Honeymoon

Yesterday was our anniversary and eleven years ago today Glenn and I were in Amsterdam. One of the first things we did after checking into our hotel was to take an enchanting nighttime canal cruise, compliments of my Mom and sister. It was the perfect start to our wonderful week in the Netherlands. We would go back there in a minute. (Painting by Glenn.)

A walk on a sunny afternoon

Along the waterfront on Friday afternoon, people were relaxing in the spring-like weather. It would have been a nice day to go sailing if one had a sailboat. Instead, we stopped at the Beacon Drive-in for a chocolate covered soft ice-cream cone.

Recent change - a larger base has been built around the Terry Fox statue.

Butchart Gardens Feb. 19, 2009

Inside at Butchart's "Spring Prelude" this week are red tulips, pink camellias, a red rhododendron, and (below) several gerbera daisies.

Here the petals are entwined, all friendly-like.

There are also magnolia trees.

And outside, heather is blooming.

Tuesday's sunset - Feb. 17

Two lagoons

... yet not a photo of either. Yesterday we visited Witty's Lagoon Park and hiked down to Sitting Lady Falls.

It was a feeding frenzy over at Esquimalt Lagoon where someone was tossing out birdfeed. My favourite bird of the group was the pintail, third photo down.

Valentine's Day

A nice box of chocolates from Glenn. Mmm.
Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

A walk to town

With good reason Glenn doesn't like the number 13, let alone Friday the 13th, so he stayed home while I walked around the harbour and in to town this afternoon. By then the sun had disappeared and the wind picked up. It was nice to see the lower causeway so vacant though. If you look at the far end of the lawn you'll see that a tree is actually in blossom. Who knows what makes a plant decide to bloom when it's still so cold outside.

Raisin Bread

I wonder what causes a loaf to sink and wrinkle on the top. This was my first attempt at a regular loaf of raisin bread (as opposed to a rolled type) and it tastes just like the real stuff... especially good with peanut butter.

Butchart Gardens Feb. 6, 2009

Another stop at Butchart's for a visit to the inside garden and a walk around the grounds.

This yellow flower (below) is actually quite small.

Sorry, one more Amaryllis picture. I'm still intrigued with these dark red ones even if I can't get a good photo. Probably in a week's time many of the Amaryllis flowers will have faded.

Outside, I liked the colour of this rock.

In the sunshine at the top of the stairs to the sunken garden we could easily pretend it was spring. Sprouts are starting to poke out of the ground.

On the way home we drove up Mt. Tolmie. Looking toward Mt. Douglas the scenery still looks bleak and winter-like.

Columbia Gorge Hotel closes

It's with a tinge of sadness to read the news this week that the Columbia Gorge Hotel has closed. The owners cite health and financial difficulties. This historic hotel in Oregon was opened in the early 1920's and was visited, they say, by old time film stars like Rudolph Valentino, the 'it girl' Clara Bow, Myrna Loy and Jane Powell and Presidents Franklin Roosevelt and Calvin Coolidge.

We stayed there on our way through Oregon in the spring of 2002. Glenn describes it as "not our greatest hotel experience." Although the grounds were lovely and a waterfall crashes 200 feet down the gorge to the Columbia River below, we thought it was overpriced and remember it mostly for the freezing cold tile-floored bathroom, having to always find an employee to work the elevator and the grossly huge breakfasts. The menu from our visit reads:

- A bountiful array of seasonal fruits and berries

- Grandma Lallah's baked apple

- Hot apple fritters with sugar and spice

- Oatmeal with brown sugar and sweet cream

- Eggs any style

- Crispy bacon, country-style smoked pork chop, apple and maple flavored pork sausage OR fresh grilled Idaho mountain trout

- Hash browned potatoes

- Homestyle baking powder biscuits and caramelized berry blossom honey

- Stack of buttermilk pancakes with hot honey maple syrup

- Coffee

This wasn't a 'pick one or two items off the menu' situation. You got ALL that food - the only choice being between the bacon/pork and the trout - and the servings were large. Glenn says, "There was enough food on each plate to feed an army and it wasn't that appetizing anyway". Think - big fatty slabs of pork. Sadly, we didn't even get to the pancakes. The berries were lovely though!

Negatives aside, it's still a grand old hotel and I hope someone someday will bring it back to glory.

Yogurt marmalade cake

I'm not a big fan of marmalade and even less of a fan of yogurt, but neither is the person who put the recipe for this loaf on her website. Yogurt is in the cake and the icing. It's quite a nice cake, for something different (but not for diabetics). I don't want to name people on this site, but thanks "M". You know who you are.

Life's little mysteries

Update: "S" informs me of a funny Sock Support Group website. (Click link on the highlighted text.)

Butchart's Jan. 31, 2009

For anyone who hasn't followed our pre-blog emails, Glenn and I bought yearly passes to Butchart Gardens in April, 2008. In the cold winter months Butchart's transforms the Blue Poppy restaurant into a spring garden with flowers, bridges, a pond with fish and a waterfall. During "Spring Prelude" they also open part of the residence to the public. This was our 4th visit of the year to Butchart's (23rd since last April) and it was just a quick stop on our way to Sidney.

Here are two types (assuming they're not just variations of the same type) of the Amaryllis flowers we didn't get pictures of before. Both are in an awkward-to-photograph spot in the greenhouse beside the cafe garden.

Below are two photos of the next type just to show the difference in colour between our Canon ELPH (top) and Canon camcorder (bottom). Note the greens in bottom right corner.

A few things had changed in the indoor garden since last week. One of the Witch Hazel bushes was completely bare, many of the tulips were gone and the Pussy Willow was starting to go to flower (or whatever it is doing here - below).

I should know what these flowers are but I don't. The blue flowers in the top photo were actually purple.

It may be indoors but, at this time of year, we'll take any tree blossoms we can get.

In the search for bread as good as Mom's

As a beginner bread maker I have only made white bread from one recipe. This week I tried one from the back of the Rogers flour bag. It differs from my usual recipe in that it uses honey & oil rather than sugar & shortening, slightly less yeast, and the ingredients are mixed together differently. Instructions were to let the dough rest 20 minutes after dividing in half; I prefer 10 minutes. Ha, already I have preferences.

Verdict: it stuck to the pans in places, the texture might be slightly finer but it tastes pretty much the same as my usual bread.