Heavenly Paradise@AdelineAng.com

Winter blues will soon be gone; snow is melting and ice is cracking. Wouldn’t it be nice if the four seasons spread out equally throughout the year? Spring from March till May; summer from June till August; autumn from September till November; winter from December till February. In reality, winter lasts up to six months in most parts of Canada.

This year, however, it hasn’t been too bad of a winter, considering major snow fall didn’t take place till January. It started raining last week with the fluctuating temperatures hovering around freezing point. Rain or snow? Be prepared, because you can never tell till the day comes.

Rivers are found frozen in New Brunswick during the winter months, covered by a smooth layer of ice. The depth of ice varies according to weather. The cracking and breaking of ice layer results in ice pans that slide past and collide against each other in the slow moving water, until smaller ice chunks are formed. They will further be melted away by the “warmer” river flow and disappear.

The formation of ice pans.

Three days later…Ice pans were broken down into ice chunks.

The unbelievable “shrieking” sound from the collision with ice pans. It’s an analogy of earthquake, doesn’t it?

The snow condition as of last weekend outside my apartment building.

The thick snow was observed one month ago, in mid-February!

I was anticipating the appearance of  “Supermoon” last Saturday, on March 19th. The moon was said to be significantly larger and brighter due to a closer (than usual) proximity from the earth. There was prediction from an astrologer that it might trigger natural disasters such as earthquakes, storms etc. There were numerous heart-breaking disasters that happened around the world these few weeks, was “Supermoon” the one to be blamed for, or was it just a mere coincidence?

I always wonder how does the surface of moon look like…

An unedited picture of the moon taken to show its surface (click to enlarge). Doesn’t it look like a melon?

How many of us here experienced food cravings? Hunger? Dieting? Reality shows that food can bring us fulfillment, but also regrets. Too much or too little, is not doing us any good. I’m not sure about anyone else, but I suffer from food withdrawal every time, after a major trip back to Canada. From my observations, this could due to over exhaustion, jet-lag, and most of all, I went all out savouring my favourite food items during trips. Food then, back in Canada, seems so blend and not very appetizing. Even though I might loose some weight from staying active while traveling, my eating habit (a.k.a. food withdrawal) contributes much of my lighter weight after trips. It might sound weird, but it happens….

After the first few weeks of food withdrawal, my body finally clued in that it needed food regardless. Gradually, food can be enjoyable once again.

The horseshoe-shaped German pastry topped with buttercream and chocolate, from the Farmers market. Flaky pastry and delicious icing. It’s not too sweet.

Spicy food, spicy food, where are you? Miles and I visited the “New York Fries” at the mall one day and decided to get a poutine, featuring “The Works.” French fries were topped with beef chili, cheese sauce, sour cream, green onions, and bacon bits.

To add on a spicy kick to it, some hot peppers were added on the poutine. Forget about the unhealthy part, it was an appealing delicious snack!

It only seems appropriate to talk about Tim Hortons this time of the year, when “Roll Up The Rim” contest is back, for the 25th year! It’s usually around this time of season when snow is melting, rain is pouring, and occasional speckled fresh snow on the ground and trees. It’s a mix feeling for me, the joy that winter is ending and spring is approaching, as well as a lost feeling due to the scenery change; 8-ft high snow bank is gone and the green is resurfacing. On top of that, there’s also a sense of urgency, hinting “time is ticking, and the next season is fast approaching!”

It’s almost an excitement to visit Tim Hortons nowadays, hoping to get a “winner” cup ;) From Canadian-owned to American-owned, Tim Hortons is now a stand alone public company trading on the Toronto and New York Stock Exchange. The corporate head office resides in Oakville, Ontario, Canada.

Let’s take a peek at some of the new products at Tim Hortons:

Raspberry Lemon doughnut, sprinkled with red & yellow candy bits and topped with raspberry jam in the middle.

The Caramel Chocolate muffin; baked with chocolate chips and filled with……

Caramel! Of course….

Caramel Crunch Doughnut; sprinkled with crunchy caramel pieces on a chocolate layer, and filled with creamy caramel.

Keep rolling, keep winning. Not for me though, for some odd reason, I’ve yet to receive a winning cup! Oh well…

It had been a busy month packed with travel itineraries, via air, sea, and ground transportation. Visiting four countries with climate varied from +35 degrees to -20 degrees Celsius had proven to be a very challenging step to take, despite the brutal winter experience that I had in the past. Imagine moving from an oven room to a deep freeze room….that was exactly how it felt like!

On the good side, family and friends, delicious food, familiar environment, laughter etc. surely beat the busy traveling plans and extreme climate change.

During the period of silence (e.g. no new posts on the blog), I felt like I needed another vacation for my vacation, a down time after all the excitements, high-tempo daily activities, traveling etc.

One of the many exciting trips that I went on was visiting the rice paddy field in Sekinchan, a small town located in northern part of Selangor state. Sekinchan is famous for its rice farming community; it’s one of the major rice producers in the country.

It was harvesting season in December.

A close look at the paddy. Every grain of rice is preciously produced.

Rice harvester in action at the paddy field. Crop harvesting can only be done on non-rainy days.

These days, we don’t expect farmers to do planting and harvesting in the old fashion way; bending down in the muddy field under the scorching hot sun. Instead, rice harvesters are commonly used nowadays. The rice harvester was important from Holland; modified from a used wheat harvester. Why go through all those troubles? It brings down the cost of the machine by multiple folds! Hundreds of thousands (in Malaysian currency) for the modified wheat machine harvester, instead of millions for a brand new machine.

Typically, June and December are the two harvesting months. There could be up to 3 times a year for harvesting; each season (from planting till harvesting) lasts about 120 days.

Miles was trying out the rice harvester.

It’d had been a beautiful sunset, too bad that it was overcast that day. I’ve always wanted to enjoy a beautiful sunset; the ones in Kota Kinabalu (east Malaysia) were the best thus far. Clouds were in the way that day, blocking the striking rays of sunshine. Another day, another time, I’m still not giving up hope on a spectacular sunset some day.