My God It's Monday

So August here in Ontario can go a couple of ways. Sometimes by mid-August, the worst of the heat is done with and it gets a little cooler at night, has a little less humidity and in general feels better than the previous six weeks by far. Or, it can really sell you on why they're called the "Dog Days of August." This year we're having dog days. It has been hot and worse than that, it has been so humid, the air so heavy it actually gets hard to breathe when you're out in it. The humidity has been wretched all summer this year and its only ramped up this month. We've actually had heat warnings over the last few days.

I spent most of my weekend hiding out in the air conditioning, wishing those were winter storm warnings instead of heat warnings.

Soon enough, right? Because man, the time flies. Every day seems to speed by and become weeks which become months which becomes it being eight months into the new year that only just started, it feels like.

Despite the heat and feeling kind of draggy over the weekend, I'm not doing too badly today -- especially given that its a Monday. I've gotten some things accomplished, enough to be able to go hide and write for the rest of the day once I hit send on this post.

One thing I did do on the weekend was go to the Farmer's Market. It used to be closer while they renovated the area downtown that it was housed in and I have to admit, I liked it better when it was closer. I think lots of people did as it never seems as busy now that it's back at the original renovated location. Still, it's neat, going from the end of April when it first opens to now. There's hardly anything fresh in April -- mostly the very beginnings of lettuce and asparagus, apples from last fall, that kind of thing.

Now, though, there's a ton of fruit and vegetables - really it's just the late fall stuff that's not out yet - your apples, your squashes, things like that.

The peaches are at their height, the skin falling off them at a touch, the juices impossible to contain when you bite into them. The strawberry flavors have changed as the ones that grow at the end of June give way to the ones that last through to October. Still sweet, still so flavourful, just slightly different in that flavor.

I love the new potatoes still covered in dirt (I actually overheard one of the farmers yesterday telling a customer that yes, the potatoes had dirt on them, because they came out of the ground - made me laugh inside). I love all the colours of the heirloom carrots and the cauliflowers - the purple ones are my favourite  to look at, the green ones my favourite to eat, though there's nothing wrong with the orange ones, or the original white either.

My favorite looking vegetable though is the romanesco - it's like cauliflower and broccoli had a baby. So beautiful to look at (and pretty darn delicious to eat as well.)

Then there's brussel sprouts that I love steamed with some butter, or, even better, pan-roasted with a bit of bacon. Yum! Little crispy cucumber and fresh onions, garlic sold by the boxfull...

As an added bonus to the current location of the market, Kettleman's bagels are right near it and I get to pick up fresh bagels at the same time. The proper bagels, too. The ones that don't have yeast in them and they boil, then put into the big wood-burning stone ovens. Man, a fresh one can be eaten without anything on it, and without being toasted. Once they're home, though, in the toaster they go and then they get smeared with cream cheese. Yum.

Okay, time to get to writing, I have boys giving me eyes and if I don't get to it soon, there will be riots.

Sean
smut fixes everything