later at the cabane à sucre

[Sainte-Marie-de-Beauce, Québec]

I haven't been to a cabane à sucre in Québec before, so when Y agreed that we should go this winter, I said Yay! little did I know, Momo had planned this whole trip into one big family outing in Sainte-Marie-de-Beauce. aunts, uncles, cousins and their children flew and drove in from all corners of Québec and New Brunswick. relatives of relatives I've never met before also came. later that afternoon Saturday, Y, Momo and I got into our rental Sunfire (drives ok for a plastic box on wheels) and drove over to P-A's, who then drove us in his mini-van with M & L. Momo picked this fancy cabane à sucre, Passions Gourmandes, where Y's cousin & her bf work. sadly, I forgot to take some photos of the cabane.

but Y did take a photo of the tepee that was set up in the woods. you can see the back of cousin V*’s husband, who’s also her fellow RCMP officer. after congregating around the front of the cabane, all of us made our way to see the tepee. Y's cousin C*, ranger P* and their baby ti-loup had stayed a night there... oooooooh it must’ve been cold! it was quite comfy on the inside though, with a stove and seats made of bushy branches. after a walk through the moonlit forest, maybe stop for a brief moment and count the stars, it would be a very romantic place to spend the night with someone special, along with some hot chocolate and some warm sweets. or with a hunky, single, gun-toting, French-speaking police officer.

the day was absolutely beautiful, clear and sunny. walking through the snow and the trees was fun and relaxing…

…the weather wasn’t cold enough, however, to make good syrup, so when I peered into one of the buckets, all I found was a few dribbles of maple water…

…but it wasn’t too cold to beat up the Easter chick piñata.

I hadn’t seen maple syrup trees since I was a wee lad in grade school. and all I can remember was not having any spare change to buy the maple candy at the tourist booth. all my little friends were sucking away at brown maple leaf shaped maple sugar while I just sucked wind. but this time, I got a special trip to visit a commercial maple syrup farm up the road with just momo, Y and Louis. back at the cabane, while everyone was getting a little intro of the place, the four of us snuck out to see Louis’ brothers’ farm. it was pretty cool seeing how different it was. instead of buckets, long different coloured tubes were attached to each tree, which delivered all of the maple sugar water to the cabane. in this commerical cabane, they had these big vats boiling away the water to make syrup. the stoves were all wood burning as anything else would make the syrup taste not as good.

we picked up some cans of maple syrup later at their house and then headed back for a traditional dinner at the cabane… (up next, I promise!)

if I could stop time, I would stop it long enough for me to blog

[excuses]

okay, I've been bad with updates. I lied at the end of the last post. it's the wrong tomorrow that I will post the remaining photos of my Québec trip. I wrote half of it. perhaps tomorrow?

I've been busy with a lot of stuff, like I went on a real date with the tattoo guy (nice guy, but I think that's it for this one). I went to two operas and to the art gallery. I wrote a few long emails, but not to -s-. I went furniture shopping on Queen & King. I had brunch with the usual suspects in eL's part of town. I didn't work the weekends or worked late, but I did take a few more naps. I had drinks with my crush. I got home without making a fool of myself, but not because of my own self-restraint. I smoked a cigarette, the first one in almost two years! I'm not a smoker. I chatted with a friend in Australia. and tomorrow, I'm going to the art gallery again to see a short film of an installation of Christo & Jeanne-Claude's umbrellas.

So, I will post soon. I'm also a little happier than usual.