Surprise gifts

Don't you just love receiving unexpected gifts... My sister is visiting us from Ontario for two weeks and her daughter (my niece) sent me a parcel with surprises. When she had posted about the tote bags she had made I commented that I just loved the design and color of the fabric and presto ''I now have one of those bags. I know exactly what I am going to use it for. Also included in the parcel was a Marie Claire magazine (french version which I can never find around here) full of Christmas ideas and the cutest little plate with birds and flowers on it (my favorites). This plate is going on a wall in my yellow kitchen.

Thank you so much Colleen for sharing these wonderful gifts with me.

Parade

The next two weeks will be spent celebrating our acadian culture. Yes, it's time for the annual Acadian Festival. Festivities started Saturday with an outdoors concert and celebrations for everyone will continue until August 15th. Sunday was the annual parade. The radio station my husband manages had a float in the parade and what else would a radio station have as a float - why yes, live music behind a pick-up truck and who was driving the truck - yes again, that would be me (sorry no picture).

Next two random pictures are of participants waiting for the parade to start.


After the parade Dave and I headed to another acadian festival to attend a live outdoor concert.

Trail Mix and the latest harvest

A snack that I love very much is trail mix and the best kind is home assembled. You get to make your trail mix with all the ingredients that you like. And that's exactly what I did last week. What would trail mix be without M & Ms :-)

Below - yesterday's harvest - three cukes, one zuke, one tiny tomato, a whole bunch of green beans and camomile that I will hang to dry for tea.

Award

I'm running a little late posting about this award but you know... I'm on vacation so things get put on hold when on vacation, he, he, he.

Joyce Ann over at http://feather-spirits.blogspot.com/has given me the Brillante Weblog Award. That was very nice of her to do that but that's the kind of person she is - down right nice and friendly. I feel honored. I am suppose to pass it on to 7 Brillante Weblogs.

The rules are :

• Put logo on your blog


• Add link to the person who awarded you


• Give 7 bloggers this award


• Add link to awarded bloggers

• Leave a comment to those awarded

I don't want anyone to feel obligated to pass this award to anyone if they don't feel like it. I just wanted to mention and recognize a few blogs that I enjoy reading and find inspiration in.

JoyceAnn - she gave me this award and I want to give it back to her with no obligations. You know how sometimes you feel like you know someone but have never met in person. Well this is the way I feel about JoyceAnn. We have so much in common, it's almost unbelievable that we don't know each other. We enjoy almost the exact same things in life. Although, she has grand kids and I don't :-)

Barb - she's the one that contacted me first with a comment on my blog and I am so blessed that she did. She is one of the kindest person I've ever known (real life or blogland). I read her blog daily. Please pray for Barb this week as she lost her father earlier in the week. I am inspired by this wonderful woman's kindness.

Colleen - what can I say, she's my niece and she's been a HUGE inspiration in my life. She is very well grounded and knows what she wants in life. She's an amazing mother and wife.

Sebrina - i found Sebrina's blog through my niece Colleen. Her family's journey to Ethiopia will bring joy and happiness in your own life. I can't help but be inspired by her devotion to her family.

HoneyB - i don't think I know her ''real'' name, i've always just called her honeyb :-) but please check out her blog. Her recipes are to die for. I've tried a few so far and haven't come across one that I did'nt like. In addition to her recipes, she also blogs about her life as a mother and wife to Grumpy (which is pretty hilarious sometimes).

Kim - we met through a shopping tote swap and we've been keeping in touch ever since. Her daily activities can be pretty hilarious at times. She makes me laugh every time I read her blog.

I know I haven't listed 7 bloggers but these are the ones that I have to read daily.

Still getting ready...

... for Winter.

Why is it so satisfying getting ready for the long Winter months (maybe not for everyone but for me it is). Knitting socks, mitts, scarfs and sweaters, canning and preserving food, cutting firewood, harvesting from the garden - I just LOVE doing these things. It's not hard work for me at all, I almost feel quilty because I like it so much.



If you did'nt plant a garden this year... visit a farmers' market, it's such a nice feeling.

Vegemite

(I want to apologize to the Australians that might read this blog).

My son's girlfriend just got back from two weeks in Australia. She was part of this. She had a wonderful time, saw so many fabulous Australian attractions. She brought back souvenirs for everyone, amazing pictures and this...

OMG this doesn't taste good (not to us Canadians anyways). But I know it's because we were not brought up on this stuff. We have dishes here in our culture that no one else wants to try so I perfectly understand that the people from Australia love this spread. I just had to research the stuff on the internet to know what it was made of. Check it out.

A little jar will go a very long way !

Méli-Mélange of flowers

Something I rarely do (I've mentioned this a few times before on this blog) is bring the flowers from my gardens inside the house. I prefer to leave them outside and admire them in their natural beauty. However, seeing this summer has been a season of abundance and that we have blooming flowers overflowing everywhere - I brought these in yesterday.

Happy weekend everyone !

Seaside creatures

The forecast yesterday was a warning of torential rain and wind but by yesterday afternoon they had lifted the warning - the storm was going to by-pass us in the ocean. So we ended up having nice sunny weather today. Tonight Dave and I went for a strole along the seaside looking for beachglass (we found about 50 pieces; sorry no pictures). A familiar scene along the beach - piles of discarded clam and lobster shells.


Taking a break (check the hairdo).

Playing in the warm salty water.


A tiny live crab eager to hide in the sand (see my shadow in the water).

This is not the same crab (no, we did'nt cook that tiny crab). It's an empty shell we found on the beach.

Don't you think this picture looks like a painting ? Dave took this picture, he probably wants to paint it on canvas.

Hope everyone is having a good week so far.

Starting vacation

Friday (July 18) I was officially on summer vacation. I go back to work on August 18. Yup, that's right - I am on vacation for a whole month. Do you think I'll run out of things to do...

So far this weekend there's been a whole lot of eating outside. Here is Friday's salmon burger with mayo and capers with BBQ roasted asparagus.


Saturday my brother, sister-in-law and Princess came over for a visit.

There has also been a lot of outdoor's embroidery work being done. I am part of a pin cushion and needlebook swap and my swap buddy is Rachel from New Zealand. I've completed the pin cushion and I am now working on the needlebook (sorry I can't post any pictures because Rachel checks my blog).

When it's too hot in the woods where we live we take a break and go to the ocean where there's always a nice breeze.

Last night Dave wasn't playing music with his band so we made a fire in our pit and just plain enjoyed ourselves. Check the white socks ! I needed those to ward-off the mosquitos from eating up most of my ankles.

Today we went to a local festival where we found yard sale items (and of course we just had to buy a bag full), loads of seafood to eat, live music and a lot of people we had'nt seen in a long time so it was a pleasant visit.

Tomorrow I am going on a road trip with my friend Clarisse (aka Clo) to Halifax in this :


Should be fun - too bad the forecast is for rain. But Clo and I still know how to have fun :

Weekend goodness

We had gorgeous weather over the weekend and Dave and I benefited from that beauty to enjoy the outdoors as much as possible. Here are a few pictures to show our happiness :

Saturday morning we went to the Belliveau Cove Farmers' Market. This is where we buy our organic chicken and dry fish.

We stopped at a few yard sales... here you will see a nice wall-vase and antique cookie cutters I found for $2.

Another yard sale find (and the best find of the day) was this whirly-wind airplane made from Coca-Cola cans.

It's difficult to have a weekend go by without posting about our gardens...

Potato plants are doing very well.



And this morning we get up to this... but we sure needed the rain.

Little rubies

Last evening my brother and sister-in-law were visiting and we just happened to fall on the subject of how long it's been since we've been wild strawberry picking in the fields. These little rubies are hard to come by in the past years because of the neglected overgrown fields. My brother knew of a good spot so off we go. I used to go with my mom all the time when I was a little girl so last night I felt like a little girl out there in the field picking away. When we got home (9:30 p.m.) I baked a Lazy Day Cake so we could have homemade strawberry shortcake with our supper tonight - it was delicious !!!!!

I had enough left to make these yummy muffins tonight - as I am typing this post, they are cooling on the rack.

Strawberry season is almost over here in the Maritimes. Now on to the next berry !!!!!

Clamburger recipe

Some bloggers, family and friends have asked me to post the clamburger recipe. Here it is.

Clamburger

2 eggs
2 (4.5 ounces/142 g) cans baby clams, drained
2/3 cup dry bread crumbs
2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon finely grated onion
Salt and pepper to taste
1 tablespoon oil
Ketchup
4 hamburger buns

In a bowl, beat eggs; add clams, bread crumbs, parsley, lemon juice and grated onion, stirring lightly to combine. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Shape into 4 flat patties and sauté in heated oil, turning to brown both sides. Serve with ketchup on toasted buns.

Makes 4 clamburgers.

Max

Dave and I made it to the BBQ we were invited to yesterday at Morris Island. There was a ton of delicious food. It's fun to spend time with friends. They got a new baby cat the day before - how cute is that. His name is Max.

24 hours - I even made bread

The past 24 hours have been busy but fun for both Dave and I. Weekends are for fun... right !

Last evening we went for groceries then we had supper at our favorite restaurant in Yarmouth. Here is a picture of Dave, making a funny face, with a cold beer while we waited for our supper. It was so nice and warm outside that we were able to have our supper on the restaurant's patio.

We were up bright and early this morning (Saturday) doing all sorts of stuff outside. We went to the Farmer's Market in Belliveau Cove then we came home... prepared everything to roast hot dogs on the open fire (hot dogs were for Dave).



We put more sawdust in our fruit garden. We planted these last year - raspberries, blueberries, currents and grapes.

Had to put this guy out... the crows are keeping an eye on those blueberries.

Our newly planted strawberry patch... only a month old.

Cherries.

I made this pound cake with chocolate glaze.

After we had cake, we went to the beach to fetch a pail of sand to put around our fire pit.


I made BBQ for supper tonight - ground organic chicken cheeseburgers (no pictures) and these yummy homemade clam burgers on toasted whole wheat buns. It was the first time I made these and I will certainly make them again.

And finally... I made bread.

Hmmmm, did I miss anything. Nope, I think that was it. Tomorrow we are heading to visit friends and have a BBQ. I'll post pictures (if I remember to bring my camera).