New one on me....

Today a magical visit to the toy show down near Tillicum Mall, always a reminder that fall is here, and we spent a pleasant few hours indoors while it rained outside and perused with the hundreds upon hundreds of the happy punters.

I picked up a few things, and one was this chap, very similar to the Johnny West character from Marx back in 1964 but this guy had no knee or hip joints and was called Stoney Stonewall Smith. I had to buy him for the collection and he was only thirty-five bucks including the accessories.

Port Renfrew

The day after labour day, when all the kiddle winkles went back to school, my good friend and I drove up to Port Renfrew for three solitary nights, a stones throw away from Sooke, what seemed like a light year away from reality.

We stayed at the West Coast Trail Lodge, which sounds exotic but was quite normal, a couple of queen size beds, a bathroom, kitchenette and a difficult to understand television set. The lady at reception warned us not to have two kitchen appliances on at the same time or we would trip the breaker, which we did, they also warned not to unplug the fridge, which we didn't, but we turned it right down in the night.

A holiday away from the holiday, three ever so quiet days and lovely trips to beaches and trails, nights at the only pub in town and good food, relaxation from a life of relaxing, and down there on Botanical Beach, off Botany Bay, Rock pools, endless rock pools....

 

A Morning Challenge

I was minding my own business and the good lady shouted me that she had a challenge, a mission if I was prepared to accept it. I thought to myself "here we go, another spider in the bathroom" but this time it was something else, it was a creation challenge and no, I don't mean I was summoned to the bed chamber, it was a food creation task.

In all the time we have been retired we strive to not waste things, water, electricity, energy on idiots and of course, food. This mornings challenge was to be based on the latter and a pound or so of grapes we had bought a few days agao, or should I say, an extra pound or so of grapes that I had insisted on buying a few days ago because of a ridiculous "used food" price at the local supermarket.

This is a name we jokingly use for the little section in most supermarkets that are solely there to clear out some stuff, perfectly good food but bargain priced, and you know, if they want to do that, we are perfectly willing to oblige the corporation whims in this day and age of ridiculous pricing.

The challenge was "do something with these" and it seemed like the most obvious thing to do with twenty-four ounces of red seedless grapes was to mash them all up in a food processor, add four tablespoons of sugar and one of lemon juice, boil for fifteen minutes and make a couple of jars of jam, so I did, and here they are....

Challenge completed!