This buying corn on the cob is “hands on”. You search for freshest, fattest cobs. Fat cobs mean plump kernels .  The husks should be fresh, green and the corn silk wispy and delicate. There should be a fragrant whisper of a sunny garden. A guarantee your corn was freshly picked.

This is the secret to tender, juicy corn. Corn on the cob takes from thirty  seconds to one minute(definitely no more) to cook.  Use the largest stock pot you own and fill with water.  DO NOT ADD SALT.   DO NOT ADD MILK.  When the water comes to the boil add the cobs of corn – one for each person.  Cook for thirty seconds to one minute depending on the size of the cob. DO NOT LEAVE CORN in the now warm water. Cover extras loosely with tin foil. Better still – repeat the performance from the beginning for an absolutely perfectly cooked cob of corn.

To serve spread lavishly with butter. Season with salt and sea salt. For the enthusiastic corn on the cob devour-er you could add finger bowls and generous linen napkins.

The jeans had been mended not once but three times. They had done yeoman’s duty in the garden. They had moved furniture into a new house. Their knees worn thin sanding an old floor. Pruning an apple tree had left a large tear. Every worn mark was a memory. Not to be discarded. Each permanent wrinkle and scrunch represented how many cars polished. A roof repaired. A window replaced. They were a pair of jeans with a history of accomplishments and jobs well done. Not to be discarded but repaired to continue a life of of challenges, and sometimes to simply sit on a bench in the morning sun.

My machine does not have an arm that allows one to easily sew patches on blue jeans. My solution is to undo the outside legs. For rough wear jeans I cut the front pant leg close to the seam after I have unpicked a little of the hem each side of this seam. I cut the seam open just high enough to work comfortably with the patch. I suggest you don’t use this method with closely fitted jeans. You lose a half inch on each side seam.

To repair jeans (when you don’t have any old jeans ) a thrift shop is the answer. I buy bargain priced dark blue jeans at the DELTA HOSPITAL AUXILIARY THRIFT SHOP in the village of Ladner, B.C. I salvage as much of the jeans as possible. Removing the zipper and cutting leg off using the leftover bits and pieces for other projects.

Measure the area to patch and cut two pieces the same size. Try to round out the width of the patch to even inches. It makes drawing the sashiko lines simpler.

Pin the patch to the jeans making sure you are leaving room to sew the side seam.

Use a jean needle or a #16 needle to saw this heavy fabric.

Sew the patch on with dark thread using an overcast stitch to prevent too much fraying. Give the patch a good press to smooth the fabric.

Using the width of the ruler mark vertical on the fabric.

Sashiko is a type of Japanese stitching used for decorative or functional reinforcement. I have reinterpreted the concept of a sashiko visible mend with the dark blue jean fabric and machine sewn white thread. You could use this method to patch a jean jacket or a blue work shirt.

These jeans were patched two years ago. Enthusiastic wear and long days in the garden exhausted the jeans. They had to be retired. Permanently. There seemed to be more patches than jeans. I plan to use them the next time I make a garden scarecrow.

I love the French lamps I see in magazines and books .  They have an elegant slender shape.  A quiet, old world finish.   They discreetly murmur of all things French and  chic.   One could find these lamps in  shops specializing in expensive home accessories.  Better still and at a bargain price  simply create them yourself.

These  brass lamps were popular a few decades ago.     Check out your local thrift shop for bargain finds.      I found several lamps at the Delta  Auxiliary thrift shop in the sweet village of Ladner.     Look for lamps that feel very heavy.   They are the quality you want.   These shiny, brass lamps are basically all the same style.   It is easy to find pairs (or almost look alike pairs).

When you bring your budget treasures home give them a good wipe with a little soap and water, then wipe well with vinegar and water and dry thoroughly.

To begin your French creations you’ll need:

.Spray paint primer (in gray or beige/light brown) You’ll get the best results if you buy Krylon Spray paint.  You need a primer that self-etches to brass.

.White latex flat wall paint.  Any shade will work.  This is an opportunity to use up those odd bits of white you have left over from other decorating projects. You use very little paint so if you don’t have any pick up a sample can from your paint dealer.  They have small containers for very little money.

Before you spray paint wrap the light cord and the top part of the lamp with masking tape.  This will   protect from over spray.

Make yourself a spray booth out of a big cardboard box.  Do this in the garage with the door open, or outside.  Use a face mask and follow the directions on the can.  Spray lightly, doing a couple of coats.  This prevent paint runs.

When the primer is dry (about an hour)  you’re ready to start creating.  Cut an old white t-shirt into generous squares.  Dampen these.  Now lightly paint (almost dry brushing) the white paint over the lamp.  immediately start wiping it off with the damp cloths.  For the first go around don’t try to bury the grey, just glaze it.   This may be the effect you want.  Dark grey  shadowed with white.  The primer really “grabs” the white  so if you want the darker look you need to be quick off the mark when you wipe.  NO PRESSURE.  If you don’t like the effect just spray it again and start over.  You CAN’T make a mistake.

I wanted a lighter base so I repainted my base with a second more solid coat of white, and then just wiped it so I had highlights of a greyed white.  Let dry an hour and you’re done.

The absolutely newest look in home decor is  various shades of brown, beige, off white  –  anything but colour.  For this different look spray paint with a light brown primer and then follow the above directions.   The very best part of your do it yourself lamp base painting  you can create in ANY colour.  Primers come in a variety of colours   – the choice is yours.

My dear friends,  Through the years I have written about  the DELTA HOSPITAL AUXILIARY THRIFT SHOP in my blogs.  It  is an important part of our community and  Auxiliary volunteers are the reason we continue to have this hospital in Ladner.  I am a volunteer in our Thrift Shop. I enjoy sharing my adventures with you about this outstanding Hospital Thrift Shop.    Thank you for being part of my life.  Virginia.

This is a past blog. I posted it again in light of the struggle the volunteers have been going through the last several weeks. We volunteers and the community are so happy to have our THRIFT SHOP back. The Board of Directors are gone.

By secret ballot volunteers voted 83% to remove the Board of Directors.

Every chair in the room was filled. More chairs were brought in. They ran out of chairs. Volunteers lined the walls happily standing for more than three hours. The three doors of our THRIFT SHOP are open. We are back in business. Returning the DELTA HOSPITAL AUXILIARY THRIFT SHOP to the community.

This is an old fashioned recipe truly whipped up in a few minutes using your stand mixer. The trick is to have ALL your ingredients at room temperature. Even the lemon. While your loaf is baking you conjure up a lemon syrup and as soon as your cake has cooled 10 minutes you pour on the syrup. It is important that you don’t let your cake cool down too much. The warm loaf absorbs the syrup. The lemon loaf ‘s flavour improves the longer you let it sit.

Have all ingredients at room temperature. 

Grease a loaf pan and line with parchment paper. Oven temperature should be 350F.

Sift 1 1/2  cups flour,    1 tsp baking powder    1 tsp salt  onto sheet of wax paper and gently mix.

In standing  mixer using your whisk put in 1/3 cup unsalted butter,    1 cup sugar  and whip until light and fluffy.  Add two eggs and whisk well.   Add 2 tsp lemon rind.

Have ready 1/2 cup milk and 3 tb lemon juice

Add the flour 4-5 tb. at a time alternating with milk.   Last should be flour.  Have your mixer on lowest speed and  just barely mix each addition.  Over mixing when you are adding flour will toughen your cake.  Add your 3 tbs lemon juice barely mixing

Pour into your prepared loaf pan and bake at 350 for about one hour.  Test with a thin skewer sticking into the side of the cake and then into the centre. Let rest 10 minutes on cooling rack then turn out onto generous sheet of waxed paper.

Mix 3 tb. lemon juice and  1/2 cup lemon juice.  Stir well to dissolve sugar.  Spread this on the top and sides of the warm lemon loaf.  Feel free to lick your lemony fingers.  Let cake sit lightly covered with plastic wrap for 24 hours.

This is a lovely summer cake and it does keep well. It’s the ideal cake to take on a picnic or to the cottage. Enjoy dear friends. Virginia

Once upon a time (all good stories begin with once upon a time) a delicate tree grew in China. The flowers on this tree were so magnificent, so unusual only the Emperor of China was allowed to possess it The tree was guarded night and day by ferocious soldiers. The Emperor’s tree was coveted by many. A few brave souls attempted to take cuttings from this tree. They disappeared never seen again.

This tree of fairy tale beauty was a Tree Peony. A tree peony is planted with great ceremony and deliberation for once planted it can never be moved. A tree peony will live up to one hundred years but if moved it will die.

Beauty such as this could not be held captive by one man even if he was the Emperor of China. In the eighth century a memorable event took place. The royal court of China shared these blossoms with Japan and finally the world.

“If the stars should appear but one night every thousand years how man would marvel and stare”. (Ralph Waldo Emerson)

The first sight of this magnificent flower with its enormous blossoms one can only stare and marvel.

“Happiness . . .

not in another place but this place,

not for another hour

but this hour.”

I walk to the garden past hedges heavy with fragrant with wild roses and awash with cow parsley. Blackbirds, wrens, robins and song thrushes fill the air with glorious song. The early morning sun catches glittering drops of dew suspended in fragile spiderwebs turning grass into a field of diamonds. A walk of happiness to the garden to gather rhubarb.

This Rhubarb cake is one you make with pleasurable ease. The tactile pleasure of combining the crumble by hand. The lemony perfume of adding the sumac. The sharp tang of grating the lemon into brown sugar then rubbing the zest through the sugar with your finger tips. A whip of eggs. An easy pour of melted butter. A gently folding of flour and a delicate hand with the rhubarb. All is happiness in this hour.

This is a cake that sits often under a glass dome in my kitchen. As the season changes the cake takes on a different persona. Sometimes chopped pears with a dash of almond flavouring. The stone fruit comes into season I add peaches, apricots or deep purple plums and serve the cake with whipped cream. Apples and cinnamon cake generously presented with a wedge of crumbly wedge of old cheddar cheese; the flavour of autumn.

“Happiness . . . not in another place, but this place, not for another hour, but this hour.” (Walt Whitman)

The printable recipe resides in the kitchen of MRS.BUTTERFINGERS.

Bon Appetit my dear friends.

They grow wild here on our West Coast.   Flinging themselves with outrageous abandon along side country roads and busy highways.  They cover hillsides with their brilliant colours.   Magnificent  spires of unbelievable beauty.  The fabulous.  The fantastic.   The outrageous too-good-to-be-true  Foxglove.

They grow tame in my garden.  No wild adventure for these towering, glorious foxgloves.  Imperiously they rule my spring garden.   High and haughty  above cornflowers and poppies.  Ignoring purple irises and  pansies.  Tall and slender they weave back and forth waltzing to the slightest breeze.

It’s early morning.  The dew caught like diamonds in spider webs woven across the lawn.  I have a deep bucket filled with warm water.  Wearing gardening gloves  I cut  and strip the lower leave from the foxgloves,  and immediately dunk them in the bucket.    I let the foxgloves drowse away the morning hours in the cool, dark boot room.  The plants are slightly toxic so I wash my hands after handling them.

A  stunning  bouquet of foxgloves.   A spectacular statement of our connection to all things green and growing   This bringing the outdoors into your home is a simple pleasure.      Isn’t that what life should be about?

DIGITALIS PURPUREA (aka foxgloves)  have a vase life of up to 2 weeks.   Florists supply you with a sachet of plant food.  It is easy to make up your own plant food.

1 quart of water, 2 tablespoon vinegar, 1 teaspoon sugar and three or four drops of bleach.  Give it a stir before adding the flowers.  The bleach and vinegar reduce the chance of bacteria multiplying.  Bacteria cause stems to be become slimy and turn the water cloudy.   The sugar acts food for the flowers.

Growing up during World War Two almost everything was rationed, or simply not available.    If you were very young during the war years you would never have tasted marshmallows or chewed bubble gum.   Gas was rationed.  We lived in the small town of Prince Albert, in the northern part of the province of  Saskatchewan.    A National Park and dozens of beautiful lakes were a short drive away.  Our Dad cycled several miles to work  saving  his gas ration coupons  for the occasional family outing.

The annual Pet Parade was a much anticipated event. Cats and dogs were coerced into sitting in small baby carriages, propped up in decorated, polished wagons or coaxed along with a leash.  Patriotic costumes were expected.    I felt quite smart dressed in a red, white and blue crepe dress.  Fortunately it didn’t rain.

This photograph of my sister and myself was taken shortly before our Uncle Bert left for war.  He was one of the many who did not return.

It was important for everyone, young and old,  to do ones bit for the war effort.  We collected string, tin foil (from cigarette packages) metal and even fat.    Once a week the women in our neighbourhood met and knitted socks or rolled bandages.   Tea and only  one kind of cookie or cake was served.    Food was rationed.   My Mother came home from one of these projects with this recipe for Banana Bread.   It was the talk of the afternoon because it didn’t contain nuts, but looked like it did.  Nuts of any kind were simply not available.    This is my Mother’s world War Two  Banana Bread.   The only change I have made is to add nuts.

MRS. BASSETT’S BANANA BREAD

1/2 cup butter ( or very good quality hard margarine)

2/3 cup scant or white or brown sugar

2 large eggs at room temperature

2 cups of flour

1/2 tsp each salt and baking soda

1 1/2 cups generous of VERY VERY ripe bananas.  They should be soft and squishy in the skins

1/2 to 1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts

Have all ingredients at room temperature

Cream butter and sugar until soft and creamy.  Add the eggs one at a time.

Combine the dry ingredients and mix alternatively with the mashed bananas.   Start with one-third the flour, when this is mixed add half the bananas, now add another third of flour mix just until the flour is assimilated, add the rest of the bananas.  Mix briefly, then add the final one-third of the flour.  Add the chopped walnuts and mix briefly.

Pour into a well greased loaf pan and let stand twenty minutes.

Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes to 1 hour.   Test by sticking a cake tester or a very thin knife, into the centre of the loaf.  It should come out clean.

Banana loaf, like most loaf cakes or breads freezes well.

Virginia’s notes:  A few years after the photograph of myself and my older sister, I started making banana bread.  This meant being responsible to get the wood-burning stove’s oven up to the right baking temperature.  The wood-box would be filled with fine kindling wood.  This wood  quickly  created a hot oven  – just the right  temperature for baking.  The test for temperature required you to put your hand into the oven and feel its warmth.  With a little practise one could tell a medium (350F) oven from a quick (3375-400F) oven.

Container gardening.  The day is sunny, warm, a rare occasion this spring.    I run my hands over  herbs, lovingly caressing and releasing their fragrance; chocolate mint, spearmint, lemon sage, thyme, oregano.

I ready the pots.   Old containers washed and waiting to be filled.  But first I visit  Summer,  the horse next door.      I’ll use the hay to partially fill the over-size ceramic pots, and for drainage.

Summer helps.  She nudges my shoulder.  She blows little puffs of breath with her velvet lips.   She rolls her enormous chocolate-brown eyes.  She flutters her super long eyelashes.  She flirts outrageously distracting me from my hay gathering.  How could I NOT stop to rub her nose and tell her how beautiful she is.

This summer I am taking inspiration from Monet inspired garden colours. In the various gardens there will be lots of pink with dashes of red and a splash or two of white.     In the very French manner the pots of herbs will grow close by the door releasing their intoxicating perfume to all who brush by.  My fingers dig deep into the rich, black soil.  Tenderly the plants are transplanted,

The summer garden will have  dahlias  in a dozen  shades of pink, perfumed stocks, dazzling red and pink geraniums, delicate  impatience and an outrageous splash of Monet’s orange nasturtiums   The hydrangea and the camellia , the peonies and the star-gazer lilies –   a spectacular garden awaits.

This gardening, this caring and nourishing of all that grows is important.   Even if your garden is a small pot in your kitchen window it brings one joy and a state of calm.

Happy gardening my dear friends.  Virginia