homemade potstickers

This was the first time I'd ever made these dumplings (gyoza to the Japanese) and they were totally addictive. It helps to have pork from a pig that grew up just around the corner, and fresh herbs from the garden, but I think using krachai (Thai wild ginger, sadly not from the garden) instead of the regular kind definitely helped with the flavour. Frying them after steaming was a little gratuitous but, well, YUM.

copper coloured garter snake

At least I think it was a garter snake, it looked so different from all the others I've seen. And it was kind of tiny - maybe a foot long or a bit over. Beautiful thing though and not too alarmed at me pointing my camera in its face.

birthday paddle to the Ragged Islands

Duck Lake hike

good lord, blue sky!

a feast of local mussels

 

Acting on some inside information, we headed south to Brew Bay on a low tide to scout for mussels.  Thinking there may be a few clinging to some slimy rocks, I was delighted to discover hundreds of glossy black mussels of harvestable size, conveniently close to shore.  Shellfish licenses freshly renewed, we collected what we thought would be enough for two and went home to prepare the feast.  A few leeks and some garlic from the garden, white wine and parsley from the neighbourhood and of course the addition of lashings of Fraser Valley butter and...voila!  Let me just say that our eyes were decidedly bigger than our stomachs and the chickens also partook of the feast.  Yum.

like tugs in the night