Maui

Some pictures from our wonderful Maui adventure

Flowers

Most of these flowers I picked up from my garden this evening. I hadn't touched my camera in a while, so it was good quick project and mostly an excuse to take some photos (and use my off-camera flash).

20 years!

On October 2, it was our 20th anniversary since arriving in Canada. I'll never forget the immigration officer in Ottawa, who greeted us and after some paperwork, stepped out from behind her desk and said: "Welcome home, bienvenue chez vous!". It's been an amazing twenty years. I can't even count the ways in which I've been blessed to live in this part of the world. I'll be forever grateful to my family and those around us who supported us in making the cross-Atlantic move.

Colin and I will be in Montreal in a few weeks and will celebrate then!

Great Labor Day Weekend!

We had three days of fantastic weather and lots of downtime. We kicked off the weekend with a special date night at Nell's (a favorite!). On Saturday, we went to an outdoor concert at Chateau Ste-Michelle of the oh-so-delightful Pink Martini. On Sunday, we picnicked with friends and went for drinks at Poppy's. On Monday, we went for a bike ride around the island and caught up with friends in Seattle. We wish we had more weekends like this one!!

Back to blogging

Seattle from the piers

It's pretty obvious that I took a hiatus from blogging this summer, mostly because our lives have been insanely busy, but I have all intentions to get back to posting more regularly. The irony is that when things get busy and I have little time to write, that's also when there are most things to write about. So, I'll try to recap very quickly our summer.

Space Needle in Seattle, taken with the Hipstamatic app on my iPhone

We were blessed to see many of our family members in the last few months - first, Misho, Michel and Tatko came for a quick - but very fun visit to Seattle. Misho decided to make a stop on the West coast, as part of her trip back from Australia and Michel and Tatko met her here. It was right around Easter, so we had an Easter feast, along with Fred's family, with a perfectly cooked "angneau pascal" curtsy of Colin as well as Bulgarian Easter eggs which we dyed together and broke in the Bulgarian tradition.

Then, Mom came for a week-long visit and I was able to take most of those days off, so we spent lots of great quality time together. We gardened, cooked, played with the dogs and went treasure hunting in Seattle's Antiques mall.

Phil, Karen, Cameron and Ryan joined us in August and it was super fun to spend time with them. The kids are growing so quickly and are now big boys. Among other activities, we went kayaking on Lake Union, which I wouldn't call a "kids" activity, but they did great and enjoyed it! We also went to the Boeing factory and saw the very first 787 to be sold and delivered (soon) to its new owner.

Then last week, Bouba and Marco stopped by for a couple of days as part of their West Coast tour and we loved their company! They'd rented a big van, in which they slept most nights, and drove up from California to BC. Free spirits for sure! :-)

In between family visits, we spent Memorial Day weekend (end of May) with friends in Okanagan, BC where we'd rented a beautiful house and did the usual indulgence of wine tasting, cooking, eating and relaxing. The dogs were the gang's (well behaved) mascots. The stay there was lovely and memorable, but the drive up there was an adventure in itself! We saw several bears along the highway and were surrounded by pristine BC forests.

In August, we went to Ontario and spent some time with Dad, Dave and Syd. They took us to Evergreen bricks works  where we had a lovely lunch and walk, we visited Dave and Syd's resto and Dave made us an amazing dinner (and taught me how to make Tarte Tatin!). We also saw the most dramatic storm either of us had experienced  - the sky looked like torn by fireworks every second or so for a duration of 30 minutes solid. It was quite the sight! We then went up to Blue Mountain, where we saw Mum, Vic, Amanda, Randy. We celebrated Mum's 65th, Amanda and Randy's engagement and summer in general. We went kayaking on Georgian Bay and hiking in the area.

In early August we also had a big party in the backyard - one we've wanted to host for a couple of years now. Dinner parties with friends tend to get a bit more challenging as our friends have babies and kids with various scheduling demands to be fed or taken to bed. So, a big backyard party was the perfect way to accommodate everyone. There were lots of people, kids running around and 3 dogs being terrorized by kids who (among other) thought it was very entertaining to feed them ice cubes. It was very fun :-)

I've also taken 3 trips to Geneva in this period. On the last one, I had a weekend in town and since I'd already seen most of what GVA has to offer (it doesn't take long), I took the train to Paris, where I spent the weekend hanging out in Saint Germain des Pres. It was a treat! Of course, Paris in August is drained of Parisians and filled with tourists, most stores are closed, but it was lovely regardless.

Jardin du Luxembourg on a cloudy day, taken with the Hipstamatic app on my iPhone

So, a very packed and wonderful summer. Except for the fact that we only started getting sun in August and my produce has been disappointing for the lack of warmth, it's been a wonderful few months.

Geneva and all...

It's been so ridiculously long since I've posted. It's not for the lack of events, it's for the complete lack of time. Work has kept me super busy and it looks like the next 6 months will be spent in high gear. I now have a new team in Geneva and spent 3 out of the last 7 weeks there, will be back in August and probably visiting every couple of months moving forward. There are far worse places in the world to have a team and be forced to visit frequently, but the 9 hour time difference sure does complicate things on a day-to-day basis. I'm not a morning person and daily 7 am & 8am conf calls, even if taken from home, are not my cup of tea.

The highlight of my last trip was that Misho was able to come for a few hours from France and we spent a very enjoyable evening together! The plan is to do a repeat of that soon! :-)

My very first reaction to Geneva was a sticker shock. The prices are astronomical. A $500/night hotel room is nothing to write home about; for a modest $250/night, you have to make your way through hookers and gangs to reach the hotel (yes, in Geneva). The problem is that because of the never-ending conventions and other events in town, *all* hotel rooms get filled. During my first trip, it was so bad that I was forced to stay in 3 different hotels and the last couple of days I stayed at a colleague's because there was *nothing* available. My only reasonable option was to stay in Evian in France and commute from there. Given that I work for a travel company, the experience was beyond absurd.

During my second trip, once I was a bit more used to the prices, I really enjoyed myself. Geneva itself is tiny but the surroundings are beautiful and very accessible. I went with a couple of colleagues (including Lynn) to Montreux. My list of weekend trips in the area is growing and I hope that Colin will be able to join me for my next trip over.

I'm having technical problems uploading pix today, so I'll try again later.

My three boys

...being patient as I was figuring out how to use my newly-acquired off-camera flash this evening.

Finishing touches!

Our project is probably 3-4 hours from being done! We just need some final finishing touches (put doors on closet drawers, touch-up the paint, etc.), but from a functional perspective, we're done. This morning, I took my first shower in the new bathroom and last night, Colin and I slept in our master bedroom for the first time in over a year. I know, embarrassing!

We also got a new king-sized bed, which got delivered yesterday...and I have to say, it's super comfy!

Easter's coming

This Sunday is Easter and this year it's a special one in that the Orthodox and non-Orthodox Easter actually coincide. We'll be having brunch at home for the occasion. I'm planning to make Easter eggs tomorrow, but here's the decoration I put together this evening:



M

Western party

This Saturday, Colin and I were invited at a Western-style party, held at a barn. We remembered to snap a couple of shots on our way out to show off our (mostly newly acquired) Western outfits.

Color

This week, my assignment for my photo class was based on color. We were to photograph a series of 4 images with a cast of Red, Green, Blue, and Yellow. We could use gels over the flash or lens, or we could set an in-camera custom white balance, as to "trick" it to photograph in various casts. No post-processing was allowed (of course, one could achieve very easily similar results in Photoshop, but that defeats the purpose of the assignment).

As usual, I had way too much going on during the week and didn't have the time to buy gels and filters for my lens, so I went for what I thought was easiest, but also most insightful: customizing the white balance in the camera. Here's how it works: If you point the camera to a pure Blue and you tell it that it's pure White, your image will end up having a Yellow cast, or the equivalent effect of putting a Yellow gel in front of the lens.

It sounds confusing but it's pretty easy when you think about the RGB (red, green, blue) color wheel. To achieve a particular overall color, you have to set the custom white balance to the color resulting from the combination of the other two colors in the color wheel:

To get Red --> set to Cyan (= Green + Blue)

To get Green --> set to Magenta (= Blue + Red)

To get Blue --> set to Yellow (= Green + Red)

To get Yellow (= Green + Red) --> set to Blue

Before going out to photograph, I took an image of pure Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Blue, achieved directly in Photoshop by controlling the R-G-B values. I essentially filled my frame with the color displayed on my screen and took a picture. Throughout the shoot, I used those four images to set my custom white balance on the fly. This worked out really well, because I was able to take the four images of desired colors pretty quickly; less than a minute in total, including the time required to manipulate my camera settings and re-set the white balance.

Below is what I'm submitting this week. I saw the girl at Pike Place market; liked her style and the gorgeous red truck she was sitting in front of, and thought it was the perfect composition for a color assignment. I had to work pretty fast, so that she didn't see me and realize that I was photographing her, despite the fact that I was right in front of her. Unbelievably, she didn't realize! I've learnt that the best way to do street photography is to wear clothes that blend in as much as possible, look and act pretty anonymously and hang out in crowded places (ideally, where there are lots of tourists, so people are used to seeing cameras). Also, I try to look distracted and point my camera in various directions, without actually shooting. As part of this shoot, I ended up photographing a cop and a guy on a balcony, using the same technique...they didn't realize they were my subjects either :-)

Milkana

Blue:

Green:


Yellow:


Red:

Bathroom/closet progress

With less than 2 weeks before Misho & Dad's arrival (!!!), the race to finishing our master bathroom/closet area is definitely on. There's a good chance we'll be all done, but one never knows :-). Here's the latest progress...it's looking great!

Around the garden

The last few weeks have been unusually cold in the NW and it seems like everything I'd planted in my garden is having second thoughts on coming out. Weeds, on the other hand, are unstoppable. I spent a few hours in the yard today, fighting with the usual suspects: blackberries, salal, Oregon grape and ivy. Blackberries, in particular, are so invasive in this area, that if not kept in check in early spring, they might just take over the island. For folks who have large properties or for parks and open industrial spaces, the solution for dealing with blackberries is easy and green: rent goats.

It may sound crazy to those who don't live around here, but goats are unbelievably effective in clearing overgrown areas. They are indiscriminating in what they eat and for some reason, the thorns on the blackberry vines don't bother them. So, one has to call a 1-800 number, hire a heard of goats for a few hours and come back to an immaculately cleared area. No pesticides, no scratched hands, no sweat.

Since I can't train my whippets to act like goats, I had to fight with my blackberry bushes on my own, armed with two pairs of garden gloves and sharp shears. I collected six large bags of yard waste today. Things should stay clean until next weekend or so.

I've realized that gardening has a strange law of irreciprocity: nobody notices a day's worth of work done in the garden, but everybody notices when that work is not done. In other words, it's easy for things to look unkept, but when you get them to a good state, they somehow go unnoticed.

Despite the cold weather and stunted growth, spring is definitely here. Here's what the garden looks today:

The Asian pear planted last summer is blooming

These bushes are on the side of the house and they have a divine scent. The whole backyard smells of summer because of them. They are also evergreen and pretty sturdy and resistant to two crazy whippets running over them every day. I don't know what they are called, but they've worked out great.

We had to take down a beautiful Camelia tree last summer because of the renovations and planted three smaller ones when we finished. These have gorgeous red blooms. We also have pink and white Camelias around the yard and they've been blooming non-stop for the last month. Bubbles loves picking the buds off the bush and chewing them - how exciting it must be for him to rip out the green leaves and discover tight bright red leaves inside.

Here's a pink one:

The red currant planted a few weeks ago seems to be doing very well

The kiwi vine is getting outfitted with pretty green leaves

Slower progress in my veggie garden:

The chevril is looking so beautifully lacy

As I was trying to focus on the blooming bush in the background, Bubbles suddenly got in my frame and started barking. Apparently, he didn't appreciate me going around with the camera and taking pictures when I could have been playing with him. I thought he was hilarious and managed to snap him while he was vocally expressing himself :-)

And here's Tiger peeking through (you see him? you may have to click on the picture to enlarge!), as I walked outside to take a picture of the climbing hydrangeas on the sides of the garden entrance:

Bathroom remodel...the saga continues

Since buying this house, we've gained lots of rich experiences and emptied our pockets several times over. Some projects have gone very well (e.g., backyard remodel) and some have been less successful. Our biggest disaster to date has been the master bathroom, which we started a year ago. Since our master bathroom is connected to the master bedroom, we moved to another room last April.

After a rocky start, an incompetent contractor and some money gone down the drain, we paused the project. Both of us were so frustrated that we closed the door to the master bedroom and didn't look back. We realized that this other room where we moved into was not all that bad and really, who needs a master bedroom and a real closet and a master bathroom? What's wrong with the "kids" bathroom and its orange walls? There's water there too, you know.

But after many months, we eventually opened that door and decided to re-tackle the project. Tony helped us define the work scope more tightly, Colin found a great contractor - a true professional this time around - and the project has been moving ahead nicely. We hope to have everything done (bathroom and closet) by end of this month. And if we're so lucky, we'll actually move back to our bedroom! For that special occasion, we plan to even buy a king-sized bed!

Here are some pictures from today:

Ring found!

I had a pretty bad weekend - headache throughout and nothing seem to go right. This all changed when I uncovered my engagement ring, which had gone missing over a year ago! I thought I'd lost it, though I secretly hoped I'd only misplaced it. I may be a bit absent-minded at times, but I'm not all that irresponsible and I was truly surprised I'd lose my engagement ring. I don't think I've lost anything of value in my life.

Well, it turned out that I'd put it in a very safe and secret place before we went on vacation, but I'd completely forgotten about it. Anyway, I was super excited to find it, it looks just as gorgeous as before :-) And now I don't have to feel guilty about being a bad fiancee :-)

They call them whippets

After a long day running around the yard, this is what our dogs look like. It's hard to take them seriously or think of them as being graceful...

The "cockroach" position is a favorite one for sight hounds, including whippets. Tiger in particular, is expert at having his four legs pointing straight at the ceiling while snoring. He usually has a grin on his face too. Comical. Bubbles, of course, can't be left behind.

Happy Spring!

Spring has definitely arrived on the island and I'm thrilled to finally be digging around in my garden. Over the last couple of weekends, Tony and I did a bunch of yard and gardening work together. First, we planted a fig tree (in front of the house), a pear espalier with two kinds of pears grafted on it (Anjou and Bartlett) on the East side of the house, four bushes of red currant and one bush of goji berries. I already had several blueberry bushes and an Asian pear tree from last year.

Then last week, we did a project of fencing off my garden to ensure it is whippet-free. The yard doesn't look as nice and open as before, but the esthetics had to be compromised in the name of home-grown veggies. Once the fence was installed, we spent a good bit of effort turning the soil and adding compost to it. It was hard work. And we also did some fun stuff like planting the first herbs and seeds of the season. I now have: parsley, two types of arugula, several kinds of lettuce (crisp mint, oak leaf, butterhead, and mache), several types of mint that I've acquired over the years (Moroccan, chocolate, grapefruit, spearmint, Bulgarian "djodjan"), Rapini (aka Broccoli Raab), radishes, peas and fava beans. I also got asparagus and French sorrel that I'm yet to plant. Needless to say, Colin and I are looking forward to some tasty salads this spring!

A star of the fenced garden, however, has to be a kiwi vine that Tony got for me. In fact, he had to get two - a male plant and a female plant, but of course, only the female bears fruit. Kiwi does well in the Pacific Northwest but we selected a variety that's a bit less common than the Kiwis typically found in the store. It's called Geneva and the fruit is a bit bigger than grapes, with smooth skin, so it doesn't have to be peeled. Supposedly, a mature vine can bear 150lbs of fruit each season! I don't expect to get any this summer, but I look forward to tasting it next year!

Things are looking pretty bare still, but with some imagination, you can get a sense for what's to come this summer (I can't wait :-)):

Veggies waiting to be planted:

The red currant is already showing signs of life, only a week after being planted:

Fenced garden:

Pear espalier (first "floor" is Anjou, second "floor" is Bartlett) :