BETTY CROCKER KEEPS IT SIMPLE

Criscrossing makes the shape bake perfectly

Easy peasy. Must have been too generous, but only made 24, which was good, because a dozen per pan was perfect.

THE HUMBLE POTATO

My grandparents were farmers, and I remember driving out with my Grandma to an open field of mounds where an acre of potatoes grew. I don't remember thinking potatoes at my Grandma's were remarkable, although I must have eaten a kilogram of her delicious mashed potatoes every holiday. But I do remember growing some in my backyard when the spring conditions proved too much for the leftovers in the basement, and, not wanting to make waste, planted hills and found the potatoes much more delicious the second time around!

This week I found myself reading the bag of newly marketed Quebec potatoes. It caught my attention that you could "roast them in a crockpot". So, although I still think it's weird to buy groceries in Walmart, and I had to put back the red potatoes with more iron and vitamins in order to try this experiment.

I washed 8 similar sized potatoes, and set the crockpot to low. The instructions said it would take 5-6 hours, which would be perfect for an afternoon snack. At lunch, I took a peek, and the sensation was a little unappealing (no pun intended). It was less of a smell, and more of a feeling of potatoes in a sauna. Thankfully, though, that process did indeed produce perfectly roasted thin skinned potatoes. A drizzle of extra-version olive oil and some crumbled feta made for a very popular mama bear!

WEED TREES

You just can't keep nature down! (Walking from St. Anne to Beaconsfield)

CALIFORNIA DREAMING

Wine Coast Country
"Stewartship Travel"
San Simeon "hub"
hike Fiscalini Ranch Presere
sand dunes at Oceano, Oso Flaco Lake Natural Area mile long boardwalk(Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes complex)
OCTOBER TO FEBRUARY 50,000 monarch butterflies migrate to winter in Pismo State beach eucalyptus grove
El Camino Real, connecting California missions
kayak Morro Bay
Avila Beach and hot springs, protected bay and white sand
view of the way to Los Osos
Cayucos - beach town, look for sea otters
Hearst castle
Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary
Piedras blancas elephant seal rookery

PHILADELPHIA TRAVEL PLANNING

Barnes Foundation museum, private collection by Dr Barnes MD and his wife in honour of the teaching (without segregation)as a basic principle of democracy  (John Dewey)
Rodin museum - the largest collection outside Paris
Delaware Art Museum
National Liberty Museum
Liberty Bell
University of Pennsylvania - Ivy League, Victorian-era Venetian Gothic fine arts library, Richards Medical Building, LOVE sculpture, Ben Franklin founder statues, Penn museum Egyptian Gallery
Cheesesteaks
Imitate Rocky on the 72 steps of Philadelphia Museum of Art (Gonna Fly Now)
Opera Philadelphia
Old City
Hotel Monaco (1907 iconic office tower) Empire and Greek Revival Lafayette building
Hotel Palomar
Ritz-Carlton
Independence Hall
Philadelphia Zoo
Eastern State Penitentiary

The Curtis Publishing Company- Tiffany mural “Dream Garden”

Philadelphia Museum of Art Van Gogh’s Sunflowers, 

Mutter Museum (medical museum)

Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University

Museum of the American Revolution

American Swedish Museum

Betsy Ross House

Weizmann Jewish Museum

Greater Philadelphia - Delaware, NJ, Pennsylvania
Valley Forge National Historical Park (George Washington)
John James Audubon Center
Spring Mountain Adventures
Woodside Lodge
Longwood Gardens and Fountain in Brandywine River with Nemours mansion inspired by Versailles
Rittenhouse square
Franklin Institute (1842 established to honour the inventions of Benjamin Franklin)

 From National Geographic Traveller February 2013

Making History-a kids free-for-all

Ponder, like Benjamin Franklin, whether the sun is rising or setting, carved into the back of General George Washington’s chair inside Independence Hall

Listen for Loyalist ghosts who were hanged, whispering in Bladen’s court, a secret passageway off Elfreth’s Alley

Make grave rubbings of notable Philadelphians at St. Peter’s Church cemetery in Society Hill

Mail a postcard from the B.Free Franklin post office where clerks hand-cancel stamps with a colonial era postmark

Find out what shag carpet is at Jones, a paean to 70s decor and groovy Mac and cheese

Duck into the Curtis center to gaze at Dream Garden, a mosaic made of 100,000 pieces of Tiffany glass

Try out two early 20th century candies: a clove drop and peppermint Gibraltar at Shane Candies

Putt through the crack in the Liberty Bell at the Philly-themed mini golf course at Franklin square.

Walk across a huge map of the city that spans the gallery floor at the Philadelphia History Museum

Book a tour(or overnight stay) on the WWII battleship New Jersey(ferry from Penn’s landing)

Run up the stairs like Rocky in a training montage

Ask a local where to eat a Philly cheesesteaks sandwich, and which cheese to add

MARIE KONDO SPARKS JOY

If you haven't heard of this Japanese organizer, you are in for a treat. She sounds as sweet as cotton candy. She is as pretty as a cloud. She is unfailingly confident in how to hone down your stuff and find better ways to store what you end up keeping, once you have purged yourself of anything that doesn't "spark joy".

Her KonMari method has six rules:

1. Commit to tidying up
2. Imagine your ideal lifestyle
3. Finish discarding first
4. Tidy by category, not location. E.g. Clothes: get all together, in one place
5. Follow the right order
6. Ask yourself if it sparks joy

She identifies 4 obstacles and how to overcome them

1. Space. Don't blame your space. Organize any space with storage of all things of the same category together. Don't scatter them in different places around the house. Store vertically.

2. Sentimentality. Tidy these only after you have organized the less emotional categories. Start with clothing, books, and papers. If you encounter an item that brings back a memory, set it aside as the sentimental category. If you keep them, cherish your treasures by keeping them proudly.

3. Guilt. If you are given a gift you don't love, express gratitude but then get rid of it.

4. Money. Don't start buying things to store your stuff, unless you have the budget and after you have decided what you are keeping.

In an interview, she suggest a house can be tidied in 5 days. Don't tidy by room. One day tidy clothes., the next books.

If you are ready to get rid of something but things are piling up, set a schedule and assign a date. If a month goes by, just donate it.

Tidy yourself before you tidy the things that belong to the whole family.

If it doesn't spark joy, get rid of it!

HOW TO BE A GOOD NEIGHBOUR

From Daniel Bortz, The Washington Post

Share important information: housekeeper, handyman, best stores

Keep up curb appeal

Be a responsible pet owner

Organize a service project: go the extra mile for your community

Invite them over for a social event

Don't be a gossip

Be a respectful party host: keep the noise down

Abide by community rules

Handle conflict judiciously: resolve directly as much as possible

DON'T FEEL SORRY FOR YOURSELF

Sometimes I hear my friends and I am jealous. They have paid vacations, retirement plans, and spouses that take care of them. My life is divided in half, with half the savings, child support and no paid vacations or anyone to take care of me.

Then two things occur and I realize I am very fortunate.

First, I think of work. I am grateful for life, and see instantly that I have lost perspective. To be healthy and home is the greatest thing many are wishing for, and I have both.

Second, I read of stories like Isabella Hellmann. She disappeared off the  coast of Florida on her honeymoon, and the FBI suspect her husband of her murder.

Maybe the Stoics have it right. It is easy to be grateful when you keep your life in perspective. My glass is full enough!

IN MEMORANDUM: NANCY DREW

IT'S NOT ALL JUST GREEK TO ME!

I have had two weeks now, travelling in Greece, trying to decipher signs and learning to read some Greek along the way. It comes in fits and starts, but it has helped me in reading road signs and understanding different concepts.

This was my favourite, and illustrated perfectly the difficulty in distinguishing one Greek character from another.  But it was an "aha!" moment that I had getting off the plane from Thira to Athens, and it certainly helped that there was the english above it. Honestly, I had seen this particular word dozens of times, but almost always when there was an emergency exit sign with a pictogram inside a museum or hotel.



Following the triangle indicating the direction of the exit, there are 6 letters. I understand why my brain never bothered to try and translate more letters when it understood less. But, when I thought about it, I was curious, so I tried to break it down, like all the other words that made no sense until I transposed them to the alphabet I knew (in a reverse dyslexia explained by Rick Riordan in the Percy Jackson series). There are 2 Os, so no help. I know the open triangle from math and delta doesn't help. The remaining letters (first, second and last) all look like an E, but when I started to think it through in my painfully slow translation, letter by letter, it revealed itself in a remarkable way that any English speaker would recognize:

E X O D U S

FIRA-IA HIKE, SANTORINI

Every window is a picture. We stopped so many times to look or photograph, we doubled the time it took to hike the 12 k!

The start of the path along one of the most beautiful walks you can make in a pair of runners and with a few euros in your pocket. That said, it would not be a place I would recommend, because of its ecological restraints. Santorini is a great example of how armchair travel is the ideal way to see for some of our world's most beautiful places.

The low white walls framed every set of doors as a window to the sea

Fira, and my favourite sunset viewpoint, very close to our Hotel Athios.

Such a beautiful view to the center of the volcano. The Aegean Sea here is called the Caldera. It left Santorini with it's characteristic lava rock in red, black, yellow and white, but with no natural source of potable water. Very grateful for North American access to water without the need for plastic!

Signature Santorini, but like Venice, it's a skeleton emptied largely of natives and seasonally inhabited by tourists from around the world. Very sobering, with the vast majority workers from all over economically depressed Greece, mostly the mainland.

Markers at the junctions of trails to Fira, Ia, near Skaros 

Outcropping at Skaros. View out to the volcano center that formed the island.

The man on the right was a Georgian (the country) wedding photographer flown out for the occasion, and the people on the left were Canadians from Toronto who just had a perfect picture taken by him. I insisted he show them (he was very good at finding the moment) and then kindly consented to repeating the shot on their camera for them to treasure. My version is amateur, but I love the people you meet on a mountain. It's always more interesting than anywhere else.

Ruins of an ancient castle, we heard a tour guide say.

View back to Fira

View down to a church from around the other side of the trail

The rooftop of the church. Quite a work of determination and pilgrimage!

The modern hiker - cellphone and iced frappaccino!

Lava stone pathways make the path easy to follow from Fira

Spring flowers loving the wind and sun

First views of Ia

IA (OIA) sunset

Nocturnal lights on Fira

TIME WELL WASTED

I was looking for an album cover to add to iTunes artwork for the Adele album 21 and laughed my head off when I saw this in the images on the page!



His inspiration:

THE ACROPOLIS, ATHENS

RIP JOE FAFARD

It doesn't matter that I have lived away from Saskatchewan more years than I have lived there. I am a prairie girl at heart and always will be. I will always miss those years, and although returning stirs up more of those feelings, it is a place but also a time that I miss.

On my morning commute, I walk from the commuter train and have several routes that I can take, but my favorite one passes the Montrea Fine Arts Museum, and, if the lights cooperate, or I have enough time, I walk by a Fafard statue that has found its most recent, hopefully permanent, home, in my line of sight. I say hello, and now that I hear of Joe Fafard's passing, I will say hello to him too, when I greet the statue that always says Saskatchewan to me when I see it.

Claudia the Cow across from the MMFA

HOT CROSS BUNS RECIPE

I love these things, and bought at the right time, they are not expensive, but having them warm and using real icing is really special.

This is a recipe from Company's Coming Holiday Entertainment, p. 55. Makes 24 small buns.

From a Great British Baking Show episode, I think turning the fruit inside so that only the smooth dough shows would keep them from burning, but I did like the sweetness the exposed ones had and didn't seem to burn them.

1/2 cup warm water (body temperature will do)
1 tsp sugar
1 T yeast

Stir water and sugar to dissolve. Sprinkle yeast and stir. Let stand 10 minutes.

1/4 c margarine
1/4 c sugar
1 egg
3/4 salt
1/2 t cinnamon
3/4 warm milk
1 c flour

Cream margarine and sugar. Beat in egg until fluffy. Add salt, cinnamon, and milk. Beat in 1 cup flour. Mix in yeast mixture.

1/2 cup currants (important)
2 T finely chopped candy peel (I used candied fruit. Candied cherries would work fine too. Not optional, even if Jean Paré says they are!!)
2 1/4 c flour

Mix in currants and candied fruit. Add remaining flour. Mix well, adding a bit more if necessary to make a soft dough. Let dough rest 10 minutes, then knead until smooth and elastic. Place in greased bowl, and turn in grease before covering. Let rise for about an hour, to allow dough to double in size.

Punch dough down. Shape into small balls. Place on slip baking sheet. Cut a wide cross into each bun with greased scissors. Cover and let rise again until double in size.

Bake at 400F for 20 minutes. Brush with margarine and cool on a rack.

GLAZE
1/2 c icing sugar
1 1/2 t water
1/4 t vanilla

Mix all glaze ingredients together until barely pourable. Add a drop of water at a time as needed. Pipe or drizzle into crosses.

Add caption

FIRE IN THE NOTRE-DAME CATHEDRAL

Once upon a time, the Princess Pirate went to Paris, and walked into the great cathedral named after Mary, Mother of Jesus, "our lady". It was an impressive nave to walk in, with gothic arches and rose windows. The exterior walls were made with the technology of the time, with flying buttresses and gargoyles the highlight of the exterior tour.

We were saddened to learn of the fire that destroyed this famous spire, and friends of PP wanted to know what it looked like when she had visited. These are the pictures we shared.

On walking in under the arches of saints with ribbed arch

One of the massive rose windows (this one's North) that needed those buttressed supports

Joan of Arc, the patron saint of girls and executed by fire. Many art pieces had a fire escape plan. I recall she was near a door. I hope she was able to escape!

MARATHONS AND OTHER RACES

I am supposed to be in bed, and it's 7 oclock in the evening. I am on shift at midnight and hungover from a bad sleep on a normal night. I am supposed to have written 60 minutes for the NaNoWriMo marathon I was to have begun 5 days ago. It all seemed so doable, but I find myself always behind the boulder that I am supposed to be pushing up to the crest of the hill, never to actually get there.

The writing marathon is in preparation of November's feat of writing a 50,000 page novel, and it seems like a great way to get in some practice with exercises all year long. 10 minutes was easy. 20 minute went pretty fast. 30 minutes didn't happen and 60 minutes won't either. There is no way tomorrow is going to have 2 hours of time to write, and I find the suggested "training schedule" a little intense. So I am taking 7 minutes, which will likely turn into 10. Anything is so much better than zero.

What inspired me to sit down and write, even if it has nothing to do with a novel? It was the moment I came inside from gardening, and saw that the sky was, at the same time, darkening and lightening into the colours of sunset on a sunny day. It was beautiful, and strangers and neighbours were in accordance that this was a great day. For me, the last two weeks when the streets finally cleared of the ice that covered them for the last 4 months were just fine, but it was consensus today, and I had to agree. The wind was noisy and gusty, just like I like it from my prairie days. The water was running freely through the drains and I even found a spider in the soil as I unearthed grass growing in the wrong place that wasn't dealt with from last year. It was the kind of spring day that I remember rejoicing in as a child, in rubber boots, with toothpick boat races and kite-flying. It was the moment that I came inside from an hour of gardening that I almost didn't do. I was dirty and am still tired, but I wasn't sad anymore. I was alone in my house, and I wouldn't call it happy, but there was a complete lack of sadness in my aloneness, and, honestly, that was a great relief.

One insight that I recalled while gardening and dreaming of hosting baby showers and having friends over and widening my social circle was that I didn't have to be done. I can no longer wait until my garden or my house or my body is in shape. I am a total believer in the philosophy of starting before I am ready. Why else would I be a marathoner, half-marathoner, triathlete, doctor, or mother? The act of signing up is the beginning of something great, and being ready has never been the point at which to start any of those things.

So, I am 17 minutes in, and I really do need to sleep, but I want to remind myself, and anyone reading this blog, that spring is a perfectly wonderful time to start something that you are totally not ready for. If you don't start it, you will be never complete it. So just do it! Start something that scares you a little today!

CRETE SIMPLIFIED MAP

KATHE KOLLWITZ

A NICE CRUNCHY COOKIE

tiny chocolate chips work best

SNORKELING COZUMEL, MEXICO

MOVIE REVIEW: TADOUSSAC

It took me to the credits to realize that the film was entirely without sound. A simple film following a young woman's venture to find answers in a village in a Tourist area dear to my heart, having sat for hours with my daughter on the beach, and taken a boat trip to watch for Beluga and Minke whales.

An unusual piece by a male writer director. A simple story with satisfying closure, and few fabulous views of the St. Laurent River.

MOVIE REVIEW: PARIS CAN WAIT

It was a slow script, more akin to a French Film than an English one, but as a travel film, it was decadent and delicious. The presumptions were obvious, but the photography, food, and itinerary were jealousy inspiring!

The extras included a feature on the film's director, Eleanor Coppola. It was her debut, as the story was told, but a quick wikipedia search credits her directing 5 other films, albeit documentaries based on Francis Ford, and his work or their life together. She had written the screenplay, Hello Anne, and was 80 years old when she directed this travelogue.

It was an enviable adventure that begins in Cannes, travels through Provence with its lavander fields, fabric museum,  and Roman aquaduct Pont du Gare, visits Bourgogne (Burgundy) with its wine and Vezelay Abbey, and finally ends in Paris. The draw are France and the food obsessed couple who talk and photograph their way through some of the finest food on the planet.

BOOKCLUB : MURDER ON THE BALLARAT TRAIN

I saw Phryne Fisher on tv before I ever wading into a mystery written by Australian author Kerry Greenwood.  The character in the show was strong, wore sumptuous clothing and dared to be seductive as she was smart.

I had hoped to start at the beginning of the series but the library only had the third in house, so I took it. The book did not disappoint. It was as sensous and beautiful as the sets on the show, and Phyrne's level head and moral heart was even more apparent.

Each chapter began with a quote Lewis Carroll. I'm still not sure what most meant, nor did I discover where Ballarat was, but it was a fun read nonetheless, and I look forward to another in the series in the near future.

TODAY I AM A DIVORCEE

There is no celebration on this day, but much reflection. Maybe divorce can be prevented. This needs to happen before kids.

I picked a nice man, with reasonable potential. I used to say that couldn't have seen this coming if I had the same information. But what I know now are the following:

When things fall apart, and your family fixes things for your marriage to stay together,  you can find yourself somewhere you shouldn't be. If you can't do it alone, step back, take your family out of the picture, and then decide.

Most friends can't tell you the truth. Most friends you invite to your wedding won't be your friends in 15 years. Ask the hard questions, expect discomfort and lies, but better to know who your true friends  and what they really think at the beginning of the relationship, because if you don't, you will only know it for sure it at the end.

Some men regress after marrying you. Mine did, in the most extreme way I have ever seen. It paralleled living with an alcoholic, without the unpredictability. Major failures at the beginning of your marriage can be enough to derail it permanently. If you are the cause of these events, take account and act early. Be honest, responsible, reliable, sorry. Make reparations. They will never be enough, so you can never stop. Commitment is patience with sacrifice. This will be enough in time.
If you are the injured party, be kind, open and strive to teach, not judge. But your ideal of marriage is not a reason to prop up your uncommitted partner. Your commitment will never be enough, if your partner does not step up. Allow yourself to grieve, but leave. Your pain will only be in proportion to your ongoing stupidity. You deserve more.

I knew I had a romantic notion of love. I had thought about it from a young age. I have read about it, dreamed about it, lived it. I know my role is never to be taken for granted as a woman. I am an afterthought in our society still. I am not mistaken for the leader. I am often not asked my opinion. My opinion, when voiced, is often dismissed. Women have gained many things in society. My university education was never in question. My acceptance to medical school was not about my gender. But despite being the sole breadwinner in a household for over a decade, I still did more housework then my "stay-at-home househusband", and not because I wanted to.

 Men also have a romantic view of love. They have expectations that they may never have thought about. They more than likely have lived a naive entitled existence, and will act accordingly. They will think that "helping you" is sharing responsibility. They are too often taking the easy road and sharing much less of the cognitive responsibility. They were taught to act sexually and confidently, without having many tools to meet woman's emancipated understanding of struggle. Philosophy degrees do not connote more understanding. You will have to insist on not being their mother, their prostitute, their subjugate. It is their fault, but not until they see it is it conscious. Consciousness is the first step to true communication. This process is slow, and if you are lucky, their mothers and sisters and colleagues and girlfriends will have done some of the work before you.

We are in an era where the ideal of marriage is less of a pressure, and in Quebec, the legal obligations so unfairly protected, that a long term relationship is more likely taxable than legal. I am not sure I am proponent of marriage anymore, but I do think committed relationships are ideal. For more on the history and thoughts from author Elizabeth Gilbert, her book Committed is a great read.

The success or struggle of marriage is decided in the events of conflicts. It doesn't matter about your compatability in the good times. It is decided in the bad ones, which are more marked if they happen in the early years. Some interesting factors are raised to be predictable in these cases, and can be seen in a TED talk I recently watched by a psychiatrist Dr George Blair-West. He believed that divorce can be prevented, and that while you are dating, you can see whether this might be a relationship that lasts. He starts with a list of most distressing human experiences. Number one was death of a spouse. Number two is divorce. Number three is marital separation.  Number four is being imprisoned in an institution. I am proud of my insistence to stay in mediation where I was disadvantaged, because divorce felt better than separation, although separation from my child was the true suffering. This is the interesting take home message in 3 points:

1. Get married older.

I picked the right age. Marrying at 30, you are more likely to be the personality that you will stay, to some degree. It was not enough.

The next two points are what I learned myself. I thought I knew the factors involved in a happy successful marriage. But what counts, really, is how to see the things that destroy a marriage. Apparently it had nothing to do with me. Women are influenceable. Not all men are. But what they are matters.

2. You husband needs to be influencable. The most stable and happy relationships are those where the couples share power. Men who allow women into the decision-making process are called influenceable. This trait also make better fathers.

If your husband holds all the power, it is like drowning. If he quits his job, leaves every responsibility to you, vetos your decisions, you may be an emancipated woman with income and intelligence, but if you don't have influence, you are more impotent than the unemployed man on your couch.

3. You both have to be reliable. The older we get, the more important this is. It doesn't matter if your partner can make you believe all things are possible. It matters that when the opportunity arises, you can rely on them. That means no task can be passed off. You need to learn how to cut your kid's nails when they are too long. You need to see the house needs cleaning, not be asked. And when you mess up and need to be asked, you can't take 7 months without an answer or update or explanation.

Dave Williams says it best, in his book, Defying Limits: "Commitment demands two things: patience and sacrifice". If your partner doesn't make sacrifices on your behalf, but you do for them, say good-bye. Your endurance will only make things harder for longer. You will have to forgive yourself the image you had of your ideal. It will not solve the problem of a bad relationship. You are worth it.