Life in Calgary
It’s back to Manzanillo this month; we’re looking forward to seeing old friends and enjoying the great (post hurricane) winter weather!
In the meantime, we’ve had a wonderful time in Calgary; it’s been over a decade since we lived here, and it’s grown and matured in so many ways.
Our neighborhood in Eau Claire is now surrounded by summer concerts and events that feature music and culture from around the world. Here’s a small sample;
The Mexifest with wrestlers and tacos!
Beaches the Musical playing at Theatre Calgary!
Book readings by authors who really appreciate you buying their books (ahem).
Crystal Ball is now Available on Amazon!
FBI AGENT JACK KENYON is back! When a bomb in Myron Buckstar’s software lab kills an innocent woman, Jack and the crew are called in to find out if terrorists are targeting the flamboyant billionaire. They soon discover that the victim was a member of Scotland Yard working undercover on a mysterious case. As Jack pursues her murder, he uncovers a race to steal the Crystal Ball, an invention that allows its owner to peer into the future. Follow Jack from San Francisco to London as he pursues a host of murderers, conmen and criminals who will stop at nothing to achieve their goal.
Recipe; Zucchini Stuffed Italian Boats
A big thank-you to our wonderful friend Wilma for supplying us with her home-grown zucchini for this tasty recipe. This is a delicious meal and easy to make – your family and friends are going to give you plenty of compliments! By the way, this recipe is keto, vegan and no kittens were harmed.
Ingredients
2 large zucchinis,
1 Tsp of olive oil.
1 cup of tomato sauce
1 tsp of salt
1 Tsp of Italian seasoning
1 cup of tomato sauce
1 cup of mushrooms, chopped
1 Tsp of butter
1 cup of grated cheese.
Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 F.
Cut the zucchinis lengthwise and scoop out the seeds. Rub them with olive oil and place on a cookie tray. Bake for 20 minutes.
Fry the mushrooms in butter in a medium-sized pan then add the tomato sauce, salt and Italian seasoning. Let simmer on low while the zucchini is baking.
Fill the zucchini boats with the sauce then cover with cheese. Bake in the oven a further 5 minutes, then turn on the broiler and toast the cheese for two minutes.
Let them cool for a few minutes, then serve. Enjoy!
Book Review
The Briar Club
By Kate Quinn
Quinn is an American author who has written a series of tremendously enjoyable novels about brave women who defy the Nazis. If you haven’t read The Huntress, the Rose Code or The Alice Network, then you’re in for a treat.
Her latest work, The Briar Club, is set in Washington, DC, in the 1950s. It veers from her focus on WWII, but I think it’s her best work yet.
The story takes place in the Briarwood boarding house, set in the neighborhood of Foggy Bottom.
Mrs. Nilsson and her children Lina and Pete are hosts to a bevy of women who have come to Washington in search of jobs. They include Nora, escaping her cloying family, Bea, a former player for the All American Girls Baseball League, and Felicity, a young mother whose husband is fighting in Korea.
Into their midst strolls Mrs. Grace March, a widow who soon captivates everyone with her worldly manners and Thursday night potluck. The author unfolds their individual lives and the manner in which they become a family with skill and insight.
And did I mention the prologue features a grisly, blood-spattered corpse? This ain’t no pedestrian stroll through the Eisenhower Era; someone in the boarding house is a cold-blooded murderer. I highly recommend The Briar Club!
TV Series
The Tragically Hip No Dress Rehearsal
Streaming on Prime
This is a four-episode documentary on one of the most original bands to ever come out of Canada; The Tragically Hip. From their origins in Kingston, Ontario, to Gordon Downey’s tragic death from brain cancer at the age of 53, the documentary traces the many potholes and detours on their journey to success.
I have never been a Hip Head. As we stood in line waiting to see its debut at the Calgary International Film Festival, however, I had a chance to talk with some devoted fans. They mentioned how, even in the biggest arenas, Gord would make them feel as though he was personally communicating with them, reaching out to their hearts with his poetic lyrics.
(By coincidence, we met the band in the mid-80s while staying with friends in Toronto. Alan Gregg, their manager, invited the band over on New Year’s Day for a drink and we were charmed by their youth and good manners).
But back to the doco. There’s a lot of shots from the picturesque Lake Ontario city of Kingston as the group walks through the events that brought them together and formed life-long friendships.
There’s lots of footage of the band on the road, performing the day-to-day tasks of hanging out in laundromats and noodling with lyrics and instruments.
And there’s lots of live performances of their most famous songs, with Gord writhing around the stage like a poor soul possessed by a demon as he performs.
The final episode covers the country-wide tour after Gord has been diagnosed with inoperable cancer. Rather than being maudlin, however, it captures the beautiful relationship that the band had with both themselves and their fans. I highly recommend No Dress Rehearsal!
Bonus Book Review
Here One Moment
By Liane Moriarty
Liane Moriarty is one of our favorite authors. She is an Australian writer who lives in Sydney and writes about the lives of ordinary suburban Ozzies in such an extraordinary manner that she captivates you from the very first page.
Even if you’ve never read Moriarty, the chances are that you are very familiar with her work, as her book Big Little Lies was made into an award-winning mini series starring Reese Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman.
Big Little Lies was my favorite Moriarty book until I read Here One Moment. The premise of the book is audacious; during a routine flight from Hobart to Sydney, a 70-year old widow named Cherry walks down the aisle predicting everyone’s cause of death and age of death.
Some of the passengers are amused, while others are thrown into profound anxiety. She tells one young woman that she will die in a car accident within the year. She predicts that the infant sitting in a mother’s lap will drown at the age of seven.
Turmoil erupts when her predictions begin to come true. The young woman does indeed die in a car accident, and others pass away as stated. Suddenly, Cherry has become the mysterious Death Lady, with a website tabulating her prophesies.
Moriarty writes following a code; no ghosts, divine intervention or phantasms ever determine the outcome of her books. So it was with great anticipation as I read this novel; how would she resolve what clearly appears to be a paranormal phenomenon at the heart of the story without compromising her inner tenet?
She pulls it off brilliantly, and, I promise, the ending will delight you. I highly recommend Here One Moment!