Shrove Tuesday

Shrove Tuesday crepes
Originally uploaded by the gladdings

This post is in honour of our dear friend Peter Johns - chef extraordinaire, and fellow Brit, as I imagine he did something similar today. I decided to make pancakes for Shrove Tuesday like me mum always did growing up - once a year, straight out of the pan, lemon juice and sugar liberally sprinkled - apply to face till you can't eat any more.

Well, if you're going to make a dozen pancakes (crepes, more accurately), you might as well make three dozen. So, for our regular Tuesday night family meal with our friends the Maddocks I served crepes stuffed with caramelized onions, wilted kale and sautéed mushrooms, topped with a light cheese sauce with more than a hint of nutmeg, accompanied by roasted sweet potatoes. Followed, of course, by the traditional pancakes of Shrove Tuesday.

There's a reason it's called 'Fat Tuesday'. One big splurge before the season of Lent begins tomorrow...

Frosty February Fun

Snow seats
Originally uploaded by the gladdings

Maggie and Seth made their first big snow people this afternoon - and then Maggie said she wanted to make snow chairs to rest in because she was tired. So we did. Check out more photos on Flickr.

missing jasmine

jasmine in bloom
Originally uploaded by the gladdings

I woke up this morning really missing our old garden. The jasmine would be starting to bloom, and we would be preparing the soil for planting the first seeds on Valentine's Day. That rich scent and receptive soil seem afar off today, with snow lingering in piles and a ways to go before preparing our small plot in the community garden for planting.

Foy Vance

Geoff introduced us to Mr Vance a few months back, and I've found myself listening to this Irishman with the beautiful voice a lot recently. This song moves me deeply, so I thought I'd share it with whoever stops by The Backyard today.

Sabbath rest

Stump with lichen
Originally uploaded by the gladdings

With temperatures creeping into the 50s, we decided to hike a trail in the Kentucky Palisades this past Saturday as part of the rhythm of rest we've established. Being outside the city in the quiet of the countryside is extremely restorative for all four of the Gladdings. We drove south to Jim Beam nature preserve (this being Kentucky), and found the trailhead as described on the website, although, despite it supposedly being "open 365 days a year", the gravel parking lot's barrier was down and locked. So we parked in the grass by the track, and walked in.
We spent a delightful couple of hours getting up close to lots of lichen and fungi - the only green to be found in the drab colours of winter. Rebecca overturned numerous rocks, and the eager looks of anticipation on Maggie and Seth's faces as the secrets the rocks held beneath them were revealed was priceless. "Can we turn this one over too?!" The highlight discovery was a newt, with golden ants, wriggly earthworms and beetles aplenty.
We heard cardinals chipping in the distance, saw vultures circling, and were accompanied by a Downy Woodpecker, who flitted from tree to tree ahead of us for awhile.
We breathed deep of the solitude the woods afford, catching glimpses of the palisades through the trees, and hearing the sound of running water from the small streams winding their way down to the Kentucky River below.
One day in seven to rest. Good idea.

Favourite kids' books

I realized I was missing a very important category of books in my review of 2009 - childrens'.

So, here are a baker's dozen of some of the books that make us laugh out loud, or that have beautiful illustrations or that we just really like. Top honours goes to "The Story of Frog Belly Rat Bone" by Timothy Basil Ering, a beautiful, whimsical tale of greening 'cementland' that we delight in reading over and over again. In a similar vein is "Miss Rumphius" by Barbara Cooney.

A brace of beautifully illustrated stories are "The Wild Girl" by Chris Wormell, and "The Raft" by Jim LaMarche. In bibliography, we love Brian Wildsmith's "Saint Francis." In traditional tales, Margot Zemach's "It Could Always Be Worse" is a favourite.

In the fun category are "Tacky the Penguin" by Helen Lester/Lynn Munsinger and "Todos Hacemos Caca" by Taro Gomi. In the fun for kids, but especially for adults category are "Where's My Cow?" by Terry Pratchett/Melvyn Grant and "Duck for President" by Doreen Cronin/Betsy Lewin.

Finally, the family favourites. These tend to be a moving target, but here are ones we read on a regular basis. For Maggie: "The Paper Bag Princess" by Robert Munsch/Michael Martchenko, which ends with the immortal lines, "'Ronald,' said Elizabeth, 'your clothes are really pretty and your hair is very neat. You look like a real prince, but you are a bum.' They didn't get married after all." For Seth: "Skippyjon Jones" by Judy Schachner - "Holy Frijoles!" - whose website is as cool as her book. And then, when we just need some pre-school humour, "Pooh! Is That You Bertie?" by David Roberts - the family that boffs together, stays together!

Best Books - 2009 Pt. II

Here are my favourite novels from last year. There are some years when one novel leaves such a lasting impact that it's easy to say, 'that was the best for this year.' 2009 was not one of those years. There were several novels that vied for the 'best of 2009' spot, but none that really stood out from the rest. So, I have settled on "Mudbound", the debut novel from Hillary Jordan, as first among equals. The story is told in the first person by the six protaganists. A father moves his family to an isolated farm in the Mississippi Delta just after World War II. The story unfolds as the war hero sons of the farmer and the sharecroppers on his land return and form a friendship that exposes the racism deeply embedded in this part of the South. Another son, the antithesis of his war hero brother, creates more tension, as long-held secrets hold sway over the two families. An unblinking and beautifully told narrative of the personal and structural evil that is racism.

In historical fiction, the standout novel was "World Without End" by Ken Follett, the epic sequel to "Pillars of the Earth", one of my favourite novels, which is in post-production as an 8 hour mini-series. I also enjoyed "The Eleventh Man" by Ivan Doig, whose "Whistling Season" is another favourite.

Madeleine L'Engle's "A Live Coal In The Sea" is a beautiful, painful and hopeful story of three generations carrying the scars and open wounds of poor choices and long-held secrets.

In short stories, Wendell Berry's "Fidelity" comes highly recommended. I'm not a fan of short stories usually, but after a slow start, I was drawn into this collection - my first by this son of Kentucky, our new home. Also set in Kentucky, I was pleasantly surprised by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor's "Faith, Hope and Ivy June", her 136th(!) novel. It tells the story of two high school students who spend two weeks in each other's school: one a private girls' school in Lexington, the other from "the hollow" in Hazard County.

Thanks to Rebecca, I have become a big fan of adolescent literature - here are my favourites from last year. "Notes From the Dog" by Gary Paulsen, who is consistently good: a laugh out loud, ache in the gut tale of the summer friendship between an awkward teen and a young woman with breast cancer. Did I mention it features a garden? Another couple of crackers in this genre are "Angry Management" by Chris Cutcher, which features a surprisingly sympathetic portrayal of an evangelical; and "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian" by Sherman Alexie, another laugh out loud story which also manages to be entirely non-sentimental about the issues of racism, justice and poverty that it raises.

In the "late night page turner" category, "Simple Genius" by David Baldacci takes the honours. Although I find that when I re-read one of his, I barely remember what happened. Which probably says more about me, than it does about him.

In the "old friends" category, highlights were "Airman" by Eoin Colfer; "Nation" by Terry Pratchett; and "The Private Patient" by P.D. James, which I'm really hoping is not her last novel.

I hope you find at least one to whet your appetite from among this selection - support your local library! And remember, just because you start a book, you don't have to finish it. In that category this year was "Foreign Body" by Robin Cook - complete and utter tosh.

Up next - the best books of the last ten years...