Just the 3 of Us

Me, Diego and Earl...Hurricane Earl that is! On Saturday September 4th, 2010, the category 1 hurricane made landfall about 100 km southeast of Halifax at ~ 11 am.
Diego and I lived through Hurricane Juan in 2003, a category 2 hurricane that made landfall in Prospect, NS which is around 50 km away from Halifax and the city was devastated! Diego and I actually slept though Juan and awoke to the state of emergency that ensued, so this time we actually got to watch the storm until it subsided around 3 pm. Juan really devastated the trees in Halifax and we lost power for 10 days!

These two photos were taken just around the corner from our house!

This is the popular Public Gardens in the heart of Halifax, it was closed for months.

So we prepared for the worst.
We brought in most of the plants and what we left out we tied down with the furniture.

This is the beginning of the storm.

We had ample propane for the BBQ and gasoline for the car and generator....yes we bought a generator...for our corals! We have hundreds of dollars worth of corals in our large kitchen tank and we were not about to loose it all...that and we also have a sump pump that we would like to power to keep the basement from flooding...We also had lots of candles (and battery operated fire alarms) and flashlights. The storm howled and we jumped with every bang but after a couple hours we decided it was high time to do something fun as a distraction...
So out came Lord of the Rings RISK and the large bottle of red wine we had been saving and the battle for Middle Earth began.
Four glasses of wine and a knock on the door later, we were out to survey the damage with a neighbour. The top of one of our trees broke off and was (and still is) dangling up high in the tree. We will have to hire someone to come in to deal with it and trim our tree back in preparation for the next one! Many other branches also broke off and we helped the neighbour clear it out.
Luckily, there was no damage caused by our trees...but our other neighbours weren't so lucky...at least it was their own tree so there won't be any neighbourhood rifts.
All in all it was a mild one compared to 2003...but it is just the beginning of the hurricane season...with the waters off our coast warming and our climate changing we are bound to have a few more doozies, if not this year...perhaps next. Our running joke is that every year from now on will be the worst year for hurricanes on record...lets hope we are wrong!

Birthday Mushrooms!

It was my birthday last Sunday and in the usual fashion we had a party on Saturday...and guess who forgot to take even one photo? Both me and Diego! Regardless, it was a GREAT party with about 30 people and the weather was perfect to be outside! As usual we cooked too much Mexican food (it was DELICIOUS!) but enjoyed it all week! I also want to say THANK YOU to all that came and for the AMAZING gifts! One of the gifts from Diego was a lovely walk around the neighbourhood (I LOVE walks!) that ended at this tree behind the Oceanography Department.
As you all know that with my new job came an in depth learning of terrestrial ecosystems and a deep fascination with mushrooms. But really aren't they gorgeous?!?!
They were large, soft, rubbery and BRIGHT yellow and orange with beautiful ruffled edges. They are called sulphur shelf (Laetiporus sulphureus) and young specimens are edible (with caution) but they were too beautiful to even contemplate eating!
I took about 20 photos, then we sat quietly under the tree and enjoyed their beauty and the cool shade of the huge tree in the hot afternoon. This was a perfect moment to top off a wonderful birthday weekend.I continued to look at the mushrooms every day this week, but even on Monday, just one day after we went to see them they had already started to fade. You can even see the top one in the photo below starting to loose its brightness.Now they are a mess of whitish yellow at the base of the tree. It's like they kept their splendor just for my birthday. I hope they remember for next year! :)

Awning!

So far this summer has been a scorcher! If you weren't convinced climate change is happening, it must be hard to be a skeptic these days!So with all this heat and clear blue skies, our south facing completely unshaded deck was like a grill. We couldn't go and sit outside until at least 6 pm or we would burn our feet on the hot wood and our skin in the unforgiving sun! Our umbrella just wasn't cutting it.

Photo from :http://www.aquasuperstore.com/outdoor-living-and-deck-accessories.aspx

It is very similar to the one pictured above and the shade provided was only enough to barely cover us sitting at our bistro set. So we bit the bullet and bought the awning we have been talking about for years. When we went to the store to check it out, the dimensions were a perfect fit for our deck...it was meant to be!

It is about 5pm in this photo so the sun is lower in the sky and starting to be shaded by trees.

We installed it ourselves on Sunday which in and of itself was an adventure! It took us a while to find the roof rafters, 3 hours to be exact. They decided to put aluminum siding over the cedar shingles, likely in the 1950s which meant they had to put another faceboard (with a small gap behind) to make it flush. So imagine our confusion when everywhere we drilled (4 holes) we found rafters...which was in fact the other faceboard. Lucky for us, Diego figured it out. So with a longer drill bit in hand we did in fact find the rafters and properly secured our awning!

Our celebratory beer after a long day of hard work in the hot sun!

We love it! Now we can use our patio in the rain too and not get a drop of water on us! I love sitting out in the rain! It also helps to keep our kitchen cool since it shades the window and door which is definitely a bonus in helping to keep our fishies below 30C!

Thank You!

I want to say a great big THANKS to my parents!! I got a phone message from a flower shop on Wednesday but because we were watching the Spain vs. Germany game in a sports bar, we got home too late to get the delivery on Wed. So we spent the rest of the evening and the whole day on Thursday trying to figure out who the delivery was from!! After various jokes about a secret lover, the flowers arrived and they were a congratulations on your first house gift from my parents!
My mom sure knows what I love! They are AMAZING!!
Gerbera daisies with 2 different kinds of lilies and they smell AWESOME!!
I will thoroughly enjoy every view and breath while in my kitchen! The lilies have a blueish hue because it is so hot that we have to have the canopy on our fish tank open to keep the hot lights from killing everything! I am wearing my sunglasses as I write! :) So far the temp has not crested 28C in the tank...anything above 30 = meltdown! Let's hope for some cooler weather!

BIG News!

Diego and I bought our House (ie: the one we are currently renting the second floor flat!). We are now the proud owners of a Duplex! Closing day was on June 30th and we had an adequate celebration of bubbly and sushi. Yesterday was Canada Day (Happy 143 Canada!) and we had a small BBQ with friends, with a toast to the new house and some lovely fireworks to top it off. Now the new garden and plants I have put in are not in vain!
New veggie patch in the backyard. I planted eggplant, carrots, parsnips, fennel, snow peas, dill and green onions.
Close up of zucchini and green onions.
Our side of the house garden with a jungle of cherry tomato plants coming back from last year's leftovers! I used the plants as ground cover over the winter and low and behold, they seeded themselves! :)
The radishes also seeded themselves, but bolted early on since we had some hot weather in early June. I will collect the seed heads this time and keep them for a cooler location next year.
There were a few leftover onions that have gotten huge and will be very tasty! I also planted some cilantro which is coming along nicely and some nasturtiums for a colourful and peppery salad treat!
Yesterday was a great day for some sun tea! Citrus mint sweetened with Honey. Refreshing! I will leave you with a couple of photos of our beautiful petunias!
Have a great weekend!

Coastal Adventures

Last week the Biology Department at Dalhousie University hosted a conference for the Association of Biology Laboratory Educators (ABLE). We had 3 days of workshops (Wed - Fri). The workshops are for teachers to showcase exactly what they do with students for a particular topic. The participants do exactly what the students would do in the laboratory, then we have time to ask questions, discuss the logistics details and of course go over the assignment and student evaluation. I gave the Forest Ecology workshop which is the field trip to Point Pleasant Park that I do every Fall with my class that I posted about here. We had 20 "students" in each of the morning and afternoon sessions of the workshop and everyone had a blast rummaging around the forest plots. Unfortunately, I didn't take any photos. I did have my camera but got sidetracked identifying plants and chatting about the exercise.
Saturday was excursion day for the conference participants and I was fortunate enough to lead the Peggy's Cove and Sea Kayaking trip. There were 39 people on our little excursion and our first stop was a hike to Polly Cove (pictured above). We had 1.5 hours to explore the coastal barrens, named so because of the obvious lack of trees due to the very harsh winter conditions and very shallow acidic soil. I obsessed about the carnivorous pitcher plants before and I will do it again here...but only a little. They bloom for a few months and at this time of year the flowers are fresh and colourful.
Here is a field of them!
We also saw another carnivorous plant called Sun Dew. The do look like little suns with dew on them! See the red "flames" ringing the yellow centre? Click on the photo, you will see them better.
They are like a little (the size of your fingernail) Venus fly trap with what looks like water droplets on the tip of each hair. The droplets are actually sticky and and trap any unsuspecting insect the scurries over or lands on them. I would have never know about these if it hadn't been for some botanists in our group! I love hiking with Biologists! :)
We also saw two species of tiny pink orchids. This one is called Grass Pink (it's leaves are grass like) or Calopogon tuberosus. The other was the Dragon's Mouth Arethusa bulbosa. They are both bog orchids and are quite small, maybe the size of a loonie (our 1 dollar coin for you non Canadians).

Image from http://www.blupete.com/Nature/Wildflowers/SnakeMouth.htm

We actually have 39 orchid species in Nova Scotia. I just planted the Pink Lady Slipper or Moccasin Flower in our backyard a month ago! I hope the 3 of them will survive and thrive!

Image from Vickie Emms at http://www.redbubble.com/people/diamondwillow/art/1830118-8-moccasin-flower-pink-ladys-slipper

After we headed into Peggy's Cove. Don't get me wrong, this place is beautiful but it is now crawling with tourists. I much prefer the quaintness of it 10 years ago when I first arrived.
You know you are with a group of Biologists when...I asked the group what they would prefer, shopping in the quaint stores and art gallery OR checking out the algae and tidepools. There was a unanimous roar of "ALGAE" from the group. So we only spent an hour here checking out the lighthouse and eating lunch...the bathrooms were really popular! :)
My favorite view of Peggy's Cove...Its intertidal zone, which is where we went next. We spent 1.5 hours splashing around the tidepools along a nice long stretch of intertidal (not pictured above) before heading off to do some sea kayaking.
The weather had been overcast but warm until we arrived to our kayaks. The the wind picked up and the temperature dropped about 5 degrees. It was hard paddling against the wind and waves. We were battling whitecaps at some points! Another participant and I got to help out in a rescue! One fellow capsized and we aided the guides to try to get him back to shore. It was an adventure! He was cold and lost his glasses but unhurt. It will make a great story! :)

All in all we had a great day and the conference was a success! Now I have to get back to focusing on my thesis. I have 1/2 of Chapter 3 submitted for approval and comments and Chapter 2 is taking shape!

Have a great Wednesday!

Strawberry Mania and the BEST Strawberry Pie EVER!

It is strawberry season in Nova Scotia, so the stores (and farmers market) are filled with delicious local berries.
Even my little plants have produced 4 berries for Diego and I to enjoy!
So what did I do with this bounty of berries? Well of course I bought 8 pints to make pies and jams!! :)
I also went a little CRAZY with the rhubarb...I mean really what better combination in a pie or jam? or on their own in muffins or a cake? Let's just say I was a little busy on Monday evening...
I made a batch of delicious rhubarb muffins using this recipe that I posted last year...YUM! I also made some strawberry-rhubarb jam which turned out really dark but is very tasty...especially as a natural sweetener for my homemade yogurt...or an ice cream...or on buttery toast...or anywhere you might want to use jam!!

Strawberry-Rhubarb Jam

4 cups of rhubarb, cut in small pieces
8 c. sugar
8 cups of strawberries, washed and hulled

Sprinkle pieces of rhubarb with sugar, let set 12 hours. Bring to a boil, add strawberries. Boil until thick, and seal in sterilized jars. Place filled jars in water and boil for 10 minutes for long term storage.

I also discovered a recipe for fresh strawberry pie in my cookbook entitled Cook Great Food by the Dietitians of Canada. There are a number of really good recipes but this one by far takes the cake...or pie to be exact. I have already made it twice (and we ate it all without sharing... shameful I know). This is THE BEST PIE EVER! Go right now and make it, you wont be disappointed!
The recipe calls for a pre-prepared graham cracker crust. I did not have one on hand so instead I made a shortbread and vanilla cookie crust using a recipe in the same book for a gingersnap crust for a pumpkin cheesecake (I am thinking Thanksgiving for this recipe!).

Crust

1.5 cups of cookie/cracker crumbs of your choice
1/3 cup of melted butter
3 tbsp of brown sugar

Combine all the ingredients and press on the bottom and sides of the plate. Refrigerate.

The filling

5 cups of washed and hulled strawberries
1/3 cup of cold water
1/4 cup of granulated sugar
4 tsp of cornstarch mixed with 2 tbsp of cold water

Puree or mash 1 cup of the strawberries, you should have about 3/4 cup of puree. Here instead of using a potato masher or pastry cutter to puree the berries, you can combine them with the water and sugar in the blender. If you haven't already, combine the puree with the water and sugar and blend well. Place the mixture in a small saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat. Whisk in the cornstach mixture and cook, stirring constantly, until slightly thickened (~1 min). Remove from heat. While the sauce is cooling place the remaining berries stem down on the crust. I used whole berries for the bottom layer, then cut the rest in half to line the sides of the plate and fill in the holes between the whole berries. Pour the sauce evenly over the berries and chill until the sauce/glaze is set (~3 h). To make it easier to cut and remove from the plate, take the pie our of the fridge ~ 20 min before you are going to eat it. Top with whipped cream and your taste buds will melt!
I still have lots of berries (and rhubarb) left for strawberry jam and strawberry-rhubarb pie. I made lots of pie crusts now I will fill them and freeze them! I also have plans to buy more berries to freeze whole for some mid winter snacks and maybe another of these pies! Don't wait to make this one...only you may not want to tell anyone about it because you will HAVE to share! :) ENJOY!