Saturday, February 08, 2025

Caturday 75: Lacey is Mistaken

Lacey seems to think it is spring or should be, or at least her fur seems to think that because it is wafting off her rather generously. I am picking up tufts here and there and even see bit of fur sitting loosely on her coat, waiting to fly up my nose. 

Somehow, even though it remains extremely cold this winter, her system must be adjusting to the increasing light. Why an extra hour of minimal, low, winter light can make a difference to an indoor cat, I know not. Perhaps that isn't even the cause; maybe it is just coincidental. Maybe I am just doing that human thing of trying to make connections and seeing cause and effect where there is only randomness.

Meanwhile . . . for your amusement . . .  


Friday, February 07, 2025

The Shame Of It

Sue and I both received $200 cheques from the provincial government yesterday, but I have inserted a background photo of someone grimacing unhappily although I am not sure if one could grimace happily.


You might ask why $200 cheques would peeve us as well as a few million people, and it would be a fair question.

It's because it is a political stunt. We have a provincial election coming up very soon, and our grifting premier is attempting to buy us off with our own money. This is after almost 8 years of starving our healthcare system. Perhaps I should write underfunding rather than starving, but I am sure you get my point.

This jaded stunt will cost the province more than $3bln. Most Ontarians, or at least most that I know, would much rather have the money go into health care, or even education, heaven forbid.Premier Ford's shenanigans have probably cost the province an additional $3bln in greed and grift.

He's a Conservative, of course. He's a tRumper at heart although I will give him some credit for participating in standing up to the demented bully president in this latest brouhaha. Conservatives have done this vote-buying stunt before, and more than once: bribed us with our own money rather than using it for the betterment of society.

The other two times they did it, I donated the money to good causes in a spirit of defiance, and if I recall correctly I gave half of it to the opposing Liberal Party. I think the other half went to the lady who rescues cats on the last occasion, and I may have supported the food bank on the previous occasion which does go back a few decades. I plan to relent and use it for personal items this time around, but I will hold my nose while doing it and will feel somewhat shamed.

There was once a cartoon, where little cat said something like: "Oh the shame of it, my father was beaten up by a mouse." I no longer remember the specific cartoon, but I have always thought that was a funny line.

Thursday, February 06, 2025

The Swans Are Back

The trumpeter swans seem to come by every winter, but you never know where on the river they will be on any given day. On Tuesday we came across 19 of them swimming off in the distance, but of course, there were all but lost in her phone photo.

On Wednesday, yesterday, I brought my camera and longest lens, but as we approached our lookout point, all was quiet, unlike the day before, so I did not have high hopes.

Along the trail, walking toward the lookout spot

There were only 5 swans way off in the distance: 4 together and one just off by itself a bit.

A long way off where the red arrow is pointing. Oops.Sue says that the swans were even
farther away, left and back more. So now, I am even more impressed with myself. :)

Even if I could get a long shot, they were sleepy and inactive. But the one off my itself, did rouse its head a few times, so I fired off some shots, hoping for the best. Using good software, I was able to crop in and edit the photo well. This is the shot.


It's just a long photo of a swan but knowing what it took to get and process the photo and knowing how to do it, means something to me even though it won't exactly be a National Geographic candidate. Besides, these trumpeter swans don't stay long, so it is nice to get any sort of photo while I can.

And here's the group of nearby sleepyheads being as unaccommodating as possible.


My photos were better last year here when they were by Riverside Park and I managed to get several photos, including this one.

Wednesday, February 05, 2025

AC the Helper

On Sunday, Sue's prompt was to take a photo of something that helped her: "Who or what is helpful to you?" She chose me for the subject, and to the great outdoors we went.

It was frigid, and while my red coat isn't the warmest of my two coats, it does stand out better in photos. So, upon request, I wore it because I am a good helper. Did I mention that it was very cold? Ah well, off we went.

She does have lots of photos of me, and many in my red coat, but it is always nice to do something fresh, so when we got to the park she directed me toward the new bench by the pond.


Sue said that she wouldn't make me sit on the cold bench for very long. She was true to her word. She asked me to turn and face the camera, but the hood was getting in the way whether it was up or down.


Not thrilled with that, I was directed to the little bridge. I trudged off again.


We were both happy enough with the photo, so this is what she posted to her group.

Would ya look at dem rosy cheeks‽

Following is her blurb that accompanied the photo.
56 years and counting, this guy has always been willing to help me with many things, and now as my POTD* model.
* POTD = Photo of the Day

His 16th

As you know, if you got to yesterday's post, it was JJ's birthday. Shauna had a display put up in front of their house. On a little street with a busy background, I AI-ed in a snow scene backdrop. There was also a #16, but it had blown over in the fierce winds of the day.


Later, Sue got a photo with JJ and with the 16 showing.



As you know, I have been making birthday cards for the family for lo these many years. As the years go on, I have fewer and fewer current photos of the blighters, but I found just enough this year, but I am not sure if I have many more creations left in me.

back and front

Inside: Read from left to right, and then go to the second line,
and don't forget to include the sock message.
I have to tell you this because JJ got confused. 😊

At their house later, we had butter chicken for supper. Jonathan doesn't like cake, so he was proffered a big plate of cookies.



We all had chipped in to purchase a new VR headset. 



Finally: two of Sue's composites to top it off.



I am posting at 4:40 after a sleepless night. It happens form time to time. I have other blogs in the queue, and I might post another later because I am getting a bit of a backlog again. 😊

Tuesday, February 04, 2025

The Sock and the Dime

I appreciate your supportive comments yesterday. The crazy political situation does get me going sometimes. Now, onto our regularly scheduled programming. 


The pharmacy around the corner is one of those places that is lot more than just a pharmacy. On the weekend, we walked over on icy sidewalks and in bitter wind, our purpose being to purchase milk and Skittles. We'll have to watch that sidewalk ice and pick our times and spots better; the sidewalks hadn't been too bad until now.

The Skittles were for the boy's birthday, which is actually today. We'll meet over there for supper tonight.

The candy is a little extra gift so he has something to open aside from the one gift that we all chipped in on. You do remember the Christmas sock, right? → →

I say all of that to say this.

Upon completing our purchase, the cashier gave us a dime back after we had given him no money at all.

You see, we had a $10 couple from a previous shopping. The purchase came to $9.90, so after handing him the coupon, he handed 10 back.

I told him that we should do this every day.

I just thought that I would mention this unusual occurrence to you.

Monday, February 03, 2025

Canadians are in a Mood

I know that Canada does not get a lot of coverage in the US, so here are some items from my side of the border., even though I have already posted today.

The nonsensical tariff war is on. Following is a excerpt from the section of Prime Minister Trudeau's speech that was directed specifically to Americans. 

As President John F. Kennedy said many years ago, "Geography has made us neighbours, history has made us friends, economics has made us partners and necessity has made us allies." That rang true for many decades prior to President Kennedy's time in office and the decades since. From the beaches of Normandy to the mountains of the Korean Peninsula, from the fields of Flanders to the streets of Kandahar, we have fought and died alongside you during your darkest hours.

During the Iranian hostage crisis, those 444 days, we worked around the clock from our embassy to get your innocent compatriots home. During the summer of 2005, when Hurricane Katrina ravaged your great city of New Orleans, or mere weeks ago, when we sent water bombers to tackle the wildfires in California, during the day the world stood still — Sept. 11, 2001 — when we provided refuge to stranded passengers and planes, we were always there, standing with you, grieving with you, the American people.

Together, we've built the most successful economic, military and security partnership the world has ever seen; a relationship that has been the envy of the world. Yes, we've had our differences in the past, but we've always found a way to get past them.

As I've said before, if President Trump wants to usher in a new golden age for the United States, the better path is to partner with Canada, not to punish us. Canada has critical minerals, reliable and affordable energy, stable democratic institutions, shared values and the natural resources you need. Canada has the ingredients necessary to build a booming and secure partnership for the North American economy, and we stand at the ready to work together.

You can read the whole speech here or listen here. The part addressed specifically to Americans is near the beginning and is a few minutes long.

It's not just our prime minister. This is what the premier of Ontario has posted.

“Every year, LCBO sells nearly $1 billion-worth of American wine, beer, spirits and seltzers. Not anymore,” said Ford in a Feb. 2 post on X (formerly Twitter).

“Starting Tuesday, we’re removing American products from LCBO shelves. As the only wholesaler of alcohol in the province, LCBO will also remove American products from its catalogue so other Ontario-based restaurants and retailers can’t order or restock U.S. products.

Removal of American liquor is happening in provinces across Canada, targeting mostly whiskey and bourbon from the red sates as far as I understand. Canada is the biggest customer of these American products. 

This just in from Premier Ford.

That contract with Starlink was
$100 million.

Meanwhile I can tell you that ordinary Canadians are perusing the shelves in order to avoid American products as much as possible. Many are opting out of American vacations.  The stock market is down, and we are even booing the American anthem at hockey games. All because the orange buffoon thinks he can annex Canada, not to mention Greenland and Panama. What have you Americans wrought? (I know, not necessarily you, personally.)

The news go on apace this morning.


I never imagined that the great democracy was so fragile. It appears to be hanging from a thread with a madman in charge and few with the intestinal fortitude to stand up and be counted.

Note: At 1pm, nothing has changed for Canada, but Mexico has a detente of sorts. Trump isn't very fond of Trudeau, so we shall see.

Overlooking

I'm getting  bit behind due to the fabulously exciting life I live. You know what I mean — those walks in the snow that leave folks breathless with wonder. Ah well . . .  these photos are from Friday.

Both Sue and I wanted to go back to the bridge trail where we had been on Thursday. I had seen some ice formations in the river looking down from the bridge, but I hadn't taken my camera that day because I am turning chicken in the cold. But Friday was warmer, all the way up to just freezing if you can believe it, so I could stand to take my glorious, heated mitts off while I shot — but not for too very long.

Meanwhile Sue had a challenge to photograph something that she had previously overlooked. Well, she had never photographed Hackberry Park looking down from the bridge, so she would literally be overlooking (as in looking over) something that she had overlooked (as in neglected). I volunteered to pose in my red coat for a point if interest because we all know that I am pretty interesting. Eh?

I wish my toque were also red, but this is one toque that actually fits me and stays where it should.

When I got up to the bridge, the pretty ice agglomerations that I had seen on the previous day were mostly washed away. It didn't surprise me, but it didn't thrill me either. However, when we walked around to the little bridge on our usual loop, I found some icy edges against the water, and I snapped some photos. Probably at least one of the photos below was taken in this ↓ moment.

Below, are three results that I like. Although they were almost b&w to begin with, I did convert them in order to eliminate any possible colour. I edited these first two to accentuate the detail in the water action adjacent to the ice.


The final one did not have much wave action, so I processed the water to be almost uniformly dark in order to emphasize the interesting edge of the ice.

My three photos, particularly the first and third, look pretty good large on the full screen. I don't know what you will see if you click on them here, for I can't see the result on Blogger until I actually hit the publish button, which I am about to do. Fingers crossed.

Sunday, February 02, 2025

Going Western

I write of the comestible sort of Western, but I can't find an image that matches my variety of a Western sandwich, and I forgot to take a picture, so here is a western image of a different sort for you pleasure. Perhaps I would have remembered to take a picture had I not almost overflowed the sink.



In the distant past, before we were married, Sue once or thrice cooked me a Western sandwich when I visited her. I was already in love with her, but I also fell for this simple, tasty dish. I am not sure if I had ever eaten eggs other than boiled* until then, and bacon** was never served at our house.

A Western, in our corner of the world anyway, is simply an omelette consisting of eggs, bacon, onion and cheese. I make it into a sandwich by stuffing it between two pieces of toast after topping the eggs with a bit of ketchup. I am not much of a ketchup person and only use it in a few sandwiches: Western, grilled cheese, meat loaf. I think Sue used to also put the omelette into a sandwich, but she now prefers the toast on the side.

So, that is what I call a Western sandwich. I know other parts of Canada call a similar creation a Denver, but I don't know what Americans might call it, assuming that they even have a name for it.

The price of eggs is a great concern down south, but the free run brown dozen that I just purchased were $7. That is CDN currency, the US equivalent would be about 60, given the conversion rate. #kidding 😎

By the way, eggs were plentiful in the grocery store in various grades, sizes and prices. I am somewhat aware of the difficulties south of the border, but I don't know the cause of the scarcity and resulting expense.

* Soft-boiled eggs were the only form of eggs in my childhood, but I don't think that I have eaten a boiled egg since then, preferring fried or scrambled. I possibly could eat them soft-boiled in the shell if necessary, but I can barely look at someone munching on a hard-boiled egg although I can endure an egg salad sandwich.

 ** Mom didn't serve bacon at our house, and, frankly, I am not sure if I had ever eaten even a strip of bacon back then. I do recall one Sunday morning at university when, as an atypical student, I got up early to go to church. The large cafeteria was almost empty; I may even have been the solitary diner, but I don't remember precisely. Since there was no one else to consume food, they heaped my plate with bacon, so it was almost like I was in heaven, even before I went to church, where, if I recall correctly, there was a hell of a good sermon. (Sorry, I can't help myself, sometimes.)


Finally, here's a little something to send you on your way. 



Saturday, February 01, 2025

Caturday 74: Three Cats

These photo photos came up on my slides retrieval project of 2025.

Dusty was our first cat after we got married. She was a going concern, I tell you. For example: she liked to run under the bed upside-down and ripping the bottom of the bed in the process. She also loved picking at the bifold cupboard doors at night to gain entry into the cupboard.


Baron was a purebred Persian that joined Dusty in the household. They had a good time romping together. He was a bit of a runt who drooled when he purred.


We were then cat-less for  awhile before Dixie came into our lives after our neighbours moved away and left him behind. He once travelled to the cottage with us, but he was not interested in dealing with the abundant mice. In the photo, he's being held by a young PJ, child #2.


I wonder what other cat pics I might uncover during my slide-scanning sessions.

Friday, January 31, 2025

A Pretty Enough Snowfall

The comments to yesterday's post really surprised me. Apparently, 'passel' is used pretty widely in a large part of the USA. It's a small sample size, but I think eastern Canada, northeast USA, and the west coasts of both countries don't use it a lot, and as I said recently, I sure haven't heard it much, if ever, apart from Dad.

===================

Two days ago, there wasn't a major storm, but there was enough snow to bring out the town plows and the driveway blower-people. It also stuck on the fir trees just enough to prettify the park on our walk.



Below, we had walked the path from the top of the frame to where Sue took this photo (she took all photos in this post). It might look a bit problematic for an old guy with a cane, but it was soft and wasn't difficult at all, and the aesthetics were worth any inconvenience.



While I am here, I might as well also drop two photos of our next stroll — yesterday's walk — when  we drove to the bridge trail for a bit of variety.

Sue wishes she had a red coat because her grey coat didn't stand out on this dull day in her attempt at her daily photo. After much fiddling, I was able to turn it red in Photoshop. I've done it before but not for a long time, so I had to figure out some sort of method. The trick was to turn it red but still retain the texture of the coat. I did my best.



We do a loop on the trail to take us back to the car. Sue took a photo after I had passed under the old railway bridge when I looked back to see what she was up to.






Thursday, January 30, 2025

Passel

Three--count them, three--big cat items today, including a passel of lovely pictures.

I was taken with the word, passel, on that ↑ Bluesky link to a blogpost. You see, my dad used that word. having heard it from his first-generation English parents. I don't think I have ever hear anyone else say it. I've watched quite a bit of British tv, but I can say that if the word has been used, it hasn't popped out to me.

I have always assumed that it was the way that Dad said 'parcel'. From googling, it seems that I was at least partially correct. Hey! It does happen! 
Loss of the sound of "r" after a vowel and before a consonant in the middle of a word is common in spoken English. This linguistic idiosyncrasy has given the language a few new words, including cuss from curse, bust from burst, and passel from parcel. (Meriam Webster)
While we are all familiar with cuss for curse, we probably aren't as familiar with bust for burst, as in to bust one's britches. I wonder though, how many have heard of passel for parcel?

On the other hand, these words also have their own places in the dictionary. For example, passel can be defined as an informal noun without even using the word parcel in the definition: "a large group of people or things of indeterminate number; a pack."

(Note: Don't fret if you can't quite understand the context of the quote at the top. He was posting a link to his blog about cats, and I was just taken with the word, passel.)

Wednesday, January 29, 2025

Making Cauliflower Palatable

When I recently mentioned cauliflower soup, people seemed to like the recipe as far as it went, and at least one person requested the full thing. Another person posted their dislike of this odious veggie, and I agree except for Sue’s clever workaround in the next paragraph. 

I dislike raw cauliflower very much, but in an attempt to improve my wretched diet due to my general dislike of vegetables, Sue hit upon a solution. After steaming cauliflower for 10 minutes, she coats it in a mayo and mustard mix and then rubs on grated cheese which sticks because of the coating. She bakes and then broils briefly to crisp up the cheese. I actually like it and even request it. We eagerly consume any crispy cheese that falls off the cauliflower and onto the pan.

Sue does this for me, really, because she likes cauliflower in its regular raw state and munches on some florets at almost every lunchtime. There’s definitely something wrong with this dear woman   

Now for the soup recipe. While I seldom read others’ posted recipes, this was a request.  I will just paste a photo from Eat, Shrink & Be Merry by Janet & Greta Podleski, 2005. Published 20 years ago, I think that I can post one page from their cookbook on which you can see my various notes. The circled numbers down the left represent the different steps. The upper numbers in the ingredients, align with the lower steps in the directions. I really need to keep organized, or my tiny, old brain gets very muddled.

Click to Embiggen

This was the third of their cookbooks, I think all were self-published. I know that their first of the three Light cookbook, Looneyspoons was self-published. They went on to produce a second, Crazy Plates, before finally publishing Eat, Shrink ... One sister was the cook, the other the graphic designer.

Amazon Canada link to Eat, Shrink & Be Merry


Tuesday, January 28, 2025

When They (and we) Were Young

You surely recall my old b&w photos (new scans) at Christmas. I didn't have all that many to deal with, but I have a big box of old slides that I have finally decided to tackle. 



That is the setup, above, but I should have shown the large box of slides too; it will be a big job. However, it is fun to look back in time, so I'll take it bit by bit.

Of course, you know that I am about to post a few of these new scans, but I promise not to drop too many on you.

We were about to take Shauna somewhere or other in the spring of '73 in our red Ford Maverick. I never did get a second red car although I would have liked to. Subsequent vehicles were light blue, brown, white, green-blue, black, and black in that order. 



I don't think that I have ever posted a photo of Sue's mom. She was a great help in the very early days with Shauna, who was a weird baby. It was Pearl who quickly realized that Shauna liked to be rocked and walked (in her carriage) furiously. I mean that we would have to bounce her like crazy. It was the talk of the neighbourhood.



The slides got a little scrambled. As you can see, Shauna is a little older here, possibly the summer of '74. I have no doubt that we were on our way to or from church.



Now, I am getting into the picture with my mother and Sha. We were visiting an art gallery somewhere in or near Toronto. Although I have said that Shauna was a weird baby, she was also as good as gold once we figured out that rocking thing, which didn't really take us too long.



This next photo was at Sue's parents' place. Shauna and I had a lot of fun. I was sitting on a big, stuffed turtle. I notice my hairy legs in this and other old photos. It’s all gone now. 



The next and final photo skips ahead to one of me with our second child, sometime in the fairly early 80s, perhaps '82 or '83. Sue's dad had a rural cottage that had a small waterfall on the property. It was fun in there with PJ, who was wearing a cap to keep her earplugs in. Poor thing had a bad time with her ears and had minor surgery to fix the problem.



All of these photos are definitely snapshots, but they capture our times and lives. Where will the next batch take us?


Monday, January 27, 2025

Oh Good! I've Been Stupid Again

I have a very good recipe for cauliflower soup. Aside from 4 cups of cauliflower, it calls for 2 cups of leeks, 1 cup of sweet potato, as well as other add-ins. I brought home the ingredients from my earlier shopping this week.

After I bring the ingredients home, Sue usually puts them away. She'll wash the fruit and veggies and put things in containers. On this occasion, she went the extra mile by preparing both the cauliflower and the leeks. She told me that she had prepared the cauliflower florets, but when I started to gather the ingredients, I was pleasantly surprised to see that she had also sliced the leeks. That was almost the biggest part of the preparations.

I gathered the ingredients together, did the cooking, and used the blender to to puree slightly more than half of the ingredients into soup. 

The result was quite tasty, even though I had substituted cheddar cheese for Swiss cheese.

Even though it was good, something seemed different.

As Sue was falling asleep that night, she came to the realization that she hadn't washed the cauliflower container.

No people! I had not forgotten to add cauliflower, but . . . I had used the wrong container. I used the container with leftover cauliflower after Sue had measured the 4 required cups in a different container.  The container thatI used probably had only half or even less of the required amount of florets.

And that was what was wrong — the soup was not as thick as it usually is. It was still tasty, but it wasn't the same. It had been awhile since I last made it, so I just put it down to faulty memory.

Sue said that she would cook some of the rest of the cauliflower and integrate it with the remainder of the soup. She did that little thing, and, so, we had a heartier bowl last night.

Although I made one of my usual faux pas, it was a good thing in a way because it gave me a fresh blog topic. I should make a collection of these types of posts: The Pratfalls of AC


Sunday, January 26, 2025

The Trail by the Arena on a Cold and Windy Day

The deep freeze is over for now, or will be shortly, as it still went down to 0F overnight. While temperatures will remain below freezing for the next few days, they are at least not down to 18C/0F. At least the wind was not strong throughout most of the cold snap. 

A few days ago, we drove to a different trail. While our trail is a bit protected, we do walk through the open park to accessit. So, we drove to the arena to access that trail. When I describe two trails, they are really part of the same trail but just different sections.

These are all Sue's shots. After numbing my fingers on that video day, I have recently been happy enough to keep my hands in my mitts.

It is a bit wider and straighter than our usual section here.


You can see the river from various spots. 



At one spot we took a little path down to the river.


Sue got closer to the section above.



It was calm along the trail, but as we got back to the parking lot, we experienced strong winds that reminded us that we had made the right choice for our walk on that day.