Summer in Saskatchewan

Last week I ventured to Raymore, Saskatchewan, where my grandparents live.

It's a sleepy little town where everyone waves to everyone.

And, like most of Saskatchewan, a place where you can find various abandoned things...

Raymore recently held a Tornado Fundraiser. Not to raise funds for another tornado, but rather to help four families whose farms were damaged by a twister that ripped through, just two miles outside of Raymore.

We were all visiting to celebrate my Grandpa turning NINETY!!

Way to go ol' sport!

Grandma & Mum sorted blueberries for a very special dessert... (that big pail on the table is FULL of wild blueberries)

... a very appropriate birthday cake!

Grandma & Grandpa

Long lost cousins visited...

And so did new little cousins!

There was copious amounts of food...

...and copious amounts of eating!

Couisin Darren even fixed Grandpa's truck.

And of course we made numerous pilgrimages out to the old farm (est. 1908). Click the panoramic below to view it in its full glory...

Grandma and Grandpa have a tasty garden!

There was no shortage of photographic opportunities at the farm either...

The old farmhouse kitchen:

We drove a little farther up the road to visit Aunty Arlene.

It was a place festooned with bathtubs and chickens full of flowers

And deer crouching in rock gardens

Friendly mutts too!

And corn grown taller than me (though that's not hard to do)

I loved her horses!

And as all good trips should, this one concluded with birthday fireworks out at the farm for Grandpa!

I have a craving...

I've had a craving over the past few weeks for cupcakes. Not the kind with a glaze on top like Ma used to make (though those were good, mum)... I mean the kind with frothy towers of icing. This kind of cupcake has been in vogue ... quite literally.

So rather than spend $3.00 on a cupcake I decided to make my own this afternoon. Did I mention that it was 30 degrees outside?

Bald little aliens.

I will not admit to licking the beaters.

Ok, fine. Maybe I did.

YUMMMMMMM!

Summer Salads

These are just a few of the yummy salads I've had over the past week...

I've never been much of a salad connoisseur, but I love the spinach-strawberry-seeds combo.

SOOO GOOOD.

This was a delicious flowery salad that Cam's mom made for dinner last Saturday (along with chicken, corn on the cob, and potato salad... we were spoiled!)

And for dessert: blue berries...with Balsalmic vinegar that she cooked on the stove until it became like toffee!

Magic.

Bike Trip - Farm Trip

I’m breaking this long silence, finally! We’ve been consumed the past couple weeks with a variety of things, one of them being the selling of bicycles. Cam is finally purging because he recently got a bike frame that will be good for all types of riding... a Santa Cruz Nomad:

But I'm more excited for the ones on the way out! Adios, boys!

There has been a bit of smog over Victoria the past week, so understandably cycling has been less enjoyable. Thank you forest fire season!

But I did see this little fellow a couple weeks ago on one of my observatory rides. He was just strutting along up the hill.

Here’s hoping he didn’t become rotisserie chicken!

In other news, Cam leaves for Wisconsin on Sunday for the annual Trek Bicycle conference where they unveil their new line up. Then he’s off to Montreal for the Specialized one!

Two days after Cam returns, I’m heading to Saskatchewan for a mini-family reunion. My grandpa’s turning 90! Wowza! Haven’t seen the grandparents in a few years now :( … and haven’t seen my immediate family in over a year! Should be nice to see the old farmstead again, even though the grandparents don’t live there anymore. It’s over 100 years old!

The Farm 2006:

The Farm ... 1930? Mum would know.

Grandpa!

Ah, memories.