A Winter Sunset

This was the western sky last night...

It was so beautiful! I couldn't decide which photo to use so I used them all.  I walked down the road a little to get a good shot of the sun over the hills and there were some people pulled over on the side of the road in their truck also snapping photos.  So, I'm not the only person who runs around taking pictures of sunsets in -10C weather.  Does that make me normal? ;)

Thanks for visiting!

Mid Winter on Prince Edward Island

11 February 2011

18 February 2012

It's the same lane.  It's the same car.  The car is STUCK in both photos.  The only difference is the amount of snow.   Such is life here in the winter.

Happy Islander Day to all my fellow Islanders!

The First Big Storm

The snow we had last week was pretty much gone within a day.  Then on Wednesday, we got this:

8 inches/20 centimetres of snow in 12 hours or so

I'm afraid this snow is here to stay.  It took us about 2 hours to shovel out our lane (oh, my kingdom for a snowblower!)  Our mailbox has had its first injury of the season too.

I promise I won't write a post EVERY time it snows this winter.  That could get depressing.

Thanks for visiting today!

Welcome, Winter

This is what we awoke to this morning:

My kids are so excited!  Me, not so much.  I do like the look of snow and winter activities like cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, and sleigh rides.  However, snow = shovelling.  Snow = the snowplough knocking over our mailbox (there is a joke here on the Island about snowplough operators thinking there is a bounty on rural mailboxes).  Snow = me getting the car stuck in the lane every time I leave the house.  Oh, well, that's life!

A Stormy Week

We have been going through a very bad storm this week.  It is finally beginning to calm down.  The last two days have been constant, pounding winds and torrential rain.  It got really cold last evening and it has been raining/sleeting/snowing today.  I'm pretty sure our apple tree is permanently over to one side from the wind.  Remember our appleless apple tree?  It doesn't look like that anymore :(  My peonies and gladiolus are all smashed flat (good thing they're all finished for the year).  A lot of branches have come off the trees and our garbage bins are laying flat on the ground (nothing fell out thanks to my raccoon proof bungee cord).  We are thankful there hasn't been any serious damage here and we haven't lost power.

In other news... we are under squirrel invasion again.  It's the time of year when the squirrels realise you no longer have a cat around and decide to take over your property.  Those of you who know me personally know about my long history with squirrels.  I had one living with me for at least a week, sleeping in my bed when I went to work.  Said squirrel bit me twice when I finally captured it.  I've trapped at least 10 in a humane trap and released them far out in the woods.  We've had a squirrel in our bathroom.

Squirrels are cute where they belong - OUTSIDE.  Squirrels are not cute when you're staring them down in your house.

Hopefully, they'll just stay outside, relaxing in our lawn chairs and scampering across our roof.

And now for your viewing pleasure, a clip from our storm.

Hope you're somewhere warm and dry tonight.  Thanks for visiting!

The Day I Pretended I Was a Tourist

Last week, my daughter and I went out for the day in Charlottetown with my sister-in-law who was home from Calgary, Alberta for a visit.  We went out for breakfast, did some shopping, went to McDonald's for lunch (at Lass' request - she loves the indoor playground), and then went down to the waterfront (Peake's Quay).

Cows ice cream!  Very yummy.  Lass had bubblegum (I can't remember their creative name for it - all the flavours have unique names).  It was bright blue and full of gumballs.

One of the many pretty window-boxes that are on all the shops at the waterfront.

My sister-in-law and I had tea (I had Irish Breakfast, she had Dalvay Breeze) at the PEI Preserve Company's Tea House.  We also had some of their famous raspberry cream cheese pie... delicious.  We sat outside at a little table and our tea was served in lovely china.  This fellow was standing guard outside the shop.

 A view of the boats anchored at the quay

On the way home, we stopped at Balderston's Farm Market in Stratford.  We saw some interesting vegetables...

...and beautiful flowers.  Can you believe this bouquet with the vase was only $12!  I love the colours.

They also have a U-Pick flower patch.  It is huge and full of gorgeous flowers of all sorts.  We picked a big bouquet.

It was a lovely day and we had such a great time!

Thanks for visiting today!

The Last Hurrah!

Yesterday we went on a picnic/outing with our good friends for Labour Day.  We went to King's Castle Provincial Park, which is probably my kids' favourite place to go.  The woods and playground are filled with storybook characters.  There is also a beach!  And ice cream!  It was a gorgeous, warm day and breezy so the mosquitoes were hardly around.

The white boat is a fishing boat.  The grey boats are mussel skiffs.  You can see the buoys in the water marking the mussel socks.  Mussel socks are a way of of cultivating mussels off the bottom so they are cleaner and better tasting.  The "socks" are tubes of netting with the mussels growing inside.

Some cute little bare feet on the sand

There were lots of snails stuck to rocks on the beach as the tide had gone out not too long before.

There were lots of dead crabs.  I hate crabs.

This is Lass' beach project.  I must ask her what it was.

The pumpkin slide!

Papa Bear of The Three Bears

A giant rabbit

On the way home we stopped at Buffaloland Provincial Park.  We actually saw some buffalo (AKA American Bison, Latin name Bison Bison) this time.  They have been rather elusive this year.

Thanks for visiting today!

Waiting For Irene

Today was a gorgeous, hot (26 degrees Celsius), sunny summer day.  However, people here are gearing up for a possible hurricane/tropical storm that may decide to visit us sometime between Sunday and Monday morning.  We could get sustained winds of 100 km/h with higher gusts as well as heavy rain OR it could miss us completely.  One never knows and it is better to be prepared for the worst.

So we're going to be moving things out of the yard and into the shed so things won't be blowing around.  I have to stake up some of my plants so they aren't damaged in the (possibly) high winds.  I'm also going to try to do some baking so we can have easily prepared meals in the case of power outages.  We'll also be loading up the fridge and freezer with water and filling the bathtub with water.  We have plenty of candles, matches and batteries.  Also, we're far enough from the shore that we don't have to worry about storm surges.  Now we just have to ride out whatever weather we get!   Then they cry unto the LORD in their trouble, and he bringeth them out of their distresses.  He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still. Psalm 107.28&29

Thanks for visiting and take care!

Update Monday evening:  We got some rain and very brisk winds but were spared serious damage.  A few trees and electric poles came down in the wind and the western part of the Island was without power for a while.  The ferries were cancelled this morning and the bridge was closed to high-sided vehicles, motorcycles, and trailers.

What's Growing in My Garden Today

Not a very exciting post today.  My garden is at in-between stage - lots of things have finished blooming and some things are just getting ready to bloom.  A few photos for your browsing pleasure:

A couple of sad little pansies

Marjoram 

Our appleless apple tree

My Sub-Zero roses starting their 2nd bloom cycle

"Oscar" gladiolus

Behind our property today, there are potatoes being harvested.

There goes "another big loada potatoes".  If you don't know what I'm talking about (or even if you do!), take a listen to THIS.

Thanks for visiting today!