A Meal with Friends

It was more like a dozen meals, shared with friends this weekend. My wonderful globe-trotting friends Kathy and Frank were booked into a beautiful ocean front resort on the west coast of Vancouver Island (that they had tried for a couple years to get in to!)

Serendipitously for me, the Captain’s Quarters at Orveas Bay Resort (the most luxurious of the accommodation options there) had a second bedroom available to me…. tucked into the eaves of a gorgeous home. It’s certainly not a cabin, but a home…full of beautiful cabinetry , books, candles, flowers, art, wicker, antiques, model sail boats…I slept like a princess in a sleigh bed with lovely linens around me…

We share a love of food and I wanted to treat them to a special meal so I brought along some grass fed beef shank steaks from my treasured organic farm supplier in Abbotsford. I flew from Vancouver to Victoria in a tiny float plane and my luggage allowance was pretty slim! I laughed because half my little carry-on bag last Thursday was half meat, and only half was clothes and toiletries.

(Actually, I had planned ahead and Kathy had already taken a pre-packed bag of mine with hiking boots, a fluffy robe and a woolly sweater from the week before) – she and Frank were travelling by car, ahead of me, having planned four days in Tofino before I joined them at Orveas Bay, and I would return home with them with unlimited luggage options!

Friday night, I got to cook Osso Buco –  a lovely dish.  You start by browning the meat then put it in the roasting pan while you prepare a sauce that will cook with it.

Sauteed onions, leeks, carrots and garlic are joined by tomatoes, lemon, wine and broth and this is put into a pan with the beef. You simmer/bake this for a couple hours, remove the meat, then put the broth/vegetable mixture through a strainer, forcing some of the soft vegetable mixture through it, to thicken the sauce. The sauce is then boiled down a bit to a thicker reduction, and poured back on the waiting meat. The tomatoes add a lovely dimension to the meaty sauce. It’s great for when you want a beef fix!

But it was so much more than a meal with friends – it was about showing appreciation and gratitude for their generosity, about celebrating being in a sublimely beautiful locale, and sharing passions and interests.

It’s been a weekend of food and wine, lounging around in the sun, taking side trips to beaches, a visit from a bear, crackling fires and relaxing music at night, deeply sound sleeps.

I love these guys. And I love this place. I’ll be back.

Love

Each year I try to do a little art piece to donate to my friend’s fundraising gala. My friend has a daughter with autism. When her daughter started at the local public school my friend realized it just wasn’t the right place for her daughter to learn, so she and a few other mothers started their own school for autistic children.

Fast forward almost 10 years and the school is a going concern, an amazing place and a wonderful resource for students and their families. I’m so proud of my friend, and what she’s accomplished.

So I try to help in any way I can. One way is to create art for their gala’s silent auction. This year’s theme is centered on Britain: “A Royal Affair – All you need is love”.  I created a pair of small canvas tiles that had a flag motif background with text.

My friend’s daughter is an amazing artist, and she produces vast amounts of artwork weekly. I also lend a hand in organizing and framing/presenting her artwork for many appreciative buyers and recipients. It’s such a pleasure to collaborate with this young lady and be able to help by doing something that, to me, is all “play”.   I love it.

Give Flowers to the Living

Give flowers to the living. That is a saying my mom often used. It meant: be kind, tell people the nice things you are thinking, give praise and bouquets of thanks (and don’t wait till they are gone).

It’s been an exhausting week with a hectic work load, and a bit of the cold-and-flu season, but mainly because I lost a friend to ALS last week. And, yes, it didn’t help that it’s Valentine’s Day today and I’m very much “single”.

To my surprise some flowers were delivered to the house yesterday. A sweet friend of mine sent them to me, thanking me for my friendship. Don’t ever let anyone tell you otherwise: I know of no woman who doesn’t delight in getting flowers. I’m always thrilled on the rare occasion when I come home and there is a bouquet on my doorstep or a florist’s delivery person has knocked on the door.

There are also other kinds of flowers that we can give: the bank teller who has a gorgeous hair cut would appreciate your comment, a co-worker who is wearing a lovely outfit would be so pleased to hear that compliment that’s in your head. A child who’s done a good job on something around the house would appreciate hearing your praise.

I’m trying to make my 3-pronged gratitude exercise a habit. I keep a journal by my bedside and when I wake up in the morning I take a moment to write in it. I list three things I’m grateful for, I write a short paragraph describing a positive experience I’ve recently had, and I make a note about who I will call or email that day to say something positive to – who I will give “flowers” to.

It’s a wonderful way to live, giving flowers of all kinds.

J is for Jody

Our dear Jody left us Friday. She struggled longer than most with ALS and we were the richer for it. Her determination to stay present and stay connected with all of us as long as possible was so inspiring.

In the fall of 2013, to celebrate her 60th birthday, I did this little canvas piece for her.  It matched another I had done on her 50th.  But it was special.  She was still able to attend a dinner party at my place; a type of gathering we already knew would be in short supply in the months ahead.

I asked her to give me a strand of her hair. I took some acrylic gel and embedded it into the canvas along the stem of her “J”.   After it had dried, I passed the canvas around and we all signed the back.

I told her this was for her…now….and it was for her husband, Paul, for later.  We didn’t realize we would be so fortunate to have her be with us for another 16 months. We’ve been able to spend wonderful time really connecting and savoring our relationships with her, relocating dinner parties to her place so she could participate comfortably and most of all, sharing our stories, love, and speaking our truth to each other.

I was blessed to visit with her an hour or so before she passed away. She was a pillar of strength, an amazing mother and had one of the best marriages I’ve had the honor of witnessing. She  truly will be missed.