silly and fun and altogether delicious...

if i were to assess (say, on a scale of one-to-ten) how much of an emotional wreck i have been of late, it would probably average out somewhere near seventeen. life is like that these days. however, there was one wholly-absurd and thoroughly-enjoyable bright spot we got to share. 

a certain animator had a birthday recently, and we used that event as an excuse to indulge in a multi-day festival of foods delivered from some restaurants in the area. we are selflessly doing our part to keep the local economy alive. that's my story, and i'm sticking to it!

some were places that were already known to us, but we discovered a few new gems along the way... like Wienstein & Gavino's (he loved their lasagna), and the indescribable desserts from Bon Et Petit (they are so awesome, they don't need no stinkin' website!). 

then there was that other dish. this one requires a bit of explaining. 

if you have never heard of a thing called poutine, be glad. the dish—and i use that term very loosely—consists of fries topped with gravy and something the locals refer to as cheese curds. oh, and i should probably mention that the curds are supposed to squeak when you chew them, earning them the nickname of squeaky cheese. 

but wait... it gets worse!

the curds lose that disturbing auditory quality when refrigerated, so cheese curds are usually kept at room temperature. the absolute worst part is that they sell them everywhere! no exaggeration, you can find plastic bags of fresh cheese curds on the cashier counter of almost every gas station... right next to the breath mints and the cigarette lighters. that is how much they love their poutine in Quebec, and that is probably the main reason why i have been avoiding the stuff since my very first visit to Montreal (some eighteen-ish years ago, if you need all the details). 

what does any of this have to do with his birthday, you ask? patience. i was just getting to that bit.

birthdays around here are often used to guilt the other person into doing stuff to which they might otherwise object. some call this "love". i had absolutely refused to eat the rabbit he cooked for New Year's (a story for some other day), which meant that i already owed him one.  

so, there we were, with his birthday happening at the end of something called La Poutine Week, where restaurants all over Quebec (and beyond) come up with outrageous combos of poutine toppers to reflect their cuisine. the animator kept reading me the descriptions of some of the local offerings in the misguided hope that he would tempt me to give it a try, so i knew that it was only a matter of time.

him: ooh... there's butter chicken poutine. you love butter chicken.
me: i do. it's one of my favorite foods. i just don't want it on soggy chips with gas station cheese.
him: or, what about this one? lobster poutine! you love lobster.
me: exactly. i love lobster far too much to do it the disservice of ending up atop poutine. 

now, i should point out that he had never even tasted poutine—despite living in Canada his whole life—which made his attempt at a guilt-trip all the more ridiculous. 

me: i am not stopping you from eating poutine. get it. eat whatever you want. 

him: i know, but i want to share this experience with you.
me: why do i have to be tortured so you can satisfy your curiosity?

him: that's how the love works. 

me: good luck with that. 

then he made some comment about me being no fun, which i reminded him was part of my charm. still, it was his special day multi-day celebration, so i gave in. and, after going through the whole list of local offerings, we narrowed it down to the Baby Back Black Velvet Poutine from McCarold, a new-to-us pub a short drive from our place...

or the Philly Cheesesteak Poutine from an old favorite, Notre Boeuf de Grâce.  

[random aside: the restaurant's name is a play on Notre Dame de Grâce (NDG), our neighborhood here in Montreal. i had mixed feeling when they first opened (about a block away from our old place) in the location previously occupied by D.A.D.'s Bagel, a business that was much-loved by the locals. D.A.D.'s was open around the clock, and we would often pop in there during one of our late night walks. i liked going there in wee hours when they were making the mountains of bagels that would be sold at cafes and other such places around town. it was mesmerizing to watch them being moved in and out of the large wood-burning oven. i vowed to hate whatever business took its place... which lasted all of a few months.] 

where was i, again? oh, yes... poutine. 

so, after way more debate than most sane people would find necessary, we settled on the Black Velvet Poutine. it showed up looking just as i expected, like so many servings of poutine i had seen being consumed by other human beings: soggy fries and scattered lumps of gas station cheese. this was not going to end well. 

i took one look, and made the face that he knew from experience meant he would probably be eating it all alone. still, it was his birthday, and i had promised to give it a try, so i stabbed my fork into a chip, and gave it a taste. 

it was a-maz-ing!

i went in for a second bite in silence, stabbing a chunk of the meat this time. this was the point when i started regretting that we had not gotten two orders, because i was definitely not feeling inclined to share. we paused briefly to exchange our mutual (wholly-unexpected) enjoyment of the combination of saucy meat and fries, and we instantly made plans to check out some of the pub's regular offerings in the future. 

but there was still that other thing. 

me: i'm kinda afraid to try the cheese curds.
him: yeh. me too.
me: i'll be freaked out if i bite into something and it squeaks

him: but it would be false advertising if it doesn't squeak. 
me: i know. that's why i'm scared. 

him: me too. let's try it at the same time.

so we did. and it does. and we both laughed because it was silly and fun and altogether delicious. so now we are looking forward to Poutine Week 2022. meanwhile, i have to find something even more absurd delectable for us to try when my birthday rolls around. 

Jultember in a single word...

to be perfectly honest... i briefly considered doing a post-a-day during Jultember. however, as i have been genuinely struggling to find the will to get out of bed some days, said effort was doomed to failure before it even started. so, i took the occasional photo of the random nonsense i got up to over the course of a month that began in one season and ended in another.

this year's balcony garden project has been a literal oasis. beyond being lovely to look at, living like we do in an apartment in the middle of the city, it is especially nice to occasionally harvest something just moments before it ends up on the dinner table.

the inclusion of more flowers in this year's garden meant that there were even more colorful creatures stopping by for a visit. i was (pleasantly) shocked to see a ruby-throated hummingbird zipping around one afternoon (the visit was too brief to get a photo). one almost forgets that there is (non-squirrel) wildlife in the city, and we will definitely be planting even more welcoming flowers in next Summer's garden.

i did have to rescue a visiting cicada from potential death-by-adorable-cat. i formed a human shield between the two, until the cicada eventually climbed back through the netting and  flew away... then i spent the rest of the day threatening to climb a tree to strangle a cicada (perhaps it was the same one) whose noisy antics was driving me up a wall.

the animator was most amused.

him: if you hate that noise so much, why didn't you just let the cat kill it?
me: that would be cruel. they're annoying, but they're cute.

i found myself in need of a quick pick-me-up one random afternoon, so i made some candles. this was my first time using wooden wicks. i am hooked!

the light is stronger than with the cotton wicks, but the candle burns so slowly that it feels like it will last forever. i burned this one for close to twelve hours, and the jar was still near-full. i approve.

i have been neglecting my knitting projects, partly because it was too hot to be bothered, but mostly because i just stopped caring. this top was intended to be part of my Summer wardrobe. maybe next year.

that is some of my own hand-dyed yarn. i will talk more about the genius/lunacy involved in getting this effect on a cotton-based yarn if/when i finish the top.

 

i did manage to (finally) complete another pair of socks (more about that some other day) for the animator, which i started back in April. i also finished spinning the charcoal-grey yarn that i talked about in that same post. there is enough of this to make a whole garment, so now i just have to find a pattern that is worthy of this special yarn.

it is hard to maintain consistency across such a large spin, but i am satisfied with the end result. this is begging to be turned into a comfy cardigan.

i added some new yarns to my stash. i got a sweater's quantity of each color. they knit up into such a beautiful fabric. the fiber is a cotton-acrylic blend that will make for some comfy allergy-free sweaters for me.

i usually avoid wearing browns, but this warm gold was created to be worn next to my skin. this just screams AUTUMN!!!

we consumed a ridiculous amount of iced tea earlier in the month. there was a stretch of a couple-few weeks were the temperature in the middle of the city was hovering around 40°C (104°F), with the "feels like" temperature a few degrees above that. it was... brutal.

this was a particularly hot, dry Summer, so it was a great relief when the rain finally came about halfway through the month. which brings me to the point of this pointless thing...

if i had to summarize this past Jultember in a single word, it would be "tomato".

we got a large box of veggies from his parents' garden, including about twenty-five pounds of tomatoes... because his father is that lunatic. i roasted half of them (like i did last Summer), and the rest were turned into many tomato salads. [random aside: that plate with the chip is older than both of us.]

that particular salad was served along with a heaping plate of Greek-style lemon chicken and potatoes (made by the animator). said dish was flavored with fresh oregano and thyme from our little garden. the leftovers were equally amazing the next day.

we sent a photo of the salad to his dad, who was impressed by my neat arrangement of the slices... then he immediately began amassing another box of tomatoes. you know, in case we were in danger of running out of the stuff.

meanwhile, every now and then, one of us would step out onto the balcony, and return with a handful of freshly-harvested tomatoes. there is presently a large container of fresh tomatoes occupying half a shelf in the fridge, along with three containers of garlic-roasted tomatoes, all waiting to be used up. it is at the point where we are putting tomatoes into just about everything we consume.

the veggie haul from his parents' backyard also included several heads of celery. i chopped a few stalks at a time, and stored them in the freezer for the coming soup season.

we transplanted a couple of the smaller celery plants to the balcony garden project...

and i placed the bottom of one of the chopped up heads of celery into a pot of soil, where it promptly started to grow new leaves.

then, without warning, Jultember was through... and with it went Summer.

now we are racing toward the part of the year that i love most of all. i ventured halfway across town this past weekend to get my first taste of this year's harvest of concord grapes. i actually bought three containers of the stuff, but the first one disappeared within minutes of getting them home.

but the best bit came when the animator was checking the weather forecast earlier today.

him: apparently there is a typhoon forming somewhere in Asia that is going to bring an early Fall to Canada.
me: that must be one powerful typhoon.
him: it's the butterfly effect.
me: yeh, but with like every butterfly on the planet flapping extra hard. 
him: the last three words of this article should make you smile. you ready for this?
me: go ahead.
him: "definitely sweater weather."

yep. still smiling.

ready for a viral apocalypse...

judging by the amount of coughing and throat clearing happening of late, i think it is fair to say that the first viral outbreak of the season has reached our humble little home.

we are taking every known precaution to minimize the impact, lest it develops into anything even remotely resembling last Winter's near-death flu. i just made my favorite animator a cup of the most locally-sourced tea imaginable. the dried mint was from the balcony garden project, and the honey was from a new-to-us source, which is the subject of this post.

i was wondering aloud recently as to whether we had stockpiled enough honey to survive another potential outbreak of the viral apocalypse, when he said the magic words that would change my whole universe.

him: Francois [fellow animator] is a beekeeper. i think he has honey from them.
me: whoa! we know a beekeeper? why am i just hearing about this?
him: oh, i thought i mentioned this before.

then i gave him that look that i reserve for moments when he has been keeping important stuff from me.

him: want to try some of his honey?
me: uhm... is that even a question?

fast-forward a couple days later when he messages me to say that he was bringing some of the honey home. i fully expected a small glass jar that would last a couple-few weeks of herbal tea drinking. what i got instead was a small plastic pail with two kilograms (roughly four-and-a-half pounds) of the stuff.

i am fairly certain that my eyes went saucer-wide when he lifted the container out of the bag. then i clapped and squeed a few times. i may be an unapologetic curmudgeon, but i still get excited about the important things in life.

naturally, i could not wait to break the seal and remove the cover. i cannot begin to do justice to the wave of fragrance that came rushing out from under that lid. a good honey should tell you where it came from as the nectar retains the floral notes of the parent plants, and this honey smelled like laying in a field of clovers on a warm Summer's day.

me: did he specify what kind of honey it was?
him: yeh, he said it was mostly clover.

i can hear what you are thinking, and i tend to agree. it really is frighteningly disturbing when i actually know things.

not gonna lie... i wanted to dip my whole hand into the center of that bucket of happiness, then stand there licking honey off my fingers like an overexcited child. however, self-control prevailed, and i settled instead for a metal chopstick.

should anyone have looked in my window just as i was done taking this picture, they would have been deeply puzzled as to why i was standing there with my eyes closed and a big smile on my face as i repeatedly licked a metal chopstick. can you even...?

i had just gotten through my honey-tasting when a sudden shift in the light outdoors caught my attention. we have been having some intensely dramatic sunsets around here of late. trust me... that photo does not do justice to the bright orange and bubble-gum pink tones. it was sheer madness!

me: maybe there is a wildfire burning somewhere west of here.
him: or maybe it's the Apocalypse. 

so now i have to add "prepare for the Apocalypse" to my to-do list. i still need to find a local crafter of wooden stakes, in case it turns out to be a vampire outbreak, and i probably should start working on my hand-to-hand combat skills for when society devolves into a Thunderdome-esque fight for survival.

however, with my stockpile of honey, i can safely say that i am ready for a viral apocalypse. bring it on, Winter.

Jultember: drained...

i am happy to report that i ended up going to that fiber festival i was so indecisive about a couple days ago, and i am so glad i went.

and i purchased a literal basket full of stuff... including the basket itself.

but i am going to have to talk about that tomorrow, because i am drained. 

Jultember: mental trip to happy places...

the hibiscus is blooming again, and it is so beautiful. this little potted plant rewards me with a bloom or two every now and then, and it sends me on a mental trip to happy places every single time.

i have a soft spot for these flowers as they always reminds me of being back in the Caribbean. hibiscuses easily outgrow shrub stature in that climate to become towering masses of greenery spotted with flamboyant displays of colors. wherever you may go in the tropics, there is always a hibiscus plant to be found.

stare at it long enough, and you can almost hear the sound of warm breezes rustling the fronds of the coconut trees lining the white, sandy shores. so beautiful.

Jultember: bumblebee turf wars...

the up-side to insomnia is that i get to catch part of the day that i would otherwise sleep right through. i fed the cats and made myself a large cup of coffee then grabbed my camera to spend a bit of time out on the balcony before the daily drone of traffic commenced.

we live a stone's throw away from the local highway, and the main street that leads into the heart of downtown Montreal is right at the top of our block. as a result, the soundscape of most days is dominated by the not-too-distant sound of passing cars.

but it was still that quiet part of the morning, and i fully intended to enjoy it while it lasted. why do i look like i am about to rob a bank, you ask? allergies, i reply.

this meant having to remove said barrier and hold my breath every time i took a sip. hello.

we have arrived at the point in the season where one small phrase fills me with dread most days. high winds!

the middle of Canada is a vast, flat expanse in which you will find the occasional farm or a field full of grazing cows. what you will find the most of, however, is lots and lots and lots of weeds. [it should be noted that while i have never been to the Canadian prairies, i have seen every single episode of Corner Gas at least twice, so i feel fully qualified to make that statement.]

it is ragweed allergy season, and there is not a single mountain or even a tall hill between me and all of that histamine-inducing pollen blowing in from the prairies. and, no... i do not go out into the world looking like that, but it sometimes helps to have a filter between me and the world while waiting for my antihistamines to kick in. good times. i have a proper face mask for said purpose, but i seem to have lost sight of it in the reshuffling of furniture to make room for the plants.

speaking of which...

i am happy to say that the balcony garden project has returned to its intended setting.
 

i mostly stood by and watched while he lugged one ten-gallon container after another back through the sliding glass doors, and i am happy to report that there was only one injury. his toenail will regrow... eventually... i hope.

naturally, i was out there spraying everything with my homemade peppery concoction long before the squirrels got out of bed this morning. Baby Bear was most not pleased with said fact, as she kept shooting me dirty looks after she took a nibble at the ferns.

i just carried on taking sips of coffee in between trying to figure out how repair the (non-functioning) auto-focus feature on my go-to lens. there is a story in there somewhere, which i will save for some other day when i am done being frustrated with myself for that one.

it was then that i noticed that the Little One staring at something with a definite about-to-attack gleam in her eye.

it was a cute, fat bumblebee. here he is crawling into a snapdragon. so cute.

there is one solitary bee that seems to spend most of the sunlit part of the day going back and forth between all the flowering things out there, and i would like to think that it is the same one i see every time.

i can just imagine the adorable bumblebee turf wars as they decide who gets what territory, and i would like to think that he fought hard to claim my tiny garden as his zone. hopefully the other bees did not give him a hard time for not making his quota on the days when the plants were indoors.

oh... and i am calling him George. so cute. 

i actually did a thing...

i feel like i spend a lot of time stockpiling supplies and talking about my future-plans to make all sorts of random nonsense, so it pleases me to announce that i actually did a thing. feel free to applaud. i totally deserve it.

we recently purchased some candle-making supplies, back during my birthday three-day weekend. well, i tucked all of that away at the back of a shelf in the black-hole that is my crafting closet, and (for once) i did not instantly forget all about it. in fact, i could hear the tiny wax pellets calling to me as i laid in bed each night not sleeping. [random aside: insomnia sucks.]

so i pulled all of it out one day and actually made candles. yes... i am also impressed at this most astonishing feat.

i did not take any photos during the making part of the thing. this was a simple melt-and-pour process which consisted of melting the wax pellets, adding scented oils, then pouring the hot mixture into cleaned and re-purposed candle jars. i used three wicks in each jar, as that was the same number of wicks in the original candles from Bath & Body Works, and i adhered the wicks to the the jars with a tiny dollop of hot glue under the little metal base at the bottom end of each wick.

the trickiest part of this whole operation was keeping the wicks in place while the wax hardened, so i used a little candle-making trick. before adding the wax to the jars, i used a combination of clothespins and bamboo skewers (which i broke in half as they were very long) to position and secure the wicks. the hot wax was poured into the jars with this setup already in place.

there was one little container which did not require the bamboo skewer, so i just rested the clothespin on the rim of that jar. so adorable.

i left them to cool overnight before removing the makeshift scaffolding.

you will notice that the wicks are just a touch on the long side for these jars.

i considered purchasing shorter wicks, as most of the containers i have are this size. however, i do have a few taller ones waiting to be filled, so i opted to go for the longer wicks. all it takes is a quick snip to get rid of the extra bits. or... you can light it and watch it burn down to the top of the candle like the fuse on a cartoon stick of dynamite. [DISCLAIMER: i definitely do not recommend that last option, so please do not blame/sue me if your house burns down after giving it a try.]

i hate throwing things away, so those extra bits will not go to waste. you can buy the little metal discs that are attached to the bottom of wicks in a candle, so i will hang on to these trimmings for future use.

 
i placed my new candles in a basket...because i am lazy and i did not want to have to make multiple trips to put them away.

i also added a post-it note to the side of each jar with the combination of essential oils used and the concentration in the mix. and, yes... i actually weighed and calculated the percentage of oils... because i take pleasure in being a total dork.

some of them are scented with sandalwood and lemongrass...

and some are honeysuckle, pomegranate, and hibiscus.

i took the time to remove the labels from the jars back when i cleaned them, but there were a few labels that absolutely refused to budge. imagine my surprise when i spun around one of the jars with the honeysuckle combo, only to realized that it originally contained a honeysuckle candle. i take that as a sign that the Universe approves.

i stashed the basket of new candles on a shelf of my crafting closet, so now i am greeted with a wave of awesome smells every time i open that door. hopefully this will encourage me to make use of some more of the stuff tucked away inside that space.