Warning: This post contains salacious tomato pictures!

Yes, my tomatoes are showing!
After reading over at Heavy Petal about how Andrea was helping to quicken the ripening process for her tomatoes, I decided to give the tomato strip tease a try. I removed all the off shoot branches and suckers that I honestly should have gotten to sooner. I also removed most of the canopy leaves that had been sheltering the green tomatoes.
I hadn't realized there were so many packed in there!
Certainly this has taught me to try to plant more early tomatoes. I will be scouring the catalogues this winter for some early heirloom tomatoes (feel free to educate me, if you have one I just have to have one on my list!) This type of foresight would have come in really handy earlier this year. There is only a month until I officially go on vacation. I'm running out of time, and these bad boys ( and girls) have been teasing me for too long!

There is a little more colour in them since last time I peeked. Indeed, with the leaves gone I noticed that the object of my desire is actually larger than I had first anticipated.
Much larger. This Brandywine is heavy! I've got my eye firmly fixed on this one! Notice that my giant hand practically disappears behind it! It's just that big!

Drool!
Hopefully with a little sunshine, and with the plants energies re focused on their fruit, these will be ready for harvest soon!Tomatoes anyone?

Wordless Wednesday: The Object of my Desire.

Catch the Buzz! I'm Having a Give-Away!

Welcome back to the second in my two part post on the Honeybee Centre in Surrey BC, Canada. Yesterday we looked at the Bug Lab, saw some creepy crawlies and relaxed by the pond.

Today it's all about bees!
Not these ones!

I know what your thinking. Those would be BIG Bee's. Honestly I was happy to hear that they were props from a movie that the Centre participated in. Good to know there would be none of these bad boys waiting around the next corner from me!
One of the most important reasons we came to the Honeybee Centre was that although a bug kid, my daughter has had a love hate relationship with Bees. She went through a running stage in the last few years. While that might be par for the course with most kids her age, my daughter spends a lot of time with me in the garden. A garden with a lot of Bees. Freaking out the other kids by running and raising holy hell wouldn't work. She's was going to get stung one of those days.

We made it a mission last year to help give her more exposure to bees. Understanding them goes a long way to loving them. She now knows what they are doing in the garden. She understands that when a bee is on flower, it's busy and wants nothing to do with us. Our crash course in all things bee lead to a love of them.
So much so that this year (well prior to our visit here) she asked to be a Queen Bee for Halloween! I love it! Last year she was a Cake Boss! My kid rocks!

During the Hive demo she clung to my leg a little. Yes there was a window between us and the swarms of bees, but I think it's a normal part of human nature to be nervous around that many of them!

If your stopping by the Honeybee Centre, I highly recommend going around mid day. There is a Hive demo at 1pm that is definitely worth seeing!
We looked through the different layers. Wow! There were a LOT of bees!
Finally after pulling the last one out, the Queen was found! We were told she can't always be found. They hadn't seen her in a few days. What a treat that she was spotted on our visit! I can't spot her in this photo, but she is there in the lit area. After the Hive demo, we listened to a presentation on all things bee related. There was some excitement while we where there An elderly woman got stung. It happens, and the staff handled it fabulously.
The only thing that threatened to mar the day was one rude woman who thought it okay to skip the children when the samples and displays were being passed around. The kids were there to touch and feel and learn too! I think she was from the 'children are to be seen not heard' club. An ambassador, or emissary of some sort.

It wasn't nice lady, and kid do notice these things. (To be clear this person was just a visitor to the centre, not an employee. The staff were fantastic with the kids!)

Oh well, the world is full of bad apples. Once we started the honey taste testing, all that washed away. We sampled so many varieties of honey. I think I tried every kind but the Buckwheat honey. It just wasn't going to happen! Our favorites were the Sage Honey (possibly the best honey I've EVER had!) and the orange blossom. I also like the Blueberry honey!
I think I will have to go back soon. Just to get more honey! So what if your not in the area and still want to try some? Well you're in luck!
This gift set has one 140g jar of Orange Blossom, one 140g jar of Creamed Clover & one 140g jar of Sage Honey!

Win it!
I'm giving away a gift pack of honey to one of my readers! I picked up this set of three while shopping in their store, have guarded it against a marauding husband and inquiring children, just to give you the chance to try some of this fantastic honey! All you have to do is leave a comment below telling me why you love bee's, honey or heck just share some bee related info, and just like that you'll be entered.

The Deets
This contest is open to Canadian & US residents.
This contest will close on Tuesday September 7th at 12noon PST.
The winner will be drawn randomly and will be announced following the close of the contest.

Good luck!

Honeybee Centre: It's a Bug's Life!

This weekend we spent time at the Honeybee Centre located in Surrey, BC. My daughter and I escaped the house on our own for a chance to look at some bugs and bees, and possibly to try some honey!
The Honeybee centre gives daily hive demonstrations, a fabulous shop full of everything honey related. They even have a lovely area to sit with a spot of tea to go with that honey ;) I spent some lingering moments here.The Honeybee Centre also plays host to a Bug Lab! Which is where this post is heading. There were too many pictures from this adventure to limit to one post. So I split it into two. Tomorrow's post will feature the Hive demonstration and my very first give away! So stay tuned for a chance to WIN some honey!

*******BEE (couldn't help myself, sorry.) forewarned, below there are pictures of bugs! *******I've mentioned it before, but I am not so comfortable with the creepy crawlies. I will admit to being a bit of a baby sometimes, and can often be found screeching at the teeniest of spiders. I chalk this up to some early bug trauma. I have mostly gotten over my 'issues' and currently don't panic when I run across bugs in the garden. Which is good, no?

Still I try not to spread my paranoia's and fears down to my kids. So when my daughter tells me that she loves bugs, and shows me some creepy crawly she recently caught, I still my nerves and smile with a 'ohhhhh' or 'ahhhh', which ever is more appropriate. Inside I am screaming!
I, a person with mixed feeling on bugs was impressed with their Bug Lab. It was clean, orderly, and super informative! They had live bugs, and pined specimens to learn about. Puzzles and bug activities for the kids to do. My daughter loved trying to find all of the bugs on her chart amongst the different cages and displays.
Some where easy to spot, others blended right in.
This one is cool! It's a Rhino Beetle. The reason for it's name seems apparent!
Hey look! It the Hissing Beetle! We found one of these outside the house recently. If you poke it, it hisses at you. Or so my husband says!
There were also many Tarantulas. One even called a Pink Toed Tarantula, the diva of the big hairy spider world. She was hiding when we went through, but even if she hadn't been, you would not see their pictures here. I'm trying very hard to forget about them myself. While my daughter pointed out what they were doing, I was busy looking at the plants (phew, no big spider there!)Or noticing the butterflies.
Pretty butterflies.....so pretty. So un-tarantula like.
Even the beetles had an artistic flair. I didn't know there were so many types!
We has a great time in the Bug Lab. Yes even me! Come back tomorrow to find out if we found the Queen, check out the hive and get a chance to win a gift pack of Honey straight from the Honeybee Centre!

Celebrating 200! With Goats!

This is officially my 200th post!

Release the balloons! Let the music play! Where's the marching band? ......

Well I'm sure they could be found, but not here. Likely at the PNE where they are celebrating 100 years at the fair this year. I haven't had the opportunity to get down there yet this season, but I got a taste a little closer to home this week.

We visited Meadow Maze in Pitt Meadows, who are regulars at the PNE. This is one of their corn Maze patterns. They are developed on a computer and then cut into the corn. Each of their mazes can take hours to get through.
Visiting with little tike's on a sunny day that was fiercely reminding me that summer still reigns, we chose to skip the maze for this visit and stick to the petting zoo and the rides. We hope to make it back later in the season with just my eldest.
The kids had fun playing on the slide, and jumping around a hay filled play area.
There was even an opportunity to go for a hay ride, and learn a little about the farm. Everybody say hi to my Mom.... Hi Mom! :)
This looked like fun as it whipped around, but was also very dusty. As two out of three of my kids couldn't ride it, we skipped it. We opted to ride a more age appropriate train to tour the maze. Lots of fun!
Before we left we made some serious use out of their mist tent. Ahhhh, how refreshing! A leader of a group of kids was filling their hats with cold water from the tap and to help them cool down. My kids also joined in that. It was a fast, fun and effective way to cool off!
The weather is changing fast. The day after our visit to Meadow Maze, it was cold and wet. In the days since, it's been hit or miss. Yesterday we had sunshine AND flash flooding.

So do you have any plans for the rest of the fast disappearing summer?

Wordless Wednesday: Maplewood Farms