From Autumn to Winter

I was just getting used to fall being here, when this happened.










Maybe it will encourage the mama and kidlett raccoons that hang out in our yard (and chatter noisily at night beneath our bedroom window) to move along and find a different home for the winter.

Past Home for the weekend

Ontario is my "past home" and it was wonderful to spend part of Thanksgiving weekend there for my dear friend Pam's wedding. Jeff and I had such a great time and while the weekend was short, we were able to fit in a few visits with friends and go to my church on Sunday morning. And- kick up our heels at Pam's wedding. It was a great time and Jeff's practice whirling me around the kitchen paid off, with our first ever dance to a whole song. Pam should be proud- Jeff doesn't dance for just anybody.

Pam's family adopted me during my decade in Ontario, and it was so wonderful to see and spend time with them over the weekend. Our time was so short that I was focused on spending time with people rather than capturing the beauty of an Ontario autumn. I think in the end, that's what counts.

Autumn

It's most certainly autumn, and the sadness of putting my sandals away until next spring is tempered with how beautiful (and colourful) this West Coast fall is turning out to be. Jeff and I are going to Ontario for the weekend and I can't wait to be back in Waterloo County in what was always my favourite time of year. Happy Thanksgiving!

Grapes and Plums and Peaches, Oh my

Our grape vines enjoyed a hot summer, and tripled their yield from last year. While the idea of stomping them to make wine was tempting, we have instead filled ourselves with pies (a repeat of our favourite from last year), jelly, syrup, and ice cream. I admit- the vibrancy of the ice cream (pre-frozen in this photo) is a little scary but it tastes pretty good.















Jeff perfected a method of seed separation using the salad spinner. By the end of the run, with some help from a favourite cousin-nephew, he had it down to an efficient science.













We realized out of the blue that one of our trees had produced a crop of yellow plums that were hidden under the dense foliage. Those were quickly turned into sauces (one a spicy Chinese dipping sauce and the other, a fruity mango mix) and canned along with 3 flats of Okanagan peaches. Thank goodness for knowledgeable mother-in-laws... half way through canning the peaches, I realized I had no clue what I was doing and Jeff's mom talked me through. She's the greatest.

Ready for Phase 2

I realize that more often than I'd like, I bite off more than I can chew. Jeff has "the look" that he shoots my way- a combination of worry and exasperation. It's always good when a project gets finished, as this one did this past weekend.
My friend Sandy got married in February- she and her dashing German have graphic, modern tastes in most things and so the quilt had to be just right. I designed the pattern from a photo (found while lurking Google photos) and made several mistakes along the way (like miscalculating the number of 4-patch quilt squares by half!). Even with imperfections, I'm quite pleased with the results.

Now it's ready to travel across the country with me for phase 2 (quilting).

Instruments

I live with an instrument builder. It's an interesting phenomenon, watching a mechanical mind mix with a music-loving heart. Jeff can spend hours researching medieval instrument design and has come up with his own harp string tension theory. One of the best afternoons of our marriage was watching him in the Instrument Museum at the Royal Academy in London. He was like a kid at Christmas and it was so fun to watch. Seeing instruments through his eyes has made me appreciate the craft behind the art of music in a whole new way.

Some of my Ontario friends have been requesting a tour of the harps and organs so here goes:

Harps: Jeff's first harp, styled after Brian Boru's traditional Irish harp, is strung with phosphor bronze wires. It sounds a little metallic but is easy to play because the wires are so far apart.

The tall one, "Bronwyn ", is the only one with a name. She is made of maple and is the only nylon stringed harp of the bunch. During construction, her neck wasn't able to successfully stand up to the string tension (~1200 pounds) and she needed some extra braces. Jeff built her during our engagement and that, along with her comfortably playable nylon strings and melodic, warm sound, makes her my favourite. We're told, by a few experienced players, that she's a real beauty.

Jeff's favourite is the double harp (double= two sets of strings for each note). It's also strung with phospor bronze and while pretty to look at, a little too confusing for me to play.

Medieval portatif organs: I asked Jeff to describe differences between the two and he said, beyond decoration, it's a simple difference in compass. Translation? The blue one has 29 notes and the brown one has 22!

Jeff designed both key actions, using double leavers for the brown one and metal "stickers" for the blue one. The brown one has a very light touch that I like a little better. It's also the patriarch of the bunch as the first instrument he ever built. And then there's the Pipe Organ! Made of copper and PVC water pipe, it's rather unique. It probably needs some further wood finishing and the pipes could use some tuning, but it's still a conversation piece. It wasn't so successful sweeping me off my feet (I think it sounds a little like a caliope!) but it certainly made my mom swoon the first time she saw it. Jeff and I joke that if we ever lost our jobs, we would move to one of the coastal islands and build a cabin where he would build instruments and I would grow things, sew things and bake things. Sometimes, it doesn't seem like a half bad idea.

Groovy Birthday

Jeff and I hosted a family birthday dinner last weekend and I was challenged with the task of creating a cake that worked for both an elegant 40-something year old woman and an 11 year old skater boy. It took the elimination of a few brainstorms before I came up with a plan that worked. I have to credit my very colourful niece with the original idea. Thanks R!!

I wanted to make a fat free cake so started with 2 white cake mixes and 2 cans of diet Ginger Ale. That's it! I added these 4 items together and mixed until smooth.

I wanted something a little more exciting than plain white cake, so divided the batter into 6 bowls and added gel colouring to colour each bowl of batter a different colour. I used gel because it gives much more intense colour than liquid colour and does not water down the batter. It's readily available at craft stores and I have even noticed it at a few grocery stores as well.

NOTE- because I'm cheap, I didn't spring for the 8 colour gel pack ( at a whopping $16) and just bought red, yellow and blue and mixed colours from there.

Now for assembly: I stated by adding 3 large dollops of different coloured batter to the pan and continued with a second layer of batter dollops, added on top of the first. The batter spread out with each layer of batter and it seemed that the more imperfect the circles were, the better they looked.

I started out with three 'towers' of batter in each pan- next time I'll just go with four.







I layered the leftover batter into muffin cups. In the interest of being pretty, I didn't fill them very full. Next time, I'll probably skip the cupcakes all together and fill up the cake pans to the brim- this cake collapses quite a bit when it cools (and all those ginger ale bubbles disappear).

Bake as directed and voila! I cut each layer in half and made a quadruple layer birthday cake with a light pudding and cool whip frosting.



It really was psychedelically, groovy-good. And it looked pretty cool when we cut into it as well. I should have caught photos of the inside finished product but we ate it all up.

End of summer

It's been a wonderful summer with great travels, wonderful weather and lots of fun with family and friends. A few final images as I unpack our fall sweaters; Jeff caught the the last of the bees in our bamboo blossoms and I compiled just some of this year's bumper crop of roses.

When hanging out the laundry today, I looked up and saw that the leaves are changing. That means it's going to start raining and we'll have to give up the heavenly smell of clothesline-dried fresh sheets.
















We recently started making homemade ice cream- obviously, a hit with Jeff! While it will certainly continue through the winter, I don't think it will quite be the same.