The weekend proved an excellent opportunity to hear what the public thought of our bags – they loved them! People were impressed with the different variety of tartans that we stocked and many wanted to know more about their Scottish ancestors and their clans. Lots of people were impressed that we had Scottish accents too!

We’re looking forward to attending more craft fairs soon! Keep an eye out on our facebook page to see where we are and what we are up to!

Meanwhile Jackie and I are going to be busy cutting and stitching in order to make sure we have plenty of stock to fill any Christmas orders – get yours in soon!

To inspire you, here are a few of our recent designs…

Remember: www.tartantotes.com

Logo

As it says on our homepage of our website, we wanted to make something that was unique, original and which utilized recycled fabrics. We wanted something that reinforced the connection between our past and present, old Scotland and new Scotland – and what better than tartan to do this. We think the tartan we source for our totes is colourful, fashionable and practical – we do hope you agree!

the ailsa

The Kirsty

For more bags and styles please check out our website at www.tartantotes.com and let us know your thoughts.

Bread

Bread

However, every cook likes to experiment and when I received a book titled “Artisan Baking” (by Maggie Glezer) for Christmas I couldn’t wait for our house to warm up enough (remember the stories of no upstairs heating, in fact you were pretty much sure to freeze if you moved more than 1/2 a meter from the wood stove) to try some of the recipes. Now spring has defiantly sprung (it’s 28oc out today) and so has my experimental side.

So what is Artisan (Artisanal) Bread, I hear you ask? According to the dictionary (quoted in the book also), “artisan” refers to a person working in a skilled trade or a craftsman. However, like me, Maggie Glezer wasn’t happy with this unclear definition and hence polled several well-respected bakers. The only conclusion that can be drawn from their varied responses is that for bread to be considered “artisan”, at least one part of its production must be performed by hand and it must be of good quality!

Being overly ambitious Cameron and I took a very big jump in at the deep end with our first attempt at artisan bread – a rustic baguette. The fact that the recipe called for 2 different starters should have been enough to warn us off. We tried and I must say we didn’t completely fail. We ended up with a rustic baguette that was cooked to the point where it may have made a reasonably good baseball bat. Overcome the crust, however, and the bread had a delicious flavor.

Attempt number two – Royal Crown’s Tortano! We’d bought one of these delicious breads at the farmer’s market last weekend and I was keen to make my own. The bread is flavored with honey (syrup in my case since we didn’t have any honey) and potato. It only has the teeniest tiniest amount of yeast yet rises to an enormous size with lots of careful handling and attention. It takes approximately 19 HOURS to make this bread – don’t worry there is only about 30mins of active work… just make sure to plan ahead.

Tortano

Tortano 2

For lunch today we cut the bread into thick slices and smothered it with butter and English mustard… between the two chucks we sandwiched slices of gammon and fried eggs. On hind-sight I should have taken a photograph but I’m afraid they were munched before I even had time to contemplate the idea.

Dinner

Last Wednesday, Cameron and I realized that we’d been together for 5 years! We’ve lived together for 4 years and 2 months of that and have so far managed 9 months of marriage (Cameron has just told me it feels like 9 years – charming!) Thinking this quite an achievement (and a good excuse) we decided we’d cook something special for dinner at the weekend.

I love Tapas and vote for it for any special occasion dinner. However, Cameron wanted lobster especially since they are ridiculously cheap at the moment only $4.99 per lb (approx £3 per lobster). We decided to combine the two and settled on a dinner of lobster with melted coriander (or cilantro in Canada) butter, chorizo fried in red wine, tumeric infused rice and peas and fresh crusty bread from the farmer’s market.

Lobster

All washed down with a bottle of wine or two…. Yummy!

Blood Donor

Since the age of 17, I have been a regular blood donor in Scotland and have proudly given over ten pints during the last 6 years (although my dad will boast that he has given over 50 since he started donating!). So the flyer prompted me to pick up the phone and call for an appointment. I spoke with the nurse and she asked if I was a first time donor, as she didn’t have my details on file. I informed her that although this would be my first Canadian donation, it was by no means my first time – I went on to tell her about moving here from Scotland.

blood bag

I was shocked (and furious) when the nurse informed me that I am NOT A CANDIDATE (and probably NEVER will be) for blood donation in Canada. Why? Because I lived in Europe between the years of 1980-1996….. and am therefore considered to be at risk of hosting a CJD (Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease) infection.

Prompted to try and find some basis for this discrimination, I have spent the last few hours trawling the internet for facts on the history of CJD in both the UK and Canada. Unfortunately, I’m unable to find conclusive UK infection figures for the years 1980-1996. However, the advance of the disease in the UK was not believed to have peaked until at least 2001 (BBC, 2005) so I think that the figures I have found (for 1995-2004) are still relevant in considering my ‘risk’ as a donor. So, according to the BBC (British Broadcasting Cooperation) 141 people in the UK died of the disease during this 1995 – 2004 period, or an average of 14 in each of these 10 years. Now, rounding The UK’s 2001 national census figures down slightly to 58,789,000 (to make the math easier) that means that there was approxiately one CJD fatality per 4,199,000 British residents, per annum. Not to be obtuse, but considering that Scotland has a population hovering around 5 million in recent years – its conceivable we could have had only ONE person per year fatally infected with the disease!

It is estimated that, worldwide, between 0.5 and 1 case of CJD per million population occurs annually. A recent review of mortality data in the United States has shown that the average annual incidence of CJD in that country is 0.9 deaths per million population. Overall, 334 deaths attributed to CJD were recorded in Canada in the 15-year period from 1979 to 1993. The number of deaths ranged from 14 to 34 per year (Public Health Agency of Canada).

I know that these statistics are not the easiest to compare, but I think you see my point – that CJD does not only affect Europeans! Nor is the infection apparently any more common in Europe than North America.

“Every 60 seconds, someone in Canada requires blood or a blood product!” (Canadian Blood Services, 2009).

“One unit of blood can save or improve up to 3 lives.” (Canadian Blood Services, 2009)

So what’s the issue? Why don’t scientists get on with developing a blood test that can identify CJD and start saving lives by freeing up ‘risky’ donors like myself. A blood test has been in the pipe-line for years now but due to the fact that it carries a small risk of identifying the disease in people that are not actually affected, completion of development and production hasn’t been encouraged. The issue is that legally donors would have to be told if their CJD tests were positive, even if there was a chance that the test result was false.

Patient

If he doesn’t die of a blood transfusion/lack of transfusion then surely the hospital food will finish him off!

“1 in 2 Canadians is eligible to give blood. Last year 1 in 60 actually did.” (Canadian Blood Services, 2009).

Maybe this would help…

Drive through blood

Map

The centrepiece of the whole thing is the massive steel bridge that crosses the Lahave river. If you look closely you will spot the Michelin Tire logo on the side of the bridge – the company paid for the restoration of this grand structure.

Lahave River Bridge

The trail offers several different paths. Cameron and I opted for the more remote/scenic route and took a left turn after crossing the bridge. This section of trail runs high above the river and is shaded by lots of pines. It is also scattered with various plants, flowers and blossom.

Trees

Blossom

After approx. 1.5km, we arrived at Cooks Falls. A path permits you to leave the rail line and descend the steep hillside. This is a busy fishing site in season and there were several trucks and cars around. We decided not to bother with the steep climb and continued on along the path for another km or so before turning around.

This is a picture of the falls through the trees. I plan on making it into some form of abstract art!

Falls

On our return we stopped on the bridge to take a snapshot of the Lahave River

Lahave

The river is 97 km (60 mile) and runs from its source in Annapolis County to the Atlantic Ocean. Along its way, it bisects the town of Bridgewater, before flowing into the LaHave River estuary. The river and various spots in the area were named after Cap de la Hève, in France, by Pierre du Gua de Monts, (a french merchant) in 1604. The name was later anglicized to LaHave. Briefly a haven of pirates in the French era, the river later became a major lumbering and shipbuilding centre. The numerous large vessels constructed along the river include the famous clipper ship Stag. The river has since become a popular area for salmon fishing, attracting crowds of fisherman from mid-May to early July.

For those of you who haven’t read Jackie’s blog let me give you a little recap. Mr Fudgey (so named due to his coloring, and also due to a popular brand of biscuits)…

Mr. Fudgey

…first appeared in the bird box in my in-laws garden back in February. We initially found him quite amusing until he successfully destroyed several bird feeders and refused to move along. It’s now May and he is still there.

As time has moved on this little guy has got braver and braver. It doesn’t matter how much we chase him, he just sits and looks at us as much to say ‘what you going to do?’. Cameron manged to get these photos the other day without Mr. Fudgey even twitching. In fact I think he quite likes his new career as a model!

Mr Fudgey, ready for food...

Lunch!

Luckily for this little red squirrel, Cameron, has taken quite a liking to him and the good news is that he only costs us a few packets of sunflower seeds every couple of weeks. I’ve got a feeling he isn’t going anywhere in a hurry…

Supper!

MISSION TWO – EXPLORE MOLEGA LAKE

OverView

Molega lake is a 30km long lake situated not too far from Chelsea, Nova Scotia. We headed off in search of one of the islands, soon discovered we weren’t quite as fit as we’d thought and instead headed under a little bridge into Beaver Tail Basin.

A few kilometers up the lake we came across a lovely sandy beach…

Picnic spot

and stopped for our sandwiches…

Cam

Post sandwiches, we jumped back into the canoe and started heading back the way we came. Unfortunately we’d tied our dry sac to the middle bar in the canoe and weren’t able to reach our camera to capture some of the magnificent sites en route. One of the most impressive was a GIANT spider floating on the surface of the water. It was holding tension with it’s legs. It obviously thought we were land as it picked up pace whenever we went near.

stovies

Stovies = a traditional Scottish dish made with leftovers from the Sunday roast! Quick, easy and delicious. Although cleaning the pan after-wards isn’t that much fun..

Let me start with a confession, I don’t make stovies the ‘traditional’ way. Like everything else that comes out of my kitchen, they are made to my own unique recipe. However, (without sounding big headed) they taste pretty damn good.

What you’ll need:
*a large saucepan with lid
*oil (olive or vegetable)\
*1 large onion
*8-10 large potatoes [tatties]
*1 pint of beef stock
*left over gravy
*left over meat
*beetroot and oatcakes (they are different in Scotland, try Walkers variety from Pete’s Frootique) to serve

1) Chop an onion into fairly small pieces and soften in some oil

Onion

2)Peel and then slice 8-10 potatoes (no hard and fast rule, the more potatoes, the more stovies you’ll end up with) into rounds

Tatties

3)Add potatoes into the pan with the onions. Stir and remove from the heat.

4)Make up stock! I use good old fashioned Knorr beef stock cubes and make according to the packet instructions. 1 cube for 500ml of water!

Beef stock

5)Add approximately half of the stock (250ml) to the potatoes and onions and place back onto the heat

Onion, pots and stock

6)Boil the potatoes in the stock, add a small amount of stock as necessary to try and limit the sticking to the bottom of the pan. You don’t want to add too much liquid though (you’ll end up with potato soup) and remember they are NOT proper stovies unless they stick to the pan a little! Keep going until the potatoes are starting to break up on their own accord! You may need all the 500ml of stock, less than or more than – it just depends on the potatoes!

7)Remove from the heat. Break the potatoes up with a fork or masher – remember you want them to be an uneven consistency, with nice big lumps left in. You DO NOT want mashed potatoes!!!!!!!!

8)To the potato and onion mixture, add in your left over gravy and meat. Remember the more flavor your gravy has, the more flavor your stovies will have!

Meat n Gravy

9)Warm the whole combination through…

10)Serve with beetroot, oatcakes and a glass of cold milk

Yummy

Since we arrived in Nova Scotia in October we’ve been looking out for a canoe. We’ve looked everywhere and quickly became depressed when we realized that a new canoe was a lot more expensive than we had anticipated. Time for Plan B – www.kijiji.ca! but still we had no luck! Plan C – go for a walk around your local town and look in people’s gardens.

We (well actually, Cameron’s parents) spotted a canoe in the garden of a gentleman that lives at the top of our road. It looked good but rather in need of some TLC. We simply asked him if he could consider selling it, he replied ‘make me an offer’, we did and the canoe was ours.

As mentioned before it was in need of some work, so we got to it. We carried the canoe home and placed it in our garden…

Original Canoe

Step one – a trip to the hardware store for some sand paper!

Step Two – sand it!

Half n Half - Sanded

Step 3 – prop it up and hose off all the dust!

Hose Down

Step 4 – time for a coat of primer!

Primer

Step 5 – allow to dry overnight …