Ahhh… The Paw. An old standby in Canmore. It can always be counted on for great food and the best handcrafted sodas in the area. I love their Granny Bee roughage salad. Their burgers are huge, fresh and juicy. My favorite soda is the ginger beer, but I like all the rest too. I had the orange cream soda which tasted like orange creamsicle. Apparently their beers are very good too. I wouldn’t know; I don’t drink.
My first CSA delivery of the season has arrived. Spinach, unidentified leafy greens, radishes, pea shoots, garlic scapes, flowers and a Thai basil plant.
It’s that time of year again, time for the Calgary Stampede. Hubby and I went to the grounds on Friday to take in the evening show and the food. Since it was raining, I didn’t take any pictures of the food. I decided on a Thai chili lime noodle box. I don’t come to Stampede to eat healthy food, but I thought I’d give it a try. The noodles were drowning in sauce. If it had less sauce, it would have been good. Hubby had a donair, he didn’t have much to say about it. For dessert we tried the chocolate covered bacon which was surprisingly good. The deep fried cheesecake was interesting in its own way. I suppose I would have tried the deep fried butter if I actually found it. Our our way to the show after dinner, we saw the food trucks. We would have preferred to have had dinner there instead. Oh well.
There’s going to be all sorts of Stampede breakfasts this week, but none so far fit my schedule. So I made my own.
Today I decided to go to High River. I headed out with a group of volunteers coordinated by JH Innovations. The company did our renovations a couple of years ago and they are a class act.
The Sunshine neighborhood is a victim of some serious traffic congestion. Between all the commercial vehicles in to help and all the volunteers and trash, it was a zoo. Faster to walk than to drive.
These guys are awesome. They brought a ton of food and supplies. We setup our home base in a park and donned our lovely coveralls.
Our first assignment was mucking out a basement. Looked pretty much the same as what I did last week, except for one difference. Mould. These basements have been sitting in the water for over two weeks in some cases. The entire town had an odour that smelled not so nice. I made sure that I got a proper respirator rather than a N95 mask.
A couple of us went to the house next door, which wasn’t too bad, as they were mostly done, just taking down the drywall and insulation.
The third house was really bad. Black mould had permeated almost all of the insulation in the basement.
The fourth house was difficult as we did not have lighting and few had headlamps. I couldn’t see the mould.
We went back to house one to disinfect with bleach. What a difference! I am actually liking the smell of bleach.
It was very sobering to see the amount of damage in this community. They truly need all the help that they can get. If you go, please bring proper protective equipment. Safety glasses. Yours truly had bits of dry drywall fall over her eyes. A proper respirator with replaceable filters. Suitable for painting. The smell will get to you after a while and this will give you healthier air to breathe. Long sleeves and long pants. Clothes that you can throw away. And rubber boots! Who knows what is in that water.
I made a few more new friends today, Hopefully we can stay in touch. The generosity of Calgarians and Albertans in general amazes me. As long as there is a need, I will try to help.
After a short, flood diverted hiatus, I am back to the business of food. Hubby and and went out to dinner a couple of weeks ago. This would be our second time at Brasserie Kensington, and I enjoyed it as much as the first.
We shared the moules frites flavoured with a green curry sauce. The fries were nice and crisp and the mussels danced in the melody of the Thai spices. I quite enjoyed my ahi tuna salad. It was just a tad heavy handed with the capers, but had the flavors of a good Mediterranean salad. Hubby’s lamb shank looked delish.
I’m not a wine drinker, but the food is certainly good enough on its own. It wasn’t too busy, and the service was attentive, but not intrusive. This won’t be our last visit.
I had set out with the intention of looking for some more manual labour type work today. But I think this past week and the heat has caught up to me. So I decided to check out Stanley Park. I packed my cooler full of popsicles, mandarin oranges and grapes. It was a hot day out there, 34C to be exact.
On the way there, I walked by a pedestrian bridge that used to go over the Elbow. I remember how rickety it was. I guess it needed to be replaced anyway.
The community is still quite a mess. Generators were going and there were a lot of contractors coming and going. Didn’t see as many people out though. Just the homeowners and contractors. Maybe volunteers were back to work? Once the dumpsters are out of the way, the streets could use a sweep.
I walked by a park and sat at a picnic table. The ground still gave a little, even though we haven’t had rain in a week. The grass was mud covered, but still enough to stick to my sandals.
Highlights of my visit:
Keep up the good work, Calgary!
It’ s hot out today. 28C at COP and hotter on the street. What could be better than freezies? I took the ctrain and my bike down to Mission/Rideau Park today. I saw a few volunteers with their buggies and coolers handing out food and drink. But not in the numbers that were on Bow Crescent. Downtown was bustling with people celebrating Canada Day. I think everyone took Mayor Nenshi seriously when he said to take the day off.
I also saw what I thought were houses under construction… but instead thought that maybe everything was ripped down to the studs.
Highlights for today:
