A Winery Birthday

Last weekend we met in Toronto and piled into a stretch limo to take us to Niagara-on-the-Lake to celebrate my brother's 60th birthday.

 Our first stop was Stratus Vineyards where we toured a few grapes... 

 Lovely, eh?

Inside we had a selection of wines paired with specific cheeses. My sister Marci and I sat opposite each other, which meant lots of photos of each other!

 Richard being pretty darn serious with his wine tasting.

 My bro and my niece Sam.

 My nephew Adam who happens to be celebrating HIS birthday today. Happy birthday big guy!

 My lovely sister-in-law Maureen having a good giggle.

The birthday boy himself, my big brother Larry.

 We were told what we were drinking and what we were to pair it with.

 The cheeses were simply amazing. The wine too!

 Wine!

I just love this shot my niece Sam shot of Richard and me drinking in the vineyard.

Then we headed to Strewn Winery for an educational session.

 Inside we looked at vats of wine and ...

I tried to actually learn something about how wine was made. Our leader Graeme was fantastic and full of information.

Inside we got to sample wine from several different oak casks. Pretty cool that you can actually taste the difference between the wine made in oak barrels from Canada, USA and France.

Then we headed to Pellar Estates for an amazing supper.

 Richard started with a duck salad.

 I started with lobster ravioli.

 My main course was mussels with seared foie gras on a morel mushroom stuffed rigatoni with sorel pesto. Simply amazing!

My nephew Adam gave his father a birthday toast. Happy birthday Larry, the best brother in the world!

Giant Swallowtail Butterfly

Last week we were lucky enough to catch of glimpse of this huge butterfly feeding in the  phlox. Richard grabbed his camera and managed to grab a few shots. It's the Giant Swallowtail butterfly, usually rare in these parts, but with the hot summer and warm winds, some of these beauties flew further north than usual this year. Lucky us.
To read more, here's the link to the Ottawa Citizen article about their arrival.

Electric Guitar Cake

Brad's first electric guitar was a red one. For his 50th birthday, he got a chocolate one. Happy birthday Brad.

Lachute Flea Market

It's been years since I've had a Tuesday off and was able to go to the Lachute Flea Market. My late father and I would go almost religiously, every Tuesday (for years!) and have a ball. It's one of my favourite places on Earth! And since we're on vacation this week, Tuesday was Lachute day!

First of all, you can get anything here. The freshest, in-season veggies...peppers were great this year...

 As were the apples and corn.

 Outside of the stalls were huge bags of multi-coloured carrots waiting to be picked up.

Further over in the market are stalls and stalls of junk. I LOVE junk! I love looking at stuff. How about some old Quebec licence plates?

 Or the Flintstone's dining room set?

 Lots of snowshoes for sale. Hmmm...I wonder if the vendor know something about this upcoming winter?

Tons and tons of funky dishes, many from the '50s and '60s. When Dad and I used to shop here some 15-20+ year ago, there was a lot of Depression glass. Times have changed.

 Ashtray anyone? Or how about a small tire for your wheel barrow?

Stuff. Stuff and more stuff. You'd have to go through the place a few times not to miss anything.

There was lots of action at the booth selling cheese curds.

 A wagon making mini-donuts. Smelled great. We kept moving knowing that...

 ...a poutine lunch was coming soon.

Sitting outside in the sun eating piping hot poutine. How could it get any better?

It got better 'cause there was musical entertainment while you ate. French-Canadian versions of old standard country and western tunes.  Lachute Flea Market. The most fun ever! (I once told my dad that I wanted my ashes scattered here.)

A Bridge Not Too Far

A bridge between my two gardens, that goes over the Mighty Mogelon (now dry!) had rotted and needed repair for a few years now. Today was the day!

 Richard scrounged some boards and managed to put it together by using recycled materials.

 Lucky the Mighty Mogelon wasn't white water or Richard would have been washed away!

 Nearly done...

 Lookin' good, eh?

Yippee! It's done and solid and ready to roll.

Tulip Cake

I was asked to make a birthday cake for a gal whose favourite flowers were tulips. I didn't know what to do but made them out of fondant one day...

...and placed them on a fondant covered cake the next day, making them into a bouquet. It was so humid out that once I laid them down on the fondant, they stuck immediately. The birthday girl just loved her cake and I was thrilled!

Wild Turkeys

 Why'd the turkeys cross the road?

To get to the other side, right?

Faux Food Cake!

 Yup, that's a cake. A birthday cake in fact, for a fellow who loves salami sandwiches.

On further inspection, the salami, mustard, lettuce and mayo look like the real thing. In fact, the bread looks like bread and the French fries look like real fries.

But, alas, it's all a trompe d'oeuil and while it may look savoury, everything on that tray is cake and icing and made with sugar...and love!

Food Shots

I got these gorgeous eggs from my friend Natalie who has free range hens. Her eggs are from happy chickens and you can taste the difference!

Meanwhile back in my garden the heat and sunshine have really delivered the goods. All these tomatoes are from volunteer plants -- basically plants grown from seeds that were in last year's compost. The cherry tomatoes are yellow, orange and chocolate coloured, and very sweet indeed.

American Gothic Cake

A couple who live out here in the country, got married after being together for 17 years. The bride asked me to make a cake based on Grant Wood's painting "American Gothic."

Here's my updated version of Grant Wood's painting. Can we call it "Canadian Gothic"?

Predation

A few weeks back I showed a photo of a chipping sparrow nest with eggs in it. I've been keeping away from it to give them some privacy. I figured a month or so had passed and it was time to make sure they had flown.

Richard pointed out the egg sitting on the edge of the nest and I knew that wasn't a good sign. Most mother birds will carry the empty eggs away to make sure predators don't know there's a nest around. I held up the camera and shot this pic. Looks like a larger bird got in and with his beak pecked both eggs open. Sad. But I guess that's nature, right?

Cover Girl

I had one of those "gak!" moments yesterday at work. I had gone into the archives and pulled out several weeks of newspapers from 10 years ago to put together the "Auld Lang Syne" column that appears weekly in our paper. Yesterday, I opened the drawer and EGADS! There I was starring back at myself on the front page of the paper!