All things bright and beautiful

You know how the song goes, right? 

All things bright and beautiful.... 

Did you see the full moon a couple weeks ago? It was the largest moon in about 20 years and was quite the spectacle. I tried taking a picture, knowing full well it wouldn't do it justice, but who cares. The photograph will remind me of that spectacular moon and the lovely (albeit slightly comical) evening that was had, and that's what a photo is supposed to do, right? 

Sunny Sunday afternoons at the beach also fall into the "bright and beautiful" category. Spring is here, my friends, and warm weather is sure to follow.  There's nothing better than spending time with friends listening to the waves.       

All creatures great and small...

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know I'm supposed to be appreciative of all creatures great and small, but right now I'm not lovin' one of God's littlest creatures...the mouse.
I've been having a mouse problem since Christmas. Actually, the problem started about in the Fall 2009 when I started hearing mice in my walls and found droppings behind my fridge. I plugged up the holes I could find with steel wool and duct tape and went on my merry way. Well, since Christmas the mice have been making appearances. Unwelcome appearances. Millie has been earning her keep - catching about 4 of them, and probably startling and letting even more get away. I've caught one in a snap-trap (ugh!), and tonight I caught another in a plastic container. This last one was particularly stupid. I found it in my bedroom beside my bed, being eyed by Millie (but not bothered); it just sat there dumbfounded while I went to retrieve a plastic container to put it in. When I came back it was in the same spot, quivering but clearly still quite alive.  So now it's in a plastic container until I can figure out what to do with the poor little creature. I must admit, it's sooooo tiny and I'm feeling rather sorry for it. But what am I to do? 

I've done all I can to deter these little creatures - plugged holes, put down mouse traps, praised the cat for her valiant efforts at keeping the mice at bay. I even have those ultrasonic thingys that plug into your wall and emit a frequency that is supposed to keep mice away (thank-you B!). All to no avail. 
I've been hesitant to put down poison because of Millie, but I'm getting closer and closer to calling pest-control and seeing if they can do anything. Ahh the joys of living in apartments!   

All things wise and wonderful...

I had a lovely visit with my Grandparents on the weekend, during which my grandfather informed me that he keeps an eye on my blog. And all of a sudden I was reminded that I'm way overdue for a blog-post. Sigh. Despite my best of intentions, I'm doing no better this year than last at posting. In fact, I'm getting this post in under the wire. No posts in February and almost no posts in March....

Anyway, back to "wise and wonderful". You know who's wise and wonderful? My grandparents, that's who. I do enjoy the time I get to spend with them and the conversations we have. I have a lot of respect and admiration for these two people, and know without a doubt that they are truly a gift from God! 

The only pictures I have from this last visit are photos of some of the loot my grandmother sent home with me, which I wanted to post anyway. In her wisdom, Gram saved these glass mayonnaise jars knowing that they would come in handy later on. These jars are great - their mouths are wide and standard size to large mason jars (so large mason jar lids fit them). Gram sent me home with nearly 10, plus 1 extra large bottle (at the end), plus an old (vintage/antique) "malted milk" bottle, plus a beautiful wooden "fly paper" crate. 
I spent a lovely day filling the bottles and find them new homes. It was nice to transfer dried goods into the bottles and get rid of the plastic packaging. 
I'm not entirely sure what I'm going to do with the crate. It's quite lovely and rustic, but doesn't really have a home yet. Any suggestions?  

...The Lord God made them all.

Hell's Gate

Sadly, this post is not going to demonstrate my new-found prowess as an outdoors woman. In fact, it may do just the opposite, and reinforce the obvious - that I have a lot to learn and should probably equip myself with some basic tools (ie. compass, map, water, whistle, matches, etc.) before going into unfamiliar territory, because who knows what kind of trouble I could get myself into.

Destination: Hells Gate Falls, aka "Three Pools", which technically isn't a public hiking trail as it's on Nova Scotia Power property. With that said, it's a popular trail and as long as you're careful and not stupid (ie. climb on the slippery rocks, or jump off the 70 ft cliff into the shallow water below), you'll be fine. Also, we felt slightly justified trespassing as our grandfather used to work at Hells Gate at one point in time.

Estimated hiking distance/time: 4 km /1 hour. Time spent: 2.5+ hours.
If the hike was only 1 hour, why did it take us 2.5 hours to get in and get out you may ask? Well, we may have lost track of where we were going a few times. In our defense, we (my cousin and I) were mainly there to chat and catch-up; finding the falls was really secondary or, rather, it gave us an excuse to get out of the house and enjoy a nice afternoon. If we were truly focussed on the task at hand we would've looked up Hells Gate Falls on a map and planned our route.

The entrance we took that would, in a round about way, lead us to Hells Gate Falls/Three Pools.

Instead, our approach was to start at the entrance (a wire gate that had been vandalised) and follow the path to see where it took us. I figured it's a popular spot, it should be pretty obvious what direction we should take. This is sort of what got us in trouble a couple times - there are many, many paths in the area, none of them had signs that helped to point us to our desination. Good thing, after a bit of aimless hiking, we stumbled upon Marvin (Marvin #1 on the map), who proceeded to give us directions... which neither of us paid close enough attention to.

So here's where I think a map might be helpful. It's sort of hard to tell where the trails are on GoogleMaps, but I did my best. The pink line is our route, the blue line is Marvin's recommended route.

He said something about following the pipeline (the greyish line running from the surge towers to the dam) till we got to an ATV trail. We caught that much. So we started to walk until we reached a dam, at which point we realised we must've missed the ATV trail, so when we doubled back we took a couple side trails on the wrong side of the pipeline (duh!). Both trails took us into a pit, which clearly wasn't where the Falls would be. Unbeknownst to us, we were being watched. Marvin had seen us go in the wrong direction and knew we were "misplaced" (not lost!). He laughed when we ran into him again (Marvin #2 on map) and then proceeded to walk us to Hells Gate Falls, which was less than a 5 minute walk away.

Okay, it was a bit embarrassing how close we were and yet how far off track at the same time. Also, it was more than embarrassing when he assumed we were city girls. I mean, I am, but it's not exactly the image I was going for. Sigh.

Marvin left us at the 2nd pool, and told us how to get to the 1st. He also mentioned something about climbing down the steep hill where we would find a decent trail where he sometimes brought his 4 wheeler. Now this is where we sort of lost him again. He was telling stories about how kids would get lost in the woods all the time and find themselves in predicaments because they didn't know the terrain. His directions were basically just repeating the routes these kids would take and get themselves lost, but he did say the trail would take us out. Where "out" was wasn't clarified.

So we carried on. Have I mentioned this is a gorgeous spot? Not only are there waterfalls, but absolutely stunning woodland with moss-covered forest floor and rocks. The rock formations make it look like an ancient forest, actually. The terrain is pretty treacherous though, if you're not careful. The path starts out high, and involves a very scary descent down a steep moss-covered cliff, with loose needles and dirt that make it hard to get good footing (below). Climbing down involved a combination (for me) of grabbing roots and scooching down on my bum. The pictures are really unflattering!

This picture really doesn't do justice to the height of the cliff. Once you're at the bottom, it's a spectacular sight. Also, once you're at the bottom the walk is easy. The path follows the river and takes you right out to Hell's Gate. This is where we got confused about Marvin's directions "out". Did he mean the trail would take us here? We told him our grandfather used to work at Hell's Gate so maybe he thought this is where we were headed?

There was a road/trail to our right and we started up it (the blue line from Hell's Gate to the Surge Tanks). We got about half way up when S. started to question if it was wise to keep going up a road we didn't know (not knowing that in fact it would take us exactly to where we wanted to be), and suggested it might be best to double back the same way we came. So we did, which added an extra 4 miles (according to Marvin) onto our hike. Also, it meant having to climb up that scary cliff we had just climbed down.

Needless to say the hike was more of a workout than we had anticipated, but a fun time just the same. Best of all, it's time well spent when you get to have a good visit with family, plus enjoy the outdoors!

View of the surge towers from a distance, close to our starting point. If you look closely, you can see the red of Hell's Gate at the base of the towers inthe second picture. It gives a bit of perspective to the height of the path we started out on (same level as the surge towers) to where we ended up (at Hell's Gate).

Welcome to the World!

So it's been ages since I've posted, and because I'm sans laptop at home, I've decided to break my #1 blogging rule. I'm blogging from work (granted on my lunch break, but still...).

But I have a very good reason to break the rule - afterall, one does not become an Aunt everyday, y'know!

(Permission to post granted by the new Mom)

As you can see, my nephew made his grand entrance into this world. He arrived on March 26th, and weighs about 9lbs 12 oz. He's absolutely adorable!

I should also report that I was able to complete the baby sweater in plenty of time before his birth! It took me just under a month of not-so-steady knitting to get it done. It turned out to be a easier-than-it-looks pattern and came together quickly. Here is the finished product:

Finished and ready to be wrapped:

Wrapped! Martha Stewart would be proud. I wrapped the gift in a light blue receiving blanket, tied with a white ribbon. Very baby-boy-appropriate!
That's all for now. As I said, I'm sans laptop for a little while until the darned thing is fixed. You won't see many posts from me in the meantime, but keep checking back, because I WILL RETURN!

Let them eat pie!

Yes, yes! I know. I still haven't taken in my laptop. I'm procrastinating.

But I have important things to share...like pie.

At the risk of copying those who have blogged before me about pie, let me just say that my intention wasn't to be a copycat. Sometime before Christmas I bought premade frozen pie shells with the idea of making a filling for them and serve them to dinner guests. So, when I learned that I was hosting dinner for my folks and my grandparents, I decided this would be the way to go.

I decided on a banana cream filling because I had lots of ripe bananas and all the ingredients, and because it didn't require a top crust. It wasn't until I took the pie crust from the box and tried to slip it into my glass plate did I realise that the 9" crust wasn't fitting my 9" plate - how disappointing!! Right then and there I decided I'd make my own crust, filling and meringue from scratch.

I started with the pastry, but learned very quickly into the process, that I had no idea what I was doing! This is, basically, the first time I've attempted pie pastry without supervision and it failed miserably. My lifeline when it comes to baking is usually to call my mother or my grandmother, but since the pie was supposed to be a surprise (sort of) for both of them, I decided to call Charlotte instead. And really, in a baking crisis, Charlotte is the one you want to talk to! She tried to troubleshoot, and when that didn't work, she deemed the crust a loss (and the pastry recipe a dud!) and suggested the alternative - a graham cracker crust.

Perfect! A graham cracker crust it is. The filling was easy though a bit labour intensive. Apparently there are a gazillion ways to make a banana cream filling. I chose the recipe from my Purity Flour Cookbook - an old-fashioned stove-top method that involves scalding milk and stirring lots until the vanilla cream mixture thickens. I actually enjoyed the process.And the rest of the pie went smoothly! I was surprised at how easy the meringue was. I thought for sure it wouldn't work, but it did! And the result was a very pleasant surprise for me, and for my dinner guests.

...And two pieces left !

Weekend with the family

Another lovely weekend in the Valley. I was there for less than 24 hours, but got to enjoy a pretty January snowfall.
I also got to enjoy the company of family. My mother did some trouble-shooting for me with my knitting (I managed to drop a stitch but can't find it! Grr!) . She's also been babying her pup, Jessie, who's suffering from a very painful bone disease called Panosteitis. It's kind of like growing pains, but worse. Poor Jessie is limping around the house, looking very pathetic (she's got a head-bob when she limps down to a science!). She's also taken this as an opportunity for milking my folks for all the attention she can get. She's taken up residence on the futon or old sofa just like you or me when we get sick. And she likes to have her head propped on your lap, or a pillow or the arm of a sofa. Really, it's truly pathetic! Though I do sympathise with her. Not all of it is put-on. Her poor puppy-legs are in pain.

A new addition to the family

Welcome Jessie! A new, and very cute pup for my folks!