Blossom Time!

Early Cherry Blossoms

I haven't been in the Okanagan during blossom time for a long time. Blink once and it's gone! Apricots are first followed by apples, pears, plums and cherries. The day after I took the pictures below there was a huge windstorm and these delicate petals were all blown away.

Peach Blossoms

Apple blossoms

I remember when I was in high school riding the bus in the morning, I'd look for the blossoms in the spring, an omen that the school year would soon come to a close. Local kids know how to identify fruit trees in the dead of winter from the the bark, shape of the tree and branches.

These days there are far fewer orchards, most have been replaced by vineyards. Although they have their own beauty, I still love an old orchard. Each year I make sure to photograph a few of the old trees, (the new apple trees look more like vineyards than orchards).

Stay tuned for a blossom linocut!

Plum Blossoms

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I was tired and hungry last night after moving villas in the heat, so I rode my bike over to La Brioche for dinner.

Tons of people were out, mostly men. Actually, come to think of it - all men, but when I'm on my bike they don't even notice me, I'm there and I'm gone! The sun was going down and the air was cooling off quickly. As the men left their construction sites in twos and threes, I could smell their cologne and was surprised to see them in their crisp, clean, after-work punjabis, hair combed perfectly, freshly scrubbed skin glowing.

In one huge sandy lot between villa projects, a huge crowd had gathered. There was a cricket game going on on one side of the lot, and a football, (soccer) match on the other. The football goal posts were made of old scrap pieces of wood hammered together, and all the workers played barefoot on the soft sand. They called to and heckled each other in different languages, but their laughter and cheering was universal.

As I turned the corner there was a gap in a tall fence, for a few seconds I could see a large circle of men gathered in the front yard of the luxury villa project they were constructing. Over the fence I heard drumming, singing, laughing and the tinkling of tea being stirred. Their music reminded me of the folk music Mel and I fell in love with while travelling around Rhajasthan years ago.

Hats off to many of the Pakistani, Indian and Bangladeshi workers in our area who make the best of their lives here. Life isn't easy for them. They work long hours in the blinding heat, building luxury homes they can never afford to live in themselves and can never step into again the day after they complete them. They rarely see their families, and yet they send their paychecks home to them every month. Suicide, beatings and murder are not uncommon in labour camps, yet these men still find a way to  sing and play football at the end of the day.

In contrast, most western foreigners are forever looking for a way to cut themselves off. Hidden away in apartments or rooms, they don't want to see anyone else. They watch TV alone, eat alone, and feel all the more miserable for it.

My bike is definitely the best thing I've bought here. Cars race down the empty streets with their black tinted windows closed tight, the air conditioner blasting, like an antibacterial, hypoallergenic, climate-controlled bubble, insulated against everything real.

I love riding my bike and hearing the call to prayer on the wind. I like riding through empty lots where the sand has been packed down by foot traffic hard enough for me to ride my bike across. I know where there's a white mulberry tree, which house cooks Indian food every Friday and where there's a dead cat, half buried in the sand, that's slowly being mummified by the wind and heat.

On the way back from dinner it was after dark, but there was a full moon and I could smell flowers. 

Morning Walk through Naramata

Every morning my sister takes the dog for a walk. Now that I'm back in Naramata, I often join her. Here are some pictures I took last week along the route. 

Lilacs have come early this year, usually there are buckets

 full for May Day, on May 24th long weekend, but this year 

it looks like they'll all be gone by then.

Looking across the lake to Summerland

Wine boxes

Symbols of the past. 

These big red fruit bins were everywhere when I was a kid. 

These days you see them less and less as vineyards replace orchards.

The Heritage Inn, just down the street. 

Today the Inn houses a restaurant, hotel and spa, 

but in the past it was a girl's school and when I was a 

kid, the private residence of Mr. Robinson, 

one of Naramata's founders. My Grandma used to 

be Mr. Robinson's housekeeper, so I remember 

exploring the old rooms as a kid. 

Day 65: Terra Nova Rural park

Chef Ian shows us the layout of the park.

Chef Ian Lia has been talking about us coming out to Terra Nova since the first week of class back in January. A retired chef, these days Chef Ian puts all his energy into this park and the education that comes with it. (As can be expected, he is well-versed in dealing with the city and grant writing!) Now that spring has sprung, and final exams are looming, a group of us took a field trip out to Terra Nova Rural Park to check it out, and collect some herbs and garnishes for our final projects. 

Chef Ian and a project he's been working on with a group 

of student engineers. This contraption generates enough 

energy to run a lap top off a garden hose!

Terra Nova is more than just a park. It's an "outdoor classroom" which promotes the ideas of community, participation, local organic food and making healthy eating choices. I also got the  feeling that respecting and taking responsibility for the land are large areas of their ever-evolving curriculum. 

One of the coolest things they did last year was grow wheat. Then they harvested it, ground it up and made bread out of it - with elementary school kids! Fantastic!

Although it's still early spring, 

we still found a lot of produce to pick.

There's a large community garden on site, as well as a hazelnut orchard, 2 herb gardens, the soup kitchen gardens and a few large fields where they grew oats last year. The pear trees were in full blossom, and we visited the patch where the Japanese Fuki we used during Asia week grew. 

A classmate sampling from the herb beds.

Nice weather for early spring.

 The surprise of the day! You know cat tails that grow in marshes? 

 You can eat the tender part of the stem. It tastes just like melon! 

Here's Chef Ian snipping some up for us. 

And here's what I came home with, from find to fine dining....

(I love taking photos of weeds!)

The flowers off this plant are sweet, and the stem is square, 

the flowers may find their way onto our dessert.

Another flower, the buds on this tastes just like broccoli.

Garlic Chives, another cool garnish.

Thyme. I will never forget picking these 

tiny leaves off the stem at Market. 

Purple sage. My stove partners will be happy! 

I think one of our final exam 

dishes uses a fried sage leaf as a garnish.

Day 49: Lovage and Fuki

Spring is my favorite season by far. Especially after a hard winter, seeing fresh new shoots start to push up through the soil is absolutely exhilarating! 

So, I took a stroll through Queen Elizabeth park this weekend to see how the season is coming along. The park is just stone's throw from my house, but I hadn't actually made it over there yet, (shame on me!) This is what I saw...

A tree full of gorgeous pink blossoms...

... and Seasons in the Park. The look of the outside of this restaurant reminds me so much of The Peak restaurant in Hong Kong. There's a plaque on the outside commemorating Clinton and Yeltsin's dinner here during the Vancouver Summit in 1993. Someday I'm going to have brunch here.

Stray Blossom

Meanwhile, back at school...

Asian Greens Steamed Dumplings 

with Ponzu sauce and Ginger Threads

Menu development day. This time with an Asian theme. This one was the most difficult yet, we were given two vegetables we'd never seen before - lovage and fuki.

Our first dish was super simple, it might have passed on other days, but the Chefs were very hard on us today. Their criticisms were well-placed though and I agreed with almost everything they said - except one. 

This dish needed more colour and they didn't like the sauce in a bowl, they wanted it reduced down to a thick consistency and squeezed out on the plate. I agree with this whole heartedly, BUT, we were criticized for having fresh ginger as a condiment. This is one of my favorite ways to have dumplings in Taiwan, and dumplings were never served without fresh ginger julienne. Another way in which the palates of nationalities differs.

We were praised for the flavour of our dumplings though, and we actually made out own ponzu by reducing the juice of an orange and some rind and then adding it to light soy sauce. 

Steamed Salmon and Spicy Black Bean Sauce 

on Quinoa Fried Rice 

My partner and I were sure we were going to be criticized for having too much brown under our salmon as the rice and sauce turned out the same colour. The Chefs seemed Ok with that, they just wished there was less quinoa. 

Again we were praised on flavour of all the components.

Fuki Fries on Pork Fried Grains with Sweet Miso Sauce

This was our "out there" dish, I totally messed up and cooked the Kasha when it only needed to be toasted. The "fuki fries" were actually quite good, and my partner made the sweet miso sauce, which worked well with at the components. I think we did quite well, having never laid eyes on Fuki before. 

*Note the mess in the background, I had no faith this was going to make it to the table in this stack. So I took this picture at our station. It did make it, but waiting for our critique one collapsed. Luckily, I managed to reconstruct it just in time!

Flower Inspiration!

Since I've been surrounded by flowers over the past month, I've done this lino cut in celebration of all the blooms. It's called "Flower Mandala", and is quite small compared to the other big ones I've done in the past. I've hand-coloured them and plan to include them in the upcoming "Prints, Paintings and Pizza" show Mel and I are having at our friends Pizza place this month.

Mystery Flowers

Anyone know what kind of flowers these are? They remind me of Gerbera Daisies, but they look like they've been painted! I LOVE them! 

Mel and I found one flower bed full of them near a military building here in Sultanahmet. All of these pictures were taken on the south side of the bed, as the north side is a restricted no-go zone and guarded by soldiers with guns!

Emirgan Park - For Kate!

Kate regularly visits Butchart Gardens in Victoria and post the changes throughout the season. So last weekend Mel and I made the long traffic-clogged trek to Emirgan Gardens in Istanbul. 

The time to visit is now! As the municipality has made the park the central showpiece of it's Lale (tulip) Festival. This is a huge campaign designed to re-instate the tulip as a Turkish flower, (the Sultans gave a few of their prize tulips to Holland as a gift way back when and the Turks have been kicking themselves ever since!).

Emirgan park reportedly has over 5 million tulips, and there are another bazillion all around town and, of course, around my home in Sultanahmet. 

Emirgan Park has three pavilions, that were probably once summerhouses for the rich and famous. These days they have been lovingly restored and are popular places for breakfast. 

This one is called Sari Kosk, (yellow pavilion). There are also a pink and white pavilions elsewhere in the park that we didn't get to this time.

Kate has some gorgeous pictures of these flowers here, I find it interesting that the same flowers grow and are in bloom at the same time on opposite sides of the world!

This is what Emirgan Park is all about. I swear every little old lady in Istanbul who wears a headscarf was up there getting their pictures taken. This guy is taking a picture of his mom. 

...double tulips...

.... and more tulips.....

...and Mel frolicking in the tulips! 

Note* No tulips were injured in the taking of this picture. 

Pomegranates and Tulips

I actually found some lino cutting supplies in an art store a few weeks back, so I purchased, came home and messed around with it a bit.

Here's my lino sitting in the sun getting warm so I can make a few changes after the first proof.

The paper is wrong, it has a really heavy tooth to it so it doesn't print clearly, (in Turkey, if Canson didn't make it - it doesn't exist!). But it's just a proof to see how it looks. That it turned out square was a total surprise to me, although I should have seen it coming.

I've since found and purchased some smooth cream Canson and plan to give printing another go soon. I'd like to print it in another colour besides black but, unfortunately the store only carries black white and blue block printing ink, so I think I might be limited to a steely grey-blue colour.

Looking at it here now makes me think it might look pretty good printed on a pillow cover. What do you think?