Death to spitbugs!! And some other stuff

This morning I went to a funeral. The food was waaaay better than the other one mentioned in this blog, where I was helping out in the kitchen. The odd thing was, I had three people there mention to me how much they love an assortment of tiny sandwiches with the crusts off. That’s never been a thing of mine, but there must be many people in the world who secretly feel that way, if I can have three people at one funeral all tell me that when faced with platters of miniature sandwiches.

I came home and did some work in the garden, mostly spraying the lavender bushes with insecticidal soap. We have a massive infestation of spitbugs, all over the huge lavender bushes on the front of the property, just now coming into bloom. So I took it upon myself to get rid of them. In case you don’t know what they are, spitbugs are small. They sit on the green stems of plants, preferably sheltered by a leaf or two, and then create a big white foamy environment, in which they can dwell. That foam looks like spit–ergo, spitbugs.

I planned to do some work on my quilt but didn’t get that much done. For those friends asking about my current project, this is what the centre will look like:

For those friends who quilt, who are trying to figure out the block, here it is:

The basic block is beautiful, but I have to admit that I find the turquoise a little too much in the multiple blocks. I was hoping the brown would be dominant, and the turquoise would be more of a secondary colour. I think if I ever do this block again, I might do the two stars in two shades of the same colour.

Finally, I want to share with you the challenge it is to ignore food in Canada. I have never had trouble staying slim while living in the U.S. In Canada, it’s another story, and part of the reason is that they have better candy here, such as my favorite candy bar, Big Turk. Big Turk is rose-flavoured turkish delight coated with chocolate. I love both those things, and together they are a dream. Another favorite is wine gums (not made with wine). They are chewy candies in various flavours, and I love them with the fervour of an addict. I have to ration myself, and to paraphrase hockey great turned potato chip hawker Mark Messier, I cannot eat just one. It’s usually a whole roll.