Three Mini's

Song - Outlander - The Skye Boat Song by Bear McCreary



In the last few weeks I have taken three mini vacations all while SIP at home.  The first one was ordering Sam Heughan's The Sassenach Whiskey.  Mr. B and I enjoy him on the Outlander series.  It took several months to arrive and I will pop it one evening soon while watching Outlander reruns as we are in Droughtlander right now - meaning the lack of a new show until next year.

I mean just look at this man - who wouldn't want a wee dram with him - in a kilt - of course!



My second mini-vacay was ordering bread from Poilâne a bakery in Paris.....yes really Paris, France. OK here is the deal.....I was tired of our local artisan bread drying out each day and I had heard that in France they use linen bags to let some air in but not too much.  I started looking on Amazon but they all had corny labels on them so I thought of  Poilâne.

It's an amazing bakery that bakes mostly bread and is located at 

8 Rue du Cherche-Midi in the heart of Paris.  

I went to their website - HERE. 

I placed an order for the linen bread bag and noticed that there was a 30 euro charge for shipping. It seemed a little steep but when I realized all of the money that I was saving Mr. B by not traveling to France this year, it seemed like a great deal! I threw in a few more items in my cart and noticed that the shipping cost stayed the same.  I ordered some shortbread cookie spoons for my mom to dip in her morning coffee and a loaf of Walnut Bread.  I received a text the next morning that they were just taking my bread out of the oven and getting it ready for shipping and that I would receive it by 10:30 the next morning!

Ding-dong......right on time!

It even came with a handwritten card thanking me for my order.

I had a little bit of Brie on hand and Mr. B and I had a delicious breakfast! I put on French music and danced around the kitchen with joy in my heart!!!
Delish!!!

Then little Henry arrived and he munched on a piece of bread too as did his daddy.  I sent Andy home with a slice for Ashley too!

PS - The linen bread bag doesn't work....maybe I shouldn't have left my SF Sourdough bread in it for 4 days????



My next adventure was a little more local -- Santa Fe!  Several years ago I went to a Painting Workshop there given by the artist Carol Marine. It was held at a convent and the food was catered locally and was amazing.  One of the things I loved most was their granola that they served with breakfast. We have ordered it through the years but I had forgotten about it until last week.  So I jumped on their website - Santa Fe Granola Company - and ordered us two bags.  Mmmmm.....

So what little surprises have you been enjoying during SIP?  

We all need to break it up a little and have some fun!

"Quarantine has me realizing why my dog 

gets so excited about something moving outside 

and going for walks and car rides.  

I just barked at a squirrel." 

Wandering

Song - Fallen Through Time by Bear McCreary

Today I was playing music from our Scotland-England trip while painting these darling kids running home from school in Bath, England.  The playlist was for a CD that I made of our trip and included the above song.

Can you imagine the joy?

And that's exactly how I looked today when I got a new Mother Board put into my dead computer. 

 Yes.  I know.  

Right after my last blog post about the lovely rain, we had several power outages and my computer would not restart.  

After finding out that my brilliant computer guy was sick with the flu and that he wasn't even joking when he texted me "Oh Jeanette....I am so sorry but your computer really is dead"!  

 So I put on my big girl boots and called Dell.

Two hours later after a very patient man walked me though opening up the side of my computer and unplugging stuff and plugging in other stuff and turning it on and off and beeps and timing flashing lights and there may have been a few tears.....

...it was determined that I needed a new Mother Board.

Huh?

I texted my sick computer guy and he said that he was VERY proud of me!

I'll have you know that I went through withdrawals being without my computer.

Photos

Resources

Recipes

Blogging

Genealogy

Finances

Music

Information 

Art

well, you know....

So I now can take a deep breath and appreciate all that my trusty little computer gives me.

While painting, I looked out of our back door to the little bird house that Mr. B bought for our yard and I saw some activity in there. (You can read about Mr. B's purchase HERE)

An Oak Titmouse was checking it out for a nest.  Later in the day she brought her hubby along to show him the real estate she had found.  He must of given her the green light because the two of them were busy building that nest all day long. 

Mama bird would fly in and out with soft bits of fuzz in her beak while the proud dad would sing from the Maple tree above with joy.

And off she goes to find more nesting stuff.

I can't tell you how much joy this brings to my heart.

“If you will stay close to nature, 

to its simplicity, to the small things hardly noticeable, 

those things can unexpectedly become great and immeasurable.”

 --Rainer Maria Rilke