operonscript.com

It’s been a busy couple of weeks. Last weekend we had a curry party at our place. We cooked three vegetarian curries, rice and a cucumber yogurt dip as well as partaking in chai and yummy desserts from Pushap. It was a really fun time.

Yesterday Dan and I joined some others at the Oka Abbey for a day of silence, meditation, appreciation of nature and stocking up on goodies from Oka. The weather was perfect - not a cloud in the sky and warm without being hot. The Abbey itself had very nice grounds but by far the best part was the little path off the grounds that led to a small river and a path leading to some fields. We were there quite early in the morning and there were hundreds of frogs hiding out under the grass in the path as we walked to the field. There were also all kinds of wild berries including some raspberries which looked awfully tempting. On the way back we saw some small chipmunks playing in the drain by the path - oh my were they ever cute! We had lunch beside the stream next to a few frogs and with a chipmunk watching us from the other side. Dan just about sat in a pool of tadpoles! In the afternoon we visited the Abbey store, which features products the monks from this and other abbies harvest/make. Of course there was Oka cheese, but also a large variety of chocolates, honey and bread. On the way to the abbey store was an impromptu farmer’s market in the parking lot where we got a very nice loaf of sourdough bread. But here is the best part - in Montreal we have been buying this wonderful homemade jam from a lady in Oka (some of you have received it as Christmas or birthday presents) - and the husband was selling jam at the market!! It was like meeting a rockstar - of jam. I bought a jar of strawberry rhubarb jam (a flavour I haven’t seen in Montreal) but decided against saying anything, as “I’m a big fan of you wife’s jam” would probably sound really lame in French.

It’s “harvest week” in Quebec so we took a trip with Sanan to Marché Jean-Talon to stock up on fruit for the winter. We bought big flats of blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, two baskets of grapes and a basket of kiwis (which only cost a dollar!) and hung out with Dave and Sanan while we prepared them for freezing. They’re in Sanan’s deep freezer right now, so now we just have to go and buy a freezer for ourselves. The little one in our refrigerator just doesn’t do the trick.

It’s been quite busy lately. I had really hoped to have updated my wordpress and gallery by now, but a continuing saga involving not being able to back up my data from the server has slowed things down significantly. I’m a bit frustrated and tired over the whole thing - it should be a simple and straightforward process and it’s dragged on over a month now with no success. Hopefully I can find the time to keep looking into the backup problem and actually get it sorted out soon.

We went to Paul’s birthday party yesterday and it was a lot of fun. We watched X-men 3 in the dollar theatre. It was a fun movie worth $1. I wish I could run through walls! We went to Pizza Hut for lunch and after that we hung out at the pool hall.

We’re having a curry party tonight, so we’ve got to clean up our place which is really a mess right now. I bought some desserts at Pushap yesterday and I can’t wait to eat them!

The weather has been really nice here the past few weeks. It’s about 20-25 degrees, not too humid, not too windy … just perfect, really. Highly enjoyable.

We had a dual housewarming party / birthday party for Dan yesterday which was a blast! Dan got about 6 chocolate bars and some stilton and I bought him the first season of The Raccoons which we will probably start watching today. We also received a tomato plant and a potted rose plant as housewarming gifts. I have to say I’m a bit daunted by the tomatoes since I have heard they are very hard to grow, but this one is quite large already so if I can learn how to keep it alive it should be ok.

Thanks to everyone who came - it was a lot of fun!