October Garden

Two of the prettiest plantings in the garden at this time of year are the burning bush and the ornamental grass, Sarabande. Sarabande, to me, is the queen of all ornamental grasses.


Miscanthus sinesis Sarabande



Euonymus alata (burning bush)

Space to Spread Out

All Christmas surface mail to France has to be mailed in October so it is time to get out the brown paper, stamps, paints, and stencils. Lucky Rachael, who, like Martha Stewart, has an upstairs room (albeit small) soley dedicated to this type of activity. I am constantly getting supplies from upstairs closets, downstairs basement storage units, main floor trunks, etc. In another life, I would like a clean, bright laundry room and a separate, well lit area with a table and craft supply storage. But then I think of the billions of people world wide, especially in urban areas, who live in very small spaces. UN- Habitat predicts that within two decades, 60% of the world's population will live in urban areas and the percentage rises to 70% by the year 2050. I am therefore grateful to have this not overly large house and an acre of woodland garden. And with the luxury of clean air and the beauty of the changing seasons so evident from every window, I feel a certain responsibililty to preserve and care for the natural surroundings. I hope the next people who live here will feel the same way.

October Is Hallowe'en Month

Home Made Treat Bags

Cool Autumn = Baking

Making Scones With Nova Scotia Cranberries



Fresh From The Oven

My Constant Cooking Companion

October At Home

October Ornamental Grass: Miscanthus Sinensis Silberfeder

I can't seem to make it out of France without being felled by something or other - cold, flu, food poisoning... This time, I almost made it out of the country. I had only a scratchy throat on the high speed train from Lille to Paris. And I might have made it over the Atlantic and broken my record of illness on French soil if the flight had not been delayed for over an hour because 3 passengers checked their luggage but didn't show up at the gate. Who does that? And why? Had they been drinking in the departure lounge and lost all track of time? Are they just mischief makers? Security conscious activists testing the system? Was it the result of a relationship break up at the interminably long and never-moving line up at the Air Canada baggage check? Alas, the longer we had to sit by the departure gate, the stronger the scent of French perfume as more women who had tested the wares in the duty free shops or who were examining their very recent purchases with renewed enthusiasm joined us. And there is nothing worse if you are asthmatic and coming down with a respiratory based flu! It accelerates the fact and the knowledge that you cannot breathe as well and you are not going to breathe as well for a long, long time. I did make it home after a seemingly endless journey to a clean, orderly house, a tidy garden and two very happy dogs. Hadley and Ryan (our neighbourhood golden boy) had taken such good care of the place, inside and out, that I was able to crawl into bed for a week and wallow in on-again, off-again fevered sleep.
We’re into the third week at home and I am only now just getting off the Ventolin inhaler. I can only hope it was the seasonal flu or the swine flu and I now have immunity against at least one of them. If it was a weird and unrelated, totally French strain, then I am afraid the next round to hit our region is going to carry me off. And, gee, I have only just learned how to say "Cecile" in French!
I knit very little in France. There was so much to do – making play doh dishes with lovely little bits of play doh food, blowing bubbles on the deck, walking to the park to say hello to the sheep, geese, and ducks, playing on the slides and the wooden car, singing and dancing in the park bandstand, reading books, doing puzzles, peeling oranges – oh the days were busy and full. There is nothing sweeter than watching the ongoing development of a clever little mind.
It seems to have taken forever to get out of the haze of medication, wheeze, cough, fever, and a longing for Lucy.
But I am back on the needles with a handsome pair of socks!


Pattern: BFF Socks
Designer: Cookie A.
Yarn: Lisa Souza Sock!
Color: Garnet
Needles: 2.25 mm circular

You Know You've Having A Bad Day When

You turn a little too hard into one of the parking spaces perpedicular to a canal in Amsterdam and your car ends up in water. In the 1960's, the city installed low guard rails along the canals but despite this, on average, one car a week goes over!

On To Amsterdam

We were not as excited about this canal city as other tourists might be as Adam and Isa had already introduced us to the smaller Belgium canal communities of Bruge and Ghent and we had been utterly charmed by them. Still, like all old European cities, it would take weeks to absorb the elaborate and beautiful architectual detail.




Aside from the detail work, the central, old section of Amsterdam can easily be explored by foot in a couple of days though we found the walking a little difficult. Bikes have fairly wide designated lanes while the pedestrian walkways are often narrow. As well, there was so much construction and renovation work that we were often squeezed into rather tight walking spaces. The brick or cobblestone "sidewalks" often had uneven surfaces - charming, but hard on the feet! We often noticed sidewalk heaving. A young chap in a pub told us that sidewalk repair was a never-ending process in the city. Street crossings are a real challenge. At intersections, we had to first cross the bike lane (bicycle bells ringing with sharp impatience if we stepped out too soon!), the tram section with tracks, and finally the car lane.


We stayed at The Bridge Hotel on the Amstel Canal and couldn't recommend it more highly for a stay in the city. The rates were modest compared to other hotels and if the interior was also slightly more modest with older furniture, they made up for that with a pleasant breakfast room and a wide selection of breakfast food included in the price. The staff provided excellent service and the room was spacious, with a balcony overlooking the canal and a swan to grace the vista!



The morning commute certainly does not resemble one in North America! For one thing, there are thousands of bicycles and they are stalled as often here with bridges being lifted over canals to let waterway traffic pass underneath as they are at traffic lights!


We poked through the flower markets along the Singel Canal and found tulip bulbs for Isa and some with Canada clearance certificates to take back to Rachael and Derek but no Dutch bulbs for our own garden. Deer eat tulips but not daffodils and they had none of the latter cleared for export.



We saw an unusual sight one morning on the way to Rijksmuseum (magnificent Rembrandts though, alas, two of their four Vermeer's were on loan) when we came upon a large fountain with about six inches of soapsuds covering the water surface and dogs taking a romp in the foam. Is this a local, extremely elaborate dog bath or the result of a dog owner tired of trying to bathe his pooch at home?





Ooster Park with its resident heron: