Classic Maggie

Birthday canoe trip!

After our successful canoe day a few weeks ago, I decided that I would like to spend my birthday in one of these great Canadian vessels!  We rented a canoe at Pitt Lake (http://www.pittmeadows.bc.ca/EN/main/residents/43/2709/2715/2727.html) and headed off into Widgeon Slough (no motorboats allowed!) for a paddle.  It was exactly what I wanted to be doing on this year of my 2nd annual 29th (and holding) birthday :)

Here are some view shots.  We had perfect weather!

 

The water was so clear!!  Neither Remi or I could get up the nerve to get right in, but we stopped the canoe often to wade out and cool off a bit.  As you can see (despite her performance on past canoe trips) we brought Maggie.  Rather than cry constantly and lean from one side of the canoe to the other (searching for an escape route) she actually laid down and behaved!!  

 And she was darn cute doing it!

She also enjoyed her out-of-canoe time.  Getting to swim all day?!  A lab's dream.  You'd think it was HER birthday or something!!

And of course there were sticks to rescue.

 

We beached for lunch at the end of a channel at one point and Remi decided to show off his solo canoeing abilities to get the canoe turned around and through a shallow spot.  I'll admit, I was impressed.  Slightly ;)

Family shot!

We capped the day off with some BBQ'd salmon and a visit from Bobby T.  Oh, and my birthday cake (flourless chocolate cake!) - which I had to make myself!!  Come to think of it, I also made my own birthday pancakes...  Wait a minute!!  I'd cry "bad husband!" but Remi bought me a beautiful pearl necklace from my favourite jewelery store so I guess I'll forgive him ;)

Until next time!
S

 

Garden update

These aren't very good quality photos, but they serve to show how things are growing!

Up on the deck we have tomatoes and cukes growing in hanging baskets.  The tomatoes have finally started pointing downward.  Quite a few flowers too!

 

 We also have hot pepper plants from last year.  These are flowering too - we'll see!

 Tomatoes down in the garden too - these are doing really well this year!

 

Beets and carrots.  I've planted a couple of different times for these seeds.  You can see the little guys in front.  We ate some last week but they're still very small - although delicious!

 

 The zucchini are coming!!

Beans and peas too!

 

 

And our blueberries should be ready soon - a handful or so ;)

We're still eating lettuce and broccoli of course and the occasional couple of alpine strawberries ripen.  Our strawberries didn't do well in the strawberry pot this year.  I'm going to pull them out of there this year and start a patch in the garden - see if that helps with yield.

Yum :)
S

Recent outings

The weather has been stellar.  And we have been cashing in!!  The garden is looking amazing (blog to come after I take a few more photos) and while Remi is working A LOT, we're still fitting in a few pregnancy-friendly walks.  I must say, I miss camping though :(  Sleeping on the ground would not be very friendly to my hips, back, sciatic nerve (*darn you, nerve, darn you*) (etc) but I miss being outside for days on end. 

So instead, we've been doing things like this:

Canoeing on Allouette Lake.  I like canoeing - it's a sit-down affair, you can cover a lot of distance, and your husband does most of the work!  In fact, for my birthday this weekend, we may head out to Pitt Lake for a paddle and a picnic.

 

These will be the only 2 pregnancy bikini shots I will subject people to - I promise!  I purchased a maternity bathing suit last week.

 

 Walking around Rolley Lake.  We've been doing this one a lot (Maggie and I went alone yesterday, actually).  It's a lovely 4 km route with little beaches that allow Maggie to get in for a dip and Remi and I to stretch our legs.  Last time we were there, we found a balloon!!

It didn't last long.

 Another prego shot!

Finding new easy-terrain walks.  This next walk is from Kanaka Creek in Maple Ridge.  It's not far from the house, really, and it was lovely!  It also allowed us to pick up some fresh salmon on the way home - omega-3 power for baby brain! The actually baby's brain, not mine.  Although these mum-dumbs (as my sister-in-law "lovingly" calls them) are something else!!

Remi was able to play with his camera a bit on this walk.  It was so pretty in there!

 

 

 And of course, my belly makes and appearance ;)

Happy summer everyone!
S

The garden! Version 2013

Channeling a green thumb by posting in green...  

Hoping this year will yield a more productive crop than last...  

I present to you: THE MASSON FAMILY GARDEN (2013)!!!

We started a bunch of tomato, cucumber, and sweet pepper seed inside a few months ago and spring has been kind, so most are outside now!  I think I waited too long to transplant last year and I'm hoping getting them in earlier (and this much drier spring!) will help us get a few RIPE cherry tomatoes this year (although I do love green tomato salsa...).  What follows are a selection of what's growing now :)

Cucs!  I'm trying them both in the garden (likely to climb a trellis) and in hanging baskets.  Hoping that we'll get enough for a few jars of pickles!  They're looking pretty weak right now, but we'll see.

 

Lettuce.  I've got seeds planted in pots as well as out in the garden itself (with lots of slug bait scattered about).  I haven't had much luck growing lettuce from seed, but we'll see how this year goes.

 

This is actually a hot pepper plant that I started from seed LAST YEAR.  I kept 3 of these guys alive inside all winter and I'm hoping that now that they're out in bigger pots and seeing some sunshine that they'll take off.  Again... we'll see ;)

Tomatoes!!  These I am also trying in hanging baskets.  All of the seeds I planted germinated this year so we have a gazillion (ok, maybe 14 or 15) tomato plants in the garden.  Nine in hanging baskets and several out in the garden.  The one below actually has some blossoms starting on it!  I think it's a yellow tomato one that I bought started from the farmer's market.

 

Herbs!  Right now we have rosemary (not doing so hot in a pot on the deck), oregano, thyme, sage, basil, parsley (which is so easy to grow!!), cilantro and mint planted.  I'd like to try drying some of my own herbs for the winter - we have many of the fixings for herbs de Provence.  I may also try freezing some.  Oregano, thyme, mint and parley seem to survive the winters out here quite well, so we have fresh herbs all winter!

 

Broccoli.  Another easy easy easy crop.  These are almost ready to harvest already!  And these plants will just keep on going right to fall.  A word of advice if growing broccoli: little caterpillars hide inside the florets.  They are camouflaged too, the little buggers!!  Simply rinsing does not remove them. Remi and I found this out the hard way when we finally, at the very end of a happy summer of eating raw broccoli, steamed a batch and discovered we also had steamed caterpillars on our plates!  Guess we'd been getting a bit of extra protein all summer... *YUCK*  Some broccoli-related tips (including how to avoid eating these little critters): http://www.vegetable-gardening-made-simple.com/harvesting-broccoli.html.

 Strawberries!!  These are still the plants from last year, planted in our strawberry pot.  I think I might emove them into their own garden space this year though.  These are perennial plants.  We have two different kinds. The first picture showing the little guys is alpine strawberry.  These stay small.  Below are ever-bearing strawberries which fruit now and again later in the summer.  Last year we didn't have much of a harvest so this year we're going to protect the plants with chicken wire.  Not only to the birds eat them, but so does MAGGIE - bad dog!

 

 Alpine strawberries again.

Our blueberry bushes are doing much better this year than last!  It's not going to be a mega-harvest, but definitely more fruitful (haha) than last year.

 

Peas.  Also very easy to grow, provided you don't get too much rain when you plant the seeds out - they will rot in the ground sometimes.  They also like the chilly weather, so they can go out quite early.  I'm due to plant another row soon.  I didn't photograph them, but we also have climbing green beans in.

 

I'm also trying carrots and beets this year.  Carrots are quite finicky - I'm not sure that they'll like our chunky soil.  They also need their seeds planted close enough to the soil surface that light reaches them.  I didn't have too many germinate on the first planting.  I need to get some more seeds in.

Beets.

We've already harvested the rhubarb once this year and it's back with a vengence!  I've talked Remi into strawberry-rhubarb jam.

 

Chives.  I guess this should have gone under the herb section...  This was here when we moved in.  They seed themselves.

 And the cherries are out!  We're hoping for a sunnier spring so these don't split on the trees again.

 

Now for some flower shots.  We're really getting the front garden cleaned up.  We've cut down the old rhododendron and replaced it with two new ones (a pink and a white that bloom at different times in the spring).  Both have new growth on them and are looking good!  We've put in hydrangeas out front and a new maple tree!

Old hydrangea bush:

 

Lots of bees around!  They seem to love the rose bushes and the lavender.  We're going to likely plants some lavender out back for next year to keep the bees around all season and so they're there when our veggies/fruits bloom.

 Lavender.  Notice another little bee buddy!

 

 Remi surveying the front garden (new maple in the background).

 

 Roses:

 

 

YIKES!  You're probably all gardened-out!  I'll try to post later in the season again when the plants are larger and hopefully filling our fridge with yumminess :)

Happy spring into summer!
S