On the Weekend – Page 11 – Just An East Coast Girl

Chaga

What in the world is Chaga? lol

James brought some Chaga home for me to try. His friend (boss) has been collecting it when he’s out on his hikes and introduced James to this interesting…mushroom? I had to google it.

“Rather than soft like a mushroom, chaga is hard, almost as hard as wood. It is unique, nothing like common mushrooms.” In fact, the Siberians call it the “Gift from God” and the “Mushroom of Immortality,” this vibrant growth has been used by humans to support health for thousands of years. The Japanese call it “The Diamond of the Forest,” while the Chinese deem it “King of Plants.” For the Chinese that is saying a lot, since they have an immense history with countless plants.”

Now, you can get the great powerful secret of the Orient in your very own backyard…kinda…if you know what to look for.

Inonotus obliquus, commonly known as chaga mushroom , is actually a fungus, parasitic on birch trees and other trees. The sterile conk is irregularly formed and has the appearance of burnt charcoal. Weird… The name Chaga comes from the Russian word for mushroom.

Chaga is traditionally grated into a fine powder and used to brew a beverage resembling coffee or tea. But you can also leave it in chunks and brew a “chunk” in a pot of water and keep reusing it until all the goodness is out of it. James brought some ground chaga home and then yesterday his friend gave him a bag of chaga chunks. Of course, I HAD to try it!!

It has a mild flavour and really isn’t too bad. It’s mellow.

Guess I better go for a walk and find some Chaga!

Watch Out for Motorcycles 🚲

It’s the kick off to summer! May long weekend and a gorgeous Saturday!

May is also Motorcycle Awareness Month! I am sure there will be a lot of bikes on the road this weekend. I know my sweetie plans to work a bit today and then get out on his!!

Great day to eat outside

Here today…gone tomorrow…just passing through

It’s the season for Tall Ships. Actually next year 2017 will be the year that many of the Tall ships make their return. ( Last time was 2009)

For the past week, the beautiful Tall Ship,‘Cuauhtémoc’ from Mexico has been docked on the Halifax Waterfront. What a beauty of a ship!! What a ship to photograph! And many people have.

I am a little sad I didn’t get in to the waterfront myself…

Here are just a couple of my favourites that local photographers captured!

Photo by: Kimberley Burke

Photo by: John Tenfold ( Photomaster Studios)

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Photos by: Shaun Lowe Photographic

These ones are so beautiful!!Shaun Lowe Photographic does AMAZING work!!! Based out of Halifax Check out their other work.

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Ok…and just one MORE!!

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The Tall Ship Cuauhtémoc is a sail training vessel of the Mexican Navy, named for the last Mexica Huey Tlatoani The collection of tall ships scheduled to visit Nova Scotia’s ports next year will be part of Nova Scotia’s Canada 150 celebrations. who was captured and executed in 1525. She is the last of the four sister ships built by the Naval Shipyards in Bilbao, Spain in 1982.

Goodbye Cuauhtémoc, thanks for visiting!

This is just a small taste of a Tall Ship.

Nova Scotia has officially been deemed a Rendez-vous 2017 Tall Ships Regatta venue and will serve as the start of the final leg of the tall ships race next year.

“Plans are also being made that these ships will stop in communities all along our coast, allowing Nova Scotians from communities across our province to see these ships closer to home” said Premier Stephen McNeil. The collection of tall ships scheduled to visit Nova Scotia’s ports next year will be part of Nova Scotia’s Canada 150 celebrations. Mark your calendars for the summer of 2017. Yay!! How exciting…the Tall ships are coming!

First Taste of Spring

It’s a little early yet but I have been getting so anxious for the taste of rhubarb, ESPECIALLY since this is the first year I have my own plants.

I have two of them and they are growing quite well, but not quite ready yet SO I went to Mom’s and took just a bit…enough for 2 cups so I could try a NEW recipe.

Rhubarb Pudding Cake

Yummmmmmm!!!! Just a taste BUT it is soooooo delicious!!!!!

I definitely will be making this again and can’t wait to make Rhubarb Custard Pie, Rhubarb Crisp, and Rhubarb Muffins. It’s soon time…

Just hanging out…

As I was enjoying my coffee this morning thinking about a lot of things, I looked out my window and saw these three hanging out.

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It’s not a real nice day, it’s drizzly, and deciding if it’s gonna rain some more or clear up ( my husband is actually outside doing some more digging in case it rains) Me…I like rainy Saturdays, well ok not really but if it does rain, I stay in my PJ’s a little longer and enjoy an extra cup of coffee…and I like that.

and think or plan… THERE’s Lots on the list. Here’s but a few…

…thankful for the amazing friends in my life. the few very close ones that I can count on when I’m going through a hard time!

….the joy of planning gardens and landscaping this Spring

…the adventure of planning what to do around Nova Scotia this summer for FUN and when family visit.

and the BIG one….planning our 3 week adventure to celebrate our Anniversary in July. I’ve been thinking about that one a lot lately.

So for a little while, and while it is nice and quiet, I’m just hanging out…

I wonder what these three are chatting about as they hang out this morning?

birds

ENJOY your Saturday ❤

And we’re back at it!

Last Spring it was the front yard. New gardens and new lawn. And we started the backyard. New gardens, new walkway, fire pit, fence by the shed…

And it’s that time of year once again that we NEED to get back at it! This time…new lawn for the backyard…well just some places. So…Part 1 is in process. Scrape all the old weedy sod off, rake and lay a skim of top soil in preparation for sod.

If the weather cooperates we just may be able to get it ready this weekend to order sod next week! Fingers crossed!!!

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A new kind of fun

Anyone who has been reading my blog for any time knows I love adventure and I love to explore. Unfortunately time & money these days doesn’t allow as much travel as I like so I have been looking at new ways to incorporate some extra fun in our walks and hikes around here.

GEOCACHING

Have you heard of it? What is it?

I have heard about geocaching for a long time and wanted to give it a try. My youngest son had his first go at it 3 weeks ago and since then I have really been wanting to get out and do it. So last night we did. I had my first introduction to geocaching.

…so what is Geocaching? Here is the definition from Wikipedia.

Geocaching is an outdoor recreational activity, in which participants use a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver or mobile device and other navigational techniques to hide and seek containers, called “geocaches” or “caches”, anywhere in the world.

A typical cache is a small waterproof container containing a logbook (with a pen or pencil). The geocacher enters the date they found it and signs it with their established code name. After signing the log, the cache must be placed back exactly where the person found it. Larger containers such as plastic storage containers (Tupperware or similar) or ammunition boxes can also contain items for trading, such as toys or trinkets, usually of more sentimental worth than financial. Geocaching shares many aspects with benchmarking, trigpointing, orienteering, treasure-hunting, letterboxing, and waymarking.

Sounds like fun, right? That’s what I thought and so this summer I want to do more of it as we are out and about.

Last night we loaded the app on our phone and set up a user name. The app shows caches in your aerator wherever. I just have the basic version for now until I learn more. The basic version gives you quite a few spots but also shows the premium ones in grey ( A LOT MORE) You click on the one you want to find, it gives you basic clues and then you walk or hike to find it. We did some easy ones in our neighbourhood last night just to see how it worked. You log in and when you find it, you can add comments and/or a picture and it sets a marker that you found it. Pretty cool!

Here are a few pics from last night. We are really hoping to get out and do some more geocaching really soon.

Geocaching…I think it’s the perfect activity to get you out exploring!!

Dearest Mother

I am blessed beyond measure to have two wonderful Mothers. My Mother and my Mother-in-Law. Both are remarkable women and I have learned much from them. And… and as of 3 weeks ago, I am officially a Mother-in-Law. I love my new daughter very much and happy she is my son’s choice for a wife.

Today is the special day we set aside each year and we celebrate Mother’s.

Mom

Happy Mother’s Day!

Feeling Nostalgic

I had a moment today….

Typical Spring Saturday…Yard Sale time!!! and my parents were having one today so we popped in just to show our support. Also, we had a couple boxes of things left over from our yard sale last year so we thought we would stay a few hours and see if things would sell.

Dad & Mom are feeling the need to declutter and get rid of stuff. Their reason…”Who knows how long we can stay in this big home and look after things… the time will come we have to move to an apartment” Sounds good to me! They’re having fun going through old things and deciding what they want/can keep and getting rid of the rest. A great Spring project for them.

One of the things they are selling is an old 8track player and 8tracks. Do you remember these? I sure do!!! I remember listening to them all the time as a kid. I started looking through a box of 8tracks….that’s when the nostalgia hit!!! It took me right back to 1975 to when we moved from Ontario back to Nova Scotia. I was just a kid. To pass time in the car on that longggggggg drive, Dad would play the 8tracks and we would all sing to the top of our lungs! Some of my favourites…Tammy Wynette and George Jones, Charlie Pride…oh my…and truth be told, I’ll bet if I played them today I would still be able to sing right along with it!!! Haha, good times, great memories!