kitchen tools

Our kitchen is small, with less cupboard and counter space than it might have. Some time A.U. (after university) we'll remodel it, but for now we just have to be careful not to accumulate too many dishes or tools. I store infrequently used tools and ingredients in our basement pantry, which also helps.

Two of my favourite tools are two of my smallest tools. My lemon reamer and my citrus zester live in the drawer with our silverware, taking up hardly any space. It's a crowded drawer, nevertheless, so I have a rule: don't lift or shake the silverware tray. We have the standard, divided tray with a place for forks, knives, spoons and a couple more for etceteras. The tray doesn't take up the whole drawer, so there are also things around the edges: an ice cream scoop, carrot peeler, etc. Sometimes it's hard to see what you are looking for around the edges, and it's tempting to lift the tray and let all of the items slide to the centre, thus spreading out for better viewing. The trouble is, it's then impossible to replace the tray without taking all of the "side" items out first. This is something that nobody wants to do, so we end up with a tray tipply-floating on a sea of clanking sliding corkscrews and pie lifters. I'm not a neatinik nor an organizational stickler, but I do not like a wonky sliding silverware tray. So I have this rule (I don't have many): don't lift or shake the silverware tray.

I put these tools (and a few others) to use on Saturday. First, I marinated some chicken. The recipe is from Thrifty Foods website. Look up Greek Chicken Skewers. It calls for chicken breast fillets but they weren't on sale, so I just cut some regular skinless boneless chicken breasts into strips, and marinated them in fresh lemon juice and zest, olive oil, pepper, garlic (I'm not terribly fond of my garlic press, but that's another story), and paprika. While the chicken soaked up this goodness (and partially cooked in the lemon, like ceviche), I prepared the potatoes.

I boiled up a pot of new potatoes. No need to peel these yummy little babies, so my carrot peeler stayed in the drawer. Just give them a gentle wash, making sure any spots of dirt remaining from the field are removed. They take about 10 minutes at a full boil to get tender. I put the hot potatoes into a casserole with olive oil and Montreal Chicken Spice. Then I broke the potatoes up a bit, and tossed them in the oil and spices. I put them into the oven at 400 for about 40 minutes, turning once while they baked.

Next, the corn. I peeled and rinsed it, and broke each ear in half. It was so fresh that the kernels exploded when I broke the corn. Good thing I wear safety glasses in the kitchen. The corn goes into an even bigger pot, with a lid on top, and about an inch of water. It's going to steam, rather than boil.

Time to heat up the grill. We were out of propane for our barbeque on the deck, so I got out the trusty George Foreman machine. We use it almost every day, so it lives in a kitchen cupboard, even thought it takes up a terrible lot of space.While the chicken was cooking, I checked the potatoes. I assembled salad and turned on the stove for the corn. I put out condiments and set a bowl of fresh English peas out at the table for a casual appetizer.The corn cooks quickly. Once it came to a full boil, I gave it about five minutes. Good thing the skewers cooked quickly too.Oh my, the potatoes looked great. They tasted even better...I forgot to take a picture of the whole meal, ready and plated. It was just too darn good to stop for a photo. I served the chicken with tzatziki, and put out sunflower seeds and craisins with the salad for those who like some sweet and crunch with their greens.

The whole meal took just over an hour to prepare and serve, and it was a huge hit with the family. After supper, Andrew and Fiona made good use of another one of my favourite kitchen tools: the dishwasher. I enjoyed a nice glass of wine out on the deck.

question: what are your favourite kitchen tools?

mompoet - employ them, enjoy them, and cook with love and appreciation

harry potter

Last night Alex and I saw Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2. We had a wonderful experience. It was a very good movie, for sure, but more importantly, we had the memories of our Harry Potter book and movie adventures before it.

I began reading the Potter books out loud to Alex and Fiona in the 90s when they first came out. I remember the excitement of diving into the wonderful world of Hogwarts with them. When we found out they were being made into movies we just couldn't wait to see them. When Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone came to the theatre, I remember we bought opening day tickets in advance (a first for us). I took off work early and grabbed the kids from school. Alex was in Grade 6, Fiona in Grade 3. We raced to the theatre to get good seats. We were enchanted. I remember we stopped at McDonald's on the way home, for a late supper.

Ten years and 8 movies later, a week after opening night, Alex and Fiona picked me up at work. Alex had seen the midnight opening screening at the theatre where he now has a part time job. Fiona had seen it a couple of days later. Both bought tickets online in advance and drove to the theatre themselves. Alex was ready to see the movie for a second time, with me, so we dropped Fiona off to have supper with friends and went to the pub for beer and wings before the show. We weren't in a hurry because our seats were reserved this time. We pulled into the theatre parking lot about 10 minutes before show time and walked right in to the best seats in the place thanks to Alex who bought tickets a few weeks before, when they first went on sale.

Watching the movie, and seeing Harry, Ron and Hermione grown up and finished with their Hogwarts days was happy and sad all at the same time, like thinking about our kids, and how they are also at the brink of their adult lives. It's the right time for all of it, though. I'm happy to have enjoyed the parallel Potter experience with these two great kids. I'm glad we still like to see movies together, and that they have jobs and can drive themselves to movies with their own friends now. I especially like beer and wings better than McDonald's, and reserved movie seats are the best thing since beer and wings.

question: did you take the Potter journey with anyone special?

mompoet - good-bye Harry, hello new adventures of real life

seniors' lip dub

I first saw this on the wonderful Cameron Seniors' Society website. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

quite possibly the perfect food blog

I just love this blog. I hope you do too.

My friend Cathy sent me a link a few weeks ago. The recipe was awesome and the blog so lovely that I bookmarked it and have visited again and again. I love the photographs and simple instructions. Pam, the blogger tells about what inspired her to make each dish, and also how her family enjoyed eating it. A perfect recipe for a cooking blog if I ever saw one.

question: which blogs do you read?

mompoet - well, besides the obvious

before you leave for university

(the poem that I wrote for Fiona's commencement day)

sixty-five days (by my count) until the date on the airplane ticket
sixty-five days
for you
like a bowl of brightly coloured stars
blazing with promise

for me, like so many things I want us to do

before you leave for university we must
sit on the porch in the deepening dark
watch an electric storm slice the sky
shiver under a blanket
smell ozone
and talk about the dog
remembering how we fed her peanut butter from a spoon
to calm her fears during storms like these

before you leave for university we have to
put on a Barney CD and sing along in the car at the top of our lungs
you will remind me how I dropped your Baby Bop cake frosting-down in the carport
I will remind you how you were sure Barney lived in a tool shed at the campground in Osoyoos

we need to go to the library together
I won't make you join the summer reading club this year
but we can still take out a book on tape
and listen together at bedtime

I want you to build a fort in the living room one more time
invite me inside for a picnic supper
insist that I sit just there, just so
kick me out, fix up the blankets
and call me back in for cheerios and tea

before you leave for university
we need to go shopping together
we'll go to Galloway's to get ingredients for granola
(I want to send you away with enough granola to last until you come home at Christmas)
you don't have to ride in a baby backpack at the store, or chew on a dried apricot while I shop
but we will ask for fresh peanut butter from the peanut butter machine
and if you want, I'll buy you the smallest bag of smarties they will sell us

we need to go to the bookstore and buy your last-day-of-school book for the very last time
we need to try on bathing suits without freaking out
and bras without having to spell out B-R-A so nobody else will know what we're buying
we need to go to the grocery for water chestnuts and iceberg lettuce
then go home and make lettuce wraps for supper
yes, we can use the food processor this time, even though I like when it takes a long time
for us to chop up the vegetables

before you leave for university
I want us to go for a swim at our pool down the road
then come home and watch a dvd of My Girl in our pajamas
we will eat microwave popcorn
and I'll explain to you why we named you Fiona and not Vada Sultenfuss
although Vada Sultenfuss is a fine name too

I want us to go to ABC Family Restaurant for breakfast
I promise this time not to lie to you about the coffee creamers being milk cups for elves
I want us to fly a kite in Vanier park
I want to go with you to Maplewood Farm one more time
I promise this time not to let a pony bite your toe
besides, your toes have grown, so they definitely do not look like grapes any more

speaking of toes
before you go away to university I want you to paint my toenails
a new shade called “I will be fine”
I will paint yours a colour called “come home soon”

then we must dress up and go to the theatre to see a play about someone else going away
and someone else coming home soon
and pretend for a while that it's really a story

for now, let's bake some muffins
blueberry would be perfect
let's count the berries out like a bowl of brightly coloured stars
share them like promises
gobble them like there's no tomorrow
like where you are going they don't have blueberries
like I'll never eat another blueberry so long as we're apart

before you leave for university
make sure to taste the sweetness of every day, every day
tomorrow is “I will be fine”
the next is “come home soon”

question: will you say good-bye to someone this summer?

mompoet - come home soon

good things this weekend

Well, the photo is actually from last weekend, sitting on the lawn at the Golden Spike Days festival, but it evokes the same feeling that kept going this weekend.

Nothing momentous this weekend, just a bunch of nice, small, happy things:

• Off work early Friday, I met up with Andrew and went for lunch at Golden Pita, a gem of a place across the street from my office. We shared a fattoush salad. I had a falafel, he had a donair. mmmm
• Annual screening mammogram Friday afternoon. Good because of the good it does and it was quick and easy. I like to call it my "annual screaming mammogram," but it's really not like that at all.
• Potluck supper for the ladeez on Friday evening at Myrna's. Happy 50th birthday Karen! I had to step out for a few minutes to pick up Fiona from her new job. We went back to Myrna's together for Karen's cake and gifts. That was really nice.
• Sleeping in on Saturday morning, then eating breakfast on the deck. I did a bit of house cleaning and read this awesome book, recommended to me by Fiona.
• Attended Andrew's work barbeque at his boss's house on Saturday afternoon. It was very relaxed and friendly. A great group of people and an awesome meal, cooked by Andrew's work friend Ed.
• Got home early from the party. No kids to pick up later because they shared the car and drove for one another. Went to bed early (thinking I sound old when I say that's a plus!)
• Church on Sunday all about Matthew and sowing seeds on the path, in the weeds, in the rocks and in good soil. Good thoughts and a meeting after to plan for our minister Julie's holiday coverage. I'll lead worship on August 7.
• Coquitlam Farmer's Market after church. I found some local strawberries, right at the end of the season. Phew! almost missed my chance to make some jam for the coming winter.
  
• Lunch on the deck. I love our deck!
• Walk around the neighbourhood with Andrew in the afternoon. We once walked these streets every day with the kids or the dog or both. Now we tend to go elsewhere for our walks. We have a great neighbourhood for walking. There is no such thing as a flat walk near our hillside home, so good exercise too.
• An afternoon spent in the kitchen making supper (taco salads), rhubarb crisp and strawberry jam.
• Watched this lovely video before bed. Thanks for the recommendation and the loan, Diane!
• Thought I was going to have to stay up to pick up Fi from the outdoor movie at Rocky Point Park, but she got a ride home so I had time to cozy in and read a bit more before sleeping.

It was a lovely weekend.

question: did you have a good one?

mompoet - hope so!

yummy foods of summer part 3 - big summer salad with citrus dressing

It's July and everything is growing. Fresh vegetables are easy to find, cheap or free depending if you have a garden or know someone who does. Right now I have a bumper crop of kale, and a decent supply of lettuce and fresh herbs. Tomato plants are a riot of blossoms with friendly bees promising to do the work that needs to be done. Beans, peas and beets, planted late due to our chilly spring, are also jumping up out of the ground, playing catch-up with the kale.

I was lucky on Friday to receive a huge bag of leafy green lettuce and heart-breakingly fresh spinach from my friend Brenda at work. She's house-sitting at a home with what sounds like a half acre of lettuce, which she must harvest and distribute regularly. I am delighted to help by taking some (er lots!). Friday's bounty inspired a big, simple summer salad which I made last night for a pot luck supper. My recipe includes instructions for preparation and finishing just in time for the meal.

The dressing is made from a recipe passed along by another work friend, Stacy. I made the big batch and have been enjoying it as I need it, as it will keep for a couple of weeks in the fridge.

The amounts are mostly estimates. Make lots or a little, depending on who is eating, what you have on hand, and whether it's for a side dish or a main course. Fresh salad keeps overnight if you set it aside and dress only what you plan to serve right at the moment.

Big Summer Salad with Citrus Dressing

The Vegetables
lots of green leafy lettuce, torn into bite-size pieces
as much fresh spinach as you can get, leaves separated
chopped red onion
chopped yellow bell pepper
chopped orange bell pepper
sliced mini cucumber
chopped tomato (or halved cherry tomatoes)
fresh asparagus, lightly steamed and cut into chunksPut all of the vegetables in a big bowl. Make sure there's room in the bowl to toss the salad just before serving.

The Add-Ins
toasted, unsalted pumpkin seeds
shaved fresh parmesan cheese
For a potluck, put these into small containers and nestle them on top of the vegetables in the big bowl.

The Dressing
1 Tbs lemon zest, finely grated
1 Tbs lime zest, finely grated
1 Tbs orange zest, finely grated
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
1/3 cup fresh lime juice
1/3 cup fresh orange juice
pulp from the fruit that you juiced
1 cup olive oil
1 mint leaf, finely chopped
1 basil leaf, finely chopped
1 Tbs honey
salt and pepper

Combine all of the ingredients in a shaker container. Shake well to emulsify before pouring. For the potluck salad, pour off a smaller container, seal with a lid and nestle it on top of the veggies. Put a big lid on the big bowl and go to the party. Bring salad lifters and a lovely salad serving bowl too.

Finishing – Just before supper is served, toss the toppings, dressing and salad together in the big bowl. Gently move it into the lovely serving bowl. I meant to take a picture of the finished salad, but it was too yummy and was eaten lickety crunchity split!

question: what's your favourite thing to put in or on a fresh salad?

mompoet - sharing what's in my own back yard and gratefully accepting all of summer's gifts

yummy foods of summer part 2 - rhubarb pecan muffins

I'm pretty sure I've posted this recipe before, but it's so easy and so yummy, here it is again.

2 cups whole wheat flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup chopped pecans plus 12 pecan halves
1 egg
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 tsp grated orange rind
3/4 cup orange juice
1 1/2 cups chopped fresh rhubarb

Combine all of the dry ingredients (except for the pecan halves) in a medium-sized bowl. Dump the wet ingredients, including the rhubarb, in on top and stir just until combined. Spoon into a greased and floured muffin pan. Put a pecan half on the top of each muffin. Bake at 350 for about 25 minutes. Makes 12 muffins.

question: dhubarb you like rhubarb?

mompoet - mmmm mmmm mhuhbarb!

yummy foods of summer part 1 - lemon mousse

My sister Barb amazed us with this tangy dessert when she came home from a year of au pairing in France. I have kept this recipe for a lot of years, and still love it. It is intensely sweet and tangy. You need just a small serving to instantly go to lemon heaven.

250 ml of lemon juice - 8 or 9 fresh lemons, juiced
grated zest of 1 lemon
4 eggs, separated
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 cup flour

Mix the egg yolks and sugar together in a cold saucepan. Stir in the flour until it's all smooth. Stir in the lemon juice and zest. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until it reaches a low boil and thicken up to a beautiful lemon curd. Set aside to cool.

When the curd is cool, beat the egg whites in a large bowl. Fold the curd gently into the beaten egg white until just combined. Spoon into serving cups and chill for an hour or more. If you are tansporting it, you can chill it in a covered dish, and spoon it into serving cups when you're ready for dessert.

Makes 6-8 servings

I served it on Thursday evening with a few fresh raspberries and a little puff of unsweetened fresh whipped cream beside each blob of mousse. It's really, really good.

question: do you have a mousse in yer hoose?

mompoet - loving the sweet and the tangy all together

wave at the bus

question: do you wave when your kids leave for school?

mompoet - can't wait to read the blog, starting at day one and working all the way up to day 170

fruit platter

l
Fiona requested that I bring our family's special celebratory fruit explosion to the parents and grads party on Saturday afternoon. While we waited for the limousine to arrive we snapped photos, chatted with parents we've known since middle school and watched the grads pin on boutonnieres and corsages, blow bubbles, eat cupcakes and ham it up for the cameras.

The watermelon explosion was decorative, tasty, and evocative of the jumble-bang of emotions that accompany such milestones as the grad dinner dance for parents like me. I hope you like the photo-explanation of how to make one of these big food sculptures. I have no explanation for how to make a child so wondrous as ours. We just got lucky, I guess.

question: when your heart bursts with love and pride and bittersweet prickly longing, what fruit would tell the story?

mompoet - melonblueberrystrawberryBOOM!

grad

Saturday night was Grad Dinner Dance, otherwise known as prom, otherwise known and the culmination of 13 years of going to school and now it's over and we're going to have a very wonderful and fancy party.

Here are a couple of photos of the part of the celebration where parents were welcome. Fiona says she had a wonderful night. She got home about 6 in the morning. I think she will have happy memories for a long time.

question: how do children grow into adults so quickly?

mompoet - I blinked my eyes and it just happened

what we carry, what we keep

I'm not very sentimental about "stuff." I like to keep memories, photographs, written descriptions, stories to tell again and again, but not so much souvenirs, certificates or other memorabilia. I don't even have my high school yearbooks any more. That's how little I feel like keeping "stuff."

But when my Dad emailed me to tell me he was going to let go of his old daypack, I knew that I wanted to have it. Here's the email he sent me, my sister and my niece a couple of months ago:

My ancient Millet day pack The lightweight waist strap (not heavy-duty enough to allow for significant transfer of weight from shoulders to hips) has come loose where it was repair-sewn to own side of the pack, and its mirror image is about to come loose where it too was repair-sewn a while ago. Your mother has expressed extreme disinterest in fighting with it any more. So I went to MEC and paid $40 and bought a new pack which is fine and should last another 40 years.

The old pack is, except for that strap, durable as hell, as evidenced by the fact that I got it in I think 1969. I think I paid nearly as much for it as for the new one, and those were 1969 US dollars (at REI in Seattle). If I had a dime for every circuit it has made of Burnaby Lake, never mind where else it has gone, I probably could have paid for the new pack. It has a top flap with zipper pocket where I kept useful things one might want in a hurry like toilet paper and soap, or, on those rare days that it was sunny enough to warrant taking them, my sunglasses. The main part of the pack is just one huge cavity, big enough for my backpacker's Coleman stove, two or three 1 litre Nalgene water bottles, lunch, and lots of clothing for warmth and rain protection. I have gone on one overnight fast-and-light trip using it (slept in my down parka and down pants, no sleeping bag or tent). It has attachment points for crampons and for an ice axe.

If you want the thing it's yours. I could give suggestions for how you might be able to repair the waist strap attachment, though your mother has doubts that my ideas will work. Or you could just snip off the remaining strap; as I said, the strap provides very little transfer of weight away from the shoulders so its main use is stabilization, to keep the thing from swaying from side to side.

It's ugly and dirty and smelly; the dirty and smelly can be fixed, but after over 40 years of use, you're stuck with the ugly. Let me know if you (or one of your kids) want it.

Dad

I picked the pack up from my parents' house and tossed it in my closet. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with it. I just didn't want it to be thrown away. This is the pack that my Dad has always worn when we've gone for hikes, from the time I was a little girl. A week or so after I brought it home, Fiona was looking for a prop for one of her students' plays. She needed something that looked like an old-fashioned parachute pack. Presto! The day pack had its stage debut, looking very much like a parachute for a nefarious cat in the musical Honk. After that it went back into the closet.

I decided to take it out today for Father's Day. Dad's and my tradition is to go for a "sushi walk," partway around Burnaby Lake. We stop at Piper Spit for lunch. I bring sushi. Dad brings his Coleman stove and makes miso soup and tea. We enjoy some time together in a beautiful place, with a yummy lunch, and this time, memories of a good old daypack and all of the places it has been.

So I guess I am sometimes sentimental about "stuff," when it's the right stuff, that is.

question: do you have anything that you like to hang on to?

mompoet - good old red daypack

one more thing

My friend Irene send me an email the evening after the riot. Here's what she said about something that happened earlier that day:

I was in to buy some Red Rose tea from Fred at the Minimart . (I was thinking people are just going about their business and nobody cares) Waiting by the counter for Fred to wait on a woman, I said in a kidding voice to the young guy standing next to me, something like, "Well I guess you had fun tearing up the place downtown last night." He didn't laugh but started talking right away about how what they did made him feel ashamed. The woman started talking too and Fred was REALLY mad. He said I bet they just get a slap on the wrist. He said they should come from places where the cops just go bang bang and you're dead. He's from Iran. Everybody seemed to have it on there minds but people don't seen to bring these things up. I came to the conclusion that all the people "going about their business," have it very much on their minds. Somehow that was a relief to know that.

question: what do you think about when you are going about your business?

mompoet - we should talk to our friends

what if we don't win?

As I walked home from work Wednesday, I wondered about that. What if we didn't win the Stanley Cup? Would people be able to manage their disappointment? We all found out on Wednesday evening as events unfolded. Cars burned. Stores were looted. Several thousand people participated, to a greater or lesser extent, in a awful outpouring of wild, destructive anger. At home, we watched our televisions with mounting dismay, disappointment, embarrassment. We had all hoped that the Olympics had taught our city how to manage a big street party. We wondered, "If the Americans had won the Olympic gold medal hockey game, would this would have happened then?"

I fell asleep Wednesday feeling changed. Sure, the excitement of the buildup through the hockey playoffs was gone, replaced with disappointment and resignation. We did lose, after all. But the stronger feeling was an overwhelming sickness about humanity. How could we be so awful and uncontrolled? How could the good people - enforcers and bystanders - not have prevailed? How could anyone commit such acts boldly, cheerfully almost, in full view of video cameras? I thought of images of young men and women not so very different from my own kids. The news reporters said that some had been planning the riot before they came downtown earlier in the day, but there were lots of ordinary looking people. They looked like people who had just showed up and joined in. They were throwing heavy objects through store windows, running inside and grabbing makeup and mannequins, dancing crazy dances of rage and alienation, or slinking out with proud/sheepish mix-mash looks on their faces.

Thursday morning I woke up numb and sad. "We'll get over this," I thought. But it will take a long time. "What will people think of us? What will we think of us?" I didn't fully realise how sad and upset I was until I heard the news on the radio on my way in to work. Thousands of people had signed up on Facebook, and were coming downtown to help clean up the city, wear the Canucks colours in pride not retaliation, do acts of goodness and contrition. I sat in the parking lot at my work and cried in the car.

All day we went through our routines, the same but somehow more subdued and unsettled. One of my co-workers came in a little late to work. She had driven downtown to help pick up trash before coming in to the office. The seniors at the rec centre talked about fear and shame. Was it safe to go downtown? Who could have done this and what did we do wrong not to stop it? We talked about the cleanup too. This helped everyone feel better. Later at home, I talked with my family about it and we absorbed the images on the news.

Citizens with rubber gloves and brooms and garbage bags from home. Messages of hope and healing inscribed on the plywood covering a store's busted out windows. May all of these signify a power greater than that wielded by the car burners and store looters on Wednesday evening. In every crowd, there are instigators, eggers-on, observer and recorders. Let's find our places in our own mob of kindness and rightness, get on with business as usual, and know that we are changed by this. It's our choice how so. I hope it's for the good.

question - what's your part?

mompoet - hugging my children and talking about it with my friends

shhhhh

Fiona told me that she and her friend Sonora have always wanted to have "a sleepover on a school night," since middle school even. Today is the last full day of high school classes for them, ever. So last night, Sonora slept over. They made popcorn and watched a movie. I baked brownies for them, and left them sleeping on the living room floor. So they had their school night sleepover. Just in time.

question: what did you do just before time ran out?

mompoet - watching the passage

vegetable deliciousness

My friend Julie (aka Cathy) posted a link to my facebook site. Julie and I (aka Julia) like to cook French food together at our annual women's weekend in September. I looked at the recipe and just could not wait until September. In fact, I thought about it all day at work. By break time I was resolved to try it right away so I ran across the street to the amazing Joe's produce store and picked up the few simple ingredients. I carried them home in my backpack and made the vegetable tian for supper when I got home. It is very nice.

question: do you ever obsess about a food?

mompoet - I love food

still working on the crow situation

Baby Crow (it appears that there is just one) perched on the fence right beside the walkway for a while on Friday, causing Mama and Papa Crow to intensify their aerial attacks on innocent passers-by. Our boss, Cindy, did some research on crow families, and found out that parent crows typically attack from behind, and that an umbrella is one good defense. Dave made a new sign, accordingly. I like the image that he borrowed from Alfred Hitchcock's movie.

On Saturday I went into the rec centre for a workout. Baby Crow is flying farther, so the trio was at another corner of the building when I got out of my car. I could hear a big commotion, but it was far enough away that I felt safe to walk into the building without my umbrella.

question: how long does this last?

mompoet - CAW!

corvids overhead

Outside of the rec centre where I work, at the end of the parking lot where it meets the walkway to the entry door, two crows have nested in a tree and produced a bunch of baby crows. Yesterday, it was time for the babies to learn to fly. Mid-morning found them out of the nest, lurching, flapping and popping around in some undergrowth below a tall cedar tree. Mama and Papa Crow alternated flapping down in the bush with the babies and perching on low-hanging branches just overhead. Whenever a two-legged creature walked past the area of the baby crow flight training, Mama and Papa would shout caws of warning, "Get away!" "Don't mess with our babies!" "Can't you see they are learning to fly?" If the two-legged creature persisted in walking from the parking lot towards the pathway that goes to the entry door of the building, Mama and Papa crow flew through the air and dive-bombed the pedestrian(s). This included people like me (direct hit to the right shoulder by Papa - I think), senior citizens using walkers and canes, and Moms with small children and babies. Don't think you can fool a crow with a baby stroller. Mama and Papa Crow know that two-leggers feed mashed crow to their babies. Correction: mashed baby crow.

So what do you do? One man stood in the middle of the mayhem, waving his arms and yelling back at the yelling crows to go away. This did not work.

Since it it the rec centre, and a public place, and safety is important, my co-worker Dave was charged with putting up a sign to at least warn people of the hazard of passing through the crow family's flying school area. Dave showed me his first draft. It said, "Attention Patrons: Please make room for baby crows." I told him I thought that was a bit obscure and did not actually address our purpose of a warning sign. It sounded more like one of those signs on the bus, admonishing people to give up the seats near the front door to elderly passengers and people with disabilities.

Dave offered to let me make a sign. I printed out my version that said "LOOK OUT for crows protecting their babies." Dave suggested "LOOK OUT for crows, as they are protecting their babies." I told him that was too many words. Dave conceded and used my wording on several copies which he printed out and posted in various places adjacent to the parking lot. My favourite was on a sign post just at the end of the lot, directly under the nest tree and only a few feet with from underbrush where the babies were hopping and flapping. When people stopped to read the sign, they stood directly between Mama Crow's low hanging brand and Papa Crow's low hanging branch. It think it actually increased the number of direct hits by crows to people.

I hope those babies learn fast. That was enough excitement for one day.

question: what's growing in your neighbourhood?

mompoet - witnessing the fierce humour of nature

unexpected party

It's the end of the program year at the seniors' recreation center where I work. Groups and courses are winding down. We'll still have things happening over the summer, but several of our activities are taking a break for summer, to make room for the children's day camps that call our facility home in July and August.

The English as a Second Language students and teachers organized a party on Tuesday. I knew they were going to do this, and I expected to stop in and share greetings and best wishes. I didn't know that I would be given a place at the table and included in the festivities.

This had to be the most unusual and delightful surprise. We joined the group in singing songs in English and Chinese (well, we hummed along to the Chinese), and my co-worker Linda and I were called upon to make speeches (easy) and to sing songs for the group (not quite so easy). Then we all played a game. We had to pass a ball around from person to person at the tables. When the music stopped, the person holding the ball had to stand up and answer a riddle. The Chinese seniors heard and answered their riddles in Mandarin. Linda and I received translations, and tried to understand well enough to make a guess. Of course Peter, one of the teachers, made sure each of us received the coveted ball, so we had our turns. I could not make out what the riddle was - something about skin, hair and float, with lots of pointing to my arm. I guessed, "apple?" NO! with lots of laughter. "Say comb," Dina, the leader of the group told me. "Okay, comb?" YES! and more laughter. I won a pair of rubber gloves with fancy cuffs. Then I had to sing, or dance or do an act. So I told the story of Mr. Wiggle and Mr. Waggle, to save them listening to me singing again. I think the seniors like it.

We had lovely snacks, including some steamed buns with fish in the middle that Dina made for us at her home. We thanked everyone for inviting us, and were thanked by everyone. It was a lovely surprise.

question: what delights have surprised you recently?

mompoet - "banana?"

my day so far

Waking to a room filled with sunshine and happy remembering of a good night out with friends and our team winning the hockey game. Springing out of bed to prepare coffee and enjoy apple, nectarine, yogurt and the granola that I made last night. Emails, facebook, cutting up a crusty loaf for communion bread. I leave early for church, knowing I have to pick up a round loaf for the communion service (none at Extra Foods yesterday). On the way, I realise I have left behind the juice, so I go to Thrifty's where I know I will find both bread and juice. Outside Thrifty's a rack of garden plants, including some gangly gallon tomato plants for just $3.99. I choose one and scoot into the store. The tomato rides in the pull-along plastic basket and I clutch the bread of life under one arm. Why is it always so hard to spot plain old Welch's? Cup of blessing snugs up in the rolling basket beside the gangly tomato. In the lineup a man is juggling a clutch of helium balloons and a bunch of things for the birthday party. His cellphone rings, sending him back up the aisle for a few additional items. The cashier secures his balloons to the checkstand for the time being.

It's beautiful out. People cruise the sidewalks in shorts and sundresses. Lots of dogs, kids, sunglasses, flip flops. Someone turned on the switch for summer, and we are ready. I take my tomato plant into the church and leave it in the lounge, to stay cool. I am greeted by the early-arrivers who are here to set up for the service. Svend is making coffee, Pat is getting the sound system working. James is plugging in the laptop. Julie greets readers. Now I'm taking out the ewer and chalice and getting Julie's special chalice from her office. Its earthy style belies an incredible lightness - must be porcelain. The bread goes onto clean white cloths on shining platters, juice goes into the ewer, with leftover to the kitchen for the kids to drink at coffee time.

Amy is leading a quick choir practice before the service. The singers sound wonderful. We are indeed a small but mighty community at worship. I finish setting out the elements on the altar table and go to set up the sandwich offering basket for people to see as they arrive for the service. Friends arrive and greet one another. I check in with Julie about the reading she's asked me to do.

At the start of the service we have announcements. I stand up and ask if anyone would be willing to miss Wednesday's hockey game to make sandwiches. Lots of laughter, and I know we'll always have enough people and enough food to make 100 sandwiches. Next, the lighting of the Christ candle. Jacqueline, Leigh Anne and one sweet little girl light the candle together. Funny how a girl can look like a tiny fairy princes, but jump down from the altar platform with the weight of an elephant and sprint like a rabbit back to her pew.

After the service and coffee time I drive home. My flip flops from last night's party are outside my front door, left there kindly by hosts Doris and Dave. How did I come home last night without my outdoor shoes? Inside, the kids are up. Alex's playoff beard is really beginning to look like a beard. Andy has already left for a day at the beach. Fiona's friend Natasha is visiting for the day. They are doing all of their favourite things from past years, except now Fiona can drive them both to the store when they realise we are out of mac and cheese. Jesse is outside with mom Kirsi, packing his gear into her truck for the grad camping trip. He says that prom and aftergrad were a lot of fun. Bowen comes out of his front door to ask his mom for help with his costume. I think it's a ninja. Chris says it's Darth Vader. Rhonda corrects us, it's batman. Bowen, five years old, specifies "Night Time Batman." He puts on the mask and I can see, it is indeed.

I make a big salad and a cup of coffee, grab Saturday's paper and head for the porch. Sunday in the almost summer, pretty sweet, so far...

question: what are you doing today?

mompoet - blessed

music night

Last night I attended the music concert at Fiona's school. Despite it being Game 1 of the Stanley Cup hockey finals, the theatre was packed with friends and family. We heard music played by two concert bands, an orchestra, a strings group, and two jazz bands. The concert choir and vocal jazz group sang.

Between performances, two of the music students gave us updates on the progress of the hockey game. At intermission they announced that our Vancouver Canucks won the game, beating Boston 1-0 in the final half-minute of play. HOORAY!

The musical performances were excellent. Each concert band had about 60 students in it. The two music teachers observed that participation in music programs usually drops off when students reach their senior year, but there has been a steady increase in participation by Grade 12 students over the past few years. When the seniors lined up on the stage at the end of the evening to be honoured, they filled the stage from end to end. And from the number of grade 11 students called up for awards, it looks like there will be an even bigger crowd next year!

The evening was a long one, finishing at 10:30. I left with Fiona, knowing that's our last school music concert. What an exciting time it has been, seeing these students from middle school up to graduation. Some will continue their music studies in university. Others will go on to other things. It was very special to be with them all for an evening of music and celebration.

question: did you play in the school band? sing in the choir?

mompoet - glad for the music and the students and teachers who make it

in which kale becomes your friend

Most people think kale must be awful and hard and bitter. I don't know why, although I once thought this too (before I tried it). Perhaps it's the dark green, crazy-curl leaves. Maybe it's the fact that we also use it for ornamental planting (thus eating it is like eating your Christmas tree or a cactus). Maybe it's just the sound of the name. Kale sounds like shale, which is a rock, and it begins with a very hard "k." But many beloved foods have similar names. We don't scoff at cake, or ale, which share sounds in common. Haddock and smelt are perfectly well-accepted even if they sound like the punchline to potty jokes. Oh kale, why art thou reviled so grievously?

Kale, if you have not tried it, tastes kind of like broccoli. It's milder than Brussels sprouts and springier (but NOT tougher) than lettuce. It can be eaten raw or cooked. It's easy to grow around here. It is lovely.

I concocted this simple warm kale salad last night, and loved it so much that I cooked it again tonight. I served it up with some baked yam cubes. These are seasoned with a bit of olive oil and Montreal chicken spice then baked for about half an hour at 400 on a cookie sheet. Cookie. Now that has two hard "k" sounds but we don't think of cookies as tough or bitter. Perhaps it's because they rhyme with nookie, so we think they must be equally delightful.

Warm Kale Salad with Pumpkin Seeds and Feta

about 1/2 cup of sliced or chopped red onion
about 1/2 cup of chopped red bell pepper
2 cloves garlic, minced
6 big leaves of kale washed and ripped into chunks (about 6 cups loose measure)
1/3 cup crumbled feta cheese
1/4 cup toasted unsalted pumpkin seed kernels
olive oil

Warm the olive oil in a large skillet or wok. Saute the onion and pepper for a minute. Add the kale and garlic. Saute 2 or 3 minutes longer, until kale brightens in colour and looks shiny and cooked (just). Toss in the pumpkin seed kernels and mix through.

Serve garnished with feta cheese.
Serves 2 people for supper, 4 as a side dish.

Cook that, eat it up, and tell me that kale is anything less than wonderful. You will love it so much you might even name your first born child Kale (if it's a boy) or Kaley (if it's a girl).

question: do you like kale?

mompoet - please try it before you decide

making space

Our nephew Lukas will come to live with us in the fall, so he can attend university near where we live. It's kind of nice that Lukas will arrive around the same time that Fiona will leave - daughter out, nephew in, somehow preserving the balance of things.

We are preparing a room for Lukas. It's in our basement, with nice access to the rec room which has a couch, tv, dvd, video games etc. Alex hangs out there a lot of the time now, so we picture the two cousins down there when they want to relax. It's big enough to invite a couple of friends over, even.

The room that will be Lukas's bedroom has been used for storage since we bought our house 20 years ago. We are now in the process of getting everything out of there, so we can move in a bed, dresser etc. Andrew and I tackled this project first on Friday evening. I pulled stuff out of the room, and Andrew took some of it to the dumpster that was in the complex for garage sale weekend. More stuff was labeled and taken to the carport for Saturday's sale. The stuff we want to keep will have to find new storage space around our house.

Storage displacement area #1 is the attic, so next I climbed into the attic and Andrew stood outside. I passed him boxes of stuff to take out of the house, either for dumping or for sale. A couple of boxes he decided to keep, so we re-atticed them or he took them somewhere else (not sure where). I managed to clear enough space to put the camping gear into the attic.

My next projects are the carport shed, the furnace room and the laundry room. All of those spaces contain things that we can give or throw away, thus making space for the rest of the stuff to come out of Lukas's room. Everything we need to keep will find a space, and we'll get rid of some junk and make better organized piles of the rest of it.

I wonder now if it would have been more efficient to start with the displacement areas (clearing the attic, shed, laundry room etc first) then tackle the room in the basement, moving things from there directly to their new spots? On the other hand, exploding the basement bedroom first started us on an un-pausable trajectory, because everything is a big mess right now and we want to get it finished. Working back to front might have given us greater opportunity for procrastination. Also, working the way we did, we managed to make best use of the dumpsters while they were here, and given our time available to work.

The room looks pretty awful right now, just half-cleared, really dusty, horrible curtains and the wires coming in from outside the house for our phone, internet and cable tv. Andrew has plans for making that work. I'll get on the curtains and we'll do a clean sweep and wash down once everything is out. We've offered to let Lukas choose the paint colour and help with painting if he likes. We have a bed and a dresser and there's already a nice closet in there.

Soon we will forget it was ever a storage room. We're excited to have Lukas coming and pretty pleased to know we actually have space in our house to make a new bedroom for him. Our whole home will be a bit lighter and cleaner too, for the effort. At least temporarily.

question: have you done any spring cleaning?

mompoet - amazed at what we keep

a poem for sunday

I wrote this poem for church today. It's a response to today's scripture reading: Exodus Chapter 17, verses 1-7 (the story of Moses finding water from a stone).

water from a stone

in days of dust and longing
feet cracked and dry
from miles of desert
weeks of walking, trusting, carrying a load
of who knows what to who knows where

in nights of restless turning
craving rest, craving peace, craving answers
pondering in the long blank stretches of
darkness
pulled taut as skin near breaking
could it really have been so bad?
are these promises
once robust with rightness
now only hollow dust-shimmer illusions?

heart quarrels
doubt rumbles
replays of story fragments
endings lost in endless re-telling
reason not evident
regret everywhere
regret echoing
feet cracked and dry, accusing
you chose this path
tell us, what now?

heart hardens like sand granules
vision blurs
faith tested
detested
this desert too long and dry to admit hope
heart thirsts for proof of love

* * *

in the pale soft hour of waking
dust of days, agony of nights
cast off like rumpled bedding
dawn touches these feet
tired and cracked with days of walking
God whispers assurance
green fields
fat cattle
children smiling
heart splits again
this time with sweet remembering
a coin in a pocket
a favourite song
the name of an old friend

in days of dry despair
I will be closest to you
heart's quarrels will not displace me
when you push away with all your might
I will hold you most near

tired feet find freshness of the bank
river runs where no river ran before
where rivers have always run

heart and promise reunited
dust of the desert
sluices from between tired toes
tells again the story of love


question: how is the journey going for you?

mompoet - reminded of the river

stretch birthday

Last night, at long last, we celebrated Alex's 21st birthday together as a family. Alex turned 21 on May 6, and chose that night to go with friends to see Thor at the new AVX theatre in the cinema complex where he works. That same night, Fiona baked him a delicious chocolate cake and we sang happy birthday to him when he came home after the movie.

We then began searching for a night on which we, along with Grandma and Grandpa and cousin Maia could all sit down together for supper in Alex's honour. It was not easy to find a date, but we finally came up with May 26, almost 3 weeks later. Before that date, Alex's work, Fiona's lessons, Andy's work, my meetings and work and other complications and distractions prevailed. After setting and confirming the date with everyone involved, I promptly forgot!

So on May 25, Fiona asked me, "What are we doing for Alex's family supper tomorrow?" Yikes! I also forgot that I had made a commitment weeks earlier to cover the late shift at work that night. I wouldn't be finished until 8pm. Also, on the weekend, my Dad cracked a rib, and was still in significant pain and probably not fit to go out for the evening with us. I apologized to Alex and we tentatively rescheduled to a week later on June 2 (still not quite a month after his birthday). Alex and Fiona made plans to see a movie together in the evening. I apologized. Alex was very gracious.

Thursday arrived, and as the day progressed, my Dad discovered he was feeling better and I found out I could get off work at 7 instead of 8. I phoned and texted everyone in the family and confirmed that dinner was back on. We strategized rides to the restaurant. I phoned in a reservation. At 7:15 I picked up a cake a Dairy Queen (also known as "baking in my car"). At 7:20 we picked up Mom, Dad and Maia. Just after 7:30 we were seated at Capitol Hill Szechuan, and actually celebrating Alex's birthday.

Supper was great. Cake was yummy. Alex is 21 + 3 weeks. Life is good.

Phew!

question: did you ever have trouble finding time?

mompoet - Happy Family Birthday Alex

the raptor

Fiona has corrected my misunderstanding. I thought we were expecting the rapture on May 21, when, in fact, we were expecting the raptor.

According to Fiona, the raptor is in two parts: on May 21, raptors lay eggs all around the world, then on October 21, the eggs hatch. This explains the revised prediction of the end of the world to October 21.

I have been looking for raptor eggs. Fiona advised me also that they are not smooth and oval like chickens' eggs. They might look like yams, she says. I found a few raptor eggs today.

question: have you seen any raptor eggs?

mompoet - tell me if you see one

the holidays of spring and summer

Monday was Victoria Day, in which we celebrate Queen Victoria's birthday. Queen Victoria was born May 24, 1819. However, we conveniently celebrate her birthday on the Monday before her birthday (or on her birthday proper whenever the 24th happens to be a Monday) so that we may have a long weekend and avoid a disruption mid-week.

The holiday before Queen Victoria's birthday is also an odd date holiday, but for another reason. Easter is a Christian Church holiday that is cause for a day or two off work or school for most Canadians. Easter is timed to the moon. It's the first Sunday after the full moon after the Spring Equinox, so it can happen in March or April, early or late, depending on the moon. According to the internet, it is called a "moveable feast" although we can't move it really, only the moon can move it. When I was little, I thought a moveable feast was a picnic. So much for what I knew. When I was little, Spring Break from school was always attached to Easter, so depending on the moon, the teachers had to wait a short time or a long time after Christmas to have a break from us kids. Nowadays, Spring Break is always the second or third (or both) week(s) in March and Easter happens when it happens.

This got me to thinking about how some holidays are moveable and how some are stuck wherever they fall.

Moveable: Easter, Victoria Day, BC Day, Labour Day, Thanksgiving (all are set for various dates each year, depending on the moon, in Easter's case, and on Mondays in the case of all of the other days).

Stuck on their Dates: New Year's Day, Canada Day, Remembrance Day, Christmas Day, Boxing Day (these fall on the same numerical date every year).

I wonder why Queen Victoria's birthday is moved around for our convenience, but Jesus's birthday is fixed. I know that Jesus is more important in the grand scheme of things (at least to us Christians) than Queen Victoria is. But still, Jesus's birthday is an approximation, not an actual calendar date that we know from history, and Queen Vic's at least we know for sure it was that day.

Easter is tied to Passover which is ancient, and so we respect and connect it to the moon phases, thus the moveability of this feast day. The other non-religious holidays are really about celebration rather than about a certain sacred day of the year, so moveability makes sense (for most of them, at least). Remembrance Day is justifiably stuck at the 11th day of the 11th month and we do stop everything at the 11th hour. That is cool. Come to think of it, wouldn't it be cool if we fine tuned a couple more of our holidays to a particular hour - like the actual time of day Queen Victoria was born, we could all let out a big whoop and say "IT'S A GIRL!" What? you don't actually celebrate Queen Victoria's birth on Victoria Day? Well, neither do I, really.

BC Day and Canada Day are the other secular (moveable) holidays on which we actually celebrate the reason the holiday has been called. I think this has a lot to do with government making it so. Lots of effort and money goes in to celebrating our provincial and national days. Also, it's something just about everyone in the country and the province can celebrate equally. "I am here. I am glad I am here." That is a good thing to be able to celebrate. What if you lived in a miserable horrible place where you couldn't wait to escape to freedom and safety in another country? What kind of national holiday would you have? Grim, to say the least. We don't know how good we have it, barbeques, fireworks and street festivals being the least of our blessings.

A side note: BC Day is moveable. Canada Day is stuck. Ponder that.

The whole thinking about holidays thing popped into my mind last night because I brought work home with me. I sat on the couch and watched the second half of the hockey game (HOLY COW! HOCKEY SHOULD HAVE ITS OWN HOLIDAY!) and programmed my Fall 2011 and Winter 2012 classes for work. I had to be aware of moveable and stuck holidays so I could plan around them. Fiona looked up Easter 2012 for me. It's in April, so I don't have to plan around it until I'm working on my Spring and Summer 2012 programs, which are probably due next week, deadlines being moveable.

I am thinking ahead now to the mostly happily moveable non-religious holidays of summer, which are about relaxation, celebration of the place we love, celebration of going back to work at the end of the summer, celebration of people, the funny, awkward, random blessings that we are.

question: what is your favourite holiday? does it move?

mompoet - happy holidays!

STOVE!

I think I've blogged previously about my ongoing battle with the oven. A year or two ago we took our friend Tom's fridge and stove. Tom was renovating, and had a barely used stove and a sparely used fridge. Our appliances, on the other hand, were worn out.

The fridge is great. It does what fridges do. It is cold on the inside and not cold on the outside. When you open the door, a light turns on. Good fridge.

The stove was not so great. The cook top worked fine, but the oven was an incinerator. It did not understand that the job of an oven is to achieve the specified temperature, then to stay as close as possible to that temperature until requested otherwise. The oven would get hot, then stop heating, then GET HOT!!! If you happened to have something in the oven when it went into "GET HOT!!!" mode, well, I hope you like your food very brown with black around the edges.

We learned to work with this amazingly awful oven. There were several tricks. For example, if I had a cake that needed to be baked for 35 minutes at 350, I would turn the oven on to preheat to 400. When it reached that temperature (or at least when it stopped heating), I would turn the temperature control down to 350, put the cake in and watch, listen and smell. This required coming into the kitchen at least every five minutes to check for flames licking out from the door of the oven, because the elements would periodically turn to red hot top and bottom and frizzle the poor cake. If the elements came on, I would notch the temperature control down to 325, 300, 275 (which was actually probably still 1000 degrees), to induce the element to turn off again to spare my poor cake. If - I mean when - the element came on again after that, I'd take the cake out, put it on top of the stove for a few minutes and repeat the procedure of preheating to 400, turning down to 350, putting the cake back in, etc. This usually worked except sometimes the oven would shut off altogether. I think it must have had a safety thermostat that would turn it off whenever it reached temperatures higher than those found on the surface of Mercury. In that case, I would leave the cake inside to bake with what heat remained, stand by and check to find out when the oven had cooled sufficiently to turn itself back on, then start all over again with the preheat procedure. Sometimes I could bake a cake in 35 minutes. Other times it took 1 hour due to the in/out on/off procedures. Other times it took 5 minutes, which was okay if it's a chocolate cake because they are black and brown by nature, and also if you don't mind your cake crunchy on the outside and wet on the inside.

Other defensive measures included putting a baking sheet on the lower rack as a heat deflector, and placing the cake pan on the upper rack in the middle of the oven. I'm sure I could have contacted NASA for some surplus heat shield material to make a canopy to put over top of the cake, but a piece of aluminum foil worked adequately.

I haven't mentioned yet that the outside of the oven would get just as hot as the inside. In the winter, it functioned much like a rustic wood stove in an old time cabin. In the summer, it functioned much like a rustic wood stove in an old time cabin.

Andy and Fiona learned defensive baking along with me. Alex decided that he will never bake.

So last week, our neighbours Dave and Doris finished their kitchen reno by purchasing an awesome black stove. Andy noticed that their old (well, fairly new) white stove was in their carport. He had a chat with Dave and the stove is ours. Andy and Alex surprised Fiona and me with it. We came home one night to find the old incinerator in our carport, and a lovely wonderful stove in our kitchen. Even better, our dear friends the Hyskas owned Dave and Doris's house before they moved to Newport. So we have the Hyskas' old stove. It has a flat cooktop and a wonderful oven. On Saturday morning I baked blueberry muffins and it took forever because I was so cautious with the temperature. I'll have to just go for it now. I baked yams last night and they turned out great. Fiona was a bit nostalgic about the old oven when she made herself a quesadilla. She said she kind of missed its super-speedy cooking of food. I think it's kind of like letting go of a dysfunctional relationship, but we'll get used to this kinder, gentler stove.

So all is well in the McIntyre house. Old incinerator is up for grabs for free at the neighbourhood garage sale on Saturday. We'll be honest about its shortcomings.

By the way, new stove is hot on the inside and cool on the outside. I think I will introduce it to fridge. I think they will get along together just great.

question: do you struggle with appliances?

mompoet - cooking with a smile

a spring of strange and new things

This is the coldest, wettest spring we have had in a long time. I have not yet eaten breakfast outdoors on the deck, and my summer clothing is all still in the attic. It has been rainy and chilly and drab almost every day.

This spring, we are getting ready for Fiona's graduation from high school and her move to college at the end of the summer. She'll go to New Jersey to study musical theatre at Montclair State University. It's wonderful and strange and hard to understand, all at the same time.

As Fiona leaves, our nephew Lukas will be coming to live with us while he attends university near our home, so we'll still have a full house. It's funny, these two cousins were born on the same day. One is leaving and one is arriving. Feels like a fair arrangement to me, but strange.

I don't feel like I'm any different from who I was this time last year, but I know that I am changing in response to all of these changes. Our life will change significantly very soon. It's all for the good, but it's a bit unnerving, because I don't really know what it will look like, feel like, or who I'll be when the dust settles. Still me, for sure, but me with a new emphasis and focus.

I'm grateful that Alex and Andy aren't going through transitions, although they too are adjusting to the change that our family is experiencing. So I guess, in a way, they are too.

My feelings aren't cold and gloomy like the weather, but they are unpredictable and somewhat unseasonable. I'm looking forward to warm days outdoors, the end of the recitals/awards/prom season and the more relaxed pace of summer. It will be a different summer from the ones before it, but a good one, I am sure.

question: what is changing for you?

mompoet - to everything there is a season

the rapture

My son Alex told me today that the last time we had a serious prediction about the end of the world (if there is such a thing) was in 1994. He concluded that every time the Vancouver Canucks have a chance of winning the Stanley Cup, the world threatens to come to an end.

My understanding of the story of the rapture is that all good believers are lifted off of this miserable earth just ahead of a sea of fire and destruction that will liquefy all those who do not deserve to be lifted. My imaginary painting has people with halos smiling in delight and surprise (like they just won a gigantic prize) jolting off the ground and ascending a sunbeam to heaven, which is in the sky of course. This being my imagination, it is a fantasy, and not my actual belief or understanding of things.

I am a Christian. I believe in God. I believe in Jesus. I don't believe in the rapture or many other literal interpretations of the stories in the Bible. The God I know just wouldn't do that. The God I know doesn't live in the sky, either. Nor does is this God diametrically opposed to science or the truths of the natural world. The God I know is more like a marinade than a gold crown, more of an organizing principle and unifying experience than a puppet master, exalter of some, destroyer of others. Many Christians would read this and say that means I'm not Christian. That's okay with me. If that's their definition, then maybe I'm not. I think I am, however, and conclude this from my own learning, experience and faith.

I think everyone needs a way (or ways) to understand the world, life, him or herself in relation to it all. I think that some people honestly and truly believe in the rapture as God's will and the way that the world's problems will be resolved. I don't subscribe to that thinking. But neither do I refute God, nor do I believe in intelligent design. I think that science and faith and God and evolution all exist, and that the explanation for how they all do is part of the mystery that we ponder in our own hearts every day. If there was an easy answer, we'd have found it and found a way to agree on it by now. Like everything big and real and important, it's complicated.

When I said God was a marinade, I didn't mean to belittle God or the idea of God. I meant to say that God is someone or something inside of us, just like DNA is inside of us, except that most people recognize and agree that DNA is real, and not everyone feels the same way about God. I also think that heaven is here and now. It's not in the sky. It's everywhere. When we die, if we go to heaven, we might not even notice the difference. Heaven is ours during our living days as well as beyond them. It's our own creation and ours to care for or damage, not just physically. Just like we can wreck the earth with pollution and over-use, we can wreck heaven by pouring out every bad thought and feeling into it, denying ourselves enjoyment of it, being jealous of others' enjoyment of it, hogging the good seats and failing to notice that it is here in the first place.

So like most atheists (which I am not), I was not surprised when the rapture failed to happen at 6pm this evening. But like many Christians and many more believers-in-something-or-more-than-one-thing, I think that there are great truths to be known, and felt, and shared. Life and life beyond life is mysterious and wonderful, and real - not a comic book, not an action movie, just ordinary days with extra-ordinary meaning trickling through the cracks and joining us all together.

I am glad to be here, and glad that everyone else (who I know, anyway) is also still here. I am glad that God and Jesus and Darwin are here and right, simultaneously.

question: so, what do you think?

mompoet - yup, I'm back all right

out of hibernation

I have been hiding out, not posting much, not writing much, not playing much, being more of an introvert than I usually am. It has been the right thing to do for the past little while. I am glad for it. I have turned my energy and focus at least partially away from the outside world of friends, causes, entertainment, and general gallivanting. This doesn't mean I've been a hermit, just significantly less of a gabber, gadabout and getter-done of things apart from my closest circle and myself.

Most of what I have been doing is not my story to tell, so I will not go into details. Suffice to say, all is well, I am well, the people who I love are well. Many great things have happened during this quieter, more inward phase for me and the people about whom I care most. It has been a good investment of time and energy and love. I think it has changed me some. I understand now that the world will turn whether I spin it or not, that I can rest and not let everyone down, and that just being in one place can be the kindest and most generous choice available.

Crawling out of hibernation, I think I will take life a bit more generously and slowly, and enjoy things a bit more. That's not to say I won't multi-task or be generally more energetic than your average bear. I'm still me. I've just re-set my own inner gauges to be a bit more curious, observant and caringly responsive, and I like how that feels.

I've got lots of updates on life to share in my upcoming blog posts. You'll guess from a few of those where some of my energy and love has been going. I hope you are still checking in and reading, and that you haven't been discouraged by the scarcity of posts in recent months.

I am back. I missed the blog. I missed the happy blah blah. But it has been, and continues to be well worth it.

question: are you there?

mompoet - I am here.

me in pictures (more words soon)

question: whose table is it?

mompoet - oh, the difference an imaginary apostrophe makes

walking around vancouver

Do you ever discover a theme in your days that you had not planned? This weekend it was "Walking in Vancouver" for me.

Friday I enjoyed a couple of shows at the Vancouver International Poetry Festival. I saw the Haiku Death Match and the Sirens reading. Both were splendid. I was so happy to see my Poetry House friends, having been away from the organization for a year. They have put together a wonderful festival. I'm so proud of them! Attending the festival meant that I got to walk around East Vancouver's Commercial Drive neighbourhood. I stopped in at Turks Cafe to pick up a tea latte and a big cookie, and I sat on the lawn in front of the WISE hall, in the sunshine, and just enjoyed being there. It's a nice walk from the Commercial Skytrain Station up to the WISE, and it was a beautiful day.

Saturday, Andrew and I dropped Fiona off at work first thing, then drove to Granville Island. We did a bit of market shopping, then walked out the seawall to Kits Beach and back. Everyone and their dogs was running, walking, playing in the park. It was glorious. We saw a couple of sculptures from the Bienalle. (iiiinteresting! One looked like a disembodied stainless steel colon, extended across a big lawn). It was great to get out together and look at the water, the houses, the park, the people, and the big giant stainless steel large intestine.

Sunday I cooked, ate and watched the hockey game. No walking to speak of, although at church I ran with Mary Magdalene to the tomb. That was Sunday's exercise.

On Monday, Fiona practice-drove downtown to her voice lesson at supper time. I co-piloted. I had about an hour and a quarter to do something while she was in the studio. We had already stopped for coffee, and I had accidentally brought a magazine that I already read, so I walked. I went up from Gastown through the West End, along Robson for a bit, back along Davie for a bit, then through Yaletown and back to the studio. It was nice. Even though it was rush hour, it was very quiet. I think a lot of people had the day off work.

That was my weekend of walking in Vancouver. Nice, huh?

question: what was your theme in recent days?

mompoet - walk, walk, walk

voting again and again

Vote early! Vote often! I know that's a joke, but it could be true for us these days. I have voted in the Port Moody Firehall borrowing referendum, the BC NDP Leadership election and in the advance poll for the federal election. The firehall and federal voting took place at Kyle Centre, as indicated in the photos. Leadership vote was online.

In the fall, we will have a civic election. There's even the possibility of a surprise provincial election, but less so, now that our new Premier has called a by-election in the riding where she hopes to secure a seat. Still, you never know.

Alex and I have continued our volunteer commitment to our candidate and MP, Fin Donnelly, in the federal election. Voting Day is Monday, May 2. (hint hint - VOTE!) For the first time in a lot of elections, I won't be volunteering all day long because I can't get away from the office. Never mind, I'll jump in at 4:30 wherever they need me. Counting the vote is the most exciting part, anyway.

question: are you voting early? often?

mompoet - on the voter's list, and making the most of each opportunity

still here

I haven't posted my blog for almost 3 weeks. All is well, I'm just totally preoccupied and tremendously distracted. I'll be back when life gets back to normal. No problems, just lots going on. I'll try to post a couple of small updates this morning. Stay tuned. May/June should be more blog-interesting.

question: what lurches you out of your groove?

mompoet - love, love, love, always love

election (again)

We have a federal election in May. The last one was in 2008. Then, in our riding, we had a by-election in 2009. There will also be city elections this fall, and there are rumours of a provincial election. Add to that, leadership races for both of our major provincial parties, and when I bring up "the election" with people, they most often say, "which one?"

Oh yeah, there's a referendum this month in Port Moody about building a new Fire Hall.

I'm with everyone who is feeling a bit burnt out over all of these elections. But then I give myself a shake. They are elections according to the law and our system of government, and they are happening, like snow or chicken pox or puppies. Whether you wish them for now or not, you'd best participate. What if they threw an election and nobody showed up? The thing is, people do show up because it's our chance to have a say in who is representing us, leading us and taking care of us. And while I know it's not perfect, I am sure that we have a better deal in terms of leaders and systems of government than more than half of the rest of the world. We have a vote. Nobody kills us if we vote for the wrong person. For the most part it's fair and legal, with equal opportunity, and the person we elect does his or her best for us. Come on, it's not that much to ask that we wake up our brains, think about ourselves as a collective and consider our future and that of our children and vote.

So that's the background situation. Of course, I'm volunteering again. I'm supporting Fin Donnelly, our NDP MP, for re-election. Alex is helping out too. On Monday I walked door to door with Fin, and I followed up on Tuesday, putting out some lawn signs at houses where the residents said they would like a sign. I like Fin a lot as a leader and representative. He's smart and caring and authentic. He's done a good job in the House of Commons for us, presenting a half a dozen private members' bills already. He knows his constituents and his riding. In fact, he grew up here. We knocked on doors Monday where he knew the families from his elementary school days. Fin is a good listener and responds with intelligence and integrity to the things people say to him and ask him. He works hard for us and is connected to issues that affect our lives. Fin's best known for swimming all the way down the Fraser River two times, to draw attention to the need to protect the salmon and their river habitat.

As a campaign volunteer, I like door-knocking and election day best of all. It's exciting to be out and part of the effort to get votes, and I like getting to know the candidate. I have (in various other elections) also dropped fliers on doorsteps, gone door to door without the candidate, worked at the phone bank and participated in curbside sign-waving sessions. As one of the more "rah-rah" participants in the election, I have encountered the frustration of people who are unhappy about the intrusiveness of the campaign. I have spoken with people who are frustrated by numerous phone calls, including automated recorded messages, "Hello! This is Jack Layton!" "Hi, I'm Stephen Harper!" "Hello, this is Michael Ignatieff, I know you are eating supper, but I just thought I'd call you to say my mass-dialing auto call is more important than your family time."

I'm annoyed by those calls too. I wish that they weren't necessary, or there was some real way of making sure people who really don't want them aren't called, or that faithful supporters are peppered with too many too frequently. Still, I think that the future of our country, how we spend our money, whether we send our armed forces to this or that country, how we take care of the environment, how we care for the elderly, homeless children...those things are more important for just a moment, for just a few weeks, than my supper right now. And just think about it, how often do you get a chance to hang up on Stephen Harper?

Here's a good article about our riding of New Westminster Coquitlam Port Moody.

I know, it's tedious. It's annoying. It's expensive. It's an election. It's a privilege. Get over it. I'm telling myself that every day, and I do believe it.

question: what's up with you for this election?

mompoet - counting on your support, whichever candidate you like best

three mushroom soup without tarragon

I found this recipe in the Vancouver Sun a few weeks ago. This morning I was at Granville Island. The fruits and veggies were so beautiful, I was reminded of my intention to make the soup. I bought 3 kinds of mushrooms and brought them home.

Washing mushrooms is an interesting chore. I don't have a fancy mushroom-cleaning instrument, so I usually use a paper towel, which I rinse off every few wipes. I have read that it's not good to wash mushrooms with running water. I think that it wouldn't hurt the mushrooms, but it also wouldn't clean them very well. They do require some amount of rubbing.

The ingredient list for this recipe is simple once you have the mushrooms. Don't scrimp on the shitakes. They are expensive compared to the other types, but they are so good. They have some kind of a "snap" to them when you bite into a piece of one, and their flavour is really yummy. I have tarragon in my house, but it's not my favourite, so I substituted a splash of cognac for the tarragon. They are not equivalent, but the cognac-flavoured soup was awesome. I also subbed low fat plain yogurt for cream. I think it gave the soup a bit more zip, and a lighter consistency than with cream.

three mushroom soup WITHOUT tarragon (unless you want tarragon)
Vancouver Sun recipe starting point, embellished in my kitchen

olive oil for sauteing
about 2 cups of white mushrooms, thinly sliced
about 2 cups of brown mushrooms, thinly sliced
8-10 fresh shitake mushrooms, thinly sliced
1 large shallot, finely chopped
1/4 cup flour
1 tetra pak (litre) of veggie, chicken or beef broth - whatever's on hand
1/2 teaspoon (2 mL) dried tarragon - optional
1/3 cup cognac - also optional
1/2 cup light cream or low fat plain yogurt (heavens, don't use blueberry or some such)
salt and white (or black) pepper to taste
thinly sliced green onion or chopped parsley, for garnish (optional)

Heat the oil in a nonstick pan over medium heat. Prepare the mushrooms and cook one kind at a time until tender, about 5 minutes each, then set aside and cook the next kind. Cook the shallots along with one batch of mushrooms. Put all of the cooked mushrooms back into the pan. Mix in the flour and cook 2 minutes more. If the pan is big enough, leave them there. If not, transfer to a bigger pot (need not be nonstick) and put that one on the hot burner. While stirring, slowly mix in stock. Stir in the tarragon or the cognac, or perhaps both. Bring to a simmer and simmer 10 minutes. Stir in the cream or yogurt (but not both); season with salt and pepper. Heat the cream through a minute or so, and the soup is ready. If desired, serve portions of the soup garnished with sliced green onion or chopped parsley.

Makes 4 servings

shitake spellchecks in blogger to Whitaker or shirker (or a swear word).

I will be eating lots of mushroom soup in the next day or so because I am the only one in my house who likes mushrooms. Even our dog refused to eat them, and I don't dare ask the cat.

question: do you like mushrooms?

mompoet - never scrimping on shitakes, Whitakers or shirkers, and trying to avoid swear words, particularly while cooking

an article about Irene Livingston in her daughter's blog

Lenore Angela is a writer and artist whose blog, Rare Rabbit Designs, features articles, photography, recipes and reflections. Lenore wrote an article about her mom (and my friend) Irene Livingston, and her poetry and stories for children. Irene is the creator of Finklehopper Frog, who is beloved to children everywhere.

Check out the blog and the article about Irene. What a talented family!

question: what did you like to read when you were little?

mompoet - proud to have such accomplished and generous friends