Festival du Sucre d'Érable

Here I am in my hotel room in Vancouver again. I'm here finishing off the training that I started in January. I guess if I survived the role plays with actors then, I will be able to do it again. Joy. And it's raining, so I can't even go out for photo taking. Ah well....

If you read dillings blog, you already know about the Maple Sugar Festival here in Nanaimo. We went the day after she did, so I'm a bit johnny come lately.

We never miss the festival. It's a family affair. We always go for the pancake breakfast, grandparents and all.

Lumberjack Breakfast. Ham, pancakes, eggs in maple syrup and tourtière. Aidan can eat an entire lumberjack breakfast on his own. He's a breakfast kinda guy.

Katie's a just pancakes kinda girl. With lots and lots of syrup. Lots.

There was great music while we ate. I love Acadian fiddle. Can't wait for folk festivals this summer.

I was reading the comments on dilling's blog. Tod has only tried maple syrup (we call it "maple surple" around our house) once and didn't like it. Tod? What do you put on your pancakes, then?

Syrup on snow. Heidi was surprised that we have maple syrup already. Truth be told, we don't make much syrup here, and it's really not the same. This syrup would have come from Quebec/Ontario. Likely last year's batch. It's a festival put on by the Francophone society in Nanaimo. It's really a celebration of French Canadian and Quebec culture.

The syrup on snow toffee is a fundraiser by the local French immersion high school. We have several French immersion schools in Nanaimo. Are there language immersion schools in the US? Or the UK? Or is it common here because we are a bi-lingual country? I haven't thought about it before.

The ice sculptures were on their last legs. It was a beautiful warm day.

Go back to dilling's place and look at them new and sharp. Kinda alienish now.



Still beautiful if you look up close. I have no idea what this was to begin with.

Olly loves poutine. Do those of you outside Canada know Poutine? Definitely an acquired taste. French fries covered in gravy and cheese curd. Heart attack in a bowl. So good. Not that I would even consider eating something that fattening (especially after the eggs in syrup and tourtière).

Another sweet festival. Can anyone tell me where Frenchie went? I missed him. There were no flower balloon hats for us this year.

stuff

I've received a little feedback lately that my blogging might be a little lackluster and less than frequent. I can't argue. I can't seem to keep up with anything lately. I'm running just to keep up with myself. Work, kids, stuff. It's all busy - but it's all fun and good. Or good and fun. Whatever.

To add to the things to do around here - the island decided it's spring. It's like that here.

One day we are weeping at the greyness and the wetness and the grimness of it all, and the next we drive by a blooming cherry tree. So then, on our day off, after the kids are dropped at school and we are heading to the grocery store and dry cleaners and home depot to do busy stuff, we find ourselves at the beach.

And if we are at the beach, we have to pause and take pictures of Oyster Catchers - you guessed it, catching oysters. Because they are my new favourite bird. Isn't he just the most charming? And if we are already strolling along the beach, we might as well swing off into the woods. The sun isn't so glaring there.

And while we are in the woods, we might find ourselves crawling over the forest floor, capturing the first crocuses of the year. Like tiny treasures, just waiting to distract us from stuff. But eventually, stuff calls and it's off to the grocery store.

Even at the grocery store there's springy distractions. Tulips out front, in the sun. Just begging for a photo. I didn't want to shop for hamburger anyway. After doing half the stuff I had planned to do I headed home to clean up - and stuff. I had to take some daffodils home with me. I couldn't go home without some of that good springiness.

Seriously, though, if we have perfectly lovely, grown in BC daffodils on the counter, it would be a shame to not catch them with my new lens, wouldn't it? I think it would be wrong on so many levels. The stuff will just have to wait. It will still be there tomorrow.

diptychs

I've been working on my photo editing skills. This week I've learned how to make a diptych. Here's a few samples.

I caught both my kids messing around on the computer doing mindless drivel tonight. Nintendo website and some fashion thingy. They also read before bed tonight, honest. Fancy Nancy at the Museum and the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe.

I mentioned yesterday the science fair projects are done, and they are. I have discovered that Science Fairs are some kind of devious and horrific torture that teachers inflict upon parents. Above are the displays. Katie also has her evaporation buckets (one with a lid and one without, carefully measured). Aidan has before and after compost, not to mention the exciting addition of a bucket of insects and organisms and worms. Eeewww.

I was inspired by these little umbrellas. Actually I may have been more inspired by the possibility of a pina colada, but really, who's asking?

That's my little tour of my humble creations. Did someone say pina colada? Oh yeah, that was me.

post weekend....

Some random photos from the weekend. The sun came out!!! I took a road trip for work up the Island Highway on Saturday. My favourite drive. Lots of pulling off and on the highway at my favourite spots.

I'm a little short on words- well, I'm short in general but especially on words tonight. Have you seen my girl since she lost her tooth? Yup, she's six. Her t-shirt says "Fashion Fanatic". she picked out this outfit today...I think it screams self confidence. That's all I have to say about that.
And my boy? His Science Fair Project is finished. And he's still alive. and I still love him. that's all I have to say about that.

Jack, stuffed puppies and Spongebob

isn't that what Valentine's Day is all about? Oh, and chocolate.

pink and blue and grainy too - oh..and gifted....

Crazy, amazing clouds in the sky this evening. I could have taken some beautiful and unusual shots on the way home.

I could have, but today was the first day in ages I had forgotten my camera. I never go anywhere without my camera. It is my constant companion, my best friend - you get the idea. But not today. Mom was making us supper, but I was so desperate that I had to stop quickly at home and snap some shots from the driveway. It was almost dark, so I missed the sharp blue sky and great light and these ended up grainy.

I got the last of the clouds from Mom's deck. I can't wait until the light lasts long into the evening. Can't. Wait.

On another note: My blog friends are playing....

gifted.....

The Game: Everyone who has a blog is welcome to participate.
The first three people to leave a comment on my blog
will receive a gift from me in the next 365 days.
The only condition is that those people will have to do the same on their blogs.
Pay it Forward!

so close i can smell it....

I love February on the island. Even while it's still wet and gloomy, bits of spring start to creep and pop. By the end of the month we have daffodils and blooming trees and life again. It's a miraculous place to live.

reasons

why I have been slow in posting...

1. I had to clean the toilets. I also had to murder dustbunnies and mop the floors and do laundry.
2. My brain is tired. Really, really tired. It seems that work has been so chaotic and dramatic these past couple of weeks that I can't seem to stretch my brain much farther than making Shake and Bake chicken and booking playdates.

3. I have been dragging two kids through preparations for science fair. Composting and evaporation, the fun never ends.

4. I've been reading. Canada Reads in just around the corner and I have books to read to prepare for our annual Canada Reads night at book club,

5. I'm on a diet. This requires effort and planning. And not eating. And exercising. There are no Valentine's cupcakes involved. I really love cupcakes.

6. I had to work on my flickr archives. I have become somewhat of a flickr addict. Once the kids are in bed, I'm there. It's my crack. Or my meth. Or my cupcakes.

7. I keep falling asleep. Then I wake up at 4:00am. Then I have to go on flickr. Or make bread in my new breadmaker. But not for me, I'm on a diet.

My brain is even more tired now. I need to go and not eat a cupcake and read until I fall asleep.

Night night.

in her backpack

My children seriously need their own administrative assistant. This is the non-academic related paperwork that came home in my girl's backpack the other day. Community advertisements, school fundraisers, class fundraisers,advertisements, book orders, requests for volunteers, hot lunch orders, milk orders, newsletters...the poor trees. Oh, and each of these things has a deadline, or a task or something to remember. Any out of work admin people out there who work for cheap?

grey

This is my least favourite time of year. Around here, as you may have noticed, we love the festivities and fun between October and December. We look forward to a vacation in January. We love summer, too. But February and March are just a bit grey.

Spring seems just out of reach, even though I know that it is only weeks away here on the island. There really are little signs already. I grew up in the north, and spring is still months away there, so I shouldn't complain.

I'm having trouble thinking of what to take pictures of - and that never happens for me. I saw dilling last night and we joked about how many pictures of dead berries we take at this time of year. But I know that, even though I haven't found them yet, there are snowdrops poking their heads up and crocuses thinking about it. I know that soon we'll be enjoying our yard and planning projects and even getting started on them. Things will get colourful again.

But for now it's just a bit grey.

I'm Sad

Today, after Aidan's art class, grocery shopping and other Sunday tasks, we hopped in the car and headed for Duncan. I still had a lovely gift card for Modern Country Interiors (oh my, yes) from Christmas burning a hole in my pocket, and I also was jonesing for a walk at Somenos Marsh. After a successful stop at Modern Country, where I ordered a full set of - too gorgeous for words - bedding in bright and fabulous stripes, we headed to at Somenos. Those of you who know me, know how I have fallen in love with this old marsh over the past few months.

I love it when work takes me to Duncan, just so I can take an hour and prowl down the old boardwalk, hoping to meet up with a bird or a bullfrog (those damn bullfrogs, I look for them everywhere and have yet to meet one, munching on someone's pet or otherwise).

I usually go alone, as it's most often that I go that way for work. But today the kids were excited at the prospect of creeping along the boardwalk with me. Aidan had his camera, too. I had warned them of the need to be quiet and not scare the birds, and the need to hold carefully to the railing and walk slowly.

This is what we found. It's been closed. And it doesn't look temporary. I wasn't surprised, as the last time I was there, the boardwalk was floating on an angle and covered in slime and ice. I had to walk carefully, I didn't want to risk my camera hitting the water, and who knows how long until someone found me - I have never seen anyone else at the marsh the same time as me, although I have decided not to go in a couple of times because there were signs that someone homeless may have been camping...


I've searched the internet to see if it looks like there are plans to fix it, or revitalize...I'd help with that. I found nothing. I'm not sure if the "hazards" on the sign are any different than the ones that I experianced - maybe it's something different, a giant heron's nest in the middle of the walk, or maybe there has been a big bullfrog attack - but I think it's likely simple neglect and rot and the impact of the marsh on the man made walks.

I may go back without the kids and climb under the barricade to see. I'm not sure if I can stay away. It's too magic. I'll let you know before I go, so you can send out a search party if I don't come back.

taking a nap at sunset

I took a drive with mom this evening. We went along through Fairwinds at Nanoose Bay, which is over by Parksville. I hadn't been there for years. On the way down to the marina we stopped by a pond (in a golf course, no less - nothing like golf course ponds for finding the exciting wildlife). This swan had his head up looking around, then just curled up and went to sleep, floating along. Didn't he know it was cold??

I love this shot. I think it might be one of my best so far, and it was a bit a fluke...