What I Woke to this Morning

It was a magical light this morning. The temperature was -5 C or so but there was no wind, and the birds were up early demanding their breakfast. Then 1 hours later the balloon flew over.

Two days ago I took this lovely shot. The frost looks like a coat of fur

Achilles Agony

Well, I think I have really done it now. It feels like my heel is on fire.

After my dance class this morning, no, actually during my class, I felt the burn. I shredded my tendon a few years ago when I was hiking and after my chiropractor treated it, I gained full use again but I was careful. Today it reminded me that it was there.

I guess I have been overdoing it lately. I dance 3-4 days a week for an hour...by dance I mean Jazzercise and I take a yoga class once a week. Every opportunity I can take I walk.

Today I came home and soaked my foot (with my whole body attached) in a hot bath of epsom salts. I know that was probably the wrong thing to do but the pain was travelling up my leg and I felt like babying myself. I know I should have iced it and elevated it but somehow the lure of the jacuzzi won me over.

Fortunately I can take tomorrow off and prop my foot up...after stretching of course.

Hey, I wonder if tight ham strings are related to this? And tight quadricepts? One thing leads to another.

I wish I could find a pair of cozy socks that I could wear in my wonderful new dance shoes that would give me cushioning on the bottom but would be a fine weave on the top. Hey Ann, is there such a thing?

Dark and Colourful Vegetable Salad

I can make this into a meal. It sticks with me for hours and that removes the desire or necessity to snack. Also I am getting all the fibre, vitamins, and health benefits that dark rich coloured vegetables provide in an easy and available meal. I make a large salad and keep it in the fridge for several days. If I get sick of salad, I can throw it in a soup and yum yum, renewed.
Sometimes I open a can of tuna and put some of it on top of my salad serving. This is terrific when I come home from a workout and need a quick fix.

Chopped Vegetable Salad

( It should be assumed that all of the vegetables are chopped to a uniform size)

4-5 large radishes,

2 ribs of celery

1/2 red pepper

1 green pepper

3/4 cup of frozen peas

2 large carrots

1/2 cup edemame beans

1 broccoli tree

1 cup cauliflower springs

1 cup red cabbage

3/4 cup green cabbage

1/2 cup of almonds

1/4 cup unsalted sunflower seeds

1 cup cooked quinoa

Stir it all together and store it undressed in a container in the fridge

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Dressing

about 1/3 portion of vinegar (acid) to 2/3 portion of oil.

olive oil

balsamic vinegar

1 T dijon mustard

1 T grated fresh ginger root

chopped cilantro

1 tsp dill

2 T lime juice

add some water if when blended it is too thick

January Days

When the sun begins to climb and takes its arc higher and wider into the sky I feel an optimism that boring old January will soon be forgotten. The roads are icy ruts and the snow banks are dirty and everything looks shabby and worn.

One bright light in our dreary January is going to the new dog park. Everyone has opinions about the layout and it does seem that there are unnessary restricitions on our freedom to walk the paths but at least the parking lot is a joy to drive through. Gone are the teeth rattling cracks and swimming pool sized potholes and mud tracked into the car. A smooth asphalt surface, what a joy.

We walk sometimes with Peg and Charlie. Charlie is about 9 mo old now and is so full of energy. this is Charlie flying around the park. I love that picture, he has all 4's off the ground. He could do 100 laps, Ginger can do 1 on a good day. But then Ginger is nearly 13 years old.

toup..oops...I mean thoup

It seems that we have been obsessed with soup lately. Possibly because the weather has been cold and foggy and everyone feels cooped up. The snow has fallen in one form or another nearly everyday. Today the snow had a slippery soap flake quality and when the temperature fell to -12 or so it glinted in the street lights like diamonds and when the sun came up and it was still chilly the snow glinted.
Okay I am searching for something nice to say about Calgary winter.
The nicest thing I can think of is that spring is close. We could be seeing a change in April. Shelley's baby is due in mid April and it will be the harbinger of spring.
I have made the ubiquitous chicken and turkey soup and vegetable soups and creamed pepper and onion soups and I have experimented with nearly every combination of onion soup.
Ginger loves them all even the onion ones. It doesn't entirely agree with her but soup to my dog is like crack to an addict. She cannot help herself. She lay down in front of the stove on Saturday and waited for the soup to cook. She didn't for a moment forget what her mission was, she keep vigiliant. When I dished up a bowl for her there was a mad scratching and sliding of toenails on the floor as she tried to get up, being a 13 year old shepherd cross has challenges. She is still able to run when she needs to and to appreciate smells in the air. Especially soup.

It is flattering I suppose to have two such devoted fans. Kat of course is the biggest fan and she came up with the word thoup which she uses to order her meal. It is quite gratifying to see her wolf it down. What would the kid world think if they knew one of theirs was willingly eating vegetables!
The soup I made when Kat was visiting is now officially named Kat Thoup. At her house her mother's version is called Wendy Thoup
here is Ginger's Thoup

Ginger's Soup

1 large onion diced
1 bunch of celery chopped
4 cups of shredded green cabbage
1 green pepper chopped
10 or so sliced mushrooms
3 or 4 big fat carrots in coins or chopped
3-5 fat green onions (yes, more onions) chopped
parsley 3 T dried
2 - 28 oz cans of diced tomatos
1 quart of chicken broth
1 can 14 oz of beef boullion or a couple of cubes of OXO
1 can of either 14 or 28 oz of tomato juice or water
1/2 tsp garlic powder
salt and pepper
Squeeze 1/2 lemon into the soup and stir.
Garnish with the grated rind of a lemon

Saute the chopped vegetables in 3 oz olive oil. Stir until they are brown and caramelized then add the other ingredients and simmer for an hour or so until the flavours have integrated. This makes a lot of soup and you can keep it in the fridge for a week. Freeze if necessary...although you will probably get to the bottom of the pot quickly.

Every Girl Should go to School

For Salome.
I have never met this little girl called Salome. This is her picture. She is an adorable little child. She lives in Litein in Kenya. She wants to go to school and through our little Jazzercise group of about 15 women and a small group of caring folks who began the "Keep the Circle Strong" group, we managed to raise enough money for her to go to school for 3 years. We had aimed for 1 year
Wow! It started as a little project selling CD's and swapping used books for $1 at our morning Jazzercise classes.

Then Karen and Karen and Brenda had the idea that we could have a fund raiser and it quickly grew into the little fundraiser that could. Many people graciously donated prizes and pieces of fine art.

To be honest at first we were afraid that only a few of us would show up. We hoped for 50 because we had arranged for the fund raiser to be a full Jazzercise class for women and girls in a large gymnasium.
We were afraid that we would be the only ones there.
The place was full, I don't know the count but there must have been 70 plus. The room was loud and pumped and hot and full of energy.

What a lot of work went into this project! There was a large thermometer gradiated to show how much we had raised throughout the morning. We watched it grow from $500 to over $1700 as people bought entry tickets, silent auction tickets and draw tickets for prizes.
It was so well organized. They thought of everything from tickets to auction sheets. They dragooned family members to help sell tickets and take pictures.

We are very proud of ourselves as one more little girl, born into destitute poverty gets a chance to become the community leader she was born to be and she will help raise the conciousness of a downtrodden people with her education. She will become part of a new movement of educated women that take their families out of economic slavery. They will eventually save the world.

And I am learning to become the person I would like to be.

The Weather has Changed...its WARM ish

The temperature rose quickly from the

Chinook wind and created a fog on the golf course.

Up 30 degrees C and still rising... we may get up to +8 or more.