One Year an Island Girl , Already

On May 28, 2021 By Widow BadassIn Badassery, Good Times, Move to Vancouver Island52 Comments

One year of waking up to seeing this view from my balcony while sipping my morning latte.

Dawn over the Salish Sea, with mainland mountains in the background.

One year of enjoying the freedom and…ahem…adventures that come with renting an apartment. Update: the Stompy McStompersons moved out at the end of February…and though others have since moved in, the noise from above is almost non-existent, in comparison! Heavenly….

Crazy M has been mostly quiet – so quiet that I wondered if perhaps she had finally been committed or incarcerated somewhere. But no…I have seen her driving in and out of the complex recently.

S (“Good Neighbour S”, I have dubbed him) continues to offer assistance and lets me know he is “on guard” and ever watchful of strange goings on in the building as well as Ye Olde Parking Lot. Speaking of…

About the only complaint I have currently is of meeting the same couple of old men in the hallway – enroute to the parking lot where they like to unfold lawn chairs in the shade of the arbutus trees, and take in the fresh air, daily. They continually apologize (4 times now!) for not wearing masks (as they are supposed to) when encountering me in the hallway.

Wearing as mask (as mandated, in apartment common areas) means never having to say you’re sorry, too.

Yes, I love renting. It is so freeing after being responsible for and renovating a large and historically significant building and all of the other shit I went through for the past 7 years.

One year of missing my family, and friends-that-feel-like-family… left behind in Ontario.

Surprise flower delivery this week from “The Boys” – my good friends Kenn and Jonathan – who moved into my old flat at my former building, back in Ontario.

One year of being able to spend more time with my daughter and her man.

One year of soaking in the stunning beauty of my new home (too many posts to link – feel free to explore on your own, by looking back at my posts of the last year!)

One year of hosting old friends and meeting new – formerly virtual – friends, in my new home.

One year of walking down to the beach (5 minutes away), and finding treasures like this:

Sand art, artist unknown. At Departure Bay in Nanaimo.

One year of getting used to a much more relaxed vibe amongst my fellow citizens of Vancouver Island.

Graffiti seen, on one of my walks to and from the local shopping plaza. I’ve heard BC called the Left Coast and the Wet Coast, but Leaf Coast is a new one to me. It fits actually. Just ask the Party Bros. 😉

Two things that stood out for me immediately upon moving here:

There are SO MANY LIQUOR STORES here. Seriously, there is one a 10 minute walk up the street from me, and another one a 5 minute walk down the street from me. And there is one on just about every shopping plaza on this island! They are open from 9 am to 9 pm, seven days a week. And they offer loyalty programs!
The pace of life is so much slower and nicer here. It’s like stepping back in time about 50 years. People actually stop to talk to you (yes, even in a pandemic)…from random strangers to clerks in stores. They make eye contact and engage you in genuine, unhurried conversation. Once the shock wears off it’s actually very, very pleasant.

So many things have changed for me since I retired and moved here. Yet despite it all, I have remained the same as ever. Steadfast, unchanging…

I love living here. It was the right move at the right time, for me.

Rock on,

The WB

p.s. next week brings the June edition of the What’s On Your Plate Blog Challenge, on Wednesday June 2nd, hosted by Donna and yours truly. Mark your calendars. Can’t wait to see what what’s on your plate!

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday – Camping at Miracle Beach Provincial Park

On May 19, 2021May 18, 2021 By Widow BadassIn Adventures in Retirement, Camping Adventures, Good Times, See the Beauty, The Great Outdoors, Travel Badassery66 Comments

This was my home last weekend. Donna and Richard’s vehicle and set-up are behind me.

My stand-up board, “Nauti”…in kayak mode.

Donna and I split up the meal duties. This was breakfast the morning I was in charge: baked oatmeal and crispy bacon. Made only AFTER watching the sunrise on the beach, of course!

After breakfast it was time to go back to the beach, for a beautiful walk.

Sand dollars (living and dead) can be found all over the beach. RIP, Sand Dollar.

Time was carved out for a visit to Hammockville.

Trying out one of my homemade fire starters.

It worked very well. This was the start of a beautiful fire.

The morning we left was cloudy but dawn was still gorgeous.

These ~~assholes~~ sea lions woke me up with their barking at 4 am.

A deer couple came down to the shore to check out the ~~assholes~~ sea lions too.

Mergansers also wondering what the ~~assholes~~ sea lions are barking about.

~~Asshole~~ sea lions aside, it was a fabulous weekend at Miracle Beach Provincial Park. I’ll be back!

Rock on,

The WB

What’s On Your Plate Blog Challenge – Cinco de Mayo Edition

On May 5, 2021May 3, 2021 By Widow BadassIn Good Times, Home Improvement, What's On Your Plate80 Comments

Way back in April, I had an entirely different post planned out for the May “What’s On Your Plate Blog Challenge”. Last week however, it dawned on me that this month’s challenge falls on Cinco de Mayo (click on link to see what May 5 is all about and how to celebrate), so I decided my initial idea could keep. This month I am bringing you a Mexican-themed dish instead.

I was hoping to make it something to do with tacos….I do love me some tacos. I even ordered a tortilla press, so I could make my own from scratch (and gluten-free). However, it was not to be as my tortilla press did not come in on time. Es muy malo!

Instead, let me bring you my version of a deconstructed burrito…aka a burrito bowl.

It all started with a pork shoulder that had been taking up valuable freezer real estate for far too long, and now needed to be turned into something, STAT. When I bought it, I had been thinking of pulled pork but that obviously hadn’t happened. I came across this recipe, for carnitas…and with that, I was off to the races.

Finished carnitas, fresh out of the broiler

I wanted to make some of those tasty pickled onions to go with it, and that led me to this recipe. (And you better believe I will return to it for the Barbacoa 😉 ).

Well worth the walk to The Bulk Barn to pick up coriander seed and whole allspice, to make these pickled red onions.

And lastly, I had to find a recipe for Cilantro Lime Rice (my fave!). Here it is, and it turned out wonderfully. This is how it all came together on the plate:

My burrito bowl! With black beans, salsa, sour cream and guacamole added too.

Alas, no frosty margarita to accompany it, only a glass of white wine. This dish was delicious!

You may have noticed in the above photos that my balcony spruce-up for 2021 is now complete. My privacy screen is now up.

And my comfier cushions arrived too! Now all we need is a few more degrees of heat for optimal balcony enjoyment to commence. In the meantime, I just grab a sweater and a comforter. And splash hot sauce all over my burrito bowl. 🙂

Thanks so much to everyone who enjoyed and/or participated in last month’s inaugural blog challenge! My, that was fun! Hope you had as much fun as Donna and I did. Check out Donna’s post for this month, here!

As with last month, please let us know what’s on your plate at your house, in the Comments of either Donna’s or my post. And remember if you decide to blog or Facebook or Instagram about it, to use the tag #whatsonyourplateblogchallenge so we can find you out on ye olde interwebbs!

Happy Cinco de Mayo, from my hammock in the woods of Rathtrevor Beach Provincial Park!

Rock on, and ¡Salud!

The WB

Badass Adventures at Dollarama: Drag Queen Edition

On April 17, 2021April 17, 2021 By Widow BadassIn Artistic Endeavours, Badassery87 Comments

I’ve been visiting Dollarama a lot lately. Partly because the weather is great and it’s a lovely walk to my local dollar store; partly because I am gearing up for an adventure that I will document on Ye Olde Blogge within a week or so, and what I need to complete my project can be found there, on the cheap! And mostly because I think Dollarama is a great little store staffed by lovely people and there are so very many cool things to be found there.

On my latest visit, I noticed that they sold devotional or prayer candles there, and that reminded me of this thing that I came across on my internet wanderings that I really, really wanted to buy: a devotional candle with a drag queen’s face plastered on it, instead of the usual saint-type personage. Here’s what they cost at Ye Olde Amazon:

That’s right, folks. For a mere $60 and change CDN, you too can own a prayer candle with St. RuPaul adorning it.

So I got to thinking: could I make myself a drag queen prayer candle, for less? Why yes, of course I could!

Prayer candle: $1.75, with all of the labelling soaked off. Photo of one of my favourite drag queens ~~stolen from~~ found on the internet and printed at home: free.

No drag queen worth her rhinestones would be caught on stage without her earrings.

Total cost of my Bianca del Rio devotional candle: $3.75
Satisfaction: priceless

Thank you, Dollarama!

Well, that killed a coupla hours. Including the walk to and from Dollarama. What can I say? It’s gonna be a loooong week until the finale of Season 13 of RuPaul’s Drag Race airs…

~~Shantay~~ Rock on,

The WB

Tea Party on the Patio! #virtualteaparty2021

On April 15, 2021April 15, 2021 By Widow BadassIn Adventures in Food, COVID-19, Home Improvement63 Comments

Okay, okay…technically I don’t have a patio. I have a balcony. But I have it tricked out like the fiercest patio you can imagine…or at least it WILL BE once Jeff Bezos sends me a coupla more items. I came close last year but due to my arrival time on the island and pandemic-induced scarcities, last summer’s effort was lacking a few items that I had deemed necessary for peak enjoyment. And I know it’s only April, but we are very very close, people! Already! (If you’d like to see last year’s balcony, click here.)

I managed to get my hands on a couple of baskets of fuchsia this year…and I got some really great lights, to replace last year’s ~~misguided~~ valiant attempt at solar lighting for my north-facing space. So excited for my new patio lanterns!

I’m still waiting on a privacy screen for the railing, and comfier cushions for my benches, and some plants (impatiens, maybe…) for my railing planter box and then I’ll be done…uh, I think.

Here’s Balcony 2021 so far, with improved lighting! “Those patio lanterns, they were the stars in the sky….”

By the time I got to Vancouver Island and was settled enough to go plant shopping (early June of last year), all the hanging baskets of this shade-loving plant were completely GONZO. I was SOL, for 2020. So I leapt at the chance to pick up these beauties at Ye Olde Superstore this week.

There’s a problem though, with these baskets. Can you see it?

It only took me a day to realize that when it came to watering these babies (I have 2 of them), I would also be watering my bench cushions. EVERY. DAMN. TIME. What to do, what to do? Surely there was a ready made solution out there? Yes gentle readers, there was. In glorious see-through plastic, and in Jeff Bezo’s garage…otherwise known as Amazon. Hmmmm. I thought I might be able to MacGyver something mahself instead. So that is just what I did.

Is it still technically MacGyver-ing if you picked up some ~~shit~~ stuff at Ye Olde Dollarama? Asking for a friend. Astute, long-time readers will notice that I remembered to pack my dick pillows, when I moved to Vancouver Island. Once seen, never to be unseen…

Not too shabby, eh? Cheaper AND prettier!

Actually it only took the galvanized tins and the large S hooks to create these drip catchers, so I have the other ~~shit~~ stuff handy for any future MacGyver-ing I might be inspired to do.

By now – if you are still reading – you are probably wondering what all this has to do with a tea party so I’ll get to the point. THIS. It’s this:

My first cuppa of 2021 on the ~~patio~~ balcony! Accompanied by a warm banana oatmeal muffin.

I decided that overripe bananas were taking over my limited freezer space so that means only 1 thing around Chez Badass: time to dig out my tattered copy of Muffin Mania and make me some muffins! I used this recipe:

GOOD? Wow. I really waxed rhapsodic over this one, didn’t I? After almost 40 years, this recipe still is GOOD. Oh, and I used butter instead of margarine. And gluten-free flour instead of wheat flour. And quick oats instead of rolled oats. And I forgot to add the baking soda.
AND. THEY. WERE. STILL. GOOD.

It was only when I started filling the muffin cups that I vaguely remembered that this particular recipe makes way more than a dozen muffins. Eighteen, in fact. You’d think I could have written that down at some point, next to “good”.

The final half-dozen, fresh out of the oven.

The thing is, banana is not my favourite flavour in baked goods. But somehow this recipe works for me. I think the oatmeal ~~tones down~~ balances the banana flavour a bit. And using gluten-free flour gave these muffins a delicious cake-like texture that I don’t remember from when I made them with regular flour.

So if you came to my house in April we’d be sitting out on my balcony under the new patio lanterns, drinking tea and eating banana oatmeal muffins. And singing this song:

Yes, I would make you sing it along with me. Start practicing, because I got my first dose of Covid-19 vaccine this week. (Whoop whoop!)

Rock on,

The WB

P.S. Thanking the lovely hostess of the Virtual Tea Party, Su…go check out her blog and see what she is serving this month!

INAUGURAL What’s On Your Plate Blog Challenge – April 2021

On April 7, 2021April 5, 2021 By Widow BadassIn Adventures in Food, What's On Your Plate80 Comments

What’s on MY plate for April – Chicken pot pie with gluten-free biscuits

In my part of the world, it’s jacket-weather yet. This means comfort food is still on the table…my table, anyways. It’s hard to think of anything more comforting than chicken pot pie (with a gluten-free biscuit topping). Except maybe that viral feta pasta dish, which I may have made a time or twelve since I posted about it here.

Feel free to make this chicken dish using your own favourite biscuit recipe. Wheat gives me heartburn, hence the gluten-free slant to a lot of my recipes. For those of you who might want to try these GF biscuits, I have to say that they turned out mighty fine!

Biscuits made and put on top. Ready for the oven!

If you have turkey or chicken leftovers from Easter weekend, this recipe (courtesy of Zen Belly) would make great use of them. I had half a bag of mixed veggies in the freezer to use up, which I used instead of the vegetables the recipe called for. I also forgot to add the optional dairy…I didn’t have any heavy cream lying around but I was thinking of adding some milk or maybe Greek yogurt. Turns out it’s just fine without any of that.

Hot out of the oven. I wish you could smell this!

For spices, I was pretty liberal with my homemade chicken seasoning blend, recipe given to me by my dear cousin-in-law, Hetty. Here is her recipe for Kip Kruiden (Dutch for “chicken spices”):

2.5 tsp salt
1.5 tsp paprika
1 tsp onion powder
0.75 tsp savoury powder
0.25 tsp coriander
0.75 tsp garlic powder
0.5 tsp black pepper
0.5 tsp thyme
0.5 tsp basil

I usually double the recipe to make a big enough batch to last me a while…I do love my chicken! This spice blend is great on pork or on oven-roasted potatoes, as well. I think I put a good teaspoon of the blend into this dish.

The moment of truth. Truth be told, this recipe is DELICIOUS!

Right after I made the pot pie, I chowed down on it. SO. GOOD. Then put the leftovers in the fridge until the rest of my “bubble” could come over and enjoy it with me. It reheated beautifully a couple of days later (the biscuits were still fluffy and tender!), and was very well received. The dish was scraped clean. My daughter said, “It smells like Thanksgiving in your house!” Thank you, Zen Belly and Kip Kruiden. 🙂

Now it’s your turn! Let me and/or Donna (my lovely co-host, who is posting about a delightful vegetarian dish) know what’s on your plate at your house, in the Comments. And remember if you decide to blog or Facebook or Instagram about it, to use the tag #whatsonyourplateblogchallenge so we can find you out on ye olde interwebbs!

Rock on,

The WB

Answering The Call: Ally Bean’s Questions

On March 27, 2021March 27, 2021 By Widow BadassIn Artistic Endeavours, Hmmm?, See the Beauty53 Comments

Fellow eclectic blogger Ally Bean of The Spectacled Bean fame put out a bunch of questions to the Blogoverse a short while ago, and I thought it might be a good idea to try and answer them. Ye Olde Blogging Well has run a bit dry of late, and I could use some prodding, to get more…ahem…product out, you know? Here are Ms. Bean’s questions, and here goes nothing…

Q1 – What’s your ~~favorite~~ favourite movie?
A1 – It used to be Moonstruck, but I guess I snapped out of it (see what I did there?). The last movie I fell in love with was Rocketman…I saw it 3 times at the theatre and I bought the DVD. I think that makes it my new favourite!
Q2 – When trying to buy shoes, what’s your biggest problem?
A2 – Dealing with the guilt of buying yet another pair. It doesn’t stop me from buying them; just that now I have to bring home some guilt along with the footwear… 🙂
Q3 – Ice cream cone or cupcake?
A3 – Ice cream cone, definitely! Cupcakes are pretty, but I find them to be kinda dry and boring. And the frosting is usually a disappointment too. Good quality ice cream almost never lets me down.
Q4 – What’s one good thing you have learned about yourself during this pandemic?
A4 – I unintentionally timed my retirement from working to basically coincide with the beginning of the pandemic so I got a “crash course” in slowing my life waaaay down, which was and continues to be a good and necessary thing. I learned that I like living this way.
Q5 – Any eccentric people in your family? Discuss.
A5 – My paternal grandmother was a warm and wonderful woman who had some…um…peculiarities. Oma told me she couldn’t wear nail polish because it made her finger tips feel too heavy. And speaking of heavy, she liked to have a heavy purse on her arm. So much so, that if she felt her purse wasn’t heavy enough, she would add a few stones from the garden (washed, of course) to her bag to help with its weight. There were probably more eccentricities, but those were the only ones I remember from my childhood. Apparently I am the spitting image of her. It must be true because lately I keep seeing her face looking back at me when I catch myself in a mirror!

When not running down the hill to the beach like a mad fool in the wee hours in order to catch the fleeting sunrise (see above photo), I am spending a lot of time getting covered in paint, in my spare room/studio space. I’ve been taking a couple of online art courses and feeling inspired, after a long dry spell. And I actually did an underpainting. The old WB would never have taken the time to make an underpainting. You mean I have to paint a painting to go under my painting?!?! Who’s got time for that?!?

See how much I’ve been able to slow down? 😉

Underpainting based on a photo of the dawn taken in Bowser, BC in 2019.

Well, friends – do you feel inspired to answer any of Ally’s questions on your own blogs or in the Comments below? Has March and the spring equinox brought any more energy, creative or otherwise into your life?

Do tell all, and keep on rockin’…

The WB

Late to the (Virtual Tea) Party #virtualteaparty2021

On March 19, 2021March 19, 2021 By Widow BadassIn Adventures in Food, See the Beauty, The Great Outdoors74 Comments

Better late than never, they say…whoever “they are. At any rate, here I am with my offering for this month’s Virtual Tea Party, held by our ever gracious hosts Su and Del (go check out their blogs, please!) A day (or two) late, and a dollar short, through no fault of my own! This week marked the end (at least I hope so) of a long story for me involving esophageal spasms, acid reflux, gastritis, the reveal of a hiatal hernia, and not one but two gastroscopies. Let’s blame it all on the hospital-administered sedation! Anyhoodle, here I am: hale and hearty (and sober) again and wanting to share with you a delicious, substantial blueberry lemon oatmeal muffin cup recipe, from the Clean and Delicious blog site.

This recipe rings all the bells for me. Easy to whip up, contains my favourite flavours, powers me through to lunch, easy to sub in other things if need be, and contains no wheat (a trigger for my acid reflux). I need a quick and easy brekkie these days as I find myself running down to the beach while it is still dark if there is even a hint of a pretty sunrise to come. And those runs sometimes pay off. Behold:

By the time the sun has fully risen and I’ve made my way back to my place, I can just about chew my arm off. My poor stomach thinks my throat has been cut. My belly button can touch my backbone. Cue all the hunger idioms you can think of….I need victuals, STAT! These muffin cups come to my rescue so I make sure to always have some in the freezer.

Also with cottage cheese and blueberries.

These would make a fine addition to any tea table, in my decidedly-biased opinion. 😉

Do you have a go-to quick breakfast? Do tell, and…

Rock on,

The WB

What’s On Your Plate? Trying to Do a Thing Here…

On March 10, 2021March 10, 2021 By Widow BadassIn Adventures in Food, What's On Your Plate106 Comments

Some of you may remember a couple of posts ago on Ye Olde Blogge, I casually mentioned the possibility of starting a monthly blogging challenge…similar to the most enjoyable #virtualteaparty, hosted by Su and Del. Well, after seeing the positive responses in the comments and having the idea vetted by Su and Del, I have decided to go ahead. And to have a cohost (the lovely Donna of Retirement Reflections) to bring this to life.

The point of all this (for me at least) is to get meal ideas! I look forward to people posting about a particular supper or lunch or breakfast – some meal you made (or was made for you) that was memorable, for that month. And it’s up to you how you define “memorable”…hehehe! And if you want to link to a recipe (or even have it within the post), that would be cool too. Donna and I have also talked about perhaps having a theme for each month (for the ambitious among us). But for now at least, it’s Commenter’s Choice.

We have decided to host this challenge on the 1st Wednesday of each month, going forward…starting on April 7th. What do you need to do to participate, you may be wondering? Well, we are going to start out very simply (and may well keep to this, as we are ~~lazy~~ busy people!). Donna and I will post what’s on our plates for that particular month, and you are welcome to join in, in the Comments section of our respective blogs with a photo and/or link to your particular blog. Or you are welcome to post a photo (or photos) on your Instagram, and use the hashtag #whatsonyourplateblogchallenge so we can find you! Or do it all – blast it out everywhere on Social Media. Just let us know in the Comments section on our blogs so we can find you.

We’d appreciate your thoughts and ideas on this challenge going forward as we lead up to the inaugural date for it. Would you like to see a monthly theme? Such as: type of meal (e.g. breakfast) or type of cuisine (e.g. French) or style (e.g. comfort food). Any other ideas?

Let us know in the Comments below!

And here to get the ball rolling is Donna herself!

What’s on my plate this week? Tex-Mex Flavour Bombs. They are perfect for making quick fajitas, stir frys, chilli…anything that needs a little extra zing (without the last-minute fuss). Here’s the basic recipe (from Oh She Glows).

Tex-Mex flavour bombs (page 314)

from Oh She Glows for Dinner: Nourishing Plant-Based Meals to Keep You Glowing by Angela Liddon

Categories: Quick / easy; Spice / herb blends & rubs; Cooking ahead; Mexican; American
Ingredients: garlic; jalapeño chiles; red peppers; green onions; garlic powder; dried oregano; Sriracha sauce; tomato paste; limes; chile powder; ground cumin; smoked paprika; ground cayenne pepper; ground coriander.

Steps:
1) Process all ingredients in a food processor or blender until smooth(ish).2) Put 1 – 2 tablespoons of mix in silicone mini muffin moulds or icecube tray. Freeze until needed.