Warm Weather!

Thursday night we had rain like you wouldn’t believe, and when I got up yesterday morning, it was still pounding down. The raindrops were enormous and there was water pooling everywhere. We had to walk in it because Her Highness had an appointment at her beauty parlour at 9:00. Our walk was short, very short, but she did what she had to do, and then I took her to the salon.

I came home to Zoom with John and Bunny which is always a joy for me. I love them and for the first seven years that I lived here, every time I went to Vancouver, it was to see them, and it was expensive in terms of both time and money. Now we chat regularly to keep in touch until I return to Vancouver for a visit.

When I got into the car to fetch Sheba, I was out of gas. I could start the car but the message on my odometer said: “Urgent, this car will be out of gas in 2 kilometers.” I was late fetching Her Highness because I had to stop to get gas. She was very glad to see me, and I was delighted to be reunited, but Sara, the groomer, was grooming a massive, gentle, loving Bernese Mountain dog whom I could not resist. 

The remainder of the day was spent napping, eating and walking again in the rain. I reveled in my freedom to do as I pleased all day. I was devastated to read about the death of Catherine O’Hara. I had quite the load of tears fall. Only once before has the passing of a celebrity broken me: that was when Gilda Ratner died. The passing of two magnificent women gifted with incredible comedic chops hit me hard. I was surprised to find myself so sad over Gilda’s passing, but then I realized no one had made me laugh so hard and so often as her. It was the same with Catherine.  I’m so sorry for her loss and for her family and friends.

Last night was the usual, but I had a particularly long and deep sleep, and today I have no obligations at all. The entire day is mine. Heaven! 

I rose at 5:00 but didn’t light the fire until after 8:00. It is not cold in the house during this stretch of very mild Winter weather. It’s 10° this morning and mid-week this coming week, afternoon temperatures are predicted to be 14°! This is how to get through Winter!

Dinner Day

I was fine with the rain. It is so wonderfully warm, I don’t care about anything else. And I desperately hope that this mild weather lasts and that we get no snow this year. My daffodils are about six inches tall, my fuchsias are still blooming from last season, and my hellebores are exploding with blooms.

Thankfully, the rain was light enough that we could walk at our regular hour. Although I had a lot to do yesterday, I was not pressed. I had lots of time to do all that I wanted to do before my guests arrived at 17:00, and I was looking forward to my dinner because I couldn’t wish for finer friends than Eoin and François. They are wonderful fellows, and now I’m used to being with them without Jay (but I still cry every time I think of him). 

We went for our walk and then to the store because I decided to make another curried rice salad. I’ve never eaten so well as I have since August when I changed my diet. I could live on nothing but these wonderful cold and very flavourful salads. They are chock full of veggies and fruit, and low on carbs. I use brown rice in the curried rice salad, so I get good carbs.

The curried salad is just for me. I didn’t serve it last night. I am so fond of it, I made a batch so that I could have it for lunch yesterday and it will serve me well for lunch and dinner today as today is a serious day of rest. It’s been a very busy week for this person with a vulnerable nervous system. I’m very happy that I have today, all weekend and most of next week all to myself.

At 13:00, I took Sheba for our second walk so that she’d be content while I vacuumed and set the table, and then once back home, I toasted baguette slices for the appies and got all my ingredients ready for cooking. Then I vacuumed and did the last of the tidying up. When I was finished, it was 16:00 and so I had about forty minutes to chill before cooking the mushrooms for our appies.

Dinner was well received. I served sole encrusted with a panko/crushed pistachio mixture infused with olive oil, honey and parsley, and plated it over the green sauce I love. It’s made my thoroughly mixing corn, basil and jalapeno in a blender, then putting the blended mixture into cheesecloth to extract all the juice that is then mixed with a little coconut milk, olive oil, shredded shallot, lime juice and honey. Yum.

I served the fish with Brussel sprout leaves that I sautéed in lemon juice and with lots of pistachios, and the corn salsa that was my choice over salad. It contains halved grape tomatoes, avocado, diced red onion and basil. And for the salsa, I made a sauce of olive oil, lime juice, garlic, pepper flakes, salt and pepper. And for the appies we ate before dinner, I fried a mixture of mushrooms with shallots, garlic, lots of butter, a little white wine and pine nuts. I toasted some baguette slices so that we could put the shrooms on the bread. (I won’t be making the mushroom dish again. I was disappointed in the results.)e

Just before they arrived, I opened the front and back doors to cool the house down a little. Now that it is so mild, the fire can make the house too warm. (Not a bad thing!) It was a far more comfortable temperature by the time they arrived—with dessert. I loved that I was going to have a surprise at the end of the meal. (They usually bring delicious appies.)

We had a great evening, and François made a fabulous dessert which I ate with semi-pleasure. I truly am over my obsession with sugar. I truly had an addiction and now I just don’t get excited about sweets anymore.

They arrived at 17:00 and left at 20:30 and I enjoyed an hour on the chaise watching Law and Order before I went to bed. I slept deeply until Fred’s howling had me rise almost exactly at 5:00. It’s as though my pets have a cock inside them. They know when it’s time for me to get up, and they know when it is mealtime.

I’m going to enjoy today. I have lots of wonderful food to eat, a good book to read, and little else to do. Sheba goes to the groomer at 9:00, and at 10:00, I’m Zooming with John and Bunny, but all the rest of the day is mine to play in.

In the forest with my fellow dog walkers.

Gary Oak bark.

More Gary Oak bark. This tree had bark like the
tree in the photo above this one, but time made
it evolve into very rough pieces of white bark.

A series of shots of hair ice taken during our
sunny cold spell.

This is true mid-latitude rain forest. This is in the Elder Cedar grove.

This is my rise curry mixture that is full of fruit and
vegetables. I love these cold salads for my meals now
as much as I once loved sweets.

Another favourite, corn salsa.

$35 Million

Fred and Sheba woke me at 4:15 yesterday. I ignored them until 5:00, then I got up and fed everyone and lit the fire. Then I made a corn salsa recipe that struck me as interesting and potentially fun to make and eat. It is fucking delicious! I am loving cooking savory dishes. It’s just as much fun and baking sweets.

I watched some videos of people making Gyro sandwiches. You mix meats and spices, roll the mixture into a thin layer between sheets of parchment paper, and then you roll it up in one sheet of parchment and put it in the oven. Then you unroll it once cooked, mix it with onion, yogurt, cilantro and spices, and yum! You have a delicious sandwich. That’s what I want to make next.

Just past 9:00, we went to meet our friends to walk our dogs. It was just Regina, Nola, me and two doggers walking on a wonderfully mild morning. When I got home, I got started on making the sauce for the fish that I love so, so much. But it turned out much, much differently than last time. I reckon I made an error last time and got better results than I did by carefully following the recipe.

I chatted with Dr. Dorscheid at 13:00. In May of 2022, my lung capacity was 101%. (How one gets a percentage higher than 100 is a mystery to me.) In July of 2024, my capacity was 83%. This past December, after only four shots of Tezspire, my capacity was at 96%! Soon, the Tezspire will have me back at my former levels, and then I’ll be weaned off my puffers—if not completely, at least partially. But I will take Tezspire for the rest of my life.

And get this: Dr. Dorscheid’s asthma clinic has 650 patients on Tezspire. We 650 people take a minimum of 1 shot per month. Some take two shots, but if we just assume all 650 take one shot, that’s yields a total of 7,800 doses of Tezspire per year for Dr. D’s patients. Each shot costs $4,500, and 7,800 shots each ar $4,500 means AstraZeneca is making $35 million every year just from one doctor’s patients!

After chatting with Dr. D., I Zoomed with Aidan. We talk every Wednesday at 14:00, and he had lots of good news about incoming grants. SPACE, well Aidan, is on a roll. He is a powerful grant writer, and he is passionate about his work. I asked him about his future, and he told me he wants to work for SPACE his entire working life.

After my call with Aidan, I went shopping so that I could try making the sauce again, and last night was the usual.

This morning, I’d finished making the second batch of sauce for tonight’s dinner by 6:30. I have a busy day ahead of me, cleaning up, doing more cooking, and setting the table. Now that I have a tolerable sauce, I feel much more relaxed about tonight.

It rained last night, and it’s still raining, but it’s light rain. Sheba knows. She’s been up for two hours and has not asked to go out. I imagine that she knows the sound of rain. We’ll hope for breaks in the weather to walk today. There is naught but rain in the forecast for the coming week, but it’s also going to be a very mild week.

I Love Cooking!

I could hardly wait to go shopping yesterday morning because I was looking forward to cooking much of the afternoon. François and Eoin are coming for dinner tomorrow, and they are awesome cooks; they are a delight to cook for because they are so appreciative of my cooking. They’re coming because I told Eoin about my way of cooking white fish—particularly, the delicious green sauce with which I serve the dish—and he was very keen to taste it.

We went for our morning walk before we went to Nester’s to shop, and then I came home to make a schedule for all the cooking I wanted done. At 11:40, I went to the clinic to get my pneumonia shot. This is the second of three vaccines I’m getting on the advice of Jennifer, my NP. I have one more shingles shot to get, and I’m not looking forward to it because I am likely to be mighty sick the following day. They say if you get sick after the first shot, which I did, you have an even worse response after the second shot. Imagine, I am paying six hundred bucks to get sick for two days.

When I got back from the clinic, we all had lunch and then I got busy making first, a rice curry salad that’s just for me. It’s not for Eoin and François tomorrow night. It is delicious, but it aggravated my asthma to cook it and to eat it. But that isn’t going to stop me from eating every single rice grain of it. By the time I was done, I wanted a rest and then I took Her Highness for our afternoon walk in Elder Cedar. We went early, but I was not up for more cooking. I wanted to rest and read a little before dinner time.

We walked in deliciously mild temperatures. It was 8°, and there were few people in the grove, so we had a very lovely time walking slowly through the rainforest. It’s the flattest trail that I know of, and it’s the only trail that meanders near a creek (in Winter). The sound of the water bubbling over the rocks and fallen trees provides the soundtrack to our Elder Cedar walks.

In the evening, because it was free, I watched one Battle After Another. It was the first time that I’ve seen Leonardo di Caprio in a film since Titanic. I’m not taken with him; I don’t see anything very dynamic in his acting. However, the film has received a lot of attention in (absurd) award shows, so I watched it.

It was fun, although there are a lot, an awful lot, of guns. And anger and macho posturing. It’s a comedy that’s scary; it’s frightening and it’s timely, given what’s going on with ICE in Minnesota. It’s a great story, well told. And scary.

I’ll be baking the pistachio crust mixture for the fish today when we come home from walking with our friends. And then I Zoom with my asthma doctor, after which I shall make the corn/jalapeno/basil sauce on which the fish is served. I can hardly wait to make it. It is one of the most delicious things that I have ever made.