Sunday Bits (cold weather gardening tips, apple strudel, glossy white walls)

We woke up to +5°C this morning! Isn't that lovely? It's even warmer now, but a grey day, with no sun to be found. This is when the snow pack in the backyard starts to melt and then turns into a deadly skating rink... scary for humans and dogs. Bring out the ice melt and then in spring wonder what happened to the lawn. Hahaha. Every year.

Is a lovely Sunday, actually. I am still plotting away at my seed lists and puttering on my crafting. I've signed up for one free month of PBS and so have been bingeing Poldark, a British series that I read about in a Cornish novel. Apparently her husband resembles Ross Poldark. What a lucky gal, eh? I keep telling myself that I will only watch one more show to find out what happens to so and so... and then, well, here we are in Season 5 already.

This Sunday's Gardening Tips!

Trying to decide what to plant this summer? Have limited space? Maybe just grow these top 10 healthiest vegetables.

I really enjoyed this read about what flowers and vegetables one can plant as soon as the snow melts. This works on the island, too, your dates are a couple weeks earlier than here on the prairies. These are all cool weather tolerant so I say go for it! You don't have a lot to lose by trying! I have always sown zinnia/cosmo/calendula seeds a couple weeks before last frost because they don't pop up till the time is right anyways. Always works out just fine. Even plants are just fine if they get a wee bit frosted. (The only time I would not plant zinnias in mid-April on the island is if we were having tons of rain, wait till the soil is not soggy before you work in it).

These guys are the worst, not only in the house, but also in the greenhouse! How to get rid of fungus gnats in your houseplants.

I am starting my peppers this afternoon. Have pulled out my heating pads, setting up a small table in the grandies bedroom. It is my brightest window and least used room. Here is a link to how to grow peppers, from planting till harvest.

Traditional native gardening ideas. If you do the 3 Sisters, I recommend growing the beans up a trellis beside your squash and corn so they do not take down your corn stalks! Ask me how I know ; )

We just had the photographer come to take pictures of our renovation the other day. It is going into some builder catalogues plus being entered into a builder and designer awards event. Hubby and I scrubbed like fiends for 2 days to make sure the house was sparkling for the photos. What a task! The renovation was completed last April, is unfortunate that the photographer just came now... there has been a lot of living in these rooms in the past 9 months with two huge, drooly dogs, hah!

This awards thing is for the renovation company, nothing for us per se, except the joy of having a lovely renovated home, plus all that crazy cleaning. I do get the professional pictures after the event though, which I am very excited about.

Do you have issues with hard water? Soap scum? We have hard water here in Innisfail, the kind that leaves spots and film on everything and seems to make soap scum a bigger problem. Our shower (above) is pretty big so I've been dreading cleaning it, as that would be a lot of chemicals and harsh odors. Ugh.

Just by fluke, while I was washing the floor tiles (with my spin mop), I thought I'd try it on the walls, as well. It only took a couple of swipes with that mop and they were shiny and smooth again. Not even kidding. The magic ingredient? Mint Cleaning floor wash.

I have no glass door so not sure if it works on that, but they also have a glass cleaner that is said to keep the soap scum from building up. Totally worth trying. Everything I have tried from Mint Cleaning thus far is amazing.

Just mentioning this because... a) I love this stuff, and b) it's a small mom and mom business, and c) is totally friendly for the environment (and us people, too) so want to tell the world how awesome they are.

This is the interior of my new wee shop. What do you think for the walls?

Okay ... Onwards with the other Bits of Stuff....

The other product that I use a lot of is Mrs Meyers. Love the Lemon Verbena scented one best. However, they have a couple of new ones right now, including this Daisy scented one on sale right now. Get a Mrs Meyer's Cleaning Bundle from well.ca and save! You can also get Mint from well.ca.

This read gives you 30 tips to make your house look expensive on a budget. Lots of great affordable ideas.

The one thing I really love about this wee cottage is the glossy white tongue and groove on the walls. Inspo for my wee shop! I am still waffling between clear varnish, a white wash, or the glossy white you see in this cottage. See the pic above. Thoughts?

I had never heard of the coquette trend with bows everywhere, but these sure are cute.

From 'Cup of Jo'.

Recipe Bits

I think I mentioned this before... we went to Cactus Club in early January (twice) and I had the crispy tofu bowl. Well, I am still dreaming about that meal. It is so good. Therefore, I was super happy when I saw how to make crispy tofu bites in this article... 5 recipes worth memorising.

These sweet potato tacos look so delish. I have been on a real kick lately, craving sweet potatoes baked as discs in the oven, with just a bit of evoo and pink Himalayan salt. This would be the entire meal! I will make some quick pickled onions to go on top, and replace the refried beans with something healthier... and tastier, hah! Maybe some lion's mane mushrooms, or falafels... anyway, these are now on my make it list!

This also looks delish! Roasted Beet and Egg Salad with Rye Croutons.

Heart shaped, homemade pretzels? Yes, please!

These lemony shortbread cookies. I am with the author... I was not a fan of shortbread, but am now a sort of convert ; ) Anything tastes great with lemons in it!

These caramel chocolate chip cookies! and these Salted Honey Pistachio cookies!

And lastly, this easy apple strudel recipe. I am hosting the ladies coffee date in February so am on the look out for anything easy, but super yummy! We make about 5 different offerings. Some do savoury and some of us just do sweet, but all are amazing.

Check out how amazing my onions look in the cold room!

That is this Sunday's Bits of this and that... how is your week going? Your month? Our January is ending on a bit of a low. Started great but now we need a plumber/gas fitter... ah well, not to dwell.

See you next week~ Tanja