Rainy Day

The day was rainy and overcast. The temperature was warm but that could not entice me outside! I got up and did a load of laundry and thanks to our dry press ( a closet where the hot water tank is stored and where it is much warmer than the rest of the house) they are almost all dry! I then made 7 jars of marmalade - so much fun. I can put it away in the cupboard with my homemade blackberry jam, Bramley apple sauce and lemon butter. I started knitting in the afternoon and decided a short nap was in order - I woke up 2.5 hours later. I think that it was a great way to spend a rainy day in Northern Ireland.

Not NIR's finest day.

On Sunday we went to visit our friends in Ballymena - 45 minute car ride from Lambeg. The train ride was not the highlight of the day! We left Lambeg at 0929 and arrived in Ballymena @ 1130. We had an engine go on one of the cars that caused a diesel leak, then at Antrim one of the doors wouldn't close so the train could not start and the third unscheduled stop was not announced because the speakers had quit working - someone jumped out of the train and ran down the track and a few minutes later came back and we were on our way. On the way home our friends dropped us off at the station. We were on time for the 1812 train only to find that it had left a few minutes before. We were stranded in downtown Ballymena with a 3 hour wait outside for the next train. We decided to take a taxi to church and then a kind man drove us back to catch the train. The train left at 2101 and we got home at 2320. What a day! By my calculations we spent 7 or more hours of our day to make a journey that should have taken 1.5 hours. It was worth it because we had a really fun visit with our friends. We also met Terry - a man from their church who called us by name - he had been checking our friends the Murphys' blog and had found our link and read our blog. Interesting way to get to know people.

You call these cookies?

I have been busy baking with my 4kg stock of Chipit chocolate chips hand- delivered with love from friends and family from Canada. The other day I was in the Lidl's store with a Spanish friend and her 4-year-old son. He saw "Americano-style" chocolate chip cookies and asked his mother for them. I said that I would bake some for him instead. The next time we visited I proudly brought him a big batch of cookies fresh from the oven confident that he would be very pleased. We had dinner together and when he was excused from the table he went triumphantly to the package to claim his prize. Seconds later he came from the living room with the most disgusted look on his face (a look we'll never forget!) and said something in Spanish. His parents were embarrassed but Randy and I just laughed. Apparently he wanted hard cookies and these were soft. I reassured him that they would be good in a day or so if his mom set them out to dry. I talked to her the other day and she said they turned out very well.

Mild winter, early spring!

It's always green in Ireland, but this has been (apparently) a very mild winter so far, and signs of spring are everywhere. Randy cycled past a tree in full blossom the other day, there are snowdrops everywhere, and the park is soon going to be one mass of daffodils. Here, crocuses are poking up in one of the windowboxes that Gwen planted with primrose (which have been blooming all along). What a great place to spend the winter!

International adventures

This last week in Northern Ireland has been full of times spent visiting with friends around a table. Last Saturday we had Spanish food at friends' from Barcelona and then went out to the Lagan Valley Civic Centre to hear an Irish harpist and a great Northern Ireland band. The next day we had friends who are German and Korean over to our place for Sunday dinner. That evening we went out for supper to the home of a couple from the church and learned lots about Northern Ireland history and the Presbyterian church. On Thursday a young mom who has a three-month-old son was over - I babysat while she ran some errands then we had lunch and made some Cinnamon buns then when and walked around the lake at Hillsborough Castle. The young mom was born and raised in Saskatoon Saskatchewan. On Friday I spent the day with a lady from South America and my Spanish friend and her two young sons - we had pizza together at our place. That evening we were invited to the Minister's home along with the assistant minister and her husband. We had fun laughing and sharing stories but we didn't get home till late and I had to get up early to work a 12-hour shift at Parkside. I suggested that we should have people over for Chinese New Year today but Randy thought that a quiet day at home was in order. We had homemade Chinese food for two - but we can't find green tea here. If my family read this posting they will just laugh because they always tease me that I am always talking about food. Food may not be everything but sitting around a table is a very pleasant way to get to know people. Looking forward to friends from Canada coming over!

Miracle on Ashbourne Park

Earlier this week I went out to our garage to get some ham out of our freezer to make pizza for lunch. Doesn't sound like a very interesting entry to the blog yet does it? Well when I opened the freezer a saw that most of the contents were defrosted. The strange thing was that the operation light was on and the motor was running. I came in to the house in a panic - (the freezer was full and my way of coping with the high grocery prices in the UK is to get good deals and stock-up). The first thing I did was a phone my friend Hilda to see if she had room in her deep freeze to store the things that were still frozen. No answer on the phone and our neighbour next door were away. I went to find the Argos catalogue(something like the Sears in Canada) to see if we could buy a new one - they would cost between 100-150 pounds ($250- $350 Canadian) I then decided to run to another neighbours to see if she might have room. I was disappointed when she said she didn't have room in her freezer but was amazed when she said she had a freezer they weren't using in the shed. It was a two year old Hotpoint upright! They had just redone their kitchen and hadn't sold this one. They are Christian people and were very pleased that they were able to be a part of God's provision for us. They said that it ours to use for the rest of the year. I was so relieved I started to cry - God does care about the small things. There are very few families in Northern Ireland that would have a deep freeze - the culture here is to make daily trip to the shops to purchase what they need for the day so the fact that they had a freezer was something but the fact that they had one that wasn't in use was a miracle. I was able to cook up the thawed food. I was exhausted at the end of the day - making blackberry jam, meat balls, 4 dozen cabbage rolls, cooked up pounds of hamburger and chicken. I had 2 large roaster chickens so I cooked one and took it over to our neighbours who had lent us the freezer and the other one to made for Hilda to take home for supper. Randy was laughing at me when I was on the phone - I said I was using a big roaster so I would put potatoes and vegetables around the chicken so her meal would be ready - I even said I had a fruit strudel baked for dessert. All is well that ends well!