Happy Canada Day, folks!! Many thanks for celebrating this day and our beautiful home with us!!
Hugs,
M&M
P.S. A reminder that next Saturday (July 5, 2025) is International Free Hugs Day! Let your hugging inhibitions go and embrace the love!!
Happy Canada Day, folks!! Many thanks for celebrating this day and our beautiful home with us!!
Hugs,
M&M
P.S. A reminder that next Saturday (July 5, 2025) is International Free Hugs Day! Let your hugging inhibitions go and embrace the love!!
Hi Folks:
All of Marcia and Mike’s parents are gone now, but we have two sons and a son-in-law and five beautiful grandchildren. We are Grandy and Grandalf! 🧙♀️&🧙♂️
As with those who are moms, Happy Father’s Day today to all of the strong, loving men who are fathers, to those who are chosen dads, surrogate dads, step-dads, adoptive dads, and to the women who are also dads.
Special thanks to all those who love and support them.
Hugs,
M&M
Hi Folks:
June 8 is a very special day for us, for several reasons. First, for the world in general, June 8 is World Ocean Day. Not only do the world’s oceans cover over 70% of the earth’s surface, but they hold 97% of the world’s water. Keeping our oceans healthy is vital in so many ways it would be impossible to begin to list them all.
Second, June 8 is the Anniversary of Marcia’s marriage proposal. Yes, it was 26 years ago, and after giving it due consideration (for less than half a second), of course Mike said yes. No fool he. We continue to feed each other every day.
And third, June 8, 2010 was the advent of our Free Hugs sessions in downtown Victoria. In 11 years we shared hugs with locals and tens of thousands of visitors to our fair city from (at least) 88 countries. Every hug is unique and special and we treasure each and every one of them. Our only rule was that we offered, but those who were interested had to come to us.
Hi Folks:
It’s March 14 once again (3-14) and what better day to celebrate your irrational self! This marks our 11th Pi Day post, and while we’ve done a few variations to the classic idea of pie over the years, we thought that this year we’d get a little closer to the mark without crossing that line. To that end, this year’s pie recipe uses puff pastry rather than a normal pie dough (hey, why not – we did peachzza dough last year).
So here we go:
Blueberry Hand Pies*
SERVES: 8
TIME: 2 hours, plus 30 minutes cooling
WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS
These hand pies are portable (and made to be eaten out of hand); perfect for parties, picnics, or on the go; and can easily cross over from dessert to sweet snack (they can even be breakfast fare if you’re feeling indulgent). To make them as easy as they are versatile, we started with store-bought puff pastry and a simple precooked filling of blueberries flavored with cinnamon and lemon zest. Freezing the pastries before baking allowed the pastry enough time to crisp up without the risk of the filling overcooking or bubbling out in the oven. Even still, cutting sufficient steam vents—we found we needed three 1-inch-long slits in the tops—was key to preventing the turnovers from bursting open and leaking blueberry. Brushed with egg wash and sprinkled with sugar, our turnovers were crispy and flaky on the outside and full of luscious blueberry filling.INGREDIENTS
1 pound (3¼ cups) fresh or frozen blueberries
½ cup (3½ ounces) plus 1 tablespoon sugar, divided
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
¼ teaspoon table salt
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 tablespoon water
2 (9½ by 9-inch) sheets puff pastry, thawed
1 large egg, lightly beaten with 1 tablespoon waterBEFORE YOU BEGIN
To thaw frozen puff pastry, let it sit either in the refrigerator for 24 hours or on the counter for 30 minutes to 1 hour.INSTRUCTIONS
1. Cook blueberries, ½ cup sugar, lemon zest, salt, and cinnamon in medium saucepan over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until blueberries begin to break down and release their juices, about 8 minutes. Reduce heat to medium-low and continue to cook until mixture thickens and spatula starts to leave trail when pulled through, 8 to 10 minutes.2. Whisk cornstarch and water together in bowl, then stir into blueberry mixture. Cook until mixture has thickened to jam-like consistency, about 1 minute (you should have about 1¼ cups filling). Let cool completely, about 30 minutes.
3. Adjust oven rack middle position and heat oven to 400 degrees. Line rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Working with 1 sheet of pastry at a time, roll into 10-inch square on floured counter. Cut pastry into four 5-inch squares. Place 2 tablespoons blueberry filling in center of each square.
4. Brush edges of squares with egg wash, then fold dough over filling to form rectangle. Using fork, crimp edges of dough to seal. Transfer pies to prepared sheet and cut three 1-inch slits on top (do not cut through filling). Freeze pies until firm, about 15 minutes. (Once frozen, pies can be transferred to airtight container and stored in freezer for up to 1 month.)
5. Brush tops of pies with remaining egg wash and sprinkle with remaining 1 tablespoon sugar. Bake until well browned, about 25 minutes, rotating sheet halfway through baking. Transfer pies to wire rack and let cool slightly, about 15 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.
* We’ve had this recipe for a number of years, but we believe it came originally from the Cook’s Illustrated website and is under their copyright. We do like to give credit where we can, but there are any number of similar recipes online. The recipe was free to access at the time we downloaded it, but if anyone objects to it being here please let us know and we’ll remove it from this post. Otherwise, we encourage you to check out their site and various magazines as they really put in a lot of effort to perfect their recipes!
So there you go. A little hand-held taste of heaven that you don’t have to share!
Wherever you are today, remember to hug the one you’re with!
Hugs,
M&M
Hi Folks:
2025 marks the fourth year we’ve been creating Hugging Spots on the sidewalk in front of our house (and occasionally elsewhere). Unfortunately, by the time you see this image the chalk art itself will be long gone. We had an uncharacteristic dry spell last month, long enough to put out our first effort for the year. We’ll see what 2025 brings! To keep all of the patterns for 2025 in one place we’ll add future works to the bottom of this post. If you happen to be walking by our little corner of Victoria feel free to share a hug with those who are accompanying you. If you’re nowhere near us, feel free to create your own Hugging Spot! All it takes is a little chalk, a little time and a little love. Many thanks to the wonderful people who stopped to chat while work was in progress!
If you want to see our previous patterns you can find them here:
2024 Hug Zones
2023 Hug Zones
2022 Hug Zones.
Remember to hug someone you love today, even if it’s you!!
M&M
Hi Folks:
Mostly every year since 2010, on New Year’s Day we’ve taken the opportunity to make some images of Marcia, and without hesitation it’s my favourite image of the year. We started out doing this at Government House, but for the past several years we’ve headed to Beacon Hill Park instead. This is the image for 2025:
I know she looks beautiful here, but the image doesn’t really do her justice. You’ll just have to take my word for it.
From Marcia and me, we wish you a new year filled with as much happiness, health, prosperity, excitement, love, peace and adventure as you can handle!
Hugs,
M&M
Hi Folks:
We came across this story via the Good News Network and we just had to share it with you. Remember to keep your eyes on the sky tonight!!
Hi Folks:
Tomorrow marks the winter solstice; we’re closing in on the end of another year. It seems 2024 has been a tough one for many but we’re continuing to open to ourselves and each other in many magical ways…
Last night we continued our annual tradition of seeing the movie Love Actually with friends at Cinecenta. The movie is a wonderful reminder of the many facets of love and how best to express them.
As we move toward the vernal equinox we will be entering the period where the days begin to lengthen once again (here in the northern hemisphere, at least). More light, more trust, new beginnings. It’s a choice each of us gets to make in every moment, so if you’re ever unsure how to react in any situation, be kind. It’s good for you, good for the other person, is non-fattening, doesn’t cause cavities and helps to make the world a better place, even just for a moment. And sharing kindness is often contagious! Pay it forward. 🙂
“The Joy of brightening other lives, bearing each others’ burdens, easing each other’s loads and supplanting empty hearts and lives with generous gifts becomes for us the magic of the holidays.” ~ W. C. Jones
Whether you celebrate Christmas or Festivus, Solstice or Saturnalia, the arrival of Sinterklaas or Grandfather Frost, Hanukkah, Yalda, Pancha Ganapati, Bodhi Day, Kwanzaa, Las Posadas, St. Lucia’s Day, Three Kings Day, Yule, Hogmany, Soyal, Ōmisoka, Eid al-Fitr (starting on March 31, 2025), Diwali (October 2025), or something entirely personal, from our house to yours, we wish you a Safe and Happy Holiday season! May 2025 find you safe, healthy and surrounded by Love. 💗
Hugs,
M&M
🎅🤶
Hi Folks:
This is just a quick update to our previous calendar post as we’ve gone through the thousands of images we’ve made this year and picked out 12 for our calendar. As usual, some of the images were made with our cell phones and some were made with the Sony a7rIII camera. Some of the images were made by Marcia and some by Mike, but none of that really matters. All of this year’s images were made in and around Victoria, BC except for October’s, which was made on Mayne Island, BC.
Combined, our calendar looks like the image below. If you’d like to download a copy for yourself, click the image to link to a .pdf version.