2011 Resolutions - How'd I Do?

I started the year off with four resolutions.

It's time to go back and see how I've done.

Resolution #1. First of all I am going to floss with more regularity. 

Yep, did really well on this one - I've flossed 365 times.  I even got out of bed a couple times, because I realized I'd forgotten.  Was my dentist impressed - I don't think he even noticed.

Resolution #2. I am going to blog. Yes I know I have only done this for five days, hardly a habit yet. I know I have far more time right now with the holiday season, so the entries will probably get a little shorter. So far I've written each day. I know when I return to teaching, the frequency will fall. But, I am going to at least try to write three or four times a week. We'll see.

Yep, did pretty well in this regard - I've blogged 365 times since my initial promise.  However, having accomplished this, I make no promises for 2012.

Resolution #3. I am going to relax more. Okay I have made it through one year without secure full-time employment – cut yourself some slack! We vow to shed one of our big stresses in 2011, a rental property (I'm sure more will follow on this topic as the year unfolds). I'm going to sleep more. For the past few years I've tended to view sleep as an unnecessary frill in life. 

Well I'm trying.  I've survived two years of day to day employment.  The wolf still has not got his foot in the door.  The rental house is sold - way less stress in life these days.  I'm not sure about the sleeping bit - I feel I've done really well if I make six hours.  If my alarm clock says anything later than 6:00 am, I consider it a real sleep in.

Resolution # 4. I am going to be more happy. Life is pretty good. Sure there are a few dips and valleys but on the whole I can't complain. I'd like to lose a few pounds, probably won't happen. I'd like more hair, ain't gonna happen ('cept on my back, and ears – why is that?). I'd like to do more musically, could happen if I push for opportunities and stop inventing excuses why I can't. I'm going to laugh more, not just sit and smile like a grinning garden gnome (does that count as alliteration?). Which means, I am going to have to force myself to be more of a participant and less of an observant wallflower. Good-bye comfort zone!

I'm also going to stop and smell the flowers, well maybe not literally. I plant, grow, split, manipulate, move, replant, replenish, refurbish and renovate so many plants in the course of a year, that I often forget to just simply sit and enjoy the process and the product. Okay, I've already contradicted my own resolutions. I am going to be less of a participant in the gardening process, and more of an observant wallflower to the flowers, but the opposite to everything else in life.

  

Okay, I think I've been reasonably successful here.  I certainly am a happier fellow than a year ago.  Less stress will have that effect.  As well the Missus and I have certainly got our fitness level up - we've discovered we have pretty decent endurance on the walking trails for a couple of old codgers.  I really did take time to stop and smell the flowers this past summer.  I found a new passion - photographing my yard and garden.  In so doing, it forced me to stop and look for the best shots, the right angle and lighting.  I'm so looking forward to this spring when last summer's efforts start to bear fruit.

Stay tuned for tomorrow, when I'll introduce my resolutions for 2012.

Happy New Year from the Musical Gardener.

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The Daily Quest

This is a daily feature on The Musical Gardener blog. Below is a question, or puzzle that will change day by day. Do not use the comment section of the blog for your answer. 

Answer to Yesterday's Puzzle: It's a croissant

Today's Puzzle:

Who Does Not Belong?

a)  The Musical Gardener has high cholesterol
b)  The Musical Gardener played Levi in Joseph's Technicolour Dreamcoat
c)  The Musical Gardener completed a novel in a Power Novel Writing Course this fall
d)  The Musical Gardener had an iris bloom in three different seasons in 2011

Please respond with your answer to the email below. I apologize but you will have to type my email address in manually (I'm attempting to avoid spammers).

And that's about all I have to say for today.

Musings and Meanderings from the Musical Gardener.

Favourite Photos - Other, 2011

So yesterday I showed you my favourite gardening photos for 2011.  Here are my favourite photos of non-gardening related subjects (and not in any particular order).

#1 Copycats

#2 A Mighty Giant

#3 Peekaboo, Can You See Me?

#5 Fancy Fungus Formation

#6 Three Of A Kind

#7 - The Real Mater

#8 The First Leaf Of Autumn

#9 Rushes On Duty

#10 Serenity

#11 - Blue Cows

Again, I'd love your votes for best three

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The Daily Quest

This is a daily feature on The Musical Gardener blog. Below is a question, or puzzle that will change day by day. Do not use the comment section of the blog for your answer. 

Answer to Yesterday's Puzzle: George Harrison

Silhouettes

Today's Puzzle:  What common object is this a silhouette of?

Please respond with your answer to the email below. I apologize but you will have to type my email address in manually (I'm attempting to avoid spammers).

And that's about all I have to say for today.

Musings and Meanderings from the Musical Gardener.

Favourite Gardening Photos, 2011

Reviewing back through the year, I came up with what I feel are my best gardening photos.  I am not a photographer and I just have a cheap little point and shoot.  What I do have are the most wonderful subjects.  I know none would win awards anywhere, but they all make me happy - which was the original concept behind this blog.

#1 - My gardening shed through the crab tree.

#2 Bees Knees Clematis

#3 Bulrushes in the Swamp

#4 - Heavenly Blues

#5  The old scuffler handle amid Solomon's Seal

#6 Clematis Closeup

#7  Bottle Gentians

#8 Garden Starfish - Castor Bean Leaves

#9  Late Bloomer - Iris in October

#10  Seasons Greetings

What I would appreciate would be if you would select your top three choices.  I will probably post the ones with the most votes on my template page.

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The Daily Quest

This is a daily feature on The Musical Gardener blog. Below is a question, or puzzle that will change day by day. Do not use the comment section of the blog for your answer. 

Answer to Yesterday's Puzzle:  ACCUMULATE

Today's Puzzle:

Gardening Quote:

Who is the author of this gardening quote?

I'm not really a career person.
I'm a gardener, basically. 

a) George Harrison

b) David Letterman

c) Rush Limbaugh

d) Donald Trump

Please respond with your answer to the email below. I apologize but you will have to type my email address in manually (I'm attempting to avoid spammers).

And that's about all I have to say for today.

Musings and Meanderings from the Musical Gardener.

One Year of Blogging

  Today is my one year anniversary of blogging.  It's been fun, but I'm not going to say it has been a breeze.  There is a lot of effort that goes into writing a daily blog.  It is a larger time commitment than I had ever dreamed when I first started. I rarely put less than half an hour in per post, and some are in the works for several weeks/months before they ever see the light of day.  Good thing I'm an early riser - that is my blogging time, before the rest of the house is up, and an hour or two before I leave for work.

I've met some wonderful people along the journey - you know who you are, my faithful readers, and wonderful commentators.  Thank you so much for your support and encouragement. A special thank you to my sister in law @ Everything Changes In The Light, who has read every blog from Day one and commented on most.

I first started this venture as my own personal Happiness Project.  My initial thoughts were to run it for a year to see how it went.  Okay, it's going to keep going, but it may not be with the same frequency in the new year.  First of all I will be taking a short hiatus.  Then it may not necessarily be every day.  I just found the last couple months, churning out something every 24 hours left me publishing some blogs that were not where I really wanted them to be.  I'm a fussy little troll.  And then I look at some of the gems other bloggers seems to effortlessly craft on a daily basis.

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So as promised yesterday, here they are - a drumroll (or at least a raspberry) please

 My Personal Favourite Blogs

(Not in any other order than chronological)

I Miss The Cows

Lingering Noxicity

I'm Getting Old And Feeling It

My Mom 1922-2003 

Getting Poop

In An Ideal World 

64 Years Ago 

Why I Wear A Poppy 

Funny Sayings I Grew Up With 

Twelve Days Of Christmas, Musical Gardener Style 

I guess if I take a look at these, I don't see many gardening or music themes, pretty heavy to nostalgia side of things.

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The Daily Quest

This is a daily feature on The Musical Gardener blog. Below is a question, or puzzle that will change day by day. Do not use the comment section of the blog for your answer. 

Answer to Yesterday's Puzzle:  It's the stitching on a baseball.

Today's Puzzle:

DESCRAMBLER?

C E L A M T U A U C

1. Letter 6 is from the second half of the alphabet

2. Letter 5 is not in the word LETTUCE

3. Letter 4 appears elsewhere in the word

4. Letters 2, 1, and 7, in order, are the first three letters of something we consume too much of this time of year.

5. Letter 3 is a consonant

6. Letters 10, 8, and 9, in order, spell something we do too much of this time of year.

__ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __

1    2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9  10

Please respond with your answer to the email below. I apologize but you will have to type my email address in manually (I'm attempting to avoid spammers).

And that's about all I have to say for today.

Musings and Meanderings from the Musical Gardener.

Most Viewed Posts

Just four more days for the  

Musical Gardener Contest

 

Boxing day was another one of those great relaxing family days.  My brother and Abby left for home, a six hour trek, but arrived safely mid afternoon.  That would be about the same time, the Missus' family started to arrive.  We had a crowd of fourteen for supper, for our yearly cheese fondue.

Fondue is not something I would do with just anyone - you do have to know people well enough to push and shove (well not really), but you have to get over the constant "excuse me please" as you reach for yet another meatball, and share the cheese pot with five other people.

We have an electric fondue pot, which is great for accurate temperature control - cheese sauce burns readily if too hot, and coagulates into goop if not warm enough.

My cheese sauce is easy:

• 500 mL tub of low fat sour cream
• 1/2 kg of Cheez Whiz or any other processed cheese spread
• 1/2 kg of old cheddar cheese, grated

Just mix the three ingredients and melt in the fondue pot, stirring constantly, until thick and gooey.  Then just turn heat down to simmer.

For dipping items we choose from the following:

• red, yellow, orange, green peppers
• fresh button mushrooms
• cauliflower
• broccoli
• fried baby potatoes
• meatballs
• ham
• sausage
• pepperoni
• pumpernickel bread

Cut everything up into bitesized pieces, and serve on platters.  Easy, easy, easy and most everyone can find at least a couple items they like.  Only problem is, because you don't actually fill your plate, but just graze, all of a sudden you hit that point where you realize you have just overate - welcome to holiday feasting!

Silly me, I forgot to snap any pictures, anyway, this will give you the idea.

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So we are drawing to the end of the year.  I want to spend my next few blogs, reviewing the year.

Blogger stats are interesting things - not sure what I should take from them.

Professional Development Day - Smartboard Technolo... 1078 views
We Celebrate Our First Ever Chinese New Year                679 "    "
Our Foreign Exchange Students - A Cultural Experie...       452 "    "
2011 Resolutions Revisited                                                176 "    "
Melodia Monday                                                               120 "    "
Off To The Slopes Continued                                               89 "    "
Twenty One Years Ago Today                                              85 "    "
And Two Shall Be One                                                        83 "    "
Paraprosdokian Sentences                                                   80 "    "
My First Teaching Practicum - What I Learned From...        79 "    "

So there are my blogs that I have had the most views on for the year.   Sadly I note, there is not a single gardening related article, and only one musical.........and I call myself the Musical Gardener.  It is interesting to note that most of the popular blogs are teaching related.  I guess if I were really trying to grow viewing numbers, I should be looking at expanding these themes.

Tomorrow I will examine what I felt were my ten best written or photographed blogs.  Strangely, I don't think you will see any repeats from this above group.  We'll see.

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The Daily Quest

This is a daily feature on The Musical Gardener blog. Below is a question, or puzzle that will change day by day. Do not use the comment section of the blog for your answer. 

Answer to Yesterday's Puzzle:  P A S S N O W

                                                            Q U  I T W  I  N

                              A R E A V I D

                                        S T A R I S K 

And the holiday word was STAR.

Today's Puzzle:

Whatzit

What is this photo of?

 

Please respond with your answer to the email below. I apologize but you will have to type my email address in manually (I'm attempting to avoid spammers).

And that's about all I have to say for today.

Musings and Meanderings from the Musical Gardener.

Boxing Day

Hmmm.....the hustle and bustle is over, now it's time to clean up a bit.  As I said yesterday, Christmas was a rather quiet affair, but there's still lots of flotsam and jetsam lying about the house, all pleasant reminders of a relaxing family time together.

We opened our gifts, rather late in the morning.  The girls are past the "get-up-at-the-crack-of-dawn" phase, and prefer to catch a few more winks.  The Missus and I were admonished Christmas eve, not to get up and start breakfast. Youngest and Eldest had decided that was a bit of their Christmas present to the parents.  Amid much laughter ( starting with "Christmas is a great day of......munching"), chocolate chip pancakes, with homemade blackberry sauce materialized, along with poached eggs.

I had mentioned that the gifts under the tree, were in a reduced fashion this year - perhaps I lied.  That was the noble goal, but I didn't see anyone suffering to any great extent.

Yours truly got a tie, tie clip, slippers and housecoat.  I know they are all the standard fare for Dads, but each one has a story, and were actually very carefully thought-out gifts.  The tie is another Christmas tie - which raises my total holiday ties to 9.  The slippers were lovely moccasins.  Unfortunately they were a size too small for my 'ugly little hobbit feet' (as my offspring lovingly refer to my lower appendages).  The Missus gladly traded me for her slightly worn moccasins, which were a bit saggy on her - so both of us are happy, with toasty feet.  The housecoat - well being the only male, in the house of estrogen, it is necessary for me to dress somewhat appropriately in lounging wear.  Even now as I sit at the computer, I'm wrapped up nice and snug in my new housecoat -- it may even save on the heating bill.

Oh yes and there's new jammy bottoms -- hah, like they'll be mine ever - I saw Youngest casting covetous glances their direction before the wrapping paper was even completely removed.  There were also a couple new bottles of exotic cooking sauces.

My brother and his dog, Abby and I went for a nice long hike through the back woods - trespassing all over the place, but we only left tracks and took pictures.

John and Abby, fresh home from our walk

Then we came home and prepared the Christmas feast pigout.  Because there were just the five of us, we bought a young, small turkey - really only the size of a largish chicken.  The Missus cooked it upsidedown in her usual fashion and it popped out of the oven at 6:00 pm, golden brown perfection, juicy and brimming with turkey goodness.  I also made Oven Roasted Vegetables (German fingerling potatoes, sweet potatoes, onions and carrots - drizzled with olive oil, garlic powder, chili powder, oregano and hot sauce).  When we went to open the obligatory can of cranberry sauce, low and behold, the last can had been used at Crozier Christmas a month ago - what to do, what to do?  There was a little blackberry sauce left over from the morning pancakes.  The Missus, ever the thinker, proceded to serve that up instead -- forget cranberry gloop -- blackberry sauce will be the new staple with turkey from here on in.

The Pud

For desert, I made my Christmas pudding (see my post on Dec 23rd).  On a whim, I decided to chop up half a cup of figs and throw them into the mix - another happy mistake.  I now know why the children all clamoured "Now bring us some figgy pudding, now bring us some figgy pudding......We won't go until we get some, we won't go until we get some....so bring some right here."  Figs just made it completely decadent.  Those who like poppy seeds, or caviar, would appreciate the little crunchy fig seeds, and that full bodied figgy flavour (I don't know how else to describe it).

Then it was just a pleasant evening of relaxing, dozing and lolling about in the hot-tub. 

I like Christmas.

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The Daily Quest

This is a daily feature on The Musical Gardener blog. Below is a question, or puzzle that will change day by day. Do not use the comment section of the blog for your answer. 

Answer to Yesterday's Puzzle:  presents under the tree

 

Today's Puzzle:

Fill In The Blank

Fill in the blank with one letter to make two common four letter words.  If you are correct, the four blanks will spell a holiday related four letter word as well.

  P A S _ N O W

 Q U I _ W I N

A R E _ V I D

S T A _ I S K

Please respond with your answer to the email below. I apologize but you will have to type my email address in manually (I'm attempting to avoid spammers).

Don't forget my Musical Gardener Contest

And that's about all I have to say for today.

Musings and Meanderings from the Musical Gardener.

Merry Christmas

to all my readers.

It's probably going to be a fairly low key event here in our home, as we had our big celebration a month ago with the Missus' family.  We got eldest home from university on Thursday night - and apparently blondes do have more fun, based on the activity around the house the past two days - her transformation will probably be a blog in days to come.  She had kind of forewarned me early by phone that she had undergone a slight transformation - I'm not sure any of us were entirely prepared for the glamour queen that stepped off the train.

My two brothers, nephew and his wife arrived on Friday evening.  We spent a pleasant evening and morning together yesterday.  We all went for a tramp through the woods, trailing our cameras to enjoy the winter wonderland.  Then my eldest brother, niece and nephew left to go to their place.

So for Christmas day, there is just my middle brother and the four of us.  We aren't going to try to outdo Martha Stewart, and the gifts under the tree are slim this year - our big gift to ourselves arrives on Thursday, when we fly out to the sunny south for our Caribbean cruise - can't wait. Although I must say I am looking forward to the next few days of just relaxing at home, now that my family is back intact, and school is out for two weeks.

Last night the Missus and I sang in two Christmas Eve services at our church.  Wonderful way to usher in the Christmas holidays.

http://www.picturesdepot.com/wallpapers/12658/merrry+christmas.html

So from our house to yours, have a blessed, safe, happy time with family and friends from the Musical Gardener, The Missus, The Eldest and The Youngest.

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The Daily Quest

This is a daily feature on The Musical Gardener blog. Below is a question, or puzzle that will change day by day. Do not use the comment section of the blog for your answer. 

Answer to Yesterday's Puzzle:  creche, sleigh, gingerbread, eggnog 

Today's Puzzle:

Whatzit?

tree

presents

Please respond with your answer to the email below. I apologize but you will have to type my email address in manually (I'm attempting to avoid spammers).

Don't forget my Musical Gardener Contest

And that's about all I have to say for today.

Musings and Meanderings from the Musical Gardener.

Nativity Sets

The Missus collects and makes Nativity sets, all of which make their appearance in the Yuletide season.  Here are but a few of the collection.

This one wins for querkiest - Mary, Joseph and the Baby Jesus 'smores.

The first one the Missus made - fired bisque

Another of the Missus' creations - the round part in the middle is a turntable that turns on a music box mechanism, while playing Away In a Manger.  The figures around the outside of the turntable rotate around Mary, Joseph and the baby.

A Christmas present from the Eldest to her mother a few years back.  Handmade Fimo (coloured modelling clay) figurines.

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The Daily Quest

This is a daily feature on The Musical Gardener blog. Below is a question, or puzzle that will change day by day. Do not use the comment section of the blog for your answer.

Answer to Yesterday's Puzzle:  c) argentum  which is silver, the rest are frankincense, gold and myrrh, gifts of the Magi, to the Christ-child.

Today's Puzzle:

Jumble Ups

A few more Christmas Terms for you to untangle:


herecc           gsileh            bineraggdre           goegnng

Please respond with your answer to the email below. I apologize but you will have to type my email address in manually (I'm attempting to avoid spammers).

Don't forget my contest - Musical Gardener Contest

And that's about all I have to say for today.

Musings and Meanderings from the Musical Gardener.

Christmas Pudding

In my first year of blogging I have not done a repost - well that is until now.  Here was my third blog entry.  At that point I only had one reader, so I doubt most of you will feel any sense of deja vu. 

My mother used to make a carrot plum pudding every year at Christmas time and it was good.  However in the last twenty odd years of serving Christmas dinners, it was not something I/we had ever really thought about adding to my/our repertoire.  Too much bother!

I ventured to Youtube and see what was suggested there.  There are lots of (I'm sure) wonderful selections offered, but one in particular caught my eye, or at least frenzied my taste buds and tickled my general sense of laziness. What I liked about this recipe was the fact that it is cooked in ten minutes, as opposed to the more traditional methods of steaming for four plus hours.

How To Make The Perfect Christmas Pudding, by Marguarite Patten.  A delightful little British lady leads you step by step through her process.

Here is her list of ingredients:

Christmas Pudding Recipe from ANCHOR® Butter

Serves 4-6

Pudding ingredients:

•50g ANCHOR® Butter

•50g plain flour

•Half a teaspoon of mixed spice ( I used cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves)

•75g breadcrumbs

•100g soft dark brown sugar

•150g sultanas

•75g Raisins

•50g Dates

•50g Candied Cherries

•125g currants (see note below)

•25g coarsely chopped peel

•grated rind and juice of half lemon

•2 eggs

•2 tablespoon treacle

•1 tablespoon golden/corn syrup

•50ml Orange Juice

•50ml Apple Juice

Method:
Sieve all the dry ingredients together and mix well. Stir in all remaining ingredients until completely mixed. Lightly grease a half litre (1 pint) pudding basin and fill with the mixture. Cover with cling film and make a slit in the top to allow steam to escape. Cook on microwave high for 10 minutes. Allow to stand for 10 minutes after cooking.

Pretty simple eh?  Of course, never one to leave well enough alone, I chose to tweak and renovate so to speak.   No currants in the pantry, by choice.  Mom's recipe was a carrot pudding -- no carrots in dear little Ms. Patten's concoction.  Simple substitution; just grate up the same amount of carrots and micromave them for thirty seconds.  I also am not a fan of dates (except as the filling for oatmeal cookies or matrimonial cake), so you can also substitute carrots there, if you so wish.

I have an ancient set of Pyrex nesting bowls.  I took the red one (about 1 liter/quart), lined it with plastic wrap (whilst humming the tune to Mr. Cellophane of course, and ignoring that nagging little voice,  "should I be microwaving plastic?")  Then I dumped the mixed glop into the bowl and put it in the microwave for 10 minutes.  Just for good measure I gave it an extra two minutes afterward - didn't seem to hurt!

The pudding dropped out ceremoniously onto a waiting plate and was covered overnight with a clear cake carrier.  I know traditional puddings are cheeseclothed, saturated with rum, and hung in the summer kitchen to age for several moons.  Ours.....needed for supper!

My missus, upon inspection (of the pudding not herself), pronounced it "kinda hard". An hour prior to serving, we opted to put the pud in the steamer - probably a wise choice, as a further microwaving would have dried and toughened the little brute.  So while Ms. Patten says nothing of steaming I would opt for an hour long sauna session in the double broiler.  It warms, softens and moistens.

Sauce, I suppose, is optional, after all, Ms. Patten did not even mention such a condiment.

However the addition of sauce did add a certain rich, sinfully, caloric element to our otherwise heavenly ambrosia.  So here is my sauce recipe, which I've used often on apple dumplings and traditional bread pudding.

Sauce:
1 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup butter or margarine
1/2 teaspoon of rum flavouring (or the real stuff if you prefer)
1 tablespoon of water

Mix together in a sauce pan, bring to a boil, while stirring constantly.  Remove from heat and spoon onto the sliced and waiting pudding.

And thus is reborn a somewhat revised family tradition.

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The Daily Quest

This is a daily feature on The Musical Gardener blog. Below is a question, or puzzle that will change day by day. Do not use the comment section of the blog for your answer.

Answer to Yesterday's Puzzle:  d) January 06

Today's Puzzle:

Who Doesn't Belong?

Which of these words does not fit with the other three(hint - think Latin and Christmas).

a) olibanum

b) aurum
c) argentum
d) oleoresin

Please respond with your answer to the email below. I apologize but you will have to type my email address in manually (I'm attempting to avoid spammers).

Don't forget my contest - Musical Gardener Contest

And that's about all I have to say for today.

Musings and Meanderings from the Musical Gardener.