Monday, August 13, 2018

Summer Saturday



On Saturday morning, the two of us went for a walk along Victoria's Inner Harbour, a scenic place that was surprisingly busy. Dragon boat races kept to one half of the narrow entrance while float planes landed and were escorted by Harbour Authority boats. Pleasure craft large and small left in a single line after one race moved out of the way. The little harbour ferries (we call them jelly-bean boats) bobbed from stop to stop. 



The tide was extremely low. In the shallow bays the banquet table laid for a siege of herons, several squabbles of seagulls, and a herd of geese. The birds waded and watched, then with darting flashes of beaks into the water pulled up all sorts of delicacies and enjoyed them with gusto.
  

The temperatures were cool over the weekend and are supposed to rise again this week. The blue sky in the photo might be the last we see for a bit as smoke haze from the wildfires colours the light pinky-orange and obscures the blue. There are over 600 wildfires burning in our province just now. We need rain - drenching rain.


Our son called just as we were concluding our walk and said that he and his family were at "Victoria's Largest Little Airshow" and thought we would enjoy it. So off we went to ooh and aah at the aerial acrobatics of model remote controlled aircraft. 


Once home again, we puttered around the house. I picked a basketful of produce from the garden. Gathering what's ripe is a daily delight, and necessary to avoid overly large vegetables. These beans went into the freezer, after blanching. 

There will be green beans on the menu for dinner tonight, along with that zucchini. What shall I do with them? How do you like your green beans? 

Linking with Mosaic Monday, hosted by Maggie of Normandy Life.

26 comments:

  1. I love to make a niçoise-style salad with green beans, little potatoes, tuna and hard cooked egg.

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  2. What a lovely outing! We love to walk in that area when we visit Victoria. So pleasant. Your garden is providing some lovely menu items for summer meals. I generally like beans lightly steamed, with a little crushed garlic and olive oil, a touch of salt. Fresh out of the garden like that, sometimes I like them just steamed, with nothing on them--I pick them up like French fries and crunch on them, I find them perfect.

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  3. Wonderful mosaics. Yummy tomatoes. Luv them
    Happy ypu dropped by my blog today

    Much💞love

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  4. It looks beautiful where you live. Fun things to do for people and food in plenty for birds. Your garden produce always looks wonderful.....super fresh is best!

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  5. That sounds like a lovely Saturday! Your veggies look great!

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  6. I love seeing the boats but the airplanes you saw are very neat too. It's been awhile since we went out and watched people fly those. I have a recipe I like....you microwave some broccoli in a little water for a minute, add some cut green beans and microwave 2 more minutes. Then plunge them in cold water, drain and dry them off. Now you sautee them with garlic...stir stir stir and add some capers and red pepper flakes at the end and serve. Oh my! They are crunchy and delicious! Hugs!

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  7. I have never been to your corner, though I am convinced that I would recognize it from your descriptions alone. I am happily imagining jelly boats bobbing. 🙂

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  8. Your produce looks wonderful! I am hoping to go to the Farmers Market this Saturday and get green beans. I love to simmer them with bacon and Mrs. Dash. I could eat the whole pot! :) Kit

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  9. What a lovely day you had! I enjoyed seeing all the activity happening on the water - both boats and birds!

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  10. Your fun weekend outings covered everything--land, sea and air!

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  11. Lorrie, I love the description "jelly bean boats"! What a fun adventure on a gorgeous day. Your garden delights look so tempting. Could you bake zucchini muffins?

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  12. Beautiful produce. We have had many beans this summer but have eaten them all. I like to blanch them and then stir fry in olive oil and garlic and minced onion until the are just starting to brown.

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  13. Yum on those veggies...and love the pretty photos...

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  14. Excellent photos! I love the herons, so pretty!

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  15. Love those jelly bean boats, how cute. I do feel for you with all those wild fires, it seems to be happening much more often.
    I leave a few of my zucchini to grow large, scoop out the seeds, bake for a short while then stuff with browned Lamb mince, breadcrumbs, chopped tomatoes and mint and cinnamon and then bake again for about 15 mins. Delicious with cous cous. B x

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  16. What a delightful basket of garden produce. Sadly our beans have finished as I only planted a few in a large pot. What grew was delicious so next year maybe a bigger pot! Green beans are good with a little smoky bacon added after cookiing.

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  17. What a lovely way to spend a Saturday, so much to see and enjoy. Thanks for the two new collective nouns, a squabble of seagulls Indeed!
    I love green beans especially in a salad nicoise, yesterday I saw a great looking chocolate zucchini cake recipe on FB which I plan on making sometime this week, I'll let you know how it turns out.

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  18. I love green beans in the famous THanksgiving casserole with cream of mushroom soup mix and dried Onion rings.s SO BAD FOR YOU. But you asked!

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  19. Love the heron shots!

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  20. We had heard about the wildfires you have been suffering with, I hope the grey clouds brought some rain like here. Your Dragon boats look huge compared with the 6 person gig boats that are raced here. Sarah x

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  21. Very nice collection of photographs, those planes are so colourful.

    Green beans simply cooked with butter!
    Love the picture of your veggies.

    All the best Jan

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  22. Beautiful pictures, my friend, and oh, what a wonderful time you had! I am praying you get rain SOON! We, too, need rain. The smoke from the fires is so bad that I can't even see the mountains that surround our home. Hugs to you!

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  23. What a lovely time - so much to see and do. I love the little Jelly-Bean boats. And the vegetables - oh the green beans - lovely summer. Hope the smoke clears soon - we too are under an orange sky and staying indoors now. I'm back to blogging now, after a month and a half off - hope to catch up on my favorites.

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  24. Looks like you had a lovely walk. We used to race dragon boats, for about 20 years, and both my sons still do. It is a good family sport! Have a great week and thank you for stopping by my blog this week.

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  25. Lorrie, I can't believe your province is having a shortage of rain. I do hope you get significant rainfall soon. Your photos are marvelous, as always, but I especially love the bird photos. Stay cool!

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  26. I like to toss my beans with a good amount of basil pesto - or just spoon a good amount of the sauce over each serving!

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