I kind of lost steam last week and didn’t get a post out. It was a mental and physical drain. We just had 5 days in Waterside so my tank is filling up again and I feel like sharing again.  I wanted to share some of the activities we did and funny enough I realized they started with the letter B! See if you can spot the 3 B activities!

I know I shared before about Mary’s Point and Johnson’s Mills being the places to see the migrating sandpipers but this past weekend was prime at Mary’s Point and we ended up going down every day. We watched for 1-3 hours some days. It was fun to not only watch the birds but we got to interact with people we have only known for a little while ( like Beulah Morrissey from Riverside-Albert) and met new people from the area ( like photographer Sybil Wentzell) and from away. It was late in the season to still have the sandpipers here but Denis Doucet ,the interpreter from Parks Canada and the Canada Wildlife Service, said they could just up and be gone any day depending on the weather. He said they are about double the size they arrived at in July and are roosting more so are ready to fly south any day. We enjoyed seeing some other Birds this week too.

Sandpipers in flight ( ~ 40-50,000)

Beautiful Blue Heron flew right by us at Mary’s Point:

A Merlin on an old tree stump in front of our property: He as well as the Peregrine Falcons have been keeping the sandpipers busy the past few weeks as their main enemy.

Piping Plover exploring Waterside Beach at low tide:

Next on the list this week was more Blueberries! I have picked about 20 cups in the past 2 weeks. I used to hate picking as kid and still don’t really enjoy it but I can’t resist them while they are right there for the picking and free! I tried a couple more recipes:  One was called Blueberry Flan. Jennifer from  Simple Local Life and her guest from Wile’s Farm Market were featuring blueberries the other week and mentioned this dish as a popular one at the market. It is on their website here. I didn’t know what to expect with the list of ingredients and no picture but it was just lovely and stayed good for a few days.  I hope you try it!

The second blueberry recipe I tried was a healthier version from Oh She Glows. It was supposed to feature Raspberry Chia jam but since I had just made some Blueberry Chia jam I used it innstead for another night I needed a dessert. It is not very sweet but I love the oatmeal crumble. You can find the original recipe here.

Lastly I got out a new colour of paint I hadn’t used before from Fusion Mineral Paint- Midnight Blue! I found a dresser on the curb and decided to try to use it for my son’s bedroom in his new apartment at UNB. Here is the before: A little scary.

The top seemed to have a laminate on top and was very slick and glossy so I applied Ultra Grip 1st for better adhesion. I sanded the drawers really well- they seemed to be covered with plaster or a chalk based product so they were easy to sand and cover. I covered the sides and top with 2 coats of Midnight blue and 2 light coats of Raw Silk on the drawer fronts. I thought that might be too plain so found a stencil at the cottage that worked perfectly! I also gave this mirror I found at Value Village a quick coat of blue also!

Here is the after of both:

The drawers were a little sticky since it is quite a rough crude construction so I put some furniture wax on the bottoms and we’ll see if that helps them slide a little better.

All in all a fun project to keep me busy and something I could do as prep for school while at the cottage. It was also so therapeutic. The weather was gorgeous and we were thankful to be able to spend that many days in a row down there.

Did you spot all the B activities? I hope you were inspired to see some Birds, Bake with Blueberries or paint with some Blue. Until next time….