And all the rest of it…

Now, finally, some photos from the second half of 2011!

Sometime in the summer (August, I think), Lauren and Griffin and I checked out the Annapolis Royal Historic Gardens. It was fun walking around with a little dude who just ran everywhere with a toy car in each hand, finding sneaky parking spots for the cars, and getting really close-up to the nice smelling flowers.

Pollen-face!

One of the best things we made with our CSA veggies: stuffed, battered and fried zucchini blossoms. The best things ever. We stuffed them with ricotta and basil, dipped them in tempura batter and squeezed lime juice on them once out of the fryer. We ate these for as long as Stewart & Nicole were able to supply us with blossoms.

It has been difficult to return to purchasing veg, especially green onions, at the supermarket. Can’t wait for the CSA to start up again this summer!

My favourite time of year here is August, from Natal Days at the start to our annual BBQ at the end, with Paint the Town in the middle. This set of photos is from the Saturday of Paint the Town. Sadly, no photos this year of the Natal Day parade or fireworks (I had a cold. A COLD!?!), and no annual BBQ (I got shingles. SHINGLES!?!).

And now for a few garden shots.

My favourite high school teacher Mr. (Brent) Reid and his wife Cheryl had themselves a Maritimes holiday in the fall, and kindly stopped by to spend an afternoon with me in Annapolis Royal. It was great, really nice to catch up and learn that Mr. Reid (Brent) is still as fun to talk with as he was in journalism class. Yay, teachers!

For this year’s autumn vacation, we took the ferry to Saint John. It’s a lovely old boat, big and sturdy and comfortable. But no newsstand. Which I did not know before leaving the single car deck (and unlike BC Ferries, you are seriously not allowed on the car deck of this boat). So there I was, stuck for 3 hours, getting queasy (remedied by Gravol) and flipping through the single free magazine from Tourism New Brunswick. There was a limit to how many minutes I could waste looking for Edgett’s Landing on the NB maps, so eventually I lay down. (B had conked out right away). Lesson learned: next time I bring books, knitting, magazines, and a pillow.

If you know me, you know I hate taxidermy. But this guy/gal in the stairwell display of the 24-hr LL Bean store in Freeport, Maine reminded me of one of our dudes back home, so I had to snap a photo of him (or her).

One thing is for sure: we love Maine. Next time we’ll spend more than 3 days there. This is B’s favourite place in the world, a beer cave in Portland called Novare Res. It was the perfect place for a drink (or three), and some snacks. Look at B, he’s in heaven!

This was our cabin in Kennebunkport. So sweet, inside and out. It rained cats and dogs the whole day, as the remnants of Hurricane Ophelia continued to batter the coast, but we thought it was beautiful all the same. Our bed had a cashmere throw on the end of it, which I wore like a shawl every minute we were in the cabin. Then I looked it up on eBay, and saw similar throws from the same label selling for a mere $600. And they put this on the end of the bed! Where people rest their shod feet! Criminal. (But I still looooooved that throw.)

This was a gorge we stopped at somewhere between White River Junction, VT, and Woodstock VT. We parked the car to go have a look because that’s what everyone else was doing. So then I felt obligated to take a photo from both sides of the bridge. Here they are.

I’ve never seen a covered bridge before, and was ridiculously excited when I saw that we were about to pass one. But it was closed for repair, so this is all I could manage. Guess I’ll just have to go see one in New Brunswick.

Woodstock, Vermont, a pretty little country town.

This is a brewery we stopped at in Burlington, VT. B made me take the picture. I can’t remember what the place is called. Before this we went to Ben & Jerry’s HQ and had amazing ice cream and bought a t-shirt.

I’ll always remember this as the charcuterie vacation. Whenever B saw it on a menu, he ordered it, and I photographed it for him.

Another ferry boat! This one takes you across Lake Champlain to New York state.

Ten minutes from the border of New York and Quebec is our favourite cider maker. We loaded up the car with a few cases, which was a challenge, as the car was already quite full. That look of giddy relief on my face is because we had just been waved through customs, even though we were way over our alloted amount of duty-free alcohol. And B had even told the guard-in-training just how much we had in the trunk! We were genuinely naive, and thought duty on booze would be similar to duty on, say, clothes. Wrong. Really wrong! But the border-guard trainer was very kind, and merely told us to be more careful next time and respect the law, but, you know, welcome home. I <3 Quebec.

We stayed in a different hotel this time, still in the lower part of Old Quebec, but across the street from the market we love going to. Hotel des Coutellier. We highly recommend it.

A few de rigueur shots of Old Quebec, including the funicular (I do like a funicular).

This is the only moose I have ever seen in the Maritimes, in Saint John.

This is the second-only moose I have seen in the Maritimes, also in Saint John.

The final charcuterie meal of the trip, at the Saint John Ale House (great food there, btw). The food was so good, it almost made up for our car being broken into. For real! And all the buggers took were the few loonies and quarters from our console. They left the iPad, the iPods, the MacBook, the cases of cider and beer hidden under blankets and coats. It could have been so much worse for us. But I wonder what this says about Saint John criminals?

One of the fuzz-faces who was happy we were home.

Christmas Tree #1: dining room.

Tree #2: living room.

Tree #3: B’s office/media room (yes, it is slanted. It just grew that way).

To the best of my memory, this is the second white Christmas we’ve had here, and the only one where I had to shovel the driveway on Christmas morning. B snapped this and the next one of me gathering firewood.