Wordless Wednesday – February 20, 2019
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Is There an End to This?
….more snow in the forecast for tomorrow
I can’t believe that I was lamenting about having no snow back in early January. Now it just keeps coming. The upside is that when the sun shines you can tell that spring can’t be too far off. The snow starts to melt but overnight it freezes and the next day it’s like an ice rink on the roads and sidewalks.
Yesterday, during one of those sunny periods I got outside and started to chip away at the ice on the driveway. I think I was outside for two hours. I also walked down to the park and took some photos of the lovely ice sculptures made by Mother Nature.
Fun Family Day
….last weekend was a long weekend here in Ontario to celebrate Family Day
Family Day has become a tradition in our family where food takes centre stage. This year my husband and youngest daughter thought it would be fun to have a soup exchange. So in three households three different soups were prepared and ladled into containers for sharing.
Four of us drove to Hamilton where Gaelan had a lovely lunch of roast chicken, mashed sweet potatoes and broccoli ready to serve. Andrea and Josie brought a yummy salad and my husband volunteered to pick up the gourmet donuts from San Remo.
Winnie and I were the only two that won a prize in the Tim Horton’s Roll up the Rim contest. We both won a cup of coffee which we handed over to our hostess.
Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Texture
…I love texture in all kinds of things – art, nature, food
Thanks to Cee for hosting the Fun Foto Challenge
When I’m Not Drawing
….I’m knitting
I’m loving my collage class but sometimes I just need a change of pace. A while back I started a hat for my daughter and I had wool left over so I decided to knit a matching hat for her daughter (my granddaughter). I wasn’t sure there would be enough wool and it did look a tad small when I finished. I opted not to attach the pompom until I made sure it was going to fit.
Yesterday we drove to Hamilton to celebrate our Family Day. I presented Winnie with her hat and it just fit. Of course she wanted the pompom so I got out my sewing needle and promptly attached it.
Sunday Trees – 379
…thanks to Becca Givens for hosting Sunday Trees
Baking During a Blizzard
….crazy weather didn’t keep us from baking outdoors this week
A couple of weeks ago the weather forecast was dismissal so the Farmers’ Market was cancelled. A lot of vendors come from out of town so with their safety in mind calls were made and notices went out to the community that Montgomery’s Inn would be closed for the market.
This week the weather looked grim again but we went ahead and prepped for the market. On Tuesday morning the snow was coming down pretty heavily so I opted to forgo driving to the Inn. Luckily three of the other bakers braved the snowy roads and prepared a smaller batch of dough than normal. Instead of 7 breads they prepped for 4. The turnout to the market has been down this winter because of bad weather so the decision was made to make less and hopefully have less waste. Not that the bread is wasted. In the end whatever doesn’t sell goes into the freezer or is given away to the other vendors.
On Wednesday the sky didn’t look promising but I drove to the Inn to join my colleagues and get ready for the market. Everyone showed up so I was in charge of making lunch. All the ingredients for a homemade lentil soup had been bought so I started preparing the onions, carrots and celery. It’s a pretty basic soup and the lentils don’t need to be soaked ahead of time. I added a small diced smoked sausage, about a cup of tomato sauce and some leftover mashed potatoes along with the broth and water. Then I let it simmer for a couple of hours and before serving I seasoned it with salt, pepper, basil and thyme. It turned out to be a very hearty soup. Perfect on a cold winter day.
Getting the wood oven to heat up turned out to be a bit of a challenge this week. Since the oven hadn’t been used in two weeks it was ‘stone cold’ and it took quite a while to get the inside up to temperature. When it finally did reach the desired temperature the snow and the winds picked up and we had to proceed with putting the loaves in the oven during the worst part of the day. We decided to score the bread inside to keep our stay outside to a minimum.
The bread turned out exceptionally well this week. I don’t know how many people showed up for the market but hopefully the bread sold. At least the vendors and those who showed up had a nice warm fire to cozy up to inside the inn.
Friendly Friday – Contrasts
…thanks to Amanda for hosting this week’s Friendly Friday
Contrasting floor boards at Liberty London in London, England
Contrasting colours of nature vs man-made (Christo’s The London Mastaba on Serpentine Lake in London)
Old vs New at the Natural History Museum in London, England
Freezing snow and ice vs hot coals
An Abstract Valentine Collage
…from a one-line drawing of shoes
In one of my sketchbooks I have some pages of drawing that I’m not particularly fond of and over time I’ve gone back to them and added colour and some line detail. This time I added bits and pieces of printed transparency in a random fashion over one of the one-liner drawings I did of shoes. After I glued all my pieces down I added some line detail using a white paint pen and some fine black markers. Here is the original drawing.
A couple of hours later it was transformed into this:
Cee’s Black and White Challenge – Made by Humans
…thanks to Cee for hosting the Black and White Challenge
All these photos were taken in London, England: a sculpture from the Whitechapel Gallery, the iron gate at the Natural History Museum, the tower from the Imperial College of London, a plane at the Science Museum, an outdoor sculpture and a dress from the Design Museum, a guitar from Canada House in Trafalgar Square, a statue in the V&A and the gate at Holland Park.
Mama Cormier 