The Taelemans´ Blog

Hi everyone, I could use some help with something. This may sound stupid but I’m looking for a recipe: Petit Beurre Taart or Crème au Beurre…

I know some of you probably don’t even have one, since it’s not the most popular pie around, but I haven’t made it in ages, and today while shopping we noticed some Petit Beurre cookies from LU and all of a sudden I was craving some pie. I know i can google it, but there’s tons of recipes and I am just wondering which one you’re using.

So for those interested in helping me out, send in your recipes and I will put your name in for a draw prize! Look, there’s even something in it for you:)

Thanks in advance!

I apologize for not posting anything lately. I guess I haven’t really felt the urge to do so. I think I felt like nobody really cared, but I might be wrong.

We recently met some people and for some reason they have been following our blog for quite a while (without even knowing us, we just had a mutual friend) which is always nice!

We had some visitors in the beginning of December (Kris’ mom and sister) and for the holidays my mom and dad came over.
Of course we had an amazing time and we were very happy to see them. We truly appreciate that they are making the effort to come and visit us We do hope all of you had a good time.

One of the things we’ve been up to, was a visit to Campbell River, Vancouver Island. I didn’t really know what to expect because it’s winter and obviously its more a summer destination (mainly because of the weather). We were staying in cabins and each cabin had its private hot tub. We really enjoyed it! We went to Mount Washington, Forbidden Plateau, Port Mcneill, Telegraph Cove and we ended up having a flat tire in (pretty much) the middle of nowhere. Very exciting:) Especially when you want to get back in time for New Year’s Eve dinner. Our spare tire was a temporary one and we were told not to drive too fast or too far. We had to drive 250km back to the cabins and the road was covered with gravel and snow. Ideal circumstances:) We obviously made it back safe!

We had a great time during the holidays and I hope all of you have the same feeling about yours.
We got snowshoes (Christmas Present from Kris’ parents) and of course we had to try them. Last weekend we decided to go to Callaghan Valley and we had a really good time on a more advanced snowshoe trail. We had to jump over little rivers with the snowshoes on, climb an ice wall (or something that looked like it). But it was really fun!

Anyway below some pictures.
Enjoy, and before I forget Happy New Year!

Forbidden Plateau

My mom and Kris on Mount Washington

New Year’s Eve Dinner

Grizzly in the cabin

Snowshoeing on Christmas Day

Snowshoeing on Mount Seymour

Quatchi Snowboard

Olympic Torch

Alexander Falls, Callaghan Valley

Where’s Kris?

We recently watched an amazing documentary called: The Cove .

The Cove begins in Taiji, Japan. Taiji is a town that appears to be devoted to the wonders of the playful dolphins and whales that swim off their coast. But it’s actually well-known as a whaling town and is considered as the birth place of Japan’s traditional whaling method. Taiji has it’s dark secrets!

In a cove surrounded by wire and “No trespassing” signs thousands of dolphins are killed every year. Taiji is a major center for dolphin drive hunting. When dolphins are spotted, they’re driven into a bay by the fishermen while banging on metal rods in the water to scare and confuse the dolphins. When the dolphins are in the bay,they close it of with nets so they can’t escape. The next day the dolphins will be killed one by one. They sell the meat. Besides that they also capture dolphins for the entertainment industry.

The documentary is not only about the slaughter of dolphins, it’s also about the government covering it up and allowing fishermen to sell mercury-tainted dolphin meat.
Ric O’Barry, former dolphin trainer, joins forces with filmmaker Louis Psihoyos and the Oceanic Preservation Society to get to the truth of what’s really going on in the cove. While pretty much everyone (fishermen, police,…) in Taiji is hot on their trail they recruit underwater sound and camera experts, special effects artists, marine explorers and world-class free divers who will all be involved in an undercover operation to photograph the off-limits cove, while playing a cloak-and-dagger game with those who would have them jailed.

Watch the trailer:

I’m not an activist but this just really shocked me!

Yesterday it was Grizzly’s first birthday.
He was able to celebrate it today, together with all his human and dog friends over at daycare.

At Pup Culture daycare they apparently call him the destroyer since he eats all their ribbons and likes to eat parts of the walls. This time he could “destroy” something that was actually edible.

They organized a birthday party for him. Below some pictures:

Grizzly’s birthday Cake.

Another cake picture (Pup Culture got the cake from Big Dog Little Dog bakery.
If you’re looking for something nice for you pup, that’s the place to be!

Yammie!

Go for it!

Don’t bite his fingers

Pup Culture also uploaded some of their Halloween pictures.

Grizzly as a Pumpkin bear.

One of Grizzly’s friends

Hot Dog

Ladybug

Last weekend we were invited to go to our friends place in Whistler.

Apparently Whistler broke a record this month: Snowiest Month Ever. Sounded promising!
The slopes where open and we were definitely ready for the start of the season. I couldn’t wait to try my new board.

We had an amazing time (and that means all three of us)! Kris and I went snowboarding and a dog walking company took Grizzly and Harvey out for a day hike.
Pretty amazing. They went back country hiking with 4 other dogs. So they were exhausted when they came back.

Anyway, I don’t feel like writing a lot so enjoy the pictures (click the picture if you want to see them completely):

One more thing: Thanks Bob, Jill and Harvey for a lovely weekend!

Big Island Sunset, Hawaii

One of the nice things about the state of Hawaii (except for the obvious stuff) is that none of the beaches are private. Basically this means that you are allowed to access any beach at any major Hotel. We were on our way back to our hotel when the sun was setting and I wouldn’t have made it there in time. We quickly pulled into the Four Seasons hotel and went to the beach and experienced this lovely sunset, accompanied by some local sea turtles.

Pretty much everyone knows that I’m a big fan of Winter. I’ve been looking forward to the first snow, and finally it arrived.

We’ve noticed that the last couple of days, the mountains on the North Shore were getting lots of snow. So today we decided to go to Mount Seymour and enjoy the snow. We were pleasantly surprised with about 50cm of fresh snow!

Of course Grizzly enjoyed this even more than we did! He definitely is a sled dog.

The predictions for next week are really good. They say it’s going to snow a little bit in Vancouver later this week. We’re living up a mountain so chances are pretty high that we’re going to get the first snow up here.

We were told by neighbors to get used to it, because there’s going to be days that we won’t be able to drive down the mountain…

A couple of images taken with my mobile.

Kris and Grizzly

Mount Seymour

Grizzly

Bear Den

Grizzly Paw

Grizzly and me

Rumors are that Whistler Slopes might open next week. Cross our fingers!

Of course we celebrated Halloween this year.

We live in a community with lots of kids so I knew “Trick or Treat” was going to be very popular! And I was right. Luckily we bought enough candy!

But not only the candy was extremely popular, Grizzly was definitely the special act of the evening.

Pumpkin Bear (and for those wondering: yes he actually liked it, he walked around in his costume for at least 2 hours). Taking him out for a pee all of a sudden became very interesting.

Close up

Waiting for someone to knock on our door!

Haunted House

I know the last picture probably isn’t the best, but it’s taken with Kris’ Iphone and it was dark outside.
It’s a haunted house in our neighborhood and they probably spend hours and hours decorating it. It even had a sensor, when someone walked by things started moving around, a body came out of a coffin, … Really well done!

Ooh before I forget: Happy Birthday honey!

I am aware of the fact that it must sound very weird (to most people) that there’s actually a thing like “Doggie Daycare”.

When we decided to get Grizzly we didn’t even think about daycare. Why would we? We both grew up with dogs and none of them ever went to something called “doggie daycare”.

A week after we got our puppy, he became very sick. We didn’t know what to do or where to take him. He spend a couple of nights in the pet hospital and trust me, that didn’t feel like a good start…

When he got back from the hospital he still wasn’t better so we knew we couldn’t leave him by himself all day. The only thing we could come up with was: Doggie Daycare.

I started googling and found a daycare on our way to work: Pup Culture.

Ever since (almost 8 months now) he has been going there. Not every day, but a couple of days a week. We’ve tried to find a combination of leaving him at home, taking him to work and day care. It really works:) He gets his exercise in daycare (and of course when we go hiking), he’s beeing pampered at work and he’s enjoying himself by ruining our carpet (in his den) at home:). Perfect isn’t it? He’s definitely having fun!

Anyway, I guess I wanted to show you guys some pictures since lots of people have been asking me about them.
All the pictures have been taken by the friendly people working at Pup Culture , so credits go to them!

I think the hole in the wall (on the 4th picture) is acutally Grizzly’s work… Not sure though. He’s been quite a pain when it comes to destroying walls and ribbons (in daycare at least, not at home luckily). Fun fact: They even do birthday parties with dog cake! Hopefully Grizzly gets one so I can post a picture. Birthday coming up soon!

People from Vancouver: In case your looking for a good place to take your dog to, Pup Culture is definitely the right choice!