From Campbell River, B.C.......
"The morning wind forever blows, the poem of creation is uninterrupted; but few are the ears that hear. Olympus is but the outside of earth everywhere..." - Thoreau (1817-1862)
From the Coast mountains....
Above Discovery Passage and Quadra Island....
"So here hath been dawning another blue day..."
-Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881)
To the Mt. Washington Range inland.
And its snow in winter.
"Though my soul may set in darkness, it will rise in perfect light....." -An Old Astronomer to His Pupil
It's a marshmallow world...
In my back yard....every day in winter........
"O world, I cannot hold thee close enough! Thy mists that roll and rise..."-Edna St. Vincent Millay
On such a January day as this.......
"To me the sea is a continual miracle, the fishes that swim, the rocks, the motion of the waves...."-Walt Whitman
Photographs 2019
"In making cakes all ingredients(this includes caraway seeds), should be heated before mixed; prepare an HOUR before the time is wanted, placed near a fire ....or the cakes will be heavy and fail...." -Civil War Recipes (Receipts from the Pages of Godey's Lady's Book) (Lily May Spaulding and John Spaulding, editors (1999 U of Kentucky)
These days I don't think we have to work so hard. But I do remember my mother making Seed Cakes and heating the Caraway seeds in a fry pan, first, before using in the batter. More fragrant.
This is the recipe that she used for eons. Foolproof. first time I made it was in Kingston, in 1995.
The first time I saw her make it was 1966, when I was five....she dog eared the page and marked it with the year, which has long torn off.
It's from the "British Columbia Women's Institute Cookbook 1958" Worth a gander if you can find a copy. Has a recipe for Chicken Liver Snacks.....that I have found in Civil war recipes...I found another copy at a rotary auction.
RECIPE: pinch salt, 3/4 cup butter, 1 1/4 cups sugar, 4 eggs, 1/2 cup milk, 1 tsp each vanilla and almond extract, 2 1/2 cups flour, 3 tsp baking powder, 1/2 cup citron peel, 1/4 cup orange peel
( candied) 1 tbsp caraway seeds.
Separate eggs. Beat eggs till soft peaks.
Beat rest of ingredients all together.Fold in egg whites. Plop into greased loaf pan. Bake 1 hour in moderate oven ( 350 degrees). Make sure it is baked. Cool and serve. When I was little, I would pick out all the caraway seeds. Took a few years till I appreciated it....
One year, when we were living on a military base,
I had invited some of the base wives over for coffee. I thought they would like a Seed cake. Well, the cake didn’t cook long enough; was chewy and gooey in the middle…..and yes, they actually ate it and said it was lovely. it was glop. I learned to let it bake long enough after that!
AND THEN: there's the Civil War recipe for Caraway Seed Cake......
It's a little different. In 1860, Caraway Seed cake was more of a cookie. The terms for cake were meant for either a bread or a cake or a cookie...It was rolled flat and cut out into circles and baked in the fire.
I tried making it that way. It was kind of yukky. Doughy. I prefer the actual cake version.But it was novel. A Caraway Seed cookie..
1860: One cup butter, two of white sugar, three eggs, half a cup of seeds ( that's a LOT of seeds), flour enough to make stiff ( about 2 cups), roll thin over sugar, instead of flour. Bake quick ( have to guesstimate the time in oven) Very delicate cake is made by substituting lemon for the seeds.
Keeps a day or two, but is still doughy. Stick with the cake version. Definitely yummy...
"Eggs should be very long beaten, whites and yolks apart, and strained. Sugar pounded in a mortar and rubbed into a powder on a clean board, and sifted thru a very fine hair or lawn sieve...."
-Civil war Recipes Book
Photographs 2019
"Snow flurries began to fall and they swirled around people's legs like house cats. It was magical, this snow globe world....."
-Sarah Addison Allen (The Sugar Queen)
I love the snow. I love winter............
Yea, I know. Not supposed to say that. I love that magic. Not the shovelling. There is no magic in shovelling.
It breathes life into the camera. Everything sings and swirls.
I may not care to drive in it. Much. But I will stop at the roadside to see the mountains.
Or trudge into a field just to see snow gather in crystals.
It defines twigs and makes birds pop. All the while dangling and bobbling on branches.
But my favourite is snow wafting forlornly. Over the grasses.
And feed the birds in all sorts of nooks and crannies.
U
nder snow covered ferns, still green from the summer.
W
atching the wind whoosh snow from one to another and back again.
While juncos perch. Waiting their turn at the feeders.
Giving wide berth to fat silly Starlings, who stuff themselves with suet and seeds. Seeds and suet. "More, please..."
Then squash themselves inside the grape vines.I wonder what they think about the snow.
While the first snow falls. More. Just needs to fall a bit more. In the rain forest......
"Well, I know now how a simple thing, like a snowfall, can mean to a person...." -Sylvia Plath (Unabridged Journals)
Photographs 2019
“A snowball in the face is surely the perfect beginning to a lasting friendship.” ― Markus Zusak, The Book Thief
MT. WASHINGTON is currently open. 68/82 trails open. Snow depth is 168cm at the summit as well. If you can brave the crowds on New Years week, this is the place to be.
Provided you can find a parking space......so popular.
Mt Washington is a snow paradise , skiing, tubing, snow boarding resort ;the eastern side of the Vancouver Island Ranges in British Columbia, Canada.
The closest town is in the Comox Valley, about 45 minutes drive down.
Beautiful place to be. Summer. Winter. We've mostly gone up in summer when it's been so hot. But the snow seems to be a drawing card.
We've never stayed up there. But Mt. Washington Village is really popular with many of our friends.
Seems like every week there is something planned on the mountain.
Tobogganing, Snow tubing......
Snowshoe Fondue ( snowshoe through Strathcona park and return to Raven lodge for a fondue)
Fat Biking ( Fat Tire Nordic mountain bikes on the snowy trails)
And coming in the spring of 2019: ZIPLINE down 2.3 km of Mt. Washington. (2313 meters and drop 415 meters)
Hmmmmmm Zipline. High up. Whoosh. Zoom......
Will have to think about that. I'm not real keen on heights.....but it would be cool. Maybe my daughter will go.....and she can go whoosh, zoom across the mountain ........
“There is no such thing as too much snow.” – Doug Coombs
Photographs 2019
