Jo Edgett

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.

Monkey’s favourite box of the morning, courtesy of Doreen.

Some winter wonderland shots of the house & yard on Christmas morning:

Yakking at my pals before dinner.

My favourite present, possible EVER: a mandolin from B. I’ll sign off now because I need to go practice.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, the following represents 98,000 words about just how much fun I had going back to BC in June. It was a treat to celebrate grandma’s 90th with my Vancouver Island family, and equally great to visit with family and friends back on the Mainland. Here’s what the entire trip looked like through the lens of my camera:

 

   

 

We’re still here! Alive and very well, thanks for silently asking. I’m never sure where the time goes once it has gone, but we did some stuff, that much I remember. Here are some visuals, with brief captions, to catch us up:

When we (in this instance meaning Lauren, Griffin & I) visit the Smiths at Mavillette during Spring Break, the attire is quite unlike what is worn at other Spring Break destinations I can think of. Toques, boots, mittens, down jackets, maybe even some ski pants are what is required here.

B’s not-from-a-kit homemade cider, aka apfelwein. It’s a still cider, truly more of an apple wine, just as its German name suggests. We added sparkly stuff (7Up, or sparkling water would do) to fizz it up a touch. Delicious. He needs to start a carboy of this stuff every month if we’re ever going to match the speed of production with the speed of consumption. I reckon it’s a losing battle, with consumption always winning.

April Fool’s Day, 2011. No joke! Though it’s a pretty good joke. Those snowflakes were huge.

The Winter/Early Spring view of Annapolis Royal, as seen from our bedroom windows. Which were still nekkid at this point. I had to finally come to terms with the fact that roman blinds needed to be made. By me. So out came the Janome:

At this point, I had essentially created two big pillowcases, with grey jute on the showy side, and UV-blocking lining on the other side. As there’s a ruler and a pencil in this shot, I must have been measuring for the rings.

Rings! Attached. Blind stapled to the thin strip of plywood. Eye screws screwed in. String strung through. Ready for hanging.

Violà!

Blinds open (apologies for blinding you) and pleating perfectly. There’s a cleat screwed into the window casing, but the over-exposure renders it invisible in this picture.

This is how I keep the hot sun out during the day, while still letting any breeze come in. New cotton matelassé quilt at the foot of the bed, mostly to finish off the look, a concept kind of lost on B at first, but he digs it now.

Part of szhuszhing the room called for moving my collection of Judy Maher creations up to the bedroom, like an adult version of my childhood stuffies. That tall rabbit in a coat is named Harold Hubert Hayes, after my great-grandpa. It was the most suitably dignified name I could think of, so it stuck.

Another of Judy’s creations, a sheep wearing a shrunken Frenchy’s sweater, on B’s dresser.

I found this craft ball and wound some yarn scraps through it, to help out the nesting birds.

Here it is hanging on our arbour. Some birds used it! Other birds looked at it like it offended their nest-building sensibilities. And that’s okay.

The first Goldfinch I’ve seen in our yard. I have no idea whether s/he was a yarn-ball fan or not.

Stray-cat Clover, still a huge puff-ball of fur in April. Still living in and around our yard. Still my favourite cat who isn’t actually my cat.

One day we came home to a purple pom-pom and a handkerchief full of marbles waiting for us on our back step. We knew immediately that it was a gift from Sophie and Sunna, and that they were for the cats. Monkey was all over the pom-pom.

Rooster, well, he’s a bit more timid. The handkerchief confounded him for about an hour. He just sat there alternatively hitting and sniffing it. I don’t think he ever did get to the marbles inside.

My light-yellow Broom blooms at the same time as the lilacs, and I really like that.

Window box, one of five, just planted. This was in late May.

B created a website for our neighbour Janet, who makes awesome cakes, including the one for my 40th birthday bash. He didn’t take any payment, so…she pays us in cakes! Like this crazy delicious creation.

Yeah, so, erm…Monkey’s diet is still not working. Clearly.

Last Wednesday was our first trip out to Whippletree Farm in Round Hill to pick up our premier box of CSA goodies. Soooooooo good! Loving that we bought a share! I mean, look:

And that was just for one week! We go back tomorrow for a whole new box. Also: chard is my new favourite veggie.

Taken today, July 19th. This is my third year with the window boxes, and this is my best planting yet. So lush.

This one is the most special to me. It’s the kitchen-sink window out on our back deck. Until this year, we could never get anything to live beyond a few weeks in this box because we didn’t have gutters on the roof, and the box would get water-logged as there’s no real roof overhang on this side like there is on the driveway side of the house. But we got gutters this Spring! And they match the trim, so they’re barely noticeable. They work like a charm, and you no longer take a shower when you enter the backdoor when it’s raining. And this box can finally thrive, and boy, does it ever.

I’ll be back shortly with another post, all about my June trip back to Vancouver Island and Vancouver. Hold tight. I doubt it will take me four months to post another update (here’s hoping!).