Saturday 29 June 2013

Butter Tarts

Canada Day is only 2 days away so to kick off the weekend I made 'Butter Tarts'.  They are a Canadian speciality, Mounties are always eating them, and I'm not sure you can get them anywhere else in the world.  Brits, they are akin to a treacle tart without the bread crumbs but are typically served cold, not hot with a good scoop of vanilla ice cream.  Here's how mine looked.
This is the Canadian Living recipe I used it seemed pretty good to me.  Tom said the flavour was great but it was a bit gooey and he prefers his Canadian tarts firm, good job that's not how he prefers his English wives.  Anyway, if you feel like putting on a few pounds for the summer whip up a batch, you won't regret it.

Thursday 27 June 2013

Last Day of School

Today was the kids last day of school until September 3rd, arghhh, what is it with these ridiculously long summer holidays.  At the leavers assembly they both got awards, Jacob got top Mathletics points for grade 3 and for the whole school and Kindergarten (inc Rose) got a Lambton County School Board award for raising money collecting spare change.  Here they are with their certificates.
If I'd known it was important I'd have turned up and got photos of them at school 
I spent the afternoon making the most of my final children free moments at the local quilters' guild show.  I love the way I always feel so young at these events.  Everyone was very friendly and I took many pictures of the different works but as I think it would be a bit dull to put them all in I shall restrict myself to a couple.



There's 4 for you.  Mostly they were pretty traditional but there were some great colour schemes and the green one made of hexagons was phenomenal. Lisa, you can tell your mum that I will be joining the Lambton County Quilters' Guild on the last Wednesday of September.

Monday 24 June 2013

Here comes the Sun

Summer has arrived in Grand Bend and it is making up for lost time  Yesterday afternoon we had our first proper beach trip of the season, I left my camera in the kitchen so you'll just have to take my word for it.  The sun was hot and the water was just above freezing which was an interesting combo but we all managed to have fun.

Today temperatures have gone up another notch and at 5pm our 3 unreliable thermometers were reading 29C, 30C and 35C, I estimate that with humid X it was aroud 250C.  This is what the hot weather has done to Jacob.
perhaps he could consider removing his sweater?
To cool them off I sent the kids into the yard with a bucket of water, a 'liquidator' and instructions to take turns nicely and not squirt water directly onto each other.  They took turns all right but this is how things looked when I checked on them.  In Rose's defence he was shrieking "Shoot me in the B**t!" and she'd obviously taken a few hits herself.


Saturday 22 June 2013

Some blog opportunities just don't work out

Yesterday on the way to the bus stop we found this sign, third one down if you can read it.


Pickleball??? I was rubbing my hands together in glee thinking I'd found an ancient (and potentially amusing) Canadian tradition to record.  However, According to Wikipedia Pickleball is not ancient, Canadian or even an excuse for a condiment based food fight but a 'racket sport which combines elements of badminton, tennis, and table tennis' invented in 1960s America.  Disappointingly it doesn't even involve pickles.  Oh well, you got a good view of Jacob's tongue out of it.

Monday 17 June 2013

Habits of Trees

You could easily think that its been snowing around here recently.  It hasn't but the Eastern Cottonwoods have been shedding masses of this lovely floaty stuff like thistle down all over the place.  I googled Cottonwoods and it seems they are some sort of Poplar so this fluffy phenomenon is probably not unknown in the UK, I've just never noticed it before.  Here is some fluff still on a tree.
And here is Jacob holding some, I don't know why he looks so cross.
So far this June the weather has been very hit and miss, a far cry from last year when I was well on the way to a great tan by this time and jeans had been relegated to the back of the wardrobe.  Yesterday we had an impromptu beach trip to wash children's legs after a muddy walk, the sun suddenly decided to emerge from behind some very murky looking clouds and it turned into the first proper beach worthy day of the season.  Shame we had no swimming stuff/picnic/sunscreen or anything but it didn't stop the kids having fun.

Wednesday 12 June 2013

A Weekend in Niagara

I think it might be best if I write as little as possible or this post could get very long.  We spent the weekend in the Niagara area.  When we arrived on Saturday the falls were barely visible there was so much mist and it wasn't a great day so I'm afraid I do not have any spectacular photos.
I've only previously been there once when we just stopped to get out of the car and look at the falls so the town beyond was a mystery.  I was amazed at how like a giant version of Blackpool it is, I don't think I've seen so much tat in all my life and was astonished at how much you can spend on rubbish attractions.  Needless to say the kids thought it was a magical wonderland and wanted to do everything.

On Sunday we escaped to Niagara on the Lake which appears to be the direct opposite of Niagara Falls, very genteel and filled with tasteful gift shops and Restaurants, the only thing the 2 Niagaras have in common is that they are both very, very expensive.  Here are the kids on a high quality slide in Niagara on the Lake.
Stop 1 of the obligatory playground tour
And here is Rose posing in front of America, just across the river.
We had to find a subway for lunch as the cafes and Restaurants of Niagara on the Lake were far too tasteful to take my tasteless children into then we did the tourist thing in Fort George, a reconstructed 'British' fort from the beginning of the 19th century.
Hurray for the Union Jack!
It was a beautiful day, warm with a bit of a breeze coming in off the lake, perfect for wandering about reading a guide book and the kids really got into the history thing.  There were lots of buildings peopled by costumed characters showing you how to cook and fire a musket and stuff and you could handle lots of the artefacts as they were replicas.  Rose became fixated on Major General Isaac Brock and specifically whether or not he had his uniform on when he died and we had to drag Jacob out of the interpretation centre with all the writing in when the rest of us were so hungry that we had to leave.


If you are ever in the area I strongly advise that you visit the Avondale Dairy Bar where they have 50 flavours of handmade ice cream.  It was very good.
We drove to St Catherines but they were having a music festival so we went for a walk on the beach (and found another playground).  This next picture looked brilliant in real life as you could see the Toronto Skyline and the CN tower behind the tall ship "Look at the Juxtaposition on that" I thought to myself, also "I must buy myself a good camera one day".
 That was all we could fit in on Sunday and on Monday it rained so we legged it for home via Scott and Deborah's week old baby.  Tiny babies are so lovely when you can give them back when they get loud and smell.

Oh dear, the no writing thing didn't work too well did it and I'm too tired to attempt humour, I can't work out how to finish this sentence either.

Friday 7 June 2013

A really fast Canoe?

I have just received a parcel that was posted in the UK on Tuesday.  Wow, it must have come on a turbo powered canoe and has got to be some sort of postal world record.

Naturally it was for the kids and not for me even though it had my name on it.  I confess that when I heard it was coming I was glad that it would/should not arrive before we go away on our little sojourn to Niagara tomorrow as for some reason I thought that the item included for Rose was leopard print and I didn't want to take it with us.  Imagine my surprise and relief when I found that it is really rather cute (sorry for doubting you Mum).

Without further ado, here is Rose in her new dance leotard all the way from Nana in England, for it's first outing she teamed it with a black skort that is too big for her and chipped fushia toe nails.
I think she likes it
here we go and...
Ta Dahhhhh!
Jacob got a T-shirt and a puzzle book that he likes very much but is not quite so excited about.  See you after our break, unless something spectacular happens while we are away.

Tuesday 4 June 2013

I'm Ok

For anyone with enough time to wonder if I survived the fiddleheads, yes I did.  Apparently they are not poisonous (at least not immediately) but they give you awful wind!

Monday 3 June 2013

Crazy Food

I found these crazy things in the grocery store today and had to buy them.
They are called "Fiddleheads"
Forgive me anyone to whom they are familiar but I had never seen the like and so had to blog them in utter amazement, I will feel suitably stupid if you can get them in ASDA/Walmart these days.  According to Wikipedia they are unfolded fern fronds of a variety of different types (hopefully not bracken as they are carcinogenic) and are regularly eaten in Eastern Canada and the US but only for about 3 days per year when they can be harvested.

Anyway, I cooked them up this evening in butter and lemon juice, they looked like a pan full of little fossils.  Tom tried one and politely said they were not for him and the kids point blank refused to have anything to do with them so I ate the whole pile.  They tasted a little bit seaweedy but were edible, I quite liked them at the time but now feel a little bilious so if I do not blog for the next few weeks you know why.

Sunday 2 June 2013

How Did it Get to be June Already?

Time is flying by and summer break is nearly upon us, there are 4 more weeks of school before I have full time children until September.  I have managed to organize swimming lessons and tomorrow I will sort out a week of adventure camp for Jacob (with 3 days for Rose too now she's old enough).  A list of  'exciting' activities will also have to be compiled in order to keep my sanity intact and the blog even vaguely interesting.

Yesterday we went on a long overdue shopping trip for jeans, t shirts and sandals.  Jacob also bought a 'bone file' for his best friend's birthday and Rose has a new night dress.  I was trying to steer her towards cute flowery cotton ones but she stayed true to herself and chose this one, not only is it very Rose in style, it is also 100% polyester so will probably not be at all comfortable on humid summer nights.  Oh well, she's happy.
I should have a separate blog called 'A Walk in the Pinery'.  Guess what? we went for walk in the Pinery today.  Today's finds of interest were a beaver cut tree.
Oh dear, Rose caught on camera being 'told'
And a neat den made by someone else on the beach.