Month: August 2010

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Saving my Rubber


Whether you’re on a trip or at home, it’s important to wear sun screen, especially in the summer. I always lather some on my rubber skin every morning and touch it up during the day.

Sun screen is a fairly new product. The first sunscreen that worked was created in 1938 and called Glacier Cream. It only had a Sun Protection Factor (SPF) of 2. The one Mom buys has an SPF of 70.

In 1944 another product came out called Red Vet Pet. It was a yukky, red, sticky goo, kind of like petroleum jelly, (you know the stuff that moms rub on baby’s bums to protect them from rashes).

This stuff became popular during WWII because soldiers in the Pacific needed something to protect them from sunburns. The product really took off when the patent was sold to Coppertone in the 1950s.

Todays sunscreens are much improved. They even stay on when you go in the water or sweat…and its not yukky and red anymore.

So whether you’re on a tropical island or just hanging around the back yard, take a minute, rub it on and protect your skin from the sun.

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Chicken on the Beach


You don’t always need to go a far way to get the tropical beach experience. Here I am catching some rays at a beach in Long Point, Ontario.

Long Point isn’t only a beautiful beach. Its sand dunes and marshes are also home to many types of birds, fish, frogs and turtles. On one visit, we even watched a mother turtle dig a hole and lay her eggs!

This is the perfect summer place. Often my family camps at the provincial park. I love to watch the fireflies at night. Other times, we just come out for a day of swimming and relaxing.

If you’re in Ontario for the summer, come check out Long Point Provincial Park.

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Tea Time for the Peckish


As I scratch around in the back yard, I find myself still thinking about high tea. High tea is served all over the world. Some of Mom’s favourite tea houses are in New York City, Boston and Victoria, B.C.

These days high tea is considered very fancy. Goodies like tiny sandwiches with the crusts cut off, fancy appetizers, scones with clotted cream, pastries and of course tea, are served on fancy dishes called china. You would be in big trouble if you broke any of these cups or saucers.

Formal high tea has come a long way from what it used to be during the industrial revolution. Back then, only poor or working class people would have high tea.

Most of the poor people could only afford one main meal a day and that was lunch time, (they called it dinner). By the time they got home from work around 6pm they were starving so they would set the table with leftovers from lunch and whatever else they could scrape up, usually meats, bread, butter, pickles, cheese and of course tea. No fancy sandwiches or pastries for the working class.

Because the meal was eaten at a high table (not a low tea table), it was called high tea or meat tea.

All this talk about tea has left me feeling a little peckish. I think pour myself a cup and drink it with some chicken feed.