THIS IS HOW MY GARDEN GROWS: August

It's a bit unruly, and will need some rearranging when the weather is cooler and, hopefully, wetter, but the front bed is filling in from the street renovation work last year. 

I was worried that it was a waste of time to plant the garden as late as I did, but the basil, spinach and lettuce are a constant joy, and the peas are blooming so we will have a harvest soon. If the beans and cucumbers don't come to pass before the end of the growing season, I will do better next year. Today, I ate the first peas, and yesterday Princess Pirate said the peas reminded her of Grandma and Grandpa's garden, so that alone was worth the effort.

 

ON WRITING

Writing feels essentially a selfish act.  An attempt to thwart mortality and live on in words, that in future, you will no longer be able to speak. The opportunity to tell a story that no one else in your life is willing to listen to. It requires time away from other social interactions. Carved out from the time you could spend with others. The focus taken away from all sorts of other priorities. Time all for yourself. A pleasure only for the extremely shy and introverted and antisocial. A feeling of guilt for me. A futile exercise. A waste of time.

Living alone in covid, writing feels less selfish. With families insulating themselves at home, the extroverted demands of society dropped precipitously. Writing becomes therapy. One hand clapping in the forest, never to be heard. An attempt to refine one's thoughts. The defence you never had a chance to voice in real time. A legacy you leave without knowing who it is for, if anyone. A voice in the wilderness, perhaps sent out only to the vibrations of the vast magnificent universe itself.

Writing feels like necessity. The vice of selfishness I was taught, I now see as self-preservation. The church's idea of centuries warping the ancient ideas of a spectrum. From a balance of yin and yang, to Aristotle's Golden Mean twisted into black and white. If it's not a virtue, it is a vice. Selflessness is the virtue. Selfishness, the vice. Leaving no room for self-care or self-preservation.

Writing is self-care. Writing is for self-preservation. Writing is for me.

FRIDAY, EVERY OTHER WEEK

 I am always surprised at how low I can go on the day I say good-bye to my girl for another week at her dad's.

It's been almost 6 years since she left for a new apartment. It used to be that it was the end of the weekend, and I would dread beginning the week. A void was left in my heart every other week. 

There were many shifts I went in for in tears, with palpitations.

Eventually, it became clear to me that the schoolweek that followed depended on the weekend before, and after a few months of relentless advocacy, the day to say goodbye became Friday. 

It has evolved from an evening of tears, complete with sobbing to a recurrent disappointment with plans falling through and a bag of potato chips and a bag of licorice.

OUT WITH AN ACHILLE'S HEEL

I have been sitting on my duff for 2 days now, reading the first novel in the Apollo series by Rick Riordan. I am feeling that is ironic to be reading Greek mythology when I hurt my foot running after watching the beautiful race of Eliud Kipchoge in the Men's Olympic marathon. It also feels ironic that my thought was always that Achille's heel was a tendon rupture, but with the familiar lancing pain stemming from the insertion of my plantar fascia, I wonder if this wasn't the Greek hero's heel problem.

Turns out I should have just left well enough alone, and heel step like I had been for the last 6 weeks. None of the runners do that in the Olympics, though, and so I though I should try it out on Monday. By the ten minute mark, I had tried to correct my mistake, but then my ankle didn't seem to get any messages from my foot, and feeling disconnected from my right shin to the ground, I kept up an easy run, starting to shortcut the route, knowing that I still had about 4km left to get home. 

So here I sit, with a pair of crutches my constant companion, and Princess Pirate playing mother with glee. 

At least the ice pack is a relief in this heat wave, but I can feel my muscles atrophying and cardio dropping off, and I am terrified at how long it will be before I can get back it.

So, instead of running, I will write. I will try and get back to running as soon as I can, and not forget what I have done. And I will wear insoles and only run on trails, after I ice my heel as much as possible until I am back at it. 

I will also likely finish the Apollo series, and maybe the Heroes of Olympus, if I have too much time on my hands.

It has been quite a lesson in dependence and gratitude. I am not used to anyone doing anything for me, and I am told that I am bad patient. That being said, Princess Pirate has been very dutiful in taking care of me. She makes me meals, cleans up, carries my crutches, and generally chastises me for trying anything but moving to the couch with crutches. 

She has spent a LOT of time in the kitchen cleaning up, brings me breakfast in bed, composts every day, and revels in making a meal without a recipe. 

She made fresh pesto from the garden basil, and learned that canola oil is not EVOO. She has doctored our drinks with mint and lemon thyme, served me hot beverages, microwaved cheddar apple filled tortillas for a decent quesadilla, and, for the first time ever, boiled water unsupervised to serve us pasta with a side of corn, bean and cheddar salad.

I miss the climbing gym and waterslides and organizing the basement plans that we had this week, but I have seen a responsible side to PP that I didn't know possible, indulged in watching the first sport climbing Olympic event to debut at Tokyo 2020, and started to focus on the writing that was missing in July when I started running. 

My heel has cooled down a lot, so I hope this "sprain" calms down faster than the plantar fasciitis I got when I was in Spain and lasted for 6 months.

In the meantime, I have one more day to be spoiled and cooked for, so I booked us a swim tomorrow afternoon, and will get to bed soon. When breakfast arrives, PP has no qualms about waking me to enjoy it!

LIKE SAND THROUGH AN HOURGLASS, MY THOUGHTS AND MEMORIES PASS BY

Sometimes I have the most brilliant ideas. Mostly I am impressed by the simple brilliant ideas of others, but they inspire me to have brilliant ideas myself. The trouble is that, while they are coming up with these ideas from their memories, I forget mine.

Today, I went for a run and I brought headphones and started my podcast app to distract me from the heat and pain. The speakers were spontaneous, and funny, and brilliant, and some ideas galvanized for me. But as I sit down to try and recreate my thoughts, I am stumped.

I can't even really easily retrace my thoughts, because, in order to keep free data space on my phone, I have the podcasts that I have listened to erased.

I usually end up listening to one of two shows: Planet Money or 99pi. I think that it's funny that my favourite show is about money. It's so far from my focus, but I think I like the logic and math of it. It is also amazing that it talks about most topics in life, and so many shows seems to be spontaneously "lightening in a bottle".

So here is what I remember:

Warren Buffet made a bet for $ 1 million dollars to invest over 10 years, which he won by investing in the first index fund that ever existed: Vanguard in 1976. The index is a great argument for being average. 

This was juxtapositioned with an article about the notion of average ended up leading us to the sizes of S M L clothes. The clincher idea was at some point fighter pilots were making mistakes, and it turned out that the one-size-fits all cockpit fit no one. So that's how we came to adjustable seats that now come standard in our cars. 

Then there was an unusual economist, in that he was also socialist, who explained the problems and the common misconceptions about capitalism. Essentially, the common fear about socialism is that it is confused with the authoritarian models that no one likes. But the idea of socialism was finally put forward in a reasonable way, and the Spanish company of Mondragon (after the name of the town) is a fine example. There are still pay differences, but the highest to lowest paid is within a ratio of 8-9:1 and not the capitalist current rate of 224:1.

There was even the argument made that with capitalism, we have disparities and injustice in our capitalist society, and that the way to even this out is to broaden our use of socialism and have less employees, and more fair employers.

 

JULY IS THE MONTH I STARTED RUNNING AGAIN

The last audio book that I listened to was called "What I Talk About When I Talk About Running" by  Haruki Murakami. I honestly thought it was going to be a book by a runner, but it was actually the story of a popular fiction writer from Japan who runs in his spare time.

Like many autobiographies that I have listened to lately, I disliked the writer for a good portion of the time. But I was inspired, after a hiatus of over two years, to re-aquaint myself with the runner identity that I honestly thought at my age that I might have to leave behind.

The idea was to run, and write. This author, like a favourite fictional character named Kinsey Milhone, made a habit I have never achieved. They both ran daily, and a number of miles, and this always makes me want to do the same. Being a realist, however, I was certain I would never be able to do anything that regularly even if I didn't have to work, so I decided to take my favourite kind of number, and run every other day on the odd days beginning on July 1st.

Now that it is August, I happy to report that I have managed to run every other day for a total of 16 runs. It hasn't been easy, and it has been far from regular distances , but I have done it every single odd day. The problem seems to be, however, that I have even less time to write than ever.

At the beginning, I did what I always do when I lapse and start running again. I took a familiar route after digesting a simple breakfast, and willed my way down the hill, under the golf course, back up again to the waterfront, past the marina and the park, and back up through the streets to the nearby train station and up and around to the park that is at the bottom of my street. All told, a 6.6 km route that took 45 minutes, and the first real cardio in ages.

The next day my knee was swollen, and I had the familiar dread of the right medial meniscal tear that took me out of running for a summer, and probably affected my running for more years than I can remember. 

Day 3 came and it was the second day of ward call. I opted for the first time ever to take care of my health first thing, and went in to work to round on a Saturday after that. I did the same route, but when I look back on the fitbit tracker, I was in the peak heart rate and not in cardio. I was about to learn that I needed to run smarter now that I am older. 

Now I iced my knee, and it was harder to bend it for stretching, that I very quickly felt that I needed. My knee was still swollen the next day. I iced it and treated it gingerly. It didn't feel too bad.  I felt more tired that I usually would early in the day, but I was proud to actually do it on call. Work days are usually bad days for exercise or sleep. In this case I was only sacrificing a little sleep.

Day 5 came and I ran the same route. It was hot and muggy, so I went out in the evening before the sunset. I couldn't imagine doing this everyday, but I thought I might get this every other day thing going.

Day 7 was a late run, and it was a critical decision to do this run, because I had worked all day, and the Habs were in the playoffs. I still had cable for one more day, and it ended up that it was their last game of the season. In mourning, and now after dark, I ran the well lit streets in my neighbourhood, finishing before midnight, on a slow jog around the streets and bike paths without having to cross any traffic, around 4 km. 

Day 9 followed a very late shift, and plans for a walk with a friend in the afternoon. I would have rather hung out with my daughter, but she was keen to get some alone time in the house, so I kept a promise to myself, and ran after supper for a 20 minute 2.7 k run around the neighbourhood, enjoying the sunset.

Day 11 was another late one, with my summer birthday cleanup and Princess Pirate's summer birthday preparations in full swing for the next day. I ran for 30 minutes around 10 pm, with PP up late but encouraging me not to break the chain. It started to feel like the shorter distances were a better fit for me, which was disappointing, but I started to recognize my knees and abdomen again as not so frightfully middle ages as I had feared would be permanent. 

By this point, my running was better, but I had to remind myself that I took up running to get into the practice of writing, and I wasn't doing that at all. Any free time I had was taken up in the act of running. Stretching was also difficult to get in, and my lower back was starting to feel tight.

By the time day 13 and 15 came, I was camping, and sometimes walking far enough that a run felt like a lot of effort. But the habit was kept, and the hills were not as tough as they would have been in the first runs, and I would run around the campgrounds and through the forest trails, even if the length of run was not as long. Combined with the drive and an air mattress deflating for uncomfortable sleeping, my back and legs were contracting up into flexion. I had in mind the visual of a faun, with the bent legs of a goat, but feeling none of the advantages of their natural spring. Stretching in the gravel wasn't easy, and I was starting to think that this was not going to be a sustainable frequency, but I committed to idea of finishing the month, and was starting to know what day it was most days. After covid isolation and decades of irregular shift work, I had often loss the sense of weekdays and weekends. Now, I knew at least that it was an odd day if I was running and it was even day if I was not.

Now it is August, and I did take a pause for a few days, and felt a twinge to watch the odd day pass without a run. I did the smart thing and scheduled my 3 runs a week in my calendar, not based on the day of the week, or an odd or even number. And so on August 4th I ran my first run of the month. Now when I run, I have to run a good distance. In the hot weather this week, this meant that I headed to the local woods where the trails are shaded.

In one month, my legs are stronger, my knee doesn't bother me if I take short strides, and I recognize my body again. I have to stretch before and after for just about as long to feel normal (the toll of the biped is contained in the hamstrings and calves at this age), and I may have run 5.5 k today in 45 minutes, when I ran a 10 k in 49 just 20 years ago, but after a prolonged hiatus, I can call myself a runner again. 

Now I just have to figure out how to be a writer too.

ALGONQUIN PARK

Recommended by friends that go every year, a small group of sites with large areas with a beach right there is to be found at Achray and Brent campgrounds. Like our recent trip to Sepaq's Orford park, there are nature programs for kids and interested adults alike.

The toilets are "drop" ie outhouses, and there is no running water, but if you know that going in, it sounds wonderful.

This last year, it seems like the bots won a lot of spots, resold on Kijiji. Seems a shame, but if you haven't noticed overcrowding of the planet anywhere else, when the campsites are hard to come by, you know times are tight.

 

MONT-ORFORD PARK

July 25-29, 2021

Sarcelle 45 at Lac Fraser

I booked next years camping at the same spot. I hesitated because this camping site is perfect uninhabited, but it was distressing to see the habitat destroyed with the backing of colonialist parents who believed it was their kids sacred right to stay off the trails and stamp down the flora with visible destruction within the day. 

It was close to a wonderful lake that had naturalist activities called Beaver Hut lake, where I actually saw a Beaver (heard first) at dusk. Hopefully next time PP will be with me to see it too!

There is a nice trail near the water to the small beach. I think it would be fun to be on the  Stukley Lake side near the Bonnallie service centre where the lectures were.

This is the view from our picnic table. Very restful, until the children run through it and wake you up!

 The trails are likely beaver made. This pond has an old hut, and trees felled in clear"a beaver was here" fashion. They have had to move their hut upstream (I couldn't find it, but I had fun trying!)

A tiny red-backed salamander on the Three Pond trail, near Cherry tree Lake.

We didn't see a deer, but we did find tracks (Three Pond trail, again!)

Mount Orford Trail Map

SUMMER PARTY FOOD

Both summer birthday parties were a welcome improvement from last year. 

Mine was good food and good friends. 

I had started late, and pushed the start time to get most of my ideas, but not all ready.

I greeted the first guests with two types of sparkling wine from France (and costco). The apple pear was the most obvious, but I liked the apple raspberry the best. With the drinks on the back patio, I had organized individual servings of jalapeño potato chips, beet and sweet potato chips, garden stix, and a toothpick of olives.

When everyone arrived, I served a verrine of Martha Stewart's gazpacho from market vegetables.

Next I tried to make a Pampered Chef warm appetizer gluten free by using rice crackers as the base instead of wonton wrappers. It was a fail, but the recipe called artichoke cups was still tasty enough that none was left behind.

The last item (good thing because my dessert never made it past the halfway stage and no one missed it, or asked for it, anyway) was a vegan"Buddha" bowl with my favourite dressing below.

I had roasted mushrooms, zucchini, sweet potato and red peppers. They look a mess but they taste delicious. I marinated tofu in soya sauce, garlic, ginger, and maple syrup, and pan fried them. Served on a bed of quinoa with pepitas and what I call dragon sauce (1/4 c tahini, 1/4 c nutritional yeast, 1/2 tsp turmeric, 1/2 tsp ground ginger, 1 clove garlic, 2 T maple syrup, 1T vinegar, 4 T water, 1/8 tsp cayenne powder), the main course was a big hit, and far more delicious that it looks! 

Princess Pirate's party was friends, sunshine and one sprinkler. My neighbour texted me that it was so nice to her shouts of laughter after last year's quiet back yard party! 

The cupcakes were Betty Crocker's red velvet, chosen to be nut and soya free. The cream cheese icing that it came was surprisingly good, and the gold sprinkles were a big hit!

 For two Capricorn's with winter birthdays, this year's summer birthdays were a real treat!

THIS IS HOW MY GARDEN GROWS

I had a late start to the garden, but I had already built the rectangle a previous year. I had calculated a new spot that was not so dry as the most exposed south side where things didn't grow so well, even though it was conveniently located next to the water source. It had at least 6 hours of light a day in the summertime, and I had my grade niner calculate the volume to fill it, and bought 17 bags of garden soil on sale for $1.50 each. I don't love to buy dirt wrapped in plastic, but it was number 4 recyclable, so I washed them out and put them in the blue bin, and hopefully won't have to refill it anytime soon. 

I bought $35 dollars worth of seeds, and only used a quarter of them! I guess my eyes were bigger than the size of my garden. 

I had some bamboo stakes, and planted cucumber and beans below. Very early on, there was an excellent rain, and all the peas floated to the top, as you can see if you look carefully in two rows below.

Given the number of squirrels, groundhogs and rabbits in the yard, I made a feeble attempt with a mesh I had used before to keep out as many creatures as I can. My daughter noted these little white jumpers, and associated them with a good start to the soil.

 

COFFEE BETWEEN COVID WAVES THREE AND FOUR

 I finally have a family doctor, thanks to the waiting list anyone can register on to get with the Quebec Health Insurance Plan(RAM), and on my first visit in person to the clinic, the Starbucks had tables open, and I had the time to stop for a cold brew. 

I showed my second wave ordering skills, asking for a cold press, and was politely corrected by the millennial barista that that was a term for olive oil, and not available at Starbucks!

Still, for the edge of a busy parking lot, the greenery and sportcar (and maybe not just a little COVID deprivation) made me feel like I was sitting on Rodeo Drive!

TODAY I WOKE UP AT NOON AFTER A LATE EVENING SHIFT

I…

caught up on my emails and watched Facebook TicToc videos until my screen time limits blocked me, thankfully.

went to the bathroom and got dressed.

petted my kitty, fed her, cleaned her litter, and took her outside.

made and ate breakfast.

booked swimming times at the local pool venture with friends at a local reptile farm.

finished getting ready for a code orange simulation for work.

unwound the kitty’s leash so she could move freely again.

updated my internet bill.

finished off bathroom update following a minor pipe leak.

broke down boxes piling up and updated warranties.

drank lemonade and cleaned up the table and cupboard. 

repacked for this weekend’s camping trip.

did a load of laundry and put away 2 others.

brought the kitty in.

emptied packed recycling bins.

changed the bed linen.

played a round of Wordscapes.

listened to an audiobook about Baye’s theorem and considered its application on medical and teaching practices and how it could help manage uncertainty.

put the kitty outside again.

hung new curtains and an old curtain rod.

fixed the mouldings in my bedroom where I hadn’t put enough finishing nails to eliminate gaps.

put the tools away, and planned for the next cleanup the basement project.

dusted the bedroom, and swept it, the bathroom and the kitchen.

brought the kitty in and fed her.

made tomato kale salad and artichoke kale red onion flatbread.

made chocolate peanut butter energy balls.

turned a cute kitty Kleenex box into a storage solution.

moved the cat tree to the backdoor for an unobstructed view.

watched the first half of a movie borrowed from the library until the blue ray player froze.

video chatted with  Princess Pirate.

installed a new smoke/CO alarm.

saw a last firefly and smiled in admiration of its spirit, even if unrequited.

did the dishes, again.

made this list.

set my alarm.

went to bed.

SIMPLE FOOD

 Back from camping, I had to use up some tomatoes that I had meant for Bruschetta, and after cutting away the mold, I had a nice Boursin garlic cheese that needed to be eaten fast. With some basil from the garden, and President's choice olive oil, I had lunch!

Princess Pirate had found these accordian potatoes on youtube, and I found a potato that needed a quick dress me up. I loved that it was in the shape of a heart. It wasn't perfect, but better than the Hasselback potatoes I had made before that took way longer and weren't so nice and crispy.

MY FIRST GOODFOOD MEAL

 I have tried a meal prep company before, and was comp'd another try with GoodFood. I have to say that it is well thought out, and quite beautifully designed, but the result is definitely more plastic garbage than to do it alone.

The first meal I made was a cauliflower lentil curry that was really quite tasty. The biggest delay was in preheating the over, which took 23 minutes to heat to 450F, but if I discount that time, the cooking time of 35 minutes was pretty accurate.

I grilled the naan for 5 minutes which was obviously way too long, and the sauce, before the suggested dilution, never did reduce well, but there was enough for 4 even though meant for 2, and it tasted delicious!

The next day version was just like the photo, and more company worthy.

CAMPING GOOD AND BAD

I have been in camping sites across North America and Europe, and the ones close to me have really improved the bathroom facilities from what I remember from my childhood and young adulthood. 

The ones at Mauricie Park were almost spa-worthy!

Our food depended on being non-perishable, so we did not always have the healthiest food, but here were a few of our meals:

Our s'mores were made over a propane stove which made it quicker and less smoky, but just as prone to burning! I found the special edition Maple Leaf goldfish after Canada, and grabbed the opportunity to try them.

We were never far from poison ivy, and wore long pants hiking so we didn't haven't to pay such close attention to avoiding it while walking.

This American black duck was very chill and came up on the beach very close to us. Not unduly tame, but clearly had been fed before by humans, although not crestfallen when these humans didn't.

Squirrels left their crumbs from pinecones they were eating.

A curious garter snake (his head is sticking up from the shadows between the boards).

Butterflies of all sorts.

I found in the camping supplies a ring to light to smoke mosquitos away that worked quite well.

The ground was a weird mix of sand and gravel. It drained well, but it was impossible to hammer the tent stakes in all the way, and bent most of the aluminum stakes which was less than ideal for a couple of rainy nights.

PARC LA MAURICIE

We spent a few days last week in one of two Canada Parks that we discovered last year. Parc La Mauricie is close to Shawinigan, and on our epic trip last year our visit to the park was during the day only, because we were staying in a hotel last time. 

This time we stayed at one of three main camping sites called Mistagance.

The park experience was everything I had hope for, except for three nights that were never clear enough to go start gazing.

We visited several lakes, and beaches. We took paths through forests and hiked paths that seem to go straight up a summit. It was a beautiful place to spend time in. 

Here are some pictures:

At the foot of the waterfalls

Lake Wapizagonke at Shewenegan beach under the bridge to the Waterfalls trail

                                      Pine Island from the peak of Bluff trail

An inviting dock at Alphonse Lake where we thought we swam alone, but Princess Pirate came out wearing a couple of unwanted leeches!

 

EATING WELL VEGETARIAN MENU

SEVEN DAYS 1500 calories

Pantry: oatmeal

quinoa

hamburger buns

peanut butter

almond butter

tortilla
walnuts

chia seed

black beans

ketchup

mustard

mayo

hummus

Shop: raspberries

bananas

apples

carrots

1 head lettuce

1 tomato, slice

1 portobello mushroom

1 red onion, sliced

eggs

Greek yogurt

Dark chocolate

PREP:

Bake a batch of 12 Baked Banana-Nut Oatmeal Cups at 375 C for 25 minutes (3 cups oats, 1/2 c milk, 2 mashed bananas, 1/3 cup brown sugar, 2 large eggs, 1 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp vanilla, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 c toasted pecan - 1/3 cup each - Cool for 10 minutes then turn out.)

Shred 1 cup carrots.

Cook quinoa

Make 3 hard-boiled eggs.

Toast walnuts.

Make 4 (DOUBLE?) mushroom-quinoa burgers (Place 1 portobello, 1 c black beans, 2 T almond butter, 1T mayo, 1 tsp pepper, 3/4 cup paprika, 1/2 tsp garlic powder, and 1/2 tsp salt in a food processor. Pulse and mix in 1/2 cup cooked quinoa and 1/4 cup oats. Refrigerate for 1 hour. Form 4 patties and heat in oil until crisp and golden, 4 minutes each side.)

Make special sauce (1 tsp ketchup, 1 tsp mustard, 2 T mayo, 1/4 tsp garlic powder)

Lemon-Roasted vegetable Hummus Bowls
1 serving basic green salad with vinaigrette (8 cups salad, 3 T EVOO, 2 T red wine vinegar, 1/2 t garlic, 1/2 t dijon)

DAY ONE

Breakfast 450 calories

1 cup oatmeal cooked in 2 cups water

1/3 cup raspberries

1 T  chopped and toasted walnuts

Snack 190 calories

1 apple

1 T PB

Lunch 345 calories

Whole-wheat Veggie wrap (8 inch tortilla, 2 T hummus, 1/4 avocado, 1 cup veggies, 2 T sharp cheddar cheese)

Snack 131 calories

1/2 c nonfat Greek yogurt

1/4 cup sliced strawberries

1 T chia seed

Dinner 394 calories

1 serving mushroom-quinoa veggie burgers with special sauce

DAY TWO

Breakfast 421 calories

1 servings Baked banana-nut oatmeal cups

2 clementines

DAY THREE

Spanakopita loaded potatoes - At 400 F, bake 4-10 oz russet potatoes for 50-60 minutes. (Fry 1 cup onion in oil, 3 cloves garlic, 1 lb or 4 cups spinach, and 1 tsp oregano. Reduce oven to 375 F. Remove baked potatoes, half and scoop out and mash. Add 1/3 cup cream cheese, 3/4 tsp pepper, and 1/4 kosher salt. Stir in spinach mixture and 1/2 cup feta. Stuff each half with 3/4 cup filling. Top with 1T each of feta. Return to bake for 25-35 minutes, until feta is browned. 1 h45 minutes. 197 cal per half.

DAY FOUR

Buffalo Cauliflower Salad

DAY FIVE

Roasted Chickpea Curry Bowl

DAY SIX

DAY SEVEN

THIRTY DINNERS

BEHIND MY FRIDGE

I got a new fridge, and when I unplugged the broken one, I found an ungrounded plug , upside down, and half painted. A quick trip to the neighbourhood hardwood store, and a $5 upgrade made all the difference. 

The black wire went to the gold screw, and the white wire to the silver screw. 

I asked my neighbour electrical technician if I should use a circuit breaker, given the lack of grounding. He argued against it, because the fridge would be fine to withstand a surge, but a breaker that went off could lead to wasted food in a fridge that's not cooling. 

A call to my brother passed the time, and helped me figure out the new configuration of stiff old wires. 

The fridge is a great convenience, and matching plugs oriented in the same direction is a little pleasure.

 

MENU PLANNING FOR SUMMER PARTIES

Birthday Bash - Mom

High Tea - cucumber and cream cheese, egg

                - gazpacho soup

                - monochromatic fruit salad Martha No. 285 p. 23

Mango (1/2), pineapple(1), papaya( 1/2), peach, nectarine, apricot, oranges (2) - Use half an orange for juice to squeeze over, and sprinkle with salt and 5-spice powder

Plums(2), raspberries(1 pint), strawberries(1 cup), cherries (1/2 cup), red grapes (3/4 cup), pomegranate - reduce 1/4 c balsamic vinegar by half, add 1 tsp water, drizzle and sprinkle with pepper

Green apple (2), cucumber (1/2), honeydew melon (1/4), halved green grapes (3/4 cup), star fruits (2) - stir 2 T honey and 2 T lime juice. Dip apple, and drizzle. Top with mint and basil.

                - tofu, grape, celery salada

                - watermelon, corn, blueberry salad

Strawberry granita

Petit-fours

Individual cheesecakes

Birthday Bash - Teen

Dora cakes

VIP out-of-town visitor

Bagels, lox and cream cheese

Orange Julius

Coffee granita

Ice box cake

Friends theme - Spanish tapas - sangria, omelette, olives, patatas bravas

Block Party

PIGEONNIER NOT PIGER

I recently misused the verb piger that my princess pirate caught. I meant pigeon-holed, but I said, piger, which means to pick or choose, like a numbered ball at bingo night.

HIBERNATING ANIMALS

 Ten coolest hibernating animals

THE SENSES

 Grade nine science is very biology based, and I enjoyed revisiting human senses. Like Pluto, that was a planet when I was in secondary school, and now downgraded to a less prominent celestial body, my understanding of the senses have altered, with taste maps debunked, umami (savory) and  just the beginning, and our understanding of  5 evolving to many other senses (this article lists 18, but I suspect is not the final count, given our sense of time is much clearer than the author suggests even in 2019) still accumulating. The classic sweet, salty, sour, and bitter evolved to an understanding of taste receptors (I-IV) that were a further refinement from the taste buds we were taught. Now, taste receptors are known to be in the gut and not limited to the tongue, and the ability to taste still broken down into 4 subsets, but the receptors are clearly able to distinguish

There are many similar refinements that deepen my amazement of the magnificant human organism. Here is one example:

The retina sees colour  and shadow, but even in the absence of sight, the eye is capturing the circadian rhythm guided by the rotation of the earth with awareness of light and darkness. 

Other facts that I had forgotten: the iris dilates by a radial smooth muscle contracts, with constriction by a central sphincter.

Concomitant to my daughter's curriculum, I have reading Bill Bryson's The Body with a dear friend and colleague. It's been a fascinating review of the wonders of the body, and the horrors and wins of a long history of medicine. That anyone worships a health care worker shows how often we forget the past. Good thing for the most part. We've had a good run of it, with antibiotics, surgical advances, cardiovascular care,  cancer immunotherapy a successful last century. However, we need to remember that we were not successful very recently, and there is no time for hubris, but humility. No hero worship necessary. The historiens can tell you more.

VOLUN-TOLD

 The high school my kid goes to, like the one I went to, has a track to the International Baccalaureate program, or IB, that I liked for its goal of global citizenship and reflection.  

The kids in the program feel like they have extra work compared to their peers, and the community service not voluntary, but being volun-told!

FIRST ANNIVERSARY OF MY UNCLE'S DEATH

I may never know what this painting is about, but it feels like my uncle version of La Pietà. Although it seems like a statue that I could imagine in Amsterdam, which was one of his favourite cities, with the ferryboat on the river and the width of the water, I think it is actually set on the Parisian shore of the Seine. 

I talked about him with my Uncle Joe, who had sent me a package with family photos, and two red chinese motif decorated bags that were filled with his ashes. At the end of the day, under a waxing Strawberry moon, I sprinkled his ashes in my garden, wished him well under a sea of stars. 

I miss him, and the year without his emails and calls and a handpainted Christmas card was not the same. I have some of his paintings, and his Christmas cards, and a few photos from his friends around. Most days I am grateful to have these memories. Each work of art, and thing of beauty makes me think of him. 

NATURE IS ALWAYS TEACHING ME SOMETHING NEW

 Today we made time to go to a favourite local park with marshland, and hoped to find some tadpoles still, although we would have settled for frogs!

 We were starting mid-afternoon on a hot day, and the paths were looking dry. We were quickly reminded that it was Gypsy moth caterpillar season, and started to watch our feet so we didn't take any of the out by accident after we saw the first of several trees covered with them. 

We were walking the familiar trails where we started to hear what we both thought sounded like rain, which seemed pretty unlikely on a practically cloudless day. We stopped, and realized that we were in an Eric Carle book. It was the sound of caterpillars chewing!

If you have trouble believing me, here is what the forest floor was littered with, that we only appreciated on our way back home on the return path. Check out the rows of bite marks!

We had a great time with loads of birds, painted turtles, and lots and lots of tadpoles. The best surprise, other than a forest full of masticating caterpillars, was watching both a Kingfisher and a green frog hunt their prey. 

PARK MARCEL LAURIN AND BASIN DE LA BRUNANTE, ST LAURENT

 I have walked a few times around this park, and I have enjoyed the architecture and the park. I was surprised, walking over the bridge of Basin de la Brunante, to see fossils in a limestone that I couldn't identify. 

I reached out to the city of St Laurent, who sent me this explanation from the team at the Citizen's office:

The most obvious bridge is the one that crosses the Bassin de la Brunante. It was built in concrete and limestone in 1994-1995. Concrete cannot have fossils. As with the limestone stones, it is very difficult for us to obtain information on their provenance considering the date of completion of the work and the fact that this construction had been carried out by an external contractor who was responsible for finding and dealing with his own supplier. 

CHALET GREY WOLF

 Dreaming of vacation, I looked up my friend's rental chalet. It was easy to find because of the theme Gray Wolf.  On the AIRBNB site, it's still available for fall rentals!

GIC, RESPS/RRSP LIMITATIONS AND BANKS

 When you go to a bank to open a savings account, you may be well served or badly served. 

See my post called MD PLUS.

I recently spent a number of hours on the phone and online filling out a form for a partial transfer out of an RESP, only to be contacted by the RESP manager to say that I couldn't do the transfer. Why, do you ask, did I waste my time. Because when I asked the RESP manager, he said he didn't know, and referred me to "the website" to find the correct forms. Arghh!!!

Why it is so difficult to find this link I will never know. If you are with Royal Bank, all of the mutual funds and ETFs available to you are at rbcgam.com. 

If you are opening an RESP, be careful that they explain the limits. If you can't buy all products, ask why. GICs are still offered first, when it's ludicrous for anyone to be investing at 0.0%! 

PROTECTING THE NEXT GENERATION

 

HOMELY

Yesterday morning I had an early but lovely awakening in my bed.

It did start rather abruptly though.

I awoke to the sound of something hitting the window, hard. Within in instant, I saw that the sun was already up, and that my cat, sleeping on the pillow beside me heard something too. I ran to the window, and confirmed that my immediate impression was right. A robin had hit the window, and was thankfully flying away.

It was not even 6 in the morning yet, and my alarm was set for 7:15. I had the best day shift, beginning at 9 with no signover, and a train that took less than half an hour to get me there. I lay back and tried to fall back asleep. I felt rested, actually, but the last hour is sometimes the sweetest. Indeed it was, but not because I was sleeping. 

After a little while, sleep was still eluding me, and I picked up my phone. It had a message for me. The book my daughter's English class was reading was now available for me to read on Libby, an e-reader linked to my library card. She had forgotten her book a school, and had received a message that she was meant to finish reading it for Tuesday. That was 6 days ago. With a ped day, alternating school days, a weekend and a strike, she had 

My teen came up sleepily as if on command, and curled up on my feet in my bed. She can usually sleep in very easily, and no longer asks for sleepovers, so it was a nice moment for me. I was awake for the day now, but that didn't mean I had to get up yet!

After a few wiggles, I offered her the book to read, when I finally had to get up to get ready. She was finished by the time I was ready, and I had a cozy memory to travel with me for the day.

THE THEORY OF MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES

Challenges the idea of a single IQ

We all have these in differing aptitudes. The danger is to assume that our current strengths are our learning styles, but we can learn to be better in all of them (growth mindset). Also, what we are good at doesn't imply that we like to learn that way. Assumptions about learning are to be avoided. We learn in fluid and complex ways, and labeling a student as one type of learner would most often be a mistake.

1983 Howard Gardner (Harvard psychologist) et al 

2011 "Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences"

1999 Thomas Armstrong  "7 Kinds of Smart" 

1999  David Lazear "Eight Ways of Teaching"

ORIGINAL SEVEN

1. linguistic/verbal

2. logical/mathematical

3. musical/rhythmic/harmonic

4. intrapersonal/introspection

5. interpersonal/social

6. kinesthetic/physical

7. visual-spatial

ACCEPTED EIGHT (since Frames of Mind written in 1995)

8. ecologic/naturalist

CONTROVERSIAL

9. existential/spiritual 

In other words:

word smart

number/reasoning smart

picture smart

body smart

music smart

people smart

self smart

nature smart

Eight Kinds of Smart

GRANDPA AND GRANDMA

My grandpa died 28 years ago. I still have strong memories of him, but most of the images that come to mind are still, based on the few photos I have of him, from a certain date that I can find in my photo collection. What is left are not the details of his face, but where we were, and how I felt, and what we were doing. I was happy where my grandpa was, but I think I was happy generally, as most of us fortunate kids are.

He died of lung congestion, in that vicious circle we play in medicine between kidney failure and heart failure, until we run out of options. I suppose you have to work backwards from a person's death to relive their life.

I think he died of iatrogenic causes, having been given gold for what was probably non-inflammatory arthritis from manual labour of a lifetime, but maybe gout. His go-to meal was meat and potatoes, after all, but likely full of garden vegetables and homemade canned food and a few scotch mints and a healthy dose of exercise. 

He was on dialysis for a few years. I don't think he had ever made a living will. I wonder how it ended sometimes. I hope it was quick, and that he was appropriately sedated. It's a tough way to go; breathless.

He was a farmer, and then a mayor with political ties to the NDP.  As a city girl, it was mostly PC or liberal politics around me. I dreamed of growing up on the farm, asking my parents to move to the country, or at least overseas, probably because we were close enough to it through my rural living grandparents. Grandpa had enormous hands, from the manual labour (and arthritis), and was always fixing stuff in the barn, had rifles in his basement, and loved a good golf game. He drove a truck, and my cousins and brother would jump in the back thoughtlessly and dare each other to sit on the gunnels unless we were moving fast. We would always pass through main street slowly, my grandpa raising his fingers to each passerby without his hand leaving the steering wheel. We would turn right past the granary, then left onto the highway. We hung out at the "old farm", and depending on the season,  we were watching the adults digging potatoes in the enormous garden, picking saskatoonberries, or  checking out the pussy willows around the slough. My cousins (boys) drove young and liked to aim for gophers. I don't remember them ever hitting any, but they probably did. My one chance to drive the tractor resulted in me pulling down part of the fence, when I realized too late that my excellent skills getting the cab through was not enough to have accommodated for the wider back end. After that, my aunt and grandma were the only ones to take me out, and in the car off the farmyard property!

My grandparents made it look easy. They worked hard, but they knew how to the do the job. I never saw my grandma walk around the block, but she could feed a crowd in a heartbeat, and drive the grain truck in synchrony with the combine in the late summer when the wheat was harvested. She was friendly, and busy, but dropped everything to watch her "stories" when they were on, a few hours of soap operas, doing busy work sometimes but not always. She had a pantry at the ready, with a garden in town and on the farm, and yet she still had the vanity to stuff her closet with clothes and had matching necklaces and clip-on earrings in every colour. She would regularly transition from what she was doing to playing the piano or organ or accordion. There was no downtime in that house. Work and music were the seemless soundtrack of our stay.

 Grandpa was the athlete, and the politician. Grandma was the musician, and housewife. They were a wonderful pair!

BOSE BLUETOOTH SPEAKER

 I love having a portable speaker, but it prefers to sync to my kid's ipod than to the phone 1 inch away, and usually when I have my hands wet or dirty, in the kitchen or in the garden, or disconnect when I inadvertently press a button.

Here are the instructions. The multifunction button is the critical one. Press the 3 dots (not the bluetooth) to play or pause. When there is a call, it can receive the call. Press a little longer, and the call gets rejected. Press again to end the call.

FOOD CATERING TO A 1500 CALORIE DIET

 I like the idea of a food plan by calories. This one on healthline by a nutritionist (this is the modern title - no longer a dietician) has a 5 day meal plan with 3 meals of 500 calories each. I used the Mifflin-St. Jeor online calculator that estimated my total daily expenditure to be 1862 calories a day, but if I wanted to lose weight, by a pound a week, it suggested 1489 for my "slightly active" lifestyle.

I feel like the breakfasts are a little much, but I am bored of toast and peanut butter, and if I eat a little less (which is really easy because 1 egg is plenty when they are suggesting 2), I leave room at the end of the day for chocolate!

AUTOTROPHS AND HETEROTROPHS

 My zoologist-in-training keeps me on my toes, but some terms don't always stick.  Autotrophic was a familiar word, but had little meaning, so I looked it up. Here is a comparison between autotrophs and heterotrophs.

An autotroph is an organism that produces its own energy. Admittedly, you have to have pretty small metabolism, so examples are some plants, algae and bacteria. Heterotrophs rely on consuming other organism in the food chain as they cannot produce all their organic compounds themselves. These include herbivores, omnivores, and carnivores, like humans!

Maybe it says too much about how my brain works, but it seemed like an excellent way to insult someone. Stop being such a heterotroph, and get it yourself!

500 OPEN WINDOWS

 Sometimes I may expect too much of my technology. 

Today I was told that I could not open another browser window phone, unless I deleted another, because I had reached the limit of 500, and had 471 open windows from more than a month ago!

So I have resolved to blog these ideas and links as quickly as possible. I am not great at slow and steady, so I am going to try to rip the bandage right off! Then I resolved to clean up at least once a month, so as to never have this happen again.  There are just so many interesting threads in life, and from so many interesting places!

I could do 2 a day and be done in a year, or 5 a day and be done in 100 days, but I have 5 days, so 100 pages a day it is! (Princess Pirate warned that she did not want to wake up and find me at the computer, so I promised I would go to bed in an hour. Too bad my computer took 5 minutes to warm up and my phone's screen saver went off in two! I am logged into my blog and have set the phone to a 5 minutes screen saver, so we are off to the races!

Editor's note: 1 hour later and I have only completed 4 blogs. A marathon ahead, so I better be off to bed.

WRITING INSPIRATIONS

 It's been a glorious week of unusually warm and dry spring weather. I have been trying to capitalize on it, since I hadn't had the chance to finish the yard before it froze last fall. It's hard to stay focused, with many distractions of plans and kids and dawdling filling the last few days. The weekend calls for rain for the next few days, and that'll be easier to justify writing when the days are wet.

What inspired me yesterday, though, was a series of audiobooks that I may have read as a youth by a prolific Christian writer from Alberta named Janette Oke. She had humble beginnings, being born in a log cabin and educated in a one room school. These are the western pioneer realities that gave rise to many of her stories. 

She and her pastor husband worked in Alberta and Indiana. In researching this blogpost, I saw that she retired in 2002 at the age of 67 and in concert with her husband's retirement. This meant that her writing career, that started when her family was grown, and ended when her husband's career was over,  seemed even more impressive given that her books were written in the span of 35 years! 

I had looked in my library and online over the years, and I never found her books, although she has written over 75. This recently changed due to a Covid "gift" when I was browsing an online borrowing app on my phone that is supported by my library. I found that it includes two of her book series that I recognized from the church library, or my mother's personal collection, growing up, and most importantly, several in audiobooks, so that I can listen and still get the day's work done.

I may have read the Seasons of the Heart series before, and I never did get into the Acts of Faith that I remember seeing (historical fiction before pioneer days never peaked my interest). Most recently, however, the CBC tv channel had a series called When Calls the Heart based on the Canadian West series, strangely named given it was about about a teacher named Miss Thatcher from big town Hamilton and society life who learns to love it in the mining town romantically named Hope Valley, Yukon. 

I have my issues with the relentless church language that inevitably pops up, and the whitewashed Hallmark channel who have made cringe-worthy but few real efforts to improve their formula, but I have my soft spots too. Oke was one of the "clean" romance novelists I was allowed to read as a child, and the alternatives are certainly bad in other ways that were just as contrived. Her fantasies can have their own issues, and the genre of Christian romance left much of the reality out of relationships. Christians around me didn't have much of a discussion about grey areas outside of marriage, and the idealism of these stories didn't help start the conversation. The male led church hierarchy, the martyr complexes (self-effacement to the obliteration of the ego leads to all sorts of Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde scenarios), and the nearly predatory focus"bringing [vulnerable children] into the fold" have to be voiced as cautions to reading this type of literature. 

Yesterday I borrowed a book from the Prairie Legacy books, about a young girl learning the difference between right and wrong. It's a sweet read, if not a little simple, but it inspired me to write about some characters that I haven't thought about in a long while. 

My daughter thinks that I am mistaken to write something new when I haven't finished something old, but I think that I need to go where the spirit leads. Clearly, Janette Oke made no excuses for her writing a new idea. Thank goodness she didn't listen to feedback by a writing course representative that she "wasn't reading enough". At the time, she had admitted that she didn't have nearly as much time for reading as she would like, but while keeping track, would find herself reading over 100 books a year!

She has a surprising career that began 20 years after she married, at the age of 42, in 1977. She wrote down a story she had been thinking about for months. She actually took writing aptitude tests and this encouraged her. Her kids were teens, and somehow, as a pastor's wife, she made time to read and write. It took her three weeks to write her first story. After a first rejection, and months of research, she was invited to submit the manuscript, and published her first book 2 years later. It was called Love Comes Softly, and it would be the start of the series eight. This would eventually be turned into a tv movie produced for Hallmark, and was so popular with readers that their positive feedback would lead to the series of four that I just started.

It is clear that Janette Oke was a disciplined writer, and this was aided by her belief that this was her calling from God. She saw each book as a "paper missionary", and committed to write two adult books and one children's book a year. She became so well known that other author's asked to collaborate, and after retirement wrote a series with her daughter, who has also gone on to write her biography. I don't think a writer could ask for anything more than that.

Janette Oke wiki

Janette Oke from Canadian Christian Leaders

Book series in order

Interview with Janette Oke about the series When Calls the Heart (ignore the mansplaining commentary at the start and the micro-aggressions at the ending by Michael Landon Jr.)

Quotes from a wise woman