:: plunging (calmly) into beekeeping

:: this most amazing gospel tune - getting major play here and sending shivers down my spine at the 2:43 mark

:: fancy new bristle paint brushes and acrylic paints in fun colours like yellow ochre, burnt sienna, and crimson

:: this striking flower - one of my favourite perennial purchases - that reminded me to splash paint on canvas (does anyone know what it is?)

:: phtalo blue-stained fingers from stemming a 4 lb basket of blueberries

:: friends and neighbors popping in unannounced and veggie trade-offs

:: Yoshi - still chillin’

:: the tantalizing juices of tomatoes, garlic and onions bubbling in the oven - come to me confit!

:: woodsmoke hair from big campfire drumming session under the stars last night

:: size 5 wide Brandywine Reds (and inspiration for, ahem, a soothing footbath for seriously swollen, over-worked feet!)

:: sun-kissed and sundressed

I’ve been adding almost daily to overflowing baskets of ruby red Juliets. Friends and family are sent home with armfuls. Neighbors who stroll past me watering my flower beds in the evening ask me about my tomatoes and I send them home with handfulls too. These red fruit have brought smiles when most needed.

This has been a particularly stressful week at Gothic Cottage. I felt like a caretaker of an infant and a toddler, without the added advantage of diapers for cats. An incontinent Yoshi has struggled through much pain and left me struggling to find enough newsprint to line the floor. He relieved himself all over Vancouver Island’s Splendid Other Coast, Tilda Swinton, and Fashion’s Fall Fling with Splatter Prints. In the midst of the incontinence chaos Chika was hit by a car and is nursing wounded legs and trauma to her bladder.

Ashley’s arrival on Friday couldn’t have been better timed. With fresh news from the vet that there was one more drug which may save Yoshi’s life and Chika loved up on kitty ecstasy, I could relax a little bit. Stacey tipped me off last week to the Rebar cookbook’s slow roast tomato recipe - perfect for roma type tomatoes and so easy. The tomatoes cooked through the washing of floors, the laundering of bedding, the cleaning of litter, a visit to the vets, and a pick up at the train station. They were in the oven a little too long at over four hours but I had faith in my Juliets.

I also had the perfect test subject in my old pal Ashley - she’s not a tomato fan and she’s an amateur cook. Ashley knows good food and I wanted to treat her to something tasty. Anyone who brings me a $35 bottle of knockout Norman Hardie pinot noir straight from Norm’s winery in Prince Edward County is going to be treated to fine food! For a starter I stacked the shriveled but brilliantly deep red roasted Juliets atop homemade garlic crostini and humous. And for the main I just tossed a good serving of the toms into a simple pasta dish with garlic braised green beans, chickpeas, olive oil, lemon juice and grated Parmesan.

And the verdict? Ashley couldn’t believe that there was no sugar or honey added to the tomatoes. She couldn’t believe that they came from my garden. She couldn’t stop saying how delicious they were. And we hadn’t even started the main course yet.

We ate Juliet garlic crostini again last night and now back in Toronto, Ashley has a travel-friendly portion of my Juliets roasting in her oven as I write. I think I found a winner. These little flavour bombs are the best way I’ve found to put Juliets to bed, and all the better if you’re inundated with distractions and in need of a gourmet hit at home.

And a jaunty Vampire Weekend tune to lift spirits while those Juliets sing.

Rebar’s Slow Roast Tomatoes

Yields 1 cup

10 tomatoes, halved (I used enough halved Juliets to fill two baking sheets and found the following portions sufficient for this quantity of tomatoes)

¼ cup (60 mL) extra virgin olive oil

1 tsp (5 mL) salt

¼ tsp (1.2 mL) cracked pepper

2 tbsp (30 mL) minced thyme or rosemary

1. Pre-heat oven to 250 F. Slice tomatoes in half and arrange, cut side up, on a parchment-lined baking tray. Brush lightly with olive oil and sprinkle with salt, pepper and chopped fresh herbs.

2. Roast tomatoes for up to 4 hours, or until they are visibly dehydrated yet still meaty. Cool and refrigerate for up to one week.

Rebar’s Garlic Crostini

1 baguette, plain, wholegrain or sourdough

¼ cup (60 mL) extra virgin olive oil

2 garlic cloves

Pre-heat oven to 350 F. Slice baguette ½” thick on the bias. Arrange on a baking tray and brush with oil. Bake until golden (5-10 minutes). Cut garlic cloves in half and rub the cut side of the clove on the toasted bread.

:: little European touches around Gothic Cottage that make me feel like I’m France or Germany - I just need fresh croissants

:: speaking of patisserie, breakfast al fresco with Charentais musk melon and Ritter Sport complementing the French/German patio experience

:: Gladiolas from Cathy and Kaj’s market garden - these eccentric flowers add a certain Art Nouveau flair to the place

:: an overflowing basket of my meatiest tomatoes starring in a pasta dish shared with sweetest Stacey

:: a very uncomfortable and grouchy Yoshi finally recovering at home after a week and a half at the vets - means watching over him but puttering around these walls, in the garden, and cooking for friends is so nice and chilled

:: the tall, friendly Rivers Edge Goat Dairy guy who shared his blueberries yesterday at the Farmers Market… I went back for more

:: the sound of wind whipping sheets dry on the line

:: thunder and lightening shows

:: a black and white weekend with Billie Holiday and Stan Getz - it never ceases to amaze me how certain music can completely dictate the mood (check out Daniel Levitin’s book This Is Your Brain On Music for more)

:: bonfire pit ready for more action

:: visions: of wildflower and goldenrod honey here next season stoked by my honey guru Stacey, of renovations complete next month, and of an unfolding adventure soon

:: laughing so hard to this brilliant video my belly hurt

:: Audrey Niffenegger’s newest installment of magical-realism

:: prepping for a seasonal feast with Tori and Nancy this eve - Rivers Edge goat and pork sausages, my roasted carrots and my favourite summer salad on the menu

Hope you’re loving your weekend too!

This charming wee fellow gave me a start when I was puttering around the garden last Wednesday evening. I was headed toward the mass of uprooted pea plants when the luminescent guy (a leopard frog?) jumped in front of my path into the pile of pea sticks.

I’ve had toads visit the garden but never frogs, and never such a huge frog - he was easily the size of my palm. OK, I have very tiny hands but he was not your average dinky frog. And so florescent! I was pretty excited and ran for my camera. He stayed frozen like this, heart pounding while I got closer and closer with my lens, for at least 20 snaps. I really wanted to clear up the old row of peas but I couldn’t bare to disturb him so I just tended to the tomatoes instead and he stayed put for another hour. He can stick around for as long as he likes and gobble up all the nasty slugs, flea beetles, aphids and mosquitoes.

I was a massive frog enthusiast in my youth. I spent hours catching them in the bay with my cousins and friends at my family’s cottage up north. We would catch tadpoles too and keep them in a makeshift holding tank - an old tractor tire filled almost to the top with water in the bay. Good summer fun!

It’s been awhile since frogs have leapt in and out of my life but the theme continued last weekend. As my cousin Mark and his new bride Nicole arrived arm-in-arm at their wedding reception on Saturday evening, a little girl turned to her cousin and said: “Oh look! That’s the girl that just got married!” Her cousin piped up and excitedly replied, “Yeees, and she’s with her prince!”

This frog pond was situated right behind my family’s table under the reception tent and throughout the speeches a gaggle of little girls making “ribbit” noises drowned out the speakers. Nicole spends a lot of time outdoors. She’s no stranger to frogs and later in the evening she caught one for the excited girls.

We never grow up, do we?

Now where did that prince of mine go off to?

How to waste 3.5 kg of apricots:

1. Use an inexpensive, thin-bottomed pot

2. Fill to the brim with far too much fruit

3. Maintain a rolling boil for, well, just loose track of time and maintain that rolling boil for a long, long time

4. Check the time and try to guess what time you started cooking so much fruit

5. Increase the temperature because, to your inexperienced eye, the consistency of the recipe you’re augmenting looks too watery

6. Follow up on brilliant multi-tasking idea and go weed your flower beds

7. Loose track of time and return to a kitchen that has lost that lovely apricot-y aroma and now smells like burning

When I crawled into bed last night and shut my eyes, exhausted and buzzing from two and a half full days, phantom base lines were still beating in my ears. So many highlights and I don’t have the stamina for complete sentences…

Best music:

:: Grand Analog

:: Horse Feathers

:: Shad

:: Royal Wood

:: Brasstronaut

:: Alex Cuba

:: Sunday morning Gospel Hour with Sarah Harmer, Frazey Ford, Horse Feathers, Basia Bulat, The Good Lovelies & Sam Doores

(so wish I hadn’t missed Matt Andersen, Beardyman and Shane Koyzcan but my oh my revelers are spoiled for choice with four stages and 67 bands)

Best of the rest:

:: Friday sunset and good laughs with old and new friends

:: farm sleepovers and breakfasts with most amazing Marianne, Tim, Heidi, Emily and Bo

:: Saturday rain and mud - ankle-deep and so many pairs of gorgeous mucky barefeet!

:: sparky mid-afternoon sunshine buzz courtesy of my local - Wellington Brewery

:: Main Stage living roof, solar-powered Sun Stage, water tanker of Guelph tap water, reusable dishes and wash stations

:: Mapleton Organics ice cream - oh the power of suggestion at work with sun-kissed beauties licking dripping waffle cones

:: baby Wyatt - just the most playful eight-month old and helping round out the next generation of Hillside lifers

:: solid Sunday sunshine mingled with Guelph Lake breezes

:: intimate and interactive jam sessions and musicians chilling out in the grass next to revelers (Hello Sarah Harmer! Would you like to share my ice cream cone?)

:: Bollywood dance lesson (please, please bring classes to Guelph!)

Until next year, Hillside, I’m so grateful you’re in my backyard!

An escape to Little Italy for some German domination - a Fathers Day gift for our dear ol’ dad.

And to my dear friends reveling in Germany right now: Prost! Deutschland ist super-fantastische!

:: a visit

:: sun, sun, sun!

:: swimming in Guelph Lake - so refreshing

:: dipping in c-c-c-cold Lake Ontario amongst sandy little kids

:: new Cee-Lo, old Talking Heads, and all-time-best funk tracks here and here

:: amazing Toronto Island - big old trees, endless tucked away green spaces, long beaches and bike paths

:: bare feet on hot sand and sand sticking to suntan lotion-lathered skin

:: the World Cup in car-free Little Italy

:: thousands of bees buzzing in the yellow field - vuvuzelas at Gothic Cottage

:: laughing in the garden

:: sturdy tomatoes surrounded by a bed of straw mulch

:: reminiscing, de-mythologizing and storytelling

:: the original karate kid’s self-deprecating humour

:: peonies filling every room with their luscious aroma

:: the vireo down the road - most original bird song

:: homemade rhubarb ginger jam and iced tea

:: new-to-me lawnmower with power wheels (where have you been all these snow-free months, you beauty!)

My experience with raccoons is rather limited. The first involved a huge hole in the screen door at the cottage, and missing ground beef which was thawing in the kitchen counter. Not long afterward, I became adept at leaning weighted garbage bins against my cabin door at summer camp to keep care packages and tuck shop sweets safe from the midnight marauders.

While living in Toronto I grew accustomed to spotting super-fat raccoons. A few nights ago Ashley and I could hear screeching from her Beaches balcony. She told me the story of her mom waking with a fright one night: “Huck! A woman’s being attacked in the park!”, to which Ashley’s dad sprung to action and rushed outside in his tighty whiteys to avenge the woman, who turned out to be two raccoons. On Mike’s farm I was amazed that his strategically placed electric fence wasn’t even a match for the determined beasts, who decimated his small organic corn crop every year - when the corn was perfectly ripe and sweet, of course.

Conclusion: raccoons were the enemy.

On Friday, however, I had an up-close-and-personal experience with two baby raccoons. My friend Grant plays surrogate mom to orphaned coons every spring. Most have lost their mothers to cars (enemy or not, such a sad sight), and they’re placed in homes by a raccoon rescue group. Grant takes siblings home when their eyes still haven’t opened, and nurses them on homemade formula with a syringe until they’re weaned onto solid food and ready to be re-integrated with other raccoons and returned to the wild. While they’re in his care Grant, an outdoor environmental education guru, takes his wards into schools to reconnect kids with nature.

This little guy is just learning to walk and climb stairs - still a little unsteady but oh so curious and cute! He can steal food off my counter anytime!

Twenty two tomato plants found a new home in locavore garden last weekend.

On a hot, sunny Saturday Tori, Nancy and I tackled a weedy garden and prepped beds for my nomadic seedlings. These leggy wonders were growing at an astonishing rate and I never could have made such progress in their stealthy move had it not been for the heft and cheerful willingness of my garden companions.

In my clogs and gardening gloves, Nancy got straight to work on weeding duty while I raked composted sheep manure into well turned soil. Beds plotted with popsicle sticks - 24″ spacing with 6′ between rows -we then dug deep holes for the tall toms, which got a generous handful of organic tomato food (4-6-8 in pellet form) before being watered in and finally covered up to their top leaves.

They really were so tall, especially the early Juliets and Yellow Pears, which doubled in size to monster seedlings in just a few days. I think they benefited from the organic plant food (2-1-3) I gave them every second watering after potting them up.

In the garden now, next to the onions, peas and carrots are a mix of heirloom and organic Brandywine Red, Grightmire’s Pride, Black Krim, Matina, Juliet, and Yellow Pear. The 11 remaining plants will go to friends and family, with maybe just a couple more finding corner real estate in my garden.

Tori and Nancy were a fantastic help. And really, it’s such fun to knock off 22 plants in a couple of hours with lively company!

Nancy was quick to comment on how therapeutic is was to work in someone else’s garden, where she didn’t have the stress of seeing all the work that was involved beyond what we’d finish that day. Yes, I still have much weeding to do but what a pleasure it is to admire the neat, weed-free rows of healthy tomatoes in the garden.