Answer: 10

You were dying to know, weren't you?? :D
Actually, truth be told, we collected far more than 10 frogs in this container, but by the time I took the picture I think several had already escaped. Wise little frogs!

Feasting in style

Delighting in a good read

This is the view I enjoyed for a long afternoon at the cottage. And these were the sounds - a light breeze and the rippling lake against the wharf:

One of the delights of the cottage is the luxury to sit down with a good book and not have to get up for anything. It's a perfect place to shut out the world and immerse yourself in the world of your book. In my case, the book I was reading took me back to pre-American Civil War times in Kentucky. I finally finished reading Uncle Tom's Cabin, and I have to say this book shot way up to the top of my favourites. First of all I was completely caught off guard by the underlying themes. Yes, I knew the book was an indictment against the injustices of slavery and was very forward-thinking of its female author. In fact, Harriet Beecher Stowe has become a sort of hero to me now. The text, the language, is very pointed to particular social groups and at the time it was written in 1851 it had to have been very shocking to its readers. HBS was very counter-cultural and I dig that! But what I didn't expect was the message of hope and forgiveness in the midst of some of the worst kinds of treatment a human could endure by the hands of another. Uncle Tom's heartfelt desire was not really for his own earthy freedom, because he knew he would receive freedom in Heaven one day. No, his heartfelt desire was for his Master's freedom - freedom from that which has separated him from God, and freedom that comes from being released in forgiveness.

This is a long post, but I have to share these passages from the book with you. I hope they give you as much food for thought as they did for me. AND, if you haven't read Uncle Tom's Cabin - do!

On the abuses of slavery, the author writes to the reader:

"Patience! Patience! ye whose hearts swell indignant at wrongs like these. Not one throb of anguish, not one tear of the oppressed is forgotten by the Man of Sorrows, the Lord of Glory. In his patient, generous bosom he bears the anguish of a world. Bear thou, like him, in patience, and labour in love; for sure is he is God, "the year of his redeemed shall come." (Ch.12)

And when George, a slave who doubts the presence of God, finds refuge in a Quaker home:

"This, indeed, was a home, -- home, -- a word that George had never yet known the meaning for; and a belief in God and trust in His providence, began to encircle his heart, as with a golden cloud of protection and confidence, dark, misanthropic, pining, atheistic doubts and fierce despair melted away before the light of a living Gospel, breathed in living faces, preached by a thousand unconscious acts of love and good-will, which, like a cup of cold water given in the name of a disciple shall never lose their reward. (Ch.13)

And from St. Clare, on the hypocrisy of the church's support and justification of slavery:

"Religion! Is that what you hear at church religion? Is that which can bend and turn, and descend and ascend, to fit every crooked phase of selfish, worldly society, religion? Is that religion that is less scrupulous, less generous,less just, less considerate for man, than even my own ungodly, worldly, blinded nature? No! When I look for a religion, I must look for something above me, not for something beneath."

A glorious week at the cottage!

Well, I'm back from another glorious week at the cottage. There was sun, there was rain, there was plenty of reading (I finished Uncle Tom's Cabin, but more about that later...) and relaxing, there quiet times and there were games played and fun times with family.

My week started with a family gathering - all 15 of us - to celebrate the July birthdays (mine included!) and the recent marriage of one of "the granddaughters". Happy times, all of them.

It was a beautiful day, perfect for entertaining a certain 6 year old with a cottage past-time that kept us "granddaughters" busy when we were little girls -- catching the little frogs (or are they toads?) that are so easily found this time of year on the cottage road. We spent hours collecting those little critters, along with all sorts of other critters - caterpillers, ants, etc. -- and building homes for them, terrariums of a sort. We weren't afraid or squeamish by any means.

"How do you find them?" someone asked. "Just stare at the ground long enough!" The ground is hopping with them. You'll have trouble walking along the road afterwards for fear of stepping on the little guys.

There was a whole lot of glee from the 6 year old over her cookie-tin full of frogs - so much, in fact that the tin got passed around to all the adults for inspection and admiration.

Here's the tin in all it's glory (click on the image on the left for a larger image). Any guesses as to how many are in the tin?
(I kind of like the image on the right - mostly because the focus is on the pointed finger. Also I haven't asked permission to use this photo but as it is blurred and the faces aren't shown I hope it's okay. Let me know if it's not.)

You'll be seeing one or two more posts about my week at the cottage. There' s just too much to put in one post.

Going Offline

I need a vacation. So, I'm going to spend a week at the cottage in Digby County. It's been a rough week, so I'm really looking forward to some down time.

So, what do you do with 9 quarts of strawberries?

You make strawberry rhubarb jam!

Here's the recipe:
About 10-12 large stalks of rhubarb (2½ cups when cooked)
Ripe strawberries (1 cup when crushed)
5½ cups of sugar
Juice of ½ lemon (optional)

OR....

...You make cake.

Two layers of white cake with strawberry-rhubarb jam in the middle, cream cheese icing and topped with sliced strawberries. I still have lots of strawberries left, which might mean more experimenting with jam. Fun!
And definitely some strawberry shortcake (made with biscuits, of course) is in order very soon.

Mini Vacation: Days 4 & 5

Yesterday was Mini Vacation Day 4, and among many other things, I got some extra time in with the Little. Thanks to a cousin who happens to be playing in the Royal Nova Scotia International Tattoo's fanfare, I scored 2 free tickets to the dress rehearsal.

This was my first time seeing the show, and my goodness, I was pleasantly surprised! I was expecting marching bands and lots of great musical performances, but I wasn't expecting the other performances - gymnasts, daredevil stunts, comedic troupes and historical montages. As it turned out, I didn't get to stay for the whole show. Little and I had to leave early as she was falling asleep (even during the 50+ bagpipers performance!) and it was a bit much to expect her to stay up much past 9:30 anyway.

So, here are some highlights from the first half:

The pipers! The marching bands!And the French male gynmasts. :D

Fortunately for me, I'll get to see the whole show this weekend with the family.

Today was Day 5, my last vacation day until my longer vacation later this month where I will unplug and go to the cottage for a "do nothing" vacation. Yay!

Today was anything but "do nothing". I got to visit with a dear friend in the Valley who was game for going strawberry picking in the mist. Did I mention she's a dear friend? ;)

We did quite well! I have 9 quarts of strawberries in my fridge...waiting for me to do something with them. Any/all suggestions are welcome. I'm thinking there HAS to be strawberry shortcake (made with biscuits, NOT cake) in the very near future. And possibly jam, as that's what everyone keeps suggesting. I also have rhubarb, so there may be some strawberry rhubarb jam to be made! Yum!

After strawberry picking we went for lunch at The Port. You may recall I was there just a couple weeks ago with two lovely ladies. Well, this time, instead of the Shepherd's Pie, I tried the gourmet pizza (with pesto, portabello mushrooms, olives, and other delicious things). It was delicious and a bit of a shock when they came out with a 12" pizza. I was expecting something much smaller! There was a lot of value for money from this meal - I left with half the pizza as leftovers.

Then we went for ice cream for dessert here:

And when we got home we chatted for awhile while hulling our haul of strawberries. It was a really good visit!
Tomorrow is Thursday, only 2 days until the weekend....I can't complain.

Whoa! What's this I see:

Sunshine in our forecast! Is that possible?? My part of Nova Scotia has not seen sun in about 2 weeks! What a treat! My patio garden will be very happy.