A little bit different anyway. For me, that means a departure from my usual photo realistic pet portraits.
Zoom has been my saving grace during these Covid times and this week it connected me to a mini workshop, “Painting Pets in Wild Colours,” taught by Shaunna Russell through Etchrlabs.
I'm looking forward to trying this method again.
I was thinking how I’ve honed my reading selections during covid times. Most of my books are audio selections chosen from Bookbub and Kindle Daily Deals, for $4.
Why don’t I use the library? I listen while walking in places where I don’t need to be super aware of my surroundings, or those with an absence of nature sounds. As listening doesn’t occur on a daily basis, it sometimes takes longer to read than the allowed loan period of an audio book from the library. If you know my spending habits I’m not about to pay full Audible prices either.
Reading while walking also precludes books with a complicated cast of characters. I listened to the My Brilliant Friend series by Elena Ferrante, all those Italian names! Solution? On the kindle sample of the first book, there is a list of characters that I copied and pasted to my phone notes.
How do I choose the next book from my low budget sources? Common cliche plots are ruled out – the ones resembling Hallmark movies – big city woman gives up high powered position to open a small town book store, tea shop, flower shop, cupcake bakery, B&B… as are books that depict floral bouquets or flowy haired men on the cover.
Forget the overused story of cleaning out granny’s attic and finding a letter in a trunk, drawer or box, divulging family secrets. And don’t want to read those based on a famous painting and the subject’s fictional relationship with the artist.
Looking at my Goodread lists my preferences indicate a leaning toward memoirs and historical fiction, particularly those depicting stories of immigrants. I’ve read a good share of Asian historical fiction, thanks to a former summer student from work, whose double major delved deeply into said topic. The same goes for Hispanic translations due to my heritage. I gave equal time to my Polish side by reading Michener’s Poland, a substantial volume. I drift toward social worky themes reflective of my career, but try to resist.
I tend to stay away from time travel and/or magical realism with some exceptions, recently the Shadow of the Wind and Lights on the Sea, both translated from Spanish. Same for epistolary novels, those written in the form of a series of letters. They just don’t grab me.
An occasional mystery is OK, but no spine tingling psychological thrillers, please. My preference in WW2 books are those written by men lest they devolve into romantic sleeping with the enemy tropes.
Humorous stories appeal to me, lifting the mood of the pandemic – like the Rosie trilogy or the 100 year old Man who Went Out the Window and Disappeared.
When I sit down to read I want something with a lot of pages, feeling like I’m getting my money’s worth. The Goldfinch fit that bill. I pick books with a minimum reader rating of 80% on Amazon, not always foolproof.
So there you have it, I’m as picky about reading as a four-year-old can be about eating. I’m throwing it out there…any suggestions?
The days are getting noticeably longer, later sunsets and earlier rises, perfect for my morning walks. Time to get out of bed and plug my ears with those cold white buds to enjoy some Herman Wouk.
A spectacular sunrise from my bedroom window:
That about sums it up.
Cook: in general I prefer not to view random photos of food unless it’s something really special with a restaurant recommendation or accompanied by a recipe, and not one of those where you have to scroll and scroll through ads to get there. In other words i don’t want to see everyday grub or be tempted by bloggy food p*rn, I want access to extraordinary food. You know it’s a pandemic when…
So here's an easy one. A stir fry sauce, sent by my son, an amazing cook who learned it in Bali. Reminiscent of the Thai brown sauce I ordered when we went to restaurants in the before times. Just stir fry your veggies and or meat, and add it at the end, continuing to cook until it's hot.
As you can see from the pictures, I made a large amount, so I doubled the ingredients below.
Ingredients:
2T Oyster Sauce
1/2 T Sesame oil
1 T Dark Soy Sauce – make sure it's labeled as such. It is different from regular soy sauce, no matter how deep the colour, and it's richer and thicker. I found mine at Walmart, believe it or not, the grocery store didn't have it.
1/4 C water
1T sugar (I used 3/4 T Splenda)
Mix it all together and away you go. I like to heat it in the microwave so the sugar dissolves and I don't continue cooking the veggies once I add the sauce. So easy, so delicious.
Paint: Put Your Best Foot Forward, the theme for our art society's quarterly challenge. This was mine, a watercolour, 16×20 matted.
Walk: We're having a cold snap here. To a weather wimp, such as myself, that means a low of -8C (17.6F). When using hiking poles, even with gloves, my hands freeze at +2C (35.6F). I tried the heated yellow leatherish work gloves from Costco, which failed on two accounts: 1. they provided heat for about 20 minutes and 2. my scrawny hands left a minimum 2" of unoccupied finger space.
I had previously tried instant hand warmers. They are lukewarm and expensive. I thought a pack came with a pair, but no, you need one for each hand, doubling the price. So on really cold days I stay home and use the stationery bike or leave the poles at home and walk with gloves on and hands in my pockets. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
When I started knitting this pandemic blanket in June the race was on. What would finish first, the blanket or the Covid? I should have known the answer to that, considering the amount of time I could dedicate to knitting over a mile of Noro Silk Garden. Yes, the blanket won.
Pattern: Generic Mitered Square Blanket Click on it, it's free and very clearly written.
Yarn: Noro Silk Garden Lite, Colourway 2031, Lot C, 16 skeins
Needles: US size 7 (4.5mm)
Size: 45”x46”
Modifications: Started with 61 stitches per square and ended with a log cabin edge, 1.75" wide
Started around June 1, 2020 and finished January 26, 2021
On the Camino de Santiago the walk was kept interesting by moving forward and noticing the changes in geography and the sights as we crossed the north of Spain. Never the same thing twice. Covid walking in the same general area, over and over, has me noticing more subtle differences, the smells of breakfast, the change in seasons.
Is started last spring when I walked through the cherry blossoms.
Summer brought bunnies and blossoms:
Then there was fall. The morning birds fell silent and the trees performed their last show of the year in preparation the grey and wet of winter. 
Pacific Northwest winter – descriptions from recent weather reports, all referring to rain: a beast of a storm, an atmospheric river, a pineapple express. Most days, no matter how bad, have periods of dryness, enough for a walk. If not, I have my stationary bike, circa early 2000's. I'm glad I kept it.
Truthfully, it’s not all gloom, there are sunny winter days here:
And today, the harbinger of spring – snowbells blooming. I had to come home and paint them.
We talked to friends last night and their covid in retirement routine matched ours exactly: taking online art classes, doing puzzles, playing games, cooking, puttering, painting, knitting, reading, watching Netflix, walking, and participating in the spectator sport that is the US news. We are fortunate to be in this stage of life during the pandemic, but still, every day seems like the next with subtle variations. This post will be about food.
We stepped up the cooking a notch, the first was pressed pork with a sour cherry jus. We had similar recipes with lamb in Spain and New Zealand and it's taken me two years to finally find the recipe, thanks to the excellent search skills of daughter, M. I tried every adjective I could imagine to describe this dish to no avail and it was simply pressed meat. For New Year's Day we had the lamb variety.
Here's my version of the recipe. You have to think ahead, but it really isn't complicated thanks to the Instant Pot's ability to circumvent the need for 12 hours of slow roasting, but you can do that if you wish. It seems we have nothing but time these days.
Pressed Pork (Six servings)
Olive oil
2+ lbs pork tenderloin (Can also be done with lamb)
2 cloves pressed garlic
Herbs
Allspice
S&P
1.5 C chicken broth
12 dried cherries (optional)
Reduction:
Juices from cooking pork
1/2 C port
In the morning or night before: Rub pork with garlic and spices. Sear in olive oil. Place in Instant Pot with broth (and cherries) and cook at high pressure for 50 minutes, natural release. Shred the pork and press into cups of muffin tin until full. Place another muffin tin on top of first pan, so cups of the top one are pressing into the filled cups of the bottom one. Place in refrigerator and put heavy items on top to weigh down the pan, the heavier the better, to press the pork. Keep in fridge minimum of six hours, can wait until the next evening.
30 minutes before serving. Preheat oven to 375.
Put the pork juices in a pan and add the port (and 12 more cherries if desired). Boil rapidly to reduce.
Carefully remove the pressed pork from the muffin tin. It should all come out in one piece, like a pork muffin. Heat oil in pan and fry the pressed pork until one side is browned. This will be the top of the served pork. Arrange the pork on a pan and heat for ten minutes in oven. Top with reduction sauce and serve.
And we had a celebratory homemade fettuccine dinner when I reached my diet goal. Seems counter intuitive to reward yourself with food when the point of the occasion was successfully limiting food intake. But it was a one off treat, Prawn Fra Diavolo.
I’m looking forward to a loosening of the rules, when we are allowed to share meals like this with those who are not part of our every day household.
Now that Christmas has come and gone I can unveil a couple of commissions purchased for Christmas gifts. I didn’t want to ruin any surprises. The request was for two pet portraits, a dog and a cat, that included the pet's names. I thought it would be fun to show the before, during and after photos.
Leroy, who likes to sit in boxes:
And handsome Kiko:
The plans were made well in advance, and like many pandemic plans, they were cancelled. The two Alberta daughters, with partners and kids were scheduled to visit for the first Christmas together in our new house, but days ahead, health orders were issued. Nobody allowed in your home unless they lived there, no more walking outside with more than one other person, restaurant groups must all be from the same household… Our province's numbers weren't that bad, but modelling showed even the slight increases would grow into something unacceptable. And fines were implemented for offenders.
We had to remind ourselves of the true meaning of Christmas to get past the resentment of observing people in our area flouting the rules to be with family or politicians defying health orders to go on vacation. We are grateful to remain virusfree.
We successfully molded our holiday season into something different, yet satisfying including:
It was liberating to be freed of Christmas cooking and shopping (everything was either ordered online or handmade). C took responsibility for the two children who have settled in permanent locations, with a promise to B for one in the future. He spent endless hours in his garage workshop making river tables for the girls:
In this unusual time we were even gifted with a rare snowfall. Although the palm trees at a condos across the street looked as if they were shivering in the cold:
Snow here is rare and sticks around for only a short period of time. It's one of the main reasons I love British Columbia. It made for a wintery white Christmas sort of feeling:
One day blends into the next so I look at my pictures to remind me of what makes one day different from the rest.
Last week was a zoom watercolour class with the amazing David Smith. Most of his sessions are full days and originate from Minnesota meaning they start at 7:00am in our time zone. This one was half days and sponsored by an art guild in California, 9:00 being a reasonable start time. Painting number one is finished.
The art show is going well. I’ve sold two paintings so far, one large and one small, both florals.
How does this menu sound for Christmas dinner?
Brined Turkey Roll
Pumpkin Seed & Cranberry Stuffing
(White Bread, Sage, Mirepoix, Craisins & Pumpkin Seeds)
Sumac and Saffron Spiced Turkey Gravy
Roasted Harissa Cauliflower
(Harissa Marinated, Avocado Chimichurri)
Brussel Sprout Aglio e Olio
Carrot and Turnip Mash
Quinoa and Butternut Squash Salad
(Pomegranate Pistachio Vinaigrette, Red Quinoa, Butternut Squash,Tuscan Kale, Craisins)
I like to cook, probably more so in the before times. Current British Columbian health orders restrict holiday gatherings to those who normally reside in the same home. With only two of us, given the unusual circumstances, we decided on the unconventional, for us anyway. We ordered the Christmas-to-go menu from a local restaurant. I’m looking forward to it. Not the fact that we’ll be far from family, but a no pots nor pans, no effort special meal. That’ll be different.
252 days, that’s the official amount of time we've been in some form of isolation or quarantine since we returned home from Bali. Even the salmon are taking precautions.
A sad ending: two posts ago I wrote about our friends, a couple, where the husband died suddenly of a heart attack. I am so sad to report that his wife followed him 16 days later, the burden of grief being too much. Such tragedy for their family.
She never saw the painting where I had subtly "carved" their initials into the trunk of the Arbutus tree. I was honoured the family asked permission to pass the painting on to one of their children, but sad about the devastating circumstances.
I don't know what to write after that. A recent sunset seems appropriate.
Life's a Stitch 
