Christmas 2018 in Tucson

January 03, 2019 by Catherine Forest in Arizona

The girls decorated this saguaro cactus for Christmas.

Mara made macaroons for Mathilde’s Christmas gift.

The most amazing 1985 Vintage Port. Our friends truly spoiled us.

That we drank with Stilton blue cheese, figs and dark chocolate. It was heavenly.

JF’s delicious Mascarpone orange chocolate pie (from Jamie Oliver).

Served in Pascale’s grandma’s ice cream bowl.

Leg of lamb for New Years served with a 2005 St-Julien. Spoiled. I tell you.

Our traditional fireworks in the backyard!

Our very sick puppy on Christmas morning.

As per tradition, we spent December in Tucson, parked in our dear friends’ yard, enjoying our time with them and sharing daily meals, playing board games, watching movies and riding bikes together. It is always a pleasure to slip back into our simple rhythm and to see our girls and their boys connect and grow together. It was heartwarming to see the girls go on bike rides with Antonio or Pascale by themselves and learn from them.

However, our celebrations were tainted with lots of sadness since our beloved Stout is very severely ill from late stage disseminated Valley Fever (VF), a fungus that is found in the soil in the desert. He likely contracted it in November and the fungus quickly spread everywhere in his body. He has heart failure from the VF and fluid build up around the heart, lungs and intestines. He has had seizures, which tells us it is in his brain too, and he moves with difficulty, which means it is everywhere in his bones. He has lost 17 pounds in 10 days. On December 26, we were pretty sure we were losing him. However, he responded pretty well to the treatment. He is on 4 different meds right now to try and control the VF, but the heart failure requires surgery, a very complex, pricey and risky surgery in which they remove the sac around his heart.

A friend has set up a Go Fun Me to try and raise money to pay for all the vet fees and possible surgery. If you can help even just a bit, we would be incredibly thankful. Here’s the link.

An afternoon at Covert Farm

October 01, 2015 by Catherine Forest in British Columbia

The BEST blackberries we ever tasted! So sweet and juicy!

It's the third time that we visit Covert Farm. Every time, we get there a few weeks before the end of the season and we get to enjoy the last of their produce. They usually tell us to eat what we want that is leftover from the blackberries, raspberries and melons for free (no more blueberries, peaches and nectarines this year). We stuffed ourselves with mouth-watering orgasmic (and organic!) blackberries until our bellies couldn't hold anymore... Then we headed to the strawberry field and popped as many sun-warmed strawberries as we could in our mouth. We picked all sorts of tomatoes and peppers. Last year, we had bought mind-blowing moscat grapes and hoped they still had some this year. The owner sent us to the special place in the field where there might have still some left... We were on a mission. And we found them. The kids screamed like gold diggers... and we stuffed ourselves one more time with these delicious sweet grapes.

Beside the wine tasting building, there is an awesome trampoline (called the bouncing belly) to keep the kids busy while the parents drink wine. We had such a good time!

Summerhill Pyramid Winery, Kelowna, BC

May 10, 2015 by Catherine Forest in British Columbia

When we did some research to find a winery to visit in the Okanagan Valley and chose the organic and biodynamic Summerhill Pyramid Winery (where they age wine in a pyramid), we expected to be greeted by a bunch of crunchy people. It was quite a shock to see tour buses and a very commercial place when we arrived... We soon found out that is was the biggest and most visited organic winery in Canada! About twenty minutes into the tour (so far a very typical winery tour where the biodynamic practices still hadn't been mentionned...), the guide led us into the pyramid, asking us to remain silent, take a seat, close our eyes, open our hearts and feel the energy of the place. Now we were talking!! The place was filled with cristals, goddess statues and a magic lamp... there were a copper pyramid inside the actual pyramid and an altar in the middle of the room with candles all around... When we asked what they were for, he said it was from their last full moon celebration! Groups of people come to meditate there too... Sounds like it benefits the wine since in a blind-tasting of 10 000 persons, 95% prefered the pyramid-aged wine!

Here's what they say about the effect of the pyramid on their website:
The knowingness of eternity awaits us in this sacred chamber. The word Py-ra-mid means "fire in the middle". We all have this fire in the middle. It is our hearts, our souls. We are mostly liquid and we are affected just like the wine is effected. The effect is clarification. If a wine has a flaw in it, the flaw is accentuated. If the wine has good qualities, they are enhanced. We humans are mostly liquid so when we enter this sacred chamber, it is a grand opportunity to clarify our own inner selves. This chamber helps us to get to the knowingness of who we are. We are electrical in nature, with impulses running from our brains through our spinal columns. We are receivers, we are conduits, and this chamber enhances our receptiveness, opening the left and right sides of our brains, much like the dolphins, whales, and elephants who are in touch with Essence, the all-one ‘soul of the world’.

Many experiments have been documented in replica pyramids. For instance, it is well established that rather than rotting, milk turns to yogurt, meat petrifies and razor blades will become sharper in the pyramid (this has been patented). A timed photography experiment, conducted outdoors in an open frame pyramid, revealed that a plant growing inside the pyramid grew in a clockwise motion, while a twin sister plant nearby but not in a pyramid grew "helter skelter".

We tasted six of their wines and, call us wine snobs, but we were not overly impressed. We liked the Cipes Brut (a sparkling white), cared for the sparkling rosé and really liked the Blanc de Noir, but really did not care for the Riesling, Syrah rose and Pinot Noir. The girls were given non-alchoolic cider in the same glasses as the other guests and it was the exact same color as the Riesling. You should have seen the look on people's face!! Honestly, our friends at Domaine Bergeville who produce 3 delicious sparkling wines (a white, a rosé and a red) have nothing to envy to them.