Gaaahhhh!

So there I was, all smug and calm and poised, as I started making haggis for the weekend. (It being Robbie Burns Day and all.)

Until I took the lid off for a stir!

Shudder. This is why I pronounce, every time, that I will never make haggis again! Just so....livery!

Of course the cats approve heartily.

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New Beginnings

Yah, like Winter has started all over again! Sigh…



And I’m about to start a new production at the theatre, so I’m really really trying to find my studio under all the accumulated stuff that really needs to go back to prop and wardrobe storage.

But I’m also starting a new blog. Yup, another. (Sheesh! She can’t keep current content on this one and she wants another?) I know, it’s a foolish pipe dream. But I thought I’d like to make a more focused one.
The idea sort of had its beginnings this summer, as I was reading what was, then, a small collection of blogs, called The Daring Bakers. (They’ve now grown from a finite and readable little collective, into the population of a small nation!) Even then, when they were small, I was only reading a few of them. But the point was that they were doing something intriguing.

They were mostly all people who already had food blogs, and wrote about whatever varied aspects of food intrigued each of them. But once a month, they came together and all blogged about a food challenge they had undertaken that month. One person picked some baking challenge, and a recipe, and then everyone set off to try it and compare the results and their experiences and write about it.
Quite fascinating!

And one of my continuing regrets about living out here in the hinterland, on the edge of the world (not quite there, but you can see it from here!) is that thus far, I, and others, have never yet found a way to recreate the culinary guild experience we’d once had when a group of us all lived in Toronto.
Back then we’d all get together once a month and bring some medieval recipe we’d made, and try it, and evaluate it, determine what worked, what didn’t, whether it would work for a feast, how many it would serve… things like that.

(Yes, I’m into historical food. Did I mention that?)

Thanks to the internet, we’ve now got a mailing list, but pretty much no activity on it, and still we’ve never really managed that shared food conversation that I miss.

So, I started to wonder….

And already I was thinking I’d like to have somewhere to talk about food more regularly. Historic food. But not specifically just one kind, or one time period. Somewhere I might not bore my Beloved Readers who only come for the photos of my deck. Or to hear about the trials of regional theatre. Or to see pictures of my cats. (Say, I've finally managed a good shot that shows off Coco's marvellous paws!)

And I wondered about the possibilities of a virtual culinary guild get-together.

However, it all needed a jumping off point. And I figured that point was a new blog, just about food. And ingredients. And technology. And archaeology. And discussion of sources and books and who knows what all!

So, I’ve taken that first step, and have started building the blog.

So far, pretty much no content. I’m not THAT fast! But a framework. An address. No really clear ideas where I’m going to go with this. We’ll all have to wait and see.

So, wait for the drum roll…

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Four Score

Wilma Loyd Davies and Mef Simpson




The exhibition Four Score will highlight the enormous artistic skill and experience of two of Brandon’s more renowned watercolour painters. Wilma Lloyd Davies large-scale paintings combine watercolour with collage to create a colourful floral world from the perspective of an insect. Mef Simpson also uses nature as a source material to works. Her masterful yet joyful approach to painting breathes new life into traditional subject matter of landscape, still life and the flower bouquet.

Together Mef Simpson and Wilma Lloyd Davies represent over 60 years of experience making art and making the Brandon art scene grow. Their expert watercolours are vivid with the sheer joy of creating.

Art Gallery of Southwestern Manitoba

A Sea Change

After some astoundingly mild temperatures, (though not as mild as promised by The Weather Network!), and days of really heavy rain... We're almost down to wood for the deck. Not even enough snow left to prop up our ex-Xmas tree for the birds for the rest of the season.
Though, without doubt, that will be changing soon.

Today's raindrops have already got white and floaty...

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Resolutions

Not that I'm really one for New Year's Resolutions, and I don't know that I specifically decided to do it in this past year, but since everytime I see that ad for whatever the Reality TV show is about bungee jumping out of planes and wrestling with snakes (or whatever) about No Lost Opportunities or No Wasted Moments, or something... I always figure that I have more interesting things I haven't done, and have been putting off.....

So:

This year I finally made polenta! In fact, I did it twice, and one time for guests!

Ever since I first discovered that there was such a thing as polenta, I've had a bit of a fear of it. My first experience was when my father decided to experiment (both parents are gourmet cooks and experimenters, I come by it honestly!) Dad's experiment was one that went a bit strange. Or maybe it was because the whole meal, or maybe just the new bits in it, didn't quite come out as expected.
There were the braised leeks he'd cut lengthwise. So they were a lot of work to try and eat. And the polenta really seemed reminiscent of wallpaper paste.

But I always knew I'd have to revisit polenta. And truth be told, it *IS* a lot like wallpaper paste. It just tastes better! If only we'd realized way back then...

So, I don't know what leap of faith I'm going to make this year... I have one idea. Let's see!

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