A Little Swiss Please

I love cheese... well, who doesn't?! It's one of the most divine foods on the face of the planet. There's something undeniably yummy about sinking your teeth into a slice of cheese.... I think this little fellow would be in agreement.... don't you think so?!

Teapot just made breakfast (which I really appreciate since that's my time for writing here). He made me a slice of toast with melted Swiss cheese and a fried egg on top. It was delicious. (Is your mouth watering yet?)

The problem is that cheese is loaded with calories and salt and a bunch of things that make it one of the worst diet foods ever.  Any diet, including Weight Watchers, will tell you that pizza (loaded with cheese), lasagna (loaded with cheese), grilled cheese sandwiches (has cheese), potatoes au gratin (really loaded with cheese), anything au gratin (loaded with cheese) is like a million calories. Even crackers and cheese is not really good diet food..... the only place that I can find cheese as an ok diet food is if you use (bleeeckk!!!) Cheese Whiz on celery....  this combination, in my opinion, should be officially banned from the face of the planet!

A few years ago I went to Barkerville, which is an historic townsite that has been preserved to function as a traditional gold mining community for tourists to visit.  There is a great general store there, in which I love to browse around. They have everything from food, to Victorian style clothing, candies, toys, hunting stuff etc.... my favorite part of the store is the section where they keep the big wheels of cheese. It was there that I first tasted Asiago cheese..... oh God, it was orgasmic!  Teapot and I would purchase a small amount of cheese each day (wrapped in wax paper), and as we were driving home, and while the Daughters were sucking on their candies from the candy shop, I would slice thin slices of Asiago cheese and feed them to Teapot or eat them myself on the way back to the campsite..... I'm not kidding, it was orgasmic! (And the Asiago that you get in the grocery store...yuck... doesn't even come close to the stuff you get in Barkerville. They hand pick each wheel...)

A friend introduced me to smoked Gouda... oh, it was divine.... I ended up turning this whole town on to it, when I insisted that the local grocer bring in smoked Gouda for Christmas. It is imperative that I try new cheeses.... it is also imperative that you don't eat too much blue cheese at one time... as Teapot found out one year when he went to a friend's house at Christmas and gorged on Blue cheese and red wine.... suffice it to say that he spent Christmas night in the bathroom! It is also imperative that you don't eat processed cheese.... it is like eating glue that has been formed into slices and coloured orange. (I can't see how anyone could possibly want to eat that stuff... euuuu...)!

Feta is great on salads.... even if they're not Greek salads.... add a few raisins and awesome!

Try a little Ricotta on the next pizza you make.... oh yum!

And a good block of Cheddar... to die for!

Try this on for size.... Get a slice of homemade bread. Spread butter over it. Then lightly sprinkle it with Parmesan cheese (and not that gross Kraft stuff) and then sprinkle it liberally with Greek spices. (You can make that with: sundried tomatoes finely chopped, dried onion, dehydrated green onion, basil, dried garlic, dehydrated red pepper, dehydrated celery leaves chopped finely, soy or cottonseed oil and a little bit of sugar. Spread it over a shallow pan and lightly roast in your oven... cover and store in a cool dry place.) Then put your bread in the oven (the toaster oven works best) and bake until it the bread is toasted around the corners. Oh it is sooo good... and if you let it dry out and cut it into cubes you can make your own croutons..... which is waaayyy better than the store bought cubes of dung!

But my favorite, all time, eat-fairly-often cheese, (when I can afford it), is good Swiss cheese. Oh yum, there's nothing like a good slice of Swiss to perk you up.... I wish I could grow cheese because I'd have a garden full. Holey cheese is Holy cheese. Absolutely!

I pretty much would pass over anything for a block of really good cheese (and I certainly would give up my socks!) I think the only thing that surpasses my love of cheese would be my wheel and wool.... ok, well maybe my family too. : )

So there you have it.... anyone for a little Swiss?

God! I'll never lose weight this way!

Mea Culpa

A few months ago I sat down at this computer to read a few of my favorite blogs. I usually sit down and start at the top of the list to the left (do you see it?) and read through each one. That fateful morning when I hit on As The Whorl Spins I never expected to read something that would stick in my mind so much. It is a blog written and kept by my level 3 instructor and I have been following it since my first year of the Master Spinning program at Olds College. Her post called Mea Culpa (like mine..  yes I know it's plagiarism... but I am giving her credit) was all about how she had unwittingly purchased a sweater (because it was cold and she needed a sweater while traveling) and then discovered that her new sweater was full of ACRYLIC! Ordinarily this would not be much of a concern to the ordinary person.... but to those of us in the fibre world (you know.... the un-ordinary ones : ).... those of us who are fibre snobs.... gasp in horror at the thought of purchasing a non-natural fibre sweater. (All together now....gasp!)

It was not that she had purchased said acrylic sweater that so struck me and got me to thinking.... no it wasn't that at all, as a matter of a fact, I actually laughed a little. I have a closet full of acrylic.... and truth be told, nylon, and polyester.... etc, too.  What got me was what she said about how Green Peace and other activists come into her community, (which happens to be a petroleum industry town) with their polyester fleeces and their Gor Tex jackets and their jeans laden with spandex and their other garments made with some form of petroleum product based fabric, and then proceed to protest against the very industry that supplies their clothes. I looked in my closet and gasped!

She's right. I'm as much at fault as anyone. And here I am ranting about environmental concerns and it never even occurred to me that I am as much a culprit as the fellow living in a city with an eight cylinder, gas guzzling truck traveling back and forth to work when he could be using the bus.... I'm every bit as bad at the fellow using a two stroke engine motorcycle... I am a polluter just as bad as anyone else. Mea Culpa! Yeah... you bet!

I thought long and hard about this.

I think there are reasonable uses of petrolium products, some that in this modern world are very hard to get away from. (The medical world is one of those areas.) I don't think we can live with the kind of blossoming populations without some mass produced items. Clothing is one of them.  Let me tell you I certainly was appreciative of my polar fleece last week when I was camping! But we can be thoughtful of what we purchase. Instead of buying the inexpensive sweater that we know is the next best thing to being plastic, why not take a harder look at who we are, and what we want for this world we share, and buy something that was made from renewable resources like wool, or cotton or silk. Even linen is a better choice... though harder to find. One or two items in the closet that have petroleum in them is not terrible but for me the perfect closet would be the one that is mostly wool, cotton, silk....and linen with only one or two items of those petroleum based fibres.

That doesn't mean we have to go out and start slaughtering seals for our winter boots (oh now there's a bone of contention for an expatriate Newfy!) Nor do we have to go looking to the Innuit for Cariboo hides for our outerwear.

I think what I am saying is that we just need to be a little more thoughtful about our usership of those products that hurt the earth and make living on this planet a little more precarious.

It will take me a while to rid myself of this dastardly evidence of my blatant use of petroleum. I am not rich enough to have the luxury of going through my closet and throwing out the things that offend me.... but as I replace old clothing I am going to think long and hard about what I need and look at those natural fibres a little harder... yes they may be more difficult to care for but in the end... we all benefit. 

Mea Culpa?..... we all are....

This Is Teapot

This is Teapot. This is last winter on a beautiful afternoon waiting for cross country skiers to come by his post....... this picture is the perfect picture of Teapot.... he loves tea and especially out in the woods. 

Happy Birthday, dear! Let's go find the perfect spot in the woods for a cup of tea!

Phsssstttttt!

That's me blowing raspberries from my straight jacket......

I have been chasing the ever elusive 12 t.p.i. I thought I had it..... yes I did.... but I washed the skein and it relaxed and turned into a 10 t.p.i. So I'm back at it again today.

All day yesterday I spent nursing my prolapsed disk and all the stupid radiating pain down my left leg from sleeping on the ground on a mattress that wouldn't hold up a starving African, let alone a fat middle aged balogna butt. And while doing that, I did some catching up on write ups for work previously done on my level 3 homework.... yeah, yeah, yeah.... I know it is due today. Phhhhssssttt to that too!

Anyway, my 12 t.p.i. turned into a 10 t.p.i. and so I still had a little bit of cotton singles on two spools so I jumped right on that and spun the rest of the cotton as a two ply yarn and guess what..... no guesses eh?...  ok I'll tell you what.... I got my 15 t.p.i. It is washed and hanging to dry as we speak.... All I have left of that blinking section is the dumb and ever elusive 12 t.p.i.

Then there are only two sections left.

It is 5:44 a.m. and the sky is orange, purple and grey off to the east.... I'm hoping it will be a nice day.  I might even take my spinning out on the deck. All is quiet on the home front.... though Daughter #1 is away at a sleep over with one of her friends. I love this time of the day. There are no ruddy interruptions and all is beautifully quiet. Dreamer the horse is pacing in her paddock... the sheep are stirring and milling about, the alpacas are soporific... the cat is off hunting and not making a racket to come in and check his dish for crunchies.  The bats have settled for the day after hunting all night and they are not soaring and veering around the outside of the house... the birds are just starting their morning chatter.  All is well with the world.

Except for that d#$n 12 t.p.i. I think I'll go try again... (sigh)!

A Cold Night Brings Thoughts Of School

I think I can safely say that Canadians generally tend to watch weather patterns. This morning I woke and came downstairs to our first frost. It didn't really surprise me since this area often receives frost between the middle of August and then end of August. Last night, before I went to bed I let Jiggs out... and as I did I had a look at the night sky.... it was full of stars with a crystal clearness that signals a cold night. A sure reminder that it won't be summer for long. We are beginning to think about school again as Teapot and the girls head back a week from now. The growing season is almost over and what didn't die off in the heat over the last few months, is turning brilliant shades of yellow, mustard, and gold. After this frost there will be red as well, I expect.

I awoke this morning to thick fog and wanted to go out into the fog looking for photos.... but the cold chased me back to bed to another hour of reading and partaking of the last few sleep-ins that we'll enjoy before the normal schedule of getting people out the door for school returns. Teapot and I are thinking that we might take the girls for a shopping day soon. Our camping trip was cut short due to weather but the least we can do is give them some time to think about what they want and need before school starts. A shopping trip to the great big city would be good for them... actually for all of us.

Living in a small town has given us good memories over the years. We have on occasion taken our two Daughters for shopping trips and have always found something to laugh about due to their lack of know-how in the big city. Having grown up in a small city (albeit a city all the same) I find that my children's lack of understanding for city things amazes and amuses me no end. For instance, they love to ride on escalators, they love to be the one to press the button on the elevator, and they are not sure what to do when they walk on the sidewalk and come to a street corner where there is a cross walk.... (you know... press the button and wait for the little white walking man) these are the things that having grown up in the city you don't realize that was taught to you to at some point in time.... it doesn't come as a-priori knowledge.  City folk take these things for granted.... we think it is magic!

Our idea of shopping,  living in the north and such a small town, (population about 1000), is to turn on the computer and surf. We can buy just about anything that we want just by surfing around and googling specific terms.... like jeans and runners. The problem is that as the Daughters get older... (and shaplier), there is more of a need to try things on, so that is why Teapot and I think that perhaps it is time they go shopping for real. We have a few things that we are waiting on before we head off for this trip.... (if we go at all) but if we go we will make a bit of a holiday of it and stay in a real live hotel..... oooooh! aaaaah! (And the crowd goes wild!) The Daughters would be able to ride escalators to their hearts content!

Isn't it amazing what a cold night will bring....

That's Not Fair....

Oh what a beautiful morning...... it's sunny.... and to think we could be paddling and enjoying the river if we were still there. Greeeaaatttt! And we came home because the forecast was calling for rain, rain and more rain.... well, I just want to know were all that rain is!!!

I'm seriously p--sed!  : (

I'm Sure Murphy's Law Reigns Supreme

Forget moral law,  forget state law, forget law of any kind except Murphy's Law. That fellow Murphy must have had some power..... I mean his law reigns supreme.... at least in my life.... no doubt about it! Yup.... all summer I begged, pleaded, and desired rain like nothing else and I finally got it. Yup... right when I was camping....
 The grass was wet.... the fire wood was wet... the sleeping bag was wet, (because stupid here forgot to close the vent in the tent)..... my shoes were wet.... my pants were wet.... the matches were wet.... the containers we carried our food in were wet.... the toilet paper was wet.... the dogs were wet.... and muddy. And... my backside hurt from a severe case of siatica.

Murphy... you got to love him.

I'm home again after three arduous days of camping in the bush.... and I mean bush.

After packing on Tuesday... and Wednesday morning, Teapot, the Daughters and I headed off for a hopeful few days of traveling down river with the intention of camping in different spots each night when we got off the river. It didn't quite happen the way we hoped.

Our first camp site was only 20 minutes down river. we did this purposely because we had never camped with the Daughters in this rough situation before, and we thought that if there were any problems after the first night we could combat them with a quick stop at our house as we passed by on our second day. (Our starting point was upriver from our house.) I had never paddled in the steering position on a river before, so it was with trepidation that I set off with Daughter #2 in my canoe about 50 feet ahead of Teapot and Daughter #1. Teapot and Daughter #1 have way more power than Me and Daughter #2 so it was not long before they had caught up to us and we were able to chat away as we paddled along. There were loons and geese all over the place and we saw an eagle on the shore tearing a fish to bits and eating it.... It was overcast but pleasantly warm and just a very soft breeze.


Soon the island that we were going to camp on the first night (one on which we had camped before) was quickly coming up and I was getting nervous thinking about having to maneuver toward shore. one screw up and we would be finding a different island to camp on. The river was high and so it was flowing fairly quickly. There was too much room for mistakes... Teapot was trying to direct me to paddle into a back eddy however if I missed that I was going to be washed right past the whole island.... so in a panic I quit listening to him and headed for shore straight on.... anywhere.... I didn't care if I hit the rocks head on.... I just went for it.... and guess what.... I hit a back eddy that we hadn't seen just a little ways from where Teapot was directing me and made a perfect.... I mean text book... landing.  Daughter #2 and I both had such looks of surprise on our faces that you would have laughed.  I think even Teapot was surprised.... of course I acted like I knew it was going to happen like that.....

Night #1
We set up camp and settled down to making a good supper. Along about 10 p.m. it was dark and getting cool and the Daughters were tired and ready for bed so we all decided to head into the tent.... that when we discovered that one of the air mattresses was leaking.... Teapot found the leak and made an effort to fix it with the great Canadian fix-all tool.... Duct Tape... gotta love it...

After a few short hours of sleep... (ha like that really happened) I looked across to Daughter #1 who was wide awake with her iPod on.... By 5 a.m., Teapot had slept but really no one else had.... (does that say something about men?) due to a too thin mattress, an air mattress that wouldn't stay blown up, and a decrepit old lady with a back problem (ah, that would be moi). The day was cool and grey with the threat of rain.... and sure enough we had a few showers.... but none that lasted long... Everyone was wiped and my back.... ( stupid thing) had decided to seise up.... By noon, I could hardly stand up and certainly not straight.... so much for sleeping on an air bed.... aren't they supposed to be the ultimate in outdoor bedroom facilities?!

Teapot returned home, which was directly across the river from where we were camping, (as the crow flys about 2 1/2 km away) to get foamies and an extra tent so that we could fix the sleeping situation. With my back so bad we thought that not going further down river would be smart until the medication that I always carry for just such situations, kicked in. 

Night #2
It started to rain along about supper time and rained right through the night which would have been alright except that Jiggs in her excitement to rip around the campsite the first night, had hit one of the guy ropes on the tent and provided some permanent damage to the fly... which for you non campers is the thing that helps to keep out the rain. Also I had forgotten the vent and the rain had been pouring in on the neck of my sleeping bag and pajamas.... that meant that when I went to go to bed.... well I was wet. I didn't bother with pajamas that night opting instead for a pair of sweat pants and a t-shirt. The Daughters by this time were in the tent that Teapot had gotten at the house earlier in the day and  we were in the wet tent with a tarp strung over it. This was good! My sleeping bag was not as bad as I expected and proved to only be wet on the outside.... which I covered up with and extra blanket. I slept but not well, (I read a lot and even practiced Takli spinning in bed) still though it was better than the first night...

So where was I.... oh yes... all night long it poured,.... and poured,.... and poured..... when we woke it was still pouring..... but we managed to get breakfast lunch and supper in the pouring down rain.... with another tarp over our heads, that Teapot had to climb several trees to string. Along about 9 p.m. we all decided that with the rain it wasn't worth staying up and so we headed off to bed. That's when it stopped raining. It was quite a bit cooler. Teapot and I had given up our nice air bed to the Daughters so that they were able to sleep better and my back was just about gone altogether (remember, I read a lot and even practiced Takli spinning in bed)..... I had two 2 inch foamies and Teapot was sleeping on the dud air mattress with the 1 inch foamie over that... And he slept!!!! (I'm sure that says something about men....!)


The next day we enjoyed rain showers off and on with a little bit of sun for about an hour around noon. But it wasn't long before we were back to showers. We kept dry as best we could though walking through the knee high wet grass to the bathroom facilities that Teapot had built, was not helping at all. It was a lot cooler... (only 9 degrees) and my back was continuing to give problems.... that medication was just not doing the trick so I doubled it. Nope... that didn't do the trick either. Teapot tried fishing.... no fish biting with all that rain. He set up a scavenger hunt with his GPS for the Daughters and while they were off looking for his items it really poured. Finally we were all feeling pretty low so we went to bed with the hopes that there would be better weather on the next day.

Night #3
I hit the bed in complete exhaustion.... my jammies were dry.... the tent was dry.... the sleeping bag was dry..... from that short burst of sunshine around noon.... so I was a happy camper. I fell asleep right away and only woke in the middle of the night to the cry of coyotes on the next island.... (very near and quite awesome in a shiver-up-your-back kind of way). I prayed that it would be nice in the morning and promptly fell back to sleep. At 6 a.m. I woke to a light shower hitting the tent so I went back to sleep again.... an hour later I woke again and it had stopped raining.

We got up at about 9 a.m. and had breakfast and called Fadder on the cell to see what the forecast was. Rain, rain and more rain. So we figured that we should pack up while the going was good and cut our mini vacation short. It was just as we were packing that canoes when the last rain shower hit. We got drenched. Down the river to the boat launch which was not far away.... and home for showers and warm dry clothes.

Highlights of the trip???? The full moon coming out from behind the clouds on the first night. Playing finger games with a sleepless Daughter #1 in the middle of the night. Eagle on shore with a fish for its supper. a flock of Canada geese coming in for a landing on the river not far from us. A perfect landing in the canoe. paddling through standing waves perfectly for the first time. Making the decision to buy a Voyageur Canoe also known as a Big Canoe. Getting pretty good at Takli night spinning by flash light.Paddling with Daughter #2. And getting home and dry and warm. Typical trip eh?

Getting to our campsite where our canoes are pulled up.

Looking up river from our campsite.

Looking down river from our campsite.

Sunset

Look at that sunshine as the sun goes down.

Almost gone is that glorious sun. that's the last we saw of it!

Camp fire discussion of what to do about the air mattress in the background.

Roasting marshmellows.

Beautiful clouds....

All around.

Teapot (probably wishing he was fishing...)

Heading home today...

We're old pros by now.....

Off loading the canoes...

That's quite a pile of gear.

Waiting for pick up.

Helping with the canoes... this is not ours but one that we borrowed.

This is ours.

Jiggs looks happy...

Daughter #2 looks happy... well, sort of....

Daughter #1 looks happy.....

Tootsie just looks hairy and nobody can tell if he is happy.... but he probably is.

Teapot looks happy.

That smile means I'm happy....

I think we'd all do it again in a heartbeat... even in the rain!