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!

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.

Mini Vacation: Day 1

I have a 5 day weekend and ambitious plans to make the most of every moment of those 5 days! It's rare to have this much time to do anything at home. Ususally if I have this much time, I'll go to the Valley, or to the cottage. This time, however, I'm determined to tick off a bunch of things on my To Do List.

So far I'm off to a good start. 1. Spend day with Little. Check.

Once a month we get together for an extended visit. This usually gives us time to something a bit more involved that our weekly visits won't allow. Today we went to the Multicultural Festival at Alderney Landing. It was my first time going and, from what I could tell, it was very well attended! We were there for about 2 hours wandering around, checking out the Kids Pavilion, the exhibits and the performances. Sensing we were on the verge of a melt-down, it became necessary to distract a slightly disinterested 9 year-old with food.`So after all that, we went to the food tent to see what was to be had. We sampled a spring roll and a shrimp skewer (on sugar cane) from the Vietnamese vendor; then had BBQ'ed chicken wraps from the Turkish vendor, and finished off with a blueberry bubble tea (this was a first for the Little).

Ironically, the best part of the day was after we left the Multicultural Festival. We spent a couple hours on the grass along the Dartmouth Waterfront, playing tag, playing clapping games, and climbing anything that could be climbed; then took the ferry back to the Halifax waterfront and enjoyed a relatively quiet meander along the boardwalk. It struck me today just how fantastic Halifax is, and especially how wonderful our boardwalk is for kids (with a fantastic play ground, the giant wave to climb, and all the performance spaces for buskers). It's a fun space to hang out.

A panorama of the Halifax Waterfront, taken from the Dartmouth waterfront.
Far left is Georges Island and the far right is the MacDonald Bridge.

So I'm home now, and the end of the day is nigh, but there's one last thing to tick off my To Do List : 2. Start the Kimono shawl. This is a knitting project I've wanted to start for awhile, and I now have all the tools:

The yarn, the needles and the book!

I'm going to start this Kimono Shawl by Cheryl Oberle, as soon as I click save on this post. I'll be using this gorgeous Fleece Artist wool (I forget what it is - cashmere + mohair, perhaps) that I picked up on sale at the Gaspereau Valley Fibres yard sale a month ago. This should make a good cottage vacation project.....and will undoubtedly be a WIP (Work in Progress) for quite awhile!

Now, on to Day 2 ...

Found!

Two boxes of books from my undergrad days! Hooray! I've been looking for these books since I've been back in Nova Scotia, but couldn't find them. As it turns out, they were packed carefully in boxes and tucked safely away - so safe, they weren't found until now!

Opening these boxes was like Christmas all over again! They're mostly books from my undergraduate degree in English Literature, and a few books from my childhood. The children's books are some of my favourites that I pulled out of boxes years ago in 3rd and 4th years, with the idea of using them for my Children's Literature classes.

So, here are the favourites found in these 2 boxes:

1. How to Make Pop-Ups by Joan Irvine. My favourite craft book as a child and I've often wondered where it disappeared to. It would be a really fun activity for my "Little" and I to do together.
2. Maggie Muggins & Mr. McGarrity by Mary E. Grannan. The first chapter book I remember reading all by myself. I don't remember the story at all so I'm half-tempted to reread it.
3. The Snow Leopard by Peter Matthiesen. A book from my Writer & Nature (I) class. This came to mind recently as I've been reading through Three Cups of Tea. Both books are about self-discovery in the moutains, and reference the same moutaineers.
4. Tales of Terror books. My last year of University I took a Tales of Terror course. It was one of the most difficult courses in my academic career, but the subject matter was one of my favourite. I mean, c'mon, who WOULDN'T love reading all the gothic classics. And every once in awhile - usually during a storm - I have a craving to reread one.

I spent some time this evening finding new homes for these strays. I still have a bit of room left, but may have to consider another bookshelf eventually.

Mi Casa es Su Casa

So work on the cardboard castle continues. We've made a lot of progress and, I think, we're getting quite close to completion. We still have to finish the turrets with cones on the top, and a couple of flags. We're going to "plant flowers" in the green land on either side of the drawbridge (it is a girly castle afterall!). And the moat just isn't complete until there's an alligator - so we'll be making an alligator in the near future. As you can see, a lot of work has been done to the interior, including quite a bit of interior decorating! There are several secret passageways and moveable parts that will make for fun play. And, we've also been working on constructing cardboard furniture, and sewing textiles like blankets, carpets and curtains.

I will take more pictures when the castle is finished. Though it may be a while yet - the possibilites for creativity are endless, and we're having a lot of fun designing and decorating.