Mid-June

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French River, PEI

I would like to bring a little perspective into my previous post where I was quite despondent on the situation in Canada. One blogger I follow for some time now and who lives in British Columbia on the other side of this country in the beautiful rocky mountains, https://palliserpass.ca/author/underswansea/ always has wonderful pictures of nature around him and of his wirehair Dachshund Willow. He provided a perspective which I found helpful to understand what is going on today in Canada. Though the author is a younger fellow than me by about 10 years, is comment left me with the feeling of even handedness and with some wisdom. Basically things are getting better bit by bit and we have to look at this in the greater context if you look at the last 60 years, progress is achieved. Also not listening to the media report which have a knack to bring out the most negative outlook without nuance or context, call it lazy journalism. We seem to have a lot of it in Canada.

As we are now in Mid-June, we spoke to day with the lady who owns the cottage where we are going in a month to spend 2 weeks at French River, so looking forward to it.

Will is making another batch of his cocktail that takes a month to cure, a recipe by the French Author Colette. He made a batch with lemons, with orange and now he is doing mandarins and another one with Strawberries. These cocktails are potent but so refreshing in the Summer, served very cold. The base is fruit and white wine, in the second phase you add brandy. We are also looking at what to bring in terms of food, there is a nice gas bar-b-q on the deck.

There are also lots of nice little restaurants in the area, all serving seafood, oysters, mussels, lobster. The most popular is the lobster roll, everyone appears to have a recipe for it. Basically its 4oz of lobster mixed in with other ingredients.

The beach at French River is very nice and this year I will try to get across to the big sand dunes which are part of Cavendish beach. You need a boat to get there, cannot swim it, the current is far too strong. At low tide it looks like you could walk across but no, the channel in the middle is too deep. 

We hope that the nice couple who live by the Cousins Cemetery will be there, they live in Nova Scotia but with the closures they have not been able to come so far this year. They have a lovely house and a great view of the water and the New London rear Lighthouse which is about 100 feet from their front door.

Almost everyone now on PEI has been vaccinated what is left is mostly small children under 12. On 27 June we are suppose to enter a new phase with even less restrictions and this will make a big difference. What everyone is waiting for is the Atlantic bubble which would allow all to travel from one province to the other in our region. 

Car wash days

Tags

Africa, Canada., Charlottetown, Food, life, PEI

It looks like we are having 7 days of sunshine now, so today I got the car washed. The gas is now 1.40 a litre meaning that is $5.60 a gallon and this is not the top most expensive gas at the pump. The most expensive supreme is $1.60 a litre.

Another beautiful day, so very nice and not so hot, still at 22C very nice.

I am very busy at the Club with the newsletter every week, lots happening, events of all kinds and now that the PEI Government has announced the first relaxation of the rules, the only change is the number of people you can have inside. With this good weather, we have a large garden with big mature trees around 100 years old and the cedar deck, bar-b-q so we can do lots. Our membership is also getting more diverse, in the Maritimes there is a large African community, mostly educated West Africans and from Cameroon and Kenya. So one member who is from Kenya is doing a special dinner for the Club member this Friday, she is very well known and has cooked for lots of big names here in PEI and has her own restaurant for the last 20 years. Her food is wonderful, this woman has a sense for good food. Another member is from Senegal, a charming fellow and I am trying to entice him to do one of his signature dishes. He started to cook for friends and PEI is still a place where people are discovering exotic dishes. Some 10 years ago it was still pretty much meat and potatoes country, not anymore. So our friend also makes great desserts and pastries, however he is an executive with a big corporation and he can’t cook all the time for friends, our lost. Thanks to the Vietnamese and Africans community their grocery stores carry all manner of wonderful spices, you can find pretty much everything that the regular grocery stores do not carry.

A view below of one of our many beaches, quiet and clean.

Food and Flowers

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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.

Because it is this time of the Year

Tags

Canada, lobster, Newfoudland, PEI, salad, Season

This is a great recipe and Lobster right now is in Season and this is so easy and we can get lobster everywhere.

Bonita lives in Newfoundland but this is a typical Atlantic Canada recipe. Bon Appétit!

Little things I notice

Tags

Covid 19, dandelions, life, Parliament, PEI

I have an eye for details, somethings no one will notice, I will for sure, which will make others take a second look. It can be a small object in a corner of a photo, a detail that does not really fit in the picture, or a sequence of shots that will make me wonder about or notice how different it is from similar shots.

This week was the State Opening of Parliament at Westminster, it was very strange and so different. Because of the pandemic, it was a very paired down affair. Everything was done by car instead of by coach with mounted escorts and honour guards and bands along the way. Also instead of going down the Mall to Admiralty Arch, the cortege of cars, Land Rovers, turned into Horse Guard parade and crossed it. Again arriving at the Victoria tower of Parliament where the Sovereign’s Entrance is located, no honour guards. Everyone was wearing a mask except the Queen. Her Land Rover had her Personal Standard on the bonnet at the front. She was dress in what is called civil outfit instead of in her Robes of State and no decorations. Same for the Prince of Wales who as Heir to the Throne now accompanies Her everywhere and his wife the Duchess of Cornwall follows. He wore Morning dress and no decorations. The parade inside Parliament was sparse, when usually there would be lots of people everywhere, almost no one. Only one trumpeter and Lord Cholmondeley who is the Lord Great Chambelain carrying the Imperial State Crown on a cushion. His family have this job from father to son for generation. His ancestor was Sir Robert Walpole the First Prime Minister of Britain around 1721.

The speech was on a table next to the Throne instead of being given to the Queen. Everyone in the House of Lords was keeping the 6 feet apart and so the room was nearly empty. The Members of Parliament walked down the hall to the House of Lords in single file and only a handful were present.

At the end of the ceremony the Crown was carried back and placed in the State Rolls Royce to be conveyed back to the the Tower of London where it is kept. The Comptroller sit next to it and it must be clearly visible to the people as it travels back to the Tower, treated as a living symbol.

When the Queen’s car arrived at Buckingham Palace once past the central gate it turned right down the front of the Palace instead of going through the main gate into the courtyard. I wonder if this is because the Palace is going through major renovations at this time and she lives mostly at Windsor Castle. All the wiring and plumbing is being replaced, some of it goes back to 1910.

All in all still a beautiful ceremony but on a much reduced scale.

The rest of the week was busy with all manner of things to do around the house, being Spring time lots of cleaning, our cleaning lady is doing the 18 large windows we have all around, which is a big help. Our landlord came to clean the garden on three side of the property and that is also a big job.

Our Island is a sand bar of red sandstone, this means that all construction material including gravel, sand and stone like granite etc must be imported from the mainland by ship who dock about 1000 feet away from our home. The ships usually come in late afternoon and in the middle of the night. The unloading is a very noisy process and a dusty one to boot, parades of truck wait to be loaded, etc. The area use to be until about 30 years ago heavy industrial with a railroad freight yard. All that disappeared and has been replaced by parkland and condominiums. Only a very small area is left for unloading of these construction materials, which is unsuitable for what the neighbourhood has become.

Another beautiful day, it is only 14C or 57 F but this means that its flip flop and short season already. Some even go swim in the sea, I find them brave and of strong constitution. In the full sun light with little wind it feels much warmer.

We have also been asked to not cut our grass now, let the dandelions grow and bloom, for the sake of the bees and pollinators. At the moment we have carpet of yellow everywhere.

It really does not look like we will get our safety bubble this Summer after all, again this week we had an incident a few blocks away from our home, one selfish person went to work in a daycare and infected all around her. The Premier Dennis King was immediately on YouTube which he uses to speak to all Islanders and he was livid, pointing out that health regulations are here for a reason and the actions of one person impacts everyone else. Our Chief Medical Officer Dr Morrison looks frustrated and tired and who can blame her, with her small staff they have been performing miracles each day with testing people and vaccinations. You really have to wonder about some people.

Friday night we had a party and in Island style at the Club, several people showed up and because this is a small place, everyone knows everybody else and all went to school together. Lots of funny stories about younger days. In this group are prominent citizens of our town.

reflections

Tags

life, Livia, lobster, PEI, Rome

I think sometimes it is important to reflect on life and the past. What may appear to us today as a terrible moment, like everything in life is just a passing moment.

Today is Mother’s Day a modern invention by the business world to make us consumers buy stuff and pretend that motherhood is something it is not, full of false fabricated sentiment. If Mother’s Day is suppose to be a day of thanks for what our mothers do, I think that you can show it every day by kindness and appreciation towards your Mom.

This weekend is also Victory in Europe day 8 May 1945 and the end of the Nazi nightmare, only to see another nightmare emerge that of a divided world between East and West and the horrors of Stalinist politics and the Cold War.

Today we live with this Pandemic and the constant churning of bad news by the Media in general who are happy to distort news in order to get us to panic and fear what is coming. However much of it is lazy reporting and to satisfy instant gratification by clicking on an news item the media make money through advertisement. So yes we are manipulated.

So in other news how are things going with the Lobster fishing, well yesterday the weather was terrible, the wind was howling and the sea was agitated. One fisher I know called the Fiddling Fisher because he belongs to a musical family, posted on Istagram what was going on aboard his lobster boat. It was chaotic but he is experienced, however it did show that it is a very difficult job and a dangerous one. You do not want to fall over board.

The price of lobster has gone up per example at M.R. Seafood which is the best place to buy fresh off the boat seafood in Charlottetown, 1 lbs of lobster meat which is claws and tails, cost $48. It has to be explained that in order to get one pound of lobster meat you need 4 one pounders. The lobster is weighed live and once it is cooked and the shell is removed you have about one quarter meat left. Many people do not understand that, having no experience with the lobster fishing industry. The fisher gets about $8.50 for his lobster. Some stores will sell them at $9.50 because its Mother’s Day weekend. I think the pricing will stabilize in the days to come and maybe even lower. One thing for sure whatever the price we are not paying a lot if compared to cities far from the sea. Mussels and Clams are selling around $5 for a pound and you can easily make a meal out of that given how rich it is.

I am happy that I am over my childhood seafood allergies, imagine living here by the sea and having allergies, it would be a curse.

Today the restaurants are busy with take-out orders for live or cooked lobsters. There is some dining but not very much. The wind has died down and the sun is coming out.

Only in Rome, for Mother’s day a new statue has been unveiled, that of Livia Drusilla, wife of the first Emperor of Rome Augustus. She was the mother of Emperor Tiberius and grandmother of Emperor Caligula. She died of old age in retirement at her palace in Capena at Prima Porta just outside of Rome under the reign of her grandson. She will be made divine after her death by another grandson Emperor Claudius. She is the first women Empress to figure on Via Dei Fori Imperiali . She richly deserves her monument, she was influential and had enormous powers and was feared, though she probably was not as pictured in the novels of Robert Graves.

Lobster cost per pound

Tags

Canada, coat of arms, lobster, Napoleon, PEI, Seafood, Season

Here are some pictures of the Lobster boats leaving yesterday morning to set their lobster traps, it was a beautiful day, really nice weather and low winds. Returning home with the first catch of the new year. Now the price today at the start of the Season is $8.50 per pound for 2021 and I read that restaurants charge $35 per pound for a lobster dinner which can include mussels and or a chowder, usually by the end of the Season the price tends to be lower. Of course you can always buy direct from the fishers at the dock and you will get a good deal. This means you will cook them at home which requires a big pot of boiling Sea Water, NOT tap water.

Personally I prefer the broiling or bar-b-q method in terms of flavour. By the way, the wood cages stacked on the boats are heavy and the fisher has to haul them overboard and then haul them out, this is really hard work and on a moving boat can be tricky.

Love this photo, at North Rustico, a Silver Fox is sniffing around for lobster. The smell of the catch will bring them out. They are friendly and not dangerous at all and quite beautiful to look at.

Wishing the fishers, a happy harvest and stay safe at sea.

I got this message from the Royal Canadian Mint, which makes the Canadian Currency we use everyday, for those who still use cash. All coins and paper money is made in Canada under the authority of the Crown in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The Mint also makes commemorative coins and medals.

They have a shop and you can buy special coins minted for an Anniversary, like the Queen’s Jubilee or a National Anniversary or Commemoration.

This year 2021 marks the Centennial of the Canadian Coat of Arms given to Canada by the King Emperor George V, the grandfather of Queen Elizabeth II. This coat of Arms appears on all Official documents and Federal Government Buildings.

So the mint is making 3000 coins, which is a low mintage for this anniversary. This solid gold coin sells for $500. CDN. The Coat of Arms was modified again about 30 years ago by adding another Motto reflecting the beliefs of the Order of Canada. So we have the one Motto that appears on this coin A Mari usque ad Mare, the other motto which is not shown here is desiderantes meliorem patriam.

And Cinco de Mayo, which is the Birthday of the invention of Mayonnaise in Mexico, I really don’t know why they made it into a holiday. Ok I am kidding.

It is also the bicentennial anniversary of the death of Napoleon Bonaparte who died on this day in 1821 on the Island of St-Helena. The Bonaparte Family and the Bourbon Family with the President of France and the Head of the French Army were present at the tomb of the Emperor and the Requiem Mass at the Invalides in Paris. It’s a big deal in France but in our Woke World, Napoleon’s stock has taken a big hit and he is seen more now as a tyrant, misogynist, he overturned the 1794 decree abolishing slavery in French colonies, but don’t tell the French.

Napoleon’s red porphyry sarcophagus in the chapel of Les Invalides in Paris on May 5, 2021 during the commemoration ceremonies.

Fifth Anniversary

Tags

5 years, Anniversary, Friends, home, life, PEI

The first of May 2021 marks our five year stay in PEI, it was already 5 years ago we arrived from Ottawa, with the puppies and all our earthly belonging. We are so used to living on the Island, in Winter we never leave town, we know pretty much everyone and have truly settled here. Our days are full of activities and people to see.

Last night we invited our friends who suggested the apartment we have now and who helped us greatly to get settled in. We had a wonderful dinner with them, leg of lamb and Mezzeh.

After this pandemic and the disaster we see in our old town of Ottawa, we are so glad to be here and to have a quiet life. Little did we know then how coming to PEI was a lifesaver for us and how it made going through this pandemic so much easier.

I always wanted to live by the sea and this also is a dream come true. Going to our beach cottage in July is loads of fun. This year like last year we will miss our friends and family who cannot come to visit us. But we are hopeful that 2022 will be different and a possible adaptation to the new normal.

We really cannot see now living elsewhere, this is home.

PEI seen from the International Space Station.

Setting Day, Monday

Tags

Canada, life, lobster, PEI, Travel

Setting day in PEI is the day the lobster traps are set in the water for the opening of the Lobster season. Unfortunately due to poor weather and high winds, the opening day was set back from last Thursday to this coming Monday 3 May. This means that restaurants cannot offer Lobster until Monday night. It is a point of honour that though you could import lobsters from Nova Scotia which is just one hour away from us on the mainland, no self-respecting Islander would do that. Clients will automatically ask where did you get that lobster? For one, the taste is different, PEI lobsters come from the Gulf of St-Lawrence on our North Coast, whereas Nova Scotia lobsters come from either the Strait of Northumberland or the Atlantic ocean. Nova Scotia being a peninsula.

Last night Saturday, we did go to the opening night at the Water Prince restaurant, I had their seafood chowder and a pound of mussels, the mussels are fat at this time of the year and very good.

Later end of June we will have Strawberry Season, same story, people wait for PEI strawberries, though we get strawberries from the Annapolis Valley in Nova Scotia about 3 weeks before PEI strawberries are on the market, people prefer to wait.

Strawberries in PEI are very fragrant and have that beautiful perfume.

Well last week got my shot and never felt nor had any after effect to the Pfizer shot. In a month I should get my next shot, the Health Dept will call to schedule my appointment.

Can’t believe we are already in May, how time flies. However I also know that we have another 6 Months of Pandemic to go, given the set backs in other Canadian Provinces. Our Neighbour Nova Scotia is in a desperate situation with a small population and limited hospital care. The Police is still fining people who have big house parties, how can people be this selfish? Here in PEI we remain quiet and almost normal situation.

Our cleaning lady this week came to help with Spring Cleaning of the house, she told me that as a little girl, she lived on a farm on PEI. She only left the island for the first time when she was 21. Growing up she had no idea that beyond the water there was another world. Her known world was the Island. She is not alone with that experience, many Islanders had a very similar experience and even today despite the fact that travel is much more easy, people tend to cling to the Island and find leaving a daunting proposal.

Jab-Day

Tags

cuisine, Food, life, May, PEI, Seafood

Tomorrow at 11:45 am I am getting my first jab of the vaccine. Can’t believe the day has come finally. I will be asking also for proof of vaccination, there appears to be some confusion on how you get it, I will certainly enquire.

The weather here is definitely Spring now, which is encouraging. As of Friday many restaurants will be re-opening including the one across our street the Water Prince Corner Shop Restaurant whose specialty is lobster and mussels, with other seafood of course. We think of it as our very own restaurant. The year 2021 is there 30 Anniversary of Water Prince.

Love the old fashion decor with the photos of the famous and near famous on the wall. The staff are great and so is the owners, Shane and his son. It is also very good value for the price. It is also old fashion in the fact that everything is made on the premises, including their bread and desserts, it does happen that they run out or sell out of their pies and they simply tell you, we’re out. You are also warned not to be impatient because good food takes time, lobster must be cooked properly, like any other seafood, so just enjoy a bit of conversation and a glass of wine.

With the Merry Month of May, more promise of good weather and trips out to the beach and the countryside.