More pictures

A beautiful fountain at our favourite nursery, Il Giardino.

A quick stop at one of our favourite wineries for a few bottles of red.
Love olive trees.
This is the bucolic scene at the trailhead.
One of the many flower displays around the village.
New baskets at Il Giardino.
Summerland Library
Now this is a screen door.
The morning we left we had breakfast at the Bench and this is the view we enjoyed across the road.
Had an exhilarating walk on the trail Sunday morning.

Every house is 'on the edge of a vineyard'.
A quiet spot to rest and enjoy the quiet.

Beautiful BC

Our weekend getaway started with a drive up into the mountains to do some hiking but we were not prepared for all the fresh snow. One look at the trail and we headed back down the very, very,steep, icy, and snow covered road. Stopped at the pub at the bottom of the hill, glad to be alive.

We wasted no time in getting out of the big city and across the bridge and over to the quiet side of the lake where the only sounds are the wind in the pines, the cry of quails, and the silent bounding of deer into the trees.
We relax as soon as we get to our place, nothing has changed and that is just the way we like it. Yes, more houses are being built on the upper bench and more vineyards going in, but as we stroll around the village, the quiet is exactly the way we remember .

Thrills and trips

What a thrill to get packages in the mail! This wonderful fabric is from the giveaway that I won on em's scrap bag. I am going to use one little square in my blue and white baby quilt just to give it that scrappy, using what I have kind of look.

I am excitedly packing for a long weekend away-heading south to our favourite getaway by the lake. It's a tiny place, very quiet, with lots of hiking, a great pub, and breathtaking sunsets. Back on Tuesday with lots of pics. Have a great weekend.

Keeping busy

Maura loves to knit and at the moment she is working on a cotton hand towel. The yarn she is using is a variegated lavender and the pattern works out to ripples on an angle. It's quite something and nothing but my pinwheel crystal vase would do for this lovely bouquet.


I thought that by making a scrap quilt I would make a serious dent in my stash of fabric. It is a baby quilt and after cutting up 112 blue squares and 113 white squares, my fabric pile still looks the same. Of course it didn't help that I gave in to temptation on the weekend and purchased two more fabrics for this quilt; the perfect sailboats and the very cute seagulls. How cute are they? Well, at $22.00 a meter they are the cutest seagulls I have ever seen.

Wonderful Sunday

I remember the day that I bought the tablecloth that I used this morning to set the table for brunch. It was a gift from my Nonni- I went to the market and picked it out myself. No easy feat as this was in Italy and every stall that I walked by was piled high with the most beautiful table linens in gorgeous Italian colour prints and enriched by intricate embroideries. Lillies of the Valley strewn across a cotton cloth and napkins with whipstitched edges-this is the one that I chose that day and every time this set graces our table, I am reminded of my wonderful grandparents.

My good friend, Audrey, stopped in for a visit. Tea and oat scones and good conversation- a great ending to a wonderful Sunday.

Lunch at St. Andrews

All this week I have been having lunch at St. Andrews. The constant drone of the nearby traffic would have been bothersome but I focused instead on the birdsong all around me. A comfy bench in the sun and bits of colour everywhere make a paperbag lunch much more enjoyable.

La Pasquetta

To celebrate La Pasquetta (Little Easter) I tried a new recipe from the March 2009 issue of Ladies Home Journal-easy cinnamon rolls. Were they easy, you ask? Yes, they were and after tasting these I don't think I will be making yeast rolls again. I did change the recipe slightly by adding pecans (thanks to Valodya for shelling them for me) and dried cranberries. Plus I had to bake them about 5 minutes longer then the recipe suggested.