Maple Syrup Festival

Another stellar day, I have already been out for a long walk with G&G.

Tomorrow we head to Cumberland County for a Maple Syrup supper at the Westchester Fire Hall. Pancakes, baked beans, sausages, brown bread, sweets, tea coffee and of course the wonderful Maple syrup to crown it all. Check out the festival here.

Maple Syrup is the first agricultural crop in the NS growing season and the cold nights and warm days are helping to give the producers a banner year. Yummy! I can't wait to get some Maple Butter tomorrow.

There hasn't been much work done in the sewing room, but I did stitch together a Happy Birthday banner. It wasn't ready for Patti's but hopefully will be completed for the rash of birthdays coming up in the next few months.

 My Uncle Bob was featured in the Lives Lived column in today's Globe and Mail. It was wonderful to read the tribute that his son Shel wrote.
He was my Mother's older brother, by 17 months or so.
They had great telephone conversations every Sunday morning, discussing absolutely everything, but mostly the old neighbourhood around Spencer Street in St. John's. My mother is the last of a family of eight siblings, she has lived in Nova Scotia  since 1944 but she is still a Newfoundlander first and foremost.

Travelling the South Island

The trip was long and I didn't sleep any more than 3 seconds but we made it. Once we arrived in Christchurch, had along nap and felt refreshed.We stayed two nights with Brenda and Jon and met two of their critters. Ringo the rabbit and I believe the guinea pig is Jesus.
The jet lag hasn't seemed to affect me although I am writing this in the middle of the night.
It was really nice to meet my Christchurch relatives. Louise and Mike hosted all the family for a wonderful supper and Sheila was an honourary Anderson for the evening.



Top photo: Louise and Brenda
Middle: Sheila, Margaret and Bob
Bottom: Gwen , George and Bob



I am in Dunedin now and today will be exploring this city. The road trip here was spectacular and we saw lots of the mountains etc. we even ventured to the Mt John Observatory in Lake Tepako.


Very high and very windy. And what a road! I am sure it must have a website, it is run by the University of Canterbury in Christchurch and scientists worldwide come to look at the stars and heavens.

My camera battery died so I had to find the adapter pronto and charged it at Marg's friends during lunch in Timaru.

The weather is cool but nice for traveling and my hat and mittens are close by... my wool sweater has a few splats of the maple syrup but I am flicking it off and by the time we get to Wellington it may be all gone.

I miss Canadian news but I am not hearing any NZ news either!.

I will try to update tomorrow and then it may be a few days before I can do it again.

Vancouver

Well I made it this far without too many mishaps, the main one was the jug of maple syrup which leaked in my suitcase. Luckily not too much leaked but some stuff had to be laundered. Most was contained in the Baggie but some managed to find its way out. What a mess!!!
Gavin is the recipient of the remainder.






He showed Sheila and I the Vancouver sights and we had a great meal in a Thai restaurant. The photo above shows a carved melon. It was amazing to see.

Last night I had a wonderful sleep so hopefully it will help the marathon ahead.

We are going to have suishi before we head off to the airport at 6PM. Our flight is 9PM and we arrive 14 hours later. Sunday, June 1 down under. This is a photo of Gavin and April outside the suishi restaurant.