Cactus and Gecko cake

 I made this cake for friends Gordon and Natalie who share January birthdays. I especially wanted to immortalize Kartini, the gecko, who passed away at the ripe age of 19. We had intended to celebrate her birthday with great fanfare, but sadly it never came to be.

I decided instead to recreated this little creature out of fondant. 

Here's the real critter in Gordon's hands, a photo I downloaded from Nat's blog.

 At any rate, they kept the sugar gecko and we dug into the red velvet cactus.

When I walked out with the cake, Nat thought I was giving her a cactus as a gift! 

What fun. 

Happy birthday you two!

Cold Day, Soup's ON!

It was darn cold today! A high of -20C with -30C over night. Time to dig around in the freezer and cook up my garden's squash from last summer. Ahhh summer. Ginger-apple-squash soup is pretty perfect at this time of year! The fruits of my labour.

Out With the Old...

 My late father's picnic table finally gave up the ghost. It's been out in the bush for about 20 years and the site of our annual winter picnic for the past five or so years...

The new and improved version is part of a double cedar wall behind the house, that was discovered this past year when my gas range was installed. I figured it would be a perfect, rustic tabletop for a new picnic table. Richard cut down two dead trees as the supports and voila! Chairs will be old plastic outdoor garden chairs that my late mother bought eons ago.
I'll post pix when it warms up a tad and we can have a picnic out in the woods.

Jack's Back Home

 In 2004, Jack and his little sister Jill showed up at my place. Luckily my friends in Montreal adopted them. Sadly, Jill died a few years back but Jack comes back to stay with me for a few weeks every Christmas when his parents vacation down south.

 Jack always had the run of the house with the three girl cats pretty much leaving him alone. But autumn's new addition of Matzo Man made me nervous.
Interestingly enough, they got along pretty well.

Jack mostly stuck to his bedroom but kept opening the door to make sure he could see what was going on in the house. And when guests stayed in the bedroom next door, Jack not only opened his door, he pushed open their door too and hopped into bed with them. See ya next year Jack. Always a pleasure.

Deer beds

 Walking in the woods we can upon a series of deer beds under the cedars.
You could see the outline of the deer's body where the snow melted around him.

 I decided to get into it and see what the view was like.

And when I looked down I saw a bit of deer fur that froze into the snow.
Sleep well my furry friends.

Birdie cupcakes

I love making cupcakes for a bird lover. Particularly when it's -27C outside and these lemony goodies remind me of spring!

Yule Stump cake

Instead of a buche noel or yule log cake, this Christmas I made a stump noel or yule stump. Three-tiered lemon cake with lemon curd filling covered in 

chocolate icing with meringue mushrooms. Merry Christmas!

Winter Solstice 2013

Our friends down the road hosted a winter solstice party to welcome back the sun. It had been rescheduled from Dec. 21 because we got a big snowstorm. Luckily for us, we didn't get very much freezing rain, like they did west and north of us, but instead over 2 days we got 40 cm of snow. Lucky? I guess...

 One of the traditions at Winter Solstice is to have a bonfire and, if you like, you can burn something you want to get rid of in your life. 

On our way to the fire there was a snow dog.

 I didn't really have anything to burn this year but it was fun to have a glass of wine in the great outdoors and keep warm by the fire. 

It was fairly "balmy" out with a temperature of -8C.

Looking back at the house, I love the way the light reflected on the trees in the backyard. Here's wishing all my bloggy friends and readers a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year and hoping you don't have anything to burn at winter solstice 2014!

Gingerbread cookie time

 Love making gingerbread cookies when the snow's flying.

Classic gingerbread men and women are the best!

Hockey cake

 My friend Sean loves the Toronto Maple Leafs and since it was his birthday, what a perfect time for a hockey cake.

He's also the sports editor at The Glengarry News (I work there too) so the cake was perfect for him I think.

Cupcake Time!

 Chantal and her son Zavier came over to decorate cupcakes...

 Zavier drew his Minecraft characters with edible markers on fondant circles.

 They fit perfectly on top of buttercream-iced chocolate cupcakes.

 Here's the artiste putting on his finishing touches.

 And voila! Here's the outcome, half done by Zavier, the balance done by his mum.

Okay, let's try 'em out!

A Day in Lake Placid

 Last week Richard was on holiday so we took a day trip across the border to Lake Placid, NY.

 First stop was a sign with my sister's name. Actually Mt. Marcy is the highest peak in the area!

 Lake Placid was colder than I thought...I should have brought a hat! No snow at home but snow in the hills (duh, Ronna!)

 Lovely old theatre that the folks in Lake Placid are trying to save.

 Gorgeous blue skies. We walked back and forth through the town and checked out the architecture.

 Love this artful shot that Richard took.

 Walking by the lake...

 Whiteface Mountain I think. You can see the ski trails on it.

 Richard liked the signs.

Some of the lakes further along were frozen. Very pretty.

 Back in Lake Placid we stopped in a cool sandwich place, named after all the trails and peaks in the area.

 Huge sandwiches.

 Nom, nom, nom!

 Scenic as hell!

 There was real snow there! We're expecting a big storm tomorrow
but last week it was a novelty!

 At the Olympic Center...the one from the first Olympics in the 1930s.

 On the way home through in the Adirondacks, we pulled over to take our last photos
as the sun set.

We had a wonderful day...and intend to head back in the spring
when the days are longer and warmer.

The Quirky Carrot

 I'm so lucky that a fantastic restaurant opened up right beside my office.

 It's only open during the week, so with Richard being on vacation, we decided to head over.  He had a terrific soup with a roast beef and blue cheese panini.

He took an arty shot of his beet and carrot soup.

 Over on the other side of the table, I was pretty pleased too.

I enjoyed my (hot!) sweet potato chipotle soup and my soba noodle salad. Yum!

Here's their link! http://thequirkycarrot.ca/