big strong water

Alex, Andy, Fiona and I walked to Skookumchuk Narrows today. It's an amazing place where strong ocean tides are squeezed through a narrow passageway, resulting in fierce currents and huge waves.

We watched kayakers riding on the waves and took lots of pictures. The Narrows are at the end of a 4 kilometer forest walk. Lots of people were there for the extra high tide. It is spectacular.

question: where do you go to look at the water?

mompoet - amazed by the force of nature

family campfire night

We are on the Sunshine Coast enjoying a family getaway. We're staying at the beautiful home of Andy's brother and his wife. They have a fire pit in their yard, so we had a marshmallow roast last night, and made s'mores.

After the campfire, we brought all of the s'more supplies in and washed off the marshmallow sticks. There are bears in the neighbourhood, and we don't want to have them nosing around the house at night. We didn't have any visitors that we noticed, but of course I dreamed about a mom and cubs browing around between the house and the deck, trapping us outdoors.

This is a heavenly place, campfire, absent bears, s'more-fueled dreams and all.

question: do you like s'mores? want s'more?

mompoet - happy

worth the wait - nature's bounty in our garden

Here are the first 4 delectable fruit from our Sweet 100s plant, growing in a pot on our deck. We also have Early Girl, also in a pot. The two plants are about 6 feet tall and covered already in blossoms and green fruit. Bees and sunshine, do your work!

Andy and Fiona are out for the day, so Alex and I got to eat these, which is fitting. We are the tomato-lovers of the household. Alex especially loves the ones we grow at home. He talks about them all winter and asks when they will be ready as soon as we start with our plants in the spring.

I made bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwiches. To use these I would have needed a teeny-tiny loaf of bread and a piece of micro-bacon, neither of which I have, so instead I used regular-scale ingredients and gave the 4 tiny toms a place of honour as garnish tomatoes, speared onto our sandwiches with toothpicks. I wish I had taken a picture of the sandwiches, but they were so good we just ate them!

The garden down in the yard is looking amazing too.

I'm making a 19th birthday family feast for Fiona tonight. The rhubarb has been baked into a crisp, along with apple slices and blueberries because there wasn't enough to do all rhubarb. I think it will be delish, and a wonderful summer birthday cake alternative.

This is Andy's and my third summer of vegetable gardening in our back yard and on our deck. He plants, feeds, weeds and waters. I pick and cook. May and June were pretty discouraging but now that we have sunshine, everything is leaping up and and doing its exuberant best to catch up and grow, grow, grow. So I will cook, cook, cook. I do love summer!

question: how does your garden grow?

mompoet - two brown thumbs, but golden in the kitchen

dreambit deja vu

Walking home from work Tuesday, I caught a glimpse of real life that coincided with something that I experienced in a dream.  If you remember this blog post, I have attempted to pedal a unicycle up North Road while carrying 2 suitcases in my hands. On Tuesday, I saw a fairly close approximation in real life.

I saw a man riding his unicycle northbound on North Road, towards Burquitlam Shopping Centre. He was carrying a satchel with a shoulder strap. It was tucked under his arm, so not quite the same degree of difficulty as my 2 suitcases, one in each hand - but still!

I wanted to ask him if he was going to Safeway to buy Lifesavers, but he was pedaling pretty fast.

I have never seen that before (except in my dream).

question: what does it mean when the least likely part of your dream appears in real life?

mompoet - I forgot to mention, the man was not wearing a bike helmet. Come to think of it, neither was I - in the dream, I mean.

red pizza and green pizza

Thursday evenings in the summer, I work until 6:30. I came home and wanted to make something quick and really delicious. I had two bags of Iranian flatbread from Joes' Market, so I made our family's favourite pizzas:

Here's the red pizza ready to eat, and the green pizza still under construction. I had a Duke's Cider on the go, so I didn't mind waiting for the second one to get into the oven.

Red pizza is for Andy and Alex. They like pepperoni. Half of the pizza is just flatbread, tomato sauce, pepperoni and lotza mozza. The other side also includes chopped onions and green pepper. The flatbread makes an easy, thin, crispy crust. I cut it with kitchen scissors to serve it.

Here's the finished green pizza:

Yum, forgot to take a photo until after I served myself up a couple of slices. This is Fiona's and my favourite. It has pesto, chicken, kale, chard, goat cheese, parmesan and a little mozza. The kale and chard come from our garden this time of year.

I made a big veggie plate to go along with the pizza and we had the perfect supper by about 7:30.

question: what do you like to eat when you get home on the late side?

mompoet - good food is worth waiting for, especially if you have a Duke's

babies

A few weeks ago, a pair of robins built a nest on a beam that runs underneath our outdoor deck. Soon, we noticed them flying in and out of the nest, carrying worms and insects. A week or so ago we got our first glimpse of little beaks poking out of the nest. We tried to give the family space and not disturb them. Whenever we went out on the deck or into the back yard, the parents would fly out to the fence and chirp at us, trying to distract us from the nest, I think. The neighbours' cats also discovered the situation. Fortunately, the nest is beyond their reach, but they have been lurking and keeping an eye out for an opportunity.

This morning, Andy noticed something on one of our deck chairs. We took a look through the window and here's who we saw:

Short-tailed little baby bird huddled under one of our chairs for an hour or so, then he/she flew up to the patio table then onto another chair.

Mama and Papa Robin were swooping and chirping like crazy. Baby chirped back. Then brother or sister bird landed on the railing. Before I could get a photo of the siblings, they took off and flew high into the cedar tree at Rhonda and Chris's house next door.

I phoned Chris to make sure the cats are inside. They are, and will stay there until we're sure the baby robins are good fliers. In the meantime, it looks like 3 babies and their parents are conducting flight school in our back yards.

question: did anyone get hatched or born in your neighbourhood recently?

mompoet - happy to witness this story unfolding

everyone needs and ipad

question: do you have one?

mompoet - I do not, but I think I can mince garlic on my ipod touch

bc berries

Last Friday, Andy and I drove out to Port Coquitlam. We bought 2 flats of local berries picked that same morning. I made strawberry jam with them Friday afternoon. Our local berries are delicate, sweet, flavourful and red right to the centre. They are small, more perishable and infinitely more delicious than the berries that are imported 7 or 8 months out of the year from California.

I felt sad when I heard that the local berry growers are suffering because the stores and canneries are shunning their berries in favour of the big bouncy cheaper imports. Here's the story. 

I understand that it makes business sense for the big buyers. It hurts the farmers and consumers. I hate to think that one day soon we won't be able to find yummy, BC farm grown strawberries during their short harvest in June or July. The farmer in PoCo said that last weekend was the end of the season for him. I hope he will be successful enough to continue growing the local berries next year, and in the years to come.

question: did you get your BC strawberries?

mompoet - raspberries and blueberries are coming soon!

permanent

I got my two new crowns on Tuesday afternoon. Right away, everything felt better. The new teeth are solid and firm, and the sensitivity that was dogging me with the temporaries has vanished. I ate a big crunchy salad at suppertime, with crunchy cold celery and crunchy crispy carrots and it was good!

The new teeth are smooth and lovely and feel exactly like real teeth only better. I don't have to go back to the dentist until my next regular checkup.

question: do you have any recent repairs? how did they go?

mompoet - fixed up good

a little bit too temporary

Look what fell out while I was cooking supper. I wasn't even eating, but perhaps I was drooling a bit. That supper was on its way to being really good. Those things beside my glasses are two temporary teeth that came unglued from the spots they were holding for two crown, scheduled to be put into my mouth later this week.

My dentist's office closes at 6pm, so I phoned the emergency number, which turns out to be my dentist's cell phone. He asked me to try to snap the temporary teeth back on to my tooth stumps. He did not say tooth stumps, he just said snap it back on, but I know what he meant. He said to come in tomorrow morning if it won't snap back on, and to call him back if I experienced any extreme sensitivity or discomfort.

So I sucked it up, buttercup.

The two fake teeth toppers would not snap back into place, so I put them in a small tupperware container to keep them safe. I took them out to show Fiona and Andy, who were less than impressed, and also to photograph them. They say there's a poem for every break-up, so there surely must be a blog post for every dental mishap.

I discovered that my yummy supper of eggs and vegetables could be eaten, even with stump teeth. It just took a bit longer because I chewed only on the other side. My tooth stumps are sensitive to cold liquids, but I discovered I can block them with the side of my tongue and sip with a straw through the intact side of my mouth. Heck, I even made frosty cold mojitos for Andy and me after supper.

I really want to look at my tooth stumps, so after I post this, I'm going to find a small mirror that I can hold up to my mouth and reflect over to the bathroom mirror. I promise not to take a picture of my tooth stumps and post it on my blog. There is a limit to what I will share.

My appointment to get the beautiful new permanent crowns is on Wednesday. I hope they are ready and can be put on tomorrow. Otherwise I'll be at the dentist's office twice this week. In the meantime, just call me Peggy the Stump-Tooth Straw-Sucker.

question: did your tooth (real or fake) ever fall out?

mompoet - snapping my gums and tapping my toes YEP YEP YEP!

overheard this morning

Child #2: Is it weird that I am about to eat a salad at 9:47 in the morning?

Mom: Nope, especially because your brother ate a cheeseburger at 9:15.

Child #2: Good, because I'm going to put chicken on it.

question: what do you eat for breakfast?

mompoet - feeling pretty conventional with my ryvita, cheese, strawberries and nectarine

sad missing, happy remembering

On Monday morning, Andy's Mom passed away. She had been in the hospital for a few weeks, getting stronger each day, then suddenly she was gone. We miss her very much. The service will be held this afternoon. Andy and Fiona worked together to make this slideshow.



question: how many moments stitch together to make up a life?

mompoet - reflecting