Ottawa day 1

After Rustle I took the bus to Ottawa (only cost $20!). The driver seemed to be a trainee and the drive was a bit rocky at the start but improved as time went on. We made good time and arrived at 5:45pm (the scheduled arrival time was 6pm). The newcomers reception was to start at 6pm which I thought would be a session with information for newcomers but instead it was a `mingling`session. I would have preferred to see the museum of nature (the location of the mingling) so after registration I went to my bed and breakfast.

Museum of nature:

 I walked a number of blocks up Elgin and passed through Centennial Park

 This is the Shaw Center. My B&B is about 10 minutes away. Why that is important you will soon see...

 Other cool Ottawa buildings:

 My B&B:

 Ottawa vistas in the evening:

 There were many groundhogs at Parliament:

 More groundhog!

 Chateau laurier:

 Rideau locks:

The `sitting`of the breakfast at the B&B is at 8:30am. My conference starts at 9am. Luckily with the 10 minute transit time, I can have 20 minutes to eat breakfast.

Pre-trip

I leave for Ottawa on Sunday and have a lot to do before I go. Lawn needs to be mowed, bills need to be paid, laundry, dishes, cleaning- it will be busy tomorrow.

This week in food:

I wasn't a big fan of the Bangkok curry- I found it too strong.

Rice noodles and snow peas

 With red pepper

 And carrots- I really liked the carrots. It was a cold dish but just too strong.

 The swiss stuffed pork was one of my favorites

 Veggies cooked in the oven

 The pork was cut open and stuffed with a swiss cheese slice and cooked in the same pan as the cherry tomatoes. The veggies were mixed with orzo. Perfection!

 Picked up a cheesecake in a mason jar, it was also very yummy.

Have been busy fundraising for James' hockey team. I was one of the top cheese sellers! Now I have to sell car raffle tickets.

Pre Cry Rally

On July 1 at Fort Henry there will be a "CRY" rally. The Cry is a annual prayer for Canada. Tonight was a pre cry rally, I enjoyed it immensely- went with Kim and Chris and Christine. Saw so many people from the past. So much caring in that room.

Rustle in the morning was good. Al was the host, it was good to see him at the front again.

James was working on his geography culminating project today and while he was working, this dove landed on the deck. Fitting for Pentecost Sunday!

goslings

Down by the water this week I saw a few canada goose families. Family #1 was the younger family. Interestingly, the 4 goslings had considerable difference is size. The largest was at the front of the line.

 The littlest gosling flooped in the grass as soon as they arrived on land, clearly exhaused. The bigger ones seemed to be handling things better. None showed any care about the many humans on the waterfront.

 The biggest gosling of family #1

 Family #2

 They were also in the same location when I went back a few days later, so they hang around their home turf.

 Black bean and sweet potato enchiladas. They accidentally sent me the recipe for a Black pepper meal that involved tofu but they emailed me the correct card.

 Cooked the filling first then wrapped up in whole wheat tortillas

 With tomatillo and feta salsa

A weird fish hiding from a cormorant (on top of a rock, very still)

Sell out

Today was the Rustle auction pick up day. Ralph, Al and I ran all day. Al also managed to mow the lawn, though I am not quite sure where he found the time.

As we were setting up we had people arriving so some things had already gone when I took the "before" pictures

 AFTER!