Moving

We're not moving...we continue to love our new province and new home. However, I am finding it a little too much to carry on with 2 blogs so I'm going to discontinue this one for a while.

If you want to follow our lives on "the farm" and touring Nova Scotia, please visit me at my personal blog: Dream Big ( http://www.sharleystudio.blogspot.com/ )

You'll read about how city people adjust to country living, raising guinea hens, our life with 3 dogs and a cat, my crafting creations, and our adventures and discoveries of touring Nova Scotia.

Please join me at Dream Big!

The Maritime Painted Saltbox Gallery

We ran across this gem while touring our favourite parts of the South Shore with some visiting friends from Ontario.You'll find The Maritime Painted Saltbox Gallery in Petite Riviere. Run by two VERY talented artists, Tom Alway and Peter Blais, the barn is stocked full of fine art, folk art and heritage reproduction furniture.As you can see, their property is absolutely gorgeous. But you'll have to take a visit to the gallery to see the treasures inside. (and it's worth a trip, I promise you)We met Tom (or was it Peter? I'm not sure since John was doing all the talking as I was doing all the gawking at the treasures inside and out) who is very friendly and gave us recommendations on what sites to travel on to in our journey. Oh, how I would love to have a barn like this at home!Open May 1st through October 31st. Off season, by chance or appointment. Call toll free 1.877.624.4513 or email saltbox@eastlink.ca

265 Petite Riviere Road, Petite Riviere

Mahone Bay Humour

If you travel to Mahone Bay, you'll find that the residents have a lovely sense of humour. No, the funny part of the photo isn't John....read the sign!
A humourous nod to the historic plaques that are mounted on many buildings.
Carved into a dead tree by folk artist Garnet McPhail.

Keep your eye peeled...you never know what you will see.

Dining at the Seaside

Friday was a warm (well, John would define it as hot, hot, HOT) and gloriously sunny day. Unfortunately, we spent most of the afternoon at the car dealership waiting for some minor repairs to be done on our CRV.

But, as luck would have it, it was finished late in the afternoon...which just happened to be a great time to think about finding a place along the water for a drink and/or dinner.

We thought we'd try a place we hadn't been to before, so we headed east to Chester Basin.Frankly, The Seaside Shanty Restaurant doesn't look like much from the outside.But, what a lovely view from the screened in porch!John had seafood chowder, which was packed with all kinds of seafood. I chose a pasta dish with shrimp.I don't think it will go on my top list of places to eat, but the scenery makes it worth a visit.
In my book, you just can't beat the combination of warm sunshine & water views!

Hodge Podge

Several weeks ago we were visiting our neighbours and had a tour of their vegetable garden. It was quite early in the gardening season around here, and their garden was quite spectacular. It gave me some inspiration for creating a veggie garden at our newly acquired "farm" next year.

While we were there, our neighbour grinned and told me she had enough vegetables to make a Hodge Podge for dinner the night before. I smiled and said something like "that's great" but I actually had no idea what she was talking about.

Fast forward a few weeks and John and I were driving home after watching some sailboat races in Chester. We stopped at a roadside vegetable shop, and they actually had "hodge podge" listed as one of their feature items.

So...I just had to ask the owner to explain Hodge Podge. Apparently it's a Nova Scotia classic meal, but only in parts of Nova Scotia. It's particularly popular on the South Shore. She told me what was involved and here is the official recipe:

Ingredients:
15-18 new baby potatoes
1 medium onion, peeled, quartered
1 clove garlic, peeled, crushed with side of knife (clove should be intact)
1 bunch fresh new carrots
1 pound fresh yellow and/or green string beans
1 pound fresh peas
2-3 ears fresh corn, shucked, broken into thirds (optional)
2 cups light coffee cream
1/4 cup butter (not margarine)
salt and freshy ground pepper
chives to garnish

Instructions:
Rinse potatoes but don't peel. Cut tops off carrots. Rinse well, but don't peel. Tip and tail beans. Shell peas.

Put potatoes in large pot. Add just enough water to barely cover. Add 1 tsp salt, garlic and onion. Cover and bring to a boil, cooking potatoes for 10 minutes or until halfway done. Add more water if necessary, just to steam boil veggies.

Add carrots. Cover and turn heat down to barely boiling. Cook until carrots halfway done. Add beans, peas and corn. Cook until tender-crisp.

Check water level. There shoud be about 1 cup. Turn heat to low. Add cream and butter. Be careful not to curdle cream. Season with salt and pepper.

Ladle into bowls. Add garnish. Serve immediately.

I've been told that Hodge Podge is even better if refrigerated and warmed up the next day.
I've also been told that it's meant to be a meal....not a side dish.

I haven't tried it out myself. If you try it, let me know what you think!