What Summer in Ottawa Looks Like

Peaches! I have been gorging myself on Ontario peaches this summer. Going without them for a year or two left me with a very deep craving for their juiciness.

While I really don't like raw tomatoes I do admire how home grown ones are so red and pretty. This is just the start of our tomato season from August. We've had endless lines of red on our windowsill ever since. 

 And on our plates.

 We also had a ton of rhubarb which we chopped up and bagged.

52 cups in total. Enough for one cup a week... or maybe not. 

 Peach season coincides very much with wild blueberries. The king of the blueberry. 

My mum made scones with some. They didn't last very long. mmmmm

In the food discovery section, I found out that Bridgehead has massive coffee "cups" for extra large coffees. 

Here's the largest habanaro from the garden so far. I found out that if you take a tiny bit of the pepper and use it to add some spice to guacamole you can actually taste the flavour of the pepper. It turns out they have a fruity sweet taste that is amazing with avocado. 

 Late in August we went to a friends cottage across the river in Quebec. Unfortunately Tom was working that day so he has to wait a bit to see what a true Canadian cottage and cottage country looks like.

At this particular cottage, just off the dock, there was a mini shipwreck.

After swimming a few of us hopped in the boat to check out the lake. Here's the cottage as we left.

For the readers not in Canada, here's what you can expect to see in the wilderness of Quebec. Lots of trees. 

 A mischievous Bubba enjoying the sun.

One thing I'm not used to as a non cottage owner is the tradition of waving at everyone on shore and in boats as you pass them. Us kids in the back of the boat realized we must look a bit creepy just staring at people as they ate outside or swam. Luckily the adults in the front covered for us and said hi. 

Some of the other cottagers showed off some tricks.

Now for some completely unrelated news.  Our IKEA is moving to the other side of it's parking lot. Not so exciting except that it will become the largest IKEA in North America. It's really really big. 

This is the current IKEA with the welcome sign and way at the other end of the lot is the monstrous new building. I have no idea when the move will be finished, but I'll probably have to go in and investigate it's size on the inside when it's done.