Thursday, April 18, 2024

A Bit of This and That

 


Off in the distance Mount Baker, in the USA, gleams in the sunlight. My best guess is that it's about 100 km away as the crow flies. To drive, it's 263 km, including a ferry ride. On Sunday afternoon we visited a new-to-us park, Mill Hill. The trail to the viewpoint was steep, but not too long. It's always good to stop and take photos along the way (and to catch my breath). 


I've been admiring (with some envy) photos of bluebell woods in England and Wales via social media. Then I realized that we have swaths of Blue Camassia (camassia quamash) currently covering sunny slopes with their star-shaped blossoms. A native perennial, the blue camas bulbs were an important food source for First Nations Peoples. On such a sunny day it was difficult to capture the fields with their haze of blue. 



Rhubarb is growing fast, as it always does in early spring. I've made this Rhubarb Cake twice already, once for coffee with neighbours and once for dessert with friends. It's so good, a seasonal treat. I know that I can freeze rhubarb and make it year round, but eating in season is appealing and there is always something to anticipate. It's a recipe from a cookbook printed in 1980, and I probably first made it within a year or two of that. Yikes. 


The sun's been shining although the wind is chilly. Every day seems to warm up just a bit more. I've been working in the garden, cleaning out a few beds, planting a few seeds, and pulling LOTS of weeds. This little patch of tulips with bluebells (not the English ones) underneath is a happy spot. One rogue orange tulip is determined to fit in. 


I recently read someone's thoughts about Artificial Intelligence - they thought real AI would be useful to do the dishes and the laundry so that we could spend time writing and doing art - it seems that AI isn't so good at the practical things, is it? Another person said that AI is really Artificial Plagiarism rather than Intelligence, for it can only produce from what humans input. I know that AI has its uses, and I'm happy for that - but I really hate the idea of creativity and hands-on work and art being replaced. Am I old-fashioned? Yes! 

We're off to the mainland for a few days to celebrate my father's 90th birthday. A milestone, for sure! 


21 comments:

  1. Dearest Lorrie,
    What lovely images of spring flowers.
    Oh, rhubarb is one of my favorites and even with my diabetes type 2 I would not want to pass such a piece up.
    Talking about plagiarism—so many people just do that! Often when I encounter a blog with images from the Internet (no source with link mentioned of course!) I pass and never leave a comment. The very same with all the AI craze.
    I'm completely with you.
    Hugs,
    Mariette

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  2. I wonder, do we have Blue Camassia here in the Fraser Valley? I'd like to see them if we do.
    Your rhubarb cake looks delicious. 🎂 Happy Birthday to your Dad.,

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  3. Beautiful photos, Lorrie!
    I guess AI will never replace the genuine beauty one captures with a camera. As someone with a wild imagination but lacking artistic talent, I find exploring AI-generated images to be a fun and entertaining pursuit, offering fresh avenues for creativity and imagination, especially in immortalizing memories and thoughts into tangible form.

    Hugs and blessings.

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  4. Happy Birthday to your dad have a nice family gathering. The rhubarb cake looks delicious makes me think of our rhubarb in the garden, the weather was so bad that I forgot it. We also have wild bluebells hyacinths here and I love them and they smell very nice.

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  5. What a wonderful view you had... the mountain literally shines in the sunlight.
    Beautiful photo.
    Also de photo arranged with the daisies... I like drinking my coffee from cups like that.
    There are wonderful walks now in spring, the spring bloomers and the delicate green of the forest are a splendor. Enjoy your walks. I am happy :-)))
    Are you still sewing? If so, what do you sew?
    I'm currently sewing a t-shirt... for when it gets warm again... and that will be soon, but today we have 6 degrees with sun and rain - right for April.
    Many happy greetings to you from Viola
    All the best to your dad, I wish you all a wonderful birthday celebration.

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  6. Once we get up above freezing, I'll need to go out to the rhubarb plant and pick the first stalks. Thanks for the recipe. Wow! 90 years old. Happy birthday to your father. That's a great milestone to celebrate well!

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  7. Was it Howard's End, the movie, that showed the young man walking through a field of bluebells? How I miss the Merchant-Ivory films! I'm afraid our lawn has had a surplus of blue flowers from a weed I can't remember the name of and no longer really mind and I still have to listen to RH's fond memories of the Texas Bluebonnets he grew up with. There's something about blue in the garden, and the house. Your cake looks delicious! I suppose AI is here to stay, as well as TikTok, so we might as well live with it and be on guard.

    A very happy birthday to your amazing father! Enjoy your visit to celebrate with him!

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  8. I'm too old to understand AI! I went to look at my Camassias after reading your post, and they dont seem to be doing as well as usual. But what a lovely blue they are! I loved you teacup with daisies.

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  9. Happy Birthday to your Dad! I know you are happy to spend time with him and celebrate this milestone. It sure gets here before you know it. I love the wildflowers and you have some pretty ones. I'm spoiled to our flat trails here in FL. I can barely make those! lol Enjoy your weekend!

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  10. I love your arrangement of daisies in a teapot -- and will plan to do something similar with small flowers. Thank you for the inspiration <3

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  11. Nice walk Lorry. Mountains, flowers, cake what I love in life! I agree with your thoughts on artificial intelligence, it's very difficult to make a picture I remember trying to make a hedgehog, it kept making mistakes, I described, I described.. after a lot of attempts it became a picture that could be presented. Whatever the future holds it will show from the people it depends on the use.. with a knife I can kill or use it to eat sumptuously. Have a nice day🌼🌷☕!

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  12. I have recently been discovering the delights of camasias . I hadn’t realised they were a food source. I love the way there are always rogue tulips however carefully you plant. Enjoy your celebrations. 90 is most definitely a milestone. B x

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  13. Marilyn M1:20 PM

    Have a great trip to the main land. Loving the tulips everywhere this year. The rhubarb cake looks soooo delicious! I still have rhubarb in my freezer from last year. Usually I make rhubarb bread in small loaves and put them in the freezer for teatime treats. I went searching for the Camas lilies last week. They are so pretty in fields.

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  14. I wish I could taste your rhubarb cake, Lorrie. Your teacup filled with tiny posies is so endearing. AI has taken many jobs away. My son, Mike, the video game artist sadly is training in something else. I see it as plagiarism also because students use it for assignments. What a world!

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  16. Happy Birthday to your dad! That's our next milestone BD but still a few years away (fingers crossed ...) I just read somewhere that after 80, we reach our second childhood and start bragging about our age again. I'm afraid it's true! I am always grateful for shares of Spring gardens and yours is lovely. Mt Baker looks much closer than it is on that clear day! ... AI scares me (another symptom of my great age I'm afraid ;>)

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  17. Your rhubarb cake looks delicious. Rhubarb doesn't grow well in this area. I am going to go in search of some as a rhubarb dessert sounds very appealing right about now. 90 is a remarkable milestone. Happy Birthday to your Dad. I am sure you had a wonderful celebration in his honor.

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  18. Thank you for the reminder... I need to get out with my camera and photograph the bluebells!

    Happy Birthday to your father!

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  19. Congrats to your dad for reaching this amazing birthday milestone!

    I'm ambivalent towards AI...It has potential to help us, but it can also be incredibly problematic. A recent episode of Abbott Elementary had a storyline about the teachers using AI to respond to e-mails or provide feeedback on newsletters. So maybe in the future, people will use AI to generate comments on our blogs?!?

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  20. So wonderful to see the delights of springtime - I love rhubarb too. Mine is growing, will be a while yet before I can make anything with it. Happy birthday to your father!

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  21. Belated (?) happy birthday greetings to your father! Quite a milestone indeed.
    Your photos are all lovely... but my favourite is your rhubarb cake. It was nice to notice your cooking blog is so "active" now.
    I seldom cook anything remarkable for the family but oh what a happy feeling it is to have prepared something beautiful and tasty!
    The issues concerning AI are real...but as you know, I enjoy using an AI image generator; in some seconds it creates images I need (like a sleeping cat today). For me, it would take weeks to try to paint a similar image and it wouldn't be as good. :)
    Happy spring days to you!

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Thank you for your comment. I read and value each one, cherishing the connections we can make although far apart. Usually, I visit your blog in return, although if you ask a question I try to contact you directly.

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