Wednesday 25 February 2015

Too Cold to Blog

It's like last year all over again out here except without the ice storm and to be fair there's not been quite so much snow.  Walking the kids to school when its so cold your nostril hair freezes is getting old.  To cap it all we're not sure when spring is coming as the groundhog evidence was inconclusive this year.  I'm with the one in Wisconsin who refused to reveal his prognostications and instead bit the mayor and hopped it for home.  He'll think twice about waking people up on a cold day in future.

So we've not been out and about much and I can't take photos for fear that my fingers will freeze to my camera.

Yesterday was Tom's birthday, Happy Birthday Tom! so I made cupcakes.  Don't they look smashing.
 
Apparently they were good, somehow the kids managed to eat them without wasting half by smearing it all over their faces.

So just for fun I'm including the recipe so you can make them yourselves.  It's from a Martha Stewart book and requires just a single bowl, that's my kind of washing up.
 
1.5 cups of plain/all purpose flour
.75 cups cocoa powder
1.5 cups caster sugar
1.5 teaspoons baking soda (bicarb)
.75 teaspoons baking powder
2 large eggs
.75 cup buttermilk or yoghurt
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla ext
.75 cup warm water
 
Put all the ingredients in a big bowl and beat with an electric hand whisk until smooth.
 
Fill jumbo cupcake cases 2 thirds full with the batter and bake in a preheated oven at 350f/180c for 20-25 minutes.  You can turn them round half way through if you like for even baking.
 
Makes about 20, if in doubt put less rather than more batter in the cake cases as its quite runny and can spill over before it rises.
 



Tuesday 17 February 2015

Happy Aniversary Maple Leaf

Sunday marked 50 years since the Maple Leaf was inaugurated as the National flag of Canada.  Last weekend Rose made her own version at a heritage fair we accidentally visited and since anything older than me is worth celebrating I made one myself.

Rose was supposed to be pictured here proudly flourishing her flag but it found it's way into the tip that is her bedroom and has vanished so here is Jacob with my unfinished one.
I think I'd better get him to the hairdresser soon!

Rose's Homework

Rose had homework this weekend, she had to build a snowman so she can use it as a procedural writing excercise at school next week.

Now with the amount of snow we have lying around at the moment you would think that would be easy enough but we had 2 major problems.  Firstly, all this snow has fallen at really low temperatures so it is very light and powdery, great for shovelling off the drive but rubbish for rolling into snowman-suitable balls.  And second, this weekend we have had the lowest temperatures of the winter, on Sunday morning it was a record low of -24 in Toronto (-30 in Cambridge where Tom grew up) with wind chills in the mid -30s.  Brrrrr.

So anyway, we had to watch the forecast and rush out into the garden for half an hour on Saturday afternoon when the thermometer briefly crept up above -10.  How about that? Good hair eh!
It is so cold that 3 days later the carrot is still intact, we left it outside for any hungry animals to forage but I think all the local rabbits and raccoons are more sensible than to poke their noses outside right now.

Friday 13 February 2015

Happy Valentines and an Anniversary

Oh dear, things are slipping already, only 2 posts in 2 weeks.  Not much to report this week as Jacob was under the weather at the weekend and Rose has been off school with a sore throat and a cute squeaky voice.  I think we're all pretty much ok now and this is a long weekend so maybe I'll have something to write about by the end of it.

For now this is an early valentines post.  Jacob has not sent a single Valentine since we arrived in Canada and has finally reached the age that the kids don't send them, although he still managed to receive 3.  Rose on the other hand sent 27 and here is her loot.
Also (fanfare here) it is 3 years ago today since we landed on Canadian Soil and what a time we've had.  The really exciting thing about this is that I can now apply for Canadian citizenship Eh! It's actually quite a weird idea having 2 nationalities and I really hope I don't fail the citizenship test on account of my accent, 39 years of Northern English isn't going anywhere I'm afraid.

Which brings me to 1 of my absolute favourite things about living here, they tell me I have a 'cute English accent'.  Any other English person who has heard me talk would understand why that makes me laugh.

Friday 6 February 2015

Show and Tell

Just a little of this and that to finish the week.  This week Tom and I have mostly been shoveling snow, this is what 20 inches of accumulation looks like when its been removed from your drive.  Another 3 inches is due this weekend, wonder if we can bury the tree.
Rose is very proud of this poster that she brought home from school.  As you can see she has been exploring structures in French.
Jacob said he hasn't finished anything he's proud of this week but he consented to hold an unfinished pillow top of mine.  I have been experimenting with quilting using thrift store materials and I'm quite pleased with these so far, we'll see when they're finished.

Monday 2 February 2015

It Snowed Again

As the title suggests this post is about further snowfall so if you find endless blogs about weather boring stop now.

First this is a picture of something I'd never experienced in the UK.  I took this photo from our deck last night without flash and it doesn't really show how bright it was.  Sometimes when we've had a good snowfall and there's a full moon its light enough to cast shadows which looks really weird.
It snowed all night and into this morning and this is the 'after' photo.
I think it's roughly 20 inches!  That's more snow than I've ever seen!!  It's taken 3 goes to dig both the cars free and now I'm waiting for the snowplow to go through so I can shovel the end of the driveway again or Tom and the Rav will end up stuck in a 3 foot snow bank on the way home.

Anyway, in the absence of a tape measure here are the children, included for scale purposes.
Rose is standing up
Here they are in the snow fort we dug out in the front garden, there is a road behind them, perhaps I should offer a prize for anyone who can spot it.