How to make winter ice candles (Cottage Visit Part 2)

Happy birthday to my sweetie-pie of a husband, Jeff! The photo above was taken by one of our nieces this past weekend at the cottage, when Jeff posed with a childhood toy he called Flatmouse. Flatmouse, by the way, will be featured in one of my sister's upcoming books.

And hey, I've been Booklust-ed! Thanks to Patricia Storms for the kind words.

But back to making winter ice candles for our nieces; Jeff learned how to do this from our friend, Jeff Latto. First, he poured water into pails and left them outside to freeze overnight. This was enough time for the water to freeze on top and around the edges.

The next morning, he hammered holes in the top of each:



In the background, you can see the water hole that Jeff and our nieces chopped through the ice.

After making the holes, Jeff turned the buckets upside down and emptied out the water. Then he put each pail in a larger bucket of hot water just long enough to loosen the ice so that he could take the candles out. Here's what they looked like:



That night, he placed candles inside each and lit them. The effect was pretty magical:



Interesting to note how the middle ice candle had clearer and thinner ice; it was made in a bigger pail, which probably accounts for the difference.

I did some surfing online about ice candles. Looks like you can also use a tin can or small plastic cup to create the inside space where the candle fits: Ice Candles: Family Education. Or use a balloon instead of a pail to make smaller round candles: Winter Ice Candles. The latter site also suggests using a plastic one-gallon ice cream bucket instead of a pail.

Anyway, Jeff's ice candles turned out wonderfully; I recommend this as a fun family outdoor activity.

We celebrated Jeff's birthday at the cottage. Because of the impracticality of lugging a cake across the lake, my nieces improvised one out of Two-Bite Brownies and icing instead:




Jeff just turned 44, in case you're wondering about the arrangement of candles.

A great weekend, with lots of outdoor and indoor activities. I recently had a conversation with a friend about the value of purposely NOT being comfortable from time to time. We all tend to take comfort for granted, I think. As a result, we're more likely to get upset or whine about small discomforts and inconveniences. I'm talking about minor discomfort here, not physical pain. Exerting oneself, for example (as in physical exercise!), or getting temporarily wet or cold or too hot.

I find that too MUCH comfort sometimes makes me lazy, too. While this is fine for purposely lazy days, I feel that there's also a danger of letting a need for comfort keep you from doing interesting or challenging or useful things.



Which is why I purposely make myself uncomfortable sometimes. This can be anything from taking a brisk walk in less-than-optimal conditions or going to the gym (especially when I'm more inclined to sit at home where it's cozy and warm) to going camping or winter cottaging or working in the garden or walking in the rain in my sandals.

It certainly helps make me better appreciate what I have. The first thing I wanted to do when Jeff and I got home from the cottage, for example, was to take a hot shower. And it felt INCREDIBLY AMAZINGLY WONDERFUL. The best hot shower I ever had was the shower I took after a 10-day canoe trip on the Nahanni River where the closest you ever got to washing was dunking your head in glacier-fed waters. A lot of involuntary yelling was usually involved.

I briefly considered using this method to enhance my enjoyment of chocolate (e.g. going without chocolate for x days) but y'know, some sacrifices are just too great.

;-)


Ruth and me. Photo by one of my nieces.

Link O' The Day

(Thanks to my friend Ray)

XKCD: A Webcomic of Romance, Sarcasm, Math, and Language: I loooove this comic, and spent too much time going through the archives yesterday (curse you, Ray!). I also identified way too much with this strip.



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