The dog ate my homework

You know that old grade school excuse: "The dog ate my homework"? Well it's taken a digital turn and I, unfortunately must use it today... Here's the 2010 version for amateur bloggers: "The dog ate my camera". Yep, it's true, Mika, our sweet little blondie, totally ATE the camera I used to document my life in the mountains. Now believe me, I'm not exaggerating even just a little bit, she really did chew it up into tiny little bits. Broke open the lens (a retractable one, which means that she managed to OPEN the camera), she got the memory card out and broke it in half ! Even I had trouble getting that little bit of plastic out of the camera when it was a useful tool... how determined she was! So needless to say that both Mr. Fox and I were furious when we walked in after a day's work to find dozens and dozens of chewed metal and plastic bits all over the floor...
So basically that's my excuse for now... the dog ate my camera.
I'll have to resort to other means for the next posts to create colorful imaginary photos for you to see in your mind...

The seasons are changing !

Yikes I can't believe it's been over a month since my last post ! So much has changed... weather-wise that is! Take a look at a nice automn foggy morning.

And just a few days (or is it weeks!) later...

I'm so happy with the color we chose for the house, I think it stands out well in this foresty environment. Don't you?

As you know, we had quite a vegetable garden growing, but when the temperature dipped, we harvested all the tomatoes we could and this is our first crop...

Because we had sooooo many, I did some research and it turns out that you can actually help ripen green tomatoes indoors with a few different techniques... all worked beautifully.

Firstly, you can suspend them and they will ripen. So for a little while our kitchen looked a little bit like a Tuscan villa (ok, maybe I'm pushing it, but it looked great).

Another easy way to help speed up the ripening process is to place a few apples close by. The mix of enzymes will speed things up. Needless to say, by a few weeks, we had lots and lots of tomatoes, so I canned most of them, the old fashioned way. So in the cold winter days ahead, we'll have some juicy tomatoes to use in a comforting meal. Yummy.

Talking about yummy, I made my first hand-kneaded bread ! Smelled wonderful in the house and actually tasted pretty good too !

Well, that's it for now. I'm planning a baking extravaganza in the next while, so I'll take photos and share them with you soon ! Cheers !

Planting, growing, finishing touches

OK, so you know one of my favorite projects since we got the house is our garden, well it's been a great success, without toooooo much work and worry.

I had a bunch of trial plants and veggies that I watched sprout indoors, and then planted in our new garden patch. Well most everything grew (I say most because not a single carrot showed up for the party!), such as this beautiful crazy plant... my bean stalk !

But without a doubt, the big winner this year was the tomato. Our 3 plants (not from seed, but from small store bought stems) bloomed into huge leafy creatures that displayed hundreds (yes HUNDREDS) of tomatoes. Dozens and dozens of big beafy garden tomatoes and even more of the cute cherry variety. Here's a sample of some ripening on the vine.... so yummy.

Here, the weather has dropped quite a bit, especially at night, so it's time to plant the lilies and the bulbs that will flower next spring. I'm so eager to see the beautiful crocus flower, one of the earliest to bloom in spring, and many varieties of tulips should (if everything works out right) see the light in late spring and early summer. I even snuck in a few Narcissus... Should be grand !

And to polish everything off, Mr. Fox installed some lattice trellis under the front porch and around the front of the house. 

I like ! do you ?

More work to do, to prepare the house for the cold season, but with all the hard work we're doing, we should be nice and cozy...

Coupe, construction et préparation pour l'hiver

Mon Mr. Fox travaille le bois. Et il le fait bien. 

Que ce soit de tailler un gros cèdre douteux, un érable malade ou des sapins encombrants, il manie la "Chainsaw" ou la hache et coupe, coupe, coupe. Ca fait du bien à notre terrain, c'est plus "clean" et certainement plus sûr pour l'hiver. (Le cèdre s'étendait d'une manière inquiétante vers notre source d'électricité, une grosse bordée de neige et pouf, plus de cèdre, plus de courant. ) Merci Mr. Fox!

En plus de couper des arbres en détresse, il récupère et réutilise plusieurs pièces de bois que nous avons hérité avec la maison. Prenez ce volet, en très mauvais état, pas très attirant pour habiller notre maison fraichement peinte. 

Il l'a décapé, nettoyé, sablé et en a fait...

Le dessus de ce joli meuble qui agrémente l'entrée de notre maison.

Les portes aussi ont été recyclées d'une vieille boite qui se trouvait au grenier de l'atelier. Les étampes disent que ca date de 1952 !!! Et les casiers sont aussi des trouvailles.

C'est beau non ? J'aime beaucoup... merci mon Mr. Fox ! Té Hot!

Et puis, pendant qu'il construit, moi je prépare les fenêtres pour l'hiver. Sablage, grattage, peinture, 1 couche, 2 couches, scellant... on va être bien au chaud dans notre maison bleue !

D'autres infos et photos à venir bientot ! Ciao !

Le ti-chien grandit

OK, I know it's been way too long... please spare me the comments, I feel bad enough, but here I am with some photos...

Our little dog, Mika, is quite a bundle of energy, learning and fun. She keeps us on our toes as she discovers the world.

Lors d'une excursion à la plage municipale de St-Adolphe.

She's really learning to love the water.

I'll post some more pics soon, she's growing by the minute !
Ta ta for now !

There she is...

There she is... she's ALMOST done. We now know all about her very old siding, her multiple coats of paint, each little corner and her history of roofs. We spent most of our vacation painting our home and we're thrilled with the result. She still feels old and country, just more up-to-date and cleaner. 

All that's left are the two "lucarnes" (the windows inserted in the roof). We have some work to do on the structure and will have to wait a little bit longer before adding some color to them.

We also have to work on the windows, not the frames, the actual windows. Before the cold weather sets in, we'll scrape, caulk and paint all the windows of the house... there are quite a few.

And we'll also finish the roofing isolation from the back.

Alors, nous avons beaucoup de pain sur la planche avant de finir notre maison, mais comme Mr. Fox dit si bien, notre vieille maison a juste besoin d'un peu d'amour.

De l'amour, nous en avons et nous en donnons....

We'll take some evening photos soon and I'll post. The colour is drastically different.

Here's a pick of a new little visitor... a hare!

I'd love to read your comments.

What's on the menu for today ? A DAY OFF !!! I think we deserve it.

Ta ta for now.

Blue is Better

I think blue is better, for various things, such as the sky, lake water, a bunch of blueberries and our house !!!

Our version of Before And After Home Edition

Cream, beige and brown

White

Blue

Do you think Blue is Better ? Let me know.

Still lots to do, but we're getting there. Next post will include pics of flower boxes and other decorations !

Sorry, gotta go now, more painting to do !

An update

Well, I hadn't realized it'd been that long since my last post... 1 month !!! A lot has happened:

Firstly, I must say that our Internet connection isn't quite as optimal as it should be. It's very tedious to upload photos. I'll do my best to be more patient and let it do its thing...

The doggie grew quite a bit, she's now entering her "teenage" rebellion... this is a little bit frustrating for me, but hey, I'll live through it. Must remain patient and calm... but she's a real cutie !

 

Mr. Fox has been such a great sport in cleaning out the yucky attic (no photos here).

And our house is coming along. We're now on vacation and our main task is to paint the whole exterior of the house. Here are a few pics of the scaffolding and me scraping the windows.

As soon as we have some color on the walls, I'll post some new pics.

The garden has gone crazy, soooo many tomatoes are growing and the cucumbers are delish. We'll be eating home grown zucchini for a while too. I even tried a childhood dish with the flowers. The result: not like I remembered, but hey, I tried !

So that's it for now, I'll try to be more disciplined with posting. See ya soon !

Nouveauté... Extra extra read all about it !

Well, here she is... our little blond doggie. We've been looking into getting a dog ever since we decided to move to the country. After two very ineffective trips to the SPCA (I'm a wimp!) Mr. Fox saw a sign on the road for puppies for sale. We stopped and 15 minutes later, she was ours ! No name yet, so we're open to suggestions... She's a mixed breed her mama is part German Shepherd and her papa is a mix of Husky and Malamute. She'll be a mid to big dog, but for now, she's a cute 9 week old puppy, with lots of love to give. She's a really softie too, no barking, no biting and is quite awkward in various situations. What can I say, it was love at first sight. More to come soon!

Nouveauté dans notre foyer... une jolie petite chienne de 9 mois vient de faire son entrée chez nous! Depuis notre décision de vivre à la campagne, l'idée d'avoir un chien s'est installée et suite à 2 visites infructueuses à la SPCA (parce que je suis ben bébé) Mr. Fox a vu une enseigne chez des gens de St-Calixte qui avaient des chiots à vendre. Nous sommes arrêtés immédiatement et sommes repartis quelques 15 minutes plus tard avec cette petite chose... he he

Elle n'a toujours pas de nom, mais nous sommes ouverts aux suggestions.

Elle grandira beaucoup, sa maman est en partie Berger Allemand et son papa un mélange de Husky et Malamut... ses pattes sont massives! Elle est d'une douceur impressionnante malgré son jeune âge, elle n'aboie pas, elle ne mordille pas, mais elle est très affectueuse et nous suit partout.

C'était un coup de foudre, tout simplement...

D'autres nouvelles à venir sous peu.

I've not been lazy...

I know it's been a long time since my last entry, but believe me, I've not been lazy... I've actually been quite busy.

Firstly, with the warmer weather and the last full moon in May behind us, I had the pleasure of having a very hard working crew to help in creating another dream of mine... a vegetable garden. After many days of studying the optimal sunlit spot, we removed grass, put in many many bags of earth and compost and created a beautiful little garden space. In the process of digging a very wormy lot, I hit the jackpot, an enormous rock was hidden and had to be displaced. Mr. Fox did a great job, a Herculean job!

And with Mr. Fox's parents (who both worked extremely hard) we made this little beauty.

So in this lovely lot, I'll be growing tomatoes, green peppers, cucumbers, zucchini, green onions, leek, beets, radishes, carrots and beans. Most veggies have sprouted from seeds, with the exception of our ravishing tomatoes, green peppers and 1 cucumber plant. See the result so far.

And when the weather wasn't on our side, I was busy indoors, doing another hobby that I enjoy... sewing. When we got our house, we inherited lots of furniture which had seen better days. So one evening, Mr. Fox and I set out to the fabric store (heaven!!!) and bought out the place. Well, not quite, but we did get enough fabric for me to make slip covers for an armchair, two loveseats and another little padded chair. The first project was the armchair. As this was my first experience in the slipcover world, I planned everything out with much patience and determination. Measuring, drawing, notes, cutting, buying the piping, pinning the pieces and finally sewing. I have to say, I'm quite pleased with the result. Let me know what you think. There are 3 other projects to come, so advice and ideas are more than welcome. I promise to post soon... Ta ta !

New photos of surrounding flowers

I wonder if it's because of the warmer weather, or because I now have more space to play in, but I'm a little obsessed with everything that's growing and transforming on our property. Here are a few examples...

Tiny little purple flowers growing on the lawn, much better than the regular grass, if you ask me !

Wild strawberries are abundant as well. Looking forward to the tiny juicy fruits...

Many snow white stems have been popping up in the shadowy areas, fragrant Lily of the Valley

A little Cherry Tree we planted last weekend. A dream come true for me.

An apple tree, in full bloom, with bees galore. Beautiful. Can't wait to see if the deer will come to eat all my apples.

Oh and me, working a saw to prepare the beautiful flower boxes Mr. Fox has created for our front windows. More photos will be posted when they're up and full of blooms.

Ciao for now!

Wild nature

Well, there are less boxes to open than at the beginning of the week, but with the warmer weather coming our way, I've been too tempted to work on the flowers outside. The wild roses we've inherited are in dire need of some TLC, so with the help of Mr. Fox's mom, we put on some hefty gloves and started the clean up. A few pics for you

Some sad looking roses, don't you think?

I'm very intrigued by these little leaves growing in patches in the yard. Anyone know what they are ?

Without any effort, this beauty popped up right beside the house...

Well, this weekend, we might expect some snow, so I guess I'll be busy fixing up the inside of the house and I'll take a few photos and share with you soon.

Cheers!

Ça y est, je suis une Adolphine !

Et oui, c'est fait, le grand jour est arrivé, le déménagement s'est bien déroulé. Désolée, aucune photo aujourd'hui, c'est le bordel ici, mais ça viendra sous peu, promis !

Yes, we're in !!! The big day has finally arrived. The move went smoothly, many, many boxes to unpack and lots of fun moving the furniture around in the coming days, but we're home and we're happy. I'll try to take some photos as soon as the place looks decent ! Cheers!

Fauna & Flora

Oh boy, let me first say that I’m sorry for not posting sooner. Lots of preparation has been done for the big day (moving) at the house, as well as packing and planning.

So, let’s just jump back to where I left off.

On Sunday April 4^th, while I was still working on the screens, something caught my eye. As I turned around to my right, I saw an animal cross the road. In my most excited, yet quiet voice, I called out to Mr. Fox who was at the very back of the workshop, to come and see. We were both awe struck when 2 magnificent female moose crossed the road, toward the mountain behind our house. We rushed to find the camera, but they were already up the hill. What a moment of wonder we had. Maybe 10 minutes later, my dear sister Caro and her boys arrived to visit. It was great to have guests who discovered our new home, the little boys looked in every corner and mostly ran around in the front yard.

They were most impressed by the little bones we found earlier behind a tree in the back yard. I understand, we all are!

Jump to the next weekend, where we, yet again, woke up to some snow on the ground. No problem, it all melted in but a few hours. Phew! We got to work on the grounds, had a helping hand (and lunch!) from Mr. Fox’s parents and enjoyed another great weekend. I got a gardening itch and with the weather on my side, I planted a bunch of seeds while Mr. Fox installed a newly painted birdhouse.

And finally these last 2 days have been all about preparing the house to greet all our stuff. The Workshop is in top shape with the impressive clean up that was done. We discovered our 1 crocus in the very middle of the yard… how it got there is a mystery. Doesn’t really matter, I’m enjoying the wonder it procures…

Here is the progress in regards to the seedlings, yay! Basil, parsley, coriander (yep, that’s love baby!), rosemary and a few flowers. I love Spring and all that comes with it!

More to come soon!