Happy Hallowe'en and Happy Birthday to Joyce!

It all started at Janice and Gord's...our group of witches and cats and oddities all gathered for apppetizers that were more akin to a five course meal !!Janice made the Whitewater cookbook squash soup with spinach that has coconut milk and jalapeno peppers in it...so yummy and warm to the pallet...plus she cooked a roast of beef with fresh homemade horseraddish...and that was spicey hot! Everyone brought delicious foods from sausage rolls and chicken wings to shrimp, smoked trout and various cheeses and pickles... and dips and salsas.One thing about our lovely group of friends...the eating is always fabulous!



Here are the four cats! Francis, Janice,moi,and Debbie. Note, I am the mama cat!


OUR PARTNERS, THE FOUR WITCHES WERE GOOD FOR A LAUGH, ESPECIALLY AS THEIR NOSES STARTED TO DROP OFF ,ONE BY ONE!
from left to right,we have Gord,Emil,and lovely Alison,then Randy and Ashley with the longest nose in the history of witches and warlocks!


One for the record, Emil and moi...the mama cat.My little babies were sooooo cute...everyone loved them, especially the guy that came to the BBi as "roadkill" He had the highway line down the length of him all splattered with little flat animals... too funny! yes, we migrated to the BBI and secured a table for fourteen and it filled up totally.Good thing we arrived when we did, as the people never stopped pouring in. The costumes, once again were phenomenal...my favourite being "blow up" fat lady. A fellow with a red wig on ,stuffed inside an inflatable costume that could easily inflate into a giant "fat lady in a pink tutu" It was all good except he took up half the dance floor, and then someone decided to Sumu wrestle him to the floor... He was rolling around like a big tuna... way to funny!


The other comical fellow ,whom we at first thought was a gal, was at least 6'2" and dressed in yellow grass skirt, black leotards, and those Hawaiian coconut style bras with a Hawaiin Lai, yellow wig and totally blackened face... I am not sure what he was supposed to be, but he looked pretty funny. Now the fellow that dresssed up as a roadside orange cone had flashing lights an his head and a huge square flat base beneath his orange cone... for one thing ..it took up way to much space and I don't think he could even sit down, but he was sure noticable!
the band was Midnight Train, a blues band, who played good dance music all night with the exception of one song that went on for 20 minutes... it tuckered everyone out!
We had a pile of fun and maybe even lost a pound or two on the dance floor and had to leave before the band played the last set.. Our group was fading fast! Kudos to my sweet Emil who drank water all night so he could be the designated driver... He got us home safe and sound! Yea!
Now everyone should call Joyce today and wish her a Happy Hallowe'en birthday! Her and I went out to the Hume on Thursday night for a little nosh and a good visit...We'll do more birthday cheer next week-end when Lynn can come over.

"The Creator"

Back and forth to Nelson today

Finally I remember to bring my camera today so I can snap a few pics on the way to work, but before I even got to the Marina, I realized that manyof the trees had already shed their colourful leaves. I snapped away anyhow...

The first is on my way towards Kokanee Marina.

Looking up the east end of Baker street

Just above Gerrick's cycle

On my way home ,approaching the bluffs

Observing the full moon on my drive home.

The real picture that was going on behind my back!

It got better by the minute

Better yet, when I used my sunset setting on my camera

It must have been the trails from airplanes that left the giant swastika in the sky








"The Creator"

Here's Looking at Euclid by Alex Bellos

Here's Looking at Euclid by Alex Bellos

If you'd like a little history and insite into Math, here is some interesting reading... "Here's Looking at Euclid"
I should have read this before Math 11.

"The Creator"

End off summer Party

Just some of the delicious foods that everyone contributed! Thank-you great neighbours!

Linda and Marlene digging in

First we went downhill, then we came back up!

I just chucked the ball,best I could!

Well, what a perfect Saturday for a get together of most all of the neighbours at our house for several games of Bocce and Top Toss,before we dug into hot chili and BBq'd hot-dogs & smokies that Emil cooked up for everyone. We live in the neighbourhood of gourmet cooks as they all contributed with such delicious treats as Triple chocolate ake, Tiramasu;Oriental salad, Caezer, greek, Waldorf,coleslaw with pineapple and delicious appies puff pastry rolls with pine nuts and sundried tomatoes in them!!!...Veggies and excellent dips, by Marlene and Yummy roasted veggies and a rice dish. I made a streudal and sad to say I forgot to bring out David's two pies from his cooler... I'd say everyone was preetty plum full by the end of the night. We were ,of course,all freezing our butts off, but our lovely new neighbour, david, and his son, made a fabulous bonfire and those who were left gathered around and warmed our fronts, then our backs... By then we thought it was ten o'clock, but here it was only 7:00 or so... everyone turned in early and cold. We woke up to serious frost this morning...all over my tablecloths on the tables outside... too funny...looked like a ghost movie being made.

Speaking of movies, the week was abustle with the making of the movie Tall Man with Jessica Beale. They had huge lights set up to light up the whole road all past Kakanee park so they could film car scenes and a rolling over van that actually had an additional set of wheels on the side of the van to enable it to "skid " down the highway,complete with sparks... I never saw an of the actually chase or vehicle scenes, but there was plenty of activity every night when I passed thru on my way home from work. They have also been filming in ymir and Silverton. ( Its a spooky movie about a new teacher who once she comes to town seems to ahve something to do with missing children in the community)



Deb, Francis, Marlene,Vickie,Linda


Randy and Ashley

The measuring tape had to be brought out to see who was closer!


I can see deb laughing her head off. Jonathon took my place and scored a few big ones too!
"The Creator"

WonkeyTOIKeY day

As you can see, this poor speciman didn't have a lot of skin..I was going to mention the word fore, but those two words jammed together would invite the spam. Anyhow neither front nor back of the turkey had much extra skin to bolt everything together with those turkey skewers...so I stuffed a ton in the cavity and then lifted the skin between the leg and body and filled that with stuffing as well.. BTW I made my stuffing a few days ago ,then froze it ahead of time...Less work to do on turkey day.



I usually top the bird with 3 or four slices of bacon...this one was maple flavoured

Note how his leg tips tucked right under that nice flap of skin above the tail region...I have to say it looked perfect but by the time it finished cooking the skin split apart and some of my stuffing had fallen to the bottom of the roaster and was scorching... so go with some twine or turkey skewers to hold the legs down...and the skin over the part where the neck joined...if you have chosen to stuff that region as well.

I put some strategic tinfoil over the stuffing and the wing tips and the other end which was devoid of skin. Note the chicken broth...It is a good moisturizer for your turkey... add a liter or two and baste every half hour,says Ronda, who gave me that idea... I didn't baste that frequently and the turkey turned out pretty moist and delicious.

I set it all into my smaller roaster and within minutes, some body part hanging over the edge starting smoking up my oven,so I did go to the trouble of transferring the turky to my big rectangular roaster... It all worked out well. Sad to say, we were too hungry to eat so we forgot to take any pics of the roasted turkey. Like I said, it was delicious, along witht he yummy stuffing... followed aby this new desert that Mildred sent the recipe for...called a Praline Pumpkin cake... essentially your basic 3 egg,can of evaporated milk or cream pumpkin pie mixture on the bottom in 9x13 greased cake pyrex , followed by a dry white or golden cake mix sprinkled ontop,followed by a cup and a half of chopped walnuts or pecans ( used half pecans,half cashews) and then stopped with 3/4 cup butter or margarine melted... Bake at 350* for 40 minutes , but watch so the nuts don't burn. Eat warm or cool with icecream on top... very yummy! Email me if you want the detailed recipe... Hope your Thansgiving is/was the best!




"The Creator"

10/10/10

Happy Birthday Margo! 10/10/10...that has to be lucky!
Happy Thanksgiving to all and look who visited here today... a beautiful huge hawk..or bueto...mostly grey with a white tip on his tail and lots of speckles on his back...and a white bib... Click on the first photo down to see his wonderful downy feathers that showed when he puffed himself up. Enjoy your day.. I better quite my lolly gagging and start working on pies...Love ya all!








"The Creator"

Visit with Jami and Josh

Wild and crazy Saturday!
Alissa took a drive with me over to Lori's to see her jewellery and stained glass sidewalk sale and to visit with Jami and Josh and to meet Lynn for lunch... Might as well pack it all into one day!
We left at 10;30 and rolled into Lori and Lawrence's around noon... and it was the gathering of the clan at their house. Lynn also met us there, so it was a fun afternoon as we admired all the jewellery by Lori and Jami ,deciding which ones we needed most!
Here is pic of Jami and Josh


Another rush trip up from the states for Jami and Josh...it was a short but nice visit... always great to see Jami again

also it was good to see the whole dang family...Lawrence and Lori and Phoebe and Ron and we got to meet Jami's dad and stepmom...so it was a houseful...not to mention, Nick from Italy...Well, we really didn't meet him, but he was there too to jam with the band . Unfortunately, we didn't get to hear them... but thank-you Lawrence for the cd athat you helped produce... nice stuff!

Emil having a visit with Chunk... Cait's surragate dog!

Lynn and Alissa and I all went for lunch to the Black Cock..ooops Black rooster restaurant in Castlegar...and that was tasty... Alissa had the beef dip, Lynn the steak sandwich and I ,the calamari... then it was off to Extra foods to snap up a few groceries. The store was in a state of being rebuilt...quite a mess but the produce section was in top form...Kudos to Chad, Deb's son for being an excellent Produce manager there.
By the time I gassed up and we headed home, I was on my way to a bad case of the yawns... a long day when more than the usual travelling is involved. Meanwhile, the guys were in the Thanksgiving fishing derby so they never pulled in until nearly dark... but that was ok...as Stan had caught two beautiful rainbows...8 and 10 pounds... they are in the freezer now and Ali will be having trout when Stan gets it home!
We munched on some potstickers and Edamame beans for an appie, then Ashley and Cait came over with Chunk, Cait's x's big huge Bull dog... he was a chunk alright, but better behaved than in his puppie days a year ago. Silky gave him a yelp and then took refuge, but soon Chunk ignored her and just lay there doing pretty darn good.
After they left, emil threw the steaks on the Barby and we sat down to a yummy dinner with caeser salad, roasted potatoes and cauliflower with cheese sauce on it... No desert tonight. i will try to get pies made tomorrow for whe we have our turkey.
"The Creator"

Saturday out and about

Lori "flying her cat!",Presley

Lynn and I in front of "ol Blackie"

Two more treasures from Kootenay lake... an 8 and a 10 pounder! Way to go guys, but you will have to do better tomorrow and beat a 19 pounder by the sounds of it!

"The Creator"

Weekend Warriors

Lynn, came out for a lovely weekend where I have to admit she worked very hard helping me out and washing dishes...due to the fact that my dishwasher is broken. I was dogsitting our neighbour's cute little dog, Baily, and with Silky and Co-co..it made for quite a dog show all week-end! We enjoyed the day and a nice hot-tub and then cooked up one of Emil's trout for dinner... yum yum!
Speaking of fish... Emil caught a big nine pounder yesterday. I will put it up on the header... Have another great sunny day..Love ya all and thank-you Lynn for all your goodies...especially the colander meatballs and penne...and my new Hallowe'en socks!





"The Creator"

Twin Bows! John and Ronda return!

Mixed Bag of weather this week-end! The rainbows blessed us with their beauty on Sunday after we had huge downpours of rain in the morning and cancelled golf with John and Ronda... too bad as it turned out to be not a bad day once the sun came out.
So do you notice anything missing in the picture?
Yep, the boo-boo idiots next door chopped down four out of the six huge cottonwood trees one day last week. ...much to my dismay... I was soooooo sad when I heard them crashing down...My heart sank to its bottom. I couldn't believe that they would ever do it, but they did. Now we can see the lake better...well, we can see their beach better. Nothing we can do now that the deed is done.
booohooboohoo....


The double rainbow was very beautiful and stretched right over to the mountains behind us

Saturday was much more pleasant . John and Ronda were fresh back from their month long vacation to Tennessee to visit 3 of their 4 kids. Also they took in a side trip to Savannah Georgia and visited ghostly estates that revealed ghosts right in their photos!!! How is that for creepy!

They said the heat factor was equivalent to 62* C... Now that is some hot! They said they were dripping with humidity most of the time they were there. It was good to see them back again and looking as good as new...no sweat either!

Just enjoying the day, then I had to go lay down for a nap after they left... I was very pooped out that day...don't know why, but abandoned our proposed trip to a wine tasting at Proctor, and called it an early night all around.
And that is about how I am feeling right now... tired so I will say good night and hope to get back on line a little more often. I did finally get a proper slide show up on the side bar of our first 2 days in Halifax! (I was having trouble with getting the slide show embedded) It was such a fun vacation...and I really felt like I was on vacation! It is so nice to go to your daughter's home and feel like it is just like home ! we both loved Halifax and seeing Annette and getting to know Shawn and hope to return again sometime in the near future! Good night all!

"The Creator"