Tulips and gardens

This is the first weekend of the Tulip Festival in Ottawa a tradition which was started many decades ago when the Queen of the Netherlands, Juliana in recognition for the protection given to her and the Royal Family during the Second World War gave a generous gift of Tulip bulbs to the Capital.

HRH Alexander Lord Athlone, Governor General of Canada

Her family lived in Ottawa at Stornoway in Rockcliffe Park. They arrived by boat at Montreal and then took the train to Montebello where HRH the Governor General Sir Alexander Frederick Augustus Prince of Teck, Lord Athlone met them to escort them to Ottawa. Princess Magriet of the Netherlands was born in Ottawa in 1943 at the Civic Hospital. So this Tulip Festival is forever tied to Holland and Canada and the Royal Dutch Family.

HRH Princess Magriet of the Netherlands, she is known as Canada's Princess.

The tulip displays around the Capital are impressive, Dow's Lake, the gardens behind the Chateau Laurier,  along the Rideau Canal on Queen Elizabeth Drive and along commercial streets like Bank street, all very colourful. 

 This year we have these miniature Turkish Sultan Tulips by the thousands on the banks of the Rideau Canal in front of our house.

 They are quite small, about the size of an index finger 

 Other beds of tulips along the Canal by our house.

A riot of colours.

Now more photos but from Dow's Lake, an artificial lake created 180 years ago when the Royal engineers flooded what was a gigantic swamp below Hog's back Falls.

 The park around the lake is quite beautiful in all Seasons

 The real Estate is also beautiful, stately homes with prices to match, there is a whole neighbourhood around Dow's Lake which stretches down for kilometres on the Queen Elizabeth Drive.

On the other side of the Lake is the Arboretum which rare trees, it is part of the larger Experimental Farm which is an enormous area in the centre of the city.

 There are several giant topiary at Dow's Lake

 Daffodil's compliment the grounds

 Also dozens of papier maché tulips hand painted by various artists on a theme of their choosing

Well worth a visit to see so many beautiful flowers 

So today it was our turn to do our little garden, on our balcony. We went to Ritchie Feed and Seed a venerable company in Ottawa for I do not know how many decades with a solid reputation for all things garden, plants, flowers and seeds on Windmill Road at Cyrville Road.

We looked around and found some Regal Geranium a type of geranium I had never seen before quite different. We also got German Ivy and Colius and a hanging basket but I cannot remember the name of the plant though the flower is a lovely red. There is also another type of ivy with a beautiful small white flower. 

The regal geranium some are a dark blood red and the other plants are a white pink and violet colour. The leaf is large and flat. 

We also put up a white trellis, so we are ready to entertain.

Regal geranium 

On one of the first warm days of the Spring-Summer 2014

Farmer's Market must be Spring

In the last 10 years there has been an explosion of Farmer's Market selling organic certified foods in and around the Capital. Once there was the ByWard Market in Lower Town below Parliament Hill and then there was the Parkdale Market but now there are many more venues. It must be Spring because the Farmer's Market calendar is out and so are the names of all the farmers and merchants involved. Ottawa has been for decades very much a town where people want organic and biological meats, cheese and produced, there is a large movement around those issues and heritage varieties have also made a strong comeback.

http://ottawafarmersmarket.ca

We also have a newish program which we discovered through our friend C.P. last summer which is a Harvest Market called Farm Works which runs all Summer and early Fall, all profits go to an organization which helps homeless young adults 16-30 years old to learn a skill about food, farming and agriculture. With this learned trade they can in turn find employment options in agriculture, horticulture or hospitality industry.

www.operationcomehome.ca

Last summer we got a lot of produce from our friend who introduced us to this program. So this year we decided to support Farm Works.

Now when Parks Canada start raising the water level on the Rideau Canal which should happen in the next few days we will know that the bad days of Winter are gone.  The Tulips have started to grow so we are looking forward to the Festival from 9-19 May 2014 which coincides with the first long weekend usually used to cleaning up the Cottage and having a bar-b-q to celebrate Queen Victoria's Birthday, she's 195 years young. Canada is the last place on Earth apparently still celebrating her Anniversary.

http://tulipfestival.ca

Tulip growth in the beds on the Rideau Canal

Summer is here now!

Well we had a classic Spring time we are told and on 1 May we switch to Summer overnight. Beautiful sunny hot days, nice breeze so far. Got the car washed inside out today, they did a good job, got the rugs shampooed and vacuum etc.. to remove all the Winter dirt. I also changed my wardrobe from Winter to Summer and put away all the Wintery clothing. Dogs are going to the groomer for their Summer trim and started the flea and ticks treatment. It is hot in the sunshine and the Tulips and Daffodils are out just in time for the Tulip Festival which started today in Ottawa. There was an antique car parade down the Driveway, beautiful Rolls Royce convertible and Bentley circa 1959. Some Jaguar same vintage and Corvettes 1960 they looked like real sports car then. There was also 2 Citroen DS which I did not know still existed in Canada, the Citroen DS was the favourite car  of General DeGaulle of France. This Sunday there is a Marathon, the roads around us and Pretoria Bridge is closed from 7am to 2pm, this type of closure is very common in the Summer time. I like it because our neighbourhood becomes very quiet.  All the restaurants have re-opened their terraces. So it is now Summer.

Cooking recipes

A few weeks ago Will suddenly got up and went looking for an old red binder with the word Air Canada on the cover, inside are old yellow sheets of paper with type written recipes for various dishes from appetizers to main course to desserts. We have had this binder and recipes for at least 35 years. He was looking for a recipe in particular and wanted to see if we could try it out. We did and it was quite good, a simple sauce to accompany a dish of pasta. Many of the recipes are from a time a few decades ago when people ate heavier dishes. Mind you, I know a lot of people who still eat fairly heavy dishes with lots of cream and butter sauces and cheese topping for good measure. It's the same with desserts, many are fudge chocolate like with cream and a side of ice cream. I simply cannot imagine eating any dishes like that today. My desserts now tend to be a fruit usually fresh never in a can or just an espresso
with a spot of milk no sugar.

So far we tried two recipes and both are sauces requiring fresh tomatoes chopped up and at least 500 gr of fresh leafy spinach. In Europe spinach is very popular usually just tossed in a pan with a bit of garlic, in the USA at least in New England, cream spinach is popular but in Canada you do not see it so often on menus or in peoples homes as a side dish. A shame really, it is a very good vegetable and so easy to prepare but you must remember to clean it well, like all leafy greens. There is always a lot of dirt on the leaves and it needs a good rinsing once of twice under cold water.

Among these old recipes are some of Will's signature dishes, like Smoky Pumpkin Soup done usually for Canadian Thanksgiving in October, Sopa de Tortilla from our time in Mexico 1986-89. Or his
Tomato tart with polenta crust and rocket, or Mushroom rarebit. A dessert he use to make was Treacle tart.

                                        Recipe teasers

So he looked up this Pasta with Spicy Tomatoes and Spinach.  I got the ingredients at the store and made it for dinner, it was easy and quite good. This recipe can be made in less than 30 minutes if you are slightly organized in the kitchen and have a nice glass of wine at hand.

The recipe is as follows:
Pasta with Spicy Tomatoes and Spinach

8 oz of fresh Linguini pasta
1 dried chili pepper, seeded and crushed
5 *anchovy fillets, rinsed under cold water, drained and chopped
2 large garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 lb (500gr) of fresh loose leaf spinach, washed, stemmed and coarsely chopped.
8 ripe plum tomatoes, peeled, seeded and diced (you can used the can variety)
3\4 cup of freshly grated parmesan
Fresh ground pepper
1 tsp of good olive oil

* about the anchovy, on the market you can find imported from Italy, fresh anchovies which is a white fish in oil or anchovies only in oil and a little salt. It is very different in taste from the anchovies which are cured and salted, do not use those.


First cook your pasta in boiling water until al dente. Drain and shake well, coat with 1 tsp of oil and mix up. Cover and set aside.

Heat the chill in 3 tsp of olive oil until the pepper is brown. Remove and discard pepper.
Now using the same large pan used for the pepper you have your base oil flavoured with the pepper.
Reheat the oil, add anchovies, garlic and cook stirring constantly until garlic turns golden brown. Add spinach and tomatoes and cook tossing until spinach is wilted.

Now add your pasta and toss well with the sauce until heated through ( approx 3 min.)

Remove from heat and add the parmesan and pepper. Serve immediately.


This weekend I made Breast Chicken fillets with Spinach and Tomato and for Sunday dinner Sautéd Chicken and Tortilla Salad.
Spring is here now, the Rideau canal water level is back up for boating, The many marathons along the canal have started, we have quite a few in Ottawa. The fishing season has opened and the Tulip Festival starts on 3 May in Ottawa our special connection with the Royal Family of the Netherlands. The weather is now on average 20C very pleasant. So I am switching the sheets to summer cloth and also our dinner menu to more Spring like fare.

Tulip, Tulipe, Tulipano, Tulp, lale

On this lovely Saturday I went to Dow's Lake which is a former swamp flooded during the construction of the Rideau Canal just below Hogs back falls in Ottawa. It is a large park area, with old trees and flower beds. At this time of the year and for the last 60 years we have over one hundred thousand tulips blooming.
Each year the Royal Dutch Family and the people of Holland send thousands of tulip bulbs in memory of Canada's help in the Liberation of the Netherlands in 1944-45 and in the hospitality and help we gave to the Royal Family of the Netherlands. Here are some photos of today's excursion.

Tulips in our home's front hall a gift of our friend J.

The man from Appeldoorn, symbol of the two hat contribution of Canada to help Liberate Holland and then feed and re-build the country. A similar statue stands in Appeldoorn symbol of the faithfulness and friendship between Canadians and Dutch people.

Dow's Lake in central Ottawa

Spring on a foggy day in Ottawa

Today May 3 the Rideau Canal is back to its normal water level for boating. Parks Canada started to let the level of the water rise on 26 April and then stopped completing the process today. The 60th Tulip Festival is about to start and the tulips in their thousands are blooming everywhere in the Capital. All the parks of the Capital are full of large tulip beds of various colours, a gift of the Netherlands in thanks for Canada's liberation of the Netherlands in 1945 and the hospitality during the Second World War when the Dutch Royal Family sought refuge in Ottawa. Queen Juliana gave birth to Princess Margriet in Ottawa in 1943, the hospital room at the Civic Hospital declared by Royal decree of Canada's Governor General, the Earl of Athlone, Dutch territory for the occasion.

The fog over the Capital seemed to absorb all noises, a strange silence. The rain makes everything so green and fresh and the trees are bursting with new leafs.

Tulips in their thousands in Major Hill Park, Ottawa

Tulips in various colours at Ottawa City Hall

The Basilica and Roman Catholic Cathedral of Ottawa on Sussex Drive

The great glass rotunda of the National Gallery of Canada on Sussex Drive

The centre block of Parliament of Canada with the round library as seen from Major Hill park across from the Rideau Canal locks.

The Ottawa river looking west just below Parliament Hill in Ottawa

Colonel John By of the Royal Engineers (1779-1836), builder of the Rideau Canal.

Knox Presbyterian Church (1844) Elgin street.

On Cartier Street in front of a private house, a Camellia bush in bloom.