What It Is

I built this pergola for a customer in Waterloo, it turned out rather well I think. The owner did the design. He’s the kind of guy that has a real sense of the way he wants things, the way that things should look. He insisted on using cedar despite the added cost. We made changes as we went along, as the structure took shape. The customer has an, “It is, what it is” attitude and remained very flexible. Early on we decided to use two upright post instead of the first conceived three. and after all was done we saw that the two posts framed the garden beautifully.

The project set me to thinking about order in the way we live. I’m kind of a unorganized person my only saving grace is that I can put shoulder to it and pull things together when need be, bring order out of my chaos in a way.

I like the way that my wife folds the laundry. I like the way it looks when I open the closet and the crisply folded linens present a wall of order to the eye. I like the look of my neighbours freshly trimmed lawn, the walkway swept, borders snipped, hedges clipped.

I could tidy up some things of mine, and I will, I’ll get around to it. For a while things will have order, but then after time, I’ll start just dropping things in drawers or worse just leaving them on the counter. “Oh well”, as my customer with the beautiful pergola and garden would tell me. “It is, what it is”.

Supper

I made this tonight for supper. No recipe, totally extemporaneous. I was going for a chicken cordon blue kind of thing. I had no smoked ham so I stuffed the chicken with chorizo sausage. Yes I'm the kind of fella that would have no ham but still posses a link of chorizo in the fridge. I love those little potatoes, anything that a tired cook doesn't have to peel is a godsend.

That's fresh Ontario asparagus under a sauce of Parmesan and Swiss, all herbs used were fresh from my garden. Tomorrow Kraft dinner.