busted!

what you see above is the last picture i'll ever take at the local t & t grocery store. i went shopping there yesterday to get stuff for making inari and maki rolls for dinner. as i wandered the aisles, i took some quick pics of things that caught my eye. just as i finished taking this picture, an employee came up to me and said "no pictures". i was caught so off-guard that my only response was, "really? but it's so pretty!!"

oh well. at least i got this one last picture before being busted.

and really...isn't it so pretty? i imagine the liquid inside those bottles must taste like fairy water.

breakfast of champions

summer is sadly coming to an end and i'm headed back to work next tuesday after two glorious months off. so this morning as i fixed my breakfast, i realized that in a few days i probably won't have time to linger over the lovely meal i've been making for myself for most of the summer.

this breakfast has been such a treat for me over the last couple of months. it usually contained some variation of the following:
* 10-12 buttered crackers with brie
* a handful of raw almonds
* a few dried apricots (i like the organic kind but it takes awhile to get used to that rusty brown colour instead of the bright orange you typically find)
* organic vanilla yogurt with seasonal fruits mixed in (today it was some diced peach, blueberries, and strawberries*...all from ontario)

mmmm...

*believe it or not, the strawberries are from ontario even though strawberry season is kind of over. these are apparently called "everbearing strawberries" or so the friendly farmer from the market tells me. i think i was able to buy them well into september last year!

my favourite thing of the day

this is about the cutest thing i've seen in a really long time. a man singing a litter of puppies to sleep!!

(found via pretty little things blog)

happy birthday, madonna

today you're 50 years old. but don't worry, honey...you're still totally fabulous!!(i still want to be you when i grow up...)

another book finished

while we were at the cottage, i spent a large chunk of my week lying on the dock slathered with sunscreen and reading black swan green by david mitchell. i have to tell you, it was a really wonderful way to spend my days at the lake.

so briefly, without giving too much away, the story follows a 13-year old boy named jason for a year of his life. he wants desperately to be part of the cool crowd but he's bullied because he stammers. it's a really touching novel and reminded me of how tough it is to be a kid just trying to fit in.

i really liked this book. i liked jason so much that after i'd finished reading it, i actually thought about him for days afterward, and kind of missed him. i guess that's the sign of a good story, huh?

my rating: 8.5/10

(and a big thanks to the lovely person on bookmooch who kindly sent this book to me all the way from japan.)

*****
in case you're interested, i've just started reading "a long way down" by nick hornby. i'm only about 20 pages in so far though....

cottage = summer

a couple of weeks ago, paul and i spent a week at the cottage we rent every year near haliburton. we had such a great time. a couple of our friends always come with us for a few days and that always makes for good times too. here are some of my favourite pictures from our week.

noah loves the cottage:

looking down the curve in the lake:

i want to remember this day in the middle of january:

a group of "shoe trees" just outside of kinmount:

a snack from the chip truck: