Always catching up

I found the start of two posts in my "drafts" folder and deleted both of them. One noted that it was September and no one was going back to school. The novelty of this has sort of worn off, what with kids graduating a while ago and retired professor-husband's recent Septembers being mixed up with sabbaticals and Covid and all that. And we have just been so busy and focussed on dealing with all our stuff, that who can say if it's September or February, really. 

The other was a self-pitying blah blah about moving and so on. It might have been novel for you but it was boring for me! 

Quick note on photos and cookbooks: I chose a hard one for the photo themes -- Inclines. I did have fun with dashes and diagonals a few months back, but now all the things I see that might be inclines have already done their job as diagonals! And it's hard to take pictures of things that are inclined, anyways. (Perhaps that's the point of having a photo theme, to practise something that is difficult and figure it out!) In any case, I am ignoring that for now. October's theme is Joy, and if I get my house sold, there will be joy, let me tell you. 

I have also turned my back on September's cookbook, by Michael Smith. It was fine, there were things I could enjoy, but it was all either common (salads were beautifully photographed, but really, I can figure out beets and fennel on my own) or too much work, like making mousse or ... I don't know. It became a chore and a drag and I couldn't handle it so I gave it away. For October, though, Julia Child! Even though the house will be in turmoil, my book is packed (I've got a hold on it at the library) and some things certainly do require work, I am looking forward to it. 

I could show you some pictures. 

We went to Niagara Falls for a quick break. We saw the falls, of course, and even walked across the bridge to the USA to see them from a different angle. 

The real reason for going, though, was to see the restored old power plant. You can walk down the 2000' tunnel to the river! And you can see the gigantic wrenches needed to keep the place in working order. 

Let's see what else we can find... maybe even some actual knitting content.

Ah! On Sunday I walked up the hill to a park to see Sam Barsky talk about his knitting. Oh, he was great! As you can see, he was almost finished a Toronto skyline sweater. (Click that link for a finished shot.) He gets an idea, maybe looks at a picture, and just knits. Freestyles all the colours and shapes and ends up with a wearable work of art at the end. I knit like that for a while in my twenties, but never so successfully, and then I became more conservative and pattern-following, sorta.

I myself am knitting a grey hat. Lots of ribbing. 

The yarn looked grey in the store and it looks grey in this picture, but out in the sunshine it is sort of faded-denim blue. Christmas is coming, and someone will have a new hat. A hat is easy to pick up and put down, easy to keep track of what I am doing, not hard on the brain. And that is just what I need these days. 

Most of my photos are of things I try to sell on the Book of Faces. We have actually successfully sold or given away a ton of stuff and now we're down to things like the study carpet and the bread machine. Earlier in this Slowest of All House Clean-outs I sold some commemorative coins for the 1976 Olympics. I got a whack of money for them because of their silver content. I also have a 1970 set of pre-decimal money from the UK, which have hardly any silver and as a dealer told me, everyone who wants a set now has a set. So I kept them, rather than sell them for something like $10. 

Now, however, there might be a wee upswing in interest in things with the queen's head on, so I am trying to sell them online, along with the bread maker. We shall see. 

In a few weeks we shall really see what's what. Our realtor is on a holiday right now, and when she gets back the stager comes to gussy us all up, and then... who knows. We have another month or so of stress and busy-ness, and then hopefully a different sort of stress and busy-ness before we move. I shall relax by knitting hats and cooking Julia Child recipes without messing up the kitchen. 

A bit more catching up

Last time, I left you with a photo from a ferry. Our first ferry ride took us to Vancouver Island, where we visited Stephen's mom, had dinner with an old friend, went to a few beaches. 

This beach is in Sidney, close to the Victoria ferry terminal. Sidney is now quite a cute little place, catering, perhaps, to seniors who want a view of the ocean and an accessible, walkable place to hang out. 

It's cute now, but this spot has been the site of mills, canneries and other industry over the decades, so it is not difficult to find signs of human endeavour on the beach. So much clear seaglass; no greens or blues to be seen, though!

We went to a place called Spiral Beach, down a steep cliff. I was reminded of my photo theme for the month: hidden. 

It is called Spiral Beach because there is a big concrete tower, with a spiral staircase around it. The beach, being at the bottom of the cliffs, is a bit hidden away, too. 

This little house was hidden in the woods on the way up from the beach. Well, I suppose it wasn't hidden, really, since it was right there for me to see, but it was not on view for the masses. 

Our next stop was Mayne Island. We stayed in a lovely B&B, overlooking the water and the sunrise. Across the water was Mount Baker! I was awoken by the sunrise the first morning, took this picture, went back to sleep. 

We were lucky to be there when there were super low tides at convenient, post-breakfast times. The water was up quite high the evening we arrived, but the following morning the tide was way out, exposing rock pools and eroded sandstone and a place seals liked to hang out. 

The island in the centre background is not visible at higher tides. You can't see it here but there were seals on it at times. 

As we were clambering around on the rocks, we spied a London phone box next door!

We were mainly on Mayne Island to see our niece, but we did some exploring around. We were told to go down the road past the Private Property sign, follow the very well kept path, but don't go past the door with the fish on it.  

The owners of this land don't mind people walking around on most of it, but they keep their house private, behind the fish door. It was a lovely place, and generous of the owners to let us walk past their rocks, trees and water.

Next stop was Salt Spring: more relatives, rocks, trees and water. Back to Vancouver and another visit to the barge to see how things were going. It seems they put a big machine with a claw on the barge and it was just clawing those walls down. 

We only had a few days in Vancouver before we came back to Toronto. I wonder if the barge will be completely gone by the time we get back there. 

We are preparing to sell the house. It's a slog because we have lived here for so long, we have everything we thought was interesting over the past 30 years. And more. Our Vancouver place is basically furnished by now, so we are only really taking books and art and clothing and some kitchen stuff and all those boxes of miscellaneous..., and the books and art will have to fight it out for space on our walls. More on that discouraging subject later!

First catch-up post

Much has happened. 

We went to Vancouver for about three weeks. Stephen had a conference to go to so I went on ahead to Vancouver, and as I arrived, saw the Snowbirds pass over the West End. 

There were also fireworks that night, but I was too pooped to walk the few blocks to the beach; you can see it would have been worth the trouble, as I couldn't see much with the large buildings in the way. 

Of course, when in Vancouver one must check out the barge. I'd heard they had started demolishing it, but when I arrived, they had just removed a couple of panels off one end. 

A few days later my guy arrived, and we made our way to the beach for another night of fireworks. They hadn't done this during the pandemic but this year decided it would be fine for thousands of people to congregate at the beaches to watch something they call the Honda Celebration of Light. (It used to be presented by a cigarette company.)

We got there early, got a nice bench, waited for a couple of hours, enjoyed the sunset, and finally did see an amazing display of fireworks, impossible to properly photograph with a phone. 

The next day they took down the fences, the viewing stand for paying customers, the porta-potties... I liked these barricades. 

There is a spot on the beach where some group has planted quite the garden, and clearly they take good care of it. No flower pictures today, but you can see their artfully arranged watering cans. 

In there somewhere I remembered that I am supposed to be cooking from Ottolenghi's Plenty this month. I had to take the book out of the library and I did enjoy looking through it, but I haven't yet done a lot of cooking out of it. I made this dish of lentils and gorgonzola, which was stupendously good. I used a can of lentils, and jarred sundried tomatoes instead of roasting my own, easy peasy. Throw everything together, is what I did, and it was fine.

One reason there was not more cooking at home is that we spent about a week of our three weeks away travelling. More on that next time. Here are some beautiful blues from the ferry. 

Glass for July

Here we are almost at the end of July!

It has been a busy and weird month for us; not much cooking from recipes, I can tell you. Right now I am surviving on some carefully portioned soup in preparation for leaving the cupboard as bare as I can for three weeks. 

We are going to our Vancouver digs for a brief break, and then coming back and actually selling the house. We have taken loads and loads of books to secondhand stores and little free libraries. We have donated bags and bags of stuff to charity. We have helped both kids set up new homes! Down to the bare bones here. 

I have managed to think about Glass as my photo theme, now and again. I would like to revisit this, because it's hard to get a good picture of glass!

Not even sure if this is actually glass

We have mostly mismatched wine glasses and this is one of my favourites. 

This glass cake stand had a post of its own when I first got it, and now it is likely on its way out. It is used less and less these days, as we don't have cake as much; we haven't celebrated everyone's birthday together for some years now, with kids off at school and so on. It sat on my curb for a few days and no one took it! We'll try again later. 

The cake plate that we'll keep. It is flat, with no pedestal, so easier to store and transport. We certainly don't need two! And we can say this is a cheese plate if necessary!

Ah, this. 

Once upon a time, maybe 15 years ago or more, a kid went to a summer camp, or a Saturday morning camp, or who knows what. They made swamp water: oil and water, basically, although I think there might be alcohol or vinegar or some other liquid in there. It also has beads and sparkles and whatnot. Every once in a while we laugh and shake it up... But now its time has also come. We took the paper lid off, took tape off... and could not get the lid off. I suspect hot glue, maybe. Eventually we banged a couple of nail holes in the lid and poured the noxious liquid down the sink and disposed of the jar. End of an era around here.

Broken mirror on the street, to help someone see around a corner

Mojito in a Gringo glass

This is today's picture: me taking the last of the books to a bookstore. (When I say last of the books, you can be sure there are hundreds, if not thousands, left in the house. These are the last of the "get rid of" books.) The mirror was at a jaunty angle, looking up at the sky. 

Another week of Glass month to go, but don't hold your breath for another blog post too soon. I am driven to declutter, not to sit and write. 

I am, however, thinking of my August plans. I have August's cookbook on hold at the Vancouver library, and the theme of the month will be Hidden. Hmm. That will be fun, I think. 
 

Things go on

June has been a bit of a mess thus far. I got back from London, Stephen went to Edinburgh. When he got back we all we under the weather for a week at least. 

So not much walking has been done. Not much cooking has been done. And it is just too much to go back and remember what I did cook out of which book. 

I did start off well, a picture of feet from the beginning of the month. I believe the cute little purple bag was from Liberty in London and contained a chocolate bar for a friend. Not a fancy chocolate bar, but she insists the English ones are better than our Canadian ones. The bag was just a wee fancy touch. 

I saw a nice rose. (I'm still always amazed at the clear pictures one gets with a gol-darned phone these days.)

I went for a walk with friends. We thought we'd end up at the beach but we were hundreds of feet up at the top of unstable cliffs. Nice view; we'll try to find the beach on our next attempt.

One day I was downtown and tried to get an arty shot of other people's feet. This sort of worked with a lot of cropping.

There was a party. One of our longtime neighbours is moving about 6 or 8 blocks away, so an outdoor potluck was called for. Great fun! I do really like my neighbours and my street! 

We had our annual street party for the first time since 2019, and though Stephen and I stayed on the porch because we were unwell, everyone else seemed to be having a pretty good time. I did make a delicious beef stew for just us. 

Hopefully we can move forward and I can get a few more feet pictures and a few snappy recipes made before the end of the month. I even looked at my knitting today, so that is a step in the right direction. 

Back on track in June

May's cook book was Small Plates Perfect Wines, and June's will be Nantucket Open-House Cookbook. 

I made a couple of things from May's book and think it is a keeper. One just needs to plan and think a bit, because these recipes are not necessarily quick and carefree. If you don't have crabmeat or radicchio on hand, you'll need to pop out to the shops. 

The other day I made Grilled Eggplant and Tomatoes, which is just what it says. Cut long thin eggplants into strips (I just cut them in half longwise but I could have done thirds.) and grill on the barbecue. Then cut tomatoes and grill them. Make a dressing with oil, balsamic vinegar, capers, orange zest; throw some fresh basil over it all. Nice! I also made a flank steak from this book... I did not, however, have the presence of mind to blog it earlier. As I recall, it was fine. This book goes back on the shelf! 

June's books is one of those that I've had forever, know a couple of tried and true recipes in, and rarely look at the rest. It is more of a party, entertaining, slightly fancy-pants recipe book. I think it will be great for June because there are lots of meal-sized salads. 

May's photo theme was Environmental Trash, and if I hadn't gone to England I imagine I could have kept that up. I did get a few interesting moments with that theme. June's theme is Feet. 

As you may have noticed I put my feet into photos quite often, so the trick will be to take my feet to interesting places, I guess. 

We'll be in a bit of a tizzy here for a week or so while we get Elaine settled in her new digs, Stephen goes to the UK and comes back again and we contemplate our future. 

I was away and now I'm back

I have had this post half-written for a while so I'd best just post it and start afresh!

May seems to be over. I did not cook from my book for two weeks and I took loads of pictures but hardly any with my photo theme of the month. Oh well. I will do a recipe round-up in a day or two, because I did get in a couple.

Let's see if I can condense two weeks holiday into a reasonable number of pictures... 

We missed spring flowers by a couple of weeks, but when we were in King's Lynn, the California Lilac was simply amazing! What a colour.

Everywhere we went we saw preparations for the Jubilee celebrations coming up next weekend. I did not add to my pile of royal plates. (I have thrift store pieces from both the Charles/Diana and Andrew/Fergie weddings.)

We spent a few days getting our bearings in King's Lynn and then quick took the bus to Hunstanton, where our walk started. 

The cliffs at Hunstanton are white chalk and red chalk and red carstone. Very striking. I know from 2019 that there are also cliffs in Cromer, the other end of our walk. 

I was unprepared, however, for the miles and miles of marshy, sandy, tidal flats in between. It's great bird habitat. We are not birders. 

Early on, we could see the beach and the sand and, way out there, the water. 

As time went on, though, the salt marshes took over and the water disappeared. The "coast" is pretty ill-defined, with shifting sands, grassy bits, dunes, erosion from one year to the next. We often walked along the top of a dike, or sea defense. 

Marsh on the left; fields on the right. And we just kept going, in between. 

After a couple of days of apparently endless salt marshes, we played hooky. We took a bus to Morston Quay and got a boat out to the seal colony. Alas, May is not a good month for seals, but we did see a few, and we got a boat ride. As you can see it was a bit of a grey day. We got to wear our woolly hats, so we didn't carry them all that way for nothing!

Our last day started in Cromer. We were scheduled to take the bus back to Blakeney and then walk to Cromer but we decided to walk to the next town along, Sheringham, and see what we felt like once we got there. It started to rain, so we nipped in to the museum, but it was nice and clear when we got out so we walked back. 

Then, magically, we turn up in London! 

Impromptu Covid memorial: 

More Jubilee prep: 

What's on the fourth plinth?! 

Our dinner on Tuesday! 

We went to Hampton Court. Again we had just missed the spring flowers, but the peonies and roses were out, and the whole house (palace!) and garden were pretty amazing. 

A smattering of photos:

We had one more day in London which we spent in a couple of small museums and out wandering about. I left my phone on a park bench once, and had to retrace my steps, not sure where exactly I'd left it! That all ended well but it was a bit of a panic for a few minutes! We ate well, walked a lot, got hailed on once, were delighted with everything. 

I am sort of back in this time zone, but I do find myself awake early in the morning. Our youngest is moving to a basement suite 10 houses away, so soon I won't be awakened by her getting up in the morning. And we'll all be back to normal! Always a new normal...