September's Beet Goes On

September has been such a busy month - every week has been full of events.

There was a root canal - ouch, big girl bed, a week of camping, a weekend of camping,

a cousin's wedding, a mid-week dinner party, etc. etc.

We are truly blessed!

The Fall garden has exploded.

This week we pulled the vines and best crop of weeds ever

to find at least a bushel of candy cane beets, spaghetti squash,

the last dig of potatoes and last picking of tomatoes!

Still more weeding and tilling to do.

I'm not at all sure what to do with all the beets, especially since

I discovered that the farmer really doesn't even like beets!

I've been experimenting with some recipes for this abundant vegetable

but need to give away as many as I can as they can not be stored too long.

Beware your porch stoop my friends, neighbours and family!

Lunch today was stir fried spiralized beets

My newest kitchen gadget ...

The Cuisinart Spiralizer

BTW, I am not paid for this post by Cuisinart. In fact,

I picked up this sweet little slicer at a local liquidation store for a mere $8 - shhhh

I used 
1 candy cane beet - peeled and spiralized

1 yellow beet -peeled and spiralized

a small chunk of cabbage - shredded

1 clove garlic - crushed

a few slices of red onion - sliced

1/2 carrot - peeled and spiralized

Any combination of veggies would work.

Zucchini would be great!

Stir fry the vegetables in 1 Tbsp. Coconut Oil for approx. 10 minutes.

Seasoning - salt and pepper to taste,

1/4 tsp. curry, 1/4 tsp. chili powder.

I added some sliced (left-over) steak to the mix and it was delicious.

It was more than I could eat but very tasty.
I think the secret ingredient is using

coconut oil - it gives such a nice flavour to the stir fry.

September 2018

Crib to bed for big girl. Cradle to crib for growing baby.  Nammie's big girl bed with pool noodle "rail".
They are growing too fast!

Labour Day Weekend camping on Lake Huron. Visitors from home and watching the Monarch Butterflies head South!

An exciting win (red asym Eternelle sweater) from Shepherd's Fashions in Ottawa -one of my favourite stores!
Want to visit there some day. In the meantime, mail order works well too.

Meanwhile back at the ranch farm, we bake bread and enjoy the simple things in life!

She shaped the loaf all by herself!

September has one more week and we will be busy every day - whew, I'm ready for

a less busy month in October - or is it???

Till next time ..... make these last few days of Summer 2018 count!

Campbell River and Victoria BC

Our cruise ship landed safely in Vancouver.

We disembarked, said our goodbyes to Ralph and Yvonne,

and caught a taxi to the BC Ferries Terminal

for a transfer to Nanaimo.

One night spent there with a lovely harbour walk -

getting our sea legs back!

Our rented van comfortably carried us to 

Campbell River, BC - our destination for the next few days.

A fishing excursion here was SO much fun

(us gals didn't even think we wanted to do this when planning the trip,

however, we loved it!)

Thankfully it was calm and not nearly as chilly as we had anticipated.

Sunrise - an early start to the day!

Only one fish was caught

and they didn't seem to be biting so Dan, our captain, took us on a 

whale watching tour.

Spectacular sightings of hump backs, seals, and sea lions.

We returned to the fishing spot and low and behold ....

wait for it ...

We EACH caught some lovely salmon!!!

Beautiful Chinook!!! Biggest of the day.

Yep, this is no fish story! We each caught one ...

3 Chinook Salmon and mine was a nice Coho Salmon.

We are looking forward to receiving a shipment of these beauties

smoked and canned.

The next day we headed to Courtenay, BC, just down the road,

for a bicycle tour throughout the countryside and city.

My sea legs hadn't turned into cycle legs but I did my best to keep up.

This was so much fun. We toured a cider brewery, an amazing

blueberry field, a farmer's market along the way, and

the Hot Chocolates Factory in town.

Later that afternoon we went to explore the Elk Falls Suspension Bridge.

Dwarfed by these huge, ancient trees, and the sound of distant

rushing water made me feel peaceful

and in awe of my Creator as we hiked toward the bridge.

No words ...

Another remarkable bridge ... the historic Kinsole Trestle Bridge
was well worth the hike in to see it!

Our final destination ... Victoria BC

We stayed at Abigail's - a beautiful B & B hotel
well located in the city.
They served incredibly delicious full breakfasts
and at 4:30 p.m. hors d'oeuvres spread
not to be missed!

Some of their delicious recipes (i.e.
the yummy oatmeal cookies and their
quinoa salad can be found on their website:
Abigail's Hotel










On our first evening we were thrilled to take in the city's BC Day celebrations.
After a delicious fish and chips dinner at fisherman's wharf,
we sat on the parliament building steps and enjoyed the evening!
Symphony Splash, bagpipe bands marching about, and fireworks - a perfect night!

A fun activity and great way to see part of this serene city
was by segway!

They made us wear funny helmets but that was all part of the fun!

We walked downtown to Beacon Hill Park.
It was tinder dry all around but still so beautiful.

A lovely way to end our vacation.

We were ready and eager to be home to see our loved ones
and get back into routine .... nuff said!
Thanks for coming along.

Till next time ......... here's to September 2018.