Content in Retirement

Fern

2019-02-22T16:46:00.001-04:00

As Part of our writing group, we get a prompt each session to do a blog post on. It is usually a single word, blurted out at the end of our meeting. This time I tried something a little different. I gave each person a random photo, and they wrote a story from that image. I had no idea which one I was giving myself, I did it blindly. Here is the photo that I selected and the story that it inspired. I hope that you enjoy.

Fern

The cold wind blew off the water. Fern stood shivering under its onslaught, rooted in her usual spot on the shore. The frigid temperatures this late in the year were hard on her. She hadn’t minded the wind when she was younger, but at her age, the cold was a serious risk. She wasn’t as resilient as she had once been.

She was lonely. Most of her friends had succumbed to old age and now there was only Fern. She was the last of the gang. She missed them and wondered what was to come after. What did the future hold for her? She never spent much time on such thoughts, so this introspection was fleeting.

As she endured the cold, the sky lightened in the east. She surrendered her thoughts and immersed herself in her favourite part of the day. The sun was about to rise, the giver of warmth nearing the horizon. Its arrival not heralded with fanfare but it announced in an explosion of glorious colour.

The ruddiness bled up through the sky, defying gravity’s attempts to chain it down. The hues, vibrant and substantial; yet lighter than air. They flew through the sky, leaving evidence of their passing on every cloud they touched. But the colour was ephemeral and its glory soon faded in the face of approaching Helios.

As his face appeared over the tops of the trees, He banished the cold before his glory. Fern stood and bathed in the warmth and light he provided. For the rest of the day, she stayed where she was, watching the sun’s progression across the heavens, turning her body to track his journey.

All too soon, Helios left the world of the wakeful and journeyed to his night-time domain. Fern once again shivered in the slightest breeze. Limbs that had so recently warmed in the smile of Helios became gripped by the stinging needles of cold. Fern hoped that she could hold on through the cold of night and see one more sunrise.

As the pre-dawn light filtered through the darkness, the ground shone like diamonds. Precious jewels spread around the shore reflected the coming of Helios. As his glory brightened the sky and shone from the points on the ground, something was missing.

Fern was not standing to watch the coming of the morning. Closer inspection found her in her customary spot, her limbs cold and withered. The killing frost had freed her to once again rejoin her friends. Her brief question finally answered; Fern discovered what comes after.

Christmas Traditions

2018-12-12T08:01:00.000-04:00

Our Christmas Traditions

Everyone has a favourite Christmas tradition. They change over the years with the advent of children and then the teen years finally the empty nest phase. We are in the final category and the traditional thing that we look forward to each year in our town is the Christmas Home Tours. Each year several homeowners agree to open their homes to the public for one day in early December. The homes run the gamut from seaside homes to country houses, and contemporary to 17th century homes. You never know until a few weeks before the event, what type of homes you will be visiting this year, much like opening a Christmas present.

Some homes that we visit have a welcoming feel to the entryway, just that little something that tells you that this is not just a house but a home.

Others, have scenery everywhere that you look, the ocean knocking on the back door

Sometimes it is the little decorative touches on the outbuildings that let you connect to the heritage of the home, or maybe the quirky decorating elements that you discover as you move from room to room, seeing the owners vision of the season displayed in their house.

Other times you see how the owners have repurposed an element of their home and made it a statement piece instead of modernizing it.

The trees come in all sizes like this 4 meter tall example on the left, or a hardwood decorated with thematic ornaments.

A fancy table to show off the fine china or a warm welcoming fire will greet you as you make your way from room to room and home to home, stopping to talk to friends, family, and acquaintances along the way. The joy of the day is contagious as you see what will be displayed next

The fine little touches like a letter to Santa left for us to discover or a light that twinkles like a star in a hallway, these evoke the feelings of the season.

And when all is said and done, there is usually a tea put on by one of the local churches, civic groups or museum. It is a time to unwind and talk more leisurely to others who have shared your experience of the day. You compare you favourite home or decoration as you sip a coffee or tea and munch on a tasty homemade cookie.

This can be your final stop or you can use it as a rest stop to catch your breath before the next stop. Time to let all that you have seen truly sink in.

It is a lot of hustle and bustle, but it is also a lot of fun seeing old friends again and making new acquaintances. As you travel from place to place, each group charting their own path, your path will cross with so many others throughout the day. No one is upset, all of us looking like Santa gave us exactly what we asked for , and in a way that is what happened. We all got the day to explore and share in someone else's vision of decorations.
It is a magical time of year and one that we look forward to every Fall. This is one of our family traditions. Feel free to comment with some of yours.

The Time I Lost My Marbles.

2018-11-14T08:32:00.000-04:00

As the title says, there was a time when I lost my marbles. I know that many of you are reading this and saying to yourself that this is not news. Others are thinking that I am making light of mental illness. Neither is true. This is my experience with Vertigo.

One day a couple of weeks ago, Melinda and I were out for our morning walk. We stopped for a few pictures on the way and as we left our favourite trail to rejoin the road, I felt dizzy. My vision was affected by it as well, and I soon developed double vision. I decided that I should return to the house and maybe think about a trip to the ER. You see, I thought at the time that I might be having a stroke.

In the 5-7 minutes that it took us to walk back to the house, I found that I could no longer walk a straight line. When I looked ahead of me, my point of view flickered back and forth like a poorly rendered 80's video game, and if I looked down at my feet, I veered sharply to the left. The decision to go to the hospital was a foregone conclusion at this point.

I changed my clothes and as I tried to make my way to the car, I started to vomit with every move of my head and the world was spinning around me. Melinda drove me to town to visit the hospital, and I have to say that I never realized how many corners our roads took, but every turn led to another round of dizziness and vomiting.

We arrived at the hospital to discover that I couldn't walk. My balance was completely gone and I couldn't get out of the car. Melinda went to the ER and asked for a wheelchair and that got their attention. The nurses were familiar with me, they had seem me walk in with broken bones, pieces missing and things sticking out of me, so if I couldn't walk it might be serious.

I got checked in and proceeded to be sick for the next two hours, that made four hours of illness. There was nothing left and I finally broke something and started to bring up blood. This was starting to get serious for me. Finally I was given an anti-emetic, and I only had to deal with the dizziness.

The ER doctor arrived and looked at my eyes, and determined that I had BPPV(Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo). He stressed the Benign part of the name, but at that point I was doubtful. I had entered the point in this illness that I was sure I was going to die and was scared that I would live.

I was lucky in that the doctor was familiar with this illness and performed what I later discovered was called an Epley Maneuver. This involved quickly laying down with your head turned and then rotating your head to the other side, pausing between movements.

Is seems that the disorder is caused by small crystals in the inner ear triggering a feeling of movement that is not seen by the eyes. The conflict between what your ears and eyes are telling your brain overloads your senses as it tries to compensate and the vertigo sets in.

The maneuver listed above is designed to re-seat these small crystals to a place in the ear where they don't cause any problems, and must be done several times a day until the symptoms disappear.

These microscopic crystals, called otoliths are composed of calcium carbonate, the same chemical make-up as limestone and marble. So I now joke that I have medical proof that I have lost my marbles.

Luckily for me the symptoms lasted only a week, with most days having only one episode of Vertigo. I also consider myself lucky that they decreased in severity as time progressed. I posted on Social Media and was surprised to find out the number of people that had experienced this before. I feel for each and every one of them and for any that continue or will experience this in the future.

This blog is part of a writers group exercise that we are challenged to do. WE are given a word, and challenged to write a blog post about that word. The word this week was "marble". I had started writing a completely different story when I experienced this, and it seem appropriate to tie all of the strings together.

When Passion Becomes Obsession

2018-10-31T10:29:00.000-03:00

When Passion becomes Obsession

We all have passions. We all have things that we are passionate about and often they are things that others don't understand. For those of our friends who do not understand our passions, they seem like obsession. But are they really an obsession, or are we just devoted to the things that we love, and over time our passions change, we learn to love and do new things. Sometimes those passions are complementary to earlier loves and at other times they displace their predecessors. It is the cycle of life, we experiment, we prosper, we grow bored and we move on.

For many years my driving passion was geocaching, and I still like to get out occasionally, but it doesn't seem to hold the same spot in my heart that it used to. I found a resurgence in my love for it when I discovered photography. I found them to be complementary hobbies, geocaching would take us to wondrous spots and I could capture them on camera for future reference. For a time I was in the prospering stage again. Then a new passion arrived, writing.

I had used the photos from geocaching in the past and developed a blog that I updated in a hit or miss fashion. It seemed that sometimes I was too busy doing to take the time for the telling. Then, about six months ago, the writing bug bit me, hard. I started on a novel and the next thing you know I had two novels written in the first draft stage, but my blog still suffered. it seemed that words on the computer were words that I didn't get in my novel. A challenge from the writing group that I joined changed all of that. The challenge was simple, to start a blog or to return to one we already had. The twist was, that our first topic was randomly generated. I posted that one a couple of weeks ago. Now I am back to writing on my own terms. And that brings us to the obsession.

Starting on November 1, writers all around the world are taking part in NaNoWriMo. If you are wondering what that is, you are not alone. It stands for Nation Novel Writing Month, and is a challenge to write 50,000 words in one month on a novel. It has been going on for a long time, but it was not until I started writing a novel and looking for community involvement that I discovered it. So, for the next month I will be chained in the basement at a desk, hammering on the keys of the computer in a quest to challenge myself to write a novel in a month. I think that qualifies as an obsession, don't you.

To all of my friends and family, I'll see you in December.

Memory of Wool

2018-10-25T17:31:00.004-03:00

Now that the weather is getting colder, we find ourselves digging in the closet for warmer clothing. Gone are the days of t-shirts and shorts, and we welcome the season of long pants and sweaters. As I dig through the piles of clothes, I find that I am amazed by the changes in my closet over my lifetime.

When I was younger, cold weather meant that the hats and mittens were pulled out of a garbage bag that had spent half a year stuffed into the back of one of the few closets in the house. Now we find ourselves looking in a walk-in closet, for a plastic tote that in all likelihood has been sealed with cedar to keep the clothing fresh and moth free. No more picking up the moth balls that fall out of the bag as we dig through finding our favourite hats and mittens.

The clothing itself has probably changed the most. We used to use wool for everything. We had wool scarves, wool mittens, wool socks, wool sweaters, and even wool long underwear. I even remember having wool pants to wear outside when it was particularly cold. And we were glad for the extra warmth. We pitied our friends who went coasting or skating in only a pair of jeans. We knew that they were going to freeze as soon as they got the least bit wet and that they would be the first to leave to go home and warm up.

Wool was the go to material for many years. It retained its warmth when it got wet, and it let out moisture when you were physically active. But anyone who remembers those days also remembers how it itched. It seemed that we got a new home knit sweater most years for Christmas and we had to try it on for fit as soon as we unwrapped it. With no base layer, as we would say today, the feel of that scratchy wool was enough to make us want to rip the skin from our bodies. But when we put a shirt under it, we were warm and cozy and ready to face the worst that winter had to offer.

Today, microfiber has largely replaced the wool of our youth, and it does the job with amazing skill, keeping us warm in all conditions. But there are still the purists who insist on natural fibres and for them it is still wool. But even wool has changed over the years. The Merino wool of today is as soft as silk on the skin and you can wear it with little worry that you will remove it to find you skin reddened and full of hives. The socks, mittens and hats are all soft and warm while being more durable than their home knit ancestors. You don’t see anyone today sitting around with an orange stuffed in the heel of a sock, darning the worn out section. Some skill have gone by the wayside in the march to progress.

Regardless of the type of clothing you prefer, modern or old-school, this is the season to dig out those warm clothes and get outside and have a walk through the crisp air as you kick your feet through the fallen leaves and take in my favourite season of the year in comfort.

2018-10-18T11:22:00.000-03:00

Changes in our Lives

As we shuffle through this mortal coil, we make many changes in our lives. The things that at one time meant the most to us will fall by the wayside, temporarily or in some cases, permanently. New challenges and experiences will step in to grab our interest, and these may become the new driving force for us, or they

may end up being one more step on the journey through life.

Recently I have taken up writing, and have to date written two novels. As a beginning writer, I now realize that the first draft is rough, really rough. I see a long time in the editing phase as I re-learn all of the grammar that I have forgotten since I was a student in those long ago days. To that end, I joined a writing group, and we meet every other week to be a combination critique, cheering section, and motivational group. They are cheaper than a therapist for trying to reclaim any shred of self respect after two weeks of tearing apart every word that I have put on paper.

As part of our group, we often set goals and do writing exercises. The last meeting set a goal of creating an online presence through a blog, or if we already had a blog, to get back to writing. The catch was that a random idea generator would pick our topic. The topic that came through this descent into computer alchemy is "Will Butter Rule the World." That's it, no more suggestions, no guidelines. The only caveat was that we should aim for five-hundred words, I missed that last one as we were on vacation, so I went over. We met again last night and lo and behold, not one of us had published on our blogs. So guess what our goal was for this week? You probably guessed it, to actually hit 'send'.

Well here goes, my quick jotting for my writers group.

The Rise of Butter

The end of the petro-economy or ‘The Great Greening’ as it later came to be known, did not arise from the efforts of the environmentalists as everyone anticipated. Rather it came about from the greed of the petrochemical executives themselves. Everyone in the early 21^st Century assumed that the race to stop global warming would be won by the citizens through a concerted effort toward altruism and the good of their fellow man. The truth is that the greed of the executives hid the fact that peak oil had long passed and the industry was on borrowed time. Trying to squeeze every cent of profits, they kept the decline a secret as the first wells went dry. Playing a shell game with shipments, they kept the populace in the dark about the end of oil until too many dry wells brought shipments to a halt. The ships that delivered the oil had dry tanks and the flow to the consumer ceased.

Industries that relied on oil closed, and one of the hardest hit was the agricultural industry. Reliance on cheap fertilizers derived from oil and monoculture planting led to crop failures in the first year. Hybrid seed that could not reproduce from the parent plant, grew wild and people watched in vain as their efforts to feed their families produced nothing of value for their stomachs.

The fledgling alternate energy industry, long stunted by the petrochemical companies, struggled to ramp up production, but ran into the same energy wall that the rest of society had, it takes energy to produce products, and the machinery that had been used to date ran on fossil fuels. A great effort ensued to retrofit these machines and at last they were put into production. The final straw of the petro-collapse was discovered when there were a shortage of lubricants to maintain any machine in working order. Work progressed on finding a replacement for high grade machine lubricants.

Most trees suitable for producing oil fruit had been cut for firewood on that first cold winter after the collapse of oil, eliminating several potential sources. Parallel research into the uses of lard or vegetable oils ran into the same problems, their products could not be grown without large amounts of fertilizers or antibiotics. The solution came from the dairy industry, and the use of butter. Researchers were able to refine butter and cheese into a high quality lubricant that would keep machines running for the foreseeable future. Countries that had banned the use of antibiotics in their dairy found themselves the leaders of the new economy as their herds flourished while their competitors hybrids succumbed to disease.

The dairy industry, already a strong lobby in the petro-dollar days, took advantage of the situation and rushed to cement their advantages in the marketplace by having advantageous laws enacted banning the use of antibiotic feeds in agriculture. This made the dairy industry the sole reliable source of fats and oils for industry and home use.

The United State, once a leader in the dairy and oil industries, found that their over-reliance on oil products and pharmaceutical farming, left them unable to maintain a domestic supply and their industries fell into decline. Canada, Britain and Germany having found themselves in a favourable position, replaced the dollar with the Pound(butter) as the favoured international currency. Butter is now revered as the saviour of the human race and is held as the new gold standard.

Peanut Butter Pie

2017-10-11T12:40:00.000-03:00

Let me say right from the start. I love Peanut Butter Pie. I really love Peanut Butter Pie. Okay, now that I have my confession behind us I can continue my story. Our first exposure to Peanut Butter Pie was at a cafe in North Conway, New Hampshire. We had just survived a climb up Mount Washington and were looking for a coffee and something sweet to celebrate. As we were driving and looking for a likely spot, we noticed a cafe called "The Met". It looked interesting so we went inside. It was an art gallery/store/cafe, very nice. We saw the Peanut Butter Pie in the display case and had to give it a try, we had heard of it, but never had a chance to try the real thing.

It was love at first taste. The peanut butter and chocolate danced across our tastebuds and mingled with the strong coffee to produce a near state of euphoria. I'm not going to say that this pie was the reason we kept returning each Fall, but it did definitely factor into our decisions. Then one year the unthinkable happened. There was a change, and as we got out of the car after an 1100km drive, tastebuds on high alert, we discovered that the menu had changed, there was no more Peanut Butter Pie. Imagine our disappointment as we exited the car, stiff and sore after a 12 hr drive only to discover it was gone. I think in retrospect that we may have had an obsession with this pie. We lamented our loss to all who would listen. It was a dark time.

It the course of these lamentations, we learned from someone that there was a "pretty good" Peanut Butter Pie to be had in Bridgewater, NS. We had to try this new one immediately. We left the shop we were in and headed to the River Pub. We had never been inside this establishment before and were pleasantly surprised to see that you could have a great view of the river while enjoying your chosen food or drink. We ordered the pie and when it came we were overjoyed to discover how good it was. It was a very good Peanut Butter Pie, and it was so much closer that we could enjoy it more often, which we did. Times were looking up for us in the pie department.

A few years later we were in Mahone Bay, only a few kilometers from Bridgewater and enjoying the Scarecrow Festival. After walking the town and seeing all the scarecrows, we decided to stop for a bite to eat. We looked around and saw a cafe/deli covered with pumpkins. The walls, the roof, everywhere there was a space, there was a pumpkin. So in we went. As we were walking by the display cases, THERE IT WAS, a Toblerone Peanut Butter Pie. JO-Ann's Deli was our new favourite place.

We had to try it. It looked so good and the name conjured up all the tastes that a dessert should have. We were not disappointed. We had found our new favourite Peanut Butter Pie. We really loved this one. We found ourselves looking to see if there were any festivals planned so we would have an excuse to go and have a piece of pie, it was that good. We talked about it to our friends and family. We wanted it to be popular so that it would survive. And all was right with the world.

As the years passed we got a bit more into cooking and making our favourites at home. We decided that it was time to see if we could recreate this pie at home. We searched cookbooks and the internet and finally found a recipe that looked on paper as though it was a contender. Here is the recipe that we used Tobleroene Peanut Butter Pie.

We made up the pie and as we waited for it to set, we kept our fingers crossed that it would turn out OK. We again were not disappointed. It was great, it was something awesome that we could have at home or take with us wherever we went, not just at one town. We were delighted.

We now had a recipe that we could make as we wanted and we could pack a piece of the pie in our picnic lunches when we were on the road. We discovered that we could freeze the pie and it was as good if not better served that way. We felt complete. Our new love now lived with us and we no longer had to travel to visit, we could enjoy whenever we wanted.

We hope you enjoy the pie and thank the original poster for putting the recipe up or all of us to find. In the interest of disclosure, none of the above mentioned establishments in any way sponsored our post, nor do they even know that we have mentioned them.

Down in the Coal Mine

2017-08-23T11:40:00.001-03:00

As we were in Truro for the Maritime Mega 4 events we took in many of the satellite events that were planned in the area. This trip was not an actual geocaching event but was an activity on the way to an event in Joggins.

One of the organizers was able to get a trip down into the coal mine at the Springhill Miners Museum for a group of people. This tour was a great experience for me as I had been down in the mine many years earlier with family, probably around 1973, just shortly after the mine opened as museum. The Springhill Miners Museum comprises a portion of the mine and several buildings to represent a portion of the daily life of miners at the time of the "bump" that occurred October 23 1958. A bump is an underground earthquake caused when the galleries where coal was excavated collapse. The coal is removed and most of the stone on either side is shale or slate which is fragile and can come crashing down with no notice.

We arrived at the mine site to begin our tour and wandered the grounds seeing the machinery and exhibits as we waited for all of our party to arrive. We took a walk through the miners museum building and it gave a brief insight into the, people and the mine as it existed at the time. The #2 Colliery was one of the deepest of its kind in the world with a sloped shaft reaching 4300m(14.200ft) in length with side cuts and galleries where the miners worked being over 1200m(4000ft) underground.

We paid our admission and were given a numbered tag and headed to the change house where the significance of the tag was explained. Each miner had their own brass tag with a unique number on it. It was used to assign gear, to tally coal mined, to receive a pay stub and most importantly to track who may still be in the mine at the end of a shift or in the case of a disaster.

Each miner changed out of their street clothes and hung them near the ceiling in the change house. They then headed to the outfitter who have them a numbered lamp that corresponded to the number on their tag. The tag was then hung on a hook to be retrieved when they came out of the mine at the end of the shift and turned in their headlamp to be recharged for the next day.

After we were outfitted with hardhats, it was time to head to the mine shaft itself. We walked to the mine head and started down the sloping entrance to the mine. A walk that many a miner had undertaken before us. It is only as you get in the mine shaft that you realize how low the ceilings actually were. The coal seam was only about 4 feet high, so that is the amount of material that was removed, most miners worked on hands and knees as the mine owners didn't expend extra cost to make the mine higher for no added revenue from coal. Since I am 6' 4" tall the mine was a bit crowded and I did a lot of head bumping. The only consolation for me was that there was someone 6'9" tall behind me and he had it worse.

We continued on our way down, a walk of about 300 feet that took us to a level about 80 feet underground. Here we tried to get comfortable as our guide explained about the structure of the mine and how the mining was done. The mine is flooded past this level, so we could go no further. The lights were turned out just after we were warned again about the rats in the mine. The rats were a constant companion to the miners and were a nuisance as they would steal water and food, but they also were an early warning system in the mines as they would notice trouble often before the miners would. If the rats started to run out of the mine, it was a good bet that the miners woudl be following them. We stood briefly in a dark that was absolute, so dark that there was no reference points for balance. We were told that after only a few hours in this complete darkness, trapped miners would be unable to stand because of the disorientation.

The lights were turned back on and it was time for the climb up the slope to the surface. We turned on our gear and retrieved our numbered tags. We then returned to the museum where the attendant would look up your number and tell you of the fate of the miner who held that number on the fateful day of the bump. Mine was 40 years old, with 3 children and he died in the mine, one of 75 who lost their lives that day. It was truly a somber experience to learn of the fate of so many who only wanted to provide for their families.Many who survived owed their lives to the Dragermen, who wore air tanks and would head into the mine as everyone else was trying to escape, to try and save their fellow miners. Due to their work 99 of the 174 miners underground were rescued. It took 5 and a half days to reach the last of the survivors. After that it was a recovery mission,

Tidal Bore Rafting

2017-08-21T17:06:00.000-03:00

It had been a couple of weeks since I did any writing on the blog. for part of the time we were away enjoying the festivities of the Maritime Mega 4 geocaching event in Truro, NS. It was an awesome time to meet geocachers from around the world and to experience our own province like a tourist. The MM4 committee organized many satellite events around the province and one of the ones that we most looked forward to was Tidal Bore Rafting. I have a confession to make, I am from Nova Scotia and have never experienced the tidal bore. Not once in over a half century of conscious memory. Whew, that is behind me. We thought that there could be no better way to experience it than to take a full immersion experience, and that truly describes what happens when you hit the river and meet the bore.

We started the day by meeting with the organizers of this event. We seemed to have to sign an awful lot of waivers before we were allowed to go to the next step.
You only live once right. Now, everyone is given a coloured rubber bracelet, this tells you which boat you are in, each boat holds 8 people. We looked around to find the souls with similar coloured bracelets and we had ourselves a crew.

Next stop on the journey was the donated show pile, where shoes that were deemed too dirty to make the return trip home ended up. If you are worried about your shoes, it you wonder if the mud will come out, visit the show pile. The mud won't come out. Next is the PFD Pile. We head there to get a flotation device that fits and get yourself strapped in. Now properly shod and buoyant it is time to start the parade to the river bank to start the most exciting part of the day.


The donated shoes.


Getting bouyant


The start of the parade to the water

As we hike from the lodge we get our first sight of the river and our conveyance for the day, and the mud. Lots of mud. Red mud, slippery mud, did I mention lots of mud. There is no use being dainty and trying to get to the boat without getting any on you, it won't work and you will be coated soon anyway. Best to just just grab hold of your inner child and slip, slide and roll your way to your boat.


The look of things to come


After a brief mutiny when the captain was put over the side, a new caption was at the helm.

Now we embark on our boats and push off from shore. We head down the river for our meeting with the bore. It is amazing how shallow the river is at low tide and at several points people had to pile out to drag the boat over the bars to get to deeper water, the river changes day by day so there is no map for the bars.

Back in the boats once more we are motoring along watching the eagles perched in trees waiting for the inrushing tide to deliver supper, I think we are too big to tackle so are safe for the time being. The driver takes us to a sand bar in the middle of the river where we can debark for a little while and stretch our legs as we wait for the bore to arrive.


On the bar, in a few minutes this was the rapids

Some people use the time to get up to some mischief. Our guide is heard to mutter that it is never the children who end up throwing mud.


Incoming!

As we look down the river we see a faint line of light coloured foam on a chocolate milk coloured river. The bore is coming. No need to panic but it is time to get back in the boats for the highlight of the day. We move a bit further down the river and meet the bore head on. If that sounds dramatic, it is.

It is up and over the face of the bore with the full force of the motors behind us and then into the calmer water behind it. An amazing ride, but it is not over yet. The boat disappears under the waves and fills with water. The driver gooses the throttle and pushes us into the next wave, now the water is up to your neck and another wave is looming. The water crashes over your head and the boat is nowhere to be seen, you can feel it under you, but you can't see it.

The boat is now into the calm water and runs out the holes in the transom and you are once again in a boat and not riding atop a submarine. You look around and see 7 more smiles that look like the one you feel on your own face. You then look around to see what the spectacle looks like from the outside as others plow through the waves.

You think to yourself you are so glad that you did this and it was an amazing experience. But it is not over. You are in a brief reprieve as the boat is navigated around to plow through the waves once more. This time you know what is coming. The anticipation is a bit more acute. You grip the rope a bit tighter. As the waves this time seem a bit bigger and the boat plows into them a bit harder, you are sure you are going to leave the boat, not by choice, but by force. Just as you are sure that you are going overboard, another huge wave slams into you pushing you into the center of the boat. A huge grin spreads across you face and the next wave enters your mouth, you then realize that the chocolate milk river is quite salty.

After a couple of passes through the waves it is time to head upriver to the mud banks for the final experience of the day. We exit the boat near the riverbank, removing our shoes we make out way to the top of the bank, by digging our fingers and toes into the slippery mud. We get to the top and trying to remain upright we survey the slope, then you sit/slip/fall onto the bank and shoot down the side like an otter in a wildlife show. Then it is the precarious scramble to get to the top for another slide.

Then we get the signal from our guide that it is time to head back to the lodge. We are a bit disappointed to be leaving so soon, but we are advised on the way back that the showers are communal and the first ones back get to see less of their fellow rafters. We are sold on the idea and head for the lodge. There is only one last muddy climb up the bank to shore and a chance to hit the showers and get mud out of every nook and cranny.

After the showers are done and the muddy gear is stowed, or tossed, it is time to do a final meet up with the organizers to say thanks and to draw names for door prizes. It is a geocaching event as well. After all is said and done we line up for a group photos to remember the fun with and it is off to the next event in our weekend.

Blueberry Grunt

2017-07-30T08:56:00.000-03:00

The name Blueberry Grunt may sound a little odd to those not from the Maritimes. The name actually comes from the sound that the dish makes while cooking. It is a dish of blueberries with a batter topping. As the dish is cooked, the stewing berries release steam that bubbles up through the cooking batter with a grunting sound, hence the name. For many of us the name has been shortened to just be "Grunt". At the season when blueberries are ripening, many a meal is ended with a "Grunt".
We have never tried this meal with other berries, but I don't see any reason why it would not work with any high liquid berries. We may have to try a Blackberry Grunt when the berries are ripe in a couple of weeks.
A Grunt can be made in two ways, baked in the oven or on top of the stove in a covered pot. This recipe is for the oven baked variety. To cook on the stove takes a different batter and cooking method and in my opinion makes a different dish.

Here is the oven baked recipe.

Recipe
4 cups fresh blueberries(can use frozen)
1 cup white sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg

batter
1 1/2 cup flour
2 tsp baking powder
pinch salt
1/2 cup white sugar
2 Tbsp chilled butter
1 cup buttermilk
1 egg

Directions
preheat oven to 350F
Place Blueberries in a greased 9x11 casserole dish
Sprinkle with the sugar and spices

Mix Flour, baking powder, salt and sugar in a bowl.
Cut in butter
Beat egg with buttermilk and stir into dry ingredients just until moist.
Dollop the batter over the berries and sprinkle the top with a bit of sugar.
Bake for 30-50 minutes until toothpick comes out of topping clean.
Serve with whipped cream or ice cream.

Blueberry Grunt hot out of the oven with whipped cream

This is truly a dish best enjoyed hot out of the oven with the whipped cream or ice cream melting over it. It also makes a great breakfast cold the next morning and will fuel you for the day with good nutrients. Plus it so much fun to tell your friends or coworkers that you had a "Grunt" for breakfast.

We hope that you enjoy the recipe and it inspires you to try some of the old family heirloom recipes that are kicking around in cookbooks that are handed down through the generations. Many of these old recipes are simple and tasty and come from a time when a myriad ingredients were not available. They were quick and cheap to produce.

Cranberry Scones

2017-07-28T14:53:00.002-03:00

When I started to write this post, I stopped to look at what a scone really is. We here on the South Shore of Nova Scotia have a varied and intermixed history with the French, British, Scottish, German and Aboriginal backgrounds that we share and are a mixture of. When I first had a scone, I thought this is just a fancy Tea Biscuit. It is similar to a Tea Biscuit and I guess similar to Bannock from the Scottish Background. Once I looked it up on-line I was satisfied that what we make is in actuality a scone.

We love the Cranberry Scones and find them fairly quick to make if you are in a hurry and they are soooooo good hot from the oven slathered with butter.

Ingredients

3/4 cup Craisins(dried cranberries)
1/4 cup boiling water
1 3/4 cup flour
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup yellow corn meal
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 Tbsp chilled butter
2 Tbsp shortening
1/3 cup plain Low Fat yogourt
1/4 cup evaporated milk
1 tsp vanilla

1 large egg white
2 tsp sugar

Directions
Combine craisins and boiling water in a bowl and cover, let stand 10 min or until softened. Drain and set aside.
Preheat oven to 400F
Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cup, level with a knife.
Add flour, sugar, corn meal, baking powder and salt in a large bowl
Cut in butter and shortening until it resembles coarse meal.
Combine craisins, yogourt, milk and vanilla.
Add wet ingredients to dry mixture, mixing just until moistened
Turn out on a lightly floured surface and knead lightly 4 times. DO NOT OVER HANDLE THE DOUGH OR THEY WILL NOT RISE UP AND BE FLAKY
Pat dough into a 4"x8" rectangle and cut into 2"x2" squares (8 scones)
Place on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper
Brush with beaten egg white and sprinkle with sugar
Bake at 400F for 12-15 minutes

The scones can be eaten hot from the oven lathered in butter, my favourite way. They also make a great treat to pack and take on a picnic if you are travelling.

We often have sliced cheese and fruit on the side to have a balanced meal. However you have them they are delicious and fairly quick. When we are running on a hectic schedule we find that these can be whipped up in nearly the same amount of time as a fast food meal can take at rush hour. And it is real food.

We hope you enjoy the recipe.

Falafel Sandwiches

2017-07-24T15:53:00.002-03:00

A falafel is probably a relatively new idea to many people, but is a staple in Middle Eastern and Mediterranean cuisine. It is a ball made of Chickpeas and spices that is deep fried. It is used as a garnish for plates and as the base for a sandwich, which is what I am going to explore today.


Falafel Sandwich, Tabouleh and Greek Potatoes

There are a number of great recipes for falafels, and they are not hard to make, but for simplicity today we used packaged falafels that we bought at the grocery store, they are good, but not nearly as good as homemade. Traditional Falafel Sandwich is made on a Lebanese Pita Bread, but we like ours on a Greek pita or a Naan Bread which we wrote about making a while ago. If anyone wants a recipe for falafel we can write another post with it.

The big secret to a Falafel Sandwich is the Tahini Sauce which is a Sesame Sauce. The paste is much like a natural Peanut butter in that the oil floats on top and needs to be mixed in to use it.

Tahini Sauce

1/2 cup Tahini(Sesame Paste)
3 cloves garlic
1/2 tsp salt
2 Tbsp Olive Oil
1/4 cup Lemon Juice
1 tsp finely chopped parsley(optional)

Directions

Mince the garlic and mash it with the salt. A mortar and pestle works great but the back of a spoon against the bottom of a bowl works as well.
Add Tahini and Olive Oil and mix well with the garlic.
Add lemon Juice( one good sized lemon should give enough juice)
Don't panic here as the sauce seems to harden, the sauce will turn to a fairly dry consistency.
Add water to the mixture a little bit at a time, you want to thin it enough that it will pour off a spoon.
Add parsley and mix well.

Garnish

Diced Tomato, Onion, Sweet Pepper and Cucumber. Some Hot Peppers and coarsely chopped parsley.

Now to put together your sandwich.
Warm your Pita or Naan and place on a plate. Put 4 or 5 falafels in a line in the middle of the bread and mash slightly with your thumb. Alongside the falafels place rows of the vegetable garnish. Sprinkle chopped parsley over the whole thing and pour some Tahini Sauce over everything. Fold up your sandwich and enjoy.
You can enjoy the sandwich by itself, it is a very filling meal or you can make a Taboulleh Salad or Greek potatoes to go with it. This is a very tasty meal and the first time we had tried it was at a dinner invitation from a gentleman from Lebanon. He told us at the time that it is traditional to have a glass of cola with the sandwich and for some reason it always tastes better that way.
If you think this is too much work to find out if you like it, try one of the Lebanese restaurants that are starting to spring up, you can get a sandwich or a plate and give it a try before you decide to buy all the ingredients. We love this meal and hope you will too.

Rhize of the Rhizomes

2017-07-17T10:00:00.000-03:00

OK, I know that not all mushrooms have a rhizome. But the title rolled off the tongue better than "Rise of the Mycellium" or any of the other options. And it is the title that might be the first thing to grab your attention. Kind of like the colour of the fungi in the woods are the first thing that you notice.

The other day we went for our morning walk and almost as soon as we entered the forested track we started to notice the number of mushrooms blooming. This was shortly after the latest rain and it seems the added moisture gave the fungi community a real lift.

We were really boggled by the number of mushrooms that we saw as we stopped to look. The variety was truly amazing. The more we looked the more we discovered, they were everywhere. Some were so tiny that you had to watch where you put your feet to avoid crushing them.

Your eye would be captured by a large yellow or red mushroom and as you looked at that you would notice a tiny, white, brown, yellow or red one peeking their heads up out of the moss or leaf mould. It was truly amazing to see so many types in such a small area.

I truly have no idea if any of them are edible and don't honestly trust myself to read a book and feel comfortable trying a foraged mushroom. I read one time that the leading cause of death among mushroom experts was mushroom poisoning. So with my luck, I decided to give this learning experience a pass. I will stick to snapping photos and tempting the visual palette rather than the culinary palette on this topic.

As we walk through the woods on the warm days of summer when the wildflowers are waning and colour seems to be a little harder to find. Head into the shade of an old growth forest. The shade is cooling and as you look around your feet you may start to see the colours that nature has placed in one of the more unlikely spots.

As you look at them, see the one that caught your eye, then look around to see what you might have missed if you hadn't stopped to take a look. I bet that there are a few more there waiting to be discovered.

They come in all shapes and sizes, on the ground, on rocks on trees both dead and alive.

It may add a bit of time to your walk but by the time you have finished you may realize that you went further than you had planned and you are not nearly as tired as you expected to be. The frequent stops let you stay in your comfort zone for a longer period of time and being in the woods, with its quiet and relaxation may have made you much more relaxed than when you started. So get out and see what might literally be right under your feet.

In the footprints of Giants

2017-07-14T08:52:00.000-03:00

In the early 1900's Albert Bigelow Paine and Dr. Edward Breck along with 2 guides left the Milford House on a multi-day Journey along the waterways of Central Southwest Nova Scotia. They left from the beach behind the lodge and Paine recorded the story for posterity. It has become a classic tale of fishing and canoeing in the area.
About 110 years later 2 men entered their watercraft at the very same beach, but here is where the similarities end.

The greats of our book headed out in wool clothing in Birch bark canoes for a trip lasting many days carrying all of their gear with them. Our modern explorers were clothed in quick dry fabric paddling plastic kayaks carrying only a bit of water and granola bars and planning a morning outing.

Where our author of days gone by was interested in the number of trout, the modern day explorers were in search of geocaches. A geocache is a container left by another geocacher for those who follow to discover after downloading the coordinates to a GPS unit. No compasses for our modern day travellers.

Albert Paine was an artist with words, he would describe a scene and you would feel like you had seen it, you could smell the pine in the wind as he wove his story. Today we take a camera and capture all that we see for future reference, no reliance on paper notebooks to remind us of what we saw.

The author in the 1900's could travel for days to lakes that had seen so very few people as to be considered unknown. Today you can access any body of water by plane from a city anywhere in the world. Has our world been shrunk to fit the desires of outdoor enthusiasts.

For all that has changed over the years and the inroads that we have made into the forests and lakes that were once nearly inaccessible, as you round a lake and see no sign of man you can feel yourself transported back in time and place yourself in the footsteps of the giants who came before and blazed a path into the forest. you can almost hear the waves breaking on the birch bark bow of the canoe, smell the smoke of the campfire as a shore lunch is fried. You can for a brief moment believe that you are alone in the wilderness, dependent only on yourself and your companions. You feel that you are master of all you survey.
Then you hear the sound of a truck passing on a nearby road or hear the voices of children on a walk along the lake. You are transported forward by a century and are once again in the modern age and realize you are hungry and it is time to return to the campside and fire up the BBQ to make lunch.
But for a few minutes you walked with giants.

Pavlova-When Ballet meets the Palate

2017-07-11T10:49:00.002-03:00

A Pavlova is a tasty baked meringue with cream and fruit on top. It is a very unassuming dessert with a contentious past. Both Australia and New Zealand have been arguing for about 90 years over the origin of the dish. Most agree that the dish was created for Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova on her tour of Australia and New Zealand in 1926. The difference of opinion surrounds who was the first to make and publish the recipe. I can't comment on the merits of each case, but I will say it seems to be a war with only winners as both sides bring out the big guns to make design and publish ever more tasty and elaborate versions. See, only winners on both sides.
We made a Pavlova the other day. In the course of making a Boston Cream Pie, there were a number of egg whites left over from the pastry Cream. I looked at the eggs and thought why not try a Pavlova to see how it turns out. Boy an I glad that I did.

Meringue Recipe
6 Room Temperature egg whites
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cup sugar

I put the eggs in a medium sized bowl and with a hand mixer beat the eggs and tartar sauce until frothy. Then I started adding the sugar as I continued to beat the eggs. Once all the sugar was added beat until you get a stiff peak. For those who are novices like me, this is when the mixture stays in the beaters and when you pull them out of the bowl and turn the mixer over, the meringue forms a peak on the end that doesn't fall over but stands up on its own.
I have a piece of parchment paper on which I marked an 11"(28 cm) circle. Place the parchment paper on a cookie sheet with the marked side down, you should still be able to see the mark through the paper. Spread the meringue inside the circle and try to keep it all the same thickness. This is a template to help make a better circle. If you don't have a plate that size to hold it when done, you can make a smaller circle.
Place in an oven preheated to 250F and bake for 50-60 minutes, then turn off the oven and leave it inside for another hour. The outside will be crunchy and the inside will be a bit gooey. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool. It is very delicate and the outside will crack, don't worry, the cream topping will hide it and on first bite no one will notice a few chips or cracks.
I read in many recipes that the least bit of yolk in the white will cause it to fail. I did have a bit of yolk in the egg white and had no trouble getting the meringue to whip. I would recommend trying to keep the whites as clean as possible.

Cream Topping
1 cup whipping cream
2 tsp vanilla
2 Tbsp Sugar

1 package Cream Cheese
1 tsp Vanilla
2Tbsp Sugar

In a bowl whip the whipping cream and vanilla slowly add sugar and whip until you get a soft peak.
In another bowl break up the cream cheese and add the vanilla and sugar and beat with a mixer until softened.
Using a spatula gently fold the whipped cream into the cream cheese to roughly combine.
Spread this mixture on the cooled meringue. This is the time to glue any broken bits back in place, the cream will hide and hold them.

Top with fresh fruit of your choice, the traditional are strawberries and Kiwi fruit, but I think almost any fruit would work.

Store in the refrigerator.

It wasn't nearly as difficult as I imagined and the end result was a tasty dessert that may have seemed to taste better as it was consumed among a group of friends around a campfire. We put the Pavlova in a cake keeper and put that in a cooler bag to take to the campground and it travelled fine.

My Love affair with Ginger

2017-04-07T16:36:00.001-03:00

I have to tell you that I am in love with Ginger. I have always loved Ginger. Well, there were those years that I dreamt of finding the island and rescuing Maryanne and living happily ever after. But other than that I have always been a fan of Ginger

I love Ginger Ale, Ginger Beer, Ginger Snaps, Ginger Bread, Ginger Cake, Ginger Marmalade, Ginger Chocolates. Well I guess you get the idea, I am in love with Ginger. One of my favourite forms of Ginger is Candied Ginger. I love the satisfying crunch of the ginger, the sweetness of the syrup and the heat on the tongue as you chew it. But man has it gotten expensive. And most of the ginger is dried and sugared which limits the uses. So I guess it was time to learn to make it for myself.

I started out by buying some ginger root. It is fairly inexpensive to purchase at most grocery stores. I usually get a Kilogram(2 pounds) at a time. This makes a pretty good sized batch. Then you have to peel the stuff, this is when the love affair can go through a few rocky patches until you learn how to do it. I use a spoon and scrape away from me with the bowl of the spoon facing outward. The skin is soft and scrapes right off with no loss of the ginger. Your house now smells amazingly like ginger.

Now you have to slice the ginger root. You want a really sharp knife for this. Cut the root across the grain as thin as you can, usually 1-2mm(1/16-1/8 in). Keep going it will soon get done. If you have large ginger, you can slice it lengthwise first to make the slices smaller. Keep going you are almost done. It seems to take forever, but the end is in sight.

Now you want to make a simple syrup. That is equal amounts of sugar and water. In this case for the amount above I used 3 cups of sugar and 3 cups of water. Put them in a pot on the burner and on a medium high heat bring to a boil.

Once the syrup has come to a boil add the sliced ginger to the pot and once it returns to a boil turn down to a low heat and simmer for 45 minutes. Now you can sit back for a bit and let the smell of the ginger simmering waft through your house. As the ginger cooks the smell will change and become sweeter. You want to cook the ginger until the slices are tender crisp and translucent.

After 45 minutes of a low simmer you can take the ginger off the heat and let it cool. you can try a piece to see if it tastes done. Mmmm that was good wasn't it. If you want to just use the ginger to cook with you can pour it into a Mason Jar and put it into the fridge. If you want it truly candied you can toss it in sugar and place on a cooling rack to dry. Once dry you can place in a container and enjoy at your leisure. It would be good dipped in chocolate. If you are going this route you may want to cut the slices a bit thicker to give a good size piece to work with.

This should give you about 1.5 litres of candied ginger in syrup. It seems to keep in the fridge for quite a while, we have never had any last long enough to go bad, maybe we use it too quick or the sugar is enough of a preservative.

Now that you have the Candied Ginger on hand you can use it to your hearts content. Every morning we have a hot drink made with Honey, Ginger and Apple Cider Vinegar. In a coffee mug we put a Tbsp of pure organic apple cider vinegar(the organic is so much less acidic than the commercial), a Tbsp of unpasteurised honey a few slices of candied ginger and a Tbsp of the syrup. We top up the mug with hot water give it a good stir to mix in the honey and enjoy. The first couple of times you try it you will cough from the vinegar fumes in your nose, I guarantee it. After that you will hopefully get to enjoy the smell and taste of your morning Cider. It is supposed to help with gout and arthritis. I'm not a doctor and this is not medical advice, but it has helped us even if it is only a placebo effect.

Another quick use of the syrup is to place a couple of Tbsp of the syrup in a tall glass of Club Soda and top with a lime wedge. Once you get it to your taste it is like having a glass of Ginger Beer when you need a cold drink with a bit of a bite.

I hope you enjoyed the ginger and in the future I will share more ways that we use the ginger in recipes.

Back in the Saddle Again.

2017-04-04T15:55:00.000-03:00

It seems hard to believe that it has been 3 years since I last posted on this blog. I first started writing it as a way to be sure I didn't get bored. I guess that didn't happen. I first worried that we would get everything done to finally settle into cabin life and then we would look around and say "what now". Again this has not happened. We never seem to have enough hours in the day to get done the things we want to do. Where does the time go.

I was joking with someone and while ago and commented that the time passes fast because we have no deadlines. What used to need to be done by noon can now take all day, or tomorrow. There are certain hard and fast deadlines, taxes, firewood, flights, but other than that you can be as flexible as you want. This can be a blessing and a curse. The blessing comes from the fact that you don't have to do anything that you don't want to right now. The curse comes from the fact that you will eventually have to do it and if you put off everything, all your chickens come home to roost at the same time. So it seems that time management skills while less important are still a necessary evil in retirement. I guess that kind of explains my lack of writing, it wasn't a high priority at most times that my chickens were roosting.

Over the last 3 years there have been life changes, health concerns, a brief detour back into the working world and some trips. Thankfully none of the bad things were really bad, just time consuming and worrisome at the time they were happening. Looking back on them we can now laugh at them all and realize in the grand scheme of things we are pretty lucky to be where we are.

One of the positives of not having written for a while is that now I have some more writing ideas that I can share. New experiences to comment on and new hobbies to pursue.

Recently while looking for a recipe, we remembered that we had done a blog about it. A quick search of the internet revealed the recipe that we thought we had lost. A couple of nice comments when we shared it brought us to reread our own blog and gave me the desire to write again.

I hope to see you here in the future as I share the joys that life has offered us and some of the fruits of the new hobbies we have embarked upon. *Spoiler Alert* There might be some pictures involved.

A chance to give back a little

2014-04-28T18:21:00.002-03:00

This past weekend geocachers all around the world joined forces with other community groups to do a spring cleaning. For us it is called CITO and stands for Cache In Trash Out. It is an ideal that we are supposed to follow where we go into the woods looking for geocaches and bring out any garbage that we find to help clean up the areas where we play and leave our surroundings better than we found them.


Icon given to geocachers who participate in a CITO

CITO events are held the weekend after Earth Day and are organized by any geocacher who is interested in hosting an event to clean their area. These events make a huge difference in the areas where they are held. Geocachers who participate in a CITO event earn an icon on their gocaching page to show that they have attended an event that year.

We were lucky to have three events close to us this year and we headed Saturday morning bright and early and attended a highway cleanup in St. Margarets Bay, Nova Scotia with about 30 other cachers. We collected about 60 large garbage bags full of trash from the side of the highway through a mostly residential area. A real highlight was when one homeowner came out yelling her thanks and telling us that we were making her neighborhood look much better.

One load of trash picked up in Tantallon

Cachers and their cleaned area

One of the most unusual finds

Saturday afternoon most of the same people headed to Tantallon, Nova Scotia and there we teamed up with the local ATV association to clean a section of trail that was recently purchased by teh provincial government and opened for use by all Nova Scotians. The ATV members ferried the geocachers along the trail and picked up the full garbage bags to transport to the trailhead area. It was a great learning experience for all attendees as we learned how the ATV association maintains and polices the trails and they learned what geocaching is all about.
I don't think any of us had an inkling of how much trash was hidden along the trail. At the end of 3 hours a total of 7 1/2 truckloads of garbage of all description was found and bagged and taken to the collection facility. There was now a total of about 5 km of clean trail for all to use and enjoy in a beautiful area.

Trash collected in Bridgewater

Sunday we headed out in the afternoon on a day that promised rain and delivered on the promise. About 15 hearty souls from across the province braved the elements to clean a local carpool parking lot near Bridgewater, Nova Scotia. Teh area was cleaned fairly quickly and about a dozen bags of garbage were cleared from the area leaving a much better impression of the highway.

Before the cleanup

After the cleanup

As we were traveling to and from our events we saw the same thing being repeated by school and community groups everywhere we looked. It was great to see so many out from all walks of life giving back to their communities. There were no complaints about the work or the temperature, everyone seemed to be enjoying the camaraderie and feeling of doing something good.

This is something that doesn't need to happen once a year. If people would stop littering, the problemn would go away. Unfortunately I fear that won't happen. I think it is a better chance that we try to educate people to do just a little bit each day, if you pick up one piece of trash on your walk, the world will be a better place for you having been there. If more people see this type of behavior they may start to do the same thing, then think how beautiful the world could become.

How it could look if we all did our part

We enjoyed our outing and love the feeling that we got from Giving Back A Little. Try it you'll like it.

Good Morning Sunrise

2014-04-12T10:04:00.000-03:00

I think that our favorite time of the day since we have retired is Sunrise. When I was working, it was a chore to get out of bed in the morning, the alarm demanding my attention and lunches to be packed for the day ahead. It was faced with a sense of not quite dread, but not with anticipation. There was no time to stop and appreciate the morning in the mad rush of preparation for the days labors. That all changed the day that I officially became retired.

Since we have retired, we have not had to rely on the alarm to get up in the morning, unless we are off on very early morning trip. Mornings are met with anticipation of the days promise. We have no plans and very few demands on our time. A day is allowed to unfold like a flower blooming and reaching its full potential. Some days are slow to awaken, their grey covering wrapped around them like a security blanket, protection from the weather to come. Other days arrive with a bright yellow glow to announce that they are here and all is right with the world.
The best mornings are the ones that start off with a burst of color painting the sky in bright vibrant hues as if to make up for a forecast of later day storms. It seems to be true what the old timers said, "Red Sky At Morning, Sailors Take Warning". The most vibrant sunrises are nearly always followed by a storm later in the day. Maybe this is nature's way of apologizing in advance for the day to come.
A perfect morning is one spent on the deck, having breakfast and enjoying a steaming cup of freshly brewed coffee as the sun rises out of the earth. Each day brings a sunrise from a slightly different perspective as the sunrises march back and forth across our view with the march of the seasons, lighting our lives from a slightly different angle and shining light into different corners of our lives.
A beautiful sunrise is a fleeting event, here one minute and gone the next. Most of the color being displayed just before the sun crests the horizon. A beautiful sunrise is more about promise and anticipation than about the actual rising of the sun. It is a great metaphor for the day ahead, carrying all the promise of what is to come. We look forward to the scene that will greet us each morning as prepare breakfast and take the time to marvel in the spectacle that is presented each day for a fleeting moment.

I think it is fair to say that an early morning has become the favorite part of our day. It gives us the chance to relax and prepare for the day without the hustle and bustle that were for so long a part of our lives. Having a relaxing start to the day goes a long way toward making the whole day relaxing.

So sit back and relax and enjoy the show that is the world around us.

Smells like....whatever you choose.

2014-04-05T13:49:00.001-03:00

It has been a while since I have taken the time to write on this blog. You would think that being retired would mean you have all the time in the world, it just doesn't seem to work out that way. I think part of the reason is that we take on more projects to do ourselves that we might have hired out when we were working. I also like to think that we are taking the time to learn new skills to help us in our retirement.
We love learning to do new things that help to save a few dollars or to make a healthier product for us to use. In the past we have talked about the cooking that we have tried, and that is a great way to have a good healthy meal at a lower cost and I like to think that cooking together has brought us closer at a time in our lives where too many people seem to find that they have nothing in common anymore.
We like to make some of our own household products. One of the first that we tried was making our own deodorant. We looked at the cost and then after all the reading about the nasty chemicals that are absorbed by our bodies, this project seemed like a no brainer. And to top it off it was so easy. We were a bit skeptical about it at first, but we bit the bullet and gave it a try. With a little trial and error we have come up with a product that we both like and that works for us. We are able to get most of the ingredients at our local bulk store. The initial set-up costs a bit, but most of the ingredients have multiple uses.

Homemade deodorant

2 Tbsp Coconut oil
5 Tbsp Arrowroot Powder
5 Tbsp Baking Soda
a few drops of essential oil( we like Lavender or a Lemon/Rosemary mix

Once all the ingredients are in the bowl, mix with your hands until you get a pretty solid ball. The heat from your hands will melt the coconut oil and allow everything to come together.

We saved some old stick deodorant tubes and just pack the mixture into them after winding the mechanism down to the bottom.

When using this deodorant, you only dab it on your underarms, it takes very little to do the job. If you notice some redness it might be the chemicals from your old deodorant coming our of your pores or it could be a reaction to an essential oil. This recipe will make enough for both of us to last about a month. I wouldn't recommend increasing the recipe as there are no preservatives in it and if it last longer it could cause problems since you are using organic products that will break down over time.

The original recipe called for 1/4 cup each of baking powder and corn starch. We found that the extra baking powder made the recipe a bit abrasive and could cause chafing. We switched to arrowroot powder as it is less likely to cause a yeast infection, it is more naturally resistant to fungus and bacteria.

One of the things that most retirees agree on is that you have to live on a fixed budget, it is not easy to make up any shortfall if your budget doesn't balance. This is just one of the ways that we have found to cut costs and have a bit of fun doing it. We also make our own laundry soap, which sounds like a topic for another blog. We do most of own repairs and building projects. We recently laid our own hardwood floor in the kitchen at less than 1/3 the cost of having it done by someone else. These are all skills that we develop that save us a few dollars and also give us a great deal of satisfaction as we use utilize the items we have built.
If you have anything that you do to save a few pennies or you want information about any of our other ideas, please feel free to leave a comment.

Big Sky

2014-03-09T13:19:00.002-03:00

The prairies are known as the Big Sky Country. In a boreal forest area the closest we can come to experiencing this is on the water. Whether you are in a boat on a lake, the ocean or whether you are lucky enough to do an ice hike, this is our Big Sky.
Our everyday lives are bounded by the trees around us. They feed us, shelter us, warm us and ultimately give a boundary to our lives. Our view of the world around us is limited by the trees that form our horizons.

To head out onto the ice is to forge off on an adventure that is foreign to our experiences. We are used to being swaddled in trees, having a sense of surrounding security. Going out into the great wide open is in a sense a challenge to nature. It is our way of saying here we are, see us, we can't hide. It is a way of saying that we will meet any challenge head on, not head into the trees to hide. It is a rare feeling of freedom and exhilaration to see for miles and be seen for miles, to feel as though you are the center of your own universe. To be able to say that you are the only living thing in sight, and that sight line is long.
Heading out on the ice is a way to see nature as few before us have seen it, you may be in an area frequented by people in other seasons, but few have ventured where your footsteps are taking you now. You get to see a familiar area from a completely different perspective. Islands in a lake become oases in a snowy desert. Thick brush is covered by snow and is passable to venture ashore to see these islands. We can see where other wildlife has left its mark in the past.

Gone are the sounds of cars and motorboats, only the crunching of the snow underfoot and the boom of the ice keep you company.
Occasionally you hear a faint sigh of contentment and realize it is yours. The faint hiss of a fresh breeze slicing through the leafless trees is the soundtrack to your day on the lake. The only sign that you are not alone are the tracks left by animals who are also using the ice as a shortcut to better feeding.

This sense of contentment can mask hidden dangers. There might be a predator lurking just inside the trees watching you. The snow that has painted the land with a uniform blanket of white might hide a thin patch in the ice waiting to trap the unwary traveller. This sense of possible danger adds to the sense of adventure, but should never be ignored. You are a long way from any help, you are like a pioneer surviving on your wits and experience.

As we move across the ice, the perspective is ever changing and every step brings a fresh viewpoint, it is never boring because it never repeats itself.It is this constantly changing scenery that makes us feel so lucky to head out onto the ice and view a piece of nature as few others get to experience it.

It is our Big Sky day.

A Dental Win-Win

2014-02-28T16:29:00.000-04:00

This week we had a truly wonderful trip to the dentist, it was a bit out of the ordinary and one of the best all time dental visits that we have ever had.
One of the things that I worried about when I decided to try my hand at an early retirement was the loss of our medical coverage. Dental coverage has gotten so expensive that it was one of our great fears that we would not be able to maintain our dental health. Add to this the fact that we are now hitting the age when most problems are likely to occur it was quite a leap to head out without a safety net.
Not long after I retired, one of my fears became reality, I had a root canal that failed. My last dentist had given up her practice and I was in the middle of a dental emergency with no dentist. What to do. I called a couple of offices to see about an emergency appointment and was told that I could not be seen without first having an examination, which starts at $75.00 and goes up if there are x-rays needed. All of this to to confirm that the tooth that I knew was damaged was in fact damaged. I left the office that day $125.00 lighter and had an appointment for 2 weeks in the future to look at the tooth. Two painful weeks later and another $400.00 I had my tooth fixed. Luckily the specialist that they booked me with was the one who did the original work and I got it done for half price under warranty. I also had the bad news that I needed multiple crowns and should be booked for a more extensive checkup. I thought how are we going to be able to do this. Fast forward to January of this year.
   At the first part of January we decided to take a leap of faith and call Dalhousie Medical School and try and get an appointment in the Dental Clinic. The wait time was no longer than a regular dental office and we were scheduled in for the middle of February.
   It was a bit unnerving to head into the city with no idea of what to expect, but our fears were soon put to rest. We were in line with a group of other people in for the first time. We registered for our appointment, paid our examination fee of $55.00 each, were given directions to the clinic and went to the next desk. Once we arrived at the clinic, we were given a folder of standard forms and medical questionnaires to fill out. Once these forms were filled out we were assigned to our student. There are about 45 Third-Year Dental Students enrolled at Dalhousie and each one had a patient to examine.
   We were given a very professional dental exam, asked all the pertinent questions and then it was off to X-ray. The student lined me up in the chair and proceeded to take all the necessary x-rays of my mouth, the professors popping in to observe and comment. Then it was back to exam room where the x-rays were viewed and the more in depth oral exam took place, much as in any conventional office. After the student finished the exam, a faculty professor came in and double checked the exam and made comments to the student. My student had not missed a thing.
After the exam and x-rays, it was time to get the plan for future dental work. Remember all those crowns that I was going to need, turns out that was not really the case. It turns out that I could have them if I want them, but my fillings are fine and strong for now. I will probably need to get them done at some point as they will deteriorate over time, but that time is not now. And the good news is that the cost to have them done at the school will be about 40% of the cost of having them done at a conventional office.
Our next step will be for the school to assign us to a Fourth -Year student and a Hygienist to take care of any work going forward. Our cleaning that we have scheduled will by about $100.00 as compared to the estimate I was given of $260.00 at the conventional office. Once you multiply that by 2 for the number of people in the family, it really paid for our gas to drive in.
   I am really pleased that we had a very professional experience at the school and also that the costs are going to be much less than we hoped. We came away from our experience with nothing but good feelings and impressions and it is a great added bonus to know that we also helped someone to get the practical experience that will help them later in life.
This was definitely a win-win situation if ever I have seen one.

The phone number for the Dental Clinic at Dalhousie Medical School is 1-902-494-2101.

Adding a little heat to your love life.

2014-02-16T08:41:00.001-04:00

Sometimes we are looking to add a little heat or a little spice to our love lives. If that is what you are searching for, look in your kitchen. That is where the stove and the spice rack are located. If your idea of a romantic evening is a trip to the local restaurant, I wish you well. If you want to try a special meal that will bring you closer together, try cooking it together. It is a really nice bonding experience and might learn a new skill. A meal cooked together with love will taste so much better than any meal cooked by a faceless chef in an anonymous restaurant kitchen.
For Valentines day we decided to head to the kitchen to prepare a really tasty gourmet supper that is not terribly difficult, but will taste amazing.

Pepper Lime Fettuccine

Lobster Alfredo

Grana Padano Asparagus

Molten Lava Cake

If this seems like a meal that you would love to see on your menu keep reading. The recipes are coming. We start with the dessert as it needs a bit of prep time to cool between stages.

Molten Lava Cake

Center

2 oz or 2 squares Dark chocolate

¼ cup heavy cream

Cake

4 oz or 4 squares Dark chocolate

8 Tbsp butter

2 whole eggs

2 egg yolks

1/3 cup sugar

½ tsp vanilla extract

¼ cup flour

To make the centers, melt chocolate and cream in a double boiler or microwave on medium power. Whisk gently to blend. Refrigerate for 2 hours or until firm. Roll into 6 balls and refrigerate until needed.

To make the cake, heat oven to 400F. Coat six 4oz ramekins with butter or spray with no-stick spray. Melt chocolate and butter in double boiler of microwave on medium. With a blender, whisk eggs, egg yolks, sugar and vanilla on high speed for about 5 minutes or until thick and light. Fold melted chocolate and flour into egg mixture until just combined. Spoon batter into ramekins and add a chocolate ball to the center of each one.

Place ramekins on a cookie sheet and bake for 15 minutes or until cake is firm, this keeps any potential spills contained. Remove from the oven and let rest on the counter for 5 minutes. Run a knife around the edge of the ramekins and invert onto a plate. Top with whipped cream or a spoon of ice cream and serve.

We used stainless steel prep bowls to cook the cakes and they turned out fine.

Next we have the sauce, which can be reheated to add to the pasta. It keeps really well and reheats well for leftovers and can also be frozen to have later.

Lobster Alfredo

1 medium onion finely chopped

2 cloves garlic minced

1/3 cup butter

1 can or 12 oz lobster meat well drained

¼ cup white wine

1cup heavy cream

1 cup grated Grana Padano or other hard parmesan style cheese.

Pinch of nutmeg

Salt and pepper to taste

Chop onion and mince garlic and sauté in butter over medium heat until tender. Add lobster and continue to sauté until the sauce takes on a nice orange color from the lobster. Add white wine and cook until liquid is evaporated. Pour in cream and heat until sauce starts to thicken slightly. Add cheese and stir over heat until cheese melts. Season with nutmeg, salt and pepper to taste. Pour over plated pasta. This makes a fairly thin sauce which helps to keep it from being too rich. If you want a thicker sauce, cook it longer before adding the cheese or you could add some flour to the sauté stage to make a roux which will help thicken the sauce.

The pasta will come next.

Pepper Lime Fettuccine

2 cups all purpose flour

½ tsp salt

2 large eggs

¼ cup water

1 tsp olive oil

Crushed pepper

Zest of 1 lime

Mix flour and salt and make a well in the mixture. Add eggs, oil and water and mix thoroughly. Knead dough well until smooth and elastic. Wrap in plastic wrap and let rest about ½ hour.

Divide dough into 4 parts and roll out thin on well floured surface, or run it through a pasta maker at increasingly thinner settings. Once the dough is rolled out thinly, either cut in desired strips with a knife or pass through the fettuccine cutter on the pasta maker. Boil the pasta in a large pot of seasoned water, cooking until the pasta floats to the top. Drain and cover with sauce.

For the asparagus, just snap off the woody ends of a pound of asparagus and place in a greased baking dish one layer deep. Drizzle with olive oil and dot with a little butter. Season with salt and pepper then top with grated Grana Padano or other hard parmesan style cheese. Bake in the oven at 400F for 15-20 minutes. Remove and place on plate beside pasta.

This was a fantastic meal, one we truly enjoyed more than any restaurant meal we could have had that day. It was fun to cook together and made the whole afternoon of preparation part of the celebration of the special day.

Try cooking together and yo may find the ingredients in the kitchen to add a little heat and spice to your love life.

And don't forget the pets when you make a meal for that special someone.

The best laid plans......

2014-02-13T16:36:00.000-04:00

Today was another snow day in Nova Scotia, one in a long list of snow days that we have had this winter. As a day not fit for much else, we decided that it would be a good day to get caught up on some baking. And since we were having a Curried Vegetable Stew for supper, it seemed like the perfect day to make another batch on Naan Bread. Naan Bread is one of our favorite fast breads to make, it takes about an hour and a half from start to finish. As an added bonus it helps to heat the kitchen on a cold blustery day.
Naan is a leavened flat bread that is kept moist by using yogurt in the dough and a thin coat of butter to protect it after it is finished tanning in the oven.

Naan Bread

2 tsp dry active yeast
1 tsp sugar
1/2 cup warm water
2 1/2 -3 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup plain Greek yogurt
1 large egg

In a small bowl, combine yeast, sugar and water, stir to dissolve and let sit a few minutes until frothy on top then stir in oil, yogurt and egg until evenly combined.

In a medium sized bowl place 1 cup flour and salt. Add in wet ingredients and stir until until well combined. Add more flour 1/2 cup at a time until you can no longer stir it; about 1- 1 1/2 cups later.

Turn the ball of dough out onto a well floured counter top and knead for about 3 minutes adding flour as necessary to keep the sough from sticking. The dough should be smooth and soft, but not sticky.( we used the stand mixer for this and it turned out great)

Loosely cover the dough and let rise until double in size(about 45 min). Turn the dough out onto a floured counter top and cut into 8 equal pieces and for into balls.

We used a pizza stone to cook the bread, it needs to be heated to 500F for approximately 15 min. Or you can use a heavy bottomed skillet.
Roll the ball of dough into a circle approx. 15cm(6 in) in diameter and place on the cooking surface.

Cook until the bottom is golden brown and the top is covered in small bubbles. We prick any really large ones so that they deflate. Flip the dough and cook until golden brown.

Serve plain or brushed with butter( my vote) and topped with herbs if you like. Brushing with butter as soon as they come out of the oven keeps the bread soft, and tastes good too.

As so often happens, there is an unexpected bump in the road. As we placed the second batch of bread on the stone and closed the door, there was a bang from the oven.The stone had split. We have had this stone for many years and it has given us many batches of wonderful bread and pizzas, but it had finally had enough and quit in the middle of the job. Now what do we do, the stone is at 500F and pulling it out and putting it on the counter is not an option. We took a deep breath and decided to finish the batch of Naan on the broken stone, not something I would really recommend, but in the face of a small disaster we do what we have to.

Naan is a wonderfully versatile bread, we use it as a side dish for our curried stew, we freeze them and pull them out of the freezer to make panini and use them in wraps. They have so many uses that we constantly find that we are needing to bake another batch and have taken to making a double batch to save time. It is a good thing that we have a spare stone, since I don't think this batch will last very long. We tried one today brushed with butter and sprinkled with Cinnamon sugar, it was remarkably close to a Beaver Tail. Mmmmm.

We hope that you enjoy the recipe.We sure do.

An old fashioned winter.

2014-02-09T10:21:00.000-04:00

This year has seen a return of what we older members of society fondly recall as an old fashioned winter. That is one with lots of snow that is not melted by rain soon after it falls.The lakes and rivers freeze over and you see people out playing on the ice. It has been just such a winter for us this year.
You might think it would be problematic having a snowy winter when you live in a cottage in the woods, but it seems to be just the opposite. This winter has been a great winter to be able to get out and enjoy the best that the winter season has to offer. The roads are frozen and the potholes are filled smooth with ice. The lakes are frozen solid and there is snow to play in, once the shoveling is done.

This year has allowed us to get out our ice cleats,snowshoes and our skis and go for hikes on roads that at another time are wet, muddy and swampy.
It allows us to get a perspective of cottage life that is not often experienced. Winter in the country is a beautiful time of the year. It is quiet, clean, peaceful; and you have the sense of having the world to yourself. It is hard at times to believe that you have neighbours at all. After a long ski on the lake it is so quiet that it feels that you can hear your heart beating and the freshly invigorated blood flowing through your veins. It gives you a fresh lease on life, the crisp clean air, the squeak of frost as you tramp through the snow, the low booming of the ice on the lake and the smell of woodsmoke in the air. The last one is sometimes the best, because you know that you will soon be able to curl up in front of a nice warm fire to warm your chilly nose and wiggle your toes in your wool socks as you settle in to read a few more pages of your favorite book as a few flurries drift slowly to the ground painting the area with a new coat of purest white.
This winter has also brought some of the most beautiful sunrises that I can ever remember. The sky painted in so many hues of red, reflected on the ice or snow so that at times it seems as though the world is on fire. The show is fleeting, last such a few short minutes that you are amazed that you can experience so much beauty in so short a time. It is sad to see the colors fade, but you know that in a few days you will be treated to another of mother natures greatest shows. It truly makes it worth waking up for, to experience the beauty of nature in the morning.
Night time is another chance to experience the majestic beauty as the moon on a fresh dusting of snow makes the countryside seem to glow with reflected silvery light. The trees, bare of leaves casting ghostly crisp shadows on the snow is a stark contrast to the fiery birth of the day, but no less beautiful.
The sights, sounds and smells of a fresh clean winter are ever changing. And far from feeling claustrophobic, we find that the beauty of winter is enlivening and full of new experiences. We never have to worry about cabin fever when there is so much to experience. We wonder how we will ever find the time to get to do everything that is on the menu of things to do on the winter. Winter seems to offer as many choices of activity as summer does, and many of them seem to revolve around the lake, regardless of the season. Retirement has allowed us the time to relax, sit back and enjoy the beauty around us.
Instead of hating winter, we are reveling in it, but like all things it comes to an end. We love all seasons and each one is just long enough to enjoy and also long enough to make us look forward to what is around the corner. We love each season as it comes and love the change that a new one brings. Winter will soon be gone, so enjoy it while it is here.