to make it over and over again. It was my turn to make something for coffee hour after church so I brought out the Blueberry Muffin recipe. However, things didn’t go quite as planned. First off, no muffin tins. Where did they go? I know I had some here before I left. I did have muffin papers so I doubled them up and put them in a baking pan next to each other. It worked and they came out fine. The only flour I had was the kind that has the baking powder already mixed in. Well it worked fine too. They are easy to make and oh so delicious. Here you go!
Famous Department Store Blueberry Muffins
from King Arthur Flour
8 tablespoons Butter (at room temperature)
1 cup Sugar
2 Large Eggs
2 teaspoons Baking Powder
½ teaspoon Salt
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
2 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
½ cup Milk
2 ½ cups Blueberries (fresh preferred)
¼ cup Sugar (for topping)
Preheat the oven to 375°F. Lightly grease a standard 12-cup muffin tin; or line the tin with papers, and grease the papers.
In a medium-sized bowl, beat together the butter and sugar until well combined.
Add the eggs one at a time, scraping the sides and bottom of the bowl and beating well after each addition.
Beat in the baking powder, salt, and vanilla.
Add the flour alternately with the milk, beating gently just to combine. Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl.
Mash 1/2 cup of the blueberries. Add the mashed and whole berries to the batter, stirring just to combine and distribute.
Scoop the batter by the heaping 1/4-cupful into the prepared muffin pan; a muffin scoop works well here.
Sprinkle about 1 teaspoon granulated sugar atop each muffin.
Bake the muffins for about 30 minutes, until they’re light golden brown on top, and a toothpick inserted into the middle of one of the center muffins comes out clean.
Remove the muffins from the oven, loosen their edges from the pan, and after about 5 minutes transfer them to a rack to cool.
