on a walk with petey

it was a super humid yet overcast day, but petey was ok with me taking lots of photos.

more from my little jungle

who knew that 4 little tomato plants would produce so much fruit? i can't imagine how many more tomatoes i would have, if i had spaced them out properly and if the yellow tomato plants received more sunlight.

lately i've been harvesting tomatoes almost every other day. i've frozen a bunch and wanted to try drying them but partially thanks to reading no impact man, i can't get over the amount of energy that is required to oven dry them.

the bottom photo is the result of 1 hour of slicing, carmelizing and 2 hours of baking: heidi swanson's spiced tomato gratin.

i halved the recipe and it still was a lot of gratiny goodness for andre and i to devour over a week. sadly, i thought that by halfing the portion, i could bake for half the time but that was not so.

junctqin keyboard collective

thanks to facebook i was able to reunite with a long lost high school friend. turns out she's a concert pianist now!

she is also part of a cool trio (a group of self-professed keyboard geeks) that performs contemporary music written for none other than toy pianos!

last week her group, junctqin keyboard collective, performed at a beautiful outdoor stage as part of the 'plein air concert series'.

the concert made me feel like i was transported into a live version of an episode of brave new waves or the signal. all the songs were unique and the trio gave us some background info on all the pieces the performed.

i loved all the songs (especially the ones that were duets or for trio), but the last song was performed by all three on table in perfect synchrony. here's a version that i've found on youtube:



the other amazing thing, in addition to the music? the plein air concert series, is a series that is organized and run by susan brown on a volunteer basis so that the artists can benefit from the ticket sales! ... i think that it's also her backyard and stage that is being used for the concert series. what an benefactor of the arts!

a most satisfying weekend

finally, despite questionable weather, we were able to have a cupcake ride on the day that it was originally planned for. i don't know why, but i get wracked with guilt when i have to call a rain date to postpone a ride ... it must be the japanese in me. so to have a ride on the set date felt like a big (weird) accomplishment.

i had such a relaxing, fun time with lovely ladies on the toronto islands. we fought the ferry crowds and landed at hanlan's point and then biked the width the of the island and also explored the residential area and some interesting nooks and crannies.

for more of the report, check out my blog post on the cupcake ride blog.

today, i hung out at andre's dog school in the morning and took photos of extremely cute puppies and smart dogs. and then in the evening hung out with some friends that are moving away from condo land on queen west into a house of their own by degrassi street!

i was also able to squeeze in some cleaning and reading.

i think i'm ready to face the work week!

aaah summer

i am in love with all fruit golden.

last fall, my friend V introduced me to golden kiwis. the best kiwis on the planet.

and now this summer the little organics store just behind our house on dundas carried golden raspberries for one week. they are oh so delicious.

the thing with golden fruit is that they have all the characteristics of their regular counterparts but without the tartness. this makes them somehow creamier and richer in taste. so if you can imagine having a raspberry that is all fruity and floraly but without the tangy after taste, that is what these tasted like.

heaven!!

have a wonderful weekend!

a summer walk with duke

taken on a summer walk with duke in the evening.

when i saw a stargazer lily so close to the ground, i thought it would make such a nice photo to have duke sit next to it. the minute i pulled the camera out he started to howl! i think it's pretty obvious what he was trying say....he can be so impatient sometimes.