April 21, 2013
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Two red cats goofing around on the deck

Here’s another video by Tuffy P, this one starring Jacques and Jack Shadbolt, our two red cats. Not a lot happens in this video until the very end when they take off after a bird (no birds were harmed in the making of this video), so if you were expecting a plot line or anything like that, you’re in for a let down.

April 21, 2013
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Heat

Somewhere along the way, Tuffy P and I have developed a taste for very hot chiles. I suppose we simply built up a tolerence to the point that those commercially available red flakes just don’t do it for us, and neither do many of the hot sauces available. We’ve taken to drying scotch bonnets ourselves. The last batch came from our friend Arno’s garden but we managed to go through all of that. I’ve been watching the grocery stores for some really choice scotch bonnets and finally found them at Starsky’s yesterday. They were pricey but we missed having some seriously hot chiles around the house so I bought a bag of them.

The scotch bonnets have been in my dehydrator downstairs since yesterday early afternoon. I have the dehydrator primarily for drying mushrooms after a successful day in the forest, but it works great for scotch bonnets too. I just cut them in half, spread them out and let the dehydrator work its magic. This morning, about half of them were dry while the rest needed a few more hours. They’ll be ready sometime this afternoon.

The house, and particularly the basement is filled with the most amazing and intense chile funes. Beautiful.

Once I have the whole batch dried, I’ll grind them in a coffee grinder and we’ll have a good fresh supply of fiery hot goodness in the pantry.

April 20, 2013
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Cumberland Gap

The Cumberland Gap, a mountain pass in the Appalachians located where Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia meet, is also the name of a song first recorded in 1924. There are countless versions. Here are a few that I really like.

Let’s start with bluegrass, and Flatt and Scruggs.

Now on to Old Time and Tommy Jarrell on the fretless banjo

Here’s a combo called Notorious. Very nice playing

And finally, the Rockridge Brothers

April 16, 2013
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Anatomy of a Murder Revisited

I just finished a re-read of one of my favourite books, Anatomy of a Murder by Robert Traver. I suspect while some of you know the book, more readers are familiar with the Otto Preminger film starring Jimmy Stewart as Polly Biegler, Ben Gazarra as Lt Manion, George C. Scott as the big city lawyer Claude Dancer, Eve Arden as Maida, and Lee Remick as Laura Manion – and featuring the music of Duke Ellington. The film is flat out great, and the book is too. The book was written in 58 and the film was done the following year.

The book was written by Robert Traver, or at least that was his pen name. John D. Voelker was a Michigan Supreme Court Justice when he wrote the book and took on the pen name to separate his writing and legal activities. Traver, or Voelker was also famous for writing a much different kind of book, one of my favourite books about fly fishing, Trout Madness. Voelker was mad for chasing brook trout with a fly rod on his beloved Upper Michigan Peninsula.

Anatomy of a Murder was set on the Upper Michigan Peninsula as well. It was based on an actual murder case that occurred in Big Bay on the UP in 1952. The movie was filmed in Big Bay as well. I actually made a little visit to Big Bay one year when I was on the UP chasing up some brook trout myself. This is courtroom drama at it’s best and I recommend both the book and the movie highly.