Out of Doors!

We spent a lot of time outdoors with a string of good weather we’ve been having. Here are some photos of what is blooming outside in our yard.

Our pink Dogwood.

Some sweet pansies.

Our lilac and bleeding hearts.

Dogwood with Lilac in the background.

Our azaleas and rhododendrons are getting ready to show us all they have to offer soon.

Yesterday I brought some of our outside beauties in to enjoy their fragrance.

We had a record breaker heat day yesterday at 90 degrees. They expect another record breaker for today at 86. Unheard of in April.

Linking up with ABC Wednesday originated by Mrs. Nesbitt and carried on by Roger and and team. O is for out of doors, outdoors, outside.

Mennonite Girls Can Cook

M is for the Mennonite Girls Can Cook! I am one of the ten girls who have a blog we collaborate on to post a recipe a day and a devotional on Sundays. That blog is called Mennonite Girls Can Cook. We also have two published cook books, Mennonite Girls Can Cook and Mennonite Girls Can Cook Celebrations. Both of these books are available on Amazon.

Anneliese, Judy, Lovella, Kathy, Bev, Betty, Ellen, Julie, Charlotte, and Marg.

Sometimes my meme buddies think that MGCC is my blog and all the recipes are mine because of my blogger comment link that will take you straight to MGCC. If your blog has the (name/url) option to click on when I comment everything works great for memes because I can put in the url that will take you straight to my ABC Wednesday post, etc. My personal blog is The Happy Wonderer, ellen b. but blogger/google has hijacked me and will send you straight to the MGCC blog if you click on my comment name when I don’t have another option in commenting. Does that make sense? Enough of that…back to the Mennonite Girls.

In 2010 all ten of us got together for the very first time to sign the contract for our first cookbook. Nine Canadians and one American, me. The nine Canadians hail from Abbotsford, Chilliwack, Winnipeg and Steinbach.

Here we are with our first cookbook in hand. It’s easy for me to get together with the girls from British Columbia and we cherish the few times all 10 of us can be together since Betty and Charlotte are over 2200 miles away from us. Along our cookbook journey we’ve had some fun book signings at farm markets, 10,000 Villages, bookstores and more…

Barnes and Noble in Bellingham and Ten Thousand Villages in Vancouver.

We’ve also done cooking demonstrations at the West Coast Women’s Show, Lepp Farm Market, Mennonite Relief Sales and on Global T.V.

In July of 2012 we signed a contract for our second book “Celebrations” which would be released in Spring of 2013.

Since this book was first published the cover has changed.

The West Coast girls traveled to Manitoba for book signings at several locations around Winnipeg and Steinbach so Charlotte and Betty were our hostesses for this great trip. I drove up to Abbotsford, B.C. to hop on a plane with the west coast girls for this trip to Winnipeg.

I never dreamed blogging would bring this whole new world of Mennonites and Cookbooks into my life. This journey started with me contributing some recipes to the newly formed Mennonite Girls Can Cook blog that was inspired by a Paska Post on Lovella’s blog. Because the girls and I have family recipes that are very similar I was invited to be one of the contributors on the newly formed Mennonite Girls Can Cook blog even though I am not Mennonite. The ten of us remained faithful to the blog and soon a publisher came knocking at our door. Beyond publishing and blogging we have formed lifetime friendships with each other. The girls call me their adopted American cousin.

It’s not just the girls who enjoy our times together. Our husbands get to come along for the ride, too. We get together for events that have nothing to do with our cooking blog, too, but there is always good food to be eaten whenever we gather together!!

All this fun has not stopped yet because in August we will be published again with a smaller Devotional book with some recipes included.

I’m linking up to ABC Wednesday started by Mrs. Nesbitt and carried on by the masterful Roger and the ABC team. Thank you!

Labor of Love…

I love Easter and all that it holds and all that it means. I like the idea of new Life, a resurrected Life. The greatest Love that was demonstrated on Good Friday and the Life that was resurrected on Easter Sunday.

Here are photos of our Easter weekend labors of love and celebrations.

This was the end result of our labors on Easter Saturday. Top left an Russian Easter sweet cheese spread called Seernaya Paska. The X and the B stand for Christ is Risen. On the right is the finished and frosted Russian Easter Bread called Kulich or Paska surrounded by Russian shrink wrapped eggs. The sign in Russian on the bottom left says Christ is Risen so you see where the X and B comes from. Now I’ll show you some of the process of getting here.

First you gather your labor force. This is my sister Lana who arrived early so that we could get the Russian Easter Bread (Kulich/Paska) started.

The rest of the laborers arrived and were donned with their aprons and head scarves.

At one point in the process of mixing the dough I thought I made a big boo boo so we prayed over the dough and Lana and I laid hands on the KitchenAid. I didn’t want to start over again. All turned out well…

Lana showing how her slippers match her apron. I am behind in giving a shout out to My Mother’s Apron Strings after I won this Christmas apron giveaway without knowing I even entered the contest. My sister is wearing it on the reverse side since this is Easter and not Christmas. Thank you Susan for sending the apron to me.

The other photos in the collage are of kneading the dough and shrink wrapping the boiled eggs. While the dough was rising we enjoyed lunch together. Home made tamales and beans with guacamole, chips, and Dan and Jamie’s home made salsa.

After lunch it was time to prepare the cans and to punch down the dough after it’s first rise. The Peter Rabbit bunting was completed by Katie and hung by Laura and Katie. Josh and Laura gifted me the bunting kit for my birthday last week.

After the second rise we punched again and prepared the dough by hand for the cans pinching off enough or almost enough for each can we picked for this time around. Short, medium and tall.

The guys were busy outside in the sunshine solving several world problems.

The finished eggs and kulich on Easter day. I’ll show more from our Easter table in another post.

When the baking was done and the cheese mold was in the refrigerator setting up for our Easter Sunday meal the kids went out to dinner with their aunt and uncle. Dear and I stayed at home and crashed…

All of our kids together enjoying each other and extended family fills us with joy and not having to make dinner for them after a full day in the kitchen was a bonus!

We love and treasure these traditions and hope to carry them on through the years and pass them on to the next generation.

I’m linking up with Tuesday’s Treasures hosted by Tom the Backroads Traveler and ABC Wednesday started by Mrs. Nesbitt and carried on by Roger and the ABC team for L is for Labors of Love. I noticed several L’s in this post like Life, Love, Lana, Laura, Lunch, and Labor force.

Hope you all had a good Easter Weekend and some of you got the bonus of Easter Monday holiday which is brilliant!

I’m also linking up to Thoughts of Home #8 with Laura at Decor to Adore.

Our Jaunt…

…a short excursion or journey for pleasure.

Last Saturday the Bagdanov sisters had a jaunt in Washington state that took in Mt. Vernon, La Conner, Deception Pass, Coupeville, and Langley leaving the island by ferry back to the mainland in Mukilteo. Here are some photos of what we saw.

Daffodil Fields in Mount Vernon, Washington. Soon these fields will be full of tulips!

The Swinomish channel in La Conner.

Deception Pass Bridge between Fidalgo Island and Whidbey Island.

Deception Pass State park on Whidbey Island.

Saratoga Passage and Penn Cove in Coupeville on Whidbey Island where Penn Cove Mussels are famous.

Saratoga Passage in Langley on Whidbey Island.

Ready for our trip from Clinton on Whidbey Island to Mukilteo on the mainland.

On the mainland we stopped for dinner in Millcreek before we headed home to put our feet up!

Lots of posts about our sister weekend but they don’t happen very often and I have the need to document our time together. Treasured times at treasured locations in the state of Washington.

Linking up to Tuesday’s Treasures with Tom at The Backroads Traveler and J is for Jaunt with ABC Wednesday with Mrs. Nesbitt and Roger with the ABC Team.

The Home At Peace

This post is all about this old house, the home that we have treasured memories in.

The Home At Peace

Here is a little world where children play
And just a few red roses greet [September];
Above it smiles God’s stretch of [autumn] sky;
Here laughter rings to mark the close of day;

There is no greater splendor far away.
Here slumber comes with all her dream supply,
And friendship visits as the days go by;
Here love and faith keep bitterness at bay.

Should up this walk come wealth or smiling fame,
Some little treasures might be added here,
But life itself would still remain the same;
Love is not sweeter in a larger sphere.

This little world of ours wherein we live
Holds now the richest joys which life can give.

~Edgar A. Guest

Our front door in the summer and our front door at Christmas…

Views of our house from the back.

Side yard with art details on the garage/shop.

Before the patio covers are up.

With the patio covers and before we built the privacy fence.

View from the house to the privacy fence.

The living room of our home and the same room transformed for a Christmas dinner party!

Looking from the family room to the heart of the home…the kitchen and eating area.

A view of our kitchen before the hardwood floors. And the table full for our Christmas breakfast 2015!

All decked out for our annual fourth of July party in the past and this shot for our 2015 party…

Our daughter, son-in-law, niece and nephew. Our niece and nephew were visiting from Texas with their parents.

Our family of eight. The most treasured part of our home!

I’m linking up to ABC Wednesday for H is for Home and to Tuesday Treasures.

Later in the week I’ll link this post to Thoughts of Home on Thursday with Laura at Decor To Adore.

Thank you to Mrs. Nesbitt and her team and to Tom at The Backroads Traveller.

Life is Grand…

We had a new member delivered to our extended family the day before Christmas. This is my newest Grandniece.

My little brother became a grandfather for the first time.

After a couple of months the great grand girl was ready to travel across Los Angeles to meet her Great Grandfather, my dear old Pop.

Great Dzeda (grandfather in Russian) was quite pleased to meet her in person.

Looks like my brother is quite relaxed in his new role as a grandfather.

My pop turns 93 in May! There is a very large stretch of history between my pop and his new great granddaughter.

I’m sure her Great Grandfather prayed a blessing on his new great granddaughter. My pop prayers for all his children and grandchildren and great grandchildren every day!

I’m sorry that I don’t have a photo of my sister in law holding her new granddaughter but here’s a photo of both happy grandmothers from the baby shower back in October. And here are the grateful parents with their healthy little baby girl.

I nabbed this photo of the new daddy, my new grand niece, and the new mommy. Good Golly! Truth be told I nabbed all these photos off of social media or text attachments except for the one of the grandmothers! Life really is grand!

I’m linking up to ABC Wednesday started by Mrs. Nesbitt and carried on by Roger and a great team!

I’m also linking up to Tuesday’s Treasures with Tom the Backroads Traveller.

I’m happy to announce the sun has broken through the clouds here in the Seattle area and we are promised a nice few days before rain returns. Now my head is spinning on what I should do with this sunny predicament…cleaning house is not on the list!

Flashback in Film…

For our daughter Katie’s high school graduation, Dear and I took her to Great Britain in April of 2004. Katie is a reader, a learner, a writer, a poet and an artist. We asked her what she’d want to see and she came up with the brilliant idea of following some of her favorite authors and characters around the Isle! This is a photo log of our trip that we can highly recommend to all lovers of Hobbits, Inklings, Literary Giants, 19th Century England, Harry Potter, and wacky Holy Grail enthusiasts! For my flashbacks I’m going to cover less ground in each post. This first post will be our Oxford experience with C.S. Lewis and Tolkien on our radar. The photos on this trip were taken the old fashioned way with a camera that was still using film!

The Eagle and Child (The Bird and Baby) Oxford

We set out from our first B & B base in Cheltenham to tour Oxford. We were still getting over our jet lag just arriving the day before. We found a park and ride outside of Oxford and rode a bus into town. Our first stop was The Eagle and Child (The Bird and the Baby) where the Inklings would meet and discuss their current writings, thoughts, etc.

The pictures on the wall are of C. S. Lewis, Tolkien, and other Inklings, plus letters, etc. We had a bite to eat and a pint was raised to toast our respected authors! “It comes in pints?”

Addison’s Walk

Dear and Katie on Addison’s Walk. This walkway is on the grounds of Magdalen College (pronounced Maudlin) where Tolkien and Lewis would walk and have long conversations, after which C. S. Lewis converted to Christianity. We found it, walked it and reflected on the beauty and wonder of it all!

This next photo shows a spot on the walkway that we took a photo from different directions in 2004 and in 2014.

And here’s one of the beautiful courtyards that we took photos of both of these years.

We saw the iconic phone booth on the grounds of Magdalen, too.

Walking from Magdalen College back to the center of town we saw other familiar sites, too.

The Bridge of Sighs

Radcliffe Camera

In 2004 when we came across Logic Lane Katie insisted that we take a photo of her dad under the sign. In 2014 we came upon Logic Lane again so I had to take another photo.

We walked about to find this address where Tolkien lived at 21 Merton St. after his wife died in 1971.

Katie would not let us leave Oxford till we found Tolkien’s grave. This was no small feat! Here we are at Wolvercote Cemetery in North Oxford at the graveside where he and his wife are buried. His son is buried here, also. Katie left a note in Elvish, (yes, she learned to write and speak Tolkien’s Elvish).

EDITH MARY TOLKIEN
LUTHIEN
1889 – 1971
JOHN RONALD
REUEL TOLKIEN
BEREN
1892 – 1973

Wolvercote Cemetery in North Oxford

We headed back to our B & B in Cheltenham to rest up for our next days adventure around the Cotswolds in search of Hobbits.

The thing about film photography is that we didn’t know if the photos we took even turned out well till we were home and had the film developed. Aren’t you happy we have digital cameras now? You can see if you chopped someone’s head off or missed the top of a beautiful cathedral etc. These photos that I took with film in 2004 were scanned and uploaded onto my computer and in a lot of cases lightened up and sharpened and sometimes cropped.

I’m linking this post to ABC Wednesday started by Mrs. Nesbitt and carried on by Roger and the ABC Team.

F is for film photography.

I’m also linking to Tuesday’s Treasures hosted by Tom the Backroads Traveler.

E is for…

Early posts on the letter E! This post was from February of 2008 with some additions.

E is for…

This is a sitting room in a Model Home in our temporary neighborhood in Camarillo when Dear was working in Thousand Oaks from 2006-2010. I was tempted to nab the pillow with my initial on it but I controlled myself and resisted my Evil side…

Ellen b. and one of our favorite Saturday walks at Emma Wood State Beach in Ventura, California during our sojourn in Camarillo.

E is for the Ebb of the tide

E is for Edinburgh

Dear and Ellen B. in Edinburgh in 2006. Ten years younger and 20 pounds lighter!

The elephant house in Edinburgh of author J.K. Rowling Harry Potter fame.

An Epitaph for J.R.R. Tolkien and his wife in Oxford, England. This was during a trip with our daughter in 2004. This was part of a literary tour that we put together as a graduation gift for our daughter. It was excellent!

I’m adding an early photo of ellen b. from 1958 where I would soon be seven years old.

I’m on the rug in front of my sister Vera, sister Kathy holding our new baby brother Tim and our brother Fred with the accordion. Love my goofy expression! Our family grew from 4 kids to 8 kids from 1958 to 1963. Number seven and eight were twins, a boy and a girl!

Don’t want to forget to acknowledge that today is Shrove Tuesday, also called Pancake Day and the day before Lent begins. Here in the states it’s Mardi Gras. I think I’ll make some pancakes for breakfast!

I’m linking up to ABC Wednesday started by Mrs. Nesbitt and carried on with the help of Roger and others.

I’m also linking up to Tuesday’s Treasures with Tom the Backroads Traveller with these treasured memories and destinations.

Dewey Monument ~ San Francisco

Most everyone that visits San Francisco sees this piece of public art. Two years before the Gold Rush, in 1847, Jasper O’Farrell, the first surveyor of San Francisco, created a design for the city, with Union Square as a public plaza. By the 1880s, it was a fashionable residential district, and in 1903, this towering monument was added. A monument to Admiral George Dewey’s victory at the Battle of Manila Bay during the Spanish American War. It also commemorates U.S. President William McKinley, who had been recently assassinated. The figurine at the top of the monument, “Winged Victory”, was modeled, reportedly, from the likeness of a local heiress, Alma de Bretteville Spreckels.

Designed by sculptor Robert I. Aitken and architect Newton J. Tharp, the Dewey Monument consisted of a 79-foot-tall granite shaft, surmounted by an 18-foot-high pedestal adorned with the bronzed figure “Winged Victory.” In one hand she bears a trident, the symbol of Poseidon and of naval victory, and in the other hand, a laurel wreath, also a symbol of victory.

I’ll be linking up to Tuesday’s Treasures with Tom The Backroads Traveller and…

…to ABC Wednesday started by Mrs. Nesbitt and carried on by Roger and ABC team for D is for Dewey!

So today I’m headed for a meeting to talk and decide about all my Medicare choices. Ugh. It’s kind of shocking that I’ve gotten to this stage of life. You’d think after all these years and all my experience I’d be able to wade through it all on my own. Then again why not let someone who works in the field benefit from my indecision and steer me in the right direction? It’s not a life and death decision but I do pray I make a good choice! Hope you have a wonderful Tuesday!

San Francisco Chinatown

We just returned from a few days in San Francisco. Dear was attending an oncology conference and I tagged along to enjoy some sight seeing. It worked out for me to also spend some time with a couple friends from my college days. My Chinese/Russian friend Alice gave me a tour of Chinatown on Thursday as part of a larger tour of the city she knows well. Then on Saturday morning we had a couple hours before we left the city and Dear and I walked to Chinatown.

The most photographed structure in Chinatown is undoubtedly the large Chinatown Gateway, also known as the Dragon Gate.

The gate was designed in 1970 by Clayton Lee and is based on the ceremonial gates that can be found in Chinese villages. The gate is adorned with sculptures of fish and dragons and is flanked by two large lion statues. The gate has three passageways. The large, central one is meant for dignitaries while the two smaller passageways are meant for the common people.

San Francisco’s Chinatown is not only the oldest but also the most famous and largest Chinatown in the U.S. Thanks to the many ornamented houses, shops and eateries the area is one of the city’s most popular tourist attractions. The lampposts are all very ornamental and have dragon motifs.

While in Chinatown with my friend Alice we enjoyed Dim Sum at one of the restaurants.

Alice celebrates Chinese New Year so we shopped around the town so she could pick up some things for her celebration. I bought a few souvenirs to create a Chinese table setting and I think we’ll pick up some takeout for Chinese New Year and celebrate, too. It’s the year of the Monkey.

I’m linking up to ABC Wednesday created by Mrs. Nesbitt and carried on by Roger and the ABC Team.

C is for Chinatown!

I’m also linking up to Tuesdays Treasures hosted by Tom The Backroads Traveller

The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b.

To honor and encourage

Category Archives: ABC Wednesday

Out of Doors!

Mennonite Girls Can Cook

Labor of Love…

Our Jaunt…

The Home At Peace

This post is all about this old house, the home that we have treasured memories in.

The Home At Peace

Life is Grand…

Flashback in Film…

E is for…

E is for…

Ellen b. and one of our favorite Saturday walks at Emma Wood State Beach in Ventura, California during our sojourn in Camarillo.

E is for the Ebb of the tide

E is for Edinburgh

Dear and Ellen B. in Edinburgh in 2006. Ten years younger and 20 pounds lighter!

An Epitaph for J.R.R. Tolkien and his wife in Oxford, England. This was during a trip with our daughter in 2004. This was part of a literary tour that we put together as a graduation gift for our daughter. It was excellent!

Dewey Monument ~ San Francisco

San Francisco Chinatown