But It's Not All Bad!

Leading up to becoming Atlantis Of The North, we had ourselves some pleasant and productive weekends.

The Festival Of The Maples takes place in Perth on the last weekend of April and, you may recall from past posts about this event, is our target date for opening our place up, so we look forward to it a great deal. Christine went without me last year, but we both went this year.

Unfortunately, I left my phone in the car, like a dippy dummy, so I didn't get any pictures of the event itself. But we did fare rather well.

Maple cotton candy might be the best $5 I've ever spent. Christine looks for that particular bottle of maple syrup at right because it's organic (and extra yummy).

We spent the most time at a booth for All About The Soup. They don't trumpet it, but their entire line is vegetarian so it was nice for us to not have to cherry pick.

We've had, and loved, the Trinidad Corn (as a soup) and the African Peanut (over rice) but will likely work our way down the menu. I may donate my portion of the Beet Chiller to my mum, because I know she loves her beets, and I luv my mum. :-)

A few weeks prior to all that, my dad and I worked on the living room floor.  I won't display much of that now, because I would rather wait for the baseboards and quarter round to be installed, but it's looking pretty class, I think.

Looking forward to the finished product.

Meanwhile, I'm taking a different approach to the kitchen floor. I'd already removed some of those tiles but now I pull one up every visit. By the time the season is over, I should have the whole thing pretty well stripped and ready for replacement.

We haven't fully completely settled on a new tile yet but it probably won't get done until about this time next year anyway. We'll come up with something.

Maple maple maple maple maple!

After missing it by hours last year, I was determined to attend the Festival of the Maples in Perth this past weekend.  And we made it!  Turns out that they have shuttle buses from Ottawa and I could have been going for years and years, but...that doesn't matter!  I made it THIS year!

Christine had vacation to burn.  I took last Friday and Monday off so that we could head up and start opening the cottage.  Beds are made, boards are off the windows, and the living room floor reno is started.  We didn't have running water yet but got by regardless.  That first "man-made" flush takes quite a leap of faith, I can assure you.

The weather was the opposite of great but there was still a pretty hopping crowd.  If I recall correctly, I read that over 20,000 people attended last year. We arrived early and there were already a fair amount of people milling about.  By the time we left, it was getting difficult to walk down the street.

It actually took a while to find anything "maple".  There were plenty of displays for various organization and businesses but it wasn't until a little further in that the maple goodies started to appear.

Pretty much the standard stuff, mind you.  Fudge, taffy, butter, syrup...Compared to what Chris brought back from Nova Scotia last year (sparkling wine, white chocolate), the lack of variety was a little disappointing.

Until I came across...maple soap!  Genius!  It can be breakfast AND part of your morning shower!  You can go to work smelling like a stack of pancakes!  Who doesn't like the smell of pancakes?  Am I right, people?

I pointed this out to the gentleman at the booth and he said he'd steal the idea for promotional purposes.  Sure, just think of me when you're a billionaire.  Additional tip: Do the breakfast part first.

Some more sights below.

I don't know what the hell these things are.

Potato Spirals!  Apparently a favourite of the Perth PD!

I think I'm bothering the guy on the far left.

We weren't there very long but it was a nice time and I think it's going to be a regular occurrence for us from here on in.