Crisis averted, and first 1/2 batch of buttercream icing completed. Initially I forgot to add the sugar to the egg whites while warming on them stove, and yes, I have made this particular recipe more than once. I'd whipped the whites up to stiff peaks by the time I realized my error. Thankfully, reheating the white with the sugar does not seemed to have had any negative affects on the icing. On to the second 1/2 batch (1/2 batches are all my poor little hand mixer can handle).
Ciao,
Andrea
Friday, March 11, 2011
7:12: Decoration (Judgment) Day: Live Blog
I like to live dangerously by separating my eggs directly over the measuring cup. Thankfully, no yolk in the first batch of swiss meringue buttercream icing. Egg whites are warming, and the first cup of coffee's ready to be poured.
Ciao,
Andrea
Ciao,
Andrea
7:00: Decoration (Judgment) Day: Live Blog
It seems my body is set to a certain wake up time during the week--I'd only set my alarm to go off now. Oh well, it gives me a bit of extra time to get dressed and set the coffee going before I start the first cake-related task of the day. Time to pull the cakes out of the freezer. I'll let them thaw for a little while before I set to work on them. In the meantime I've got to whip up a batch of buttercream icing.
Ciao,
Andrea
Ciao,
Andrea
Monday, March 7, 2011
Cake-central at the Milne appartment
I worked on my second wedding cake this weekend--primarily the baking part. I'm a little nervous about this cake since this one's not for family and I'm getting paid for it--therefore it really needs to look good. I made a test cake back in December? January? for the bride to taste and see if she liked the flavour. I'd been asked to make a coconut cake, which I just happened to have a recipe for. The cake was given bride-approval. On Friday night I baked the top two layers of the cake (10 inches and 12 inches respectively), then on Saturday morning I finished off the bottom two (14 inches and 16 inches), plus an additional small layer (8 inches) since I had enough ingredients left to do one more half batch.
One of the biggest challenges this time around is that I only have my tiny apartment kitchen to work in. Back in October, I had my parent's giant kitchen, their huge (and much newer stove), plus my mom's industrial strength mixer. My oven is inconsistent at best (and so burning the cake was a concern), and I only have my trusty old hand-mixer to whip together the batter. To my great relief everything worked smoothly. I had to mix up 6 single batches of the cake batter as my equipment couldn't handle more than one at a time, and by carefully monitoring my oven and rotating pans I was able to avoid a charcoal catastrophe. The whole process took around five hours. Now all the cake layers are wrapped in plastic and taking up almost all of the space in my freezer until this Friday when I'll complete the cake.
Then on Sunday, in an effort to make my life easier come Decoration Day (possibly also judgment day?), I piped out around 3 dozen icing flowers. I used royal icing for this so there won't be any chance of the flowers going droopy on the Wedding Day, and coloured them a dark purple (with a little white to liven them up). I opted to make 'sweet pea' blossoms as they seemed relatively easy, and used instructions from an old (1970s) Wilton book my mom gave me at Christmas. It took less time than I would have expected to pipe the flowers taking me only around an hour (while watching Jane Eyre on YouTube).
Finally, a few things I learned this time around:
1) Alberta Bulk Barns do not rent their large cake pans (even though they do in Ontario). I am now the proud owner of a set of four circular Wilton cake pans.
2) Cake Release is SO worth it. Each cake layer just slid out with next to no effort besides loosening the cake a little on the sides.
3) It's probably not a good idea to look at Cake Wrecks when you're a little nervous about the icing flowers you piped, either on Sunday when amazing cakes are featured, nor the rest of the time when the cakes are terrible.
Ciao,
Andrea
One of the biggest challenges this time around is that I only have my tiny apartment kitchen to work in. Back in October, I had my parent's giant kitchen, their huge (and much newer stove), plus my mom's industrial strength mixer. My oven is inconsistent at best (and so burning the cake was a concern), and I only have my trusty old hand-mixer to whip together the batter. To my great relief everything worked smoothly. I had to mix up 6 single batches of the cake batter as my equipment couldn't handle more than one at a time, and by carefully monitoring my oven and rotating pans I was able to avoid a charcoal catastrophe. The whole process took around five hours. Now all the cake layers are wrapped in plastic and taking up almost all of the space in my freezer until this Friday when I'll complete the cake.
 |
| All the ingredients I required for baking the cake. |
 |
| The largest cake pan filled with batter. |
 |
| My trusty mixer, plowing through a batch of batter--this was toward the end of the process where I'm adding in the egg whites. |
 | |
| The freezer filled with 5 layers of coconut cake. I'm sure I could figure out how many square inches of cake that is, but I don't remember all the mathmatical formulas to make the calculation. |
 |
| Me piping a flower using my flower nail. By this time my icing was getting a touch soft from the heat of my hand, but everything still worked all right. |
 |
| The spoils of my hour. |
1) Alberta Bulk Barns do not rent their large cake pans (even though they do in Ontario). I am now the proud owner of a set of four circular Wilton cake pans.
2) Cake Release is SO worth it. Each cake layer just slid out with next to no effort besides loosening the cake a little on the sides.
3) It's probably not a good idea to look at Cake Wrecks when you're a little nervous about the icing flowers you piped, either on Sunday when amazing cakes are featured, nor the rest of the time when the cakes are terrible.
Ciao,
Andrea
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Dramatic works at the ESO
Friday night was our first ESO concert of the new year. We'd initially purchased tickets to the Bugs Bunny and Friends show that took place last Saturday, but when I was asked if I wanted to go to the Cochrane Conference we had to exchange our tickets. Luckily, the ESO has an excellent exchange policy and we were able to switch our tickets to the show with Tom Allen (long time radio show host on CBC2) in May instead. At any rate, it had been several months since our last concert and so we (or at least I) was looking forward to this show.
The first thing we noticed when we took our seats was that the stage was filled to the brim with instruments. I don't know what it is, but I always get excited when I see so many instruments set up for a concert. Maybe it's that I'm happy that so many musicians are going to be employed for the evening; that I'm looking forward to the huge sound that so many musicians can produce; or that I'm curious to see what kind of music requires two harps, three pianos, a celesta, a small army of percussion instruments....and why is there a lone bass resting over there by the percussion section? Yeah, that was definitely one of my first questions upon sitting down--that extra bass sitting all by itself, what was it doing there? The answer to what kind of music required all those instruments was quickly answered when I saw that Leonard Berstein was on the program. Although I wasn't familiar with the piece The Age of Anxiety I could well imagine that Berstien's piece was going to be a complex and interesting symphony.
Conductor-in-residence Lucus Waldin took the podium for the first two pieces of the evening and began with a wonderfully majestic selection by Steven Stucky--which was actually an arrangement of the Henry Purcell piece, Funeral Music for Queen Mary. This arrangement called for only brass, woodwinds, and if I remember correctly timpani. Funeral Music, as you might expect was a fairly somber piece, yet it was taken at just the right tempo so it didn't drag on or feel oppressively mournful. It felt more like the music had a steady, purposeful drive like say, Bolero, or the opening bars of Also sparch Zarathustra. All-in-all, both Andrew and I rather liked it, and I'd be interested to hear the Purcell arrangement sometime.
The second piece of the evening was the Berstein, which called in the entire orchestra, plus Music Director Bill Eddins who took a seat at the grand piano positioned front and centre. There was much talk about The Age of Anxiety during the after thoughts session. In fact, I think there was very little said about either of the other selections on the bill. Where to start with this piece? Well, I suppose it should be noted that The Age of Anxiety was inspired by a Pulitzer Prize-winning poem written by W.H. Auden and was published in 1947. The basic premise (as I understand it, having not read the poem) is that it is a discussion between four people trying to determine what it means to be human. Yeah. Heavy stuff, but as pointed out, this poem was written just post-WWII, so many writers and poets were thinking heavy thoughts at that time.
The Age of Anxiety delivered what I'd expected, and so I liked. That is to say, it was different, it was challenging and complex. Andrew (who wasn't so keen) used the word frenetic to describe it, and I'd say that's reasonably apt. It felt as though the theme changed every few bars, which is in fact what it did. The first half of the symphony was meant to illustrate (through music) the discussion going on between the four characters: first a dicussion of the seven stages of aging (seven variations), then a discussion of the seven stages of development (another seven variations). This lack of consistency can make for more challenging listening, but as I've noted in previous posts, I like being challenged occasionally. As I listened; however, I did wonder if the musicians enjoyed playing this kind of music. Lucas indicated during the after thoughts talk that the first run through was difficult, and that they just had to grit their teeth and plow through. Finally, late in the performance the purpose of the extra bass was made apparent. One of the bassists walked (quiety) off stage, to return a few minutes later on the other side, by the percussionists. The second to last section of the symphony was written in a jazz-style, which called for a bass to keep the beat.
I could write a couple more paragraphs at least about The Age of Anxiety, but then I would never get this blog post done. One last thing I would like to acknowledge is that Bill Eddins is one of three people in the world who has both conducted and played the piano for this Berstein piece (one of the other two being Berstein himself). He also said that he had to play this piece from memory as was simply too busy--that he wouldn't have the time to turn the pages otherwise.
After the intermission the ESO performed Beethoven's Third Symphony, the Eroica with Bill back on the conductors stand (conducting from memory, I might add). This symphony was initially dedicated to Napoleon; however, that dedication was revoked after Napoleon declared himself to be the Emperor of France. I enjoyed the Eroica for much the same reasons I enjoyed the Berstien. It was exactly as I expected it to be: dramatic and enchanting, it was over before I'd expected it to be--even though the play time is a whopping 48 minutes. It's funny to think after listening to The Age of Anxiety that when Beethoven's Third was first performed in 1805, it was deemed a 'danger to public morals,' and not performed again for another 40 years. I'd be willing to bet there are a number of rock songs that have also been termed 'dangerous' and haven't seen a similar ban.
As always the ESO delivered a delightful evening. Our next concert should be in March (better check my calander on that...) and our subscriber packages should be arriving in the mail soon as well. Can't wait.
Ciao,
Andrea
The first thing we noticed when we took our seats was that the stage was filled to the brim with instruments. I don't know what it is, but I always get excited when I see so many instruments set up for a concert. Maybe it's that I'm happy that so many musicians are going to be employed for the evening; that I'm looking forward to the huge sound that so many musicians can produce; or that I'm curious to see what kind of music requires two harps, three pianos, a celesta, a small army of percussion instruments....and why is there a lone bass resting over there by the percussion section? Yeah, that was definitely one of my first questions upon sitting down--that extra bass sitting all by itself, what was it doing there? The answer to what kind of music required all those instruments was quickly answered when I saw that Leonard Berstein was on the program. Although I wasn't familiar with the piece The Age of Anxiety I could well imagine that Berstien's piece was going to be a complex and interesting symphony.
Conductor-in-residence Lucus Waldin took the podium for the first two pieces of the evening and began with a wonderfully majestic selection by Steven Stucky--which was actually an arrangement of the Henry Purcell piece, Funeral Music for Queen Mary. This arrangement called for only brass, woodwinds, and if I remember correctly timpani. Funeral Music, as you might expect was a fairly somber piece, yet it was taken at just the right tempo so it didn't drag on or feel oppressively mournful. It felt more like the music had a steady, purposeful drive like say, Bolero, or the opening bars of Also sparch Zarathustra. All-in-all, both Andrew and I rather liked it, and I'd be interested to hear the Purcell arrangement sometime.
The second piece of the evening was the Berstein, which called in the entire orchestra, plus Music Director Bill Eddins who took a seat at the grand piano positioned front and centre. There was much talk about The Age of Anxiety during the after thoughts session. In fact, I think there was very little said about either of the other selections on the bill. Where to start with this piece? Well, I suppose it should be noted that The Age of Anxiety was inspired by a Pulitzer Prize-winning poem written by W.H. Auden and was published in 1947. The basic premise (as I understand it, having not read the poem) is that it is a discussion between four people trying to determine what it means to be human. Yeah. Heavy stuff, but as pointed out, this poem was written just post-WWII, so many writers and poets were thinking heavy thoughts at that time.
The Age of Anxiety delivered what I'd expected, and so I liked. That is to say, it was different, it was challenging and complex. Andrew (who wasn't so keen) used the word frenetic to describe it, and I'd say that's reasonably apt. It felt as though the theme changed every few bars, which is in fact what it did. The first half of the symphony was meant to illustrate (through music) the discussion going on between the four characters: first a dicussion of the seven stages of aging (seven variations), then a discussion of the seven stages of development (another seven variations). This lack of consistency can make for more challenging listening, but as I've noted in previous posts, I like being challenged occasionally. As I listened; however, I did wonder if the musicians enjoyed playing this kind of music. Lucas indicated during the after thoughts talk that the first run through was difficult, and that they just had to grit their teeth and plow through. Finally, late in the performance the purpose of the extra bass was made apparent. One of the bassists walked (quiety) off stage, to return a few minutes later on the other side, by the percussionists. The second to last section of the symphony was written in a jazz-style, which called for a bass to keep the beat.
I could write a couple more paragraphs at least about The Age of Anxiety, but then I would never get this blog post done. One last thing I would like to acknowledge is that Bill Eddins is one of three people in the world who has both conducted and played the piano for this Berstein piece (one of the other two being Berstein himself). He also said that he had to play this piece from memory as was simply too busy--that he wouldn't have the time to turn the pages otherwise.
After the intermission the ESO performed Beethoven's Third Symphony, the Eroica with Bill back on the conductors stand (conducting from memory, I might add). This symphony was initially dedicated to Napoleon; however, that dedication was revoked after Napoleon declared himself to be the Emperor of France. I enjoyed the Eroica for much the same reasons I enjoyed the Berstien. It was exactly as I expected it to be: dramatic and enchanting, it was over before I'd expected it to be--even though the play time is a whopping 48 minutes. It's funny to think after listening to The Age of Anxiety that when Beethoven's Third was first performed in 1805, it was deemed a 'danger to public morals,' and not performed again for another 40 years. I'd be willing to bet there are a number of rock songs that have also been termed 'dangerous' and haven't seen a similar ban.
As always the ESO delivered a delightful evening. Our next concert should be in March (better check my calander on that...) and our subscriber packages should be arriving in the mail soon as well. Can't wait.
Ciao,
Andrea
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Social media in medicine: the possibilities are...endless?
Rather than blogging about the entire Canadian Cochrane Symposium I thought I would just discuss a few points from the session I found most interesting. This talk was presented by a group of librarians and discussed how blogs, wikis and Twitter can be used in evidence-based medicine. I'd read about the session before heading to Vancouver and had marked it as one I needed to attend as I use all three media (Blog--well isn't that obvious?; Twitter--yup, if you view my blog in Blogger you can see my feed on the right hand side; and I use pbworks to keep track of the plot, characters and other details from my manuscripts). This is also an area where, if I ever reconsidered my decision to not do a PhD, I would be most interested in studying.
First, let's consider blogs. They're primarily a one way source of communication. I tell you what I've been up to as of late, you read it, and if you feel like it you might comment. It's also a form of instant or self publishing. There are tons of medical and health blogs out there. I follow a couple, namely Weight Matters, Food Politics and Sweat Science. Since my interests tend toward nutrition and physical activity, I follow blogs that appeal to me, but there are many more. Some blogs are run by knowledgeable experts, some not, which seems to be one of the biggest sources of consternation among health care professionals and researchers. How successful is the average person at sorting through the plethora of health blogs to determine which ones provide evidence-based information and advice, and which ones don't? It's hard to say. Even as a researcher and librarian I don't always double check the credentials of the blogs and Websites I read--and I should know better.
One potential use of blogging that I found particularly interesting was the idea that they could be used by academics as a method of disseminating their research findings. In the present academic system I'm sure this would never fly, but why couldn't it? Journals articles can take months, if not years to publish. Why not use the immediacy of a blog to circulate research findings? I can easily imagine the first argument against this idea: it's not peer reviewed. My response, is why not? Readers have the power to comment on blogs. If a researcher blogs about their research, their colleagues (i.e. peers) and anyone else would have the power to discuss the findings in an open and public way--something that's not necessarily the case in the current peer-review system. There are many other arguments I'm sure (How would one cite an academic blog? Professors are too busy and don't have time, etc), but I think it's an interesting idea.
Then there's wikis. I think everyone who's ever searched for something through Google and found the answer provided by Wikipedia is familiar with wikis, even if they're not exactly sure what a wiki is. Wikis are collaborative Websites that allow readers to actively participate in changing/editing the content of the site (as long as they're open access, of course). Several medicine specific wikis exist such as Medpedia, and a health librarian one I sometimes use called HLWIKI Canada. An idea floated at the conference (I believe I heard this suggested in at least one other session, although which one I don't remember) was that wikis could be an ideal platform for systematic reviews. Wikis allow you to update content as frequently as needed; they keep track of changes so that readers can see how versions of pages differ over time; and contributions can be made from anywhere in the world. All these things could assist in the development, publication and dissemination of systematic reviews.
The final medium discussed in this session was Twitter. Recently, my husband asked me why I used Twitter (in absentia of his adviser who didn't understand the point of the micro-blogging service). My answer was as follows: as I hope to one-day be published author (of fiction) and I want to establish an online presence for potential readers; it's fun to follow celebrities (primarily figure skaters in my case) I admire; I can get news updates from CBC; and I've used it to post links to publications I've had come out. I also suggested to Andrew (although I haven't confirmed this) that his adviser could probably follow key academic journals in his field and receive updates about upcoming articles and research. If I wanted to, I could follow high impact medical journals such as The Lancet, BMJ and the New England Journal of Medicine to name a few.
Twitter, I think, could be a great tool for passing along evidence-based health information to the public. The problem I see, is how to you get the average Twitter user to decide to follow a feed that's purpose is to convey health information? The average individual probably uses the service to follow their friends and celebrities they're interested in, not receive reminders to wash their hands frequently to prevent the transmission of diseases. Surely if a feed like 'Sh*tmydadsays' can spawn a television show, evidence-based health information feeds can be used to inform the public of important medical advances/news, etc. Of course there's a whole other realm that needs to be considered: once you hook people into following a health information feed, does it actually change their behaviours? And who has the time, money, methods to plunge down that rabbit whole? Maybe when I can no longer resist the attraction of having the letters 'PhD' behind my name I will. Or maybe someone already is, I don't know.
So there are a few of my thoughts. Attendees at the session had a lot to say regarding social media; however one fellow ended the session by putting up his hand and saying: We're all going to be okay. Throughout history there has always been someone out there trying to sell snake oil to cure your ails, but the majority of us have always managed to determine for ourselves whether or not that claim is true. Humanity will survive the social media craze too.
Ciao,
Andrea
First, let's consider blogs. They're primarily a one way source of communication. I tell you what I've been up to as of late, you read it, and if you feel like it you might comment. It's also a form of instant or self publishing. There are tons of medical and health blogs out there. I follow a couple, namely Weight Matters, Food Politics and Sweat Science. Since my interests tend toward nutrition and physical activity, I follow blogs that appeal to me, but there are many more. Some blogs are run by knowledgeable experts, some not, which seems to be one of the biggest sources of consternation among health care professionals and researchers. How successful is the average person at sorting through the plethora of health blogs to determine which ones provide evidence-based information and advice, and which ones don't? It's hard to say. Even as a researcher and librarian I don't always double check the credentials of the blogs and Websites I read--and I should know better.
One potential use of blogging that I found particularly interesting was the idea that they could be used by academics as a method of disseminating their research findings. In the present academic system I'm sure this would never fly, but why couldn't it? Journals articles can take months, if not years to publish. Why not use the immediacy of a blog to circulate research findings? I can easily imagine the first argument against this idea: it's not peer reviewed. My response, is why not? Readers have the power to comment on blogs. If a researcher blogs about their research, their colleagues (i.e. peers) and anyone else would have the power to discuss the findings in an open and public way--something that's not necessarily the case in the current peer-review system. There are many other arguments I'm sure (How would one cite an academic blog? Professors are too busy and don't have time, etc), but I think it's an interesting idea.
Then there's wikis. I think everyone who's ever searched for something through Google and found the answer provided by Wikipedia is familiar with wikis, even if they're not exactly sure what a wiki is. Wikis are collaborative Websites that allow readers to actively participate in changing/editing the content of the site (as long as they're open access, of course). Several medicine specific wikis exist such as Medpedia, and a health librarian one I sometimes use called HLWIKI Canada. An idea floated at the conference (I believe I heard this suggested in at least one other session, although which one I don't remember) was that wikis could be an ideal platform for systematic reviews. Wikis allow you to update content as frequently as needed; they keep track of changes so that readers can see how versions of pages differ over time; and contributions can be made from anywhere in the world. All these things could assist in the development, publication and dissemination of systematic reviews.
The final medium discussed in this session was Twitter. Recently, my husband asked me why I used Twitter (in absentia of his adviser who didn't understand the point of the micro-blogging service). My answer was as follows: as I hope to one-day be published author (of fiction) and I want to establish an online presence for potential readers; it's fun to follow celebrities (primarily figure skaters in my case) I admire; I can get news updates from CBC; and I've used it to post links to publications I've had come out. I also suggested to Andrew (although I haven't confirmed this) that his adviser could probably follow key academic journals in his field and receive updates about upcoming articles and research. If I wanted to, I could follow high impact medical journals such as The Lancet, BMJ and the New England Journal of Medicine to name a few.
Twitter, I think, could be a great tool for passing along evidence-based health information to the public. The problem I see, is how to you get the average Twitter user to decide to follow a feed that's purpose is to convey health information? The average individual probably uses the service to follow their friends and celebrities they're interested in, not receive reminders to wash their hands frequently to prevent the transmission of diseases. Surely if a feed like 'Sh*tmydadsays' can spawn a television show, evidence-based health information feeds can be used to inform the public of important medical advances/news, etc. Of course there's a whole other realm that needs to be considered: once you hook people into following a health information feed, does it actually change their behaviours? And who has the time, money, methods to plunge down that rabbit whole? Maybe when I can no longer resist the attraction of having the letters 'PhD' behind my name I will. Or maybe someone already is, I don't know.
So there are a few of my thoughts. Attendees at the session had a lot to say regarding social media; however one fellow ended the session by putting up his hand and saying: We're all going to be okay. Throughout history there has always been someone out there trying to sell snake oil to cure your ails, but the majority of us have always managed to determine for ourselves whether or not that claim is true. Humanity will survive the social media craze too.
Ciao,
Andrea
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Visit to the Island
If you follow my Twtter feed, you may know that I was in BC for most of last week. First, I attended the 2011 Canadian Cochrane Symposium, then Andrew and I took the ferry across to Vancouver Island to visit family. I will *try* to get around to blogging about both (which mostly likely means I'll blog about the vacation part of my trip and never get around to commenting on the business part), but we'll see. We've got our first ESO concert of the new year coming up this Friday, so I may get distracted.
The ferry ride from North Vancouver to Nanaimo takes approximately 1 hour 40 minutes. Last Friday afternoon when Andrew and I made the crossing the trip was rather pleasant (albeit a little late to depart). The sky was clear (until the sunset--then it was just dark) and although an announcement was made to alert passengers to the choppy water conditions, neither of us found the ride rough. When we reached Nanaimo we were picked up by my brother-in-law and his wife, and then we drove to Duncan where they live (or close to it--they aren't actually in the city). Being dark by this point I couldn't see much of the landscape we passed, but when we reached Duncan we hit up a local brew pub for dinner. After a pretty decent meal (I had a tasty 'Santa Fa' veggie burger before over-indulging in a rich chocolate brownie) we drove out to the farm where my brother-in-law lives. Again, having arrived at night, we couldn't see much of the farm. Even though it wasn't terribly late upon our return we were all tired and opted to head to bed.
Saturday morning started off with beautiful sunshine (and remained sunny all day). After breakfast we took a short stroll around the area with the farm dog, somewhat unfortunately named, Bobo. The area around Duncan is far more picturesque than Edmonton, what with the mountains and lakes in the background. Plus, we were able to walk along a groomed gravel trail that had once provided a railway connection between Duncan and Victoria (apparently it goes on for ages--I'd love to walk it further sometime). Upon returning to the farm we (eventually) set to work. Before our trip Andrew had been quite keen to help prune the raging grapevines growing along one side of the house (they were quite the mess) and took the job with gusto--although not without reservation (there was some lingering concerns regarding just how much should being cut away). I helped clean up the trimmings for a while until my sister-in-law and another one of the farm roommates went to shovel chicken maneuver--oh the glamorous life of farm work. I didn't really mind as I'd come to help out and I had gloves and rubber boots to wear so it wasn't a big deal.
After lunch I was a little less enthusiastic to work. I hadn't really brought enough warm clothing (I had primarily gone to BC to attend a conference, after all), plus we were expecting Andrew's sister and her husband to drive up from Victoria for dinner, so I wanted to whip together a desert and help get a start on dinner. Before setting to work in the kitchen I assisted in digging up the last remnants of the winter beets and turnips in hopes of finding something suitable for dinner. The beets weren't in great shape, but there were enough to make cake--yup beet cake. Yum! The turnips seemed to have weathered better. There were plenty for dinner plus several more meals to come. Dinner was delicious with a plethora of veggies and a roasted chicken (raised on the farm).
Our last day in BC, Sunday started almost exactly the same as the previous day--glorious sunshine. It's much easier to get out of bed in the morning when it's sunny, rather than still dark or gray and rainy. The plan for the last day was to drive down to Victoria and have brunch with the family. The drive from Duncan to Victoria took an hour, made all the more enjoyable by the abundance of beautiful scenery (I may be living in the wrong province). When we arrived at Andrew's sister's apartment it was decided that we should head out to the beach and pick up some picnic fare on the way. Although the sun was out in full force it was still a trifle cool on the beach. Lots of families seemed to have the same idea as us; however, and we wandered about the nearby playground as our young nephew played on the swings and a octopus slide/climbing structure. Shortly before noon we piled back into the car and were dropped off at the ferry terminal to return to Vancouver, and then to Edmonton.
All in all I had a great week and weekend. Our summer vacation plans for this year are to return to the farm for a week and help out picking fruit/vegetables and doing anything else we can help out with. Suggestions were also made that we should try out 'disk golf' (apparently this is an island, low-key variation on golf that requires players to have a beer in their free hand at all times...) and possibly go sailing.
Ciao,
Andrea
The ferry ride from North Vancouver to Nanaimo takes approximately 1 hour 40 minutes. Last Friday afternoon when Andrew and I made the crossing the trip was rather pleasant (albeit a little late to depart). The sky was clear (until the sunset--then it was just dark) and although an announcement was made to alert passengers to the choppy water conditions, neither of us found the ride rough. When we reached Nanaimo we were picked up by my brother-in-law and his wife, and then we drove to Duncan where they live (or close to it--they aren't actually in the city). Being dark by this point I couldn't see much of the landscape we passed, but when we reached Duncan we hit up a local brew pub for dinner. After a pretty decent meal (I had a tasty 'Santa Fa' veggie burger before over-indulging in a rich chocolate brownie) we drove out to the farm where my brother-in-law lives. Again, having arrived at night, we couldn't see much of the farm. Even though it wasn't terribly late upon our return we were all tired and opted to head to bed.
Saturday morning started off with beautiful sunshine (and remained sunny all day). After breakfast we took a short stroll around the area with the farm dog, somewhat unfortunately named, Bobo. The area around Duncan is far more picturesque than Edmonton, what with the mountains and lakes in the background. Plus, we were able to walk along a groomed gravel trail that had once provided a railway connection between Duncan and Victoria (apparently it goes on for ages--I'd love to walk it further sometime). Upon returning to the farm we (eventually) set to work. Before our trip Andrew had been quite keen to help prune the raging grapevines growing along one side of the house (they were quite the mess) and took the job with gusto--although not without reservation (there was some lingering concerns regarding just how much should being cut away). I helped clean up the trimmings for a while until my sister-in-law and another one of the farm roommates went to shovel chicken maneuver--oh the glamorous life of farm work. I didn't really mind as I'd come to help out and I had gloves and rubber boots to wear so it wasn't a big deal.
After lunch I was a little less enthusiastic to work. I hadn't really brought enough warm clothing (I had primarily gone to BC to attend a conference, after all), plus we were expecting Andrew's sister and her husband to drive up from Victoria for dinner, so I wanted to whip together a desert and help get a start on dinner. Before setting to work in the kitchen I assisted in digging up the last remnants of the winter beets and turnips in hopes of finding something suitable for dinner. The beets weren't in great shape, but there were enough to make cake--yup beet cake. Yum! The turnips seemed to have weathered better. There were plenty for dinner plus several more meals to come. Dinner was delicious with a plethora of veggies and a roasted chicken (raised on the farm).
Our last day in BC, Sunday started almost exactly the same as the previous day--glorious sunshine. It's much easier to get out of bed in the morning when it's sunny, rather than still dark or gray and rainy. The plan for the last day was to drive down to Victoria and have brunch with the family. The drive from Duncan to Victoria took an hour, made all the more enjoyable by the abundance of beautiful scenery (I may be living in the wrong province). When we arrived at Andrew's sister's apartment it was decided that we should head out to the beach and pick up some picnic fare on the way. Although the sun was out in full force it was still a trifle cool on the beach. Lots of families seemed to have the same idea as us; however, and we wandered about the nearby playground as our young nephew played on the swings and a octopus slide/climbing structure. Shortly before noon we piled back into the car and were dropped off at the ferry terminal to return to Vancouver, and then to Edmonton.
All in all I had a great week and weekend. Our summer vacation plans for this year are to return to the farm for a week and help out picking fruit/vegetables and doing anything else we can help out with. Suggestions were also made that we should try out 'disk golf' (apparently this is an island, low-key variation on golf that requires players to have a beer in their free hand at all times...) and possibly go sailing.
Ciao,
Andrea
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