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Weekend Coffee Share

Sunday Salon

Sunday Post

February 2023 - Toronto ON

February 2023 - Hamilton ON

Saturday we spent some time emptying a couple of kitchen cupboards, some best before items got thrown out, some to charity. We used a box and a plastic crate for foods and put them in the spare room.

I had sent an email to an Irish cousin checking in as I had not heard from him in a while. This led to some very interesting family gossip I can't mention as yet.

Sunday we moved the dishes to the dining room table. The cabinets will be demolished next week and we will be "camping" for a week. 

I threw out a plant that just looked awful and cut back the coleus yet again. This emptied the bedroom plant stand so I moved it into the spare room to use for John's exercise equipment to free up the desk. However, at the moment it is storing some of the kitchen paraphernalia.

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Monday I emptied two of the kitchen drawers. I cleaned some of the desk in the spare room. I found room for some kitchen items elsewhere and used the small bins for the pens etc. in the desk.

Monday's mural was from last week's trip to Hamilton.

 I also did some more culling of family photos on the external hard drive.

I cleaned out the fridge.

Tuesday - remember I mentioned going to the post office a few weeks ago to send a surprise package to a blogger friend? Well, she received it, you are so welcome, Elizabeth and Bleubeard!

I went to Longo's for some items for dinner and John used the golf simulator. I cut through Union Station and they had a Black History Month exhibition.

Waiting for the bus, notice that there isn't any snow.

I ordered a new coffee table, ours is over ten years old and it has seen better days, it has storage so that has to be emptied - update I did one bin on Wednesday and John did the other on Friday.

There were some dishes that were my mother's, those will go to charity.

While moving stuff from the old coffee table I found a stash of gift bags and tissue paper that went into the recycling.

It is interesting how much other organizing and decluttering is taking place that isn't even kitchen related.

Wednesday we were supposed to get snow so I planned my day accordingly, but it didn't happen. Supposedly it will come. 

John took a golf club to repair and picked up some grocery specials at Metro. Strawberries at $3.44, chicken quarters at $1.88 a lb and they were gigantic. We will get at least 5 meals out of them and soup for under $10. 

I cleaned out the fridge, no, I'm not repeating myself, I had done a clean of the vegetable bins on Monday. This morning I found an opened yogurt that had gone off and there was a smell in the fridge. By the time I finished I had washed and recycled 10 jars of salad dressings and other convenience foods (curry sauce, hoisin, peanut sauce) that were either passed their best by date or else had a smidgin left in the bottom. There was also the spoiled yogurt and another yogurt we didn't like that I was trying to think of how to use it.

The espresso coffee machine was moved to the bar along with its accoutrements. Some mugs are also going to charity.

It started snowing.

Thursday was declared a snow day and school was cancelled. 

The main problem was the icy roads. I could hear the icicles falling from our balconies.

We even had some snow on the balcony.

Friday was frigid as I waited for the bus.

Dirty snow along the Gardiner.

Front St.

I met up with my BFF and we commented on this strange sight these days.

My BFF followed up and said that the Anglican St. Michael's convent in Oakville had moved and became part of St. John the Divine in Toronto, so it was likely that she was part of that congregation. 

Waiting for the bus.

I got home to find John putting together our new coffee table. He had also brought the old heavy one down to the loading dock. It was looking more battered than this 2022 photo.

He had already ran some errands (he returned that neck and shoulder massager, Andrew, it wouldn't heat up properly).

It has two tabletops that lift for your laptop (or dinner) and two drawers plus a shelf for remotes etc. John said it came with the best directions.

WATCHING

I watched The Secret on the weekend while embroidering. It is a 2016 Northern Irish ITV mini-series based on Let This Be Our Secret, Belfast journalist Deric Henderson's account of the double murder of Lesley Howell and Constable Trevor Buchanan, whose bodies were discovered in a fume-filled car in the garage of a property in Castlerock, County Londonderry, in Northern Ireland in May 1991.

We watched The Judge 2014. Big-city lawyer Hank Palmer returns to his childhood home where his father, the town's judge, is suspected of murder. Hank sets out to discover the truth; along the way he reconnects with his estranged family.

I also watched Detainment through the Library app Kanopy, it was heartbreaking. It is a 2018 Irish short drama film about the murder of James Bulger. It was nominated for the Best Live Action Short Film at the 91st Academy Awards.

OSCARS 2023 March 12

We are going to try and watch as many of the Oscar nominations as we can before the awards, it makes it a lot more fun. 

We have already seen:

Elvis - Best picture/Actor

Banshees of Inisherin - Best picture/Actors

Top Gun - Maverick - Best picture

Blonde - Best Actress

Everything Everywhere All At Once - Best picture/Actress. Agree with Best Actress, but not Best Picture.

All Quiet on the Western Front - Bleak, grim, grey, sad. Not my favourite for an Oscar.

The Martha Mitchell Effect - Best Documentary Short Film - Jackie 

Triangle of Sadness 2022 - Best Picture/Original Screenplay/Best Director

A fashion model celebrity couple join an eventful cruise for the super-rich. RUN, don't walk, away from this movie. DO NOT waste your time. I do not believe these nominations! It was so boring and stupid.

COOKING

Saturday spaghetti and homemade meatballs with focaccia. Leftovers made lunch on Monday.

Sunday BBQ chicken roast potatoes and Brussels sprouts.

Monday chicken wings fries and celery sticks

Tuesday pork lettuce wraps

Wednesday chicken Alfredo with a rotisserie chicken.

Thursday salmon, salad. I thought I should bake for breakfast next week, when the kitchen is being demolished. I made cream cheese banana bread and added some blueberries.

Steak, baked potato and broccoli. I also made chimichurri.

READING

There isn't much reading going on lately.

I gave up on Cold Heart, I just didn't care after a while. 

I started There's No Such Thing as an Easy Job, read a few pages and decided it is not for me. I also started The Family Chao and only read a couple of chapters and gave up. It wasn't bad but I wasn't in the mood for it.

I finally got a reader, The Christie Affair - historical fiction.

COOKBOOKS

I can't believe I absolutely loved Around My French Table by Dorie Greenspan! Her stories are great and the recipes so homey and delicious. 300 recipes!

I love the idea that she says BE PREPARED  when a recipe requires additional time for marinating etc.

Goodness, doesn't this sound good, when roasting a chicken!