Back In The Saddle!

Landed in Ireland yesterday, getting settled now and have brought loads of knitting to keep me busy. Until I get my butt back in gear to blog again, I've got updates from Canada.

Flurries were forecasted and received, but they came in very large numbers.

Not to be stuck in the house, Mum and Dave made the best of a snowy situation and packed a picnic of sorts......

Time in the house was well-spent, though. Mum finished Erika's First Communion dress and Rick's new quilt. I'm hoping to get the next quilt, just as soon as I get around to measuring the bed.

View Out The Back Window

Here's the last view out of Mum's house until this summer. I flew home this past Saturday/Sunday and am very busy catching up on my Christmas decorating.

A Lobster Party

My step-dad, David, gets up every morning before 6 to have his coffee, boy-gossip and business transactions down at Tim Horton's. Earlier this week, he ordered 26 pounds of lobster during such a visit (I suspect it was before the coffee properly kicked in) and we had us a lobster party.

Preparations.....
Here's a photo of what I like to call the Little Yummies (is it weird to name your dinner?)Here's their new home in a propane-powered cook pot
And their remains will be worshiped and devoured in Mum's rompus room. It cracks me up to see all newspaper, paper towels, hand-wipeys, Chinet plates and then wine glasses in the middle of it all.

The Feast!
The blonde on the left is Patsy and sitting to her right is Chester and they'll teach you all you need to know about cracking claws (wrap the claws with two paper towels so as not to hurt your hands) sucking meat out of the legs and eating the tamale (a brown gooey delicacy from the body cavity - but I think it looks like mud) before it gets cold. Chester was finished with his third lobster before I was half-way through the tail of my first. And Elaine (back left) wore her special lobster-cracking-apron. This was not a dinner for lightweights.
I'd say "Wish You Were Here" but I was having enough trouble with the competition that did show up ;)

Cool Moon Rising

Got a cool picture of the moon rising over the lake.
I had to take about 10 pictures before I was happy with the result, God bless digital cameras!

A Saturday At The Fish Camp

My sister Louise came from Bar Habor, Maine to visit on the weekend and we spent Saturday afternoon out at the Fish Camp.

Mum's getting the fire started. Note the new tradition of building fires in drum from an old washing machine. It's a great way to recycle, it keeps the fire contained and the holes let air in to feed the flames (AND you can fit a grate from an old barbeque across the top). Dem Maritimers can be crazy at times, but oh-so-clever ;)

Roasting hot dogs and beans (oh how I've missed baked beans in molasses with pork!)

Toasting Dessert (I feel no guilt whatsoever for stuffing myself full of S'mores, since I know I probably won't see them again for a while - who am I kidding?! I never feel guilty when stuffing my face with roasted marshmallows, melted chocolate and graham crackers. The graham crackers are kind of healthy, aren't they?)

Mum and Louise went for a walk and Dave and I took a little nap on the mattresses inside. There was s'more S'more roasting as it started to get dark.

And then we played some Mexican Rummy before heading out to dinner at The Bavaria Restaurant, where a big surprise was waiting for Mum. More on that later...

We Got Snow!

Just in time for Mum's Birthday!
It's snowing buckets and buckets - here's a photo taken 1 hour after the above picture.
Mum and I are wrapping ourselves up in mittens, scarves, etc and going for a snowy-birthday walk :)Update photo from the walk. Check out Mum's outfit, hat and scarf knit by me and thrum mitts done by her - we are one knitting family!

Wakin' Up

Step-father had me up at 6 this morning to go to Tim's (Tim Horton's Doughnut shop) to get coffee and make eyes at the fisherman. I would have made eyes (coquettish and all) if my eyes had been open. But the coffee kicked in once we got home and I did manage a picture of the sun coming up over the lake.

Eye Candy

Y'all can all stick your Saturday Skies and Sundays skies where the sun don't......um, well, what I mean to say, is this is the sky that rocks my world. It's from the porch on Mum's barn-converted-house I've never slept as well anywhere in the world as when the fog has rolled into Yarmouth. And this is only slighty-misty-fog, not the real stuff where you can't see the hand in front of your face. This is the aesthetic, romantic fog and I'm all loved-up in it.

Dumping Day

Monday was the first day that the lobster fisherman "dump"ed their lobster traps. Mom woke me up nice and early because everyone runs down to the Yarmouth Light at 6am and watches the boats go out. They also line up their cars and flash the headlights.

It's pretty dark here at 6am, so my picture came out a bit dim. But you can see a little bit of the view; there're so many lights from the boats, it looks like another city out on the water.

I got a better picture of a boat coming back in.
He looks a bit small, so I don't think it was a lobsterman coming back in for more traps. They drop them all in the morning, some come back for another load and more bait, and then they sit out on the water for the day and wait until 12-midnight when it's legal to check the traps for the first time.

Even the radio station was set up inside the lighthouse and broadcasting the news of Dumping Day.

Sigh.......

Landed in Halifax Saturday night and drove 3 hours to get to Mum's in Yarmouth. I love this place....just look at the kitchen.

Pictures like this make me relax and think all is right with the world.