In my five years (really, I can't believe it's been that long!) of living in Quebec I have to say I have come to enjoy each very distinct and sometimes extreme season. Apart from Spring that is, which i find is a bit of a muddy anti-climatic meh! Autumn is by far the most spectacular from a breathtaking visual perspective...it's my favourite time of year to take photographs too. (Some of last year's best pictures are here ).
We're about to hit prime leaf peeping season over the next few weeks and we're hoping, weather permitting, to take a family hike every weekend until the end of October to soak up la flambée des couleurs. Week one was in Mont St Hilaire, an hour's drive for us south of Montreal. The children quite happily managed a two and a half hour steep hike in perfect 21C weather - you can just see the foilage starting to change here.
September 25, 2011
September 23, 2011
Fall
Not much sign of any autumnal weather here yet (I'm in no rush) but we marked the beginning of fall with an apple picking trip today. 32lbs of apples (a mix of Courtland, McIntosh and Spartan) ready for some sauce making. I'm also canning tomatoes again this week - I'm looking forward to filling a shelf or two with some homemade goodness - I take my role of domestic goddess very seriously these days!
September 09, 2011
Rustic headboard
Our bedroom is a bit of an eclectic mish mash of furniture. I'm quite alright with that but I had been looking for a solid headboard for while but couldn't find anything to fit the bill for a reasonable price. Even lots of thrifting failed to yield something the right size. Finally this summer I asked my husband if he could make one for me and he agreed. Quite readily in fact. (If I sound surprised it's because I was, he's a pretty handy guy but also very busy at work these days).
So I showed him these fabulous detailed plans put together by Ana White, whose blog I have followed for the last year or so. $60 worth of lumber from the hardware store and a few hours of cutting, assembling and painting later - we had this:
I love it! I haven't mentioned it to him yet, but I'd quite like one of these next.
The doily duvet cover was of couse, made especially for me, by those lovely people at Ikea!
PS Worth mentioning that we ended up cutting about 5 inches off the legs as it was just too tall for the proportions of our room.
August 26, 2011
New England
We've just come back from four days of camping in Cape Cod and a couple of nights in Boston. New England is just as charmingly beautiful as I had hoped. Simply breathtaking. Four nights is the longest camping trip I've ever done and I'm thankful that the weather was kind to us. Highlights included someone catching their first fish, boogie boarding on Nauset beach, plenty of fresh clam chowder, a first time visit to a drive-in movie theatre and a trip to Salem.
August 12, 2011
A synchro summer
Ruby joined the synchro team this year. I really knew nothing about the sport, the commitment or the strength it takes to tread water for long periods. Nor did I know about the gelatin that gets painted into their hair, the tight braids and bun pins, or the chapstick used on their eyelids to keep their make up in place. Kudos to these 11 under 11s for their dedication!
July 18, 2011
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!
July 11, 2011
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.
July 08, 2011
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!
June 22, 2011
More fruity stuff
Deviating from my normal strawberry and rhubarb jam that I've made for the past few years, although I'll probably end up making that too, this week I've made apricot jam. It's pretty dark because I had some problems with the set and ended up reboiling the whole batch, (largely due, I suspect, to the fact that I decided to wing it with my own recipe) but the end result is yummy indeed.
Today is the last day of school and if the weather holds up, I think a trip to the local strawberry fields might be in order.
June 21, 2011
Berry brain freeze
Berry season is in full swing and frankly I can never get enough of them, with yogurt and granola for breakfast, in pancakes, muffins, cakes, I'm really not fussy. As a rule however, I'm generally not an icecream or frozen yogurt lover as I seem to be susceptible to painful brain freeze when eating anything frozen. But I make an exception for this one, David Lebovitz's frozen strawberry yogurt (without the alcohol). Nothing quite beats the homemade flavour.
This little contraption is a hand crank ice cream maker purchased at my favourite thrift store last summer for a couple of dollars. It's a perfect way to get the children involved - they crank the handle for 5 minutes, it goes back in the freezer for an hour, gets cranked again for 5 minutes and so on for about 4 or 5 hours. Not too labour intensive and really worth the effort!
So good, it makes brain freeze almost bearable.
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