The trip back from Whistler

We also had a lovely drive back from Whistler on the 26th. The roads were clear, and we even had patches of blue sky. On the advice of my Uncle Ray we stopped near Squamish, at Brackendale Eagles Provincial Park to view the Bald Eagles there. It's just a bit off the highway, and made for a lovely stop on the way back. We saw dozens of eagles there, who are there to feed on the remains of the chum salmon who spawn in the river in the late fall. We're no wildlife photographers though, so this is the best we could come up with for a picture of an eagle:

It's not because there weren't opportunities though. One eagle in particular seemed to be showing off, doing circles over the river bank maybe only 6 m above the ground. I could hear the music from the Colbert Report while watching this. We did get a nice picture of this deer though, once she saw fit to get off the middle of the road.

Even the road going to see the eagles was lovely. Here's a scene of a mountain framed by the tall trees lining the road. How beautiful.

We made it to the ferry terminal at Horseshoe Bay at around 4:50, and we were boarding the ferry by 5:15. We couldn't have done better with a reservation! Apparently the ferries were running about an hour late, but there were no waits, so we were happy. We had a smooth (though dark and rainy) drive back to Victoria from Nanaimo, and we stopped in Ladysmith for gas and to enjoy their annual Festival of Lights. Here's a view of the main drag through downtown, with Christmas lights everywhere. It's much more impressive in person.

Christmas at Whistler (part II: playing)

We actually didn't take too many pictures while we were up at Whistler, with no pictures at all of the whole family, the meals, or even really of the adults. But we did get a few pictures of the kids at least! Here you can see all four of them stuffing themselves with food. Poor Toby is a bit younger than the rest, and is stuck off to the side in the high chair. Now that Billie is a little older Claudia and Midori let her play with them, but none of them want to play with Toby. He tries to join in with whatever they're doing and he is rejected again and again. It doesn't seem to get him down though, he just tries again and again...
Here are Claudia and Midori playing on Christmas afternoon before supper. Both of them received a toy play pen for their dolls (I was corrected by Midori - it's actually called a "pack-and-play"), which folds up and fits into this little nylon bag. While they both really liked the pack-and-play, Claudia was really most taken with the nylon bag, which she wore as a backpack pretty well non-stop. She also received this set of 6 little Disney "princess" dolls, consisting of Ariel the mermaid, four interchangeable blondes, and a strawberry blonde (thus representing all facets of feminine beauty), which she put inside the backpack. We were outside playing in the snow, and she had her backpack full of dolls. She wasn't taking them off for anything.
Here's me in my new outfit, a skirt and top from The Smoking Lily, a very neat little shop in Victoria. All of the clothes are made locally, which makes them a bit pricier, but they're lovely and very interesting. The skirt has silhouettes of insects silkscreened along the left side, and the top, made out of sweatshirt material, has computer gobbledy-gook along the back of the collar, the bottom right edge, and one of the cuffs. I love them. I had to go try them on to make sure that they were going to fit before Jeremi bought them (the XL corresponds to a size 12, so it wasn't certain by any means), so I already knew what I was getting. Since there wasn't really any surprise left, he wrapped them so that there was no mystery as to what was inside - the skirt was a flat trapezoid, and the shirt was wrapped flat with sleeves sticking out. I don't think I'm explaining this very well, but it was quite funny. (Alas, we took no picture.) On the tag for the shirt he wrote "3 guesses", and on the tag for the skirt it read "Oh, the suspense". He's a pretty good gift wrapper, not to mention gift buyer. (He also bought me some qiviut fleece for spinning, the soft under-hairs of the musk-ox, which are warmer than wool and softer than cashmere, and on the tag wrote a cryptic crossword clue with the solution "qiviut".)

And of course, since we were in snowy Whistler, you're all wondering if we were skiing. Neither of us is really into downhill skiing. Jeremi has only tried once, I've tried several times and feel confident in saying that I don't enjoy it and don't need to do it again. (I think that having a machine pull you up a hill so you can slide down is a bit pathetic as far as sports go, but that's just me.) But both of us do really enjoy cross-country skiing, so we borrowed some skis from my aunt and uncle and set out on Christmas Eve. We forgot the camera while we were actually out skiing, but here's Jeremi with his south-pole-explorer ice-beard once we made it back to the car.

Christmas at Whistler (part I: Lessons and Carols)

We headed up to Whistler for Christmas, from the 23rd to the 26th, to spend time with my Vancouver relatives. On Christmas Eve, after a lovely meal of tortière, we headed into the village to go the the lessons and carol service at the community centre. Here Aunt Connie and I are heading into the service, surrounded by snow.
The actual service was quite nice, with lots of opportunity for the audience/congregation to sing as well, which I really enjoyed. The choir was quite a large youth choir from the community, as seen here:
As entertaining as I found it, my cousins' kids were more interested in vying for their Noni's (grandmother's) affection, as well as collecting all of the programs laid out on the empty seats, and trying to get up on the unused stage at the side of the hall. Here are Claudia and Midori running across the stage after the show had finished.

Afterward, while regrouping outside, the kids had a great time rolling around in the very large snowbanks. Here you can see little Billie being sweet with a crowd-pleasing pose. That girl certainly knows how to charm.

And here's poor Toby in his sister's fleece and toque. He only had a one-piece snowsuit with him at supper so they put him in the most convenient jacket to get him out the door. As such, he was wearing a too-big pink jacket, and a toque with little sheep for tassels. Poor little guy.

Fir flavoured wetness

For whatever reason, the cat is very partial to mildly flavoured water. She will usually try to drink any other water then her own fresh water from her bowl. For Christmas, she got to drink lots of tree water as you can see.

Maybe we should try to market this to pet stores. Enjoy refreshing stale fir flavoured cat drink!

Jury Duty

No, not the Pauly Shore movie. Jury duty for me, or so I thought. It got cancelled when we got back from Whistler. Too bad, I really was looking forward to seeing how it would all go down. Oh well maybe next time. Here I am with my summons.

The Elusive... Aeris

Short post. This one's for you Marm. Merry Christmas.

Snowy Victoria

As many of you heard on the news, back at the end of November there was an actual snowstorm in Victoria and Vancouver. This was the first real snow there has been since we moved here, the first that didn't just get rained away within 24 hours. There were still traces of it a week later even, which is really rare for here. It also went down to a low of -10.5 C, which I know isn't very cold, but the coldest temperature ever recorded by Environment Canada in Victoria (more precisely at the airport) is only -15.6 C, back in 1950, so people around here think that -10 C is really bone-chilling. We actually thought it was quite lovely, and the combination of sun and snow was almost blinding after our eyes had started to adjust to mole-like light levels throughout a very rainy November.

Here's a couple of views from our back balcony in the last days of November:
And finally, this one was taken a couple of days later, but it's just to illustrate how rainy November really was. This large bucket is what we use to chill our kegs when we buy them, and it was completely empty November 1st after our Halloween party. Then it just sat there, getting rained on every day, for a whole month, and was completely filled. November is usually the rainiest month in Victoria - on average we receive 147.2 mm of precipitation, out of an annual average of 883.3 mm. This year in November alone we received 351.9 mm. Moss is growing on me as I type.

Visit from Jenn

Jenn came to Vancouver for a conference in November. For the readers at home that don't know who Jenn is, she is Julia's cousin. We stayed with her in her room at the Hyatt Vancouver where her conference was being held. In between lectures we checked out some sights, ate some awesome Indian food and drank some beer. Here are some pics from Standley Park. It was nice to see you Jenn. Remember, you can also come and see us in Germany.

Janka's quilt

Back in August when Jenny was moving back to Germany, some of her friends in Vancouver organized a going-away present which involved all of us decorating quilt blocks for a baby quilt for her upcoming baby. The plan was then to give her the quilt blocks so she could make her own quilt. You know, because she'd be home with a baby and would have so much time on her hands.

I thought that was a terrible idea, and would just turn into a pile of quilt squares in the corner that would just make her feel guilty. (This is what would happen if someone gave them to me as a present.) So I offered to put it together for her. Not that I'd ever made a quilt before, but how hard could it be, right? It's just sewing in (mostly) straight lines. I didn't want to do anything too fancy, just some sashing between the blocks, and a simple border. How hard could that be?

One of my co-workers came with me to help pick out some nice gender-neutral colours to go along with the pastel colours of the quilt blocks, which were chosen by someone else. We settled on a dark blue border and backing with bright orange sashing and bright yellow as the little squares where the sashing meets. (I'm sure there's a name for this, but I don't remember it from the how-to-quilt book I took out from the library.) The dark blue we also chose because it looked a bit like the ocean, and Jenny's an oceanographer.

The piecing took no time at all, I finished it in a weekend. There was nothing to this quilting, I decided. As such, I got a bit more ambitious, and decided to appliqué a variety of sea creatures on the back to fill out the ocean scene. This was a bit trickier than I'd expected, and my old sewing machine started giving me some troubles. This wouldn't be such a big deal but I was trying to get it finished before we left for Germany in September so that I could bring it along with us. Finally, I decided we could send it in the mail and I should finish my presentation instead. As such it sat around for a while before I got back to it. Anyhow, here's some pictures of the progress. The first shows me back during the sunny and warm Labour Day weekend, pressing all the little pieces like a good little seamstress, before setting up some "sweatshop piecing".
And here's a picture of me working on the blasted appliqué. What you're seeing there is the legs of the octopus I put on the back. When I finally went back to the quilt to finish it the machine was running much more smoothly, the tension was perfect, and the many legs on the crab no longer made me cry.
And finally, here's the completed back side, before we popped it in the mail in mid-November, the week that little Janka was born, with a congratulations card from all the folks at work. I can't wait to go meet her in February!
And here's little Janka with the quilt that had just arrived in Frankfurt, showing off the colourful quilt blocks on the other side.

Wasting time at home

Following the lead of some much better bloggers than ourselves, Jeremi and I spent some time on the couch this week making South Park versions of ourselves here. To be more accurate, we made South Park versions of each other. I feel a bit badly about this because I think that Jeremi made a much more flattering version of me than I did of him, but he really does have a little bald spot in the middle of his moustache, his hair really is a different colour than his beard, and he really is that pale after two months without sunlight. Not only that, but I only gave him a mug of beer, and he gave me a full mug plus an unopened bottle. (Not to mention much nicer-looking hair than I actually possess.)

Our Halloween costumes, and a few more from the party

A few more mention-worthy Halloween costumes, here some of the Brazilian crew, as a sailor, a baby, and a TV test pattern (he had tinfoil antennae on his hat). The two on the right were supposed to be matching bunnies, but the ears didn't work out, so then they were going to be matching babies (his costume was blue fleece). But after the costumes were washed they shrank a great deal in length, making the costume basically unwearable for him, so he came up with the last-minute test pattern idea. I thought it quite clever.
The next two pictures show a couple more Brazilians, but these guys are dressed up as luchadores, Mexican masked wrestlers. I'm sorry that only their upper bodies are shown so that you can't see the shiny spandex tights. Pretty cool costumes, overall.

And finally, the moment you've all been waiting for, the unveiling of our costumes. In preparation for our move to Germany in the new year we decided to dress up in traditional German costumes. While these costumes are really only found in regions of Bavaria, and not where we'll be living, to the average Canadian this says "German". I sewed Jeremi's lovely lederhosen out of this giant pair of vinyl pants we found at Value Village, and my dirndl was fashioned out of a dress I already had. Unfortunately the lacing didn't show up too well in this picture. And yes, that is supposed to be a blonde wig on my head, though there's really no way anyone could mistake that for my heir. I have to say that Jeremi looks the part a little more. Note the accurate construction of the front flap of the lederhosen - I'm illustrating the point in case you hadn't noticed. (It's possible that the beers I'm holding in the picture aren't our first.) Note also that I'm drinking out of the lovely personalized beer glass engraved for me by Betty Ann.

A Halloween extravaganza!!!

At the end of October we were discussing how to celebrate my birthday, and we decided to go for a big Halloween party instead. I went a little crazy with preparations, having elaborate decorations and no less than 13 spooky dishes. (And of course a keg.) Jeremi was away the week before for a course in Winnipeg (where he met up with my mom for supper), so I was working like a mad woman all that week getting things ready and making our costumes. And for anyone who sent money to me as a birthday present, this is where it went - into throwing a big, crazy Halloween party.

I don't have many pictures of the food or decorations unfortunately, but I think I can get a few from one of my friends. I'll try to find them for a future post. But what we do have is lots of pictures of great costumes. Here's our friend Mark dressed up as a bust on a column:

And here are a couple of sexy Halloween ladies, the one on the left being Miss Bruce County 1978, who apparently was killed in some tragic accident.
Our buddy Gerry and his girlfriend Sharon made a fine pair of vikings, though by this point in the evening Gerry had somehow managed to acquire a wig and a set of wings from someone else's fairy costume.
And here are our Argentinian friends, at their first real Halloween party, dressed as Maridona (of course) and Morticia Addams. You can see a tray of caramel apples in the background, as well as a plateful of gelatinous eyeballs.
And finally, here's our friend Chris, who we think was very brave this night and again on Halloween to walk the streets dressed as a "fairy". You can't really tell here, but in addition to the facial make-up, his whole torso was covered in glitter.
By now you may be asking, what did we dress up as? You'll have to wait for the next post to see!

Mom and Dad and Baba come to visit - Part IV

After we got back from Salt Spring Mom and Dad and Baba headed to Vancouver to visit the family for a few days while Jeremi and I went back to work. The following weekend was Thanksgiving however, and in addition to the three of them, my cousin Scott, his wife Erika, their friend Kevin, and their daughters Claudia and Billie were also going to be here over that weekend, as Scott and Kevin were running a half-marathon on the Sunday. Naturally we invited them all for Thanksgiving on the Saturday (as Scott had to fly out Sunday evening).

Here you can see me braiding some shallot-poppy seed-stuffed bread, which was one of our many dishes.


Here's Mom and Claudia hanging out after supper. Claudia was quite funny, and after supper she wanted to ask me if there was going to be dessert, but she was too shy. Finally she got her mom to ask me for her. And of course there was dessert, but it was done a bit later than planned. After a day or two of cooking our oven decided to call it quits, but in a gradual way that meant that the turkey took a bit too long, the pies took about twice as long a usual, and the next morning when we tried to bake breakfast, nothing was working at all. We eventually got it fixed, just in time to cook for my birthday (more on that later).
Erika and Billy..
Baba and I hanging out after supper. We don't usually have enough room to seat 11 (Mom, Dad, Baba, Scott, Erika, Kevin, Claudia, Billie, Nick (Jer's brother), Jeremi, and me), but we moved out the coffee table and bororowed the neighbour's table for the night. Luckily they weren't celebrating Thanksgiving on the same day!
And finally ,the requisite picture of Jeremi getting along well with one of the kids, Claudia in this case. Little children just love him.

Mom and Dad and Baba come to visit - Part III

On the Sunday after we spent some time at the Fulford Hall looking at the apples (and cherry tomato seeds), we headed out to some of the farms. A couple of our friends from Victoria, Brandy and Jen, were also heading to Salt Spring that day, so we arranged to meet up for lunch in Ganges. Since we had seen that there was supposed to be lunches at the farms, we decided to head to one of them to meet up instead. The lunches were a bit disappointing, but there were definitly lots of apples, among some other produce. Here's a picture of (from left) Brandy, Jen, my Mom, my Dad, Baba, Jeremi, and me.
And of course, what would a bunch of pictures from the apple festival be without pictures of apples...
And here, back at the B&B, you see the interior of one of the heirloom red-fleshed varieties that we bought. They were all quite delicious. It seems that over time it has become more popular for apples to have in general smooth (not russet) red (not green) skin and white (not red) flesh. I was amazed by the number of varieties with pink or red flesh. The only one we saw growing up was "Snow White", which had just a tinge of pink bleeding in from the deep red skin, but with white flesh throughout the centre. I was so taken with some of the red-fleshed apples, which were so tasty and so beautiful. I wish we could have such a variety at the grocery store.
And here is our late lunch from Sunday, with some cheeses and bread that we picked up from the market the day before, along with a variety of apples, some cider, and some beer.

Mom and Dad and Baba come to visit - Part II

One of the reasons I thought it would be a good weekend to visit Salt Spring is that the annual Apple Festival was on the Sunday. Now around Belleville, where I grew up, there are lots of apple orchards, and the orchard was a pretty standard field trip through school or Girl Guides or whatever, and not only in the summer and autumn. I remember going with Girl Guides one February or so to the Kaiser's farm to look at how they kept the apples in cold storage. No kidding. And of course because of this I continually amaze (and bore) Jeremi with my vast knowledge of apple-related miscellany. (And then when Chris came to visit this August, he heard it from him too...)

Baba found an apple that was just her size. Or at least the size of her head.
At the Fulford hall they had almost three hundred kinds of apples, all grown organically on the island. We also picked up a map there directing us to several orchards that we could visit and, in certain places, have lunch. Unfortunately, lunch in most of these places consisted of apples and baked goods. This was a chart to classify the apples according to different characteristics.
Here are Bill and Julia in a heated discussion about apples and their juicing properties. If only Chris could get in on this one. So many apples...

Look at what Julia has in her hand. They're Little Julias (a tiny red variety of cherry tomato)! The woman in the back was selling all sorts of very interesting heirloom tomato seeds. We bought a few different kinds which we will now have to smuggle into Germany. I'm sure that will make them extra delicious