2012 In a Nut Shell

Welcome to my Summer post of 2012,

(above)

 That's me, doing one of my favorite things... shopping for books!!!

9 were bought this summer....

• Tout Sweet 
• Tout Allure
• Every Day in Tuscany
• A Summer in Europe
• Tuscan Sun Cook Book
• Made in Italy Cookbook
• The Food of love
• Happily Ever After
• Heaven is for Real
• 
  

Also a tin roosters is on the shopping list!

Seeing as how I can not have the real thing in the Village...

This summer there was a huge outdoor "flee" market...I went twice!

Mr.B also went and bought me this gorgeous bread box. 

Cool thing is, its identical to the one my mom had, many years ago....

                                                                         
                                     Mr.B also bought me this antique hand painted cup and saucer
                                                               from the flee market

Then....

A Fair Came To Town

Peek a Boo Bylla.

Went camping with the grand kids

see-

                          Family Time, Camping At St Malo

Went camping in a Yurt with my sister

                                                                           see-

                        Camping With The Girls...In A Yurt!!!

                           A great place for children to eat and have lots of out door fun....
                                                      Elijah turned 3 this summer.... 

                                                              Our Village flooded....

            

                                             
                                                     
                                                                

"Italian" night at my house (above)

With my kids, enjoying Spaghetti Bolognese and Sangiovese wine.

French food also saw our table.

                                                      click:   Coq Au Vin Blanc

                                                          "Chicken in White Wine"

                    This recipe is originally made with red wine, but it looks a wee bit nicer with white.....

                                                                   Also this summer....
                                                                 I got an I phone 4!!!!

                       

                        To take incriminating pictures....of my hubby, "pinching" the farmers corn!!!                                                       

                                               

  Gotcha!!!!

                                                 What... he had lots to spare????

Add caption

                                Bought some proper corn on the cob at the farmers market,
                 and made a wonderful summer dinner, including fried chicken and herbed potatoes....

                              Also took pics of Mr.B. chasing wild Grouse off the highway!
                                                       He has a soft spot for animals...

                                                                 (Mmmmm, grouse stew ; Thanks Miss Homemade!)

                                                  

                                                                   A Parade in town

 "grandpa and grandma" Stonybrook
 "old fashioned" Mennonite garb!

and a princess!

Oh Gamma!.... Did you see that?
A princess!!!!

Lu got glasses this summer...

above- Lu eagerly awaits,  the "throwing" of the sweets, with goody bag in hand.

                           Elijah enjoying a mouthful of candy, he also cut his own hair this summer!
                                                 

An old steam tractor... to gather the harvest....
That's what this land is all about!
"Man can not live on bread alone"

Gamma Tracy and Timmy


Apples...
Back at my house, under the almost empty apple tree....

Shmoo helps me gather the last of the apples....
to make

                                                                            Apple Jelly

                                     

                                    * I have my own recipe but I like this site it has allot of pictures!
                                              

                                          My son Jake and his girl Kayla and little Bradley

Of course every summer has a trip to the Heritage Mennonite Museum

(see my side bar for the erecting of this beautiful windmill in our village)

                                                                            Below

                     Here at the Museum there is an old street of what the Stony Brook Village
                                        would have looked like back in the 18oo's

Visitors can also purchase hand made items here as well

I bought

my favorite jam!

I purchased many flowers this summer to cheer up our back yard

                                                  Our cats appreciate the efforts as well

                                               Below Ivy enjoying our short summer sun

Lilly Pad snooping about the pots

  We  rescued a starving kitten, that we named Cahrlie B hes playing with Missy.

                                 Visit my side bar to all our fur babies individual and unique blogs
                                                                      Or click  HERE

          

                                               
                              This post is for you, my beautiful daughter Heather...my best-est pal! 
                                                                        aka Shmoo.
                                                           and to my grandchildren

                                                             Gamma Tracy loves you.

Picking 2012 Apples... For Pie!

 Rustic Apple Pie

Spot your apples that are ready to pick...

Family Time, Camping At St Malo

 My Daughter Shmoo,  and her family blessed me with a little camping excursion

 this past weekend, at St Malo.

Yes, we did the real thing!!!...
Camping in tents!

I made a few "small" purchases...
Strictly for the further enjoyment of this out door experience ;)

My first "cool" purchase, an eight man tent.

A girl needs a little room, ya know!

Purchase #2- A queen size air mattress to go in that

 queen sized tent, but the darn thing wouldn't fill up properly!!!

 St.Malo, is a soft sandy beach, surround by lush woods, for private camp sites.

There's canoeing for older kids, and golfing, they even had movie night too...

Purchase #3 -A pop-up outdoor kitchen!!!
I love this!!!
Putting it up was really easy, with my granddaughters help...

 Martha Stewart has nothing on us!!!

I enjoyed washing my new "outdoor" dishes...purchase #4 

Enjoy dishes? Yeah I know, I'm strange!
**********


We spent time at the beach with the kids....
(You cant see it with this shot, but there is much more sandy beach over the small hill...)



click  ST Malo

   We spent time hiking, and picnicking, Shmoo made some blueberry baked oatmeal and 
amazing pizza buns 
 Yummy!

Eli. is enjoying a cookie 

while he watches a near by Frisbee game.

We spent time at the camp site,

 the kids thought the Jiffy Pop popcorn was cool to watch over the fire.

...and eat!!!

Not only did my son in-law, J. build us many a fire,

 (even at 4am) he also pitched our tents, 

and inflated the air mattresses by hand...

Which I and Shmoo were very grateful for...

Hmmm, maybe I better bring my husband next time???

We spent time playing, even the box the kitchen came in was fun, 

right Bylla?

The next day we all woke up very, very early...4am.

 (some fury little critters kept us gals up)

 Lu is still a little tired...

 Thecoffee in the percolator kept him entertained while we made breakfast....

Anyway, coffee is on... thank the Lord! 

The coffee maker is Purchase #5...It saved me that morning!

                                  Shmoo and Timmy are cuddled up under my ultra soft sleeping bag #6.
                                              The temperature was a wee cool early in the morn...
                                                         They both look beautifully sleepy

Unlike the night, the day time temperatures were so high...

   +32 to +35!!! 

 (that's about 89-95 Fahrenheit for our American friends.)

Unfortunately we had to leave early, for I got heat stroke!!!

Go figure...Give us Canadians freezing temps, and we can handle it!!!
 but a little heat...and we'er done!!!

Well, maybe that"s just me???  
My menopause didn't help the situation much either -LOL!!!

*********

All in all, I had a great time with my family!!!

 I do be-leave, my new camping items were worthwhile investments... 

because,  it lead to the best investment of all...

FAMILY TIME!

            Thanks for visiting our camp site...

                                      August holds one more camping trip to go, then I am done!


                                                                        Cheers:)))

thank-you to
shmoo and fam.
Melanie @ Food.ca
Mennonite girls can cook