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I doubt that I'll keep this blog up but I'll try. You see, I often have a lot of things on my mind and when I go over them in my head, I feel that I should write them down somewhere. I'm not sure exactly why, but maybe every human being has an inherent desire to be known and have their story told to anyone who will listen. Or maybe I'm just really bored. I suspect it's a little of column A and a little of column B.
So it's Monday and the weekend just past was quite an eventful and, dare I say, fun weekend. I did have a birthday on Friday (BFHD - big fat hairy deal), and the usual Friday night shenanigans took place with the addition of a tasty cake. Saturday a group of us went to a Corn Maze ( http://www.themaize.com/sites.php?ID&username=belfast ) and had fun getting lost and found, fighting off "He who walks behind the rows", shooting corn-cob guns, and whatnot. It was actually more fun that I was expecting. Years of playing Dungeons and Dragons have given me killer maze navigation skills..
Sunday was a long day on the road. It was Open Farm Day on PEI and we had planned to hit 5 or 6 farms in various locations across PEI to partake of whatever they had to offer for Open Farm Day. Christine and I did it last year, and she took part in it with other friends a couple of years before that. This would be my second year doing the Open Farm thing. This year we had our friend Marilee with us. So the plan was to travel to the farm farthest away first, and then hit all the others on the way back.
The Shadow Fish
On our way to the first farm, we stopped for a moment at the bridge in Grand River to snap a few pictures and enjoy the scenery. I've always thought that this area was quite nice and if it wasn't so far away from civilization, I wouldn't mind settling around there. Anyway, the tide was out a bit and we noticed a whole swarm of little tad-pole-ish fish swimming in and around the grass near the shore. As we were just looking around and taking pictures we happened to notice that these fish were afraid of shadows. Now, anybody who would know anything about marine life would say this is normal. To a fish, a shadow coming from above the water would normally mean a predatory bird coming in for the kill so the instinct to run from shadows is natural. The funny part was that if I threw a rock, it didn't bother them. So I was chasing fish around with my shadow for a few minutes then we went on to the first farm.
1: Arlington Orchard, Arlington http://peiapples.com/index3.html
If you like apples, pears, plums or stuffed animals hanging from trees and poles (I won't judge), then this is the place to satisfy your cravings. They have all kinds of different types of apples for a variety of uses and they're cheap. The catch is well.. it's a U-pick, so you gotta pick them yourself. They give you a little red wagon and some baskets and let you know what's ripe and more importantly, what is NOT (CHRIS!) ripe. We picked about 9 lbs of apples and a few pears and it was under $13. I had apples fall on me, thrown at me and we all stepped in mushy apples at some point. Also, some of us chose to climb a tree but I won't mention who.
Where do the stuffed animals come in?.. heh.. If you don't already know, I'll not spoil the surprise.. go there yourself.
2: Green Gables Alpacas, Birch Hill http://greengablealpacas.com/
This wasn't originally on our list, however we noticed that it was only a few minutes away from Arlington, and Marilee was interested in the fiber shop that was advertised. I think we were also a bit curious about the animals themselves. So we found the farm quite easily and right away, the owner of the farm came to greet us and talk to us. I won't go on about alpaca fiber and weaving because it's just not my area to be talking about. Alpacas themselves however, just seem to me to be strange creatures. They look close to a llama, but they're not quite the same. They come in many different colors and apparently they're very curious. Anyway we all learned a bit about them that day and their fiber of course. My highlight of that visit was when I heard the owner refer to one of the young male alpacas by name. It was named "Johnny Depp". It just struck me as amusing, so I went to ask for his autograph, and he ended up eating my piece of paper. sigh.. celebrities.
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| Brown one in the middle is Johnny.. looks different in the movies for some reason. |
Aside: At this point I should mention that we had spent WAAAAYY too much time between these first 2 farms. Not for any reason other than that we were enjoying ourselves. But this also meant that we'd have to drop some farms from our list since most of the farms were only "Open" during the hours of 11-5. So in the end we ended up skipping over the next 3 farms on the list and heading right to the last farm on the list which was on the complete other end of the Island in Pisquid. On the way there, however we made another stop in Winsloe to look at a field of sunflowers.
3. Shepards Farm, Pisquid http://shepherdsfarmorganics.com/about/
This wasn't the farm that we thought it was. Last year there were 2 farms in Pisquid in the Open Farm Day and they were just down the road from each other. The other farm had a notorious gang of gregarious geese, but it wasn't open this year. However, we managed to pick up some organic veggies and got some pictures of some pigs, goats, turkeys, chickens and sheep. Incidentally, the "purple" beans we bought were fake. They turned green when cooked.
The Road Home
So last year on OFD, Christine and I stopped off at a potato warehouse in Pisquid and took each others pictures with a giant "Mr. Potato Head" that is there. So we decided to make this a tradition, and now Marilee has had the "Potato head experience" as well. The downside of this year is that it's election time and Mr. Potato Head had a sign for a Liberal candidate duct-taped to his hand.. oh well, there's no accounting for taste.
We took a different way home this year and were fortunate enough to drive by a giant strawberry in someone's yard. Yrd, you heard right, a giant strawberry. So.. of course we all had to get pictures taken with that too.
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| Sorry.. took this from the wrong angle. |
So that's my story for this weekend. The evening was topped off with a visit to my sister-in-law Kathleen who had made a tasty Apple-crisp for me.
Nothing else to say this time, but whenever I feel I have more interesting tales, I shall write again. Being as this is my first post, please be nice and I'll attempt to improve my writing format and style as I see fit.
