The Sunday Schnauzer – Feelin’ Cute; Missin’ Oma (AGAIN ALREADY)

On By Widow BadassIn Adventures with dogs, Bowser the Schnauzer18 Comments

Bowser here. Oma is away again (ALREADY?!?!), swimming with sea stars or some such thing. I’m sure she’s gonna tell you all about it when she comes back home. WHEN, OMA, WHEN?

In the meantime, here are some cute pictures of me:

After a walk in the rain.
Just laying around at Oma’s.
With my new favourite ballie. I haven’t been able to get the squeaker out yet, which is amazing the rest of my pack. They are desperate to find more of these wonder ballies.

I hope you like my pictures.

Rock on,

The Bowz 🐾

What’s On Your Plate Blog Challenge – The Table Culinary Studio Edition

On By Widow BadassIn Adventures in Food, What's On Your Plate30 Comments

At the end of August, I had the good fortune to travel to Prince Edward Island. You can read more about that trip here. While on PEI, our hosts had booked us into The Table Culinary Studio for a very special evening (extra special because it was also one of our hosts’ birthdays!).

The Table is in a re-purposed church.
A lot of smiling faces around our table, already anticipating a wonderful evening (and we were not disappointed!). The open kitchen is in the background. The owner took our picture.
A somewhat daunting array of cutlery greeted us, surrounding the night’s menu. At The Table, a menu is created each week based on consultation with local farmers on what is at its peak right now. The menu is retired at the end of the week and those creations are never repeated again (no matter how piteously the patrons beg!).
Like the menu says, the meal is going to be a love letter to Canadian food and wine. Everything we ate was grown in Canada. For example: since black pepper does not grow in Canada, roasted and ground alder cones were used instead; in place of vanilla, an extract made from sweet clover was used to flavour the night’s dessert. All of the restaurant’s food-providing partners are listed on the back, and even a link to the music coming through the sound system!
Chef Hunter created a special playlist, featuring artists from PEI (an island blessed with an abundance of musical talent!).
Chef Hunter Guindon – who told us the story behind every morsel we were going to enjoy, as the evening progressed. There’s birthday boy Ted, on the left. He knows it’s gonna be a good night, as he’s been here before!
The interior of the menu tells the story of the venue, and lists the nights offerings, including the optional flight of Canadian wines (which I selected, naturally 😁).
The delicious first course: striped bass caught the previous night by the Chefs Hunter Guindon and Alex Bevan-Baker. Alex also creates beautiful pottery and the bass is resting in one of his stunning bowls.
Second course: the best damn tomatoes I have ever eaten.
Third course: gorgeous on the eyes, and even better in the mouth!
Fourth course: mouth-watering scallops with tiny turnips – amazingly delicious.
To accommodate Brenda’s shellfish allergy, the chefs provided a gorgeous salad for her fourth course.
Fifth course: (probably my favourite of the night) mushrooms, bacon and ricotta on toasted bread with a bone marrow aioli. Divine.
Sixth course: the pork loin – my least favourite, sadly. I found the herbs a bit overpowering. But then the bar was set amazingly high. I still ate almost every bite, though 😉.
The dessert course: in another one of Chef Alex’s beautiful bowls. I love apple desserts and this one was absolutely delicious, no surprise there! In the background you can see more of Alex’s pottery being displayed plus a board holding all of the previous weeks’ menus.
The Table was featured in an episode of the Amazing Race Canada. I haven’t watched this show (don’t have cable). Have you seen this episode?

This concluded a most special evening and a unique dining experience! It was made even better by sharing it with our hosts and two other lovely women (who I met for the first time that night). If ever on PEI, I recommend getting a seat at The Table!

Please let my co-host Donna and/or myself know what was on your plate lately, in the Comments or by using the Link Party, if the spirit moves you!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Rock on,

The WB

P. S. For those of you who might be concerned that I went to PEI and didn’t mention eating lobster (cough*Bernie*cough 😉), a lobster roll was What’s On My Plate for my very first meal on the island! Lobster is not my favourite sea food I think its over rated TBH, but I did partake regardless, as one does. It was pretty good – I ate all the lobster meat and most of the fries. No room for the roll, though.

At the Lobster Barn, Victoria-by-the-Sea.

The Sunday Schnauzer – Signs of Autumn

On By Widow BadassIn Adventures with dogs, Bowser the Schnauzer35 Comments

Back on “my” island, back to the usual routines…including daily walks with the star of Ye Olde Blogge:

Every walk starts out this way.
Leaves are piling up on the trail.
These guys are popping up in the woods again.
Dried leaves everywhere we go.
And I mean EVERYWHERE 😁.
Even though the temperatures have dropped, our walks are still thirsty work.
And every walk still ends the same way too!

We hope you are enjoying the change of seasons this weekend.

Rock on,

The WB

The Fabulous PEI Roadtrip

On By Widow BadassIn Adventures in Retirement, Camping Adventures, Roadtripping, See the Beauty, Travel Badassery30 Comments

When your oldest friend calls you up and says “Whatcha doin’ the end of August/early September?”, the only acceptable response is “Nothin’. What are WE doin’ then?”. Thus the fabulous road trip to PEI (Prince Edward Island, a Canadian province) began, in our heads, at least.

Cath (aka CJ – my friend since Grade 2 and my Barbados buddy) had purchased an RV about a year ago. It was only a matter of time before either she showed up at my door in it, or I joined her for a road trip. Here is what happened. First things first – the itinerary Cath drew up for us:

The basic sketch of our adventure, which was followed for the most part. Catch-22 is a fabulous restaurant in Wasaga Beach – had the best halibut meal of my life there, that night. We didn’t go to the Big Apple store/bakery/restaurant (too crazy busy) but we did go to Reid’s Dairy and Taste of Country in Belleville, ON. We did not end up at Richard’s for lobster rolls, instead it was the Lobster Barn (delicious food) – in Victoria-by-the-Sea. Nearby Hampton Beach is where our friends Brenda and Ted have a beautiful place, on PEI. What’s not on the calendar is an amazing show we saw Sep 7 at Harmony House (Hunter River, PEI): The Leonard Cohen Songbook, which blew me away….even more than seeing Lennie Gallant (and that’s saying A LOT.) More on my experience at The Table, in my next WOYP post!
Cocktail hour at McLaren campground, on the Long Sault Parkway, Ontario. That’s Mini Winnie, in the background.
Cath’s miniature poodle and our traveling companion: the lovely Miss Juliette.
St. Lawrence sunrise.
Miss Juliette can get a little barky 🤣. Especially if she is missing her mommy. At a Walmart parking lot on a supply run, in Rimouski, Quebec.
Stopping to take in the views of a covered bridge – Routhierville, Quebec.
More great views – Tide Head, New Brunswick.
Standing on the dock in Kouchibouguac National Park, New Brunswick. Admiring the views AND the kayak ramp. Kouchibouguac means River of the Long Tides, in Mi’kmaq. This is where the Kouchibouguac River empties out to the Atlantic Ocean.
A very quick exploration of Kellys Beach in Kouchibouguac National Park as the rain begins to pelt us.(Miss Juliette stayed in the RV as dogs are not allowed here.)
First view of the Confederation Bridge (12.9 km, links PEI to the mainland). The last time I visited PEI (at least 2.5 decades ago) this bridge was only a dream. We had to take a ferry, back then.
The home of our wonderful hosts, just off the beach.
It was our hosts’ birthdays while we visited. One day after the other. Two separate celebrations were planned and executed so each had their special day. Cath whipped up a joint chocolate birthday cake per request (one of her many culinary specialities) for them. I even had a (very small) piece and it was delicious, although chocolate cake is not my thing. Some of Cath’s family was on the island at the same time (staying nearby in a beachfront rental) and they joined us several evenings for meals, cards and general merriment.
Most days involved at least one walk on the beach!
Sunset on the beach in front of Ted and Brenda’s house, with the Confederation Bridge in the distance.
Going for a hike at a local park. Ted is holding onto Juliette’s grandmother: Chloe. Ted and Brenda are also parents of another poodle – the aptly named: Ginger. Who can be pretty spicy, for her size! 🤣
Little Miss Ginger. Our hair colouring kinda matches, I just realized.
Waiting for Lennie Gallant at the Souris Show Hall. Lovely, intimate show.
Trying the capture the beauty of the night sky in Souris, after the show.
Early morning walk along the shore, Red Point Provincial Park in Souris.
Typical red cliffs (and sand, soil) found on the island – Red Point Park, Souris.
Interesting sea weed growth on a rock – looks like it’s wearing a wig! Red Point Park, Souris.

One thing I didn’t remember to photograph and wish I had: I had a reunion with an old friend who lives on PEI. Kim and I started out as pen pals many decades ago – before the internet, even – when you actually had to write out your thoughts on a piece of paper and mail them to each other. Can you imagine such a primitive form of communication? 😉 It was truly heart-warming and inspiring to see her IRL – and to take in all the beauty of her home and gardens and all the gorgeous artwork she has created. Seeing her creations on Facebook is one thing, but seeing those pieces hanging around her cozy home is quite another!

As foretold in the itinerary, the adventure had to come to an end eventually. After an informative and exciting last walk on the beach with a geologist where we looked for (and found) the fossilized remains of 330 million year old trees and plant life, Cath, Juliette and I headed back over the bridge to the mainland. We revisited our route and campsites for the way back to Ontario: ending in Wasaga Beach for the first two, and the airport for me.

Another gorgeous morning at McLaren campground, waiting for the sun to rise.
Our last cocktail hour. My big goal for this trip was: that we are still on speaking terms at the end 😉. Achieved! 🤣

My flights were blessedly uneventful. Which is about the best thing one can say about air travel, anymore. The airline did not give away my seat on the plane and deny me boarding; no one parted me from my luggage; nothing was stolen from me; no one asked me to give up my window seat so they could have it instead because of their poor planning claustrophobia 🙄 (Really, girl?!?! Uhhh, NOPE.)…see here for my woeful previous air travel experience, if you care to.

Cheers to more travel adventures in the future!

Rock on,

The WB

The Sunday Schnauzer – What’s That, You Say?

On By Widow BadassIn Adventures with dogs, Bowser the Schnauzer23 Comments

Bowser here. Last time Mommy took me to the torture place groomer, she told them to shave everything off.

The reveal!

Now she finally understands why I am so stubborn have selective hearing trouble listening.

You expect these tiny nacho chips to capture every word you say?!?! (And you all say A LOT.)

The truth has been revealed: I have the daintiest ears anyone in my pack has ever seen on a schnauzer.

Also: Does this haircut make my butt look big?

Rock on,

The Bowz 🐾

The Sunday Schnauzer – Dog Days of Summer

On By Widow BadassIn Adventures with dogs, Bowser the Schnauzer21 Comments

Note: The Widow Badass Blog is going on a bit of a blogging break, starting next week. I’ll be back mid-September. Looking forward to resuming my regular posting schedule then!

After a busy morning of walkies, barking at those who dare to walk down our street and chasing ballies, comes a lazy afternoon. Especially during these dog days of summer

Bowser loves just flopping down on my wool rug. I can’t blame him. It is rather nice on the feet. Pardon me while I admire my fresh pedicure 😉.
Bowser wakes up and moves to his dog bed.
Out again…for now.
The rug is still his most preferred spot. He seems to have abandoned my couch, at least while the dog days are happening.

We hope you find a comfy spot to relax this weekend.

Rock on,

The WB

The Sunday Schnauzer – The Weakest Link

On By Widow BadassIn Adventures with dogs, Bowser the Schnauzer28 Comments

Who is the weakest link in our family? It varies from person to person and day to day, but based on recent evidence I think I know who the current titleholder is. Here are some photos, from a recent outing to the local gelato place.

Raspberry rhubarb gelato? Don’t mind if I do…
Just how long IS Bowser’s tongue?!?!
THAT long, apparently!

If you guessed that the current weakest link is Mr. I Don’t Know If I Can Get Used To A Small Dog; I’ve Only Ever Had Big Dogs, you would be 100% correct 😉.

We hope there are cool treats in your weekend plans.

Rock on,

The WB

What’s On Your Plate* Blog Challenge – Summer Drinkies Mocktail Edition

On By Widow BadassIn Adventures in Food, What's On Your Plate30 Comments

* This should really be renamed What’s In Your Glass 😉

I don’t know about you, but as I am getting older I am finding that drinking alcohol is sometimes more trouble than it’s worth. It disrupts my sleep at night – even one glass of wine after supper! Which means the only alternative is day drinking finding substitutes that provide the same refreshment without the befuddlement buzz and the dreaded 2 am wakey-wakey.

I did find (thanks to my non-drinking family) some superior non-alcoholic alternatives for purchase (more on that later in this post) and I also made homemade Ribena – of a sort – from my own garden! I found a recipe here.

Into the double boiler goes this year’s harvest of blackcurrants. Along with last year’s dried blackcurrants, and for good measure: last year’s elderberries, that have been languishing in my freezer. Why the heck not?! 🤭
I mashed ’em up real good, and strained the juice through many layers of cheese cloth. Back in the pot for cooking until the sugar dissolves.
Assembling the ingredients for my first taste.
Blackcurrant syrup over ice.
Adding tonic water.
Delicious AND refreshing.
I’ve also come to enjoy an iced coffee in the morning. My daughter found these protein drinks at Costco. (Not a mocktail per se, but thought I’d throw it in for good measure.)
Here are 2 of my favourite non-alcoholic drinks for this summer.
This is incredibly refreshing and tasty. I don’t miss the alcohol in this Corona at all. In fact, I prefer it to the regular version. I can order one of these when I’m out and not have to worry about driving afterwards.
Assembling the ingredients for my sinless sangria…I’ve thrown a few of the raspberries from my garden into the glass along with the ice.
Looking (and smelling) good so far!
Oh yeah, baby! Come to Mama 😁.
This goes down so good after a long hot afternoon of swimming in the river or the ocean with the grandkids. It retains the complex flavour profile that I love about wine. Although red sangria is my favourite, I would love to try a white version. I don’t know if they sell one yet but Atypique also makes other sinless adult beverages. I’ve enjoyed their mojito and amaretto sour as well.

Thanks for reading this far! Hopefully I didn’t make you too thirsty, although it is important to keep hydrated – especially in hot weather 👍.

As always, please join my co-host Donna and myself by sharing what’s on your plate (or in your glass) in the Comments or in the Link Party.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Rock on,

The WB

The Sunday Schnauzer – Apres Bath

On By Widow BadassIn Adventures with dogs, Bowser the Schnauzer23 Comments

Somebody rolled in fresh horse droppings. Somebody needed a bath. Somebody is me. (I’m a dog; it’s what I do.) Daddy to the rescue!

This is how Oma found us, after Daddy cleaned me up. I forgave him the indignity of a bath since now we get to cuddle.
I like it when Daddy bundles me up. I won’t even move when my favourite human comes over and starts taking pictures. (Oma made me say the favourite human part.)
This is definitely my spot. At least, until Mommy comes home.
Don’t even think of moving me.
Na na na-na nah!

Rock on,

The Bowser 🐾