048 CULINARY ARTS

The culinary arts have always been a favourite activity for me.  Ever since I was little I used to help my Mom baking cookies, stirring fudge on the stove and many other things.  This has carried over into adulthood, and I have always loved cooking.  It can get a little overwhelming when making a large dinner such as the Christmas turkey, but I think I have always done pretty well.  My Mom even compiled a small black book of all her recipes.  She made two copies of it and gave one to me and one to my sister.

BAKING COOKIES

PEANUT BUTTER COOKIES

I have used it a lot over the years but only a few recipes.  The one recipe that was missing and nowhere to be found was one for a great liniment.  People at the lake would come and “borrow” some and Mom would give them the recipe.  They dubbed it “Auntie Edith’s Marvelous Liniment”.  For many years it remained a mystery, until Dad passed away and we were cleaning out the house when my sister found it hidden behind some stuff in the kitchen cupboard.

FIRST EVER WAFFLE

ANGEL FOOD CAKE

In my little basement suite (300 square feet) with no stove and just a hot plate, electric wok, a BBQ and later a portable roaster oven, I managed to put together some pretty good meals.  At the cabin I acquired a “taste” as it were for cooking with gas.  Granted it was a tiny propane stove, but it did the trick.

CHICKEN FAJITAS

Imagine my delight when I moved in here and saw the huge 5 burner gas range and the gas convection oven.  I figured I would be able to go crazy with cooking, and I have.  I have been able to indulge myself with some favourite cooking pastimes, but I have also been able to expand my repertoire with things I have never made before.  Having the right counter-top appliances has helped as well.

I have in no particular order baked milk chocolate chip cookies, white chocolate macadamia nut cookies, peanut butter cookies, waffles with a recipe given to me by my son from his Mom, a scratch bake Angel Food cake, and now a New York Cheesecake and the toppings to go with it. I have made omelets, poached eggs, standard bacon and eggs, meatloaf, stir fried beef and broccoli, chicken fajitas and tacos.  I even discovered and regularly make the “real” Orange Julius drink.  Who knows which direction I will go next.

NEW YORK CHEESECAKE

I have not roasted a turkey yet, nor have I done roast beef, but they are coming.  I have made my rum and butter mushrooms, but not my special ribs, although they are on the agenda as well.  I even have a recipe for Greek Style ribs, which I must try, because I love those with the spicy lemon flavour.

So many recipes that I know by heart and others that are brand new and my huge kitchen makes it much easier than the tiny area I employed at the old house.  I had a two foot by 3-foot section of counter and then I employed the top of the washing machine for additional counter space.  Now I have counters all over the place and the extra room is so much better.  Having a dishwasher makes cleanup much easier as well.

I had an idea for this article to go one way, but in my excitement over successful cooking and baking projects, I have appeared to ramble all over the place.  I have so far only tested my recipes on Renee, although my Caitlin and Trevor loved the milk chocolate chip cookies and Perry loved my white chocolate macadamia nut cookies and the Orange Julius.  So far the reaction from Renee has been two thumbs up for it all.  What to do next, I wonder?  

047 WHERE HAVE ALL THE FLOWERS GONE

As I mentioned in an earlier post I was thinking about adding some roses in a planter just outside my front door.  I was a little hesitant to do so, as I wasn’t sure what if any problems it would cause with strata.  The AGM gave me a chance to find out that it was ok, as long as I was clear that the responsibility for taking care of them was my own and not the strata.  I had already understood that would be the case and I had already gone ahead and done it anyway.  Coincidentally, that was the same day I hurt my wrist.  Is it karma because I did it before asking permission?

Anyway, we went to a place called Triple Tree Nurseries and I picked out a very nice red tea rose, because red roses are gorgeous.  I also bought a Peace Rose as a tribute to my grandfather.  In addition, of course, I had to buy two containers to hold them and I picked out a faux terracotta so it would somewhat blend in with the front of the building and not be so obvious.

ROSES IN PLACE

Like everyone who goes into a plant store though, I ended up buying a red begonia and a yellow begonia, and of course I needed container dirt and mushroom manure to fill the planters.  After getting all that together, as I was going through the cashier, there was an orchid called Tom’s Favourite.  Well of course, I had to get that as well.  But wait.  There’s more.

After getting home and putting the orchid on the dining room table and the begonias on the deck table, it was decided to transplant the roses in the evening.  There would be less witnesses and of course while I was doing it two neighbours came outside and we all started visiting.  Anyway, I got the roses transplanted and snugged up against the entranceway, and gave them lots of water.

YELLOW BEGONIA ON DECK

ORCHID IN DINING ROOM

ORCHID IN DINING ROOM 2

Of course, it’s never enough when it comes to flowers, so we ended up going to Art Knapp’s and bought some baskets and inserts to hang over the front railing.  I already had enough dirt left over, so that wasn’t an issue.  I walked through and picked out plants with lots of yellows and greens and Renee quietly walked behind me and replaced them with mostly pinks and purples.  Although I did find a strange looking purple plant that she approved of.  I have no idea what it is called, and neither did anyone I talked to at Art Knapp’s.  For all I know it’s a poisonous man-eater.

VISITOR ALREADY

SMELL NICE

POSSIBLE MAN EATER

We had also stopped at London Drugs and I saw a really neat blue ceramic pot that would be perfect for the begonias.  It was only $7.00 so I grabbed it.  I later saw the identical pot at Art Knapp’s for $25.00, it even had the identical sticker on it and identical markings in the bottom of the pot.

This was the day that my wrist became unmanageable, and so I talked Renee through the transplanting process.  The mix of dirt and manure and how to place the plants in the dirt.  She proved to be an able student and we will proclaim her a container gardener now.  It has really added some colour to my front entrance and deck.

By the time of this writing, the deck flowers are thriving.  So is the orchid and most importantly so are the roses.  The red rose has several buds and one that has burst through into full flower.  It is a much deeper red than I expected but it looks really classy.  I’m waiting for the Peace Rose to bloom to add a counterpoint to the deep red.

FULL BLOOM ROSE

ROSE AND BUD

CLOSE UP

 I’ve had a hard time photographing the flowers with my wrist, especially since I can’t even trigger the shutter release.  Once I was able to do that, I shot with the macro setup, which was mostly a disaster as noting worked out.  Then I shot it using the big lens and doing a bit of telephoto macro and got a few ok shots.

We have started a trend around here though.  I guess everyone was waiting for that one brave soul to step up to the plate and flout authority.  Since putting my roses out front and the hanging containers on the railing, I have noticed planters cropping up all over the complex.  My next door neighbour beat me to the containers on the rails, but mine were next day.  The neighbour across the street has put up two hanging baskets by her front door and I even noticed that someone has a container full of tomato plants out front.  So we are trendsetters I guess.

YET ANOTHER VIEW OF MY ROSE

The complex has some very nice landscaping, but it is always nice to add a personal touch to your own unit.  At the old house I was trying to avoid the yard work because it hurt too much with my back and knees.  It doesn’t mean I didn’t miss my flowers and things and container gardening provides the best of both worlds.  You can still get your hands in the dirt, but it is very minimal work involved.

046 AGM

…And, I’m back.  It’s still a little painful to type, but it’s a whole lot better than it was, even yesterday.  Just got in from my latest physio treatment and it has made a big difference.  Then again, I may pay for this later, when everything in my hand and wrist stiffens up again.  But, I digress from the point, I’m going to try and catch up from the 4 to 6 articles that have been buzzing around in my head for the last couple of weeks.

For every club, organization, or townhouse (this is my second) there is a wee little thing called the Annual General Meeting.  AGM for short.  They are to conduct the business aspects of running your organizations, and are usually lengthy, boring, drawn out affairs.  They can usually be made longer by the one disagreeable person who has an opinion about everything.

Sometimes the organizers are disorganized and things deteriorate from there.  The worst AGM I ever attended was a long winded affair that lasted 5 hours.  My god it was mind numbingly boring to the point that watching paint dry, soccer or a Canucks game would be more exciting.  Even the camera club meetings I attended lasted 2 hours.

You discuss new business, rehash old business, make rules, get rid of rules and elect council members.  It’s all necessary and in fact is required by law, so it’s not like you can just arbitrarily decide not to have one.  Some people choose not to attend and send voting proxies with other members.  It’s bad practice in that you don’t get a true input into the workings of your organization, nor do you get to hear all of the side nots that don’t get reported in the minutes of the meeting.

That being said, we got notice and an agenda of our first AGM since moving into the new complex.  It was only for phase 1 and phase 2 residents as we are the only ones complete and essentially filled to capacity.  When the whole complex is done there will be 8 phases and I believe 114 units.  I think that because it is the highest unit number I can find to date.  For some reason they started with the highest numbers and are counting down to Unit 1.

It’s been fun watching the new arrivals moving in, but even more fun watching and meeting the people who come and visit with their new houses to be.  A few months ago, I was one of those people, only there wasn’t a whole lot of residents around to chat with when I was doing it.  Now the soon to be owners find a bunch of us to talk to.  I bring this up, because it was while chatting with one, I discovered that they were not permitted to attend the AGM, because while they are soon to be owners, they haven’t signed final papers yet.

My first meeting although not the first ever AGM for the complex occurred about 2 weeks ago now and was scheduled for 6:30 PM in the library of a local elementary school.  It was quite warm, so I arrived early and scouted around to find a nice shady, cool spot to park and left all the windows almost halfway down.  There was a nice breeze and I knew it would be comfy and safe for Toby.  Plus, there was a baseball game going on for him to watch.

I headed into the meeting, prepared for the usual long winded affair and even brought my iPad for either taking notes or to amuse me during boring parts.  I grabbed the only adult size chair in the place, because if I sat in one of those tiny chairs, one of two things was going to happen.  First it was going to collapse, or second, I would get into it and never be able to stand up again.

There were 12 physical bodies present and one person holding 8 proxies, which was sufficient to give us a quorum and make the meeting official.  That’s 20 representatives out of about 40 units which at a 50% average is pretty amazing.   The meeting was called to order at exactly 6:30 PM and at 6:45 PM the meeting was closed and we were on our way home.  We reinstated the current 3 members of the executive and added a 4^th as they want to have 2 reps from each phase.  That will give us 16 council members when all is said and done.  I bet that’s when the meetings will become the long winded affairs I’m used to.

Everything that needed to get done, got done in those 15 minutes.  I am still amazed by this 2 weeks later.  I have never seen a meeting run so smoothly or finish so quickly in my lifetime.  Many congratulations to the organizers, the management company and the residents who participated.  I even got to meet a few people I haven’t met yet, and some that are becoming regular and friendly.  We are turning into such a nice and friendly community so far.

045 THE BEAR NECESSITIES

Moving out of the “Big Smoke” into a relatively small town and in an area that is still wilderness, one expects to deal with all sorts of wildlife and domestic animals.  For example, late at night we can hear the coyotes howling up a storm in a nearby field, or even in the gully of the small creek beside us.  We have seen people on horseback riding by and early in the morning I often hear a rooster crowing in the distance to welcome the new day.

There are lots of different birds and I have already seen and/or photographed several lifers.  This morning I had a Blue Steller’s Jay following us on our walk and I had only ever seen those up at the lake before.  One morning, Renee and Toby startled a bird in the long grass and I got some good shots of it.  I had no idea what it was until a friend identified it as a “Killdeer”.  What an unusual name for a small bird.

A couple of times while driving, and of course without the camera I have seen coyotes on the road.  Not unusual though as I have seen plenty of coyotes in Vancouver.  I have seen a couple of dogs that look like wolves but turned out to be huskies.  So the selection of animals in Maple Ridge is wide and varied.

We have been told that it is also bear country.  Not a far-fetched belief as my sister routinely gets them in her backyard and we are farther out than she is.  I thought I saw one disappearing into the bush at the side of the road one day, but was going too fast to be sure.  Also on the way to Pitt Lake we saw a car stopped at the side of the road, and the driver stuck a lens out the window that made mine look small.  A glance in the rearview mirror showed a dark shadow on the roadside and it may have been a bear.  Finally, we saw the bear warning sign when we did our hike at Cliff Falls.

Last night though, it all came together.  Renee got antsy, which is not at all unusual and wanted to go for a walk.  I was not feeling too energetic as my body was hurting all over from lugging heavy bags of soil and transplanting my two rose bushes.  It was hot and muggy too and so she went out with Toby.  Within 5 minutes they were back and she said he refused to go and so I dragged my sorry butt out of the recliner and headed out.

By this time the sun was going down and the light was fading, not to mention being tired and sore, so I looked at my camera and even picked it up and then decided that I would not take it for those reasons and we weren’t going very far.

We headed down the road and around the corner and then headed up the pathway behind the complex that we walk every day.  As I rounded the corner by the pond, some movement caught my eye and there standing in the middle of the path, was a black bear.  He was a good size, not big but not small and if I had to guess I say he was a 2-year-old and about 350-400 pounds.  He was quite slender from having just wakened up.

For some reason, Toby and Renee were behind me instead of way out from where they usually are.  I called out “BEAR” and started to back away.  The bear didn’t make any aggressive moves and in fact he sat down like a dog and just stayed there as we continued to back away.  It didn’t take long until we were around a curve in the path and out of sight.

When we got back to the entrance of the path we warned off a few other people who were heading there with their dogs.  We quickly made our way back to the house and I went in and grabbed my camera, heading out the patio door and over to the pond which is just behind us.  Of course as luck would have it, now that I have the camera the bear was long gone.

The security guy was inside the fenced area and saw him as well and when we talked to him, he said after we left the bear turned and walked up the path away from us and disappeared into the bush.  I am sure we will see more of him, but it won’t be during the day with all the people and machines still doing construction.

This is one of the great perks photographically in living outside Vancouver.  It is also one of the things that you have to be very aware of, that we are in wildlife country and it will be part of living here.  One needs to be wildlife and especially “Bear Aware” when walking in the neighbourhood.  I don’t want any conflicts but I still want my bear photos.  Rest assured I will not be taking any unnecessary risks to get the shot though.

044 HOME DECORATING

I’ve never been much of a decorator, but I do know what I like.  I have mentioned in previous entries that I am a technology junkie, but on the flip side I have a real love for the medieval side of things.  Hence my love of the TV series Game of Thrones, Robin Hood when I was a kid and all the way to adulthood.  So when I got this place and lucked out with the off-white walls, dark quartz countertops and the grey/brown laminate floor, it just cried out to me medieval.  Even the stainless steel appliances remind me of suits of armour worn by the knights.

That’s why I have concentrated on a blend of modern and old look. Leather couch and recliner in chocolate brown (Renee’s suggestion on colour), the medieval looking Harvest Table and chairs and then getting a very medieval looking chandelier to compliment it.  That is the basic overall colour scheme, dark and white, with splashes of colour thrown in.  The light blue towels in all the bathrooms provide some and again were Renee’s suggestion.

Now it is time to add some accents to the decorating.  I mentioned before that there was an old painting that hung above my parent’s couch for many years, that I have always loved.  That came with me and as mentioned in a previous article, I had someone hang it for me, basically on a feature wall in the kitchen area.  It reminds me mostly of my Mom as it is very subdued colours and a winter scene that makes me think of Saskatchewan where Mom was born.

THE MOM PAINTING

Several people on Facebook, Renee, my cousin and daughter Caitlin have been relentlessly trying to convince me to display some of my photographic work.  I have several 8x10’s that hung in the old place, of various wildlife shots, but what was suggested is that I blow something up big and on canvas.  I could not think of a shot that was worthy of such treatment, but I finally settled on my “Blood Moon Over Burnaby” shot as the only one that might be worthy of such treatment.  Yes, I am my own worst critic.

So after much research, I finally did it.  I contacted a company called ABC Fine Art in Burnaby and after several online exchanges and phone calls, this would be the print.  The wall that it will go on is behind the couch and is 5 feet wide, or 60 inches.  With those measurements we settled on a print 50 inches by 40 inches and I emailed the photo file.

BLOOD MOON OVER BURNABY SHOT I SELECTED

Over the last week I have been waiting on the print to arrive, I have had numerous second thoughts and was worried it was going to be terrible as a big canvas print.  Toby (not my dog) the owner of the shop assured me it would look great.  It was scheduled to be shipped to me today, but various things conspired against that and Toby loaded the print into his friend’s truck and drove it all the way out here himself.

He gave me tips on how to care for it and then the big reveal.  I am blown away.  The shot is incredible and I cannot be more pleased with it.  It fits perfectly in the area designated and looks great with the décor.  The one downside happened when Toby asked if I had a hammer and nail.  He was quite prepared to hang the print for me, but I have no nail and my tools are still lost in the box maze which is my garage.  So tomorrow, I will head out and get some proper painting hooks to hang it.

THE CANVAS PRINT SITTING ON THE COUCH
IT CAME OUT GREAT

Renee expressed her disgust numerous times that I was “not prepared”.  It’s kind of difficult to be prepared with my tools buried and when I was expecting a courier to show up with the print, not the actual owner of the shop and the artist who made this come together.  No matter, I will buy the hooks tomorrow and if need be I will buy another hammer, even though there is probably 10 or 11 of them in a box somewhere.  If it means deflecting all this criticism I will do it.

UNWRAPPED AND ON THE WALL ABOVE COUCH

So the challenge continues.  Deciding what will go on the walls next.  There is a really nice print of a wolf in a snowstorm that Renee gave me.  It’s not my work but that’s ok too.  There is some thought of hanging a painting of a lighthouse I did some time ago.  There are paintings of a police car and police motorcycle that a friend and former colleague painted and they will go in my office.  Then I will dig out more photos I have taken, and put those up.  But none will be this big, or on canvas.  It's just too expensive to do it more than once.

043 THE ROBOTS ARE COMING

 Yesterday afternoon I realized the floor needed vacuuming and I hadn’t gotten around to doing it in the morning.  At the old house, when I pulled out the upright vacuum and started doing the floor, Toby would go mental.  He hated that thing!  It didn’t matter where he was, inside, outside, when the vacuum started out he would come running in and insanely bark at it and even occasionally lunge at it to try and bite it.  It was like this noisy thing had murdered his whole family or something.

I probably hate vacuuming as much as Toby hates the vacuum.  I vowed when I moved to the new place that I would not be doing any more vacuuming.  To that end, I ordered the townhouse with laminate floors upstairs and down and no carpet.  Apparently according to safety regulations I have to have carpet on the stairs, so that’s the only place in the house that has carpet.

How was I going to get away with not vacuuming you may ask?  Hire a maid?  Certainly an option, but no, I decided against that because it would get awful expensive, and with Toby running around the house, it couldn’t last for several weeks without some type of cleaning.  Sweeping is an awful lot of work too.  So what is a guy to do?

I admit it, I’m a technology junkie and my solution was provided by the iRobot company in the form of the Roomba vacuum.  I did a lot of research on these and discovered that even though they would vacuum the floor ok, it was a good idea to have a backup and give it a good going over once every two weeks or so.  So that left me with the idea of a Roomba and a built-in central vacuum.  Which put me back in the position of still having to vacuum.

ROOMBA DOWNSTAIRS

That is until iRobot came out with their newest model, the 980.  These robots have better edge sweepers and way more powerful suction, negating the need for additional vacuuming.  In addition, they have a built in GPS which enables it to return to its base station if it uses up all of its battery, charge up and then return to the exact spot that it stopped.  In addition, I can control the Roomba with my smart phone.

So I bought two of them, one for upstairs and one for downstairs.  I have used them over twenty times, but had never actually watched them work and do their thing.  I always activated them from my phone while we were out on the morning walk, so as not to disturb Toby and in turn disturb the entire complex with his frantic barking.  This afternoon I took a chance while I was sitting here doing nothing, prepared to grab Toby if he went nuts.

So I activated the upstairs unit.  Other than the beeps of it starting out it’s surprisingly quiet, although you can hear it running back and forth over the floor upstairs.  So, now came the moment of truth.  Toby was in the living room and the Roomba base station is in the dining room.  I hit the start button and was waiting for the fireworks, expecting Toby to attack.  He didn’t.  He saw this little machine coming towards him and watched it indifferently for a few minutes and then went downstairs into the entryway, where it’s cooler.

AND AWAY SHE GOES

I was fascinated by this little machine, running back and forth over the floor in an apparent haphazard pattern.  But, there must be a method to its madness as it was getting everything clean.  It just kept going back and forth and side to side, picking up dust and dirt.  I couldn’t stop watching this little beast, it was hilarious.  It would go over and over a particularly dusty spot until it was clean.  It went right to the lip of the stairs and stopped, only to turn around and go the other way.

My daughter Caitlin, told her boss that I have the Roomba vacuum and his comment was “your Dad is a special kind of lazy, isn’t he?”  I just giggled about that, because as I said, I’m a technology junkie and anything that makes my life easier is A OK in my books.  Especially when it does my housework for me and allows me to pursue my many other interests such as photography.

I bought two of them so that I can clean upstairs and downstairs at the same time and don’t have to move the unit up and down.  They weren’t that much more expensive than getting a central built in vacuum and besides, they are entertaining as heck, at least now that I have actually watched it work.  Right now the units are called Roomba Upstairs and Roomba Downstairs, but I’m thinking, maybe I should come up with names for them.

042 ROSES LOVE SUNSHINE

One thing I have noticed on our many walks around the neighbourhood are the many and varied types of flowers.  There’s daisies, rhododendrons, dogwoods, wisteria, lilacs and many others whose names I don’t know.  But the one flower that I don’t see at all, is one I used to see all around the old neighbourhood, and that’s roses.  It kind of amazes me really, they are so beautiful and smell so nice.  Finally, though, the other day, I spotted a lone rose bush in someone’s front yard.  No flowers yet though.

WISTERIA BLOOMS

BLOSSOMS

HAVE NO IDEA

My grandfather used to grow roses, and my Dad after him, in fact until the day I left, there was a Peace Rose in the backyard, that my Grandfather planted.  It wasn’t doing too well anymore because it was overwhelmed by the Lilac tree, but it was still there.  Almost every house around the block in the old neighbourhood had at least one rose bush in it.

PEACE ROSE

When I lived in Surrey, in a little garden at the front of the house, with full Southern exposure, I had six rose bushes.  I did very little to them except dust them with Sulphur occasionally to fight “black spot” and I would dig in rabbit poop, from our two rabbits in the back yard.  Those rose bushes grew to almost 8 feet in height and provided hundreds of blooms all summer.  When my ex and I split, she didn’t want them any longer so I dug them up and transplanted them to the house in East Van.  They didn’t do well there at all because there was too much shade from the cherry tree.  Getting Toby didn’t help them either as he used to gnaw on the stalks.

HAVE NO IDEA

PANSYS

I’m pretty sure you can grow roses in containers, and I would love to do so, but with the townhouse, I’m not sure what I can get away with.  The back deck would be perfect and I don’t think would cause problems, but it faces north and gets limited sunshine until late in the day.  The perfect spot is the front entryway which is south facing and gets sunshine all day long, it’s just with the strata I’m not sure if I can put a container out on the entryway or not.  I see lots of other people have done so, but I don’t want to spend the money only to be told I can’t have them there.

DOGWOODS AGAINST BLUE SKY

LILACS

I would love to plant them in the little garden area right out front.  The plants that have been put there are not doing well at all and it may be because they were planted too soon to finish off the exterior.  Having them in containers would solve two problems.  One I don’t think it would breach strata rules and the second is it would take minimal work on my part, which of course was one of the things that led to me selling the house and moving.  Too much back breaking yard work.

YELLOW DAISIES

It would look very pretty and would bring back some pleasant memories without all the work.  It would also and another touch of individuality to my place.  That being said, I do love how each unit has been designed with a slightly different look, so they don’t look like the cookie cutter approach to most townhouses and condos.  It could be a slightly different colour scheme, different style entryway, some units have decks, some don’t.

I took the first step today by dropping into a nursery to check out what’s available on the container growing front, but I couldn’t find anyone to help me, nor could I find exactly what I wanted.  I’ll go back again and try another day.  What I would dearly love to get would be a “Peace Rose” as a tribute to my Grandfather, but I didn’t see any available in the nursery.  Some red roses would be nice as well.  I’ll keep you posted on what I decide and what I can do.  Here’s hoping!