More birthday fun

Last Thursday was my 27th birthday. I had a lovely day, and here are some pictures from our celebrations..

Brian made pancakes for breakfast. I love special breakfasts. Now that I am working most Saturdays, we often miss out on our weekly 'Saturday breakfast', pancakes or crepes with coffee. So it's nice to have bonus days ;).

There was pear hazelnut gratin to go with them, and whipping cream! The gratin is baked pears, soaked in orange juice with hazelnut crumble on top, and ginger jam in there too. It's really good.

Bronwen loves whipped cream.

Looking out the window.

That afternoon we went to our weekly moms group with the ladies from church. Here is Bronwen just hanging out with some of her buddies..

'Hey, call me!'

 Little explorers.

Everyone on the couch. Bronwen is the oldest one here... the youngest two were born in December. Cuties!

Birthday flowers from Mom and Dad Claus- thank you!

Happy faces after nap.

Brian also made me a special birthday dinner, which I forgot to take a picture of because it was so delicious.. salmon and risotta and fancy salad, yum!

It was a great day.

A couple of videos

Here is our little lady this afternoon. Sorry about all of the zooming at the end of the second one... I forgot that I couldn't take a picture mid-video.

(I've decided to just put my Bronwen-videos on this blog too- now that there are less of them.. plus, new-baby probably won't get their own blog so trying to start being more equal now ;)

Afternoon tea

I am sitting here drinking a lovely afternoon tea and Bronwen is napping. We went to the library today and it tired her right out. So many books to pull off the shelf! (though, she didn't pull off too many). So many people to smile at! Such a nice open space to run free in! And downstairs in the kids library, so many other kids to look at! And, a box of raisins to find on the table and half-eat before her mother noticed. Well, I hope they weren't too stale, or contaminated.

I added a fun little pregnancy ticker for those interested parties. I find it interesting when they say, "-- days to go!" as if every pregnancy has a definite end date. After Bronwen being born a full 9 days past her 'estimated due date' I am fully preparing myself for this one to do something similar. That way, I'll be really surprised if he/she comes early, and hopefully not as impatient if he/she doesn't!

We are going to leave the gender of this baby a surprise. It's a pretty common question people ask though- 'Do you know what you're having?'. Yup, yup I do. A baby! I think that it is an amazing moment when they say, "It's a boy! or 'It's a girl!' and wouldn't want it any other way. I can see how some people might like to know, for planning purposes or curiosity's sake, and I don't fault them for that.

But it's a really, really fun surprise. There aren't too many surprises like that in life.

A Sunday in pictures

The weather here was beautiful yesterday.. not a cloud in the sky and barely even windy. We really feel the need to take advantage of days like this, so after church we went on a snowshoeing adventure.

We went up to Whitehills, which is right in the city really... at the east end of St. John's right next to the ocean. It's about a 10 minute drive from our house. There are so many trails!

Sparkly snow!

An icicle tree.

The area is used for mountain biking in the summer, so there are fun ramps on the trails and some good steep hills.

Straight ahead you can see the city...

And in the other direction you can see the ocean! Blackhead straight ahead, and Cape Spear to the left (the snowy hills in the distance).

We stopped for a tea and snack break.

Happy hiker.

Bronwen getting tired.. but she didn't close her eyes the whole time we were out. Didn't want to miss anything!

Brian made a delicious dinner. We had salad with feta, figs and almonds..

'If I don't get some food soon, I'm going to rip this tray right off...'

And then we had delicious pork with balsamic fig sauce and baked potato fries.

I went to a ladies night at a church just up the road. It was supposed to be last Sunday, for Valentine's Day, but got cancelled because of the weather so it was yesterday instead!  The main event was cake decorating and it was really fun! Everyone got their own cake, piping bag, icing tips, and bowl of icing. They had piles of candies, sprinkles, chocolate, and even fondant to decorate with. I tried my hand at fondant to make the bear and it was really fun. I don't think he will be very tasty but it's fun to look at.

An excellent Sunday and a good start to the last week of February!

Mum, I was really wondering about that bun in the oven you and Dad have been talking about...

(and also, that doesn't look like a bun at all. It looks like roast beef...)

What's that you say? I'm going to be a big sister?! 

I can hardly contain myself! Actually, I'm beside myself...

Bronwen's little brother or sister. Coming August 2013!

Island Living

We really do live on an isolated island in the middle of the north Atlantic ocean.

If you are not flying (which is of course the most popular method of travel during the winter, but prone to many delays and cancellations as well), the other way to leave Newfoundland is by water.
Right now, during the winter, the only ferry to the mainland (North Sydney, Nova Scotia- Cape Breton, not exactly a huge metropolis and nowhere close to Halifax!) leaves from Port Aux Basques.
Which is exactly on the other end of Newfoundland (north west corner vs south east corner) from St. John's. A 900 km drive from here.

Once on board the ferry, it takes 6-8 hours to cross over to Nova Scotia. This does not include at least an hour on either end to board the ferry and unload it- not a very quick process.

Almost all of our food is brought in by truck-- therefore, it has to make the ferry trip. The other day I was at the grocery store and things were starting to look a little sparse. Not empty, but there were definitely quite a few gaps on the shelves. I was looking for some pork that was on sale, so I asked the butcher in the meat department... he said that the last 3 trucks hadn't made it in due to high winds, and they didn't have last week's specials in stock, let alone this weeks. 'All the meat you see out there, that's all we got! I got no more beef to cut back there'. I don't think he really knew what to do with himself!

So that is just a little story of what it is like to live in Newfoundland in the winter. There is plenty of food out there still... but if you're in search of a specific item, often it won't be there. Most times when I get go for groceries, I don't end up finding everything on my list. It's probably sitting in a truck at the Nova Scotia ferry terminal. But, that makes this place all the more interesting...

Despite the apparent shortages, last weekend there was
still a lot of yummy food going on around here.
Brian made delicious French onion soup.

It may not look very appetizing.. but it was delicious.

First sushi... yum! (disclaimer-- no raw fish, only fake crabmeat)

I'm in a bad mood, so I'm going to rest on your knees and touch my eyelashes...

Happy Valentines Day!

harbourside

And here we have our little red starfish in the Claus Red Snowsuit! Now on its fourth user... this little suit has been well loved and well worn :).

It was sunny last Friday, a rare break amidst all the snow, sleet, rain and wind we have had lately. Bronwen and I went downtown for a little walk, it was lovely.

Have a good day everyone!

ps- this is my 200th post. I'm not really one to keep track of posts... but that's kind of interesting, I thought. I started this blog way back in November 2007, over 5 years ago- when I was in my 4th year at Western and not even sure where I was going to be a couple months from then (I was waiting to hear where my final placement for nursing school would be). A few weeks later I finally got the answer I was waiting for.. Victoria, BC! And the rest was history....