Merry Christmas 2011.

Our quiet Christmas included a simple creche and nativity scene lit with colored lights. Add to this our 2 cats, 2 dogs and we.
Simple as that.

Christmas Eve

A quiet Christmas season for Chris and I. Perhaps by circumstance and perhaps by happenstance. Living on Bowen has its challenges for sure, but it also has a uniqueness about it that you don't find in the city: a good sense of family community.

Christmas Eve we joined our friends Susan and Bob down the road for a fabulous dinner. Susan owns a shop on Bowen called Fabulous Finds, so it is only natural to expect a fabulous meal, in a fabulous home, with fabulous tree trimmings and fabulous company.
Bob and Susan have a unique collection of Christmas ornaments for there tree, collected from around the world. There are no two the same and some are very exotic. I particularly liked this frog ornament.

We had the most fabulous appetizer which I will have to try to make. It was pitted dates stuffed with a roasted almond and some goat cheese, wrapped in bacon and broiled until the bacon was crisp. Amazingly delicious.

Bob BBQ'd a tenderloin to perfection, topped with sauted shitake mushrooms, and Susan cooked parmeson-topped scalloped potatoes and roasted carrots with rosemary.
Pecan pie and whipped cream for desert.

It was a great evening, and we tried some excellent new wines. Here we are, Chris and I, just sitting down to dinner.

After dinner Susan and I tried our best to harmonize a few favorite Christmas carols, while Bob, below, gave some attention to their favorite kitty, "Peanut".

And the Winner Is......!

Chris Weyler - Bowen Island Poker Association! After 43 weeks of Thursday night poker league tourny and cash games, and despite finishing only 200dreth's of a point behind the big winner, Chris was recognized as the "2011 best overall player of the year" and awarded this trophy". A great finish Chris! Can you find a good place for it to live?

To Err is Human, To Age is Devine!

It was my birthday yesterday - no earth shattering event by any means, but nevertheless my special day. The sun was out, I had the day off, and a day to spend as I wished. Jake and I had 3 walks, one to the new mailbox up the road, where I picked up a nice stack of birthday cards as you can see below. I puttered in the garden, deadheading and cleaning up the finished blooms. Next I met my friend Robyn for lunch at the new CupCutter restaurant at the golf course, but forgot my camera. I had a lovely salad and 4 prawn shooters. When I got back home I pulled the fountain out of the pond and watched the fish swimming in sparking clear water. When the fountain comes out, I know I am ready for winter. Dinner was at Tuscany with my friend Joanne. I had the most delicious linguine vongole: Joanne had an incredibe special apple pizza with carmelized onions and cheese: Later that evening went down the road to Bob and Susan's who made me a special rum cake with whipping cream! Very yummy. Chris was in town all day for another event, so he and I will celebrate tonight or tomorrow.

Lavender Harvest

I just love lavender. I have a variety of plants - English, French and Spanish - about 12 in total. I find the English and French lavender to be the best producers, and the hardiest. If I had to choose, it would be English lavender. I was very late this year and should have harvested my lavender sooner, but better late than never I say. I harvested only one plant this afternoon, and as I write, I feel intoxicated by the aroma around me. The plant I harvested gave me an incredible yield. Without having a plan, I filled 7 small vases and placed one in every room of the house. It smells heavenly, and is so relaxing. Next I filled a few sachet bags with the flower buds, though not sure what I will do with them yet. I have a bowl of flower buds left and will likely try to make some more sachets, or perhaps fill a sock and keep some in the drawers. Next year, I will start early and get creative. For now, I will just be soothed and calmed by the scent of this wonderful perennial.

October Bonfire!

What a beautiful fall day today!! Warm, maybe 16c. Today just called out to us - "have a bonfire". So we did. A few phone calls, and some good neighbors popped over to join us around the fire for drinks and BBQ hotdogs.

Interesting Wine

A friend gave me this bottle of California wine the other day. It was a lovely merlot and I just loved the label "little black dress".

Food

I'm on a diet. Yes, again. It's what I do. At least once a year, for as long as I can remember. This year is the toughest though, as I have the most weight to lose. Oh well, it's my own doing, but I am motivated, and where there is a will there is always a way. So far I have lost 10lbs. I am not going to tell you how much I need to lose, other than saying it is significantly more, but I am in the right head space for dieting. Tonight I made a cool stir fry with what I could find in the fridge: zucchini, mushrooms and brussel sprouts (shredded with no core), and then lots of chopped garlic and onions. I sauteed just enough to have the brussel leafs limpen. Very tasty indeed, even Chris had some for his dinner too. Dieting can be a lot of fun, especially if you experiment with new cooking styles and dishes.

Wood, Wood, and More Wood

This was another "wood" weekend, with a "two-fold" agenda. You may recall my mentioning the neighbor's "bad fence", well one of the bad patches of the fence is now hidden by a new wood storage shed running parallel to the fence, and adjacent to the vegetable garden. Since we were lucky to come by a fresh fallen cedar that some nice neighbors down the road had cut from their frontage, Chris figured it was the perfect excuse to build another wood storage shed; after all, we had to put the wood someplace because the other woodshed was full, and this one could be strategically placed to cover part of the bad fence. The 14 year old boys next door split the wood for us, and Chris built the wood shed very cleverly I would say, given the slope of the land. I moved and stacked all the wood into the shed on Saturday. Since it is the beginning of fall, and the weather held, I also started the never ending task of chopping kindling. It's one of my favorite things to do! I managed one cedar chest full, plus another smaller box. I just love wood, and how it smells and feels.

At our local island festival in a park right near the cove, we had a surprise visit by the Coast Guard hovercraft. What a noise it made coming into shore. The water was so shallow, I was surprised to think it would even come in. Once in though, it just deflated to sit on the shoreline for all to view or ask questions of the crew. I thought it was a pretty cool sight considering I had never seen a hovercraft that close up.

Fish For Tea, Baked or Fried??

Today Chris thought we should go out and catch our own dinner. Going for salmon meant traveling quite a ways to get to where the salmon were, so we thought we would just go and try for cod. The first drop we made landed us a small Sole. Enough for one. Chris said it was a baby halibut, but I know better! We promptly landed a second one the same size, so we now had dinner for 2! Chris wanted to get some cod, but we first had to battle those nasty dog fish. But then, just off the side of this little rock called Onion Island, we started to nail some small cod. Enough to get 3 or 4 meals out of (in the freezer). All in all it was a fun day. As we started home, I snapped this shot of our island (westside) with a good view of our only mountain, Mt. Gardner.

Beet Root

Chris planted lots of beet root this spring and we managed to harvest over 30 small beetroots. Since Chris planted them, it was his choice as to what to do with them. He chose pickling. We did it tonight. Not being a preserver or having any of the preserving instinct, I simply googled a recipe for pickled beets and they were done in less than 1/2 an hour. Four jars as you can see. Wow! I know have a great recipe for pickled zuchini!

Lavender and Ludicrous

Saturday morning started pretty much like most others... garage sales! There were 3 of them, and I did very well. My first find was Tuki, a Polynesian statue (on the left), not to be confused with Jake. Next came my purchase of a couple of patio umbrellas. This red one was the favorite, and right away found a home in front of Chris's workshop. Other finds were a cool fish chime, an ornamental olive oil can from Nice, and a cedar chest that we will use to store kindling. My next event for the day was staining some landscape ties. I did a dreadful job and picked the wrong stain color. But once it dried I thought it might be a good contrast to the yellow spartium, the lavender and the purple cone flowers. The lavender against the crazy funky shack is now accented by the purple/cherry ties. It is quite ludicrous really if you are right in front of all this.

Cabbage Patch Cat

There really is much to be said about having a cat, and about being in the presence of one. They don't say much, and they certainly don't suffer from insomnia like many of us do, but they really know how to improve the look of the corner garden when it's the last spot in the yard that is getting any sun. Our little Smoke loves the red cabbage garden and he loves to have his photo taken. Always rolls over at the sound of the lens opening. It's simply impossible to look at a cat like this and feel any stress. What a great calming drug to have around the house.

Director's Chair

Finally I have the chair I've always wanted. For $5 bucks it was a great steal at this weekend's local garage sale. It is the right height, very solid and really comfy. The best part is that it totally folds up for easy carrying or transport. I can now sit and direct the rest of this movie of my life called the "Accidental Home Owner". Perhaps from the height of my new chair I can better direct the acts, scenes and changing plots.

Stuffies and Dogs

I have listened to so many dog owners who won't give their dog a stuffy toy because they rip them and eat the stuffing. Well, Jake is different. He has this "Monster" stuffy that I won through Monster.ca job board at my last HR conference and it goes everywhere with him and he likes to sleep with it as well. It truly is odd but he just loves this little toy.

Cat Days of Summer

Funny how cats can put those lazy days of summer right into perspective, and they can do it so effortlessly. I hadn't seen Smoke or the Gypsy girl all morning, until I went for a wander in the front garden There, ever so relaxed and into their own dreamtime, I found them both in the middle of their mid-morning naps. Such a relaxed approach to life. They slowly open one eye when the camera snaps and then simply roll over. While on my knees on the grass taking the pictures, I know that I am closer to their level and can feel what they see from below - faces of people who depend on them and faces of people on whom they depend.

Today's Wood Works

The neighbor boy Sean and his Dad Peter came over today to help split our wood. I wasn't home at the time (lucky me), so it was just Chris to help them. The splittage was waiting for me in a big pile in front of the wood storage crib when I got home. It was my job to stack it. Took me about an hour and a half to stack, but I am ready for the next lot tomorrow, and then we will be done for the winter.

Sunflower

My first one ever grown! It just opened today and what a lovely lemon color the petals are. I wonder how big it will grow?

Rembrandt ?

I have just discovered the art of staining wood!!! It started with a quick re-stain of our good neighbor's (and ours) fence and gate. I had never stained before... and I loved it. Then coincidentally, our friend Rick up the road gave us a whole lot of cans of stain because he was moving. Well.. I have now been going crazy. I want to stain everything in sight. It is so much easier than painting.

Beautiful Blueberries

My favorite berry of them all.. the Blueberry!! I have two small bushes and they are loaded this year. I manage to pick one full bowl yesterday, and they were ever so yummy, and of course nutritious! This fall I plan to put in a few more bushes, I don't think you can have too many. Not only are they great to eat and easy to pick, they are so pretty to look at, both the leaf and the berry.

Giant Zucchini

Ok - this is the biggest one yet. Chris plucked it this afternoon and it measures 19 inches long. I don't think I can eat any more zucchini this year.