Friday Favourites – #OttawaStrong, Fall in Small Towns & Health Food Goodies

Fridays’ posts are usually saved for my favourite things from each week, but I need to address something today before we can get onto the good things that have happened.

With the events that took place this week in Ottawa, my heart has been very heavy. I have family and friends who live there, and thinking about them all being a stone’s throw away from this tragedy was really hard. There have been moments of sadness for the lives lost and moments of anger that this could happen, but mostly I have been proud – of the people who stepped up on that day, doing their part for our country and for the outpouring of love from all over for our nation’s capital. I also can’t help but think of the young soldier who lost his life – Bruce MacKinnon’s cartoon this week explains it perfectly and makes me tear up every time I see it.

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Painting the Town Red (and yellow and orange): The trees in our little town have been putting on quite the show this fall. I don’t remember them being this vibrant last year!

It seems like every corner I turn there is another bright colourful tree that is even more gorgeous than the last. It makes me really appreciate being able to live somewhere that we get to celebrate fall.

Even with the chilly air, I’ve been loving my walks with the dogs lately. Last weekend we were walking around and I stumbled upon the farmers market. I thought they’d closed up after Thanksgiving, but it turns out that they weren’t over yet.

I didn’t have any money or bags with me, so I walked the dogs home and then headed back out to the market to get our produce for the week.

I always forget that brussels sprouts grow on a big stalk like this. Such a weird plant, but man is it delicious. I love to roast them in the oven, or chop them up and saute them in a frying pan with a little olive oil, salt and pepper. So simple, but so delicious.

There were also tons of apples everywhere, but I still have some left from when I went to the orchard with my mom a few weeks ago on Thanksgiving weekend. I tried to make them into a gluten free apple pancake recipe this week – and it was a total fail. I’m going to try them again this weekend and see if I can fix it!

Seeing all the pumpkins reminded me that we still need to carve ours. We’ll probably get around to it this weekend…mostly because I want to roast some pumpkin seeds. They’re one of my favourite snacks this time of year. If you haven’t tried my sweet and salty version, it’s a must! I’ll also roast squash seeds when I use butternut squash or spaghetti squash – they work the same way.

I tried to take a cute picture of Cola with the pumpkin to go with the one that I have of Whiskey in the leaves from a few years ago, but he wouldn’t stay still very long. Combine that with an all black dog and my camera could not focus on him. This is the best that I got, haha.

Driving Through Small Towns: I unexpectedly found myself driving through the small towns of Schomberg and Kettleby this week on a random afternoon. I’d heard of them before (and they’d been recommended to me by readers after some of my Small Town Ontario posts).

So many of the houses in Schomberg were all dressed up for Halloween. I bet this is a great place for kids to trick-or-treat next week. (I really can’t believe that Halloween is already that soon!)

Old houses like this were just made for decorating for the seasons. I’d love to see what they do at Christmas.

There are some cute shops on the main street, including a butcher, flower shop and even a Scottish shop (I spotted some Yorkie Raisin & Biscuit chocolate bars which reminded me of my trips to England).

I’d love to come back here during the holidays and check out the shops for some gift ideas.

As I made my way out of town, I found the winding road that leads into the cute small town of Kettleby.

You know those car commercials where the cars are driving through town and all the leaves are blowing up around them – that’s what it was like there. It was something right out of a movie. The houses and shops were so cute.

Just outside of town, I came across these huge farm gates. I couldn’t resist stopping to take a picture.

It’s hard to see in the photo, but it’s a long road leading up to the house, with brightly coloured oaks on either side.

Health Food Store Goodies: I went to the health food store last night to pick up bath soap. That’s all I went for, but as usual I can’t go there without coming home with some of my favourites goodies, as well as some new finds.

• Dr. Bronner’s Citrus Orange Hemp Castile Bar Soap – seriously smells so good!
• Dark Chocolate for snacking – Olivia and Giddy Yo Yo are both great Canadian brands
• Kind Organics Cosmic Sprouts – this sprouts mix has edible flowers in it, making it a fun addition to lunchtime salads
• Badger Nighty Nighty Balm – I’m trying this out as a new nighttime hand cream. I usually put on Dessert Essence Pumpkin Spice hand lotion during the day, but I wanted something soothing and less greasy for bedtime. This new balm has a light lavender and chamomile scent to help you relax and the mixture is thick.
• Mum’s Original Organic Coconut Flour – I’ve wanted to try coconut flour for a while now, but I’ve had a hard time finding a company that is nut free. When I saw this company was nut free, I was so excited that I grabbed a bag on the spot. I also grabbed some of their Organic White Chia Seeds to try too.

It took forever to take the photo because I had two curious pups that wanted to be a part of the action too, haha. These guys are such goofballs, but I love them. I grabbed some stuff to make their Halloween costumes soon.

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I hope that you have a safe and happy weekend!