Saints Preserve Us!...

Branching off on Dad's post about "Lord, deliver us", and the fact that Mum and I have been on kick to preserve all vegetation known to human kind... well, the subject of the post really was ideal ;) Santa Marta (the patron saint of Bed and Breakfasts) would, I'm sure, not mind.

We have indeed been preserving up a storm, and still have many things left to make. It still feels summery here, so it's a little odd to be doing this autumnal chore. Usually by the time we make pickles it's starting to feel a little crisp outside. Not that I mind, believe me! It's just... odd. It's nice to do more domestic things rather than just paint all the time.

Mmmmmm Jam! Strawberry and Peach freezer jam.

Pickled Beets. This was an annoying escapade. After two hours of work we only got two lousy jars out of the deal. I don't even like beets!!! Looks like we'll be freezing some borscht, too.

Pickles! Again, things were a little shifty here too because we usually make a lot more than five jars (for our dear Nathan), so our measurements were a bit off. Still, they should turn out nicely!

Aside from the preserving, things are pretty much just going out here. One very, very cool thing is that there have been lots of Eagles lately! We live in the same place that the Eagles live in the winter, and although they don't technically move here until December, there are already a bunch in the area (hopefully this doesn't mean an early winter!) When we do get out of the house, we usually see one or two, which makes me fairly giddy. Shaun and I used to spend days and days driving around the Kananaskis looking for Eagles, and now they're flying over the house!!! Next time we go into Dartmouth I'm buying a zoom lens! So Exciting! No decent pictures of them yet, but here are a few pictures from around the yard:

This is overlooking our little ravine/creek/old railway/old walking path. This is where the bats fly around in the evening. It's cool to watch them fly until one gets too close and then I lose my nerve and squeal ;)

Of course in the day time, snuggled up on the tree trunk, I find them really adorable. Isn't he sweet? He's so tiny!

These are the grapes on our arbour. The whole thing is just swimming in grapes, but I'm not sure if they'll ripen into anything worth eating or not! Still. Grapes? Kinda cool.

The back of the house...

This is the jungley area on the back half of the property. The big weeping willow is on someone else's property, but the messy, jungley bit is most-overwhelmingly OURS. Apparently there are some apple trees back there, but I haven't found them yet...

This is mum and dad's favourite toy right now... The riding mower. I admit, it IS fun to drive ;) They cart dirt around and enjoy it thoroughly.

That's about it for now! Hopefully I'll post some Eagle pictures when I get my zoom :)
Love,
Gillian