Retirement Living at Oceanview

Monday morning. The sun is shining again after a couple of days of rain. The lawns are becoming green instead of that awlful brown and I know they are saying a big thank you for the long drink of water. The flowers are a bit ragged making it hard to find enough for our dining room table. Oh well, we can always put a bowl of vegetables or fruit on the table. 

Our wild ducks are starting to come back to the pond.  Last year, you may remember we had over 60. It’s such a warm fuzzy feeling each year when the first two ducks appear on the pond. They return in small groups and this morning we counted  8. We have started to feed them but their a bit skiddish and they fly off. They”ll get the hang of it eventually though and like last year and the years before, waddle  up to the house for their fool. The residents love to sit in the blue room and try to count them. They move so fast it’s almost impossible but they sure try.

Our cookie lady Pat, brought over some homemade pickles this last week. Actually it was a jar of  pickled vegetables she pickedfrom our garden. What a treat, cauliflower, peppers, cucumbers, onions and zucchini. They won’t last long and she has already started another batch. We had some for lunch last week and I can actually say, everyone cleaned their plate. That doesn’t happen too often so a big thanks to Pat.

Speaking of good food, Kaydene one of our nightshift people, decided to bake one night – two coconut  cream pies, a chocolate and a yellow cake, and two banana breads. That ought to satisfy anyone’s sweet tooth for a while. Even mine!

Have a good week folks!

The beans are blanched for about 2 or 3 minutes then quickly cooled under running water or ice. After I blanch string beans, I quickly saute them in olive oil and garlic, add some fresh ground sea salt and pepper. Yummy!

Camp Qwanoes, a Christian Leadership camp here is Crofton, have started their annual visits to Oceanview. We always look forward to this time of year when about 10 to 15 young people descend on us. What fun it is. The kids, ages between 13 and 15 arrive just after lunch  and split up into groups, some going to the garden, others taking residents for walks or playing games, and some others in the kitchen baking chocolate chip cookies. At 3:00 everyone meets in the dining room for tea and the famous hot out of the oven cookies. What a fun time it is! Lots of laughing and smiles all around.

WELCOME BACK CAMP QWANOES!

Sunday brunch here at Oceanview has become a must do for family and friends of our residents, but no one came this Sunday. And what a shame it was. Krista, the day staff, really out did herself. Stewart’s neice, Trudy, brought a big basket of blueberries for us so Krista made blueberry pancakes from scratch then to top them off she made the most delicious blueberry syrup. The pancakes  with the warm blueberry syrup were served with her famous scrambled eggs, good breakfast sausages, and hash browns, (of course the potatoes are from our garden). What a feast it was and what a shame- one of the first Sunday’s we didn’t have company. Actually it worked out ok because there was more for the rest of us. I would suggest though that next week you get your reservations in early. Who knows what delights awaits us then.

This morning when I arrived at The Oceanview, I was greeted with a note from Kaydene, our lady on night shift. At first light this morning she had looked out the kitchen window and a movement in the vegetable garden caught her eye. Our vegetables were under attact.  They took all the strawberries, most of the broccoli, and even took the spinach that Ricus has just planted yesterday. Two days ago, Pat, the lady who brings us cookies and other goodies, spent her morning putting boards up along one side of the fence to prevent such intruders, but they managed to get in anyway. Kaydene ran out to the garden opened the gate and the invaders jumped over the fence like it wasn’t there. The deer discovered our garden last week when the gate was accidentally left open and they have been cleaning it out ever since. They have even eaten the fig leafs off the tree. It’s funny, yesterday I was talking about the cute fawns trying to get food out of the bird feeder and today we are declaring war on them.

    It’s man against the beasts and our survival depends on us winning. I’ll keep you posted. . .

Yesterday the residents were sitting at the breakfast table ejoying hot out of the oven scones and homemade berry jam when all of a sudden one of the ladies shouted, “look, look out the window”. We all turned to where she was looking and there standing at the bird feeder trying to reach it were two spotted fawns. They were trying to stand on their tip toes to reach the feeder but couldn’t quite figure it out and were tipping over. What a sight. Of course mama was standing guard. They must have seen us as we were moving closer to the window because all of a sudden they looked up and started running back to the forest. What a great way to start the morning.