A Mushroom Forest

Back to my digital camera.

I notice that I mainly take film photos when I am on holiday. So either, I only carry my film camera in the city, or go on more holidays. I will take a little of #1, and a lot of #2 please.

When we came back, I was happy to see that our garden was thriving, and our tomato plants were producing so many blooms! I am getting especially excited, because one of the tomatoes is turning finally RED! This is my first year growing vegetables, so you can imagine my excitement!

But I have a little forest of mushrooms growing under the tomatoes. They only live for a day, but new ones always come up! They are cute, but, how did they get there? And do tiny smirfs live among them?

Thank you Hiki for giving me a "lovely blog award". I love reading her blog, so full of inspiration and beautiful photos. She also started a little store full of goodies! I am eyeing some things for myself already!

water made from clouds

A week ago, I met nikole, and I am still grinning from the experience. It all started when she told me, out of the blue (online) that she had something for me. I was beaming inside, because, I do not get messages like that on a daily basis. I don’t think too many people do! Especially from someone you have never met. If you do, then the only conclusion is that you are an incredibly happy person! Lucky you!

We ate a small lunch at a little cheese shop, and we chatted non-stop! We stayed so long, that they gave us complimentary cupcakes for dessert. I guess they thought all that chatting must make us hungry again!

It turned out, she was saving this water made from clouds for me. And to go along with it, she made these adorable and delicious cookies shaped in raindrops, and ice cream! I felt so lucky to be a recipient of one of her edible masterpieces!
Everything was so stylishly put together, a perfect parcel. A perfect, themed parcel! I loved it.

Read her story here
See her masterpieces here, and here.

Nikole, I cannot wait to get together with you again :)

Coming home

Some good things about coming home. Seeing that our cats missed us, telling stories of our trip to friends and family over dinner, and sharing another 5 dozens of oysters we brought back from P.E.I.

Jin taught everyone how to shuck oysters! My brother did it the best.

p.s. those scallops were the biggest scallops I have ever had. I think they were the size of my fist.

Our last day

Every day was a good day on this trip. We made a promise to eat seafood every day. Between the two of us, we had 5 lobsters, 5 dozens of oysters (heaven!), 2 dozens of clams, and probably 3 lbs of mussles. Everything was fresh, and caught that morning! We don’t get that sort of seafood back home. Thinking back, I think we should have eaten more lobsters and oysters. Mmmm!

The weather was a bit chilly, but we managed to sneak one day at the beach. We were told to go to this private beach, “the best beach on the island” he said, and so we had to go see for ourselves. Had it been a public beach, it would have been packed with people that sunny day, but only 5 people were on the beach when we got there. It was so nice to not have to fight for a spot on the sand.

We looked for sea glass all afternoon. I didn’t know sea glass existed until I came to P.E.I! We got a good collection that day.

Island Strawberries

We were only on the island for a week, but from what we gathered, people of Prince Edward Island are very proud of their local food. And proud they should be! Everything we ate on our trip was so fresh and delicious! I haven’t gone strawberry picking since I was about knee high. We would always go with a couple other families, and the children would pile on the wooden wagon, and off we go to the berry field. But this berry picking experience was a little different.

We drove to the berry farm twice. The first time, it was closed. The second time, it was also closed. It took an hour to drive from the cottage to the farm and we didn’t have time to go back to try a third time, so Jin told the farmer our situation, and asked if he would let us go to the field to pick a few small baskets of strawberries.

The farmer said yes.

So, we had the entire field to ourselves, me, Jin, a lot of daisies, and the strawberries.

It was one of the best days of our trip!

I just wanted to say thank you to everyone for the wonderful response to the photos of our trip so far! It is so nice to hear from all of you! I only have a few more postings from PEI, as much as I really loved it there, it is almost time for me to go back to reality. But one can still reminisce for a little while longer.....

details

I like the objects they put in the cottage. A clock made from a can of lobsters, metal beds, and lovely old chairs.

They kept all the original wallpaper in the house. I wish I could have some of these in my own home.

(the photos of the chairs were taken in film, the rest are taken digitally)

a farm house with a blue barn

This cottage used to be someone's farm house. It faces a salt water lake, and beyond is the sea. An architect now owns it, and did some alterations to this house, but I like it that they maintained most of it's original charm.

It was spooky the first couple of nights, no lights outside, and no cars. The house also creeks as it settles in for the night. But when we got used to the noises of the house, it was the most peaceful place we have ever been.

It is a place to unplug, there is no cellphone reception, television, or internet here. We were completely disconnected from the world.

the sun came out

Finally we arrived. It was rainy the first half of the week we were there, but then the sun came out to play.
Prince Edward Island is magnificent in the sun.
The soil on this island is terra cotta red.
I miss it.

coral polka-dotted scarf

Before we hopped in the car for our 3 day journey, Jin and I looked at each other, and I screamed! We were both wearing the same coral polka-dotted scarf around our neck! Jin’s parents recently came back from Korea, and they always have a bag of goodies for us upon their return. One of the items were 2 coral polka-dotted scarves.

We wore them almost every day on our holiday, and we got some stares. They probably thought we were part of a tour group, who lost the rest of the pack!

The BIG APPLE

This isn’t New York City, but it should be just as famous.

If you live in Toronto, and you drive out east, there is no doubt you have seen the Big Apple sitting on the side of the freeway. It is so big, so red, and so hard to miss! I have always wondered what was there, and this trip was the perfect opportunity to finally see what this huge apple was all about!

I giggled when we walked in the store, because, they chose red for every piece of furniture they could! I am glad they left the walls white. Red walls would have been excessive. The Big Apple is a place of everything apples! Apple pie, caramel apples, apple chips……we bought a slice of apple pie, and a bag of caramel apple chips. The pie was too sweet, but the chips were juuuust right.

There is a staircase inside the gigantic apple, and it lands at the top. Oh yes, we climbed it.

pit stops and distractions

We knew our holiday would be full of relaxation, but getting there required some effort. The drive from our house to the cottage in Prince Edward Island is 1,800 km, which google maps says would take 20 hours to complete. We could have done it in 2 days, but we got distracted on the way and did it in 3. The trip involved a lot of gas top ups, washroom stops, road side picnics, and Timmy’s. What Canadian road trip would be complete without Tim Hortons timbits?
We collected a lot of bugs on our bumper and wind shield during the drive…..yuck!

We also took some spontaneous stops along the way. One of which was a visit to a really big apple! Photos of that to come in the next post.