Home is where the heart is. Right?

As many people close to me know, I've been spending far too much time lately obsessing about a particular house on the market. It's a beautiful house, with character and charm, and a spacious but private yard, and it's certainly within my price-range should I want to buy it. In fact, this house is pretty much my dream house. The problem? It's 1.5 hours away from my job, and my job is not really one that would allow me to work from home. And I'm nowhere near being prepared to walk away from my job for something else closer to this house. I won't give up one dream for another.

Still, this makes me a little sad. I'm not uncomfortable where I am right now and quite like my current living space (for the most part). But I'm really looking forward to the day when I will feel finally settled into a home of my own. I realise that renting right now is actually pretty dumb, considering how low the interest rates are for mortgages and I had to be throwing good money away on an investment that's not my own. I also know for a fact that my mother is tired of storing the remaining bits (bits may be an understatement) of my stuff and would happily repatriate it with the rest of my things the first chance she'd get.

But here's the other problem: it's difficult to buy in the HRM on a single-person's salary. Interest rates are low, but housing prices are not. Even most condos are above my price-range. Now this is where I could bemoan my single-ness and wish I were in different circumstances - because there is no doubt that buying would be much easier with two incomes - but this I refuse to do! All told, I'm okay with being single. Sure, it's not quite where I thought I'd be at this stage in my life, but I'm determined to not let it stop me from doing the things in life I'd like to do - the things in life I'm supposed to do. Like own a home, rather than rent for the rest of my life. Afterall, I need to be sure I have a place to live in my retirement, right?

So now comes the fun part. Preparing. I'm still a long ways off from buying. I've got a bit of work to do. I have to carefully evaluate what it is in a home that I'm looking for: location, features, amenities, etc.; and I have to squirrel away more money for a downpayment and for "the inevitable emergency" fund.

In the meantime, I'll try and tear myself away from the idea of living in this picture-perfect house and of the quality of life it inspires. Sigh. Here's hoping for something equally as lovely here in the HRM when it comes time for me to buy.

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.)

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.

Comfort at home

Continuing with the comfort theme, this quilt epitomizes comfort to me at home.
I love this quilt for so many reasons! First of all, my mom made it. She worked on it (off and on) for about 5 years. The quilt is made from articles of denim clothing found at Frenchy's that she cut into squares and pieced together. There are even squares from the denim overall shorts I used to wear when I was twelve, and jeans I wore when I was a teenager.

The white squares with blue and green flowers in the foreground are my old denim overall shorts.

The quilt is tied together (see the little knots in diagonal rows?), rather than quilted. This keeps the layers (the piecework on top, the cotton-batting in the middle, and the chambray backing) from shifting. It would've been too difficult to quilt because of the heavy material and the thickness of the 3 layers. Mom and I did the tying together one summer weekend at the cottage. We stretched out the quilt in the middle of the floor and worked row-by-row until we were done. It was a wonderful weekend with Mom, and it was so nice to be a part of the making of the quilt (however small that part was!).

The quilt isn't quite big enough for a double bed, but works very well on the sofa as an oversized lap blanket or an extra layer on the bed on cold winter nights. Naturally, because of the denim, it's very heavy and warm, which is exactly what I love about it!

So, for me, comfort is wrapping myself up in the warmth of my mother's love (in the form of a quilt).

Mom, if you're reading this, are you tearing up yet? *grin*

Oh yeah,
Millie likes the quilt too.

Read more posts about comforts at home here.

June is bustin' out all over....

Look how green it is!
Mom's gardens are looking lovely already and Jessie wonders why I waste my time taking pictures instead of playing with her.
Mom braves the hoards of blackflies to tend to her strawberries. Such a brave soul!
Beautiful blossoms - not exactly sure what they are.
We went for a walk Sunday afternoon and passed this duck pond. The greenery and blue water and white birch made for a perfect shot.
Oh! And there are apple trees in full bloom nearby too. So gorgeous!
More apple blossoms!
The duck pond is friendly to fish too - here's a fish jump.
Our path led us to a muddy field and I wasn't paying attention and ended up in the mud, which I later rinsed off in the brook.

A sign of spring!

I was home for the weekend and was treated to the sounds of Spring - Peepers! It's so wonderful to be close enough to home that I can pop by for a weekend and enjoy a weekend away from the city sounds.

If you look carefully, you'll also see bats flitting through the video.

Back again!

Yes. I'm very glad to have my laptop back. I use my laptop for a lot of things - recipes, knitting patterns and help, facebook (of course) and email, banking, blogging, general household tips (ie. how to revive a crispy-dried-out plant), shopping, planning activities for my "Little" visits, renewing library books, managing my photos and music .... etc. etc. etc.

So this EDO weekend was spent travelling. I visited the family on Sat., and then took some time to explore the Halifax Regional Municipality a bit more. I really haven't seen much of this part of NS and I figured this was a good opportunity (despite gas prices being the highest they've been - 121.7/L). Soooo.....I drove to the Dark Side (aka Dartmouth), and explored Eastern Passage, Colby Village, Cole Harbour, downtown Dartmouth, and then Dartmouth Crossing. I kept thinking as I drove into these villages/neighbourhoods/whatever they are, "Is this it?" I was never quite sure where I was until I circled around a bit. Of course, I wasn't really following a map either. I just drove and drove and drove. On the Halifax side, I ended up following the St. Margaret's Bay Rd. through Beechville to Timberlea and Hubley. I always kind of thought Timberlea was a larger village with a shopping centre, but if there was I didn't find it. Just rows and rows of houses.

The more I drive around, the more I appreciate where I'm living - so close to the city and all its amenities. Though I see the advantages of living further out (being removed from the busy-ness of city-life), the landscape seems so desolate and I think I would feel too isolated being so far away from the city-centre. I don't like the idea of a longer commute than what I already have.

And one more observation before I go and do my taxes:
Dartmouth Crossing is just a little big creepy. It's a lot like Bayer's Lake - a sprawling shopping district of big box stores and restaurants and an Empire Theatre. But the part that creeped me out was the cobblestone storefront shopping district. For those who are "from away" and don't know what I'm talking about....in the middle of nowhere (and I mean NOWHERE!), they've developed this false downtown shopping area where you can walk from storefront to storefront, like you would in any downtown. The creepy bit, is that this ISN'T a downtown. You don't wander down to Dartmouth Crossing to window-shop; it's not a community or a neighbourhood with any kind of identity or history. It's an outdoor mall, really in the middle of nowhere. You have to drive down a relatively new highway for 10 minutes, with no development as far as the eye can see. The highway itself is deceiving because it's not finished so, in several places, it's actually going nowhere, except into a quarry of cut granite. What makes me a little bit sad, is that all the commercial/retail development is moving into this one area, and downtown Dartmouth (and probably downtown Halifax) is going to become more and more depressed. Dartmouth makes me sad - the roads are terrible!, the city planning is terrible, there's a lot of neglected and depressed buildings and the businesses seem to be hidden away off the main roads (Did I see a Sobeys or a Superstore at all? I can't remember.). I think I'll be sticking to the Halifax side for awhile, until I explore the Darkside more.

Riders on the storm

Post-tropical storm Noel has come and gone, and none of us here in my little corner of the world seem any the worse for wear. Millie and I hunkered down last night for a quiet evening in (taking a pass on a family birthday party) to listen to the storm.



In the video you'll see the start of the storm - heavy rain, the blowing bushes and trees, and the wind blowing the water on the pavement (it's being blown up the slope of the parking lot). It was quite spectacular. And that was only the very start at around 5pm. The worst of the storm hit around midnight, but I was sound asleep and missed it all.

About 3am, the wind took out the power. According to CBC about 150,000 households in NS were without power; 60,000 of those in Metro Halifax. So I made the best of a dark and stormy morning with lots of candles, my solar powered radio, and a good book.


I'm half-way through Imperial Woman by Pearl S. Buck, and quite enjoying it! It was a struggle reading this morning - all cozy under the quilt in candle-light. I kept falling asleep! Read 1 page, sleep for 20 mins, wake up to feed the cat, read 20 pages, doze for awhile. What a great way to spend a morning!

And while I was relaxing, Millie was keeping watch and guarding our apartment from any rogue leaves blowing by the patio door. This kept her occupied for hours, and was quite funny to watch.

Now it's back to normal. The storm has cleared, and the sun was out this afternoon. Our power came on at 4:30. I'm glad to have hot water again.

Running Around the Valley

Another weekend in the Valley. Only this time I could take my time getting there. Dinner was planned for 5:30ish to celebrate my grandparent's anniversary and my grandmother's birthday, so I had all day to get there.

First stop: JustUs! outside of Wolfville.
As far as I can tell, this is the closest place where I can find Ten Thousand Villages products (there's no store in the city!). I went in the hopes of finding something specific, but alas, I didn't find it. I'll have to order it online, I guess.

Second stop: Wolfville Farmer's Market.
I love Farmer's Markets, and this one certainly didn't disappoint. I left with 4 maple sausauges, a package of lamb chunks, delicious veggie samosas with a spicy cilantro chutney, a sampling of several apple varieties I hadn't heard of (I bought four Prima apples). And while I was there I had my lunch - a $3 hamburger made from fresh beef, and an apple turnover.

Third stop: Corner of Commercial & Valley View Dr. in New Minas.
Girl Guides were there flagging down cars to sell boxes of GG cookies - the mint chocolate cookies. One of the Girl Guides made eye contact with me and sold 2 boxes without so much as a word. Hey! It's for a good cause...

Fourth stop: a quick visit with the grandparents, a great aunt and uncle who were in town for a short while, and pick up my aunt for a trip to...

Fifth stop: Gaspereau Valley Fibres
I've been looking for a good wool shop, and the stores I've found in the city just aren't cutting it as I've mentioned before. The thing is, most of the good wool shops seem to be off the beaten path. Like Gaspereau Valley Fibres. This store is in a converted barn, pictured below, on a farm in an entirely rural area. It's highly unlikely you'd find it if you weren't looking for it.

They even have their own resident woolmakers....
And here's what I bought:

2 skeins of Casbah Sock wool
(80% merino, 10% cashmere, 10%Nylon)
hand-dyed in Canada
red and veregated blue
Project: Chevron Scarf

1 skein of Dzined wool
(55% wool, 45% hemp)
hand-dyed
Project : a hat on circular needles?

I'm quite excited about my new wool and my new knitting project. I think the Chevron Scarf is the perfect next project. The last year or so I've been knitting mainly simple scarves in a simple garter stitch, sometimes trying the moss stitch or a cable. The Chevron will be good practice for increasing and decreasing, and for using two balls of yarn in the same project.

Sixth stop: Home.
By this point it was dinnertime and all 14 of us settled in to a wonderful smorgasborg of Nova Scotia delights: scallops, shelled lobster (20 lbs of lobsters!), baked beans, smoked fish, salads and quiche (okay the last one isn't NS'ian, but it went well with the dinner).

Home Sweet Home

It's nice to feel settled. I think my life is finally starting to calm down and things are falling into all the right places. I'm comfortable in my apartment, I have a good (I hope!) car to get me to and fro, and I've had the change to visit with family and friends since being home. It's all good. I am now extending an invitation to all my friends near and far to come for a visit.

Fringe benefits

There are many reasons why I moved home: to be closer to family, to enjoy a different pace of life, to be closer to the ocean and to trees and out of the concrete jungle, to be challenged in new and different ways in a new job.

And I was expecting certain benefits to being home: enjoying the company of my folks, my grandparents and the rest of my extended family, spending more time at the cottage in the summer, buying a car and having more freedom, travelling more.

And then there are the fringe benefits: produce from my mom's garden, free laundry, baked/canned goods from the fam.

My mother's backyard is full of fiddleheads, and this year I got to take advantage of being in town at just the right time! Steamed fiddleheads with a touch of butter - there's nothing better!

Except perhaps rhubarb! A whole bag of it! Doesn't look like much once it's all cut up but it'll make a good crisp, and something else too I'd imagine.

Moving again? Really?

Yep, really. It's been about 4 weeks since I moved in here, and I'm preparing to move out again. This arrangement didn't work, but I'm positive my new one will. I'm actually really excited about my new apartment - a beautiful deck/balcony, huge livingroom and bedroom, a kitchen with the most counter/cupboard space I've ever had - complete with dishwasher! The apartment has a tonne of closet/storage space - a large front closet, a walk-in bedroom closet, and a storage room in the apartment. The apt is above ground, but still not high up, the laundry is right underneath my apt., the supers seem to be super (sorry, couldn't resist), and parking is included.

The only thing the apartment doesn't have is the location - it's much further out of the city that I would've liked. But it's a trade-off.

Oh, and the apartment smells like cat urine. But I'll give it a good clean and that should go away.

Current status: moving

Here's a summary of the events of the last week of moving.

I packed my boxes. (Thank-you AO for the boxes, big and small.)
And on April 26th, the movers came and loaded the tail-end of a tractor trailer with my stuff.
It took 3 men about an hour to load the truck and complete the paperwork. It was done by 2pm, leaving me with time to kill before my flight the next morning.

To keep myself busy and distracted, I went to see the Emily Carr exhibit at the AGO, browsed the CBC boutique on Front Street, then headed back to Bloor to the Korean grocery (PAT) to stock up on the perfect green curry paste.

By the time I got "home" (though there was not much left to make it home), it was time for me to turn in my keys to my landlady.

At my apartment - my very empty apartment - there was nothing to do but wait out the night. It's interesting - I left Toronto with almost exactly the same amount of luggage as when I first arrived: a suitcase, an overnight bag, a laptop and a storage bin. Except this time I'm also leaving with a cat. My flight with WestJet was due to leave at 7:15am, so I arranged for a taxi to pick me up at 4:30am. There was not point in waiting at the apartment, when I could be at the airport. So I packed up Millie in her carrier, and managed to shuffle the remenants of my seven years in Toronto to the airport. And thus ends the Toronto chapter of my life.

Current status: boxed in

I'm almost completely surrounded by boxes now. Everywhere I look I've got boxes packed and stacked. Let's just hope they're under the estimated weight. I think the home estimate guy estimated approx. 33 boxes @ 25 lbs/box. My goal should be to stick to that limit, and not go over (on weight or number).


Which reminds me, I finally settled on a mover.
Bluebird (an agent of North American Van Lines) was by far the cheapest, quoting me about $60/100lbs. At first I wasn't impressed, but the more I compared this moving company with the other two, Tippet-Richardson and Hudson's Movers, the better Bluebird looked. I'm not sure why there's a difference - hopefully it'll be no more than the difference between "service with a smile" to "service with a surly guy". It doesn't matter, I've made my decision and now I have to fear the worst or hope for the best. I'll let you know how it goes.

I have to say I'm quite pleased with myself. I've done my homework when it comes to movers. I got home estimates from 3 different moving companies (it would've been 4 had AMJ Campbell returned my 2 calls!). I've spoken to people who have moved recently to hear what they had to say about the process. I've learned how to read estimates - the rates per hundred-weight, the surcharges, and extra fees. I've asked all the right questions. And, I've looked at the Consumer Protection Act, specifically the section where I'm guaranteed my estimate within 10%.

I'm all set.

Current status: upheaval

As many of you know by now, I'm in the middle of a move. A big move. I'm leaving the big smoke for the bonny shores of Nouvelle-Ecosse. And though I'm looking forward to being "home" again and closer to my family, this move is proving to be rather traumatic. Not only am I saying goodbye to the dear friends I've made here and my church family (who really are like a family to me), but I'm leaving my comfortable and conveniently located apartment, the amenities I have at my fingertips, and the city I have come to know as "home" for the last seven years. It's all a little surreal.

On top of the emotional upheaval, is the physical upheaval. I have to pack and move all my stuff 1100 kilometres. And hiring movers is proving to be no easy task! I've had 3 quotes, each of them wildly different in their own ways. The cheapest I had originally scratched off the list, but is now back on the list because ...well because he's the cheapest. Deciding between the three is really tricky. What can go wrong, what will go wrong, and how much will it cost me - those are all the questions I need to consider before I commit to one.

Packing is relatively easy, and slightly theraputic. Boxing and labelling your life puts things into perspective, particularly when you literally have to weight the value of it. "Is this worth the cost of its weight to move?" And then there's the purging. I've literally purged an entire closet of clothes. For the last 1.5 years I've spread my wardrobe out into my two bedroom closets. I've now condensed my clothes into one (and feeling quite pleased with myself for doing so). Then there's the load of "junk" I've accumulated over the years that's destined for my church yardsale, including the particle board/laminate/assemble-yourself furniture I've acquired to store the junk. That's not going with me either. I can make do without it.

And last but certainly not least. There's the next big hurtle - finding a new home. This reminds me so much of one of my favourite books as a child "Home for a bunny" by Margaret Wise Brown.

Read it.

So dear friends scoped out a few places for me, which is so very kind and thoughtful. But I have to say none of them really hit me as being "home". I have to resign myself to being content with one of them, at least for a short while (for a 4 month summer sublet), and then find a more permanent place to settle. A home for this bunny.

Let it snow

Here is a beautiful view of my backyard at home.
It looks like it'll be a white Christmas afterall!