Another Blether with Patrice

Wow, Patrice, you're getting close to hosting your hundredth chat. It's been great joining you over the past year (or more). Thank you so much for your questions, your hosting, and the willingness with which you open your porch to all and sundry each week. 

And a huge cheer for Wendell, who has had to put up with a gaggle of gaggling women week after week after week. He really is a brave fella.

1. Do you prefer to drive or be driven?

I love driving. I've loved being behind the wheel of a car - of any vehicle, for that matter - since I was knee high to a grasshopper. My dad taught me (and all my siblings) to drive when I was very young, and I'd sit with a cushion or two under me! I would also have to sit as far forward as I could so my feet would reach the peddles.

Hang on ... isn't this still the case?

Well, not quite, but I do still love driving. Unless the Builder is driving, my choice would always be to be driving myself, but I do love to sit and be driven by him. 


2. What's your favorite kind of jam, jelly, or preserve?

I think raspberry jam is my favourite. I love a thin spread of it on Katie's Victoria Sponge;

 


I like a dollop of it on my 6-2-6-2 biscuits; 




and I love a rather large dollop of it on fresh Griddle Scones. 



Definitely time for some baking, and I think the scones will be today's choice. Yum!


3. Do you have any special plans for this spring or summer?

I don't think so. Our vegetable garden is not going to keep us as busy this summer, but we are planning on a few jobs around the house. I think our first task is going to be the Wee Guy's bedroom. We painted the room white when we moved into the house, shoved a bed, a wardrobe and some drawers into it, and that was that. I am hoping to get a wall-to-wall fitted wardrobe in there, and make his room more like what he would like.

All I need now is a willing builder ...


4. Lots of folks are becoming aware of issues with food. There are many articles, books, and movies on topics like allergies, GMO, pesticide use, bad or no labeling, over processed foods, foods from other countries that may not have high standards, and many more topics. What concerns you the most? If nothing concerns you, have a cookie and skip to the next question.

I'm tempted to say nothing concerns me if it means I can have a cookie ...

But that wouldn't be true. I am convinced that we are putting a lot of stuff into our bodies that is bad, bad, bad. On a very basic level, I've never trusted Low-fat foods, or Sugar-free foods for the simple reason that I don't think natural sugar is bad, and neither do I think natural fats are bad. The problem with these foods is what they are putting into them to make up for the fat and sugar. We need the flavour, and so natural sugar and fat is replaced by chemicals.

No thanks.

I don't know enough about GM foods to comment, but I do know that when we take the gifts God has given us and change the way He wished for His creation to be used, we are usually on a path that is not good. 

Look at all the wonderful animals he gave us for meat ... a great gift to be used, but horrid when misused.

There's nothing quite like sitting at a meal with meat that has come from home grown animals. Knowing the treatment Big Brother's sheep get, seeing how they're cared for, and knowing they only get good food to eat, makes that lamb joint a whole lot tastier when it's on the plate.

Do they look like happy chappy sheep to you?

Yep, to me too.

And if I'm able to add our own vegetables to the plate, well ... all the better.

5. Do you use nail polish often? Finger nails, piggies, or both?

Pigs?? People put nail polish on their PIGS?? Well, you learn something new every day.

As for me, I put some clear nail polish on my finger nails last week because I was going to a wedding. I guess I'll repaint them whenever I'm going to another wedding. As for my toe nails, I've never painted them. This has nothing to do with not being able to reach them - after all, they are rather close to the upper part of my body. Rather it has to do with ... erm, well, I guess a couple of things:

1. My toe nails are so tiny, I really don't think I could do them neatly.

2. Why? I just don't get the whole painting-toe-nails thing. I guess I was born in the wrong era, in the wrong part of the world, or a combination of both of these.

(Can you see my daughters rolling their eyes as they read this? Any of you who have teenage daughters will know exactly what I mean ... Right?)