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If We Were Having Coffee – Dec.14/2014 GUEST POST

HOLIDAY CHEER

Welcome to Willow’s weekly coffee and tea garden. My name is Paul and I’m happy to be here once again inside Willow’s home where it is nice and toasty, tending to your needs for a cuppa, and sweets. We’ve moved inside to beat the winter cold in the garden.Willow has fluffed the cushions and stared a blaze in the fireplace to make a cozy place to sit. I’d be pleased to bring a pot of whatever beverage you prefer – we have a wide range of teas and coffees to satisfy our world-wide readership. We can relax with a cuppa and calorie free electronic sweets while we discuss the affairs of the week both personal and/or worldwide. How has your week been?

In the spirit of the season, I found the following video over at LifeBuzz it is Titled, He Asked 13 Homeless People What They Wanted For Christmas. Their Answers Made Me Feel Shallow. Gifts for the Homeless

This little video follows a gentleman as he asks many homeless people what they would like for Christmas and then provides it for them. It really speaks to the joy of giving and the meaning of Christmas. The looks on the faces of those to whom nothing has ever been given, is priceless. It did my heart good to watch.

Let me pour you a cuppa of your favourite beverage and have a sweet while you enjoy it as well. So the temperatures have been dropping over the last week or so and it has snowed twice and the snow has stayed down. All this gets me to thinking about skating at the canal and eating those delicious Beaver Tails. Speaking of sweets, here’s some that I bet you haven’t seen before, Beaver Tails:

Beaver Tails with various Chocolate Fillings

These delicious hot pastries are fried dough covered with powdered sugar and filled with the topping of your choice – jam, chocolate, fruit, etc. (For scale – each Beaver Tail pictured above is about twice as long as your hand and about 1 1⁄2 times as wide).They are sold through out the winter at kiosks in and around Ottawa. Primarily Beaver Tails are sold on the Rideau Canal Skating rink. This is actually the largest maintained skating rink in the world, comprising over 4.5 miles (7 kms) of canal skating in the city of Ottawa from Downtown to Dow’s Lake. The canal is open for skating usually by January and stays open until early March. The length of the season depends on the temperature and can run anywhere from 45 days to 90 days. It is free and has changing/warm up rooms, food kiosks, washrooms, etc – all on the ice. You can see the little cluster of buildings with services under the bridge in the picture. There are a number of these clusters all along the Canal.

Skating on the Canal

The night time skating is amazing and a real feast for the eyes.

Rideaucanal skateway at night

That’s about all we have room for this week, so it’s time to settle in front of the fireplace with another cuppa. Sweets anyone? – we can even have the kitchen make you some Beaver Tails if you wish. Willow and I are honored that you dropped by today to visit. I hope you’ve enjoyed yourself and the conversation and please feel free to look around at Willow’s other posts while you’re here. Have a great week. We look forward to seeing you here for tea again next week.

Tea presentation at the Ritz in London

IF WE WERE HAVING COFFEE: I would ask you if you would like another cuppa, or another cake . ! If we were having Coffee Original idea from http://parttimemonster.wordpress.com/