It's Fall Time!

We still have some nice weather for our walks, but trail in all kinds of twigs and leaves that cause Mrs. Anal no end of grief.  If that weren't bad enough, Phil has been sick and has now given his cold/headache/sore throat combo to Janet.

Despite feeling under the weather, Janet was forced to tackle a 20 pound box of tomatoes that Phil brought home for a gift.

She turned them into Salsa!

It gets even better!  He has also "surprised" her with a bunch of corn from Silver Rill Farm.  Who says Phil is a cheapskate that gives lame gifts?!?  Actually, I guess we do because Janet says it all the time!  Well...maybe not all the time - he did give her the New iPad for her birthday that made her cry.

Janet blanched the corn, cut off the niblets and then froze it all in a single layer prior to bagging it.

One of our very favourite things in the world is when our cookie jar empties and either Phil or Janet take it downstairs for a fill up.  We stand at the top of the stairs, drooling at the prospect of the  jar coming up.  Well, I stand at the top of the stairs and drool.  Noodles sometimes likes to go part way down the stairs.

We had a chance to talk to one of the girls this week.  The phone was pretty far away, so we weren't sure if it was Briana or Bronwyn.  We know for sure it wasn't Meg as we heard Janet and Phil talking about Meg and Derek's trip to Italy.  Apparently Meg got her ass butt thrown out of the Sistine Chapel for taking photos.  Meg said all kinds of people were also taking photographs, but they only threw her out.  She said she had to go to great pains to get back inside!

Woof!  We are fine, thanks for asking!

This is a bad time of the year for the people at our house.  The days are nice and warm, but the mornings are cold.  As a result, it is warmer outside our house than it is inside! 

Mrs. Go With The Flow Rigid broke down and made her first Winter Dish - Chicken Cacciatore in her pretty blue Staub pot.

Now that Janet has powered through the tomatoes, her next big issue:

There are three boxes this size, full to the brim with apples from the tree next door.  It's actually produce of Monteith Street, not New Zealand.

Noodles is trying to come up with some ideas for all those apples!

We Had a Small Party

Neighbour Jack and his wife, Neighbour Gwen went to Hawaii today, so we had a couple of friends in for dinner to send them off in style.  Jack and Gwen are so excited they have barely slept for the last week.

This is Jack and Gwen's favourite spot to sit.

We also invited Wendy, Mr. David Burr and the next doors, AKA Mark and Sherry.

Mr. Burr is making an emphatic point!  He loves fishing, as evidenced by his shirt.

He brought this incredibly beautiful bouquet of flowers.  The little green things in the front are baby bananas.

 Mark and Sherry are vegetarians, and recently Sherry has been diagnosed as celiac.  Needless to say, they didn't eat these:

These are Hugh Carpenters Beef Satay with Caribbean Jerk sauce.  First they had Seven Layer Dip that Janet made and served with extra yummy Juanita nacho chips (gluten free) and the grilled veggies from Sam Choy (gluten free), Spicy Coconut Jasmine Rice(gluten free) from Caprial and the satay.  For dessert.....you guessed it!  Rhubarb Cheesecake!  Not gluten free!  Will she ever tire of this cheesecake?  We think not as it only uses one bowl and 2 packages of cream cheese.

A few days later, Janet and Phil invited Jack and Gwen back to our house where they sat in the exact same spot as in the above photo, but with different clothes on!   Janet and Phil bought them a gift card and made them a reservation at Alan Wong's restaurant in Honolulu to seat at the Eating Bar, which overlooks the kitchen.  This is Janet and Phils' favourite spot to sit as you can see the amazing things they are making and chat with them.  Janet also told them it was Jack and Gwens' 50th Wedding Anniversary, so maybe they will get a special treat!

They brought Mr. Beau with them.  Noodles is so jealous, she watches him like a hawk and walks up to him just to let him know that this is her turf.  She might be able to pull off the "tough mother" gig if it weren't for her tail wagging.  Noodles is a little out of focus.  Janet said it was really hard to take a photo of three dogs that are selectively hearing impaired!

Yesterday, Janet and Phil stopped by Jeremy's house to see if he wanted to go for Chinese food for lunch.  He was busy painting the next door neighbours trim, so was unable to go.

This cute young man was relaxing in the back yard, watching Jeremy paint.

Our People Go For A Hike

Our people have had two books for a really long time, and Janet recently busted them out.

They had planned to go for a walk last Sunday, but the day slipped away and then it was time for the
Block BBQ.  This week, starting on Tuesday, Janet was all over the Hike Victoria book.  As she read through them, many hikes included the word "undulate" which Janet didn't like the sound of (ever heard of a dictionary, sister?)  By the time Sunday rolled around, they had downgraded to the Walk Victoria book.

They chose the Gorge Walkway, which is 1.5 hours round trip and is described as easy.  HELLO!  Janet said there was not one single mention of the TWO bridges they had to cross.

This was the low bridge.  The other one was much, much higher, but you will have to take her word for that.  She would have taken a photo from the higher bridge, but she was too scared.  Pick your poison...cling to the bridge rail or cling to the rail with traffic racing by.  Janet chose the traffic edge.

Janet and Phil have lived in Victoria for almost 29 years.  This walk started at Esquimalt Gorge Park.  They got lost twice trying to find the starting point.  Bear in mind, we are talking about a man who drives around Victoria all day long for a living and did we mention the almost 29 years?   Twice, Phil pulled into the wrong parking lot while Janet is reading aloud the directions which stated "walk under the bridge you have driven over", but they had not driven over any bridge...this was lost on Phil.  Seriously, these two should not be let out on their own!

Janet said it was very beautiful.

They discovered in Esquimalt Gorge Park there was a bike race going on, which they stopped to observe.  Turns out it was CycloCross, which Banana loves and is a champion at.

After all the excitement of the hike walk, how about some pizza?

Jam, Jam, Jam

What could be more pleasant than going out on a beautiful September morning and picking blackberries and turning them into jam?  Janet says even more beautiful is if your friends go pick the blackberries and then give you a whole bunch!

Karen and Ken have a special spot they go to every year to pick blackberries.  They are obviously more seasoned than Janet and Phil who picked blackberries last summer for the first time and looked like WW II casualties when they were finished.

Janet walked over to their house and collected the berries they were kind enough to give her.  While Janet was really happy about the berries, she was somewhat mystified about their berry picking "system" that consists of a bucket with some type of a "rustic" type strap crafted out of duct tape.  Very interesting!

On the bright side, the strap matches the bucket!

Janet gently tucked the "strap" inside the bucket to carry the berries home.  And, look:

Delicious jam!  Janet says she is going to give Karen and Ken some.  She was able to make 18 jars from the berries they gave her.

When we had the block BBQ, Janet cooked 20 cobs of corn that Phil had gone to Silver Rill Farm to buy.  They were quite surprised that not that much corn was eaten, so Janet made Corn Fritters.

They had them with Chili Mayo dip.

And...no more trips to the grocery store.  Further bounty from our "Loser" Victory Garden.  Check it out!

Janet went to her Volunteer Reception job this morning.  The good news is that Janet no longer goes into near cardiac arrest every time the phone rings and she has mastered the skill of folding tax deduction donation receipts into envelopes.  It often boggles our mind that Janet actually had a job where they gave her a pay cheque every two weeks.

Janet is in a huge hurry, so Noodles, being Noodles, ruffles up the bed after she made it.  Bad, bad Noodles!

Do you believe this thing?  This is the ducky Noodles had her knickers in a knot when Beau was inside the house and playing with it.

Our Really Big Weekend!

Boy, oh, boy...did we have a really big weekend.  It was so exciting!

First, on Saturday, Mrs. Nosy Parker is weeding along the side of our driveway when she spots a huge limo drive by.  A normal person would think "isn't that nice", but not Nosy Parker.  She drops her hoe like a hot potato, grabs her camera and walks jogs down the street.  Cool!  It's parked in front of Jack and Gwen's house.

It is Jack and Gwen's 50thWedding Anniversary and their children have arranged a special surprise.

See how nice they look?  They didn't know it at the time, but they are going to Sooke Harbour House with the whole family and they are staying overnight.  Shockingly, Janet was the only over-bearing neighbour taking photos...the paparazzi of our block!

The next day was our Monteith Street Summer BBQ.   All the neighbours get together and bring BBQ's, tables, chairs and potluck food.   This year it was held in front of our house.

Neighbour Gordon is getting huge mileage out of his chalkboard and easel.

We, sadly, were left inside the house, but decided to make a tag team out of it.  The TV room and Janet and Phil's bedroom face onto the front lawn.  I am too short to see above the window ledge, so I did the annoying barking routine and Rocker's gig was the Great. Big. Puppy. Dog. Eyes; just slightly above the window ledge.  Bam!  Success!  We got moved  to the driveway, behind the gate.  This did not work for us on so many levels, so I kicked it up a notch with the full on majorly irritating  barking. Finally, true success!

 Here we are enjoying our BBQ dinner.

This year, we extended the invitation to a couple of people on Lulie and the bottom part of Monteith

Look!  It's GrillMaster Phil and our long standing friend Ken, from Lulie.

It's Mark, Jack, Gordon, Mary, Wendy taking a photo of Janet taking the photo and Mr. David Burr's incredible knees!

Some of the delicious food our neighbours brought:

This is a guest that really, really wanted to come, that we managed to hold at bay:

Cutie Pie, Oliver - who is seriously a dog in a cat suit!

However, we did let Mr. Beau come on in!  We even invited him inside the house where the first thing he did was find Noodle's ducky.  Noodle's hasn't touched the ducky in weeks, but now, all of a sudden, it's a hot commodity!  You should see this ducky....there is not one ounce of stuffing!  It's hard to believe anyone would want this thing.

 It was tons of fun!

A Big Surprise

We had a  big treat on Thursday when Banana arrived!  What a great surprise! We were really happy to see her.  We started to run to the door, so Janet shouted at Rockers to slow down so he wouldn't slip in the hallway.

We love Banana!  You can see in the background that Janet was watching Burn Notice when Briana arrived.

Banana was here on a stopover on her way up island to be a bridesmaid at her friend Ka-Hei's wedding.  She borrowed our PDX Transport, AKA the Volvo and drove up on Friday morning.  Back in the "old days", say November of 2011, Phil didn't mind driving our Volvo.  Now that he has the Leaf, he thinks he is above our good old car.   Before we knew it, Banana was back in Victoria for Sunday dinner and getting ready to leave for an early flight on Monday morning.

Janet thinks Briana is really pretty and in her mind, she and Banana resemble each other...what do you think?  The first thought that comes to mind is that Janet is nuts..there is no way she and Briana look alike.

Janet took Noodles for a really big walk on Sunday and they went to Uplands Park so Noodles could go off leash.  Noodles likes to think she is the sharpest knife in the drawer, but look what Janet saw that Noodles completely missed:

Super cute bunny.

Things around here were pretty quiet after Briana left, but then all of a sudden Janet gets it in her head to go to Root Cellar and jump on the Jam Parade.

Strawberries, peaches, plums, raspberries, blueberries and more!

Here is our kitchen at a "not too bad state".  Ouch!  You should have seen it at it's worst.

Janet was flying around like a maniac trying to get the jam done before time to make dinner - theirs, not ours.  By accident, she set the oven mitts on a burner that was simmering on low.

Phil, ever the comedian, told Janet he would have two well cooked oven mitts for dinner.  Ha Ha!  You don't want to know what Janet told Phil and you especially don't want to know where Janet told Phil to stuff the burned oven mitts.  It wasn't pretty!

Fortunately for Janet, she is prepared to go to Root Cellar to purchase what she needs for veggies and fruit.  Here are Janet's tomatoes - this is 04 September and they are about the size of a quarter!  Poor, poor, Farmer Janet.