Our July storm bubble

A rain storm for the ages Anyone following the news reports from the Greater Toronto Area knows about the torrential rain and flooding that happened all across southern Ontario, as slow-moving thunderstorm fronts emptied more rain in two hours on the Toronto area than normally falls in a month. However, just as nearly everyone else was getting rained on in biblical quantity, our neighbourhood seemed to be in a dry bubble. We were outside trying…

Continue reading

Waiting for warm weather

After Easter, spring taking its sweet time The WordPress software on this site lets anyone register, and become a subscriber. As the web site owner, I have to manually “upgrade” subscribers to become “contributors,” which lets you write comments on the web site. I hope my friends and family add comments on my recently-published corn bread recipe. The computer generated registrants on this site, like those e-mail addresses from eastern Europe, and the anonymous ones…

Continue reading

Christmas 2012

Up go the 2012 Christmas decorations! As we begin to drag the boxes of Christmas decorations, ornaments and paraphernalia out of the basement, we remember the full-day task of getting them down way back in January. It always brings out the child in everyone to start decorating the house for Christmas time. Now that everything outside has been packed away and made ready for winter, we can turn our attention to the festive time of…

Continue reading

Good things grow

Our 2012 Ontario garden

With our assiduous watering, the garden has both blossomed in flowers, and borne us a bountiful crop of veggies this summer. Aside from being part of the cucumber salad, we can incorporate and garnish dishes and drinks with fresh mint from our garden. This is mint julep time, and mojito season.  We have plenty of mint leaves. We have always grown our share of fresh herbs, including  chives for our baked potatoes and fish dishes; lots of lemon balm, which makes a nice tea when infused. The chopped leaves are good in salads too.

Continue reading

Healthy Living Expo 2012

First non-Chinese co-chair I had just returned from a very short whirlwind holiday in Hong Kong, when I was approached by the Chair of the Mississauga Board of Chinese Professionals and Businesses (CPB) with an intriguing suggestion. He said that CPB had appointed a Co-Chair for their upcoming Healthy Living Expo, and suggested that I consider taking up the position of the other vacant Co-Chair. I accepted. And so began my journey of learning and…

Continue reading

Guyana-style heat

mississauga-tropical-heat

Of all the things I miss least about the land of my birth, the extended, humidity-laden, blast-furnace Guyana summer heat ranks pretty high on that list. Yet that is what the Mississauga summer has been from the outset. Day after rainless day of high humidity and relentless sun. It’s hard to stay outside during our all-too-short Mississauga Ontario summer with the heat and humidity sapping your energy all too quickly.

Continue reading