It has turned into a three-day weekend for me! Friday Janet and I got together to create pysanky – Ukrainian Easter eggs. While visiting her I was introduced to Maggie, a very sweet twelve-year-old shelter dog with arthritis who is a pit bull or mostly pit bull. She barked for a while after I arrived – Janet explained she had anxiety issues. So Maggie and I had something in common and soon relaxed around each other. Maggie kept Janet and me company as we worked on our eggs, and then the three of us took a nice long walk along the rural roads surrounding Janet’s home. It was a bright, warm-in-the-sunshine, cool-in-the-shade, day. On my way out Janet gave me some venison and a recipe for it to try out on Tim. Thanks to the GPS, I successfully navigated my way home!
Tim was working off and on this weekend, but we did get out a little on Saturday, stopping by the grocery store to get some more ingredients for the venison stew. It was very windy and we were amazed to see the flag over the grocery store flying straight out. Storm clouds were gathering, but I managed to get a picture of the chionodoxa popping up through the periwinkle and dead leaves in my garden. Tim returned to working, from home, and I watched a couple of other versions of Jane Eyre from Netflix. The rain came down hard overnight, but this day dawned bright and sunny again, a bit warmer than it was Friday.
Is it so small a thing
To have enjoyed the sun,
To have lived light in the spring,
To have loved, to have thought, to have done?
~ Matthew Arnold
(Seasons)
Today was a slow cooker day. The recipe Janet gave me for the venison stew was given to her by Erik, Janet and Tim’s stepdad, who died in 2008. He was a fantastic cook! When I first read through the recipe, I noted with a smile that it was from an out-of-print cookbook Erik had, called Glorious Stew by Dorothy Ivens. This brought back a pleasant memory. Many years ago Tim had enjoyed a stew Erik had prepared so much that he wanted the recipe. When Erik showed him the cookbook Tim decided he had to have one, too, but it was already out of print. So Tim asked the Book Barn to set aside a used copy for him, if one ever came into the store. A used copy did show up after what seemed like a very long time, so Tim was thrilled to finally have his own copy! 🙂
So… I modified the recipe a bit for the slow cooker and it smelled so good cooking away all day. Being a morning person, I love slow cookers because I can prepare something yummy early in the morning when I’m fresh and alert and then have something wonderful to eat in the evening, when I’m too tired, cranky and overwhelmed to cook. When Tim got a break this afternoon, we went out for a walk around Olde Mistick Village and when we arrived back home the stew smelled tangy and very tempting. It was delicious!
I took some pictures of the ducks and shops on our walk. Yes, today we have enjoyed the sun…
That’s a nice post. i enjoyed reading. Hope Maggie improves on the health part. I wish i could taste the yummy stew prepared by you, sometime! 🙂 The ducks look cute! i like the way you appreciate things around, and I appreciate that 🙂
Thank you, Sonali. Maggie is well cared for by Janet and I can tell she is dearly loved. 🙂
Perhaps someday we will have an opportunity to meet and share a nice visit while I cook something for you. And then we’ll take a nice long walk and see what wonders we can find!
Hi Barbara,
Maggie is a beautiful looking dog, and sounds like she has been spoiled. 🙂
It’s lovely to get out and about when it’s a nice day, it’s amazing the things that we see when we are on our walks. Lovely photo’s and I enjoyed the read, a great post.
Thank you, magsx2. I had a feeling Maggie would attract a lot of attention! 🙂 She’s a very sweet and lovable dog, and I am not even a dog-person!
It is so good to get outside more often now that spring is well under way. One has to bring along different coats and jackets, though, to cope with all the dramatic changes in temperatures!
I love anything about ducks. I wish I could keep them. I worked on a smallholding 2 years ago where they had Indian Runner Ducks….one day….
I hope your dream to keep ducks comes into being a reality soon, gitwizard! My mother kept ducks and chickens many years ago and I was always fascinated by their distinct personalities and quirks, just like humans…
Looks like a lovely weekend! How nice for you to be so close to Mistick Village. My sister, our best friend and I made a trip to Mystic last May and had an awesome girls weekend. Thanks also for the ID on those little flowers! I will be working on a post today about my weekend on Cape Cod and I took a picture of those little flowers in my mom’s yard and had no idea what they were!
May is a perfect time of year to visit Mystic! Before the hordes of tourists arrive. 🙂 The only reason I know what chionodoxa are is that I bought the bulbs in a package with the name of them on it. They’ve been spreading through the garden, which is nice. Little blue stars. Ah, will look for your Cape Cod post – Tim & I must get there this spring, before the summer crowds…
It looks and sounds like an idyllic day. 🙂
I haven’t use my slow cooker in a long time. I really ought to dust it off and make something with it. Like you, I’m a morning person and somewhat cranky by late afternoon (which may be why nobody ever bothers me when I’m in the kitchen making dinner…lol!).
It was a great day! Slow cookers are perfect for us morning folks! Sometimes I go through spells, especially in the winter, when I use mine every other day. (Leftovers on the in-between days.) I actually have two of them, different sizes for different amounts of food! 🙂