On a Mission

When I waken in the night and the dark cloud of worry descends what is it that causes me the most dismay???

Well, I will tell you....

It's STUFF - all the STUFF we accumulated in almost seventy years of marriage,

Starting with just our wedding presents, my trousseau and Charles' uniform, and look what I have arrived with!!  My darling chickened out on this one......

Just a small birds-eye view of the shelves of genealogy information, baskets of wool, pictures on the wall, pictures in boxes because there is no more room on the walls, remnants of cones of weaving cotton, warps and spinning fibres, thirty years of Handwoven and Spin-Off magazines, to say nothing of the Knitting mags that are my passion and folly.

And then there are the files, the music tapes, the DVDs and VSRs, the CDs, purchased and homemade - hundreds of them (it seems) - and the BOOKS!!!  And the snapshots!  Oh, thousands of them,  neatly divided chronologically into families, waiting to be dispersed.

To say nothing of the china and the silver plates and teasets we received as wedding gifts, there being no electrical appliances on the market yet after the war.

And so I am 'on a mission' to simplify.

I started with the books, - gathered up a great box full and a smaller box full of books that I thought others would enjoy and that I will probably never read again, - books that arrived on a whim because they had an inviting cover and books that really have no relevancy to my way of life right now.....(Milton Cross's Complete Stories of the Opera which I purchased from a book club even before I was married).

I put the boxes out in plain view and family bookworms came and inspected them and now I only have a bagful left!!!!

Most days in January have found us in an inverted bowl of fog and mist, so this is a good project, but today I must venture out to the bank and the grocery store and renew my supply of Orange Brandy!

And go to the Church to do the Pew Bulletins for tomorrow's service.

As I go I am planning to dig around in the snow to see how the Hellebores are doing, and if they are sending up little green stubs to bloom in Lent.....

ABC Wednesday
The letter is B
for Brulee, - the Creme de variety!!

Dining is never really complete for me without a sweet and coffee to round it off,

and the dessert that fills me with delight (anticipation and the actually devouring of!) is 

Creme Brulee!!!

Wikipedia tells me (if I must get technical about such a delicious culinary treat) that the earliest known reference to creme brulee as it is known today appears in Massialot's 1691 cookbook, and the French name was used in the English translation of this book, but in the 1731 edition it was called "creme anglaise".

In Britain a version of creme brulee was known locally as Trinity Cream, or Cambridge burnt cream, and was introduced at Trinity College in 179with the college arms impressed on top of the cream with a branding iron.

Creme Brulee is usually served in individual ramekins.  Discs of caramel may be prepared separately and put on top just before serving, but it is much more exciting to have the caramel formed directly on top of the custard immediately before serving, or at the table where the sugar mix is caramlized with a butane torch.  I associate this method with a lovely dinner Charles and I had while in England, attending a Squadron Reunion, and it brings back such delicious memories....

Creme Brulee is available in small ramekins in grocery stores, but somehow it is not the same!

I looked at the heel of my homemade bread this morning, as I cut the last slice for toast, and thought about Bread Pudding, and then wondered if I could turn it into a version of Creme Brulee, - it has the same ingredients.

If you have a yearning for Creme Brulee, here is what you need.

8 egg yolks

6 tbsps of white sugar, divided

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

2 1/2 cups of heavy cream

2 tbsps of brown sugar.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, then beat the egg yolks, 4 tbsps of white sugar and the vanilla extract until thick and creamy.

Pour the cream into a saucepan and stir over low heat until it ALMOST comes to a boil.  Remove immediately from the heat and stir the cream into the egg yolk mixture, beating until combined.

Pour the cream mixture into the top pan of a double boiler and stir over simmering water until mixture lightly coats the back of a spoon (about three minutes).

Remove from heat and pour into small shallow heat proof dishes.

Bake for thirty minutes in the overn - cool to room temperature and then refrigerate for at least an hour.

When you are ready to serve, if you don't have a butane torch handy, combine the remaining 2 tbsps of white sugar with the brown sugar and sift the mixture evenly over the custards.  Place under broiler until sugar melts and carmalizes - watching carefully so as not to burn.

If you do have a Butane Torch, or a Salamander broiler, take it to the table and do your thing!

Extravagantly and with flair.

Very impressive.

For more Bs visit here at ABC Wednesday, with thanks to Roger, Denise and all Busy helpers.

Out and About

After a quiet week indoors that involved a little weaving, a bit of knitting, some baking and a new book it was lovely to get out two days in a row. 

Yesterday the weather was glum and gloomy, but today there was blue sky and sunshine as I went for a drive and a wonderful lunch at the Hooded Merganser with my one good friend from early days who is close by, and her kind and attentive daughter.  

We are lucky, both of us, to have daughters and daughters-in-law who are sweet and caring.

Saturday it was my regularly scheduled monthly day to go to Penticton with my DIL from Summerland.  It mattered not that the clouds encompassed the whole valley, skirting the bottoms of the mountains.   

We carried on, - found a new restaurant that serves an exotic collection of Bennys (Eggs Benedict) and lunched with our oldest son.  This was immediately after having coffee and muffins with a granddaughter who lives close, so it was a full-filling morning!

 A little shopping  sent me home with a new coffee pot that makes a steaming aromatic brew, pre-programmed the night before,  I can see that it will be inclined to influence the time I rise if I want that first hot cup before I am really wide awake.  Maybe I will pass on the pre-programming and go about morning ablutions while the magic happens......

The weatherman forecast great drifts of snow overnight in the Okanagan

and I feared it would cancel today's outing,

but the snow only fell on the ski hills, which made everyone happy!

As the morning wore on the clouds began to disperse and by late morning, 

time of departure, the sun made a rare and welcome appearance.

We had seen great numbers of ice fishermen on Yellow Lake yesterday.

Easy chairs, bonfires and the lake dotted with bright red tents

around many of the fishing holes.  Christmas presents perhaps?

No red tents today, but still lots of enthusiasts out for the day.

Along the Channel Parkway going into Penticton I saw a lovely sign of spring -

the sap rising in a willow tree,

the colour brilliant against the blue sky!

A last delightful outing - a shower for the new great-grandson, who was passed

around the room and slept in everyone's arms,

 while the next smallest

GGSon entertained all the ladies  with his sweet smile and

adventuresome ways.  A true Finch!

ABBA

ABC  Wednesday
Off on another jaunt through the Alphabet
The letter is A

A is for ABBA

Wonderful background music when our family was full of teenagers

And now I find great pleasure listening and reminiscing.

Hope you enjoy this favourite

"Fernando"

or this.....

"Take a Chance on Me"

Life goes on and the Band broke up

but their songs are still popular and familiar

and make one want to Dance!!!

For more interesting As visit here at ABC Wednesday

with thanks to all the Able souls who energize this meme

The hothouse Hellebore

brightens my window

and speaks to me of early spring.

Its cousin, in the garden

pulls the white blanket of snow

even closer....

Sunshine, blue skies, whispy clouds

Blue skies and sunshine

Lift my spirits

and delight my heart

and send me scurrying

for dustmop and broom

Beautiful day.  I am banishing dust, but as I work my eye is drawn

to shadows on the snow, whispy white clouds

and water dripping from the evergreens

as those great drifts of snow disappear.

As I tidy and dust I also listen to a new David Garrett CD

"Timeless" - the music of Brahms and Bruch

played with the Israel Philharmonic and conducted by

Zubin Mehta !!!!

Beside my chair lies the latest Alan Bradley novel

following the adventures of Flavia de Luce .

When Alan Bradley first started this series he lived just miles away,

in Kelowna, B.C.  It tells the tales

of eleven year old Flavia's detective skills as she lives

with a most eccentric family residing at Buckshaw, the old and fast

deteriorating family estate.

Well, I find it charming and I can hardly wait to open the book,

forsaking Wallace Stegner and Loren Eisely for a romp

through a thoroughly relaxing read.

These delights, along with a desk diary that provides an awesome fact

for each day of the year

are the result of a lovely Amazon Gift Certificate birthday present

and I have to say, my son-in-law Frank's kindness

in going to get my mail on the icy roads.

Here are a few more pictures of a nice winter's day in the Similkameen!

If you look closely you can see that the pussy willows are starting to swell,

but alas, no small bits of greenery where the bulbs were planted, and the Lenten roses 

are under a foot of snow...

Off to catch the last rays of the sun before it falls behind the mountain.

Have we advanced more than three seconds a day 

as daylight increases, nearing spring?

Surely.......

P..S.    I forgot to mention the name of Alan Bradley's new Book

'As Chimney Sweepers come to Dust'

quote from Shakespeare....

A rather indolent day.

I woke, enclosed in mist and fog and darkness

and more or less confined to barracks because of snow and ice

These great drifts of snow that engulfed us on the week-end are piled high beside driveways and sidewalks, as folk try to clear a way through.

The temperature rises, and occasionally it rains, and then freezes.

My son, on the Chilcotin Plateau, told me last night that there were at least five levels of ice buried in the snow drifts there, which makes snow removal by hand treacherous on the heart and muscles, but not too bad if you have some heavy equipment handy (which they have).

  I have a video to show you just how easy it is up there in the Caribou!!  A piece of cake.....

I spent the first part of the morning devising a makeshift bird feeder that I could hang from the railing on the porch, there being too much snow for me to reach the regular feeders which now look like a cross between a ski chalet and an asian pagoda.

A long length of linen from my weaving stash and a deep aluminium pie plate that I could use the hole punch on, and the little birds were once again frequenting the food bar.

That finished, the fog began to lift a little, and as I had mid-morning coffee

I could see trees on the mountain, outlined faintly.  The air a quarter of a way up the mountains 

is a pretty blue, but beyond that all is overcast in grey.

The rest of the day I have been spinning. disciplining myself to finish the 

brilliant green roving before I start on the last indulgence

at the Naughty  (Knotty)  Knitter, - 

a plait of varigated mauves and greens and rose merino that I hope

someday will be a lovely lacy pair of socks.

Wallace Stegner's early book, Remember Laughter,

sits on the table beside my chair along with my knitting,

and so January will idle its way into a February thaw

and eventually Snowdrops and Lenten Roses,

and I will give up indolence and begin to poke around for first green shoots....

ABC Wednesday
January 7th, 2015

The letter is Z
for Zucchini

When I gardened in earnest - long rows of peas, corn and carrots,

I tried to be sensible about the number of zucchini I planted,

but invariably I was left in the fall

trying desperately to give away zucchini 

to other earnest gardeners (who had their own ZZZZs to dispose of.

I ended up putting lots of grated zucchini 

in the freezer

and making loaves and muffins and cupcakes

and the most scrumptious chocolate zucchini cakes

(recipes were as numerous as the veggie itself)

If you have grated zucchini languishing in your freezer

here's a recipe....

Grease a tube pan and preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Sift together 2 cups flour, 2 tsps cinnamon, 1 tsp salt, 2 tsps baking powder

and a tsp of baking soda.

Beat 4 eggs with 2 cups of sugar in a bowl and mix in 1 cup of vegetable oil.

Add to the dry ingredients and beat vigorously.

Stir in an 8 oz can of crushed pineapple (drained),  2 cups of grated zucchini,

2 tsps of vanilla and some chopped nuts, if you like them.

Pour into pan and bake for 80 minutes.

Cool for 30 minutes before dislodging from the pan.

Make a nice glaze from a cup of icing sugar and a couple of tbsps of milk

and dribble randomly over the top of the cake.

And this all reminds me that I do have grated zucchini in the freezer,

given to me by a desperate friend!

When all the Christmas goodies are eaten..............

For more interesting Zs visit here at ABC Wednesday with

thanks to Denise and Roger and ZEALOUS helpers.....

I take the Christmas decorations down, randomly, - 

just a few at a time so that Christmas can withdraw its outward trappings

 but hopefully the spirit will live on all through the year.

January is a birthday month for our family, - and probably for many other families too.

A lovely family celebration for my 90th 

(I still wince a little when I say that, but then get overcome by gratefulness

 for wonderful years and good health)

To make the day even more exciting and memorable and delightfully precious, 

the arrival of a beautiful new great-grandson.

A heart full of thankfulness!!!

Happy New Year

Thinking about the new year, and about New Year's Eves, past and present

 and remembering; the dancing, the parties,

 the bridge games and lobster sandwiches,

 the old friends, the crossing of arms in a precious circle as we sang Auld Lang Syne, 

and the incredible sweetness of the New Year's kiss -

 and I think idly of how the significance of this day has changed without the beloved beside me,

 and then more seriously about where in life I am situated now, 

as the new year looms 

and as I jump almost immediately into my ninth decade

(astonishingly!)

And I acknowledge that the living I have left to do is mainly

 an awareness of the beauty of the gift.

Which in turn reminds me of Mary Oliver and her poem about 

"This World".

I would like to write a poem about the world that has in it nothing fancy

But it seems impossible.

Whatever the subject, the morning sun

glimmers it.

The tulip feels the heat and flaps its petals open

and becomes a star.

The ants bore into the peony bud and there is the dark

pinprick well of sweetness.

As for the stones on the beach, forget it.

Each one could be set in gold.

So I tried with my eyes shut, but of course the birds

were singing,

And the aspen trees were shaking the sweetest music 

out of their leaves,

And that was followed by, guess what, a momentous and beautiful silence

as comes to all of us, in little earfulsl, if we're not too

hurried to hear it.

As for spiders, how the dew hangs in their webs

even if they say nothing, or seem to say nothing.

So fancy is the world, who knows, maybe they sing.

So fancy is the world, who knows, maybe the stars sing too,

and the ants, and the peonies, and the warm stones,

so happy to be where they are, on the beach, instead of being

locked up in gold.

And I wish you all the happiest of new years, 

filled with this lovely awareness of the most mystifying and magical things

 that surround us - so commonplace at times, but so priceless,

and sometimes so ignored in the busyness of life.

Y is for Yams

ABC Wednesday

December 31st, 2014

The letter is Y and the veggie is the mighty yellow YAM

You may not have noticed that X got Xed out by Xmas last week, but here is my offering of yams......

Definitely a holiday vegetable, whether candied or mashed with brown sugar, a wee bit of orange juice and perhaps a dash of nutmeg.

Although I have to say I prefer Sweet Potatoes nestled up against my turkey and cranberry sauce.

The Yam is the common name for some plant species in the genus Dioscorea that form edible tubers

(whereas the Sweet Potato is part of the Morning Glory family)

There is also the 'New Zealand Yam'!!!

Its Latin Name Oxalis Tuberosa

Prepared for the table in much the same way the common Yam is,

boiled, baked or fried,  or served as a sweet.

In Mexico the New Zealand Yam is called Oca and it is

eaten raw with salt, lemon and hot pepper!!!

And that probably reaches the boundaries of my knowledge about Yams, 

but perhaps it has added a little to your trivia about the Alphabet.

For more about the letter Y visit here at ABC Wednesday

with thanks to Roger, Denise and ABC helpers.

Catch Up

For the last ten days I have been immersed in ribbons and bows, wrapping paper, Christmas cards and letters, lists (oh, so many lists) and Christmas balls and ornaments.

But the house is all decorated now, the lights are twinkling on the porch and in the outside trees, I have all the 'away' parcels posted and the Christmas letters all written.......

In between this flurry of activity, which Charles would say was TOO MUCH, I have had a lovely shopping trip in Penticton with my dear DIL, where I spent too much money and was exhausted by crowds, but had a lovely lunch and enjoyed the scenery there and back.

And I have been out to lunch with various organizations, - the Museum Dinner,  held at the Wrong Turn Tavern (which I was wary about but which turned out to be a most pleasant and surprisingly enjoyable evening)

And the Purple Ladies held their Christmas luncheon at the historic Grist Mill in Keremeos, where I had hoped to buy a few Christmas gifts, but found them very much tourist-priced!

The day we shopped I went to bed fairly early, and then got up at 2.00 a.m. to listen to the Christmas Concert, Tannenbrass, from Berlin (the Philharmonic, for which I have a season's ticket that gives 

me much pleasure.  I wasn't sure if my 'inner alarm' still worked, but I thought deeply

and diligently about waking at 2.00 a.m before I went to sleep

and sure enough my eyes sprang open right on the dot.

A beautiful concert and I was entranced with the children's response, - one little

girl dancing in the aisle!

and others quite absorbed and delighted

I took pictures from the computer as I listened.

Here is Sarah (?) who hosted the party, playing her French Horn through a long green tube!

and the children's choir, who also performed with instruments and dance

It was so perfect, - I sighed and went back to bed at three o'clock, while visions of sugar plums 

and wonderful Tannenbrass music danced in my head.

Monday I mailed all my parcels.

Tuesday I rested!

Today I am going to the Cawston School, where I attended Christmas Concerts

that our own children played in, and where now my great-grandson, in grade one,

will be excited and in awe to be on-stage.

I play Christmas music and look around at the decorations in the house,

and it is as it always was, it seems, -

but those of us who have lost dear ones know better.......

and Callie keeps an eye out for feline visitors, accepting it all in true cat fashion.

I am sure I will be back before Christmas, but I must go now and put my 

Christmas Bell earrings on and get ready for

all the excitement of the School Concert!