washington

Jeff and I are part of this little thing called Camping Club this summer. We are going camping as often as we can manage and hiking as much as possible all summer long. So far we've been pretty good at getting out at least once a week and have already gone camping twice this spring (and that is with some pretty crappy weather happening in this part of the world). Here are some pictures I shot while we were on Whidby Island in Washington two weeks ago. Oh, and then we finished our long weekend with a Destroyer concert in Seattle. The picture of Dan Bejar was taken with the VSCO camera app on an iPhone 4S. The rest were taken with Camera +. Love that tree with a face.

seattle

Jeff and I spent the weekend in Seattle. We travelled light. I left my camera at home and relied on my phone alone to capture a few things along the way. We visited Bainbridge Island for the first time (an easy and cheap ferry ride from Pier 52). We ate some amazing food, especially the dinner we had at Revel, and we lamented Vancouver's lack of little neighbourhood bars (because in Seattle they are EVERYWHERE and dogs are allowed to hang out in them). It was a good weekend, marred only by horrible weather on Saturday and the fact that I absent-mindedly left one of my bags in the hotel. Perhaps in the next couple of days I'll share a few more photos from our trip here. I think the iPhone 4S does a pretty decent job on the fly.

I know posts have been few and far between here lately. Chalk it up to winter and my constant busy-ness. Full-time work...who knew it would take up so much TIME?!? I've been at my current job for just under a year now (since graduation last spring) and am just starting to get the hang of this whole work/life balance thing. How do you keep up with life outside of work? What do you do on your days off?

shelburne farms, vermont

In the light of day, the fire pit that you sit around at American Flatbread still looks pretty great. And the farm cats are cute, too. After we had breakfast at the Lareau Farm Inn (cottage cheese pancakes with lemon honey butter) we drove to Shelburne Farms in Shelburne, Vermont. From what I could tell, Shelburne Farms is famous for it's cheese (I loved the cheddar spread) and the huge property is laced with beautiful walking trails. Camilla tells me that this is and always was a hobby farm, which perhaps partly explains the amazing barn that is now home to a small cadre of pettin' animals: goats, donkeys, and fancy chickens, included. My personal favourite was this badger-faced goat. If you can swing a visit to this farm I highly recommend you go. It is ridiculously beautiful and the barn itself is so much bigger and grander than these pictures can convey. It made me realize that there is this whole part of this continent that I know very little about and that has a rich history and amazing architectural traditions. I definitely want to spend more time exploring New England soon!

I'm already looking forward to my next trip, which will likely be back home to Calgary for Christmas. Jeff and I have a busy month ahead of us because we're moving (again!) and so I'm glad we took this time to chill out with friends and goats between the craziness of getting married and the annoyance of moving. Our move will be worth it, though! Lots more space and even a fireplace to call our own! Do you have any fall or winter vacations planned?

vermont vacation

While we were out east, Jeff, Camilla, Marigold and I seized the opportunity to head to Vermont for an overnighter. I've been to Vermont twice before, once with my family when I was pretty young and once before with Camilla on an adventure of unmatched proportions in an early-millenium February snowstorm. I feel like since those visits both Vermont and I have changed.

First off, I thought that the Pacific Northwest was food crazy. Wow! Vermont shows that us West Coasters don't even know about food crazy. Or maybe it's another kind of crazy. How can fancy bakeries survive in small places where the town itself appears to be for sale? The word "local" is omnipresent and, to my mind, even has a bit of a sinister ring in Vermont. Like, local or else... Okay, okay, I'll eat the undeniably delicious local honey butter on my local cottage cheese pancakes with locally roasted coffee and locally preserved preserves in this room filled with, well, non-locals. We hit up Vergennes Laundry, a cider mill (where I ate three apple cider doughnuts!!!) and had dinner at American Flatbread in Waitsfield. While waiting for your table you can take your drinks outside and sit around a bonfire with other guests. Such a great idea for a rustic restaurant! And the pizza is much more than great. It is amazing. The one pictured above (featuring Camilla's "pizza claw" whizzing through the frame) is covered in sharp cheddar, apple cider glazed butternut squash, beets, and more. And yes, the toppings are all local.

Since Jeff and I won't be back in Vermont anytime soon we are so happy that we scheduled so many great stops. Thank you, Camilla, for organizing it all! We can't imagine a better place to spend time with friends over delicious food in the autumn. And for all my jokes about local, the focus on local production really did make this a special visit and I loved seeing the pride that Vermont's residents have in their beautiful part of the world. The effort they put into making the most delicious things I've eaten in a while is really impressive and I will be dreaming of some of these places for months to come, I'm sure. 

back from montreal

Hello hello! It's been a while. I'm back now from a super fun one week vacation in Montreal and an overnighter in Vermont! New England and the east of this country is kind of paradise this time of year and I have lots of great photos to share once I do some editing. The one above I took from my Bixi (the inexpensive, convenient bike share program in Montreal) in Parc Lafontaine. In the meantime, let's take a look at my autumn to-do list. It's coming along nicely:

1. Go camping on the coast DONE

2. Visit a pumpkin patch (and conquer a corn maze while I'm there)

3. Bake a pie from scratch

4. Go apple picking

5. Visit friends in a different city DONE

6. Have a Thanksgiving feast DONE x 2!

7. Revamp the blog for a new season DONE

8. Knit something (I'm thinking chunky yarn and big needles) DONE

9. Go for a forest hike on the North Shore

10. Take photos with a new camera

11. Clean up the garden one more time

12. Walk home from work (it's a pretty long walk)

13. Ride the Stanley Park Halloween Ghost Train (Ivy and Jamie, I'm going to miss you guys this year!) DONE with Laura, Jeff, and Mike

14. Check out the Parade of Lost Souls (Halloween seems to be Vancouver's favourite holiday) - October 28


What did you get up to this past week?


Here's one of the songs that was part of our soundtrack during this trip. Enjoy!

good night and good luck

At the end of our weekend in Larabee State Park in Washington we decided to drive down to Burlington on Chuckanut Drive because from what we'd already seen of the road, it was narrow and winding and beautiful. We were not disappointed. Just where the road comes out of mixed forest and heads over a bridge to flat, delta farmland we discovered the abandoned house of Edward R. Murrow. When I read his name on the sign in front of the property I knew it sounded familiar. I looked him up when I got home and discovered that we had stumbled on the former home of a legend. I stopped in at the library last night on my way home from work and found Good Night and Good Luck (and a good cookbook) and watched it again. Murrow was very prescient about the way television programming and journalism would end up being mindless distraction. It would be good autumn evening watching if you haven't seen it before.

Tomorrow I'm excited to be running my first feature post. Laura from Cubits Organics is offering up an amazing guest post and giveaway just in time for Canadian Thanksgiving. Did you know our Thanksgiving is in October here? And that it's earlier than in the States because our harvest is earlier, too? Fun facts. Be sure to drop in tomorrow (or perhaps you'd like to subscribe via e-mail, which you can now do over there in the sidebar...). You won't want to miss this post!

we've been away

Jeff and I ran away from Vancouver and took a break from wedding-related responsibilities this weekend to hang with our friends Heather and Doug in the Okanagan. I'll share some more photos bright and early tomorrow morning. I hope that you all had an amazing weekend. Lola had a dogsittter stay with her and now she is slightly crazed due to us getting back this evening. Do you have any last minute vacations planned before September hits?

fresh air: denman island

This is the final post of photos from my island adventures over the weekend. These photos were all taken on Denman Island, another Northern Gulf Island and the island that we were staying on. Jamie invited us to stay with him at his family cabin, which was a cozy home base where we made great dinners and watched satellite tv. Our last day on the island was warm and dry and we spent a good part of the afternoon on a 9 hole golf course that's been built in a farmer's field. I've never golfed before and I took a few swings on this course only to realize that I think I swing left. I think this because swinging right felt uncomfortable and looked insane, but my first left swing felt way better and actually moved the ball in the right direction. I was mostly the animal wrangler during the golfing though.

The course was pretty unique and was completely covered in sheep crap, which Lola ate by the pound. It was totally impossible to stop her, as it really was everywhere, but I tried to prevent it as much as possible. As we left the course an island kid hit a ball in our general direction and just missed us by a few feet. What a brat! By the end of the day Lola was completely burnt out from insane outdoors adventures for two days straight, so she curled up in the cabin garden in a little hay-lined nest she built for herself. Ridiculous. Now she needs a bath possibly more than she's ever needed a bath before, and she's still tired. Jeff and I probably won't see a whole lot of her for the next day or two. She's worn out from vacation while I can't wait for the next one!

AND in Day in the Life news, next Monday's post will be by Hwasoon Kim from the amazing Morning Calm. You are not going to want to miss this one. It's going to be the perfect Monday morning post.

fresh air: hornby island part two

The second part of our day on Hornby Island involved a hike (really more like a leisurely walk) at Helliwell Provincial Park. I had to share so many photos of the later half of our day because it was amazing. The hike starts with a nice forest approach that leads to insanely beautiful sweeping ocean views. Mountains and islands, green cliffs, and miles of ocean make it impossible to avoid stopping to take a photo every two steps. The trail leads around a point on the island and into an old growth Douglas Fir forest. Look at the size of some of those beauties. Do I recommend visiting Hornby Island? How could I not! We also found a deer skull (which we brought home) and finished with a really delicious meal and pint at the local pub while we waited for the ferry back to Denman. This was such a great day, I hope you don't mind me sharing so many of my photos. By the way, can anyone ID the flower near the top of this post? One more island vacation post to come tomorrow, thanks for taking the time to look, read and comment!

fresh air: hornby island part one

lola, jeff, sarah, jamie

The first full day of our island getaway we went to Hornby Island (from Denman, which is where we were staying). These photos are taken at Tribune Bay. The beach is really all sandstone rock formations, which we explored for a long while on this gorgeous sunny day. The tide pools were full of anemones, crabs, and starfish. We all touched some of the starfish, which was sort of thrilling for this East Coast born girl. Highlights of this part of the trip were basically all based around Lola, who scared me when she fell backwards (and in slow motion) down a crack between some of the rocks. What I couldn't see from my angle is that it was totally open on one side and she just walked right out. A few minutes later she had a live crab completely in her mouth and was going to eat it whole, I guess, until it either pinched her or all of us yelling made her drop it. Wait until you see what she did the next day! Dogs are crazy travel mates. Jamie made a great call on taking us to this place. We did so much on Hornby that I'm splitting the day into two posts, the next part will be published later today.