Lulu's Photo Shoot

For my mom and dad's 60th anniversary, my sisters and I decided it was time to get family portraits done as it had been quite a few years since we have had them done.

We went to Picture Perfect Portraits in Saskatoon and they said we could choose about six to eight groupings.  When we were deciding what groupings to do, I asked Joyce to let the photographer know that I was bringing Lulu and would like some pictures done of her.  I had been thinking about getting her photo done by a professional  for quite awhile but hadn't ever gotten around to it.

The photographer, Adam was excited to have Lulu as a subject.  His mom had chickens as a child that followed her to school.  Adam couldn't wait to tell his mom about Lulu.

The following are some of the proofs that included (or showcased) Lulu.  We had other photos done while she waited patiently in her crate.

Adam started first with me having my arm around Lulu so she would feel comfortable before I left her on her own.

 

Then he started snapping photos of Lulu alone and I think they turned out marvelous.

 

Lulu was very busy looking around at everything.

 

 

I stood near Adam and called Lulu but there was so much to look at she ignored me.

It is going to be hard to choose which photos to enlarge as I love them all.

 

 

I was so proud of her because she sat so nice on the pillar and didn't make a fuss.

 

I am so glad that we had these photos done and that Adam was such a good sport.

 

I now will have some lovely photos of my sweetie to hang on the wall in her corner of the kitchen.

 

We had the group pictures done last and when we were almost finished, Adam said to go and get Lulu so she was in some of the group shots as well.  She is hard to see in the proofs because of the watermarks.

 

At the end of the session, Adam asked another photographer to snap his photo with Lulu so he could send it to his mom.  They then posted it on their Facebook page.

 

 

All in all, it was an exciting day.  The photo session went great plus then at supper, Michael, my youngest son told us he asked Becky, his girlfriend to marry him the evening before.  Michael has always been fairly mum about his girlfriends and we didn't meet Becky until that night at supper!

 

After spending time with her on that anniversary weekend, I couldn't be happier.  She is a lovely girl plus as a bonus, she has two young children so I am instant grandma!  Woohoo!



Sourdough Sharing - Muffins

October is the time of year I finish putting the yard and garden to bed and to finish making juice, jam and other preserves.  I then travel to Alberta and Saskatchewan for several weeks visiting relatives and friends before winter hits with a vengeance.  So this month, I am linking to a previously blogged recipe.

This month's sourdough challenge is muffins and quick breads.  I have a preference for muffins as you can freeze a batch and then just take out one or two as needed.

I have tried several muffin recipes but always come back to this Bran Muffin recipe.  It is moist and tasty - I always loved bran muffins with molasses as an ingredient and this is my all time favorite recipe.

 

The recipe calls for raisins and nuts but I sometimes add chopped dates instead of the raisins and nuts.  I have also used dried cranberries or dehydrated cherries instead of the raisins and I have substituted sunflower seeds instead of nuts.

 

 

I hope everyone enjoys this month's offering of muffins and quick bread in the links below. 

 

 

 





Canadian Geese

** photos taken in June 2013

Lulu and I spent the week after my parents' 60th anniversary visiting in Saskatchewan.  The following weekend, Lulu and I travelled to Regina with my parents to a reunion on my maternal grandmother's side and to meet relatives visiting from England.

While we were there, we visited the Legislative grounds and saw the Canadian Geese.

There are geese that stay in Regina all year long and no longer migrate.  There is a warm inlet on Wascana Lake that doesn't freeze all winter.

Lulu had to stay in the car while I was taking photos of the geese because there were a number of very large dogs around and I didn't want to take any chances.

The geese seemed to have set up babysitters (gosling-sitters?) because most of the adults were on the lake-side on the road and the young ones were on the tree-side of the road.

Oops!  These guys stopped traffic while they crossed to be with the others.

The goslings were all the same size except for one.  Can you see him in the crowd?

There he is bringing up the rear.

Here are a couple adults near the lake.

For some reason, none of them were in the water.  Everyone was on dry land.

Mincemeat

I have tomatoes coming out the ying-yang.  Even though I only planted 6 plants (4 regular and 2 cherry type) I have boxes of green tomatoes in the garage.  I picked and pulled out my tomatoes yesterday because they have been threatening frost for the last few days.  It went down to +3°C last night but since I am going visiting over the next few weeks, I decided it is time to put my yard and garden to bed.

So back to the tomatoes.  I have made spaghetti sauce and canned a number of red tomatoes but wanted to get rid of some of the green ones.

My sister-in-law, Barb sent me her recipe for mincemeat since I have an abundance of green tomatoes and apples.  I decided to give it a whirl since I love her mincemeat.  (I was lucky enough to have received a few jars from her last year.)

Ingredients

6 c chopped green tomatoes
6 c chopped apples (cored and peeled)
3 c raisins
1 c suet or butter
3/4 c vinegar
1 c mixed peel
4 c brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp cloves
3/4 tsp allspice
2 tsp salt

Core and chop tomatoes.  I used my food processor on pulse.

Place tomatoes in a large pot and cover with hot water.  Bring to a boil and the drain thoroughly.

Do that 3 times.

Add the rest of the ingredients.

Mix well and cook for an hour.

Fill sealers and process in hot water bath for  25 minutes.

I got 5 quarts of mincemeat.  Barb's was slightly browner in colour but I added a bit more tomatoes and apples since I had lots. 

 

Store until needed for pie, tarts or squares.  Last year I made some squares similar to matrimonial cake but used mincemeat instead of the date mixture.  They were very yummy.  ;)