Pears

Well that was a first - I tried to hot pack pears this afternoon with mixed results. I'll wait to see how they last. Maybe I could pack the jars tighter if I cut the pears into smaller pieces. I also had my first lid failure of the year.

Wellington S.P.A.

Brasserie Dieu du Ciel! - Corne du diable

Salsa

I just finished my fourth batch of salsa for this year. This is my 4th year of making this salsa with pretty consistent results using a recipe from Canadian Living Cooks at Home. I'll have to see how spicy this batch is - I used jalapenos from the East Lynn Farmer's Market.
The shelves in the basement are beginning to get full with my other preserves form this year including: strawberry jam, peach jam, plum jam, tomato puree (from a bushel of San Marzano tomatoes), oven dried tomatoes, and peach chutney. I'd like to do something with beets, make some applesauce and perhaps do some pears.

Back From the Cottage

We got back from the cottage this week and we certainly enjoyed the continued hot weather after missing it for most of July when we were out west. Grace enjoyed sliding down a small plastic slide into the water and the boys enjoyed exploring, swimming, fishing, watching wildlife and lazing around. One quiet Sunday afternoon we even had a bear come sniffing around looking for berries.
We had good visits with our cousins on Papa's side of the family with many big dinners with all the leaves in the table. This week we got our classrooms ready and Grace adjusted to her new caregiver, "Nanny Maria!"

Wisconsin

We had a beautiful drive through Minnesota and Wisconsin yesterday. When we pulled up at our hotel there were plug-ins, which makes me think that it must get really cold here in the winter. Frank Lloyd Wright's Talesin is only 35 miles away, but the kids aren't allowed on the tour. I guess that's another item for a later trip.

I'm a big kid now

For some time now Liam has resented ordering off the children's menu in restaurants. So it was with an air of vindication that he pointed out he was too old for the kids menu at Paradiso ( a North Dakota chain of Mexican restaurants) and ordered the chicken caesar salad. He even told the waiter it was really good and he ate the tomatoes. (Usually he remains mute when he's questioned by strangers.) Luke had an after dinner mint for the first time and Grace worked on her straw technique, which she mastered yesterday. That's it from Fargo. No sign of Marg Gunderson.

Regina

Well we're on our way home and our stop for the first night was Regina. This town is football crazy. Everywhere we went people were wearing the Roughrider colours, flying the flag or talking about it. While waiting for coffee this morning, I overheard people discussing the previous night's Montreal Hamilton game. I've never heard people talking about the CFL at a Starbucks in Toronto!

Snow - falling this time

We made it to Banff today. I wouldn't be surprised if it snowed tonight. We drove through snow at Highwood Pass (2200 m - open June 15 to December 1) and took highway 40 through Kananaskis Country. When we stopped for groceries in Canmore, you could see the line on the mountains above which the rain was falling as snow.

Snow

We hiked to Forum Lake today (10 km round trip and 350m vertical.) We crossed into BC, endured lots of mosquitoes and crossed a big section of snow on the trail. Our destination was a pretty alpine lake surrounded by a curved ridge. We looked up at the snow covered Akamina Ridge, one of Waterton's premier hikes. Thunder echoing in the mountains chased us down. Grace slept for most of the descent.
Since we were in the area we stopped for a quick look at Cameron Lake. On the drive back to town we saw two bears feeding really close to town. It was really windy today. We could hear the wind whipping around. It would probably have been a rough boat ride over to the Crypt Lake hike which awaits our return another summer.