Voting card and Spaghetti squash

Tags

Election, Food, squash, sweet potatoes, voting

We are in the midst of a Municipal Elections in the various villages and towns on the Island. The vote is on 7 November, but we can vote as early as 29 October. In some municipalities no one wants to run for Office and the incumbent is retiring, the question is who will govern such places? Would they come under trusteeship of the Provincial Government?

In Charlottetown, we have some Councillors who are retiring, some are re-offering and should not. In the 10 Wards many are single candidate meaning they you are elected by acclamation, not a good thing. For Mayor there is 3 candidate but only one is very well known and a previous unsuccessful candidate, one is totally unknown and of course the out going mayor who is not very popular, due to too many scandals and mistakes not to mention a lack of judgement.

We received our voting cards today, people here are automatically registered to vote based on their home address and health cards and or driver’s licence, very simple process. NO there is no voter fraud. At the voting place you have to show your health card or driver’s licence to get a ballot. Strangely enough, a lot of people do not bother to vote, but municipal government is the closest thing to the citizens and the city provides basic services like garbage removal, snow removal, public works. Also in Charlottetown, this being a big village everyone knows the Mayor and his family and the Councillors, you may have been to school with them. So it is very direct democracy.

This time of the year is squash time in many sizes and types of, selling at many farms for $2 or so. Squash are very good to eat and very filling. Last night found an easy recipe with garlic, olive oil, lemon juice. I also cooked some chicken thighs in the oven and drizzled pesto over it. Made a nice dinner.

Yellow Spaghetti squash like the name indicates once cooked it comes out like spaghetti, you can mix it up with any pasta sauce and parmesan.

I also bought a buttercup squash and will find a recipe for that one.

Recently I developed a taste for Sweet potatoes and Red Sweet Potatoes, Will has a recipe for sweet potato cake and we are making that tomorrow. I find that a sweet potato has more taste than the regular potato. Easy to cook in the oven and just good as is.

Speaking of Will, he has now completed week 3 of treatments and it is going well. So 3 more weeks to go.

Pumpkins and Mums

Tags

corn, Fall, Mums, PEI, pumpkins, squash, thanksgiving

As we enter October, the final harvest is taking place and now the markets are flooded with Squash and pumpkins and other late season vegetables, like beets.

Today was a sunny and a bit chilly day with a fresh brisk wind. I went to MacKenzie Produce which is a huge farm employing foreign workers from Mexico. They are very nice people and love speaking Spanish with them. At this time of the year they will decorate some of the big bails of hay for kids and organize the corn maze which brings children to run around. The variety of pumpkins and squash is impressive and of various colours from the orange standard to the blue and white and mix of orange and green. They also have very low prices for the pumpkins, what they do not sell is turned into feed for farm animals it is good for them and they love it.

I bought 2 pumpkins a large one and a small one. I also bought to decorate the table 6 miniature pumpkins in various shapes. I also got some squash and will cook them. I bought red sweet potatoes, that I had not seen before at $0.99 a pound you cannot go wrong.

I also got 3 pots of Mums of various colours. It was fun to be just minutes away from home in the countryside. Speaking with the owners of the farm I learned that they had lost quite a few trees, though the domain is so vast, it is difficult to tell, they also only got electricity back today, meaning they had been 9 days without power. Again the number of poles destroyed, simply snapped in two like twigs is impressive.

I was reminded today that my car winter tune-up is coming up and I need to buy new winter tires. My old ones are 11 years old and need to be discarded. I may need to buy new rims also, but will see. I have learned to know what to buy in new tires and check for the manufacture date and stick to newly made tires and not last year. We do not drive much in Winter but nonetheless it is good to have quality tires. The prices though can get very expensive.

Cold and rainy

Tags

Orwell Bay, PEI, pumpkin, squash

In a matter of a few hours we went from muggy and 27C to cold, rainy and 15C with high cold winds. Now it is suppose to rain for a week, but it is not rain but a drizzle with wind.

Today Sunday I was hoping for some Sun and dry weather, 2 people I knew were getting married and you need good weather not rain. Today was a nice day if a tad cool at 12C definitely fall weather now. Fashions changed overnight and sweaters have come out. We will still have some good warm days but Fall is on the way.

Today we went for lunch in the countryside at friends who live part of the year on Orwell Bay. We met their new little schnauzer Lucy only 5 months old. It was so nice to be out of town for the day.

Orwell Bay at low tide, the island is all sand and red sandstone. There is a lot of annual erosion every winter and the shore line use to be a good 40 feet further into the bay than today and this erosion is just in 50 years.

On the way we stopped at Mackenzie which is a farm off Highway 1. Lots of wonderful vegetables, got great tomatoes and some beets, their corn on the cob is buttery super good, blueberries, and two big pots of Mums yellow and red. Better to buy flowers at the farm, the price is 50% less than at the grocery store. I noticed that they were also starting to display a variety of pumpkins and squash of all size and types. I will go back in 2 weeks to get a pumpkin and will probably pay only a few dollars, again instead of the high prices of the grocery chain.

THIS is only a first sample of what will be on offer for September and October. The really big pumpkins are coming later. I am looking for a good 20 lbs pumpkin with a nice shape. The also have the little ones perfect for an arrangements on the table.

This week we are having visitors from Ottawa, our first visitors this year. Old colleagues from my days in the Foreign Service, we met in Cairo in 1989.

Wednesday we will take them out to dinner at The Dunes Gallery at Brackley Point, the gardens are beautiful and their restaurant is truly great, an excellent chef works the kitchen and the menu is imaginative. Next day both Nick and Nora will be going to Kensington to the groomer. Then on Saturday it’s the Club’s Annual Golf Tournament. I will be on the golf cart passing along adult refreshments and sandwiches. After that I return to the club to grill 60 steaks on our BBQ. It will be fun and I am looking forward to it.

Last week tragedy struck at the Federal Dock where the Coast Guard usually docks when on town and where HMCS Charlottetown docks on annual visit. Usually a lot of amateur fishermen cast their lines into the Hillsborough river, apparently its a good spot for fishing. However one of them fell into the water, a drop of 25 feet and the current is very treacherous and swift, the poor fellow drown in front a crowd, it all happened so fast and because of the current no one dared jump in. Only the police with their speed boat can intervene.

This week the weather promises more rain and cold weather. Will see has it can all change quickly.

I will finish by mentioning that the famous Canadian Schooner the Bluenose II which is usually in the port of Halifax came to visit PEI stopping in various coastal towns. The Bluenose is celebrating 100 years, it replaced the original Bluenose which won many speed records and is featured on our 10 cent coin. A beautiful ship.

The Bluenose II is the property of the Government of Nova Scotia and is used as a school for training sailors. Wherever it goes it attracts a lot of attention. Happy it came to Charlottetown.