Winter Walk

 Richard and I went for a snowshoe adventure on the weekend.

 There were tracks everywhere! The woods are a busy place when you're not looking.

 There was a beautiful bright blue sky and lots of sun.

 We saw a pileated woodpecker busy at this tree just moments before I took this.

 Great light. Great shadows. Great lines! Get out your pencils, Ronna!

 I love this two intertwined vines.

 Richard way ahead, making a trail.

 It got pretty warm out there in the sunshine.

 Richard balanced a stick on his head!

 Summer residence might need a bit sprucing up.

 Love the light coming from between the cedar woods.

 Gotta draw this.

The old butternut is still standing! I had a butternut expert out to see it a while ago and she said it was about 100 years old and not dying of canker but just old age.

Winter Visitors

 Bright sun and cold days bring many visitors to my bird feeders, including this red squirrel...

...and this hairy woodpecker, checking out the suet.

Winter Cat

With the weather going into its second day of close to -30C, this cat has got it right.
I'm so ready for spring!

National Pie Day

Happy National Pie Day everyone.

Sushi 101

 My friend Claire invited me over for a sushi lesson.

 She had cooked some sticky rice and placed it on a piece of dry seaweed.

 Then she placed some fake crab sliced in lengths...

 She added some sliced cucumbers and peppers too.

 Then she squished it all down and started to roll it up.

 She kept squishing and kept rolling it all together so it would stick. And it did!

We tried it with sliced mango and smoked salmon and other variations and after topping it all with some fish roe and a few glasses of wine, the sushi looked pretty good.

It tasted great too!

Cooper's Hawk

 The chickadees were making quite a fuss this morning and I wondered why.

 It seems a Cooper's Hawk decided to hang around the feeders and check them out.

He actually stayed for about 10 minutes. The other birds scrammed but the chickadees still came to the feeders but were very noisy about it. I had noticed two separate piles of feathers in the past week with no footprints leading up to them. I guess I found the culprit?

Red Barn Cake

I made this cake for Wendy who is an animal lover and has always dreamed about having a red barn to house them all in.

Please Vote for Me!

I need your help to win a cupcake contest! If you are a Facebook person, click here, which will take you to the National Cupcake Day contest for SPCAs and Humane Societies.
All you need to do is once you're on that page, click "like" (to like that page) and then please vote for my cupcakes.

I'd love to win a gift package from Reynold Wrap. Woo hoo!

Calico Corners

My latest barn cat is a calico. Isn't she sweet? She's terribly shy but knows me and meows when I call her.

This sweet calico showed up last spring and was really shy. I couldn't get near her and took this photo through the window, very carefully! I didn't see much of her.

This calico visitor hung out at my bird feeder all last summer and fall.

I wonder if she ended up at a neighbour's barn?

I'm wondering if this gorgeous calico is the same one as the above photo?

I think this gal has more red on her nose and a different white stripe blaze?

 She hung around quite a bit but also disappeared.
I see snow in the photo so I guess I fed her last winter...

Seven years ago or so, this pair of cuties, later called Jack and Jill, showed up and were adopted by a friend in Montreal. Jill is a very dark calico with very little white.

 And these are my two lovely calicos, Nutmeg and Cookie. Both showed up here about two years apart, 13 and 11 years ago. And this is why my house has been dubbed Calico Corners!

Snow Days

 It's been snowing like crazy around here. Richard got on the roof to alleviate some of that snow's weight. It took him a couple of hours!

There was also time to play in it a bit too. We went for a snowshoe in the back and most times the snow was up to your knees.

Richard found this cute little nest that had been blown out of a tree. I placed it back in a tree, perhaps to be fixed up a bit and used next year? Who knows...

Tomatoes and Visiting

 My cousin Jane has collected vintage tomato-ware for some twenty or so years. When we both lived in Toronto, we'd spend time on the weekends searching for them at flea markets and antique sales. I was lucky to find this teapot and one salt shaker at the Lachute Market last September and even happier that both pieces were stamped "Made in Occupied Japan."

Jane and her husband James and daughter Maddy now live in Nashville but keep their cottage up in Morin Heights, QC. Richard and I met them for lunch last weekend, halfway between our homes in Lachute. And I was able to give Jane her tomatoes as a belated Christmas gift. She was tickled pink, or maybe red!

Flower Basket Cake

 I made a cake for a friend whose Mum had a birthday just after Christmas. 

She decided to celebrate! (The only place where I could get even lighting was in my outdoor studio...now, sadly, full of snow!)

Cheryl's an avid gardener so I made every flower I could think of and placed them in a buttercream basket weave. Cheryl loved it.

New Year's Eve, Southern Style

 This year I hosted a New Year's Even dinner which had a Southern theme. Living in cold Canada and having tons of snow this year, I thought i'd be a way to warm up and bring in the new year in style.

We started with mint juleps (with Jack Daniels, natch)

 Then we attempted fried okra. Here it is soaking in buttermilk.

 Here's how it turned out. Really yummy.

 I made shrimp and grits. Definitely a keeper!

 A friend brought twice baked ribs. Yum-o!

Another friend brought buttermilk coleslaw and sweet potatoes. I also made cornbread, black-eyed peas and green bean casserole plus a pitcher of sweet tea.

 And for dessert? Lemon meringue pie...

Upside down pecan-apple pie...

...and banana pudding, natch!

Happy New Year, ya'll. Hope 2013 treats you right and you're healthy, wealthy and happy. Cheers!