Help!

Blogging A to Z  for April sounds great but can I do it?

I thought about it and decided I was going to try but I am adding a twist to it - I am going try to do a recipe a day (preferably one that I have done) following the alphabet.  If I don't have a recipe for that letter I will post about something else.  I know, I could be called a cheater doing it that way after I said that I would do a recipe a day but there aren't a lot of foods that start with X that I have used in cooking.

I have another problem as well - I can't remember who had the Blogging from A to Z on their site and am not sure of all the parameters.  I feel like an idiot because I went back and looked at some of the few blogs I follow but can't seem to find it.  Help!!

Playing in the dirt!

I spent part of the yesterday morning banging together my rickety old shelf unit that I use for putting my seed flats on.  The rest  of the morning and part of the afternoon  I spent filling my trays with soil and then finally seeding them in.  I had quite a number of seeds that had come as part of an Italian seed kit.  I don't even know if they will germinate but am willing to give them a go.

I, very briefly, panicked when I thought I had absolutely no tomato seeds.  Luck would have it that I had two types of seed that I very happily discovered inside another bag!  What a relief!  I know I could just jump into my van and zip over to one of the local greenhouses and pick some up.  The problem is that most of what I plant are heritage seeds and they only carry a very small variety - none of which I grow.  So, you can understand why my heart sank for a few moments.

What did I plant?  Well, let me see...   There are some gigante di napoli parsley, some romas, Genovese basil, ramata di milano onions (I've never started onions from seed before - should be interesting.), Chinese cabbage,Striato d'italia zucchini, Violetta Lunga 2 eggplants, ramoso clabrese broccoli, yellow, green and red peppers, acorn squash, Cuor di bue tomatoes, Listada de gandia eggplant, long purple eggplant, black beauty eggplant, wild grape seeds, and a hot paper lantern pepper - a haberno type of pepper.  I still would like to start a couple other varieties of tomatoes as we really like the black ones and a small red one called princepe borghese -which is a medium-sized cherry tomato that is not sweet and incredibly prolific and delicious! Hopefully I won't get them too late to plant...

Once everything comes up and it warms up outside (ha!) I will set up my small greenhouse (my daughter got for me one Mother's Day!) on the deck so they can get a nice jump on the season.  I am not going to hold my breath about the warming up part as we still have a good three feet of snow out there and it isn't going anywhere fast!!  Melting is just a word at this point - it was -13Celsius last night and still well under zero. Tonight is supposed to be the same.  It is supposed to be over zero by the end of the week but I've heard this rumour before! lol

Last night was Earth Hour. We invited friends over and shared some lovely raspberry/saskatoon wine and  tea wine.  I had made some foccoccia earlier (we hadn't eaten supper), and had that as well as some smoked fish and smoked cheese.  It was all very relaxing by candlelight.  We were quite shocked later when we turned on a low watt light to look at some pictures how glaring the electric light appeared and how blinded we were by the difference!

I was going to post a couple pictures but they will have to wait - I crashed my computer this afternoon and am reloading a few necessary items back into it...lol  

Have a good one!

Japan

As with anyone who has seen videos or pictures of the earthquake and resulting circumstances in Japan, I felt a deep sorrow for them.  All we can really do, if we are not a person with appropriate skills to go over and help, is to donate to the Red Cross in hopes that it will help them alleviate some of the destruction and to rebuild.

As a small sign of respect I wrote a poem:


earth convulsed
water tsunamied
fire spews toxic 
air.
hope left.

Soapmaking - the real deal

I can hardly wait until the end of March/beginning of April when I have spring break.  It is not because we are going anywhere exotic, or even cross-country; hell we're not even leaving town!  I am pretty happy about just hunkering down and doing things that need a couple days to do - like soapmaking.

I love making soap almost as much as I love making bread.  Not the melt and pour stuff that you can buy in a large craft store but the real deal.  The kind of soap that makes you say "mmm" when you smell it and when it lathers up it is creamy and fresh smelling.  The kind of soap that you just know that only natural ingredients are in it.

I used to make huge quantities of handmade soap and sell it when my kids were little.  It helped to supplement our income and allowed me to stay at home with them.  As well, I wasn't allergic to it and it made the whole house smell great while it dried!

The hardest part that I find when I make soap is deciding which of my twenty-three different scents to make! Do I do my Rosemary is for Remembrance, Citrus Sunshine (hubby's favourite), Christmas in the Wilderness (one of my favourites), or do I do Euphoria or maybe Aphrodite's Delight?  I know for sure that I am making a batch of Aphrodite's Delight already for a couple friends who sell honey-based products.  It is a lovely, light soap with all of their honey's nourishing properties. 

Making soap is not hard, it just requires a few safety precautions and patience.  Generally, it takes about three hours from set-up to the end of clean-up to make a batch of soap.  Then it has to sit overnight before you can cut it.  After that, it has to sit for a month before you can use it.  A lot of recipes say to let it sit for only two weeks before you can use it but I am more comfortable with a month.  It needs that extra timeframe to become milder and it allows the bars to harden.  My batches are large because I have only the large frames and large recipes that I developed when I made it in bulk.  Forty-eight bars of soap will last us awhile so choosing the one I want to use for a long time is important - to me anyway.

I am hoping to possibly do a picture tutorial of sorts when I make it - so come and join me sometime in the beginning of April when I make a batch!  Hopefully, life won't throw me any curve balls and prevent me from it.

Pineapple Vinegar and a mini-rant on sustainability

I like making anything I can from scratch.  Sure, I can go down to the local grocery store and pick up most anything that I want or need but I really like the satisfaction that comes with making it myself.  I also believe that a lot a people, including myself, need to do more of this to pass it down for future generations.  I am not talking about sitting them down and explaining all the ins and outs or insisting that this is the only way to do things.  Just by making them aware that things can be made, and that the added bonuses are that they are less likely to be full of chemicals (if it comes from your garden) and that it is a lot cheaper to make your own. I work in a high school and it continually amazes me how many young people have no idea how to make even basic foods or even where they come from.  

We rely too much on our marketing system to provide for us.  We need to be more self-sufficient and to extricate ourselves from a lot of questionable farming products and manufactured foods.  I don't think at this point in time that any of us could or would want to be completely independent of the greater world but some self-sustainability could go a long way to making the world a healthier place both for us and the land.

That said, I realize that imported pineapples are not local but I have wanted to try to make some pineapple vinegar for the longest time and up until now, I have always composted the peels.  (Yes - I feel somewhat guilty after my little rant!) Today, my desire to make vinegar finally came to fruition.  I had two lovely pineapples to cut up.  I saved the peelings and put them, well chopped, into a two quart jar.  I had already added about 1/3 cup of brown sugar to the non-chlorinated water so just poured it in.  It now sits covered, on my countertop.  Covering something like this is important.  It needs oxygen to breathe, so a clean cloth  is necessary.  As well, the cloth has to be secured  down to keep those pesky little fruit flies out!

I understand that it  has to now sit for a couple weeks, be strained and then sit again in a dark place to develop into vinegar.  This is very similiar to what I did to make cider vinegar, except I actually used organic apple juice rather than the apple peels to make it.  My other vinegars - red and white wine, cider, and malt - are surprisingly good.  We are especially enamoured with the white wine vinegar for our salads and the cider on our homemade fries.

I will post the pineapple vinegar's progress as the weeks go on.

Shave for the Brave Cancer Support

Canada is blessed with a population is that is incredible when it comes to helping a worthy cause.  There are so many wonderful folks out there that take time to organize, find pledges, and do many kindhearted things to help others out.

I would like to introduce you to one such individual - Laurita Miller.  Anyone who has had cancer or whose heart has been touched by someone with cancer should check out Laurita Miller's newly renamed site Calling Shotgun .  She has a huge heart and has collected an enormous amount of pledges for youth cancer.  On top of all that, this kindhearted woman and her equally kind son have joined together to show support by shaving their hair all off!

Enough said.  This deed speaks volumes for itself. Check it out - it is so worth your time!

First Annual Cabin Fever Writing Competition First Place Winner 1

 Now that we  have an (appropriately) good, strong March blizzard roaring outside, I would like to thank everyone who participated and just say that I was very impressed with everyone's pieces.  I hope everyone will join us, once again next year at the same time.

I was glad that I didn't have to pick the winner as it would have been a difficult decision to make! I once again must thank our very generous judges for all their time and effort!

Now that you have had time to enjoy and peruse our second and third place winner's entries, it is time to announce our first place winner for the First Annual Cabin Fever Writing Competition. Anyone that has had a previous opportunity to read her work will agree that she continually amazes us with her writing.

Our inaugural first place winner for this year is none other than Cathy Webster Olliffe!! 

A witty and talented Canadian writer, Cathy Webster Olliffe hearkens from the "boonies" (as she puts it) of Bracebridge, Ontario.  She lives near the incredibly beautiful and scenic Muskoka River in a very old and authentic  log cabin!  Who better suited to a cabin fever competition than her?  Besides being a talented writer and blogger, she is also a graphic artist. You can read her blog called  "Life on the Muskoka River" at her site:  http://muskokariver.blogspot.com/

I was alternately, claustrophobic and despairing when I read her piece.   Now that I have been able to distance myself a little, I know that our judges have chosen well.  Her piece literally made me feel as though I was suffocating.

Our judges remarked that Cathy's piece was the "Perfect embodiment of the theme!  -so tight in the narrative - with regards to information - yet sylistic elements still present in spite of conciseness -  well thought out and paced - dramatic!"

Here is her winning piece:


One, two, three, four, five, six.
Six paces wide.
He turned in the corner and started counting out the depth.
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine.  Almost ten.
A black rectangular box.
A coffin with a bunk bed, a sleeping bag, a few provisions and an
unknown quantity of oxygen.
Buck flopped down on the bunk and tried to relax, mindful of the
limited air supply.  It was tough not to be agitated, though, when you
were on a mountainside in a trapper's cabin, buried under an
avalanche.
He was the trapper.  This was his cabin.  He'd built it out of logs thirty
years ago.
Thirty years.  Six paces wide.  Ten paces long.
The numbers piled up in his head.  He was obsessing on them, he
knew, but he couldn't help it.  He wasn't sure how long he'd been
trapped in the cabin, but it was at least a day.
Twenty-four hours.  Thirty years.  Six paces. Ten paces.
How long before the air ran out?  Another hour?  Another day?  How
long before they found his body?  Spring?  Summer?  This year? Next
year?
So much to count.
He leapt to his feet and paced.


Congratulations, Cathy!  I will be sending out your prize sometime this week.  Here is a sneak peak of a couple of your goodies:

 

 

Congratulations, Cathy!

Included in your prize is a pair of vibrant red (honestly they are - they just don't look that way in the picture..lol) earrings from Jeannine Elder from Neepawa and of course, a Timmy's card to help make it through those long winter days.  There are also a couple of other small surprises coming your way, as well.

First Annual Cabin Fever Writing Competition - 2nd Prize

I promised to post the picture of Barb's second place prize.  Here it is!!
There is a pair of lovely earrings from Jeanine Elder of Neepawa and a Timmy's card for those all important caffeine fixes!

First Annual Cabin Fever Writing Competition 2

Well, it is now time to reveal our most worthy second-place writer.  She is well-known for her music reviews, has a very uniquely named and incredibly popular blog called the Bad Tempered Zombie .  I am not even sure how to describe her as I have known her for quite a long time - literally more than a couple of decades!  She is a wonderful, unique person, who is immensely talented at whatever she puts her mind and pen to. ( I am totally biased here, which is why I had to have impartial judges to decide on our winners.)

Barbara Bruederlin freelances out of Calgary.  She writes reviews for several music magazines.  Her knowledge of Indy music astounds me, (she can vouch for the fact that I am a complete Luddite in this area - lol) and I am always impressed by the depth and humour in her writing.  Our judges commented that there was "great use of colour - like points of punctuation" and that the poem was "Enigmatic, has me guessing/posturing but (the) sense of dread and hopelessness is strong."  She also writes Haiku  and occasionally posts it on her blog.  Barb was one of a few individuals that chose to submit a piece of poetry for Cabin Fever.

Congratulations, Barb!


Here is her poem:

barricade

Blood red walls

bear silent witness to

the death

of dreams.

Periwinkle

beckons you to the water,

offering glimpses of escape.

Day pass.

Stay of execution.

When the pounding stops,

when the water stops, 

silence descends.

Silence follows you to the grey room.

Silence peers through frozen glass with dead eyes.

Silence cannot escape this wall of white.

The dead world holds you firm inside this cage

I will be sending your prizes sometime next week.  They include a beautiful pair of earrings from Jeanine Elder of Neepawa, and a Tim Horton's card, as well as a couple little surprises.  Unfortunately, the batteries are dead in my camera so I will post the picture of them tomorrow after it is charged.  (My apologies - I feel like a bit of a smuck for not being more prepared with the camera!)

First Annual Cabin Fever Writing Competition

I must apologize because of how spread out this has wound up being.  I had originally intended on announcing the winners every second day but life interfered so it has to be one a week.  Hopefully, this just adds to the excitement of who will be  featured.

I will be revealing our wonderful second place winner tomorrow (Saturday) for the First Annual Cabin Fever Writing Competition. 

Stay tuned!

First Annual Cabin Fever Writing Competition

I woke to a wonderful, sunny winter day.  It made me smile looking out the window.  The catch was that it was -30.4C (-22.7F) with a wind chill of -43C (-45.4F)!   I was up, literally bright and early to see my poor hubby off to work monitoring a fishing derby on Lake of the Prairies.  If it was this cold here, I can only imagine how cold it was going to be for him in the middle of the lake (another 3 hours north of here) with the wind howling across.

What an appropriate day to reveal the first of our writers to win a prize! 

I would now like to introduce our judges.  Tara Leach is a wonderfully creative teacher,extraordinary artist both on the stage and in the traditional sense.  Monica Donnelly  is another great teacher, world traveller and published poet!  They both very generously took the time to peruse the entries and choose who they felt should be featured.

The criteria was simply that all entries had to be under 200 words. I was delighted that not only was prose sent but poetry as well!  I want to thank all who participated - the entries were welcome and well-written.  I hope everyone will join us again next year at the same time.

It is now time for the our third place winner to be announced -  (Think drum roll and cheering here!)

As one of our most talented writers, Laurita Miller offered us a haunting piece that left us wanting to know more.  Laurita is from our east coast and her site has recently been awarded first place in the  Canadian Blog Award for the Culture and Literature category.  Her site called "Brain Droppings" is multi-faceted and interesting to read.  She not only writes incredibly well but has a huge heart and is currently working on a fundraiser for cancer and will be shaving her locks in March, since she has not only reached her goal but exceeded it as well! You can check out her site at http://ringkeeper.blogspot.com/2011/02/in-defense-of-coolth.html

Now for the main event:

Cabin Fever by Laurita Miller

She woke when the book fell from her lap. The evening sky, dark and smoky grey, told of looming snow. Where was Bern? He was very late. Very late.

She pushed up from her rocking chair. The old floor creaked, but it was warm, a blessing on a night like this. She paced the room – three, four times – then went to the back door. Snow drifted high over the porch and stretched, pristine and shimmering, for as far as she could see.

How long since she’d been outside? Two days? A week? She moved to the window and looked out upon the snow covered laneway.  No footsteps, no tires marred the frosty ripples and waves. She longed to go out, but knew she would not make it far. New flakes, plump and heavy, swirled against the glass.

She would wait for Bern. He would be back soon.



 Congratulations, Laurita!

Laurita, I will send off your well-deserved prize which includes a pair of beautiful handmade candles made by Roger and Cathy Desilet of the Ravenscreek Farms near Oakburn, MB, a Brown Sugar Keeper from Steve Jorganson Pottery Studio in Winnipeg, MB and a Timmy's Card for one of those much needed caffeine fixes.  I will be tucking in a little extra surprise as well!

Congratulations on your win  Laurita!

First Annual Cabin Fever Writing Competition Winners

The stories written for the First Annual Cabin Fever Writing Competition were amazing!  I expected no less from everyone and that is what was sent.  I had several entries and the judges took their time deciding who would be the worthy winners.  (|Although, I must admit that I thought the stories submitted were all great and should all be winners!)  I am quite pleased with their choices, as I think all of you will be as well!  I will only be posting the top three stories, starting with our third place writer.

Watch for the first story tomorrow to be posted tomorrow afternoon - (Saturday)! 

Thinking about Eamon Mac Mahon

Kiwi, our dog

I recently bumped into a documentary show called "Snapshot" on television about Eamon Mac Mahon. (check out his website at www.eamonmacmahon.com) Besides being incredibly impressed with the quality of his photography and the extensive variety of his work, I was also quite taken with the portrayal of his character.

One of the comments that was made (and I am very loosely quoting as I am not sure if I wrote it down correctly because I couldn't find paper right away-but the jist of it is correct) was:

"You can always see what a person thinks of another by the type of photographs they take of them."

I was really struck by this insight; so much so, that I went back and had a look at pictures I had taken over the years and recently.  It was with a huge sigh of relief to realize that pretty much all the pictures I have taken of people have been, maybe not exceptional, but definitely decent and respectful.  I did have to laugh when I found a couple I had taken of myself and realized that they were borderline awful - Now, I had to ask myself if is this a reflection of my opinion of myself?  Or was it that I just have really short arms and my camera doesn't focus all that well on such a close distance?  Hmm.  I think I prefer to go with the short arm theory.  lol

How do your photographs stack up?

A Prairie Locavore

Aren't these local apples beautiful?

 There has been a lot of talk lately about eating locally or at least regionally.  In many regions of Canada it would be impossible to find enough food to sustain a family's food needs for an entire year without importing it from some other region.  The flip side of this, of course, is that there are also many regions and locales that can provide a decent, balanced food supply that can be preserved, canned, frozen or otherwise put aside for consumption off-season.

Zucchini in our garden

We are blessed in this area with a great deal of variety in our local foods.  Within a 100 miles (or so), we have everything from pork, poultry, cattle, dairies, wheat, and fruit and vegetable farms.  It is relatively easy to eat well and not have to travel far to get good, nutritious food.  We are, however, restricted to a very short growing season when it comes to plant production.  This means that we have to preserve a great deal of food in order to make it through the winter season.  Unless you live on an acreage or farm, it would be impossible to provide/grow enough food to sustain a family from one growing season to another.  Farmers and farmer's markets can make that important difference when it comes to putting food by.

I have a confession to make - I really like reading cookbooks, particularly small-town and regional ones.  I recently picked up a couple older cookbooks from a book sale.  One in particular caught my eye.  It is called The Prairie Cook's Book edited by Betty Ternier Daniels, illustrated by Betty Sadoway and printwork was done byWendy Borsheim.  The book itself is the size of a standard piece of typing paper - about 8.5 x 11.5.  The cover looked like someone had copied lovely hand drawn the images and beautiful handwritten calligraphy.  Flipping through the cookbook, I realized that the entire book, all two hundred pages of it, was all hand-written and copied to create this book- obviously before computers were popular!  Upon further inspection, I noticed that it was published in Saskatchewan.  Unfortunately, there is no date as to when it was published but I did a bit research and as far as I can determine, it was published probably about twenty-eight years ago. 

This cookbook was way ahead of it's time when it was published.  Betty Daniels says in her introduction that

"this cookbook is designed to help make you independent of the international food system, its recipes contain very few processed foods. You won't need to buy canned soup or packaged biscuit mix to follow these recipes. If you can't raise the ingredients yourself, you will be able to buy them from local farmers.  Not only will you reduce your dependence on the international market place; you will also save money and get better-tasting food that is free from additives and you'll reduce the a mount of packaging that you throw in the garbage as well...As these recipes will demonstrate, a diet composed entirely of prairie foods is not a spartan one.  We can grow a lot of good food!"

Apple juice from a friend's apples

I am truly impressed with this cookbook - the recipes are easy, nutritious and have a huge amount of variety within them.  There is everything from paneer, yogurt, enchiladas, to graham wafers and fruit juices.  As well, there are recipes for sauerkraut, chutney, dill pickles as well as rose-hip catsup.  You know a cookbook is truly from the Canadian prairies when it also includes detailed instructions on how to make a prairie favourite - Saskatoon wine!

"Pie, pie, me oh my!"

I had taken a picture of the pie I had made for the kids/teenagers/students at school just because it was so enormous.  I had made an agreement with them if they worked hard and kept at their GIS (geographic information systems) work that I would make them a pie at the end of the term.  They stuck with it and all completed the course, helping each other (and me!) enormously along the way.  Such a great group!  I made the pie and it was huge - comparable to about 6 pies. I also made a little saskatoon pie for the ones that didn't like apple.  The kids loved it and ate everything but one tiny little piece, which I gave to another teacher who very much deserved it as well. I am just thankful the darn thing turned out as well as it did because pie making is not my strongest suit.  

I was doubly pleased when one of the girls from the class approached me in the hallway about two weeks later and said she had made an apple pie that weekend!  She was so tickled pink about it because she had never made one before.  Teenagers never cease to amaze me, which is probably why I continue to work in a high school.

First Annual Cabin Fever Writing Competition Judging

I have just printed off all the entries to the "First Annual Cabin Fever Writing Competition."  I am excited about taking these over to our judges and finding out who will be the winner!  I am hoping to post the stories sometime next week.  Every second day I will start posting with our third place winner, second place winner and finally our first place winner.   

I must apologize in the delay for posting anything about the competition as I have been down with a bout of bronchitis for the past week.  Hit me like a lead balloon and just as nasty.  I am happily back at work as of yesterday - kind of tired but ready to roll.

Watch for results and thank you to everyone who has participated.  Everything I have seen come through has been top-notch!

Good luck to everyone who entered and have made this possible!

Picture Perfect

The cedars in my front yard.

Under the huge cedar tree at my front entrance.

I think I have fallen in love with taking pictures - there are just so many exquisite, beautiful things to enjoy in my world. The pictures allow me to rediscover them even when the season is past.

Looking up into our maple trees in the backyard.

 
My lovely yard offers me so much.

In their winter frost.

 I love the textures of things that have braved the elements.

Bricks waiting to become part of our cabin.

Nature's backyard leaf art.

The really neat thing about these pictures is that none of these has been doctored (except for adding my name to the leaf art picture), this is exactly how I took these pictures and how they have come out.  The natural world doesn't need visual doctoring - it just needs to be appreciated for how wonderful it already is.

Don't you love the texture of our firepit?  It looks so tactile! 

On top of our firepit in the backyard.

First Annual Cabin Fever Writing Competition Deadline

For everyone that is submitting your entry for the First Annual Cabin Fever Writing Competition  - the deadline is today!!  Hard to believe that the 31st is here already!

To submit:  Simply post your story and it will come through my email.

I am really looking forward to everyone's submissions!  So far, they are looking wonderful!

Good luck

First Annual Cabin Fever Writing Competition

I just wanted to remind everyone that the date for "First Annual Cabin Fever Writing Competition" is getting near.  I am so excited about doing this - I hope to see a few submissions!

Just as a refresher - here are the guidelines:

"First Annual Cabin Fever Competition" - the inaugural topic this year will be - what else but cabin fever!" It should be 200 words or less... and the timeline would be ... say the end of January? The 31st?

Good luck to everyone who submits a story!

"Wine-ing" away

I made some rhubarb wine in 2008 from some rhubarb I had frozen the previous summer.  I think I had about 15 lbs or so of it to use for a batch of wine.   It was frozen in large, heavy bags of about 5lbs each and took what seemed like forever for it to thaw out.  Into the primary bucket it all went along with the yeast and other winemaking powders to help it along the way.  It started out fine - smelled great, in fact!

Then, life interfered and I got pneumonia.  As a result of this, I forgot to move it into the secondary after the allotted amount of time.  It sat there for a good couple weeks or so extra before I could work up the energy to filter it into the secondary and put an airlock on it.  I knew that it was still possibly salvageable but not a hundred percent sure.  I consulted with my local wine guru and he said it would either oxidize, which is one step or so away from being vinegar, or turn to sherry.  In other words, I could toss it or play the odds.  I decided to play the odds.

Now it is 2011 and we decided to crack open a bottle of that dubious "wine."   I rummaged around the basement shelves to locate it, dusted it off and carried a bottle of it upstairs with a little bit of trepidation.  We grabbed a couple wineglasses and cracked it open.  I took a sniff of the bottle and wasn't too sure what I was smelling.  I poured a couple glasses and let it sit for a few minutes before sampling it.  We both took a sip and realized that we indeed had sherry!  It seems really sweet on the first sip but this diminishes after a couple sips.  Unfortunately, it also has a kick like a mule.  The flavour is good though - definitely a nice surprise considering that I had no high hopes for it at all.  It starts out sweet but ends on a more wine-like note.  It is not at the commercial level by any stretch of the imagination but it was pleasant, especially after a glassful or two!  Mind you, with the amount of alcohol in it, after that glass or two it could taste like a glass of swamp water and be fine.  I am hoping in another year or so it will be really good - probably wistful thinking on that though.

Cruel Fate

He stopped for a moment before he went in. He knew it was going to be difficult and wasn't sure how he was going to approach everyone. It wasn't until later that he knew that nothing he did or said would have changed the outcome.

It all started before the funeral, during the viewing. There were awkward silences and furtive glances. In his grief, he didn't have a clue about these. Later, he would wonder at this and feel as though they were all travelling the same direction but on different highways and no matter how hard he tried, he could not make them converge and become one.

When they shut the coffin, he finally realized what all the fuss was about.  Him.

Candy of the North

I watched him slowly and methodically cut open the carcass. His hands moved with the surety that only comes with experience. As I gazed up at him, I shivered with anticipation as his knife slid into the eye socket and deftly removed the glutinous, very round, black globe that once held sight. It slid sideways down the face, still attached by its optic nerve and its sheath. With a quick flip of his wrist, the knife slit the tentative join permanently. Shyly pleased and with a gap-toothed grin, he handed me this gem after giving it one more little slit on the side - the candy of the north.

Closet Poet

I was laughing to myself the other day, totally in sympathy, when I saw how the kids at school were struggling with poetry. With poetry, it either clicks right away and you get it or it doesn't and you have to struggle through. I have seen tons of kids struggle but enjoy the rewards of their struggle when they have their aha! moment. Compounding this is finding poems for a certain theme and understanding how to share and reword it into a critical essay with a reasonable amount of intelligence. Again, easy if it clicks - a real curse when it doesn't.

I was talking to a couple kids how I had had a themed poetry assignment when I was in high school and how I dealt with it. At that time, I mentioned that we also had a very small library and, unlike today, absolutely no internet for resources. Being a typical teenager, I procrastinated until I had only the weekend to do this long assignment and I had to work one of the two days at my part-time job. I think we had to find ten or so poems to use. I hit a dead-end getting poems because the library was closed by the time I was off work but I wasn't willing to call it quits - my marks were good and I wasn't willing to take a fall, especially because of my own idiocy. After a brief moment of thought (remember - time was of the essence), I sat down and popped off ten or so poems of varying lengths and styles dealing with the theme. I added made up names for the poets/authors and anonymous ones for some of the others. It was easy to write a critical review of the them because I had written them and knew exactly what the poet intended and the styles that were used! As I recall, I got one of my best marks for that assignment.

I still laugh to myself when I think of it!

(That little microsoft guy above says it all!)

Finally Smokin'

I walked around the house yesterday trying to figure out where the smoke smell was getting in. It seemed to permeate everywhere I went in the house. I had finally taken the first giant step of seasoning my new smoker that I got as a Christmas present. I knew I had set it up properly out of the wind and had been careful about going in and out so that the smoke wouldn't follow me in, so it was important to me that the house not smell like a smoker.

Everything went as it should have, the pucks advanced, the smoke poured out the top and the digital instruments gave temperature and time readouts. It finished shortly after dark and I removed the generator and covered up the smoker after it cooled and came back into the house.
I could still smell smoke throughout the house - I finally asked the youngest if she could smell it (she has a nose as sensitive as a puppy's sometimes) and she said no - only a little in the kitchen by the generator. So I thought it was because I had inhaled a few whiffs and the smell was stuck in my nose. Later that night, I groaned when I realized that it was me that smelled like a smoked sausage! I had forgotten how smoke adheres to hair and clothing and permeates it completely.

So, today I put back on my smokey clothes and went downstairs to put in some marbled cheddar cheese, cheddar cheese, paprika and coarse salt to smoke. I poured the salt and the paprika onto some coffee filters and put them on the racks and loaded up the cheese racks. I preheated the bisquette burner and put them all into the smoker. I kept checking the temperature but it didn't want to go over 60F and I needed it to go to about 80F. So I turned on the bottom burner and waited for it to heat up. It was going so slow - 2 degrees at a time...until finally I went out to check the connections. I laughed when I realized I had not put on the oven burner cord because I had planned on cold smoking the cheeses. It heated up quickly to 80 once I did that.

A couple hours later, I pulled out the cheese but left the salt and paprika in. I raised the temperature to 260 and prepared a chicken I had been marinating since yesterday for smoking. I used a Rickard's Red beer can chicken stand to put the chicken on and with a bit of olive oil and Italian dressing I put it into the smoker. Halfway through, the whole unit quit working!! I unplugged and replugged everything numerous times until it finally kicked in again. I guess you actually have to push the plug all the way in so it can connect properly! lol

I removed the salt and paprika after an hour with the chicken, cooled them and put them into jars to use later on. The salt is going to be wonderful on crusty buns and as a flavour enhancer. It is interesting how it turned from a bright white to a soft tan, which will continue to darken as it sits.

I decided to finish the chicken off in the oven inside the house and brought the bird in. It looks wonderful! I put a casserole of rice in to cook alongside. I think I will make a broccoli and raisin salad to eat as well to help balance out the possible saltiness of the chicken flavours.

We found that the chicken had a lovely, mild smoke flavour reminiscent of a very tender ham. It was so good. I can hardly wait to try smoking some trout and the back bacon (Canadian bacon) I have marinating in the fridge!

Who would have thought that smoking a piece of meat and some cheese could turn out so great!

Task at Hand

He noticed how she quietly went about doing it her way. She did it slowly and real careful like. Her cuts were clean, and precisely where they should have been.

He let out his breath slowly, so as not to disturb her. He knew his head would be on the line if he did and that was the last place he wanted to be. She turned and looked at him with no expression in her eyes. It was as if she was dead and stuffed, with glass eyes that held no feeling and no depth. He shivered despite himself and slowly handed her a clean cloth and some gut to finish up.

She bent back down and continued with the task at hand. As she placed the last piece in place, she let out a slow sigh like a gently deflating balloon that you could only see deflate and not hear. Finally, she turned to him and said, "Well, that's all I'm doing for today - you did a good job."

He smiled and picked up the heavy tubs. As he heaved them onto the dolly, he thought of when things were better. He wheeled them over to the freezer and carefully emptied the contents onto the shelves at the back, hanging the sausages from the hooks in the ceiling. Returning back to the operating room, he removed the bones and skulls, glad it wasn't him that was going to be dinner tomorrow.

Blackberry Widow

I am a Blackberry Widow. My husband got a Blackberry for work at the start of December. I knew he would be obsessed with it, initially anyway. He is a gizmo kind of guy and a Blackberry is a gizmo deluxe!

Previously, he always said he didn't see what the fascination was with Blackberries - they seemed to be like an addiction. He even said that he didn't know why people got so caught up with them and he couldn't imagine having one. What a pain to have your work follow you home, he said.

Then he got one.

At first, he was tentative about the Blackberry. Cautiously asking our daughters questions about how to do this or that. Then he began to explore on his own. He became like an armchair adventurer, delving into the abyss of the Blackberry. Like cocaine, it has sucked him deeper and deeper into its mysteries. Revealing itself, one small step at a time.

Then, the unbelievable happened! I called him for dinner one night and he couldn't put it down until he finished dealing with it's siren call. If you knew my husband, missing dinner is like cutting off one of his limbs. When he was younger, he would pace back and forth until I had a meal on the table, always anxiously awaiting his sustenance. I knew then, that the Blackberry had its hold on him.

As if he wasn't addicted enough, he received "Blackberries for Dummies" book for Christmas. I haven't seen or heard much from him since...I think he said something about downloading some apps but I'm not sure because I don't think he even knew I was there...was he even talking to me? Or to the Blackberry?

First Annual Cabin Fever Competition

How would you like to do something fun this January that will help celebrate (or not) the cold weather? How would you like to write a story or a poem for a potentially wonderful prize?

I am calling this my "First Annual Cabin Fever Competition" - the inaugural topic this year will be - what else but cabin fever!" It should be 200 words or less... and the timeline would be ... say the end of January? The 31st?

(I do reserve the right to disqualify anything that is very inappropriate, which still gives you tons of leeway...)

As a prize I will send the winner a little something...not sure what yet but it will be something great - something quintessentially Canadian - I will let you know closer to the date.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

I would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and the best of the season.

We were blessed with an exquisite amount hoar frost and no wind. It has been like driving through a winter wonderland for the past four days. So incredible! I felt like I was in a Christmas card at times, especially at night.

Christmas is winding down for us now. We just finished a lovely traditional dinner with lots of turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes and the like. Now, we are all lolling about enjoying the digestion process and sipping a little something. It was a different Christmas for us as this was the first time one of our daughters was not here for Christmas dinner! It felt so quiet but it was still lovely because we had our other daughter and my sister-in-law here.

Well, hopefully your Christmas was just as nice. Have a great day!

Half of a Whole

I followed him as he drove slowly down the street. It wasn't a long street; just a long, short journey. I wondered if he even noticed me as I drove behind him or if he was still so wrapped up in his thoughts that the outside world didn't really exist for him. I noticed only because I had to. I had been following him since he turned off the main road just before I turned and followed close behind him. I watched as he slowly made his way down the street and turned into a driveway about half way down the block.

The house was unassuming in the most unassuming way. It had almond coloured siding and brown trim that had once been very popular in the 60's and 70's. The picture window was covered by equally neutral drapery, again reminiscent of a past era. The house was well-maintained and had an air of quiet comfort, despite it's bland exterior. It was so reflective of the way he lived his life that it made me sigh quietly inside.

As I pulled into the driveway, I could see that he had waited for me. I turned off the engine, undid my seatbelt, and slowly climbed out. I could see his pleasure of seeing me reflected in his eyes but also the deep sorrow furrow his face. He held out his hand and folded mine gently into his as we quietly walked up the path to the front door. As he reached into his right pocket, I could hear his keys jingling quietly as a solitary bird leapt from the bush by the steps and flew off. He pulled them out and unlocked the door.

"I...I guess we had better get out some food," he said with a hesitancy that had never been there before.

Knowing that he was overwhelmed and would rather just go and sit, I swallowed and quietly replied, "Yes, I guess we had better do that. Why don't you just go and sit for a bit while I put it out?"

He looked at me for the first time that day, as if he was really seeing who I was. "I would like... like that, just to sit a minute before...before..."

"I know. This isn't easy is it?" I cut him off before he could say it out loud and we would both have to face the awful truth once again.

"No it isn't!...I just wish it wasn't at all!!" he barked out.

His vehemence surprised me. He had been so placid and accepting up till now. I hadn't realized how angry he was. I didn't blame him, it was so needless that she died the way she did. They had always been such a loving couple, so supportive of one another in their quiet way. I understood in a flash that he was now only one half of a whole and beginning to realize it himself.

Into the Void

I stood on the edge of a dream, distraught and completely disorientated. I felt it's remnants in my shattered soul; a tapeworm of terror coiled in my bowels of hidden thoughts. Snippets of truth intermixed with the dream creating an indiscernible reality. I lay in terror unable to thaw my frozen limbs and not really knowing if I had yet awakened.

I could still see my lovely home floating in the abyss of space; it was split in two - a torso ripped in half with multi-coloured tendons of wire and raw splinters of bone/studs exposed for all to see. Tendrils of ice cold horror coursed through my veins and filled me with despair as I realized that I could not reach my precious babies floating in the black void of neither here nor there. My screams shrank and were sucked into the silence of darkness; my husband slept, unconcerned and completely disconnected from the truth around him. I wept tears of hopelessness.

Lust, Baby Lust

He thought he could hear her heart beating. He paused briefly, surprised with the knowledge that it was his heart beating that he could hear.

Thump-pa-Thump-pathump-pathump.

He could hear it speeding up...pathump-pathump/pathumppathump...as she drew closer to him.

He inhaled her smell, the perfume that gave her a warm, spicy, fruity, all-female smell. Her essence undermined her perfume and added a warm, earthy undertone to it.

How he lusted after her breasts, so warm and hard with perfect pink aureoles. It made him drool just thinking about them. He wanted them so bad that he could almost taste them in his mouth. He ran his tongue around his lips, as if caressing them. He reached for her and she dodged him, turning away briefly. He started shaking with a rage that soon overwhelmed him; the desire for them that great. With a raucous cry, he grabbed at her once again and pulled her roughly towards him. She laughed, picked him up and undid her top so he could drink the nourishing milk that he so desperately wanted.

The Dad, the Daughter and the Snowman

This was an email I sent out to my husband's sisters. My husband loves to pull practical jokes and tease us all quite mercilessly. Our Youngest can be the same way. Here is one of their jokes:

Hi Guys,

I had to email you about this because it is such a rarity in our household that Hubby admits he was beat at his own game....lol

Hubby and the Youngest were joking back and forth and somehow it came up that the Youngest would make a snowman this afternoon before her Dad got home from work. Well, the bet was on and the stakes were high - Hubby bet the Youngest that she couldn't make a snowman this afternoon because the snow was too dry and not sticky enough to roll the balls for it.

So, the Youngest being the Youngest, and definitely a knock-off of Hubby when it comes to practical jokes, sat down and thought about this snowman. She knew that the snow was no good for rolling because it was too cold out but there was $20 bucks at stake....She came upstairs at lunch and consulted with me how to make snow sticky. We talked and decided that if she just made a bunch of slush it would stick enough to make a snowman. So, she headed off downstairs and got all dressed up to go make this snowman. I, in the meantime, left for work thinking that it would take her awhile to make this work of art.

I came home later and asked the Youngest about her snowman.

She said, "Didn't you see it? Dad said it had to be out front to count."

Now, I hadn't seen anything resembling a snowman, other than snowpiles, on the front lawn. When I said I hadn't seen anything she said to look on the front step. So, outside I went and looked. Our step isn't that big that I would have missed seeing a snowman on it as I came up the stairs but I had! There it sat in it's glory, with peppercorn eyes, toothpick arms and bowtie, in the middle of one of the black planters - all eight inches of it!

I laughed so hard, I almost choked...and then we waited very impatiently for Hubby to get home. Like me, he did not see the snowman as he came up the front step and had to go back out and look for it. He was a little surprised and chagrined by the snowman's size but had to admit that there was no stipulation made in that area...it almost killed him to admit that she beat him at his own game but he did. In the end, he really enjoyed the joke quite a bit and was very proud of the fact that she had pulled a fast one on him!


Couldn't help but share this - it was too funny not too.

The Downside/Upside of Winter

We are now totally in the grip of winter. It is a gentle, beautiful vice of magical, glittering diamond sharp snow that surrounds us. Already, we have more snow than we have had in November in years. The temperature is hovering around -20 Celsius - the perfect temperature for winter. At these temperatures, the roads are not slippery and we know we have to dress properly or we will freeze. The rivers and lakes are making strong, rock hard ice as I write and soon it will be time to drag the ice fishing shacks out to the frozen water bodies.

I woke this morning to the kind of sharp frosty air that pulls at your nose hairs when you inhale too fast. Unfortunately, I had to stay home sick with a wicked sore throat. That was the downside...but the upside is that I can enjoy the lovely view from my window. The sun is shining brightly through the absolutely clear morning air, the kind of crystal clear air that you only get when the temperatures fall. The hoar frost is thick on the trees and there is a gentle wind that is just starting to blow it off. It falls through the sunlight like magical crystals, fairy dust that flashes cheekily as it twirls and rotates in a happy eccentric dance to the ground.

I can see Squirrely Magirly hopping along the fence and then pausing. She digs daintily in the snow until she unearths a treasure. It is a small pinecone that she gives a decisive shake to. Now she starts to peel away the layers to get to the delicious pine nuts at the base of each cone scale. The dog is going nuts inside because she can see her on the fence but Squirrely Magirly remains completely unperturbed as she snacks away in the sun.

And to think I would have missed all this if I wasn't at home sick!

Fingerless Gloves/Wrist Warmers

I just ordered some really neat wrist warmers/fingerless gloves from Sarah at Cottage Garden Studios. I have an artist friend whose hands are always cold - now she will be able to draw and stay warm! I picked up a couple of other pairs as well to use as gifts in the family. I think that they are going to be a big hit!!

Sarah has some wonderfully different yarns and some really cute styles of fingerless gloves/wrist warmers, scarves, and other items that she does for both kids or adults. She is also an incredible photographer that teaches and sells her work. (Both pictures I have shamelessly copied from her blog.) You should check out her blog and Etsy shop as well!

Here is her marketing address that also connects to her other blogs and Etsy shop:

http://cottagegardenstudiomarket.blogspot.com/

It would be wonderful if we could support her in her endeavours - she does lovely work and like a lot of people, has been affected by the downturn in the economy. I have followed her blog for quite a while and have enjoyed her photography immensely. I hope you enjoy her site.

Help wanted and the big disappointment!

I need some help! Not that kind, well not right now anyway. I requested a pasta maker for Christmas but didn't realize that there were so many types on the market. I thought an electric one would be nice because it is not as messy but even these have numerous styles and attachments. Does anyone have a pasta maker, manual or electric? I really am not sure which way is the best direction to go. My hubby was thrilled with the request - he openly admits that he is missing his pasta "off" switch and the thought of fresh pasta definitely has him smiling and quite pleased to fulfill my request. I would like something not too fancy, not too expensive and not too hard to use...any other suggestions what I should be looking for?

Well, I was a bit crushed/disappointed that no-one took up the challenge of a limerick. My Irish roots were saddened that I had no-one to give my give-away to. Barb, from The Bad Tempered Zombie, offered her comment of "Yoiks, limericks!" (A remark which, for some unknown reason, I was unable to publish on the post - still can't seem to get it on there...) Whoever heard of a give-away that didn't go? I think I will send it off to Barb as part of her Christmas parcel for at least commenting...

I can always tell when I have been feeling under the weather - the frequency of my blogging goes straight down. Sorry about that. It has been a bit of an up and down year health-wise but am hoping to get things resolved soon - It is not life-threatening, or anything like that, just incredibly tiring and it is sometimes a bit of a nuisance when I can't get all the extra things I want to do done. What I need is a magic wand that I can wave and my list done for me just the way I like it but I bet all of us wishes that at some point in our very busy lives.

Also - I almost forgot - limericks are actually of English descent but that oops! is ok because my English roots were equally disappointed...lol

Halfway to 100 posts!!

Seems like I hit 50 posts on the last one and didn't even realize it! I think that calls for a give-away! Now I am not sure what I should give away but I'm sure I can find something nice and maybe a little quilted item and something delicious to dig one's sweet tooth into as well. I will randomly choose from whomever sends me a limerick about the great snowstorm we just had across the prairies but to make it a little more difficult it also has to have the number 50 in it somewhere. The other caveat is to become a follower. The cut-off will be the Nov.25th at midnight - an early Christmas present.

Have fun!!

First Annual Family Pumpkin Carving contest!

I am posting this a little late but what the heck...it was too good not to share!

We hosted our First Annual Pumpkin Carving contest (FAPC) starting the night before Hallowe'en! We are at the stage in life where the kids are now adults and all the fun things associated with Hallowe'en sadly no longer involve us as much. However, we decided that we needed some family time and still needed to decorate outside with pumpkins. So we held our first annual Family Pumpkin Carving Contest.

Our daughter and her boyfriend and ourselves literally dug into four lovely orange globes to each create a masterpiece! Each of us took a pumpkin and went off to our respective corners and slashed and carved and carved some more. We handed out knives, scrapers, bowls for the guts and hoped for the best. Although everyone tried to keep their design "secret", it was pretty hard especially when we all sat on the kitchen floor together, cutting, scraping and moulding our respective gourds. We were only somewhat successful. Well, truthfully, not particularily successful but it made for some good fun and camaraderie.

Finally, they were done. The men chose logo type of carvings, while the two women were more creative and opted for more art/sculptural types of pumpkins. One was an outdoor, traditional scene and the other an incredible 3D face.... Our older daughter and her boyfriend came over the next day to do their rendition of a masterpiece. We still needed to see what they would bring to the table...and it was to be interesting! The judging took place after supper, in the form of ballots, and interesting prizes were awarded.

There was lots of food but, in the name of safety, no liquor was served at our FAPC until all the cutting was done. I could imagine severed fingers and slashed wrists adding to the drama and mess in the kitchen.

Kiwi, the dog, participated fully - eating her way through numerous pumpkin seeds and pumpkin viscera. Seems she has a penchant for raw pumpkin - all of it - not even fussy which piece she ate. Could hurt in the morning when she goes outside though...

The pumpkin results were wonderful - all were executed in good detail and we had diverse skills levels and subject matter.