Ruminants on Retreat

Last weekend was my annual getaway with two of my quilting buddies. In previous years you've seen lakeside happy hour shots because we visited Sandi's lakehouse in the interior of B.C. Last fall, Rossie purchased a house back in her home town on the west coast of Vancouver Island so we went there for 5 days of sewing, eating, drinking, shopping and general relaxing.  This break has become so important to me each year as it is one retreat I don't organize, manage or plan in advance other than writing the dates on the family calendar. It truly is rejuvenating to take 5 days off of family life and I am thankful for my accommodating husband and two teenagers who support my creativity.

Aside from the usual quilting retreat stuff (chocolate, wine, potato chips, cheese & crackers) we did something that I'm quite sure no one else has done on a retreat: we visited a water buffalo farm! Seriously! J & R are old friends of Rossie's and they have a herd of 24 of these quirky animals. They're breeding them, but the focus is on milk production to sell to local organic cheese producers for buffalo mozzarella.

here is one of the girls in the dairy

J explained how nervous the animals are of new people and told us the history of building this herd and getting them used to being handled and milked. They don't produce as much  milk as regular dairy cows, but apparently the milk is lower in fat and lasts much longer before spoiling. No, we didn't taste it (not sure I would have unless it was steamed with 2 shots of quality espresso mixed in). She's named every animal and it's obvious how much they mean to her - not everyone could kiss a water buffalo on the forehead, but she does!

nice hairdo, eh?

the business 

maybe she was trying to tell me something...

camera shy

The farm is so beautiful and just as we were leaving, the sun peeked through and we caught a glimpse of the surrounding mountains. In addition to the dairy, they also keep a gorgeous flower and food garden beside the farmhouse.

That wasn't the end of our farm animal visits. Another day we drove to the famous village of Coombs where you'll find the quirky Goats on the Roof market with delicious baking, culinary delights from around the world and massive ice cream cones. A visit to the island is not complete without a visit to Coombs!

it was pouring rain, not snowing!

I didn't take my DSLR along, so these pics are from my iphone. Not the usual quality I like to share here, but I thought you'd find the water buffalo shots fun! I'll be back soon to show you some of the stuff we worked on.

I was without wifi while away, so I completely missed out on the Bloggers Quilt Festival voting. I'd like to say thank you to everyone who nominated Ayumi's baby quilt so that it made it into the Viewer's Choice voting. Wow! That was really fun to see.