Unbelievable

Photo taken from the rooftop of my office building around 3:30pm today.

It's really quite unbelievable that just 3 days ago I spent a lovely day in the same neighbourhood that, right now, is engulfed in flames. It's been hard to tear myself away from the news reports on CBC radio, though hearing from people who have lost their homes is more than disturbing.
Fire is so unpredictable, and this one has changed directions already a few times. It's hard to know what's been consumed, and what's left. And I have no idea if York Redoubt will survive.

Here's hoping (and praying!) the rain will come sooner than expected.

EDO Monday : A lovely day at York Redoubt

This EDO Monday I was determined to make the most of my day and enjoy doing a little sightseeing. I debated about wandering around Point Pleasant Park or checking out York Redoubt. York Redoubt won.

(Click on any of the images in this post to make them bigger.)
It was a gorgeous day for a walk - 14 C weather and not too sunny (so I didn't get sunburnt). Also, being a Monday, there was hardly anyone on the grounds. I was able to wander around pretty much on my own, without bumping into people. [Does that make me sound too reclusive?]

There were a few things that struck me about this National Historic Site. First of all, it's free! They do have visiting hours, but you can basically walk in and around at your leisure. The other thing that struck me was that the military structures - like the powder magazine and the south caponier - were all open to walk in.

One of the highlights [literally] was the highest point on the site - the Fire Command Post, which was still active as late as the 1950s. There were several ways to get up to the command post - a gravelled road, and a wooden staircase, but I took the path less travelled and stumbled upon [not literally] these stairs carved right into the rock.

From the top you look out over the harbour opening into the Atlantic (left), and see Halifax in the distance behind you (right).

When I came down from my high, I bumped into the first person I had seen since arriving - the grounds-keeper (whose name I didn't get). We had a nice chat and he told me a bit more about the grounds in the summertime (apparently it's quite beautiful when the wild roses bloom in mid-July. And it will be a great vantage point when the Tall Ships sail into the harbour this summer. He also told me about the path that leads down to the York Shore Battery. I could see the Battery from the cannons but didn't know if or how I could get down there.

The grounds-keeper said that all you had to do was go outside the gate, and follow the path along the exterior of the wall and it would take you to a gravel road which leads to the shore.

I followed the path for awhile until I came across a trail behind one of the abandoned military buildings. I wondered if it might be a "shortcut" that would take me closer to the Shore Battery. Um, not so much. The trail was steep, and I wasn't wearing my proper hiking shoes, and there were fallen branches and loose leaves and loose dirt, and I nearly went down the trail head-first several times. The trail ended up taking me right on top of the searchlights (which you'll see in pictures below from a different vantage point).

So my "shortcut" was actually a very labour-intensive climbing excursion that left me huffing and puffing when I got to the top. Fortunately, I bumped into my second person - a dog-walker who was surrounded by 5 dogs of various breeds and sizes. She was very friendly and helpful and pointed me in the right direction. Actually, as it turns out, had I followed the gravelled path a little further, I would've seen the fork in the road (right) - the high road goes to a Federal building up the road from York Redoubt, and the lower road goes straight to the York Shore Battery.

So here's another thing I was struck by on my walk: the number of military buildings. The grounds-keeper did mention that this was the main military post, which probably explains why there were buildings almost around every corner. And I was even more impressed when I saw the York Shore Battery. It must've been quite a site when it was operational. Here's what it looks like:


| The York Shore Battery .............| Searchlights

| Looking through a window.......| Looking back up the road
This was such a lovely walk, with a little discovery - a new building or a budding tree - to be found around every corner. I even tried a self-portrait, though I was a little off in my aim (and the dog-walker passed by just as I was about to take a 2nd shot).

There was one last stop before I left York Redoubt - Stella Maris Catholic Church. I hadn't noticed this church until the ground-keeper pointed it out. It was built for the soldiers, but is outside the gates of York Redoubt and is actually owned and maintained by the Herring Cove Catholic Parish.

As it so happened, I bumped into the church's grounds-keeper when I was admiring the building. He was there to inspect a broken window and to wait for the police to arrive to report the vandalism. He told me a bit more about the building - the church has been decommissioned and the Parish is actually hoping to sell the property because it's just too costly to maintain. He couldn't tell me when it was built, but the registered property plaque says 1846. The statue of Mary is not the original, the original was wooden but dried out and split, and despite being told that the church had beautiful stained glass by 2 different people, it actually has none. It was never meant to be decorative, just functional for the soldiers. There is still a bell in the bell-tower but it's never rung. The last time the church was used was in September for a wedding. The groundskeeper said that the church was built by a ship-builder(?), and, apparently the towers bow (or slant) a little due to prevailing ocean winds.

So, that's it. It was a fun day, and this was a long post to write...but well worth it. If you're ever in the Purcell's Cove area, you should definitely make your way to York Redoubt. I'd imagine it would be especially pretty in the Fall!

For most of this week I've been laid low with the flu, and then an eye infection. Needless to say, I haven't been very ambitious when it comes to cooking. Instead, I've been sticking with the old standbys - tomato soup, toast and yogurt....and lots of water.

I was treated to very tasty homemade lentil soup in the middle of the week thanks to a very dear friend. This was a real treat not only because it was ready-made and served hot, but because it had flavour and because it was good to see a friendly face after being home sick for a couple days by myself! (Thanks R.!)

And today, to celebrate payday, a few of us from work ("the ladies who lunch") went out for a delicious Middle-Eastern meal at Mezza.
We all agreed that we have to come back... it was THAT delicious. We all ordered kebabs - I ordered the Kafte (lamb) kebab with basmati and a salad. And it tasted so good to eat something different from my usuals this week.

*****

On a different note, before I got sick last weekend, I made my first trip to Dollarama in awhile. I was more than a little surprised to see that the prices have changed - items were $1.25, $1.50 and even $2.00! Whoa! When did this happen?

This gives me great joy!

Do me a favour, okay? Watch this video in High Resolution (the HQ box at the bottom of the video, by the volume control), and turn up the volume too.

Then watch the sheer joy spread across the faces in the crowd.

Tonight's dinner

Oven Roasted Kale

Sweet Potato Fries

Lemon Baked Salmon

This is for you, now pass it on.

This has been floating around the blogisphere and facebook for a little while now. I've seen the posts and resisted thus far because I was worried I might not be able to hold up to my end of the bargain. But you know what? I think I can!

The first five people to respond to this post will get something made by me! My choice. For you.

This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:

• What I create will be just for you; and you will have no clue what the item is going to be.
• I make no guarantees that you will like what I make.
• You will receive your item before the end of the year (Dec. 31st/09) - exactly when will be a surprise. It could be a story, a collage, cupcakes, a bracelet or something else entirely.
• I reserve the right to do something extremely strange.
• In return, you must post this text into a note/blog post (or another method) of your own and make 5 things for 5 others. You are supposed to also let me know so I am reassured that you didn't cheat.
  

It's a fun concept. So, here it goes....

Long overdue

Where did March go? My goodness, this year is going fast! I can't believe it's been well over a month since I posted. Sorry folks, I'll try to do better in April.

In a nutshell, here's what I've been up to...

At the beginning of March, a bunch of us celebrated a friend's birthday by going on a hike at Polly's Cove. It's a beautiful spot, with fantastic views of the Atlantic, of Peggy's Cove, and of the rugged, rocky coastline. It also happened to be a perfect day! It was the first sunny and warm (10 C) day all winter, and even the cool ocean breezes were warmed by the sun. We hiked for about 2.5 hours, but made many stops along the way to sit or lay on the rocks, listening to the crashing waves and soaking up a little Vitamin D. Be forewarned: This is going to be one of my favourite spots to take visitors from now on!

You should be able to click on these images to see larger images.

Then, during March Break, I had a visitor! A teacher friend from Toronto came to visit, and guess what we did? Yup. We hiked Polly's Cove (See!...I warned you!). We also ate lobster, shopped at 4 Frenchy's (Sackville, Dartmouth, Coldbrook and Berwick), and drove to the Look Off at Blomidon.

This picture was created using Canon PhotoStitch. I'm thoroughly impressed!
Um. I mean I took this photo painstakingly without the aid of any software at all.
Yeah, that's it.

Also during March Break, my "Little" and I got together. Actually, we get together every week, but this particular week we had a couple special things planned - dinner at Boston Pizza + a movie on one evening, and then a decadent breakfast of homemade crepes with all the fixings including fruit, chocolate sauce and whipped cream on Saturday morning!
We also (finally!) mailed Flat Stanley to his first destination - Winnipeg! From there he'll be going on vacation with a friend of mine to Morocco! Hopefully he stays safe. I'm considering starting a blog to follow his adventures...but should probably clear this with my Little's mom first.

March is also birthday month in my family. Aunt S., a couple cousins, my step-father (G.), and my nephew all have birthdays in March. I didn't get to all of them, but I was there for the two-for-one birthday celebration for G. and the nephew! Usually I ask permission before I post photos, but I'm on a tight schedule today and don't have time. Will have to ask post-posting. In the meantime, enjoy this photo of the birthday boys!

Also, this month I tried a couple new recipes. Remember my obsession with kale? Well! I tried another recipe, Oven-Roasted Kale, and it was even better than the first! Even my 8 y/o Little would agree. So basically what I've determined is that garlic + a little oil + kale (cooked in almost any form) = delicious! I wish I had pictures, but the kale doesn't last long enough for photos!

And the second recipe is my new favourite. I was able to replicate one of my favourite Thai dishes - Thai Eggplant Basil. I found the Thai Basil at Tian Phat Asian Grocery as well as the Japanese eggplant (though these can be bought at any grocery store most times of the year), and the rest of the ingredients I already had. Here is the recipe I used Thai Fried Eggplant with Basil. It's super easy, though one thing I discovered....it's best to have all the ingredients ready before starting. I ended up over-cooking it a bit in the end because I was busy chopping peppers. Oh! And I made a substitution - rather than the serrano chilis, I used a tbsp of Thai chili sauce instead, and the heat was just perfect (for me, anyway!).

Okay that's all from me, I have to go get on with my day. Will be more faithful posting in April, I promise!

The hunt for kale....and how I organize my recipes

I have a confession: I went to Pete's Frootique today. I know it's Sunday, and usually I try to keep Sundays as a shopping-free day, but yesterday was busy and I didn't get a chance to get into stores at all. Instead, I spent the day with my grandparents, and even got snowshoeing!


But back to Pete's Frootique...

For those who aren't familiar with Pete's, it's a market-style (organic) grocery store filled with wonderful things! Pete Luckett is the fellow that started it all, and he has a farm in the Valley. For my Toronto friends, Pete's is a lot like Whole Foods or Pusateri's. It's an experience, more than a grocery store! The market is beautifully laid out, the displays are artfully done, and you can find a lot of imported food, mostly from the UK.

Today I was on a mission though. About a month ago, I went to the Wolfville Market with a friend, and picked up some kale. After about a week of sitting in my fridge I decided it was about time I did something with it. I'd never cooked kale before, but it's supposed to be one of the healthiest foods to eat, so I thought it'd be worth a try! I found a recipe online that sounded decent: Sauteed Kale with Garlic Onions & Lemon. (I didn't get to participate in Sherrie's food challenge this week, but if I had this would've been my entry for Thursday's vegetarian recipe.) It was delicious!! In fact, I had to restrain myself from eating the full amount of sauteed kale in one sitting! Since then, I've haven't been able to find kale - I tried my local Sobey's and Superstore, the Halifax Market and Wolfville Market (to find locally grown), but no luck. Well, fortunately, Pete's had lots! I bought a big bunch of kale for 2.49. Yay!While at Pete's I picked up a few other things (it's almost impossible not to!): a new tea, Clipper Organic White Tea with Raspberry, grapes and pineapple. And I also stumbled upon a rack of recipe cards. So here's my 2nd confession of the day: I'm not at all creative when it comes to cooking. I need inspiration, and I need instructions. So when I come across recipes that look good, I'll try to make sure I get a copy of that recipe. The result has been an accumulation of so many scraps of paper, labels and recipe cards that were stuffed in my recipe book. Each time I picked it up, a million scraps of paper would fall out.

So here was my solution: Now, I know this may be a bit too obsessive-compulsive for most people, but I thought this was brilliant. I spent an evening in front of the TV, putting together this recipe box system. Sure, it took a bit of time to figure out what groupings I wanted, and to print and trim the labels to fit (thank goodness for my label maker!), but the end result was worth it.

Supplies: box with lid from Dollarama ($1), 3 pkgs of card dividers (only 1.5 used) from Dollarama ($1 ea.), blank coloured recipe cards from Dollarama ($1).

And here they are in their permanent home: I think there's a lot that can be said about someone from their recipe collection. My recipe book is full of family favourites, and recipes I've gotten from family (like great-grandmother's molasses cookies, or Bear River chocolate cake...). It's also full of my regular rotation of recipes - meatloaf, baked beans, risotto, etc. And often the pages are splattered with batter, and then there was that one unfortunate incident where I left a can of frozen orange juice out on the counter overnight and it exploded leaving a sticky orange goo all over my recipe book and walls..... .
So, I'm curious to know what other people do with their recipes. Do you collect recipes? transcribe them onto cards or in a book? where do you put/stash them?

(It's probably the Archivist in me that makes me just a little bit curious about how you organize your recipes.)

25 Things About Me

1. I like watching scary movies. But more than that, I like watching scary movies in complete darkness, with my door unlocked, and with a cold wind blowing through a gauzy curtain behind me. Basically I like to freak myself out. With that said, I'm not keen on gratuituous violence and gore - I'm more of a psychological thriller type.
2. My favourite colours are yellow and red, though not together.
3. I am attracted to embroidered textiles (pillows, blankets, wall hangings) and have to seriously resist every urge to fill my apartment with lovely embroidered things.
4. My first car was a 1991 Hyundai Excel named "Bob". It was a lemon. My second car is much more reliable, and named "Hephzibah".
5. I once had a tree run directly into the driver's side door of my mom's car while I was backing up. This happened at the cottage, while my mother was watching, and with my closest friends in the car. It wasn't pretty. To warn other drivers, my grandfather marked the tree (for several years after the incident) with red paint. Moral of this story: Be careful of trees, you never know when they're going to jump out at you!
6. I don't like TV in the morning. It's not so much that I don't like the programs; I think it's because it's far too much sensory activity for me in the morning. I listen to CBC Radio every morning to the dulcet tones of Don Connolly and Elizabeth Logan. Come to think of it, I don't remember ever being fond of TV in the morning (cartoons, etc.), except for that short phase where I watched Astro-Boy when it came on before I left for school.
7. I have a crooked toe that I've always been slightly self-conscious about.
8. Up until 2004, I refused to wear glasses because the extra thick lens needed to correct my lazy eye made my left eye look twice as big as my right eye. Vanity won over vision. Fortunately high-index lenses have come a long way and I can now wear glasses don't make me look like a freak of nature.
9. My favourite day of the week is Thursday because I like the anticipation of the coming weekend, but still like knowing I've got a day to get things done. EDO Mondays are a strong second.
10. I can't sleep in on Saturdays, but I find it very difficult getting out of bed the rest of the week. I think this is because Saturdays are my own time, whereas the rest of the week is my employer's time.
11. I like airports. When I'm travelling, I like to give myself lots of time, even if it means more than an hour waiting. I've made a ritual of it that usually involves buying a magazine (something I rarely do), picking up a delicious scone or baked good from Starbucks (or, if one isn't around, Tim's), and wandering about trying to unobtrusively people-watch.
12. I am a little uncomfortable calling people by their abbreviated names (or nicknames) because I worry that I don't know the person well enough to have earned that right, and because often I like the sound of their full name better.
13. I like having instructions to follow, even if I don't necessarily follow them. I think there's a sense of security if you know you can always go back to the instructions to see how it's supposed to be done. I think this is also why I enjoy knitting, because I can follow a pattern, or choose to diverge from the pattern.
14. I am extremely sentimental. I value things with memories attached much more than brand new and more valuable things.
15. I like cookbooks, but I am very particular about what cookbooks I buy. They must have good pictures to go with the recipes (I like seeing what the dish is supposed to look like), and the index must include ingredients (not just the names of the dishes), the ingredients should be relatively easy to find and should not include mixes, and the cookbook should be bound so it can be opened flat (how many times have I used bottles of oil to keep a cookbook opened while I'm using it?!?!).
16. I like cooking for myself and trying new recipes, but I enjoy it even more if I can share my cooking with someone else.
17. The things I miss the most about Toronto are my friends, the cheap but delicious restaurants, Chinatown and the cheese store in Kensington Mkt., and waking up to the sound of birds chirping in the morning (rather than the sound of cars starting, where I am now).
18. My favourite season is fall because ...the colours of the leaves are beautiful, ...it's apple season, ...I love the feel of crisp night air and warm sweaters, ...I get to add more blankets to the bed, ...I love the anticipation of the first snow-fall of the year...and for Christmas.
19. Stormy weather is my favourite kind of weather. I like the anticipation of the drama of nature, and an excuse to cocoon with candles and extra blankets.
20. My Myers-Briggs personality type is ISFJ which is an almost perfect match to my career choice as an Archivist.
21. I like putting order to chaos (this is the main idea behind being an Archivist), but more often than not I end up imposing chaos ON order. I usually make a task more difficult than it needs to be just by overthinking and overpreparing for every eventuality.
22. The label-maker I bought a couple years ago is the best toy I've bought for myself in years!
23. I have kept a journal for the better part of 13 years, though have noticed a steep decline in journal entries since keeping a blog.
24. I am a Big Sister through Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Halifax and love the chance to refocus my energies on a child. I think adults spend too much time with adults and, as a result, miss out on a lot of fun.
    
25. I've been told many times, by many people, that I apologize too much. And I'm pretty sure it annoys them to no end. I'm sorry for this.

I won a prize!

For the Comfort Week challenge. And here is the prize: A little parcel arrived today with these three bars of soap - Cherry Almond, Peppermint Poppyseed and Cafe Mocha Kitchen soap from Sherrie. It was such a lovely way to end the week.

I can't make up my mind which one to use first. Fortunately I can use one in the kitchen, and one in the bathroom, so that means I can start with two! :)

Birthday Cake!

I have to share something with you.

Cake!

But not just any cake, Seven Layer Cake!
(Served on the occasion of my grandfather's birthday.)

Okay, so I know what you're going to say... there are only 6 layers.

Apparently the 7th layer makes it too cumbersome to bake (ie. only 3 pans fit in the oven at a time, and the lonely single layer lost it's way over time).
Served with grapenut ice cream on grandmother's china, makes this a family favourite.

This cake also happens to be a Christmas tradition - on Christmas Day, we light a candle and sing Happy Birthday to Jesus. So, technically, it's Jesus's birthday cake.

Finding comfort in a catnap

Oh, the life of a cat! This is the best image I can come up with, aside from those I've already shared this week, to illustrate comfort. To be able to find the warmest spot, with the best vantage point, and to have your bed there where you can curl up and make the world disappear into a blissful catnap! Now that's comfort!