Random Autumn theme.

About 8 days ago it very much looked like Summer was over as temperature fell all of a sudden to near zero C. The Condo corp decided overnight to shut off the A/C system and put on the heat, we can individually shut it off in our units and this is what we did. Then the following day the warm or hot weather came back with a vengeance, we face South and have strong sunshine until 3PM. The building was extremely warm around 29C inside, so we opened all the windows in the hope that the heat would escape. I say in the hope because it made little difference really. However the trees having had a dose of  cold weather and then hot turned all shades of red. The grocery store has an abundance of squash of all kinds and pumpkins too. Funny thing the cashier wanted to name the various squash I had bought, they are all 0.99 cents each but she has to enter them by name, Butternut, Sweet meat, Pepper, etc...

 Pepper and Butternut Squash

The blue grey squash is called a sweet meat squash sitting on top of my terra cotta pumpkin bought 20 years ago at the Drake Hotel Flower Shop in Chicago.


We also started to cook in the Fall fashion recipe, lots of varieties of apples right now on offer. I bought Braeburn Apples to make an apple cake. The puppies love it when we cook, they sit and watch always in hope that maybe just maybe we will drop something or will offer a tasting to them, they are eternally patient.

Demi-tasse coffee cups bought in June in Dresden, love those ironic faces.

We also had the Annual Canadian Army Run (marathon) and a parade of the Princess Patricia Canadian Light Infantry Regiment who are celebrating their Centennial. The Regiment PPCLI was created through a generous donation of $2 million dollars in 1914 by Hamilton Gault a very wealthy businessman. In todays dollars it is a fantastic fortune to give. Princess Patricia was the daughter of Prince Arthur Duke of Connaught and brother of King-Emperor George V, she was also the grand-daughter of Queen Victoria.  Prince Arthur was the Governor General of Canada at that time.

Then in October of 1914 Le Royal 22ième Régiment de Quebec was created with a generous financial gift by Montreal businessman Arthur Mignault. The Regiment is stationed at the Quebec Citadel on Cap Diamant, the Summer Residence of the Governor General. Canada did not have an army in 1914 we had a small militia of 3000 men. But within months an army of half a million men was raised or 10% of the population of the country.

Being on the Rideau Canal in the centre of the Capital we cannot miss the Army run and the other events year round. The parade of the PPCLI from Lansdowne Park to Cartier Square was a recreation of the event which took place in 1914 when the soldiers arrived in Ottawa by train. The Driveway as it was then known was the Official entrance into the Capital.

Autumn Farmer's Markets

Well my favourite time of year as arrived and my favourite holiday of the year is just around the corner, Canadian Thanksgiving on Sunday 7 October. Today my friend C.P. and I went to the farmers market in Blackburn Hamlet area and then to the Orleans Fruit Farm which use to belong to the Oblat Fathers it is now part of the National Capital Commission Green Belt around the Capital. Lots of pumpkins and squash and apples and other root vegetables. Also bought some lamb from the Albé Farm in Alfred and from the farmers from Cumberland, all little agricultural villages around the Capital region. The biological, organic and other labels on natural feed for animals with no hormones or chemicals is the big sale point. There is a great demand for natural products and also now Gluten Free breads and other pastry items. I bought a bread made this morning, it was still cooling made from Chickpea flour. I also found a Puglia bread which is the sort of bread I use to buy in Rome, nice crunchy crust and good tasting. I got some white and purple carrots and purple potatoes. I also found a greyish blue or Prussian blue Pumpkin, I have never seen anything like it and the farmer also had white pumpkins.  All these farming areas East of Ottawa are mostly French speaking families, Franco-Ontarians who have lived there for centuries. You also get a lot of recipes from them if you are not sure about cooking certain items.  I also bought Turkey and cranberry sausage, Duck sausage, Lamb Tourtière and Lamb paté.
Lovely weather sunny and blue skies at 15 C. It was chilly this morning at 2 C. almost freezing point.

Today's pumpkins

the children of Cerberus guarding the wine.

Halloween in Rome

What are you doing on this Halloween night? We went to a concert at the Auditorium Renzo Piano to hear 3 works by Russian composers played by the Orchestra of the Accademia Santa Cecilia, the best orchestra in Italy basically. The concert was over by 08:15 pm just in time for dinner in Rome. When we got out of the auditorium near the Tiber river, there was a definite chill in the air almost winter like. The auditorium is located on the Via Flaminia and this area is just below a hill in a flat area, the river bends at this point and you feel the chill.

Halloween is not a holiday in Italy, it is unknown and considered pagan by the Vatican. People do not dress up and no one carves a pumpkin, they eat them instead in soups or stuff ravioli with pumpkin, it is very good by the way.

I carved my pumpkin, I ordered one from our fruit and veg seller, I told him I wanted a big one as big as he could find at the warehouse. I also bought a second one which Will carved for the office party on Friday. Here the holiday is November 01 which is all Saints Day when people remember their dead and place candles on their graves. I took pictures of my pumkin and places one of those candles in a container which is usually used to light a grave.

Of course this being Halloween, I read an interesting story today about St-Dominic and those fun Dominican friars. They use to be in charge of the Inquisition in Rome, devising all manners of exquisite tortures to make people repent for their heresy against the Pope before burning them alive on a public square, in Rome that was Campo di Fiori. The most famous person to be burned there after years of torture, is Giordano Bruno, 1450, his statue dominates the Piazza. To this day the Vatican wants it pulled down, the argument, he deserved his fate because he questioned the authority of the Pope to act as a temporal sovereign.

Another famous person who also fell into the hands of those Dominican friar was Galileo, who claimed that the Earth was A) not flat, B) was not the centre of the universe but rotated around the Sun.
Galileo had to recant and apologize to the Pope for his errors, everyone knows the Earth is flat and is at the centre of the Universe, so say the Vatican. It took Jean Paul II to admit that the Church was wrong, only 500 years later.

This year is the Anniversary of the invention of the telescope, so the Vatican decided to have a special exhibit on Galileo, now declared to be one of the great Catholic scientist in the service of God. The Vatican explains today that, Galileo got into trouble because, some priest misunderstood what he was saying at the time. A simple misunderstanding, no harm done.

So there you go, that is my Halloween stories from Rome. Stay clear of those Dominican friars in dark alleys, near the Pantheon that is where their HQ is located at Santa Maria Sopra Minerva.