Showing posts with label wild berries. Show all posts
Showing posts with label wild berries. Show all posts

Saturday, July 23, 2011

meadows, etc

Back in the 1960s we lived in the east end of town (London, Ontario). The house used to be a farmhouse and recently before we moved in there used to be a restaurant in front of the house which had caught fire and burnt down. My father build a new addition to the front of the house. I saved an old text book on bacteriology that I had found in the basement and which I still have to this day. We lived in the house from 1961 until the summer of 1968.

For years there had been an empty field next door between us and the Kingsway Transport building down the road. During the summer, I would go off into that field to pick wild strawberries. They were small but very flavourful and well worth the effort. We'd clean them and have them with whipped cream or just some sugar sprinkled on top to add to the flavour.

Since we didn't have a garden as such (but we did grow some petunias around the patio outside the kitchen), I also collected wild flowers and grasses from the field for a vase. There would be various grasses like timothy or oat and rye grass plus various kinds of clover like red or white clover or perhaps some vetch and we can't forget the daisies! We learned to make due with what we had and could afford. That is just something that we did during the summer as kids! How's yours going? - V

Monday, June 8, 2009

antics

On my way back to the Lost Lagoon and downtown Vancouver I took the Tatlow Trail through the park. I always find the antics and activities of birds and animals interesting. Above, a grey squirrel played what seems to us as peek-a-boo but when it realized I had no food for it (its all about the food you know!), the squirrel went on its way.
I tried out some of the early salmonberries (above, related to the blackberries) but they're a bit tart yet. The birds (and others) have wasted no time in trying them just the same.

Then I took photos of a mallard duck (hen, the female) taking in some grit. She was very patient about the whole thing. They use the grit to grind their food as part of the digestion process. After that I ended up at the north end of the lagoon and headed on into the downtown to complete the last errand before heading home. - V.

Sunday, July 13, 2008

Saturday

This past week has been rather routine with nothing of great interest happening. Wednesday I made the mistake of having crumpets for breakfast before heading into work. What an error that was. I paid the price later in the afternoon with frequent trips to the washroom. Since I'm lactose intollerant or don't have enough enzymes to metabolize milk sugars, anything that has any milk in it will give me grief. The last time that happened was a couple of weeks ago after consuming a small piece of chocolate! I certainly didn't have that problem when I was younger but it is an issue now that I am well into adulthood. I am learning but I do have the occasional weakness for chocolate and such. Some old habits are hard to break!


Other than that, the work week was routine, so when the weekend came, I was so happy to do something that had nothing at all to do with work. After a glass-topped computer desk was delivered Saturday morning and some laundry was out of the way, I walked over to Braid SkyTrain station to catch a train to Brentwood station on my way to Burnaby Mountain. I walked up Willingdon to Hastings Street to catch the 135 bus to Simon Fraser University which is located on top of the mountain. From the campus it is a short walk to the western end of the mountain where the Horizon Restaurant is located. Great views of the lower mainland from there! On my way back to the bus stop I was eating salmonberries and huckleberries, both in season now. Both are a bit on the tart side, just the way I like them!

I arrived home exhausted and ready for bed but was back at it again on Sunday when I went into Vancouver for a walk along the seawall from one end to the other starting at the entrance off West Georgia Street. I ended up at the main beach at English Bay and was ready to return home afterwards for a short rest and then some supper. Now I am ready for bed once again to get ready for another work week. Hope you had a great weekend where you are and that your week to follow will be filled full of interesting things to keep you from getting too bored! Meantime, I am looking forward to Brad's arrival here in the west! Have a great week! - Volker