Seasons Greetings,

Here we are again. This time coffee has been on my mind. I'm looking forward to a cup of steamy, rich tasting coffee surrounded by the garden. Dirty hands, dirty knees and a big mug to sink into.

My Mother has a big garden, back in the wilds of Canada. It's way more than she can look after herself but as we grew up and moved away it just kept growing in spite of her. A couple of years ago she joined a local gardening group for peony growers.

I always had a few patches of that garden. My favourites are the early spring wildflowers and perennials. Tulips, violas and trilliums are right up there in the top ten. Trilliums are the flower of Ontario. No one down here in the midwest, US, has heard of them. I searched online and found they just don't grow this far south. For a Canadian gardener that's a nice switch. Usually the flowers/ plants we want to grow only grow farther south and if they survive up here at all they are tender perennials.

Back to the whole coffee thing. I'm not sure what it is about coffee really. I remember the first time I ever tried it. I tasted from my Mom's cup. It was so bitter and strong. I wondered how anyone would find pleasure in drinking that stuff. I think coffee drinking is an addiction, like smoking you develop the addiction through peer pressure. Forever after that you comb the environment for that good cup of coffee. For me its something smooth and rich, like French Vanilla. I used to get Mocha from the Second Cup in Toronto but they couldn't get the beans any more so I was out of luck. Now my favourite coffee shop is Timothy's or Williams if I can find one.

Tonight I'm going to be brewing some new kind which is smooth, but not that perfect blend of rich and smooth, they called it caramel in the store. My Mother thinks flavoured beans are a sickness, she's a purist.

For the second time in recent history I have poured cold water through the coffee grounds, thinking I had boiled it. But, I forgot to turn on the electric kettle and just assumed it was boiled after sufficient time and poured it through, only to watch the coffee come through looking like weak dishwater (or tea). I decided not to throw the grounds away, just hope it will still taste like coffee.

Ready to Move?

Looking around here I still have things to do. Always seems more to do than I at first thought. I forgot there are some Rubbermaid type containers under the bed. I think I had them almost empty at one point but I don't remember for sure now. Todd is still sleeping so I will have to wait to pull them out later. Behind my chair right now is a green box full of stuff too. I forget what is in there, more paperness I know, but not what kind. Hopefully more that I can toss rather than keep. The pile of kept stuff is getting bigger than the throw away. Though its hard to be sure since the throw away is being tossed out at least once a day so its not stockpiled somewhere to be compared.

I can smell the coffee, brewed and ready for consumption. Funny how that was a deadly disease not so long ago.

Hopefully today is the day my Mom will arrive with the truck. It could be tomorrow though. I will be so glad to have the truck packed up and ready to go. I'm so ready to go, to get on the road and be away.

I've got everything ready really. Just a few odds and ends to finish up and I need to pack an overnight bag for along the road.

I'm still thinking about that scanner I saw at WalMart. It looks like its not available in Canada. But, it would be a bit bad to buy it now when there are so many other things more important which I need to spend money on. Yet, I would love to have a scanner for my websites. I could even scan in a nice looking picture of myself for the HerPlanet managers pages. All I have now is a horrible looking Immigration picture we took for all that paperwork. By the time we took that picture (one of twenty in the process) I had long ago stopped smiling.

Anyway, Todd is still in bed and I guess we will see what the day will bring. I'm going to make myself some coffee (still have coffee cream and ground beans, enough for another pot or two). It's a nice kind of coffee too, French Vanilla Creme.

I'm having a coffee problem today. This morning Todd drank all the milk and finished the last of my coffee cream. So, when I made coffee this morning there was a lovely pot of steaming coffee but no milk to put into it. I just can't drink it black. So, there is a whole lovely pot of coffee now cold on the kitchen counter. I managed to gag down some oatmeal without milk but it was like eating rubber. One good thing in the coffee situation was that new Starbucks double shot which Todd brought home from Pepsi last night. I had forgotten about it in the fridge so I had that for coffee this morning. Its ok, I still would have liked a hot coffee to sit beside me while I work and be stone cold by the time I'm way finished it. Some day I will get smarter about the coffee idea and use a smaller cup. I don't really like stone cold coffee.

Found in a blog:

We work in the dark We do what we can We give what we have Our doubt is our passion, and our passion is our task The rest is the madness of art.

-- Henry James

Seasons Greetings,

Here we are again. This time coffee has been on my mind. I'm looking forward to a cup of steamy, rich tasting coffee surrounded by the garden. Dirty hands, dirty knees and a big mug to sink into.

My Mother has a big garden, back in the wilds of Canada. It's way more than she can look after herself but as we grew up and moved away it just kept growing in spite of her. A couple of years ago she joined a local gardening group for peony growers.

I always had a few patches of that garden. My favourites are the early spring wildflowers and perennials. Tulips, violas and trilliums are right up there in the top ten. Trilliums are the flower of Ontario. No one down here in the midwest, US, has heard of them. I searched online and found they just don't grow this far south. For a Canadian gardener that's a nice switch. Usually the flowers/ plants we want to grow only grow farther south and if they survive up here at all they are tender perennials.

Back to the whole coffee thing. I'm not sure what it is about coffee really. I remember the first time I ever tried it. I tasted from my Mom's cup. It was so bitter and strong. I wondered how anyone would find pleasure in drinking that stuff. I think coffee drinking is an addiction, like smoking you develop the addiction through peer pressure. Forever after that you comb the environment for that good cup of coffee. For me its something smooth and rich, like French Vanilla. I used to get Mocha from the Second Cup in Toronto but they couldn't get the beans any more so I was out of luck. Now my favourite coffee shop is Timothy's or Williams if I can find one.

Tonight I'm going to be brewing some new kind which is smooth, but not that perfect blend of rich and smooth, they called it caramel in the store. My Mother thinks flavoured beans are a sickness, she's a purist.