Famiglia Flash Blues: Saturday, July 26th!

A free society is a place where it's safe to be unpopular. -Adlai Stevenson, statesman (1900-1965)  

Hi Pat.  Thank you for a lovely dinner.  Great evening.  Sorry about the spill!  Denise and Wild Bill 

Hi Ex-Naramatians! Thanks for the great snap of the Malt Cabinet Watchdog! Trust your sailing went well. Really enjoyed Friday's dinner, not to mention your wonderful meal on Thursday. Too, too bad that Cora Lee wasn't here as I know she would have enjoyed seeing you both.Thanks again for terrific visit. Hope we'll see you both soon, here or in Vancouver. All the best. Fondestos and Cheers, Patrizzio! Pics: Thursday night; Friday night! You never know when I might show up. Your wife is out of town. Lol. Hi JT! Had a note from Kurt and he mentioned you were doing well so pleased to hear that. Think you better hop a jet plane! 

Lazy sleep-in, for me, this morning, until 8:05 am then, after making myself a mug of java I took a very quick shower as I was heading out to the Farmer's Market to pick up a few things for the night's dinner as well as meeting with the Lighthall's and their friends, Kathleen and Gordon, up from Vancouver to spend a little less than a week with The Real Naramatians. Bumped into Jugos and Gordon near the Robin Ridge Winery, Keremeos, booth and we had a chat. Pedro had invited me to join them as part of the Artisan WineMakers of Naramata tour of Clos du Soleil, another winery in Keremeos, as I'm sure you know, later that morning. With visitors arriving mid-afternoon I declined the generous offer. Said goodbye to the lads and continued to stroll the market.
 

A few minutes later I bumped into Debbie Zabarski, from Harbour Terrace! Before we moved we chatted in the hallway and she told me that she shared a family home in Penticton with her siblings so we expected we might run into each other at some. Had a quick visit and then I gave her our phone number and perhaps we'll all get together before she returns to Vancouver and Mme Coriandre is back.

Kept making my way up Main Street en route to The Bookshop where I was hoping to meet Virginia's husband, someone I learned, when I met Virginia at the Penticton Museum a week ago, who was from Flin Flon, originally. She told me he would be selling a local history book there, that morning. For my part I was hoping to discover if he knew the MacDonald family, close friends from Cyprus days, who were from Flin Flon themselves. 

At any rate, I asked the man standing to the side of the entrance if he was Mr Synder and he agreed that he was. I introduced myself and I told him about my connection to MacDonalds and after a bit of cogitation he determined that he knew Earl MacDonald, Jim's brother, (our family friend), who was the Superintendent of the smelter there. Furthermore, his daughter, Paddy, about my age, who I knew from visits to Flin Flon, now lives in Vernon so I hope I might connect with her at some point.

As we chatted I thought that Mr Synder looked somewhat familiar and I asked him if he had any children and, in particular, a son named Jake. His jaw dropped and he replied: "I am Jake!" Reason he looked so familiar was probably due to the fact that we were at University of Winnipeg, then United College, from '65 to '68. Quite a coincidence since I may well have never discovered the connection had I not met Virginia. Talk about serendipity! 

At any rate, we filled in some of the gaps in the intervening 50 years over take-away coffees we bought across the street. We exchanged cards and I invited him to pop by our place when Market was over. Interestingly enough, Virginia was at Dick Cannings' campaign office, down the street, that morning, and one of his volunteers had phoned this past week to ask for Cora Lee as she had dropped in, shortly after we moved, to say we would put an NDP banner in our front yard.

By this time it was close to 11:00 am and I had scads of thing to do so I said goodbye and made for home. Spent the next couple of hours doing kitchen prep for dinner, readying rooms/beds for coming guests and then a good bit of time cleaning tub. Bottom had quite a bit of sap from the shower I had taken after hauling all the firewood from next door and I knew Lady Mary would not be amused if she came home to find it in such a state. 

Just before I finished that laborious chore doorbell rang and it was Virginia and Jake, stopping by to say hello. They actually knew former owners so were somewhat familiar with house. Jake invited me to join him on Thursday with his hiking group so I think I'll go along if Lady Mary will give me a pass!

After they left I unpacked last remaining large box of clothes remaining in the garage and by the time I had done that it was close to 2:30 pm. Famiglia Flash had suggested they would arrive after 3:00 pm so I decided I'd take a quick run up to Township 7 and Upper Bench Winery to collect our wine club releases. We'd been in Vancouver when shipments were ready. Did just that and pulled into the back of our house just as Kirsten, Margot, Elise and Alastair were walking up the front path.

Wonderful to see them all so once they'd decided where they would sleep and brought in some of their possessions, I suggested we do a spot of wine-tasting in The Naramata. I wanted to show them Lynne and Peter's gorgeous home and collect last few boxes we'd stored there, as well as hit a couple of wineries, en route. Stopped at Black Widow first and did the complete line-up, chatting with Dick, owner, and Shannon, his daughter, as we sipped. Busy place, in fact so much so that Dick pulled out a large barrel to use to pour tastings on. We both picked up a couple of bottles of their spicy Gewurtz and their even spicier, long-finishing 2013 Syrah, 13.9%, the wonderful vintage, not yet released, at the time, that we tasted at their Vertical Hourglass tasting a few weekends ago.

Thanking the Lancasters we made our way to the Lighthalls and had a quick visit with them. Turned out that that Kathleen and Gordon live but a few blocks from Kirsten and Flash so another coincidence. Margot and Elise took a great deal of delight in picking a couple of bags of simply delicious apricots from one of Peter's laden trees. Thanking them for showing their home we said goodbye. Jugos and Flash had already loaded last three boxes into car so have just two bikes, my second Brodie and Cora Lee's steed, left along with a large bike box of pictures. Will need to come back with an empty car as have to put back seats down to accommodate its size. Stopped at Marichel for a wonderful tasting. Bought his Viognier and Shirz Viognier. Both Kirsten and Flash loved winery and view and the girls had a blast throwing a Frisbee for the winery dogs, much like Winston, Ayn's pooch in LA, not wanting to hand over the toy!

Back home to set out some appetizers as Margot and Elise were ravenous. Put Alastair to work opening up the wall in the study in preparation for making sure the wiring for the baseboard heater would not impede installation of coming sliding glass door. Fortunately, for us, he determined that the wiring comes up from the crawl-space so should not present any problem for the door which is scheduled to be installed near the beginning of August. While he was vacuuming Gyproc dust, Super K helped me ready potatoes while I cut up the watermelon, [Turned out it was yellow and none of us had ever seen one before, although it was just as tasty as one with red flesh.], for a Feta/mint salad. Sent Elise out to cut some fresh mint and assigned Margot to set table. 

When Handy-Man had finished mopping up dust I immediately assigned him to bbq duty and he was, thereafter, responsible for the pork loin, marinated to poifection in Soy Sauce, grated ginger, diced garlic, (courtesy of Dom Jugos), and El Cheapo Sherry. He timed the grill work to coincide with when spuds would be ready. I'd also cut up rounds of yellow zucchini, picked up at the market that morning, basted with Diana Sauce, honey garlic, so that was added to his culinary load. In between preparing these dishes we were sipping the last of the Liquidity Pinot Gris, (One that Denise Dangereux had requested!), and nibbling on Upper Bench Grey Baby with crackers. Local white was delicious but soon needed the 2012 Inama Vin Soave, Verona, 12%, which guests had brought. It went down very well and as quite thirst quenching after all the kitchen, drywall work and supervision!

Food was ready by 8:00 pm and everyone helped to bring platters to the patio table. Flash had already opened the 2010 Babio, Minervois, 15%, I'd suggested, and not long afterwards our plates were piled high and I toasted my guests, welcoming them Il Palazzzio di Patrizzio! Great meal, enjoyed by all, and loads of fun telling lies around the table. After the delicious food, (Flash had done a marvellous job on the bbq, particularly with the pork, tender as tender could be!), Elise and Margot cleared the table and then I told them about cones and ice-cream I had picked up earlier in the week, specifically with them in mind. They decided upon Chocolate and Heavenly Hash so, with the help of their Mom, we were all served dessert!
 

Sat around the fire pit and enjoyed our cones. After they were devoured Alastair picked out two malts and while adults enjoyed them the sisters readied themselves for bed. Kirsten wasn't too, too long in following her offspring into the Land of Nod but Flash and I soldiered on, trying two more malts I'd selected. Had a good jaw for about an hour or so but around midnight Jimmy Olsen started to fade so I sent him off to bed while I loaded the dishwasher. Didn't take me long and I soon had my own head on the pillow. Take care of yourself and hope we'll see you both soon, here or in Vancouver. All the best. Fondestos and Cheers, Patrizzio! Pics: Thursday night with friends Bill and Denise. I was invited to have supper with them them at their rented cabin at Deep Roots Winery, in Naramata; Friday night at our place!