Travelling Cats

Four day weekend. Great weather forecast. Sounds like a Cottage Weekend!
Big Urchin (BU) decided to stay at school and prepare for his exams. Little Urchin (LU) was willing to come along.

And that just left our furry friends to sort out. We don’t usually take them along, but four days seemed too long to leave them with just a neighbour calling in to feed them. So we decided to take them along. Our big inside-outside crazy weekend of pre-rental-season cleaning is still a few weeks away, so the timing was purr-fect.

I took the express bus straight from my office to the ferry terminal on Thursday afternoon. Cottager and Lu caught the last ferry with Fred and Meekus. Here they are loose in the Honda Element.

Cats don’t have long memories, I guess, since neither seemed to remember having been here last Spring. Two days later they are settling in nicely and enjoying watching the Jays and squirrels calling in for fresh water, peanuts in the shell and bits of yarn and dryer lint left out for nest building.

Freddie and Meekus watching the world go by at Keat’s View

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St. Paddy’s Day Dinner With Friends

The Cottager is technically Irish, so with St. Patrick’s Day falling on the weekend, it seemed a good time to invite the neighbours in. Everyone brought something, and it was a fine meal with lots of laughs on the side.

We started with a cheese plate featuring marbled Guinness cheese. Very pretty and mild. Andy made soda bread, which arrived warm. I made a dip with corned beef, dill and cream cheese.

Next up was two types of barbecued sausages, served along with brown onion gravy, green salad, and colcannon, a traditional potato dish with cabbage and bacon mashed right in.

Then there were two great cakes. I made Nigella Lawson’s dense Chocolate Guinness cake – I’d make it again, but I would try it in a tube or bunt pan another time as it sunk a bit in the middle. It has a cream cheese icing that makes the cake resemble a glass of Guinness.

My neighbour, Margaret, made a fabulous Bailey’s cake that apparently starts with a yellow cake mix but took it to another level. When I get the recipe I’ll post it.

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