Life by the Sea

You’ve Got To Sew The Seeds To Reap The Harvest

November 1, 2016 1 Comment

November Of all twelve months, this one is my least favourite. The beautiful leaves are being shed, the light is edging itself closer and closer to the winter solstice, the sombreness of Remembrance Day hovers. It is the “between” month – stuck between the autumn beauty of Canadian Thanksgiving and Halloween and the upcoming festiveness of Christmas. It sometimes feels like a holding spot of nothingness. This year I’ve decided to make something out of this void and plan a month of good things to look forward to. Writing The biggest project on my radar for this month is NaBloPoMo. Nablo-what? National Blog Posting Month. In the month of November I’m endeavoring to write one blog post per day for the entire month. It is a sister project to NaNoWriMo or National Novel Writing Month. I don’t have the time to devote to writing my novel just yet but I […]

Holidays, Memories

Something Wicked This Way Comes – Halloweens of the Past

October 31, 2016 1 Comment

I’ll admit it. Halloween is not my favourite holiday. I’m not a fan of the grotesque, zombies or even clowns. I’ve been afraid of clowns long before it was a “thing”. When I was growing up in the 70’s and 80’s we all wore home made costumes – not made using a pattern either. We took old items and fashioned them into pretty generalized versions of things – a hobo, a witch, a pirate or a rock star. I distinctly remember it being a real challenge to come up with a costume idea that utilized things you could easily find around the house. More than one year I remember my mom telling me that if all else failed I could always cut a hole in a sheet and go as a ghost. I always thought that was an odd suggestion considering we didn’t own white sheets. There’s nothing cooler than […]

Holidays, Recipes

Pumpkin Recipe Roundup

October 30, 2016 No Comments

Pumpkin recipes have always been part of my family’s autumn menu selection. That might have something to do with the fact my grandfather used to grow giant pumpkins. He was one of the first in Nova Scotia to use seeds from famous giant pumpkin grower, Howard Dill. Each summer we would visit my grandfather’s pumpkin patch and watch as one tiny seed kept growing and growing into a monstrous pumpkin. Sometimes he won prizes at the county fair and even if he didn’t we had lots of pumpkin to use! As a child with developing taste buds, we tended to stick to two variations of pumpkin – roasted seeds or more often, pumpkin pies. My dad enjoys baking and pumpkin pies are still one of his specialities (his recipe coming soon!). I think that enjoying his pumpkin pies is where my love for the savoury over sweet tastebuds developed. I adore […]

Recipes

Recipe: Henderson Family Cinnamon Rolls

October 4, 2016 No Comments

This recipe is very special to our family because it is only used once per year – at Thanksgiving. Each October my father’s side of the family gathers for “Thanksgiving in the Woods” and between 30-40 of us trek about three miles into the woods to a family member’s hunting camp to enjoy our turkey dinner. My Aunt Mary would make them as her contribution to our family dinner. They’d never make it to dessert – they were always an appetizer, enjoyed either on the way back to camp or once we arrived. Just weeks before Thanksgiving 2011, Aunt Mary passed away. Carrying on the tradition I knew immediately that I had to step up and carry on her tradition. What I didn’t immediately know was that is was one of her last wishes that someone make the cinnamon rolls from the family recipe she kept of my grandmother’s […]

Memories, Mental Health, Reflections

Kindness costs nothing. So why don’t we extend it more often?

October 23, 2015 7 Comments

Extending kindness has to be part of your to do list I’ve been making a point of extending kindness to those I encounter this week. This came about because we always seem to be in a hurry wherever we’re all going and very rarely do we make a point to STOP and acknowledge other people we meet along the path. Traffic has been horrendous this week in Halifax due to a big project that will be ongoing for the next year or so to replace one of our lifelines across the harbour – the MacDonald bridge. Everyone has been late for work, tempers are being tried and we all feel very sick of being in our cars on a commute that should take a fraction of the time it has actually been taking. How many times have you sat on a side street trying to turn onto a busy street […]