back to the rain

Last week we had a family reunion and of course it rained.

 We've had so many sunny days since the beginning of the year and this summer has been tinder dry.

Water restrictions, etc. So the one day we could have used some lovely warm weather, it rained. We had fun anyway and the rain let up for us to have a trip to the beach - although it was very windy so apart from my nephew throwing himself into the waves, no one went swimming.

 We very much enjoyed the kite surfers in the bay as well.

The huge wind and rain storm seems to have marked the turning of the season - it's been cool and grey since the weekend even though I am loathe to give up my summer wear, I've added big sweaters on top to keep warm and have been snuggling under blankets of an evening while reading. Last night I made this lovely supper thanks to Luisa at Wednesday Chef. It seemed perfect for a cool, rainy evening. And it was.

Baked Sicilian Rice (adapted from the Wednesday Chef)

I used only red peppers as that is what I had, no pepper flakes or basil as my husband can't eat chili and my basil plant didn't survive our vacation. Instead of plum tomatoes, I used a bunch of cherry tomatoes cut up that came from my cousin's garden.

320 gms arborio rice
3 tbsp olive oil, plus some for the dish
150 gm provolone, grated
1 garlic clove, thinly sliced
2 small onions, thinly sliced (I used some red onion and shallot)
2 red peppers, sliced into thin strips
1 large eggplant, halved and sliced
handful of cherry tomatoes, sliced into thin strips (equivalent to 3 plum tomatoes)
2 tbsp salted capers, soaked and rinsed
1/4 c cured black olives, pitted
Salt

Boil a large amount of salted water in a saucepan; once boiling add the rice and simmer for about 10 minutes. Drain well and add 1 tbsp olive oil and 50 g of cheese and stir, Put aside.

Meanwhile heat the rest of the oil in a saute pan, add the garlic, onion, peppers and eggplant and cook over medium-high for 5 minutes. Cover and simmer for 10 minutes, add the tomatoes and simmer for another 10 minutes. Add the capers, olives and cook for 5 minutes. Season to taste.

Preheat the oven to 350 deg F. Oil a baking dish. Spread half the rice over the bottom of the dish. Add half the vegetables evenly over the top and sprinkle half of the remaining cheese over the top. Repeat once more. Bake for 25 minutes or until the top is golden brown and bubbly. Let sit for 5 minutees and serve.

summer days

We spent some time in the woods and at the beach last week. Catching up with family and just getting away from our daily routines. The weather co-operated so we got in a lot of summer fun stuff - beach time

 making sand castles, stick castles, rock castles

and sand crocodiles covered with seaweed,

looking at fossils and lungfish at a local museum, go carts, mini golf, ice cream, looking at old airplanes,

 hiking around a swamp and a marsh,

riding a steam train and looking at old logging equipment and construction trucks

and having dinner with family. And two rides on a ferry.

I hope you are all having an awesome summer.

summer holidays

Dog days of summer. It seems unusual for our neck of the woods but back in time (ie my childhood) these are the days of summer I remember. T and I went on the road for a couple of days - visiting Grampie. Along the way we stopped at Butterfly World and saw butterflies, fish and tortoises.

It was too hot for the goats to be on the roof of the store in Coombs as we passed by. Ah. But Cathedral Grove was lovely and relatively cool and once past the trail heads, not too crowded. The forest is changing, fewer and fewer of the old, huge trees remain but the big Douglas Fir is still there, as is the tree you can sit inside.

Monday evening we all went down to Kye Bay and T and I went swimming. T didn't like the taste of the water. I had to explain it was the ocean so salty. He sat and played trucks for a while and collected shells before we made our way back to Dad's. Tuesday I took T up to Miracle Beach - he found a little friend and they played trucks together and waded together and then made a big sand and seaweed crocodile with the friend's Dad - made for lots of trips in and out of the water picking up the seaweed strand by strand.

Wednesday morning back to the beach - first playing in the playground and then playing on the beach, a bit of swimming and then T found some more boys to play trucks with.

We took the afternoon ferry back and had dinner at Auntie K's. Thursday was beach with Uncle Mike - swimming, digging on the beach, covering up people's feet with sand, watching a backhoe take out and then put in a new bench. Fun.

Today we stayed home and played with the water hose and the water snake and all the new trucks in the sandbox (thanks Grampie for the stash of new/old trucks!)

a story

The Story of a Shell

The truck was collecting shells and putting them on the flatbed. It was a big load. The truck was going to the beach. It's going to dump them at the beach then go get more shells. Its at the beach over here, over here. Look at this putting shells on the truck then taking them off. The truck is going through the shells on the table. Puts the shells inside each other. So he loads up the truck. It then dumps the shells at the beach. Then dumps the shells puts more on then takes them home. Then the dinosaurs are at the beach looking for food. This truck dumped all the shells out.

Story by T - aged 3 1/2

The truck in the story is Isabella - T's new truck. A reward for being a good big boy and wearing big boy underpants for a whole week and trying really hard. A few accidents but he's doing so well - we're so proud of our big boy.