Garden Visit

 Day 280

Today I took a quick drive up to the David Douglas Botanical Gardens at the University of Northern British Columbia. 

The gardens are put to rest just like at our own flower beds. As I was walking around I noticed a bush, with green leaves, but packed with White Berries!

 

Snowberry ~ Waxberry or ghostberry

 

 Snowberry is a native shrub commonly used en masse or in naturalized landscapes. Thin, cascading branches produce small, pink flowers that appear in spikes in early summer followed by clusters of white berries in autumn.

 

 

Snowberry ~ waxberry

 

Use by People:  Snowberries are high in saponins, which are poorly absorbed by the body.  Although they are largely considered poisonous, (given names like ‘corpse berry’ or ‘snake’s berry’), some tribes ate them fresh or dried them for later consumption.  The berries were used as a shampoo to clean hair.  Crushed berries were also rubbed on the skin to treat burns, warts, rashes and sores; and rubbed in armpits as an antiperspirant.  Various parts were infused and used as an eyewash for sore eyes.  A tea made from the roots was used for stomach disorders; a tea made from the twigs was used for fevers.  Branches were tied together to make brooms.  Bird arrows were also made from the stems.

 

Today I was lucky to bring along my macro lens. I wanted to capture the texture of the pink colour on the Snowberry. 

 

 

I will see you again tomorrow!

Jewels

 

"Never miss an opportunity of noticing anything of beauty." R.W.Emerson 

Sweater weather

Day 279

 Happy Sweater Weather! It is time to dig out those soft, warm and cozy sweaters and head outdoors! Or my favorite thing to do, is to find some warm soft yarn and my knitting needles and knit one up. I just may have it done by the time snow flies (If I am not working on Christmas projects instead!)

I did start this sweater way back in May, but with Summer activities, and other projects I didn't get this one finished until now! 

 

Ready to Wear

Modeling the new Sweater

I used the self timer on the camera and used the bench as the tripod. I then had to dash to the spot for a photo and smile all at the same time!! It wasn't the pose I wanted, it was the best photo of the bunch! 

 

I will see you again tomorrow! 

Jewels

"Sweater Weather: warm blankets, hot chocolate, holding hands, going for walks, fuzzy socks, kissing and cuddling, and fireplaces."

Leaves

 Day 278

 

There are times when the inner child just needs to come out!

 When the leaves are falling to the ground, you just need to jump into a leaf pile, lay on your back on the pile of leaves and look up at the sky, walk and listen to the crunch of the leaves under your feet, or just give those leaves a good toss in the air! 

 

Falling Leaves

Having fun with the leaves

You can have fun with this technique! Set your camera on the self timer, lay it on the ground lens pointed up and hit the shutter button then let you inner child out!

 

Until tomorrow, have fun!

Jewels 

"Autumn music is the sound of rain and the rustling of falling leaves."

Hand Pies

 Day 277

There is a lot to be said about working in the kitchen with a friend. You never know what the results might be! 

Betty, Robert and I, we have been creative in the kitchen this past summer! This season we made Rhubarb, Cherry and Raspberrycellos!  We are not about to toss away alcohol infused fruit. So, a batch of jam was made. We still had some fruit left over and today was Pie making day! 

Sampling is always the best and favorite part of baking/cooking in the kitchen.  Sipping and sampling the cellos as we are filtering and bottling our delicious product. The jam we spread on fresh bread and licked the spoons and the pot! Tasting the first cookie fresh from the oven....

How do you sample a pie.. unless you bake the whole pie... but instead we made  'Hand Pies' esp. to taste! 

Ready for the oven

 Rhubarb with Strawberry & Cherry cello Hand Pies ready for the oven. Fingers crossed that they will taste great!

Rhubarb with Strawberry & Cherry Hand Pie

How did they taste?  Well, what can I say..... You just got to be here to experience our creation! Our experiment was a hit! 

Next weekend is Thanksgiving, and we will be baking one of the pies to have for our dessert! Served with whipped cream or ice cream... we will see!

 

Until tomorrow!

 

Jewels

 

 "Happiness is cooking with friends and eating together!" Thank you Betty and Robert! xx

 

 

Plum picking time

 Day 276

 

This morning was the perfect foggy morning to pick the rest of our plums. We are so pleased with our very first harvest!  She is a small tree, so no ladder was required to pick these small tasty plums

The cutest plums ever!

 We could easily eat the whole entire picking... but I had decided to make a Plum/cinnamon muffins. 

Topped with cinnamon sugar 

Here they are ready for the oven. The house smelled wonderful with that sweet plum and cinnamon fragrance! 

Cinnamon Plum Muffins

I saved a few plums to make another batch, maybe without the cinnamon. Then maybe they will taste more like pflaumenkuchen (plum tart)! 

I am already looking forward to harvest time next year! The baking/cooking ideas will be a taste buds delight!

 Guess what I am having with my morning cup of coffee?? You guess right!

Until then!

Jewels 

"The secret ingredient is always Love."

3:33 pm

 Day 275

 

What were you doing at 3:33 pm today? 

My dinner is prepped, errands and chores are done and soon the day will come to a close, so it is time to relax and enjoy the afternoon!

It is 3:33 pm on a Friday, I could make a cup of coffee and enjoy that coffee with something sweet I had baked earlier this week. Sitting outside on the deck with my feet up and knitting a few rows..... 

Or

The time is  3:33pm ~ enjoying Wine in the Sunshine and knitting!

Instead of taking the photo straight on, I decided to lower my camera and shoot up a a bit. I like how you can see the sunlight in my glass of Cabernet Malbec Carmenere!

 

Mao enjoying the sun

Let's not forget Mao who photo bombed my photo! 

We will spend more afternoons outside ~ as long as the weather holds! 

 

Slainte is Tainte meaning health is wealth! 

Cheers to you all! 

 

I will see you again tomorrow!

 

Jewels 

"It is no bad thing to celebrate a simple life." J.R.R. Tolkien 

Purple ~ Still Life

Day 274

 

Purple refers to any variety of colours with the hue between red and blue.

 Sometimes it can be confusing, with some foods, such as cabbage. Is it red cabbage, purple cabbage, blaukraut (in German meaning blue cabbage?) 

Then there are the purple prune plums in my photo. (you may think they are cherries!)  When I picked them off the tree this morning, they were purple when handling the plums the dusty-white waxy coating comes off and the plums looked more burgundy red.  

Still Life ~ Purple

It didn't take long before 5 chickadee's showed up! They didn't get very close, but they were curious and they were hoping I had food for them. As I was taking photos a squirrel made its appearance too! I almost had birds and a squirrel in the photo, when along came a dog and its jogging human! After they had passed I sat and waited... that window of opportunity had passed.

 

 Thank you for taking a look at my photo for today!

I will be back tomorrow!

 

Jewels 

 

"Photography is a love affair with life." B. Uzzle