Just a grey day

Done with the Queen's Jubilee I went on to see if I could get a glimps of the Venus traversing the sun.
That was "nixed". No sun, just a heavy cloud cover. Now I will have to wait until 2117 before it happens again! Uhg.

That was all of the sun we saw today...

What did I do else? Washed down the ceiling and walls to prepare for the painting job. The next thing will be to give the ceiling a new coat of paint.
Then I will move on to the walls.
Stripes or no stripes - that is the question.
Not really.
Hubby doesn't want to sleep in a striped bedroom. There is no question about that. End of discussion.
The good thing is that the small room will look good in white. That way I can change the curtains and bedding colours any time.

Not much more happened.
I had a nap in the afternoon. When I awoke J.P. had come back from shopping and a pizza was sizzling in the oven.
Easy dinner for me.

Pepper Mill Refill

Today was the day where I decided to refill  my three spice mills.

I know, there are not the fanciest one and could easily be replaced by new ones, but I am the type of person that does recycle if possible.
Even the egg shells (but that is story for another day).
The thing with one of these pepper mills is that the refill happens maybe once a year. I always tell myself time and again that I will remember how it was done; just to find out that I forgot how I did it when I have to do it next time. Very annoying.
But - this time there will be no forgetfulness. I will pen it down in my blog- and just pull it up when I need it next time. How is that?

The mill for the steak-mill is easy - just screw the lid off and refill.

The pepper- and salt shakers are the culprits.

I recall the first time when it took me nearly an hour to figure out how to get the top off. I gathered all kind of tools to squeeze, push and pull. Nothing would work.

Then, in a final attempt to get it off I used both hands and screwed at the lid AND pulled at the same time. THERE! Done! Salt and pepper rest flew around, but the lids came off.
Now I create my own spices-melanges.
One: a pepper melange with all kind of colourful pepper seeds.

 The other: my personal mixture for steaks: pepper seeds, jalapeño pepper seeds, dried garlic, parsley root, a few coriander and cumin seeds and sea salt.

And the third (former used for sea salt): as a crusher for cumin and coriander seeds only for Tex-Mex or Asian style foods.
Now I don't need a pestle and mortar.

For lunch I felt for something with tomato.
Since we love tomato soup we had a tomato bisque.

How to make it see here.

A Sunday afternoon

Despite that there was rain in the forecast, nothing came down so far. It is just rather windy outside. I covered my tomato plants nonetheless, just in case.

On the second floor rules chaos and we should put a sign up stating: "construction ahead".
J.P. did some more work on the walls upstairs. I am inpatient to paint but it will take several days before the prep is done.

The afternoon was spent following the river parade in London, England. Celebrating with waffles and a good cup of coffee instead of standing in the rain and watching The Queen. Poor people in London.

For dinner J.P. asked for a meat loaf, so meat loaf it was.

Regen wurde angesagt, aber bisher ist es nur ziemlich stürmisch.  Trotzdem habe ich meine Tomatenplanzen abgedeckt, für alle Fälle.
Auf der oberen Etage herrscht das Chaos. J.P. ist ein gutes Stück mit den Renovierungsarbeiten vorangekommen. Allerdings dauert es noch ein paar Tage bis ich endlich anstreichen kann.
Am Nachmittag haben uns die Zusammenfassung der britischen Flottillie auf der Themse angesehen denn Kanada hat ja auch die Queen as Statsoberhaupt. Dazu wurden frischgebackene Waffeln gefuttert. War doch viel besser als wie dei Londoner, stundenlang im strömenden Regen stehen zu müssen.
Zum Abendessen gab es auf Wunsch mal wieder einen Hackbraten.

Det ble varslet regn hele for dagen, men inntil nå har det ikke kommet en dråpe.
Gubben fortsatte med renoveringsarbeidet på soverommet i andre etagen. Jeg håoer at jeg kan starte med å male veggene om noen få dager.
Ettermiddagen ble det kos med nystekte vafler mens vi så på flotiljen på Thamsen i London.
Som Kanadier har man jo Queen'en  som statsoverhode.
Etterpå spredde seg duften av kjøttpuddingen ijgenom huset og det ble deilig mat til middag.