Tuesday, June 9, 2020

All About The Strawberries



The terracotta strawberry pots I bought last summer have filled out brilliantly.  We've gotten some of the coldest wettest weather of any Spring since we moved here 8 years ago yet the flowers are loving it.  I don't think I've ever had nicer lobelia, the blue flowers have just made the pots fantastic.  I love the strawberry pots so much - I've just bought a 3rd and have to go pick it up today.  Last year I bought these 2 used (and scummy - see this post for the before and after with hubby's scrubbing magic) for $33.  We managed to sit on our new loungers the other day in the sun for about an hour before the weather turned for the bad again - hubby took the above shot in the sunshine.

The one I bought on the bidding site today:

It has a little chip on one of the lips.  That is easily covered by plants.  I think I will use it as a backup rather than plant a whole new one this year as I am done with buying plants at this point.  I spent $24 which is higher but everything garden-related this year is going sky high.  I can't even buy these new here, I've never seen them in a store with the basic clay look, they are always glazed and always well over $100.


Groceries seem to be rocketing as well.  I actually went to the store and bought pork chops yesterday - the large pack was at least $8 higher than the last time I bought them 2 months ago - from the same store.  We are still eating in versus out to help counteract this.  Yes, we are tired of cooking.  I do see some takeout in our future.  One way to help counteract the high cost of groceries is to go for zero waste and cook everything at home and if possible from scratch.

These muffins were made for about 25 cents a piece.  They are cranberry strawberry with orange juice in the batter.  I had no oranges or would have put in rind too.  The cranberries are leftover frozen from Christmas. The strawberries were a bit mushy a month ago (not mine, store bought) so rather than let them go to waste I chopped them up and froze them.  Worst case scenario they would have ended up in some jam.  Hubby declared these are some of the very best muffins I've made.  If I bought these from the store here they would charge at least $5 for 6 of them.  Instead for about $2.50 I was able to make 10 of them.  They are gone already as both of us could eat them.

Breakfast the other day was a banana and some of my own strawberries.  Both are apparently good for the digestive system, even if you have an ulcer.  The original intention was to eat some of the watermelon I just bought for $4 but as soon as I cut it open I realized it was rotten.  I was choked.  The last grocery order we picked up on Saturday I had to pay for them to shop.  This was a change as they had previously waived the $3 fee.  Now the fee is $5.  Anyway, I was also charged for an item I ordered but was not in the bags.  This happened 2 months ago as well but I sent an email and never heard a thing back.  Being tough to fight for customer service in a pandemic I let it go.  Now though, if Superstore is charging me $5 for the service I expect to get what I pay for.  They did respond.  I now have a $10 credit of a future pickup order.  I will likely do that this week and it will hopefully be the last one I need to do online rather than in person.  I wasn't feeling well and the idea of shopping for an hour and a half for Mom and I didn't appeal to me at all.  


I feel a little bit better.  My health is back to about 60% of what it was in February before the issue with my tooth and the other issues began.  I do great until 5pm then crash and burn but I think the health issue has triggered my fibro so it could be a combination.  The good news is that the medication is somewhat working. I am not in as much pain or nausea - but food is still not my friend.  I dream of wine and cheesecake and chocolate.  All things like that are quite a ways off in the future.  Oh well, at least I can function now and we should know in a week or two how the test results came out.  

That is life at the moment.  I will leave you with this final sky shot from the other night taken at 10pm after some of the clouds left the sky. Have a good week and stay safe!



29 comments:

  1. Your strawberry pot is beautiful. I have mine planted but found another on Mom's patio. If my sister does not want it, I am going to snag it.

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    1. I never had one before these two - I was skeptical what plants would do well. Strawberries actually do like these, also lobelia and succulents. Would love to know what else does well. You definitely should snag it!

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  2. Sorry hit publish before I was through. Glad you are feeling better

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  3. Gorgeous picture of the clouds & sky. I'm happy to hear that you're making progress & feeling better, although not where you'd like to be. Fingers crossed that each week is a big improvement!

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    1. I am hoping so, even thinking about starting house painting back up lol.

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  4. Honey, I know what you mean about the same foods costing more. How mean. It's not like people have more money. Or any for some. I loved seeing the pretty planter you made from the strawberry pots. Blessings, stay safe, xoxo, Susie

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  5. I've noticed prices are going up, in cases a whole lot. I have a spreadsheet that I track prices (and it goes back to January 2019). In some cases it's only a few cents but other items are ridiculous. As for Superstore, I had such a bad experience the first time I tried grocery pick-up I've never done it again.

    Glad to hear you're on the mend, slow as that might be. Take care!

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    1. Yes, I remember reading about your Superstore experience. If I felt better I would be shopping in person, hopefully in a week or two. Right now unless I can get in and out in 10 minutes or less I do online

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  6. Your muffins look yummy! Maybe I'll make some for the kids tomorrow. Glad to hear you are feeling somewhat better!

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    1. I love making muffins, so fast and so rewarding. I always make banana pineapple though so need to get out of my box a little more.

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  7. Harvey and I were discussing the cost of groceries at the beginning of this experience. He wants to raise the budget line but I am really trying to stay at or under budget if possible. We will see what happens in the next few months.

    Love the flowers in the strawberry pot.

    Glad you are feeling better.

    God bless.

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    1. I think you and I think alike when it comes to groceries. I will still try and live within that budget which is really quite generous in the past. I just need to be super careful when shopping. Life is sure different from a year ago, isn't it?

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  8. I am so sorry about your fibro.....you know my Summer suffers from it but I did not realize you do, too.
    You have always made a dollar go farther than anyone else I know.
    We are still eating in 99% of the time. I don't think Louis Dean has eaten out except for Sonic and drive through since early March.
    We are all doing the best we can but I am so thankful to be able to hug my grandchildren again! WITH washed hands and since we have all pretty much stayed quarantined.

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    1. Hubby has gotten lunch a couple times at drive through. I don't think I could eat anything that restaurants have right now maybe except Japanese food as that is pretty bland and not really fried unless you have tempura

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  9. I found a strawberry pot in the trash at the side of the road where a couple was cleaning out their garage. So, it was free. It was one of the things stolen from my yard along with lawn things. I miss it. I am glad you can eat strawberries and bananas. I would die without bananas.

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    1. Great find in the trash, I am sorry you no longer have it. Yes, apparently bananas are great for gut health, who knew

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  10. Your planters are looking gorgeous, what fabulous colours. Love the sky shot, too.
    I'm so glad you're starting to feel better and dreaming of wine and choclate sounds like a really positive sign, I bet the mere thought of them a couple of weeks ago would ahve turned your poor stomach.
    I read your grocery prices and haven't got a clue if they're good or bad or expensive. That's how seldom I do any food shopping! xxx

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    1. I think UK food prices are even higher than Canada's generally. I am very lucky that so much produce comes from BC though, those prices are staying low thankfully

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  11. Snap. I just bought one of those pots last week for €15 (new). It only has 6 openings and yours looks like it has more but I filled it with flowers and it also looks really pretty. I'm glad you're starting to feel a little better but it is hard being "off" isn't it!

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    1. These are 9 openings and about 2 feet tall each. I hate being sick as usually I am the caretaker!

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  12. Glad you're feeling some improvement. 60 percent is a lot better than how you were feeling last week. My mother had friends who loved to make strawberry pots in their ceramics studios. Because she was such a green thumb, she would regularly buy them... and then she'd complain because they were glazed and the plants would be happier in pots that could breathe and drain. Yours look beautiful.

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    1. Thank you! I do like the plain clay ones. The glazed ones are for sale here at $150 each, and I don't like them nearly as much. The new one is a great backup as the way the planters worked out they are 100% of the vision I had last summer. That rarely happens

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  13. So very glad that you are slowly climbing out of the pit. Please don't overdo it. By the way papaya is excellent for the gut as well. I wonder if acidophilus would be of benefit, all that healing bacteria. It really helps me. Your garden is looking lovely. Do you have to buy new strawberries every year for those pots? Many years ago we brought home several large clay pots for flowers. They did over the years start crumble because of the moisture. Finally I gave up replacing them from Mexico and now have plastic pots. Just a heads up.

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    1. I expect them to crumble at some point - but they will be stored under cover in winter (I have a potting bench they will fit in) and at these prices I can keep replacing them as long as I can find one a year or so. I just keep dividing the strawberries. I've heard after 3 years they don't produce and one pot has almost no berries so thinking that is what is up. The divided ones are doing great though. I am waiting for the official confirmation of the ulcer (awaiting test results now) before I try and treat it with anything other than basic food. I didn't know that about papaya, I absolutely love it so yay!

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    2. But do you keep watering the strawberries over the winter or let them go dormant? Sadly papaya is expensive. Can't recall if I suggested acidophilus to you? I suggest that you take one daily. It can 't hurt.

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  14. The blue lobelia is beautiful in your pots. I'll have to keep my eye out for a bargain on those kind of pots. Yes cooking from scratch certainly stretches the budget a lot, and is very satisfying.

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    1. Yes, my husband says he is getting spoiled now with 90 days of home cooking. Thankfully he cooks too and is a good cook, mostly at weekends though (and when I was super sick)

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