Coffee and Doggies...

Some more photos from my trip to Ottawa at Christmas.
Freda and Taz, both enjoying sitting on the couch. Haha!

Tawny looking longingly outside, as if to say: Can we go out and play now?

Freda and Tawny and Taz - all happy on a cold snowy day.  It's so funny when Taz sits with his feet off the ground.

Taz is a good boy - he's going to be 9 years old in June.

Tawny is a good girl and she is going to 9 years old in March!

Early and late

When I was putting the blog entry about the garage together, I realized that I didn't take any photos of the garage itself, so I am including a few photos that Freda took with her cell phone.

This photo was taken after the garage door frames were moved. We asked for 9'6" doors, which was the biggest that could fit in the space so that's what she drew on the plans.  The contractor realized that size of doors wouldn't fit because of the chimney, but he built it that way anyway, and then had to go and change it!  Doh!  Note that the window on the far side of the garage is not installed yet in this photo.

This is after the window was installed.

This is the view of the door to the back yard.  Tawny is standing on the steps to the new mud room.

Tawny enjoying sniffing at the Bruce Pit dog park.  A gorgeous day.

Taz and Tawny saying hello to another dog at Bruce Pit.  You would think their tails would get tired, because they are wagging constantly for the entire time that they are there.  Perhaps that's one reason why they are totally exhausted afterwards.

Christmas doggies

It was really nice to be home in Ottawa at Christmas.

Tawny often came and sat right in front of me.  Sometimes she laid down on my feet like she does.  She's a good girl.  It's hard to believe she's going to be 9 in March.  Time has flown by and now she's considered a senior dog.

Snow - Christmas Day
It seemed like the temperature plummeted and the snow started as soon as I got to Ottawa.   When I arrived from Regina, it was raining but it turned to snow on the drive home.

Taz, the big whiny cry baby, loves curling up in this chair, so Freda keeps a sheet on it to try to keep it clean...  Taz is a senior dog too, as he will be 9 in June.  He's been with us for four years now.

Waiting for Freda to come home
Freda was out, either at work or shopping or something, and the doggies were expecting her.

It's a dog's life...

It's a dog's life... well, it would be nice to live a dog's life... a dog who is a pet, anyway...

Tawny, claiming ownership of the bed.

King Taz, ruling the world from the couch.

Pano bookends

Pano, Sep 13, 2010 - morning

Panorama taken on the morning walk with the dogs.

The American Goldfinches are really enjoying the feeders. I have captured a photo of about 16 of them on the two feeders - unfortunately it was blurry so not worth posting. This photo shows 6 females and one male. We think they are getting fattened up before their migration flight.

Taz still carrying his trophy rock catch!

Pano - Sep 13, 2010 sunset

This is a cool photo - it shows the sunset, a huge cloud, and rain on the horizon at the right.

Sneaky Taz

Last night, when I went to bed, I couldn't find Taz. Usually he is on the bed, or on the floor at the foot of the bed, but not last night. I looked in the living room, the kitchen, the solarium, the bathroom, but couldn't find him. Remember that it is night and I am not turning the lights on. I go back in the bedroom and then I hear his tail whacking something. I look, and he is curled up on the new chair. He knows he's not supposed to be on the chair so he had a sheepish look on his face!

Taz the Rock Collector

Taz still goes hunting when we go down to the lake. But the tadpoles have all gone now because they have turned into little frogs.

So Taz has found something else to hunt. And the subject of his endeavour? Rocks! Yes, Rocks!!!

Taz sticks his head in the water to look for a particularly appetizing rock, or so I'm guessing. He keeps his head under water for a very long time, sometimes even blowing bubbles. I timed him several times and he usually kept his head under water for about 10-12 seconds, although the longest I timed him was 15 seconds. That's a long time -- try it yourself!

While he was under water, Taz would be pawing at a rock with his front paws, to pull a rock backwards toward the shore.

When he pulls his head out of the lake, the water pours off him like Niagara Falls!

Taz is all excited here as he has managed to get the rock very close to shore. Sorry this photo is a little blurry.

Surveying the spoils.

Summer Berry Clafoutis

We had a few raspberries left from making the jam, and we saw this delicious looking recipe for Summer Berry Clafoutis in a magazine. It looked so good that I decided to try to make it. The instructions said it was easy to make, so that was a real bonus (especially for me!).

So I prepared the ingredients: egg, milk, flour, vanilla, salt, sugar, and butter.

I put the raspberries and blueberries in a buttered pan. I thought I would cook up a bit of rhubarb and add it, but I overdid the rhubarb and it is just sort of gloppy (as you can tell).

The pan is a bit too full because I used more fruit than the recipe called for in it. We had about 3 cups of raspberries left so I put them all in, even though the recipe only called for 2c of raspberries. Because of the added fruit, I added a bit extra sugar (actually, Splenda).

I poured the mixture over the berries and put it into the oven.


Taz was watchfully eyeing me with studied disinterest... I think he was hoping I was preparing something with meat in it. No such luck, buddy!

Because I had put too many berries in the pan, it took quite a bit longer for the dough mixture to cook through. And also it spilled over in the oven. :(

After it cooled off somewhat, we enjoyed a some of it with some whipped cream.

Overall evaluation: the recipe was easy to make, and absolutely was delicious!! I will definitely make it again but I won't add extra berries.

One of our neighbours gave us some rhubarb, so I decided to make Strawberry Rhubarb Compote. From what I can tell by looking at the recipes, compote is basically a fifty dollar word to say "stewed"...

I cut up the rhubarb and sprinkled it with some sugar and let it sit in the pot, so the juices would come out. I let it sit for a couple of hours. Then I put it on the stove to bring it to a boil and then simmered it for 10-15 minutes. Since strawberries are softer than rhubarb, and I wanted the strawberries to have a bit of texture to them, I cut up some strawberries and added it to the rhubarb mixture after it had been simmering for about 10 minutes. After it cooled for a while, I put the compote into a container and put it into the fridge overnight.

The clafoutis recipe said it was also delicious for breakfast, so Freda and I decided that we would have it for breakfast, along with some of the strawberry rhubarb compote. I added a dab of whipped cream because it sets off the deep reds and purple of the fruit. YUMMMY!!!!

A beautiful summer day

June 15, 2010
Tawny took a little rest break this morning on the walk and thought she was hiding from me. Very funny, Tawny old girl!!!!

June 15, 2010 - panorama
Today was a beautiful, temperate and low humidity day. Absolutely wonderful! The best part was the low humidity. This panorama photo shows that the lawn is greening up even more after the recent rains.

A very British dog.

Taz is an unusual dog -- he loves tea!!! He doesn't like it hot though, so if we don't finish our tea, we pour the last bit out onto a plate or saucer, or a dog dish, for him to drink up. Here Taz is supremely concentrating - waiting for Freda say 'take it' as she has just poured some tea onto a plate for him.

Taz, the first coonhound to be a citizen of the Commonwealth.

Of course, I can't show you a photo of Taz without including one of Tawny. Here she is, goofing around and showing off that she found one of Taz's "bones" (rawhide rolls) that he dropped when we were out for a walk...

A sequence of panoramas

June 3rd, 2010
This pano of the front lawn shows that it has gone dormant, due to the heat and the lack of moisture. We did water the big elm tree in the front (at the left of the photo) but the lawn is too big to try to keep green.

June 3rd, 2010
This pano of our little forest is before the dying elm was cut down. The left part of the photo makes the lawn look more burnt (yellow/brown) than it really was. The photo of the front lawn above is more representative of the actual colour/state of the lawn.

June 8th, 2010
This pano of the our little forest is the photo after the elm was cut down. Of course, we had some good gentle rain, so the lawn is starting to green up, and the trees like it too.

June 8th, 2010
This view of our front lawn looking towards the flower beds and the house. The lawn is starting to green up but is still predominantly yellowish.

June 6, 2010
The backyard is looking somewhat yellowish and dry. However that doesn't stop Tawny from enjoying a chewie on it. :)

June 10, 2010
After a bit of rain, the lawn is greening up. You can see the dark clouds that just passed over us are in the distance on the right side of the photo.

June 8, 2010
Taz is enjoying the lake scenery.

June 8, 2010
Tawny is enjoying the scenery too but is looking at me sideways, hoping that I will let her go to run down to the lake for a morning swim.

June 11, 2010
A beautiful day, with a few dark clouds. The grass on the hill is being cut, as you can see the tractor starting to cut the grass beside the road - look along the right side of the photo.