Happy Birthday To ME! (Yesterday!) Yarn Mentioned Here

So, my b-day was yesterday. I was 29 again! Gosh, I'm staying so young. This strict regimen of daily chocolate, occasional exercise, lots of water, moisturizer with a good SPF and knitting is really paying off!

I had a really great weekend. Here's the recap:

Saturday:
Got up around 8am, had breakfast and headed to the Annapolis Valley with Andrew.

I LOVE the Valley, and not just because it's only separated from my home turf by the Bay of Fundy. The Annapolis Valley is just so beautiful. They have the best growing climate in Nova Scotia. They grow apples, cherries, plums and even grapes! I stopped to take a photo of a field of grape vines, BURIED IN SNOW! Talk about ice wine!

We went through Wolfville to the Gaspereau Valley. The last time I was in the Gaspereau region was to go tubing on the Gaspereau river a few years ago. It's a leisurely hour-long tube ride. I don't think I would want to do it at this time of year. Brrrrrrrrr...

So, you wanna know what we were doing in the land of apples, cherries, plums, grapes and tubing? Why it was a yarn related visit, of course! We went to see Gaspereau Valley Fibres! What a great store! The shop is housed in a very old barn that once housed a service station. There are old plank floors, big old windows, 12-foot (at least) high cupboards full of yarn, a loom in the corner, a big old dog just made for loving head pats, a giant table with chairs and lots of room to look at patterns, and a woodstove to keep the whole place cozy.

The ladies that own the shop are very nice. One is a spinning, knitting, weaver (or is she a weaving, spinning, knitter? hmmmm... I think she was a weaver first), the other is the shepherdess who keeps the sheep and the alpaca(s?) that you can see out the window of the shop. Okay, here's the link that tells you all about them and the shop.

And now I must tell you what I bought, I mean, the shop was chock-a-block full of beautiful yarn: Manos (a hank? skein? so large it was bigger than my torso!), Noro, Lambs Pride, Briggs and Little, a whole crib full of yarn I didn't know the name of (literally a crib - an old baby crib) and some beautiful handspun merino/silk and some alpaca that was so soft that I heard the silk weeping bitter, jealous tears.

With all that yarn around me I was completely overwhelmed by the amount of yarn that I knew I had at home and thus, I bought a ball winder. It said wool winder on the box, but ball winder sounds delightfully malicious. Hee hee! Happy birthday to me! (from RJS and Andrew). I went home and wound 7 balls of yarn.

There are not many husbands who would patiently wander around a yarn store with you. Andrew is one in a million.

We left the Gaspereau Valley, stopping only to take a photo of those grape vines in the snow... and headed for lunch in Wolfville at this nice little place, called, I think "The Bistro". I was so hungry I didn't bother to double check the name. I had been there before a few summers ago and knew it was good. We had a great lunch and came to the conclusion that:

CHUTNEY IS THE NEW SUNDRIED TOMATOES.

After lunch we cruised downtown Wolfville and stopped in at an art gallery because we saw bags made by Minou's Mommy's friend, Lala. Lala makes these amazing purses out of recycled wool that I think she felts a little bit (totally forgot to ask). They are gorgeous. You must look. Go to the site now. I can wait: www.lalaandgleen.com Hit the b for bags. Aren't they adorable? You want one, don't you?

I stood at the front of the gallery for a while, admiring the purses and trying to figure out how she makes them. After a few minutes I looked up and around the rest of the gallery and realized that who should be working at the gallery but Lala herself! Yeah! There she was with her great orangey streaked funky hair, her skirt over her pants (why can't I pull that off?) and her faux fur collar. I fawned over her purses and told her how great I thought they were.

Then we headed home and had scrambled eggs and blueberry pancakes for supper, watched the CBC Movie Night In Canada. Amelie!

Sunday:
My b-day. Woke up at 6:50am and turned on the radio to listen to Stan Kerew on CBC. I had been warned in advance that a dear friend, my sister-in-law's mother-in-law, was going to request a song for my birthday.

At 8:20am, I heard Gramma G's soft, British accent on the radio requesting that they play Silver Crown by The Heavy Blinkers as it was my birthday and my husband had written the song for me and that my extended family loved me very much. Awwwwwwwww. And then they played the song and I almost cried. Andrew wrote the song about how my mom asked him to take care of me and how he fell in love with me during that hard time in my life.

I don't know that Gramma G knows all the details of the song but she knows it is special. She's such a sweet lady to think of requesting the song and she's such a big fan of the band. She's always got CBC on, so she's our SOCAN barometre. When we hear from Gramma G, we know there's a SOCAN cheque coming! Hee hee!

Ok, so for breakfast we ate at Cora's in Halifax. I love Cora's. Waffles with strawberries, bananas, kiwis, CUSTARD and WHIPPED CREAM.... There may have been a liberal serving of maple syrup on the whole thing too. Yum!

And in the afternoon we hung out, I worked on my French Market bag, watched a bad movie, and J and her hubby and son stopped by with a book for me called "How to be a Superhero" (I'm very excited to read it).

Later we went to supper at my sister-in-law's house. We arrived at her house before she did. My MIL, FIL, Gramma G and her husband were there. My SIL, BIL and niece and nephews had been skiing all day so they were pretty tuckered out. I helped my 6-year-old nephew out of his jacket and ski pants b/c he was half asleep. He had fallen asleep in the car so he was all sweaty and warm and his cheeks were all pink. What a cutie.

My Dad called to tell me that I still seemed like I was 29 to him. And apologized for waking me up by calling late the night before (he told me a great story that I'll save for later). Mommy P called too. And my first call of the morning was RJS. She's the only one I am happy to hear singing to me on my birthday 'cause she's got such a great voice.

Phew, gotta go. The French Market bag is calling my name, avec un accent francais, bien sur!