We've got tomatoes coming out the wazoo.

Check out the garden haul I got the other day. So naturally, huevos rancheros were in order. My favourite! Jean made this amazing roasted corn salsa to go with them. Crazy good. Next up: chili, gazpacho, tomato sauce and spicy tomato jam.

Chipping away at all the zucchini.

The other day I made zucchini fritters for the first time. It's my Oma's recipe and they turned out super tasty. I made a chipotle apple sauce to go with them. I served them on my new lovely plates from Ange, Ray, Hannah and Ella. I wore my new cherry apron from my sister which I loooove and my new purple heels. I secretly love cooking in heels, is that wrong?

How cute is Oma?

I heart Hanlan's Point.

A day at the beach can turn any frown upside down. Especially when the company is golden, the picnic is perfect, the sun is shining and the water is warm. Yesterday was just what the doctor ordered, for both of us. Brilliant spontaneous idea Jenn. Thank you. And by the way, your lake hair could be in commercials.

Meet Big Bear

This is pretty much the funniest thing I've seen in a while. It must hang above the mantle. My friend Mark is the genius behind it. Jean rocks the bear suit non?

You're broke? Come again now?

I recently watched Annie Leibovitz: Life Through a Lens for another time. Really great film. She is such an iconic photographer with an extensive body of work and a career spanning over 40 years. And now Leibovitz is $24 million in debt. It's hard to believe actually.

Fascinating article in New York Magazine here.

Relishing the role of Auntie.

Marcus & Olivia came for a visit recently. There was dancing, picture taking, kissing, hugging and lots of laughing. They are so much fun to be around and I love being their Auntie.

Thinking of you. Always.

Jean's dad, André, would have been 80 today. My heart hurts.



I'm posting some pictures of André's incredibly beautiful and peaceful garden and yard in Ancaster. His garden was a true inspiration to me, and still is. These were taken close to three years ago. I see him in every one of these images. In every sun flare, every bit of dappled light, every blade of grass, every soft petal and each and every speck of earth. And when Jean and I are working in our garden, we can feel him. It is so comforting. We miss you and love you André. So very much.










Angela, thank you so much for introducing me to this poem. It resonates with me too.

Fern Hill
By: Dylan Thomas

Now as I was young and easy under the apple boughs
About the lilting house
and happy as the grass was green,
The night above the dingle starry,
Time let me hail and climb
Golden in the heydays of his eyes,
And honoured among wagons I was prince of the apple towns
And once below a time I lordly had the trees and leaves
Trail with daisies and barley
Down the rivers of the windfall light.

And as I was green and carefree, famous among the barns
About the happy yard and singing as the farm was home,
In the sun that is young once only,
Time let me play and be
Golden in the mercy of his means,
And green and golden I was huntsman and herdsman, the calves
Sang to my horn, the foxes on the hills barked clear and
cold,
And the sabbath rang slowly
In the pebbles of the holy streams.

All the sun long it was running, it was lovely, the hay
Fields high as the house, the tunes from the chimneys, it was
air
And playing, lovely and watery
And fire green as grass.
And nightly under the simple stars
As I rode to sleep the owls were bearing the farm away,
All the moon long I heard, blessed among stables, the
nightjars
Flying with the ricks, and the horses
Flashing into the dark.

And then to awake, and the farm, like a wanderer white
With the dew, come back, the cock on his shoulder: it was all
Shining, it was Adam and maiden,
The sky gathered again
And the sun grew round that very day.
So it must have been after the birth of the simple light
In the first, spinning place, the spellbound horses walking
warm
Out of the whinnying green stable
On to the fields of praise.

And honoured among foxes and pheasants by the gay house
Under the new made clouds and happy as the heart was long,
In the sun born over and over,
I ran my heedless ways,
My wishes raced through the house high hay
And nothing I cared, at my sky blue trades, that time allows
In all his tuneful turning so few and such morning songs
Before the children green and golden
Follow him out of grace.

Nothing I cared, in the lamb white days, that time would
take me
Up to the swallow thronged loft by the shadow of my hand,
In the moon that is always rising,
Nor that riding to sleep
I should hear him fly with the high fields
And wake to the farm forever fled from the childless land.
Oh as I was young and easy in the mercy of his means,
Time held me green and dying
Though I sang in my chains like the sea.

Makin' groceries.

It's so fun, not to mention satisfying, to see what's popping up each and every day in the garden. It's the best way to make groceries, as they say in Louisiana. What am I going to do come winter???


Ahhh shallots. My absolute favourite in the onion family.

Little pepper that packs a punch.

Spicy flavour, decorative colour, what's not to love about nasturtiums?

Sweet like candy.

I like to eat these like apples with just a sprinkle of kosher salt.

Not quite ready, but soon my precious.

New crop of arugula growing!

More zucchini.

Mmmm flat leaf parsley.

Beautiful basil.