Sugar Sugar

Sugar, ahh,

Honey, honey.

You are my candy girl,

And you got me wanting you.

You may want to open a new tab and listen to this while you read: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGL4btEIoTo

Date night found us making candy. And cupcakes. Actually candy garnish for the cupcakes. While on Orcas Island (to be posted at a later date) I found Martha Stewart's new Cupcake book. Oh me oh my. I needed it. However I resisted the urge to support the sweet island of Orcas and ordered the book on ebay when I got home at half the price. This was a good choice because I soon realized I need some new tools to copy Martha. Offset spatula? Check. Candy thermometer? Check.

I had heard that Martha's recipes could be little labour intensive. I was not daunted, 'it can't be that hard' I thought. Hard, not so much but time consuming, yes. The following cupcakes are about the most labour intensive things I have ever made. Worse than pies and creme brulee that's for sure! From the cake batter to the icing to the garnish...all together a lot of work. I think I may retire back to my trusty cupcake mix. Apparently the women who use these recipes don't have jobs or houses to look after...let alone small children!!

I am slow in the kitchen, this I know from cooking pizza's with Mrs. Miller. She is amazing. I have a little ADD when it comes to reading recipes and tend to read them over and over again. However even accounting for this handicap the process was a bit ridiculous. Royden tried to make me feel better by reminding me that Martha went to jail for awhile and maybe she made up the recipe there since you know, time isn't really of the essence when one's in jail. Or is it?

So there you go. My masterpiece. Humid Seattle did not like my candy. They do NOT look like the picture. Martha also failed to mention that the candy is impossible to remove from items without the help of boiling water and a razor blade. She also failed to mention that the thin shreds of candy are capable of shredding ones hands and mouth.

I'm gonna make your life so sweet.

Girl's Getaway

Many of you are well aware that I am an island junkie and that if given the opportunity I will extoll the merrits of Salt Spring Island to the extent that I might even plan the vacation for you. In fact, I like that little gulf island so much that I helped send the Gerlach's there for their honeymoon seven years ago, before I myself had ever been there. And they liked it! I'm sure their approval had nothing to do with the rose coloured glasses of recent matrimony.

So since mom had a birthday and we are both having a crappy year worthy of escape, I stole her away for a little r & r. Actually, make that just r. No boys, no laptops, no phones and best of all, no blasted basal digital thermometer at 6:00 am precisely. God I hate that thing. (really, God, I hate that thing!)



Now I know there are other points of view regarding Salt Spring. One of them came from my lovely (and now I know crazy) friend Michelle a week after my return. Having perused Facebook she realized to our mutual horror that we were BOTH on Saltspring with our MOTHERS on the SAME EXACT DAY. We even did the same things that same day including visiting the farmers market, driving to the summit of Mount Maxwell and hat shopping and somehow we completely missed each other!!

If you know Michelle you know that she is a hard woman to miss, especially when you consider she had her mother, husband, five children and Japanese inlaws with her. Being that Salt Spring is such a huge place I might have been the only person on the island to have not noticed her;) Michelle's crazy came when she told me she didn't think the island was all that great. Boring actually. Maybe I heightened her expectations too much.



Maybe I like boring.



So mom's and my adventure started with the outdoor woodfired bread bakery. Yum! This was a beautiful attraction Royden and I missed last time due to the bakery's weekday only hours.



While bread is great, cheese is better and we thought maybe some day this little one could help us out.



Mmmm cheese. It was hard to pick just a few flavours to take home, and harder still not to open and sample them all (again!) before giving them away. Of course the next logical item one might need to complete this trio is wine, but we didn't like it much. Cute winery, not so great wine. I am losing my taste for it though so I may not be the best judge. Wine gives me heartburn. Margaritas don't.



A lot of driving was done, and even a little getting lost. I didn't think we'd need mom's new GPS but it actually came in pretty handy. We're such a couple of girls. The island is beautiful with plenty of beaches, ocean vistas and pastoral landscapes. There are also several beautiful old restored churches to see along the way.







During our adventure mom and I discovered we share a love of California poppies and old wooden fences.



Our next stop was Martinus Jewellery. How we missed this shop the last time we were there is a mystery that I suspect only Royden could solve. Mom and I found many items to our liking. This I thought particularly cool. Martin (the jeweler) took a branch from a pine tree, peeled the bark, cast it in wax and then made a mold for the gold.



Good times were had. Eating, shopping, reading, beachcombing and of course sleeping. We also got to catch some really great outdoor live music and drank a number of yummy lattes (thanks mom!). We relaxed and were entertained and got to catch up with some much needed mother daughter time.






Happy Birthday Mom!



Thanks for taking a fabulous vacation with me. I love you very much and am looking forward to planning our next fantastic exclusive adventure together.

Kudos to mom's little digital powershot camera for all these pics. Royden graciously offered to let me take the Rebel but I told him I didn't want to be responsible for it. He laughed when recalled that our last Rebel met it's fate in Salt Spring waters...something I had forgotten!
http://roydenandruth.blogspot.com/2007/07/saltspring.html

Volkswagens, Snakes, and Marriage

Oh and hawks. Red tailed hawks. Because let's face it, they're all pretty important to the planet.

If there were no Volkswagen's, Honda wouldn't have any competition at all and would become a monopoly. If there were no hawks we'd have too many snakes, but if there were no snakes we'd have too many mice, rats and rabbits. And marriage is important so that men like me don't waste their money on BMW's and pet snakes.


Let's cover the normal topic first.

One of my best friends, Shaun...


He just got married. And I never thought I'd see the day. I used to be in a band with Shaun when we were in high school. When I started dating Ruth, he promptly nicknamed her 'Yoko'.

I had the honor of being Shaun's best man. Shaun is one of the friends I can meet in Salmon Arm and when you're together it's as though nothing has changed. We're nearly 30, and it feels like high school is simply a place we don't hang out at anymore, as apposed to the distant past that it is. I miss having friends like Shaun.

Haley is a lovely woman, more then Shaun deserves, but I'm one to talk.





Congratulations Shaun. Just between you and me;
I thought it was craze when you told me you had found a wife. I hope your love is for infinity. Salu! Saarbrucken! The most intimidating thing you could ever say to an evil villain is 'Not so fast sauce head!' When I was at your wedding I kept thinking to myself 'this is the highlight of my day!'

If I was superman, I'd never be late for class again...

Okay..Sorry about that everyone. That was practically a yearbook entry.

On to the next topic; Volkswagen's. More specifically..bugging!


'Bugging' is the term used to describe off roading in a Volkswagen bug, specifically outfitted for off roading. In Salmon Arm the hill to climb is Mount Ida. Mount Ida burned down to the soil over ten years ago. It was nice to get up close and see a forest in the middle of regrowth.

And it was nice to slide on all four around corners.

First we gas up in town, gotta remove the whole hood for that.


Lower the back struts...



All systems go?...



Hit that rocker pedal we're burning daylight!!



We also found some caves, and took in some great views of our home town.



Alright. I'm leaving the crazy stuff till last to keep readers hooked (I'm in the storytelling industry I know how this works).

What's wrong with this picture?..


I guess that was easy. "Reptile barbecue" is the name I've given to an annual barbecue that a friend of mine in Woodinville hosts. I like to call it the reptile barbecue to make people think that we're getting together in someones backyard to cook up iguana's or something. What we actually do is get together with people who share the common interest of keeping 'non-traditional' pets. This year my friend John brought Ruby, his 9 foot, 45 lb Boa constrictor. I tried her on to see if she fit.




I thought she fit great, but Ruth disagreed. John's son is a fan of chameleons so my own Yoda made an appearance.



Another friend brought his red tailed hawk that he is doing falconer training with. I love this city. You meet the most interesting people :)






That's all for now folks!