Manatees

One of my favourite animals, the Manatee. This past January, we went to Florida just to see manatees in the wild. The only other time, we saw one was in San Francisco's Golden Gate park aquarium of all places. Since then, I have become a member of the Save the Manatee society.
We went to Crystal River and Homossasa, Florida and spent a couple days exploring different places where the manatees winter trying to stay warm. They look for springs, and other sources of warm water. Apparently, they gather at power plants that generate warm water.
I am always surprised that there are people who do not know what this gentle creature looks like.
One of the days that we spent exploring, we met up with a friend who I have known since 1967, when we met on a band exchange to Boston. We have kept in touch all these years and several times have managed to met and spend some time together. Always amazing how enduring some relationships are and what can bring us together.


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Swimming Pools

This past week, a number of swimmers have gathered in Montreal to compete for a place on the Canada's Olympic swim team and at the same time, the Toronto District School Board is planning to close 23 swimming pools in June and 16 more will close in 2009. Unfortunately, the city, provincial government and school board have not been able to work out an agreement to fund the pools. This is at a time that we are concerned about the fitness levels of young people and people in general. Also, if we have another extremely warm summer pools are a place that many people can visit to cool off. Some of these pools are at schools that are well known for their swim teams. While we want winning athletes to bring glory to Canada, we do not seem to be able to find ways to make sure that they will have the facilities to train, and become the winners that we hope for.
One of my students is part of these Montreal swim trials. I don't know if she placed but it is certainly an honour for her to be able to compete and since she is only 15, there will be other chances for her to participate. Hopefully, there will be the facilities for her to train.
For the rest of us, let us hope that there will places for us to stay fit. Swimming and swim fit are benign ways to stay in condition since they do not stress our aging joints as much as running and other weight bearing activities.

Soup

I know with spring most of us are thinking about salads and asparagus, rhubarb not soup but when I am in a hurry a good hearty soup works. This is a recipe that I love and guests have given it their seal of approval as well. If you have left over vegetables, rice or pasta you can add it and it will just get better. Just made it before I head out to perform the Brahms Requiem with two choirs and orchestra. I will be playing bassoon of course.

Curried Winter Vegetable and Bean Soup

Warm up a frosty winter evening with this low-fat, nutrient-loaded broth. For the beans, a canned or frozen mixture is convenient but any cooked beans can be used (red, white, pinto, Romano, black-eyed peas, chickpeas, etc. )

1 tbs. (15 ml) vegetable oil
1 large onion chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp. (5 ml) minced fresh ginger
1 tbs. (15 ml) curry powder
4 cups (1 L) chicken stock
1/2 cup (125 ml) drained canned tomatoes, crushed
1 each medium carrot and potato, diced
1/2 cup (125 ml) frozen or canned corn kernels
1 cup (250 ml) drained canned or frozen mixed beans
2 tbs. (30 ml) chopped fresh parsley
salt and pepper to taste

In a large heavy saucepan over medium heat, heat oil. Add onion and cook until softened but not browned. Add garlic, ginger and curry powder, cook, stirring for about 2 minutes. Add chicken stock, tomatoes and carrot. Bring to boil, reduce heat, cover and cook until carrot is slightly tender, about 3 minutes. Add potato, corn and beans. Return to boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer for about 15 minutes or until potato is tender. Stir in parsley. Add salt and pepper is needed. Makes 6 servings.

Homemakers December 99

Made December 5, 1999 - excellent, flavourful, hardy

So Many Books so little time

One of the catalogues that I receive regularly has a shirt with the quotation- So Many Books so little time and it reflects how I feel at times. I am sure that one day I will be found surrounded with a mound of books that I was hoping to read. There is always another wonderful book to discover. Recently, I have been reading a great number of mysteries. I have several series that I follow- Rita Mae Brown's series that features two cats, a corgi and horses as well as their human companions in Virginia- the next in the series is coming out this month, I will be getting that. I have followed Sue Grafton from A is for Alibi to T is for Treason. I will be sorry when she finally reaches Z and the series is finished. Alexander McCall Smith's series about the Ladies Detective Agency which takes place in Botswana is a series that deals with life at a much slower pace, days begin with bush tea and a chat. Knitting series have also been added to the mix. I enjoy Maggie Sefton's series of Deadly Yarns which are based on a couple yarn stores in Colorado and after reading the mysteries I would love to visit Colorado. Monica Ferris' Crewel World series takes place in Minnesota and her store is a yarn store catering to all of us who love to work with yarn in all forms. I have read the James Patterson series the Women's Murder Club which is very violent compared to all the other mentioned but I love San Francisco and read them to read about the landmarks that I recognize. I don't think that I will ever be able to keep up with all these books and the others that I want to read but it is fun trying.

An excerpt from a Maggie Sefton mystery.
A Deadly Yarn3rd Knitting Mystery When Kelly and Megan arrive to take a friend to the airport, they find her dead on the apartment floor, apparently from an overdose of sleeping pills...Read

Cash for Manure

Now that I am ready to get out in the garden and be environmentally friendly putting my compost and then manure on the garden, I find out that farmers have finally discovered another good source of cash. "In today's hyper-inflated agricultural economy,even manure is recording record prices. As the cost of what goes into animals has climbed, so too has the value of the material that comes out. "Mr Dick, a agronomist with Agra-Gold Consulting Ltd cites a hog barn in his area as an example. Five years ago, with 2,000 pigs doing their best work over 12 months, the excrement might have fetched less that $10,000 to a local grower interested in soil nutrients. 'This past fall, it was just under $18,000. And if I use spring pricing ...it's closer to $28,000,' says Mr. Dick, who advises grain farmers on applying manure to their crops."
Something that some farmers used to give away has now become valuable. Who would have believed it.
It this is what the price increase will be, I will make sure that I harvest everyone of the tomatoes and peppers that I grow this year. No letting the raccoons get them. With the cost of gas as well, we can certainly expect the cost of food to continue to increase.

Spring

It is official; spring is here. This morning, I finally managed to get into my backyard which had been blocked by a mound of snow up to my waist until today. I still had to walk over some snow but persevered and to my amazement found crocuses blooming. Where are they, you might ask? Well, that is my next project taking digital pictures of these wonders so that we can all share in the blooms. I am so pleased. I will get out into the garden and prune some of last year's growth from a few plants that I could not get too last fall when the snows came early.

Hope that everyone is having the same wonderful weather that we are enjoying here. I am going to walk to the store later just to enjoy the weather. It is a perfect day.

Going to buy some begonias to add to my collection and get them started. Apparently, it is only 6 weeks until the danger of frost passes and I want to be ready. Most of my garden is filled with perennials but I am sure that some of them succumbed to the cold and others are victims of the resident squirrels. I found some suspicious holes in the garden. Time to plan.

Enjoy the arrival of spring!

Chain Letters

Just sent an apology to a friend for breaking the link in a chain letter. I could have sent the message to six friends; the continuation of the chain was supposed to net 36 books for a person if they sent on the letter and their friends sent on their letters and so on. After a short debate, I decided that the next link was very weak and the chain would collapse completely at least on my end. Sad because someone starts these things with good intentions. In this case, no one was going to experience 7 years of bad luck if they did not follow through.

My friends are nice otherwise why would I call them friends but following up on a project like this is not likely. I support all means of communication but some of them have difficulty with one or more of them. I have learned the fine art of checking confirming plans. Once and awhile, I slip up and am reminded about making the extra phone call, e-mail, letter which ever works for that person. Some of you might find this shocking but I have friends who check e-mails every couple weeks or months. I think that they have missed the point of e-mail.

Back to the chain letter, (book project), this was the first snail-mail chain letter that I have received in a long time. I receive e-mail messages regularly but they are easy to deal with by just clicking on the appropriate list in the e-mail box. Not so difficult.

It would have been nice to receive the books and even more interesting would have been seeing where the books came from as the network of letters fanned out across the continent.

Oh well, maybe next time.