Sunday, September 28, 2008

Manitoulin - Last of the Trip

Today I cover the last bit of our trip to Manitoulin. I was disappointed not to see the quill museum. I saw some quill work (porcupine quills) in the store for sale, very expensive mind you, but absolutely beautful, so it would have been nice to see what they considered worth putting in the museum. The work I saw was full of wonderful pictures of wolves, birds, scenes, etc. but the one that most impressed me was a basket that looked as though it was covered with beautiful lace. It was also beautifully expensive. September 19, 2008 As the other visitors had an early breakfast, we missed them and had ours in peace. This morning, apart from a bowl of fruit, which seems traditional round here, we had bacon and sausages. We have been getting good breakfasts. Chatting to Ingrid and Trevor this morning and I asked about the almost white cows, they looked like Charolais to me, guess what, they were. I then asked about the beautiful horses I had seen a lot of which I thought were Palominos (gold coats, blond mains and tails) and I was right again. Doing well here. Trevor told us about walking to the bridge over the Mindemoya River, just a few steps away from the B & B. The salmon should be beginning to run. We had already seen a dead salmon in the stream leading to the Bridal Veil Falls. We wandered around to the bridge and then stood on the beach. Lo and behold we saw a salmon leaping, twice, or two salmon leaping once, who knows. All kinds of fishermen around but nobody doing much. I took a picture and am now using it for my desktop background. We encountered a woman walking a cute little dog, not sure exactly what breed, but he was quite small. He decided to kill a branch and would not leave it alone, she had to take it with her to get him to follow. It was quite funny. There is a very long boardwalk around the bay, we didn’t follow it, too much walking, but the bridge is part of the walkway. Could have been an interesting walk. I liked this picture I took of where we saw the salmon leaping, that I now have it as wallpaper on my desktop. Decided to check out Carter Bay which had been recommended by Ingrid, headed there and drove down a road which was like a washboard, shaking us to bits, we were not too happy. Decided to turn round, however before we did, saw a hawk flying in front of us and then it sat in a tree. Matt didn’t bother to try and take a picture as we figured it would fly away as Matt got out of the car. Matt thought it was a kestrel, I thought it was a Peregrine. Checked it out later, I was right, I am now batting 1,000. Having got out of the road to Carter Bay, we decided to check out the restaurant at Michael’s Bay. Another long unpaved road, but not a washboard this time. A beautiful spot right on the bay, nice looking building. Not that we saw it, but there was a golf course there too. Rental chalets as well according to notices. On Friday they do all you can eat perch, but Matt decided it was too far and he didn’t want perch anyway. I do agree, it was a log way from Providence Bay. Went to a deli store we had seen and got some gorgeous croissants and some cold pork slices for lunch then on to Providence Bay and sat at the picnic tables there. This time we finished our wine. Afterwards we took our chairs on the beach for a bit and sat in the sun, Matt was a bit overcooked from the other day, so he put a hat on and turned his back to the sun, it was bloody windy though, so we didn’t stay long. There was a guy out in the water with a kayak. He came back in and when trying to get out, fell in the water. It must have been bloody cold. He had a change of clothes with him in his car. We also saw a “rent a motor home” and took the phone number to make enquiries. (I’m sitting here typing and can hear the seagulls - lake gulls? – through the window which we have had open all night with the sound of the waves on the beach, weather has warmed up now we are going). Went back to the B & B and decided to do some reading, I have a book and there are lots of Reader’s Digests for Matt. We ended up chatting to Trevor and Ingrid in the garage, they are both smokers so spend a lot of time there. Their dog, Peter, is only 10 months old and was having a crazy half hour. Ingrid booked a table for us at the School House so we headed there just before 7, its only round the corner, tonight Matt wasn’t too hungry but I had a cauliflower and gorgonzola soup, delicious. Then their whitefish, which was very good, not breaded or anything but nicely seasoned. We had their house white with it. I finished off with an intense chocolate cake served with some ice cream, scrumptuously decadent. Back to the house, spoke to Ingrid who was waiting for guests arriving by the last ferry. We played some more crib in our room then crawled into bed. Funny, we don’t play crib at home much any more but enjoy playing it when we are travelling. September 20, 2008 I can’t believe this, I have been going to bed around 10 and sleeping solidly all night. This morning I woke early. 5:15 ish, but yesterday I must have had 9 hours. I never sleep that long. We had peameal bacon again which is very good. There was another young man at breakfast and I watched Trevor cook his egg “over easy” as they say in North America. I now know how to do it, I was never very successful and just cooked them the way I had always done so, splashing fat over the top of the frying egg. Trevor made it look so easy. Ingrid sent us to a store where we could buy the orange, carrot and ginger marmalade we had been eating. It is made on Manitoulin Island. The store had all kinds of fascinating things in it, I could have spent hours there, but we had to go. Headed off to South Baymouth to catch the ferry and went the shorter way. It was quite windy and the ferry was rocking around a bit. I felt a bit nauseous, not sure if I was seasick or if it was just low sugar. I had a candy and felt better. Had been going to have lunch on board but waited until we got to Tobermory. We headed for the same café where we ate on the way to Manitoulin. Not very hungry, but I have to have lunch. On the way home I had totally forgotten all the roadworks we encountered before. In Canada they say we have 7 month’s winter and 5 month’s roadworks. Got home and one of my Avon customers told me she had been trying to phone all week, sounds like the phone must have been off the hook or something. Not sure how that happened. Had a couple of belated birthday cards from daughters in England. The apartment was like a furnace, the weather has been a lot warmer here (of course) and the gas prices are a lot lower too. We threw a few things together for supper and I tried to get my desktop to start. In the end I gave it up as a bad job and carried on reading my current Katherine Kerr book. Finished it and have read two more of her books since. I now have three more to read and I have caught up with her whole Deverry series. Not sure if the last book I have is the last of the series or not, I will, no doubt, find out. I borrowed this picture from Amazon.com. Don't try clicking to look inside, it doesn't work here, it does at Amazon.com though. You will have seen what happened with the computer so now life is back to normal once again. I am still working on summer recipes here, but this is another one from Home Basics which I thought sounded good and will have a go at myself very soon. Satima started a list of followers. I joined her site, I would appreciate it if you would join my site. There is a segment at the top on the right. Grilled Shrimp on Summer Slaw 1 pouch sun-dried tomato parmesan pasta seasoning 1/2 C olive oil, divided 1 lb uncooked large shrimp, peeled and deveined 1 TBS lemon juice 1/2 tsp salt 4 C thinly sliced red cabbage 1 beet, peeled and grated 1/4 red onion, thinly sliced In a medium bowl, whisk together the pasta seasoning mix and 1/4 cup olive oil. Stir in the shrimp, cover the bowl and marinate in the fridge for 1 hour. Preheat the grill to medium high. Grill the shrimp, turning once, until cooked through. Set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk together the lemon juice, remaining olive oil and salt. Toss in the cabbage, beet and onion. Serve the srhimp alongside a bed of summer slaw. Serves 4.

3 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. It sounds it was a cool travel you had both !

    Is it such a cool story in Katherine Kerr's books ?
    i am still reading the tainted from Glenda, could'nt find the time for it and i've got also 'the siege of arrandin' to read but i'm already curious about others books ^^ I feel good in reading in english, it's a king of semantic harbour ^^

    sorry it was me above

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  3. I have enjoyed Katherine Kerr's books. I still have 3 more to go. There is a lot of old English in it which you might possibly have some trouble with. Of course there are two more books after Siege of Arrandin.

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