Category Archives: blogging

Made squash soup

By | | , , , ,
Leave a comment

I made a big batch of squash soup today. It is just cooling now so I can put it in containers and freeze it.

Two years ago, I bought three acorn squash plants from a local market. However, when the squash appeared, they weren’t acorn squash. Last year I bought plants from a roadside stand along a country road. But when the squash appeared, they weren’t acorn squash. This year I bought three plants from a garden shop. Thankfully, they turned out to be acorn squash. I have a ton of them.

You wonder why I insist on acorn and don’t use a different squash for the soup. But the acorn squash has it’s own flavour. The recipe I use is from the Butchart Gardens website and everyone who eats it loves it.

What did you get from your garden this year?

Tomatoes are coming….

By | | , , ,
Leave a comment

The tomatoes are coming fast this year. They grew so strong in the early summer that most of them pulled the tomato cages over or crumpled them onto the ground. Some of the plants were more than five feet tall. Not that we had a great summer, started cool, hot for about 3 weeks in July, then cool and rainy for another three weeks.

Yet here they are, ripening like crazy. I buy most of the plants from a very kind man who grows and sells tomatoes every spring. I always promise to bring the pots back, because that saves money on both sides and re-uses the pots. These tomatoes will be simmered until thoroughly cooked into a sauce. It has amazing amounts of flavour, much better than the spaghetti sauce you buy in the store.

What do you do with all your tomatoes?

A Late Spring

By | | , , , ,
Leave a comment

The new buds on the branches of the fir trees are bright green this year. That’s not always the case, but it has been a slow spring, still very cool. It is 6 to 8 C degrees/ 43 F in the morning, rising seldom past 10 C/ 50 F in the afternoon. All the colours seem more vibrant.

Even the azaleas are stunning in their intensity. I don’t know if it is the cool weather or what is affecting it.

What is it like where you are?

HOME

By | | , , , ,
Leave a comment

Voice of encouragement at break of day: “Pickup your pack, O Pilgrim, and away!” This doth the voice of Home each new dawn say.

Those who go daily forth are blessed by her, feeling their spirits rise, their pulses stir, for Home is both a magnet and a spur.

She sends us forth each morn with strength to fight, yet draws us to her loving arms at night. O Home! thou art the temple of delight.

Thou art the very heart of beauteous life, a fortress armed against invading strife, love’s citadel for children, husband, wife.

Thou art a garden, fragrant, peaceful and fair, wherein grow blossoms, humble ones and rare, ideals, hopes and dreams all flourish there.

And when the sun is sinking in the west thou art a voice that bids us take our rest against they loving understanding breast.

This is a page from “Homespun” by Wilhelmina Stitch, an old book I found in my mother’s bookshelf, Third Edition, printed in 1933 in Great Britain.

The Homestead

By | | , , ,
2 Comments

Well, I have finally finished this memoir, the cover was created from an old family photo of our homestead house. It took quite a while to write it, going back and forth between what I remembered and what I wanted to share. And now that I’ve declared it finished, I still feel compelled to go back and rewrite many parts of it. I guess it will never be perfect and I’ll just have to live with that. 🙂 It won’t be published for a few months.

Back blurb:

This is the story of my family’s adventure. We left the Canadian west coast on Vancouver Island, travelled to the North Peace River area in northern British Columbia, Canada, established our home there, and then left. It is the story of six children who lived this experience and built new lives after the journey ended. Here is how it happened.

Do you have similar memories? Drop me a note and let me know. Best, Sylvie