2

2 years. What the what? The 2 years that have gone by like that. 

2 Birthday balloons for the birthday boy

2 fish, one of his favorite creatures 

And 2 year old antics at our birthday picnic. Buckets & water. Rolling on the grass. Checking out the photo book I made him.  

Happy birthday my little n!

Silver lining

This weekend the weekend couldn't decide what to do. Are you a long weekend? Are you a normal 2 day weekend with a bonus week day off weekend? A couple of us were lucky to take the Monday so I had what felt like an eternity off. EB and M and I went up to my top location near Hope, Silver Tip. You can't make a reservation ever so we always just go for it and hope for the best. Night one we were 1 of 5 sites out of 45. Night 2 it was so quiet we started to freak ourselves out. Night 3 was just as quiet, but we'd warmed up to the darkness- and there was WAY less cracking in the bushes. When we drove out if there on Tuesday, we were the only ones on the property. Crazy! 

Apparently the weekend before was a VW convention that filled the joint...

On our last full day we packed up and headed out on the road a little further. We had to ourselves a creek bed that flowed into the river. We sat in the sun. Drank our beer. BBQd. Listened to music. I had a flash of Kimberly as a kid and seeing a scene like this and hoping one day that would be me. That day it was.  

glamping

Just only a week or two ago a coworker balked at the idea of, me, camping. She accused me of being a "glamper" at best. I assured her I sleep in a tent and get dirty and don't wash my hair for days. 

I have likely destroyed her glamorous vision of me only spending weekends away in penthouse suites drinking champaign. Let's just say sleeping in a tent vs. penthouses... is everything and anything in my whole life-to-1.

However this last weekend we almost bailed on camping all together as the forecast is nothing but rain- we can handle rain. The last trip was, it's just having everything wet and dealing with tarps and not sitting around a camp fire while looking at the stars is kinda disappointing. So desperate to still get out of town I started googling cabins. 

Lucky me, airbnb had a cottage in Abbotsford on the 10 acre property of a hobby farm/nursery/bed and breakfast. With a pond! Only 1 hour drive from home! Perfect for 3 ladies who already had the camping gear, Coleman, and booze ready to go! This was definitely unlike any other airbnb I've been to. The closest to home, most peaceful, nature heavy, zero electricity. Quite perfect really.  We BBQd on the edge of their field and enjoyed sitting on the patio over looking the water. We were there nearly 24 hours before we went back over to their house to wash our dishes. 

The Brookside BnB has also worked hard to develop their land into a birders paradise: we saw (that we could actually identify) 

Tree swallows

Barn swallows

Ducks

Canada geese

Robins

Crows

Bald eagle

Peacocks

I also saw a:

Muskrat

Bunny

And heard: frogs and coyotes 

I have never seen so many swallows as I did there except for Siena Italy. I love their pointed tails and buzzing us and the pond at dusk. Impossible to get a picture of. 

Their resident dog, Poppy watched over us, escorted us back and forth between cabin and house, and kept a close eye on our cheese plate.

she's crafty

This afternoon was my second session teaching bookbinding at Atira Women's Resource Society down on Hastings. Today had quite a different vibe- 3 of the young ladies I spent the majority of time with are temporarily (for the last month) living in the downtown East side as volunteers with their university youth ministry. They have been living as a group in one of the shelters and spending time immersing and participating in the community. This is their summer break from the University of Manitoba. Pretty inspiring gals. Because we spent so much time together today I was able to give them some info I called the "advanced" lesson after they mastered the basics (just some ideas for zines and page layout and format changes). They were so excited about their results. 

Lana Del Rey

Or, Phase 1 of my musical mavens. 

Tonight I went to see Lana Del Rey at the PNE Amptheatre. The show was pretty darn good and the people watching was spectacular. We appear to be only the few who read the event was OUTDOORS- cause let me tell you people were pretty scantily dressed for a dark rain cloud, raining night. I was there at least 2 hours before I saw someone else in rain boots. At least we were wearing pants. I don't kid. 

She was beautiful and sang everything I wanted, great lighting, and the crowd was great. 

Michaels Crafts must have a shortage on silk flowers after tonight- flower crowns a plenty, (think Born to Die) but mine were from a collection over the years. 

Great show. So satisfying. 

ring of fire

Oh camping. How I love thee? It raining the most we've ever had, but we found ways to keep warm and cozy including a portable propane heater and a raging fire.  God, it's just the best time going. 

It cleared up Sunday morning and we got some sunshine. At that point the long underwear was a bit of over kill. 

Dessert hack

I love love love Vij's Rice Pudding. Have you ever had it? I could eat it for breakfast lunch and dinner. And I do. 

I saw this recipe on line for chia pudding and it sounded interesting and easy so I made it- I tried making rice pudding once and I can hardly make good rice when it's only a side dish (read: not for breakfast lunch and dinner). The Internet says chia is a super food so if it's steeped in coconut all the better!

All you do is take

1/4 cups chia seeds

400 oz (1 can) coconut milk

1 tbsp honey

1 tsp vanilla

Put it all in an air tight container and leave it in the fridge. The next day you magically have tapioca like pudding. 

My 'hack' instead was a small can coconut milk, and almond milk to the 400 oz level, 1 tsp ground cardamom seeds and vanilla. I threw some almond slices on there which are slightly more crunchy than the innards of the chia seeds (if that helps with the texture for those of you who don't like the bubbles in a bubble tea)

Yum!