Saturday 9 August 2014

Your mission,

should you choose to accept it… Actually there wasn’t a lot of “choosing” involved. The missus was away this weekend at a sister’s retreat and so wasn’t able to attend the Carp Fair’s annual Garlic Festival. My honey-do orders for Saturday were to go for a ride and come home with sufficient garlic to, augmenting what we have in our garden, get us a good way through the winter.

It was a beautiful day and I took the back roads where, even though it’s a long way from Oklahoma, “the corn is as high as an elephant’s eye”. Which made me wonder if an elephant’s eye really is 8 or 9 feet high. And another thing I just found out is that, at least in some parts of Europe, corn is a generic term for grain crops. So when a European refers to “corn”, it could be wheat, or rye in the fields. Perhaps European elephants are smaller, or have shorter legs.

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These were the thoughts that kept me occupied/amused as I headed to the fair. That and avoiding the potholes still not patched after the winter did its usual road damage. One that I did miss, hidden in the shadows of a large tree, was deep and sharp enough that I consider myself lucky not to have flattened my front tire. After that I paid more attention and made it to the fair without further incident.



I parked in a no parking zone (pretty lax parking controls on fair days as long as you don’t block a driveway) and went garlic hunting. IMG_20140809_101403723First I had to try the different varieties available. (I had orders for a specific type, but wanted to buy a few each of some different varieties just to try for a change.)

After much sampling (and heavy with garlic breath – phew) I made my purchases. I added a few ears of corn for dinner tonight, and I was done.
Mission accomplished.

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On the way home I came across the ultimate example of that much joked about Canadian penchant for politeness. I stopped at the Dairy Queen in Arnprior for an ice cream. It seems they had a problem with people stealing the decorative pebbles beside the patio (Why?). Instead of posting “Beware of Dog”, or “We shoot to kill” posters the owner took a most Canadian approach and asked nicely. And apparently it’s working. Go figure.

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All in all a great day, a nice ride, and I’ll be free from vampires for a few more hours yet.