A Taste of Green Gables

For those of you who are familiar the 1908 story of Anne of Green Gables, you may remember that Anne loved raspberry cordial.

When I came across raspberry cordial earlier in the summer, I had to try some.

Though it was a bit sweet for my liking, it certainly tasted of raspberries, and it made quite a refreshing drink when diluted with soda water: a real taste of Prince Edward Island.

On The Needles

This has been a busy year for knitting, though with varying degrees of success.  I started this pattern for the second time recently, after I decided that it really wasn’t big enough, due to ‘negative ease’.  What this means, for the non-knitters amongst you, is that the pattern is designed to be close-fitting,  but it was so close-fitting as to not meet at the front (it’s a cardigan).

Frustrating though it was, I had to unravel it in its entirety and go up a size - the lace yoke had to be knitted again, as the pattern for the larger size is different.  

The good news is that I love this Baa Ram Ewe Dovestone yarn, especially the colour.  It reminds me of the colour of the heather moors of the North York Moors in late August...a little taste of home.

In A Pickle

I discovered this lovely book, The Modern Preserver, just in time to preserve some of our home-grown produce, much of which was saved after September’s post-tropical storm.

Kylee Newton turned a hobby of creating preserves to give as gifts to friends into a business, and she shares some of her most popular recipes in her book.

As it was too late to try preserving summer fruit, I decided to give the pickle recipes a try.  I made her pickled cucumber relish, with pickling cucumbers, red onion and red pepper, as well as a selection of spices.  This pickle only keeps for four weeks (in the fridge), so it wasn’t suitable for longer-term storage.  I found it a bit sweet for my taste, but I would consider making it again, but with less sugar.

I also made a spiced zucchini relish with our garden produce, but I don’t have a photograph of this one.  

I used a Mennonite recipe as the basis for dill pickles and these should be ready to eat about now.  I grew the dill in the garden, so it was nice to put it to good use.  

As for our beetroot, we had a very disappointing harvest this year, despite sowing more beetroot seeds than last year.  Our entire harvest only made two and a half jars.  I don’t use a recipe for this, as I prefer my beetroot unadulterated.  I boil them until tender, peel, slice and add them to sterilized jars, then cover with pickling vinegar.  They are absolutely delicious, so I’m saving a jar for Christmas.  

Thought For The Day - Part I

I got this postcard with a magazine earlier in the year.  It is such a seasonal autumn scene and I love the sentiment expressed.  The words speak for themselves.

Autumn

When I last posted in September, it was in the aftermath of hurricane Dorian.  Almost two months later, the clean-up continues and successive storms have brought down yet more trees.

On one of the rare sunny days of autumn, I did manage to go down to the boardwalk and take a couple of photos of the changing colours, in the more sheltered areas where the leaves remained on the trees.

It has been a very wet and windy autumn so far, but at least we have been spared the early snow of last year.  As the clocks go back tonight, there is a real feeling of change in the air, as winter approaches.

NaBloPoMo 2019

November is here again and with it, the challenge of NaBloPoMo: to post every day for the month.

I looked at my blog last week and I was surprised to find that I had only posted on ten occasions this year.  Where has the time gone?

Yesterday was Hallowe’en and I thought that I would share this unusual piece of ironwork, made from an empty propane tank.  We discovered a local blacksmith in the early part of the summer when we had friends visiting from Ontario.  They had read about this place and we found it on a back road that we had never been along before.  They had some great pieces, including these seasonal ones.  I wonder how the local children would have reacted if we had had these in our garden last night?

After The Storm

I can’t quite believe that it is almost two months since I last posted, but I’ve had various issues with my home computer, as well as with Blogger.  If anyone knows of a good (preferably free) photo editing app, I would be happy to hear about it.  I used to use Picasa, but it is no longer supported by Google, which has led to all sorts of issues in trying to upload photos and add watermarks.

Anyway, last Saturday saw the arrival of Hurricane Dorian, although it was downgraded to a tropical cyclone by the time it hit Prince Edward Island, we still had hurricane-force winds of 120 km/hr or 75 mph/hr.  We had been out and arrived home just as the rain was starting.  During the course of the afternoon, threatening clouds rolled in and the rain came down in sheets - mostly horizontally.  We watched as the sky darkened and the winds increased dramatically.

As darkness fell, the power went off and we sat in candlelight - in other circumstances, it might have been romantic, but it sounded like the roof was being ripped off our house and we ended up with water coming under the back door, so were piling towels against it to stem the flow.  

Looking out into the darkness, there was no light to be seen and everyone must have been sheltering indoors.  The maple tree in our front garden was bending and swaying to such an extent that I thought it wouldn’t survive the night.

The night was noisy and the storm raged on around us.  It was impossible to sleep until the early hours, when the winds finally died down a bit.

Next morning, we looked out onto a scene of devastation, but little realised the extent of it from the safety of home.  Our vegetable garden had been destroyed, but our maple tree was still standing.  Other trees in our neighbourhood had suffered extensive damage.

Late in the afternoon, we drove into town and were shocked by the extent of the damage.  Huge trees had been uprooted and laid across cars and houses.  Craters had opened up in gardens where the trees had once stood.  Mr Candytuft talked to someone who had lost seven mature trees from their garden in one night.

A week later, there are still about 6,000 homes without power.  We were lucky that ours was restored quickly, but others have been less fortunate.  We heard of some dramatic rescues from along the shore, but fortunately, no fatalities, unlike the Bahamas, where this storm originated.

Even today, I look around at the extent of the destruction and I feel humbled by the power of nature.  I read a news story of the devastation in the National Park at Cavendish, where 80% of the trees have been destroyed.  The clean-up continues and everywhere we look, there are piles of branches and trees being cleared.  It will be many weeks before life returns to a semblance of normality.  We are just thankful that everyone is alive to share their stories of the night that the storm hit and its aftermath.