Baking various yummy breads yesterday with a friend while enjoying a great view of the Gorge and all its goings on. I've included a recipe for one of the breads from Provence and some pix from my trusty little digital camera.


Fern with our "Fougasse".


La Fougasse


A herring skiff on the Gorge

Fougasse

1 tsp sugar
10 oz lukewarm water
1 tbsp dry yeast
1/2 cup hard wheat flour
1 1/2 cups hard white flour ( I didn't have these so used all purpose)
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/3 c. olive oil
2 strips rosemary stems removed
1 tbsp olive oil
freshly cracked black pepper
1 tsp rock salt


Mix first 3 ingred. Let stand about 5 min.

Combine all flours and salt
Add yeast mixture and combine
Add olive oil and begin to work dough
Knead until smooth and not sticky. I added about anothe cup flour as it was
too wet.

Place in oiled bowl, cover and let rise to double. (1 1/2 hrs)

Oil baking pan
Stretch dough to leaf shape
Create vein pattern with sharp knife.

Brush bread with olive oil and sprinkle with rosemary, pepper and salt. (we
used pesto, garlic and oil) pushing it into the veins)

Let rest 1/2 hr. bake 25 - 30 min.

We were golfing Royal Oak today and this amazingly tame deer joined us on the fairway. Nibbled away and was completely unconcerned with our hacking away getting to the hole...

Took this picture of sunflowers at Galley's farms today with my micro digital camera.

The Oak Bay Car Show today was great and very well attended...wow...crowds of people and loads of interesting cars. Here are a couple of pix.



I loved these Vespas and the cool goggle helmut.



And I'll always love the Mini Minor.

It was interesting re-rereading Carol Shield's "The Box Garden". There were things I appreciated more this time around. I also had forgotten the rather contrived excitement in the plot. Not really necessary and Shields realized this in later works and did what she did best - close observation of the ordinary. It wouldn't be summer without a good mystery and currently being suitably scared by Minette Walters' "Fox Evil".

It was interesting re-rereading Carol Shield's "The Box Garden". There were things I appreciated more this time around. I also had forgotten the rather contrived excitement in the plot. Not really necessary and Shields realized this in later works and did what she did besst - close observation of the ordinary. It wouldn't be summer without a good mystery and currently being suitably scared by Minette Walters "Fox Evil".

We had some great swims in English Bay a few weeks ago when we were in Vancouver. Water temp 75 F. I do miss not being able to swim in the ocean in Victoria. The slide at English Bay looks smaller than I remember it as a kid. Perhaps they've made it less dangerous like everything else for kids these days. I notice they have water automatically running down it...gee, no more burns on the back of your legs!

My mom tells the story of being kids and getting two nickels for the streetcar to get to English Bay. They always bought chips with the return fare and told the busdriver they lost their money in the sand. Always seemed to work....


The slide at English Bay

Looks like I can get these pictures up now



Gallery wall one



Gallery wall two



My sign

In my studio I've recently created a couple of "gallery walls" by putting up some picture rails. It's great because now I can display lots of stuff that I don't have room for anywhere else or haven't managed to give away. A friend gave me an old frame that was 12 x 24 inches. I couldn't think of a design to fit so I made a sign. I was really pleased with it because I think it demonstrates where I am coming from with my very simple, naive style art. I seem to be having some problems loading the pictures...will try later.

Took this picture while out at Happy Valley Lavender Farm's recent open house. Quite neat to see this farm but not miles and miles of mature lavender that you get in the south of France. Been trying to paint another lavender picture...so far not very successful.



Lavender at Happy Valley Lavender Farm

I was very saddened to hear of Carol Shield's death. I realize how much pleasure her writing has given me over the years. A friend lent me "The Box Garden" many years ago and I was quite intrigued by her style and subject matter. I didn't think she'd ever write something like "The Stone Diaries", though...wow, what a book!

When I introduced small groups reading various novels in my classes "The Stone Diaries" was just out in paperback and it was a really popular choice with the girls. I was surprised they related so well to it. I realize I no longer have my own copy. I have replaced it a number of times but guess I didn't the last time I loaned it to a student who was an infrequent attender but was turned on by being in the "Diaries" group. The enthusiasm for English class usually didn't last and that was the last I saw of the student and my book. I liked to think perhaps that particular student or perhaps some other young woman read that book and got something out of it. More realistically, it was pawned for a meal. That's ok too.

In one of the stories I read yesterday about Carol Shields a good friend told of how Carol remained able to laugh and feel joy even towards the end. She relates how Carol had the big TV moved to her bedroom so she could be distracted. The friend threatened to bring over a video she received with her new washing machine on how to do the laundry. They both broke out into gales of laughter about the idea of a video for doing the laundry. I liked that anecdote. It shows the kind of things women can laugh about and also how gender roles have changed and perhaps there does need to be a video with your new washing machine....!

This previous post was deleted somehow. I don't like this new version of Blogger. Some strange terminology like "re-edit" & "re-publish" used in what seem to me incorrect context. However....

More things to post from my "Oak Bay Dump Collection" and also did a couple of paintings based on pictures I took of my beloved Notre Dame Cathedral when we were in Paris in March. However, something is wrong with our connection so I can't post images at the moment. Having to use Jim's unfriendly non-Mac at the moment.

Really excited about our trip to England next summer as part of it will be a week in Dorset sharing a delightful sounding cottage with our Yorkshire friends. This is Thomas Hardy country and I've been reading "Under the Greenwood Tree" (the happiest of Hardy's novels) and really enjoying it. It's a quaint pastoral tale of the time when organs were beginning to take over the choirs of singers and instruments that previously played the church music. Lots of interesting old vocabulary and expressions.

Also, recently finished Jeffrey Eugenides' "Middlesex" and really enjoyed it as well. Certainly a writer to watch. This one won the Pulitzer prize. Very impressive writing - immigrant story writ large. I liked a comment he made about the importance of death - it gives weight to life. Also, how despair wins out in the end - a necessity - makes saying goodbye to life possible. These comments make it seem dark but the novel is vibrating with life.

Yay...my computer's online again! A few more of my Oak Bay Dump treasures and my Notre Dame paintings.



Box with campaniles



Parosol pines on table



Notre Dame 1



Notre Dame 2

When we were in Seattle I found this really cool book called "American Style: Classic Product Design from Airstream to Zippo". The writer and photographer makes the point that the design of common American items is often taken for granted and we don't appreciate how wonderful these items in terms of design because they are so ubiquitous and the Americans couldn't possibly create things as cool as the Europeans. The book does make you look at things in a different way.

One comparison is the Farberware & Atomic Espresso/Cappuccino Maker:



Commentary:

"Here are two contrasting coffee maker designs of the streamlined modern style: the Farberware percolator and the Atomic Espresso/Cappuccino maker. In an interesting comparison the completely automatic Farberware exemplifies an American tradtion of easy-to-use, neophyte-proof design, wheras the Atomic espresson maker appears as complicated to operate as it really is."

Some items chosen for inclusion...perhaps you'll look at these in a different way!

Campell's Chicken Noodle soup label
Lucky Strike cigarattes
M & M package
Black and Decker Dust Buster
Mason Jar
Krptonite Bike Lock
Duracell Battery
Apple Macintosh
Traditional rural mail box
Stanley steel thermos
Panavision movie camera
Kodak carousel projector
Frisbee flying disc
Slinky toy
Steinberger Bass
Learjet
Life
Time
The New Yorker