Last weekend we went for another visit to Bret and Serena (our landlords) in Sheridan.
It's a beautiful drive south/west along Hwy 18 where you can see part of the Central Coastal Range in the distance with still quite some snow left on the high peaks.
James had volunteered to help Bret install some new
electric in one of their barns and I went along to 'get out of the
house' and of course for a chance to visit with Serena.
While the guys were working at the barn I got a tour
through their newly planted garden after which we prepared a hearty
(lentil) soup with cornbread for lunch and blueberry crisp for desert!
This involved a lot of talking and catching up on latest news and gossip as well of course ..
After lunch we went for a walk around their (34 acres!)
property. How amazing is that, to go for over half an our hike and still
be on your own land?
They have a couple of ponds, one of which houses some interesting creatures ..
These are Rough-skinned Newts, Salamander-like amphibians
that can live on land but also in water since they posses gills as well
as lungs.
Though they may look cute and harmless, they can be dangerous; toxins
secreted through the skin as a defense mechanism could kill a person!
Another interesting fact: they can also regrow lost limbs and organs, even eyes.
(Yes, Shakespeare's 'eye of Newt' comes to mind but apparently that is actually a pseudonym for mustard seed).
On Tuesday I celebrated my 61st trip around the sun! Now I'm not just 60 anymore, which was already bad enough, but I'm even 'in my sixties' .. Lord help me ..
My mum send me a new jigsaw puzzle, a library with cats, two of my favorite things, how difficult can it be .. right!?
The pop-up card that came with it was truly a work of art! Besides that there were more cards and a nice bottle of red wine from Doug and Brenda ..
That evening we went for dinner at Red Lobster. James had given me 'carte blanche' and I was fancying Lobster so why not, let's splurge a little!
We actually split their 'Ultimate Feast', which included snow crab and shrimp .. and those sinful Cheddar Bay biscuits!
And although we seldom have dessert, we went for their famous Chocolate Wave as well!
Hey, you only turn 61 once .. I think .. well, who knows?
OK, moving on .. although quite slowly after all that food (I won't go into all those calories, which Red lobster has listed on the menu card, but it's definitely not the healthiest meal).
With all the rain still coming down on an almost daily base, my vegetable garden is sort of at a standstill.
Nothing is dying but nothing is growing much either. I see quite some yellow leaves, a sure sign that the ground is totally saturated and the roots are not getting enough oxygen!
The Lilac at the end of the orchard seems quite happy still and is putting out a whole bunch of beautiful, sweet smelling flowers ...
I always forget that the RV is just too small for their strong smell which tend to give me a headache, so I cut some and put them in a vase, only to have to move them outside to my patio table after a couple of hours .. oh well, they look good there as well.
Here's a few pictures I took in between the rain-showers of the different tree-buds I see emerging around the RV ..
Work has been a little calmer lately, winter is always a more quiet time in the appraising-business but Covid and it's effect on the economy have slowed us down some too.
Fortunately we still have more than enough to do though, but we've taken the opportunity of the down-time to install some of the programs we work with at the office on our home computer as well.
We can now both, albeit partial, 'work-from-home'!
I still have to go into the office to collect the paper files/dossiers for the orders that come in and to download a few things that are only available on the computers over there, but than I can take the whole shebang home and work when and how as I please from the comfort of my own, cozy home.