Garden in Mid Summer

These photos are from early July. We got a good jump start on the butternut and acorn squash, zucchini, cucumbers, tomatoes, and watermelon, but then the stupid beetles got the better of a lot of the plants, and we have little veg developing

The potatoes, onions, garlic, carrots, beets, parsnips, turnips, radishes, chard, lettuce and herbs are doing not too badly

The geese kept escaping and leaving their nasty poos all over the place, but J walked the perimeter of their pond and mended all of the holes in the fence so they are again contained

I'm so pleased with the hollyhocks, I grew them from seed last year and they're well established in the goose garden now

And the poppies, bee balm, and flox

The chicks and ducklings had a certain attrition, not sure why.Soon they'll be big enough to send to the butcher. I do feel a bit badly about the Peking ducks, as they do look sweet and like pets.  In the scheme of things, J had to shoot a raccoon and a couple of skunks that were found circling their pens.

And the obligatory photo of little Sadie...

And the house.

My Favorite Hospital

The RVH is so beautiful. Here is the Allen Memorial one fall morning

The coach house with the horses head. I think this building is for epidemiology now.

Part of the medicine building, with a gargoyle on it

The Neuro

Sunny day

Cloudy day

The Women's Pavillion

 The Women's Pavilion and the Ross Pavilion

The Medical Pavilion

And the funky air conditioning situation on 10 medicine

The clinic examining rooms look so retro to me

The laundry elevator

The people elevator- my favourite retro elevator ever in the Ross Pavilion- I love the art deco detail and Bakelite buttons

The beauty salon at the RVH

Views from the hospital

Caesar Salad Dressing

This recipe is from my friend Steve, it was his family's and I've been making for 20 years. My girlfriend Elana specifically requests it whenever I visit. The key and secret ingredient is the anchovy paste. You may think that you don't like anchovies, but in this, you love them. This is my staple at pot lucks and barbecues. It goes with everything. I wash the romaine and have it ready in the salad bowl, and then bring the dressing in a jar and toss upon arriving. It is old school, it uses an actual raw egg yolk. Anchovies and raw eggs. I know, I know, it could kill you. 

Anchovies in jar or in paste (tube)

Caesar Salad Dressing
 
1 egg yolk
1 clove garlic crushed
1 tsp anchovy paste*
3 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp dijon mustard
salt and pepper
2/3 cup olive oil
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
 
In a blender mix everything but the oil and cheese. I often use a hand blender. While blending, add the oil slowly. Then dump in the cheese and blend last. (I use the Kraft grated parm). Keeps in the fridge for 1-2 weeks.

*You can find anchovy paste in a tube in the grocery store, refrigerated in the deli section usually. If I don't have anchovy paste, I throw in a few whole anchovies.

Devilish

When the days get longer and the lights are on, boy do those chickens start laying eggs. I love making devilled eggs to use up those dozens, and here's my recipe, which I love to make in the cuisinart. My secret ingredients: a LOT of dijon mustard and a little bit of Lee Kum Kee's chili garlic sauce. After the filling is mixed in the cuisinart I put it in a baggie and cut off the tip, then pipe in the deliciousness. I decorate with colourful jarred objects that I have in the fridge, capers, pickle pieces, olives, pickled red peppers, dill.

10 eggs hard boiled, peeled, and carefully cut in half, pop the yolks into the cuisinart (or bowl)
1/3 cup of mayonnaise
big tablespoon of dijon mustard
1/4- 1/2 teaspoon of Lee Kum Kee's garlic chili sauce

Playa del Carmen

We had to get out of Dodge. I mean this winter has been something else entirely. Snow storm then deep freeze on a cycle of  never ending repeat. So we went to Secrets Capri in Playa del Carmen. The place was lovely and the people running the place were wonderful. The food was excellent, and by that I mean, I got to eat fresh fruit and vegetables and fish tacos almost every day, my ultimate favorites. Went into Playa del Carmen itself, and got bottles of vanilla and sombreros from Walmart, a rash shirt for J (made in Mexico) and some maracas from a local shop. Got delicioso cream from Aldo which I could seriously eat every single day of my life. Swam in the ocean every day and went for very long walks on the beach, and watched the pelicans dive for fish. J snorkeled a bit and ran into a sting ray. This is what the hotel looked like:

Here is Sadie in her new sombrero.

Poems for a funeral

A while ago my friend B asked me what poems I thought would be nice for him to read at his Granny's funeral. I suggested three, and decided to post them here so that I would not lose track of them.

The first is from the insert from a record that my father gave me, the words to Time to Sleep from Richard Strauss' Four Last Songs, by Hermann Hesse. The recording was made in 1978, sung by the great Kiwi soprano star Kiri Te Kanawa, (which I think is even more beautiful than Elizabeth Schwarzkopf's recording). The words are gorgeous in this translation from the original German.  

Time to Sleep

Now the day has wearied me,
All my gain and all my longing
Like a weary child's shall be night,
Whose many stars are thronging.

Hands, now leave your work alone;
Brow, forget your idle thinking,
All my thoughts, their labour done,
Softly into sleep are sinking.

High the soul will rise in flight,
Freely gliding, softly swaying,
In the magic realm of night,
Deeper laws of life obeying.

This one, Do not stand at my grave and weep, is also lovely, by Mary Frye. it is one of J's favorites.

Do not stand at my grave and weep
I am not there. I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow.
I am the diamond glints on snow.
I am the sunlight on ripened grain.
I am the gentle autumn rain.
When you awaken in the morning's hush
I am the swift uplifting rush.
Of quiet birds in circled flight.
I am the soft stars that shine at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry;
I am not there. I did not die.

And from my friend S, who loves this Tom Waits song, Green Grass. The first stanza gets me every time.

Lay your head where my heart used to be
Hold the earth above me
Lay down in the green grass
Remember when you loved me

Come closer don't be shy
Stand beneath a rainy sky
The moon is over the rise
Think of me as a train goes by

Clear the thistles and brambles
Whistle 'Didn't He Ramble'
Now there's a bubble of me
And it's floating in thee

Stand in the shade of me
Things are now made of me
The weather vane will say...
It smells like rain today

God took the stars and he tossed 'em
Can't tell the birds from the blossoms
You'll never be free of me
He'll make a tree from me

Don't say good bye to me
Describe the sky to me
And if the sky falls, mark my words
We'll catch mocking birds

Lay your head where my heart used to be
Hold the earth above me
Lay down in the green grass
Remember when you loved me



This last poem, by Garrison Keillor, is about a cat. I heard him read it on NPR.  I sent it to my parents when our sweet cat died (here she is below), and have since sent it to  friends, in sympathy for the loss of their pets. 

In Memory of Our Cat, Ralph
When we got home, it was almost dark.
Our neighbor waited on the walk.
"I'm sorry, I have bad news," he said.
"Your cat, the gray-black one, is dead.
I found him by the garage an hour ago."
"Thank you," I said, "for letting us know."
We dug a hole in the flower bed
With lilac bushes overhead,
Where this cat loved to lie in spring
And roll in dirt and eat the green
Delicious first spring bud,
And laid him down and covered him up,
Wrapped in a piece of tablecloth,
Our good old cat laid in the earth.
We quickly turned and went inside
The empty house and sat and cried
Softly in the dark some tears
For that familiar voice, that fur,
That soft weight missing from our laps,
That we had loved too well perhaps
And mourned from weakness of the heart.
A childish weakness, to regard
An animal whose life is brief
With such affection and such grief.
If such is weakness, so it be.
This modest elegy
Is only meant to note the death
Of one cat so we won't forget
His face, his name, his gift
Of cat affection while he lived,
The sweet shy nature
Of this graceful creature, who gave us
The simple pleasure of himself.

Finnish Pulla

My mother is an awesome Finnish Pulla baker, and I thought I'd document. She has made this hundreds of times, from this ancient cookbook.

Here is the English translation

Sugar 1 cup

1 ½ tsp Salt

Yeast 1 tbsp

Milk 500 cc (=2 cups)

Butter 250 g (this works out to 1.08 cups- 1 cup of butter is 227 g)

Flour 3 L (=12 1/2 cups)

Raisins ~ ½ cup

3 tsp Ground cardamom (she says make sure it's ground, not powdered) 

1. Put 1 full tbsp sugar and 1 full tbsp yeast into 1/3 cup warm tap water, and wait for 5 minutes or more for it to dissolve and foam up

2. crack 2 eggs into mixmaster bowl fitted with the dough hook. Put 3 full tsp ground cardamom on eggs and beat together a little.

3. Heat up 500 cc milk with sugar, 1 ½ tsp salt to 35 celcius- warm to touch. Pour over eggs and beat together with hand whisk (Mixer turned off, bowl down).

4. Using the dough hook of  a Kitchen Aid mixer,  mix in about 2 L flour, start with 1.5 L. Melt 250 g (1.08 cups) butter in a microwave and add to mixing bowl. Keep adding flour until 2-3 L total - until the dough holds together and comes off the sides of the bowl, and doesn’t stick to your fingers at all when touched. Smooth and elastic. Kneads a long time to become whole and elastic.

5. Fill stockpot with very warm water and put mixer bowl into bath, cover with a tea towel and allow 1 hour at least to rise.

6. when the dough rises over the top of the mixer bowl,, spread counter top with a little flour, turn out dough and knead into long log. Cut into 6 pieces. Roll out each piece, flatten and can at this point sprinkle with raisins (not too much- use enough to see between the raisins). Close dough over top the raisins, knead into long ropes. Cross 2 ropes over each other, crossing over each long strand until a braid is formed. When dough is into braids, place on a baking sheet, cover with a clean tea towel, and allow to rise.

7. brush generously with a beaten egg, and sprinkle with pearl sugar if you want them decorated as they are below. Bake 350 for 25 minutes. Let cool before cutting.

Minus 26 Morning

It was -26C yesterday morning on the farm. I mean: come on. The donkey and 2 horses grow some thick winter fur, but our new horse Ginger is 22 and has very fine hair, so J bought her a blanket, which looks to me like a horsey snowsuit.

After feeding and watering the chickens and horses, we made ourselves a grand slam breakfast.

For reasons that I don't understand, considering the weather, the chickens are laying a lot of eggs, but they freeze overnight. J brought in half a dozen eggs that were frozen as solid as cue balls, and mostly cracked. The dogs get the cracked eggs, in fact yesterday Chloe ate a total of 13 eggs.

The chickens were huddled under the heat lamp.

The geese were smoking in the barn.

The tractor with the snow blower attachment on the back, to plough out the 1 km lane way

  Sadie out on the frozen Tundra