Mar 25 2006

Sugar

poupoune portrait
[I lost my bag with my camera last week, but it is found. I only need to pick it up and I can only do that next week. Above photo is made by an amateur photographer (although with professional equipment) who thought Poupoune was so cute he needed to make a picture of her, that he emailed us afterwards.]

On our weekly walk we headed to Rigaud, where we walked in the melting snow for a couple of hours towards a commercial Cabane ‡ Sucre. In a Cabane ‡ Sucre, for the uninitiated, they cook the sap of the maple tree to make maple sirup, maple candy, maple butter and various other maple products. They usually also serve meals (washed down with lots of beer), accompanied with live music, but the $27.50 price was a bit steep for us. We also had to get back in time to Montréal where we had to go to a dance show with the participants of my dance class. So we stayed outside, did some people watching and enjoyed some free “tire d’erable”; molten maple sirup poured on snow, so it cools to a toffee-like substance that can be wound around wooden popsicle sticks to make very sweet lollypops. A Canadian tradition that after almost three years I still hadn’t encountered. I saved doing all the touristy stuff for the times when friends and family would visit, but so far the visits did not happen, so I better do these things myself. Next up, the annual cull of Harp seals!

Because our feet were sinking in the soft snow we had quite an exercise. Poupoune enjoyed it as well but the next day even she has very sore leg muscles. Pauvre chien.

By • english •