Hal the Horse

My housemate and I had a some friends over for vegetarian brunch. There was a nice spread of food, including German Apple Pancake. However, the biggest hit seemed to be our neighbor Hal the horse. Here are some photos of Hal getting some rock star attention...

First Peoples Gallery

As part of our Victoria BC tour we stopped at the Royal British Columbia Museum. I enjoyed the partial HMS Discovery replica in the Modern History gallery and the forests in the Natural History section. I was not prepared for the impact that the First Peoples Galley would have upon me.

Part of my apprecation of this art stems from my time in the Boy Scouts.


But there was something deeper that I cannot explain.


I just know that I need to return someday and marvel at this place.


To let it soak in even deeper.

High Tea on Vancouver Island

Legend has it it that Anna Marie Russell, the Duchess of Bedford, was looking for a light meal to make the long stretch between lunch and dinner bearable. Her solution was a combination of tea, small sandwiches, and desserts. While High Tea is not as popular in Canada as in the United Kingdom, Victoria is an exception. We were visiting the Provincial Capital of British Columbia and decided to check this tradition out.

We passed on having High Tea at the Fairmont Empress Hotel, instead we partook in this tradition at the Gatsby Mansion. While more than a third of the cost than the Empress, it still had fine offerings with a touch of elegance. The meal consisted of four courses.

A Fruit Plate....

followed by a Scone Plate...

then a variety of Sandwiches...


and then, last but not least, the dessert plate.

As you can see, this was not a light meal. While the practice here is to advertise this as High Tea, careful reading of teatime traditions would discover that this is actually Afternoon Tea. Whatever it was called, it was enough to fill us up for a walk touring the night lights of Victoria and several hands of UNO.

Easter Eggs at Christmas?

This year my parents decorated their Christmas Tree with eggs. You should note that these are not ordinary eggs, but egg shells decorated by my relatives in the Czech Republic. Here are a couple of examples.

Double Trailhead Tour

Saturday I joined the Adventurous Young Mazamas for a Cross Country Ski trip at Old Man Pass. We crossed the Bridge of the Gods and passed through Carson on our way to the trailhead. At this point there was snow on the road, but not enough to hold us back. That changed with the Wind River Road started to head upwards, as the road had not been plowed and to continue farther did not seem prudent. So we parked the cars and found another place to ski. First we toured Government Mineral Springs, then we skied to the Trapper Creek Wilderness Trailhead and then on to the Falls Creek Trailhead. Our mileage was somewhere between 8 to 11.5 miles, depending whether or not you believed Keith's GPS.

As started the drive back home a hear of Elk crossed our paths.

To relax our muscles and our spirits we stopped at the Carsons Mineral Hot Springs Spa for a hot soak in their mineral waters. The facility dates from the 1930s and could be described as funky or rustic, depending on your point of view. I enjoyed sliding into a bath that I could fit my long legs into without having to fold them like a pretzel. After the bath they cocooned you in a swaddling wrap. It reminded me of the hibernation capsules from Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyessy. Unlike those poor murdered scientists from the film I emerged from my wrap to finish off with a sauna. Very relaxing.

Green Tomatoes

This year I built a new garden bed in my front yard. Since my front yard faces south I thought it would be a great place to grow tomatoes. And it was, the plants in the front yard did noticiable better than the ones in the back yard. However, with the odd weather this summer I was left with plenty of green tomatoes. Now, I have not seen the movie Fried Green Tomatoes and did not have the desire to cook in that style, so I sought out another recipe. After awhile I came across this one for Curried Green Tomato Casserole. Here is how it turned out.

I made my own breadcrumbs from three slices of bread and added a very generous amount of curry powder. I also had a little extra mozzarella cheese that I needed to finish off, so I added that as well. Guten Appetit!

Halloween Costume

Last weekend I was home, laying low and recovering from a cold. Halloween was coming up and once again I was struggling to come up with ideas for a costume. After doing some research I was inspired to dress up as the characters from the 1984 comedy Ghostbusters.

Online I found plenty of material to work with, including a YouTube video that showed how to make a Proton Pack. I found myself enjoying the process of using my resources to put this costume together. The tube from a broken shop vacuum came in useful as well as a round cookie tin. I made some photocopies of Hazardous Good placards to decorate the Proton Pack. It was interesting to learn that I had to give Lowes my drivers license number to buy the black spray paint, the only part of the costume that I had to purchase. I was quite pleased with the outcome.

At work I took upon the task of organizing the Halloween potluck. We had a great turnout this year.

Never before had I seen so many Crock-Pots there at once. The big surprise was the checkered cake one gal made. I was so impressed, I had never seen a cake like that before. It made all of my efforts to put this potluck together worthwhile.