Days of sunshine

Tags

Donna Leon, flowers, life, Summer, Venice

We are now in the full swing of tourist season. There is a lot of car traffic and motorcycles, you would never think that a litre of gas sells for $1.97 or $7.88 a gallon.

So this being mid-July most garden centres have discounted their garden plants and flowers to sell off what is left. I went to one centre near us, it’s a big one, huge selections of flowers and baskets still but all prices are slashed by 60% or more. I got a great bargain on a big basket of peonies in this dark blood colour. They look like velvet, they are replacing a planter of chives and Italian parsley which became infected with aphids. They also smell delicate sweetness.

So for dinner tonight it was salad and charcuterie, I really did not feel like cooking, it is too warm. We also watched an episode of Commissioner Brunetti, the detective who lives in Venice and solves crimes. Donna Leon created this personage for her books. The storyline is of seedy crimes and Italian politics. Does not give a very nice image of Italian society, but it does capture the essence of Europe and its problems and how the powerful in Italy and elsewhere in Europe are always beyond the reach of the Law.

Kensington and Summerside

Tags

ferns, flowers, French River, Holman's, ice cream, Kensington, PEI, Summerside

Today I drove Nick and Nora to the groomer in Kensington about 40 minutes from Charlottetown down Hwy 2. They go to the groomers every 3 months for coat stripping and a good bath. It is stressful for them, so it is a long day. On the way down they sleep on the back seat in their blankets with the air con going full blast, they like it.

The groomer lives on a big piece of land surrounded by woods and fields, the road is call 19 and it is a very simple turn off from the Hwy. like any intersection. She lives there with her mother who has her own house about 300 feet away. She has a ton of budgies and 8 huskies who have tons of land to run around. Of course when we arrive down the long driveway they start to howl and Nick and Nora do not like this one bit. Nora wants to kill them and Nick wants to protect Nora, quite the comedy.

Kensington is a small community, the police is known for being very strict about speed limits, so you do not date go more than 40Km. They are also known for their sense of humour which makes the news on the Island. About 3 years ago, they would arrest people and bring them to the police station all the while playing very loudly music by the rock band Nickelback. Apparently this was a deterrent to bad behaviour.

In the Summer when we are at the cottage at French River we come to Kensington about 10 minutes away for grocery shopping or lunch in the former train station. It was when we had trains on PEI a famous station, like Petticoat Junction.

From Kensington after dropping Nicky and Nora at the groomers, I went on to Summerside which is about 9 Km away to have lunch at Samuel’s, a very nice coffee shop in an old bank building. Summerside was until the 1990’s a big Royal Canadian Air Force Base. It was also a sea port and it has a famous light house way out in the harbour called Indian Head. Summerside is in section a very beautiful town and at the same time can be a bit of a mishmash with an area of big shopping malls for the region and other modern parts with nondescript architecture. The town did burn down 3 times in 90 years which is very unlucky, however a big effort to reclaim the bay shore area as a park and beautify the area around the city hall and the old armoury makes for a pleasant town of about 16K. Life is also less expensive in Summerside. The big industry in town is Agro-food Cavendish Farms (potato) owned by Irving Oil.

In Summerside one big attraction is the boardwalk area and Holman’s Ice Cream shop which is located in the former mansion of the family built in 1855. The Holman family are well known for their big department store both in Summerside and in Charlottetown. The department store is gone but not its building which sits on Water street and is now offices.

The family home was to be demolished a few years ago and a business man came to the rescue and renovated it and repurposed the building keeping all the woodwork and its beautiful garden full of flowers and sitting across the street from City Hall a building of similar period.

In PEI you probably heard plenty about COW’s ice cream which is a big industrial concern. I for one do not care for it but it is flagged to the tourists as the best. I much prefer Holman’s, it is made daily and the flavours change constantly, they even make flavours customers will request. However once the flavour of the day is gone, that is it. So on any given day they offer 15 flavours and yesterday at the shop there was a lot of people. They did not have pistachio but I bought sugar free Blueberry swirl and it was very good.

This photo taken at Low Tide shows the sand bars which appear and are a threat to any boat. You can also see the Indian Head Lighthouse which indicates where you can sail through.

So this morning we went out to York to see about buying a small fern in a 4 inch pot. This is pretty much the end of the season to buy flowers for the garden and they did not have anything like that in stock. So up the road is Jewel which is a farm/market store with 6 huge green houses with an incredible selection of plants and flowers and we did find that miniature fern with the help of the staff because there is so much it is a little overwhelming. It is so beautiful to look at in all its variety.

Food and Flowers

Tags

Canada, Dukes Hotel, flowers, Food, Friends, garden, life, Martini, PEI

I have been inspired by fellow blogger living in Fuengirola, Spain with the beautiful pictures of flowers, sea, food and fashion. I had mentioned recently that as part of our Spring ritual we had to go to the Garden Centre for flowers, we did yesterday. There is a garden centre just outside of Charlottetown in York. It is a family run place, lots of choices of flowers, some we had never heard of, like Goldalia which is of the Dahlia family.

I love garden centres, so many flowers to look at displayed on mass, riots of colours, it is soothing for the brain, it is simply beautiful. A handful of people, it was quiet.

They also had begonias with candy bright colours to the point of looking good enough to eat.

We did buy for our 2 flower boxes a mix of geraniums and something called

Pechoa, the leaves are beautiful and come in a variety of colours.

Then this past weekend, it was the first long weekend of Summer, Queen’s Birthday or Pentecost, every year we use to go to Salzburg for the music festival. This year with the Pandemic we are at home and invited friends for lunch.

I bought lobster and made a Lobster salad with asparagus. Then since we had lots leftover Will made a Quiche with lobster & Asparagus, there is no cheese in this recipe.

The lobster salad was a big hit with our guests.

Finally the Barman at the Dukes Hotel in London is famous for his Martini and other cocktails, his name Alessandro Palazzi. He makes a martini that is not shaken nor stirred. A cold martini glass, a tumble of Vermouth, slosh it around then simply pour it out. Fill the glass with good quality vodka and top with a twist of lemon.

“For me, a Martini is a drink which has to be strong and three ingredients,” he said. “An Espresso Martini is not really a Martini. A Martini is supposed to be all alcohol. It’s the most simple cocktail to make: it’s the temperature, the quality ingredients, the lemon. There’s the vermouth, gin or vodka, and the oil. That’s what a Martini is.” 

Duke’s certainly isn’t cheap, at £22 for a Martini. But Palazzi defends the prices: “You get five shots of premium gin, Amalfi lemon, Sicilian olives, snacks, and if you want you can buy one drink and have the table all night.” Now this is a place I will want to visit once we are allowed again to travel. As for the Amalfi Lemons, they are wonderful, too bad we cannot get them here.

Gardens

Tags

flowers, home, life, sun

In all these many decades we have had gardens large and small every year in every house we lived in. Some of our Summer gardens where on a large balcony or terrace, I remember our first apartment together in Ottawa we had Tiki bamboo torch lights and wicker baskets from Roger Horchow. Incidentally he died last week, aged 90. This at a time when it was still not that popular in most gardens to have such items.

Our first house South of Ottawa, I went and dug up some Hollyhocks one night from a house slated for demolition, they had the most beautiful flowers simply abandoned, so I thought I could save them and give them to Will for replanting in our yard.

Our first house had a yard which was in need of urgent care with a tree which turned out to be a White Persian Lilac, we built a red cedar deck and Will planted the flower beds and built a small water piece with  Japanese lantern. We had twigs of Virginia creeper which would turn bright red in the Fall, we simply buried them and they took off covering a whole wall. We had Nasturtiums, Tobacotiana, Bee Balm, Solomon Seal, and President Kekkonen roses.

In Mexico, we had lots of plants which we bought with large terra cotta planters in Xochimilco. Cut flowers I remember could be bought anywhere for very little money and you could always have fresh flowers in the house or bring large bouquets to a dinner party.

In Poland we lived in a very large 3 storey house in Saska Kempa, across the Vistula River from central Warsaw. The garden was very large and we had house plants and two gardeners who took care of the ornamental bushes and trees, including cutting the lawn.

In Rome we lived in a medium size condo building which was surrounded by many large mature trees and the architect had obviously designed the approaches to the building with terraced levels of plants and fruit trees, I remember the lemon trees and how strong smelling and tasting the fruit was. We also had a terrace and we had succulent plants, flowers and could change according to Season what we had on our terrace. So at Christmas we had several Poinsettia of various reds and white leaves plus a small pine tree in a large planter.

Back in Canada we had a 160 year old house which had a beautiful garden with masses of ferns, ornamental trees and flowers. The previous owner’s father was a gardener and worked at the Official Residences in the Capital, any plant leftover found its way into the garden of the house. We hired a company to help with cleaning both in the Spring and Fall, they could do all the necessary work in 2 days whereas we would have required a week to do the same.

Now in Charlottetown, the house is surrounded by plants and shrubs and on our balcony we have flowers in boxes. This year because of the pandemic, the garden centre I go to in York, did not have the same variety, what was on offer was cut in half. I still found everything I wanted and got some beautiful begonias in the large variety, also Night Sky petunias and New Guinea Impatiens.

Our garden is ready for the Summer, now if only the weather can get warmer in the 20C range that would be nice.

Quiet

Tags

Charlottetown, cooking, Covid 19, cuisine, flowers, Nourooz, PEI, Persia

Charlottetown PEI, city centre Kent Street at Queen Street, the building with the tower is City Hall. This is the look of what should be a busy intersection on any day. Parking is usually a big problem, how things have changed since 11 March. There is no end in sight, though it has to be noted that Prince Edward Island only has 2 cases of Covid 19 and both persons are at home in quarantine. So far 165 people tested all negative. Our isolation as an Island in the Gulf of St-Lawrence and our very small population at 150K helps.

So what do we do all day? Well cleaning house, washing clothes, taking care of our two little monsters Nicky and Nora and cooking a lot and discovering new website with good recipes. So Lori Brown in Imoden, Arkansas, Whipperwill Hollow and Sheryl who lives South of Glasgow, Scotland, What’s for tea and the Lazy Cook, Pete Thomas.  There is also a lady from Newfoundland who does typical Newfie cuisine which is very typical of The Rock, Bonita’s Kitchen, she had a recipe today for Corned Beef patties, she also had another one for White Bread Cod Pudding with a butter sauce. I know it is good because years ago Mrs Crosbie who was the wife of John Crosbie then Minister of Finance in 1980 in the Rt Hon. Joe Clark’s government made a Cod au Gratin dish that was superb for a dinner I was attending. Cod was and still is important in the folk cuisine of Newfoundland.

I did make a Potato, Leek and sharp cheddar cheese pie with puff pastry that the Lazy Cook Peter Thomas showed us, that was very good and very British, something to have at Tea time which I have now come to understand is a full meal like supper for us. This dish can be eaten cold or hot, versatile.

Before going into the oven at 400 F or 200 C. for 35 minutes. The puff pastry with the  Star pattern makes it festive. Very good pie! I think the sharp Aged Cheddar makes a big difference in the taste.

This is a little dessert I invented with the left over puff pastry, simply butter, raisins and cassonade (golden brown sugar) in the oven at 350 F for 18 minutes. Delicious!

Will also made banana muffins and today he made a beef Goulash 

Also because we are not under total lockdown like in some other countries, it is possible to walk around town for the moment but that could change at any moment. Charlottetown’s core is still very much a residential district with one main business street, Queen. Other streets are either commercial for one or two blocks like Kent Street or Euston, or Grafton. So it is pleasant to walk around. On these walks I do notice how much gentrification is going on and how the prices of properties have shot up in the last 24 months. Now with this on-going Health crisis with no end in sight, prices will probably tumble.

This weekend is also the beginning of the Persian New Year with the Festival of Nourooz so I took a picture of my miniature Orchid by friend Minoo of BelFiore on Elgin Street had in her shop 6 years ago. It flowers 4 times a year and it is my sunshine in the kitchen. Very vibrant colours.

Despite the quiet, we phone our friends and talk to people on Facetime, keeping in touch and busy is very important and only listen to the news twice a day no more, simply so we don’t go bonkers. Take care and stay safe.

 

Spring Vernal Equinox !!!!!

Tags

Covid 19, flowers, hillbillies, liquor, Lucy and Ricky, PEI, Spring

Finally Spring time has arrived and the weather has turned mild and sunny. The snow is disappearing fast and we dance in our home due to you know what worldwide. Despite all the bad news I want to believe like little Orphan Annie that the Sun will come out tomorrow.

Here in PEI the first flower of Spring is cultivated tulips from VANCO.

We may not have any open Liquor stores nor Cannabis stores but heck we have tulips.

I was yesterday very late in the evening near midnight seized with despondency over the fate of our world and of what is happening around us. It is easy right now with the deluge of bad news and silly people, the same who did the run on toilet paper last Friday 13 March, did the run on Liquor stores yesterday 18 March to hoard liquor before the stores closed indefinitely. PEI made national news in Canada, we are being laughed at like hillbillies from the Blue Mountains of Virginia that many people are like. Life must be perfect soaking your toilet paper in your rubbish liquor cocktail.

I spend my days cleaning house, etc. All my volunteer work is cancelled for the moment, nothing to do but stay home, look after the puppies and Mr Will. BTW I would like to promote his blog which is very well written and interesting read on many topics. Click on the link:

willyorwonthe.wordpress.com

My blog has a subtitled Remembering that Life is a comedy and the world is a small town. Sure feels like that now, a real comedy like one of those episodes with Lucy and Ricky hopefully by the end of this episode we will all come out ok. Let’s hope so folks.

The Ides of March

Tags

Canada., Cesar, flowers, Magnolia, Spring, Sugar, trees

The Ides I am told occurs every month since it is the middle of the month. The Ides of March refers to a famous assassination in Rome in 44 BC so the date remains notorious.

It is also a period when Spring is on our doorstep, in Canada it’s Sugar Bush Season, la Cabane à Sucre. Though this year it is a complete disaster due to the virus. Nonetheless the Magnolia trees are in bloom and they are wonderful to look at. In times of crisis best to think of pleasant and beautiful things. Pink and White Magnolia equally elegant as a flower. I hope that you reading this are in good health and spirit.

Late Winter

Tags

art., flowers, Roses, Summer, tourism

Today may be the 25 February but the Sun is shining and it is +7 C and the snow is melting. Less than a month from now we will be in Spring, businesses will post help wanted since the tourist season opens around 15 April and the first cruise ship arrives 1 May. It’s also a good thing psychologically to think that Winter is almost done. Also on March 7 the Art Gallery of the Confederation Centre will open a new show by artist Victor Cicansky of Regina and then the Summer show which is a retrospective of painter Robert Harris (1849-1919) who is the famous painter of PEI, though he was born in Wales, studied in Europe and spent most his life in Montreal.

This photo of a bouquet of roses was taken some years ago in our home in Ottawa. I love the colours. To me such a bouquet is a sign of Spring.

Valentine’s Day at home

Tags

Chocolate, flowers, Valentine's day

It is a beautiful Sunny day with lots of fresh white snow. It makes everything brilliant and sparkling. Got a Valentine’s Day card from Nicky and Nora our little wire hair Dachshunds, so sweet. Hope you have a great day!

Because it’s Spring

Tags

flowers, Fox, Spring

The weather is most Spring like now, mild winds and sunny days.

A photo by Paul g. our official provincial animal the Red Fox with her little cub. The big black crow which is also plentiful in Charlottetown is nesting in the tree beside our house and we can also hear the little ones.

Beautiful white magnolias just around the corner from us. Flowers everywhere.