wild weather

 It’s 11am Friday… we are sitting outside enjoying the wind rustling the leaves of the trees that shelter the deck. It’s hot and stinking humid - it feels like I’m wearing a wet flannel shirt but! I’m not complaining… We put the sunshade up but will take it down again this afternoon - ANOTHER severe thunderstorm is in the forecast for later… with the possibility of golf ball sized hail and a tornado. Jeesh!

Earlier, I dashed out to the hairdresser to get some of my hair lobbed off - Pamela was busy with another waiting so I took a chance on Debbie who hasn’t cut my hair before - she did good!

I’ll admit to being a lazy slug these last few days… aside from making focaccia yesterday and a clafouti with the excess cherries the day before (less than $2/lb!). Today or tomorrow I’ll make a cherry cake. The house needs a good vacuum and dust but I’m procrastinating on that - we’ll hold off until company is coming ;-)

It was a glut of zucchini the other day but after the pasta dish we are left with only a few small ones. Time to make another bean/zucchini salad!

I mentioned bacon and tomato sandwiches on my last post - well, we had our first 2 nights ago - I made one with focaccia, bacon, horseradish garlic mayo, lettuce, and of course, a thick slice of tomato straight from the garden and to gild the lily: thinly sliced rare roast beef. OMG! It was fantastic and a sure 5/5. If I got this in a restaurant I’d be blown away. Hence, another tray of focaccia made yesterday and popped into the freezer for the next round of unctuous garlicky sandwiches 🤪

The highlight of the week was lunch with Mom, Kirsten, and Shenna, at Red Lobster. Mom wanted to get her fill of seafood while she can still eat real food plus I was way overdue on the lunch I promised Mom for her birthday. We all gorged ourselves on shrimp and lobster - I had the endless shrimp which I did no justice to! It was all so delicious but gosh, so rich and filling.

After lunch we mooched around Value Village looking for deals. I didn’t find anything (gasp!) but Kirsten found a brown leather purse - she checked online and it was worth over $100! Shenna picked up a few clothes, including a black velvet dress that looked nice on the hanger but wowzers! It was awesome when she tried it on.

… 11:40 and the sky is starting to sock in and the wind is picking up 😱

by 1pm we started getting some showers so we took the sunshade down… we were hardly home from getting the dogs nails done when, wham - we were hammered by wind and rain - it rained so hard that water came through the door! The cover for the sofa was thrown off and pillows went everywhere… Trees were thrashing around and the wind was roaring so we deeked into the closet (long story about not going to the basement). A few more trees down - one big one and 2 small ones. It was wild!

And of course I had a cake in the oven and black-eyed peas on the stove - I did turn off the burner and the oven before deeking into the closet… 

Awesome!

“bacon and tomato sandwich on focaccia”

“hot and muggy summer morning”

“first in line for a haircut”

july in a flash

 The days since I last wrote have flown by! July has passed in the blink of an eye. We spent 2 weekends ago at the trailer, then home for 2 days, cooking like crazy for supper for 11 people, back to Kirsten’s for a family gathering with Uncle Graham, home for 2 days, cooking like crazy for 12 people, at Kirsten’s for another night with most of the family again, and now home, exhausted and ready for a few days of leisure!

What have I been cooking? Well, for the first weekend at Kirsten’s I made black-eyed pea burgers and some salads (bean maybe?), for the second visit Kirsten made chicken and I brought roasted zucchini, a Thai noodle salad (that took me ages to get right) and the cinnamon cake, then for Saturday I brought roast beef for sandwiches, focaccia, roasted potatoes, and a broccoli salad. Since cherries are super cheap these days I made a double batch of chocolate chip cherry blondies - they were delicious so I made an extra tray for the freezer. Lots of leftovers, except for the desserts! Our family has a sweet tooth!

We came home yesterday and did a little update to the pergola to make getting the shade easier to get up. Today we brought the shade back down as there is a severe thunderstorm warning AGAIN!

After taking so long to actually produce, the zucchini has gone crazy! And the tomatoes have started. I foresee a bit of googling on ways to use zucchini! Tomorrow I’ll make a zucchini salad with some beans; today I roasted 2 big ones and tossed with pasta & grated cheese for a weak take on Stanley Tucci’s dish. And the tomatoes! Tomorrow we’ll have the first of tomato & bacon sandwiches :-)

The Thai basil is also going crazy (when I can keep it watered enough - those things are thirsty!)... I trimmed one of the big ones this afternoon.

Awesome!

“seeing Uncle Graham”

“family”

“a bright sunny day”

“the amazing yellow of a summer squash”

“heaps of Thai basil”

another downed tree

 Summer persists with days with sun, cloud, and one day, threatening rain. Tuesday and Wednesday were beautiful with temps in the high 20s with a humidex in the low 30s. Perfect for chilling outside and for having supper on the deck.

Today, not so much! We’ve taken the shade down as there is a tornado watch again… 

(later in the day: I hid out in the closet for a bit this afternoon as we were hit with an incredible storm. One huge poplar tree was blown down and another is down but tangled up in another tree… a tornado did touch down in Barrhaven)

Monday I spent the morning (aside from a quick trip to the grocery store), in the kitchen making barbeque black-eyed pea burgers - 18 of them! They are tucked away in the freezer ready to grab and heat for an easy plant-based meal, even for a crowd. Covid did a bad thing to our diet - as the months wore on, more and more meat and cheese and eggs made up our meals - it’s time now to get back into healthier eating.

We are not going to become die-hard vegans again but will try to make more meatless meals with only the occasional bit of beast.

Lately for lunch I’ve been harvesting some lettuce leaves, topping them with homemade hummus and avocado, then rolling them up into ruffled cylinders - yum!

Tuesday night was our last night of agility… I have to decide if I’ll sign up for another round of classes. Lupa is doing reasonably well and it seems to be fun for her but there’s lots of standing around waiting. Our last run was A-frame, tunnel, jump, jump, tire, tunnel, dog walk! Almost a whole course! There were a few glitches but she was great :-)

The agility is a bit like ballroom dancing - there’s lots of technique/body language cues that I can’t seem to get right - it’s amazing that I don’t fall on my face as I’m running around the ring. I can’t always remember to shout out the right cue…

A bit more time travel: Sunday we traipsed into the city with the dogs for their annual dental cleaning. The technicians said they both did great, but who really knows how they were! Their teeth are shiny and white again. We took advantage of being next door to a shwarma place ;-) Two giant tables were crowded with Middle Eastern families eating giant platters of food. Saturday Mom and Dad came for a late afternoon visit :-) It was a lovely afternoon and not too hot for a change so we could sit outside - I should have gotten a photo as Mom went all out with blue and white attire to match the deck - all the blue made her eyes look incredible! Friday night we went to Trudie & Leo’s for supper.

Awesome!

“Mom’s bright blue eyes”

“stacks of vegan burgers in the freezer”

“roasted mushrooms in the actifry”

“a whole course with only a few hiccups”

company

 It’s another one of those long, hot summer days that makes me limp in a ‘peaceful easy feeling’ sort of way. The mercury climbed into the mid 30s with the humidity in the air feeling like a caress. It’s the sort of day that brings to mind lazy days of my youth when summer seemed to last forever. It’s the sort of day that would be hell if you lived in the city with no air conditioning and no pool.

Yesterday was much the same but instead of being limp, we were invigorated by company. Tina and Bruce arrived mid afternoon… we quickly said our hellos, unloaded their cooler into the fridge and freezer, donned our bathing suits, then floated under the blazing sun for ages. Fingers and toes were pruned by the time we climbed out. Time for a cold drink and a few snacks on the deck under the awesome sunshade.

I love our deck!!!

We sat for ages talking about everything and nothing until the cool waters beckoned again. After that it was time to start sorting out supper (Bruce’s Greek chicken, our ribs, roasted potatoes & arugula, and of course smashed Asian cucumber salad). No onomous cumulonimbus clouds marred the perfect afternoon and evening. Of course, after we had our feast we had to redunk ourselves. It was bloody hot, even in the early evening. 

The first mosquito showed up around 9pm, driving us inside, and finally, not too much later, to bed. We are getting old!

“Dancin' in the moonlight

Everybody's feelin' warm and bright

It's such a fine and natural sight

Everybody's dancin' in the moonlight” -Toploader

This morning we were all up early - Tina & Bruce did yoga on the back deck while I wrangled the dogs in the backyard… (but gosh, that looks like a nice way to wake up!). I dunked in the pool quickly then went in to take care of coffee and breakfast. Back out on the deck, we lingered over coffee, eggbites, and blueberry cake until the pool called to us again.

Heaven, bliss, paradise, company… it was a marvellous 24 hours!

The rest of the afternoon, after sending them on their way,  we spent reading in our outside haven, a slight breeze ruffling the leaves on the trees, an accompaniment to the music that has been pouring out my speaker since yesterday. It’s a short distance over scorching decking to the pool and I made the trek several times. But I have to balance being in the sun with being in the shade away from the high UV…

I feel greedy for the heat - I need to get my fill now to carry me through a long winter (but who wants to think of the dreaded ‘W’ word just yet).

Awesome!

“company”

“our deck!”

“scale hitting another low”

“picking a huge bowl of arugula to mix with roasted potatoes”

“spicy, garlicky cucumbers”

no sharks here

 My eyes were squinted against the blazing sun as I bobbed in the cooling waters made blue by the mosaic pool liner. I could imagine, especially with the blue sky, that I was in the Caribbean floating in the enormous sea. With no potential for shark bite.

The weather has been unsettled for days now so I took my chances and uncovered the sofa on the deck, settling back with some books. I finished ‘Everybody Lies’, which was an interesting discussion on using big data for social science research. Then I bounced around between Canadian literary authors Alice Munroe and Hugh Mclennen, with a little detour to William Zinsser’s ‘Writing to Learn’. 

Now that I’ve got the library app on my tablet, the options are endless, although ‘Writing to Learn’ is only a sample from Google Books - it’s not in the library. I’ve read other books about writing authored by William Zinsser and have been inspired by his prose. I might fork out the money!

As I lay suspended by the cool water I pondered my love for all things blue & white and how they recall the contrast between blue sky and white clouds. They are the colours of summer, the colours of languid days and cooling waters.

Yesterday I downloaded the Alice Munroe book and revelled in her mastery of the language and her ability to draw me into the hard-scrabble lives of the characters. Her use of punctuation and sentence structure moves her stories along as much as the words. It’s brilliant but also awful. Her characters are flawed and their lives are often desperate with poverty which makes for an uncomfortable read. I vacillate between awe and depression. She’s one of my favourite authors but one that I can only read for short periods.

Awesome!

“hot humid day”

“smoked salmon wrapped in lettuce from the garden”

circus of the sun

 I sat back, letting the performance move me to another plane of reality. Troupes of aerialists, jugglers, trampoline jumpers, and others, drew me into a magical world where gravity ceased to exist. Oh to be gently floating over the crowd, suspended by huge helium balloons, my journey helped by audience members pushing me back into the air. Yes, we were at Cirque du Soleil, in person, not bobbing in a pool on a giant cruise ship watching a recording on the massive movie screen! It was awesome and magical and fantastic.

With no worries about the dogs being left alone for hours and hours, (Pat was dropping in to spend some time with them), it was easy to let myself be immersed in the magic. Big thanks to Stephanie for getting tickets arranged :-)

Going back ever further into the past, Thursday was a day of hurry up and then chill on the deck in our fantastic shady nook… it really is a slice of paradise. The morning and early afternoon was spent getting some prep done for Friday night’s stay at the villetta, and a dash of cleaning and prep for supper that night with Pat and Marie. 

Carm took a few hours in the afternoon to get new rubber on the truck. Fresh tires for rolling down the road… The truck is a 2007 but doesn’t have much mileage on it - we are hoping that the beast runs for many, many more years.

It was a lovely evening on Thursday with Pat and Marie. The mosquitos held off until almost 9pm so we were able to enjoy a summer supper outside. I had planned to make a new recipe - Greek Orzo - but alas, I could not find the orzo anywhere in the house (had I taken it ALL to the trailer?) So I fudged it with regular rigatoni instead, but added too much water and too much pasta; everyone else thought it was good but I was disappointed with my errors…

Friday morning I was up at the crack of dawn to get the rest of the food made for Friday night. Getting the Cinnabon Cinnamon Cake into the oven took much longer than I anticipated, but it seems to be worth it. I’ve saved the recipe into my favourites :-) The long baking time gave me a chance to get the rest of the food prepared.

It was a last minute affair so I didn’t have time to get much prepared for supper and went with my old standby: rice with sausage, roasted red peppers, and fresh basil. I also harvested the Swiss Chard that we accidentally planted (we thought it was red leave lettuce!). I chopped up the stems, added some onion, sauteed them, then added the leaves - I loved it and will be planting it again, this time on purpose :-) I also brought the Asian cucumber salad that has become a staple in our house.

It was our annual beginning of summer get together at Kirsten’s with Olaf, Stephanie, and Freya - unfortunately Graham didn’t make it and Shawn was in New Zealand so it wasn’t a full on sibling night. It was another lovely evening so we crammed around the table on the patio by the pool. There were lots of laughs (mostly at Shawn’s expense - he was on the phone with us), at times I was almost on the floor with laughter. And then Carm said how small I felt when he was hugging me but that I seemed so big when he wasn’t… well… I couldn’t breathe I was laughing so hard!

All this laughing was joy at being together, but also, it was a slightly hysterical reaction to sad news… 

The evening ended for us with the appearance of the first mosquito (almost 9pm again!).

Before we left for Cirque we took down our shade cloth… there was a severe thunderstorm warning with potential for tornados so we didn’t want to risk it with us being away. It came down easily (I’d be able to do it myself). Putting it back up was another thing! It was definitely a 2 person and one step ladder job. It took less than 10 minutes though so it was not too onerous.

Lupa got shorn today - 40 minutes, with Carm’s help, and she no longer looks like a ragamuffin!

I made a discovery this weekend… the last time I was at Kirsten’s I had horrible leg cramps a few of the nights. I tried everything: gatorade, magnesium, water, salt… nothing worked. And then on Friday night (again at the trailer), they started again. WTH! What was it about being at Kirsten’s that caused such agony? I even had muscle cramps when I visited them in NZ… so what could it be? Black licorice! Sure enough, I checked google and there it was, it can cause cramps among other things. The crazy thing is that last week, as I was walking around trying to alleviate them, I was also nibbling on MORE black licorice! DOOH.

Awesome!

“being with family”

“an afternoon on the deck”

“suppers outside”