I was in the liquor store in Richards Landing yesterday and made an amazing discovery. The LCBO now has a South African Wine in general distribution called Ubuntu! Here are the notes from their website:
UBUNTU SHIRAZ
LCBO 665281 | 750 mL bottle
Price: $ 11.15
Wine, Still Table Wine, Red Still Table Wine
13.7% Alcohol/Vol.
Sugar Content : 1
This is a VQA wine
Made in: South Africa, South Africa
By: COOP.WINEGROWERS ASSOC. OF S.AFRICA
Tasting Note
Light to medium ruby red colour; aromas and flavours of black cherry, cedar and vanilla with hints of tar and earth; dry, medium bodied, with sweet fruit centre; good length.
Serving Suggestion
Try with bbq spare ribs, grilled beef or lamb with rosemary.
Well I wasn’t in the market for a bottle of Shiraz but I certainly took note of it and will be going back soon for a bottle. Imagine you can have a glass of Ubuntu while you use Ubuntu on your favourite ‘puter. Ain’t that something.
I drove into the yard after church on Sunday and saw Val walking towards me from the back of the yard where there is a flower bed we have been working on for the past couple of years. The first words out of her mouth were, “Those bastards. Those bastards ate my delphiniums.” I knew immediately who “those bastards” were. They are white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus). These “cute critters” are very common where we live and as we have discovered over our time here voracious eaters. They eat a variety of plants both wild and cultivated and look on gardens as buffets set up for their dining pleasure. Gardening under these circumstances becomes an exercise in discovering what kinds of plants will like living in our gardens, look nice and taste bad to deer. Finding plants that meet all those criteria is an ongoing effort.
In her efforts to plant and maintain deer proof gardens Val places a lot of stock in a book written by the late Lois Hole , a well known Canadian horticulturist and in later years the Lieutenant Governor of Alberta. Lois says in her book that deer don’t eat delphiniums. As a result of Lois’s reassurance Val took the opportunity in May when we were at her sister’s place to raid a soon to be rebuilt flower bed and bring a large number of plants home including a group of mature delphiniums. These were planted in a bed we have been developing for a couple of years that is about 50 meters from the house. The deer feel very comfortable coming this close to the house especially at night when there are no lights and all is quiet. When we replanted them the delphiniums were fully leafed out and the flower heads were ready to burst into bloom. In stead after their late night visit on Saturday what we had was a lovely cluster of delphinium stocks minus all of their leaves and flower heads. I guess the deer didn’t read the book!
The past couple of days have been busy. It has also been very hot – easily 25+C today. A couple of years ago I built a couple of rocks gardens in the front of the house. The rocks to build these gardens came out of the yard. I will not call it a lawn because it simply is not. It is rough and stony and only the toughest of plants will grow. Since then I have managed to avoid picking rocks until yesterday.
Yesterday afternoon I started digging rocks out of the yard in front of the house. I’m not sure why after 3 years yesterday was the day but it was. I never know when the mood to dig rocks will strike or what the trigger is but it is real. It always starts innocently enough. I think that I will just dig out a couple of small stones and befopre you know it I’m into a full blown stone digging episode and these ain’t wimpy little fist sized stones. A couple that I dealt with today are easily in the 40kg+ range. Within a few minutes the shovel was overwhelmed and I made a quick trip to the shed to get the pick and a crow bar. I was hooked. After an hour or so I had a half dozen good sized rocks out of the ground which means that I had a half dozen good sized holes in the ground that need to be refilled. I was getting tired and there was a cold beer screaming my name. a good enough reason to quit as far as I am concerned! This morning I got up and decided it was good day to go back at it. Within a few minutes I had several more stones excavated and I was up against the biggest stone in the yard. This puppy was heavy and there was no way in hell that I was going to get it out of the ground without more mechanical assistance – back to the shed to get my come along and a tow strap. It was out of the ground in five minutes and then there was only the question of what in hell am I going to do with it and how am I going to move it. Thankfully by this time Val was up and since a trip to the greenhouse was planned I had my reprieve. after lunch, in the hottest part of the day I decided to consolidate the rocks into a pile. The big stone is still waiting to be broken up and that will happen buit not today. The holes will get filled in but not today. Slowly we are reclaiming the yard. It is hot hard work but at the end it will look better.
When he was visiting last month Hugh brought me a cd with the latest version of Ubuntu. As I had my laptop with me he did the installation and some customizing of it for me. It really is a great OS that I enjoy using. My other Ubuntu machine is my old desktop PC at home and Hugh assured me that I could do the installation myself when I got home. A few days after returning home I fired up the old machine and inserted the cd. Nothing happened. The new version was supposed to boot from the cd but it did not appear inclined to do so. I left the cd in the drive and walked away. When I talked to Hugh a few days later he had no explanation. What to do, what to do?
This morning I was up early and in an experimental frame of mind so I fired the old beast up and would you believe it, it booted off the cd. And it asked me if I wanted to do the installation. Well of course you stupid machine! Off it went asking me a bunch of nosy questions and slowly did the installation. At the end it told me to “click here to restart your computer” and then promptly locked up! After a few tries I got it to reboot and went through the whole process again. This time when I got to the part where I had to select the keyboard for some reason I selected UK English instead of US English. I should have realized that there would be a difference but those type of details usually escape me until “it becomes an issue”. This time the install including the restart went exactly as planned and a few minutes later I was surfing away using Firefox and I went to send an email. That is when I discovered one difference between a UK English and US English keyboard. When you type shift2 you do not get the ampersand, you get the quotation marks! Who in hell dreamed that up? That difference alone was enough to make me go running back to change the keyboard setting back to US English. Whew, crisis narrowly averted. I’m learning.
Last Sunday while having supper with Wayne and Karen she mentioned that she and Emily were heading to London on Thursday for a tour of the college Emily will be attending in September. Monday morning I called Karen at work to see if I could invite myself along. I then called my always hospitable sister to see if I could invite the three of us to stay with her and Robin for a couple of nights. With those two invitations secured I called my Mom to see if she had any plans for Friday and would she like some company. After the requisite 20 questions and being satisfied that aliens had not taken over my body she allowed as how this was a good idea. She was also as always concerned about “Val the Hermit” managing on her own but once reassured that the well would not run dry, there was gas in the car and that she shouldn’t have to light the woodstove during my absence she relented and said that I could come for a visit.
Thursday after my weekly visit to the local soup kitchen we met up and headed for the border. The drive down I-75 is not particularly inspiring like say a trip along the north shore of Lake Superior or a run down the west side of the Kicking Horse Pass . No, it is more like watching paint dry or very slowly having a tooth extracted but it is straight, the speed limit is generous (with the cruise set at 112kph you cover ground and are still within the legal limit) and the the traffic is very light . For those of you who like to support the economy the route passes two towns with major outlet malls and about every 15 km there is another set of every fastfood restaurant known to humankind! As you approach Frankenmuth you are invited to stop at Zhenders for some fine dining or to come on in to Freeway Fritz for some freeway chicken or a Blimpie. The choices are endless and in some cases frightening. What in hell is a Blimpie? And then there are the Jerky Outlets. Every gas station along I-75 advertises itself as a Jerky Outlet. You can fuel up and get a couple of sticks of hickory and chocolate flavoured jerky to get you through to the hunt camp or the militia training facility.
Around the corner at Flint and its a straight run back to the border but not before a stop for some fuel and a coffee. You see there are now 3 Tim Hortons between Flint and Port Huron. Ah, we’ll make it now!
At Port Huron/Sarnia you cross the Bluewater Bridge where you find an odd situation. You have to pay a toll to cross this bridge. Unlike the bridge at SSM there is a toll booth at both ends of the bridge. As you approach from the US the toll is C$2.00 and on the return trip when heading into the US the toll at the east end of the bridge is C$2.50. I can not for the life of me figure out why it costs more to out of Canada then it does to get in!
A little later than planned we arrived in London and after a short chat headed to bed. Friday morning I was up early to go to breakfast with Cathy at her Rotary Club weekly meeting. I know a few of the folks slightly and it is a hearty breakfast and a good time.
By 9AM I was back at Cathy’s and walked in just as Mom called to see where I was and when was I coming over. We made the arrangements and I headed out to get a new bag for my laptop. That done I was off to the Dearness Home. Mom was all spiffed up and waiting. We headed outside for a walk around the grounds and some chat just in time for the rain to start falling, not hard but enough to get us both a little damp. We headed back inside for lunch which Mom insisted on paying for – Thank you! Mom always wants to know what is going on, how is Val, what are the kids up to etc etc. Later in the afternoon I go back to pick Mom up and bring her to Cathy’s for supper. We prepare it together and spend some more time chatting idly. After supper when mom is ready we take her back to the DH. As always she is very stoic as we say goodbye until the next time I can get down for a visit. After a stop to visit with Quinn and see Jesse and Christy’s new house we get back to Cathy’s just before Karen and Emily breeze in and my niece Carolyn arrives. We spend an hour sitting on the patio and trading stories about our day.
Saturday after some more visiting time we are ready to head north. By 11.30 we are across the border after a short chat with Agent Crusty of the US Border Patrol – lighten up sport. At Imlay City we stop for fuel and a sandwich at the Tim Hortons next door. We manage to have our orders filled by the snottiest little teenager I have had the misfortune to encounter in some time. Her attitude is such that I feel compelled to find and complete a comment card telling whatever corporate knob reads those things about our experience.
The drive north is almost as exciting as the drive south and just as long. Again the road is straight and the traffic is light. Crossing the Mackinac Bridge is always a highlight of the trip. It really is an engineering marvel and the view from the top is spectacular. Forty five minutes later we pull up to Canada Customs where the officer doesn’t want to see our passports and merely says “what did you but” and “have a nice day”. Welcome home.
It was a fast trip but well worth it. Thanks to Karen and Cathy.