Canada's Birthday

We are so lucky to be able to call Canada home. You only have to watch the evening news for an hour and you will quickly come to the conclusion that Canada is one great country to live in. My only wish right now is that the rain would stop for a while and the sun would come out.

At 8 a.m. this morning Luc (left) and his friend Sylvain (right) left for their much anticipated vacation to Maine. Please keep them in your thoughts that they are safe on those highways.

This morning Dave and I went to a U-Pick strawberries. I needed 12 baskets - make jam (not freezer, we prefer the regular jam), freeze some whole for pies and smoothies, eat some every day for a week, desserts and other stuff that we'll think about I'm sure. Those strawberries up there, they're not from the U-Pick. They're from our own garden. And those little black specs you see on the berries, they're not bugs it's dirt (did I mention how much it's been raining in these parts). Our 14 little canes that we planted just last summer are supplying us with a daily feed of berries.


I must leave you with this funny image I took this evening. These are all mailboxes for various bills. I guess the owner doesn't like getting his hydro bills... (click on image to enlarge).

Two families

Two weeks ago when Ginette was home to talk wedding stuff she had a mishap with her Toyota Matrix. In plain words - it broke down while she was here. So she went back to Moncton on the Digby/St. John ferry and her fiancé was on the other side to pick her up. We kept the car and had it repaired at the dealership in Yarmouth. Dave and I went to Moncton late last week to deliver the car to its ''happy'' owner. She sure was content to get her car back.

André's family is from New Brunswick so we never got a chance to get to know them and since the wedding is in two months Ginette and André thought it would be nice to bring both families together (Luc wasn't with us). We had a delicious BBQ and afterwards we went bowling. We had a ball. Thank you Ginette and André for bringing the two families together before the wedding. André's other sister and her boyfriend joined us later.

Grooms father, sister, stepmom, André, Ginette and Dave.

André's new car.

And of course we need a picture of Meeko.

Wedding planners

My daughter was home for the weekend to finalize a few wedding preparations.

Below - the wedding planners : Denise (best friend and maid-of-honor), Ginette and myself getting ready to leave the house early Saturday morning for a full day of cake designing, registering, mesuring, deciding, looking, figuring, flower smelling ...

Bridal registry.

We took a break for lunch at Chez Christophe for rappie pie. All rested and recharged, we headed...

... to the Chapel at the university. Trying to figure out where to put the chairs, flowers, etc.


Taken from the balcony.

We got home by 4:30 p.m. and Dave had a pail of white clams (steamers) ready and waiting to be enjoyed.

After supper we went to the florist to order the flowers. I had so much fun, thanks girls for having me tag along.

Second best time of the year

For me this is the second best time of the year... the first being Fall. And the reason I love this time of the year is the joy I get from working the soil, planting tiny little seeds and watch them grow into ''something'' that we can enjoy at the table. Weeding is kind of a meditation for me. I'm always weeding - veggies or flowers. Dave bought me this cart last weekend. I can easily wheel it around and fill it up.


I think these are some kind of Columbine... not your usual species.

Remember last year when I experimented with an unsual way of planting potatoes. And in the end, the scepticals were pleasantly surprised with the results. We had potatotes. I saved a few to use as seedlings this year. So far it's looking good. However, I changed things around a little. I only planted in single layer wooden boxes instead of the double layer. Last year I had 12 plants; this year we have 24.

We've been enjoying green onions for a while now.

I had to save the very best for last (as a surprise). I WON; I WON. Last week I got an email from Austen over at Make + Do that I had won giveaway no. 6 (And today she used my question on rubber stamps in her Crafty Q & A segment). Yesterday I found this yummyness in my mailbox. I'm thinking a multicolored scarf for next Winter. That bamboo yarn is so, so, soft.

I still can't believe I won. It was such a surprise to get that email from Austen. You should head on over to Make + Do. She has amazing giveaways. And, the information she shares is very useful.

Perfect, if you're a duck

To sum up this past weekend's weather - wet and damp with a hint of sun.

Friday early evening - looks like rain, oh wait it is raining.

Saturday mid-afternoon - hint of sun. This is the only time we saw the sun the entire weekend.

Sunday early afternoon - hmmm, should I put clothes on the line outside to dry...

... maybe not.
Woods-y centerpiece.
The picture below is for my friend Louise (she's blogless) in Ontario. She loves these flowers - me, not so much. I call them weeds. They grow like crazy around here alongside the roads.

Saturday afternoon my son drove 2 hours to buy his first Dobro. Dave went along for the ride. This is probably the only string instrument he hasn't mastered... yet ! Dave has a Dobro and Luc borrowed it for the past couple of weeks to see if he would like playing it before he bought one for himself. Apparently he loved it because now he has one.

Happy Monday tomorrow everyone !!!!!

Dinner at the Resort

My son's girlfriend works at the Digby Pines Resort. She was taking Luc for his birthday dinner tonight and last week she asked her parents and Dave and I if we wanted to join them. I had never gone before and I am SO happy I said yes to the invitation. The food was amazing. I had the ceasar salad for my appetizer, scallops in a delicious sauce and for dessert I had a seven layer, belgian chocolate cake with a fancy sauce drizzled on top. YUM !



Wishing everyone a good start of the week.

Ruby's first run of 2009

Before going to Ruby...

...let me first tell you that Friday we celebrated Luc's 24th birthday with chinese food (his request) and an oreo ice-cream cake.

Now on to Ruby. Having done very little around the house yesterday, we knew that today was a stay home day and show at least some minor accomplishments in the form of laundry, dish washing, cooking, baking and gardening. However, the weather was just perfect to take Ruby out from her winter hibernation and take her for a run.

So we did.

We parked the car at a fish plant and rode for about an hour. I think an hour is just about enough for Ruby's first of 2009, don't you think ;-)



Did we feel the least bit quilty for leaving all the chores undone at home... not the least !!!!

Purples and Whites

It seems that it's all about purple and white in the gardens at this moment. Here is tonight's tour of the backyard gardens.




And the rustic fence Dave was working on Sunday. Here it is, just like I had envisoned it - old and rustic.

Long day outside

What a gorgeous day it was today. Dave and I spent every single minute outside. We came in for lunch and for a late supper. First thing this morning I put a long line of clothes to dry than I set some sun tea to brew on the back deck.


Our son heading out to meet up with friends. They cruised all day on their bikes.

Dave mostly worked in and around the fruit garden. Weeding, putting up trellis' for the grapes and expanding the strawberry bed to accomodate this year's runners. I, on the other hand could be found in the flower gardens - weeding ! and there's lots of it to do.

I saw in a magazine a very rustic looking fence made from twigs. Dave has started to build it but it's not finished. I will post pictures when it's all done.

And at the end of a long day gardening, the tools need to be put away for another day of ''fun in the sun''.
Wishing everyone a good Monday tomorrow and hope you all get to do something that puts a smile on your face.

Clam it

Before
After
We were told by the claming experts that this weekend was the extremely low tides compared to normal low tides. This means that it's a good time to go diggin for clams. Being refueled by a three hour yoga workshop this morning I jumped at the offer when Dave suggested we go try our luck digging ! By Law, anything under 3'' has to be put back... and we still had a full bucket.

This post is dedicated to my friend Clarisse. She was going on another beach, I wonder how many she got !!!!!

To be honest, Dave dug all these clams but I searched and found holes for him to dig so technically I helped. When we came home, he cleaned our harvest. Tomorrow I will can them for next winter.

Hope everyone is having a joyous weekend.