What An Afternoon….!!

The day started cloudy and remained so for the rest of the day, even though the sun bestowed a few short visits upon us. Being a not-so-hot-day I decided to continue my project on the east wall of our house, scraping and painting. Well, to be perfectly honest, I had replaced the scraping with a disc sander doing a much quicker work on old paint removal. Since I wanted to be able to hear when the phone was ringing (which it didn’t do) I grabbed my paint brush and the yellow house paint. I made good progress until all-of-a-sudden a monstrously big black insect flew a storm attack on my ringfinger. Before it even had settled there it had stung me so badly that my paint brush fell to the ground and I was starting to dance a wild flamenco on the roof. Even our neighbour who is engaged in similar chores, noticed me having a slight problem. Unfinished shingle… It is really too bad that no one was around with a video camera. It would have made the top ranking in America’s Funniest Videos (AFB). I was just trying to defend myself against this aggressive species of a hornet. Of course it managed to sting a finger on my other hand as well. Maybe it had an accomplice, I shan’t say, as it all went down so fast. After I had thrown everything in hand off me I got down of that roof pretty darn quick. What kind of behaviour is this after all? Why attack a peaceful painter with no bad intentions?? I ran into the house and heldt my hurting finger under cold water which helped a lot. Then I put my mouth to it and sucked as hard as hard as I could. That way I prevented the poison from going any further under my skin and my finger did not swell up. Since this incident my brain has been working overtime on how to eradicate those pesky insects. First thing tomorrow I will purchase a poison canon. Chemical warfare is the answer to those suckers. Daddy….what did you do…?

Death Lurking In Alberta Oilsands

Alberta oil sands have just claimed the lives of 30 Blue Herons. which have been found dead at Syncrude’s oil facility at Mildred Lake north of Ft.McMurray. And that is not the first time the same company is guilty of negligence in preventing massive death of wildlife. The big question is whether death of birds along toxic ponds is preventable at all. After all tailing ponds are highly toxic waste water reservoirs, containing massive chemicals which are used to separate out the tar from the oilsands.  Not a lake….but one of many Alberta’s toxic tailing ponds. And even though this case did not happen directly at a tailing pond, it shows that the area’s general pollution with oil and tar is totally out of any control, especially after the reign of 44 years with a conservative oil-corrupt government. Alberta's Energy Regulator (AER) says it is looking into what killed the birds at Syncrude's Mildred Lake facility, about 40 kilometres north of Fort McMurray, Alta. Bob Curran, a spokesman for the agency, says a Syncrude worker found one of the heron Wednesday. The animal was alive, but had to be euthanized. After the company searched the area, they found the rest of the birds dead in a run-off pond. Officials at Syncrude could not immediately be reached for comment. (Of course not, they never are) Five years ago, Syncrude was fined $3 million after 1,600 ducks died after landing on a tailings pond at a different facility in 2008. Last November, 122 birds were killed after landing in three tailings ponds in the area, including one at Mildred Lake. Curran said in that case, the wildlife deterrents were working properly and severe weather forced the animals to land in the ponds. So now birds are prohibited to fly under severe weather conditions as they have to do an emergency landing on a toxic tailing pond. I guess it’s the price we pay to have gas in our vehicles. Very sad!

Summer Winds And Summer Berries

I love summer. I always did. Summer is the time when every day’s little problems seem to be so much smaller, more solvable. Weather is usually beautiful in these parts and what I love most are the gentle winds of summer. The simple reason is that the winds are warm, yet cooling on a real hot day. They are lulling us into a feel of happiness. Days without wind tend to get too hot and steamy, until a nice breeze springs up cooling us down. When the tree crowns are starting to move and the flowers and meadows are dancing I feel the best. But as soon as the first days of fall have come the wind is changing its tone. No more gentle breezes but strong winds – almost storms - are then blowing off the sea. The wind gets colder and hostile and makes you grab your thick jacket. And once fall is over the wind is changing again. While it was cold before it is now ice-cold, downright freezing. Snow and sleet can be part of the mix. The east coast is known for being an inhospitable place during winter season.  Brrr…lets not go there yet. With summer comes also berry picking. We have been picking Red Currant and right now it’s time for Raspberries. For the last 4 days I have been picking over half a pound every evening. And now we even discovered several trees with Service Berries. They are also called Saskatoon Berries. They are very sweet and make for great pie fills!! Of course it’s a bonus if we have a summer wind blowing as it will keep away nasty bugs and mosquitos. Later we are gonna be flooded with Blackberries.   Blackberry (or Raspberry) Upside-Down Cake Original recipe makes 10 servings Topping: 1/4 cup brown sugar 2 tablespoons butter 2 cups fresh blackberries 3/4 cup white sugar Cake: 1 cup white sugar 1/2 cup butter, softened 2 eggs 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 2 teaspoons baking powder 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/4 cup milk 1 teaspoon vanilla extract Directions Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Melt brown sugar and 2 tablespoons butter together in a saucepan over medium heat. Add blackberries to brown sugar mixture; cook and stir until mixture bubbles, 1 to 3 minutes. Stir 3/4 cup white sugar into berries, crush berries slightly with a fork, and continue cooking until berries are hot and slightly broken-down, about 5 minutes more; remove from heat and pour into a 9-inch cake pan. Beat 1 cup white sugar and 1/2 cup butter together in a bowl with an electric mixer until light and fluffy; beat in eggs. Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt together in a bowl. Alternately stir flour and milk into butter mixture, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Mix vanilla into batter. Pour batter over blackberry mixture in the 9-inch cake pan. Bake cake in the preheated oven until cooked through, 35 to 40 minutes. Let cake cool in the pan until warm, but not completely cooled, about 30 minutes. Run a knife along the inside edge of the pan to separate cake from the sides, place a cake plate over the top of the pan, and flip the pan. Lift the pan slowly to release the cake from the pan

Summer Shanty Days

When the Bastardos went away the days became some sort of routine again. Bea went to work in her hotel and I….I had some more tourists for a tour of the island.   Last evening with “The Bastardos” However, FOGFEST went on with music everywhere and we visited a few of the venues. It had brought a lot of new folks to Campobello. We even had line-ups at the border again.                                           Sunset from “Friars Head” Most days were calm, but today a fresh wind sprang up from the west. No more fog! It became a picture perfect day for the 2015 Public Library Gala. At 12 noon I was at the library to enjoy “Before The Mast” , a group of men performing sea shanties. And if you don’t know a shanty from any other song I tell you that shanties were the songs of the sailors when working hard in the ropes and with hauling up cargo. Not so unlike the songs of African Americans the music sprang up through the work they did. So it is not surprising that many shanties are about purchased love in foreign harbours, about sailing to far-away Australia, and about bad weather as it also is about all the hard life and hard work they had to do onboard of a vessel.     A good shanty performance goes with a lot of body language and illustrating movements. “Before The Mast” had a stunning performance today and how appropriate this music is on an island that has survived through 3 centuries with a  seafaring population. I grew up in a northern German fishing harbour and for me coastal life is a 100 times more exciting and worth to live than a life on the prairies.