Muskoka South

Decided we needed some chairs for the front porch, that wouldn't get whipped around by the Fabled Winds of Wheatley. Jane found a good deal at Canadian Tire on some cedar Muskoka chairs.....with "some" assembly required. Any of you that know me realize that even the simplest "assembly" may entail several beverages and much cursing. After the BBQ though, the chairs were fairly straightforward. The entire operation was conducted with the "assistance" of several cats, and under the watchful eye of Mother Swallow sitting on eggs in her nest above the porch.

On a completely unrelated note - it's still May and we have ripe strawberries in the garden!

Duck Duck Goose

Couldn't resist a few shots of Canadian Geese and their fuzzy offspring on an undisclosed riverbank. Didn't get any shots of them running with their clumsy gait and half developed wing stumps, though I enjoyed watching it myself. The rest of you will just have to imagine that part....

One Dirty Evening

The long weekend and dry weather made an excellent combination for a night at South Buxton Speedway and some dusty dirt track stock car racing. We didn't make it out much last year, due partly to a number of rain-outs. The clay track does not tolerate excessive moisture very well.

Perfect night for racing as long as you don't mind a thin film of dirt on everything. Lots of yellow caution flags in the feature races kept us there later than usual, but also made for some good racing chaos. No drivers were harmed in the making of this blog post.

The highlight of the evening was Jane's cover version of the Stealers Wheel classic, "Stuck in the Middle", with slightly altered lyrics...."smokers to the left of me, peanuts to the right, here I am.....stuck in the middle with you". Context - three chain smokers to our left and a couple with a large bag of peanuts in the shell to our right had Jane in a singing mood. Once the dust kicked in, she should have told them all to kiss her asthma.

Propane Jane

Just in case SOME of you thought we only had a wood-fire BBQ because I didn't assemble it properly to functional status....tonight we tried the propane half and side burner of the new apparatus. Jane whipped up some herbed chicken and a mess of various vegetables for grilling, including sweet potato, zucchini, mushrooms, onions, and fresh local asparagus. Delicious, and complete with dessert - grilled pineapple dusted lightly in brown sugar. We even pulled out the picnic table and ate outdoors, given this fabulous May weather.

Early Birthday Present

A combination of the subterfuge of Jane and the generosity of others led to a surprise early birthday gift this weekend - a new BBQ. The old one is slowly disintegrating, and the burners are shot to the point where you have two choices of cooking spots - huge gout of flame leading to "Cajun" style everything, or dark spots with no heat whatsoever leading to uncooked meat.

It was decided by this nefarious enclave of shadowy patrons that I would not only benefit from a new BBQ for my birthday, but that obtaining it sooner would allow me to enjoy it ALL summer. Methinks there may be some less-than-altruistic motivations among those more inclined to dine with us on a semi-regular basis, yet one cannot look a gift BBQ in the mouth....or lid....or whatever. The associated cruel irony would be that in order to "enjoy" the birthday gift, the lucky recipient must first assemble said contraption. Armed with the requisite case of OV, I set about the task....even "helped" briefly by the ever-social Pita.

The coolest thing about THIS BBQ is that while the right side has a standard triple-burner propane setup (and side burner)....the left side is set up for charcoal and/or wood fire instead! Both options in ONE BBQ! Once assembled, Jane for once put her Girl Guide repertoire to use for good, and NOT for evil, quickly stoking a cooking fire in the left side...and soon after we enjoyed a delicious feast of wood-fired burgers as our first meal to mark the triumphant completion of assembly.