my hubby :)

Neil passed his exam with flying colours, and is now a certified Project Management Professional.

It's kinda like a lawyer passing the bar, for the vast majority of folks who won't have heard of the profession. I hadn't heard of it until I met and married the man.

I'm very proud of my hubby. :)

Karen

gardens and pies, oh my!

The most recent picture of my newest garden space - one of three new spaces that I made this spring. And the single most full sun garden possible in my yard, since it is full of large old trees. As you can see, the impatients have had a huge visual impact.


This is what the same space looked like much much earlier in the year. You can tell then that are actually other plants in the garden!

Wormwood, golden marguerite, woad, weld, lemon thyme, skullcap, st.john's wort, feverfew, rosemary, lemon balm, pennyroyal, dyer's broom and alkanet are the other plants - all herbs. Some are dye plants, some are medicinal.

The home store of Richter's Herbs isn't that far away from me. While they largely focus on selling seeds online, the store also has baby plants. I have not had good luck with seeds, but baby plants are awesome starters!

As wonderful as the garden looks this year, I want to make major changes (again!) next year. This is also the garden that is closest to the back door of the house. It isn't making sense to me to put dye plants and medicinals that close to the house, when they aren't used as often as the vegetables. So my thought for next year is to move some of those out, and the tomatoes and green peppers in. Right now, the tomato and green peppers are the furthest out from the house.

But I'll be posting a more comprehensive garden assessment in a few days.

-------------

I made more pies yesterday. This time I took pics. :) This time my major problem is that they were -too- moist. I had to pore off excess moisture. I'm sure I'll get the hang of it soon enough. I'll just have to keep practising - oh gosh, the torture of it. ;)





Both are apple pies - one has a pastry string top, and the other an attempt at the dutch apple crumble top. I say "an attempt" because I don't really have a recipe around for it. I just went on instinct - oats, brown sugar, cinnamin, nutmeg, and a little margarine to make it stick together.

Please feel free to give me pointers on both pies and gardens. :)

Karen

who wants pie?

Well, I made a pie. For the first time ever, from scratch. Apple. It's a little dry. Not enough sugar.

But the making pastry, and rolling out therof, proved to be not hard at all.

So overall, I believe I can learn to make good pie, with a little practice.

Picked out a few dozen photos from all that is online, to be printed. I still like physical albums and the hubby needs something to put up on his office walls.

Didn't get the porch stained 'though.

Soon.

There's snow in the air on the West Wing rerun that I'm watching, and a chill in the air. I'm thinking of Christmas. But I suppose that I shouldn't get ahead of myself - there's still Thanksgiving, Octoberfest, the hubby's birthday and Halloween first.

Will have to put the garden to bed sometime in the next month. Watch for a wrap-up soon, and plans for next year.

Does anyone else feel pensive at this time of year?


Karen

it's the weekend!

Finally.

I've never had a longer week at work. Coming back from vacation is the hardest thing.
All that freedom to do what you want, more or less whenever you want, only to return the structured days of working for someone else.

All week I've been craving the chance to make a pie. From scratch, like my Mom used to do. I should mention that at 40, I've only been discovering the domestic arts recently. Two years ago, I made my first turkey. And for both sides of the family, no less. If I was ever going to fail at domesticity, that would have been the day. But I didn't. The turkey timed out well with the other foods, and no one died of my cooking, or even got the slightest bit sick.

I could buy a pie - there is a farmer's market just down the road. But I want to learn how to do it myself. Get my hands messy with dough. The whole bit.

Maybe I'll finally have time this weekend.

How do y'all - the other blog types who've rediscovered the domestic arts - in spinning, weaving, cooking, etc. - how you do find the time?

Karen

vacation's over

I went back to work today. *sigh* It had to happen.

Classes start today. All of the new kids are so damn Young. Thin. They don't even know what a vinyl album is. *sigh*

But at least I have some new clothes. Really, it's almost like I was going back to school myself. :) It's a hard feeling to lose, even in adulthood, when one works for a University.

Now, the weekend that was:

- Cut the lawn and trimmed the edges.
- Pulled weeds and deadheaded flowers.
- Watered the back garden. The front garden's a pain since the hose out there is broken. I dislike lugging buckets out.
- Picked tomatoes and green peppers and pears. Surprisingly the tomatoes did not all ripen and fall off while I was gone.
- Threw the ball for the doggie a few million times.
- Cleaned up the living room bookcases. Had to make more room for the fiber and fiber books.
- Started a quilting project. I've never actually quilted before. I'm just guessing on the how-to of it, based on observations made.
- Worked on but haven't finished the baby-blanket-in-progess yet. It's for a friend, don't get excited.

The pictures will likely be fewer for awhile. I'm all pic'd out for a bit. And dig how badly IE handled the panoramic shots. Try Firefox instead. It's what I use at home, but the workplace is too paranoid or Bought to use it.

Karen

More pics from the vacation

Today we're getting back to our lives, sadly. My hubby went back to work, and I'm missing him. Silly, I know, but we've spent 95% of the day together for the last 12 days.

I don't need to go back to work until monday, so I've got a couple of health appointments today. The allergist was long overdue - apparently I have to start the shots from scratch again. Oh joy.

And there's laundry and vacumning, and garden mapping!

The hubby is a project manager - he likes plans. Parameters, making lists, budgets, etc. So I'm going to map the gardens - what's in each space. And maybe even naming the spaces so I can refer to them easily.

Anyway, here's a few more pics from the vacation. I've been playing with the stitch-assist function of the camera to make panoramic shots.

Maggie - a friend of a friend, whom we met in Annapolis Royal


This is the best view I could get while crossing the PEI bridge. I was very disappointed. It's the longest bridge in Canada, possibly the world, and it's got those damn concrete barriers for walls. Hell, I couldn't even get a decent view of the bridge itself from the shore.


Hopewell Rocks (link in previous post)


This is the lakeside view we woke up to on monday morning.



Karen

Home again - smelting pics.

We finally pulled in mid-afternoon today. After several discussions along the way about stopping at various fun places like Cullen Gardens, Black Creek Pioneer Village, Richters Herbs or Ikea, because the opportunity was there, because we had the time... we both decided that we just wanted to get home.

Of course that also meant that we had to stop to get the dog, the cat, dinner stuffs from Zehrs, and the mail. But we finally made it.

Let's see now... I've promised pics since the smelting, several days ago. I've finally got it all arranged.

But first, the shoreline of Annapolis Royal on the morning of the smelt.


Before the smelt got started, we needed to have the ritual Jiffy Pop over the smelter as the pre-heat took place... that's our erstwhile leader Darrell, doing the honours.


More details then you could ever want about the process of iron ore smelting in the Viking Era are available on the DARC webpages, under Projects, so I'll just give you some highlights here. Please remember that I take pictures, that I'm not technically oriented. I only superfically understand the science involved.

With a lot of hard labour pumping the bellows....


...the smelting process gets started - iron ore is added, alternating with charcoal.


Skipping ahead a few hours of bellows pumping and adding stuff and monitoring the smelter (by the sound of it, and the glass runoff), the boys decided that they had failed this time around. And after some discussion, they even came up with a good reason for the failure.

So....they added an electric blower to compensate...


...finally got the glass slag runoff they were looking for...


...and eventually came up with a bloom...


...which Kevin and Mark ...


...proceeded to beat in order to consolidate it.


The final product, last seen below, is much smaller and compact then it comes out of the smelter.


When we woke up the next morning, we had found that someone had stolen the bloom!

We think it was the Weird Guy (there's one at every exhibition, it seems), since he disappeared that morning as well.

But how disappointing is that?


Karen

Day What?

I've lost track of which day in the vacation this is - the hubby just decided it was Day 10.

I'm exhausted. It was a very very very long day of driving. All the way from just-before-Quebec to just-after-the-province-that-doesn't-want-the-rest-of-us.

Highlights of the last couple of days:

London Wul - the people were wonderful to talk to, the dogs delightful, a natural dyes garden, and a great selection of all things fiberish.

Hopewell Rocks - lots of pictures, coming soon. Just like the smelting/forging pics I promised earlier. I'm just a little too tired to cope with it tonight.

Spa tub and lakeside view in Grand Falls. Spa tub with lots of hot water and jets = good thing.

Stopping at a hotel that finally has internet access (ie. tonight's hotel) = also a good thing.

More later. Home tomorrow.

Leif and Ginger tomorrow. Also a good thing.

Karen

Day 5 and 6 - Historical Gardens and Smelting

Still in Annapolis Royal.

Day 5 - overcast or raining most of the day. Surprisingly, there was just enough of a window in the afternoon to make it to the Historical Gardens after all.

And I have pics, of course. It's a big ol'garden - whatever else shall I do? :) Mind you, there are a million more pictures but I've narrowed it down to just these few.

Oh, and we can play a guessing game. For most of these, I haven't the foggiest what it is, so please feel free to let me know.


Blue something and white something.


Blue something and yellow something.


Love Lies Bleeding - this one I know! It's very distinctive.


Pretty things...identified as Cosmos by Diana and Jamie. :)


Water Garden...


Big ol'pumpkin...

Day 6 - Smelting

This was the point of getting us here, to this place. The Dark Ages Recreation Company, of which I am a part, had a specialized smelting team out at CANIron, a Canadian conference for blacksmiths from North America and Europe. Neil and I followed our hardy smelting crew out to take pictures and document the process.

The day started at 9am and finished at 9pm, more or less. The historical smelt was an abject failure. *sigh* We've had successes before with the process, but this time, the team made a fatal mistake. They tried too hard.

As I understand it - and I am not a blacksmith or particularily technically inclined - the team made the smelter *too* good, *too* much able to handle heat. They used a highly refractory clay and added kyonite to the mix as well. Apparently the process actually depends on part of the smelter breaking down and contributing sand to the slag bowl that should form at the bottom of the smelter, for the heat to reflect back and help the iron solidify and sit in the bowl. No smelter breakdown, ore that was too pure (and hence didn't have enough slag of it's own to contribute) = no slag pool, not enough heat for the bloom to solidify.

Now, there was a bloom and the removal and hitting therof makes for great pictures (as yet unprocessed) but that came only after they gave up on the historical process and added an electric blower.

Ah well. Pictures later.

Karen

Day 4 and 5, in Annapolis Royal

Yesterday we took the ferry from Saint John to Digby, a 3 hour cruise. It was a delightfully short drive from Digby to Annapolis Royal, after we stopped at the Visitor Information station and picked up a few million pamphlets.

Annapolis Royal is very pretty, very historical, and quite cheerful about gouging the tourists.

There's no phone line available, at all, in our little hideaway housekeeping unit, so blogging will be spotty for a few days, until we move on to the next leg of the trip. The town library has internet access, so we can check in from here.

I can only hope the cell phone works in case someone from home needs us. The remaining bits of Hurricane Katrine is hitting our home in south-western Ontario right about now.

I leave you for a few days in the care of a few more friends from the Aquarium two days ago.


Sunstar



A small Ray of some sort...



Crab (again of unknown variety)



Flounder


Karen

Day 3, the end

Today was much much better! Driving-wise, that is. I'd have to say I found the sights just as fun as yesterday.

We crossed back into Canada around noon, and immediately around the corner in St. Stephens, we sat down to the quintessinal Canadian lunch - at a Tim Horton's. Just across the street from Tim's, there was The Chocolate Museum.

"Presenting the story of brothers James and Gilbert Ganong, whose candy-making company built in the late 1800s continues today, the Museum offers hands-on exhibits, interactive computer displays that explain how chocolate and candies are currently made, collections of historic chocolate boxes and antique candy-making equipment."

Samples were part of the tour. Delicious!

There was an obligatory Chocolatier store out front, of course. I didn't spend a cent. And if you believe that.... ;)

Then we moved on to St.Andrews where the Huntsman Marine Science Centre is located. We weren't allowed to take pictures at the Chocolate Museum but I got a few at the Science Centre.

The seals were delightful. Chelsey, Buddy and Aurora are a small family. When the tourist season ends in two days, the young Aurora will either be moved to another Aquarium or introduced to the wild.

Aurora:


Buddy:


Chelsey:


Buddy was a ham, showing off his swimming abilities...


...and lunging for the food.


A few other folks made the pics as well, but as you can no doubt tell, Buddy stole the show. :)

morning of Day 3

Yes, it really is 7 something in the morning. You would think I'd sleep in on vacation. Neil is sleeping. But I found the bed too hard and the room too hot. I'm not rested, even if I did get 7 hours of sleep. Oh for that waterbed now....

Day 2 started off fantastic. We had all this great scenery in and around Lake Placid. Mountains and water - two of my favourite natural architectural features.

And then there was the ferry crossing at Port Kent - invigorating! I kept trying to hide behind Neil from the water crashing over the front of the ferry and he kept laughing at me. He was really in his element.

But then the drive just got longer and longer and longer, until we finally crashed - an hour earlier then planned. By the time we were checked in, I was too exhausted to blog.

I give you ...pics.


This is a river of unknown name near Lake Placid - just chanced upon by the road.


Where we found this fellow...



A little further down the road, we came across Ausable Chasm...



...which was really quite deep.

And then a little while later....

Neil...



...and Karen (who regrets what the wind has done to her hair but bravely posts the pic anyway)...

...watch the sights on the way over.





Today is a much shorter drive, and includes planned stops at a chocolate museum and aquarium - on the home side of the border. Back into Canada today. :)

blogging on the road!

Oh, this is the life! Laptop and an internet connection in a hotel. I can blog on the road.

It was a long drive, but once we hit the USA, the scenery was so interesting. Both human and natural. We're going across Route 3 through the Adirondacks, to Maine, and across the Bay of Fundy to Annapolis Royal.

Route 3 is a fascinating contrast in poverty and wealth. Mobile homes that aren't so mobile anymore next door to century old houses. So many not-so mobile homes...

The speed limits are different, even after the conversation from miles/per to kilometres/per. The common limits are 30, 45, and 55 miles/per. This translates to 50, 70 and 90 k/per. In Canada, the common speed limits are 50, 60, and 80 k/per. Not that anyone drives the limit in either country 'though.

But driving over the limit in a familiar area is a little different then driving over the limit in a foreign country. I kept expecting a friendly State trooper to leap out from behind a bush somewhere.

And driving 90 k/per in these twisting mountain roads - fun! Even if it does take too much attention away from the scenery at times. Fudge, handwoven baskets, leather artisans and blacksmiths - oh my!

Yes, I did manage to get through the cat and dog departures even if Ginger did try her hardest to guilt me out when we left her at the Cat Hospital for boarding.

There's a pool at this place - an important feature in choosing a hotel - but we were too tired to use it. Just curled up in front of the tv and computer. Maybe in the morning.

Karen

last day!

Last day at work for two weeks! woohoo!

Anyone know how to delete specific comments (ie. the spam)?

Karen

more pre-vacation jitters

Apparently, I'm nesting - big time. Is it really that crazy to want to just stay home? With the doggie and the kitty and the garden?

I'm sure I'll enjoy myself on this vacation - I've left home before and done so! But I'm being a lug again. I woke up in the middle of the night to listen to the cat getting healthier all the time - scratching the carpet in the middle of the night. And then couldn't get back to sleep because I was worried about the dog's first time in a kennel when we go on vacation.

So eventually I did get back to sleep, only to wake up again with a dream of setting a friend's tent on fire. Now where did that come from?

Strangely enough, I'm having Post-MichFest withdrawal symptoms. The Michigan Womyns' Music Festival is where I used to go every August, back in the days when I was a lesbian. Pre-bisexuality and Hubby.
The festival's just finished and I'm haunting the discussion forum for stories and looking for pics online. It's a physical sensation - my memory of being there, even 'though it's now been 6 years or so since I was last there. I'm going to have to go back again some year.

Karen

vacation, vacation, vacation!

Okay, I think I've finally found some enthusiasm for the vacation. :)

My poor hubby desperately needs to get away for a bit, and he's got this goal for the trip and he's been doing all this research for it and I've been, like... a lug.

A lug stuck in the mud, even. A real homebody, that's me.

But today, the desk schedule for next week came out and I realized that I won't be on the one after that and it was a good thing! I was surprised to find out that I'm actually looking forward to this trip. Okay, maybe not the hours of driving. Or the strange beds every night, or the being away from my kids (Leif and Ginger), or the missing the harvest part.... but umm, the rest of it.

The not being at work part, the being with the hubby, the newness of things, the gadgets, the sights, the ocean. I'm really looking forward to the ocean.

We're bringing the laptop, the digital camera, and the cell phone. We'll be the most connected ever and I do love gadgets! I don't think I've ever experienced time away from the house as quite so convenient. Oh, I can blog from the road.

Speaking of gadgets.... We're going out to the east coast of Canada. I've never been there. But if you're watching this spot at just the right moment, you can actually watch us cross The Bridge. Some things are wyrd, no matter how much fun the technology might be.

But the darned tomatoes had better start ripening soon if I'm going to get to use them. Since I'll have to perserve a lot of them.... got any good salsa or bruchetta receipes laying around?

Karen

a blog-inspired blog

I am feeling very much better at the moment. The back has gone from hellish to merely grumpy, and I've now had three solid nights of sleep - better even then I usually get!

I took today off as well - that doctor's note had better be useful! - so I've spent all week at home recovering from a very very bad back episode. But today, I actually got a few things done around the house.

I even baked bananna bread, but it didn't entirely work out.

I've been checking out new blogs and have found quite a few new reads that I'm excited about! Check out Counting Sheep, Piffle, Pocket Farm, The Farmette Report, mellowtrouble, and Riverrim blog.

Another new one that I added a little while ago is Anti-V who is actually a real-life friend who has, I think, a great perspective on the world around her.

Oh, and a happy belated birthday to my little brother! I've been a little busy being in pain this week to mention it earlier.

Karen

well now

Sure wouldn't wish the last 5 days on anyone else!

Accumulating and increasing back spasms and their accompanying friends - nausea and diarrhea, are just NOT FUN. Not fun at all.

I've now been 4 days off work, and flat on my back for most of it, popping pain pills with visits to both the chiropractor and the massage therapist. Whew.

I'm still not well, but at least now I'm starting to come out of that self-centered haze of pain and fatigue that debilitating pain can bring.

Maybe I'll even want to eat something today. So far - no interest, but at least no repulsion at the idea either.

Had to give up tickets to Great Big Sea tonight. I'm just not up to it. I'm not the biggest fan of the band, but I've been wanting to see the Fergus Scottish Festival, where they are playing ....ahh well.

Completely missed my assigned watering day this week, by virtue of being in a fog of pain and nausea. It's supposed to rain today, 'though so maybe nature will take care of itself before all the flowers and veggies die. I certainly don't have the energy to water by bucket today.

The good news is that we don't have to replace the septic tank this year. Repairs done should tide us over for another year or two. Maybe we can afford it then.

Okay, time to go back to lying flat on the couch feeling sorry for myself now....

Karen

Blah!

I'm at home, taking a much needed rest/sick day - too bad I'll spend most of the day cleaning the messes that have accumulated.

But after another night of back spasms, and the see-saw recovery of the cat, and the possible replacement of the septic tank that we can't afford, and the looming "vacation" that I'm not sure I want to go on.... I'm stressed.

At least my jaw is holding so far. Good thing too, since the chiropractor is on vacation.

Mrrrph.

Karen

Long, full weekend

I'm getting somewhat tired of feeding Ginger through her tube, but she is getting better. She's drinking on her own, and holding down her food, for the most part. And there was even the tiniest bit of poop - woohoo! The things one gets excited about, eh?



Started working on the new deck, designed and implemented by the man himself - my very own hubby. Those are my toes. :)



I stained my new deck chair, and started on the deck pieces, but there's no pics. The chair was a first-date anniversary present. :)

On saturday, we went out for dinner and a movie, and ended up doing dinner and an hour or so of browsing in Chapters instead. I'd mentioned to Neil awhile ago that I had been wanting to spend some more time then our usual 'magazines and sci-fi' trips, browsing other sections carefully. And *sigh*, after a very thorough trip around the store.....all I ended up with was one magazine.

I want to find - on the shelves - books on herbs that include growing, harvesting and using them for natural dyeing, medicinal purposes, and the kitchen. I want to find books on spinning, dyeing, weaving that aren't all about the modern versions thereof, without a lot of technobabble. I want stories of why people do what they do in the fiber crafts. I want to find something new and thoughtful and intelligent in the pagan sections - right now, it all seems so cheesy and cheap. And I want to find books whose information I can trust. Especially about health issues - I support alternative medicines, in theory, but it's so understudied, and overwritten. Everyone and their grandmother with a theory that knows a publisher....

I can find many books online, even on the Chapters website, and I'm less resistant to online shopping then I used to be, but still.... I want to find them on the shelves! The damned stores are certainly big enough.

Feel free to make recommendations, by the way. :)

And of course, did more weeding and flower shots and watching season 3 of Babylon 5. We tried to finish the mulching project but the place where we've been getting the mulch decided to close for the holiday weekend.

Brown-eyed Susan. I prefer the brown eyes to the black eyes.


And two shots of the echineacha.




I think I'm out of words now. :)

Karen