A Quick Holiday

 

This part of Manitoba is really, really flat.

We took our holiday early this year.   We went to Winnipeg and despite a few warnings from friends that there wasn't a lot to do in that Central Canadian City, we were busy pretty much all the time!  It was a mostly fabulous holiday.  The piece de resistance would have been a BTO concert on our last night there, but it was rescheduled due to a Winnipeg Jets play off game.   That was a bit disappointing, but in no way made the trip any less fun and interesting.

We visited the Royal Canadian Mint and took the tour.  It was super interesting and the guide was very knowledgeable on the process.  We were told the story of why we have a loonie one dollar coin rather than a voyageur canoe one dollar coin, the story of the worries about spyware in the first painted coin, which I totally remembered it from it being in the news and more.   They apparently use a different process now.  I missed the glow in the dark coin , with the Aurora Borealis which glowed.  That was cool.

We saw the Leo Moi sculpture garden, which was nice because it wasn't too long.  It was the day we arrived, had had a very early start, put in almost 8000 steps just in airports, and had the stress of a misplaced piece of needed identification, which was found.  So we meandered through the garden thinking that in the summer, it would be so pretty.  The sculptures were interesting, and it was a nice break before we could actually check in to the hotel.

We saw the last Winnipeg Jets game of the year.  It was my first NHL hockey game although hubby has seen a few.   It was really fun and though I did miss the commentary you get on televised games.  

The Manitoba Museum is a natural history museum, which was well done despite being under construction.   We missed the planetarium, which we wanted to go to, but hadn't thought we'd need more than 3 hours on the parking meter.   However there was a great display on a reproduction 17th C boat called the Nonsuch, which was built to celebrate the 300th birthday of the Hudson's Bay Co.   It was hand built in England using original plans,  shipped over to Canada on a boat, sailed around in celebration, and finally retired in the museum parking lot where they build a building around it.   It was an amazing display and I probably spent a bit of time there.   The information on the development of our planet was also where we spent some time.  I will admit to hurrying through the bat cave..ugh... small flying things...

The Aviation Museum of Western Canada was fun.  It was bright and we happened across a volunteer who wasn't involved in school trips, who answered lots of questions and gave us a lot of information about the planes.

The Assiniboine park zoo took the morning and a bit.   Despite a lot of exhibits under construction or the animals not out because of the weather, it was well worth the trip.   A few of the enclosures were small and probably not really large enough, but others were well done.  The polar bear display was one of the well done ones, and the seal display was fun.   I highly recommend the short movie in the Journey to Churchill Pavillion, which was captivating and awe inspiring. 

We went to see the Mennonite Heritage Village, but it was still mainly closed.  We got to tour the inside galleries and wander around the site, which was pleasant.  We got permission to peer through windows.  On the way back to Winnipeg, we stopped at the Centre of Canada monument, because how could we not!

This was a great trip and there was much more we could have done if we had the time and energy.   We had so much fun!

Down Time and Relaxing

 The SCA event FOOL was last week.  It's always tiring, and having put so much into it before hand, the week after is my time to recharge.  It really felt like I did nothing all week.  I got my camping laundry done and put away.  Luckily it was sunny and dry, so the linen tunics dried quickly on the line.   I finished up another crochet hat and started another.  I think I'm getting the hang of keeping my rows even now.    I planted a few seeds, weeded the blueberries, or at least started weeding them.  One evening it was warm and still.  I enjoyed my tea outside while the smell of the lilacs wafted through the air.   It was lovely.

I found the mistake on the loom before I went camping, so took the time to fix it when I got home.  I had to re-thread a quarter of the heddles because despite counting each bout twice as I threaded it, I missed a thread.  Now to just finish tying it on.  I'm hoping that weaving the 3 towels won't take that long.  This is because there is currently a fly strip hanging over my loom.  All of a sudden there have been a lot of flies outside, which means flies inside. 

I've been doing a lot of research on circular sock machines.   I really do think that I need one of these amazing machines. I've no idea what kind that I want though.   New?  Old?  If new, which one because there are advantages to all the different ones, and different price points as well.  One way or the other it's a huge investment, and one I'll only make once, so I really want to make the right decision the first time.  

 I read a couple of trashy novels in my down time.  I went walking out on some trails and just my usual trail in the back yard. I'm getting caught up on my Historical Food Challenge group bi-weekly cooking tasks as well.

 I also found out today that I've taken an extraordinary number of photos this month.   This is one of our favourite trails.  It isn't long, but has lots of side trails that you can use to make every time feel different.  There used to be a picnic table at this spot, where we would eat our lunch.   It's been moved, and we were a bit sad because it was lovely to eat look at this view.

I puttered in the garden.  I filled the last of the large planters and totes with dirt and compost, and top dressed the new raised bed.   I planted 2 types of cucumbers,  another zucchinni and some carrots.  The one tomato that got frost bitten was replaced with savory.  In a small planter bag, I put some nasturtiums.    This year the only flowers are marigolds for both bug repellent use, and for dyes, nasturtiums because they're edible flowers and a single hanging basket with pink geraniums.  The two jalapeno peppers are doing well, but the serrano pepper is still as small as it was the second week after Easter.  I'm hoping that it's putting out roots.   It's been under a cloche, so at least the day temperatures have been warm and the tiny pepper plant has been protected.   With the summery blast we're getting this week, I'm hoping it helps it get growing.

Our apple tree was loaded with flowers.   I'm not sure what effect the late frosts had on it.   They were light frosts and hopefully at least some of them got pollinated.   The other tree only had 3 flowers this year and I don't know if that is enough to give us an actual apple harvest this year.    This tree looks a little wild now because I wasn't able to get out to prune it this winter.   I'd love to have enough even just to make a single pie or apple crisp.

Hmmm... I guess I accomplished more than I realized last week.  Regardless, it was a lovely, relaxing week, which was very nice. 
 

Colours of Spring

 I was wandering around the yard the other evening and saw this shadow in the sunset.  It only lasted a short time, so I'm glad I got the picture before it disappeared.  Sometimes it takes a bit of luck to get the right time of day, combined with the right time of year for a particular photo.   

The gooseberries are already fairly large.   I wonder if they're going to ripen early this year?

 

 When we moved here, a friend gave me a little cellophane packet of poppy seeds from her garden.  I planted the seeds, albeit a little haphazardly, and yet they grew.  Some years I get a lot of blooms, but mostly just a few.  I think that may be that the chickens are poking around in that part of the garden, just a little too much in the early spring.   They are pretty though. 

 This year they are surrounded by wild raspberries.  We had a lot in some places last year, but this year the abundance of wild raspberries is crazy.  These are the black raspberries.  They're small but tasty. 

We went for a walk on one of the shorter trails.   I'd love it if it were a tad longer as it's only 1 km long.  So many of the trails in this area are in different terrain and mini-ecosystems.   One area is near lime deposits and has a man made lake.  The trees are smaller, and mainly softwoods.   There are trails through old rail lines, trails running along rivers and streams and even one to a pond.  This one is a circle trail which runs through a hardwood bush lot.  It's spectacular in the spring, summer and fall.  Because of the downed ash trees, it's a bit dystopian feeling in the winter.  

Weather usually allows for several days of tea outside, with the scent of the lilacs in the air.    This year, the weather was wet and went from very warm to quite cool.   I almost missed the lilacs completely.  One evening I was out locking up the chooks in the barn, and the lovely scent wafted in the air.  No tea in the morning with the lilacs this year, but at least I didn't miss it completely.

Years ago, when I was a soap maker, I made a lilac scented soap which was amazing.   It was in the autumn and I was so happy about having a realistic lilac soap for over the winter.    It was cold process soap, so it had to dry for a few weeks so it could harden up.  While it was drying, some mice made their way inside and had a field day on the soap.  Every bar was heavily gnawed, with nasty little teeth mark along all the edges.   I never did get to use that soap as it went into the trash and we spent a couple of months getting rid of the rodents because our cats didn't seem to think they were an issue!

 

End of February update

We had a day with mild temperatures.  Our yard was suddenly filled with little critter foot prints.   These bothered me the most as they were raccoon prints.  The prints went to the feeder, across the deck, to the compost pile, back and forth to the barn door.   There is a gap between the bottom half of the barn door and the footing.   It could be big enough for a raccoon to get through.  Although these foot prints were quite large, raccoons can fit through some awfully small spaces.   Now I'm wondering if this beast over-wintered in the barn.  The chooks have a large pen, totally sealed in with hardware cloth or solid walls, so they are pretty much as safe as we can make them.  After the last attack, hubby sealed off every little possible space since we saw the raccoon slipping through a tiny opening.  But I'm afraid to let the chooks out when we've got a raccoon wandering around the property.

I finished up the bright blue speckled socks.  I'll post a photo when I can take it in the daylight because

the lighting is iffy in the evening.  I've started these socks though in the meantime.   I saw this sock yarn - Kroy, not my favourite, but it knits up quickly and makes thick socks which are warm. It means I can wear these socks with my boots with treads when we're hiking and not have to wear my winter boots, which are heavy, old and not so grippy any more.  

 I loved the blues in the skein, so it came home with me.   It's self striping.  They are knitting up quickly because I'm using stockinette stitch, so it's a pretty mindless activity.  I've used the square or common heel again, just to make sure I've got it memorized.  It's pretty nifty in how quickly the heel gets knit up and using the slip stitch flap, it fits quite nicely.

Another view of the lake at the trail we've been walking at regularly.  We'd had a lot of wind the day before, and the back roads were slushy and icky.   There was a bit of a breeze when we left but it was a nice enough day.   By the time we were at the halfway point in this trail, the winds had picked up and it had started snowing again.  It rained on a mild day a couple of days before this photo and then we had a deep freeze.   The photo is deceiving, as there is a thick layer of ice just a couple of inches below the snow.

 I have a couple of nice shots with lovely blue skies.  However this photo is indicative of what our skies look like most of the winter.   White ground, white in the air and white sky.   I'm looking forward to spring.

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CP Holiday Train

 The CP Holiday Train has been running for 21 years.  It's an effort to raise funds and food for local food banks across southern parts of central and western Canada, and parts of the US.  The highly decorated train goes into towns, large and small where local charities collect food and monetary donations from the event attendees and also get a large donation from CP Railway. 

Besides having a train decorated with all sorts of lights,  musicians perform a mini-concert, and the whole event is free.   Mind you, if you want to see the performance, you need to come early and our weather is unpredictable, so it could be cold, wet and sloppy.  But it's free and fun.  There are people of all ages out to enjoy the event.

Last year we showed up shortly before the train rolled in.   We were actually still walking to the old train station when we had an amazing view of the entire train coming in to town.   It was incredible.   We got to hear JoJo Mason and the Sam Roberts band.  I say hear because we were at the back and I'm short, so I got to see the shoulders of everyone.  It was still fun though.

This year we arrived early and still only made it to the second row from the safety barriers.  However I was able to see and had enough space to stick my camera between  bobbing heads to get a few shots.  I actually took a ton of photos, because people were sort of dancing, kids were bouncing and there was a lot of crowd movement.   Alan Doyle and Beautiful Band played.   It was a concert that wanted a lot of crowd participation, but there were a lot, and I mean a lot of children and he played a song or two, which nobody seemed to know, so the crowd was pretty quiet.    It was fun though, and worth the 35 minutes of hanging out in the cold waiting for the train.   

The train itself is quite a view.  It's more than a couple of cars, and there are lights all over it.  It is a great way to get a start to the holiday season. It did make me wish I knew more of low light photography, and had a faster, closer lens.  It's always something lol!

Up, Up and Away!

On our way home from Nova Scotia, when we stopped for gas, we saw this happening in the field beside the gas station. I grabbed the camera and left Al to fill up and find me in the crowd of people who had stopped to watch.

Summer Holidays!

 We packed up our cute little car and headed east.   We'd considered flying out but as this was really a bit of a last minute plan, it wasn't affordable, so we added a couple of extra days for driving time.  It was stupid early when we left, but it was still hot and sticky.   It was a hard first day, when we drove all the way to Edmunston, New Brunswick.   Lots of highways, and since it was the Canada Day weekend, lots of traffic, although it turns out that there was more coming home.   However, we were very thankful to finally arrive at our motel that night.

We got to Halifax the next afternoon,where we plunked down for almost a week, using it as our home base.  It was a good location for where we'd planned out trips, it wasn't so good for evening explorations by foot, as it was in an industrial park at the edge of the city.   Next time, we'll either take the tent and camp, or find a small motel in a rural setting.

When we arrived it was quite cool in comparision to the temperatures we'd left.   Plus, the first day there it rained.  I was so thankful that my fall/spring jacket was in the car.  I'd probably dragged it out with me one day, when the weather was unpredictable,not needed it and forgotten it for weeks.   However that day, it was brilliant to have as I stayed both warm and dry.

Looking over a field at Ross Farm

We started our Canada Day at Ross Farm, in New Ross, an open air heritage farm museum.  It was green and lush.   There were a number of buildings including the original farm house and barn.   We were early and there were few people there yet, so the first couple of interpreters we had were spectacular.   We had an amazing conversation with the gentleman who was in the barn and the man driving the matched pair of Canadian horses knew so much about both the breed of horses, area farming and the Ross farm itself.  The cooper was extremely knowledgeable about barrel making and the barrel making industry at that time.   It made for a fabulous morning!   We headed back to the hotel, and took the ferry from Dartmouth to Halifax, wandered around a bit, decided not to stay for fireworks and instead, went to dinner and had an early night!

Peggy's Cove Lighthouse

The next morning was the Lighthouse Route and Peggy's Cove.   We'd been warned that while Peggy's Cove was spectacular, it was often disappointing because of the crowds.   We were fairly early and people were just starting to arrive.   If I were to do this again, I'd head out even earlier, or go later.   It was however, not disappointing in the least.  The scenery was incredible and so different than what we'd seen the day before.  The area is rugged and set on a huge outcropping of granite rock.   You can see out over a huge area and it is spectacularly beautiful.

Annapolis Valley Look Off

We took a day to head out to the Annapolis Valley and went to the Look Off.  You can see right across the valley to the Bay of Fundy.  We'd hoped to see the Tidal Bore but our timing and the tide's timing didn't match up in any way and it wasn't really feasible to get there for the tide times.   Oh well, next time.

Mahone Bay

It was an amazing trip.  Highlights included the Rug Hooking Museum, which we found by accident, and which had an absolutely phenomenal display of both antique and modern hooked rugs, and the friendliest people working there.   The scenery everywhere was spectacular and so different from one area to another.  Lunenburg was the prettiest town, so colourful and unique.  Mahone Bay was picturesque in a more modern touristy way, but still pretty with lots of little boutiques and shops.

Scenery from Swissair 111 memorial

The scenery everywhere was amazing.  After the cool Canada Day, the weather warmed up to comfortable temperatures and by the end of the week, it was crazy hot.   We actually abandoned our walking tour of Halifax half-way through, went to the motel, changed into our swimsuits and hit one of the beaches where we paddled in the Atlantic Ocean.

I will say for sure that I didn't get to stay long enough.  It may be the only time that I've ever said that, as I'm usually quite happy to head home.  We did take an extra day to get home, which made the trip much less exhausting.  While I was happy to get home, it was definitely too short a trip!  I'd happily go back again. 

Catching up with projects.

 I was doing a lot of spinning, trying to get yarn made for the hooked rug.   But then I started teaching a 3 week class on Beginner Spinning, so needed to empty my wheels for the last class when we'll be trying to learn the basics of the spinning wheel.   So all my wheels are empty right now.  Now to empty the bobbins.

I also realized I needed to get my 1830's dress remade.  The sleeves were heavy and one of them snagged on something and has a tear in it.   As well, the bodice wasn't all that comfortable.  I had an extra yard of fabric leftover, and I'd found another 2  yards or so on the discount,end of bolt shelf.  I recut the bodice and the sleeves.   The bodice is much better fitting now although the sleeves are okay, I'm going to recut them.  I miscalculated when making them a little less pouffy and ended up making them just a tad too small in the length.  Luckily I have enough fabric to re-do them.  I thought I'd had them cut on the opposite bias but obviously didn't, so I'll also try that one again.

I did a few things right though, like getting the bodice cut just a bit more on the high waist and a better take on the neckline.  I used the skirt from the original dress.  I'd attached it on a waist band so it was simply a matter of unpicking 2 seams and sewing the skirt back on the new bodice.

Phil and Dion were both excited when I pulled out the fabric, pattern and weights.   I had to actually walk away from cutting for a bit, for them to get their enthusiasm and curiosity out of the way before I could make any headway with the project.   I did this project properly, with a full muslin mock up of the bodice and took my time fitting it.  I did all the fiddly bits properly and even sewed on the hook and eye tape by hand to get it perfect.   It all added to the amount of time it took to make the dress, but was well worth it.  I still don't like fitting myself though.

I have 3 of these colourful scarves on the loom right now.    I have lots of the black but I'd like to find a skein or two of some of the other colours in the warp to make brighter, scarves.    There is lots of sparkle in this warp, which looks quite nice when woven up.   This is the scarf I played around with setts to find the best one.   I should just get down and weave them all off, but with the dress making session and FOOL stuff, I just haven't felt the love.  Part of it is that I don't really love making scarves either.   Lots of repetition, short throws of the shuttle and then you get to twist fringes afterwards..lol

Some pretty early spring flowers to cheer up the day.  It is another grey day here, damp and cool.   Most of the spring has been damp, grey, cool and windy.  There were a couple of days when it was warm enough to take the banjo outside and play on the deck.   I love doing that.

Tracks in our yard

The weather lately has been unpredictable and strange.   One day it will be bitterly cold and then two days later, we'll have rain and mild temps.   In between we've had freezing rain, more freezing rain, and a bit of snow.    Last night, it snowed.   Only about 10 cm or 4 inches, but enough to cover up the inch or more of ice all over the ground.   This morning, though it was bright and almost sunny, in that washed out winter sky sort of way that we get a lot around here.  

Outside our livingroom window, we could see tracks running from a large spruce tree in the front yard.   Because there were no tracks that we could see elsewhere around the tree, I went outside to investigate.   It's only -5 today, but with the bits of sunshine and lack of wind, it was a glorious day to go and play outside, well, if there weren't all that ice underneath the snow.   Anyway, after checking out the whole tree, the tracks did indeed only go one way.  However, only going outside and following the tracks did you see the whole story.   I'm guessing it was one of our squirrels.  He ran from an oak tree, across the garden to a pine tree.  Then from the pine to the spruce tree and then back again.

Here it looked like the little creature did a little dance and checked things out.   There is enough snow, that parts of the lower branches of the fir trees are covered with snow and not really accessible at the moment.

The tracks almost look like cat tracks, however, the tracks from our woodpile to the compost are cat tracks and they are substantially larger.    I know they are cat tracks, since I see him hanging out there a lot, and have watched him take that route to see what is for dinner. 

There were racoon tracks from the bottom step of the deck to the bird feeder as well but oddly enough, only one way so I have no idea where he went from there.   Since the bird feeder was pretty much untouched, I don't think he ate much.

There there were these tracks.   These are rodent trails.  They tunnel under the snow leaving lacy trails all over the yard.   Then, the crows come along and strut along the trails, leaving little lacy trenches in their wake.   When the snow is a little bit wet, you can see their footprints in the tracks.   Today though, there were just little indentations from their foot prints, making it look as though someone was stitching along the lines.

 At some point, there is a messy tangle of rodent trails and crow tracks, so I'm assuming that the crow found his breakfast.

That S word, and mead -

 I woke up the other morning to this.  The only redeeming feature was that there were some patches of blue sky and no wind.   I grabbed the camera and played with camera settings.  It was pretty early and the sun wasn't really up yet.   The view across the road was really postcard pretty but I was in my pyjamas, parka and barn boots and thought that maybe it was better to stay closer to home.

Sadly, by the time I got back inside and started feeding the cats, the blue sky had vanished.  Sadly, we've had more snow since then, including one horrible day dumping although a small amount of snow, only 12 cm, it was a sticky, wet snow which clung to everything including the roads.   I am so not ready for this weather!

A few weeks ago I made some mead.  A hydromel to be exact as I'm not fond of higher alcohol drinks.   A hydromel is a lower alcohol volume mead.  I'd read a lot about it being a watered mead, but then someone called it a session mead, which is much more attractive.   I'd wanted to do two types of fruits, frozen blackberries from my garden and commercially frozen cherries,  in the secondaries, to try different flavours.   Because I hadn't prepared ahead of time, it took me forever to get the blackberries thawed and strained of most of the seeds.   Such bad planning on my part.    I used a bit of pectin enzyme, to help it clear.   The black cherries went straight from the freezer and into the food processor, rather than thawing and mashing, simply because I was running out of time, stupid blackberries.  The last bit of mead in the big carboy filled up a 2 litre carboy, which I left plain for comparison.  Because I didn't chemically kill the yeast, after a couple of days, the fruited carboys showed signs of renewed fermentation, so I popped them into to the sunporch where it is too cold for the yeast.       I'll let it sit there for a few weeks while I figure out what to do next.

I used 2.5 gallons of water, 3 lbs of honey and a packet of Lavlin EC-118 yeast.   Because I tossed in the yeast while the water was probably still too warm, when it cooled, I added a packet of Cooper's Ale yeast, which I had on hand, just to be sure.  I've never used a Cooper's yeast before, so I'm not sure what to expect in terms of flavour.  The packet of yeast was an impulse purchase when I needed an emergency back up last year as it was very inexpensive compared to the other yeasts available.  It's been sitting in my fridge every since.

After the primary fermentation had stopped, I racked the hydromel over the fruits, into smaller carboys, dividing it up into 3 batches, the blackberry, from my own home grown blackberries, the cherry, from commercial frozen cherries and plain.  At some point I'll have to bottle and decide what to do about keeping the sugars from the fruits from fermenting once the mead warms up.

Balls Falls

 We've passed by the Balls Falls conservation area a number of times but never stopped.  Finally, this week, we chose it as our destination, packed a picnic and headed out.    It's a bit of a drive to get there, especially when the driver decides to do the back roads instead of the highway, but it was a lovely drive.    It always amazes me how different the scenery is, a mere hour or two drive away.

Balls Falls is so named after the Ball family who ran a mill along the waterway.   There are a number of historic buildings but they were all locked up, although we were told we could arrange a private tour if we wanted.   

The Bruce Trail hooks winds through part of this conservation area, but not on the main trails.   If you're looking for a long and arduous trail, this is not the place to go.  The long trail is about 40 minutes round trip and the short is maybe 20 minutes there and back.   It's fully groomed and manicured, with only a bit of rocky areas and slopes to contend with.    However, for a hot and muggy day, lugging the loaded  big girl camera bag,  and a lunch bag, this was  perfect.  

 The upper falls is the longer trail and it was simply lovely under the green canopy.  We ambled along the trail, enjoying the views.   The stream was cut down into the rock, so  you looked down on the water.  The slope down was quite steep though people had cut a little trail right along the bank of the stream.   I didn't think I wanted to deal with that, so I took the high road and the easy trail.

This time of year, the water coming from the falls is groundwater.   The volume is quite amazing to see.   I think being able to see the run off, over the rocky ledge, in the spring time, would be quite awesome.

We took the alternate route back, but missed the switchback cut,  and ended up heading right back to the building at the gate.  We got to take the first part of the trail twice as we cut across a lawn to get to the little picnic area where the second trail begins.

It was a really nice couple of hours.   The trails are beautifully maintained.  The bathrooms are clean and bright.  This was a lovely place for our picnic.    Erm, also The Fibre Garden  is about 7 minutes away, so we had to stop there.  It is a great fibre supply store, with fabulous service.   It is way too difficult not to spend too much money in there.