Day Two Hundred and Twenty Five - No Power Then First Snow

Dear all,

Yep, it has been a day of joyous wonderment. No power and [the double whammy] the first major snow. GAAAAA. Oh yes, it's snow-time! And what a weekend it's been, oh my..... oh my.

I would like to start by showing that I am defiant against the cold and will insist on wearing inappropriate clothing throughout the winter months.

Anyway, Saturday come around and we were informed of a 'power outage' on Sunday morning between the hours of 6am and midday. "That sounds fine.." I hear you say, but if you happen to work at an inn, the absence of power between those hours [on any day but Sunday is significantly poignant] is potentially catastrophic.

So, a complex Venn diagram of cunning plans came together in the form of a mass of cables and a vague semblance of heat/light and water early this morning due to strategically placed generators. Breakfast seemed to go 'smoothly' although at one point all the guests seemed to be walking around in their night gowns taking breakfast into their rooms as if on a grandiose sleep-over.

I have tried to capture the intricacy of it all but a good tribute to the genius of the plan is shown in the lack of major upset in the public areas and even in the kitchen. Congratulations Paul!

Below is a sweet picture of the dogs. They love breakfast [I wonder why? *bacon*]. I banished them from the kitchen and then had to endure 4 hours of wining/ crying/ barking/ scratching [etc etc] from the dogs in their attempt to get back in. They even tried concealing themselves under guests, behind guests and as a last resort, tried to pretend they were part of the breakfast 'juice menu' ( as seen below). And yes, we now keep the juice outside as the air temperature maintains a sanitary level of refrigeration [grrrr].

The dogs will be fine.. in a couple of days, they will refuse to come in. They like the snow. It makes them feel powerful.

Day Two Hundred and Twenty Four - Haliburton Soaps

Dear all,

Today we reaped the benefits of our wonderful shopping excursion in Muskoka and cracked open the gorgeous bars of soap purchased from Robinsons.

Both Darren and I are keen to keep cosmetics 'au natural' and I can feel myself gradually stepping further and further away from products that may 'look' and 'smell' fabulous but actually contain things like Magnesium Aluminium Sulphate and hydroxyhydroisohexyl-3-cyclo hexane and cause us a whole load of damage.

On sale in Robinsons was a fabulous display of home-crafted soaps, all 100% natural and smelt incredible. http://www.haliburtonsoapfactory.com/index.html. Darren picked out two: The Fisherman's Soap and The Outdoor soap, both huge loaves [New thing learnt today: soap comes in a 'loaves ']

The outdoor soap is full of wonderful essential oils such as citronella ( good for fending off mosquito's), Lavender ( soothing on the skin) and eucalyptus (medicinal). The fisherman's soap ramps it up a little and contains small grains of loafer that exfoliate and condition the skin. And not a chemical formula in sight!

A fabulous addition to the home and I would highly recommend checking out the website. They even do soaps made to order!

Day Two Hundred and Twenty Three - Darla's Art Exhibition

Dear all,

After an early start and full day of admin planned, I decided to take a mini detour down to Creemore to see my lovely friend, Darla's, art exhibition. She is exhibiting in the Curiosity House Book Shop [See Day One Hundred and Seventy] and I was very excited to see her work.

I had seen a couple of her pieces at our art class but she had been working hard on a whole new catalogue of paintings for the exhibition using some new techniques and media.

I arrived on a cold, blustery day to a quiet Creemore high street and the warmth of the Book Store was a haven against the driving rain.

I entering the store, I could see Darla's work is hung throughout and looks absolutely fantastic!

She has used a wide variety of styles and my favorite is this one below, 'Magic Carpet'. I found myself staring at it for what seemed like hours. It is totally beautiful.

I ended up chatting to the owner of the bookstore afterwards [a fellow artisan who specializes in weaving] and she persuaded me to exhibit in the future... yikes! I will have to get painting!

And in other news:

1. The snow tyres are on; the winter windscreen wipers are installed; the oil has been changed: I am ready.

Day Two Hundred and Twenty Two - Karla and Jay's Wine

Dear all,

The fabulous Karla and Jay have revealed their latest project to the world and as always, it's amazing: They have been making wine! I popped over to Karla's for a lovely catch up and she very kindly gave us a bottle to sample of an evening.

They named the wine 'Owls Wolf' and the magic happened at the Grist Mill Winery. It is a blend, using the Grenache, Shiraz and Mourvedre grapes shipped in from Australia. I had a sample at Karla's and it is incredible! So drinkable and well balanced; a lovely wine and I had a feeling D would like it too.

I took is home and we settled in for the night watching 'Predators' [Adrian Brody and Morpheus battle it out against the evil dudes] and 'The Horseman' [Not about horses. An Aussie film about a serial killer decides to kill everyone in the world].

It was absolutely delicious and we managed to polish off the bottle in no time at all. Thank you Karla and Jay and congratulations on your wine-making master piece!

And in other news:

1. Check out our new little baby buffalo! Rimba is morphing into a wilder-beast ready for winter.

Day Two Hundred and Twenty One - Mussels at Vince and Kerry's

Dear all,

Always a fabulous evening at Vince and Kerry's and none more so than this evening where they both pulled out all the stops and served an incredible dinner of home made mussels and garlic bread!

After a treacherous, weather beaten drive up to Owen Sound after work, I was greeted by a frosty cold beer and the wonderful warmth of Vince and Kerry and the wonderful Darren who had driven up earlier.

Vince rinsed the mussels out of the bag and in the meantime, Kerry had put together a tasty broth full of delectable items such as coconut milk and [a good dose of] curry powder. Vince then popped the mussels into the broth and they simmered away in their spicy oasis.

Already, many a fabulous debate had started and the wine was flowing. Vince bought a steaming bowl of mussels to the table and the debates and wine flowed and flowed, it was wonderful!

Here is a quick video of the mighty Vince and his gourmet dinner!

Thank you Vince and Kerry for a wonderful evening!

And in other news:

1. I am back in the saddle with painting and am currently mid-way through this cheeky Picasso.

Day Two Hundred and Twenty - Robinsons in Dorset

Dear all,

Today we managed to get to a destination so highly revered that Darren had been talking about for months - Robinson's General Store in Dorset!

Now, this may 'seem' fairly pedestrian in terms of a daily task, but I kid you not, this store is a legend and has been voted 'BEST GENERAL STORE IN CANADA'. Now THAT is one hell of a commendation!

Dorset itself is a delightful little town on Highway 35 just 10 minutes from Darren's cottage and the Firehouse. It is situated on the 'Lake of Bays' a hot spot for celebrities as they flee the bright lights of the big city and retreat in their luxury 'second homes' in the country.

Robinsons is the highlight of the town and it is AMAZING. I have never been in such an eclectic store. That place sells everything! And its not tat.. oh no no no no, Darren and I made a couple of 'little' purchases, one of which will be revealed in the blog when I try it out! But it certainly gives an air of 'boutique chic' rather than dollar-store backwater. http://www.robinsonsgeneralstore.ca/

It has a North American style front and inside it is huge with nooks and cranny's around every corner selling everything anyone could ever want! Both Darren and I were both content to browse and both had our retail-passions satisfied.

I loved the deli and food section that was filled with high-end produce, fresh and packaged and had an air of Selfridges Food Hall *sigh*. The jewelry section also appeared out of the corner of my eye.. as did the cosmetics and beauty products. The New York of Muskoka! Darren was drawn to the hard ware section where he purchased a grease gun for the boat - a very useful addition to the tool box!

It was a lovely little detour on the way home and I will definitely be going back

Day Two Hundred and Nineteen - Junior Axe-Girl

Dear all,

We are still in paradise up at the cottage and today we had the [probably fairly obvious task] of cutting up all the trees that we had felled the today and the day previously.

Darren was still keen to cut down a couple more suspect trees so once they were all down [safety and not on any nearby buildings! Darren is extremely skilled when it comes to trees) we were ready to chop!


I had always fancied learning how to swing an axe but Darren was still [very] wary about me getting involved with the sharp items too heavily but I was happy moving all the wood around and making the most stylish log pile in the neighborhood.

He was very gracious and did let me have a quick go and it is documented above. Can I just say that chopping wood is NOT easy and anyone that says so is either delusional or The Terminator. Darren is AWESOME chopping wood - that boy has skills, I was so impressed! There is a video of me above and also some handy axe-wielding tips from D!

Here is the finished log pile - A great day of work! I can't wait to build the wood shed!

Darren was very happy with the work that we had done and had a weight off his shoulders knowing that the rotten trees were down and not a threat to the cottage during the treacherous winter months.

I love this photo! Darren contemplating the days work by the fire.. sigh.

Day Two Hundred and Eighteen - Junior Lumberjack

Dear all,

We are back at the cottage, hurray! It's a very different climate from the last time we were up: I found myself wearing SIX layers of clothing and didn't even break out in a sweat. It's still amazingly beautiful though and we got to work straight away.

Darren's new pride and joy is his new chain saw, 'The Husqvarna'. Men go all dreamy when he talks about it. It's a good one. http://www.husqvarnachainsaws.co.uk/

Anyway, our mission today was to cut down the miscellaneous trees that were dead and/or rotting and 'dangerously' near to the buildings on the property and thus causing Darren great concern coming into [what they say will be - gaaaa] a harsh winter.

I am going to say from the onset that Darren displayed UNBELIEVABLE skills out there in the brush and it truly my hero. The first tree to go was the most worrying; a large dead birch 1 metre from the bunkie and looking like it could go at any time.

Darren hoisted a large ladder beside the tree and climbed up ( around 20m!) to lasso a rope around its circumference.

I was then in charge of 'hanging on to the rope' to make sure the tree didn't 'fall on the cottage'. Quite a responsibility some might say, for someone that doesn't weight much more than 100 pounds.

Darren started to cut away with the chain saw and before you know it, there was a deafening *crack* and the tree fell with tremendous force, laying about 1 metre adjacent to the cottage. I had been flung about 10 metres sideways and was quite buzzing with adrenalin. But we did it!

Here is a video one of the trees falling. It is [relatively] hard to take video footage when you are a key member of the felling team but I tried my best!

We then started to cut up the wood and lay down a log pile that would become a beast very quickly.

It was an AWESOME day and after a great afternoon's work we headed back to land ready for jalapeno poppers at The Firehouse. Bliss!

Day Two Hundred and Seventeen - Be The Change

Dear all,

I am feeling decidedly cultural this week knowing that one of my evenings would be spent at the 'Be The Change' Film Series screened at the Gaiety Theatre in Collingwood.

http://www.bethechangefilmseries.ca/

Be The Change is a series of films that will be screened on the third Wednesday of every month from October until May that focuses on important social and economic issues that affect all of us and intend to spark interesting and intellectual debate.

Today's screening was a film entitled, 'Forks over Knives' which centred around the raging debate over the Western Diet and its implications regarding the onset of degenerative diseases such as Coronary Heart Disease and Cancer. http://forksoverknives.com/

It was a very interesting film that challenged the Western opinion that meat and animal products are good for us and in fact are the cause of virtually all the major degenerative diseases that we as a society face in the present day. It was a little alarming as a newly converted carnivore but I took solace in the fact that I rarely eat McDonalds, predominantly eat raw veg and run for 15km most days. I think I am doing okay.

I would highly recommend any Collingwood folk to come along to the next screening ( It's about how laughing is good for us). My darling friend Karla is a lead figure in the organisation of the series and the profits go to charity. All in all a fabulous cause!

Day Two Hundred and Sixteen - Pumpkin Seeds

Dear all,

Still on the pumpkin theme, today I made a couple more tentative [baby] steps towards becoming a domestic goddess. I resisted in causing unnecessary waste and used the left over seeds from the Jack O Lantern 'carving' and turned them into a delicious yet healthy snack.

I rinsed the seeds and then coated a third in garlic salt, a third in chipoltle pepper and a third in Orgasmic Onion Seasoning. I then popped them in the oven for 5 minutes or so and 'Da daaaaa': Toasted Pumpkin seeds all hot and ready for eating. Delicious!

And in other news:

1. It's snowing. Dammit.

But lets not get too upset and focus on the positives. For example:

1. Snow Mobiles

2. Mulled Wine

3. Chunky Knit Scarves

There we go, much better... *sigh*.