OBSESSED WITH A TREASURE HUNT FROM 1982

I have spent a few late nights and couple of days wandering the streets on Montreal obsessing about a treasure box buried here 37 years ago. The Secret was a treasure hunt written as a fantasy tale and including the following twelve paintings that match with a poem, both of which contain clues to finding a plexiglass cube containing a work of pottery art that contains a key leading to a gem.
Only two were found, and the game was thought to be over when the author Byran Preiss died in a car accident. But after learning of in on a recent flight over the Atlantic on a treasure hunting documentary, I have pored over photo number 9, and tried to find my own clues.



Here are some of the clues I found.

This is the image associated with Montreal. It's almost irrefutable now. What is clear is that there is a Dutch connection, which I find strange because that is not at all an obvious group to choose for this place. There are some interesting resemblances, but they may be a bit of a stretch. Here is the Rembrandt that, I agree, seems to underpin the style of the painting by artist Jean Jude Palencar.

Humans tend to see human faces in the images that are around us. They call this pareidolia. It's the phenomenon that leads us to see the man in the moon, or figures in the changing clouds above, or, in rock formation, before it fell, "the old man of the mountain"of New Hampshire fame.

We also sometimes take things and attribute more and different meaning to data than is actually the case. This is called apophenia. Both I, and others, are at great risk of these phenomena, but it can lead to some pretty impressive detective work.

Here is the breakdown of one treasure hunter's findings:

I am afraid that this same hunter makes a compelling argument that the casque was in the plaza in front of Place Ville Marie, and due to renovations, will likely never be found. But this hunt is less about certainty, and more about the search, so I have taken a few walking tours myself to see what I could find.

Also a highly renovated place, the Place du Canada has a statue of John A MacDonald that some claim looks like the man in the image. I'm not that convinced, but here is the statue that stands downtown, near an equestrian that represents the fallen at the Boer Wars, the closest monument I have found to the Netherlands connection, also in the old Golden Square Mile.

Close-up of Sir John

Facing south from Rene Levesque (Dorchester Avenue in a prior era)

Facing towards the east, in front of the still grand SunLife building, in Dorchester Square.

Whoever did this website, they have been delving down this and other rabbit holes for a lot longer than I have. 

My ideas: 

The calendula flower confirms for me that this is Montreal, with the numbers 67 representing the Exposition that the city is famous for. I also see a open musical note in the 6, which could represent the Montreal Jazz festival.

The tesselation of squares remind me of multiple buildings around the city 

These are the two images that have been solved to date:

Chicago: Grant Park: Irish/Scottish immigrants: the water tower is the far right tower on the highest level, minus the windmill.

Cleveland: Greek Cultural Garden: Greek immigrants.

JAZZ BERRY BLUE

I was at the pub Brasserie Bernard in Outrement, and I couldn't stop looking at the paintings on the wall. I recognized a couple, and had fun going around trying to understand them. In the end, when I asked the owner about them, he was kind enough to share a key with me, so I could walk around to identify all the cities. The series is available to view jazzberryblue.com and to purchase on etsy.

FIRST DIPERIE TREAT OF THE SUMMER

PECAN FRUIT CAKE BARS

I had a bunch of Chateleine magazines given to me by a cousin, and I found the recipes fabulous. It's been a long time I had my eye on trying this but never did until now!

November 2000, this pretty recipe was posted. It is a real treat, and a great way in the new year to use up any left over candied fruit.

1 cup raisins

1/4 cup rum

Microwave uncovered on high for 1 minute. Stir.

Preheat oven to 350 F.

1 cup unsalted butter

3/4 cup white sugar

Cream together.

1/2 tsp vanilla.

Add to creamed mix.

2 1/4 cup flour

1/2 tsp salt

In separate bowl, blend flour and salt.

Stir dry into butter mixture. Press into 9x 16 pyrex pan.

Bake 10 minutes at 350 F.

2 eggs, whisked

3/4 cup corn syrup

1/3 cup brown sugar

2 T flour

Stir until mixed. 

2 cups pecan halves or pieces (substitution unblanched almonds)

1 cup candied fruit 

Stir in raisins, pecans, and candied fruit. Spread over warm crust, evenly distributed.

Bake at 350 F for 20-25 minutes, until set.

Cool.

Cut into 2 inch bars. Freezes well or keeps up to a week in the refrigerator. 

In a pan before slicing: Jewelled and gorgeous!

PARTY PLANNING

A visit to St. Anne's market for supplies, including two teapots at NOVA.



Scones trial, to make sure I still got it!



Break out the candy Princess Pirate made on a day she was alone and full of ideas! I know we are out of chocolate chips, but I should check out the sprinkle supply too!





Hairstyles

BONNE FETE ST JEAN BAPTISTE

These adorable delicious cupcakes were made with love and homemade icing by an orderly colleague who has the most beautiful spirit. She is generous to a fault and much loved, and on this day, much celebrated for her contribution to the celebration that has become the kickoff for summer, since school in Quebec always lets out the day before.

HOW TO CLASSIFY A TREE'S LEAF

SILENT SPRINGS

A wellread friend mentioned this book to me, as a call to awakening that is as true today as when it was written over 50 years ago. Author Rachel Carson published this book in 1962, originally from a series in the New Yorker. She starts with a fable, from a possible present, inspired as Keats writes, The sedge is wither'd from the lake, and no birds sing."

E. B. White, "I am pessimistic about the human race because it is too ingenious for its own good. Our approach to nature is to beat it into submission. We would stand a better chance of survival if we accommodated ourselves to this planet and viewed it appreciatively instead of skeptically and dictatorially."

Albert Schweitzer, "Man can hardly even recognized the devils of his own creation."

Sometimes she sounds a little unrealistically resistant to innovation: "Radiation is no longer merely the background radiation of rocks, the bombardment of cosmic rays, the ultraviolet of the sun that have existed before there was any life on earth; radiation is now the unnatural creation of man's tampering with the atom."

Mostly, she reminds us of a horrible history of interfering and with complex systems that we only partially understand, with great natural and human cost.

Jean Ronstad, "The obligation to endure gives us the right to know".

Dr. Charles Elton The Ecology of Invasions

DDT discoverer Paul Mülle of Switzerland won the nobel prize for its use as an insecticide (synthesized in 1874 in Germany, discovered in 1939)

1. DDT is a chlorinated hydrocarbon, like dieldrin, aldrin and enduring.
2. alkyl (organic) phosphates interfere with the necessary breakdown of acetylcholine by the cholinesterase enzyme, to stop the neuronal message and allow for new messages to be sent.

In Greek mythology, the sorceress Medea, enraged at being supplanted by a rival for the affections of her husband Jason, presented the new bride with a robe possessing magic properties. The wearer immediatedly suffered a violent death. This death-by-indirection now finds its counterpart in what are kow as "systemic insecticides".

Mutagens, Carcinogens: radiation, herbicides, insecticides

Single crop farming
Dutch elm disease
Human casualties, Dr W.C. Hueper authority of environmental cancer
Ecological disasters;
insecticides 1960 Tule Lake and Lower Klamath, Colorado
insecticides 1954 Clear Lake, California
1954 dutch elm disease and robin's death East Lancing Michigan
The Lost Wood essay by Tomlinson
herbicides 1959 Bridger National Forest Wyoming - sage "brush control"
Arsenic sprays on tobacco fields have ceased, but the contamination continues. From 1932 to 1952, the arsenic content of a cigarette increased more than 300%

Water, Soil, Plants, Sky, Fauna and Mankind are affected

Pests: japanese beetle, gypsy moths, fire ant, blue tick

It is hard to understand how people still glibly live on consuming and wasting and reproducing as if there was a neverending shortage of resources, and that climate change does impact them while the island edges flood and the weather changes more rapidly then ever before. We have learnt a hard lesson with DDT, but continue to entertain strange ideas of control of our natural world at the same time bemoaning the losses we have needlessly cost. This book is a reminder to do better, and has given me pause in my idea of treating my ash tree with pesticides, and a renewed enthusiasm to plant more trees and flowers for my own precious land.

GARDENERS ARE EVERYWHERE

I arrived home from a trip by airplane, and had to walk to the commuter train by an underpass. I was amazed and impressed to find that the glass roof not only let in light but housed an exotic well-kept garden! Beauty can be found anywhere!

MY KID MAKES MY LIFE WAY MORE FUN!

When I go outside to call her in for lunch and find her reading in the perfect spot of shade (it's ALWAYS shady, no matter where the sun shines from) beside a rainbow coloured spiderweb she put together while I was in the kitchen!

When I find out why she asked to use some scrap pieces of wood while I was cleaning out the shed!

Mowing the lawn, I find a cache of mud buns!

When I go to change her sheets, a menagerie needs to be moved to remove them!

On my table when I get home from work, a catapult made with 100% upcycled parts!

DESIGN CLASS CAKE PROJECT

I loved this project, and she put a lot of thought and work into it. It was inspired by the Nerdy Nummies version, but the details were all her own. It was certainly impressive from the height point of view, and required hand delivery to display it at school!

The idea

The result

The sweet reality

SPRING FLING

This year was a slow spring, but there is always a moment where I notice the increments and then I notice there was an explosion of growth, and all the trees have their leaves, with many seeds spinning down to feed the squirrels and flowers to attract the first bees and butterflies. 

It draws me every year to the forests with muddy paths in search of the precious spring flowers that emerge from the winter's thaw for the briefest of time, but only last until the canopy of leaves begin to block the light to the forests' floor. So the order that spring followed this year was: crocuses,

trout lillies, trillium, tulips, forsythia, lilacs, crabapple blossoms, cherry blossoms, primrose, vinca, honeysuckle, spirea, lupins.

Robin's eggshell

Spectacular Spirea

Trametes versicolor or Turkey Tail

Trout lilies

Trilliums, my favorite

SAINT ANNE'S MARKET

It's time for the open air Saturday market, and I have been exploring ways to get there that is a little more environmentally responsible. Certainly it is a great thing to have local produce. Some of it is so fresh and inexpensive, but a couple of my favorites are the more expensive premade items.

Ste. Anne's market had a new location this past weekend. Usually for the winter, they are housed in the gymnasium of St. George's Anglican church, but they were spilling over 3 weeks ago onto the street and decided to find a home on McGill's west island MacDonald campus. Their usual place by the water is still too iffy because of water levels flooding the boardwalk and sidewalks for longer than usual this year.





I like to go hungry with the variety of baked goods are a good place for breakfast, with the possibility of getting coffee in a ceramic mug if you get there early enough. Like everything though, it is quite a Herculean task to get anything without creating single service waste. If you want sugar and milk in your coffee, even the mug is not enough. So after feeling guilty for a UHT cream container and sugar packets (I can't seem to drink it black, unfortunately), I  now drink my coffee at home and put my muffin wrapper in the compost when I get home.

My two favourite purchases were injera wraps filled with spicy lentils and potatoes (try this recipe at home for Mesir Wat). That being said, there were fresh asparagus, radishes, red and orange tomatoes,  basil plants and a fresh heads of lettuce, with dirt and insects to prove it for a highly affordable $1.50 each.



and some Argentinian shortbread cookies filled with dulce de leche and rolled in coconut (Alfajores).

I was intrigued by this new-to-me fruit called the haskap and purchased a jam to serve with scones on my summer tea party.



Although cash seems to go very quickly, and the temptation is great to buy more sweet than necessary, but when I am able to make the train leaving at 10 am and come back on foot or bike (it's a longest walk but beautiful at 13 km), or even drive the short distance for a local product, it is a great Saturday morning with an exciting prospect of fresh products as the summer nears.

ITUNES CANNOT SYNC TO iPHONE BECAUSE PHOTOS LIBRARY IS UNAVAILABLE

Every once in a while, while I sync my phone, mostly for the photos that I have taken in the meantime, I get the message above. I am usually doing something on the computer at the same time, and notice that the screensaver has turned the screen off, so I figure it has something to do with that. Sometimes it seems that the photos are fine, and sometimes I do nothing but press the x to close the warning message, and promptly forget to check why that might be. But today I thought it through, and saw that my photo library unavailability had nothing to do with the screen of my phone, so I found this helpful information on this hyperlink.

Turns out, my photos library had permission for read only. I unlocked the settings and gave permission for read and write, and this time itunes seems to have synced my device properly. Here's a reminder for when it happens again!

INSECT DANCE PATTERNS UNDER THE BARK

SUNNY DAY AND A FLUORESCENT SPIDERWEB IN THE BACKYARD

I was making lunch. She was making a spiderweb and finding the perfect reading spot that was always in the shade, no matter what hour of the day. Reading about extinct animals. Never ending creativity! 

FEELING PROUDER THAN FRANKENSTEIN

This beat-up laundry basket used to be a good gardening companion but it was pretty broken in multiple places. Normal people would have thrown it out and bought a new one. I am not a normal person, and proud to a non-consumer!

Drill a hole on either side of the broken plastic. Insert saved used plastic coated twist tie like interrupted sutures. Twist edges together. 

It's not beautiful, but I think it's neat!

The best result was the bottom. Back in business.

Gimp and a frisbee that can be used again!

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)