dinner for one
While Steve was away I was so busy, and as a result I got really lazy when it came to cooking meals. We had already pre-ordered our food box from Plan B Organics, so when the food boxes kept coming in, I was completely overloaded with fresh beautiful organic greens. On top of all that my mother dropped off a full bag of homegrown mitsuba. I was compelled to not let all those spring/summer greens go to waste so I started to make some pretty cute 1 person 1-shot meals.
My first meal for-1 was a baby bok choy, garlic, ginger, and black bean, oyster sauce quick Chinese stir fry served on white rice. I even threw in some garlic scapes as a nice substitute for green onions.
I steamed mitsuba and added shoyu, and a little sugar, and garnished it with katsobushi (dried fish flakes). My mother while dropping off the mitsuba, also brought over another Japanese green, to which she cooked only the stems (I forget the name of this green) that’s what I have on top of the rice along with my favourite rice seasoning furikake.
Mitsuba is a Japanese herb known also as Japanese parsley or Cryptotaenia Japonica. The direct translation of mitsuba is 3 leaves, which is true because each stem does only produce 3 leaves. It is a nice refreshing herb with a little bitter taste, so balancing the flavour with a touch of sweetness is a good thing to do.
‘gnome’ if you want to
I got this miniature gnome and stand for my birthday last year from a friend. The best thing about this gift is that your little gnome can travel to many worldly places all from the comfort of your own home. There are 4 different backgrounds scenes to chose from; Swiss alps, a wild flower garden, the Eiffel Tower and this cute little yellow house that I would love to live in!
pardon my lunch bucket
Surely somewhere in the planning of
the future city, there’s room for a bit
of green, of open space and lush
foliage where people can walk and
sit and get away from the concrete
of downtown. We hope so, anyway.
-Pardon My Lunch Bucket 1971
"workmen taking a lunch break on Llyod D. Jackson Square construction"
I bought the book Pardon My Lunch Bucket from Mixed Media about a year ago. It’s a book published about Hamilton’s past and future for the 125th anniversary of the incorporated city. The foreward is written by Victor K. Copps -the mayor of Hamilton at the time (1962-1976) and father of politician Sheila Copps. This is what he writes about the changing face of Hamilton:
“Let the detractors call us a lunch-bucket town. All I ask it that they come to the new Hamilton and have a look around at what we’ve done in the last few years. Let them see the massive projects like the Lloyd D. Jackson Square on its way up.”
Oh what I wouldn’t give to go back in time to prevent the building of Jackson Square. The buildings that stood where Jackson now stands were of historical beauty, and were the heart and core of the city. Victor Copps in his foreward talks about the changes that are coming to Hamilton: the rediscovering of our city, and seeing new things that didn’t exist here before. I can’t help but smile at the thought that 40 years later this holds true for me. I am rediscovering Hamilton, and am loving all the new things that are popping up that didn’t exist here before.
- City of Hamilton 1860
Streetcars on James St. south 1906 & Gore Park
King and James St. 1964
The illustrations above are of the future vision of Hamiton in the year 2000. Highrises with hydrofoil water taxis.
*Pardon My Lunch Bucket, text by David Proulx, design by Joe Urban
*Mixed Media, 154 James St. north, Hamilton
cut
Haircut! Long hair is definitely the lazy man’s way to go. I’ve been guilty of being a total ponytailer, and have been known for taking year long breaks between visits to the hairdresser. I’m definitely not someone who “does” their hair (this is mostly because I don’t know how) so a short haircut for me always has the risk of being high maintenance. But when a change gonna come, it’s gonna come. I am a last minute decision maker when it comes to haircuts, and when I want a cut I want it right now! Luckily when I called up Strut Hair Salon, which is uberly close to my home, I was able to get a cut that very day.
It was a first time cut with stylist Mairead, and she did a great job of making some cutting decisions for me. I like a stylist that can be decisive because I had about 25 million ideas for how I wanted to cut my hair. It was a good cut, and satisfied my need for a fresh look for summer. In all I lobbed about 4-5 inches off my head. All my black locks on the salon floor looked like a small long-haired dog.
*Strut Hair Salon, 84 Walnut St. south, Hamilton, 905.540.4960
bleeding hearts
One day this week I came home to a pot of bleeding hearts by the front door. A few days before a friend had been telling me about some bleeding hearts that had sprouted up in her alleyway, so she had potted them and brought them by for me to plant in the garden. I got a note from her later that I read quickly as saying “I left you my bleeding heart on your door step”.
1 down 4 to go
This past weekend we hit our first wedding of four five. The happy couple greeted their guests to dinner with an absolutely fabulous tap dance to Harry Connick Junior’s It Had To Be You. It was in Toronto by the lake. The view looking out onto the water was still and pretty.
detroit
One of the best things about visiting Windsor is going to Detroit. So while on my visit to Windsor, Steve and I went for yet another bit of rust belt city exploration (for more rustiness see my post on Buffalo). We opted to take a 5 minute tunnel bus from Windsor across the border and were dropped off by downtown Detroit’s riverside. Our bus driver told us that we were just in time for Detroit’s Downtown Hoedown. I had no idea what that was but at barely noon there was already a long line up of country hoedowners waiting to get into the festival. We stopped back at the hoedown for a rest at the end of the day, after having wandered through the gorgeous buildings of downtown Detroit. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity for some pre-summer festival food; BBQ ribs, and funnel cake.
Skyline view of Detroit from Windsor. A very city-like landscape in comparison to Windsor's low lying skyline.
I do have to say that Detroit is beautiful. Apparently it has even been known as the Paris of the US. There is some gorgeous architecture, and detail to the old skyscraper buildings. Promenade-wide sidewalks line the wall of buildings alluding to some past grandiose time in Detroit’s history. We mainly stuck to Woodward Avenue and it’s neighbouring side streets. The avenue was once known as one of the premier shopping areas in the US. In 1925 the intersection of Woodward and State even documented having over a million people crossing in an 18 hour period. A drastic difference in comparison to the bleak number of people on the streets that day. Anyone we did see on the street was clearly headed for the hoedown.
Like Hamilton, I do see a lot of potential for a Detroit urban renaissance. There’s something fantastic about the already beautifully laid out landscape of this established city. The downtown building density is ripe for prime urban living, people just have to start moving in.
Record store with boxes and boxes of 45's of Detroit soul music.
My favourite stop of they day was to the Motown Museum. A bit out of the way of downtown; we had to catch at taxi. The cab driver; born and raised in Detroit, had never heard of the “Motown Museum” but when it was concluded we meant the Motown house we were on our way. The cab driver was awesome and even joined us for the tour. We had the most captivating tour guide and on several occasions he’d have the whole tour of about 40 people singing, dancing, hand clapping and finger snapping out classic Motown hits.
Me as I was just finding out that I had broken the zoom of my camera lens. In front of me is our cab driver taking a photo of Hitsville USA, post tour.
windsor
I went to visit Steve in Windsor, where he was doing a month long artist residency through the University of Windsor. While visiting, I stayed in Steve’s short-term living accommodations in Sandwich Town (best name for a town ever!). It is actually a part of the city of Windsor and boasts some of the oldest buildings in the area. Sandwich has some big ol’ beautiful houses, and they reminded me a little of what I would imagine grand manors in New Orleans to look like. The entire area of Sandwich Town had a whole different kind of feel to it that made me feel like I was a lot further away from home than just a 3 hour train ride.
Similar to Hamilton, Windsor’s is struggling through it’s own post-industrial era and as a result parts of the city have most definitely seen better days. The downtown was pretty quiet and empty, except for an unexpected mid afternoon Sikh parade that had somehow beautifully integrated Scottish bagpipes with some traditional Sikh drumming. An all together weird and unique experience of Windsor’s downtown.
Steve's art studio space in Windsor. Great light, and so much room!
Being the most southern area of Canada, spring was about two weeks ahead over in Windsor. Trees were in full bloom.
Story goes that a second bridge was in the works to be built right next to the existing Ambassador Bridge to accommodate for the high traffic between Windsor and Detroit. Houses along the area where the bridge was to be built were bought up, and then everything was put on hold. The plans for the bridge have been stalled due to some controversial opposition and a law suit against the US and Canadian government from the owner of the Ambassador Bridge; 83 year old Manuel “Matty” Maroun (or as one of our cab drivers called him Matty “Moron”). As a result the entire street for about 5-6 blocks, where the proposed bridge was to be built has all the houses boarded right up, lowering the property value of neighbouring houses and causing a bit of a fascinating yet eerie eye-sore. How does this kind of thing happen?
We decided to check out the Art Gallery of Windsor on one of the rainier days that I was visiting. Unfortunately I wasn’t allowed to take any pictures of their current exhibitions. But regardless here a few photos of some of the spaces I was allowed to photograph.
it’s been a while
It has been a while since I’ve visited you blog as it has been a crazy and busy last two weeks. I will post some pictures soon from my trip to Detroit and Windsor. But in the mean time here are a couple of shots of the VIA train that I took to Windsor. I love trains! I wish that trains were more of an accessible and frequently used means of transportation here in Canada.
spring greenery train side view