The two best combinations that strike a perfect BALANCE.
Summer, I will surely miss your warmth.
OTHER THINGSI WILL MISS are the long days, everyone is more friendly, the casualness of flip flops, all the neighbours I never get to see the rest of the year, sitting outside on any great deck in the city, picnics, sunsets, sunflowers, warm evenings, Drinking Rosé (yes, you can drink it after but it’s not the same), bumping into people you know while riding a bike, riding my scooter with a warm breeze and not having to wear a jacket (yes, I can ride it after but it’s not the same), camping in Oregon (yes, I mean it!), meeting for breakfast at the sailing club, sitting outside at the neighborhood bar/restaurant but mostly bar if truth be told around the corner where everyone knows your name (including the ones you don’t want to know) and especially not having to carry an umbrella. I’ll stop here.
Unfortunately the Lululemon Seawheeze half marathon (the company responsible for turning so many of us into clones) didn’t make the cut because I didn’t enjoy it as much as I had hoped although the scenery around Stanley Park was breathtaking and I managed to cross the finish line arm in arm with my sister. That was special since I lost her in a crowd of 10,000 people within the first 10 minutes and met up with her again halfway through. And I’m thankful that I didn’t get trampled on when I stupidly turned around to pick up her water bottle which fell out of her fanny pack.
It’s too fast and too soon but we have something to look forward to. Come on, what’s the best thing about Fall besides all that beautiful foliage falling to the ground….the CLOTHES! So come on folks, Cheer up.
Have a great long weekend. Meet back here in SEPTEMBER….which means Monday.
Solong to Summer
I know that summer doesn’t officially end until September 21st….but it’s not the same.
If you don’t know your Pinot Blanc from your Pinot Noir then you should definitely be ashamed of yourself and you probably flunked French.
You cannot become a wine expert overnight but you can find out how to get the most from your Merlot and a few other tips…because most of us (I said ‘most’) don’t know everything! However, SOMM of us have the answers for everything wine.
I watched a captivating documentary called SOMM that was about the taxing process and tireless attempts on how to pass the prestigious Master Sommelier exam, a test with one of the lowest pass rates in the world. Put it this way, it seems much easier to become a lawyer. This is a different BAR exam. Luckily the movie theatre I watched it in had a wine list.
Great Doc!
Between trying to remember ‘that one you had last time that you really liked’ (not to mention that one that you really didn’t), and not wanting to reveal your utter confusion over the different varieties of grape, region or age on offer, it’s little wonder so many of us just give up trying to choose a wine and opt either for the house or a fail-safe favourite. How very boring!
Here is advice from Jane Parkinson, resident wine expert on BBC1’s Saturday Kitchen, on how to appear sommelier- like and impress those at the dinner table:
Hold a wine glass by its stem (providing it has a stem of course). It prevents the wine from warming up too quickly by the heat of your hands.
Know your regions from your grapes. Chablis is chardonnay; Sancerre is sauvignon blanc; Soave is garganega (white Italian wine grape); Burgundy (red) is pinot noir; Rioja is tempranillo; Bordeaux (red) is cabernet sauvignon and merlot; Chianti is sangiovese.
Be brave about chilling red wine. Serving wine at room temperature was advice given pre-central heating, which means today’s reds are generally served too warm. I generally prefer my reds at room temperature and my whites cold, but the correct way to serve whites is not by being too-cold because you don’t get to experience the true essence.
Get to know the on-trend wine regions. These include Swartland in South Africa, the Etna region of Sicily, the Douro Valley in Portugal and, for sparkling wine, England.
An appetite-whetting Sherry is a great alternative to fizz as an aperitif. Fino and manzanilla are the two sherry styles that are zesty, fresh and always bone dry.
Avoid heavily tannic (chewy) red wine with spicy food because they clash. Instead choose wines that are unoaked and/or made with a low-tannin grape, like barbera from Italy.
If in doubt about what to order off a wine list, go for a versatile food-matching grape. Try pinot noir for red, sauvignon blanc for a lighter white or chardonnay for a richer white.
Screwcaps are less romantic than corks, but they’re not inferior or solely for cheaper wines. In fact, they’re perfect for aromatic and vibrant wines, white or red.
It’s vacation time for many of you right now. You’re getting
ready to pack up.
Have a look at how travel bags have changed. If you happen to have any of the old ones still lying around or taking up space in your storage locker here are some great uses for them for anything other than traveling. They might even make you want to pick one up from a thrift shop, especially if you have cats.
SOME NEW USES FOR OLD STUFF:
Coffee Table, Plant Stand, Bed
Bye, bye old friends….you were wonderful and trustworthy although heavy & cumbersome at the same time. You won’t be missed!
As far as old cameras go…..stacked high up on a shelf is best. Sorry; I sadly can’t think of any other use for them. I now use my Samsung Galaxy for capturing images & Instagramming them (my latest passion) right away. Gone are the days of taking my film into a shop, waiting for the processing to be done (remember when they had the 1 day option for a little higher price?) and then paying for them whether they turned out or not.
ART is part of our culture and can improve our LIFE
By art alone we are able to get outside ourselves, to know what another sees of this universe which for him is not ours, the landscapes of which would remain as unknown to us as those of the moon. Thanks to art, instead of seeing one world, our own, we see it multiplied and as many original artists as there are, so many worlds are at our disposal, differing more widely from each other than those which roll round the infinite and which, whether their name be Rembrandt or Vermeer, send us their unique rays many centuries after the hearth from which they emanate is extinguished. (Proust)
“What do I ask of a painting? I ask it to astonish, disturb, seduce, convince.” – Lucian Freud
Agnes Martin
When I think of art I think of beauty. Beauty is the mystery of life. It is not in the eye it is in the mind. In our minds there is awareness of perfection.
What I say is that we’re capable of a transcendent response, and I think it makes us happy. And I do think beauty produces a transcendent response.” – Agnes Martin
Albert York
“The modern world just passes me by. I don’t notice it. I missed the train.”
“I think we live in a paradise. This is the Garden of Eden, really it is. It might be the only paradise we ever know, and it’s just so beautiful, with the trees and everything here, and you feel you want to paint it. Put it into a design. That’s all I can say.” – Albert York
Joan Miró – 1927
“I feel the need of attaining the maximum intensity with the minimum of means. It is this which has led me to give my painting a character of even greater bareness.”
“What I am looking for… is an immobile movement, something which would be the equivalent of what is called the eloquence of silence, or what St. John of the Cross, I think it was, described with the term ‘mute music.'” – Joan Miró
“Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time” ~Thomas Merton
If Happy Days taught us anything, it’s that life was better in the fifties.
On Friday I attended a Celebration of Life party at the Museum of Vancouver for a neighbour’s mom who just passed away.
With beautiful photos of her life rotating on a big screen and smooth jazz playing in the background (later a live Cuban band) it seemed she was in her element in the 1950’s. So how appropriate that the 50’s interactive exhibit was in the room adjacent to us (and open for us). I thought it would be interesting to post some photos I took. Here’s looking back….
People left their door unlocked at night, kids respected their elders and a guy who lived above his best friend’s garagecould still be cool so long as he owned a leather jacket. Well, turns out The Fonz didn’t lie: despite the racism, and homophobia, the fifties were a pretty good time to be alive.
In Hollywood, setting something in the fifties brings forth things like ‘nostalgia’ and ‘optimism’. But, how do you measure optimism?
Beginning in 1935, Polling Company AIPO spent decades ringing strangers up and asking them how happy they were—a move that actually yielded usable data. According to this, the fifties saw a surge of people claiming they were very happy, peaking between 1955 and 1960 at around forty percent. That’s the highest it’s ever been. Remember this isn’t just ‘happy’ but ‘very happy’—as in nothing could possibly be better.
In 1957 the murder rate bottomed out at four people per 100,000 the lowest in fifty five years.
It sure seemed like a more peaceful, less complicated time than living now in our more fast-paced, stressed out era. But life is still good, worth living and you can have your own reality show…..for even more than 15 minutes!
fyi – hula hoops have made a comeback and they’re a great exercise…..if you can swing it.
Not exactly a prophet, but he did predict the future. Andy was way ahead of his time.
à la française – the TOP 5 Beauty Secrets of French Women
Mireille Guilliano, author of “French Women Don’t Get Fat” has another book: “French Women Don’t Get Facelifts: Ageing with Attitude.“
This book covers everything from skincare secrets and fashion tips to the role of relationships and the importance of relaxation. The path to ageing elegantly lies in lifestyle choices and attitude adjustments rather than botox and collagen fillers. After all, while American, Brazilian and Chinese woman lead global cosmetics surgery figures, French women don’t even make the Top Ten.
Her book,French Women Don’t Get Fat: The Secret of Eating for Pleasure, in which she recommends bread, champagne, chocolate and romance as key ingredients to a balanced diet and lifestyle, captured the imagination of an overweight world tired of yo-yo diets and became a runaway best seller around the world, hitting the top of the best seller charts in many countries, including the USA, where it was number 1 on The New YorkTimes Bestseller list. It has been translated into 37 languages. She followed it up with another best-seller, French Women for all Seasons: A Year of Secrets, Recipes and Pleasure.
Many of my friends were astonished that I disclosed the coveted gastronomy and lifestyle secrets of French women in my books. They’d probably be stunned to find out that I’m willing to share our beauty secrets as well! But here they are—the five beauty secrets that French women swear by:
Secret #1: French women know that hydration is the key to good skin and good hair. I strongly recommend drinking a glass of water before going to bed and first thing in the morning. Water is the French women’s secret weapon—for skin and beauty, for health (flushing toxins) and for weight control (don’t snack when you think you are hungry, your body is really thirsty).
Secret #2: French women appreciate that good circulation makes one glow. French women are not afraid of using cold water in the shower to get one’s circulation going. It is certainly part of my routine. The opening then closing of the pores with hot then cold water, the shock to the nervous system and wake-up call to the brain of a cold shower, and the rigorous towel wiping after a cold finish to a shower bring blood and color to one’s skin.
Secret #3: French women are taught and know grandma’s beauty rituals work. My Mother taught me, for example, to clean my face thoroughly every night before going to bed and to apply a mask periodically (her fifteen minute version included cucumber slices over the eyes and a crushed strawberry-honey mix for the face); and she taught me to rinse my hair with cold water with an added tablespoon or vinegar or lemon juice for added shine before moisturizing. Secret #4: French women navigate the health benefits and risks of the sun. Apart from a Riviera-bronze fixation in the 1960s and 1970s, French women are not sun-worshipping lizards. *(see link for my self tanner recommendation below). Today they are much more likely to apply their tan from a tube or bottle than from a month at St. Tropez. They are careful to wear sunscreens and look for appropriate SPF in their beauty emollients. And while they are likely to sit in the shade to protect their skin, they are equally likely to be out and about in the sun, enjoying its light and benefits, by walking or doing some light sports or movement as part of their weekly routine.
Secret #5: French women know one can go far with a great haircut, a bottle of champagne and a divine perfume. Nothing more needs to be said about this one!
Internationally best-selling author Mireille Guiliano (Meer-ray Julie-ano) was a long time spokesperson for Champagne Veuve Clicquot and former President and CEO of Clicquot, Inc. (LVMH). Recognized as “an ambassador of France and its art of living,” by the French daily Le Figaro, USA Today further dubbed her “the high priestess of French lady wisdom.”
We North American women are not totally outdone by the French. We have some tricks up our sleeves too. Check out…..
From last week: If you missed Brad King’s interview with Kathy Hartford, the author of Fit, Fun and Fabulous at Any Age here’s the link on “Transforming Health” at Voice America.com:
Girl Who Would be KING on Life, Style and INSPIRATION. 
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