Eagle Watching

Every year from December to March, hundreds of bald eagles migrate to the Annapolis Valley.  In January and February they have special "eagle weekends" with food and festivities.  They put out food for the eagles and you can stand around watching the hundreds of eagles feed.

Mom and I decided to go see the eagles but didn't go on the weekend as it would be too crowded.  We went on a Tuesday.  The weather was beautiful -- warm(ish) and sunny.  There were a few others there but not too many.  The eagles are fed between 9 am and 10 am.  We were late getting off and worried we would miss it. 

No worries necessary.  Apparently there is a pecking order in bird feeding.  First the seagulls, then the crows, then the eagles.  We were surprised to learn that the eagles waited for the other birds to eat first.  Also a surprise -- the eagles sound like canaries!  Not like great fearsome birds at all.  We waited around for an hour (it was warm, but not that warm) before leaving.  The seagulls hadn't started to eat yet but we were hungry!

We stopped at the local fair trade coffee shop.

Mom ordered our eats (hot chocolate for me, latte for her and some giant cookies), lovingly created for us by Doug, the barrista.

Just Us Coffee also makes fair trade chocolate.  I looked for job applications for tasters but only found free chocolate samples.  Yum!

They also sell items crafted by third world artisans, in addition to a little museum about how the average coffee grower lives. 

All in all, a good day.

Warming up the Windows

One thing I love about my house are all the windows and light.  I am a light addict.  However, it also means I need a lot of curtains.  I hate curtains.  The only reason why I have any is to save the neighbours' some embarrassment.  And to block the glare on the TV during the day.

Right now I have assorted sheets and curtains "artfully" draped over windows to protect our modesty.  I'm thinking of making some roman blinds though.  They seem nice and tidy. While I was poking around on the internet I found this neat tutorial from Instructables on creating an insulating roman blind.  In the pictures they have used a quilt.  How cool is that!  I think I'm going to be looking through some of my quilts with an eye to my windows.

Cinnamon Buns

I made a promise.  I promised Liam's best friend Aaron (yes, it's confusing) that if he took Liam to his place for the weekend that I would make him cinnamon buns.  He did his part (thank you thank you) so I did mine.

Here the dough is rising.

I love making bread or any kind of dough you have to knead.  This dough has egg in it, which seems to make it even nicer to knead.  I used this recipe to make the buns.  I would recommend for full Cinnabonness that more filling be used.  Also, instead of cream cheese icing we used dolce le leche, so darn delicious!  Plus, you get the added fun of wondering if the cans of sweetened condensed milk will explode.  Ours didn't.

Here is the only shot I got of the finished product. I was lucky to get this one.

total yumminess, if I do say so myself . . .