'Track it down' Contest - update: winner announced

I'm having a contest for you all, in celebration of the release of the fabulous IndieNorth Holiday Gift Guide.
What I need you to do, is to track down all of my 3 listings that are featured in the IndieNorth Holiday Gift Guide. Find all three, click on them and email the etsy links to me. (don't post them here, because we don't want to make it too easy for anyone). Email the 3 urls to all of my featured Etsy listings to: eeniemoni [AT] gmail [dot] com . All correct entries will be put into a hat and next monday (November9th) I will chose a winner and that person will receive a free gift from me. It costs you nothing, zip, zilch but a bit of time to take part. So go and find all of my three featured listings in the gift guide, include the url to the actual etsy shop listing and enter.
one wee tip: my shop name is: Photography by Moni
Good luck to you all and happy gift guide hunting!

UPDATE: We have a winner! Congratulations to Malina B. from PA. The winner has been contacted and I want to thank everyone that entered.
This was a fun treasure hunt to host

Fireworks - A first for me

Perfect weather conditions on Halloween Night were the right excuse, to take a drive to see the yearly Fireworks show that our town puts on. Compared to shows in big cities like Vancouver, they are of course much much smaller, but hey, at least they haven't cancelled them yet. ha.
Believe it or not, I have never taken any fireworks shots for whatever reason, so there was no better time to give it a try. Here some of the photos I got during this 15 minute show:

Fall Foliage

We have missed the fall colours here in our region this year, due to the quick cold snap we received a while back. But last weekend we took a trip to the coast and some of the colours were just beautiful.

my favourite flower... added some more

the first snow is on the ground and I needed a little pick me up. I had one sunflower left that I cut a few days ago to bring into the house. Just trying to make the bloom last a couple of days longer before they are all gone.
Enjoy:







and one of the last ones at the market:

Where have I been?

Hello everybody;
I feel like another apology is needed for being absent for so long. Wow, time sure flies, doesn't it?
It's been a busy summer for us here and we had a 3 week visit from my mom and niece from Germany amongst other busy-ness.
And we were lucky to go on a few trips and show them the beautiful province of BC.
One of the most incredible things was another Whale Watching Tour in Prince Rupert. I doubt, I'll ever get sick of seeing whales in the wild.
But enough rambling... Some pics for you



bubble net feeding whales:




and a breaching whale taking us by surprise:

Peaches Peaches everywhere

I've canned peaches this week, since they are so plenty at our local Farmer's Market. I figured that 9 jars would be enough for Sam and me and needed to find a way of using up some more of that crate I bought. I took a look through my canning book and found a fairly easy Peach Salsa. Yes, that was the perfect recipe to get rid of a few more of those babies.
Here's the recipe if you'd like to try it:

6 cups prepared peaches (about 6 large peaches)
1 1/4 cups chopped red onion
2 jalapeno peppers, finely chopped
1 red pepper, chopped
1/2 cup finely chopped cilantro
1/2 cup white vinegar
2 tbsp liquid honey
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

Blanch, peel, pit and chop peaches; measure 6 cups. combine peaches, onion, peppers, cilantro, vinegar, honey, garlic, cumin and cayenne pepper in a large stainless steel saucepan. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly to prevent scorching. Boil gently, stirring frequently, for 5 minutes. Remove from heat.
Ladle hot salsa into hot jars to within 1/2 inch of top rim. Using nonmetallic utensil, remove air bubbles. Wipe jar rim removing any stickiness. Centre Lid onto jar, apply screw band fingertip tight.
Resume with your regular canning method...

yields approx 8x250ml jars



Serve with Nachos or grilled foods such as chicken or fish.

bzzz bzzz

The bees have been buzzing around the garden, but trying to get these little buggers to take a rest is quite a task. Early this morning went out there for an hour or so and hunted them down. haha. I got some alright shots but these are cropped quite a bit. I'm still fairly pleased with them so wanted to share:







I took this one yesterday. Look at his / her little face:

Our new toys

A few weeks ago, we bought ourselves some kayaks and have been out with them every weekend. And we always try to beat the heat (and a bunch of crazy boaters) and be on the lake no later than 6.30am. Sometimes even earlier. It's convenient, that we are close to so many lakes and it usually only takes us about 1/2 an hour from door step to lake shore.
So, since I haven't updated this blog in quite a while, I thought, I'll leave you all some photos of the toys and the things we see while enjoying them.

The boats. . . mine's the orangey one:


Sammie:


stopped at a little island to have something to eat:


A couple of loons putting on a show for us:



some pelicans:


and a duck family, that we secretly adopted:

Almond Rhubarb Cake

1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
2/3 cups vegetable oil
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp cinnamon powder
2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. Baking Soda
1 cup milk
about 2 cups finely chopped fresh (or frozen) Rhubarb
1/2 cup ground Almonds

Topping:

1/3 cup sugar
1 Tbsp. butter, melted
1/4 cup sliced Almonds

Procedure:

Beat brown sugar, oil, egg & vanilla until smooth. Combine flour, cinnamon, salt & baking soda; add to sugar mixture alternatly with milk. Beat until smooth. Stir in Rhubarb & ground Almonds. Pour into greased 9-inch springform cake pan. For topping, combine sugar & butter; stir in almonds. Sprinkle over batter. Bake at 350 degrees F for about 50 minutes or til cake tests done.

the tiny things in life... more pics added

The blooms of these Forget-Me-Nots are only about 5mm in diameter and I was surprised what I saw when looking through the viewfinder. Can you see the tiny caterpillar in the second photo? (you might have to click on it for a larger view)


And more tiny things:
Water Drop on Lady's Mantle Leaf