Sherbrooke is buzzing with tourists and festivals are on

Wellington south and north have stages setup for the blues festival. Lac Nations is gearing up for their summer concerts and has closed off part of the entrance to the walk about on the lake. The farmers have setup their stalls to sell their fruit and vegetables. The old gare is selling home made ice cream 6 different flavors of chocolate is one of my favorite with a hint of cayenne pepper. There is great walk about off the hydro dam, where you cross the bridge with the water falls under it, which brings you a forest pathway and on to historical murals and history tags. The walk leads you back Lac Nations. The Pools hours have been extended and beach is open to lounge on.

The heat wave of June 2018 had Sherbrooke city steaming. The air was so thick, you could hardly breath. I was watering my plants at 3:am and any needing it during the day; as well early evening. This morning, with my morning coffee, I am outside on the balcony, enjoying the mornings blue sky, with a light breeze and a stream of sunshine brightening the balcony plants. It is early enough that it is still quiet out, except for the bird’s calls and song. The new neighbor has just moved in below, they've chosen to eat outside and their voices are low, but you can hear the cling, cling of the utensils’ hitting their plates.

Yesterday, I took myself out for breakfast; I haven't done that in years. Off of King Street west and cite is a place called Charlie's. They have an outdoor terrace. I chose my spot and service, was ordered. I took some pictures of my surroundings, while sipping my coffee and waiting for my eggs.

The food and the service was top notch, I left there smiling after I settled the cost. I met a lovely couple with a gorgeous, husky looking sorte of dog with blue eyes. I watched as the waitress brought the dog, some water. The couple and I chatted a little while they waited for their meal. Born from around the region, they are were curious about where I was from and what I did, and how I liked living here. It is funny how much you open up to strangers, with so much ease at times. I stopped by the bakers on my way home, and picked up some cheese bread and fresh ground coffee. Saturday turned out to be chilly, the wind on the third floor didn't make for a pleasant stay on the balcony. But you could do laundry or bake in the oven, kind of day.

I  made Vegetable patè

I followed this recipe my colleague at work gave me. She attends a collective cooking class, and she brings in some awesome stuff, to try. So she me gave the recipe, which you can adjust, to taste, or with whatever going in your fridge and cupboard. The basics are as follows

3/4 cup raw sunflower seeds (grated in a food processor)

½ cup of Flour (I choice whole wheat flour)

½ cup Nutritional yeast (bought my bag on Amazon)

I big onion

I raw potato (grated in a food processor)

A carrot (grated in a food processor)

2 table spoons of lemon juice

½ cup of Butter

1-1/2 cups of hot water

Thyme, basil, garlic cloves (grated in a food processor) or powder

Mix all the ingredients and put casserole dish

One hour, or less, prick with a toothpick like you would do for a cake. At 375f in temperature

I also added, both garlic powder, cayenne pepper, red pepper flakes, zucchini, caramelised the onions, ( you can roast the garlic too if you like). I added more lemon juice, and just a little less water to keep the liquid ratio. (The batter looks the same as if you were making a cake) It was absolutely delicious, I couldn’t stop eating it,  I want to buy tamari sauce, and add a hint of it, some grated chick peas, and sweet potatoes next time, to give it a real protein kick to it.  You could even throw in a few pieces of dried peas, or some green or red lentils.

it comes to 16 pieces so I will cut the recipe in half. 

My garden has been sculpted and is growing in nicely. I had to keep in mind this year, that the firemen or emergency services could get to me if needed. So they asked me to keep that in mind when I did my garden this year. So 5 flower boxes are off the floor, and the round ones attached to side of the railing off the floor, and so only 10 flower pots are lined about against the railing in a row. The rest of the 18 pots are hanging by a multipurpose tie or sitting on the railing attached with 4 small screws and multipurpose ties for security that they won't go flying off because of the high winds.
                                

 I hung up LED lights that I bought on Amazon, along my Lounge chair. They glisten orange, purple and switch to blue and red. I hadn't expected that when I read the description, but pretty neither the less.

I ran it along the balcony railing and stuck the stick light on top of the flower pot hanging off the other balcony. It stays lite for 3 to 4 hours at night.

I put the flags up and stuck them in the two hanging pots.

I planted a lot of seeds of wild flowers for the bees and the butterflies. 3 flower pots of tomatoes, which I had to read about and watch videos on; how to control the growth of the plants. So, I have been cutting off the shots that grow on the sides of the main stem. And when it reaches the height I want it at, I can then control the length. I seeded, basil, and chives, green onions, dill, parsley and lettuce. 
My home made mayonnaise, is so much fun to make and pours easily over my own lettuce leaves, by adding alittle more liquid to my recipe for salad dressing..
in the measuring cup it came with, I used the hand blender, once I added
At room temperature egg
Mustard ( 2 tsp)
Vinegar
Real lemon juice
Crush garlic
Cayenne
Thyme
Fresh dill
Salt
Pepper
Red chili peppers
Paprika
Garlic powder
3/ 4 cup of olive oil (add more liquids for making salad dressing)
I followed the videos from YouTube, top chefs, like Oliver, Ramsey. I kept the hand blender on the bottom of the measuring cup, I pulsed twice and then held on for 3 minutes or so, until the oil on top started to blend in and then slowly lifted the handle up,  thickening perfectly . Refrigerate for an hour. Delicious...

I find imagination, when you don't know what to do with left over’s and fresh veggies, fun. I had a small amount of hummus left, so I decided on chopping up some green onions, a celery, mushrooms, zucchini and a yellow onion, very thin and fine. I took the hummus and throw it in the same pan the other ingredients were cooking in, . I took a fork to the hummus and squashed in an avocado. Then used the same fork to crush the cooking finely chopped ingredients into the sauce I was making for the steaming veggies of sweet potatoes, carrots, asparagus and snow peas. Added some more cumin, cayenne pepper and pumpkin seeds to the sauce and later poured it over the veggies.

I have been really busy, working, although, right now I am on vacation. Work slows down in the summer and will shortly start back again, soon. So I now have more time to pay attention to other projects, I haven't had the mind set to finish. The first lounge chair I bought, got setup, in the living room, as there is no room for a couch. It's a multipurpose room of art table and supply cabinet, table of plants, a rocking chair and side table and a kitty corner metal 4 stand rack filled with knickknacks, wifi, plants, books and such. So the Lounge chair was put in so I could be in an air conditioned space to work or sleep. I have had to use it to sleep in there during the heat wave. The windows in the other room that is half bedroom and half office do not open. The entrance to the bedroom/office is a wide opening, there is no door, just two steps to enter it. It is a huge room with a ceiling fan and two other fans that try to push the heat out as much as possible into the living room where the air conditioner is. It gets up to 28c in that room so it is impossible to have a comfortable sleep or work in there. So I had to go buy myself another lounge chair for the balcony, there was a sale on in the mall, I shop at. So the day I went off to get it, I get off the bus hold on to the aqua blue lounge chair and see money floating in the air, it was a windy day, so I followed where it would fall and retrieved off the ground $40.00 that no one came to claim. So the lounge chair was free. 

My birth mom and I talk regularly, she updates me on her news and then she relayed, that her sister died, my aunt. Oh, non, moma, desolè, et tu d'accord? I said to her. Her sister, had been living in a nursing, home, with dementia/Alzheimer’s disease; she had caught a cold of sorts, and the staff hadn’t been hydrating her enough, she hadn't been eating, and so she died. My mother being the loving sister and compassionate soul, that she is. Was torn between, the ‘loss off and she is better off’, considering the conditions. My mom, faithfully, visited her sister, every week; our weekly/biweekly chats, she'd always filled me in on how her sister was doing, from her last visit. Sometimes, her sister would beg her, to take her home with her. But my mom had done that with her, in the beginning of the dementia journey. But now she is violent, and bad tempered; more challenging to handle. My mom, being 77 yrs old, with a live in boyfriend, still recovering from heart surgery and all complications that followed after. My mom has enough on her plate, and her most important job, we keep reminding her, is to take care of herself, first. One story she shared with me, was her sister's, birthday... I think the tale is last summer's conversation. My mom, and her sister's, niece and nephew, brought a cake into the nursing home. Traditionally they have cake in the garden. But that year, it was raining. So my mom, lite the candles, and all of a sudden, the sprinklers set off, in their state of shock and surprise, the staff came running, as alarms went off. Firemen arrived....Good looking ones at that, she said. So, we know now, don’t light candles inside nursing homes, she says. She leaves behind her adult children, grandchildren, and her 7 siblings. Blessed and peaceful journey!

My mom says, she thinks that she is next, as she is now the eldest of the 7 siblings, remaining.  It's not the first time, we have had the..."when I go" conversation. I always tell her,, when it starts of in that direction, ' Je te veux, Moma, pour que tu reste toujours dans ma vie, je ne veux jamais, que tu partes'. Elle rit, (she laughs)  'ma plus jeune fille dit la même chose, que toi', she says...
My mom drives to yoga, dance classes, that my younger, half, sister teaches, 5 times a week. Sometimes if I call on Sunday, her boyfriend will answer, and say 'elle n'est pas ici, elle a allèe dance avec ses gogoboys'. It cracks me up every time he says that. He had trouble saying my name so he calls me MarieLou. My birth mom, gardens, goes up and down her stairs, reads, does games; she is both physically and mentally in better shape than most people, including me. Fingers crossed, to many more... moments.

I called my birth mom, at 9:30 am, her tone suggested she was detached, by her response in just hearing, 'Oui', instead of her usual 'hallo, ca va'?  I asked her how she was, she said, 'Je me prépare pour le service de ma soeur, aujourd'hui.'  'oh', I said, so her adult children, decided to give her a service, after all. Good….We talked about who was attending, and what she was wearing; the research they were doing on dementia, and Alzheimer’s, how diet and memory exercises and challenges were important in daily life. She said something along the lines, of, how when someone, has become incapacitated and no more autonomy on their lives, there should be a pill for that. It made me think of the needle shot a vet gives, to your special pet, to finish their life to a peaceful sleep; your left feeling torn…and then we arrived at the topic of what kind of, all in one service, she was attending. Not like the ones, I've attended in the past, where you are running to 3 different places through the process, until the third journey, which is the reception….. I, ended the call with…   ….'Je penserai à toi, et ta sœur aujourd'hui, je t'embrasse'.  And she responded, before I hung up the phone in it's cradle; 'Oui, merci, je t'embrasse aussi, on parlera la semaine prochaine... au revoir.'

It is not easy, watching your loved ones struggle from their former selves into a shell of their previous existance. To feel so helpless; how much bravery it truely takes, as you stand in watch of all the changes. It effects everyone that loves that person. My heart goes out to all the families suffering, how courageous of them all. As they face it all together...

July seems like it going to go quickly like June did. August has family coming up and I believe a friend is coming that same month too. I am so looking forward to seeing everyone. 

Well that is it for now

Until next time stay active, steadfast and true to you

Cheers xo