International Space Station image of the English Channel courtesy of the European Space Agency.
After Captain Matthew Webb swam the English Channel in 1875 the Mayor of Dover said, “I make bold as to say that I do not believe that in the future history of the world any such feat will be preformed by anybody else.”
We all make mistakes but he wasn’t far wrong. It’s remains a pretty daunting challenge. About 1,500 people have completed solo swims of the Channel, far fewer than have climbed Mount Everest. The first six-person relay swam the Channel in 1954. There have been about 6,000 relay team members who have successfully made the crossing since…still not a lot in my books. And every member of our team is older than the average age of 33…some double that.
We will make our attempt to swim the 32 kilometres, with each swimmer taking one-hour turns in rotation until we walk up a beach in France, in late July of this year. If we make it, it will be because of a mixture of good luck (the weather and everyone’s health), good preparation and support from friends and family.
We all have something in common, according to the owner of Dover’s Churchill Guest House where we will be staying when Team Crazy Canucks makes its bid. “One correlation we have noticed between you all is that at some stage during your childhoods you were all dropped on your heads which made you all crazy enough to attempt such a mind-boggling challenge.”
Step one: Find five other people who were dropped on their heads as children and like to swim in cold water, in the ocean, in only a bathing suit (no wetsuits allowed and there are stringent Channel Swimming Association rules about the type of suit you can wear too), and don’t mind a jaunt to England.
This proved easier than I thought which I guess says something about me and my pals.
The first to sign up was Jaime. We met training for a marathon during which we had this conversation. “Hey, we should do Ironman in three years,” I say. “Sure, but I will have to learn to swim first,” Jaime says. She did and we finished Ironman Canada in 2005. Her home town at that time, Sundre put a “congratulations Jaime” message on a billboard. I think a parade would be in order this time.
A friendship developed over hours of running and cycling is something pretty special. There are no secrets left to tell after four hours sweating it out and no one you would rather tell them to. When we ran out of secrets we talked about what we were going to eat when we stopped, in great detail, as in the actual recipes.
If all goes our way, Jaime says, “Next year Ella (daughter) will be able to take me to school for show and tell and say my mom swam in the English Channel. How cool will that be?”
She says her feeling about the Channel is summed up by this quote by Bob Proctor: “Set a goal to achieve something that is so big, so exhilarating that it excites you and scares you at the same time.”
“I am so looking forward to it but at the same time it sometimes makes me cringe just thinking about it.” That sounds like excitement and fear at the same time for sure. I’m glad she was dropped on her head.
This is a sourdough loaf made from my own starter which takes about a week to make. The perfect loaf was kneaded and left to rise multiple times before it went in our brand new wood-fired oven. The bread-baking smell never happened. The next to meet an even worse fate was a pizza that literally went up in flames. Note the conflagration. Too much flame maybe?
OK, this was a bad idea but very hard to return. It weighs a lot. We (well the Handyman) put it in place with a forklift.
A phone call to the 
Now the only downside to our Mediterranean oven imported from Portugal is best expressed by Dan Wing in the preface to Richard Miscovich’s book From the Wood-Fired Oven, “You make delicious stuff to eat, people try it, people get used to eating it, people come to expect it, and pretty soon there are people checking surreptitiously to find out when you will be, or if you are now, or if you just have been baking something great in your oven. The only practical solutions are to make them bring the beer or wine…”
The secrets to a good crêpe are a good batter (with some nice flavouring) and a great pan. Julia Child is my batter whisperer and a wonderful houseguest provided the pan: The Rock made by Starfrit. (
This raspberry-ganache tart is a lot simpler to make than it looks and you can’t beat the combination of rich chocolate and fresh raspberries. I love my heart-shaped tart pan and use it a lot. You can use round or square tart pans if you prefer.
Place a sheet of parchment paper over the dough-lined pan and pour in enough dried beans or rice to come up to the sides. Bake for about 15 minutes at 400 degrees F. Remove from oven when the edges are golden brown. Remove the parchment paper and rice. (Store the rice for future blind baking needs). Put the tart shell back in the oven and bake a further 15 minutes until the inside of the tart shell is golden brown.
Place two or so pints of fresh raspberries on your cooled tart. Remove from tart pan and sprinkle with icing sugar. Place in the fridge until a half hour before serving. Add whip cream or serve with ice cream if you aren’t afraid of the calories.
Manufactured in Israel, it came in boxes, a lot of boxes. We ordered it online through 
It was built to start unusual perennial and annual seeds, mainly ordered from England, to sell at local farmer’s markets. More posts to follow on this enterprise…
This guy was a regular.
And then there was this guy, and according to the date stamp, scant seconds before a neighbourhood cat. Cat photo was too blurred to post. He was in a hurry.
It’s not all nefarious doings though.
All’s well that ends well for the cat. He came back, the very next day.
Clever marketing or quelle horreur?
A short drive to OK Falls and you can taste OMG, Hatfield’s Fuse and Big Bang Theory from some bottles featuring some very cool, award-winning artwork.
In a village of only 2,500, there is a bit of gossip. An in-the-know neighbour gave me the rundown on who is spending time with which Naramatian (yup, that’s really what we are called…kind of like Martians). “Things are pretty active in Naramattress at the moment.”
In summer, I call it Bearamatta.
This very healthy black bear kept me up in the tree fort, wondering if she would attempt to get in the trap door, until she decided to move along. My what big claws you have…
If I was Gandalf, the hobbits would have ridden this furry, happy guy that’s up at Apex Ranch. Apex Mountain is the place to go when the cloud hangs gloomily low over the lake in winter. It’s all blue skies up there.
naramata-blend 