I assume everyone has been watching the Olympics from London. It has been a real success story overall. I loved the opening ceremony, particularly the section featuring the NHS.

 For all its perceived shortcomings the NHS is something of which Britain can be truly proud . I come from a family of eight children, all born under the NHS. We have had excellent health care over the years despite the opposition of the usual vested interests that think that a profit should be turned out of providing health care. The best remark that I read about it was the person who tried to imagine the Americans celebrating their health care system under similar circumstances. I salute my former GPs; Drs Boyle, McGlade and Quiery.

Glad I got that off my leftie chest.

Usain Bolt?????...how does he make it look so easy?

The earliest memory that I have is being lifted up to see over the wall flanking the River Bann to see the beautiful swans swimming past. It was on the Bann that three local lads; Alan Campbell and brothers Richard and Peter Chambers first learned to row. All took bronze medals in London. Well done!

Garden Report.

My zucchinis (courgettes) are still doing well. I can't believe that so many zucchinis could come off one plant. I had joked to Susan that all you have to do is plant a zucchini seedling and then stand well back! I'm beginning to think that the joke is closer to the truth than I thought. 

The tomatoes are thriving. Two plants continue to provide us with more than enough tomatoes for our needs.

I planted strawberries but I think it will be next year before they will fruit in any sort of abundance.

Chives have been a bit of a disappointment. Very very slow... they look like undernourished grass.

I am waiting for my solitary pepper to change colour...any day now.

I think that my beans must be a autumn variety. Just coming into flower now. Still, there is plenty of time.

A last minute addition was an eggplant (aubergine) seedling. It looks healthy but no baby eggplants yet.


Caribana

This is the annual celebration of all things Caribbean. Unbeleivably large parade; floats, bands and lots of people in costume consisting mainly of feathers, glitter and anything that shines.
I enclose a few photos for your education.

 

Honestly, they insisted!

A couple of weekends ago we went up to Cottage Country to stay with our friends Mick and Bridget.

The cottage is on Georgian Bay; a really idyllic spot and just a two minute walk to a beautiful sandy beach. On Sunday we went for a drive and ended up at a wildlife center where we saw a display of hawks.

Susan on the beach at Georgian Bay

Susan with a Red-Tailed Hawk

Yours truly with the hawk

Mick with his Laois football shirt

(Quiz question..What makes Laois unique among all Irish counties?)

A European Barn Owl

Susan was on-air on Sunday 15 July hosting a programme called Cross Country Checkup. It was their summer book programme, devoted to children's reading. Two hours of interviews all across Canada. She was excellent as I knew she would be and got a lot of compliments from folks in CBC

Podcast

http://www.cbc.ca/player/Radio/Cross+Country+Checkup/ID/2256653255/

And there is more to come, I am sure.

Hi again. I can only apologise for not adding anything recently; just put it down to the good weather here and my laziness.

I am still enjoying life here. The aforementioned good weather makes me feel so sorry for all the dreadful weather back in NI. Yesterday was a National Holiday and we went out to the Toronto Islands. Had lunch, lazed around under a tree by the lake watching all the picnickers with their enormous spreads. When Canadians do picnics they really go to town!

On Sunday when Susan was working I went up to the Wheatsheaf pub to watch the Euro 2012 final.
We had earlier walked along College Street which is the heart of Little Italy. Everywhere was in real festive mood. Everyone seemed to be wearing Italy shirts and carrying flags. Thank goodness I wasn't anywhere around there at the final whistle; they must have been so disappointed. The match itself was superb. Spain turned it on when it mattered and there was never any doubt which was the better team.

OK SOME PHOTOS........

I have no idea why anyone would give such a name to a pub.

I watched this strip of ravioli being made in St Lawrence Market.

The pasta, coloured with spinach, was stuffed with ricotta.

Lovely meal.

My first harvest of zucchini (courgettes).

The biggest was about 4-5 inches long. I probably picked them too early but I was so pleased at how easy they are to grow I couldn't resist it.

This is what happens if you leave them for a few more days.

The lemon is to indicate a sense of scale.

The one on the left is just over 10 inches. And there are more on the way!

I have already used a few of them in a pasta dish which worked well. Tonight I made a salad which was superb.

http://www.kalynskitchen.com/2005/10/grilled-zucchini-greek-salad.html

Try it. The only thing different that I did was to add a good squeeze of lemon juice at the end.

Our daughter Cathy was with us for a week.

 On her last morning in Toronto we took her to see Woofstock, a festival for dogs and all things canine.

This is a selection of her photos.

Commentary for most of them is superfluous.

Little treats for the doggie in your life.

A SMALL PHOTO ALBUM

The Encampment at Fort York

200 tents, each remembering a person who was alive in 1812,

with an installation by an artist in each tent.

The tents at ground level; quite a sight!

Tomato plant, growing strongly.

First sign of rocket seedlings.

Called arugula in Canada.

I love being able to grow basil.

Flowers on the courgette.

My daughter Cathy.

The building growing out of her head is the condo where we live.

Sunday 27 May

OK I know I haven't written anything for a while. I now know why all these famous authors always say that they have set hours during the day for writing, treating their profession like a 9 to 5 job. It is so easy to say to oneself that tomorrow will be a better time to write a few paragraphs. I wonder if Dickens ever had such thoughts?
(Fame at last....Dickens, writing and myself in the same paragraph!)

When I last wrote I talked about planting my tomatoes. On checking a week later I discovered that two of them had been chewed down to the ground. Groundhogs! People have now told me that while the little beasts do not like tomatoes as such, it seems that they are quite partial to young plants. So a major job has been done on wrapping the plot in chicken wire. It looks quite unattractive but seems to be yielding results.

These are my two remaining tomato plants and the pepper. The chicken wire has now been replaced by wire surround the whole raised bed.

I have planted strawberries. Most of them are quite small plants so they may not bear much fruit this year. I have also sown a couple of small rows of carrots and chives. As well there is a courgette plant and a flourishing clump of basil. In fact the basil has given us our first crop. I brought home a handful of leaves for a salad last week.

The one thing of which I am sure is that I don't have enough room for everything. I'm not too worried about that. I'll wait until everything starts growing and I can always thin the carrots (using the very small ones in salads) and if I really like, for example, the courgette plant I may have to sacrifice a few things to make room for it. We shall see.


Last weekend is what is known in Canada as the Long Weekend. Monday was Victoria Day (yes, Queen Victoria) and it is a National Holiday. It also is reckoned to be the beginning of summer and the best time to plant your garden. So I was back at the historic vegetable beds at Fort York. These are more properly known as the Officers’ Mess Kitchen Garden

We planted all the beds with historic varieties of seeds.

Raising three three mounds to plant runner beans.

I also took a few surplus seeds to grow where my two tomato plants had been.

Last Sunday (22nd April) I went back to the Community Garden to join up with some of the other members who are helping to look after the vegetable beds that Fort York has for growing old varieties of vegetables and  herbs etc. The produce is used to make dishes using old recipes to serve at various functions in Fort York.

We weeded, dug in some fresh compost and left the beds ready for planting. Then we were treated to lunch in the historic kitchen. We had turnip and carrot soup with fresh baked rolls. As anyone who knows me at all I cannot abide turnip, certainly not the type called swede. But the soup was actually quite delicious. I was offered poached eggs with sorrel but I knew that it would be too much, too close to our evening meal.

Weeding and thinning the lettuce

Lunch in Fort York kitchen

Caraway seed cake

The ladies who did the cooking also gave me some seed cake and ginger and currant take to bring home. The flavours of these were really great; much more pronounced than we would be used to today and all the better for that.

 This is how some of the food is cooked, over and around a wood fire. The soup is being stirred; to the left of the fire a chicken is being broiled and in the foreground the ginger and currant cake is being cooked in a pot with small pieces of glowing wood below and more on the lid.

I remember my Aunt Tilly baking cakes using this method in Moneysallin near Kilrea. The difference being that it was a turf fire.

One thing I have noticed about wood fires here There are no sparks spitting out from the burning wood. It burns very cleanly.

Today (29th Aug) I helped to fit new corner posts in my plot. I am told that it will still  be another couple of weeks before people get round to planting most things.

Susan and I also filed our tax returns today. Quite an ordeal; the first time we have done it ourselves.

It was all done online, so fingers crossed it will be OK.