On that happy note, it's nice to be back. It was an unintentional absence I guess. I've been grappling with the fact that this is a hobby blog and I rarely hobby at all any more. I have a bolt of fabric in the craft room for curtains, a half spun bobbin of fiber on the wheel, three quarters of a pair of socks still lingering on the needles. Lots of great ideas, little to no ambition when the days work is done at 8 pm. I've come to terms with it. A few stitches here, a sideways glance at all my former creative outlets looking forlorn and collecting dust. I really don't know how some people do it. But, with the onset of autumn, I seem to be feeling the spark of renewed interest. My cooking mojo is slowly returning. I actually want to finish those damn socks cuz it's driving me crazy. I have clear deadlines for a few projects I'd like to finish. Other than that, it's all gravy.
Part of this may have to do with the fact that I recently got back from a wee vacation. The constable, myself, the wee one and the constable's brother's family all loaded up and headed off to PEI for a week. I hadn't been since I was six or so. I was looking forward to going back.
With two couples and three kids total, we rented a cottage. This was it
and it was awesome. Plenty of room, all the amenities you'd need and a hot tub. With a view of the strait. Score.
After settling in, our first road trip was to Cavendish, natch, to visit Green Gables. The movie had just come out prior to my last visit, a million years ago, and my mom had read me the book prior to our trip as well, so going to Anne's house back then was a HUGE deal to me. I heart Anne, always have. Going back I felt like a kid again. I wanted to jump up and down.
I'm such an Anne dork that I put both little A and myself in braids for the occassion. Anyhow, with kids in tow, we didn't spend as much time there as I would've liked but opted instead to check out the Avonlea village attraction thing which, surprise surprise, was closed for the season (it being September and all). Rather disappointed in that one. Looked like it would've been fun for the wee ones. Always next year I guess. I did manage to drop a stupid amount of money in the Anne gift shop however, getting all the movies on DVD and some raspberry cordial.
The whole area is just one big Annapalooza, and I ate it right up.
Speaking of eating, we weren't far from the Cows Creamery factory, so we did a little day trip there as well.
Maybe the best ice cream I've had. Pretty darn creamy.
Then there was Charlottetown and shopping and the discovery of perhaps the happiest place on earth, a toy-slash-yarn store. Yes, you heard me correctly. Toy-slash-yarn. The place was called Owl's Hollow and I could've spent all day there. I was expecting the yarn selection to be of the Walmart variety, but I was pleasently surprised and picked up some Diamond Baby Alpaca Sport and some skeins of a merino silk blend (couldn't find a link to that) both in pretty shades of blue (no photo, cuz they're upstairs and I'm down here and it's already taken me three months to get back to blogging. If I leave now, there's not telling when I'll get back here). I also picked up some fiber for spinning from the Rustico Bay Wool Sweater Company and some other knitty/sweatery/wooly/gifty shop in Charlottetown. The fiber there came from Belfast Mini Mills, another place I'd like to check out if I ever make it back.
Then, on the last day of our trip, before we headed back to NS, we took in one of the events of the Fall Flavours Festival with takes place during the month of September on PEI. See, the constable and I and his brother and wife, we're big fans of food and cooking and perhaps the eating most of all. We were pretty excited about the prospect of an ENTIRE month dedicated to good eats. Some of the events on the calendar were a bit out of our price range however, but there was a family picnic scheduled the day we had to check out of the cottage. So we headed back to the Cavendish area on our last day for lunch.
If you're familiar with the Festival then you might know that it's hosted by chef Michael Smith, the Food Network's Chef At Home (here in Canada at least...not sure about the States). I'm a fan, so is my sister-in-law, and, well,
we got to meet him too. I bought a cookbook, got a signature and on Sunday night, we made page 196
the Potato Bacon Cheddar Tart. People...this dish is life changing. It's two pounds of bacon. It's bacon pie. If you want your man to be putty in your hands, make this. Then lord it over him for the rest of your life. "If you finish those bathroom renovations today, I'll make bacon piiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee."
Despite the fact that we didn't make any of the other culinary events, the entire week was full of epic dinners that were full of awesomeness. A roast over an open fire, a lobster feed, fettucini alfredo with enough butter and cream to make your heart stop. *Sigh* It was delightful. We concluded that it's probably best that the four of us don't live closer together since we'd all likely be pushing three bills by now.
So those were the highlight. It was nice to get away and even nicer to visit with family. I took a whole heap of knitting stuff with me and barely knit a stitch. But I've got a bunch of projects lined up from now until Christmas, so hopefully I'll have more success in both the hobby and blog departments.
Until later...
