Veronica and the blustery day
The kinds of windstorms I have here on the West Coast pale in comparison to the windstorms I get in Oxfordshire, but a windy day is something to be celebrated anyway, so off to the beach we will go.Just up on the verge the brave little crocuses grow short and hug the ground. The wind is not their playmate.
But it is mine. I love to feel the wind on my cheeks and in my hair. I love to hear the crash of the waves.
I have lots of company and fellow wind lovers on the beach today.
The wind gives me a mustache...
...and places lots of treasures in my path.
The wind whips up medusa tendrils...
...and crashes waves into the pier.
All in good fun
The challenge word is "forward"
And my answer is children.My children and your children.
Today we were given drink boxes, fruit bars and cookies at a conference downtown and Chloe's first thought was of finding someone needing food and handing them out.Chloe never walks past with her eyes cast down. She sees and touches and does her best. No one is invisible to her. No one is on the fringe.The world will move forward with people like her in it. She and her generation will go far to eradicate racism, homophobia, hatred and fear and live responsibly as stewards and not lords of the earth.And, if Chloe has anything to say about it, no one will ever eat shark fin soup with a clear conscious knowing they did their part in the mutilation and drowning of helpless animals.That’s forward to me. You go girl!Photographed especially for the Wordpress Weekly Photo Challenge...Forward
That "Wet Coast" kind of day
It’s been raining all day and that’s on top of yesterday’s rain and the day before, which will be followed by tomorrow’s rain and on thru the weekend.Days like today I’m glad if I can be home girl.I’m looking up at the mountains and thinking about the drenched trees standing tall and cold and black in the winter gloaming and imagining how the roots must sink a little deeper, closer to the warmth of the earth. How they hold on. How I sink a bit deeper into the warmth of my house. How we all hold on a bit tighter and spin around the sun waiting it out as we slowly inch our way closer for a little warmth.
And now I give you a little Italian naughty
Chloe and I miss being in lovely places like a warm terrace somewhere under the Italian sun, especially on cold, gray Vancouver days like today, and we especially miss the golden sexiness of Venice.We wanted something warm, something sexy, something spicy today and we thought of pasta Puttanesca for supper.
As always, our first stop on any Vancouver/Italian dream is lunch at Cafe Calabria on Commercial Drive in the very heart of little Italy, where Frank sr. and Frank and Nick and Vince treat us like family.
So most of you know I don’t like coffee, (ducking my head in shame), but the only coffee I’ve ever had and actually liked, (outside of Europe), has been Frank’s Latte because he makes it with “amore”.C asked Vince to make her the Frank’s Special panini: Cappicollo, mortadella, mozzarella, roasted eggplant, lettuce and tomato, while Frank sr. and I chatted about old times. C basically grew up at Cafe Calabria. Come to think of it, so have Kerstie and Jonathan. Come to think of it, I’ve been stopping by since I was in high school. Time...eh?
So back to pasta Puttanesca. Legend has it that the dish was devised by...um...ladies of negotiable affection because it was quick and simple and ready in the time one has between...um...customers and in the time it takes to boil spaghetti.
Usually I tend to throw this together with whatever we have, but today we stopped at one or two Italian markets and bought some peperoncini piccanti and, because we can take our time, some fusilli col buco, breadsticks and some lovely, sexy soda.
And now I must go cook our Puttanesca but I want to leave you with one last image.C made these naughty cup cakes for her friend Graham’s 21st birthday party to which eight other 20-something boys were invited. They were a hit.How bad is she? ;)
Sometimes things are black and white
Hi it's me! (I bet you guessed that.) Don't you just love mirrors? I’m bad. The photographer in me just won’t leave reflections alone.I was thinking about reflections and about black and white photography. My media group at Wordsmith Studio has issued a B/W challenge for this week’s theme.
You know, some days it doesn’t seem right when all I do is press a button or manipulate a function. I miss the days when I used to buy a roll of B/W film and it was so precious, you know, those 24-36 photos which took so much time and effort to develop.
I miss my black room and I miss the smells and textures and the magic. I miss lugging my father’s Leicas, light meters, rolls of film. Did I ever tell you about the time I dropped the best Leica on the concrete floor of Heathrow airport? It bounced and rolled and came back unscathed. I thought that for sure I cracked the lens or something. My very expensive first digital Nikon became unfixable after I had it for about two years. The good folks at Nikon said, “Well, they’re only really good for about 10,000 shutter releases, but we can sell you a new one.” Really? I’ve had the Leica for about 50 million shutter releases! (Ok, marginal bit of exaggeration.)
But it still is magic. It still takes an “eye” to concentrate on form and reflection with B/W. To see it in B/W even when you know there is colour, to reduce it in your mind and capture it with your camera. The pure and clean image, the fine lines, the sculpture, the magic. I love it.
Easy Sunday with a bit of random thrown in for good measure.
It’s been a bit of a week here. I’ve got practically nothing constructive done, let alone creative. And you’ve probably felt that by my two measly appearances. Thank you to those of you wonderful friends who sent me little notes asking what’s going on. Thank you dear hearts. You’re loved and appreciated. Things are fine with me, just very taxingly tiring.Some days are like that.It’s true I tell you.Some days are like that.But then comes the weekend and a chance to reconnect with you and my home and garden. So come see what I see.
Every little green heart is on the move again. I love early spring flowers. They always seem so optimistic.Yesterday I lifted large bunches of snow drops from the green spaces where people have dumped the bulbs along with their garden refuse. They aren’t good for the indigenous plants or for the urban wildlife that uses the green spaces to move from place to place. Neither can benefit from introduced plants. This is the best time to transplant snowdrops and I’ve planted these little guys in the shade garden under the maples.
In the house the light is soft. This cool wintery light makes the best still life photos I think. Here’s what’s on my bedside table, in my closet and in the James Bond bathroom.
I was so surprised to see some honey bees out on the Mahonia. They’re optimistic little creatures too aren’t they?
I thought I’d be optimistic too and put away my winter coat and bring out the lighter coats for the spring.
And now there’s a little bit of this lovely Sunday left and I think I’ll make some chicken soup, (they say it’s good for the soul), ignore the phone, computer, TV and everything else that’s part of the “real” world, bury my nose in my cat's fur and look out over the city and watch the sun set. You might disagree, but to me that’s what Sunday’s are for.I hope your little pink hearts are well rested for the next five days ahead. Grab Monday by the horns, and make it your own. I believe you can. I believe we can. :)Always...
An almost spring day.
It’s usually a good bet that if it’s raining in the mountains, (the ones I live right under), it will be much brighter and sunnier in the Delta.The Lower Mainland is a magical place. At one of the southern most parts, the south arm of the majestic Fraser River spills into the Pacific and you can walk along the river for miles and miles.If you do take the walk you will eventually end up in the lovely little village of Steveston. The Steveston docks are abuzz with people all wanting to buy the fresh catch of the day at the dockside fisherman’s market.
That’s where I spied young Sophie, the fisherman’s daughter, on the lookout for something interesting.
I saw something interesting...a bald eagle on one of the mast of one of the fishing boats.
Lots of people saw him too.
But Sophie was more into things at dock level.
I walked down on the docks to buy some fresh fish.
Sophie settled down for an afternoon of people watching.
Well now, why didn’t I think of killer heels for the dock? Hmm, not as forward thinking as this girl.
Found what I was looking for and bought some lovely salmon.
One last look and time to walk the two miles back to the car before the rain sets in again. This was a great day. :)
Le petit madeleines and friends for tea
Madeleines and tea is that perfect combination don’t you think? Those golden, sweet little sea shell shaped sponge cakes. My grandmother used to make them for tea and also varied the recipe to include almonds for Christmas cookies.It’s been a while since I made madeleines so having my friend Diane come for tea yesterday was a great excuse to make some.
I got out my Larousse Gastronomic and looked at the recipe. Three eggs. Right, only one egg in the fridge. Emergency trip to the grocery store four blocks away.Now this is something I always walk, but since Diane was due to arrive in 30 minutes, I drove. Big surprise, the road to the front entrance was closed for road work. Not a problem, I thought, just go around two blocks, duck down the back one-way road and park up. Big surprise! The back road was closed for road work. At this point the thought had occurred to me that I probably should have walked. So I parked as close as I could, (having funneled down the only open road twice), and walked in to get the eggs. Oh boy were the staff of the grocery store livid. The city had issued these two permits without realising they were allowing a complete block of traffic to the store!I must admit all that running around made me feel slightly like a poor baby and so I bought myself some pink tulips just because.By the time I got home I had about ten minutes before my friend came and I made the madeleines without letting the batter get completely cool, so the little cakes didn’t get that round puffy effect.
But boy were they good.My madeleine pan is very vintage because it used to belong to my grandmother and only holds six cakes to bake at once but as soon as the first batch was out of the oven Kerstie came in on her way thru and grabbed a bunch for herself, for Adam and Binky. Chloe came home from uni and had some too. I had a second one for afternoon tea and made my tea in my grandmother’s Czech tea cup.
Four of the cakes lasted till after supper but then they were devoured for desert.And I have to leave you with this little story: Came home this afternoon to see a glass lying on the kitchen floor with some milk deep inside. All the spilled milk and milk around the edge had been lapped up with just a missed drop or two and I think the expression on this little scrubby cat says it all. :)Linking up with Artful Affirmations for tea cup Tuesdays...a day late.
A new bank holiday Monday for Canada...happy Family Day
In preparation for Canada’s newest bank holiday Monday, Family Day, I opened a “grandchildren” box which had been sealed for the past ten years or so. What did I find? All the hand puppets in various stages of muckiness.So I threw them in the wash. Stuffies can be washed in cold...can’t they? But the last time I put a stuffy into the dryer there were some disastrous results so the puppets were stood on shampoo and hair spray bottles on the counter of the “James Bond” bathroom overnight to dry. (The James Bond bathroom is another story)
In the morning all they needed was a good brush-out.
After a shower and an emergency trip to Sbux, there was a few hours dedicated to midterm study and theory discussion.You can see that Milo is always helpful in these situations.
Then Kerstie brought Bunny and Binky over and we played and had a puppet show.
I’d call that a lovely Family Day bank holiday, wouldn’t you?
Gong Xi Fa Cai...like we need a reason to have a good time!
Happy Chinese New Year everyone and welcome black snake.Apparently the year of protection, support, ambition and following thru in slow methodical ways to achieve goals. Hooray for that! I’m sorry to say but it seems to me that the year of the dragon sucked...except for our little Bunny of course.So welcoming the black snake took a little trip to Osaka market to pick up some groceries and all things good luck, like good fortune envelopes and chocolate dollars.
I also found these beautiful mushrooms.
Wok fried them with green onions and oyster sauce.
Then we realised the Grammys were just about to start. Goodbye lovely dining room, we'll be in the library if you want us. :)