BLAZE

Notes about food

1. My raspberry canes are still fruiting today, October 12, despite several nights of freezing temperatures. I have never eaten raspberries so late in the season. I should probably explain that this variety of raspberry will fruit on first-year wood if the season is long enough — which it rarely is in this part of the country. There is nothing like the taste of a fresh raspberry in October.

2. The other night we made garden potatoes with garlic, rosemary, and dill (and sea salt and black pepper). We roasted them with olive oil in a hot oven. They were almost as good as the truffle-oil mashed potatoes Bruce had at the Macdonald Hotel a few years ago (well, maybe not quite THAT good). But yummy!

3. On Friday Christina fed us hand-caught BC salmon that had been smoked in maple with honey. Certain foods remind me of why people actually enjoy eating, and this was one of them.

In all, it's been a good week for food.

Meanwhile...
• I am writing midterm exams for three courses: ENGL 111, PROW 100, and PROW 200. There are two PROW 200 sections writing ten days apart, necessitating two exams. My brains are bubbling with bad grammar and forty-minute essay questions.

• I got my convocation notice! I will (not) be crossing the stage on Thursday, November 20. (I have a class...)

• I got my tax documents from Canada Trust. Now maybe Revenue Canada will stop harassing me.

• Peter liked my proposal for PROW 235, Applied Editing. Now we need only get it approved by the higher-ups so I can start teaching it. I think it will be a great course! Perhaps as early as next September?

Today I like: October. Peanut butter cookies (which I should make for Thanksgiving dinner —peanuts are a New World food, aren't they?). Wolves. Blueberries. Forgetfulness (tell me again).

Today I dislike: Hotmail. Busybodies. Conformity. A failure of the collective imagination. Missing proofreading errors on exams!

OK, that was my break. Back to the grey-matter mine!

the third-person Leslie