I was uploading last week's pictures off my camera this evening and thought I'd share this little guy. The noise from my camera disturbed him a bit at first but all he did was yawn and settle into a new position. He stayed like this until the sun left his spot.

Or, what I did this weekend.

While we were in Vancouver I got a new canning book called Food in Jars by Marisa McClellan. It's full of lovely sounding recipes that don't make huge amounts of food; something I especially appreciate if I'm making something new and don't know for sure I'll like it. This weekend I tried my first recipe: Small Batch Mixed Stone Fruit Jam. It's one of those smart recipes that is meant to help you use up the fruit you bought to eat but won't finish before it goes bad, and it really is a small batch. The recipe only calls for three 250 ml (half pint) jars and I only got two when I was finished.

I just used peaches and I bought them just for making the jam. The recipe has you chop everything up (I also removed the skins) and mix it with the sugar and leave it in the fridge for up to two days. Breaking up the making time made it so much easier to do. I did all the peeling and chopping on Saturday morning and then didn't think about it again until Sunday when I was ready to do the cooking and canning. My kitchen smelled wonderful the whole time the jam was cooking. Peaches must be one of my favourite smells. I used a thermometer for the first time making this jam and it was really helpful when it came to reaching jell stage without over cooking my jam. One of my jars didn't seal after being processed but that's okay because I'd have opened one of them right away anyway; it just means it gets stored in the fridge instead of the cupboard.

I tried some of the jam this evening (I had nothing to eat it on at breakfast time). It's amazing. I thought at first it was going to be very sweet and syrupy tasting but it's perfect. It starts off sweet and peachy and finishes with a wonderful hint of bitter (I suspect from the lemon zest) that balances out the sweetness perfectly and gives it an almost marmalade like tang. Part of me thinks I should have used the little 125 ml jars so I could share it around but really I want to keep it all to myself. I can always make another batch.

A highlight of our trip for both of us was our visit to the Vancouver Aquarium in Stanley Park. I think the harbour porpoises were my favourite. They're so cute and playful. If you go right up to the glass they will swim up so they are face to face with you and if you turn your head from side to side they will roll back and forth in the water. We also saw some dolphins and the new African Penguins (sorry for the bad picture, there were a lot of reflections on the glass). There were the usual variety of unbelievable sea creatures and fish of every shape and colour. After the porpoises I liked the rainforest area best. I'm sure this is partially because it is one of the few interior places that is bright enough to take a good picture but the area is full of beautiful creatures. There were various kinds of birds and a three-toed sloth (look for the bit of grey fur in those leaves and branches) and so many butterflies. One even decided to use my sleeve as a resting place.