BBQ's & Back-alley walks

We are trying to make the most of summer, despite the rain.  We are almost finished with the salmon we bought last fall during the record Sockeye Salmon run.  My brother-in-law cut it up for us (he used to work at a Fishing Lodge) and we vac-packed and froze all 200lbs of it.  For our family, it's allowed us to eat the most wonderful Salmon each week all year, and I'm going to miss it when it's gone. Paired with potatoes and herbs from the garden, along with some grilled zuchini and snap peas (garden too!!) I'm so glad to reap the benefits of summer!
And our walks after dinner down the back alley... check out the face in the tree!
Have a happy day!   

holding onto summer

I'm kicking myself for not buying this little dish at Object Orange.  Something about it reminded me of my poppy design a bit.
How was your weekend?  I took a real weekend off (until last night when I cheated and whipped down to the studio to get a head start on the week).  We had an amazing home-grown dinner with friends on friday night at our place complete with peach and blackberry crumble for desert.  Our friends moved back from Halifax to Vancouver last year and we hadn't spent time all together as families for many years.  There's something so comfortable about getting together with old friends that you haven't seen in a while, where it takes nearly no time to catch up and you feel like your right back where you left off. 
We also got to spend Saturday night over at Cates Park for the last of their concert series with some great bands playing! It's too bad everyone else in the city was rockin it out to the Beach Boys and Bryan Adams at the PNE, missing out on these great local bands playing right on the ocean on an out-door stage.  Anyways, we were there and enjoyed eating a picnic with friends while taking in some really great indie music and a 'big-band' style group! 
Summer just feels so full of great times I don't want it to end....

In Process

It seems like my week goes by so fast these days and I am scrambling to keep up by thursday.  I've been meaning to glaze these new wheel-thrown vase forms in a new soft 'satin Matt' glaze that I mixed up in various shades of grey.  Hopefully that can happen today or tomorrow.  Won't they look lovely? Out of the 10 or so vases that I threw last week, I was happy with these three as a grouping.  Must make some more!
I must link today to the Luxirare blog- perhaps you've already found this AMAZING blog- for which I'm blown away by the Cuisine portion of the blog- the Pie Pops are stunning and look amazing, the Parfaits were jaw-dropping when she starts making juice 'caviar'... anyhow- photographer meets scientist meets packaging designer meets chef and I am absolutely blown away!

Etsy Slow Food Gift Guide

So this week I have been part of one of Etsy's Gift Guide: one on Slow Food, which has prompted a little slow food of my own. I do love to cook and more recently have found a fabulous Banana Bread recipe that cut my butter content in half from the previous recipe I was using! Butter is pretty pricey these days... Also made a killer homemade Mac & Cheese using wholewheat macaroni noodles, Armstrong's Marble Cheese and some Turkey pepperoni. It was even better day 2! And I started on the garden, putting some little pots with Tomatoe seeds by the window to kick start my growing season! We have a little plot in the back of our yard that we use for gardening a little lettuce, beans and peas, carrots and some potatoes. My tomatoes always seem to get a little on the blighty side though, they never have enough time in the sun.
In other news (I was going to write down my new banana recipe but can't find it at the moment, so I'll save it for another time), I'm off to ship a beautiful Teapot and 2 mugs to Inuvik!! Crazy cool! Crazy cold too. We're just looking at the city on google maps- it's really far north! Anyways, better get this package off as it need to arrive by the end of the month!