Year: 2017

Apr

2017

Wanderer | Thriller Short Film | Mark O’Brien | Jake Wilkens

Son Spencer was the Film Editor on this so…

Feb

2017

Marty’s Breakfast Omelette

I’m told that one should have two cups of vegetables per day. Cooked. Uncooked. Whatever – just get that two cups into you every day. This second or third hand from some celebrity chef or other. I couldn’t find the source quickly so… – if you know you can leave it in the comments.

I grew up in the 60s so was exposed to the books of Adelle Davis and her philosophies on nutrition and eating. “Breakfast like a King” she says. So, most days my first breakfast(I also like the Hobbit form of two breakfasts when I can) consists of a pretty healthy omelette.

Ingredients:

Three eggs

Zucchini

Green Onions

Mushrooms

Heavy Cream

Hard Cheese(Pecorino)

Salt

Pepper

Different Spices(Berbere or often ‘Whatever’ from AceCurriestogo.com)

Sometimes I will alternate Feta and Spinach for the Pecorino)

Sometimes I add Basil Pesto or Sundried Tomato paste for something a little different as well. The Basil Pesto is great!

Pretty simple really. Sauté the veggies until the onions are, well, sautéed. I mix the eggs with the cream, salt, pepper and whatever spice I feel like that morning and pour over the veggies. Grate the cheese into the eggs while in the pan. Cover and let cook about halfway on a low/medium heat – don’t let cook too fast. Meanwhile oven is on low broil. Once eggs are partially cooked uncover the pan and put in the oven. Keep the light on in the oven so you can see when ready. This will depend on how far along you cooked before placing in the oven. Timing is going to be different for every stove top and every oven. I can usually tell when done by the aroma. Remove from the oven(please use an oven mitt) and serve. You can cover for a minute if you want – sometimes it comes out the pan more easily when you do this.

I garnish with my homemade Peach Chutney or Mango Chutney and usually a bit of hot sauce.

Don’t over cook the veggies before you put the eggs in. Don’t be shy on the cheese. Don’t ever be shy with the cheese.

Jan

2017

A Lynx Kills a Marten

We had this amazing day. Thought we were in a National Geographic episode or something. Went for a drive up to Canmore then down Spray Lakes Road and ended up turning into the parking lot across from Chester Lake Trail Head. (On the right going south.) As we were going into the parking lot we saw something on the road – it was a Lynx. As the car approached it casually walk off into the woods on the right. Then a young one ran across the road in front of us following the first. We backed the car up and Yvonne got a bunch of photos of the big one going through the woods.
We parked, walked about and then got back it the car to see if we could find them again. Decided to go across the road into the parking lot there – see what we could see. There were several other cars there – people loading up their cross country skis etc, getting ready to depart. I pointed ‘there’ to a couple of girls standing next to their car and – at the Lynx walking by near the edge of the parking lot.

The girls had earlier seen a Marten(like a wolverine) trapped in the bathroom and took a branch to help it escape. It got out but looked pretty weak(sorry, no pics of the Marten). We watched it with several other people to see how it fared. It was heading toward where the Lynx had disappeared and someone said wouldn’t it be weird if the cat got it. About 30 seconds later it came flying out of the woods and caught the Marten. Killed it instantly. That cat move incredibly quickly. I’m glad he wasn’t coming for me. The reason I think it was a ‘he’ is that he didn’t go find his ‘kitten’ to share – just devoured the varmint all on his own.

Jan

2017

The Netherlands and the Ubiquitous Bicycle

Some years ago, my son was in Holland for a couple of years. He said, ‘Dad, in Amsterdam, there are bicycles everywhere!’ I had no idea that he meant ‘everywhere’.

When we were there this last fall, it was a beautiful thing to see. Realistically, though if everyone had a car, no one would be able to move. Pretty much every type of person rides a bike. Moms taking taking children to the baby-sitter or school. Little one between mom and the handle bars on a little seat and slightly older - school age in the seat on the back. Rain or shine. Some of the bicycles even had the windshield on the front to protect. You will see some photos of bikes with the big box in the front. Workers carrying their tools or sacks of one thing or another. Office workers; business people.

And almost NO HELMETS! I think I saw 5 people wearing helmets in all the millions of bike riders. I loved that. I'm going to put about half the picture here of the bikes and do another post with more later. (Otherwise you may not take the time to look through them all.)

Jan

2017

Window and Doors

We went to Holland with a side trip to Prague last fall. Wonderful trip. We were with my wife's cousin for much of the trip. She was a gracious hostess. Showed us around - drove us to some very cool spots. I took lots of photos and one of the things that I photographed was windows. She was puzzled and asked me about it. I told her that windows here were not like in Holland. In the Netherlands people by and large made their windows something to look at. In North America, Canada and the US of A for the most part windows are for letting cool or warm air in or keeping it out.

I wish I had taken more but it took me a while to kind of wake up to it. I would gladly make a trip to The Netherlands for the sole purpose of shooting windows and doors.

Here, have a look: