A delayed bday celebratory day trip

Personal time, Photography

Friday morning and I am gently awakened with 20 minutes to snarf down a toaster waffle and hash brown and load up the back pack with train snacks, and head out to door.

We decided to take the LRT from Rideau to the Via Train station, and the timing worked out perfectly.

6:10 am train to Montreal with a planned adventure for the day involving two museums, two restaurants and randomness in between then the last train home.

Note: Head over to my TAVCreations blog for the photos of the dresses- both museums featured gorgeous costumes and vintage pieces!

1st destination: breakfast. I had planned on a crepe place that ended up being under construction, but across the street was the universal dejeuner et grillades

Waffle egg home fries and pumperknickle toast, plus the strawberries, bananas and Nutella…

Next up: museum 1:
Pointe À Callière in old Montreal for the Sorcières exhibit. https://pacmusee.qc.ca/en/press-room/press-releases/press-release-witches-shadows/ 

Along with the temporary exhibit, there was so much great archeological stuff. But the old river was gorgeous:

The underground river

3rd stop:

https://www.musee-mccord-stewart.ca/en/exhibitions/costume-balls/

The permanent exhibit is very meaningful and worth checking out, as are the three temporary ones…

 

So worth going to see, if you can, check it out!

Next stop was a late lunch at a welcoming little Japanese BBQ spot on Crescent. Sorry, my phone stayed packed up, but it was great.

We decided to return to near our breakfast spot to pick up some squishies/ plushiest that I had spotted in a store window, and so these two came home with us.

Finally we headed underground to walk slush free back to the train station where we had a final meal of the day with a friend who was able to pop down to see us.

All in all, a great day!

 

New Social Media Address – Who dis…?

Personal time, Photography, , ,

Ok, So… I’ve know m@ta has been not healthy for a long time. Now that things have begun to go in such an openly lacking of respect for human existence there, < yes, in the US for now, but it’s still going to affect us all> I’ll be closing things down in that realm as I also have been from the bird site.

I joined the fediverse a couple of years back here:

https://mindly.social/@TAV < personal posts, photos, sharing memes, probably mild ranting >

Also trying new options and this one, http://www.pxlfd.ca as a canadian based image sharing space is just getting its feet off the ground, so there are early adopters and mostly people I don’t actually know, but I’m hopeful. the community guidelines suit my wants and it’s not owned by a rich guy looking to control the world. I cannot properly explain how the “fediverse” works, but head here:https://tilvids.com/w/wx2iLhD3pTipbKFJKLyx5t for some basics or https://fedi.tips/

To stay connected with my IRL friends, I’ll be looking into the old ways of email and texting and trying to keep some more activity happening here on my blog.

And for today – here is my morning walk photo in my new image sharing space….

https://pxlfd.ca/p/Tavalonia/786238177564184946

Oh and folk looking for an Ottawa Based space to connect in, try Ottawa.place – I have set up my business account there: https://ottawa.place/@TAVCreations

 

Tofu deli meat? Yeah it works…

Personal time, Recipes Blog, ,

Ok,I realize this is not the normal way to share cooking stuff- click on each photo for the next steps…
For the marinade I use a drizzle/ sprinkle of:
sweet: honey, maple syrup, mirim, brown sugar
Spicy: chili powder, paprika, pepper
Salty: soy sauce, teriyaki sauce
You choose your flavours and have fun.
Using the same container the tofu came in works for me, and I let it sit for about 10 -15 minutes after slicing it and adding the marinade.
You can slice more thinly and let it cook a bit more to get a crispy bacon type of tofu- just watch it doesn’t burn.

Paddle boarding – a new adventure

Personal time, Photography, ,

HI,

I was told I should share this adventure, but I don’t feel I have a lot of info to give but here are some fun photos and a bit of the beginning of this journey…more to come if I can keep myself writing…

I have only had my paddle board since the fall of 2023 – I bought it on sale at the end of the season. I spent the winter months checking out online groups where folks offer advice, and share photos of their adventures on their boards. Some folks are purists and pretty much belittle those who choose to not/ cannot actually  stand, but I have found a good amount of supportive folk who understand that standing on the SUP board is not the best for everyone who gets a board. I’ll just call it a paddle board and skip the reference to standing at all.

I purchased a discount inflatable from Amazon < I know…> called “Oddpaddle”. The company does not have website anymore. But that’s ok. I bought a package deal that included a pump, patch kit, board with a leash, one attached set of d rings and criss crossed bungees at the front and a separating, extendable paddle.

I had to think about how I wanted to carry the board to the nearby park. I decided I did not want to inflate it at the park, so carrying it already inflated and ready to go was important.

I created a rope system that loops around the nose and butt end, avoiding the 3 fins – and with a small piece of foam padding, allows me to carry it like a very large cross body bag. So far, so good for anything up to a 5 minute walk. I wear my life jacket/pfd over and my water shoes, and the paddle locks into the bungees and to the mid-board handle by wrapping the velcro ankle wrap part of the leash there.

I like kneeling and can do so – folks with knee issues might need a low chair. This position resembles how I have sat to paddle in a canoe for years and allows me that familiar feeling as I wander about on the river or small lake. I can shift myself up to a 90 degree at the knee position too, and I’m good with that.

Eventually, there might be standing but I won’t rush it.

So far, I’m comfortable with about 45-50 minutes on the water, and that gives me time to wander around the area and check things out. On the day of the video at the bottom of this post, I was fighting the wind most of the time!

One thing I am enjoying is the chance to take photos from a different direction and seeing the beauty from the water…

Thanks for reading!

Tracey/ TAV

the Rideau river on an overcast day
Photo taken by a neighbour as I was coming back after an hour paddle – Minto bridge in the back ground.
Two bridges and a reflection on the Rideau River – photo by me!
My 90 degree position is pretty comfy! photo by Sandra Milton
helping me dock… photo by Sandra Milton
Click on image to see a quick video of my jaunt around Mew Lake

 

FULL LENGTH, regular speed video is here:

Vegan chocolate peanut butter babka( ish)

Recipes Blog,

Last week I made a  no-knead loaf and thought, why not separate out a bit of the batter and see if I could create some sort of sour dough starter. It had added yeast and was quite feisty, so I let it sit out on the counter and it grew quickly. I read that I could store it in the fridge, so I moved it in there and today gave it a feed.

This loaf is made by letting the dough sit for 12-24 hours of proofing, and baking in a preheated casserole.

When I fed the jar, I had scooped out some of the batter and spent some time thinking about what I wanted to create.

I decided to make a fake vegan chocolate babka.
Fake because I chose to just wing it. Vegan just because…

The dough:

  • ⅓ cup sour dough starter ( flour, water, yeast from the no knead dough recipe)
  • 2 cups sugar
  • ⅓ cup olive oil
  • Enough water to make a nice bread dough- ¾ to 1 cup ish

Mix it, knead it( yes, this one I chose to knead), let it sit covered for 2 hours, because that’s how much time I had.

Preheat the oven to 375F

Roll out into a square or rectangle about 1 cm thick on a lightly floured surface.

The filling

  • 1/3 cup dark chocolate chips – melt in microwave 30 second bursts
  • 1 tablespoon peanut butter – stir into the melted chocolate
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon- sprinkled on the filling

Pour the filling onto the dough and roll it up into a log.

Cut through the centre of the log lengthwise, leaving 2 cm dough still attached at one end.

Braid the two pieces carefully, and gently place into a lined loaf pan or greased pan.


*probably could let this proof more now, I chose not to .*

Bake for 35 minutes or until an inserted tester comes out clean. Technically a babka would have a glaze, I’m going to skip that step and just try it as is for this time around…or maybe make a simple vanilla icing sugar glaze… but for now:

tada!