Widow's Endorphins: Cotton Candy

Widow's Endorphins: Cotton Candy: I was playing in our backyard in Vancouver one hot Summer morning, lost in a world of fuchsia blossoms and hummingbirds, when my Mum cal...

Cotton Candy

I was playing in our backyard in Vancouver one hot Summer morning, lost in a world of fuchsia blossoms and hummingbirds, when my Mum called out, "Grandma phoned.  She's taking you to the PNE".  I was too young to know what the Pacific National Exhibition was, but I'll never forget my first time at the fair!

That very morning, as I held Grandma's hand, and strolled through the fairgrounds, I caught my first whiff of the sweet spun sugar of Cotton Candy, a fragrance that will forever be linked with Summer. It was mesmerizing, watching the sugar transform into long strands of spun sugar, and form fluffy pink clouds of Cotton Candy.  Grandma must have decided that spending the rest of the day with a sticky, pink tufted child on a sugar high, was not her idea of a good time, because I have no memory of ever tasting Cotton Candy that morning.

I have a vague recollection of going to the circus that day.  You'd think that it would have been the highlight of my little girl life.  No.  The memory I have, is of the real life circus that was going on in the crowded breezeway, outside of the food building.  Grandma was a heavy smoker, and took frequent breaks, so I had a lot of time to just people watch.

A small parade of members of a marching band, stumbled into the cool of the building, to rest during their time off, no doubt cursing their heavy uniforms.  A man walked right past me, carrying a real live monkey on his back!

Then, I saw them.  The image, and magic of the moment has stayed with me for more than fifty years: the poodles.  Three poodles actually, all dyed to match the ensembles of three young models, dressed like high fashion flight attendants.  The models' pill box hats, tiny jackets, pencil skirts, and pointy-toed high heels were in pink, peacock blue, and turquoise green.  So were the dogs. Grandma thought it terrible, but that pink poodle was so pretty...just like Cotton Candy.

Photos copyright: Ruth Adams, Widow's Endorphins Photographic Images Incorporated

Widow's Endorphins: Purple Haze

Widow's Endorphins: Purple Haze: By mid-Summer, a purple haze of lavender seems to touch the sky.  There's an abundance of lavender in fields, and small gardens, i...

Purple Haze

By mid-Summer, a purple haze of lavender seems to touch the sky.  There's an abundance of lavender in fields, and small gardens, in city parks and balcony urns.  It's everywhere.  In the park next door, the lavender garden is quiet, but not silent. There's a hum of honey bees circling every lavender plant.  Butterflies glide softly past.  Sleepy daze.  

  

By the time lavender looks like most of the lavender in these photos, it is already past the time to harvest the buds for culinary use.  The time to pick lavender for use in recipes, is when the buds begin showing colour, but haven't yet opened into a flower.  The buds contain the fragrant and flavourful essential oil of lavender.  

Lavender is native to Europe, North Africa, parts of Asia and India, and as such, the herb is found in a wide variety of dishes.  I have discovered it in Ratatouille, lamb, Christmas shortbread, and Creme Brulee.  It marries well with lemon, which is why it is added to lemonades, lemon tarts, and lemon teacakes.
   

Lavender is relaxing.  A satin bag filled with dried lavender, and tucked inside your pillow, will induce sleep as easily as a warm Summer day.  'Scuse me while I kiss the sky!  

Photos copyright of:  Ruth Adams, Widow's Endorphins Photographic Images Incorporated

Widow's Endorphins: Bastille Day

Widow's Endorphins: Bastille Day: If you say, "Happy Bastille Day" to a Frenchman, he'll give you a strange look.  The French national holiday is known on the...

Bastille Day

If you say, "Happy Bastille Day" to a Frenchman, he'll give you a strange look.  The French national holiday is known on the other side of the pond as, Le Quatorze Juillet, or the 14th of July.  On that Summer day, in 1789, the people of Paris stormed the royal fortress of Bastille, and released prisoners.  But wait - the French don't celebrate that event.  Le Quatorze is about what happened on that July day in 1790, two years after the storming of the Bastille.  Fete de la Federation, or Celebration of the Federation, was in honour of the new Republic.    

Two years later, troops from Marseille sang a catchy tune, which would come to be known as La Marseillaise, and over the next few years, as it climbed the French hit parade, it was declared a National Anthem.  Guess which day in July?  On July 14th, 1795 La Marseillaise became the French National Anthem.

Liberty, Equality, and Brotherhood are celebrated in France with ringing church bells, a massive military parade, picnics, accordion music, and neighbourhood dance parties in every fire station in the country.  As night falls, the day ends the way July 1st in Canada, and July 4th in the USA, end - with a massive fireworks display!

Photographs copyright of Ruth Adams, Widow's Endorphins Photographic Images Incorporated
Marche Des Marseillois sheet music image Wikipedia Images.

Widow's Endorphins: Campfires, and S'more Roses

Widow's Endorphins: Campfires, and S'more Roses: With massive wildfires burning across Canada tonight, especially through dry BC, Alberta and Saskatchewan, a rite of Summer has been...

Campfires, and S'more Roses

With massive wildfires burning across Canada tonight, especially through dry BC, Alberta and Saskatchewan, a rite of Summer has been banned in many parts of the country. The campfire - with its flickering, crackling flames, rich smokey fragrance, stories, laughter and S'mores - is part of our Canadian culture. 

Canada's Van Gogh, trailblazing painter, Tom Thomson glorified the outdoor hearth in his iconic work, Campfire, painted in Algonquin Park, in 1916, the year before his suspicious death.  In the Spring of 1917, he came up to Algonquin from Toronto, to paint the park through the changing seasons.

Stories about his death 98 years ago today, have been told and retold around dying embers of campfires.  Thomson, an experienced park Firefighter, Ranger, and Fishing Guide, was last seen alive, midday on July 8, 1917, when he launched his canoe in Canoe Lake, and set off alone, on a fishing trip.  A few hours later, his overturned canoe was seen drifting near the dock, and more than a week later, his body resurfaced on the lake.  There was a bruise over his left temple, and fishing line wrapped around and around his ankle. Although his death was ruled an accidental drowning, many think he was murdered.

Campfire Roses, with their fiery yellows and reds, were developed by Agriculture Canada as part of the Canadian Artists series of hardy roses.  The now disbanded programme, also brought us the climbing deep pink Felix Leclerc, the yellow Bill Reid, and the rich red Emily Carr (she was often called the eighth member of the Group of Seven).  The fourth and final rose of the series, Campfire, named after Thomson's painting, blooms all season, right through to hard frost - about the time the largest of the Saskatchewan fires is expected to burn itself out.

No night around the campfire is complete without S'mores.  European readers (hello UK, France, Italy, Belgium, Germany, Malta and Ukraine!) may not know what S'mores are.  The name is short for "I would like some more, please".  The recipe, first published in 1927, in Tramping and Trailing with the Girl Scouts (I don't make these things up), has not changed since Grandma's day:  graham crackers, chocolate and marshmallows.

S'mores

8 long sticks, twigs, or skewers 

16 graham crackers

8 bars of chocolate, each broken in two

16 large marshmallows

Gather sticks or twigs, and sharpen the tips to make a spear (or just use those barbecue skewers you packed in the trunk of the car).  The gathering and whittling is good to do while waiting for the campfire flames to die down, since toasting marshmallows directly into the flame, results in little balls of charcoal.  Best remember, embers are best. 

Place squares of chocolate on each graham cracker.  Slide two large marshmallows onto the spear, and toast marshmallows over the low flame or embers, until brown and slightly bubbly.  Slide the marshmallows onto one of the chocolate covered graham crackers, and place a second chocolate covered cracker on top, to form a sandwich.  Gently squeeze the sandwich, so that the hot marshmallow melts the top and bottom layers of chocolate.  

The original Girl Scouts' recipe added this disclaimer:  "Though it tastes like 'some more' one is really enough".

Campfire, 1916 oil on wood painting by Tom Thomson (Aug 5, 1877 - July 8, 1917).
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa (a wonderful place to visit when you are not camping).

Photos copyright of Ruth Adams, Widow's Endorphins Photographic Images Inc.