Dot and Cliff

There are a few ways that I know that God loves us. One of them is that he allowed us to buy this wonderful home four years ago in this great neighborhood. But just so we did't miss the point, God gave us people like Dot and Cliff as neighbors. Dot and Cliff are about as close as we can get to replacement family here in our little town. You couldn't order better neighbors, even if you were a part of a home owners association.

Last week were honored to help Dorothy and Cliff celebrate 50 years of marriage. A milestone rarely reached, rarely celebrated, and rarely attended with smiles and laughter from the bride and groom.




Not that their whole life has been a party. Cliff and Dorothy have had their share trials. They have shared a life of special parenting, of loving and serving a son who's needs were tremendous.
Dot and Cliff have had their share of tears and trials.



We were more then happy to gather and watch them cut their cake, renew their vows, and look back on their life. Dot and Cliff bought the house to next ours when it was brand new. Our house was built a year or two before theirs, and they've watched families come and go from this street. They've got stories about who used to live where - when they moved out and who moved in. I've often called Cliff to ask him about our house's history. For anyone who owns an old home, you know how priceless it is to have that information.

I invited Cliff inside our house for something shortly after I bought it. I'll never forget Cliff standing in the kitchen and saying "it's been 40 years since I've been in this kitchen." I haven't even been alive for 40 years. It's so hard for me to grasp that thought.




Dot and Cliff call us at work when we have a package on our front door. They often take it into their house, or sign for it (whatever that package may be :)

I've borrowed Cliffs tools more then I care to admit (and have broken a few of them).

Dorothy has taken care of my pet lizard for heavens sakes! While we were in Canada, she's fed and watered my chameleon and my praying mantis! I'm not sure my wife would do that for me!




As a young couple you look forward to kids, grand kids, to connecting with other families with kids. But God had a different plan for these two. He gave them a job to do, and then he gave them the love and ability to do it.

It's been a year since Jeffery went home to be with the Lord, leaving these two parents to figure out how life works without him. We know we can't imagine how that transition has been for them. But from our point of view (across the lawn) they seem to be doing pretty good, and for that we praise the Lord for continuing to give them grace and love.

Ruth and I really want God to use us to show His love to our neighbors. But it's neighbors like Dot and Cliff who remind us of God's love for us.




Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work:
If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up!
Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone? Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken. - Ecclesiastes 4:9

Guten Tag!

German genes, that's what me and Royden have. Between the two of us we have a lot of them, heck we may even be distant cousins. You laugh, but when our good friend David married our cousin Kristy we found out that grandma Mary was from the same European village as David's grandfather. So...it's a small world.

Our grandparents and great grandparents had some pretty amazing stories to tell about their life experiences. Several of them endured displacement from Poland to Russia during the second World War and endured much hardship. Eventually they immigrated to Canada. Thankfully some of them wrote out their life stories, which I really need to read again.

Our German grandparents have given us a very good heritage and we have much to be thankful to them for. The greatest legacy they left was their faith in Jesus, which they passed down to us. That makes me think of Proverbs 22:6 'Train a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not turn from it'. We praise the Lord for the gift of our grandparents!

Our German relatives also passed down a few other things to us including: the need for clean, a tendency toward stubborness, a taste for halva and a strange love of...saurkraut. And that my friends is what inspired this post. I decided to turn our meal during community group last night into an Oktoberfest party. FYI community group is code for bible study...so if we ever invite you over for an Oktoberfest party with our community group look out for the bait a switch!



Meet Helga. Fortuntely she was only at our party in spirit. I would say our bent for beer was not something passed down with those genes...but I do recall a particular grandmother with a penchant for the dark stuff. She might not appreciate me blowing her cover but it can't be that bad if monks invented the stuff and Martin Luther let his wife run a brewery eh?

So there you have it. Of course some of our friends weren't too keen on the fermented cabbage. Good thing I didn't tell them the stories about how back in the day when Royden's family made it they would let the freshly bathed little ones jump around in the cabbage in the tub as part of the canning proccess!

Since you're supposed to listen to German music at an Oktoberfest party we subjected our friends 'Fettes Brot' the only German music I had. It's rap and we had to skip all the songs with English since it seems they only know English expletives. I can't judge them since the only German word I know is schiesser and I use it often enough that Royden regrets that he ever taught it to me. He has been known to remind me not to say it in front of his many relatives who still speak German. "You know it's still a real swear word right?". Uh huh.

I can forgive those who loathe saurkraut...since I used to be one of them. I thought I'd try to make it up to them by plying them with this:

The key ingredient in this:

I think they left happy.

Bees!

Insects. Who would have thought you'd find bug photos on the Lepp's blog.



This summer, Ruth and I went home to Salmon Arm to spend some extra days in the Okanogan sun. To my pleasant surprise, my Uncle Larry has started a honeybee farm. I've always wanted to be a bee farmer. There's something fascinating about overseeing a colony of creatures, a city of citizens all carrying out their life's purpose under your management. Fascinating!



And we got a jar of fresh honey, and it's incredibly delicious. Thank you Larry and Marlyn!




The other activity that found the attention of my lens while we were home was the Interior Provincial Fair in Armstrong.

Ruth, who likes to ride tractors...





...and me and my Dad...

...who also likes to ride tractors...

..wandered around the crazy midway of a small town fair.

We enjoyed the famous mini donuts.

We found this crazy sight...

A traveling RV, driven by a crazy old guy that turns into a mini reptile/insect museum. Ruth warned me that I would have ended up like this without her.

Likely true.

Onto my favorite part of the fair, the livestock exhibits!

I was mostly attracted to the incredibly colorful fowl barn. I aim to one day buy a couple bantam chicken eggs and keep some chickens in my backyard. Not for the eggs, but so I can keep some crazy looking chickens.

We then headed back to the midway and ate some... chicken quesadillas. :( So tasty.

Thanks for the trip to the Fair Dad!

That's all for now. Here comes fall.

Serious Pie

Some of you familiar with the Seattle area will recognize that I borrowed the name of Tom Douglas' famous pizza restaurant as the title for this post. The following will be all about pie...

I love to eat pie, and love to make pie. I would love for Tom to make ME pie. But he charges a lot. This we discovered after attempting a 'quick bite' at Lola last night. Awesome. Expensive. I'll be eating at home for the rest of the month, it's a good thing I like to cook.

These are the shoes Royden wishes I'd wear in the kitchen. Okay, okay. I probably don't OWN the shoes he wishes I'd wear...maybe these are the shoes I wish I could wear.

With cooking and nursing comes standing. With standing, sore feet and varicose veins.

These are the lovelies I actually wear. My compression stockings were apparently shipped today. Not quite what Royden had in mind?



So my friend Sarah tagged me in a meme. I'm not exactly sure what a meme is but I think it's code for chain letter (ack!). I'll have to wiki it later ;) Anyway, she must have known I've had the cooking bug lately (there is much rejoicing in my home when this happens because it gets rarer and the fridge barer the more hours I work).

The idea of the meme is to take an ingredient from the Molasses Sugar Cookie recipe she posted and post my own recipe using that ingredient. So I picked Fig and Fennel Pizza using CINNAMON! I'll just post a link to the recipe since the foodies among you may appreciate that blog too: http://foodblogga.blogspot.com/2007/09/fresh-fig-and-fennel-pizza-and-best.html

The four fabulous cooks I've tagged are Aunty Lynn the African cook, my friend Addie whose home is easily one of my favorite places to eat, Brenda who may chose not to partcipate due to um...being due to deliver a bun in the oven and Lesley my favorite southern belle.

If I have tagged you...choose one ingredient from my recipe and post a recipe using this ingredient on your blog, linking back to the previous blogs that have posted a recipe. Then tag four new people, and we will see how it grows. To keep it exciting please post within a week of receiving the tag.

This is the only meme I have participated in, which means I get more excited over four potential recipes then 21 pairs of fancy underpants (some of you will remember that pyramid scheme). If you chose not to partcipate I will not be offended.



The pizza was pretty d.lish. However I would recommend using good quality gorgonzola. I have a dough making aversion so I just use Boboli for the crust.



In keeping with the pie theme I thought I'd post the latest tart I made. Pie, tart. Close enough

The grand finale of this lenghty post was to be a decadent pie made with these hand picked wild blackberries (that drew blood I might add). However, due to the above noted dough making aversion the berries are currently shivering in my freezer.

Focus!

For all the decent shots I post on this blog, none of you have any idea how many photos it takes me to arrive at decent. Shot after shot after shot. And sometimes I can shoot all day long and it's a big waste of 1's and 0's and right index finger flexing. However going through photos afterwards, I always find that there's a bit of a narrative as you look at each photo in sequence. You can see me searching for that "best composition". It entertained me so I'm sharing some here.

Ruth and I went camping this summer. We always say we're going to go, and then never book the site. This year, Ruth booked a site many months in advance. We decided to explore a new island; Orcas Island.

It was a beautiful island to visit. Our favorite thing (as we've shown often on this blog) is going to a new place and exploring. Whether it's the busy streets of New York, the sparkling lights of Las Vegas, or the Pottery havens of the local islands, we're up for a walk down main street to find some good art, good coffee, and good food.

But first, I need to make a fire because we're camping.

Ah, making a fire. One of the few things I can do that makes Ruth think I have secret powers. I can't fix that rattle my car is making. I can't do the downstairs remodel or rebuild our aging deck. I can't fix the poorly draining shower or the non functioning entry light switch.

But gosh darn it in light drizzle I can make a raging fire with nothing but a few overpriced logs, a lighter, a hatchet and some soggy newspaper.

I make fire!

And Ruth makes dinner.

We have a camping tradition (if you can call something a tradition that you've only done about three times). When we're cooking over an open fire, we like to try to eat as good, or slightly better then we eat at home. We've found that a plate of food on your lap cooked over the fire in front of you, tastes better then food on a table cooked inside the oven behind you. Strange math but it works.

Orcas island was like most other Gulf or San Juan islands; it's full of hippies. But we love hippies. Hippies make good pottery. They're wonderful guests and they're always friendly. We'd likely be hippies ourselves if it wasn't for the hemp dress code and the patchouli oil.

We happened to be in Orcas Island the same time as summer solstice, so we were able to take it in the main street parade, followed by the xylophone concert and art fair in the park. It's like they knew we were coming.

I love these chairs.

Someday when I'm incredibly wealthy I'll take one of these chairs to an architect and say "Build me a house to match this chair!"

Back to camp for some more outstanding food from Ruth!

I don't know what it is with fire. So much more entertaining then TV. So much more relaxing and calming. What is it about fire that boosts morale? They say that when you're lost in the woods, it's important to make a fire to boost your morale? I bet the same couldn't be said of an industrial space heater. Say you were lost in the woods and came a across a huge space heater that kept you warm all night. I bet it wouldn't be the same as a little fire in a little fire pit. Snapping and crackling and glowing all night long.

Admit it, you want to see more fire photos because they make you feel comforted!?

We also took a hike in the rain.

Another fun excursion with my lovely wife. Ruth and Royden travel guides give Orcas two thumbs up!

Sugar Sugar

Sugar, ahh,

Honey, honey.

You are my candy girl,

And you got me wanting you.

You may want to open a new tab and listen to this while you read: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGL4btEIoTo

Date night found us making candy. And cupcakes. Actually candy garnish for the cupcakes. While on Orcas Island (to be posted at a later date) I found Martha Stewart's new Cupcake book. Oh me oh my. I needed it. However I resisted the urge to support the sweet island of Orcas and ordered the book on ebay when I got home at half the price. This was a good choice because I soon realized I need some new tools to copy Martha. Offset spatula? Check. Candy thermometer? Check.

I had heard that Martha's recipes could be little labour intensive. I was not daunted, 'it can't be that hard' I thought. Hard, not so much but time consuming, yes. The following cupcakes are about the most labour intensive things I have ever made. Worse than pies and creme brulee that's for sure! From the cake batter to the icing to the garnish...all together a lot of work. I think I may retire back to my trusty cupcake mix. Apparently the women who use these recipes don't have jobs or houses to look after...let alone small children!!

I am slow in the kitchen, this I know from cooking pizza's with Mrs. Miller. She is amazing. I have a little ADD when it comes to reading recipes and tend to read them over and over again. However even accounting for this handicap the process was a bit ridiculous. Royden tried to make me feel better by reminding me that Martha went to jail for awhile and maybe she made up the recipe there since you know, time isn't really of the essence when one's in jail. Or is it?

So there you go. My masterpiece. Humid Seattle did not like my candy. They do NOT look like the picture. Martha also failed to mention that the candy is impossible to remove from items without the help of boiling water and a razor blade. She also failed to mention that the thin shreds of candy are capable of shredding ones hands and mouth.

I'm gonna make your life so sweet.

Girl's Getaway

Many of you are well aware that I am an island junkie and that if given the opportunity I will extoll the merrits of Salt Spring Island to the extent that I might even plan the vacation for you. In fact, I like that little gulf island so much that I helped send the Gerlach's there for their honeymoon seven years ago, before I myself had ever been there. And they liked it! I'm sure their approval had nothing to do with the rose coloured glasses of recent matrimony.

So since mom had a birthday and we are both having a crappy year worthy of escape, I stole her away for a little r & r. Actually, make that just r. No boys, no laptops, no phones and best of all, no blasted basal digital thermometer at 6:00 am precisely. God I hate that thing. (really, God, I hate that thing!)



Now I know there are other points of view regarding Salt Spring. One of them came from my lovely (and now I know crazy) friend Michelle a week after my return. Having perused Facebook she realized to our mutual horror that we were BOTH on Saltspring with our MOTHERS on the SAME EXACT DAY. We even did the same things that same day including visiting the farmers market, driving to the summit of Mount Maxwell and hat shopping and somehow we completely missed each other!!

If you know Michelle you know that she is a hard woman to miss, especially when you consider she had her mother, husband, five children and Japanese inlaws with her. Being that Salt Spring is such a huge place I might have been the only person on the island to have not noticed her;) Michelle's crazy came when she told me she didn't think the island was all that great. Boring actually. Maybe I heightened her expectations too much.



Maybe I like boring.



So mom's and my adventure started with the outdoor woodfired bread bakery. Yum! This was a beautiful attraction Royden and I missed last time due to the bakery's weekday only hours.



While bread is great, cheese is better and we thought maybe some day this little one could help us out.



Mmmm cheese. It was hard to pick just a few flavours to take home, and harder still not to open and sample them all (again!) before giving them away. Of course the next logical item one might need to complete this trio is wine, but we didn't like it much. Cute winery, not so great wine. I am losing my taste for it though so I may not be the best judge. Wine gives me heartburn. Margaritas don't.



A lot of driving was done, and even a little getting lost. I didn't think we'd need mom's new GPS but it actually came in pretty handy. We're such a couple of girls. The island is beautiful with plenty of beaches, ocean vistas and pastoral landscapes. There are also several beautiful old restored churches to see along the way.







During our adventure mom and I discovered we share a love of California poppies and old wooden fences.



Our next stop was Martinus Jewellery. How we missed this shop the last time we were there is a mystery that I suspect only Royden could solve. Mom and I found many items to our liking. This I thought particularly cool. Martin (the jeweler) took a branch from a pine tree, peeled the bark, cast it in wax and then made a mold for the gold.



Good times were had. Eating, shopping, reading, beachcombing and of course sleeping. We also got to catch some really great outdoor live music and drank a number of yummy lattes (thanks mom!). We relaxed and were entertained and got to catch up with some much needed mother daughter time.






Happy Birthday Mom!



Thanks for taking a fabulous vacation with me. I love you very much and am looking forward to planning our next fantastic exclusive adventure together.

Kudos to mom's little digital powershot camera for all these pics. Royden graciously offered to let me take the Rebel but I told him I didn't want to be responsible for it. He laughed when recalled that our last Rebel met it's fate in Salt Spring waters...something I had forgotten!
http://roydenandruth.blogspot.com/2007/07/saltspring.html