The Witch's Island

A Lobster Port In The Winter

2012-01-22T17:31:00.002-04:00

These beautiful fibreglass fishing boats are waiting on the wharf for the spring season to open.

There was “Knot a Chance” I was going to miss a cold, snow covered, bright sunny day to take some pictures of a cute fishing village wharf close to home here on the Witch’s Island. It’s an interesting place at this time of year. The boats are all resting, some in fine shape, new and gleaming and some are very much showing signs of wear and tear. One boat had an ugly metal patch on its gunwale and there were several more that were badly in need of a good paint touch-up. Still, they looked so graceful up on their stands waiting for spring so that they can sail the ocean far and wide again to bring home the daily catch. Oh, what stories and secrets have been told on these beautiful boats we can only imagine.

Might be time to give this mermaid a new coat of paint.

Not the prettiest vessel in the fleet!

In summers past I have been on quite a few deep-sea fishing trips where I have fished cod, mackerel, hake, sole, and even the odd sculpin fish. Only the last kind was ever thrown back and that was only because they are so damn ugly. If you ever saw one you would know what I mean. Still, apparently while they are lacking in good looks they supposedly very tasty. Maybe you’ll try one and let me know.

The boats are all on shore at this time of year.

Even with the mild weather we have had this year the water has still frozen solid.

Not a soul around.

The wharf itself was very still, not even the water was moving, it being frozen right to the edges of the pier. Even the wind stopped while we were there. It was kind of like a maritime ghost town. It was pretty, though. Most shacks had some kind of decoration, a bright red paint, some old tuna tails, a pirate flag. They really stood out against the winter sky and the ice.

Like notches on the gunslinger’s pistol, someone is keeping track of the kill.

The Skull and Crossbones. I don’t imagine that this flag leaves the port.

Three of the sheds had weathervanes, which seems sort of redundant but I guess it’s important to know which way the wind is blowing if you’re heading out on the water. My favourite of the three was the funky bird one which looked like it had been constructed from old yard tools.

This weathervane looks like it was homemade from old garden tools.

This one has a fisherman in a dory.

This weathervane is some kind of duck floating in a pond.

We have been very lucky with the weather so far this year. Winter is already a third complete and I choose to believe that spring is just around the corner. I can almost picture the boats plowing through the waves right now.

The last thing the lobster sees just before his trap is hauled over the side…

My Secret Santa Has Really Come Through!

2012-01-03T18:01:00.005-04:00

My Secret Santa parcel has arrived!

My Secret Santa has really come through!

Christmas had come and gone and there had been no parcel in the mail and I was wondering if maybe there wouldn’t be one but, lo and behold, there it was in this morning’s post! Hubby picked it up before work today and then phoned me to say that it was here. I spent all day wondering what it could be, just like a little kid.

When he finally got home this afternoon I tore right into it and it was full of wonderful things! There were four jars of home-made preserves in a table-top caddy, fours small books and a nice card. Wow, Secret Santa, thank you so much!

Pulling the contents from my Secret Santa parcel.

Everything was nicely wrapped and looked beautiful.

My Secret Santa gifts, homemade jams in a pretty metal caddy and four little books.

While I can’t be 100% sure who my Secret Santa really is I think that I know and she is a fellow blogger. You can find her at this link and if that isn’t her then that blog is an interesting read anyway.

Thanks again, Santa!

Best Wishes For 2012!

2012-01-01T10:02:00.007-04:00

We were out for a drive yesterday and this caught my eye from the passenger side window. This guy was prepared for any possibility! I had to take a picture. It’s was just too funny.

Roadside email inbox. Funny!

When I got up this morning I discovered that Granny New Year had arrived while I was sleeping. She keeps some late hours. I know because we were out in the back yard lighting off fireworks until almost 12:30 in morning and there was nothing on the kitchen counter before I went to bed. This year she brought me a book about sea glass and it should keep me going until the weather is a little moe suitable for beachcombing.

Granny New Year came through again.

Anyway, I just wanted to wish all my family and friends (including you readers) a Very Happy New Year!!

Enjoy.

From Our House To Yours...

2011-12-25T09:08:00.002-04:00

Outdoor Christmas Tree

Merry Christmas to all.

Christmas Is A Week Away

2011-12-18T11:01:00.001-04:00

Remember the picture we posted back in October of the sky being reflected in the calm water of a nearby river here on The Witch’s Island? Well, they were having a photo contest at work to decorate the president’s office wall. You know, something to impress visiting customers with, and I entered that picture. Guess what. My picture was one of only three selected! Better still, each of the three finalists won a crisp new $100 bill! And even though it is one of the newly introduced plastic bills it’s still a hundred bucks, yahoo! That’s right, baby. The Witch is rich, sort of. It was a shock, but a pleasant one.

This is the picture that won me a hundred dollars.

So, what else have I been up to, you say? Well, I’ve been busy crafting away in my basement workshop. I created a little picture using shells and other bits and pieces I collected at the beach this summer while Hubby was in swimming. I really enjoyed designing this and the shells just all fit together nicely to make this scene come alive. I’ve already got some more ideas floating around in my brain and it’s going to be a long winter so I may try some more of these.

I made this picture using shells and driftwood I found on the beach this summer.

I’ve also been decorating the family room for Christmas. The fireplace mantle is one of my favourite things to work on. I love birds so I’ve given it kind of a nature theme. And some poor little elf must have fallen through the ice and gotten soaked. He seems to have left his clothes to dry by the fire. Someday I may find the right elf figurine to sit up there too but so far I haven’t come across one. He would have to be the right scale to fit the clothes and he’d have to be semi-naked or in his undies and that’s just a little too much to ask, I guess. I just might have to make my own.

This is my mantelpiece all decorated for Christmas.

I’m hoping you all enjoy this little up-date as it is only 7 more sleeps till the big day. Merry Christmas!

Wow, My First Award For Blogging!

2011-12-12T17:14:00.003-04:00

Well, I was really surprized today when I checked for comments here on the Witch's Island to find that It's Me, Sam had nominated me for a Liebster Award.

A quick Google search doesn't turn up much information about how the award originated but Sam has a brief description of its intent as well as the rules for passing on the love.

The rules:
1. Thank the giver and link back to the blogger who gave it to you.
2. Reveal your top 5 picks and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog.
3. Copy and paste the award on your blog.
4. Have faith that your followers will spread the love to other bloggers.
5. And most of all - have fun!

Here are the five that I would like to nominate:

Grunge Queen
A Garden Wench
Japan - Living The Simple Life
Canoe Corner
The Fat Hydrangea

These are all great reads and I try to get to them all every day. You might want to go to the Grunge Queen's blog first because she is all set to move to England to get married.

Thanks again to Sam for this. It's been fun!

Secret Santa

2011-11-29T17:07:00.006-04:00

(photo above stolen shamelessly from Buttons, Ribbons And Other Things)

Way back in October I came across “Serendipity’s Guide To Saving” while doing a little surfing. She was writing about “The Bloggy Secret Santa Project” and it sounded like such a great idea that I signed up right away. It looks like about 3 dozen others were interested, too. I’ve been waiting for the email since then to find out who I would be sending gifts to and just yesterday I got it. The matchup is just perfect, as far as I’m concerned. Great job, Serendipity!

So I was doing a little spying on my recipient’s blog and it turns out that she has already put up a list of her interests and what she would like to receive and it made me realize that maybe MY Secret Santa would appreciate the same thing from me! Well, here goes!

• If you are crafty, any home-made goodies would be great.
• Home-made jewelry made with beads, sea glass or other found pieces.
• I love all earthy colours but my favourite has always been purple.
• Anything to do with owls, I’m just crazy about them.
• Dark chocolate covered almonds, mmmmm.
• I love gardening and all plants, too.

I want to give Serendipity a big thank you for organizing this. It was just what I needed to put me in right frame of mind for the upcoming season. My brain is just buzzing with all kinds of ideas, now. I’m going to have to get busy if I’m going to make the deadline!

Oh, No. Halloween Is Over For Another Year.

2011-11-01T17:29:00.003-03:00

This creepy pumpkin ghoul was ready to scare the crap out of the kiddies but none of them even noticed him. I think he was disappointed and may have shed a tear or two.

Well Halloween has come and gone for another year but I had a great time while it lasted. After the big storm on Sunday, the weather turned out just beautiful yesterday and it should have meant that the kiddies would be out in full force. Not that any of them actually walk in our neighbourhood, there’s just too much distance between houses.

When you know that you are only going to get a dozen kids you can afford to max out the contents of the treat bags.

We did end up giving out 8 treat bags out of the ten we had prepared but two of them were for kids who were stuck at home for some reason. The best costume of the day was worn by one of the mothers, she was dressed up as Smurfette and she had done a pretty good job of it!

Smurfette?

Anyway, here are a few pictures of this year’s crew. I hope you like them. Now how long did you say it was until Halloween 2012?

Halloween night was just perfect, weather-wise and the house was all decked out in plenty of time for us to go outside to enjoy it.

It looks like the owl has caught himself something to snack on for later.

This is the first of the two pumpkins I carved this year. Hubby says that he may have a concussion because of the different sizes of his pupils.

Hey, I think this guy is winking at you.

This is my other pumpkin. I’m not sure what he actually is but he looks kinda like Grover from Sesame Street with a new nose.

”Stars and Moons” got a skeleton guardian this year.

Halloween Is Tomorrow, Time To Make Some Bloody Fingers!

2011-10-30T14:32:00.003-03:00

Yeah, that's right. Tomorrow is my favourite day of the year. The day when all the ghouls and ghosts come out. Maybe some kids, too. At least they might if this storm eases up. Right now the wind is pounding the house with a hard-driven rain. An hour ago it picked up a plastic lawn chair and threw it from one side of the back deck 40 feet to the other side just missing the kitchen window. We're just feeling lucky though because we aren't getting snow and because we've still got our power on. So with a nice pot roast cooking away in the oven I thought maybe I could share my Witch's Finger cookie recipe with you.

Those are the Witch Finger Cookies under the dome of my cake plate.

Witch’s Fingers
(adapted from a recipe in Canadian Living magazine)
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup icing sugar
1 egg
1.5 tsp almond extract
1 tsp vanilla
2 ¾ cup flour
1 cup almond, whole and blanched
1 tube red cake gel
7 or 8 drops green food colouring

Preparation:
In bowl, beat together butter, sugar, egg, almond extract, vanilla and the green food colouring; beat in flour, baking powder and salt. Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Working with one quarter of the dough at a time and keeping remaining dough refrigerated, roll into a long snake of dough and then cut into 3 or 4 inch pieces. Squeeze the pieces just enough to form the knuckles of the finger shape for each cookie. Using a fork, press the back of the tines lightly onto the top of the knuckle to simulate natural creases. Press almond firmly into end for nail.
Place on lightly greased baking sheets; bake in 325°F (160°C) oven for 20 to 25 minutes or until pale golden. Let cool for 3 minutes. Lift up almond; squeeze red decorator gel onto nail bed and press almond back into place, so gel oozes out from underneath. Remove from baking sheets; let cool on racks. Repeat with remaining dough.
Makes 3 or 4 dozen creepy and delicious cookies (the number will vary depending on how big you make them)
I usually pass these out to the adults who accompany their kiddies to the door if I can keep Hubby from eating them all! I hope you have time to make some, they’re worth the effort!

Never let a witch play with your hammer, they always seem to manage to hit their poor fingernails.

Here is this year’s crew warming up in the garage before their debuts tomorrow.

You would never believe just how bad it is outside today after seeing how nice it was yesterday.

Witch Gazebo is Done? Well Mine of Course!

2011-09-18T12:07:00.001-03:00

It's DONE!

It started with a couple of drawings and a few photos.

We made a template and installed the footings.

We added landscape cloth and river stones to control the grass and weeds.

We built a platform sturdy enough to constuct a ten story building on.

We added the corner posts to get it up into the air.

Getting the structure of the roof to the top of the posts was a bit of a challenge.

Along the way there were some heavy calculations done along with a lot of head scratching.

The upper roof was added but was quickly deemed to be too small in scale. We lengthened each rafter by a foot or so and came up with a much better diameter.

Eventually, the entire roof structure was completed.

We added some spindles to the upper air vents to provide a little style.

Shingling the roof was a difficult exercise but eventually it got done.

The inside of the roof is a sight to behold. There are a ton of man-hours hidden up there somewhere.

We closed in the two back walls to provide some privacy from the road and we filled the bottom of the other walls with plywood. This is about as far as we got in 2010, the only other thing we did was to cover the privacy walls with cedar shingles.

The first task of the new year was to install the floor. It was so nice to be able to take the chairs inside and sit down that we started using it right away.

Then we added a set of stairs so we didn’t have to crawl in anymore. This was much easier than expected to accomplish.

The window sills and casings were added next.

The trim was all painted and then the walls were covered in tarpaper before the siding was added.

The window screen frames were made and then covered with screen.

The door was installed next. We bought it on sale last year from the hardware store and painted it in the basement over the winter.

The floor was finished off with a coat of Thompson’s Waterseal.

The last task was to apply the water sealer to all the exterior siding. At some time in the near future we may add some electric power and some lights to the gazebo but for now the building is done.

This project did take up a huge amount of time over two summers. It cost a good chunk of money, too. We think it's worth it though and doesn't it looks pretty back here in the yard?

Just a last note on the budget. We planned to spend about $4000 for our gazebo and we came in just about right on target. In 2010 we spent $3940 and in 2011 it has been another $520 for a total of $4460. Of course, that doesn’t include any labour cost. Thankfully Hubby works for love and beer! Want us to come and build one for you? Not a chance!

Holiday Time!

2011-09-14T09:36:00.001-03:00

I have 1 week left out of my three week vacation and the time has just been flying by. We have done lots of interesting, fun stuff and have spent a ton of money. I said I was on vacation right?
I bought myself a new bike!!!! I got one that fits my frame size with lots of accessories for serious bike travel. I can pack great lunches, throw in some beach clothing and away we go. We have been riding the trails and loving every minute of it. My legs are very sore but I guess I have just been that out of shape. There are lots of very steep hills in our area so my new bike gears are getting a work out also.

Here’s my new bike on the day it came home. I got all the accessories to go with it, too. I got a bottle holder, a trip computer, a kickstand and a carrier rack including a soft bag big enough to carry lots of stuff.

On its first day we took a ride around the block to see how it would go. I didn’t realize that it was that big of a block!

We have also been out for the maiden voyage in the canoe we bought from a co-worker this spring. The day was beautiful, sunny and calm and we paddled around for about 3 hours. I even got out into the middle of the bay without getting scared. I’m just getting so brave!

What a perfect day to go canoeing. The water was just dead flat for the first 2 hours. We were able to travel around the entire bay and check out some of the homes that can’t be seen from the road.

We paddled right out into the bay and under the bridge just to see what was on the other side. Well, okay. We knew what was over there but we did get to see under the bridge!

We have visited lots of restaurants and sampled some of the finest foods out there. I’m glad to be exercising or I’m sure I would have gained 10 pounds easily.

I’ve had lots of time to fly my kite, build beach art and play Rummoli.

I found this funky looking piece of driftwood at the beach and decided that he looked like he wanted to dance so I propped him up and gave him a stage.

The dancer looked so good that I made him a dance troupe to back him up.

Of course, every artist needs to sign her work!

We’ve played lots of Rummoli this summer but this was the perfect evening to play outside. Needless to say that I won again!

There’s something so relaxing about flying a kite. It just hangs up there fluttering in the breeze.

I’m leaving you with some great pictures and hopefully I’ll get back on track financially and will have more blogging time in October. Oh wait that’s Halloween Pumpkin season, the Witch’s favorite time of the year!

No, this crab is not sun tanning. I assure you that he is quite dead and I’m okay with that.

We’re not sure what kind of birds these are. They might be semipalmated sandpipers but that is just a guess. They were taking a siesta on a nice warm rock until we showed up.

We’ve been able to spend a lot of time at this beach this summer. The weather has been crappy all year but it has been perfect ever since I started my holiday.

Now that’s a summer meal! Fresh oysters and corn heading off to the BBQ as a side dish for smokey chicken wings, mmm.

This red fox came out to greet us while we biking down the trail. He was quite happy to pose for pictures and even brought a friend out to play.

We had a great ride on this afternoon. We rode along the trail for 8 or 9 kilometres until we got to this fishing village. We found a small dockside café and had a bowl of mussels and a beer and then rode back again.

Being on vacation means that there is lots of time to make breakfast and one of my favourites is blueberry pancakes and fresh fruit, peaches in this case.

Our Anniversary Trip...

2011-08-26T19:57:00.003-03:00

Last Saturday was our 32nd wedding anniversary and we decided that we would do something different this year, so we packed up Big Red and headed off to the big city for the weekend. We figured that we would get in some shopping, renew our Costco membership, maybe visit a pub (or two) and have dinner at our favourite restaurant without having to rush home right afterwards. We ended up doing a LOT more than we bargained for and we had a great time.

On the Wednesday before, Hubby did some checking online and found a place to stay at the Delta Beausejour at $188 per night. The next day when we called to book the room the rate had increased to $203 but we did get a “No Tax” package that covered the room taxes for the stay plus added a $25 food credit for each day. We booked for Friday and Saturday nights.

Check-in time was not until 4pm which was perfect because I had to work on Friday. I managed to get out a little early by using up some accumulated overtime so I was home by 2pm and we were on our way a half hour later. The day was hot and sunny (as was the whole weekend!) and we had a nice cruise to the hotel. Much to our dismay, as we got close to the hotel we found that the entire road way was blocked off and traffic was being re-routed away from the front entrance. As we turned into the detour we could see that the reason the road was closed was that there was a giant sound stage erected and it was right in front of our hotel! We thought “Oh No! This is not going to be good!”. We had no idea that there was a motorcycle rally on. Maybe we should have checked for upcoming events!

The rally turned out to be the best thing about the whole weekend! We had a great time wandering up and down the street checking out the amazing bikes, stopping here and there for a beer and a glass of wine. Later on each evening there was live music from some local bands and we stayed to the end of the concert on both nights. Friday night, the last group was a KISS cover band called the Love Guns and they did a great job both with the music and the stage show. I shot a bunch of pictures but they aren’t the best quality, sorry, but you get the idea. It was a lot of fun!

The lineup of bikes started right in front of our hotel.

This was my favourite new bike. It could have been mine for $17,000 or so.

The artwork on some of these machines was fantastic. It’s hard to believe that someone would actually ride this. I would always be worrying about stone chips!

Another Victory bike. It was just beautiful.

It wasn’t just guys with their bikes on display. We called this one the Girlie Bike because, well, it just looks like a girlie bike!

The Girlie Bike even had its own mascot. She was dressed appropriately with boots, leathers and shades.

The concert on Friday night featured a group called the Love Guns.

The Love Guns were performing as KISS and they had the music and the look down great.

The concert lasted until midnight and was just great.

Saturday morning we were up early because we wanted to get to the farmer’s market before it got crowded. The first thing we did was have breakfast. The room we stayed in came with access to the “Signature Club Lounge” room. It was one of the best features of any hotel we have ever stayed in. The Delta describes it like this:

Signature Club Lounge
Enjoy the private, exclusive and comfortable Signature Club lounge featuring a complimentary deluxe continental breakfast, canapés and honor bar from 5pm to 7pm, work stations, private check-out and concierge service. The Club Lounge is equipped with a 32" TV, magazines and newspapers.

The Signature Club Lounge was a great feature. We had breakfast and evening snacks there both days. The fridge in the lower right was constantly full of juice, pop and water.

Everything in the room was included with the exception of the liquor available in the evening. In the morning there was fresh orange juice, fresh fruit, cold cuts, pastries, croissants, and cereal, a selection of breads and jams and hard boiled eggs. The room attendant was there to greet us and she brewed individual cups of Starbucks coffee made to order while we selected what we wanted to eat. In the evening there was a tasty selection of finger-food including cheeses, fruit, breaded shrimp and phyllo dough pastries with cheese filling. All day there was access to a fridge stocked with milk, juice, pop and water. We took full advantage of this!

After breakfast we headed off to the Market. It was a two minute walk from the hotel which was nice. There was lots of fresh produce, baked goods and crafts for sale but the apple guy didn’t have any Honey Crisp apples yet and we were too full to eat anything else so we just wandered through. If we lived there we would be at the Market every weekend!

The Moncton Market sign.

The Market was just a hundred yards or so from our hotel.

The Market building itself is a pretty thing.

We spent the rest of the day going from Costco to the Sally Anne to Value Village and the malls. I found some neat stuff at the used goods places but we didn’t buy a thing at the mall except the fixings for a little picnic lunch from the Superstore. There we bought some bagels and some pastrami and cheese from the deli and made ourselves some sandwiches. It was tasty and inexpensive, less than $6 for the two of us. Plus, we didn’t want to fill up too much because we were going to have Chinese food for dinner. The “House of Lam” is our favourite place to eat when we are in the big city. We both invariably have the same meal, the Szechuan Platter every time just because it is so good! The cost is low, too. I don’t think that they have raised their prices in years. The bill for Saturday night for the meal, an appetizer, a bottle of wine and the tax was just $54! I couldn’t finish my dinner and ended up taking half of it home for lunch on Monday, mmm.

This picture doesn’t show just how beautiful these motorcycles were.

This bike was called the Starship Enterprise and it was bigger than my car!

After dinner we went back to the hotel to relax for a bit and then it was back out on Main St. to see more of the bikes. We bought ourselves a couple of souvenir T-shirts and just wandered around for a while until the music started. The highlight of the night was a group called “Angry Candy” and they were just fantastic! They played mostly covers of rock songs like “Mustang Sally” and “Welcome To The Jungle” and the female lead singer, Izabelle Ouellet, was just fantastic! She had amazing vocal range and stage presence, lots of energy, too. We were having such a good time that I didn’t get any pictures so I pilfered one or two from Facebook. I got to talk to Izabelle for a minute after the show and she was nice enough to sign a T-shirt for me.

This is Angry Candy and take my word for it, that woman can sing!

This the Angry Candy logo on a poster for a Canada Day concert.

Sunday was the last day but, with check-out not until noon, we had lots of time to have breakfast and then take a nice long walk to see the tidal bore park and some more of the city. The sky was clear and it was hot, even at 9am. We had a great little stroll and then it was back to room to pack up.

Checking out went fine until we got the bill and we found that the room service that we had ordered which should have been covered by the food credit that came with the room had not been deleted. When we pointed this out to the clerk she not only reversed the charge but also gave us a 10% reduction because of the “posting error”. The whole stay at the hotel cost us only $433. That’s pretty good for such a high-end place and it made for a great anniversary present!

We had such a good time that we decided that we would take the long way home instead of just pounding back on the highway. We took a secondary road that followed along the shore of the Bay of Fundy and we saw some beautiful scenery. Then we spotted a U-Pick type of farm that was offering high bush blueberries so we decided to stop. I’m glad we did because the berries were just perfect, huge too. They were the size of grapes and very tasty. We easily filled our 3 litre basket in about 10 minutes and some of them actually made it home!

We found this U-pick farm on the drive home.

Even the check-out stand was well done here.

They apparently grow pumpkins here, too, although we didn’t see any. The sign was interesting, though.

The blueberries were huge and there were so many of them that it was very easy to pick a basketful in a very short time.

Now that's a beautiful basket of blueberries!

All in all, it was a great anniversary celebration. I wonder what we’ll do next year.

Summertime Picture Post

2011-08-09T16:41:00.002-03:00

So, where has the Witch been for the last month? Well, I’ve been a bit of a beach bum. Yes, you read that right. I purchased a new bathing suit, a bikini no less, and we have been going to the shore every chance we get. Even I, who is deathly afraid of the water (there are CRABS in the water, you know!) have been in for a swim. We have just been in the water, on the beach and under our umbrella while the winds were blowing so hard I literally had to hold on to keep it from blowing away! But it has all been fun and I’m loving it, when we get any sunshine that is. I even had a wardrobe malfunction with the new suit (Hubby was surprised) but sorry there are no details I’m going to share.

Here's me trying to keep my beach umbrella from blowing away again.

Look at my brave Hubby, out there wading amongst the CRABS!

So now you know why the Witch has been derelict in her blog posting. I decided the summer is too short to waste inside on the computer so it’s off to the beach we go. Well, okay, we have also been busy with the gardens, and of course the MOTHER!*//%** gazebo. What’s that Hubby? It’s almost finished? Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha… what’s that?.. oh… you were serious… sorry!

Anyway, for now, I’m going to leave you with a collection of pictures which I hope you all enjoy. They are just a random collection from the past month or so.

Also, we are trying out a few changes to the design of the Witch’s Island so please be patient as we gear up some new stuff. Let us know how you like them.

Enjoy your day everyone, I’m heading to the beach again and I’m going to try to keep my swim suit on this time!

These shorebirds were having a field day running back and forth. I don’t know if they were feeding or just playing!

Some black headed gulls on the beach at low tide.

I found this message painted onto a rock while I was hunting for driftwood. They were obviously talented people but who goes to the beach with their paintbox?

The sky has been looking ominous for most of the summer. This particular system was very intense but not the worst we have had this year.

The vegetable garden was doing pretty good back in mid July.

By early August it was doing even better. The carrots, the beets and beans have been on our dinner menu almost every day for the past week.

My gazebo has finally got some stairs so now I don’t need to crawl in. Here are the stairs just minutes after Hubby finished building them (Please don’t tell him that I let it slip that it took him over SIX hours to make them!).

Here are the stairs again the next morning after being treated with the water sealer. We used Thompson’s brand and it did a great job on the cedar.

The final bit of construction prior to adding the siding was the window casing and now that is all done, too.

Okay, Hubby. You did great getting all that finished. Go and get that beer… Hubby? Hubby? All right, now where did he get to?

The flower gardens are doing pretty good, too. The lilies have all come out in bloom at the same time and they are just a riot of colours.

Here’s a close-up of one of the pink ones. They are huge, about 6 inches across and they smell wonderful, too.

The grapes are doing great this year. It’s going to be our best harvest ever as long as we get to them before the birds do.

The farmers have planted a lot of canola this year and when it blooms it turns this intense colour of yellow. So beautiful!

That’s me standing out on the back deck admiring all our hard work.

As another summer storm builds in the evening sky I will say see you later.

One last picture of me staring down the world’s ugliest Llama. That is all.

It's Gazebo Time, Again!

2011-07-01T09:08:00.003-03:00

The summer building season has finally started here on the Witch’s Island. Between the rotten old blackflies and the cold wet spring it’s been tough to find time or incentive to get out to the gazebo. If you remember, last year Hubby stopped construction sometime around November with about 25% of the work still to do. Last week it was dry enough to bring the power tools out of the basement so he started installing the floorboards and the cedar looks just as nice as we were hoping.

Hubby finally dragged his mitre saw out of the basement to start this year’s building season.

The Grackle nest was finally empty and we could get on with building.

The gazebo held up very well through the winter. It didn’t noticeably shift on its footings which is a good thing. The paint looks good, too. The only issue we had was the loss of one shingle during a wind and rain storm in December that bordered on hurricane speeds. It will be difficult to fix but I have faith that it will look as good as new when he is done.

We’re doing everything we can to keep the insects out of our gazebo.

The main purpose of the gazebo is to allow us to sit outside without the insects eating us alive so we’re screening not just the windows but the roof vents and the floor as well. Hubby rolled out the screen across the floor joists and stapled it down just prior to laying out the floor boards.

Here’s another look at the screening for the first segment.

Hubby cut the boards to a rough length at first.

The boards were numbered and angles marked before being removed and trimmed to their final length.

Installing the boards was relatively painless but, like everything with this building, very time consuming. There was one little hiccup. When he put in the first section Hubby was putting screws into every joist he could find and that would have become distracting when seen across the whole floor. Also, he had set the screws way too deep and that looked messy, as well. For the next section he just put in two screws at each end of the boards and that seems to be more than enough to hold them down. It looks a lot neater, too. So, by the time he got the seventh segment installed it was clear that the first one had to go!

The first boards have been installed and screwed down.

My gazebo finally has a floor , sorta!

Meanwhile, I was in charge of the gardens. Everything is looking lush and healthy. That’s not surprising with all the rain we have had but the veggies would like a little sunshine to go with all that moisture. The only things that seem to be struggling are the cucumbers. We are on our fourth planting now, the previous three having been wind-whipped or frost-damaged. Fourth time’s the charm!

While Hubby was sawing wood I was tending my babies.

We’re trying to keep track of which varieties do best this year.

The Bleeding Hearts have been going crazy this year.

A close-up of the Bleeding Hearts.

The wild lupines are in blossom now.

The second section is matched to the first but the ends are left long.

The second section is completed.

That’s starting to look like a floor!

One more segment to go!

Now that he knew what he was doing, Hubby decided that he didn’t like the job he did putting in the first section.

The first segment has been removed. I wonder how that cedar would smell burning in my fire pit.

We found a home for all the plywood scraps that had been underfoot since last summer. One of my co-workers runs a small farm, raising chickens and rabbits. He took all those odd shaped pieces and will turn them into coops and hutches. It’s surprising how much room that freed up in the gazebo.

Big Red took away all the plywood scraps.

We did a pretty good job last year of estimating the amount of wood that we would need for the floor. Do you remember this picture of the pile of boards sitting in the yard? All that remains is 7 of the long one at the top. Pretty good for amateurs, I think!

The stack of cedar boards last year.

The floor is almost complete now. All that remains to be done is to add one more piece to each segment and some kind of decorative detail at the centre. Of course a bit of sanding and some water-proofing will be required, too. It’s getting there!

That’s a mighty fine looking floor!

Update On The Royal Couple

2011-06-05T08:58:00.003-03:00

The Tree Swallows have arrived back home here on the Witch’s Island. I love these birds because of their grace and beauty and because of their swift flying style. It doesn’t hurt that they love to eat flying insects, and lots of them! With all the damned black flies and mosquitoes around here they’ll never go hungry. Go you swallows, go!

The chosen palace this year is apparently the White House.

Every year Wills and Kate (Why did I call them that, you say? Well, Just because I can. It’s good to be me.) spend their first few days deciding which of the two available palaces they will spend the summer in. Usually they choose the Duracell house in the back yard but this year, for the first time, they have chosen the White House on the telephone pole in the front yard. I have no idea what would make them choose that one but maybe they just wanted a change or maybe it’s a little more upscale for the royals. Either way I have a great view of both birdhouses so I can watch the progress as they set up house among our scarlet runners and hanging flags.

Wills guarding his family home.

Whichever house they’re in the Grackles still try to steal their nesting material. The Swallows have to stay on constant guard to protect their babies. Lousy, lazy Grackles! Go collect your own nesting stuff! It’s fun to watch the much smaller swallows chase off the bigger birds.

The Ruby-throated Hummingbirds have also returned. Almost as soon as I set out the feeder on the kitchen window the hummers start showing up and then the “Wars” start. One bird will decide that he (or she!) will be in control of the feeder and will spend way more time chasing off the others than actually drinking. It’s funny to watch the little buggars buzzing back and forth all day. We did manage to snap a couple of shots of one female who managed to get a drink or two before Mr. Bully Boy spotted her.

Really, Mrs. Hummer. You should stop posing and get a drink while you can.

The vegetable garden is starting to take shape out in the backyard. The cucumbers that I started on April 22 (way too early again this year, when will I ever learn?) had gotten way too big and needed to be transplanted outside but the weather has been just terrible. Some days were as hot as 22C and then there would be frost the next morning. During May we had rain for 27 straight days. Yup, that’s right, cold and depressing. I hope this doesn’t indicate that our summer is heading in that direction.

I moved the starter plants out to the potting shed a couple of weeks ago to start hardening them off.

Anyway, Hubby has gotten the ground ready, adding some manure and rotilling again. He set the obelisks out for the cumbers and planted the first four with 3 plants each. Of course, the next day there was high wind which twisted off about half of my babies. We lost a couple more to transplant shock. Hopefully there are still enough left in the potting shed to refill the empty spaces. We’re going to need all the cucumbers we can get for pickling this fall.

The onions were already out of the ground in a few days.

Half of the vegetable garden has been planted out.

We have also gotten six rows of seeds planted. There are three double rows of onions, both yellow and red, a row with three varieties of beans, green, yellow and purple, a double row of carrots with radish markers and a double row of beets in three varieties. The onions have shot up and in less than a week they are already about three inches high. The beans have also started to break out of the ground. It might be a good growing year. If you want to know which varieties we are planting you can find out here.

The wild apple trees are out in full blossom.

The apple blossom is actually a very pretty little flower.

The rest of the yard is starting to look lush again. The wild apple trees and the pin cherries are all out in full blossom and look great. I spent hours last weekend working on the front gardens while Hubby was mowing the lawn. I got out all the weeds and added a layer of dark topsoil in around the purple phlox(?) and the daylilies. Hubby cleaned up the front garden and put up our birdbath for the first time since we moved here. Now it has a place of honor. I just have to clean it up and fill it with fresh water and watch the birds enjoy it.

We think that this purple mound is phlox, but whatever it is, it’s beautiful.

The front walkway garden has been all spruced up.

After 5 years of lying in the side line the bird bath has been finally put back up.

Yesterday was again cold and rainy (sigh) so we took a break and went for a tour around some of our favourite public gardens and nurseries for some inspiration. I am always surprised by the new varieties of flowers and plants you can come across in these places. These were a few of the prettiest ones I saw.

I think that these are parrot tulips but whatever they are, I wish they were mine.

I love the frilly edges on these tulips.

More beautiful tulips all set to open.

My Mother sent me a Gnome house as a Christmas gift last year and this spring we put it in place on an outside tree near the end of the driveway. I love it and it makes me smile everyday as I back out or come home from a hard day at work. I just look over and smile, very therapeutic.

Enjoy the pictures and have a great day.

The Gnome House and its Guard Rabbit.

Here’s the Gnome doing a little maintenance on his front walkway.

Granny

2011-05-15T08:09:00.003-03:00

What a dark month it has been here on the Witch’s Island. The weather has been cold and miserable and it hasn’t stopped raining for days! Then, last week, my grandmother passed away. She was 96 years old and had been living in a nursing home for the past 5 years but I was still caught off guard when she died.

Granny would always cook a goose for Dad when he came to visit.

My grandmother and I had a special bond but it wasn’t until recently that I realized just how much she had influenced my life. I learned many, many things from her. She taught me how to bake bread and cookies, how to make preserves and pickles (especially Mustard Pickles!), how to knit and make afghans and how to live frugally.

The cottage was a source of great memories like this. Here Granny and Grampy are celebrating his 80th birthday.

Vera was a strong, independent, hard working, intelligent, loving woman who spent her life taking care of her family. That was what made her happy. She greatly missed Grampy, who passed away 12 years ago, and my Dad who has been gone for 6 years. Hopefully, she has found them somewhere now and they are sitting around eating lobsters and teasing her.

My Grandmother Vera, she was a wonderful woman, I'm going to miss her.

I am going to miss her very much but I know that she will be forever in my heart, today and every day.

Putting The Potting Shed To Good Use

2011-04-24T08:11:00.003-03:00

Friday was a great day to be outside here on The Witch’s Island. We both had the day off work thanks to the Good Friday holiday and it was also Earth Day so I decided that I should spend the afternoon getting my seeds started for the vegetable garden. Friday was also the sixth anniversary of my Dad’s death and that’s always a rough day for me so I was glad to have something to keep me busy.

After Wednesday night’s snow storm (yes, three weeks into April for crying out loud!) the temperature was back up to normal and the snow had all melted off again. There was a bit of an edge to the wind though so while it was great to get outside I was glad I could get into the potting shed, to dig in the dirt.

There’s no mistaking what goes in this box.

These mint tins are a great way to keep leftover seeds organized.

While I was planting the tomato seeds I started thinking about just how much variance there is in the per seed cost of those cute little packs. The Tiny Tim variety is the best price per seed. You get 200 seeds in a package for just $1.95 or less than a penny per seed. I know from last year’s garden that each plant will produce lots of tomatoes so they are a very good bargain. We also grew Bobcats last year with good success but they are much more expensive. A package of Bobcats contains just 25 seeds and costs $4.35 or about 17.5 cents each.

The trays have all been filled with starter mix. Let’s get planting!

That’s a lot of cucumbers. It looks like we’ll be giving away extras again this year.

We are trying two new varieties this year Tomande ($4.75 for 20 seeds or about 24 cents each) and Applause ($5.15 for 15 seed or about 34 cents each). How can there be a 3400% difference between two varieties of tomatoes? I’m sure that Vesey’s has good justification but it still makes me wonder. I just hope that the two new types will be good producers, too.

The Raiders were very successful last summer.

Okay, you’re all planted. Now grow, my pretties!

Whatever they cost you still have to place two or three seeds together in each cell of the starter tray so you’d better hope they all germinate and grow strong enough to separate into individual plants. I love this part, you know, watering, feeding, transplanting, and then transplanting again into the garden. The watching daily for my little seedlings to sprout is worth every bit of effort. The first one to poke through the soil makes me smile and my heart fills with hope at what my garden will be like this year. All these veggies will be harvested, consumed, pickled, frozen, over-wintered, given to love ones and the local food bank.

While I was prepping the seed trays Hubby was not just sitting back drinking beer. He replaced the top surface of the tractor shed ramp which had rotted out. The original surface had been made with left-over pieces of plywood that he had on hand but 5 years of exposure to the elements had been too much. The plywood was badly rotted and some of the supporting structure was also in poor condition. He replaced it all with pressure treated material and then covered it with adhesive backed roofing roll for added weather proofing and traction. Hopefully, this will last for quite a few years.

He also put the clothesline to work for the first time this year. The bed was stripped and the sheets and blankets were washed and hung out to remove a winter’s worth of staleness and farts that tumble drying just can’t touch. We slept like babies that night!

The new ramp for the tractor shed now has a non-slip surface thanks to some leftover materials from the gazebo.

While I was sowing seeds I had my laundry boy hang out the wash.

It was just so nice to have my hands busy while I thought of my father. I remember the one year he came for a visit and I was dead-heading some marigolds as he was watching. I turned and looked at him and said “You’re not just a pretty face you know, you can help out.” He burst out with laughter and started helping me. The poor marigolds lost their heads, some dead and some new blossoms, but we had fun. Thinking of the look on his face still makes me laugh to this day and I’m laughing and crying now as I miss him so much.

This happy little frog is going to greet me at the potting shed until I can get some flowers for this urn.

I hope your Earth Day was great. Happy Easter and I hope the Easter Bunny found you.

Spring Sure Is A Busy Time!

2011-04-17T17:56:00.000-03:00

Well, it’s been over a month since I sat down to write a post and, while I have been feeling guilty, I just couldn’t seem to find the time required. So while my cakes are in the oven and because the rain is pouring down outside this afternoon and the wind is pounding the house I guess that my outside chores will have to wait. Let’s catch up.

In my last post I was looking forward to the imminent arrival of spring but winter was still hanging around. We took a drive to the beach to go for a walk and passed this fox out doing the same thing. Well, the walking part that is, a fox would look silly driving don’t you think? We saw him coming towards us as we drove up the road so we pulled off to the side and grabbed the camera. The fox came right over and sat down 10 feet from the car and let us shoot as many pictures as we wanted. After a few minutes he got bored and walked away but we had a nice visit until then.

This red fox walked over to see if we had any interesting snacks to eat.

He came right over to the middle of the road. I’m glad there was no other traffic.

Here, get my good profile!

Well, if you haven’t got anything to eat I’m not even going to look at you.

And then he was gone.

After the fox left we continued on to the beach but it was very cold and windy. Too cold really to enjoy ourselves so after watching the waves crash onto the shore for a couple of minutes we turned around and went back to the car. The only beach-combing find was this happy looking ball I discovered rolling along the dune. It cheered me right up!

My new happy sunflower beach ball.

A couple of weeks ago we finally held the twice-deferred Games Night and it was a big success. It took me a few days to get the food and the treats ready but it was worth the effort in the end. We had lasagna and Caesar salad for dinner and butter tarts for dessert. We played crokinole, Uno and cribbage and of course I had my trivia/brain teaser contest. The winner of each game got to select a gift package from the “Basket of Goodies”. Some of the prizes were boxes of chocolates, tubes of body wash, a small flashlight, packs of Kleenex, first-aid kits and home-made pickles and relish. They were inexpensive, small items but they were unexpected and a big hit. Surprisingly, the winners were evenly distributed and everybody went home with goodies. I think everyone had a good time, I know I did!

The day of Games Night was spent baking up a storm. We had the butter tarts for dessert.

Only the best is good enough for our guests. Crown Royal and butter tarts, mmm…

Game boards, check. Basket of Goodies, check. Let’s play!

After Games Night came my birthday. Yes, the Witch is another year older and closer to retirement, yahoo! I took the day off work as a present to myself (it was Friday so I got a long weekend) and Hubby surprised me by doing the same thing. We went down to the big city where he took me out to a fancy restaurant for wine and dinner. We both had great meals and then we went home for cake and presents. The best ones were a pair of ceramic toad houses shaped like mushrooms from Hubby and a pair of cowboy boots from my Mom.

Don’t you just love that moment before you rip into a big pile of presents?

Toadstool-shaped toad houses.

My new boots. All I need now are the spurs!

The weather has been improving by leaps and bounds this past couple of weeks and we have been getting outside to do the yard cleanup in the areas where the snow has melted. It really went down much quicker than I expected and now there are only a few places under the trees where any remains. It left behind the usual mess in the yard. Mouse tracks in the grass, flattened pumpkins in the garden, driveway stones thrown out by the snow blower, leaves, branches and cones from the trees, even the eyes and buttons from our snowman. It all needed to be picked up. Luckily Hubby was able to collect most of it with the tractor and the lawn sweeper but it took 4 hours to do it.

If you look closely you can see the remains of the snowman laying on the grass.

This is all that is left of last year’s pumpkins.

We’ve also started working in the gardens. Hubby took the rotiller out of the shed to see if it would start and it fired on the second attempt. While it was running he took it over to the veggie patch to see how dry the soil was and he found that it was in good shape so he gave it a little rip. It sure looks better with the ground freshly turned but now I’m getting anxious to get my starters planted. Yesterday we went to Vesey's and spent over $50 on seeds and starter trays. We bought way more than we need but if you’re a gardener and you see what they have on offer you would probably buy extra, too.

This year the rotiller started right up and ran strongly.

The garden soil looks so rich when it is freshly turned.

We went seed shopping on Saturday!

We got:
• Rutabaga; York
• Cucumber; Raider
• Tomato; Tomande, ApplauseTiny Tim and Bobcat
• Swiss Chard; Burpee’s Rhubarb
• Radish; Cherry Belle
• Carrots; Neptune
• Thyme; German Winter Thyme
• Beets; First Crop, Rodina and Detroit Dark Red
• Beans; Lewis, Gold Rush and Royal Burgandy
• And Moonflowers!

I think we may need to expand the garden again this year!

Anyway that’s what we have been doing lately. So consider yourself all caught up. Here’s a few more pictures including some busy bees happily pollinating the first flowers to show up in the front garden. Enjoy.

The gazebo survived its first winter in good shape. Maybe we’ll get it finished this year.

The front garden is finally out from underneath the snow and the perennials are starting to regrow.

My new toadhouses are outside and ready for tenants.

This bee was busy working on an early arrival in the front garden.

This little patch of flowers was just swarming with bees and flies.

Spring is coming this week!

2011-03-13T17:18:00.006-03:00

The Easter Bunny Says Welcome Spring!

Spring is here already on the Witch’s Island and all the snowmen had to go! Well actually it isn’t truly here until March 20th but I’ve decided that the house needed a spring up-date, RIGHT NOW!! I love to decorate for the seasons and this one is another favorite of mine. Well, okay, they’re all my favourites for different reasons. So the snowmen are all packed away and look what has taken their places. There are bunnies and flowers everywhere! Hubby brought me a beautiful bunch of tulips and they have been displayed in the centre of the coffee to help set the mood.

Two dozen Tulips barely fit in my vase.

A close-up of my Tulips.

This little Easter Bunny figurine is pulling his cart around looking for eggs.

This Easter Bunny is apparently hiding the eggs from the guy with the cart.

This guy looks sweet and innocent but he turns mean when his bowl is full of treats. Watch your fingers!

All Ears stays on the kitchen counter as long as possible.

Man, that is either one giant carrot or two tiny bunnies.

This bunny is on the back of the front door and welcomes us back to the outside world after a long hard winter.

A close-up of the front door bunny.

The All-In-A-Row wall hanging is from Country Feelin'. It has multiple sets of pieces to change back and forth for the seasons and, if you're interested, you can see some of them here. This is a set that Hubby and I made a few years ago.

My spring set for All-In-A-Row.

Spring is also the time that we start to see more wildlife around the Witch’s Island. Last week we saw four foxes in the field just on our way to work. We had an interesting visitor to the backyard, too. We took some fast fry steaks out of the freezer early in the week previous and then for some reason we just didn’t get around to cooking them (shame, shame, shame). After a week in the fridge they were too old to eat so Hubby tossed them out onto the snow for the crows. The crows found them almost right away but so did this Bald Eagle.

The eagle was very nervous about being on the ground in the yard and the slightest movement from us at the windows of the house was enough to send him scurrying up into the treetops. The crows didn’t care though and might have even have appreciated the scaredy-cat behavior of the big bird. They worked as a team bullying the eagle and grabbing as much meat as possible. In the end I’m not sure that the eagle actually got any of the steak but it sure was impressive to watch him flying through the yard. Sorry for the poor qualities of the pictures but these birds are fast and he was a long way away when he was in the trees.

This Bald Eagle apparently loves fast-fry steak, especially when it is free.

He may love steak but not enough to fight the crows for it.

Another nice thing about spring is the smell. You know that damp earthy smell that tells you that the soil is no longer frozen as hard as bullets? Sometimes spring is the smell of skunk or the sign of raccoons walking across the remains of the snow. Sometimes it is the first time that you are able to hang a load of laundry out on the line without it freezing into chunks of plywood. Don’t let the fine weather make you forget about your clothesline etiquette, though. You can’t just hang things out willy-nilly. What will the neighbors think? People are watching, don’t you know.

It is also the sight of the first of your perennials poking through the soil, even if they are being paced by the dandelions and other weeds, or the first time you spot the soil of your vegetable garden poking through the scrum of the snow. A week ago we thought that it would be June before the garden was exposed but it is now visible and getting more so every day.

The dandelions are on the way back, too.

Look! That seems to be garden soil poking out from under the snow.

Unfortunately, Herbie, our garden mascot, didn’t make it to spring. The combination of the violent nature of the fall storms and the miserable conditions of the past winter conspired to rip his poor old head off. He was retired from his post this afternoon. Poor Herbie.

Poor Herbie seems to have lost his head.

Enjoy the pictures and close your eyes. I think you may even smell the signs of spring in the air. Yup, it is just around the corner.

When Life Gives You Lemons, Build Yourself A Snowman!

2011-02-20T15:17:00.003-04:00

Well the weather is just not co-operating in the least this winter. Games Nite got cancelled again last night because of an incoming snow storm. We had planned on having it last month but sad circumstances meant that it would have to be delayed. Last night was supposed to be our backup date and I spent a lot of time getting everything ready, food, house-cleaning and surprises but we could tell from early in the morning that the snow was going to interfere. The last thing that we want is for our friends to have an accident on their way home from a dinner party. So when the snow had still not relented by late afternoon we postponed the event for another week. Maybe, just maybe, we will get a break although snow is forecast for just about every day next week.

Look at that guy. Don’t you want to give him a hug?

The games were all lined up and ready to go.

Two ounces for gentlemen, three ounces for pigs, four ounces for jackasses. Who’s going to measure anyway?

So, what do you do when life gives you lemons? Well if your lemons come in the form of endless snow you build a snowman! Doing all the housework yesterday meant that we would have the whole day to do what we wanted to for a change. What a great break! The snow was perfect, too. It was nice and damp because the temperature is just about at the freezing point so it didn’t take long to roll up three big sections. This is the first snowman we have made here at the new place. Hopefully nobody is going to come along and trash him like the last one we made. Maybe the hooligans won’t notice us out here in the country!

We have all kinds of building material for snowman construction!

The snowman turned out great! I would say that he is our best effort in years but, well, he’s our only effort in years. Doesn’t he look happy? What a great way to lighten up a dreary winter day!

All snowmen should be just this happy!

Looking at the gazebo it’s hard to believe that spring is only a month away.

Valentine Wishes

2011-02-14T17:27:00.002-04:00

This is just a short little post to wish you all a Happy Valentine’s Day. Look what I baked Hubby. It’s his favorite treat, a double layer white cake with a rich butter cream icing. The saying goes that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach but, for my man, I have to get past his sweet tooth before I can get anywhere else.

I spent a couple of hours getting this ready on Sunday afternoon. Hubby was upstairs and he figured I was making cupcakes but I fooled him. He was pretty pleased to get the cake instead.

Hubby’s Valentine cake, the lucky fella!

I got a lovely red mini rose bush and a really sweet card. These plants are great, I’ve had them before. Later this spring I’ll be able to plant it outside where it may last a few years.

My mini rose bush.

That’s all for now I guess. We had had another storm to day and more is expected overnight. Blah… How long until spring?

This little bobble-head frog just wants to wish you a Happy Valentine’s Day!

Earworms

2011-02-06T17:41:00.001-04:00

Just can’t get this song out of my head!

Our local CBC station was running a contest last week, something about Earworms, you know that type of song that you just have to hear or think of that then stays in your mind for the rest of the day. Like a worm that has wriggled into your ear and just won’t come out. I was really tempted to call in because I’ve had one in my head for a week now. I wimped out though because I would have had to sing a few lines and that wouldn’t have been pretty. Besides, I could just picture my co-workers finding out. They would have laughed me out of the plant or worse, they would have started playing pranks and believe me when I tell you that these guys are wicked and would show me no mercy just because I’m a girl! One day I’ll share some stories, but not today.

My Earworm is the theme song from “The Littlest Hobo”. Do you remember the show? It starred London, a German Shepherd, who travelled around from town to town rescuing stupid humans who had gotten themselves in trouble. We loved it when we were kids. We were watching the original series which aired from 1963 to 1965, according to Wikipedia.

The CTV network revived the series in the late 70’s to early 80’s and that’s where the version of the theme song that’s in my head came from.

The Littlest Hobo on CTV!

Here’s a video from YouTube with the song if you want to hear it. I’m warning you now not to push that button!

If you went ahead and pushed it anyway, despite my dire warning, here are the lyrics as posted on the "Halifax Ukulele Gang (H.U.G.)" website.

Maybe Tomorrow – Terry Bush
The theme from “The Littlest Hobo” (1979)

[whistling intro]
There’s a voice that keeps on calling me
Down the road is where I’ll always be
Every stop I make, I’ll make a new friend
Can’t stay for long, just turn around and I’m gone again.
Maybe tomorrow, I’ll want to settle down,
Until tomorrow, I’ll just keep moving on.
Down this road, that never seems to end,
Where new adventure, lies just around the bend.
So if you want to join me for a while
Just grab your hat, come travel light – that’s hobo style.
Maybe tomorrow, I’ll want to settle down,
Until tomorrow, the whole world is my home.
So if you want to join me for a while
Just grab your hat, come travel light – that’s hobo style.
Maybe tomorrow, I’ll want to settle down,
Until tomorrow, I’ll just keep moving on.
[Instrumental Bridge]
Maybe tomorrow, I’ll want to settle down,
Until tomorrow, I’ll just keep moving on.
There’s a world, that’s waiting to unfold,
A brand new tale, no one has ever told,
We’ve journey’d far but, you know it won’t be long,
We’re almost there and we’ve paid our fare, with the hobo song.
Maybe tomorrow, I’ll want to settle down,
Until tomorrow, I’ll just keep moving on.
So if you want to join me for a while
Just grab your hat, come travel light – that’s hobo style.
Maybe tomorrow, I’ll find what I call home
Until tomorrow, you know I’m free to roam.

What’s a little Earworm amongst friends? Eh?

On another topic completely, I think I have found the longest icicle ever here on the Witch’s Island.

Now that’s a big icicle!

You wouldn’t want to be underneath that one if it let go!

And just before I sign off I thought I’d show you these two pictures of the beautiful sunrise we had last week. Hubby shot these while driving to work; I hope he was watching the road!

Sunrise on the Witch’s Island.

Do you remember the saying about red sky in the morning?

Snow For Sale... Cheap!

2011-01-30T08:46:00.005-04:00

Sno Cone Picture via "Make Five"

Snow cones anyone? They are just about the only good thing I associate with that stuff. We were hit hard on Thursday and have lots of snow to spread around. We believe in sharing so the snow is going very cheap. Actually, you can have it for free if you bring a shovel and want to load the back of your pickup truck for weight. It’s all yours baby. Clean, white, pristine, heavy and FREE; just what you need!!!

The Witch’s Island can look cold and lonely in the dead of winter. It’s still beautiful, just different. It’s really a special place where you can find beach combers on the coldest of days looking for that washed up treasure. I haven’t found any recently but would like to share some photos and hope you enjoy your day around a warm fireplace with a good book which is what I plan on doing This afternoon.

You really don’t want to step too close to this edge.

This crow was surprised to find somebody out walking around.

The walkway might just need some work this spring.

It was cold enough that Hubby decided that he wouldn’t go swimming after all.

This is not actually the surface of Mars.

There was some light on the horizon.

Oh, the book I’m reading is “The Girl Who Played With Fire” by Stieg Larsson, the second one of his trilogy. Hubby bought me the set for Christmas and they are just as good as everyone is saying. My fireplace will be warm and toasty and hubby will bring me a glass of red wine. Life is wonderful in the Witch’s cold island paradise.

You can get yours from Amazon.ca.

Pie, Anyone? My First New Recipe of the New Year.

2011-01-09T10:50:00.002-04:00

Well, here’s it is, the start of the second week of the new year and I’m following through on one of my resolutions. I made my first blueberry pie last weekend and it turned out great. It was easy too, in part because I had my pie crust already made. Back in October when I was doing a bunch of baking I made up a whole batch at once and then froze the extra in disk shapes, enough for one pie each. They are so handy and convenient to have on hand.
Here’s the recipe I used. It is my adaptation of one I found in the summer 2006 edition of Homemakers magazine.

Blue Berry Pie

Ingredients
5 cups blueberries
2/3 cup sugar
2 tbsp cornstarch
1 tbsp lemon juice
2tbsp orange juice
1 tsp orange zest
2 tbsp butter
2 pie crust doughs

Directions
Roll out dough into 2 rounds, ¼ inch thick and press 1 into the bottom of your pie plate. Toss the berries with the rest of the ingredients and pour into the pie shell.
Dot with the butter and then top with the 2nd piece of dough. Trim the edges and then crimp them together. Cut some steam vents in the top.
Bake in the lower third of a 425 degree oven for 15 minutes and then reduce the heat to 350 degrees until the pastry is golden and the filling is bubbly, about a further 40 minutes. You’re done!

My first ever blueberry pie!

This is the easiest pie ever to put together and even better, blueberries are supposed to be great for your health! Look at that beauty, you know you want some. With the snow falling down around us today it helps to think about late summer when these August Blues were harvested. Oh August, that’s vacation time right? Sorry, memory lapse, I was thinking vacation already, sigh.

Yesterday we took down the Christmas tree. It’s always a sad thing to see it going away again, the living room looks so bare. We also put away all the decorations pertaining to Santa Claus. Snowmen get to stay because, well, um, they just do. That’s my rule and I’m sticking to it.

Here are some of the guys who will be hanging around for awhile. Try not to think about that pie while you’re looking at the snowmen. I bet you want some pie.

Warm Winter Wishes

This is the wall hanging I bought in the Big City last fall.

This is one of my all-time favourite decorations.

What do you suppose snow actually smells like?

My brother gave me this skating snowman for Christmas this year.

Over The River

This guy usually carries a Merry Christmas banner but it has been put away for now.

I don’t necessarily agree with this sentiment.

I love this little snowman lamp!

This guy will play Jingle Bells when you press his belly.

This guy is on the back of the front door.

This was a fun craft to make!

This star is made from dogwood branches.

He should be saying Let It snow Like Crazy SOMEWHERE ELSE!

Husbands, too.

This is one of this year’s Christmas presents from Hubby.

This guy is actually a candle holder.

Okay, thanks for looking. Here’s your piece!

It was as tasty as it looks.

Welcome to 2011!

2011-01-01T09:55:00.003-04:00

This is the first time my Christmas amarylis has produced 5 blooms!

Granny New Years has come again in a small and quiet way. What you don’t remember "Granny"? Check her out in last year’s post here.

Granny New Year Present

A new puzzle book, thanks Granny!

Hubby had a visit from Granny, too. Well, sort of. He finally bought himself a new table saw with the extra cash he received in December. It will replace the $50 Black and Decker saw he has been using for the last 25(!) years. The poor old thing (the saw, not Hubby) fell off the tool trailer one evening during the gazebo build this summer and broke the table top. The stubborn old bugger (Hubby, not the saw) would still be using it if not for that. The saw got great reviews and the price actually went down $1oo from the time he first started drooling on it in the store. Granny works in mysterious ways!

A life-time warranty and great reviews, oh yeah!

Hubby’s new saw over by the stack of the gazebo’s cedar deck boards.

We had a fantastic year with lots of fun, laughter, great food, good weather, late night fire pit parties and just a deep down happy feeling in my stomach. LIFE IS GOOD!! I really don’t see how things can get any better but I’m going to give it a huge try. So I looked back over some of the goals I wanted to accomplish for 2010 and it seems like I have met the challenge head one.

I wanted to have more “No Spend Days” and I managed to keep from spending anything on 106 days for an average of about 2 per week. The same went for “No Drive Days” and while we had a bunch we didn’t record the number anywhere. It’s a little tricky anyway because I car pool and pay on Friday so really I’m not driving.

The meal planning was a great habit to pick up and we still do this daily because when we don’t it really screws things up. We end up running into the store to buy something on the way home from work. So there are lots of positive reasons to continue with this goal.

We bought a new BBQ for all our outdoor cooking needs. I love it; it’s much better looking than the old hunk of junk. Hubby is still getting used to the smaller BTU’s and slower cooking times but he gets the food cooked.

Losing weight has become an up and down cycle with me. I want to lose 10 pounds and will continue on this goal. My new job involves a lot of sitting on my ass and I’m not used to this. I plan on requesting a new work table so I can stand more during the day. I need to spend less time at the computer at home, too.

So now we are at the nitty-gritty of this year’s new resolutions. I honestly don’t have many.

I will continue with the old goals because they work.

I want to set up a daily savings plan with a charitable organization. I have a few I’m checking out.

I want to take up running; VERY, VERY slowly at first till maybe I have enough stamina to run a small 5 km race. We have a company challenge coming up and I would love to be able to participate without me looking like a complete running moron.

I want to have more dinner parties with friends.

I want to cook a new meal or baked item every month and share it with you all.

I want to save more money in my Goofy account so one day we can visit Disney World and go first class all the way.

I want to watch more football games so when the Super Bowl rolls around I’ll have a team to cheer for because honestly the Oakland Raiders just aren’t going to the Big Game again this year.

Happy News Years everyone, may the best be awaiting you in 2011.

A Waste of My Waist(line).

2010-12-26T18:25:00.004-04:00

What's a girl to do? With the new year just around the corner now, I'm starting to think of resolutions and how I could improve my life and health. A diet is my perrennial favourite. I mean who doesn't think that they could stand to lose a few pounds? But just look at the picture below. Between the presents Hubby brings home from his customers, goodies I make myself and lots of Christmas gifts we have a ton of temptation sitting down in the pantry cupboard. Very tasty temptation. too! People know all our favourite treats and weaknesses and send us only the best. So it's not like I'm just going to chuck it all out or something but while it's in the house I'm going to be feeling its pull just like a high-calorie black hole in the middle of the house. It's not just me, either. Hubby apparently had half a bowl of Bridge Mixture with his morning coffee before I even got out of bed!

How do I resist eating all these goodies?

So today we packed it all up into a box and tucked it away in the farthest reaches of the pantry underneath the bottom shelf and in amongst the garbage bags. We did reserve three of the nicest boxes of chocolates to pass out to the friends who are coming over tomorrow evening. Hopefully this won't ruin their diets! I haven't even thought until now about all the Christmas cookies I baked and the Yule Log, what about my Yule Log?

I'm clearly going to have to come up with a different resolution this year. I mean was it any more successful last year? Maybe I'll just give up eating tripe and eggplant instead. Yeah, I think I can stick with that one!

Merry Christmas, Everyone!

2010-12-25T08:36:00.003-04:00

I'm hoping you are surrounded with family and friends and having a wonderful day.

Gingerbread Girls Just Want to Have Fun!

2010-12-15T15:40:00.000-04:00

The Gingerbread Girl and some of her suiters!

As you can tell from the pictures my Christmas baking has started of course, and just look at how happy this gingerbread girl is in amongst all her cute male suitors. She’s probably going to need to remind them to take off their muddy boots before coming in the house! So far I’ve completed all the gingerbread and some of the shortbread cookies and even a pan or two of Rice Krispie Treats. Hopefully I manage to find the time to get more baking done. Let me see, there’s the orange-oatmeal cookies, the lemon flavoured sugar cookies, maybe a Yule log still yet to get made. Maybe I’ll save all the calories and just stop now!

These cookies are some of my all-time favourites.

The Turkey Drive challenge was a huge success. The Turkey scoreboard was completely full. Our original goal had been 25 birds and then it was increased to 50 and then 100 turkeys but we exceeded even that. By Friday morning we had collected enough money to provide 160 turkeys setting the bar very high for anyone else. I was so proud and still have a tear in my eye for all the kind and generous co-workers who really pulled together to make this huge donation happen. The stakes have been raised for next year and I know we will exceed them because that’s just the type of team spirit we all have. We may even have to have two Turkey scoreboards!

Just a few of the donated turkeys on the front doorstep.

We may need a bigger scoreboard next year.

I have included a few pictures of our Christmas decoration as we have been busy getting ready for the Holidays. I have lots more to get done before the big day which is closing in rapidly. Just remember, only 10 more sleeps everyone!!

The Christmas tree was almost finished.

This owl guards one of the crystal snowflakes.

CBC Turkey Drive

2010-12-05T16:40:00.002-04:00

I’m still glowing with all the positive feedback from you, my readers, to last week’s post. So this week I’m going to tell you about another way to help others in your community.

Here on The Witch’s Island the local CBC station runs its “Turkey Drive” every year to help the food bank provide a turkey dinner for every family in need. We have been contributing to the drive for the last few years usually by dropping off a bird at one of their collection points. This year I’m doing something a little different.

I’ve been making the suggestion at work for a couple of years now that we should donate as a group and challenge other companies to do the same. They finally decided that they would go with the idea and set a first goal of 25 turkeys. Instead of bringing in an actual turkey it was determined that a donation of $25 would be enough to buy one. By the time I got upstairs to buy mine there had already been 8 people in ahead of me!

My turkey!

The girls in Human Resources did a great job in organizing the collection. They made up a “Turkey Scoreboard” to keep track of the number bought. Everyone who contributed got to select and sign a paper turkey on the board. By lunchtime they had revised their original goal of 25 to a total of 50 turkeys and by the end of my shift the turkeys were almost to the edge of the board. 75 turkeys donated in one day!

Turkey scoreboard.

This was, in no small part, the result of some good natured competition between the different departments in the plant. E-mails flowed back and forth between the departments and HR all day with challenges offered and met. It was a lot of fun!

The scoreboard with the revised goal.

At the same time as we were doing the turkey challenge we were also holding a bake sale and a Christmas ornament sale with all proceeds going to the same cause.

We also held a sale of Christmas ornaments.

The CBC will be in our city this Friday as part of their Turkey Drive and that is when my company will be presenting our contribution. With almost another week to collect donations who knows how much there will be. Anybody out want to try to beat us?

Food Bank Challenge

2010-11-28T09:39:00.001-04:00

Recently Sam from "An Ostrich Named Sam" wrote:

”Many of us are so fortunate in being able to buy what we like at the grocery store and never having to choose between putting food in fridge or paying for rent. If you can, please give to your local food bank this Christmas. A box of pasta can make a difference to a family in need.”

and:

”Actually how about a challenge people? Give to the food bank and post your photos the month of December! Anyone in?”

Well, I’m up for your challenge Sam! In fact it was going to be pretty easy to do because donating to the food bank is something that I already do every year anyway. I was a volunteer at our local Salvation Army for over 10 years. They ran their Thrift Store and the food bank out of the same facility so I got to see some of the people who were using the services and hear some of their stories. Some of the stories were very tragic and they convinced me that I have been very fortunate in my life to be in a position to help others. So, among other things, I donate to that food bank regularly.

Also, once a year for the past dozen years or so, Hubby and his co-workers collect food donations from just about everyone in town and take them to the same food bank. I help with this too by driving Big Red while Hubby goes to the door to pick up food. We almost always bring in an entire truck load of stuff because people are so generous. The Salvation Army is always very grateful. It’s the single biggest donation they receive and it keeps the shelves stocked for months.

The back of Big Red was full again this year.

Ready to off-load.

So Sam, here’s my response to your challenge. I’m a little early but that’s just my nature! I included lots of KD, soup, peanut butter, spaghetti and sauce, beans, sugar and Kleenex. I look forward to seeing everyone else’s donations.

Okay Sam here’s my contribution.

Lots of KD because who doesn’t like KD?

All boxed up and ready to go!

Rememberance Day Walk

2010-11-14T16:06:00.001-04:00

We were both off work on Thursday this week for Remembrance Day and, unusually for this late in the year, it was a beautiful day. We decided to take a walk down to the stream to see how it was coping with all the heavy rain that fell since last weekend. We ended up touring around some of the farm fields back there, too. We took a lot of pictures to share with you and, just for fun, I’m including a map to show you where they were taken.

The letters on the map corresponds to the letters at each picture.

The privacy walls are complete. (map"A")

We started off at the gazebo to check out Hubby’s latest efforts. He has completed (!) the two solid walls which face the road now and you can really see how the finished building is going to look. The white of soffits and trim nicely offsets the cedar shingles and spindles. Next we went down to the garden to talk to the pumpkins which are slowly disintegrating back into the ground. The crows are helping. There are a bunch of new holes where the birds have been pecking them.

The pumpkins are slowly melting into the garden. (map"B")

We started down the path to the stream and were once again surprised at just how big the trees are getting. They have only been in the ground here for 6 years and some of them are already over 10 feet. There are lots of wild volunteers sprouting up, too. It’s always good to have some diversity.
When we got down to the stream we could see that the water level was high, almost as high as during spring run-off, but it didn’t seem as if it had flooded over the banks. It was running nice and clear, too. We even spotted some trout swimming in some of the deeper pools.

We started our walk on the pathway to the woods. (map"C")

The stream was very full because it rained almost non-stop for a week. (map"D")

A weird looking fungus was stuck to this tree trunk. (map"E")

Even though there has been a huge amount of rain this week the water in the stream is still nice and clear. (map"F")

It was a fantastic day to walk in the woods. The wind was calm and the sun was shining. The trees still have some colour as well, just like this beautiful maple tree which was blazing in a clearing. We didn’t see a whole lot of wildlife, just some chickadees and blue jays, but we did scare one snowshoe hare out from cover. He was half way through his change from his brown summer coat into his white winter fur. He didn’t seem to be in too much of a hurry to get away. He had probably heard us crashing through the brush for an hour and knew right where we were.

This maple tree was a beautiful splash of colour in the darkness of the woods. (map"G")

The birch trees have really taken over in this section of the woods. (map"H")

The dog wood bushes make a nice contrast to the golden colour of the grass in this fallow farm field. (map"I")

Once we got to the top of the hill we to the opportunity to look back and see the house from a distance. The gazebo looked good at the side; its white trim really stood out. I just hope it doesn’t start falling apart like the grape arbour down in the fruit tree meadow. That poor old thing has lost almost its entire upper arch and the grape vines were long ago eaten by the mice. We found a couple of ripe pears on the ground under the pear tree. I had no idea that it had matured enough to actually produce fruit. Maybe there’s hope for my peach trees after all. After all they’re doing much better than the cherry tree which is not only dead but is now playing host to a weird fungus, too.

Looking back from the dog woods you can just make out the gazebo to the right of our house in the distance. (map"J")

Back in our own yard now you can see just how much the arbour has failed in the last year or two. (map"K")

While we were checking out the trees in the meadow we discovered that the pear tree had actually produced some fruit. Who knew!" (map"L")

Right beside then pear tree the fox den was showing signs of recent activity. (map"L")

This tree apparently died a while ago and now this interesting fungus has colonized it. (map"L")

We had a great walk, got some sunshine and exercise, had an opportunity to remember just how lucky we are to be living in this wonderful country and appreciate the sacrifices others had made to allow us to do so. I’m very grateful.

A Perfect Guess!

2010-11-07T10:00:00.007-04:00

Another Halloween has come and gone but it was great fun while it lasted.

It’s always tough to figure out how many treats to buy as you all know. We’re lucky that because we live out in the country however many trick-or-treaters there’s going be it is still going to be a pretty small number. The past few years we’ve had just 4 or 6 kiddies so this year, just to be safe, I made up 10 bags. Each bag had a couple of packs of chips and some chocolate and candies. We also had some loose stuff just in case we had a flood of customers but it wasn’t needed. Ten kids were what we planned for and ten kids were what we got. Perfect guess!

Designing the treat bags is a lot of fun.

I like to add handmade tags, too.

Picking out the treats.

Making ten piles to fill the bags.

The treats are ready!

How many kids came to your house? More than you planned for or less? More importantly, what did you do when you ran out of goodies?

Ten treat bags and ten customers, perfect!

I also decided that we would only carve two pumpkins this year mainly because they take so long to get done that the whole day can slip by while the designing and carving operations are processing. Hubby apparently had other ideas and slipped in a third one completing it just a half hour before the first kid arrived. At least it kept him out of my hair while I did some baking. I made a big batch of Devil’s Food cupcakes and iced them with an orange cream cheese frosting decorated with black and purple sprinkles. Used my KitchenAid, too. I also roasted up some of the pumpkin seeds for snacking at TV time.

Devil Seeds are easy to make.

Devil’s Food cupcakes with orange cream cheese frosting, mmm.

Just before the kiddies arrived we rushed around pacing pumpkins and getting the lights set up. It was a lot easier with just the three; we even had time to dig out the giant blow-up spider and set it up on the front lawn. I don’t think anyone was scared or impressed with it though at least no one mentioned him.

My blowup spider finally made it out of storage.

So, as Halloween 2010 fades into memory here is a few pictures of this year’s pumpkins. How many days until the next Halloween?

The Mad Farmer pumpkin in the daylight.

The Mad Farmer pumpkin at night.

The Beaver on Halloween afternoon.

The Beaver at night.

Stars and Moons is becoming a classic here.

The front yard just before curfew.

Good job, guys!

Happy Halloween, Everybody!

2010-10-31T09:14:00.005-03:00

If you really want to know how to carve a Halloween pumpkin you should just ask Ray Villafane. So Ithought rather than post a long drawn out saga of pumpkin carving this year I would just post some pictures of our pumpkins from a couple of years ago. I hope you get some inspiration to create your own.

Talking about inspiration, a friend sent me this message in an email and I thought it was cute so I’m sharing.

In case you didn't know...

Women are Angels

And when someone breaks our wings....
We simply continue to fly....

On a broomstick....

We're flexible like that..

Here are a few more of our previous pumkins...

In case you missed the link, here is a gallery of Villafane’s work.

Happy Halloween, all!

Cost of Building a Gazebo

2010-10-17T09:39:00.001-03:00

The gazebo is just about ready for siding.

As the building season winds down, we are starting to look at how must the gazebo has cost so far. You may remember that we had budgeted about $4000.00 for this project based mostly on hopes and wishes (and the amount we had saved). Well, okay, we did have a little experience with the potting shed project so we knew at least which materials we would need to buy if not how much of each. The shed was a very expensive project though, coming in at around $7000.00 if I remember correctly, and it was a lot less wasteful of materials than the gazebo has been. There are lots of big triangular plywood offcuts lying around that just couldn’t be used in the roof of the new building just as an example. Even with that and with Hubby over-engineering just about every aspect of the project like he’s building a skyscraper we have somehow managed to spend less than the budget.

Here’s a rundown on what’s been spent so far…

Item	Number	Cost Each	GST	PST	Total
H Clips 1/2 inch	50	$2.50	$0.13	$0.26	$2.89
Bevel Square	1	$7.99	$0.40	$0.84	$9.23
Bolt Lag 5/16 X 6	16	$12.64	$0.63	$1.33	$14.60
Construction Adhesive	2	$9.98	$0.50	$1.05	$11.53
Corners screen frame pkg.	1	$3.30	$0.17	$0.35	$3.81
Deck Block	9	$53.91	$2.70	$5.66	$62.27
Deck Boards cedar 5/4 X 4 X 12	8	$48.16	$2.41	$5.06	$55.62
Deck Boards cedar 5/4 X 4 X 8	60	$193.80	$9.69	$20.35	$223.84
Deck screws 2.5 inch pounds	10	$52.90	$2.65	$5.55	$61.10
Deck screws 3.0 inch pounds	5	$26.45	$1.32	$2.78	$30.55
Deck screws 3.5 inch pounds	8	$40.74	$2.04	$4.28	$47.05
Deck screws 2 in pounds	2	$10.58	$0.53	$1.11	$12.22
Drip Edge	9	$78.03	$3.90	$8.19	$90.12
End Cut Preservative	1	$8.99	$0.45	$0.94	$10.38
Fibreglass screen 48X100' roll	1	$108.35	$5.42	$11.38	$125.14
Frame screen 4 ft pc	4	$25.32	$1.27	$2.66	$29.24
Gripgard ice dam roll	1	$64.00	$3.20	$6.72	$73.92
Hanger Nails Box	1	$20.69	$1.03	$2.17	$23.90
Hinge pair	1	$6.87	$0.34	$0.72	$7.93
Joist Hangers 2 X 10	20	$32.00	$1.60	$3.36	$36.96
Landscape Cloth	1	$8.99	$0.45	$0.94	$10.38
Leather Tool Belt	1	$15.98	$0.80	$1.68	$18.46
Nails 1 1/4 Aluminum White	1	$7.49	$0.37	$0.79	$8.65
Nails 1 in Roofing lbs.	5	$11.45	$0.57	$1.20	$13.22
Nails 2.5 in Spiral box	2	$11.98	$0.60	$1.26	$13.84
Nails Finishing Galv. 1.5 in box	1	$5.99	$0.30	$0.63	$6.92
Nails Roofing 1 in. box	1	$14.69	$0.73	$1.54	$16.97
Paint Behr Ultra white	1	$45.97	$2.30	$4.83	$53.10
Patio Stone 18 X 18	10	$59.90	$3.00	$6.29	$69.18
Pine 1 X 4 X 8 clear	8	$50.56	$2.53	$5.31	$58.40
Pine 1 X 6 X 6 clear	8	$95.36	$4.77	$10.01	$110.14
Pine 1 X 6 X 8 clear	5	$71.74	$3.59	$7.53	$82.86
Plywood 1/2 in Select Spruce PT	6	$215.82	$10.79	$22.66	$249.27
Plywood 1/2 in Std Spruce	11	$237.17	$11.86	$24.90	$273.93
Plywood Meranti 1/4 in	3	$47.37	$2.37	$4.97	$54.71
Post Base 4 X 4 galvanized	8	$35.92	$1.80	$3.77	$41.49
River Stones 20 kg. Bags	30	$134.70	$6.74	$14.14	$155.58
Sandpaper 100 grit disk	2	$1.38	$0.07	$0.14	$1.59
Sandpaper 60 grit disk	2	$1.38	$0.07	$0.14	$1.59
Screen Door	1	$135.20	$6.76	$14.20	$156.16
Scrub Brush	1	$10.49	$0.52	$1.10	$12.12
Shingles Black Bundles	9	$209.67	$10.48	$22.02	$242.17
Shingles Cedar bundles	2	$42.00	$2.10	$4.41	$48.51
Skewable Hangers	6	$13.74	$0.69	$1.44	$15.87
Spline screen roll	1	$4.95	$0.25	$0.52	$5.72
Spout paint can	1	$1.58	$0.08	$0.17	$1.82
Spruce 2 X 10 X 10 PT	2	$33.94	$1.70	$3.56	$39.20
Spruce 2 X 10 X 12 PT	7	$136.22	$6.81	$14.30	$157.33
Spruce 2 X 10 X 8 PT	10	$131.72	$6.59	$13.83	$152.14
Spruce 2 X 4 X 10	18	$54.80	$2.74	$5.75	$63.29
Spruce 2 X 4 X 10 PT	10	$42.80	$2.14	$4.49	$49.43
Spruce 2 X 4 X 12	20	$76.80	$3.84	$8.06	$88.70
Spruce 2 X 4 X 8	26	$86.22	$4.31	$9.05	$99.58
Spruce 2 X 4 X 8 PT	22	$83.38	$4.17	$8.75	$96.30
Spruce 2 X 6 X 10	6	$30.00	$1.50	$3.15	$34.65
Spruce 2 X 6 X 12	6	$36.00	$1.80	$3.78	$41.58
Spruce 2 X 6 X 8	12	$43.20	$2.16	$4.54	$49.90
Spruce 4 X 4 X 8 PT	10	$88.88	$4.44	$9.33	$102.66
Tarpaper Roll	1	$24.99	$1.25	$2.62	$28.86
Thompson Water Seal large	1	$44.99	$2.25	$4.72	$51.96
Thompson Water Seal regular	1	$22.99	$1.15	$2.41	$26.55
Washer Flat 5/16 Zinc	16	$0.80	$0.04	$0.08	$0.92
Weathervane	1	$86.45	$4.32	$9.08	$99.85
Wind Brace 11 ft.	4	$23.96	$1.20	$2.52	$27.67
Work Gloves	2	$4.00	$0.20	$0.42	$4.62
Grand Total	512	$3,350.81	$167.54	$351.84	$3,870.19

Obviously, the building is not yet complete so that $3,870.19 figure is going to go up but it won’t be by much. We have a lot of supplies already purchased that are just waiting to be used. We have the rest of the framing for the door and windows; we have the door, flooring, screening and some of the shingles. In fact, about all we have yet to buy is the remainder of the cedar shingles and the metal framing for the screens. We might just be able to buy that for less than $129.81 you never know!

Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone!

2010-10-10T21:09:00.001-03:00

Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone!

I love Thanksgiving weekend! Especially this year as I was able to convince the boss at work to give me an extra two days (Thursday and Friday) off. Five day weekends sure beats five day workweeks! I used both extra days just for me (at least as much as I could convince myself to do so). On Thursday I slept in as long as possible and then had a nice relaxing day around the house. On Friday I took myself to the Big City for a fun day of shopping at the Boutique (Value Village) and elsewhere.

Saturday morning I was all rested up and raring to go. Hubby and I made a quick trip to the Small City to visit the Farmer’s Market and do some grocery shopping. Hubby needed some more (!!) plywood for the gazebo so we picked that up, too. When we got home he went off to build and, with him out from underfoot, I settled down to some serious baking time. I made all my fall favourites; pumpkin pie, apple pie and butter tarts! The apple pie was made with Honey Crisp apples that we picked last weekend at a local orchard. They make a surprisingly tart filling and I’ll definitely be using them again. I made all the pastry a couple of weekends ago and then froze it to ease the workload this weekend. That saved me a lot of time. My KitchenAid was a great help, too. This is the first year ever where the pumpkin pie filling didn’t get sprayed all over the walls by the hand mixer!All told I made 1 deep-dish apple pie, 1 pumpkin pie with pastry decorations, 3 pumpkin tarts and a dozen butter tarts. Not bad for a few hours on a Saturday afternoon!

We picked these Honey Crisp apples at a local orchard last week. This will be the first time I’ve tried them in a pie.

I sure am glad that I made and froze this pastry dough last month.

This pastry mat is the perfect device for rolling out dough to the right shape.

The dough is rolled out and is ready for the pie pan.

The apples have all been sliced, spiced and added to the shell.

My pie is ready for the oven.

I used a set of fall-themed cookie cutters to make these decorations from the left-over pastry.

The pumpkin pie filling was mixed in my new KitchenAid!

The KitchenAid did a great job. No splattering of filling on the walls!

Butter Tarts were next.

The KitchenAid was great at this, too.

I wish I had a shop window to display all my lovely baked goods!

After all the baking was done we finally had a chance to break out the Halloween decorations. I have 3 great big plastic tubs full of Halloween-themed stuff and I still manage to acquire more every year somehow. It’s gotten to the point now where I have to pick out just my favourite items to put on display and I end up leaving the rest of it in the tubs. Some of my things haven’t been out for years. Maybe one day I’ll have a yard sale and everything on sale will have something to do with Halloween. Man, would I ever love to come upon a sale like that!

Here are a few of my best pieces. I hope you like them.

This witch welcomes everybody who comes to the front door.

We made this happy pumpkin family years ago.

I found this guy at Winners a few years ago. He’s kind of a cross between W. C. Fields and Humpty Dumpty. He was so creepy I just had to buy him.

This big ceramic pumpkin was another Winners find.

My Dad bought this for me at a yard sale because he knew I would treasure it.

I saw this craft on the ‘net years ago and I just had to make one for myself. This is my favourite set of hangers but I have 3 others, too. One for Easter, one for summer and a birdhouse set.

This is one of Hubby’s efforts. He found the pattern in a book he bought.

I took a stained glass class twenty years ago and this skeleton hand is one of my favourite efforts in that discipline.

The saying goes “Two heads are better than one.” but it seems that three heads just leads to confusion!

Here’s a little Halloween wish for you.

Ratty says that he just wants to give you a little kiss good-bye!

My Gazebo May be A Two-Year Project!

2010-10-02T07:55:00.004-03:00

The gazebo is finally getting some work on the lower parts.

Finding time to work on the gazebo has been tough for the last month or so. When we started this project we thought that it would be more or less done during Hubby’s vacation (his main vacation that is, as opposed to the one he had last month) but it turned out to be a much more complicated build than he was prepared for. The upper roof took forever requiring almost full extension of the big ladder and even then he was stretched out as far as possible to reach the peak. The lower roof was a little easier but it still required multiple positions of the ladder, each one needing various shims to make it vertical. Then there were fascia boards and caulking and sanding… Needless to say, his desire to get the upper sections done is getting pretty intense. They are now ready for the paint that we bought a month ago if only the weather holds on long enough to get it done. Other than that the only thing left to do up on top is to attach my new weathervane.

The fascia boards have all been sealed and sanded are now ready to be painted.

Wait a sec; I don’t think I mentioned that before. We’ve had this really heavy mounting system for a weathervane ever since we built the potting shed but for some reason we just never got around to buying a weathervane to put in it. I guess that explains why we didn’t put the mount up on the shed, either. Now that the gazebo roof is (almost) finished it’s practically crying out for some kind of finial to cap it off. I remembered that when we were in Mahone Bay a couple of years ago there was this really nice nature store that sold weathervanes so I looked them up to see if they were available online.

The store is called “For The Birds Nature Shop” and they have tons of weathervanes to choose from but it was a pretty easy selection for me. Well, besides the “Flying Witch on Broomstick” they also have “Moon and Bats” but I’m not sure that the bats would stay attached. Anyway, the Witch is just so appropriate that how could I pick anything else? It was back-ordered when I called but it has been shipped to me now and should be here today or Monday. The only question now is whether it will be the right scale for the gazebo. If we put it up and it looks too small we will put on the shed roof and look for something bigger for the gazebo.

My new weathervane as shown on the For The Birds Nature Shop website.

Yesterday Hubby finally started to work on the lower part. Two of the facets towards the road are going to be solid and covered with cedar shingles from top to bottom for privacy and heat control. He framed those walls in and they’re now ready for some plywood and the shingles. The doorway will be framed out next and then the other 5 facets will get some shingles on their lower 3 feet and then the screening. Maybe someday we will actually put some flooring down, too. It would at least be nice to get the wood off the house deck!

The upper spindles and their trim pieces are all finished.

The two privacy walls have been framed out.

The inside of the roof, someday I may get to sit under it.

As we’re now into October I guess that some of this work is just going to have to wait until next spring. Hopefully I’ll get to use it sometime next summer and that it does its job to keep the flies and mosquitoes under control.

UPDATE!!

My weathervane arrived in great shape and exactly when I was expecting it. The For The Birds store is a great place to shop. I loved dealing with them! Doesn't She look beautiful up there?!

Vacation is over, or did it really begin?

2010-09-16T18:10:00.000-03:00

It’s not been the best vacation the Witch has ever experienced but it’s certainly not been the worst.

It’s just, well, I made a list, much like a bucket list, and didn’t even come close to fulfilling it. It’s so sad because really I don’t feel I have had a vacation.

Instead I harvested continually, I chopped, sliced, peeled and diced, nonstop. What a stupid idiot really. Are we going to be bunkered down in the basement or some cave? I don’t know what I was thinking and yet I continued to work throughout my holiday. The weather didn’t help either, it’s been raining everyday now for almost two weeks and we did have that whole Hurricane Earl thing to deal with but still. I guess this may be the problem with stay-cations. You tend to stay!! At home there’s always something that needs doing. The garden was ripe and full and what was I to do? Walk away? Not likely as I raised most of it from seed and it felt like 6 months of hard labour. So every day I picked and selected the finest veggies and turned the fruits of my labour into Salsa, Hot Dog Relish, Mustard Pickles and lots of stewed tomatoes and I haven’t even figured out yet what to do with the rest.

Well, it’s just that now I’m tired and need some time to beach-comb and have a nice bottle of dry red wine waiting for me. HUBBY, do you hear me calling? Oh wait, you’ve been up a ladder the last 2 weeks shingling the gazebo roof in rain and hurricane conditions. I’m not complaining (well, maybe a little). It’s just that I’m looking at the end of my holiday coming up really fast and I don’t feel rested up enough to go back (sigh)! And what am I going to do with all the leftover produce from the garden? We’ll probably just end up taking it in to work next week for our co-workers, lucky bastards!

Anyway, here are some pictures of the progress on the gazebo and a few of my first attempt at salsa (it’s yummy!). Oh, and it was pizza night this week and almost all my toppings were from the garden (yummy, too!). I’ll try to be in a better frame of mind for the next post!

The lower roof is just getting started. The drip edge is installed and the first of the rubber membrane is attached.

What! Hubby’s laying down on the job? No, that’s just the angle of the ladder."

It wasn’t easy trying to nail down the tarpaper in the driving wind and rain!

The salsa ingredients have all been chopped.

The salsa has been cooked down and now it’s ready to be packed away in containers for the freezer.

These are the peppers I brought in from the garden to top my pizza. There are a selection of Jalapeno and Hungarian Banana peppers, some mild and some hot!

These are all the toppings for my pizza. Along with the peppers are some of our tomatoes and onions. The pineapple was store-bought.

The finished pizzas were worth the effort!

Pumpkins Anyone?

2010-09-12T10:55:00.006-03:00

I’m starting to decorate already because we were out driving in the country and look what I spotted. There were lots and lots of pumpkins in every size and colour. Naturally I had to check them all out and give them a though inspection before I chose two (for now). Since that drive I now have 4 pumpkins, they just multiply I tell Hubby.

While we were driving around we stopped a nursery to see their fall mums and we found these goats and their climbing tower. They were more interested in eating their hay than climbing up to see the sights, though. Anyway, I thought you might enjoy some pictures of our little day trip and where I have placed my pumpkins.

I’m sure there will be lots more to come in future posts because Fall (it starts Sept 23) is my favorite time of the year and on that’s the day I start to decorate the inside of our house. Traditions are hard to break on Witch’s Island.

Vera's Mustard Pickle Recipe for the Sisters

2010-09-10T09:28:00.001-03:00

The Sisters of the Blog asked in a comment this week if we would offer up the recipe for Granny's Mustard Pickles and here it is. The picture above is of the actual note she wrote all those years ago. Granny is 94 years old now and this is her mother's recipe so you could say that it is time-tested!

I was really glad to have been watching her make the pickles that day because her measurements were a little off. She would chop the vegetables and pile them to the very top of her 4 cup measure and call it a quart. It was really more like 5 cups or a bit more. My cousin's wife tried making them with the amount listed and her pickles were way too runny.

I've tranlated the note for you below (my comments are in bold).

Dutch Salad Pickles (Mom’s)

Chop fine;

1 qt. green tomatoes
1 qt. green cucumbers
1 qt. onions
1 small cabbage
1 small cauliflower
2 red peppers
2 green peppers
note: 1 qt. = 5 cups for this measure

Put all vegetables into a large plastic tub.
Add ½ cup salt (coarse), cover with cold water and leave overnight.

In the morning, drain well. (This is the secret)

Add (make) dressing.

In a large canning pot mix:
10 tsp Keen’s dry mustard
1 cup flour
6 cups white sugar
½ ounce tumeric

Mix with a little cold vinegar and add 1½ qts.(6 cups) of vinegar.
Bring to a boil (gradually) and pour on pickles (add the vegetables to the hot dressing) and boil 20 minutes (bring back to the boil and then time 20 minutes). (I use some of the 1½ qts vinegar to mix the flour, sugar, mustard and tumeric. I find that it is too thin after the pickles cook if I add more vinegar to mix.) And you can cook them less, it won’t hurt, you have to be careful that it doesn’t stick to the pot and burn (stir constantly!).

Makes about 6 to 6 1/2 litres.

If you make these please tell everybody that they are "Vera's Mustard Pickles". She would be very glad to know you did.

Canning Season Has Commenced!

2010-09-07T09:33:00.005-03:00

Don’t you just love this time of year, when all the hard work that you have put into your garden is starting to pay off? I know that I do and I try to take as much advantage as I can of all the beautiful produce out in the backyard. It has been a really productive growing season mostly because of the long sunny summer and early spring. We’ve never had better results from our carrots and beets, they are HUGE. One of each and a piece of steak or chicken is enough for a meal for the two of us. The yellow beans came thick and fast and are just now getting too old. And the tomatoes, oh, the tomatoes! We’ve had cherry tomatoes but the tub full and the lucky people at work have been enjoying the extras again this year. I’m also more than happy with the beefsteaks. Some of them have grown huge, almost the size of grapefruits and they are actually ripening on the vine. That’s a bit unusual for us; the bigger tomatoes usually just stay green or rot before ripening. Last year we actually had to buy some red ones from the grocery store to make Hot Dog Relish.

Last weekend we decided that it was time to make a batch of my Grandmother Vera’s Dutch Salad pickles. These have been a long time favourite in my family and ever since she became unable to make them I have been doing them for myself from the recipe she wrote out for me. I still have the note she gave me and it is part of the fun of doing them to look at it and remember watching her make them for the first time.

Mustard pickles, because that’s a much more descriptive name for them than Dutch Salad, are pretty easy to make but they are time-consuming. The chopping and the brining take at least a couple of hours the first day and then the draining and boiling and bottling take another couple of hours the second day.

The tedious part is the constant stirring once we start bringing the pot up to a boil. It can take a long time to get there and then it has to be held there for 20 minutes. You really don’t want them to stick and burn on the bottom of the pot though so continuous stirring is required.

This year’s batch made 8 500ml and 9 250ml jars which is more than enough for me, Hubby has never cared for them for some reason. Mustard pickles go with just about any kind of meal so I eat them regularly but still with that many jars there might even be enough to share.

After I finished making the Mustard pickles I still had time and the inclination to do something else so I decided that I would make a batch of Chow Chow. This is something else that Granny used to make but unfortunately I never got a copy of that recipe and I’ve been trying to duplicate it for the past few years. I’ve tried a bunch of other people’s recipes but they haven’t been quite right. Last year though I found one that was pretty close. It was too salty and not spicy enough but that’s easily fixed.

Chow Chow is pretty simple, mainly just tomatoes, onions, vinegar, salt and a spice bag which gets removed before the relish is bottled. Both this recipe and the Mustard pickles use green tomatoes which we have a ton of this year. We also have lots of onions. It is so much more satisfying to preserve your harvest if you don’t need to go to the grocery store to buy any extras.

The vegetables have all been chopped and are soaking in the brine. It’s a beautiful colour at this point don’t you think? Looks almost good enough to eat… This year we only got 4 250ml and 1 500ml jars plus a part jar for the fridge. I usually only eat this with fish so that’s more than enough.

Well, that was last weekend. This week we decided to make our grape jelly mainly because the birds and the remnants of Hurricane Earl were clearing the vines already. We still managed to harvest almost twice as many grapes as last year even though we left some unripened ones on the vine. The birds can have those.

This variety of grape, which we think is Bath, never sweetens up enough to eat. They’re just too tart to enjoy but it makes great jelly. They look really nice, too. We took in some that were still a little green but that didn’t seem to make any difference to the process.

The first step was washing the grapes in a sink full of water to remove any dirt and bugs. Spiders, too, yuck! Then the tiresome job of removing the fruit from the stems began. With the two of working at this it still took over an hour to finish but we ended up with a big pot full of fruit.

The next step is to dump the grapes into the canning pot, add a little water, mash them and then bring them up to a boil. We had so many grapes that we had to use two pots. The idea here is to break up the grapes and get them to release all their juice. After they have done that the skins and seeds are strained out and you’re left with pure grape juice. It’s a messy process, though. Once the juice is collected the left over mash is thrown on the compost heap.

We ended up with 18 cups of juice so, according to our recipe, we needed 13 ½ cups of sugar. That’s a lot of sugar! We also needed a little less than ½ a cup of lemon juice near the end and that’s all. Another simple recipe! So after boiling, testing and bottling we ended up with 6 500ml and 8 250ml plus some for the fridge. We might have to get another storage shelf for the basement.

It's HERE!!

2010-08-30T20:14:00.003-03:00

My beautiful mixer arrived today and I just LOVE the colour. It took 10 business days to arrive but that’s because it came from Las Vegas and I’m sure a little gambling may have been taking place. It blends in with my pumpkin canisters and, yes, even a little pumpkin from the garden.

I’ve already played with the switches and have found it to be quite a quiet machine. The paint is like a factory finished Ferrari, well okay, I guess that might be a little over the top. Oh well it’s just down right stunning.

It's found its place of honour and I will post later (maybe much later, the weather is fantastic) about how it is to use. Right now it is too darn hot to cook or bake. I can’t wait to post my first creation!

The Witch is over the moon right now!!!!!

Gazebo Progress

2010-08-21T06:50:00.006-03:00

I'm sorry to have missed posting last week but the weather has been just too nice here on the Witch's Island to spend my weekend typing at the computer. Instead, I have been puttering around the yard and garden and just enjoying being outside. Last weekend I scrubbed down the front porch and half of the back deck and then sprayed on a new coating of water sealer. It was a lot of hard work but they turned out looking great and I'm pretty proud of my effort. Now that I have part of the back deck done I can rearrange the furniture onto the completed part and then tackle the lower part. Now if I could only convince Hubby to hurry up and get the cedar boards off the upper deck and onto the gazebo floor...

Speaking of the gazebo, he has been making some progress this week but it has been tough getting any build time now that his vacation is over and he is working overtime most days. That said, he did finish installing the plywood sheathing on the lower roof and the pine facsia boards on the upper roof. The soffits are all installed and he has actually started shingling! He had to make a small wooden stage to get up to the peak because the ladders just won't handle the shape of the roof. It looks scary when he is standing on it but he says it is sturdy and solid. It seems to be working, too. Yesterday he completed two triangular segments but had to stop when a thunderstorm blew in. Besides, it was Friday afternoon and our 31st wedding anniversary so we sat in the gazebo on some temporary plywood flooring and had a drink to toast ourselves. It was fun and surprizingly dry!

I got a big surprize for my anniversary. I have been mentioning to Hubby for the past couple of months that I would like to have a KitchenAid stand mixer. They look to be very sturdy and well made and the model I'm interested in comes in a bunch of great colours. We had looked at them quite a few times in the store but they're expensive and I could not convince myself to spend the money. So on Tuesday this week Hubby told me that he had to go to the Big City to get materials for the gazebo and after work we drove down to get them. Instead of going to the lumberyard, the first place we stopped was the Bed, Bath & Beyond. "We're here to get a stand mixer for your anniversary present." he said when I asked why we were there. He had checked prices, colours and models at some places already and had only this place and Sears left to look at. At Sears there was only a few colours available in the store but the price was $499! Right next door the same machine was $379. Guess where we bought? The only drawback was that the colour I wanted, tangerine, wasn't available in the store and would have to be ordered in and would take up to 15 buisness days to arrive at the house. Valerie in the customer service department was very helpful in submitting our order and processing the sale. She even pointed out that by signing up for e-mail offers from the store we would receive a 20% discount coupon online. That little hint was worth about $80! Thanks, Valerie! I can hardly wait for it to be delivered!

Moonflower, I Think I Love You!!!

2010-08-08T17:56:00.004-03:00

I’ve finally done it all on the Witch’s Island, at least out in the flower garden. I have been trying for over 20 years to grow this flower, hoping and wishing for it to produce and that wish has finally come true!

The Moonflower or "Ipomoea alba” has proven to be a tough plant to grow here. The Flower Expert website describes the plant like this:

Moonflower is a beautiful twining vine which grows fast in really hot weather. It is a tender tropical perennial but it is now growing popularity as an annual vine even in colder areas. Planted near a deck or porch, the heavenly fragrance of moon flower permeates the air in the whole garden. Hence, Moonflower a great choice for anyone who loves evening gardening.

I have planted the seeds year after year and sometimes they didn’t even germinate. But I stuck with it and tried again. When I did get the plants started I would baby them as best as I could only to have the plant produce nothing or just wither and die. There was a lot of dying going on with these Moonflowers .

This year all the stars seemed to be in line because not only did I get one vine to take off in a planter on the back deck but I also got a second one to grow in with my Scarlet Runners. Both have now produced their first flowers and there are a ton more coming along.

I was so excited a couple of days ago when I went out to check the one on the back deck just before going to bed and found this bright white flower staring back at me! I went screaming back into the house to get the camera and I got some really nice pictures. I’m really happy to share these with everyone so you can all marvel at just how beautiful this flower truly is.

The flower starts off as a surprisingly small bud on an offshoot from the vine. After a few days the flower starts to emerge from the centre of the bud almost like the second set of jaws on the “Alien”. Sort of like this picture:

The extending spear has a tightly bound spiral at the tip that contains the actual blossom. It takes a couple of days to fully extend and then it burst open in the late evenings or just when the moon is out hence the name Moonflower.

You can see it happen in the following YouTube video:

As the The Flower Expert described it has a wonderful smell which will attract moth’s to pollinate it at night. I haven’t noticed the smell through the whole garden yet but maybe their garden is smaller than ours. The blooms don’t last very long unfortunately. The first one I saw was dead the next morning but the second one lasted slightly longer. Just the opposite of its relative the Morning Glory.

I have also just added some more beautiful flower pictures from our gardens for everyone to enjoy.

Go and grab a coffee, relax and smell the flowers..

Gazebo Roof Is Almost Done!

2010-08-04T16:28:00.002-03:00

There hasn't been an awful lot to say about the gazebo lately but we are still making some progress. With Hubby back to work last week he is only getting a few hours a day to build. That said, he has the secondary roof complete except for the fascia boards and the primary (lower) roof would be at the same point but he ran out of plywood. The new truck is out of commission for a few days meaning he can't get any more so he is working at some of soffits on the lower roof and putting in some more of the spindles.

The budget for this project is still under control. It seemed for a while that he was bringing home hundreds of dollars worth of materiels every day but we still have about $1500 left of our original estimate and most of the major components have been bought including a nice wooden entry door. It would be great if we can't make the scheduled completion date to at least come in under budget. If he wants any more projects from me he'd better keep that in mind!

Canadian Saver Wants To Know...

2010-07-31T20:26:00.014-03:00

In a comment added to last week’s post Canadian Saver said...

“I may need to ask for your jam recipe as we have grapes too, 1 really big vine and many transplants that will start producing lots.”

Well here on the Witch’s Island we love to share recipes!

Last year on Rib Fest Day we harvested our entire crop of grapes (at least all the ones that the birds had left for us) and turned them into the best jelly we’ve ever made. We posted some pictures of the crop and the resulting jars of jelly in a post titled Vacation is over, RATS!!!!! We didn’t, unfortunately, weigh or measure the amount of fruit that we actually harvested but you can see from this picture approximately how many grapes we are talking about.

Before you start making the jelly you should have your jars and lids washed and sterilized. For this recipe we used 8 250ml and 2 500ml jars. Results may vary...

The first thing we did after we brought in the grapes was to wash them and remove as many of the stems and leaves that we could. We did this gently so as not to break open any of the grapes and lose the juice. Next, we put the cleaned grapes into an enamelware corn pot and crushed them with a potato masher. We then added 2 cups of water and brought the mixture to a boil, stirring constantly to prevent burning. We kept it boiling for 5 minutes and then strained the liquid through a colander with very small openings into a large bowl. The colander we have was very effective at straining out the pieces of skin and the seeds but yours might not be as good. We tried doing this part with cheesecloth in other years but we found that it was awkward to work with and it absorbed too much of the juice. It was so much easier to drain the boiling hot liquid through the colander; no burned fingers!

We let the boiled fruit drain into the bowl for an hour or so, poking and prodding it every so often to force as much of the juice through as possible. The left-over solids were then dumped on the compost pile. We ended up with 10 cups of very purple grape juice.

Next we poured the juice back into the corn pot and brought it back to a boil, stirring often. Then we added 7 1/2 cups of sugar (we like our jelly tart, you might want to add a little extra sugar if you like things sweet) and boiled the mixture for about 7 minutes. Then we added 1/4 cup of lemon juice and continued boiling for about 3 minutes. When we reached the jelly stage (checked by the frozen plate method) we poured the liquid into the hot sterilized jars and we were done!

I hope this works out as well for you as it did for us!

Potting Shed Tour, Enjoy the ride.

2010-07-25T19:58:00.001-03:00

Years ago in a far away land the Witch was dreaming of a perfect garden shed or outbuilding to store all of her gardening goodies. After much searching she found a picture and some plans but it wasn’t quite right. So Hubby came up with some ideas to make it perfect.

This is the picture which inspired us. It’s from a Reader’s Digest book called "Dream Backyards" but we also found full construction plans in the July/August 2003 edition of “The Family Handyman” magazine.

“Ultimate Garden Shed.
This 8 ft. x 9-1/2 ft. storage area has loads of room for your lawn and garden equipment, while the smaller front room makes the ideal potting shed. The floor is built using heavy timbers and large cement pavers. The structure also uses cost-effective barn sash windows, board-and-batten siding and metal roofing.”

is how the building is described in “Dream Backyards”.

So, three years ago we spent quite some time in the spring making and adjusting plans for our own version of this cute little building and it became Hubby’s building project for his summer vacation. It was a good experience for him and he spent quite a lot of time mooning over it much like he is doing now with the gazebo.

The first thing you have to know about the potting shed is that it has two completely separate rooms, there’s no connection between them. That’s good because I like to keep my side neat and orderly and Hubby, well, not so much so.

Hubby’s side is very utilitarian. He uses it to store his lawn tractor, the winter tires, the grass-whipper, the snow blower and some other stuff. The place is pretty jammed; I don’t know how he works in there.

My side has a sink and running water to wash the dirt from the veggies and just to clean-up. The sink was purchased for $10 at our local ReStore which sells used building materials to fund Habitat for Humanity building projects. The water comes from the house via a buried garden hose which then goes on to supply the gardens at the back of the yard. My side also has a solar powered light but it doesn’t get used too much. How often are you going to be potting plants after dark?

The wood we used for the countertops and upright is from a church pew we bought years ago. We cut it down from its original length of 15 feet to a more reasonable 5 feet and made a nice bench for our front entry but then we had all this beautiful old wood left over. This was a great way to use it up and it suits the space so perfectly.

I made all the curtains myself to hide the junk under the counter. Yes the Witch has junk but it is all well organized. It looks so much tidier to have all the bags of soil and dirty flowerpots neatly tucked away behind the curtain.

As you can see all my garden tools have their own space. Most of the canisters were purchased at yard sales along with the hanging black rack, which I use to dry my herbs. The bookrack is the hymnal holder from the back of the church pew.

The shed has 3 nice sized windows which were the single most expensive items we bought for this project. Hubby tried building his own copies of the ones in the plans from old window sashes but they leaked. He had to replace them with these nice vinyl ones the next year. Anyway, they are perfect for looking out over the garden and the back of our house. They also give me a great view of the gazebo.

The Witch on the front door is one I made. I used to work in a craft shop while I was earning my engineering certificate and I made dozens of these while I was there. I also painted the design on the floor but it got too tedious to continue it all throughout. The grape vines growing up and over the arbor have some history for me, too. We brought them from our first house when we moved and they are doing great in their new spot. Last year they provided just enough fruit to make a nice batch of jam. The grapes are too tart to eat right off the vine but the Waxwings love them and they’ll strip them clean if we’re not paying attention. They just have to learn to share.

The potting shed was a great project and we use it almost daily at this time of year. Hope you have enjoyed your little trip through the best garden shed ever.

Maybe You Need To Re-Think That...

2010-07-22T18:08:00.002-03:00

The gazebo roof is finally starting to take shape with the addition of some sheathing on the upper roof and some vent spindles this week. It has been a long time coming because there was a major change in the design of that section of the roof.

In a previous post there is a picture of Hubby gazing up at the underside of newly erected roof trusses and I joked that he was congratulating himself on a job well done. It turns out that he was taking notice of something that I had seen a couple of days before, namely that the secondary roof was way too small. “It looks like a spaceship has landed on our gazebo!” he said by way of illustrating his concern and I had to agree. Maybe I should have told him that I had noticed the same thing earlier while the whole structure was still on the ground but he did seem so pleased with it that I didn’t want to hurt his feelings by criticizing.

So the question was what to do about it. He really didn’t want to disassemble the whole upper roof and then try to haul a much bigger piece back up in the air so he decided to just add on new tail pieces to the ends of the rafters. It sounds easy but it was very time consuming. It was worth the trouble though; the new shape suits the size of the building much better.

This week he has started adding eaves and soffits on the upper roof. He has also put in some of the spindles which cover the vent space between the two roofs. There is even some plywood installed on the upper roof which can only mean that shingling will begin soon! Let’s hope so because he is back to work next week so he won’t have as much time to build every day. There’s only so much summer left!

Barney Towels

2010-07-19T06:50:00.002-03:00

This week I convinced my boss that he could give me Friday off from accumulated overtime without the business coming to a complete standstill so I’ve been enjoying a beautiful long weekend. We took a trip across to the far distant land and had a great day of shopping and eating. We had breakfast at a truck stop on the way over and they gave us so much food that we could have easily shared one plate. We both kind of waddled back to the truck when we were done. Thankfully we had an hour or so to digest on the drive in before the serious work of shopping began.

We started off at the building centre where Hubby went hunting for a finial for the top of the king-post in the gazebo. He hadn’t been able to find one of the right size at home but he came up with the perfect one right away, so he was happy. Then it was off to Costco where I got some new t-shirts for myself and a few other things. After that we went to Homesense where I bought some new towels in a bright purple colour. The salesclerk who was ringing in the purchase said something about the colour looking like Barney the dinosaur and Hubby quipped back that he would never be able to look at the towels again without thinking about what she had said. The poor girl, she took him seriously and got all worried that she had insulted us. We spent 5 minutes trying to convince her that he had been joking with her but I’m not sure she believed us. Anyway, my new towels are much more “aubergine” than “Barney”.

After that I went to the Value Village while Hubby toured around the Future shop. I got myself a great pair of denim shorts but he came back empty-handed. Princess Auto and the pawn shop were next but there was nothing we wanted there. So it was off to the big mall where we sped around all 130+ stores in about half an hour. The only reason that I was in there any longer was that Hubby convinced me that I should take the opportunity to get my hair cut. Mastercuts had an opening so I took it and $50 and 20 minutes later I had a new ‘do. On my way out of the mall I bought a new quilted wall hanging to replace the snowman one that has been on the wall in the family room for the last 8 months and then went to collect Hubby from Chapters where he had been waiting out the make-over.

At that point it was time for supper at my favourite Chinese restaurant where we had our favourite dinner; the Schezuan Combo. Mmmm... My mouth is watering just remembering; I didn’t slobber on your monitor just now, did I? At the end of supper, as I was reading my fortune cookie message which said that I should be open to new ideas, Hubby said that he would like us to go to the new casino before going home. Well, what could I say but okay. We agreed that we would spend up to $20 and then quit. We actually spent $25 but we had a great time buzzing from one machine to another and we were there for over an hour and a half. We both agreed that that was enough and if we were to stay any longer it would likely become boring. It was fun while we were there, though!

On Saturday, Hubby worked away most of the day on the gazebo. He spent hours redesigning the secondary roof because he thought the first design looked too much like a space ship had landed on top. I’m glad too because I was thinking this all along but I didn’t want to hurt his feelings by saying so. I spent my day going from nursery to nursery looking for some last minute bargains to fill out the few bare spots left in the veggie garden. I’m glad I went too because I found some awesome yard sales that I didn’t know were on. I got a great old enamelware pot for cooking mussels or clams that will double as a witch’s cauldron at Halowe’en, some beach glass earrings and a few other baubles. I had to go around one place three times before I was sure I had seen it all! Did I mention that I love yard sales? We had BBQ’d hamburgers and fresh beets and carrots for supper. The garden is doing great this year and this may be the earliest we have ever harvested beets. They were very tasty and I had a big helping of greens to go with them. The tomatoes, cucumbers and the gourds are doing great, too as you can see in the pictures. We ended the day with a huge fire in my outdoor fireplace and toasted up a few marshmallows before going inside.

On Sunday we declared a moratorium on the usual housework because it was going be just a scorching day. Hubby cut the grass while the temperature was still relatively cool and I made a nice lunch and did a bit of laundry and then it was off to the beach! It was a perfect day at the shore; the water was warm and clear (although there were a few too many jelly fish) and we found a nice secluded section of sand to lie out under the umbrella. Hubby got to swim on and off all afternoon and he even convinced me to wade in a couple of times. Of course, as soon as I got in up to my waist I noticed two crabs edging over on the sandy bottom to get my toes so my swim only lasted a few minutes. It was refreshing while I was in there though. Dinner was BBQ’d spareribs with more of those beets and carrots. The weekend finished up with a glass of wine out on the front porch looking at the moon and stars.
I can see more long weekends coming up soon.

Gazebo Roof Update

2010-07-14T09:41:00.002-03:00

It’s been a while since I have mentioned the gazebo but frankly not much was happening with it. The last few days have seen some good progress, though. Hubby got the roof system designed and built. He even got it up to the top of the posts without killing himself! I’m glad I was at work while this was going on because I would have worried myself silly.

Anyway, he took a bunch of pictures of the process and I thought you might like to see them. So here they are.

Hubby decided that the easiest way to build the roof would be to do it down on the floor of the gazebo and then dissemble most of it and just lift up the minimal amount that would be needed to put the king-post up in the air. This turned out to be a good decision because it took a couple of tries to get the right dimensions and angles for those main trusses.

Apparently the top surface of a roof truss is a good place to do your calculating. I’m sure that Einstein made fewer notes as he was developing his theory of general relativity. This will all be hidden once the roof goes on but it will be there for posterity.

This is the start of the secondary roof which will cover the upper vents. Hopefully, these vents will allow the heat to escape on those hot summer days. This little roof took about three days to come out of the design stage. Hubby first thought that it should have its own little king-post and spent HOURS cutting samples and test pieces only to abandon the whole plan. Eventually he chose to just attach them all at the peak and this seems to have worked out fine.

This is the entire roof truss structure completed. At this point it was ready to be disassembled and moved up to the top of the posts. You can see some of the straps that he was using to cinch in the trusses to the king-post. They were just temporary and were removed later.

The king-post has been trimmed and finished out and the first of the main trusses has been bolted on. He had decided that four trusses and the king-post would be enough structure to keep things from collapsing but still be light enough to lift by himself.

This is the main roof ready to be lifted to the top of the posts. A little bit of bracing and he was ready for the big lift!

The lift was planned to go up in four steps each of which would only require one side to go up about four feet. He added some temporary boards to the post to catch the tails of the trusses so that he could lever the opposite side.

The halfway point and there were no dead bodies or blood anywhere. Apparently it was going to work out as planned!

Only one more step to go. It was a little tricky for the last two steps because they had to be done from the top of the ladder.

Made It! Yeah!

Now that it is up there we are getting a better feel for the scale of this thing and we think that is going to be just perfect but, boy, is it tall!

Hubby took a little break after getting most of the remaining lower roof trusses reattached. The day was just blazing hot, well into the 90’s.

Break time was over, and it was back to work. Here he was reattaching the secondary trusses and that required the extension ladder. We are still “discussing” whether he will need to rent staging to complete the roof.

It was late in the day when he got it all done and I think he was pretty pleased with himself. After I got home from work he spent about an hour circling the building going “ooh” and “ahh”. Here he is gazing lovingly at his creation. That’s my little carpenter!

Now that it is up in the air you really see how complicated that whole part is. No wonder there were so many calculations earlier on. Hey Hubby! Is it too late to add some sky lights?

There were all these little pieces of off-cut two-by-fours lying around so I decided that the best way to clean them up was to have a bonfire in my fire pit. It was just blazing for over an hour. What a productive day!

Scrub Pads and Shopping Bags.

2010-07-10T21:22:00.005-03:00

It’s the time of year now where we are really starting to enjoy the gardens, especially the flower gardens. Everything is starting to blossom and I can hardly wait to harvest some to bring the beauty inside. I try to arrange a new bouquet in my ikebana every few days. This one is a little different though, can you see why?

Growing amongst my flowers are a pair of scrubbies and a shopping bag! They are there in the middle, just above the bright orange lily. The shopping bag is in the big purple rose and the white flower to its left and the purple flower to its right are the scrub pads. The scrubbies were handmade and so beautiful that it is such a shame to use them but I can’t wait to try. The friend who sent them made them herself and it doesn’t sound like it was much fun. This is the way she described it in an email she sent;

“Two years ago when we were in Mexico and I had that horrible fall, I was really stuck spending a lot of time in my room. An older Canadian tourist from Vancouver had given me a couple of the scubbies and I thought they were really cute. She knew how bored I was and told me she'd show me how to make them. I've done a bit of crocheting during the years and figured it would not only be fun but a great idea for our church bazaar. FUN???????????? It was NOT!!! I had no clue how involved this was going to be. They sure looked simple enough. I figured she used some special kind of yarn. I couldn't believe what you had to do. First you had to buy material that looks like the crinolines I used to wear when I was a teenager. It comes in all different colours and is fairly stiff. You have to get about 3 metres of it and then cut it all up in narrow strips. Well it AIN'T that easy because if you visualize it, the edges are all jagged when you cut it so when you try to fold up the strips they are all sharp and when you take a strip and try to crochet with it, it's such a treat. The edges stick to your clothes or the chesterfield or whatever it can. Forget trying to keep nail polish on your nails. Then periodically you have to tie another strip on. Not only does it prickle you wherever it touches but the strength it takes in your hands and fingers to try to make it loop means you're lucky to make one of those things a day and if on top of that you happen to have arthritic fingers, boy in the morning you can sure feel it. Once you get the circles made you then have to crochet them together but try to stuff them as you go along.”

I don’t think that I’m going to be making any of these myself any time soon!

The purple rose shopping bag is so cool, too. While it is not homemade it is very light and it has a clip on the side so that it can be attached to a purse strap or a belt loop. I’ll never have to worry about having a shopping bag with me again.

These little gifts came as a complete surprise and they brightened my day more than words can say. Sometimes the simplest act of kindness will stand out and you will remember the moment for a lifetime. I guess I’m having one of these moments and wanted you all to experience it with me. Hope you have enjoyed the ride.

Happy Fox Is Happy!

2010-07-05T09:38:00.003-03:00

The gazebo is slowly making progress. Hubby has not had much time in the last few days for building as we try to cram as much fun stuff as possible into my short vacation. He did manage to complete the floor substructure and install the main posts which will hold up the roof. There has been a lot of pondering, drawing and model building but he thinks that he has it figured out as to how to proceed. I’ll be happy as long as he doesn’t cut off a foot or something.

My vacation, meanwhile, is going great but is going to be over too soon. We’ve done some beach combing, some gardening, had friends over for plant exchanges and card parties. We went to our local seafood restaurant and had steamed mussels and Caesars on their deck while watching the boats go by and the kids jump off the bridge into the water. We even got the patio table and chairs out of the basement and up on the deck. I made Red Velvet Cupcakes for Canada Day using a recipe I found on Week Of Menus. The recipe is called “The Velvet Cupcake” (you can see it here) because they were afraid of the red colour but I just added it in. I had fun decorating them with flags and sprinkles and even made one to look like a beaver with almonds for teeth and a graham wafer for a tail!

We went walking on the beach yesterday and the weather was just perfect. It had been pretty windy and hot at home and we thought that we’d get there and breeze off the water would cool us down but the air was almost dead calm, just barely strong enough to fill the sails of this boat. The water was clear and warm and we quickly regretted not bringing our swimsuits.
On the way home we were greeted by this happy little fox. He must be used to being fed by the park-goers driving by because he walked right up to the car, sat himself down and let me take a bunch of pictures. Even though he didn’t get any food from us he still smiled at me as we drove away. Even the wildlife is happy I’m on holiday!

Happy Canada Day!

2010-07-01T08:55:00.000-03:00

Join the celebration, get out and enjoy this beautiful country's birthday by spending the day outdoors. Have a great day!