Good Morning, I hope & trust that everyone had a great weekend. I am pool/house sitting again, so I spent a lot of time over the holiday weekend in the pool. And since I can get great WIFI connections, I'll be doing some zoom meetings this week pool side 😍
The latest garden performances are by the clematis & 6 of the 7 are making appearances centre stage. The white clematis are rather shy & their blooms are seemingly still the understudies to the purples & pinks.
I am reading "Life's Too Short" & "Home Stretch". Neither are grabbing me just yet. I'm only about 25-30 pages into both but I think I know how each one will end. 😞
No current DVD's checked out from the library, waiting my turn on Foyle's War Series 5 & Line of Duty Series 5.
I did a lot of meal planning for the week; returning to a few favourites from the early days of pandemic recipe shares. I don't know about you, but when I take the time to meal plan, I find that I spend less on shopping & have less waste at the end of the week. One of the meals this week will be sausage & fries for Mr Man & fish & fries for me. I don't eat a lot of fish but I've had a craving lately for fish'n chips. It took a lot of label reading online to find haddock fish that was actually haddock fish. SO many of the products were fish pollock. Apparently pollocks are also often substituted for crab meat. Anyway I'm looking forward to my home version of fish'n & chips.
Hope everyone has a good week, we in Ontario have been advised that the heat dome from out west last week is arriving here on Monday; forecasted temperatures to hit 40+ (c)! Thank goodness for that friend's pool!
Oh goodness, I don't know how you cope in those high temperatures, thank goodness you have that pool to look after!
ReplyDeleteTalking of recipes, my husband often puts in a request for your 'Marry Me Chicken', I made it when I saw it on your blog and we have probably had it once a month ever since!
I get requests for "Nice Lasagna" which is so simple & uses Basil of which I have lots with 4 plants! Ummm I forgot about Marry Me Chicken - on next week's plan, thanks for the reminder.
DeleteOh my, take care in that incredible heat!
ReplyDeleteYour clematis are lovely - we have two, one has flowered fully, the other is lagging behind - and they are side-by-side in the garden.
Thanks, the clematis are a rewarding plant, a little work & great blooms. One of the purples (Jackmanii) is so heavy with bloom this year we have had to put supports underneath it.
DeleteI've got your Cheesy Chicken (Soy) with Pasta on the menu for Wednesday & next week is your Apricot Chicken (soy).
Enjoy your time pool side and your fish and chips when that meal comes around :0)
ReplyDeleteThanks Liz - it's tonight (Monday) :)
DeleteClematis heaven there.
ReplyDeleteIt certainly won't reach 40 in the Ottawa region. Not today. Haven't checked into tomorrow yet.
Enjoy the pool.
So far it hasn't quite reached the forecasted 40 but it's still pretty humid, when going outside it feels like a wall of heat. Thankfully clematis have a long flowering period, next up are the daylilies, one of my favourites.
DeleteLove your clematis! I just have one but it is getting ready for its second flowering. Overcast and hot here too and we are expecting a thunderstorm tomorrow. I doubt it will cool things off.
ReplyDeleteWe got quite the thunder & lightening show Monday night with a little rain, but oh it's still SO humid even at 6:30am!! I can take no credit for the flourishing clematis other than I think the secret is trimming each one at the correct time. One of the white ones is in the wrong spot, while it's feet are in the shade, so is its head & they need sunshine to bloom.
DeleteI'm SO envious of your clemetis! We've tried several times to get one going with no success. Tracy built a fence last year and we're hoping to get some going there once he finishes staining it. It was near 90° here in Racine for their annual Independence Day parade (held today). The parade was nothing to write home about, but the barbeque afterwards at Sarah's co-pastors was lots of fun. Sarah and Adam have purchased a home in the same neighborhood, and it's easy to understand why-lots of kids to play with! They'll be moving at the end of August. Enjoy the pool!
ReplyDeleteI find the growing guidelines for clematis are, feet in shade, head in sun & finding when "your" type of clematis needs trimming is the key to success. For several years I trimmed at the wrong time of year - mine are all early (March) trimming. Sounds like you had a fun celebration filled 4th of July weekend - in Canada this year it seemed almost a crime to celebrate Canada Day ... I'll say no more
DeleteYour clematis are lovely! Such beautiful flowers. I'm glad you are pool sitting this week, especially with the temperature climbing so high! Your temps are hotter than ours, right now! We'll get 100+F, later in the summer, though.
ReplyDeleteWell done with the meal planning! I have not been meal planning lately, but, last week, I cooked some chicken and today, I took out a piece of beef from the freezer to make a beef curry. I'll cook some green beans to go with it and, no doubt, there will be a zucchini salad, too.
Hope you manage to stay cool during those hot days!
Thanks Bless, the clematis certainly do a good job of taking care of themselves & I am thankful for the marvelous blooms & length of bloom time. With so much juggling of life & other people's schedules, I find meal planning just takes another stressor off my shoulders. And as Martha would say ... that's a good thing :)
DeleteMy one attempt at clematis didn't go well. Wow, we're not getting temps nearly that hot, and I think of Memphis as a hot and humid place. I don't tend to do meal planning at all. I should try it and see if it helps.
ReplyDeleteThankfully this heat dome/wave has not lasted too long this time & we had a big storm roll in last night (Tuesday) & now temps are more reasonable/seasonable; 22+ (c). I make my meal plans flexible enough that I can switch things around & also try to build in for those unexpected choices - tonight was left overs from Sunday, which wasn't originally planned.
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