needle book: anniversary

Last weekend was our 4th anniversary so we decided to have a little outing and rent a car so we could head up north.

Saturday was mostly about driving around and exploring. We saw a truck fire on the way up north (!), had a delicious bruschetta/salad and cream tea at SerndipiTea in Midland, explored in the area and later ended up at a nice spot near Honey Harbour where we had a short walk. Then on the way back home we saw a moose! He was standing beside the road and we slowed down so that I could (of course) try and take a picture, but before I could he turned and headed back into the woods.

My favourite outing was Sunday when we visited Elora Gorge for hiking.

I took the usual photos of the gorge but I like to take close-up photos because they seem to capture the feel of a day for me.

The hiking around Alora Gorge is very woodsy so there's lots of picturesque moss on the trees and rocks.

At the end of the day we saw some incredible caves near the gorge at the water level but by then it was too dark to take pictures. So here's a picture taken earlier in the day to give you the general idea.

We also saw some rabbits.. all-in-all it was a nice busy weekend.

p.s. I just bought the needlebook.ca domain name. I wanted ".com" but the first time I looked it was $100 and I was like "meh". Then I checked again today and it was $1000! So ".ca" it is. I've rerouted it to my blog for now so you can type in "needlebook.ca" to visit my blog. Which is just a bit easier, right?

I don't want to brag but it's our 2-year anniversary today and I feel really lucky because I have the loveliest husband ever. For example, yesterday he went to the workroom to find the "single girl" Denyse Schmidt quilt pattern for me because he knew that's the one I was hoping to use for my next quilt. How sweet is that? Unfortunately it wasn't in stock in the shop yet, which made me realize how much I depend on Karyn for my craft supplies. I was sure I had seen it there. But of course I have lots of other projects to keep me busy in the meantime.

I like taking candid pictures of people, but it doesn't always work out... I got the impromtu smile but it's pretty blurry.

So today I was thinking of what I should post for our anniversary and decided to show some pictures from our last camping trip in August.

This photo is pretty terrible too but I had to show you - we saw a bear! You really don't have a lot of time to compose the photo when you see a bear. I didn't even get the chance to zoom in so you can pretty much see how far away he was. I wasn't scared of him because he just seemed very slow and ambly (not a word - I mean ambling along-ish). Like he's had his main meal but was just sort of mildly interested in an extra snack. Luckily we're good campers and all the food was tucked away.

This is my favourite part of Kilbear where we were staying, the beach at Granite Saddle. It has this pretty grove of trees near the beach which is fairly small but rarely crowded.

The first day was a bit cloudy but we still did some swimming in case it was rainy on the next day. And this is what I like to do on the beach...

We're also big readers. We read at the campsite, on the beach, and in our hammock. I don't have a picture of it though because the only one (taken by Bradley) is me falling out of it. It wasn't very flattering.

But I will be brave and show you a picture of me:

Chipmunks are a-dime-a-dozen at our Canadian campgrounds, but I'm remembering that blogs are international so I'll show a picture of this small visitor. My friend Sogut is from Turkey and she was amazed when she first came to Toronto at all the "cute" squirrels everywhere. Just boring ordinary everywhere-you-look squirrels. It made me think.