First Fire

We had our first fire in the fire pit I set up last fall. We used it once last fall but didn't have any dry enough wood but this time we got a good fire going. We hung out with Eliza and her boyfriend and drank sangria.

Vegan Dad's lunch meat

I tried another vegan dad recipe, didn't like it so much though. All the comments on his blog were good but they were mostly from people who like the fake meats you can buy at the grocery store which we do not. It was just really bland and not a particularly nice texture. I froze the leftovers, don't know if we'll ever eat it though.
http://vegandad.blogspot.com/2008/06/veggie-lunch-meat.html

We ate it on my homemade pita bread that was really good. I used this recipe
http://mideastfood.about.com/od/breadsrice/r/wholewheatpita.htm
but added lots of oil so it would be like the greek pita bread we like without a pocket and it was really good.

Pretzels

We tried another recipe from vegandad - fresh pretzels. They were really good.
http://vegandad.blogspot.com/2009/03/fresh-pretzels.html

Kitchener

It was a lovely day today. At one point, relaxing in the background it was too hot and we decided to do stuff inside instead of enjoying the weather. It was really muggy all day and now at 5 it is finally storming.

We went to Kitchener Market for the Blooming Earth Festival - it wasn't much though just a few extra artsy vendors. And we had a walk around lovely Victoria Park and downtown Kitchener.

I also got my potatoes planted. Nothing outside has sprouted yet.

Wildlife Walk

We've been seeing so much wildlife recently and haven't had our camera out that we thought we should go out on a walk looking for wildlife and bring the camera. And we had a lot of luck.
We saw a little snake eating something.
A huge hawk or eagle. We saw a big one like this last night too and got even closer and were so mad we didn't have a camera. We found this one today in almost the same spot. We saw some more smaller hawks or eagles flying overhead tonight too but didn't get any great pictures.
We saw the first ducklings and goslings of the year!

We saw this big thing that we think was a turkey vulture on top of the big Manulife building. We also saw 2 big vultures flying yesterday.
We also saw but didn't get pictures of a muskrat and a glimpse of a heron. Didn't see any turtles today though.

Vegan Chicken Wings

I came across vegandad.blogspot.com a little while ago and tried my first of his recipes tonight. It made for a good Friday night dinner with beer. I made these chicken wings and had them with cajun fries
http://vegandad.blogspot.com/2008/05/vegan-boneless-chickenless-wings.html

They were really good and tasted a creepy amount like chicken. They actually taste exactly like these Equality brand breaded chicken burgers we used to eat in our pre-healthy eating days.

First country bike ride of the season

I went on my first real bike ride of the season. I couldn't go my usual Breslau - Bloomingdale - Conestogo route because the bridge at Bridge Street was closed and I never came across another one so instead I did Conestogo - St. Jacobs and did a bit of our standard St. Jacobs walk while I was there too. Here are some pictures of the Grand River.

Chutney and Samosas

I made samosas today so we could try out our chutney. The chutney was alright. The samosas were soo good though that they didn't even need chutney. They had a sweet potato and pea filling, a recipe we got from our vegan planet cookbook.

Toy Robot for Kevin

This morning I made a toy stuffed robot for Kevin. We saw similar ones at a craft show we went to a few weeks ago and when Kevin said he liked it I, being both cheap and a bit egotistical, said I could make one of those. And so I did.

Garden Update

Well I have most of my seedlings going. And I have planted peas and carrots out so far!

I've also been setting up trellises. These are for peas and beans.

And this one that Kevin and I made today will be for butternut squash! We hope to get lots again this year.
With the trellises up and a few things planted I feel like everything is coming together!

Apricot Date Chutney

We made apricot date chutney. We will have to make some samosas this week to try it out. I can't think of anything else that I would want to eat chutney with. It was a recipe out of the Ball Blue Book of Preserving. It didn't smell wonderful...

It was the last day of school on Friday :(
I really am sad. And I was just getting to be great friends with all my classmates. I had mostly everyone over to my house for a bbq on Friday night which was great but I'm not sure I'll manage to keep in touch with everyone.
Can't believe I won't be going to school on Monday. I will look for a job for another week or so but I think I'm ready to begin my career as a full time homemaker. And since there aren't any openings for any dream jobs out there right now, now seems to be the time to start.

Awesome bird sightings

Today on our way to Canadian Tire we saw the BIGGEST woodpecker. We've seen woodpeckers in our neighbourhood, even on the birdfeeder a couple times but this one was a whole different story. It was about the size of a mallard duck and looked just like Woody Woodpecker. We got quite close to it too. I found it online and it is the Pileated Woodpecker and they used to be endangered.And on the weekend we got to see a hawk really up close as it rested on the tree in our backyard. See them flying overhead quite oftern but never resting in our tree and so up close. It was a really pretty smooth grey one.

Chair #2 Done

I gave my mum her early Mother's Day present and it was a big success. Here it is set up on her deck.

Ginger Soda

Eliza and I made some ginger soda using this recipe (http://mothering.com/sections/recipes/ginger-soda.html). It was very tasty, all four of us liked it. We will have to make it again.

Easter Saturday

We went on a lovely walk in St. Jacobs today.

And then of course we did the egg hunt. We put a bunch of different treats from the Bulk Barn in plastic eggs. We did
dried apricots
cinnamon dried apples
dark chocolate
dried mango
dried strawberries
panda licorice
Eliza got the most eggs.

Good Friday

Have my mum and sister over for Good Friday. Made some more hot cross buns of course.
First I finally experimented with trying to make some tasty whole wheat bread like the white bread we've become addicted to. So I used this old recipe that I used to make and just cooked it in the way I cook the white bread. It was pretty good and definitely less dense than it used to be (from making it on a stone instead of inside a pan?) but I think I will make it for using in sandwiches and still make the white bread for eating with dinner. I will have to start adding at least a bit of whole wheat to the white bread recipe.
This is the old whole wheat recipe I used
http://www.mothering.com/discussions/showthread.php?t=894152
And this is the new recipe whose cooking method I used
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/21/dining/211brex.html

And then since it is Good Friday we had white fish and parsley sauce and mashed potatoes and peas for dinner!

Toy Car Done

We finally went and bought varnish on the weekend and now the toy car is done! IT turned out pretty well. Rolls perfectly on carpet, hardwood not so perfect. And even after all those coats the paint job is still not perfect. So next car will definitely not be painted. Now we have to get to work varnishing our wooden animals so that those will be all done.

Snow on April 6

My lemon tree now has 9 flowers open! 8 of them in the one bunch.

And it snowed today - a lot! Like a good 6+ inches. Kevin's cousin came over and we went tobogganing which was good because we didn't get around to going this winter. And we went to the hill right near our house which was actually really good.

Columbia Lake

This afternoon we went to Columbia Lake to walk around and enjoy the nice weather. We walked to this awesome willow tree that someone has put a swing on.

Birdhouse #2

I finished my second birdhouse - still have to hang it up.

Bentwood Trellis

This morning Kevin and I went a walk in the park to "harvest" some willow branches.

Then I made a trellis to go at the front of the house where we had to remove a tree last year. It came out a bit asymmetrical but I think it is charming at least. I think I will plant a grape vine to grow up it eventually but will also plant some beans to go up it this year.

And with some extra branches I made this that I will just put somewhere in the garden and have beans or something growing up it.

I love my lemon tree

My lemon tree has been doing lots of cool stuff since the days started getting longer. Lots of beautiful tiny leaves have been appearing (it only lost a few leaves over the winter). Lots of flower buds have been appearing and opening. And I believe I managed to fertilize a few and we have some baby lemons. Here are some pictures.



And my baby lemon

And today there are four flowers open!

Cold frame done, chair done

I finished my cold frame that I started making a couple days ago and put it in its spot for now. I still want to paint the window frames (but am not in the mood to do this after just finishing the chair) and I have to experiment with ways to open them for ventilation - might have to add hinges. The windows I got from someone's garbage a few months ago. I have two more so I will make another cold frame. I think I want to wait till I buy a circular saw though because doing them with the jig saw was quite horrible. I'm not sure which veg i will use it for.
And I put my chair in its spot.
And this is a picture of a bunny in the backyard that Kevin took a couple days ago.