Good Food and Good Company

On the way home from the lake we stopped at our cousins' house outside of the city. My cousins are roughly the same ages as my sister and I so we all grew up together. They are some of my best friends. We rarely get together without eating!

For dinner we had Moroccan lemon chicken with ratatouille and barbecued corn. We also made fresh lemonade with mint leaves from the garden. 

Spending time with my cousins is all about eating and talking and I've missed them a lot while I've been in Toronto.

The Important Things

At the lake the most important things are eating, going for walks and relaxing. Here are some photos of all that.

avocados being prepped for guacamole 

mixed grill lunch with roasted beets and yogurt dressing 

greek salad with grilled chicken and garlic toasts for supper 

a walk to green lake 

my dog mocha, i think the cottage is her favourite place too

My mom and I had a lovely weekend. If I could go to the lake every weekend, I definitely would. One weekend a year isn't nearly enough.

Memories in Objects

I'm visiting my family in Winnipeg this week and I was able to go to my cottage for the first time all summer. My cottage is my favourite place in the world. Nearly every object in the cottage has a story that goes along with where it came from. When I go to the cottage it's like visiting old friends. Here are some of my favourites.

Many objects are souvenirs from trips people have gone on over the past 70 years or more. These are working bellows that we use actually use to start the fire. They have soft leather sides and wooded top and bottom. 

There are three wooden chairs that are all painted in different colours with different designs. My aunt Marke painted them when she was a teenager. 

This is a stylized New Zealand fish hook. My Opa saw them and liked the shape so he made a large one which now hangs near the fireplace. 

My grandparents found this while they were traveling and bought it because it looked just like their daughter Saskia. I never met Saskia but I always liked this painting. 

Eating and cooking is very important at the lake and the cooking utensils are all kept in the same location that they have always been kept. The drawer is lined with this lovely wall paper. Opening the drawer is like stepping back in time a little bit. 

The rest of the utensils are kept in this lovely ice bucket. One side is a little bit melted from getting too close to the stove but it still does the job. 

Finally there is the big wooden world map which hangs in the living room. It is a little bit inaccurate (some countries appear twice) but nobody really minds. It was made by my great grandfather, my mother's Opa. He also built the cottage for our family and we will always be grateful to him for it.

Afternoon Snack

freshly steeped la-la lemon iced tea and blackberries 

from the market

City Market

Today I went to the farmers market outside Metro Hall. Apparently it's been happening every Thursday. I went on my lunch break and I got to see all the business people in their suits tasting watermelon and buying peaches. It was nice to see the financial district humanized in this way. There was live music and even though the rain was threatening, everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. 

 

The market had bread and cheese and meat and fruits and veggies but the flowers definitely stole the show. I wonder how many offices in the surrounding area are benefiting from the lovely fall blooms this afternoon.

Tactile Way Finding by Haptic Lab

Haptic Lab are a relatively new group started in part by architect Emily Fischer. The quilts are part of a project called Soft-Maps which was an academic experiment inspired by Emily's mother who started to lose her vision. The quilts were an experiment in tactile way finding, using the quilt as a tool for someone to orient themselves.


I love the meeting of the graphics of cartography with textile design. I find that maps bring with them memories of locations and that combined with the warmth of a quilt and the emotions that go with a quilt made by hand make this project such a beautiful combination of ideologies. 

A Late-Summer Morning

This morning I was having trouble getting out of bed to go to work. School is starting soon and there is an impending busy-ness that comes with that. Today I just wanted to hang out in my apartment and listen to music and read a book.


Two things managed to turn my mood around this morning. One was a delicious mini watermelon that was as tasty as it was colourful. The second was my new tote from Bookhou that I picked up this weekend from the store on Dundas West. While I was in the shop I got to meet Piper and Lliam who I see so often on the bookhou at home blog.


I'm looking forward to fall, the sweaters and scarfs and warm tea all make it my favourite season, but for the first time I can remember I'm also feeling a little bit of sadness at seeing what was a wonderful summer come to an end. I know there are still plenty of hot summer-y days ahead but the evenings have begun to cool off, a sure sign of fall on the way.

Late Night Snack for Two

bowl

boiled potatoes 

 mashed potatoes

tilapia baked in milk and flaked 

lemon zest

lime zest

ground sumac

chilli powder

salt 

pepper

egg 

messy making of patties 

 

hot oil 

resting

meanwhile

red cabbage

sunflower seeds

lemon zest

 mayo

sour cream

red wine vinegar

sugar

salt

tasty fish cakes with dill and garlic dip and red cabbage coleslaw

Treasures from the Sea Side

I'm back in Toronto now but I took this photo of my little souvenirs from my trip. I went to Halifax when I was nine years old and I remember admiring these pewter sea creatures. This time I knew that I had to buy them because I've been remembering them from more than a decade. They are now happily nestled on my bookcase, a happy reminder of my summer holiday.

Lunenburg

Lunenburg is lovely and bright. The buildings are painted in bright colours and the ships have colourful flags on their rigging. All the colours just made me want to do a painting of the harbour front (which is I guess why there are so many paintings of the Lunenburg harbour front available in Nova Scotia). The sun was out so Rob and I just sat in the sun on one of the docks and watched all the people go by.

A lot of people in Halifax told us that if we went to Lunenburg, we had to go to Magnolia's for lunch. Luckily we ended up going for a late lunch because we managed to miss the rush.

Fresh squeezed lemonade

Fish cakes with salad and homemade 

rhubarb jam

The food was delicious and the restaurant was quaint and relaxed. I would agree with those people in Halifax that said it was the place to get lunch in Lunenburg.

A Picnic at Mahone Bay

After going to the farmer's market, we drove out to Mahone Bay. We walked around the town and had a delicious little picnic in a gazebo by the water. We had blueberry scones, raspberries and gouda cheese that we had bought at the market and brought with us. It was a lovely place for our mid-day snack.