The bees return

Watching the bees buzzing in the garden and happy to see their return

Blood Root blooming April 11

Scilla blooming April 16

Snow on April 18

crocus and daffodils blooming throughout

 

Launch!

 Launch this year was April 23. For the first time in two years, it wasn't delayed due to the pandemic.

However, Rob was down for the count with Covid, and for some miraculous reason (or effective booster shots), I was still testing negative.

So, for the first time ever, I was part of the launch crew, assigned to pads. On the previous shift, someone with the same duties had crunched their hand. I was pretty skittish to start with, and this news made me even more nervous. 

Pete M helped orient me to my duties and stayed until I had successfully managed 4 boats (so appreciated!). The pad part was easy, applying light pressure to keep them in place until the boat had lifted. It was the sling that was a bit more intimidating - grabbing hold while it was in mid air and then placing it on the bow of the hull so the vessel could be lifted. 

The shift was just 4.5 hours but felt like a full day's work. At the end of my shift, I was happy to have been a part of the successful operation. And Yondering was in the water! Mike P took the helm and motored her into the slip.

Full Egg Moon - April 2022

Other names for the April full moon: Pink Moon, Growing Moon, Seed Moon.

Eggs are potent symbols of new beginnings, birth, fertility, and resurrection. 

Easter eggs have become part of the Christian celebration, but their symbolism dates back at least to Egyptian times. 

According to food historian Sam Bilton:

Throughout history, people across the world have given each other eggs at spring festivals to mark the seasons. Early Christians in Mesopotamia dyed eggs in the period after Easter. The practice was adopted by the Orthodox Churches, and from there it spread into Western Europe. Eggs represent new life and rebirth, and it’s thought that this ancient custom was absorbed into Easter celebrations.

During Lent, when Christians fasted to mark Jesus’ time in the wilderness, eggs were one of the foods that people weren’t allowed to eat (incidentally, this is why we make pancakes on Shrove Tuesday). So when Easter Sunday came around, tucking into an egg was a real treat.

Various traditions and superstitions sprang up around the egg at Easter. Eggs laid on Good Friday were said to turn into diamonds if they were kept for 100 years. Some thought that eggs cooked on Good Friday and eaten on Easter would promote fertility and prevent sudden death, and it became the custom to have your eggs blessed before you ate them. It was also said that if your egg had two yolks, you’d soon become rich. In Devon and Cornwall, people used to play a game like conkers with their eggs, hitting them against each other until one of them cracked.

english-heritage.org.uk

According to Scientific American:

• The Phoenix was adopted as a Christian symbol in the first century AD. It appears on funeral stones in early Christian art, churches, religious paintings, and stonework. The egg from which it rose has become our Easter egg. As with many symbols, the Easter egg has continued to shift. When the Lenten fast was adopted in the third and fourth centuries, observant Christians abstained from dairy products, including milk, cheese, butter, and eggs. In England, on the Saturday before Lent, it was common practice for children to go from door to door to beg for eggs—a last treat before the fast began.
• 
  
• Ancient Egyptians believed in a primeval egg from which the sun god hatched. Alternatively, the sun was sometimes discussed as an egg itself, laid daily by the celestial goose, Seb, the god of the earth. The Phoenix is said to have emerged from this egg. The egg is also discussed in terms of a world egg, molded by Khnum from a lump of clay on his potter's wheel.
  
  
  In the Zoroastrian religion, the creation myth tells of an ongoing struggle between the principles of good and evil. During a lengthy truce of several thousand years, Evil hurls himself into an abyss and Good lays an egg, which represents the universe with the earth suspended from the vault of the sky at the midway point between where good and evil reside. Evil pierces the egg and returns to earth, and the two forces continue their battle.
  
  
  In Findland, Luonnotar, the Daughter of Nature floats on the waters of the sea, minding her own business when an eagle arrives, builds a nest on her knee, and lays several eggs. After a few days, the eggs begin to burn and Luonnotar jerks her knee away, causing the eggs to fall and break. The pieces form the world as we know it: the upper halves form the skies, the lower the earth, the yolks become the sun, and the whites become the moon.
  
  
• In China, there are several legends that hold a cosmic egg at their center, including the idea that the first being or certain people were born of eggs. For example, the Palangs trace their ancestry to a Naga princess who laid three eggs, and the Chin will not kill the king crow because it laid the original Chin egg from which they emerged.
• 
  
• Hinduism makes a connection between the content of the egg and the structure of the universe: for example, the shell represents the heavens, the white the air, and the yolk the earth. The Chandogya Upanishads describes the act of creation in terms of the breaking of an egg.

• 
  
• 
  
• 
  

Amaro and Bar Revel

On a recent trip to Bar Ravel, Cynar and Grapefruit were listed as a Highball combination. 

Curious, I asked about it and the bartender mentioned it was distilled with artichokes. Really?? I also wanted something that didn't have as high an alcohol content as the cocktail I'd just finished. 16.5% alcohol? Sold.

 I ordered that, and Rob had a Compari and soda. Both were so refreshing!

The bartender remarked both were amaros. I made a note so I could look it up later.

Amaro is a herbal liqueur whose name in Italian means 'bitter.' According to A Bar Above, it is made from infusing a base alcohol (grape brandy, neutral spirits, or wine) with a proprietary blend of herbs, roots, flowers, and spices. The concoction is aged in casks or bottles for various amounts of time, and the finished product can be anywhere from 16-40% alcohol by volume. Its origins reach back to ancient Rome, where food and nobles would imbibe herb-infused wine for its restorative properties. In the middle ages, monks swapped wine for alcohol; by the 1800s, amaro was being sold in pharmacies and hawked by peddlers as a health tonic across Italy.

Reading up on amari/amaros in The Drunken Botanist, I learned there is a particular gene allele that makes some people highly sensitive to bitter tastes, while others can't even detect it unless it's at high concentrations. This might explain why some people love Italian bitters and others can't stand them. Actually, I'm not sure whether I love the taste, or just the idea of Italian bitters... recipes guarded by families for centuries, herbal concoctions, lower concentrations of alcohol, cool labels and posters. 

I recently picked up Fernet-Branca as an ingredient for making the Toronto cocktail, intrigued by the description of 27 herbs, roots and spices; with licorice a predominant note. Definitely a distinctive taste.

So I have a collection of amari now on the shelf, ready for a tasting: Fernet Branca (licorice); Cynar (artichoke); Compari (oranges, rhubarb, ginseng); Aperol (rhubarb, bitter orange).

To try: a negroni with cynar used instead of compari.

****

Bar Revel was quite the field trip!

I started with a Norman Foster (Bowmore and Ballantyne scotch, Raval Amaro, garnished with banana); Rob had a Magic City (Manzanillo Sherry, Wray and Nephew Rum, raspberry, lemon and absinthe).

The drinks menu provided plenty of inspiration for future Friday night cocktails to try at home. While it was quite the treat to watch a pro at work behind the bar, with all the special syrups and taps, it's a little too expensive to partake on a regular basis. Our 35th anniversary was the perfect excuse!

Festive garnishes and fancy treats like freshly toasted Marcona Almonds, marinated olives and Jamon Serrano helped make the experience memorable. Maybe something to add to the Friday night ritual?

Norman Foster

Magic City

Happy 35th Anniversary!

35 Years! 

Usually we don't celebrate, but this year I was reminded of the date when I had to share the wedding certificate for pension paperwork. 

35 Years! Wow! Where did the time go? 

Rob and I had a wonderful day of celebration, spending the morning in Mazzoleni concert hall listening to Tchaikovsky and  Rachmaninoff, and then stopping by Bar Ravel for tapas and cocktails.

When we got home, we had surprise waiting for us - Alex had by laid out champagne glasses, prosecco and colourful flowers while we were away. There was a cake and some chocolate with 'Base to 23' written on it. I guess the story of how we met stayed in Alex' memory, me on the radio calling out to Rob who was driving truck 23. 

After a simple lasagna dinner we went down to BPYC for couple of hours for an event to welcome new members. When we arrived home, more flowers waiting for us - this time from Amita.