Bowie

The first band I saw in concert was the Moody Blues when I was six or seven. We saw them at Canada’s Wonderland in Toronto. Our day was spent going on the rides and walking back to the parking lot to eat sandwiches and salads from our cooler.

When the sun was getting ready to finally give us some space, my parents spread a blanket out on the grass where we could see the stage. We relaxed on the blanket and enjoyed the music.

“I want to see a show this summer,” my husband tells me many years later. I do a quick search in our vicinity, and I find one: a Sam Roberts concert in Mont-Tremblant.

“Do I know that band?” Phil asks. I list off some songs I think he knows. We listen to some on YouTube. Phil agrees that it could be a good choice.

“It’s nice up there,” I say. “We could find somewhere to stay and have a mini-vacation.”

“Can I come?” my son asks. It seems like a good setting for his first concert, so I say yes.

A couple days later, my son and I are having a video chat with my sister.

“Tell her what we’re doing this summer,” I say.

My son’s eyes light up. “We’re going to a David Bowie concert!” he says.

Three recipes in one: French onion soup, French onion dip, French onion slow-cooker pot roast

If you read about my recent cheese adventure, then you may remember that I picked up a nice Swiss cheese at Fromagerie St-Fidèle in La Malbaie, Quebec. It seemed like a good excuse to make some French onion soup.

Over the years, I have tried different recipes, some more complicated than others. This time, I decided to just wing it. Here is what I did.

French onion soup

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Garden Star of the Week: Phlox

A previous owner of my house planted these, and I am always happy to see them bloom.

Phlox can come in creeping varieties that are used as ground cover, and also standing varieties that stretch above your other plants. I have one of the tall varieties.

My phlox (phloxes?) are a pretty and light purple colour. They stand out against the dark brown of the wood siding on my house, and they also attract butterflies. Who doesn’t like butterflies?

The flowers are also star-shaped, which seems as good a reason as any to name this attractive plant Garden Star 🌟 of the Week. Welcome to the club, phlox!

Video: Happy Skull Camping Park: Part one: Cam

As promised, here is a campfire video.

Welcome to the Raccoon Brontosaurus Campfire Channel. It’s like the Fireplace Channel, except I’m reading you a scary story.

You can read the original story here, and if you can’t wait until the video next week to find out what happens next, you can read part two here.

This week I’ve added music to my video. The song v_spoopy was composed by my husband, Philip Marlatt. There’s also some fine voice acting by an eastern screech owl that was hanging out around our backyard. The writing and artwork were done by me.

Here is a gallery of the artwork in the video.

Tourtière

It is Thanksgiving, but my son and I aren’t celebrating. I recently started a new job, and he recently started kindergarten. We are both just happy to have a long weekend to relax.

I’m not going to make a turkey dinner for the two of us, but it is a long weekend, so maybe I’ll get something a little festive. As we walk up and down the grocery store aisles, I see the frozen tourtières. A tourtière is sort of festive, I guess. I put one in my cart.

It is easy to make. All I have to do is put the frozen meat pie in the oven and wait. My son and I enjoy our slightly festive dinner.

A week goes by. Temperatures are getting lower and the air is more refreshing. The trees look like they’re going to a festival with all of their bright leaves on display.

My son brings home an assignment that he had at school. The top of the sheet says, “Draw a picture of what you ate for Thanksgiving.”

My son has carefully drawn a brown circle. At the bottom, his teacher has written, “A little more detail next time, please.”

There’s a man in my house who claims to be my cat

Hello, my dear readers! Today is Wednesday and it is time for some fiction. I do have another horror story for you, but this one has more jokes than the last one.

The last thing that I want to see is some guy that I don’t know sitting on my couch when I get home from work.

A heavy ball of nausea drops to the bottom of my stomach. I am trying to remember where I put my phone so I can call the police.

“Who are you and why are you in my house?” I say as I shove my hands into every single one of my pockets.

“What do you mean?” he says. “It’s, me, Freddie.” He jumps onto the floor and lays on his back. He arches his belly at me. He curls his hands over his chest with his fingers pointing down.

My pockets are empty. “Freddie who?” I say as I move on to my purse. It feels like someone is dribbling a basketball in my chest.

“Freddie Purrcury,” the man says sadly. “Don’t you recognize me?”

“Freddie Purrcury my cat?” My phone is not in my purse either.

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Fromage-er-oui!

My family and I recently went on a road trip in the province of Quebec. I have lived in the Montreal area for many years now and I’ve been on road trips before, but I’ve never stopped at a fromagerie. I have seen signs on the road announcing their presence all over the place, and I’m very enthusiastic about cheese, but for some reason, I never stopped.

For this road trip, I told my husband and son that I wanted to stop whenever we saw a sign that said “fromagerie.” I was also willing to stop for the word “laiterie.” Now I’m writing a blog post so that you can join us on this delicious journey.

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August update

I have posted on this blog every day since June 8. It’s been years since I’ve been writing with any sort of regularity, so it feels pretty good.

As you may have noticed, I’ve mostly been writing vignettes. Some of these depict recent scenes, but many of them are old snapshots of my life from way back. I thought it might be a good idea to post a monthly update to share what’s happening with my blog and what’s happening in my life.

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Video: Whale watching

You can read the vignette presented in this video here.

The video includes my artwork, and also some footage from our more recent whale watching tour last week. This time we were armed with Gravol and we didn’t get sick.

Here is a gallery with some pictures from the tour and with the artwork from the video.

Garden Star of the Week: Tomatoes

For many gardeners, the part of summer when the tomatoes are ripe is the best time of year. There is nothing more delicious and rewarding than a fresh tomato from your garden. Whether you grew them from seed or acquired some small tomato plants, you did it, baby! It’s time to enjoy the benefits of your labour.

Maybe you plan on making sauce, or maybe you just plan on having salads and sandwiches that are more tasty than usual. At this time of year, I just add fresh tomatoes to basically whatever I’m making. I’m making pasta? Throw in some tomatoes at the end. Omelet? Oh look, now it’s a tomato omelet. Cheese plate? Who doesn’t love tomatoes with some fancy cheese? You get the idea. We love tomatoes! It was inevitable that they would be named Garden Star 🌟 of the Week.