Mama Jo takes on PEI: The Promise is on the Move

This past week has been quiet. I have folded into a good routine with work and have adjusted well to waking up at 5:30 every morning. Chocolate production is in full swing and the shop is slowly becoming fuller with assorted butter creams, caramels, chocolate covered potato chips and toffees. Larry and I are busy trying to keep up with the girls as they package the chocolates as soon as we make them. On a good day we will go through 40 pounds of butter, 14 kilograms of sugar, and 10 litres of cream. On Friday we easily doubled that and made 8 batches of almond toffee crunch. I may have mentioned before that we have to make exactly 1 ton of crunch to send to Cows Creamery where they will use it to make their famous Wowie Cowie ice cream. So the next time you indulge in a scoop of Cows Ice cream and your mouth is filled with buttery toffee crunch just remember that Mama Jo made it especially for you.

The highlight of my week was Saturday. I slept in until 8:00 am and had a leisurely morning slowly sipping my coffee and catching up on some good reading. After lunch I jumped on my bike and like an animal released from its cage I cycled down the quaint streets of Charlottetown. With every corner I turned my whole body inhaled the sweet promise of spring. The maroon haze that crowned the blossoming trees and shrubs had burst into a fresh green. New, clean vegetation erupted from the ground reaching its spindly weak tendrils to the sunlight and air above. Tulips popped out of the ground as if to surprise you. Magnolias veiled parks and cemeteries in a thin layer of pink and cream. Trees stretched out their arms and grasped all the sunlight they could, slowly sewing a canopy of green. Shadows of trees that were once skeletal and empty began to thicken and cast vast blankets of shade around them. The smell of the ocean is warming and it tingles with life. Sail boats have broken the water and charted their summer course of adventure. Everything looks, feels, and smells promising.

I meandered through Charlottetown stopping every so often to capture a whisper of spring. Eventually I found myself on an abandoned and secluded patch of grass in Victoria Park. I stretched out on a blanket with my sketch book and allowed the world around me to melt into the one I have inside. The two came together in a dance between pencil and paper as I doodled my thoughts, brainstormed heros and heroines to invent and mapped out the uncharted lands of my imagination. Eventually a chill fell over the afternoon and rain lingered in the air eager to soak the ground and encourage further growth. I hurried home, but did not escape quickly enough and was damp with life giving drizzle.

It has been a very good week and the promise of a good summer smiles strongly upon the Island. I can only hope that I will have more sunny days to soak in and send along to you.