Winter wonderland

February 1st already and boy do we have winter! After enjoying above average temperatures for the past month, at least, we finally have winter. Our snow day on Friday brought us 10 to 15 cm. of snow and strong winds. Fortunately they have a rather civilized approach to winter here - in the words of Gordon Ramsay "Shut it down". It seems like the whole island just closes up shop and stays home. I was amazed at the list on the radio station of island businesses and offices that were closed. The attitude here seems to be that nothing is so important that it can't wait, and your safety is not worth risking for any job.

SO, since I didn't have to work, Brenda and I decided to go cross country skiing in the afternoon. The snow had stopped falling by lunch time so I packed up my stuff, got dressed and headed over to her house. By the time we got out to the trail in the woods, it was snowing quite heavily again. Unfortunately the snow was too sticky and was forming great huge clumps on the bottom of our skis, so it was quite a workout to get to the river and back. After we got back and had something to drink we drove over to my house to find some supplies so Brenda could make a card for their priest who is leaving. Needless to say, she was flabbergasted at the supply of 'toys' that I have at my disposal. She has seen scrapbooks finished but never the amount of "stuff" it takes to get to that point. Once we has selected the appropriate materials, and cut out some words, we headed back to Brenda's for what has become known as our "Friday Feast". It started a few weeks ago, after Christmas really, just getting together after work on Friday night and cooking supper. We take turns choosing and shopping for the recipe and now I have Brenda scouring magazines in search of the perfect recipe. I'm really enjoying the opportunity to have someone to cook for and to eat with. I also think Brenda is enjoying learning the odd new technique and I DO know thatBernie is enoying the fruits of our labours. When I was at her place earlier in the day, some friends called to invite them for supper so we invited them to join us instead. Jackie and Helena used to be their neighbour, but don't see each other so much now that they live in Mermaid!

We had a lovely vegetable chowder that Brenda found in a new magazine, and it was delicious, especially with her biscuits hot out of the oven to accompany it. Only down side was that she didn't remember that Helena is lactose intolerant - not a great person to feed chowder to. But she was a good sport about it and tried a little.
I made an "Ugly Cake" but I used fresh mandarins instead of canned ones and there may have been a bit too much liquid as the texture was quite dense, but still tasty.
We're having next Friday's Feast at Helena and Jackie's, and I'm going to make Paella. I'm really looking forward to it.

Saturday was busy with a reno project I've started but more on that later in the week.



Sunday afternoon we headed out with Brenda's cousin Maureen, and her husband George and friend Jean. We were planning to go to Cavendish but Brenda's contact who grooms the trails advised it wasn't great there, but that the trails at Dalvay were great. We'd been there last weekend and parts of the trail were a little bare but this week it was great. It hadn't been groomed last week but was this week. It was cold but when you are in the woods there is no wind and the sun was shining. The trees had a thick coating of snow that we were surprised hadn't blown off in the wind, and they were just beautiful. It was such a nice day to be out enjoying the season (bet you never thought you'd hear me say that!)
After we got back we went into the little building for snacks. We all bring something and we all share. I don't (yet) have a thermos so Brenda and I compromise. She brings the hot chocolate and I bring the Bailey's. Did we tell you how delicious hot chocolate is with a little bit of Bailey's added? Divine!
We were so enthusiastic that we decided to get together after supper and go out again because there was this beautiful full moon. It seems like a good idea at 4:00 in the afternoon and the sun was shining - not so good at 8:00 pm and much colder. But.... we had said we were going to do it so we did. The moon was not as high in the sky as we would have liked but it was still very bright. The sky was clear and the stars and moon were spectacular. The hard part is actually getting out there. Once you do, it's wonderful.

We stayed out and played for about 40 minutes but had to come in to watch Iron Chef America





Poor Chef Michael got his butt kicked. But I did get a spectacular presentation idea from one of the dishes he presented. I told Brenda she will probably see that again sometime and she didn't doubt it at all!