Traveller's Wife

Vancouver!

2012-01-10T07:52:00.000-08:00

We just did a whirlwind trip to Vancouver! I love Vancouver....mostly because that's where I met my husband!

Plateaus and such

2011-05-14T07:46:00.000-07:00

Although I have many Maui posts to get on here I really wanted to let you all know the latest in my pursuit of a healthier me.

I am doing boot camp! I have lost 15 pounds since changing my diet and starting the running program which was sometime in January. I have been at a plateau for about a month and was really ready to throw in the towel. That would have been the old me. You know, that self talk that would always pop into my head and sabotage my weight loss and I would end right back to where I started. This time I was determined to not let that happen again. The Zumba classes and the Belly dancing have all been fantastic but I was looking for a change and besides, I really didn't want to be going out after dinner when the weather was nice...I really wanted to be able to spend the time in my garden.

Kristin and her friend, Heidi, joined bootcamp and really enjoyed the first session. It was something that I had heard about but didn't think I could manage. I'm having a hard time thinking of myself as being athletic and bootcamp is for athletic people, right? Well, it's been an eye opener to say the least. It's at 6:15 am and is done by 7:15 am so as far as the time goes it definitely is doable. My son, Cory, had also told me that morning workouts are the best. It helps to get your metabolism up for the day and there is less likelihood of something getting in the way of you doing it....it is done first thing in the morning and really sets the tone for the day.

So far I have done 4 workouts and I have to admit it's been great. I even went on the Friday that Tim was home! I don't think he believed that I would do it! After the first two I could barely move.....but yesterday I was amazed that I have no real pain anywhere! I am so proud of myself for doing this and am hoping that there are some sessions that will go through the summer. I can't say that I look forward to it...but I'm not finding it nearly as difficult as I thought I would.

Here's to breaching that plateau!

Maui - Day 6 - March 21, 2011

2011-03-22T11:28:00.000-07:00

Today was a very quiet day.

Janice and Tim went snorkeling. I went to the pool for an hour or so.

After lunch we took a drive to Makena Beach.

Dinner on the rooftop and a sunset finished off the day.

Maui - Day 5 - March 20, 2011

2011-03-22T11:06:00.000-07:00

Today is our trip on the road to Hana and like childbirth; I had completely forgotten how bad it really was. I didn't get many pictures that can really show you how truly bad it is. We are on the look out for t-shirts that say we survived to Road to Hana.....at one point Janice was ready to get out and walk. "Okay, that's enough...I'm done." she said. Regardless, the scenery was spectacular and I think it was well worth the trip. Janice might disagree though.

Our first stop was Ho'opika Beach Park. This particular spot is a favourite of surfers. There weren't many out on the day we stopped but there were a few.

Our next stop was Wai'....National Park. We stopped here for lunch and a nice walk around. The black sand beach here is spectacular. The blow hole was pretty quiet...but the wave crashing on the rocks more than made up for the quiet blow hole.

Maui - Day 4 - March 19, 2011

2011-03-22T11:03:00.000-07:00

Today we started the day at the beach. Janice and Tim tried out the mask and fins while Reg and I sat on the beach and watched. I have a cold and Reg didn't think he could manage the mask and fins. I'm hoping that in the next couple of days I'll feel up to it as I love snorkeling.

After lunch we headed towards Lahaina to check out Napili Beach for snorkeling but ended up going to the Maui Tropical Plantation instead. Unfortunately I don't have many photos as my battery died part way through the tour and I didn't have my back up camera with me.

After the plantation we headed up to Ka'anapali for dinner at the Hula Grill. We thoroughly enjoyed our dinner there. The food was great and the atmosphere was wonderful. We were right on the beach and were able to watch the sunset as we ate.

We wandered around the Whaler's Village for a couple of hours looking at all the shops....and there were plenty to see...I don't think we saw all of them either. We plan on going back!

Maui - Day 3 - March 18, 2011

2011-03-22T10:30:00.000-07:00

Today we had an early start....a very early start. We were up at 3 am to watch the sunrise at Haleakala Crater. The moon was out in full force so the drive was really quite nice until we started started the rise to the summit....then it was full of switchbacks not unlike the road to Hana except this road was paved and had two lanes.

At the 10 mile marker we paid $10.00 to get into the park and I can only imagine how cold that poor guy must have been. We stopped at the visitor center part way up (7,000 feet) the mountain to use the washroom and were completely surprised by the force of the wind! As we got closer to the summit it seemed as though it was socked in with clouds but as we got closer the clouds began to clear off somewhat.

Near the summit we saw a plant called silverswords ('ahinahina). This plant is unique to Hawai'i and is a protected plant; the fine for damaging them is hefty apparently.

We were at the summit in plenty of time to see the sunrise...now all we had to do was wait. We thought we had dressed appropriately but next time I would definitely put some long underwear on and wear a fleece under my jacket. The wind at the summit was unbelievable. In the end the wait was was well worth it.

We got back to the condo around mid-morning and decided it would be a good idea for us all to have a nap. After a good nap we decided to go for a walk along the Kehei area and maybe head up to Wailea and check out the shopping center there. Wailea is farther away than we thought so we turned around at Kama'eole Beach 111. We stopped at Fred's Mexican Cafe for lunch where they serve the most outrageous glasses of beer!

The guys headed back to the condo while Janice and I checked out the shopping in the area.

The evening was spent relaxing on the roof top while watching the whales and cooking ribs on the barbecue.

Paradise!

Maui - Day 2 - March 17, 2011

2011-03-21T13:51:00.000-07:00

We started our day early with coffee on the deck while watching for whales and listening to the birds....I don't think my coffee has ever tasted so good .

5:30 am in Kehei, Maui.....

We headed to the beach some boogie boarding and some sun. I don't know if the guys were able to catch many waves but I had no problem enjoying the sun. It's easy to relax here.

Lahaina was the plan for the afternoon. A quick lunch on the deck and we headed off to Lahaina. I love Lahaina. I think it's one of my favourite places on Maui. We wandered up Front Street for quite awhile; checking out all of the little places along the way.

Reg wanted to eat at Bubba Gump's so that was our final stop in Lahaina. It was a fun place to eat. The atmosphere was great and the wait staff was really down to earth. I think it helped that we were there on St. Patrick's Day. The food was tasty and plentiful....the guys ordered the Shrimper's Heaven....and it was.

We left Lahaina in the late afternoon and decided to head back to the airport to trade the car in as there were some issues with it. While there we saw a rooster in the middle of the parking lot! Since then we've seen many wild chickens and roosters around Maui....they wander all over the place.

We made it back to the condo to enjoy another spectacular sunset. Another gorgeous day in paradise!

On the Road Again.....or something like that

2011-03-21T13:11:00.000-07:00

Spring Break, 2011 - Maui bound....

Day 1 - March 16, 2011

We made sure to arrive at the Vancouver airport with plenty of time because you never know how long customs will take. As it turned out we moved along fairly quickly with no problems or issues.

I'm not sure who was more excited...me or Tim.

First sighting of Maui......Yay!

We arrived in Maui in the afternoon of March 16, 2011. The wind was blowing but if memory serves me correctly this is common in the afternoons here. Regardless of the wind the weather was warm and beautiful. We could feel ourselves relaxing with every moment that passed.

The view from our condo...spectacular!

On the way from the airport we stopped at Safeway and got groceries and beer....still not used to buying booze with our food.....a strange phenomenon. The condo is right on the water between Ka'ameole Beach l and ll. It's perfect. The condo has a rooftop garden with a kitchen and several barbecues. The men cooked while we organized things in the condo. After dinner we grabbed our cameras and headed to the beach to watch the sunset.

We were all ready for bed fairly early since we were still on BC time......8:30 if you can believe it.....but it was a perfect start to the vacation.

Tote bags!

2010-11-21T14:01:00.000-08:00

Remember this????

Well....it has become these......using this pattern.

New Projects....

2010-11-08T06:55:00.000-08:00

I've been away from the blog for awhile mostly because I just got busy. I've even stepped away from my Couch to 5k running program. I plan on getting back to that tomorrow. Tonight is Belly Dancing....which I am loving! I have signed up for a Zumba class which starts on the 18th....I'll let you know how that goes but I've heard glowing reports of it so I expect it will be great. I picked up a dvd of Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred....loved it....just have to keep at it. Work has been busy...I'm training to start some Referencing & Regulating work with some students at our school. I was able to go to Vancouver and shadow an interventionist there for a day. Talk about amazing! Exciting stuff! Today is an all day training session for Health and Safety. Life is busy!

I finally finished the blue baby sweater. I've yet to give it to the recipient....maybe this week. I am so happy with the way this sweater turned out....I want to make it again right away. Alas, I have other projects to complete first.

I am working on a sweater for a friend's 97 year old grandmother. I'm working as fast as humanly possible while working and maintaining a life. It's a simple knit but she's 97 years old.....talk about a time constraint!

I am also pulling out my sewing machine for a couple of new projects. Kristin and I are making something from this......

Any guesses as to what this lovely fabric will become??? It's something neither of us has done before so it will be interesting to say the least. I will try to remember to take photos as we work our way through this mystery project. Stay tuned!

I have the yarn to make a baby shawl for my sister's new grandbaby due in January. Some of you have already seen one of the shawls I made for my brother's grandson....it was enormous and took months. I plan on starting that as soon as I am finished the sweater for the 97 year old grandma....talk about one extreme to the other!

Fall Walk

2010-10-06T20:00:00.000-07:00

Terry Fox

2010-09-19T18:23:00.000-07:00

Today I walked in our town's Terry Fox Run. It's hard to believe that it's been 30 years since Terry Fox started his Marathon of Hope run across Canada. When I got up this morning the weather was very cloudy and it was misting a bit. By the time we got to Spirit Square the weather was getting a bit better. Regardless of the weather it was a good day to walk.

I was amazed at the energy at the square. I expected there to be more people doing the run but the enthusiasm of those there was infectious. There were people pushing strollers and wheelchairs and people walking dogs...dogs of every size and shape. Everyone warmed up their muscles to The Blackeyed Peas and then we were off. It was a lovely walk through town and along the water to the Tyee Spit. I'm so glad that we decided to do it.

If you don't know the story of Terry Fox go here and read more. He was an amazing young man and an inspiration to all of us as we continue to try to find the cure for cancer. I thought of my mom and my father in law and of every other person who has been affected by cancer as we walked. I felt great when we finished the 6 km walk. I felt like we had contributed to something really good.

Did you walk/run in your town's Terry Fox Run?

Summer vs Work

2010-09-08T16:36:00.001-07:00

Summer is over for me....I'm back to work. That's not a complaint, it's merely a statement of fact.

Mostly I'm happy about it.

Putting It Up

2010-09-04T06:50:00.000-07:00

Otherwise known as canning and making jam. I'm loving this!

Learning from the Lunch Revolution

2010-08-26T10:59:00.000-07:00

So far I have managed to stay on track with my exercise. I am in Week 3 of the Couch to 5k program. Day 1 of Week 3 really kicked my butt. I almost died...really. I did it and when I was done I was euphoric! Sweat pouring down my face and all I could think about was phoning my husband to tell him that I had done it! Wake the poor man up to tell him I had completed my run. He's been after me for years to get into some kind of exercise routine. I'm hoping that one day I will be one of those people that actually enjoys exercise. Maybe it's starting to happen because I am looking forward to Belly Dancing in September. Maybe.this is a new me!

In food news I've made up little booklets to track my food. I can slip them into my purse or my pocket so there is really no excuse not to track my food. It's been surprising how much of an eye opener this has been for me. My challenge continues to be portion size. I am going back to using measuring cups and my mini scale. I am finding that I am underestimating what I'm eating....this has been a good wake up call. I think I'm eating a cup of pasta but in fact it's a cup and half. Anyone else have the same issue? I am continuing to cook from scratch; using as many local products as possible. Having control over what is going into my food is huge for me.

I've got a week before going back to work and hopefully everything I'm starting to do is going to be transferred over to my work day. I may start coming home for lunch so I'm not tempted by goodies in the staffroom but then I enjoy visiting with fellow staff members over lunch hour so probably not. I won't be joining the Wednesday lunch club or the birthday club. Neither of which are necessary for a successful year at work but are so yummy. I'm almost drooling thinking about it but I really want to focus on a healthier me and I think I need to take control of my own eating in order to do that.

Having said all that I have to admit that the Wednesday lunch club was something I really looked forward to. The first 3 months is devoted to casseroles, the next 3 months (the dreary winter months) is all about soups and the final part of the school year is about salads. Now, I know what your thinking; this all sounds very healthy and for the most part it is. I got some amazing recipes and meal ideas from my fellow lunch club members...it's where I learned about making these vegetable wraps. The biggest problem with the lunch club is the amazing cooks we have on staff....the meals just keep getting better and better....everyone is trying to out do last week's lunch. Pretty soon people are adding desserts and baked goodies. I really think it's in my best interest to stay away from the lunch crew this year.

To that end I have bought myself a new lunch bag. I found one that is the right size for several containers. I also bought a thermos for myself. We have two microwaves at work as well as a stove but trying to get to use one of them difficult. There is always a line up. I have checked out my container collection to make sure that I have several different sized ones to accommodate things I may want to take. I have several waterbottles that I can use to keep myself hydrated. I think the secret to my success is going to be in the planning.

I'm joining in Scatteredmom and Mrs. Q's Lunch Revolution to get ideas for my school lunches. If you're making lunches for the upcoming school year you should head on over there and check out all the amazing ideas! I've learned so much already! I thought I packed good, healthy lunches for my kids but some of the ideas over there are so amazing! I wish I had these resources at my fingertips when my kids were little!

Exercise & Me

2010-08-22T16:48:00.000-07:00

Exercise and me...not normally seen together. I've changed my eating habits so now the logical next step is to add exercise to the mix.

As a child I was very active and was even on the volleyball team in highschool. I played soccer and volleyball at university in a very recreational way but still managed to keep active. After university something changed. Maybe it was having children. I'm not really sure what it was but my attitude towards exercise changed. It was a chore for me and I really didn't enjoy it. I tried everything and nothing seemed to spark any excitement for me. There was a very short period of time a few years ago when I became addicted to going to the gym but there really wasn't a lot of enjoyment about going to the gym. It was about doing the circuit and it wasn't long before I was completely bored with it.

Two years ago I picked up golf and loved it. I truly enjoy it but is it considered exercise? Probably not. I bought myself a treadmill last fall and have used it some but not as much as I should. If the truth be told I could probably make a very nice home gym with the various pieces of equipment I've bought over the years. The treadmill is definitely the most expensive piece that I've bought.

I've read just about everything there is to read about weight loss so I know that if I want to be successful with my exercise regime I need to find something that I'll enjoy. At the beginning of August I started the Couch to 5 k Running Program and so far I've stuck with it and I'm enjoying it. I'm using my treadmill as I don't think I'm quite up to running in public yet. Yesterday I registered for a beginner's Belly Dance class. I have several friends who have taken it before and highly recommend it.

Me and exercise? We'll see....I'm trying, really I am!

Final Leg of the Helliday.

2010-08-22T08:14:00.000-07:00

The morning after the mishap with the trailer we were wakened very early by a KAL Tire delivery truck wanting us to move our truck away from the gate. We were wide awake at 5:30 and no one was coming into the office until at least 7:30 so it was coffee and breakfast for us. Thank goodness for Tim Hortons. By the time the office opened at 7:30 both Tim and I were somewhat human. The long and short of it all was that yes they could fix the spring and the tire but no they couldn't do it that day as the mechanic was away until Wednesday. Tim was all "Let's stay in Hope until it's done and make the best of it." I was all "No way I'm staying another day in Hope" (Sorry Hope). So we went home. Good thing we did because it wasn't ready until Friday.

We had three lovely days at home then headed back to Hope to get our trailer.....and so it began again. We were up at 4:00 am to catch the first ferry and all was well until we came off the Port Mann bridge. We got stuck behind another accident. Another fatal accident. My heart was just so heavy when I realized that 3 more families would be planning funerals. I was ready to give up driving anywhere off the island ever again. It was the worst week for accidents that I ever remember.

We were diverted off the highway through Cloverdale. We had no idea where we were going so we just followed the motorhome in front of us....that is until we realized he was from Alberta and had less of clue than we did! We got to Hope much later than originally planned but the trailer was ready to go and cost much less than we anticipated. They replaced both back springs and both back tires....nice! We were so impressed with the work they did and how accommodating they were. KAL Tire has our business from now on.

We were done holidays for the summer and happy to be headed home to stay for awhile.

How was your summer holiday?

Hellidays continued

2010-08-13T10:07:00.000-07:00

We continued on our way fortified with coffee and food and a good story about mini family reunions. We talked about stopping in Merritt to visit with my best friend from high school but as it is with most of our holidays we just wanted to get home. We checked out the ferry schedule and figured we might just make the 7:30 ferry. We stopped in Salmon Arm for a stretch and a bathroom break. One of the things that we noticed while taking our bathroom break was that the table in the trailer had moved again....it had done the same thing that morning but it had never done that on any previous trips. But the stairs had popped down as well while we were driving so we figured it must have been the rough roads we had been driving on....so we put it out of our minds...if we only knew. There is a saying about hindsight isn't there?

The traffic was still heavy but we were making pretty good time. There, I jinxed it.....we got just south of Merritt when all of a sudden the traffic slowed to a crawl and then stopped completely. We had gone through lots of construction and thought at first that was what it was. There were no signs indicating construction and the fact that we were not moving at all made us reconsider that. We gave our daughter, Kristin, a call and asked her to check the highways website to see if there was anything listed for just south of Merritt on the Colquihalla. She called us back and told us there was nothing for that area but that there had been a fatal accident in Sicamous. That freaked us out a bit as we had just been through Sicamous hours earlier. So we waited and we waited. The highway was closed in both directions which further lead us to believe that this was not good. Sure enough an ambulance headed up past us along with a rescue vehicle. Eventually we got word that a Jetta had rear ended a tanker truck. Just over two hours later we started to move. I'm not sure how long it took to get the line moving at a reasonable pace but the line went on for miles. The Jetta was pretty banged up in the front end. There was no sign of the tanker truck when we went past the accident site but we did catch sight of him as we came to the snow shed further down the highway. We passed a tanker with it's back end pretty banged up...bet that was him. We thought it odd that the police had allowed the truck driver to leave the scene though.

By this time we were pretty sure we wouldn't make the 7:30 ferry but we still had a good chance at making the 10:45 pm ferry. All seemed to be going well except that a few people passing us were gesturing towards the trailer. Huh? So we stopped, Tim got out and inspected the trailer and the only thing he saw was that the stairs had popped out again. We got almost to Hope when we heard a bang and felt the trailer shake. We were close to a bit of a pull out so Tim was able to maneuver the trailer over without too much difficulty. At this point we were thinking it was a blown tire and that's what people were pointing at. Mmmmmm.....nope... it was a broken spring and a blown tire. I phoned BCAA right away and this very kind and apologetic young man told me that we were not covered for trailers. Needless to say I was speechless. Just as I was hanging up from BCAA a man in a flat bed tow truck stopped on the other side of the highway and asked if we needed help. Again....speechless! What are the odds of that happening? He drove up the road and turned around to give us a hand. He pulled that trailer up and onto his flatbed with amazing skill and hauled it into Hope for us. Following our trailer into Hope was surreal to say the least. He was pretty sure that KAL Tire in Hope would be able to fix it but by this time it was getting close to 7:00 so they definitely wouldn't be able to do it until the next day. We got the trailer situated at KAL Tire and phoned their emergency number just make sure it was okay if we stayed there for the night. We found a place to eat dinner....a drive in diner no less. I felt like I had been dropped into the 50's. This was getting better and better.

It doesn't end there! There's more!

Hellidays???

2010-08-12T11:49:00.000-07:00

I was telling a friend about our most recent holiday and her response was "Remind me not to go anywhere with you guys." I was a little taken aback at first but after some thought I realized that she was probably right. Some of you may recall our trip across Canada...the one that prompted this blog in the first place. Do you remember the part where we stopped in Winnipeg on the way home and bought a new truck??? This one didn't end up costing us nearly as much money but I was way more stressed this time.

Tim prepared the trailer as much as he could on one of his trips home but the bulk of the prep was left to me which really wasn't a problem and not that big a deal. I was up to it. The plan was for me to have everything ready by the time I collected Tim from the airport on Thursday evening. We would drive home to switch vehicles, hook up the trailer and be on our way by 8:30 pm at the latest. I was a little apprehensive about this since I know how tired Tim is after a 10 day shift in Fort MacMurray. Tim was determined to get to his family reunion in Saskatchewan by Saturday and this was the only way to do it. We were on the road by 8:15 pm and made the 10:45 pm ferry out of Duke Point. We slept on the ferry and drove until we got to Chilliwack at 2:30am. (It was officially our 27th anniversary but both of us were too tired to care) We found the Walmart parking lot and settled in for the "night". Apparently we weren't the only ones with that idea. Welcome Walmart Campers!

Tim was awake at 5:30 am (still on work time) so we hit the road again. We stopped at a nice little rest spot to grab a nap...well, Tim napped and I took pictures.

The weather was perfect and the scenery was breathtaking.....not a bad way to spend our anniversary. We stopped for lunch at a rest stop beside a river and continued on. We found a place outside of Edmonton to stop for dinner. What a dinner it was....weiners, beans and salad. How's that for an anniversary dinner? Maybe not the healthiest meal but it was made with love by my husband....he loves weiners and beans.

We managed to make it to Vegreville on our first night...again found a Walmart parking lot....it was great!
We rolled into Cochin, Saskatchewan, site of the family reunion at around noon on Saturday. Tim's extended family was delighted to see us. I'm so happy that we were able to make it. We had a lovely time with everyone and stayed there until Monday. On Monday we headed north to Waskesiu. I have heard Tim talk about Waskesui with such great fondness throughout our marriage. I can completely understand why now. Tim's parents took the family there for three weeks every summer for 16 years. It's the most beautiful little resort town. We explored the whole town and area. Tim had a wonderful time reliving his childhood memories. The best part for him was having finding the 10th hole on the golf course and having a chocolate shake at the food vendor there....just like when he was 10. We stayed there until Thursday then headed to Calgary to visit our son.

Up to this point the holiday was great....no problems....and the weather was perfect. Our visit with our son was great too! The weather started to go downhill a bit....some thunder and lightening but nothing really awful. We had a wonderful visit with Cory. We did a lot of fun stuff and had a blast. We headed out on Monday morning and this is where things started to get a bit ugly.

First off, it was the Monday of a long weekend....really we know better than to travel on that particular day! We got into Golden and found out that they are cleaning up from an horrific accident that happened in the wee hours of the morning, one that left an 11 year old boy an orphan. The roads were getting busier and busier. Trying to get gas in Banff was near impossible. Line ups were ridiculous and one of the three gas stations was closed due to a gas shortage! We finally got some but let tell you how difficult it is to manouver a trailer in a small parking lot! Tim is getting so good at it! We got into BC around lunch time and Tim was really craving a Tim Horton's coffee! We managed to find one but the line up was out the door. He went and got gas while I got him a coffee. Revelstoke was crazy busy! We then stopped at a rest stop outside of Revelstoke and had a nice quiet lunch. As I was stepping out of the trailer to get going some guy was approaching the trailer saying "It is her, it is her!". This random guy turned out to be my cousin Jim....who I haven't seen for probably 7or 8 years! How random is that? We chatted for awhile then he had to be on his way. One of the things that Tim and I both noticed was how smokey the air was. The BC Interior was battling many forest fires and several places had already been evacuated.

Still not seeing where this is turning into a Helliday?? Keep reading...it's coming...

More of the Harvest

2010-08-08T21:29:00.000-07:00

Earth's Bounty

2010-08-05T16:12:00.000-07:00

We are home from our trip but it's not over yet. We have to go back to Hope tomorrow to pick up the trailer but I'll save that story for another post.

The first thing I did when we got home was go around and check out all the gardens and planters. It's amazing how much things will grow in week and half with perfect weather. I staked up all of the tomato plants as they were so full of fruit that they were leaning over. I picked the tomatoes that were ripe. I picked beans, peas, and lettuce from the vegetable garden. I cleaned up the hanging baskets and watered everything. Every one of the pepper plants has peppers growing. We even have purple Hungarian peppers! It's amazing! I'm not sure what I'm going to do with all those hot peppers but I'm sure we'll figure something out. I know that Kristin's boyfriend will enjoy any of the peppers that we harvest.

The idea for the vegetable garden came about in the spring after Kristin and I watched Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution on TV. Scattered Mom over at Notes from the Cookie Jar pointed us in the direction of Jamie's Food Revolution and we've been hooked ever since. We thought that it would be a great idea to grow our own vegetables as a way to cut down on the preservatives that we were consuming. We didn't use any pesticides and only used organic fertilizers on the vegetables. It's been an insane amount of work though and I didn't enjoy my trip to Saskatchewan nearly as much as I could have. I was too busy worrying about the garden. I have put so much work into the garden in the last couple of months that I just didn't want it to dry up and die while we were gone. I didn't need to worry about it as Kristin did an outstanding job watering everything. The gardens all looked great when we got home.

We ate fresh peas from the garden our first night home. There's nothing like garden fresh peas to let you know that summer is here. The next night I made a huge salad with the lettuce using a pear and feta dressing. The yellow and green beans were tossed with butter, garlic and toasted almonds. It was wonderful to final have something show for all that work! I had planted a mesclun mix as a last minute thought and I'm totally blown away by the basil, parsley and other wonderful things in it! The zucchini looks like it's starting to produce too! With 6 zucchini plants I think there is going to be an over abundance of zucchini.....do you have a favourite zucchini recipe you'd like to share?

In keeping with the theme of a healthier me I've started the Couch to 5k program and managed to complete Week1 Day 1 today. My friend Closetomyheart has been a huge inspiration to me in this regard. She has completely changed her lifestyle. Exercise has become a habit for her...how cool is that? I will keep you posted as to how I do with all this. Apparently it gets easier.......apparently.

Canada the beautiful!

2010-07-30T13:38:00.000-07:00

2010-07-21T13:57:00.000-07:00

Some Days It's Better to Stay in Bed

2010-07-19T07:38:00.000-07:00

My day was just not that great. I'm not much of a complainer but really yesterday just sucked. My morning started out with technology problems. I recruited my daughter to help me (she's very tech savvy) and even she couldn't get it to work. I should have known then. I decided to mow the lawn. Now usually I use the good old rotary mower. It has served me well and I really like using it. I don't have to put gas in it and there are no cords to deal with. Did I go with my gut...no. I decided to use the electric mower which I hate because I can never figure out which way to turn to avoid running over the cord. My thinking was that I would pick up all of the leaves left on the grass from the big wind storm the other day. I made it through most of the lawn and I thought it was going pretty well and only had one or two passes left to do. Just like that final ski run you just have to do...sometimes it's better to quit while you're ahead. I hit a rock....a huge bang ensued, sparks flew as did the rock....into the side of the house. I immediately unplugged the lawnmower to check out the damage. The blade was pretty messed up and so was the rock....then I checked the side of the house....a hole...in the siding...siding that we can no longer find in any store. Damn. I plugged in the mower to see how it was running. Our quiet electric mower was no longer quiet nor was it running smoothly. It shook so bad I thought my arms were going to be shaken off. Mmmmm....what to do. I pulled out the rotary mower and finished the job. Then I sent Tim a text telling him what I had done and decided that it was time to call it a day...except it was only 1pm. Damn.

Food Revolution Fridays

2010-07-16T11:57:00.000-07:00

We ate potatoes from our garden! We went camping last weekend and I thought they would be nice to eat with some salads and some barbecued steak. There weren't very many but what we had was very tasty! I'm learning along the way about gardening in general and I have learned that I needed to hill up the potatoes more. I'm keeping notes in a book that has a diagram of the garden and what we planted. I should have kept track of the kind of potatoes we planted but I didn't. They only had a few choices at the gardening center so I'm sure I can find out from them what the variety was. Regardless of the variety they were yummy and definitely something we will plant again next year.

Our family eats a lot of chicken and last week I made Avocado Salsa to go with Lime Grilled Chicken. Tim and I were grocery shopping when I saw the latest Canadian Living Magazine. I love their summer recipes and the recipe on the cover was mouth watering. We knew were having chicken for dinner so I decided at the check out that I wanted to make the recipe on the cover. We were at the front of the line so I kind of had to guess what was in it from looking at it and run and get the ingredients. I thought it had cilantro...it didn't, it had coriander, but the rest I was good on. I grabbed some avocados without really checking to see how ripe they were...I was in a hurry! Long story short...it was a great recipe, but I messed up some. The Lime Grilled Chicken was great and the salsa would have been great if the avocados were the least bit ripe! We ate around the crunchy avocado.

This post has been linked to Food Revolution Fridays at Notes From the Cookie Jar.

Beef Stew - Michael Smith Style

2010-07-11T09:57:00.000-07:00

We are huge fans of stew and for us it's not just something to eat in the winter. If I can cook it stove top in the summer then that's what I'll do. Michael Smith's beef stew is a stove top recipe. It has a completely different flavour than Jamie Oliver's but was just as simple to make in spite of the long ingredient list. It called for half a bottle of red wine....who wouldn't like that! I used an African Shiraz just because that's what I happened to have opened at the time. One of the things I really liked about this recipe was that it called for putting half of the vegetables in right away and putting the other half aside. We've all had stews where the vegetables and potatoes are just mush. Putting half of the vegetables and potatoes in 30 minutes before serving it alleviates that problem.

"Continue cooking until the meat is almost tender, about an hour, then add the remaining vegetables. I add them in two batches; the first dissolves into the stew and thickens it, while the second retains its shape, colour and texture."

Michael Smith, Cooking With and Without a Recipe; Chef at Home

I also liked that there were hints and suggestions about different vegetables to use and what cut of meat you can use. It also suggested a biscuit layer on top but I didn't make it this time....next time for sure.

We all really enjoyed the stew. Tim raved about it to Kristin the next day so I think she may be trying it as well. I went to have some for lunch the next day and it was all gone!

Road Trip 2010

2010-07-06T11:23:00.000-07:00

Traveller's Wife Once More!

2010-06-30T08:26:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow my daughter and I are heading out on our first annual road trip. Well, maybe not annual but our first road trip. We are driving to the interior of BC for a visit with some of my siblings and their families. It wasn't until last week that I realized that we will be in Williams Lake for Stampede. How exciting is that?
I haven't been to the Stampede in more than 20 years.

When we first moved there in the '70s I was 12 and my sisters were 10 and 7. My parents were busy running the hotel and didn't feel comfortable with us there amongst the mayhem and chaos of Stampede. They weren't too concerned about my older brothers, Bob and Mark. The oldest boys, Barry, Tim and Tom, had left home the summer before.

It was a bit of a culture shock for us coming from Abbotsford, the bible belt of BC. Even though my dad was a bartender in Abbotsford we had a relatively conservative upbringing. We were not a religious household but I went to a school where girls were not allowed to wear pants. I didn't even own a pair jeans when we moved to Williams Lake. Imagine my horror on the first day of school (as I stood at the front of the room in my kilt and white knee high socks) being introduced to a sea of kids wearing jeans and t shirts.....I stuck out like a sore thumb. Needless to say I was in tears by the end of the day and my mom and I went jean shopping that very afternoon. I remember being very proud of the leather Lee patch that was on the back of the jeans.....I had arrived!

Anyway, the first two summers that we were in Williams Lake my sisters and I did not stay in Williams Lake for Stampede. My parents were very busy with the hotel and since the town is taken over by Stampede it was completely understandable why they did what they did. At the time I was very resentful but let go of the resentment fairly quickly when I began to see the side of Stampede that the tourists don't necessarily see. When I left home I never really felt the need or the desire to go to the Stampede but it will be nice to share some of my youth with my daughter.

I'm starting to get excited. Kristin is beyond excited. Not only does she get to see the Stampede she is going to see her cousins! She hasn't seen her cousins for almost 7 years as she has been working every summer and has had to miss the family reunions that we've had. I'm not excited about travelling on July 1 but thank goodness for the online reservations system with BC Ferries. I was able to get a reservation on the 10:40am ferry so that was a huge weight off my shoulders. I'm hoping that since Canada Day is in the middle of the week that the traffic might not be as bad as it usually is on the long weekend....but I'm sure it's just wishful thinking on my part.

My plan (you know how plans are) is to do a photo journal of our trip...starting tonight with the packing and the loading of the car. Not sure how often I will be able to get online to post as I haven't decided if I'm going to take my laptop or not.

Check in and see how the trip is going! What are you doing on Canada Day?

A Day Late but...Food Revolution Friday

2010-06-26T15:24:00.000-07:00

I'm a huge fan of grilled food so with that in mind I've been playing with the new barbecue. So far I've grilled chicken and steak. Tim has grilled zucchini on it as well. I have to say I absolutely love it. It is a Cuisanart C550S. It's been a dream to cook on . I can use all three burners or I can use only one. The electric starter button is the greatest thing since sliced bread! It has fancy wheels on it to make moving it a breeze. I have to say I'm very glad we decided to splurge a little bit instead of going cheap like we did the last time we bought a barbecue. The bonus for us was that the only one in the store was the floor model so we got an assembled barbecue without having to pay the $50.00 assembly fee. It's not my dream barbecue but it will do us very nicely for awhile.

This week I also baked Sour Cream Chocolate Chocolate Chip Banana Bread. It was a huge hit with Ryan and he's taken it in his lunch every day. The next time I make it though I am going to make two smaller loaves as the recipe suggests.

In gardening news the peony that we moved when renovating the backyard has finally bloomed. The colour is very different this year being almost white instead of pink. I'm quite liking the dark pink frill around the edges but I have a feeling that it's not suppose to be like that.

Some of the shallots have developed this little flower and although it's quite pretty it's not a desirable state for the shallots to be in. I've read a few different theories as to why this has happened. One theory is that they didn't get enough water.....with the amount of rain we've had I don't think that's it. The other theory is that it was too cold.....this one is the theory that I'm leaning towards. I have nipped the flower buds out of the shallots in the hope that this will do the trick but perhaps I should just harvest them and call it a learning experience. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

The rest of the garden is coming along but very slowly. I actually have some tomatoes developing on a few of the plants! Yahoo! I thinned out the onions this morning and used them in my wraps for lunch so we are starting to use some of the garden. When I thinned out the radishes there were some radishes starting to develop nicely. I think in another week or so we will be able to harvest our first bunch of radishes.

The astilbe and the snapdragons are beautiful this year. There's something about snapdragons I love, I'm not sure what it is. Maybe it's the wonderful memories I have of them in my mother's garden. We used to play with them every year and pretend they were little mouths and make them "talk".

This post has been linked to Food Revolution Friday at Notes from the Cookie Jar.

A Thing of Beauty...Yummy Too!

2010-06-17T07:32:00.000-07:00

I have had rice paper rolls many times and totally love them. They're so much healthier than spring rolls and the choices with them are amazing. The coffee place here serves up some amazing ones. I never thought that I could make them myself though...they looked way too finicky and complicated. At least I thought so until a co-worker brought them in on Salad Day at work. She told us how simple they were and even provided us all with her recipe. I bit the bullet yesterday and decided to give it a try. They were so incredibly simple to make. I used grated carrots, bean sprouts, diced shallots, rice vermicelli and fresh parsley. The possibilities are endless as far as what you fill them with. The recipe suggested cabbage and shrimp but I didn't have either of those so I went with what I had. We used a hot spicy peanut sauce for dipping, but I think any kind of sauce work with these. Ryan loved them and decided that we need to have them as a standard part of our weekly menu. High praise indeed!

Edited to include the recipe for Rice Paper Rolls.

This post has been linked to Food Revolution Fridays at Notes From the Cookie Jar.

A Few of My Favourite Things.....

2010-06-15T19:21:00.000-07:00

I finished the first Sunshine Sock. I didn't like the first toe I did so I took it out and redid it. I like the new toe much better! As much as I love this sock I don't know that I will make them again. They take bit more yarn than I was anticipating and since I bought the yarn last summer I'm not sure if I'll be able to get anymore! Yikes! I'm using Classic Elite Summer Sox yarn and no where on the ball band can I find the yardage or the weight of the ball. How frustrating is that? Edited to add that apparently I'm not only deaf I'm blind too....my coworker found the yardage on the band in under 2 seconds. I needed more yarn and luckily the store I bought it from last summer still had it in stock...in the same dye lot....score!

The weekend was sunny and it seems to have done the garden some good. It's looking better already after only two days of sun. Yesterday was ugly but today has been a blissfully sunny day. There is a bit of wind blowing but the sun is shining so it's a good day in my estimation.

The cat has decided that it is an outside cat. Never mind that gusts of wind scare the crap out of her and that she's generally afraid of her own shadow. You should see her when a crow drops by for a visit! Nonetheless she thinks she's a hunter! She waits by the screen door every day now and meows (very annoyingly I might add) to be let out. I don't mind letting her out but last year she ended up with fleas and it just about drove her round the bend. It will be fun dealing with that later in the summer!

I opened a new package of Kicking Horse Coffee this morning. It's definitely one of my favourite smells! I'm working my way through the many different roasts and blends and although I like them all the Kick Ass is my favourite so far! What a great name! It's a Fair Trade coffee and that makes me feel good about buying it. It's roasted in Invermere, BC which is also a good thing plus it tastes fantastic! It's win-win all around!

Tonight I made the Zucchini and Tomatoes in Michael Smith's cookbook. I used fresh oregano from my herb garden. Using fresh oregano is so much nicer than using the dried! I grilled some nice thick pork tenderloin on the barbecue. The new barbecue is a dream to use! Love that electric start button! It was a simple yet delicious dinner!

Wacky Weather

2010-06-15T06:27:00.000-07:00

We have had some pretty strange weather here in the last couple of weeks but I think yesterday was the wackiest yet. It was an okay day yesterday but there were lots of clouds and plenty of talk of the pending rain. We knew it was going to rain at some point since it always does lately. When it did start raining it was amazing. It poured like you wouldn't believe and the wind kicked up pretty quickly too. The most amazing part of the evening was to look out over the water at around 9:30 pm and see the spectacular rainbow there! Of course I forgot my camera....wouldn't you know it.

Knowing Me, Knowing You

2010-06-11T21:56:00.000-07:00

I found this over at Merry With Children and thought it would be interesting to do. It's an interview meme originally hosted by The Fairy Blogmother.

1. Do you often have out of town guests?
Not very often. Most of my family lives on the mainland and don't make it to the island very often. I think my parents only made it over 4 times. I wish we had more visitors but the ferry makes it an expensive proposition for a lot of families. Most of my 7 siblings have made it over at least once and Tim's brother makes it over often but that's because his Mom lives here.

2. What kind of an overnight guest setup do you have?
We have lots of room for overnight guests. We have two spare bedrooms one of which has a double bed already set up in it. The second room is my scrapbook room but we do have a spare bed in the basement that we can set up on a moments notice in there. We also have a very roomy trailer in our driveway so there is no shortage of space for guests. It's amazing how much room you have when the kids start leaving home!

3. Cupcake or cake?
If it was Angel Food cake it would be cake all the way, but I try to avoid sweets as much as possible. I'm not always successful but I try. I did have a cupcake at work the other day but it was Teacher Appreciation Day and it would have been rude not to have one......that's my story and I'm sticking to it!

4. Iced Tea or Lemonade?
I would have to say I'm a lemonade person but it has to be real lemonade. I find iced tea to be way too sweet. I do like the real iced tea that you make in jug in the sun....that's nice.

5. When you get into bed for the night do you go right to sleep or do you read, internet or watch TV before lights out?
Most nights I'll read a book or I'll knit for a little bit while listening to a podcast or two. I sometimes will take my computer to bed but as far as TV goes my husband is completely against TVs in the bedroom. I've tried for years to change his mind but he has not budged on it. He usually gives in on most issues but this one is one he won't change his mind on.

Friday!

2010-06-11T07:40:00.000-07:00

I have a new project in the works. I am planning on organizing my pantry and my spice cupboard. My pantry is really just a closet that we converted to a pantry when we moved into the house 17 years ago. These are the before pictures. I've been reading about the best way to go about this. My first plan of action is to go through every thing and decide what I'm going to keep and what is going in the garbage. I have a feeling that there is going to be a huge bag of stuff going in the garbage. My daughter is going to come over and she will take what she wants from the stuff I don't want. After I have done that I will organize things in to like boxes and then decide what kind of containers I will use. I'm going to go glass jars for as much stuff as possible. I love Michael Smith's pantry and he uses mostly glass jars. My trusty label maker is going to get a work out this week! If you have any suggestions feel free to let me know!! How do you store things in your pantry! I will keep you posted on my progress.

I didn't do much in the way of cooking this past week. My daughter came over on Sunday last week and made oatmeal pancakes from the Smitten Kitchen. They were fabulous. If you haven't been to the Smitten Kitchen blog you really should. Everything she makes looks so amazing! I want to make everything she cooks!
On Wednesday I made Rocco Dispirito's Chicken Cacciatore but forgot to take a picture! I can't believe I didn't take a picture. It was delicious. You'll just have to trust me on that one.

The garden is looking a little pale but we're hopeful that the little bit of sun that we've had this week will be enough to get things going again. We only got one rose this year.......but what a beauty it was....the colour is more deep red than it shows in the picture. I think we may have to look into moving it somewhere where it will get more sun. I have to say that roses are one of my all time favourite flowers but they are so finicky to grow in this climate. We have had many over the years but none really seem to do well. The cherry tree in the front does not have as much fruit as it did last year and our little apple tree is looking very sparse as well. Not sure what's going on....

This post has been linked to Food Revolution Fridays at Notes from the Cookie Jar.

Things that I've done this week.....

2010-06-03T18:41:00.000-07:00

The weather has been crappy. There's no other word for it, it's been horrible and just plain crappy. As a result I haven't really been able to get outside very much. There was a wee bit of sun yesterday so I raced outside and got the front lawn mowed. I didn't even attempt to do the back yard as I know that it's way too waterlogged to get either one of our mowers through it. The garden is looking dismal. I've lost a cucumber plant to the waterlogged conditions. The peppers that looked so good a few weeks ago are looking downright sad. The weekend forecast is calling for sun with cloudy patches. That's the best forecast we've had in weeks! I will be out there every chance I get to try and get the long neglected gardens taken care of and to get that back lawn mowed and edged. I can't believe that it's June! It feels like March!

Even though I haven't been outside I have been doing things.

On Tuesday I made yogurt from this recipe. It was amazingly easy to make and very yummy. I have had it every morning with my granola and as a friend predicted I don't think I will go back to store bought ever again! You have to try it!

One good thing about the weather (I'm trying to be optimistic here!) is that I've been getting lots of knitting time in. I'm almost finished my first Sunshine Sock by Cookie A. I love Cookie A's patterns and the yarn (Classic Elite Summer Sox) is very nice to knit with. I've found a new podcast to listen to since most of my TV shows are done for the season. I'm listening to Chrissy at Manic Purl. I'm thoroughly enjoying it and would recommend it to anyone who likes to knit or spin. She shares what she's working on, she does reviews of books and yarn and other fibery stuff. I learn something new every time I listen to her.

Tonight I made Jamie Oliver's Sweet and Sour Pork. It was much faster to make than any other sweet and sour pork recipe I've ever used. I think that is one of the things I like best about Jamie's recipes. They are quick and they are simple. The ingredient list isn't a mile long and almost all of it is readily available in most grocery stores.

This post is submitted in:

Food Revolution Fridays

Sunday Happenings

2010-05-31T16:28:00.000-07:00

I thought I would show you how much the garden has grown. This photo was taken on April 8th as we started to prepare for planting.

These photos were taken on May 30th. We've had lots of things come up but it hasn't been very sunny here. We've had lots of rain lately so I'm hoping that we'll get some sun in the next little while. Can you imagine what it will be like when we get some sun? I'd like to plant some more radishes and peas but it really hasn't been nice enough to go out and do this. I can't wait to eat some of our own veggies this summer! We didn't get out into the garden at all this weekend due to the rain but we did do other things.

We went to the Pier Street Farmers Market and Arts Fair. Kristin and I bought a few things. I could have bought more but I restrained myself. The Market is open on Sundays throughout the summer so I will have lots of opportunity to browse some more.

Lunch was a simple Asian Salad with some of the Blue Cheese and Fig bread from the Farmer's Market. It was a perfect lunch!

Dinner was Jamie Oliver's Beef Stew with Guinness! I tossed around whether or not to use a pastry crust or to use potatoes. In the end I chose new red potatoes. It was a good choice. The guys loved it and Tim was happy that there was a Guinness left to have with dinner.

It was another lovely weekend in spite of the rain.

Saturday Fun

2010-05-29T19:24:00.000-07:00

We had a wonderful day. Tim and I did a bit of running around downtown. We went to a wonderful kitchen store in town and picked up a mortar and pestle. I watched Anna &amp Kristina's Grocery Bag last week where they discussed the best kind of mortar and pestle to buy. It was very informative and as a result I found the perfect one! I'm so happy with it....(I used it already for the Baked Apples that I made from Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution cookbook).

After a nice quiet lunch and a cup of tea we picked Kristin up and headed down to Cumberland where we visited the yarn store there. I admired many skeins of yarn but didn't buy any 'cause I'm strong like that......but I did buy myself some new Knit Picks double pointed needles. The bamboo ones that I was using were lacerating my fingertips! I love these Knit Picks and they're so pretty too! While Kristin and I were in the yarn store Tim visited "a chocolate place".....(I'm quoting Tim). It was called Darkside Chocolates. He bought some pretty amazing chocolate there!

For dinner I made three different recipes from Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution Cookbook. We had Pork Kebabs, Broccoli with Asian Dressing and Baked Apples. I also made brown Basmati rice and garlic bread. The baked apple recipe called for whisky or brandy and since I had none I used dark rum instead. The rum worked nicely. It also called for something called Spice Mix....that had me stumped but thank goodness for the internet (what did we do before internet???). I was able to make up some of my own using cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, mace and cloves. As a bonus I got to use my new mortar and pestle! When I pulled the apples out of the oven Kristin and Tim both declared that they smelled like Christmas. The recipe for the Pork Kebabs called for being cooked in a grill pan but we decided to put the new barbecue to the test. Tim loves the new barbecue and the kebabs came out perfect!

Food Revolution Fridays

2010-05-28T17:54:00.000-07:00

Tonight Tim picked out the menu for dinner. He chose Bacon Wrapped Cod with Rosemary, Dressed Asparagus and Basmati Rice. I'm always happy with the way things turn out when I use Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution cookbook. Once again we were not disappointed. Tim said it was very "gourmet like". I can live with that!

Check out what Scattered Mom has to say about Food Revolution Fridays....they were her idea!

Monogamous Knitting

2010-05-27T07:23:00.000-07:00

I have decided that it is time to use up all of the yarn in my stash before I buy anymore. Yes....you read that correctly......what????? I am fortunate that my stash is relatively small but still this has been more difficult than I thought it would be. I have had to restrain myself quite a bit which is surprising to me! I am trying to match yarn to projects then I'm trying to work my way through the projects...one at a time. My first order of business was to finish the cardigan that had been sitting for almost a year....which I did. Due to unforeseen circumstances the cardigan is back in the UFO (unfinished objects) basket. I have almost finished Cory's socks (a belated Christmas present) and they will be mailed out tomorrow. The Sunshine Socks by Cookie A. have been started but only because I left Cory's socks at work one evening and had nothing to knit on. The Sunshine Socks will be finished next. I have some beautiful Shi Bui sock yarn that is waiting to made into socks but I haven't decided what pattern to use yet but those are next inline. The off white Berocco Comfort Yarn is going to be made into a baby sweater for a friend's grandchild (the baby is due in September so I have time). and then I have the lilac Classic Elite Silk yarn that is going to be a sweater, not sure of the pattern yet though. So there you have it.....my projects all in order. One at a time.....do you think it's do able?

Fibre Content

2010-05-24T08:53:00.000-07:00

This morning I woke up feeling headachey and stuffed up....not a good way to start the day. I'm not totally surprised since I work with children who often have runny noses and the inability to use kleenex or cover their mouths. I'm surprised that it didn't hit me earlier in the weekend!

But wait.......the day gets worse.

As I put my slippers on I glanced at the sweater (the one I just finished seaming together) at the end of the bed and noticed some loose threads....upon closer inspection it appeared that the cat had chewed a hole in the front of the sweater. She seems to have a thing for this particular cotton yarn. It took a few minutes for me to really comprehend what she had done.......and when I did I was plenty upset. The cat and I are not on speaking terms today....there is a definite chill in the air. I looked online to see if there is a way to fix it but I'm pretty sure that I can't fix it as she chewed into the button band as well. I think the only thing to do is to take the front panel off and do it again. Fortunately I have lots of yarn left and can do that. After spending so much time working on only that sweater I'm just not in the mood to be looking at that yarn anytime soon so it will have to wait. In the mean time I think I need to look into whether or not my cat is lacking something in her diet that makes her want to chew my yarn so much. I have read that sometimes if a cat is an indoor cat they may need to chew on some oatgrass. Apparently you can buy that in pet stores....who knew? I'll get back to you on that one.

Amazing What a Little Sun Will Do....

2010-05-23T14:32:00.000-07:00

We are seeing things growing in the garden! The potatoes are finally up! Some didn't grow so well so we will plant a few more. The shallots are growing like crazy! More of those to go in too. The peas and beans popped up a couple of days ago....can't wait to have fresh peas out of the garden. The beets and the carrots are just showing through the ground as is the swiss chard. I think I'm going to put in another row of swiss chard and another row of radishes. Almost everything needs thinning, especially the radishes. The only things that aren't up at this point are the zucchinis and the pumpkins. Today we are going to repot the tomatoes and the hot peppers. Some of the tomatoes and pepper are going into the main garden and some are going into pots on the front deck. We'll see which ones grow best....my guess is that the ones in the pots will do better as there is more sun on the front deck.

I'm still not sure what effect the needles from the fir tree will have on the garden. I have read up on fir needles and gardens and so far everything I've read has been positive. One site listed needles as a good mulch for keeping weeds down. I have certainly marvelled at the lack of weeds in this garden so maybe the needles will prove to be a good thing.

Exercise and Knitting, an Unlikely Combination

2010-05-22T08:08:00.000-07:00

This is the sweater that prompted my jump into the running world. I'm sure you're wondering how a sweater is responsible for this athletic endeavor of mine. Let me tell you the story.

I started this sweater last summer. When I started the sweater I was in the process of losing weight and had lost about 25 pounds. It took me a year to finish the sweater and in that year I also regained 20 pounds that I had lost. The sweater is a wee bit snug. Now that I am eating healthier than I ever have I have decided that it's time to add exercise to the mix (and after a year of working on that sweater I am determined to wear it!). If you know me at all you will know that I absolutely hate exercise. I am starting out slowly and only doing about 10 minutes of running a day on my treadmill. So far I am three days into it and managing okay. The first couple of days my legs almost seized up on me but now it's not so bad. I should add that I am also doing 30 minutes of yoga in the morning as well as walking to work most days. I still hate exercise but it's early days so that may change yet. I am also outside doing the yard work almost daily, at least on the days that it's not raining.

Stay tuned....I will let you know how the campaign to get into THE sweater goes!

Food Revolution Fridays

2010-05-21T06:51:00.000-07:00

I had originally planned on making a beef stew last night. Lesson.....always read recipes through the night before or at least in the morning that you plan to make it. As 4:30 approached I decided I should probably get started on the stew. Jamie Oliver`s Beef Stew recipe takes 3 hours to cook....by my calculations it probably wouldn't be done until almost 8:00 pm. With a 20 year old coming home from a very physical job anytime now I knew that I was NOT going to be making the beef stew. I switched gears and decided on the chicken stew. Since I had never made a chicken stew before this was going to be a new one for me altogether. The recipe called for two cups of white wine and since I had just bottled some last week I had lots on hand. It had a minimum of ingredients, things I always have on hand. It took no time at all to prepare and was in the oven by 5:00. It cooked for the requisite 90 minutes and smelled amazing I might add. My son walked through the front door as I was pulling it out of the oven. The look on his face said it all.....he thought he had gone to heaven. He was starving and there was amazing food there for him to devour. Devour he did! There was hardly any left which is a wonderful thing!

The recipe starts as a basic stew recipe and Jamie then adds four options to it depending on what kind of meat. He gives you an option for beef and ale, chicken and white wine, pork and cider and lamb with red wine. Jamie has skipped the step of browning the meat and as he says in the recipe the stew is just as delicious without the browning. Again, one of the best parts of this recipe is how easy it is to use. Someone who has never cooked before can use it with no problems. This recipe gets a thumbs up from our household!

Check out Scattered Mom's site....she is behind the Food Revolution Fridays!

Miscellaneous photos of my weekend

2010-05-18T07:25:00.000-07:00

I am lucky enough to have 6 of the most amazing women in my life. We get away to a small cabin for a girls' weekend once a year to connect and rejuvenate. Our biggest decision all weekend is when the next meal is. We walk, we talk and most of all we laugh. We share things with each other that we don't share with anyone else and we know without a shadow of a doubt that when in need the others will be there. We have weathered many crisis' together but we have also celebrated many of life's joys together. I am blessed, truly blessed, to have these women in my life.

As I approach 50 I am so much more comfortable about who I am. It's not so much about pleasing others anymore. Don't get me wrong.....I don't think it's all about me, not by any stretch of the imagination. I will always approach my life guided by the Golden Rule but if someone is determined to be unhappy about something I've done or about their circumstance I no longer feel that it's up to me to make them feel better. It's not my job to prop others up. It's up to them to find their own happiness. I have a choice about who I spend my time with. Life is too short to be looking for the negatives in life. These 6 women are my shining examples!

Bits and Pieces

2010-05-13T06:47:00.000-07:00

As promised I've posted some photos of our veggie garden and other signs of seasonal rebirth! There is something so incredibly satisfying and exciting about seeing the things you planted actually growing. When Tim and I first got married I did all kinds of canning. I made different kinds of jams and pickles. I canned pears, cherries, peaches and tomatoes with abandon. Over the years I just slowly got away from and found it so much easier to buy canned foods from the store. I even sold all of my canning jars in a garage sale.

Kristin is the one who initiated the veggie garden this year and she has asked me to show her how do some canning. I'm excited to get back to doing this kind of thing but I'm also excited to be able to pass this one to my daughter. My mother taught me these things and although she's gone I can still feel close to her while teaching Kristin some of what she taught me. My siblings and I were talking about what a great cook mom was and we all regret that we didn't pay more attention to the things she did in the kitchen and the things she made. So much of what she did in the kitchen is gone with her. We do have a family cookbook that my sister, Shelley, put together but there was a lot of wisdom that didn't get put in that cookbook. I will try my best to pass what I learned onto Kristin but I know there's a lot that I can't pass on. Kristin and I will make new traditions that she will be able to pass on to her children.

Of course no post is truly complete without a picture of food. I made the Grilled Chicken Parmigiano from Rocco DiSpirito's new cookbook Now Eat This. It was simple and easy to make. I had it in the oven cooking in about 20 minutes. The smells wafting from the kitchen were amazing! The best thing about this dish is that it was only 332 calories per serving and it only had 9.3g of fat! I was a little skeptical about this cookbook at first because we all know that when you make something low cal....it usually doesn't take as good as the original........but the recipes in this cookbook are consistently flavourful. This dish was amazing!

Clouds in the sky

2010-05-12T07:08:00.000-07:00

This morning I looked out at the sky and was disappointed to see it full of clouds. Yesterday started out cloudy and ended up being a spectacular day.....maybe we'll get more of the same today. We've had some very nice weather here and I was hoping to do some more yard work. I would really like to get most of the beds weeded and edged before Tim comes home on Thursday night. It would be nice for him to just come home and relax but I know him...if something needs doing he will do it. I won't be here over the weekend to monitor his relaxing or lack thereof.

In gardening news our vegetable garden is mostly in. Kristin and I spent most of Mother's Day afternoon planting seeds. We have a good sized patch in the middle that doesn't have anything in it yet but my neighbour reminded me that we don't have cucumbers yet (I think she has plans of midnight forays into our veggie patch!).....so that might be a good spot for the cucumbers. It gets a good amount of sun and I think it's a big enough are for the cucumber plants to spread out. I must remember to get a photo soon before too much grows so we can see the progression of this truly amazing garden of ours!! The shallots and the garlic are growing nicely. We haven't seen much in the way of activity from the potatoes so I'm wondering if we may have them in the wrong spot. Growing our own vegetables goes hand in hand with what I'm trying to accomplish in my kitchen. I'm loving using good, wholesome foods without lots of nasty perservatives. You can't get much fresher or preservative free than out of your own garden!

I have some photos on the camera that I want to share and I will take some pictures of the garden this afternoon after work.

Mindless Monday

2010-05-10T17:32:00.000-07:00

I feel like I've been crazy busy the last couple of weeks but through it all I have made a conscious effort to cook healthy, balanced meals even though many nights it's just me eating. Ryan is working now and sometimes doesn't get home until much later or he's out with his friends. Some evenings Kristin comes over for dinner if she's worked all day or if Brian is working in the evening. I have been cooking out of Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution cookbook as well as Michael Smith's cookbook, Chef at Home. I also recently bought Rocco DiSpirito's latest cookbook, Now Eat This. The steak fajitas and the macaroni and cheese both come from Rocco's cookbook. Kristin cooked the macaroni and cheese for Mother's Day and it was outstanding. It was made with 9 cloves of garlic! The amazing thing about Rocco DiSpirito's book is that all of the recipes are of comfort foods that he has revamped to be under 350 calories a serving.

I have found that my grocery bill has gotten a little higher but the plus side of it is that I'm not throwing out as much food. The food is so flavourful that it usually gets eaten that first night or by the next day for sure. Often later in the evening Ryan will eat what's left over and if there's any left the next day I'll take it for my lunch. There really hasn't been anything negative about any of this and I am starting to feel more energetic as well. I've been more aware of what is in the foods I'm buying. I'm finding myself buying less of the packaged stuff and more fresh and unprocessed food. I'm even trying to stay away from canned stuff. The one thing I find myself using a lot of are canned tomatoes so to that end I will be canning tomatoes this year just like I used to years ago. I'm going to try to "put up" lots canning for the winter. I love learning new things (although the canning is not new for me I've just not done it for years) and this benefits everyone in the family. I will definitely continue cooking this way after all isn't it how our ancestors used to cook?

When the barbecue comes out for the summer it's going to be even better.....I'm already planning some of the meals that I can make on that new grill!

It Felt Like Monday....

2010-05-04T19:25:00.000-07:00

I realize that I've not been very good about posting on this blog. I did have a really nice post written a couple of nights ago but with the touch of a button (the wrong button I guess) it went POOF. It was completely gone. I didn't bother to try and write it again because I knew that it wouldn't sound right no matter what I wrote. There is a lesson to be learned there....not sure what.

I feel like I have been on the go constantly and not in one place long enough to write a post. Tonight I will touch on some of the things I've done and the places that I've been. I'm sure it's not as much as I think it was but it sure feels like it. Today felt like Monday....me trying to catch up and not being very successful.

Two weekends ago Kristin and I went to Victoria for a day of shopping and a chance for her to visit with some of her friends. Of course I forgot to take my camera so I have nothing to show you but I can tell you about it. I have admit that it was kind of nice not worrying about getting a picture everywhere we went. I was able to just enjoy every moment of our time there. We headed down island early (too early) Saturday morning with plans that we would get a hotel room when we got there. We were blissfully ignorant of the possibilities. When we walked into the Royal Scot and asked for a room with two beds the young man behind the counter gave us kind of a funny look....asking us if we had a reservation. Our room turned out to be very nice and after settling in we headed downtown....still blissfully unaware of what was happening in Victoria that weekend. After several hours of shopping we headed back to the hotel and imagine our surprise when we saw the street in front of the Parliament building blocked off. It turned out that it was the Times Colonist 10K Run the next day and our hotel was smack dab in the middle of the route. There was lots of speculation by many about whether or not we would be able to get out of the area in the morning. In the end we didn't have any problem getting out....in fact because everyone was IN Victoria leaving was a breeze...hardly any traffic to deal with.

This past weekend Kristin and I flew to Calgary (Ryan was in Vancouver at an Alice Cooper concert...yes....Alice Cooper is still alive!) to see Tim and Cory. We had a fantastic visit and it was over way too soon. We got to see more of Calgary.....there's always something new to see every time we go there! Cory was a fabulous host! Of course I forgot my camera again! I did get some photos on my cell phone but haven't yet figured out how to get them off there yet.

Cory took us out to this huge outlet mall out by Airdrie.......huge doesn't even begin to describe it. It was the Cross Iron Mills Mall. We went to a Chapters and I bought a Michael Smith cookbook. Cooking With and Without a Recipe...Chef at Home. I love watching Michael Smith cook and I love his recipes!

Tonight, for dinner, I made Michael Smith's Penne with Roast Tomatoes (it's the one on the cover of the cookbook). It was so simple to make but tasted so delicious. The smells were amazing as the tomatoes, prosciutto, onions, garlic and olive oil were roasting in the oven. I will definitely make it again. I've filled my fridge (my very clean fridge I might add) with lots of yummy ingredients waiting to be made into amazing meals. I picked up Rocco DeSpirito's latest cookbook Now Eat This and will try some of his recipes later this week as well. Now Eat This is full of recipes for comfort foods but are all under 350 calories. I'll let you know how it goes!

No Words.....Just Food Pictures....Jamie Oliver Recipes.

2010-04-28T07:04:00.000-07:00

Chicken Fajitas

2010-04-25T19:34:00.000-07:00

I made Jamie Oliver's Chicken Fajitas tonight. I had a busy weekend but at this point I'm too tired to share more than the pictures of dinner....I will post about the weekend later.

The Fajitas were fantastic with homemade guacamole and homemade salsa.

Cooking Class......

2010-04-20T21:24:00.000-07:00

I took a Vegetarian Cooking class today! It was put on for employees of the school district as part of the healthy lifestyle initiative. There have been a few different classes offered. The first one was Thai cooking, which I missed but heard was outstanding. It was because of all of the praise for the Thai cooking class that I signed up for the next one which was Greek Cooking. It was fantastic. As I said earlier I took the Vegetarian Cooking class tonight and it too was fantastic. There were 14 people in the class and we were divided into groups of two or three and each group took on a recipe or two. The recipes included Polenta Pie, Tortilla Soup, Lentil-Walnut Burgers and Salsa, Lettuce Wraps, Tofu Skewers, Grilled Portabello Mushrooms and two diff kinds of dessert. At the end of the class all of the food was put out and shared with everyone. It was truly a feast; a healthy one at that! In each of the classes that I took I feel like I learned something valuable, something that would not only help me but my family as well. I've changed a lot of things about the way I cook. I'm using more fresh ingredients. I'm cooking more from scratch and I'm depending less on quick and easy. I'm trying to be more aware of what is going into our bodies. After cooking meals for almost 27 years I feel like I'm finally getting it.

More Gardening

2010-04-18T15:38:00.000-07:00

Today Kristin, Tim and I went to various stores and bought things that we needed to start gardening. Kristin and I wanted to get the herbs planted into pots and the planters. We also wanted to get the potatoes, shallots, and onions in the ground as well. While we were at the garden center we found some red garlic....so we bought some of that too!

We got our herbs planted then set about testing the pH level of the soil with our handy little pH tester to see where we should plant the potatoes. We both started out wearing our gardening gloves but soon abandoned them to really get our hands into the dirt. There is something very satisfying about getting right into the dirt with your hands. You know you've really been gardening when you've got dirt under your nails.....thank goodness for nail brushes!

While Kristin and I did the gardening Tim mowed the lawn for me.....he lowered the lawn mower so I won't need to mow quite so soon next time. He even did the neighbour's lawn for me......what a great guy.

Other things that tell me that spring truly here.....

Food Revolution Fridays

2010-04-16T18:18:00.000-07:00

Today I had Tim pick something from the cookbook for dinner. He chose Salmon Fish Cakes. We didn't have any fresh salmon on hand but we did have some lovely canned salmon from our friend, Jake. Again, the recipe was simple and easy to follow with a minimum of ingredients but amazing taste. We paired the Salmon Fish Cakes with a simple green salad. It was a wonderful meal. It reminded me of salmon cakes that my mom used to make! Yummy and quick.....another winner!

I love the idea of Food Revolution Fridays.

Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution Cookbook

2010-04-14T21:43:00.000-07:00

My copy of Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution Cookbook arrived in the mail on Monday afternoon. I spend Monday evening and Tuesday evening going through it over and over again. There are so many recipes in it that I want to try and it was difficult to pick one out to try first. After many hours of going over the recipes I decided on the lasagna. The ingredients in it are not like my traditional recipe and it was fairly simple to follow so I thought it would be a good start. So I made up my list of things that I needed pick up at the grocery store and I was pleasantly surprised at how many of the ingredients I already had on hand. The one ingredient that I had a difficult time finding was the creme fraiche (not cheap to buy here let me tell you that!). but Jamie does say in the recipe that you can also use sour cream as a substitute for the creme fraiche.

The recipe was clear and simple to follow. It included pictures of Jamie putting the lasagna together which really helped! Ryan came into the kitchen while I was assembling the lasagna and he was impressed.....it smelled amazing! When I took it out of the oven it looked almost like the one in the cookbook. I love when that happens! Served with a caesar salad it was absolutely delicious! My mother in law came over while we were eating and although she didn't join us for dinner I did send some home with her. She too was impressed with how delicious it looked and smelled. Kristin and Ryan both raved about how good it was. Ryan even had seconds! This recipe is definitely a keeper!!!

From this.......

to this.......

A Young Man's Birthday (and other stuff too!)

2010-04-11T20:00:00.000-07:00

Today was a landmark day in our house. We no longer have teenagers in the house. I'm not sure when that hit me but as I'm typing it I'm realizing what a landmark that is. Don't get me wrong....I don't dislike the teenage years...our kids were actually very pleasant teenagers. Perhaps that's bias speaking but I have always enjoyed being with my kids no matter what age they are. They were mostly very typical teenagers. We spent some sleepless nights when our middle boy graduated from high school. He decided that he was going to mark his graduation "year" with plenty of partying but other than that we've been very fortunate. He survived and we survived. After being on his own for almost 4 years he has since apologized to us for his behaviour during that time. I trying to wrap my head around the fact that we don't have any teenagers anymore....wow....are we old?

Our children have always gotten along well with each other. Our daughter thought that her brother was her Christmas present when she was two. The boys played together by the hour when they were younger and rarely did we ever have to talk to them about not getting along. We got used to that distinctive sound of the bin of lego being dumped out as they built to their hearts' content. (They still like to build with the lego!)

No teenagers in the house.....how amazing.

Happy Birthday, Ryan!

Besides being my boy's birthday it was also another gorgeous day for gardening! Kristin and I worked outside for the better part of the afternoon and I must say we got lots accomplished. I weed eated (I've rewrittten that several times and it still doesn't look right....weed ate?) both the front and back yards. I mowed our front yard as well as the neighbour's front yard. I couldn't get the push mower through their grass so ended up having to pull out the dreaded electric thing that Tim bought. I hate that thing! But anyway I finally got their yard done so all was good in the end. Kristin worked on the garden. It looked lovely when she was done! She then transplanted all the hot peppers that we bought! I can't wait to see how they turn out! We bought many things to plant but unfortunately didn't get them done today.....next weekend for sure! I got the hummingbird feeders out today as well. Last year I was late getting them out so I missed most of the hummingbirds. Not this year! We pulled the barbecue out of storage as well and had our first barbecue of the season in honour of Ryan's birthday! In all it was a great way to spend the last day of Spring Break. I won't mind going back to work tomorrow quite so much.

Signs of Spring

2010-04-10T16:38:00.000-07:00

I have spent most of the day outside either walking with my daughter or doing yard work. While it seemed like spring would never arrive all of a sudden signs are everywhere. While we were walking through the trails I kept wishing that I had my camera with me. I may have to invest in a smaller camera to take on walks as my Canon is just to big and bulky to carry on the trails.

Today we finally had a warm sunny day.....and Spring Break is almost over......of course it is! Tomorrow is suppose to be warm and sunny as well. I plan on finishing up the yard work....after a trip to the hardware store for a new weed eater. What did you do today?

Food Revolution Fridays....Thought Provoking

2010-04-09T08:33:00.000-07:00

Kristin and I have always enjoyed watching Jamie Oliver's cooking shows. He's funny, engaging but more than anything his recipes are amazing and simple. We've bought his cookbooks for Kristin for Christmas and she loves them. I watched his series when he took on the lunch programs in Britain and was appalled at what was being fed to children. I had heard about his Food Revolution that he was initiating in the States but really didn't pay much mind to it since we live in Canada. My friend over at Notes from the Cookie Jar started talking about the Food Revolution and since I like to know what's going on decided I had better take a look at it. After watching the first episode I was hooked and appalled in turn. How on earth has this been allowed to happen????? What are we as a country feeding our kids??? I cried watching that show. I fed my kids chicken nuggets.......I had no clue! When kids don't know the difference between a potato and a tomato and when a burger and fries is considered to have more vegetable content than a vegetable stir fry ......there's a problem!! No wonder we have an obesity problem in North America.....look at what's in our food.   It's all about fast and easy......isn't it?

I've ordered the Food Revolution Cookbook by Jamie Oliver. I will be planning out my upcoming week's menus and going grocery shopping to that end.   I'm sure it will take me longer to shop this week as I will be looking at the ingredients in what I buy more carefully and it may cost me more. I think that's a very sad statement about things in our country in that it costs more to buy healthy wholesome food compared to fast and easy junk. Tim and I have always tried to feed our kids well. I have to admit that Tim has pushed it harder than I have over the years. He likes to have a salad with dinner every night....well, I hate making salads so we don't get them every night. We do however make sure that we serve fresh vegetables with dinner and we rarely ate out when the kids were little. I am ashamed to admit that we did take them out for chicken nuggets on the odd Saturday or Sunday afternoon. Scattered Mom's blog post made me think about things even more. You really should go over and read her blog.....she is an amazing writer and an awesome cook!   Her last post was about how it's more than just dinner. It's about connections and so much more. She's more eloquent than I am....go read what she wrote.

Tim and I have always insisted that we eat together as a family....every night.... no matter how busy our lives were. Today our kids are 24, 22 and 20 and we still eat together when we can. The two oldest live on their own but our youngest still lives with us and he will come home from wherever he is and eat with us. Our best family conversations happen when we are all together at our dinner table. It keeps us connected. At Easter dinner last week Tim's mom thanked us for the lovely dinner and the lively conversation. Her words were "Thank you all for the lively conversation. It was good for my soul." Isn't that the truth.   Tim and I were both raised in families where dinner time was when family sat down together. I come from a family with 8 kids.   My best memories include sitting at the dinner table with my brothers and sisters.   Both my parents worked and my dad often worked night shift but we always had dinner together. Tim's family is smaller, with 4 kids but they too had meals together. He grew up in Saskatchewan where the big meal of the day was served at noon. He remembers roast dinners at noon and soup and sandwiches for supper.

Scattered Mom is so right....it is more than just dinner....so much more.

Dinner and gardens

2010-04-08T13:14:00.000-07:00

First off I wanted to show you the yummy dinner that I made last night. I used lots of veggies and lots of garlic with the prawns.....added it all to pasta and topped it with freshly grated parmesan. It was a huge hit so I will definitely be making it again.

In other news, Kristin and I have been planning a vegetable garden for quite some time. The space was prepared last fall and the winter was spent looking at books and catalogues to help us decide what we wanted to grow. We've read about pH levels of the soil, companion planting, heritage vegetables among other things. We are going to plant peas, beans, onions, garlic (we should have planted this in the fall, I know) radishes, carrots, lettuce, swiss chard, zucchini and tomatoes. We are also going to plant a small bed of herbs. Now that we are going to get involved with the Food Revolution we are even more excited about our garden. Jamie is all about fresh, fresh, fresh and how much fresher can you get than growing your own produce? We will post pictures of our garden as we go....so to start us off here is a photo of the garden before we plant anything. The last time Tim was home he rented a rototiller and added some peat moss to the garden. Hopefully in the next little while we will be planting some potatoes and some onions.

Food Revolution Cookbook

2010-04-06T14:10:00.001-07:00

I just ordered Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution Cookbook. I can't wait to get my hands on it. I will keep you posted on that!

Easter Dinner

2010-04-04T16:49:00.000-07:00

The table center is a gift from Tim. He thought it would look nice on the table while we ate our Easter dinner. I agree...it's beautiful. It adds to the special feeling of the day and adds a certain touch of elegance to an already splendid meal.

The interesting thing about cooking a dinner for others is that you put lots of effort into the planning and execution of the meal. Since Tim has started working out of town I have had to make a real effort make meals that have more than one food group. I know that I should put as much time and effort into meals for myself....I'm worth it...right? But somehow when the time comes to cook for myself the desire just isn't there. Thankfully I have a 20 year old who is very appreciative of nicely prepared meals and is always there to help clean up the mess.

For tonight's dinner I don't have to worry about not having anyone to appreciate it or having to clean up the mess myself. Easter dinner is a family affair. Everyone contributes to preparation and everyone helps with the clean up.

I normally forget to take photos of the meals that I prepare so you have to really appreciate the photos that are on this particular post.

It's been many years since I made dinner buns or anything remotely close to dinner buns. These are Rosemary Dinner Buns and I'm hoping that they taste as good as they look. There was asparagus sauteed with olive oil and garlic, baked ham, carrots and turnips, potatoes au gratin, strawberry shortcake and Easter Rice Krispie (dipped in chocolate no less!) treats courtesy of Kristin.

These recipes are not from Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution but I thought it would be fun to post photos of what we are eating in our house this Easter. What did you eat?

A Food Blog????

2010-03-29T10:24:00.000-07:00

Jamie Oliver is starting a food revolution in the United States. I watched his series when he took on the lunch programs in Britian........shocking to see what kids were putting into their bodies and they really had no clue. Tim and I have always strived to feed our kids good nutritious food but I know that I can do better. I was reading Scattered Mom's blog this morning and she is getting involved in the food revolution and is going to start cooking and showcasing some of Jamie Oliver's recipes. I am going to try to do the same. With Tim working out of town now it's just Ryan and I most nights for dinner but that boy likes good food....his choice of topping for a pizza....artichoke hearts.

Read along or even better join us in this food revolution. I am going to post photos of the food that I cook....should be fun!

We're home

2009-08-12T10:21:00.003-07:00

We ended up coming home via Victoria as there was at least a two sailing wait to Nanaimo. We got home at around 6:30 so it was still a decent time and we were able to unpack the trailer before going to bed. Today will be lazing around for awhile then grocery shopping and BC insurance for the truck. I slept until 9:00 which is really amazing considering that most mornings on the road we were up by 6:00 or so. It's nice to be home and the house is clean and tidy....how great is that....awesome, Ryan!

Almost Home

2009-08-11T10:32:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, Aug. 11

After showers and breakfast we were on our way by 7:30am. We hit Manning Park about 8:30. It's 10:30am as I'm typing this and we are passing Abbotsford. It's nice to be back in BC and close to home. Tim figures if we don't have any waits at the ferry we should be home by dinner time. Can't wait. We've had a wonderful trip but it will be nice to be at home again. I've missed my kids. We got to see Cory and although it was only a short visit both times it was enough to see that he is okay and doing really well. It will be wonderful to see Ryan and Kristin. I'm looking forward to moving Kristin and Brian up to CR. It will be nice to have her close to us again.

The Kootenays

2009-08-11T10:31:00.000-07:00

Monday, Aug. 10

We got away from Creston a little later than normal and headed up to Nelson to see Taylor. We were originally going to go north and take the ferry but we decided that we would probablyhave some kind of a wait there so decide to go through Salmo instead. Phil was right about seeing what our new truck is capable of going through the Kootenay Pass. Although the Kootenay Pass summit is only 1774 m in elevation the elevation of Ripple Mtn just past the Pass is 2933 m. I'm happy to report that the new truck came through with flying colours....literally!

We arrived in Nelson at almost noon and after a few wrong turns we foun d Taylor's place. She has a nice place with a gorgeous view of Kootenay Lake. We met her cat, Motley but didn't get to meet her boyfriend, Vaughn, as he was at work. We had a really nice visit with her and it was over far too soon. We were on our way around 1:30.

I fell asleep around Castlegar and didn't wake up until we were heading into Christina Lake. Unfortunately, I didn't get any photos of Christina Lake. It's really pretty there. We got gas in Christina Lake at the gas station /hardware store/liquor store. It was smooth sailing until we got past Grand Forks and hit Phoenix Mountain.....the elevation is only 1105m but there was someone in a small black car at the head of the line who was going 40km/hr the whole way. There were a lot of smoking brakes along that part of the trip and you can bet there was a lot of cursing going on in all the vehicles behind that car. I know there was some in our vehicle. This person didn't even have the courtesy to pullover at any point and there were several spots where he could have. I'm sure there were probably 30 cars behind this guy.......you would think he would pull over!

I have to say that the worst part of the drive was the drive into Osoyoos. There were switchbacks a-plenty there. The elevation on Anarchist Mountain (aptly named I might say) is only 1233m compared to Ripple Mountain at 2933m but it was so winding that I almost had to close my eyes a few times. If you look closely at the photo you can see the way the road winds back and forth on itself. Tim and I were surprised at the number of people in Osoyoos. It's turned into a resort mecca. There were people everywhere and I couldn't get over the number of condos and resorts along the lakes. We stopped outside of Osoyoos and got some fruit and were in awe of the number of vineyards in the area. I finished Tim's second sock just before we stopped! The plan was to stay on the number 3 but somehow (and we're still not sure how) Tim ended up on the 97 going towards Pentiction. We only figured this out when we went through Oliver and found a place to stop for dinner. The rest stop had a map of all of the vineyards in the area and that was when Tim realized he was on the wrong road. Fortunately we were able to get on the 3A just past Okanagan Falls and get on the right road. All was fine in the end. We were planning on getting to Manning Park but decided that it would be nice to have a shower in the morning so we found a nice private campsite in Princeton. It was a right on the river and had free showers....what more can you ask for. We were in an set up by 8:30.

Leaving Calgary

2009-08-09T09:22:00.000-07:00

Sunday, Aug. 9

We had a wonderful time with Cory and his friends. Friday night we went out to the Kilt and Caber Pub and had a great evening with food, beer and shooters! Yes.....I downed a few shooters; I impressed those young'uns (although I did pay for it a little bit the next day......not too much but a wee little bit).

On Saturday we slept in and just had a quiet afternoon. Cory cooked us an amazing lasagna dinner with garlic bread and caesar salad. Needless to say we were stuffed afterwards.....I'm sure that all that weight I lost before going on this trip has slowly crept back on...how could it not with all this great food! Later in the evening Tim and I took Cory and Alisha out to Olympic Park (recognizable by the very large ski jumps) for the Pearl Jam concert. The view from the top of the park was amazing but you will have to take my word for because I did not have my camera with me....can you believe that? It took us quite awhile to get back to Cory's as there is road construction happening all over Calgary. We spent a quiet evening reading.

Today we got up around 6:30 and organized ourselves. Cory got up around 8:00 to say goodbye. As I said in an earlier post I'm not very good at goodbyes. I struggle with them as an adult and I struggled with them as a child. I cry each and every time I say goodbye to Cory. Alisha was so sweet....she gave me a hug and said in the sweetest voice...."Aww...don't cry" and I'm sure you can guess what that did to me.....yup....I cried more. Just as it took me quite some time to stop crying after leaving Bob it was the same when I left Cory. I miss him like crazy already but he's doing so well in Calgary. He seems content and happy and that's really all a parent wants for their children; that they be happy and well. Like I said, he's doing well and I know he will continue to do well because that's the kind of person he is. Unfortunately, it is going to be awhile before we get to see him again. He is going to school for September and October. We don't want to interrupt his schooling so we probably won't see him until November. Thank goodness for the internet....it allows us to stay in close contact.

We were on the road by 8:30am and at around 10:00am we saw a sign for Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump. My friend Carole told me to make su re we stopped there. So we did. We spent at least an hour and a half there. Both Tim and I found it to be very interesting and informative. The Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump was used by the Blackfoot, Peigan and Blood tribes for over 6,000 years.

After leaving Head-Smashed-In (the story behind the name is that a young man wanted to see the buffalo jump from a different perspective and hid under a ledge where th e jump was happening, he ended up being caught between the animals and the cliffs. When his people came to do the butchering of the buffalo, they found him with his skull crushed, hence the name). we headed west on the #2 and went through Pincher Creek. Apparently Pincher Creek is harnessing wind power in a big way. There are windmills everywhere there. There are 77 windmills placed strategically and they harness enough wind to power 16,000 homes.

We stopped at the site of the Frank Slide. There was absolutely no way that I could capture it all. The amount of rock that sheered off and slid down that mountainside was phenomenal. It completely buried the town in 1908. There were over a 100 people killed in the slide.

We passed into BC at 2:30 and I know that y'all have been saying that there's been a heatwave here.....well we brought the rain back for you. It started to rain as we drove into BC.....we travelled this whole country and it seems that the rain is just following us around. We saw the World's Biggest Dump Truck in Sparwood!

We drove through thunder and lightening before getting to Cranbrook. Some of the businesses in Cranbrook were without power so I guess the storm passed over Cranbook. We eventually found a gas station with power and got some gas.....we also grabbed a coffee at Tim Horton's.

It's nice to be back in BC and that much closer to home. We have stopped in Creston and found a campsite across from the Columbia Brewing Company. It's a lovely spot and the fact that we got the last one makes it even more lovely.

Planning the final stage of the trip

2009-08-08T09:11:00.000-07:00

We're planning the final leg of the journey......Alberta to BC. We are going to go home through the Crow's Nest Pass and through the Kootenays. We are hoping to see my niece, Taylor, on the way through....haven't hugged her for ages. New things to take pictures of!!! How exciting! We will head out sometime tomorrow morning as Cory has to work.

Photos of Theresa, Stephen and baby Henry

2009-08-08T08:28:00.000-07:00

Remember when I said I didn't have pictures of Pat's daughter Theresa, Stephen and baby Henry....well, now I do.

Isn't he the cutest thing around? He always looks surprised! I love the way he's looking at his dad while he's eating....what a gorgeous family.

Thanks Pat!

the final stretch.....

2009-08-06T13:27:00.000-07:00

Thursday, August 6

This morning we woke up at 5:30....not sure if that is the result of going through two time zones in one day. We got to see the sun rise. We drove to Chaplin, Saskatchewan before we stopped and had breakfast.

Did you know that they harvest salt in Chaplin? It was the strangest thing to see.

I'm not sure if I've mentioned that we've seen very little in the way of wildlife on the trip.....the odd squirrel, that poor gopher, a deer or two, some cattle, some buffalo but nothing much really. One of the few times that I didn't have my camera at the ready we passed a herd of antelope! Wow! I'm ticked that I didn't get a picture though.

We will be in Alberta sometime today and hopefully at Cory's by dinner time.

So about those noises.....

2009-08-06T12:51:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, Aug. 5th
With the exception of the noises that the truck was making the trip to Winnipeg was fairly uneventful. It was what happened once we got to Winnipeg that made the day very exceptional. Tim finally just got fed up with the issues with the truck and all the stress attached to it and decided to trade it in. He was also tired of being THAT driver. You know the one I mean......the one we all curse.....the one that crawls up the smallest of hills because the vehicle just can't handle the hill and the trailer at the same time! We spent most of the day there. We dealt with a nice young man (he was 24 for crying out loud!) and Tim is much happier now and enjoying his new truck...wouldn't you know that it would be at the END of the trip! But at least it's before going through the Rockies again.

We ended driving most of the night to make up for spending so much time in Winnipeg. It was the first time we had travelled at night so it was interesting to watch the sun go down over the Saskatchewan horizon. It was really beautiful to see. The endless horizon of the prairies was a nice change from Ontario. There are some really beautiful parts of Ontario but when you're driving through it for endless hours it's sometimes hard to remember the beauty of it.

The new truck is very nice to ride in and from the look on Tim's face it must be nice to drive too. We pulled into the tourist info place in Moose Jaw at midnight. There was another car there when we got there so we weren't alone. I expect that it will be an early morning tomorrow.

Thunder Bay and beyond.....

2009-08-05T18:52:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, August 4

We slept in this morning! It was almost 7:30 by the time we got up and got going. We had coffee, showers and breakfast then we were on our way. The weather was sunny and beautiful when we left but wouldn't you know it....it got cloudy and rainy within minutes of us getting on the road. The picture of the campground sign was taken at 9:20am and the picture of the dark, ugly clouds was taken at 9:40am. Amazing!

We were at Thunder Bay by 11:30 and stopped at the Terry Fox Lookout. It is an amazing stop. The monument to Terry is phenomenal a nd quite moving to look at. It is backdropped by a panoramic view of Lake Superior and the City of Thunder Bay. I'm glad we stopped there this time.

We drove past the Arctic Divide but I missed getting a picture of it. This is the place where all the rivers start to flow north rather than into the Great Lakes. Shortly after that we stopped at the place where the Time Zone changes which is also 90 degrees Longitude West. Apparently, this a big deal.....

The drive across Ontario is long and to be honest....really boring. I am halfway through the second sock for Tim.....if you saw the size of these socks (they are very big....) you would truly appreciate how long this trek across Ontario has been.

We drove through Kenora and got lost again. I'm not sure how it's possible since it's not that big but we did. We enjoyed looking at the lake as we were trying to find our way of Kenora.

We finally made it across the Ontario/Manitoba border around dinner time. We found a provincial campsite just inside Manitoba at West Hawk Lake. It was least expensive of all of the provincial site that we've been in so far. It was a very nice, family oriented campground right on the lake. Not as nice as the provincial sites in Ontario but it was good enough for the night.

Tomorrow we are going to find a GM dealer to see what the funny noises are. It's been a long, trying day.

More Ontario.....

2009-08-05T18:49:00.000-07:00

Monday, August 3.

We were up and on the road by quarter after eight. We stopped at Blind River to find the sani-dump and to get gas. The plan is to try to get to Thunder Bay today but that's over 800km from Blind River so I think that's just not realistic. We will probably try to find a campsite on Lake Superior again.....we really enjoyed camping at Agawa Bay the last time we were through here.

It's been raining off and on since we got to Ontario but often the sun breaks through. Today the sun has not made an appearance at all but I've learned that rainy weather is "a good day for driving". We've heard it often from RVers along the road. There is nothing but optimism in the RV world and if it's raining "it's a good day for driving".

We stopped at Sault Ste. Marie for coffee and gas. We stopped at Agawa Bay for lunch. After lunch we went for a walk along the beach for a bit. It was nice to see the beach again. But it was too early to stop for the day. Just past Wawa and by a large sign for the Pukaskwa National Park the scenery is looking particularly desolate. The hillside is scorched black and it looks like the scene of a fairly recent forest fire. The sticks that used to be trees go on for miles and miles. The new growth is thick but not very old it seems.....from what Tim tells me it takes a lot longer for a forest to grow here than it does on Vancouver Island.

We stopped at the Rainbow Falls Provincial Park just past Terrace Bay for dinner and decided that it was as good a place as any to stop for the night. There are two Provincial Campgrounds in the Rainbow Falls Provincial Park, the Rossport Campground and the Whitesands Lake Campground. We stayed at the Whitesands Lake Campground. It was peaceful, quiet and clean. There were showers, flush toilets and laundry facilities. Not bad for a provincial site! I think we'll sleep well tonight.

Ontario.....again

2009-08-02T12:59:00.000-07:00

Sunday, August 2

We had a shower as soon as we got up. We tried to get organized as quickly as possible. As nice as the place was to look at we really didn't feel comfortable there. We felt like "weekenders"! We got some Timmy's at Arnprior and nearly got the trailer stuck as we were negotiating around the corner to the drive-through. That was the first and last time we tried a drive through....not good. We stopped at Petawawa to find a grocery store but when we ended up on the base we decided this wasn't meant to be so we pushed on. We drove through Chalk River and didn't see any evidence of the reactor at all...no signs or anything. We found a beautiful rest stop between Point Alexander and Rolphton on Holden Lake. On the map it looks like Holden Lake is part of the Ottawa River. One thing that we noticed going through New Brunswick was the lack of rest stops of any kind. Ontario has really nice rest stops that have lots of room and nice picnic areas. They're usually close to water (there's lots of it in Ontario!) I don't have a lot of pictures for today as it's mostly been trees and bush so far. We're hoping to get close to Sault Ste. Marie tonight and I'm thinking it will probably be a truck stop tonight. It's not a bad thing!
So, we drove and drove and drove. We found a grocery store in North Bay and Tim had a nap.
After that we drove and drove some more. We found a rest stop just outside Hagar and had dinner and Tim had another bit of a rest. We drove and drove some more. We managed to get gas just outside Sudbury so we didn't go into Sudbury. We drove and drove some more......are you seeing a pattern here?

At around 8:30pm we were heading to Blind River to get gas and were almost there when Tim saw a campground along the highway that had a vacancy sign. Well, it turns out that the proprietor doesn't have enough letters for the word 'No'....but he found a spot for us anyway and let us hook up to the power from the washroom. It was called Lake Lauzon Resort and it was right on the lake. We were able to watch the sun go down over the lake so it was a very nice finish to a very long day of driving for Tim.

Quebec.....again

2009-08-01T13:47:00.000-07:00

Saturday, Aug. 1

We were on the road by 8:06am. We stopped at Edmunston and used the facilities at the Visitor Information center before venturing into Quebec. We stopped at Riviere-du-Loop for gas and ate lunch at La Pocatiere. We blasted through most of Quebec until we got to Montreal....that place is such a nightmare to navigate.....but we made it and high-fived each other when we got through it. We drove to the Ontario border and had dinner at Voyaguer, the Tourist Information place. At around 7:00pm we stopped for gas at Casselman and Tim happened to ask about camping in the area. The fellow there said there was a really nice campground at the next exit in Limoges. We took a chance and lo and behold we go the last site. It was an unserviced site but at this point we didn't care....we just wanted a place to sleep. The name of the campsite was Kittawa and I swear I felt like I had been dropped into National Lampoon's Vacation....somewhere in Wally World. Don't get me wrong it was a pretty campground but wow. For one thing it was huge...over 350 sites! Everyone was driving golf carts around and beeping and waving at each other! There were man-made lakes with fountains and kids and dogs everywhere. After we had set up Tim and I decided to go for a walk. We took our key to the bathroom (yes...we got a key to the bathroom!) As we were looking around an older, shirtless fellow was sitting at a picnic table smoking (yes......shirtless, it was not a pretty sight) and kindly pointed us in the direction of the bathroom. He mentioned that we must be "weekenders" as we didn't know our way around. Apparently there are only 60 some odd sites available to us lowly "weekenders". Tim straightened him out real fast and told him that we weren't even "weekenders"......we were just "overnighters". Word must have spread pretty fast because people watched us very intently as we walked past their sites and most of them didn't even return the hello that we gave them......Tim said he felt like Truman on the Truman Show and I said I felt like I was in National Lampoon's Vacation....Wally's World. Oh yes......I'm thinking a truck stop is looking pretty good right about now.

Heading home......

2009-08-01T13:31:00.000-07:00

Friday, July 31

We left PEI early in the morning. In a way I'm sad to be heading home. We've had such a wonderful trip and heading home means that it's over. We loved the Maritime provinces....all of them. There is something so relaxing and laid back about life here. There were so many highlights to this trip but the biggest and best was seeing Bob and meeting Pat and her family too! I can't wait to head out this way again.

On our way to the bridge we happened upon a little roadside stand that was selling new PEI potatoes. I was determined to get some before we headed home. The girl selling them was such a sweetheart that we had to get a picture of her. The red PEI dirt doesn't wash off easily as Tim found out when he spread the potatoes out in a bin in an effort to dry them out. Can't wait to try them!

There is no way to describe the Confederation Bridge....it's just there in all it's glory. It's an amazing thing to look at. I thought I would have problems going across and have to close my eyes but it was too amazing to close my eyes!

We stopped in Monc ton, New Brunswick for lunch and a walk around. We missed it on the way across the first time. We did a little sightseeing and some shopping then headed on our way. We drove until close to 7:00pm and stopped in St. Leonard, New Brunswick for the night. We stayed at a really nice campsite just off the highway. It's owned by a young couple who just bought it in May. They are doing a great job but Tim and I got a real chuckle out of the old timers that they seem to have inherited along with the campground. There were several sites close to us that had lawn ornaments, gnomes and various other outdoor knick-knacks all set up.
Could that be us in a few years?????

Summerside

2009-07-31T03:54:00.000-07:00

Thursday, July 30

It was raining when we got up this morning. There was a break and it seemed like the sun was out for awhile so we packed up a picnic lunch and headed out to Summerside. We took a different grid road and found it to be even better than the last one we were on. They were doing construction at Hunter River....putting sidewalks and new road down through the down. We waited there for a bit but again the wait was so minimal. We noticed that there are cottages and summer places for rent everywhere on PEI, not just along the water. By the time we got to Summerside it was raining again and the wind had picked up. The big box stores were on the way into Summerside but downtown was small and quaint. We stopped at The College of Piping to look into going to The Highland Storm which is a showcase of music and dancing done by the students of the college. Unfortunately, the show was cancelled last night as some of their students were competing elsewhere. We did get to see a small demonstration of piping, highland dance and Scottish step dancing by some of the younger students. They were terrific. I wish I could have gotten a photo of the young man's step dancing but his feet were a blur. Amazing! We went to Spinnaker's Landing which was part of the boardwalk in downtown Summerside. The rain and wind didn't let up so a picnic was really not in the cards so we went to the Dockside pub for some lunch. We watched the seagulls battling the wind and had quite a chuckle watching them. I think they were enjoying the wind.....it was like they were playing! The rain picked up and didn't stop for most of the day. We went back to the campsite and listened to the rain on the trailer. I knit and Tim read. We had hoped that the rain would stop so we could go to the drive in theatre in Brackley but it didn't so it was quiet night for us. We are leaving PEI tomorrow and heading home. I will be sad to leave the Maritimes.....I really love this part of Canada.

Charlottetown

2009-07-30T12:34:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, July 29
We came back to the campsite and had lunch and got cleaned up a bit before heading to Charlottetown. It's hard to believe that Charlottetown is the capital....it's so peaceful and serene. There are three different walking tours of the city, each one colour coded. There is the Waterfront walk which is green and 6.4km, the Boutique Shopping walk which is yellow and 2.2km and the Heritage walk which is red and is 3.4km. We opted for the Heritage walk and followed the red line that was painted on the sidewalks all through town. Yes.....we followed a red line all through town! We took a little detour and went to Fanningbank which is the Lt. Governor's Residence. I thought it was much nicer that the Governor General's Residence, Rideau Hall but that's just my opinion. Fanningbank is the big white building that looks like it could be a mansion on some plantation way down south. We watched kids learning to sail on the harbour....we listened to them screaming with laughter as they fell into the water. We walked through Province House which is the seat of PEI's provincial legislature and has been since 1847. I bought myself a Dirt Shirt.....apparently it is a must when on PEI. We stopped at the Merchantman Pub and ate dinner. We had PEI mussels.....can't beat them! We hit rush hour coming home and it took all of 10 minutes to get through. It was another great day in the Maritimes! I'm sad that we will be leaving on Friday morning.

PEI - Cavendish and beyond

2009-07-29T05:01:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, July 29th

Today we went to Cavendish. On the way we stopped at North Rustico and walked along a bit of the boardwalk that is there. North Rustico has a population of 810 and the place is absolutely spotless and pristine. It is a working fishing village with boats, work sheds, and traps lining the quay. From there we drove to Cavendish and marvelled at how great the grid roads are. The grid roads here are better than the main highways in Ontario! Throughout our travels in Maritimes we have not once seen litter along the roads! Everyone's home is well taken care of and no matter how big the yards are the grass is always mowed! PEI has a very slow pace. It's easy to relax here. Tim and I love the Maritimes and we especially like PEI.

When we got to Cavendish we found the Tourist Information Center and got information about what to see and where it is. Our first stop was Green Gables. (As if I would go to PEI and not see that!) Green Gables is real! There is a house with Green Gables that Lucy Maud Montgomery based her books on. It was the home of a cousin...a place where she spent a great deal of time as a child. There really is a Haunted Woods! Tim and I went for a walk through there. I loved LM Montgomery's books when I was younger and it was great to see the places that are mentioned in the book. I thoroughly enjoyed going to Green Gables....Tim...not so sure I think.

From Green Gables we went to Charlottetown. That will be my next post.

Heading to PEI

2009-07-29T04:58:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, July 28

We spent two and half hours waiting for the ferry.....arrrghhh....I hate ferries. But on the upside we met a very nice couple from Calgary. We chatted with them for most of the one hour trip. They have three kids about the same age as our kids....their twins are going to UVic. We exchanged information and plan on keeping in touch with them. They are on the look out for an apartment for their girls and Kristin is giving up her place in a couple of weeks.......funny how life is.