The little house is feeling more and more like home as the summer moves into fall. Bill and Matti, Lindsay and Cleo have all spent a night here. The Smiths stayed for a few days, and this past week, Caroline visited on her way home from Whitehorse. We began with a shot of tequila and toasted Mela who was the absent third in the tequila shot triumvirate. Caroline was reminded of food her grandmother who was originally from Cebu used to make her when she was young as she read the book, The Heart of Philippine Cuisine, that Jay and May had sent me. We shopped for ingredients and made a couple of the recipes. It was the best food to come out of my kitchen so far, but it didn’t keep me from backsliding to grilled cheese sandwiches and raw veg. with a yogurt dip 2 days after she left. However, I still have some sticky rice and won ton wrappers and am waiting for her to send me the recipe to make the mixture to put in the fried won tons. She showed me how to roll sushi, and I also learned the secret of ton katsu, so although the rut is deep, there is variety beyond it if I can just move my wheels. Perhaps when Bill and Paula visit near the end of Sept. I will be inspired to leave the comfort of cheddar cheese.
Caroline and I drove and walked to Jade and Juniper beaches on Lake Okanagan and had a swim and picnic. One day we went with Tom and Dick, my Tom Tom GPS and the voice I’ve chosen, Richard, on a wine tasting tour. The boys were amazingly good, gave us a few laughs and didn’t lead us down any garden paths that we didn’t already want to go down. Our first tasting was at the farthest point south, Kettle Valley Winery in Naramata. We tasted 2 whites, 2 reds and a fortified wine. They were good and we each bought a Gewürztraminer. The woman we talked with was the owner, so we learned a lot about their process; seemed to be scrupulous in their work. The next place was between Penticton and Kelowna on the opposite shore of Lake Okanagan. I chose it for it’s Spanish name, Bonitas Winery. Again we talked with the owners, tasted 4 wines and bought one. At this point Caroline wisely suggested we stay for lunch. The last winery we went to was Mission Hill. I hadn’t been there since Jim and I went with the family about 20 years ago. It has changed. The setting is as magnificent as I remembered, but the bell tower, buildings and gardens are much more elaborate. The sculptures of a French artist, Nathalie Decoster, are on display around the grounds this season. We had a good time wandering among them. I was thinking that I had probably tasted enough wine, and that was a good thing because the Mission Hill tasting was more expensive than the others and their wines were beyond our budgets. Caroline left on Wednesday morning and flew into the storms of the east, which held her up for 4 hours in Toronto.
It’s been a week of news and weather, the death of Jack Layton, the end of the HST in BC, the almost end of Gadhafi and Hurricane Irene. When I finish this, I will have TV dinner and watch what I have on the PVR. I bought the ‘Globe and Mail’ to read about Jack and I want to hear what Steven Lewis has to say at the funeral. Heaven knows how BC will compete with Ont. without the HST, only Allah knows where Gadhafi is and Irene must have hit the coast of N. Carolina by now.
Caroline at the Kettle Valley Winery
The outdoor restaurant at Bonitas Winery
Caroline and the bell tower at Mission Valley Winery
One of Nathalie Decosta's sculptures at the Mission Valley Winery. The circle is an old ring that held together the staves of a wine barrel
This Thursday's bike along Buchanan Road at the base of the hills east of Vernon
I can't interpret this cover photo. I understand the cane leaning against his empty seat in the House, but what's the hand doing?
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