Linaloo

The Royal Visit

 
I refer not to the recent visit to Canada by Will and Kate, but to my lovely Mum, who arrives this week from the UK. Because every Mum deserves a little a bit of red carpet treatment, preparations have been underway this past week to add some finishing touches to our rather bland guest room. It went from drab to fab with a few small changes. The addition of a headboard (our old black one spray painted white), a few new cushions, a cute matryoshka bedside carafe, a framed photograph and hey presto, a room fit for a Queen!

Summer in a bowl

 
This time of year in Quebec we are blessed with an abundance of amazing tasting locally grown fruit.  Peaches, strawberries, raspberries and my favourite, blueberries. Big fat juicy ones or even better still the slightly smaller but flavour packed wild Quebec blueberries, les bleuets sauvages (not pictured here). My new favourite way to eat them is in a simple fruit salad with a lime syrup. The syrup recipe is so simple yet perfect and comes from Quebec's version of Jamie Oliver, Ricardo. It can be used on any combination of fruit - he recommends using 2 cups of strawberries, 1 cup of blueberries, 2 mangoes and half a cup of the syrup.  Served with a dollop of full fat french vanilla yogurt, it really does taste like summer.

Summer lovin'

 
Just over two weeks into the summer holidays and all is well.  The weather has been glorious.  Our Canada Day was spectacular - camping, kayaking and fireworks.  The children are spending most of their time in or under the water at the pool and we're living on a diet of carrots, cucumber, hummus and freezies.

Life is good.

PS Happy birthday Granny - we're counting down the days!