Feels like 100° today

That's F. So early morning was about tasks I won't fancy later. Garbage out, recycling done, outside water turned on for the season, new soaker hose in action.

Turning on the outside back yard water is always a bit nerve wracking because the shutoff is upstairs,  among the pipes also supplying the hot water tank. Which means water pipes running above the living room ceiling on their way to and through the outside wall. 

Neighbors have found an issue when water started dripping down on them in the living room. It can happen over the winter, no way to know until you know. 

Then there's turning on the outside faucet to make sure you got the right upstairs valve  Then there's a trip back upstairs to see if the valve is leaking. Current report: so far, so good.

Yesterday was the first day of this heat thing, so the skirt I made last year got to be worn.

It got a Gary seal of approval, too, to my surprise.

The recent heavy rains have triggered fungus activity. Because of old trees and plenty of rain, we have wonderful lichen and fungi.

And while I was out I encountered the shy new cat, who hides as soon as I show up. See that fuzzy dot? Near the corner of the fence? That's the nearest I've ever got to him. He's clearly a pet, well cared for, so not in need of help.

And last night, in need of escapist movie action, I found the Scarlet Pimpernel on YouTube, the Anthony Andrews one.

I highly recommend it

What fun, carriage chases, hair raising escapes, great costumes, love interest, royals, castles, garden parties, dungeons, the best sword fight I've seen in years.

All star cast, just check it out.

This morning's mother-son check in

He's a good swimmer, loves the ocean, and I'm happy to witness the ocean, no need to go mad and get in it.  

I was such a good mom, taking him the three hour round trip to the shore a lot when he was small, and he learned to love the beach. I tolerated being too hot and sandy and salty, and I'm glad I did, because he gets such fun out of it, complete with shore friends. And I'm happy I don't have to go any more! 

And here are wise words from Emmy

Then there's the long view

Happy day everyone, keep cool if that applies.

Thoughtful Memorial Day, first strawberry, the Calgary marathon, food capers

 Yesterday strawberries were in at the farm

And I took the first bite of the year. I learned this pleasure, like a lot of other pleasures, from Handsome Partner. He loved strawberries, and made a ritual of the pure enjoyment of that first bite each year.

His birthday was in June, so I made him strawberry shortcake each year.  We remember him on his birthday rather than the day he died, since that was on Handsome Son's birthday in August.

This morning's breakfast was pita bread stuffed with fruit as it often is. Today it's strawberries. Everything in season.

And since recent storms flattened the flowers, including the sage blossoms, I brought them in as edible cut flowers.

They'll go in the freezer once they fade, for future cooking.

Speaking of which, there's a current exhibit of paintings from the 18th century Mughal era in India, where smells and touch and taste are all part of the experience. 

It's curated by a perfumer, currently involved in creating edible perfume,  and an art curator.

Here, in the last picture, the narcissus, symbolic of desire and the evocation of scent, is in action.

Those paintings are so much more life-filled than I realized, full of sensuous experience.

Crashing back to my kitchen, I used up most of the mushroom mixture I'd made for ravioli, and the roasted vegetables you saw a while back, only I filled the last of the frozen pasty dough with them, along with hot sausage.

And made artisan all looking big pasties.

Then, since the mixtures were now thawed, I needed to use the rest of them up. 

So here goes red and brown lentil and pasta soup, using the rest of the roasted vegetables and the mushroom mix, plus that tomato water I saved from earlier. I knew those pulse foods would come in handy. Sooner than I expected.

But, best for last, my honorary grandie ran the Calgary marathon yesterday, raising a ton of money for cancer research, and a personal best! She sent me a Garmin link to follow her progress in real time

The link came complete with stats including heart rate, and like a true grandma, I checked that hers was raised but not too high!

A big yell of excitement here when she achieved her goal, well, a couple of goals. In recent years she's run marathons and shorter races, getting huge fun out of what seems to me like the impossible! 

Celebrate life with us, while remembering today the people who died in war and who enable us to celebrate life.

Thoughtful and grateful day, along with grieving. The shakuhachi effect.

Sunday morning, Memorial Day weekend

Odd that even though it's many years since I worked in jobs where Sunday was the end of the weekend, in fact more of my life, in art and the petcare business, has been seven day working weeks, I still feel sundayish. 

Yesterday I finally got around to making a date nut loaf. I've been thinking about it for years, and finally had fresh dates and walnuts, so I did it.

There's an exciting part where you boil water, dates, sugar and butter then add baking soda. The recipe says move the pan off the heat before adding the soda. You discover that it's because there's a sudden burst of foam, very dramatic, so who knows if you didn't move the pan, the foam might engulf the kitchen.

And, since there's nuts and fruit and wholewheat flour, it's breakfast.  Or, as here

a late night snack. 

Handsome Son, Gary and another friend had made short work of the banana bread, so I once again needed a little something in the house. I did put a couple of slices of this loaf in the freezer for handsome Son's next visit, as an insurance against running out.

And I did manage to knit the second lacy cuff

So I haven't lost the skill after all. And I have plans for more experiments along these lines, to keep sock knitting interesting.

I checked my library for any of Steve's summer reading list, hardly any writers I'd read, reserved a couple of Tana French, and borrowed the nearest Bragg I could, which is this, now ready on my Kindle for my outdoor reading pleasure.

It combines a recommended writer I'd never read, and home cooking as well as memoir, so I can't go far wrong.

Speaking of combining, here's a terrific artist whose paintings are executed on teabags.

This one is doubly domestic, because it's about laundry day. Definitely doubling down.

And let's leave with a bit of hope

Nature flowers even when people do terrible things to each other.  The attacks on the earth as well as the people on the battlefields of WW1 resulted in the poppy fields of Flanders.

Wise nature survives

Good to remember humbly on Memorial Day weekend. Little children in Texas, people in eastern Ukraine, died this week in different battles they never asked for. So many lives have now fallen into before and after. So much grief. Not a time for barbecues and bargains.

Storm has passed, all's shining clean, in nature, that is

I got caught up on buying pulse foods this week, with plans for pease pudding which I haven't made for ages, and other interesting meals, maybe curried dal with rice.

They're great foods, lovely to handle and look at. Bob's Red Mill is a favorite source, but their own website is so buggy, I gave up on it again and found another non Amazon place to order Bob's. The box arrived almost before I'd finished typing.  Watch this space for Adventures with Pulses.

Yesterday's Misfits box arrived early, dodging the storm 

Which didn't live up to its billing, didn't arrive till I was home from knitting group.

Then it was intense rain, the kind you can't see through

for about twenty minutes.

And here's the lovely Misfits supper last night

Food is a blessing, to help keep our spirits and courage up in the face of the news. The more the total police failure in the Texas massacre of children comes out, the angrier and sadder I feel. 

Woke early today, at dawn, to the sound of mourning doves, then later went out onto the deck to the song of cardinals. 

A washed clean outdoors, wishing humans could be more like that.

One foot in front of the other, everyone.