I Love to Read

I love to read. It is one of my favorite ways to get relax, refresh, and get inspired. This week I found a really lovely book called A Slight Trick of the Mind by Mitch Cullin. I can say it's my new favorite. It's about an aging Sherlock Holmes losing his memory, visiting Japan and keeping bees. Apparently it is going to be made into a movie starring Ben Kingsley. I hope the director can reign Ben in because he can be too much of a drama queen for me sometimes.

Also, the author Mitch Cullin wrote a book called Tideland made into a movie by Terry Gilliam shot in Regina, Saskatchewan of all places. Very cool. I must try to track down a copy of the book and the DVD.

I also read another couple of Margaret Grimes novels this week: Dust and The Stargazey. Someone from Britain was critical of her work and wrote a negative review in the margins of the book in pencil. The reader was quite aggrieved that Jury didn't pay for each drink as it was served, but left cash on the bar as he was leaving. True dat.

Traffic Jams

We are home from our holiday and a lot of intense traffic. The first day my boys complained and moaned all day about road trips and traffic while I tried to relax and enjoy the scenery. The second day we hit a major traffic jam between Golden and Banff, sitting on the highway for half an hour at a standstill at one point. There was a bottle neck of traffic due to miles and miles of construction work. We missed our dinner reservation and were pretty exhausted upon arrival. We had fun in Banff with the family, but it took the two days of holiday just to unwind and settle in before we had to hit the road again. The way back to Naramata was smoother going, and by today (the last day of our vacation) I was finally feeling that holiday glow. Then we got stuck in traffic from Surrey to Vancouver and I lost that glow.

We listened to Peter Pan in Scarlet by Geraldine McCaughrean, the "official sequel", which is a bit plodding, but very clever. I was thinking about how mothers are portrayed in this book as extreme saints on the one hand, to harpies on the other. There is no middle ground here. The whole acceptance of growing old requires a more balanced view of motherhood. We also listened to our old favorite, Midnight for Charlie Bone by Jenny Nimmo.

The trip today began with the couple in the motel room next door to us verbally tearing each other to shreds and when I returned home a couple in the house behind ours was having such a rip-roaring argument I considered calling the police. They seemed to run out of steam after half an hour, but it was fascinating the way they kept repeating the same things over and over and over even though they knew it was driving the other person crazy. Is this love or is this hate? Uhhh, hate. Pure hatred. Welcome home.

I dub this the vacation of very good sweets and very good iced tea. We found several places that made excellent home made iced tea and this kept my morale high. Photos and tasting notes to follow.

Sore Throats and Buttery Oysters

So my son and I were home with colds today, snuggled up reading together and watching the movie of the Spiderwick Chronicles, which I give a five out of ten. I think Tony DiTerlizzi's illustrations are fabulous, but find the writing quite thin. The best parts of the movie are the little house elf Thimble Tack and the Hogsqueal the hobgoblin. I was very disappointed in the characterization of Mulgarath more as a destructive brute rather than a cunning shape-shifter.

I've been thinking a lot about oysters lately and craving the fabulous ones at Maenam. Take a look at the slide show on Bitten and look at how they poach oysters in muffin tins on the BBQ in New Orleans. It looks fantastic! Did ya notice I added a whole bunch more links to the right of the page? Bitten is one of them.

Here's an Olympic Event I'd like to attend, but it's in Edmonton--the Grilled Cheese Olympics!

So here's the address for my new blog, which I'll open softly today. Just to be confusing it's called Potlucky Canuck, to shift into something slightly different. If you don't want to listen to me blathering on about our domestic life, change your link to Potlucky Canuck where I'll do more blurbs on food, gardening and arts about town. I still don't profess to be a REAL food writer because I don't have the chops for it, but I will focus on the culture of food. I hope you enjoy it!