it was an artsy-fartsy kind of day...

before it starts to rain here this evening we decided to do a small outing this afternoon. first stop, the hooked rug museum/shop in hubbards. we've driven by this place a hundred times and have never gone in but decided to stop and see what they had to offer. rug hooking is a local artform to nova scotia (similar to the nova scotian folk art), but not inexpensive to purchase...

 

  

 

  

 

  

then we made a quick stop for lunch at chickenburger, a nova scotia institution. i'd never been so i'm glad i got to try it out...

 

our last (and most expensive stop of the day) was to swoon, a favorite of ours in hammonds plains. they have great local art, i'm sort of crushing on one artist they have there now, helen opie. i HAVE TO HAVE one of her paintings for my very own someday...

 

 

of course, no trip to swoon would be complete without searching through their room of salt & pepper shakers...yes, and entire room, i am in heaven...and this is only a small fraction of what he has there! every year i go there are all new things out on display that i've never seen before. i may or may not have brought a few home for my collection (although i won't tell you which ones)...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

mom went home with this gorgeous piece of canadian chalet glass (signed), which will look great with another glass piece she already owns in westport...

quotable...

 via laws of modern man

mother natures storm warming...

this was the sky over the bay this morning (since i wake up at the break of dawn with the dogs), red sky in the morning sailors take warning. as it happens, we're supposed to get a bit of rain over night and into the morning tomorrow. but it's such a pretty sight to wake up to...

 

afternoon shopping in nova scotia...

mom and i hit up our local hotspots for a little afternoon shopping in mahone bay and lunenburg. we didn't buy much, but had fun browsing. we did discover a great new consignment shop, the concierge closet, where we each made a nice purchase...

  

we stopped by the nova scotia folk art stores too for mom, just in case she saw anything she HAD to have...

  

i need a t-shirt from this place next time we come to lunenburg for lunch...

 

 

how adorable is jo-ann's deli & market in mahone bay? look at the screen doors closely...yup, those are bags of carrots that act as weights to shut the doors...

 

 

obviously hockey is big up here, so much so they have a special brownie named after the sport...

speaking of sports, curling anyone? you have no idea how badly i wanted to go in this place. if i lived here year round i would so take up curling...

it's a beautiful kind of weather afternoon for cat nap, literally...

whole foods coming to melrose? what?...

not that i do a ton of shopping at the overpriced whole foods markets, but it would be nice to have one in melrose, literally within walking distance of my house. the boston globe is reporting whole foods could be taking over a few of the johnnie's foodmaster sites, one of which they name as the melrose location. i do love me some whole food salad bar & sushi, i have to admit.

we are a pickle family...

i don't know one person in my family who doesn't love a pickles. you may recall my nova scotian pickling day with my mom last year. well this year my stepdad took a different approach to pickling up here and i have to say i really, really like this version of pickles. he got this recipe out of mark bittman's how to cook everything, such a simple recipe for such good, fresh tasting pickles...

 

kosher deli pickles

ingredients:

1/3 cup kosher salt

1 cup boiling water

2 lbs kirby cucumbers, washed, and cut in half or quartered

5 or more garlic cloves, crushed

1 large bunch fresh dill

directions:

1. combine the salt and boiling water in a large bowl; stir to dissolve the salt. add a handful of ice cubes to cool the mixture, then add all the remaining ingredients.

2. add cold water to cover. use a plate slightly smaller than the diameter of the bowl and a small weight to keep the cucumbers immersed. set aside at room temperature. 
3. begin sampling the cucumbers after 4 hours if you’ve quartered them, 8 hours if you’ve halved them. in either case, it will probably take from 12 to 24 or even 48 hours for them to taste pickly enough to suit your taste. 
4. when they are ready, refrigerate them, still in the brine. the pickles will continue to ferment as they sit, more quickly at room temperature, more slowly in the refrigerator. they will keep well for up to a week.


random side note...my favorite picture of me and zip from this vacation...