Show & Tell: Lilies

Here are some photos of the lilies that are growing in my yard. Because we moved into this house in the winter, I’ve been discovering all summer what kinds of perennials are in the garden. Lilies are some of my favourite flowers and I’m thrilled with the colours that are here – we also have a few bright orange and one yellow one, but the plants are smaller and have just one or two blooms. Next year I will be adding other varieties since I know they thrive here – I love how bold and showy they are and how long the flowers last.

It occured to me as I was writing this that the process of discovering a garden that you didn’t design or plant but are now in charge of is a pretty damn good analogy for what it’s going to be like meeting my child and getting to know him or her. Especially because our child was donor-conceived – there is a greater sense of mystery to it all, I guess. Already I am waiting with great anticipation to meet this little person and to find out what he or she looks like, what kind of temperament he/she is going to have. And I hope I can keep my heart open to all the unexpected parts as we grow together, just like I waited anxiously for these yellow and burgundy lilies to open up, having no idea what colour they would be, but was filled with joy when they finally burst open one morning.

Go see what everyone else is showing and telling over here!

Show & Tell

Well, I’ve been absent from the head of the class for a while now, but today I have something very good to share with everyone. No, it’s not pictures of my new house, which is still not in much of a presentable state. Instead, I am sharing the Christmas presents I am making for my parents and sisters. On my side of the family, we draw names among my grandparents and aunt and uncle and my whole family. But with my parents and sisters, we also give each other small gifts. When I was in high school we started with a tradition of $5 or less per person. And strangely, we all wound up getting better stuff. But over the years, the price started creeping up and we started getting more into the presents again, so for the past few years we’ve returned to simple gifts and a stricter price limit. Last year, we all gave each other books we already had in our collections and didn’t really spend any money at all.

This year, the theme is Christmas ornaments, and we’re just giving them from household to household instead of to each person individually. I have been pondering what to do, and was thinking of various ways to make ornaments using my enormous stash of crafting materials. I had pretty much settled on needle felting, and was planning on doing pretty routine Christmas-y things until this afternoon, when I sat down with my wool and needles and block of foam and started playing around. And I came up with this:

Sorry for the photo quality – it’s late at night and I took the picture with my iPhone. But you get the idea. I will add sparkly loops of thread and then there will be little nigiri and maki sushi Christmas ornaments on all our trees.

I love myself so much today. My favorite so far is the 3D lettuce on the dynamite roll at front right.

Go on over and see who else is standing at the head of the class today.

show & tell: harvest

Oh, my darlings! I have missed you. The last few weeks have been exceptionally busy and although I’ve made several false starts at an update, it just hasn’t made it up on the blog. So I will jump back in with this episode of show and tell. 

I got up this morning, watched Coronation Street, drank a pot of tea, ate some toast, and took my herbs and vitamins. And then I went outside, where it is a beautiful windy but warm fall day here on the prairies, to harvest my carrots and beets, and a few other stragglers. The chard is still standing proud as it withstands seemingly impossible amounts of frost, but everything else is picked. The beets and the smaller carrots are in the washing machine (note to self: remember to take them out!) getting clean, thereby saving my energy for the chopping which will follow the washing and precede the annual borscht-making. 

Borscht in the fall is a family tradition. My mom made it when we were growing up, and I’ve always liked it. There are many variations, but here is my recipe:

2 Tbsp. butter  

1.5 cups chopped onion

1.5 cups sliced potato

1 cup sliced beets

1 large carrot, sliced

1 stalk celery, sliced

3 cups cabbage, chopped

1 tsp. caraway seeds (optional – many people hate these)

4 cups stock or water 

2 tsp. salt

pepper to taste

bunch of fresh dill or 1 tsp dried dill – I like lots, so I pile it in while cooking and then fish out the big fresh dill stems before serving

1 Tbsp. + 1 tsp.  apple cider vinegar

1 Tbsp. + 1 tsp honey 

1 cup tomato puree (optional)

Saute the onion in the butter until the onion turns clear. Add everything else except the vinegar and honey – add those at the end – and simmer until veggies are tender. Serve with a dollop of sour cream. 

Easily veganized and adaptable for various other diets – since I don’t eat nightshades anymore, I leave out the potato and tomato puree. I’ve put in sweet potato in the past and that has worked well, although since it cooks faster than carrots or beets, I usually put it in about halfway through.  You can add chopped greens, too – beet greens or chard – to bulk it up.  I also tend to love the vinegar taste, so I often add a bit more toward the end. Also, when I make it to freeze, I use less liquid – just enough to cook the veggies, and then add stock or water when I use it. That way it takes up a lot less room in the freezer. Genius!

 

show and tell

I finally thought of something interesting for show and tell. Well, I hope it’s interesting. I wouldn’t say I’m much of a collector of anything, although I have a fondness for Queen Elizabeth II and certain items bearing her image, which items may appear in future show and tell installments. But today, I’m sharing my other obsession: the logo for Canada’s centennial, which took place in 1967. I’m not entirely sure why I love this logo so much – in ‘67, I was 6 years away from being born, so I obviously don’t remember the centennial. But I love it a lot and when I find things at church rummage sales or thrift stores bearing this image, I snap them up. And Manny, being the kind and caring husband that he is, knows how to impress me, as he did a few years ago on my birthday, when he made a little treasure hunt for me to find my present. The ultimate present was an iPod, but the penultimate present was this: 

And I may be a weird Trudeau-loving westerner, a bilingual child of multicultural policy, someone who cries everytime I hear a Stan Rogers song, a softy whose heart swells with patriotic pride at weird moments, like when I catch a “Hinterland Who’s Who” spot on TV, or hear the theme song to As It Happens (how cool is it that the song is actually called “Curried Soul”? I just learned something!), but I defy anyone to tell me that this logo is not one of the awesomest logos of all time.

Go on over to the weekly Show and Tell thread chez Lollipop Goldstein. I just can’t stop saying her new name, folks.

show and tell

I was working on this post yesterday and then got busy with company and a phone call from my best friend who needed to talk and just never got it up. So, a day late, here it is.

This is a picture of a farewell letter from a grade 11 boy who was one of my students from my time teaching in Japan. I lived in Niigata Prefecture between 2000 and 2003, and taught at a number of high schools. Those three years were some of the best years of my life, and sometimes I miss Japan so much.

The letter reads:

Dear Anna,

I’m very sad now. Because I lost you. But, You have happy place. It, hasband. I can’t win him. So I want to very happy to you.

If I were a sun I would look to you every time. But I can’t it. I was very happy with you. So I’ll never forget you.

See you again. From Yuki. [a boy]

I have a pretty good collection of letters like this from the various classes I taught – before I left, the teachers had the kids write these notes for me, and I can’t bear to throw them out. I keep them around to cheer myself up when I’m feeling bad – nothing like reading that dozens of people love your smile to make you feel better. I was always amazed by the earnestness of these kids – not that they necessarily mean these things, but that they were willing to say them, and to figure out a way to say them in a language that was relatively new to them and generally caused them a lot of difficulty and frustration. I could go on and on about the lack of irony in Japanese culture and how there is an amazing tenderness under the reserve. But that would probably get boring. I’ll just say that I loved my students so much, and I really miss them sometimes. Reading these letters reminds me of that connection I had with them, and how grateful I am to have gotten to experience it.

show and tell

Yahoo! Show and Tell! I forgot all about it last week, even though I really wanted to join in all the fun. Check out more fun rarities and B-sides by other fabulous bloggers here.

Given the recent spate of amazing garden photos (I’m looking jealously in your directions, Luna and Kate), I thought I’d post some of my own for S&T this week. If only so you’ll have the before photos when, in a few months, you can no longer see the dirt and I am no longer buying vegetables. Also because signs abound in the garden. And I’m a little bit into signs at the moment. Signs, omens, portents – I’m all over that shit.

These radishes were planted about a week ago, and look how well they’re doing! Some other seeds were planted about a week ago, but we’re not sure how they’re doing yet. Radishes also give me heartburn, which I hear is a common symptom during pregnancy. Coincidence?

Ok, I’ll shut up now.

I plant my radishes with carrots, because the radishes mark the rows and mature within a few weeks, and then I can pick them and give them away to the old people in my life who really love radishes (why is that?) and then the carrots have room to grow. Plus it’s fun to have some instant radish gratification.

These strawberries were given to me by our late, across-the-alley neighbour, Lou the Rototiller Man. Lou was a crusty old dude who had a soft spot for me and Manny, cause I talked gardens with him, and Manny bought a couple lawn mowers off him and admired his legendary junk collection. When Lou died a couple years ago, his landlord came and emptied out the house and shed, and for weeks, there were about 8 rototillers, 6 lawnmowers, 12 old cabinet-style TVs, and various other weird stuff Lou had picked up at garage sales. He had a huge garden on the empty lot next to his house, and a good half of it was taken up with strawberry plants. I hope Lou is in Heaven right now, free of the horrible throat cancer that killed him, watching the serious dump of rain we’re getting this weekend, and feeling happy, watching the plants that he nurtured blossom again. We miss you, Lou.

Here are some of my anemones.
I love these plants because, oddly, they have thrived in my sun- and wind-blasted garden, although I think they are meant to be shade-loving forest-floor plants. I got them from a good friend a couple years ago, and have already divided them once and put little clumps elsewhere in the yard. Soon, the delicate white blossoms will open up, and then they will release little bits of fluff and spread their seeds all around. Any plant that produces fluff is alright with me.

Finally, here is my lavender that managed to survive the winter in spite of the fact that I moved it in the middle of the summer last year and then proceeded to not mulch it in the fall. Lavender isn’t terribly hardy here, so when I saw new leaves at the bottom of the dead branches, I smiled for days. Right now, this lavender is my emblem of hope, growing and thriving in spite of some serious past neglect.

Thus concludes my first installment of Show and Tell. I’m glad I waited until today to post – I was going to do it last night, but all I could think of was pictures of my dog sleeping. Cute, but not much to tell about. Although the grade 2 authenticity factor would have been really, really high.

**Sorry about the stupid formatting of this post. Blogger is giving me grief and screwing everything up.**