Year Two Day Eighty Six- Grandma Lambes

Dear all, 

We are in the final throws of Fall and after a spectacular weekend up in Owen Sound, Darrren and I took a trip to Grandma Lambes, a well known spot on Highway 26 outside Meaford... ( Kerry couldn't believe that we hadn't popped in before now)

Grandma Lambes sell many, many things but they are known for their apples and my word, they have a few... http://www.localharvest.ca/blog/2010/05/grandma-lambes

 
Darren was quick to veer me away from the 'buckets' of fruit and thought it more practical to head for the 'bags' of apples instead... there were still around 25 apples in a bag. Plenty of us...

http://www.meaford.com/lambe.html

We still managed to pick up three bags: Cortland, Empire and Honeycrisp, fresh, firm and fruity, a total delight! Here is D juggling with a couple of Honey Crisp!

After another saucepan of apple sauce, we are now full and fuelled with apple goodness - thank you Grandma Lambes!

Year Two, Day Eighty Five - Eggs Over Easy

Dear all, 

Beautiful Fall is here and no better time to cook up a hearty Breakfast... 

 Darren had expressed interest in Bacon and Eggs so i decided to step up to the plate and cook them up... eggs over easy... *da duh daaaaaaah*.

Darren ( who often goes for 'sunny side up') requested 'eggs over easy' which I learnt about back in my waitressing days one summer in Dellaware... *a long long LONG time ago*... Eggs over Easy???? uhhhhhhhhh. I had never even *fried* an egg before, so set to work... slightly nervous.... but keen to embark on the challenge. 

The event was so complex I didn't manage to catch any photos of the actual 'cooking' process. It all happened so fast! I cracked the eggs into the (hot) pan and in about 30 seconds they had puckered up and where looking pretty well done... this is where I started to get nervous... i flipped the eggs but then cooked them (as Darren later informed me) until they were in fact 'Eggs Over Well'... Ah well... an easy Rookie mistake.. 

As you can see, D still managed to wolf them all down. The bacon and fresh toast helped redeem the meal, I am sure. 

And in other news:

1. More Autumnal Pics from my travels.... Canada Geese grazing before their long flight down south.. 

2. A run on High Street, the other evening.. .

3. A Fall Sunset

4. And my metal-work project... finished at last! Phew  (FYI - it's a dragon fly...)

Year Two Day Eighty Four - Apple Sauce

Dear all, 

Cor blimy... sorry for going MIA of late... I have been working like an autumnal squirrel on various projects that have had imminent deadlines looming.... due to my dutiful Homework-doing-mania however, I have managed to squeeze in some blogging activities, today in the form of Apple Sauce... 

I had picked up a huge bag of beautiful Honey Crisp apples from Curries Market *love* http://www.curriesfarmmarket.ca/contact-us.htm on the way home the other day... as always... I had purchased 'quite a lot' so Darren suggested I gave his mum a call to harness the power of her famous apple sauce recipe ( and use up 20 apples or so in the process). 

Joyce's recipe is so wonderfully simple, I decided that I couldn't go wrong... my last few culinary exploits on the blog have teetered on the edge of 'too experimental' (aka "orange-zest favored Beef Stew...hmmmm), so Darren wanted to engage some preventative Damage Control early on. 

 I peeled, cored and sliced the apples and popped them in a saucepan with a slither of water. I heated the apples to a simmer and watched over them sporadically... stirring now and then to check they weren't doing anything awful like burning. After 30 minutes or so, I took a potato masher to the lovely soft apples, massaged them to a pulp, added a smidgen of sugar and cinnamon.. and there you have it: gorgeous apple sauce with not a caraway seed or gram of orange zest in sight!

As you can see... the apple sauce lasted about 4 hours in total and I didn't even get to decant it from the sauce pan... Thank you Joyce, it was a triumph!

Year Two Day Eighty Three - First Few Drawings and Paintings

Dear all, 

Just a quick post - plenty of Homework to do, ooo lala..

1. My first Pencil Drawing of a tree ( nearly finished)

 2. A Caribbean view.

 3. Another interior.. nearly finished.

That's all for the mo... gotta get going on my h/w. 

Year Two Day Eighty Two - New Desk

Dear all, 

Sorry about my delay in updating this post... I have working hard at becoming the keenest chick in Art School. I had to share this fabulous news - Darren bought me the coolest birthday present ever: This fabulous ( massive ) desk! 

I had been aggressively spilling out into all areas of our apartment and I sense that D knew he had to act early to try and contain the madness and keep my affairs in one place... He found this brilliant desk on Craiglist for *wait for it...* $100!!!! What a bargain! http://barrie.en.craigslist.ca/

 As you can see, I now have a huge 'work station' that I can paint, cut, file and bash around to my hearts content ( $100!!!!!!) - One of my first projects was a pastel design for my Interpretive Drawing class... (mutter will like this shot - pastel dust everywhere..) and it was fabulous.

I love my desk! Thank you Darren! xxx

Year Two Day Eighty One - Photo Booth

 Dear all,

I have discovered 'Photo Booth'! It is a magnificent feature on the MacBook Pro and (as you can see) I have been experimenting with a few 'images' during mini breaks from the homework.

I love the Warhol 'effect' and here a couple of examples. How cool is Photo Booth??? 

I managed to sneak a shot of Darren while he wasn't looking... 

Now back to my homework.. ! *yay*

Year Two Day Eighty - The Ridge Runner

Dear all, 

Another speedy entry - this time literally... a mountain coaster, here in Collingwood, HURRAY!

Darren, Annalise and I sampled the fabulous, Ridge Runner which is new this year at The Blue Mountain Ski Village. http://www.bluemountain.ca/ridge_runner.htm

 At $15 a ticket... we hoped it would match the Behemoth at Canada's Wonderland in terms of 'thrill factor' and as we were waiting in line, we were intrigued as to what adrenalin-seeking treat awaited us. The fact that we could 'control the speed' of the Luge was of great excitement to us all and and we debated how we could manipulate the accelerate button to our greatest speed-inducing advantage. 

We all had individual carts - i was in front and managed to grab a couple of pictures as we were waiting.... Darren is there (hiding behind Annalise)

 After a [very] brief introduction from a [very bored] looking chap at the gate, we were off... up and up and up the mountain, being pulled on a track and creeping higher and higher in altitude with the air becoming fresher and clearer the higher we climbed. 

After about 10 minutes ( I think... but couldn't be sure), The cart reached the summat, turned a corner and I was told by a nice man in a hut to 'push the accelarator' lever - I slammed it down and was off - down a VERTICAL SLOPE. It was AWESOME! I would have loved to have taken a photos but I would have probably lost an arm. This ride is wonderful and totally worth it - it is a long descent with drops, turns and keeps the adrenalin pumping right up until the end ( where Annalise tail-gated me by accident.. fortunately we didn't told off). I would highly recommend the Ridge Runner and will certainly hit that Luge again soon. We loved it!

And in other news:

1. We also stumbled across this on our travels around Blue Mountain... Collingwood's answer to the Tour De France" Tour de Blue (AKA Centurion) http://centurioncycling.com/canada/