Nether regions…

Last Saturday I had dinner with friends Prudence, Frank, and Pippin…

I hadn’t seen them for awhile because they’d been up North for a month rebuilding a porch,

on their old gold rush cabin…

You didn't get to heaven but you made it close...

I prepared some steelhead filet for the barbeque,

and a homemade plum and apple pie which resulted in Prudence whip creaming her jeans,

two days in a row…

We talked all about Frank’s return to beer league hockey at the eight rinks next weekend,

and preservation…

Prudence, Frank and I are super connected to our pioneer ancestry…

The Summer cannot end without putting things by for the winter…

Even with a Costco right up the street,

it just isn’t the same…

This is the first Summer in a long time that I haven’t processed forty pounds of Similkameen Valley peaches for my girls, Starshine and Little Gem…

And the last Summer I am willing to physically restrain myself from not whipping out a bow and arrow,

tracking down a moose,

and making up some pemmican…

For now,

living one block south of East Hastings and in walking distance from GM Place – Home of the Canucks,

I must satisfy myself with canning tomatoes purchased at the Station’s Wednesday Farmer’s Market…

Turning these,

into a little bit of this,

and that…

Prudence is vigilant about health and safety…

When you’re canning tomatoes you have to be VERY careful…

You want to do everything in your power to prevent botulism and other stuff that you can’t see or smell,

but will put you six feet under with one small bite…

The best decision you can make is to put a Virgo in charge,

and get it done properly…

I ask her how her astrological theorizing accounts for me being a Capricorn,

and my high level of creative efficiency,

with no f#ckin’ around…

In moments like these she always has a quick answer up her sleeve,

You really should find out how many houses you have,

in Virgo…