Many of you from Tadoussac will remember that a few years back we discussed with the municipality that our section of Tadoussac is soooo depressing in the winter. (Now that we have been here a year, we can attest to that!!)
After much lag time we have added a little something to our family house Windward for the winter months. For those of you who follow this blog, and don’t know Alan’s brother Tom – he is a man of many talents, not the least of which is that he is a very creative artist and carpenter. He combined these two skills to create an amazing mural/triptych with a whale. It is absolutely stunning and will now grace our house each winter to jazz up the scene.
I wanted to send it out to show you as it will come down, of course, with the house opening in the Spring.
We just wanted to say thanks to Tom. This is truly a beautiful gift to our family.
PS Now my dear neighbours start planning for your houses!! Enjoy this beautiful Spring day Jane
Merry Christmas everyone wherever you are! Wasn’t it bizarre to go to church on Christmas Eve in the pouring rain. Not my favourite, although Becky was jumping in the puddles of rain running down the main road and thinking it was very funny. Christmas morning was wonderful with lots of presents and laughing and 2 Dads trying to get the toys released from the ridiculous packages and put toys together.
Starts out nice and calmly with stockingsthings get progressively noisier and more funAlan trying to figure out his giftEddie helping Grandpa free his rescue boat from the evil packagingTwo supervisors are better than oneMaybe Papa can help me with Sofia the 1st!
We ended our great day having Christmas dinner with all of us and Alan and Caroline Dewart and Catie. What a treat for us to have them here for 2 seasons instead of just one! Our only sad bit was that Peggy is not with us. She went home to Taiwan to see her family as with her new job she will have no vacation for a year and the company closes only this week. We missed her very much but have been skyping so that is fun. We also skyped with the California crew and are very excited about seeing them in less than two weeks!!
Table set and ready to goMy floating candles (that Heather was able to find for me in Ottawa)PS Sometimes if you send a Pinterest idea to your husband-perhaps by mistake- it magically appears as a very cool present!!
The rain did eventually stop and we were still lucky enough to keep about half of our snow. Some of the road behind our house is very icy but once you get to the woods it is fine walking. Fun for the little ones as they don’t break through.
The sun came out today and we took full advantage. We used Tudor Hart driveway as a perfect place for 4 and 2 year old sledding!! here are some fun shots. The end of the year is soon upon us and we are having trouble imagining all that has gone on this year. So many pinch me – is it real – moments. We are feeling very blessed.
the first climb up the hillLuxury living having Grandpa and Eddie pull you up the hillMaster prep crewWipeout at the bottomAt least we were all still laughingReady to goWaiting for a ride?Marshmallows are energy food , right!
If I don’t soon go inside and have my soup I am going to be asleep out here in the snow!
We woke to about 2 inches of beautiful fresh snow this morning. Not enough to shovel yet. Too bad for Alan as he wants to try out his new snow blower!!
Ella was crazy to see snow. This is her time of year. Everything looks so clean and bright. A few pictures, including a big fat bluejay cleaning out the peanuts – again.
Funny how it is so often cold, rainy or snowy for Remembrance Day. I am keeping soldiers, past and present, and their families in my heart today.
The road just behind our houseThe Pointe Rouge Road between Hovingtons’s and Leggat’sPointe d’Islet/Indian Rock from Dennis Reilly’s yardAlan got dumped with snow from the roof just as we arrived at the door after walking to dogs. I did not laugh. I did not laugh . I did not laugh.One of 3 big bluejays trying to cram more than one peanut into its mouth
I spent the afternoon in my kitchen today making Christmas cake, Handel’s Messiah playing full blast (Alan cowering in the basement to get away from Christmas music played before December – coward). As usual the cake was fun to make and the house was filled with that boozy Christmas cake smell that I love. I have included some pictures. Tomorrow the cake will be wrapped up and put away for a month then it will be the grand taste test. Hope you had a lovely day today too. Only a dusting of snow here but the temperature is supposed to plummet later in the week as it is elsewhere in Quebec. Winter is coming…
Cake pans all preparedCandied fruit, 2 types of raisins soaked for 24hours in sherry and rum comboButter and sugars as first stepBase mixture full of spicesAdd the fruit to the baseInto the oven for a low and slow bakeFinished product will be wrapped tomorrow and stored for a month before eating – if I can keep Alan away from it!! The soaking of the fruit for 24h in advance avoids the necessity of any soaking or basting during the month of wait
It has been a real experience figuring out the wood that we will need. Not sure we have it right yet but we have bought 5 cords and are now trying to make sure we are working our fireplace as efficiently as we can. Luckily Jean-Phillipe has said we can get more if we need to!
The 5th cord of wood arrives
Finally finished3 cords piledThree long piles of woods
We have discovered over the last two weeks that with the increase of small bird migration we are also having an increase in the number of small birds that are smacking into our windows. So far the count of dazed birds is still larger than those that have died but it is getting close. We did some research and it seems the simplest way to manage this is to find a way to break the reflection of trees in the window. For the time being we have had to tape our largest windows and are keeping our fingers crossed.
Alan finishing the large doorsSecond generation bird diversion.
My original idea was not to put anything on the windows at all but to make little helmets in fetching colours for the birds to wear. I thought they could pay for them with worms which we, in turn, could sell to local fisherfolk to defray expenses but Jane said it wouldn’t work because most people here fly-fish and don’t use worms. So we’ve switched to ropes from green masking tape. Still pretty bad.
We realized that I have so much gardening junk and that we are going to need a BIG pile of wood so we needed to construct a new shed to accommodate both. So just finished today here it is. Do not get me started about that crazy punt on the top. Been in the family for 1,000,000 years. Should be a flower pot but no it has to be preserved!!
Front of shedInside already getting fullFrom the back
The top two floors are finally finished. I have added here in sequence pictures starting at the road side and in through the house. Hope it will give those of you who have not seen the house a picture of it all.
Back of our house on the road sideStairs sweep up to the deck. Stairs were designed and built by Lewis, Alan’s brother
Stairs rise to a large deckBig enough for lots of parties!Front of our house on the bay sideStep inside the house and you are in our dining room on the leftJust on the other side of the peninsula is the best kitchen ever.On right of entrance is the living roomSecond shot of the living room with our fireplaceStairs up to the loft area. Take a look at the banister it was the original mast of the Trillium . The mast broke in a big storm many years ago getting caught in a tree when it broke from its mooring. Sadly it reinforces our idea that you should never throw anything away!Flower box at the top of the stairsOur sitting areaour bedroomour bathroom with multicloured drawers as a “call out” to Windward – Alan’s family cottage where the steps up to the second floor and the bathroom upstairs are all multi-coloured.
So many people told us we needed to keep a blog that we We will be posting about our adventures as we finish Landfall, the home we built in Tadoussac, Québec, and begin our retirement.
