HAPPY EASTER

Hope the Easter Bunny brought you lots and joy and much needed chocolate. I know he did with me - largely because I made Craig buy me some of those guilty pleasures I so truly deserve. And to top it off, the lovely mother has also sent us an Easter package - thanks Mum. I am awaiting with baited breath.

For a change, we decided to take it easy. Partially because we are a bit travelled out and also, not knowing if we are staying or going STILL means that we can't really be spending any money that we may not have.

However, we were treated to Easter Dinner courtesy of Craig's team leader, Chuck and his wife. They live in a town called Aurora about an hour north of Toronto. It is quite a nice little spot - right on the lake where you can skate and ice fish in the winter and right next to some lovely farmland where there are million dollar houses and of course, horses.

We did lug our skates up, but the wee sign indicated that the conditions were red - meaning don't go on this ice unless you want to break through and die of hypothermia. The weather in the last week during the day has been around 5-11 degrees, so I guess the ice doesn't tend to stick around.

But we did go to a Maple Syrup farm - the epitomy of Canadiana. (Note: the food theme of our travel?) The farm alternates also as a Christmas Tree Farm meaning that there is rarely a season in which they lay idle.

So we learnt all about how Maple Syrup is made -

basically you drill a hole and tap the tree in the spring and the sap flows out.

The sap is only about 5% sugar and the rest water, so one has to boil off all the excess water over a flame until there is a residue of 1/3 water and 2/3 sugar. Boil off a bit more and you get maple butter. Boil off everything and you get maple sugar.

The only problem with this is that a tree typically produces 40L of sap - which only makes 1L of syrup. So to make the sugar can get expensive. Another weird factoid - even birch trees can make syrup but they don't produce as much sugar in their sap so it is like 2.5 times the price of the maple.

To top off the wander through the woods - we stopped in the hut for fresh pancakes on the cast iron skillet with melted butter and maple syrup. This was washed down with Hemlock tea – the kind that is in tree form, not in the poisonous bush. I wouldn’t be writing this otherwise.

Then off home for a Turkey dinner and a movie.

So we are off next week to the obligatory Niagara Falls. We are going with Chuck and Karen and about 8 other couples from Scotiabank. We are staying a couple of days to take in all of that is tourist kitsch. Bring on the tacky t-shirts!