Tricia's Musings

Random Thoughts about life in general, living in the big city of Toronto



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Hemp for Breakfast

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Well I never thought I’d be eating hemp for breakfast, but that’s just what I did this morning.

Yesterday, my husband and I went out to a bulk food store and we were looking in the bulk cereal section. Hmmm “what’s this?” Hemp Granola? Granola with hemp seeds, pumpkin seeds and other goodies. “what the heck, lets try it!”

So, this morning I poured some of the hemp granola into a small bowl. One thing about granola- you don’t need a big serving.

I added:

  • a small amount of Demerara brown sugar,
  • some raspberry flavoured cranberries,
  • poured on some milk
  • dolloped two teaspoons of berry flavored yogurt on top

Then I stirred it together. Wow! That was good.

I’m not much of a breakfast person but I’ve been trying to eat healthier. I’m not sure how this is going to sit though. I have crohn’s and fiber is not always a person with inflammatory bowel diseases best friend. So far so good though.

How was your breakfast? What did you have this morning?





Spring is coming!

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It’s February 2nd and it’s ground hog day. Ground hogs all over Canada have predicted an early spring. Yeahhhhhhhhh!

I have my own spring predictors right here in my yard though. My roses. It was such a nice day out today, my husband decided to take down our Christmas lights. A short while after he went outside he came in excitedly and said “you’d better come look at your roses!”. I asked him ” why, is something wrong???”. He just said- “come and see and bring the camera”.

Charles Albanel rugosa rose with leaf buds Feb. 2nd 2006 It might be a bit hard to see in this photo, but my roses – all that I checked- have tiny red leaf buds starting to grow! Wow! I’ve never seen leaf buds so early. Gee, it’s usually at least sometime in April before I start to see leaf buds on my roses. (see larger picture for more detail)

I can’t believe it! It’s been such a warm winter here in Toronto. I think November and the very beginning of December was colder and more winter like than the rest of December and January. My garden is usually covered in at least a foot of snow at this time of year, and it’s usually freezing!

Now that I have leaf buds on my roses we are bound to get a very cold snap. Especially now that I said it, too!

In the late fall my garden was covered in layers and layers of leaves. We gathered about 40 or more bags of leaves from various neighbours and poured the leaves onto the garden beds. The roses were mounded with a mix of peat and soil first. Then after the leaf topping we put burlap around most of our roses.

Since I can’t actually see the ground of most of my flower beds since they are covered in leaves, I’ll just have to assume that my tulips and other bulbs are probably poking their head out of the earth and growing leaves too.

Hmmm my crocus’ usually come up out of the lawn in mid to late March and I usually count these as my first signs of spring. I’ll bet ya that my crocus’ come up in the next week or two if this weather holds!

To all those enjoying beautiful unseasonably warm weather- rejoice! Spring is just about here. To those that are still buried under the snow and shivering in the cold .. I feel for you, but spring will come to you soon too.

Spring! Wow. I’m starting to think about my garden now.

If you want to see an almost up to date list of what’s growing in my garden see my gardenweb members page.

Ground hog day in Canada – Groundhogs report what many in Cda already believe: spring is coming early

’til next time,

Tricia

Hello

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Welcome to Tricia’s Musings. I decided to start another blog so that I can “express” myself. Or maybe just ramble.

I’m a nurse and I work in a very busy Emergency Department. Oh the tales I could tell! But of course I can’t say too much about my work as I might violate patient confidentiality.


I’m also a herpetoculturist. What the heck is that? Well, a herpetoculturist is someone who’s hobby is keeping reptiles or amphibians. I’m sure some of you are saying “Ewwwwwwwwww” right now, but I’ve been interested in herps (reptiles and amphibians) for as long as I can remember. Right now, I’ve only got two box turtles. Myrtle and Spaz. However in the past I’ve had as many as 12 lizards at one time. No snakes- not yet anyway.

Other than keeping reptiles, another side of my hobby is maintaining reptile and amphibian websites. In 1995 I started Tricia’s Chinese water dragon, reptile and amphibian care page which by internet standards is a fairly old web page these days. I’m pleased by it’s popularity. I just started another new website called Reptile Logic and it looks like it might be another hit. I also run several reptile- well, lizard, related mailing lists. This hobby keeps me busy! As if my job weren’t enough!

Another hobby that keeps me busy is gardening. My husband and I lived in an apartment for 16 years and we finally got a house 4.5 years ago. All those years trapped in an apartment had me pining for a backyard. Summer finds me happily puttering around in my garden, tending my roses (60 of them and counting!), perennials and annuals. We tend to spend most of our time outdoors in the summer- gardening, barbecuing, socializing. It’s wonderful!

Music is another interest. You see my husband is a musician. He plays 13 instruments. There is often the sound of live music filtering through my home. His talent comes in quite handy when we have visitors over. I provide the food and sometimes the decor (my garden), and he provides the entertainment. It’s fun.

As I said we’ve only been in our house for a few years. It was built in 1927. We’ve slowly been renovating the house. Actually constantly renovating as there is always a project on the go. I’m sure I’ll have some pictures of our renovations on this site and in the photo gallery soon.

I keep busy … when I’m not working my 12 hour nursing shifts I’m either tending to my pets, working in the garden, maintaining my websites, answering e-mail, or entertaining others with my husband. Hmmm and I think I’ll have enough spare time to work on a blog??? What am I thinking? 🙂

See I told you this blog might just be me rambling along. Look at this post. 🙂

‘Til next time,

Tricia

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