Photo-Finish Friday -- Sheep and Spring Edition

Spring in the Canadian Rockies.
Note: this was spring 2012, but they're all about the same.
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Please click over to Flickr, click again, and then choose full screen. It makes me happy when you do this.

Minor Irritations

When did parents become stupid?

I'm speaking about television portrayals, especially commercials. Or perhaps the question ought to be when did children become smarmy know- it- alls?

In fairness, kids can act like know- it- alls in the real world.  I am sure I did it though my mind has charitably forgotten the details. 

Commonality does not mean we have to see it and that lets me circle back to my point.

I've noticed in commercials parents are often portrayed as knowing less about the world than their pre-pubescent loinfruit.

Currently an Easter candy commercial is gnawing away at my calmness. In it a boy of perhaps seven is shopping with his mother. Chocolate bunnies loom. She suggests getting a bevy of them and is summarily, and smugly, corrected by little loinfruit.

From him we learn the proper collective nouns for the lagomorphs in question. He even provides a collective noun specifically for domestic rabbits.

This is our cue to coo, "Ooooh isn't he smart."

No. he's annoying.

A few years ago a public service commercial had a father and daughter cleaning up after a meal.

Daddy was about to pour grease down the drain. Fortunately for all concerned, especially the pipes, loinfruit is there to chastise and correct him.

It was once that parents knew things like proper terms and not to pour grease down a drain and passed them on to kids.

Now parents, and I'll extrapolate it's adults in general, are hopeless.

Woe to the unchildrened.

However do we get through the day?

I am by no means advocating a return to the golden-hued days of father knowing best, but I'd like a return to the days of father and mother knowing something.

Fun With Flatbread

The urge to invent overtook me yesterday morning.
I was contemplating gluten-free tortillas originally, but after chewing it over along with my breakfast I listed toward pita bread.

The logical solution was to do both.
Further, it was logical to invent my own recipe. Creation was my point.

Certainly I have recipes on file. I need something to actively ignore to get the creative wires burning and I needed some clue regarding proportions.

I was also curious as to how little of each ingredient I could use and still make a product that was
a)worthwhile
b) edible

Flax was ground followed by almonds. When I saw how much I had I added rice flour, potato starch, and soy flour along with two tablespoons of psyllium fibre for the chewy stretchiness missing from gluten free goodies.
It was maybe two cups. I have issues with exact measures. Further, I prefer to throw things together and see what happens.
I'd mixed some warm water and a teaspoon of sugar along with two teaspoons of yeast a few minutes earlier. It was pleasingly frothy when I returned to it.

I tossed everything together and let it sit for a bit. It didn't rise much and neither had I expected it to.  More yeast would have been necessary and this experiment was all about minimalism.

The dough was rolled into a cylinder and cut into nine pieces. Each piece was flattened and rolled into something either pita-worthy or tortilla-esque.
For the sake of simplicity and more hands-on work I did them in a frying pan.

Here's one of my favourites:

It was reasonably uniform and it browned well.
I ate a few of them. They were tasty enough and served their purpose, and really, that's all one can ask of a flatbread.

Gratitude Monday --Just Another Day

Yesterday was just another day.
It was the kind of a day where we go about our business in the company of one another. Another day in a long line of days of being together where nothing special happens.

Husband transplanted his cacti. He'd done so on Saturday and continued it yesterday.
Such matters are a labour of love for him. He is happiest when he is amongst the plant kingdom. On a level only he understands they are his kith and kin and he is charged with their care.

I was busy at my manuscript. I needed to go over it and take notes so I can start work on the long synopsis for the proposal package. I will work on the package while the hard copy cools enough for me to find my mistakes.
As I made my notes over the past few days I found places that required more work, more words, more thought. I made notes on that as well and will attend to them when I go over the version I printed out.

Husband was busy with plants, I with my words.
It was a good day. A normal day. A day where nothing special happens. It was a wonderful day, and for it I am grateful.

Photo-Finish Friday -Out of the Clouds

Preacher's Point, good for canoeing and hiking.

Preaching is not recommended.

We need a bit of summer.
This was taken at Preacher's Point in the West Country about a half- hour east of the Banff Park Boundary along the David Thompson Highway (Hwy 11).
It is a wonderful place to camp even though it is free and therefore very popular. The mountain peaks you see are known as ex coelis, Latin for "out of the clouds."
You can read the reason by following the link.

For best results click to my Flickr page, click again, and then select full screen.

Gratitude Monday --Watch the Birdie

A woodpecker contemplates the pecking of some wood.

A Downy woodpecker has been by lately.
I've missed him.
A few years ago he, or his kith or kin, frequented a feeder we had hanging from our shed.
We didn't feed birds for a few years. Woodpecker desertion was part of our punishment.
We started again last summer and carried on for the winter. It took time for the woodpecker to find us, but between the bird ball and the available trees, he's back.
I am grateful.

Photo-Finish Friday -- A Bear in the Woods

A black bear forages for berries along the Columbia Icefields Parkway. May I suggest clicking on it to get to Flickr and then selecting full screen?