D.Lebovitz's Jam..Anna Quindlen.. .Rosie,Radishes.. ...Blooms~

Something about David Lebovitz's Strawberry jam made me want to make it immediately..
It was..the option of adding cassis.
I love that..we have a bottle because I love it..but never drink it;)
because I would feel vrey under the weather the next day.
I can handle wine..but not liqueurs..or strong drinks.
Anyways..it is really really good..
and a touch of cassis in jam does not give a bad morning after:)
I had to cook mine a bit longer..but it turned out perfect.
Runny..and right .
SOOO good!
I will make another batch I am certain..
It made 4 of the jars you see..
not too much..so can make again..one jar..was finished before I knew it..
Jacues kept saying: "Elle est vraiment bonne cette confiture:)"


I was overjoyed to see my first big plump Hèlène radish pierce the soils and plump the area with red under the lush green leaves.
I had bought some the day before..going to an appointment..French radishes they had..and beautiful multicolor ones..
I needed a quick lunch one day..and took my Ricardo bread..made little/big crostinis..and added mashed avocado..salt ,..garlic,olive oil,pepper..and topped w/ thinly ..ever so thinly sliced radishes..
then a few chopped chives and longer chives..so good!


My first roses are always Harrisson's Yellow..it grows by the front white fence..so pretty framing everything it seems..it makes the Korean Lilacs pop~
The yellow single peonies are in bloom as well as some beautiful all yellow and yellow and white irises..peach too!
Some blues and purples..
The clematis are reaching to make their journey up our arbors..so many buds already on Betty Corning at the front~and back!
A Proven.. ambitious..floriferous..sturdy clematis.


Anna Quindlen..

I love her ..love her writing..
took me a while to discover her..
It was years after I lost my mom  at age 19..that  my childhood friend said she found an article that was written just for me..
She made a photocopy and gave it to me..

On Losing Your Mom~

The article..I think is from Good Housekeeping..1998..I had lost my mom in 1973.
I promise I won't get maudlin here..especially since I did not drink the cassis..merely flavored my jam with it..;)
but that is the article that made me love Anna Quindlen..

Have you read it?

So many truths..
when I recently took it out..because I still have it..cannot part w/ it..
I was amazed that I had forgotten she mentioned Rosie O'Donnell..

more on that later..
Anna Quindlen lost her mom when she was 19.
I lost my mom when I was 19..
She is about my age..or I am her age..

The article is poignant and true and touching..and in looking at the photo at the beginning of the article..it struck me again how much she looked like her mom..

Last week I read her book  Lots Of Candles Plenty Of Cake..
I have read many of her books if not all..
One of my all time favorite movies..One True Thing..is based on one of her books if I am not mistaken.
Anyways..in Lots of Candles Plenty Of Cake..I cried twice..

She writes so beautifully.. her words so rich..full of meaning ..

it is a memoir her book ..
in one chapter she mentions she never felt about aging the way her friends did..
I never did either..40 never bothered me 50 not in the least..60 either..the only thing I find disheartening..deplorable ,is that many suffer as they age.. and many times through no fault of their own..
still ,age does not bother me..

all these years I have felt .as she (Anna Quindlen)does:

"I'm living for two,for all the years,the decades,my mother never got.I am storing up memories,not for me but for my kids,so that they will have a cache greater than my own~"

my cache is so limited.

Yesterday we met Max at his school and took him out for lunch..and some birthday gifts..
My mom never had this privilege,my daughetrs thank us..the children thank us..
but until they have grandchildren of their own..they will never know the joy it gives us to do that with them..

Oli asked his mom..:"How many days until my birthday again?"..
All 4 Littles are this summer and every summer..


and this line..

"I am the mother of my mother's grandchildren"


and of course now I am the grandmother of my mother's great-granchildren..an honor..and a gift.
That is the saddest part I think of losing a mum young..she never got to know my daughters:(
All my friends had moms.I was the oddball.
My children..had no bestest nana.


with Anna Quindlen..

"the anvil weight of January"..

mine was always December.

She writes so poignantly as if she put in words what I have thought..
A gift I find..she has..and given to me and anyone else who feels this way.

Even if one has not lost a mom..  on aging she is spot on..

"Aging,particularly in later decades,is a drawing in" Carolyn Heilbrun wrote,when she herself was in her seventies..
"And I like drawing in okay.I like sitting in a big chair with a long book.I like spending an hour pulling ingredients together for a stew and then staying in all day while it's aroma seeps into every corner of the house..etc"

She's talking about me..I should tell her:)

Well I won't,but all this to say..this book..like all her books..was special for me.

I won't write her a fan letter  as I think I must posivitely be awful at it..

Back to Rosie..

she too lost her mom young..and from the moment I heard her talk about her mom years ago I was hooked..my daughters and I loved her show so many years back..Mylène was a teacher..and Rosie was giving away jean jackets w/ her show's logo on it..
I wrote in to the show telling her how much my daughters loved her..and moi aussi and that I bet my daughter would love wearing that jean jacket to school..
No answer.
But that's stardom..being busy..
I recognized that.

Then this November..how many many years later..I was sitting on the beach..Thanksgiving Day..Jacques had gone to get something..I forget what..and I saw someone w/ a few people..and a small child..and to me she looked familiar down by the shore..and some surfers had gone in..and it was brisk and windy..and then I heard HER voice..being so pleasant to the surfers.. so nice..friendly..just like I had imagined her..
then Jacques and I went for our long walk..and she was just sitting there in the sand with her group and that darling little girl..and I..didn't say a word:(
I just felt like I should leave her alone and give her her privacy..

Poeple we know did stop and talk to her..:)
I was green that I had not..just like when I met Trisha Romance and never asked for a photo of us together.
Back then I didn't mind having my photo taken..:(

Anyways..when I came back home  here in QC..I wanted to write her a letter..and tell her that I had always liked her..about our moms..how nice I thought she had been in real life w/ the surfers etc..I added small photos to the letter..

and ..sent it off..


I was so sure she would write back.

But again..I read she has been so busy..
My timing was off again..
What is it about me that always thinks I have to tell someone how nice they are and often in writing?

Not always a good idea;)

I hope you have a nice weekend..the weather could not be more perfect here..I've been to the brocante..the tag sale..and they were buzzing with activity..too pretty out..It's also Grand Prix weekend here in Mtl..so it's busy on the island too~