August 12, 2013
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Currently featured in the 27th St. Book Box…

The book box sits outside our place on lower 27th Street in Long Branch Ontario. It’s the house with the canoe garden and the giant mosaic owl. Ya can’t miss it. The book box is now featuring an excellent selection of titles…

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Check out Deadwood by Pete Dexter. This book predates the television series by some time. The book deals with some of the same events as the tv show, but it’s really Charlie Utter’s story. It’s an excellent book – I rated it 4 stars on Goodreads.

Let’s see what else is in the shelves. Oh look, there’s Iron and Silk by Mark Salzman. I gave this one a full 5 stars on Goodreads. It’s about a young American who travels to China to teach English – and learn martial arts. This is a charming and delightful memoir of Mr. Salzman’s adventures in China.

100 Years of Solitude is on the shelves but I imagine it will stay there because everyone has read this one (right?). In this book Gabriel Garcia Marquez wrote one of my all-time favourite first lines: Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice.

I read General Ludd by John Metcalf back in the early 80s when I was in university. I think Canadian readers of my generation in particular will get a kick out of this book. It was published back in 1980. It’s the story of a poet who has a gig as a writer in residence at a Canadian liberal arts college. I found it both biting and hilariously funny.

Barry Hannah’s Yonder Stands your Orphan is there. The title comes from the Weird Bob song….yonder stands your orphan with his gun, crying like a fire in the sun, look out the saints are comin’ through, and it’s all over now, Baby Blue. I think I read this one based on a recommendation from my friend Candy Minx. Hannah was called ‘the Big Daddy of Southern letters’, and this is an excellent novel.

And there is more….

Drop by the book box. Take a book or drop a book or both. There’s even a bulletin board – leave a note if you like, or tack up a photo or a drawing or whatever you like.

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August 11, 2013
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Old City Hall

Old City Hall is the first of four novels by Robert Rotenberg featuring the character Detective Ari Green, along with a few other recurring characters. I gobbled them up in more or less reverse order. Like the others, this was a highly readable mystery with a well considered plot, likeable characters and plenty of Toronto references. Rotenberg is a criminal lawyer so you get a glimpse at our justice system through experienced eyes.

I read lots of different types of books, all varieties of novels, non-fiction on various topics that interest me, and even the occasional biography. Sometimes a page-turner like this is just what the doctor ordered. Being a Torontonian, it was fun reading a story set amidst landmarks of our city. Old City Hall is a burger and fries with a chocolate shake kind of novel, but it was a tasty burger, dressed up with a good selection of toppings.

Old City Hall is an entertaining and highly readable light mystery.

 

August 10, 2013
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Summer Soup

Summer Soup

Summer Soup

I made this up as I went along today….

First, I grilled half a dozen cobs of corn on the bbq (yes, a charcoal one) along with some red shepherd’s peppers and a chunk of kielbasa (I used a 6 inch chunk of Goralska from Starsky’s sliced in half lengthwise). I let the corn brown some. I allow the skin of the peppers to blacken some and then I peel off most of the blackened bits later.

Then in the kitchen…

I started some onions cooking up in a Dutch oven with a little oil on the bottom and a pinch of salt and a good pinch of dried scotch bonnets. I chopped up two carrots and tossed them in the pot and I added in a couple cloves of garlic from the garden. Then I stripped the corn cobs and tossed in the kernels, and chopped up the peppers and tossed those in as well. I chopped up the kielbasa, except for one bite-sized piece which I sampled (strictly in the interest of science). I added two chopped up baking potatoes (I think the starchy potatoes rock in this soup), and chopped up and added a few plum tomatoes. I then added in lots of stock, a couple bay leafs, and chopped and tossed in loads of fresh basil from the garden.

I let the whole business simmer away for around an hour. An amazing soup!

(oh, almost forgot….I tempered some milk and added a little to each bowl before serving)

August 10, 2013
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The 27th Street Book Box is open!

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We just installed the 27th St. Book Box. Raw materials are (mostly) from Nice Old Stuff in Jarvis Ontario. The book box is always open. Take a book. Enjoy it. Keep it or return it. Drop off a book anytime. It’s our own lower 27th St. library. We have no idea how it will be received, but we’ll see….

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Here’s the challenge – start your own book box – promote reading in your community!

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August 8, 2013
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Needle Case

I’m learning this tune on banjo now, so I’ve been listening to various performances of it….let’s start with Heat Box

And Dan Levenson…

Here’s Mark Gilston playing it on mountain dulcimer…

Finally, Mr. Nonouke with a uke version

 

August 6, 2013
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Bird-brained

For years we lived in a neighbourhood with few birds. This sure changed when we moved down to Long Branch a few years ago. Sam Smith Park, just down the street, is well known as a migration trap, a respite for migrating birds coming north in the spring. It attracts birders from all over everywhere. You can see them gathered, often in packs. Birders are easy to identify by their markings (they can often be seen carrying cameras with very long lenses).

You might think with all the exposure I have to bird-life around our home that I might have more than a passing knowledge of bird identification but sadly it isn’t so. Sure, I have identified some of the birds I’ve seen in the neighbourhood, but mostly just the most common of them.

Here’s a list of the ones I can think of….

Pigeons. OK, anybody who lives in a city has pigeons.

Mute Swans. There are loads of these to be seen in the lake all around our area. I understand these lovely birds are very territorial.

Canada Geese. ‘Nuff said.

Red-tailed hawk. Saw one down by the marina earlier this year.

Cooper’s hawk. When I saw it, this bird was perched on the water treatment plant and then flew off. I remembered all the detail I could and then tried to ID it online. I also heard an independent report of a Cooper’s hawk at around the same time over in Sam Smith Park. I’m not positive on this ID but comfortable enough to include it.

American Goldfinch. I’ve see quite a few of these.

Baltimore Oriole. Fairly common around here.

Northern Cardinal. Lots of these around the house. They love the sunflower seeds I leave in the teacup bird feeder.

American robin. Among the most common birds around here.

House sparrow. I believe it was house sparrows that took up residence in the birdhouse in the backyard this year. Then again, if they were a different variety of sparrows, would I know the difference? I think not.

Red-winged blackbird. Plenty of them. I’ve seen these birds swoop at our cats in the back yard.

European starling. Again, plenty of them.

Common grackle. Lots of these too.

Mourning doves.

Northern flicker. OK, Tuffy P says she sees them. I’ll be honest, I don’t think I’d know a northern flicker from a southern one.

Black-capped chickadee

White-breasted nuthatch

Whimbrels. We saw a flock of these migrating. ID confirmed as we were on a bird walk at the time.

Great Blue Heron. I saw one flying over the Arsenal Lands the other day.

Turkey vulture

Killdeer. At least I’ve heard them. Are they the birds that pretend they’re injured on the ground to protect their nests?

Pileated woodpecker

Downey Woodpecker

Purple martins

Cliff swallows. Nesting on the water treatment plant. I know there are other varieties of swallows around, but I can’t yet identify them.

Herring gulls. For sure there are a variety of gulls and terns around, but again, I’m not there yet.

Red-necked grebes. Well known in Sam Smith Park

Yellow warbler.

Cormorants. We have some black ones in the harbour but I don’t know which variety.

Owls. Tuffy P and I have each independently seen an owl. The one I saw was a quick fly-by at dusk. I couldn’t identify based on that.

Ducks. Um, I can ID a mallard, but the rest are just ducks.

I know there are plenty of species I’ve seen that I just can’t identify or that I haven’t observed closely enough to identify. On the weekend, I bought a field guide – Stokes Field Guide to Birds – Eastern Region, by Donald and Lillian Stokes. The woman running the bird store in Port Dover suggested this one.

So now I have a new plan – when I see a bird I don’t know, I’m going to try to figure out what I’m looking at, and add it to the list.

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