Self gifting is how I describe purchasing unnecessary items, just because you’re interested in them and you want to give them a try. The likelihood of anyone else gifting them, to you is, at best, slim, so you treat yourself.
Silicone bakeware has always intrigued me.
Last week, I finally caved in to my curiosity, and bought this muffin pan.
Can you guess what I’m baking that might work better in this than in a regular muffin tin?
*Big reveal and review coming on Monday.*
Shortly after mid January 2016, we stopped in for a visit with friends from here at home in Canada, who own a winter home on an acreage in Maricopa County, AZ.
Our friends treated us to a day trip with them to the 26 Bar Ranch at Casa Grande. This was, at one time, 14,000 acres of John Wayne’s total 50,000 acre cattle ranching operation in Arizona. The Casa Grande location was the headquarters for 26 Bar, and was where the Duke operated his feedlot. His feedlot was, at one time (at 85,000 head), the largest privately owned feedlot in the USA.
When we visited, it was still an operational commercial feed lot with thousands of head of cattle, so between the sights, the sounds, and the smells, it wasn’t a stretch to imagine what it was like when the Duke owned it.
To the naked eye, the tops of most mushrooms look smooth.
A macro lens says otherwise.
As with many things (and people) … we need to look closely and beyond the surface if we want to see what’s really there, don’t we?
Recently, I’ve been hearing and reading about an exercise trend, called the Japanese Walking Method.
I decided that it’s more appropriate for me (while I continue with recovery from the accident injuries) vs returning to my previous power walking too soon.
So, for now anyways, it’s a bit of a detour, but a worthwhile one, according to my research.
You can read more about this walking method here .
In early 2016, we were in Las Vegas twice within a few weeks – once in mid January on our way to Arizona, and again in mid February (on our way home from Arizona) to pick my cousin up at the airport and tour her around on her first visit there.
Hubs and I had visited “Sin City” several times before, so we enjoyed showing my cousin what we considered to be some of the highlights.
Late yesterday afternoon, a call was interrupted by the loud honking on my cell phone of an Environment Canada tornado warning for our area.
Within an hour, the eerie calm set in and the sky darkened.
My feature photo is looking east from our balcony. Soon, the wind picked up, and the nimbus clouds moving in from the west started attacking the fluffy white cumulus clouds, threatening the formation of the dreaded combination: cumulonimbus. The cloud formations I learned in science class so many years ago have stuck with me. That’s a testament to a good teacher.
Thankfully, our only outcome from the ominous warning, was a ten minute episode of heavy rain, wind, thunder, and lightning; then it just carried on moving east.
I’ll admit I was more than a bit anxious for a while.
Canada is the top canola producer in the world, and of the Canadian provinces, my province of Saskatchewan is the top canola producer in Canada.
This is the time of year that canola comes into full bloom and my feature photo (taken “on the way by”) is typical of what we see no matter which direction we drive.
Click here if you’d like to learn about the many uses for canola besides canola oil for salad dressings or cooking.
While searching my Amazon photos app (by year) to find when we visited Old Tucson, AZ … I arrived at 2016 and said “Wow!” right out loud.
That year was an absolutely crazy travel year for us!
It may have had a wee bit to do with the fact that this was our first full year of retirement together, so we were in “yahoooo” mode.
For the next unknown number of Wednesdays I’ll recap some of the many hilights of that year, through a feature photo and a brief description.
This feature photo was taken in Old Tucson, AZ … in … you guessed it … 2016!
Do you ever get homesick for places that aren’t home?
I sure do.
Since we’ve been wintering in South Texas, I’ve come to love the area around Port Isabel and South Padre Island. I think of it often when we’re back home for the summers in our landlocked Canadian province. Our summers here at home are great, weather wise. There’s just something about our winters, living so close to the Gulf of Mexico, that makes me “homesick” for the water.
Yesterday, I was reading a fellow blogger’s hilarious reply to my reply to a comment he’d made on one of my recent posts (clear as mud, right?), and a fun memory came back.
I immediately recalled my ride on this mythical creature, while road tripping in 2008.
How many miles are “you” from Wall Drug? It’s 496 for us😉
Radically Retired 