Leeky Soup

Today's wet weather - and the fresh leeks in the grocery store - called for some nice hot soup for dinner. 

Leeks are a very underrated vegetable in Canada... I used to buy them all the time when I lived in Newcastle, but here they tend to be a once in a while purchase.

What's that Welsh holiday where everyone wears a leek pinned to their lapel? I think its time we started doing that here!

ETA: the photo won't post using my Blogger App, so I had to add it after... oh, and if you want to make Leek & Potato soup too, I use Jaime Oliver's recipe from this book.  Its a brothy version (which is healthier than a creamy one, I think), but you can puree it if you want to to make it nice and thick.

ETA a little more: In the end we decided to puree the soup in the blender, and then I topped it with some crème fraîche in the fridge.  Crème fraîche is so yummy, and is yet another underrated item here in Canada - it costs a fortune here too, which makes no sense at all.

Note to Self:

In the battle between "lost" sewing needle and foot, foot always loses (although in this case, the needle didn't fare so well either!)

I really do wish I could remember when I had my last tetanus shot...

ETA: less than an hour later and I've lost my second needle somewhere on the floor.  I think I'd better go put some shoes on before this one ends up in my foot as well!

Things I learned this weekend:

1) On warm sunny days (mid-20s by the water!) Vancouver really does empty out on to the beaches.

2) SPF 30 sunblock is not sufficient for my pasty-white, Vancouverite-of-Irish-descent skin.  After a four hour walk in the sun my skin didn't really burn , but it did turn a very unsettling pink colour that faded by morning.  SPF 55 is my new best friend.

3) Something about Vancouver makes it seem bigger than it really is.  It took us only about 30 minutes to walk the two miles to a downtown movie theatre, yet I was convinced it was going to take longer - and be much farther away than it was.  In New York, I walked two miles (usually in very high heels!) just to run my regular after-work errands.

4) Arriving half an hour early to see The Avengers in 3D is not early enough to get a good seat.

5) If you can't get a good seat in the theatre, sitting close to the centre of the theatre is much more important to 3D than how close to the screen you are.

6) Robert Downey Jr. - particularly when dressed as Tony Stark - reminds me very much of my brother.  I need to find a way to make my brother as smart (and as rich!) as Tony Stark.

7) BBQ on the beach makes for a great evening meal, even if it does get a little sandy.

8) There are going to be an awful lot of very sunburned people in the city today.  I'm not sure if the cancer-fighting qualities of all that vitamin D the city absorbed this weekend aren't entirely cancelled out by the skin-cancer producing qualities of all the sunburns I saw!

Buttons!

Why does it always seem like such a chore to sew on a few buttons?  I can spend several weeks knitting, sewing together, and then blocking a sweater, but then its that last little step of sewing on buttons that seems to take all the effort.  This weekend I decided I'd force myself to catch up on all the button-sewing on projects that I've had lying about for a while.  On Friday I took the requisite trip to Dressew and ButtonButton, and then this afternoon I started sewing.

The first button project was my new black cardigan, which just came off my needles last week - and then took THREE DAYS to dry after blocking!  Its made from Noro Cash Iroha, a cashmere, silk, wool, and nylon blend yarn that knits up super soft and drapey.

I think this is one of the best sweaters I've knit for myself , and I'm hoping to get a lot of wear out of it.  Its a little loose and cozy, and I expect it will be pretty warm.  The little brown wooden buttons are from ButtonButton - I think they give it a fun, relaxed look, which is exactly what I was going for.

The next project was this one:

A wee little sweater that only needed three itty-bitty buttons.  I had hoped to just use some from my button stash, but it turns out that buttons made with a (yo, k2tog) in 4-ply yarn are actually pretty tiny.

Had it not been white, I could've used these little shanked buttons that you see on the right of this card.

I love these buttons.  So much so, that I've actually taken them off of a cardigan I bought about 6 years ago... I haven't worn it in ages, but I've been reluctant to part with it because of the buttons.  During a recent closet clear-out, I finally decided to replace the super cool buttons with this very basic grey ones (on the left) and then pass it on to its next owner.

Now to find myself a pattern for a 10-button cardigan that's knit in 4-ply yarn!

A Walk on the Beach

These days Mike and I seem to be embracing the British concept of the 'Mini-Break'.  Every time a long weekend comes around, we start looking for places to run away to.  For Easter, we decided to take a four day weekend (the kids get Easter Monday off, so why not the adults?!) and head south to Bainbridge Island.

This trip is something I've been thinking about for a while now... Bainbridge Island is the home of Churchmouse Yarns and Teas, a wool shop that I have been wanting to visit.  Kind of odd really, since I'd never even heard of the place 6 months ago.  It was one of those situations where you hear of a place once, in passing, and then suddenly you hear about it again and again and again.  I took this as I sign that I really needed to go!  :)

To get there, you drive down to Seattle, and then hop on a ferry that takes you 35 minutes across the Sound.  (Ideally, you won't do this on a long weekend when half the population of Vancouver wants to cross the border at the same time as you!).  Then you either walk 5 minutes from the ferry into downtown, or, if you're staying longer, you drive about 10 minutes to the north end of the island, directly to a little B&B-style cottage in the woods (although we passed on the breakfast in favour of being able to sleep late in the mornings!).

The nice thing about being on an island is that you're never far from the beach...  have I told you that I love beaches?  Actually, I think its more the oceans that I love, but of course you can't get to the ocean without going down to some kind of beach.  We took our beach walk on Sunday... we had tried to go on Friday, but ended up getting there at high tide!  A public access path only a few minutes from where we were staying took us down to where this guy was waiting...

Here's another view of his piling, so you can get an idea of how big he was! (I forgot to bring my zoom lens, unfortunately)

A few more steps, and we were too close for his comfort.  Oops!  ;)

I love walking on beaches.  It always amazes me how that muddy, smooshy space is really teeming with life.  The waters in Puget Sound are relatively warm, too, which means you get more sea-life on their beaches than on those around Vancouver.  Case in point, Starfish.  Maybe this is to do with the currents of Vancouver's bays, but its pretty rare to see starfish on Vancouver beaches.  On Bainbridge, they're everywhere!  These purple guys were the most common.  Their upper bodies are pretty solid, so you can easily pick them up to get a closer look.

There were a bunch of pink starfish too, which were softer, and looked a little more bothered by being exposed to the sun.  I thought they were less-healthy examples of the purple ones, but Wikipedia tells me that they're a totally different species!  :)

A little further down the beach we found this guy - I've always called these guys sunfish, but I don't think that's their official name.  Its hard to tell the scale here, but he was probably close to 9 or 10 inches across - and he was moving quickly!

 This beach was also covered in sand dollars.  I've never seen sand dollars in Vancouver - to me, they're a creature you find only on Vancouver Island.  On Long Beach, for example, its pretty common to find their 'shells' (not the technical term!) washed up on shore, bleached beige, or white by the sun (like the one in the bottom corner here, next to the crab body).

 On Bainbrige, most of these guys were still very much alive - as indicated by their fuzzy purple appearance!  At first we saw them lying amongst the rocks.

Then we came to a more sandy section, and realized that the little round 'ripple' features in the sand were really made by an abundance of sand dollars, hiding in the sand until the tide came back in!  Look closely, there are about 12 or 15 in this photo alone!

 After that, we started to be very careful about where we were walking!

The other creature you have to watch out for on these beaches are the geoducks (pronounced "gooey ducks").  You can't see them, because they live several feet under the sand, but if you stay on the beach for even a few minutes, you're sure to see (and get hit by!) their sprays of water - some of which reach about 3 feet high!  I didn't get any photos, but you can watch this video from youtube if you're interested.  Then check out this one, to see what they look like under all that sand:

After about an hour on the beach, we decided to head back to the road and walk back to the cottage.  The rest of the day was spent reading, napping, and doing a little crochet.

 On Monday we hopped back on the ferry and began the drive home... this time, it was only a 25 minute wait at the border, so the trip took a much more reasonable 3.5 hours.

 The ferry, as seen from the main vehicle deck. 

 The spares are stored at Bainbridge - cheaper parking rates, I imagine

 Downtown Seattle looks so small from out here!

We saw a small pod of Orcas on the way back, but I didn't get a decent photo.  If you want to see what they look like in the wild, you're going to have to come out for a visit!  :)

Oh yeah, the yarn store was lovely!  I highly recommend a visit next time you're in the area!  :)