Jelly!

Well the house smelled steamy, fruity and sugary for several hours on the weekend. All those fat, ripe choke cherries are now reduced to a sweet jelly. Actually we got more than a dozen jars of fresh jelly. Now I will have to stock up on some low-calorie bagels and enjoy!

Choke cherry jelly!

It's been two years sinced I made my last batch... I walked by the tree this morning and was surprised at how ripe (and how many) the choke cherries were. We grabbed the ladder and started picking them after work today. Claudette is better on a ladder than I am... and she had a better eye for the ripest fruit. I just spent two hours washing and sorting the choke cherries. Gonna cook 'em up and put 'em jars tomorrow.

I will try anything ... once

So Claudette and I went to dinner this weekend... I saw something that looked interesting, so I decided, sure, why not try it. It was couscous... certainly it looked apetizing. They say it's a Middle Eastern food from the 13th century... Hmmmm. I think the stuff I ate was older than that. Yecccchhhh! It tasted like Cream of Wheat with a side of veggies. No wonder they're always fighting over there.

On the job up north

A friend at De Beers sent this photo from the opening day at the new De Beers diamond mine last month. With all the running around, the newsies got a chance for a minute to stop for this photo - from the left is me, Jessica Young with Timmins Press, Natalie Geddes with Rogers Radio and Erin Howe with CTV. You can't really notice it, but we all had wet, muddy shoes from from running around on the muskeg. For some reason, the gals seemed more interested in seeing diamonds than I was! : )

Interesting sunset eh

The rain, the clouds and the sun all sort of came together at the right time last night to make a very nice sunset over Timmins. I wasn't quite sure how to record it, so I snapped a couple of pictures... one beside the cathedral on Pine Street, and then I zipped over to the north end to grab a shot from atop the big rock on TV Hill.

Ten thousand photos!

The NIKON tech guys tell me my camera is good for 100,000 activations before it dies. This week I reached photo number 10,000. Actually this one is photo number 9999 and then the camera goes back to "0001". So the number 10,000 does not actually register. I have had the NIKON for about two and half years... at this rate, it should be good for 25 years. Anyway, this was part of the gang from De Beers in Timmins having a bit of a celebration on Wednesday night.

So they sparkle a lot...

What's all the fuss about diamonds anyway? I guess it's something special because so many people buy them. In any case, I was at the official opening of Canada's newest diamond mine today... the De Beers Victor Mine, about 700 kilometres north of Timmins. They had a display there of just a handful of the diamonds they've mined so far. I get the impression that a handful of diamonds is something special. De Beers says the new mine is small by most standards, but what makes it unique is the stunning quality and clarity of the Canadian diamonds. It was nice to see them.

It's a good day eh

Jenn called this morning with news that my grandsons Tyler and Nate were on their way into Timmins. Don and Denise were heading out of Westree on a grocery run and decided to come north for the day. So well all met at the new Tim Horton's and had lunch and a great visit. Victoria was there too. It was so nice to see them all. Tomorrow will be an interesting day. I am flying out in the morning to Attawapiskat on the James Bay coast and then heading inland to the Victor Project... Canada's newest diamond mine. It's the first diamond mine outside of the NWT. De Beers is throwing a bash for all the VIPs for some place down south called Toronto. It should be fun. Security is a big issue for De Beers. No one but a few media types is allowed to bring cameras. We've been told we cannot shoot photos without permission and only in specific areas. That should be interesting.

My first breathalyzer test...

It was indeed nerve wracking last night for those few seconds when I blew into the handheld machine the cop held out in front of me. It was just after midnight when we decided to leave the Summerfest street party in South Porcupine and drive back to Timmins. We got out to the main road and there was a RIDE spot check set up. I knew I had only two drinks over two hours and was confident it would be okay, but for those few seconds when you're blowing into the breathalyzer, you wonder .. "holy crap, this could a real problem here..." I told the cop I had two drinks. He later mentioned this is what people usually say when they've had four or five drinks. I guess that's why he asked for my breath sample. After blowing into the machine, I stared at it for seconds, and seconds, and seconds....the little green light came on. Anyway, the reading was 0.024 per cent, which he said was well under the limit of 0.08 per cent blood alcohol level. Still, I have to confess, it's nothing to be proud of.

Flying car wash?

No I wasn't trying to get the truck washed for free. As the photo shows, the truck was parked close to a brush fire on the weekend as the helicopter water bomber flew in ... but no we didn't get wet. One firefighter told me there was a situation a few years back where a pick up truck was hit by a water bomber and there was a very nice dent in the roof. Sunday was hot and windy in Timmins, but the fire was knocked down in less than an hour.

I'm on You Tube

I think I have found my 15 minutes of fame. A couple of years ago when I was working in tourism, I hosted a TV crew from a California based outfit called EcoNews. (See blog entry for Aug. 19, 2006) We spent a bit of time traveling around the area. Just yesterday I found out it was on You Tube. Here’s the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9JnAedpjwM
The item is not quite 15 minutes, but it shows off our part of the country, so check it out if you’re interested.
It’s Saturday morning in Timmins and I am enjoying a nice cup of tea. For some reason, I have stopped having coffee in the mornings. Tea is good. The weather is beautiful today. It’s a wonderfully pleasant 11 degrees right now. Finally, a day with no rain forecast, but it’s going to be a scorcher with a high of about 31.That’s way too hot. It might be a good day to find a breezy lake or stream and spend some time in the canoe.

Canada Day

Canada Day was fun in Timmins, with plenty to do. It was interesting that a new monument was unveiled as a tribute to miners who have died on the job. The new monument in located in the McIntyre park, situated betweeen two of the most famous gold mines in the country... the McIntyre and the Hollinger.
My CB cousins would be interested in knowing that Timmins-James Bay MP Charlie Angus was there... as we chatted I discovered that Charlie has roots in Cape Breton. His grandmother was a MacNeil from a place called Iona.

The boys were in town!

Yep, Jenn and the boys dropped by on the weekend for a visit. And that meant we had to have a special breakfast on Saturday. You guessed it -- chocolate cake and ice cream. The boys loved it. Sop we had to do it again Sunday morning. It's all good.

It's a nice day eh!

I don’t know if they’re called annuals or perennials but these flowers keep coming back each year in the garden at the front of the house. The flowers never last long, but they look nice. Today is father’s day. I have to say I am a happy father because I am lucky to be blessed with two great children.

So what's new?

Just an updater… been so busy lately, as you may notice from my OTHER BLOG. I was out in the bush on the weekend and got chewed up by the black flies. But the truck was fine… got new bush tires on it and the front end was finally fixed. At first Chev thought the problem was part of a recall… but then decided it wasn’t! Oh well. I was out in the bush again today, at the new Liberty Mine site. Tonight I will be touring the Pamour mine… that’s the one where they moved the lake to get the gold! Well the warm weather has arrived in Timmins... but there's frost forecast for this region tonight.

Claudette's Escape

Claudette had been mentioning "an escape" for quite awhile. I thought she was talking about a vacation. On Friday, she dropped by to show off the Escape she just bought ... it's a truck made by Ford. Nice eh?

Yup... just after the May Run weekend!

Snow! ... that's right. There was snow at about 9:30 this morning. Just as everyone was settling in back to work after the long weekend, we get snow in Timmins. It didn't last long but it sure pissed everyone off! : ) It was gone by lunchtime. If you don't like the weather in Timmins, wait ten minutes. It'll change.

Whose bed have your boots been under?

Interesting news today... if you can believe the PEOPLE magazine website -- Shania Twain, 42, and her husband Mutt Lange, 59, are splitting up.

Good news - crazy news

The good news is my truck got a clean bill of health today... I thought I had a problem with the front end .. but it just turns out to be bad roads in Timmins. I figured it would be $500 to $1000 for repairs. Two guys at the shop both road tested and inspected the front end... and they said there is nothing wrong - woohoo!
By the way, the truck was a convenient step ladder for a couple of news shooters at Foleyet today, where the VIA rail train was quarantined.
Bizarre story... it's in all the papers of course.

Sparkling ice

Mother nature at work at Porcupine Lake this week, where the wind and waves pushed ice pans up onto the eastern shore. A very nice spectacle, we don't often see in spring in Timmins.