The finer things

I just took a break from doing homework to have an amazing dinner - almost all of which came from vendors at my local farmer's market.

Mixed greens (purchased earlier this week from a local butcher shop/small grocer) with some red bell pepper, mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, dilled goat cheese and grilled salmon, all topped with fresh strawberries and a splash of raspberry balsamic vinegar (the only thing that came from a supermarket). To drink, organic 1% milk from an Ontario dairy.

I am blessed to have the wherewithal to feed myself this well.

So blessed.

It's December!

First things first: we've got some pretty interesting stuff going on politically in Canada right now, that could see a change from our current newly re-elected government, to a coalition government.

My friend J over at My Artsy Pet Pursuits explains it far better than I could, so go take a look.

Moving right along!

It's December. Twenty-three sleeps until Christmas morning. This means that I put up our decorations on Sunday. Usually, I wait (at my husband's request) until after December actually starts, but this year I jumped the gun by a day.

We now have Santas (the one on the left was made by my aunt):

Stockings with elf clothes hung up over top of them:

And a tree with colour changing lights on it:

We do have a much larger tree usually, but it takes up most of the living room and, more importantly, blocks the back door, which would mean that Roo couldn't get out into the back yard. Last year I was cranky and didn't decorate for Christmas, so it wasn't an issue, but this year I needed a fix, so we hit a local big box store and picked up this little guy for $20. I can only fit half of my decorations on it, so I chose the most important ones and made sure that they reflected both of us and our history together, as well as before we met.

Every year I give Fred an ornament. This is one I made for him our first year together:

Our second year together (yes, that is a black christmas ball):

Around the back of the tree, there is also a Millenium Falcon, and an X-wing Fighter:

I have enough angel ornaments of different kinds (cloth, wood, glass, ceramic, hand made, plastic, you name it!) to do a whole tree in just angels:

Finally, I have started my Christmas knitting:

Lunch!

Today's lunch is a variation of my perennial favourite.

Sammich:
Oatmeal bread from a local bakery, with cheese and ham and some green tomato pickle and a bit of mayo

Salad:
Two kinds of lettuce, green pepper, snap peas (that I picked myself), tomato, a bit of herbed goat cheese and Apple Mustard Delight dressing, all from a local farm.

I really, really love summer time.