Walks in the Whetstone Stray Open Space

Now what kind of a name is that, "Stray Open Space"?  A strange one.  If you are interested in my dogwalking space, click here!
Alex, Duncan and I are about to head off to get kiwi a haircut!  Photos to follow!

Cooking with Mary

Mary made me laugh, for in an email she told me she got together with some friends to show them how to make cinnamon buns. Now while I have called this cooking with Mary, it could read cooking with Wyora, or cooking with Aunt Erva, or cooking with any one of the maternal aunts.  But if you haven't done that ... then here is the basic method ... as told by Mary to her friends when they got together one Saturday.

Start with Master Bread Dough

Ingredients

---

• 6 to 6-1/2 cups all-purpose flour  
• 3 T sugar t
• 2 envelopes active dry yeast
• 2 t salt
• 1 ½ cups water  
• ½ cup milk
• 2 T butter

How to make it

---

• Combine water, milk and butter; heat until warm (100℉ to 110℉). Add sugar and yeast; let stand 5 minutes. Add 2 ½ cups flour and salt; beat 2 minutes at medium speed of electric mixer, scraping bowl occasionally. Add ½ cup flour; beat 2 minutes at high speed, scraping bowl occasionally.
• With spoon, stir in enough remaining flour to make soft dough. Knead on lightly floured surface until smooth and elastic, about 8 to 10 minutes.
• Place kneaded dough in greased bowl, turning to grease top. Cover, let rise in warm, draft-free place until doubled in size, about 1 to 1 ½ hours.
• Punch dough down. Transfer dough to a lightly floured surface. Divide dough in half. Knead lightly a few times.
• Roll each half into a 12 x 7-inch rectangle. Beginning at short end, roll up tightly as for jelly roll. Pinch seam and ends to seal. Place, seam side down in greased 8 ½ x 4 ½ inch loaf pan.
• Cover; let rise in warm, draft-free place until doubled in size, about 1 to 1 ½ hours.
• Bake at 400℉ for 30 minutes or until thermometer registers 190℉ to 200℉ in center of bread. If a thermometer is not available, bread is done when well browned and sounds hollow when top of loaf is tapped lightly with finger tip.

Cinnamon buns method from my childhood

Cut off a chunk of dough.  Stretch it so it is long.  Dip in melted butter.  Drop in bowl of brown sugar and cinnamon.  Coat dough.  Tie it in a knot.  Drop it in pan.  They should touch but not be too squished together. Let rise until double.  Bake at 375 for about 22 minutes.  Dump out of pan immediately.  Enjoy hot on the end of a fork.

Variation:  sprinkle maraschino cherries in the pan before you put the buns on top.  When you dump out pan, it looks beautiful and tastes great too.

Photos from the Jarvis's Holiday

Berlin on a Bike

A few photos of the kid's highlights of our first week.

1. Berlin on Bike.

We took a bike tour along the old Berlin Wall.

Quite an experience.

Stopped at a section of the wall that has been turned into a memorial.

At the memorial you can see the wall as it looked from both sides and examine the dead man's land between the east and west walls.

Climbed an old guard tower. The kids were in heaven.

Tivoli Gardens

2. Trivoli Garden.

These are the gardens from which Walt Disney got his idea to build Disneyland.

The kids rode the oldest (or one of the oldest) wooden rollercoasters, built over a century ago.

It still has a ride operator who operates a handbrake from the cars.

We had to do the rollercoaster twice.


3. Overnight sleeper car to Copenhagen.

Catie in Sleeper Car

Not for the faint of heart.


Not for the sea sick.


Took a train from Berlin to the Baltic sea.


Then crossed the sea inside our train car which was inside the belly of the ferry.

Overnight sleeper car to Copenhagen

 Quite rough seas even for me.

~ Written by Catherine
~ Posted by Arta

Perseid Meteor Shower

For more information about the Perseid Meteor Shower check out:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/story/2009/08/11/f-meteor-shower-perseids.html

The CBC gives an update to the Perseid Meteor Show, to be seen best on Saturday night, they say.

I love this book!
I have one copy in AB and one in BC

Before I left the lake a week ago, Wyona and I went to the Terence Dickenson Night Watch book to check out the dates on this annual meteor shower.

Have fun laying on lawns or standing on decks to see one of the sky's best shows -- though I shouldn't say that given that there is a good show every time the sun rises or sets.

Bits and Pieces from Mary, Richard and Connor

From Mary

Puppet Festival Guidebook

Having a fabulous summer of street performances (as Rebecca noted in her blog from London as well).  We went to the Kingston busker festival and watched 3 days of performers in the streets.  

Fabulous.

Friday night, to the Shriner’s Circus.  Again, fabulous performances.  Love the theatrical flares they throw into everything.  

And then yesterday, the puppet festival.  So much fun.  

Absolutely breathtaking and hilarious puppetry.

Well, my family is in Montreal today, visiting cousins while Leo picks up some drums.  He is doing 2 days of teacher training with a school board this week and the teachers all get to take home a drum with them.  

Part I from last week:

... cutting a thick slice of hot bread after church ...

The day before Rhiannon’s birthday was another “munch and mingle” after church.  I thought about making 12 loaves of bread to bring, but couldn’t do that without Arta.  Several people told me they missed her bread, especially the pink batch (it had been Valentine's Day).  I did decide to bring a birthday cake for Rhiannon.  Made the hot water chocolate cake and popped it in the oven.  Went out to clean up the front yard which was a disaster of toys, bikes, a canoe, weeds and general clutter.  Forgot about the cake.  It must have been in 20 minutes too long. That is waaaaaaaay to long for a cake, right?

Well, it didn’t burn (I guess because the batter has so much liquid in it, that it just keeps cooking off).  But I was worried that the sides would be way overdone.  Just iced it anyway and set it out.

Someone asked Leo how I got the fudgy layer on the bottom of the cake.  Leo said, “I think she just burned it.”  Ha, ha, ha.  She didn’t believe him, so she came to ask me.  I confirmed his answer. Couldn’t believe myself that it didn’t taste burned, but it didn’t. So next time you need to make a cake and you are worried that you might forget to take it out, but put an extra cup of boiling water into your recipe.  

Part two:
I was very please with my tidying of the front yard.  Weeded all the flower beds, parked the bikes in a row beside each other, gathered all the toys to one spot, threw out all the garbagey stuff, swept the path.  It looked tidy and neat.Later that evening we were going out and as we pulled out of our driveway, someone pulled up in front of the house.  I rolled down my window to see what they needed.  They took a closer look at the yard and then said, “Oh, sorry, we thought you were having a garage sale.”  Sheesh.  So much for all that tidying.  Isn’t it normal to have 5 bikes, one tag-along-bike and a bike trailer lined up in your front yard beside a canoe?

About Richard
Hasn't had the call to go to Grande Prairie yet.  Tried to fix the leak under his truck.  When it was done, he started the engine and the leak appeared again, so stripped the engine down again.  Yes.  He had fixed it right.  Just hadn't tightened the bolts, wondering if he should get some advice about how much torque to put on the bolts, and then forgetting to get the advice, so only had to tighten the bolts the second time around.  Got to have the same lesson twice.  Nice.

About Connor

 ...paid for with money earned tree planting ...

Tuition is paid and at least one university school book purchased today.  He showed me his new treasure -- a text book: Mathematical Methods for Physicisits: A Concise Introduction by TAI L. CHOW.  

I got the thrill of touching the book.  

I noticed the book's weight, the smell of the glossy pages, the quality of the paper, the cover still to be opened.  

Some joys never go away.

Oven Safe to 500 degrees F

Among my list of jobs  today was to get to Canadian Tire.  Would you believe that while I was standing at Marks Work Wear House in the North Hill Shopping Centre, looking at their sidewalk sale, someone called out from a car to me, “Do you know where Canadian Tire is?  I am from Ontario.”

“You are in the wrong shopping centre,” I said returning an answer to the caller.  “But you can get there from here.  Just go out the Trans Canada to Shagannappi, go north and eventually you will see it on the left hand side.  Did you know that if you can’t find what you are looking for at Canadian Tire, you don’t need it.”

The kids in the back set of the car laughed. I have had Glen’s phrase on my mind, since I had seen a Kitchen Aid 5 Quart Covered Dutch Oven on sale in the Canadian Tire Flyer– regular $150 for $50 ... on sale until August 10^th.  Wanting this pot is not a case of needing one, in my world, but I had seen the cast iron Dutch oven discussed on my favourite cooking show “America’s Test Kitchen” in the segment of the show where they critique kitchen appliances and gadgets.

WARNING ... lid rusts when stored on pot

Since then, I have been searching the web for the cheapest price, even checking out the Walmart who only carry this in the U.S. and not in Canada, I was told. I held off buying for a number of months now.  But today, I was asking myself, am I ever going to find a cheaper price, and if this has been on my mind this long, perhaps it is better to put it to rest by making the purchase.  I will probably save the amount of money I pay for the product, in the gas I will spend as I drive to all of the kitchen shops in town. My only problematic consideration was ... am I going take it to BC or use the Dutch oven here.  Alternately it did pass through my mind that I might buy one for both places to which I laid out the argument, I am getting to old to cook anymore and I should perhaps just return home for one of those afternoon naps old people take. That was enough to get me into the car, put my foot on the gas, and try to stay young by making my ovenware purchases ... and being pleased when my $100 receipt which said, “You saved $200 at Canadian Tire today.”

Tonight, I studied the descriptions on the box amazed to see that my purchase has a self, basing lid, a rich porcelained enamel finish, and a cast stainless steel lid handle, complete with silicone inserts.  As well, I have been running recipes off of the internet:  Boeuf Bourguignon, Coq au Vin, Chicken Rolls Spanish Style– all to be made in my new 5 ½ quart Dutch Oven(s). 

Thank you KitchenAid and Canadian Tire.  You have been a lot of fun.  The pot has entertained me well.

Hello from the others ...

"Hello from Bev"

Did you ever think the day would come when you didn't see Bev without a truck?

They are a one vehicle family now, the truck no longer part of the family.

When one thing leaves (ie, the truck), another takes its place, and he is a three-screen computer expert now -- I saw everyone gather around his workstation, ... in awe of his genealogy powers.

Grandma Rose

Sharon, Bev and Kelvin spent some time at those screens.

Kelvin is only a beginning genealogist.

He came home marvelling over Sharon's skills -- not so much for how she can manipulate the data inside of the programmes but for the knowledge she carries around that makes the manipulate of the data seem to be so easy.

Maurine and Preston

Preston and Maurine arrived in a bea-u-t-iful new van and with no set agenda for their vacation.  "We only need to be back by the beginning of new week," she said.

They had seen Charlene and Richard McLung at their new cabin in Montana and reported they have most of the amenities there now.

Betty and Ralph had driven the lower route from Vancouver to Barnwell and were returning by the Rogers Pass.

Betty and Ralph

She plays bridge with two groups, alternate Wednesday and Thursdays ... or would that be Tuesday ... and has some other round robins with card playing friends.

Ralph reads every day: two newspapers, Harpers, Atlantic Monthly, etc. ... enough to keep him into print more into watching the T.V. screen.

He observed a dove through the screen door as we were eating supper, having seen it fly in, out, and around the fir tree in the middle of the Skyview Complex.  He suspected there was a nest nearby.  I enjoyed the bird-watching lesson.

... time to start my own memoirs ...

Kelvin took a piece of paper in hand and began to sketch an outline for writing his own memoirs as we were driving home. I was quiet, just driving and watching the road. He silently wrote, finally looking up at the outskirts of Calgary.

Later he said, "I can't believe it took me two and a half hours and I have only begun to think of what I want to write.  If others are doing some much indexing of genealogy, I can at least write a bit."

His blog should soon be exploding with small essays -- "my life in the Arctic", "working in the BC bush", ... more to come.

Transition

Trying to squeeze in one more week of a new summer camp before the school year starts might not have been my best move. Of course, at the time I made that decision, summer looked like a vast expanse of sweet freedom and opportunity, and this one week of Sport and Aquatics camp sat on the top like a shiny red cherry. So that’s how I got to be here, swimming in emails, visual schedules, thank you notes, 11-yr-old birthday party to-dos, registration materials and school supplies for the upcoming year, and my own grief over the loss of that sweet expanse of freedom.

Mixed with that grief, is the sense that my sons’ childhoods are pouring through my fingertips with careless abandon. The boys seem all legs now, where once little rounded pot bellies used to dwell. I can recall when they used to raise their arms above their heads to be picked up and their pudgy fingers would barely extend past their heads. Now they don’t ask to be picked up so much, though occasionally a sticky hand will still press into my palm, and I find myself gazing in awe at the very length of them as they lay in bed. I catch glimpses of manhood in the breadth of their shoulders and the blonde but increasingly ample hair sprouting from their calves. There is celebration in this too of course—their health, their humor, and their increasing sense of place in the world—but right now, I don’t feel like celebrating. I will cry and grieve and get down to the serious work of preparing for one more week of summer camp, and then…I’m gonna take the boys swimming. It is still summer after all.

Ribbed Brown Stockings

Barnwell ... facing south ... Sunday morning

I’ve been telling you my favourite parts of the week-end in Barnwell,” said Kelvin.  “Now you tell me yours,” he asked as we were driving back home.  

So I have been thinking of my favourite part of the weekend spent with Molly, Nadine, Sharon, Bev, Betty, Ralph, Preston and Maureen.  We shared 2 dinners and one hearty breakfast enjoying the cinnamon buns, the recipe to which is below.  Some of the time Preston held a tape recorder, taping the reminiscences of the 7 siblings.  One story of the past would trigger a memory of another so there was no lag in the conversation.

"...the dust storms would circle in ..."

The image that is the strongest for me happened late in the evening, after some had gone to work on genealogy.  The women left behind will talked about washing clothes, hanging them out on the barbed wire fence to air dry in the summer and freeze dry in the water.   
One of the big difficulties was to get them back off of the fence without having the barb wire snag the material.  
The other was the horror of seeing a dust storm circling in from the north west, about to blow through the clothes that had just been laid out.  The vocal patterns became breathless talking about the rush to gather the clothes up and get them in the house before they had to be re-washed, Molly’s thin left arm reaching far away from her body, pointing to the north.             

Hers is not the only arm that is thin.  Nadine has lost 100 pounds, so much weight that she is in a wardrobe for a tall, slender woman, but one three inches shorter than she used to be.  But the wardrobe under discussion  was the one from their youth -- the one dress for Sunday and only other dress they had, the one they were to wear for the week to school. 

"I hated those brown ribbed long stockings...."

“How I hated those long ribbed brown stockings,” Nadine said. . “They had to be worn from Fall until Easter.  I didn’t mind them the first time I put them on after they were washed and they fit nicely,” she said, stretching her right leg out and gesturing rolling an imaginary one over her toes, past her ankle, smoothly drawing her two hands over her calf and running them up to the top of her thigh, with an imaginary twist of the hips to make them really fit.  
“But on the days of the week, that they had to be worn, for they did have to be worn again until it was washday, they were baggy and loose, the material still holding the memory of the previous day, ... or last previous days of wearing.  Yes, I was so glad when it was Easter and we could wear short stockings, again.”

Johnson Summer Reunion, Part I

Manna on the Prairies

Terrie Jones, New Mexico

Terry and Mike Jones were visiting Molly this weekend. Terry baked some cinnamon buns from a recipe that Virginia put in the Johnson Family Cookbook called ‘Manna on the Prairies’.


Virginia told me, “Terry called me a few years ago and asked if the recipe in the book was right for she was teaching her girls how to make cinnamon buns. Of course I thought it was right, for I have been making the recipe for years, but I have been making it from my original card, so I checked the book. Two tablespoons of yeast are missing, and they couldn’t have been very good if people were using that recipe without the yeast. I haven’t had time to tell anyone else. If you talk to anyone, Arta, mention that they should add that to the recipe.”


Her comment was in response to mine about how many times I have gone to that book to make Nadine’s lemon loaf or Betty’s Brownies. “And Elmoyne’s Corn Chowder,” added Virginia. "If you haven’t tried that one, don’t wait any longer."

... add two tablespoons of yeast ...

I don’t know how anyone would have corn left over to make corn chowder, given the taste of the brand new corn Mr. Pat Shimbashi dropped by the house for Virginia. 

It is from his first picking. The corn isn’t out on the market yet, but he had a few cobs ready, planted in a new fashion. The corn is put in the ground under bio-degradable plastic, and as the corn grows, the plastic disintegrates into the earth into fertilizer.


Shucking corn is usually a task I give to someone else, but this time Virginia was in the kitchen frying the chicken. I sat down with the corn beside me and carefully peeled back the moist green leaves half way until I could separate a few of the silks. Taking a handful of those and tearing the rest of the leaves off didn’t take long – “One cob for the women and two for the men”, Virginia had said and I remembered that in the olden days of Barnwell it was usual for the growing boys to eat their height, measured by the number of cobs they could consume.


But back to the cinnamon buns Terry left behind for our breakfast on Saturday morning. Here is a recipe that doesn’t require getting up at 2 am to start the batch of dough, and with a quick butter icing on top, beats what one can buy in the store. Please, don’t forget the yeast and if you still work from the now vintage cookbook, add the correction of 2 tablespoons of yeast to Virginia’s recipe on p.15.


Cinnamon Rolls – Virginia Johnson


2 tbsp yeast
1 ½ c. scalded milk (Virginia doesn’t scald hers anymore)
1 /12 c. water
2 tbsp shortening
1 ½ tsp salt
1 ½ tsp sugar
2 ¼ c. flour
raisins (optional)


Beat all ingredients; let rise 15 minutes. Cover the sponge. Add 2 eggs (beaten), 4 ½ tbsp. shortening, ½ c. sugar and 4 ½ c. flour. Mix well. Roll ¼” thick. Spread with butter, brown sugar and cinnamon. Roll up. Cut ½ “ thick. Let rise double. Cover (plastic). Bake 20 minutes at 350 – 370 degrees F.


I give a nod to Terri whose hands let me eat my first taste of Virginia’s cinnamon rolls.


So nice to have crossed paths with her this weekend.

Rycroft - Alberta. Rig "Sierra 462"

I'll be leaving for my first full drilling experience.

Saturday or Sunday we will get 'the call' which will have us driving to Rycroft, Alberta.

There we will help guide the bit as we drill thousands of meters below ground. Between 10 and 20 days of drilling.

I've packed my tooth brush.

I've packed a sleeping bag.

I've got through my list of necessities several time. We'll see how many things I'll realize I've forgotten when I get up there.

Hello from Munich

(Mailed by Catherine, posted by Arta)

Dear All,

Here are a few photos from Munich.

1. The kids at Neuschwanstein (the castle is seen in the distance).  




We are standing on a suspension bridge overlooking the castle.

2.  The train ride back from Neuschwanstein.

Neuschwansteing Castle

... a little tired ...

The kids were a little tired after climbing the mountain to get to the castle.

3.  Cuvillies Theatre.

Rocco Style Theatre

This is a photo inside the amazing Rococo style theatre in Munich.  

We heard a live horn concert there on Thursday night.  

Ten french horns.  

Quite exciting.  

At one point, two of the horn players switched to the Alpine Horns and played a duet.  


(The photo isn't the best, as it is trying to capture the horns as they are being carried off the stage.   

4. A sculpture memorial at Dachau, the infamous concentration camp.  

The sculpture represents the barb-wired fence around the camp, and the twisted bodies of the prisoners, many of whom either jumped into the electric wires in an effort to escape or to end their suffering.  

Quite sobering.  


Also a photo of the words at the entrance to the concentration camp.  


"Works makes one free".

Catherine 

Gaming

Settlers ... intense gaming

If there were a vote taken among the adults as to which is the best board game in the world, Settlers would be the winner.

What is a day without the hope that somewhere on the property, a Settlers game will be in progress!

The thrill of playing is so deep that some even continue the game of buying and selling commodities, well into their sleep patterns.

 ... chocolate covered blueberries as well as bridge mix ...

On the other hand, in other homes, ... like ours, ... if Bonnie puts out a few dishes like this, it is easy to entice the non-Settler players into a game of bridge.

I got my first small slam hand this way.

I forgot all about the Bridge Mix when I saw all of those points in my hand.

Now I know how golfers feel when they get a hole-in-one.

At our house we are trying to teach Joaquim to play to that we will always have a fourth ready -- at least ready enough to be the dummy.

He says he has no problem with that.

Most of the other PhD's he knows are also dummies.

... filled and waiting ...

I was on Glen's porch when I saw this rainbow of colours.

"That bucket of water balloons took us 1/2 hour to fill this afternoon and we are just waiting for the event when we will have to fire them," said Laynie of the job Patrick and Morgan had helped her with.

Bonnie and I played another kind of game on the porch with Audra while her mom was busy with Settlers.

 ... I am having a problem with you wearing my sweater ...

"Are you cold?", Bonnie questioned. 

"Do you want your sweater on?"

Getting no response, Bonnie then said, "I am cold and here is a nice sweater for me to wear."

Audra could see that Bonnie was having trouble putting the sweater on, and she went around to give her some help, pulling the side of the sweater around for her, and then helping Bonnie to put her hand in the tiny sweater sleeve that had become the object of our game.

She even tried to straighten it out and make it fit.

... figuring out the next move ...

Bonnie brought a new problem to Audra's mind by try extricate herself from the size 3 straight jacket.

Some sniffles and sobs from Bonnie made the task seem important and Audera came to Bonnie's rescue.

This might have been the first time in her day that she could see there was no one else around smarter than she.

She wasn't showing any confidence in the two adults on the porch with her who didn't seem to be that smart and needed help at every turn.

 ... I'm taking my tea set and sweater ... and going home ...

In the end,and after a lot of struggle, she got that sweater back in her own hands, the one she hadn't been interested in wearing herself.

She folded it up, gathered up her tea set that Grandmother Wyona had given her, and she headed back through the kitchen door to find some sanity.

"Goodbye, you dummies," the look on her face said.

And thus ended the best game of the day.

Old Sicamous Road Walk, Part 2

bear scat

I know Glen told me to look up, but there is so much that is interesting on the ground.

Hard not to have a discussion about the size of scat I see on the trail.

Is this really bear scat?

Cub or mother?

The answer to the question comes in the form of another question?

Is it large or small?  Are there cherry pits in it?

Yes.  And yes.

Since the scat is large, I have more reasons to call out "Go bear!" at intervals along the trail, as Glen does.

 ...under a mushroom crept a wee mouse ...

I have been seeing mushrooms everywhere -- probably because of the wet summer we are having.

Finding some shaped like round rocks, I lined them up, ready to have David find them and then throw them at me.

Though I have been out weeding the raspberries all morning and am tired, I can't resist teasing him as he walks down the road toward the house.

What are the chances that I could return the volley, hitting him right in the middle of the forehead, as though I had been practising my aim all morning.

The mushroom split and travelled in all directions, scaring him and making me wish I hadn't been quite so good with my aim.  

 ...50 year old moss growth ...

On the Old Sicamous Road Trail the moss formation on the rocks is incredibly beautiful and I find myself turning my camera lens to it a lot.

The trail to Sicamous is not well travelled so the feeling of walking where no man has walked before is there.

bee sitting on a chickory flower

Glen and I had a difference of opinion.

I call this flower Douglas Aster and he calls it Chickory.

I went to my BC Nature book for verification and I think we are both right and the flower can be called by either name.

I had no idea it was so hard to catch a bee on this flower -- nor did I have any idea that they stayed there for such a little time while gathering the honey.

Canadian Thistle

There was a china pattern called Russian Thistle when I was younger.

My Aunt Lenore had many pieces of it; my mother only had two pieces of it, a plate and a tea cup and saucer which I inherited.

When I see the Canadian Thistle growing along the side of the road, I think back to that time when its beauty was captured in a piece of English china.

I still love the look of it, and try to deny that leaving it there is going to cause me some trouble with weeding later in the summer.

Look up.  Look up.

At the end of the trail, there is reason to look up, for the neighbour's houses come into view -- a welcoming sight for foot-weary travellors. 

I run up the flight of stairs at the back of my house -- one last nod to getting morning exercise.