Moore’s Brook Falls
Moore’s Brook Falls
“That walk was totally worth it!”
So said my 7 year old son about our recent hike to Moore’s Brook Falls outside of Kentville.
I first discovered this trail because my neighbour had a picture on her Facebook page of her family in front of an incredible waterfall. When I asked her where it was, she told me it was only a hop, skip and a jump from our house!
So close to home, tucked in between Prospect Road and the highway, this is an incredible waterfall to discover!
How to get there
The waterfall is located off Prospect Road in North Alton (the road that runs between the Big Stop from exits 11 to 12).
Park on Morris Crescent. Because it is a crescent, there are two streets labelled Morris Crescent. Park on the one closest to exit 12.
You can enter the trail on the North side by going down the cobble stones and through the culvert.
Or, on the south side of the road, down the embankment next to the guard rail.
Both of the paths lead to the brook.
Be careful because there is a barb wire fence by the tunnel.
Head up the trail on the left-hand side by the brook to find the waterfall.
Trail is a bit of a misnomer. There isn’t much of a trail. There are sections of a steep path along the edge. You can scale the wall the whole way.
However, it is much easier to wear water shoes or rubber boots and walk in the brook all the way up. The water can be up to an adult’s knees, so go slowly, but it’s worth the adventure!
You will first come to a smaller fall of about 10 feet.
Then there is a sharp bend in the brook and it will reveal the main fall of about 50 feet or so.
To walk to the second falls, it took our family 15 minutes.
The waterfall is amazing. The water is so strong, powerful and loud!
This would be an incredible walk on a hot summer’s day.
There was also a love letter written on one of the rocks!
I think it would be tricky to walk in the spring or the fall when the water is much colder, unless you were able to scale the walls along the brook.
This walk would be tricky for small children. It was also difficult for me, who has to wear a foot brace. I definitely could not have scaled the edge on the “trail” and walking on the rocks in the water was slow going, but it was worth it.
The boys, 7 and 9, had absolutely no problem on this hike, and loved walking in the water and playing at the base of the waterfall.
If you are looking for a quick, refreshing adventure to see an incredible waterfall in our own area, definitely check out Moore Brook Falls.
PLEASE NOTE: DO NOT walk through 4866 Prospect Road. It is a PRIVATE PROPERTY and there is NO TRESPASSING!
Coffee of the Month Club with Caffeine Rebel
Caffeine Rebel: Coffee to your door!
**Disclosure: I received a one-month subscription to Caffeine Rebel in exchange for this post. All opinions are our own**
Are you a coffee drinker?
Like to drink freshly roasted and ground coffee?
Want it delivered to your door every month?
The Caffeine Rebel is for you!
As the Caffeine Rebel website says:
Discovering the best coffee can either be an exciting adventure or a challenging process. Much like Chuck Norris in an epic 80’s action flick, we’re here to help.
We eliminate the challenge of discovering the best coffee on the planet by endlessly trialling numerous roasters to select our top choice winner as our featured roaster of the month selection, which you receive delivered to your doorstep monthly. Each month delivers a new, exciting and delicious coffee experience that you otherwise may not experience in your local market.
Doesn’t this sound like the perfect Christmas present for the coffee lover on your list who has everything?
Coffee is roasted and shipped on the last day of every month. The Caffeine Rebel policy is to ensure that you get the freshest cup possible. We don’t warehouse or store any of our coffee. Each box is delivered direct from our roasters immediately following roast and packaging. Your order will be processed on the next available ship date, taking into account all that’s needed to ensure you get the best possible blend.
You can sign up for 3 different monthly plans
1 bag a month (40 cups) = $29.99
2 bags a month (80 cups) = $39.99
3 bags a month (120 cups) = $54.99
Each bag contains 12 ounces
Shipping is free!
Our Experience
To literally get a taste for the program we received a one month, 3 bag subscription.
This featured a coffee roaster called Ceremony based out of Maryland.
When the box arrived at the house, the aroma of coffee filled the house.
It was amazing!
We don’t often treat ourselves to really nice coffee at home, so this was a real treat!
To help us test the coffee, we called upon my husband’s sisters who are big coffee lovers, too.
Our taste test was blind. This meant we did not know which coffee we were drinking. I labelled each bag A, B or C and ground up beans from each bag and carefully labelled containers for each.
I made up a testing chart to help us make our comparisons.
From Ceremony Roaster we tried
Thesis
Mexico Santa Teresa
Destroyer
It was really fun to have an excuse to sit around the table together after dinner drinking coffee together.
By far, our favourite was the Mexico Santa Teresa coffee.
The Thesis was a bit too weak while Destroyer (an espresso) was to dark/bitter for our palates.
Regardless, it was a lot of fun to try new coffees!
With a subscription, I think we would take notes each month, comparing and coming up with our list of favourites.
For someone who has everything a coffee subscription from Caffeine Rebel is the perfect gift.
Or maybe a gift for someone that you don’t know what to buy!
Teacher gift
Employee
Neighbour
Husband’s maiden aunt
Or, just treat yourself to a fresh cup of coffee every day for a year!
Yogurt Tub Cake
Yogurt Tub Cake
When my sister-in-law told me about her yogurt cake recipe where everything is measured using a tub of yogurt, I knew I had to try it!
This recipe was written in “British” so I translated it into North American equivalents.
The result was a cake that resembles a pound cake and it was delicious!
Yogurt Tub Cake Recipe
This recipe is based on one 100g container of yogurt.
1 100g tub of yogurt. Any flavour. Keep the container because you will need it to measure the rest of the ingredients.
3 tubs of flour
2 tubs of white sugar
1 tub of vegetable oil
Vanilla
3 eggs
Combine all the ingredients into an electric mixer
and stir until smooth.
Pour into a greased loaf pan.
Bake 350 for about 30 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.
I actually doubled the recipe and baked it for 50 minutes in a Bundt pan.
The flavour improves with keeping. Freezes well, too!
Serve with fresh fruit. The British recipe says to butter it, but I can’t imagine!
Enjoy!
Got Social Mediology?
Got Social Mediology? By Jay Izso
**Disclosure: I received this book from Strategies PR to review. All opinions are my own. **
The world of social media can be daunting. Especially for those who have not yet delved into it.
It’s big. It’s scary. And, it’s very powerful and very necessary for businesses.
Did you know that the same part of the brain light up when people use social media as when they have sex?
No wonder people are addicted to social media!
In his book Got Social Mediology? author Jay Izso, also known as the Internet Doctor, delves into the world of social media. In it, he uses psychology to master social media for businesses without spending a dime.
What is social mediology?
Izso describes it as the study of social media from the perspective of psychology.
Do I really need to be on social media?
What is the best way to create business through social media?
Which form of social media is best for my business?
What should I post? When should I post it?
These are all topics and questions covered in Got Social Mediology.
Book Layout
Got Social Mediology? Is laid out in clear chapters – each one focusing on a different form of social media including Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest and YouTube. Other chapters focus on the Return of Investment of social media and social media myths.
Each chapter is well laid out with a summary at the end, text boxes of things to try, and highlighted information.
You can skip to the chapters that interest you, or, do as I did, and read the entire book with a pencil in hand to underline the key points that you will want to remember.
What I learned
I consider myself to be well versed in social media. I am on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest.
Even though I frequently use these social media platforms, and have taken a few workshops on how to effectively use them, I still learned a lot from this book.
As I was reading the sections, I found myself sitting at my computer making changes to my various accounts based on the suggestions in the book. I updated my headline in LinkedIn, changed some settings on Pinterest, and started tracking when and how much I use Facebook.
Izso does a great job of explaining the different social media platforms, and the best way to communicate on each one – whether it is professionally on LinkedIn or like a friend on Facebook.
What I found reassuring was Izso’s chapter on Twitter, and how it is the least interactive social media platform. I thought I was alone in feeling this way! No wonder I feel frustrated when so many blogging contracts are based upon number of Twitter followers rather than a really engaged group of followers and readers in other platforms.
The one platform that I would have been interested in reading more about is Instagram, which was not covered in the book.
When I emailed the author, he promptly responded to explain why Instagram was not included.
“There were several reasons. First, we really did and still do not have any empirical data on the effectiveness of Instagram for business. The data is just starting to come in, but it is sparse in terms of how it is truly effective.
Second, the identity of the culture was at first a bit of a mystery. It is the only platform where someone else’s posts cannot be shared so the only validation one gets is from “likes” and “comments”…it truly is about them not others.
Finally, Instagram is owned by Facebook…so it was very difficult at the time to truly separate the two. My plan is when we get to the revised addition to add Instagram, but we really need more data before I can definitively say it has value for business.”
~ Jay Izso
If you belong to a business book club, I would highly recommend picking up this book. There are many great topics of conversation to be had over a cup of coffee.
What works for your business?
Where do you get the most engagement?
Do you agree that there are a lot of people who read posts but choose not to “like” or “retweet” them?
Got Social Mediology is a great book for people who live in the world of social media, just as much as it is for people who are just starting out. You can always learn a new way to look at things, to better understand your clientele.
Good luck! And if you do read it, make sure you tweet or post about it, and tag me in it!
Density Pie
Density Pie
Learning about math and science through baking
When we were in grade 9 science, this recipe was in our text book. We made it to learn about the density of the ingredients.
The density, or more precisely, the volumetric mass density, of a substance is its mass per unit volume. Mathematically, density is defined as mass divided by volume.
More simply put, it is a measure of how much matter is in a certain volume.
According to the website, Math is Fun:
A gold bar is quite small but has a mass of 1 kilogram (about 2.2 pounds), so it contains more matter than a similar sized piece of wood.
So gold is more dense than wood.
The density of water is about 1 kg per liter (1 liter of water has a mass of 1 kg), so anything that floats has a lower density, and anything that sinks is more dense.
Here is another example: Oil and water – In an oil spill in the ocean, the oil rises to the top because it is less dense than water.
This can be explained to kids visually by making Density Pie (also known as Impossible Pie).
All the ingredients are dumped into a blender, poured into a pie plate and baked. The ingredients then settle out according to their density!
The most dense ingredients will settle on the bottom and the least dense ingredients will be on the top.
Density Pie (aka Impossible Pie)
4 eggs
½ C flour
1 C sugar
½ C soft margarine
2C milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 C coconut
Put all the ingredients in a blender and mix.
Pour into a pie plate.
Bake 35mins at 350. When the pie is no longer “jiggly” it is done
This recipe makes 2 pies.
Before we baked the pie, the kids guessed which ingredients would form which layers.
They thought that
Coconut would be the bottom layer.
The eggs/milk would make the middle layer
The Flour/sugar would make the top layer.
Once baked, we tried our density pie. The kids really liked it and it tasted a bit like a custard or cream pie. They also liked figuring out the layers!
TIP: Next time I would try using coloured coconut to see if it easier to decipher the layers.
Enjoy, and let us know what you found out!
Miss Emily by Nuala O’Connor
Miss Emily by Nuala O’Connor
**Disclosure: I received a copy of this book from Penguin Publishers to review. All opinions are my own.
“Nature” is what we see—
The Hill—the Afternoon—
Squirrel—Eclipse— the Bumble bee—
Nay—Nature is Heaven—
Nature is what we hear—
The Bobolink—the Sea—
Thunder—the Cricket—
Nay—Nature is Harmony—
Nature is what we know—
Yet have no art to say—
So impotent Our Wisdom is
To her Simplicity.Emily Dickinson
I must admit that I know very little about Emily Dickinson, nor do I remember studying her poems in school. Because of my lack of knowledge, I was very interested in reading Miss Emily by Nuala O’Connor.
Miss Emily is a fictional story about Emily Dickinson and her relationship with her maid, Ada. Although Ada is a fictitious character, the story is based on true facts about Emily Dickinson and some of her hired help.
Miss Emily goes back and forth, chapter by chapter, between a narrative from Ada, followed by one by Emily Dickinson. The author does a wonderful job of creating two different voices – short and quippy is Ada the maid, while Emily’s chapters are more eloquent and full of descriptions.
Each of these narratives are very short making this 200-paged book very quick to read.
Miss Emily is like a snapshot in the life of the Dickinson household where everyone is going about their daily routines and tasks. Ada falls in love with Daniel Bryne, but later gets into some trouble, from which Emily is forced from her seclusion to help her.
It is a story of loneliness, secrets, acceptance, and finding friendship in unlikely places.
Miss Emily is also a lot about baking. Apparently, Emily Dickinson was a great baker, and it is, she and Ada are always making the most wonderful cakes and pastries – many of which are from Ireland.
As my husband’s family is from Ireland we often make Irish Soda bread using this recipe. My sister-in-law assures me that this is authentic tasting!
Irish Soda Bread
Source: Company’s Coming: Muffins and More
4 Cups flour
2 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp baking powder
1tsp baking soda
6 Tbsp butter
2 Cups buttermilk (I use regular milk sometimes)
In a mixibg bowl, combine dry ingredients. Cut in butter until crumbly.
Add milk. Stir just enough to moisten. Turn out on a lightly floured surface.
Knead 8 – 10 times.
Put in greased 9x5x3″ loaf pan.
Bake 350 for 1 hour until browned and inserted toothpick comes out clean.
VARIATION: I always form into a flat circle and bake on a round sheet. Mark the top with a cross, as Miss Emily says, to keep the devil away!
Bake about 40 minutes at 375.
Slice and eat!
Tastes wonderful slathered in butter and jam, too!
If you are looking to learn more about the life of Emily Dickinson, I would recommend picking up a copy of Miss Emily.
