As I was waiting for my son to visit last night, I was preparing my late dinner, steak and rapini and grabbed my notebook that I kept on the counter and scribbled these thoughts with fondness.

Rapini

(puento)

sorting rapini

watching water boil, missing

bella’s kitchen.

 

~reminiscing where foul don’t always fly~

 

hear the geese fly

aiming for cottage country

honk honk honk

 

In my thirteen years living in Toronto, I made amazing friends and colleagues. I miss many and sorting the rapini while the water was coming to a boil, I could not help but be reminded of that weekend I spent mostly in Bella…Maria’s kitchen.  She cooks like most Italian mothers do…with abundance of love.  She taught me by having me take part in making a cannelloni from scratch! {the sauce as well}  (which I hurried to practice upon arrival on Montreal soil) then prepare a decadent dessert, tiramisu and watching her prepare rapini. My hips do not allow for the dessert too often but rapini is a new favourite that replaces my love for spinach and broccoli…now it reminds me of juicy food and succulent conversations with Maria.  Je t’aime bella, cia mia cara.

Classic Tiramisu 

(haiku)

Ciao Bella!

Maria knows best

feeds bellies with succulence

“mangia mangia”

 

What I also discovered living in Toronto was that not all feathered species like to fly.  Many parks are filled with geese and ducks who are fed all year long…don’t really care to leave this great home.  They seem to have taken residence and do not bother to fly south winters.

I still love to look at the geese who usually fly in the shape of a giant V with the leader at the head, coming and going from Canadian towns.  However, I found these Toronto geese less intriguing but more intrusive with their pompous attitudes, blocking some majour intersections in the Lakeshore area while motorists had to literally stop while a family led by Queen goose mother decided to cross the street!  I suppose it is funny now but in some parks especially at Centre Island,  it may not always easy to find a clean spot to lay your red checkered tablecloth for a romantic picnic.

Canadian geese – Toronto

(haiku)

Toronto Geese

roaming,head high

lawns become their giant

chamber pot

© Cheryl-Lynn 2014/06/21