The Other Side of the Bridge

I would not usually recommend a book that made me cry.  Life gives us enough opportunity and reason to cry, we don't need to go looking for sadness in books.  However, even as as the tears were pouring down my face I was thinking how much I was enjoying this book.  And that I would read it again someday.

Mary Lawson became my new favourite writer when I read Road Ends.  I also read Crow Lake, her first novel.  Although I liked it, Crow Lake did not enthral me the way that Road Ends and The Other Side of the Bridge did.

I like Lawson's writing because of her compelling characters but also because she so vividly paints time and place in her novels. The novel stretches through a lifetime from the Great Depression, through the war and onward. She catches the life in rural farming communities so realistically during those times that Struan could be anywhere in Northern Ontario.

The central character of the novel, Arthur is anything but a typical hero in a book.  Certainly not a romantic hero.  He's not good looking.  He is not smart or quick witted.  But his younger brother is.  In fact, Arthur doesn't have much going for him.  He certainly not mysterious, or athletic or particularly clever.  He struggles in school in a time when students repeated entire grades in high school so that his brother catches up to him.  He is shy and words do not come easily to him so he unable to be charming or humorous.  But in the end, he is endearing to the reader without being pitiable.  He is just a guy who puts one foot in front of the other to do what needs to be done.  He doesn't complain.  He's faithful, loyal and dependable.  He is everything his brother is not and his brother, Jake, is everything Arthur would like to be.

Arthur gets the girl, the one that he is in competition with his brother.  But there is a lot more to the story than that.  There is a good plot to this novel and several other storylines as well so that you do care about what is going to happen.  However, Mary Lawson creates such powerful characterization that the plot is almost secondary.  You are really reading to know what will happen to Arthur.  How will everything turn out for him and for the other characters who interact with him.

We all know Arthurs, perhaps even are Arthurs or at least some of Arthur.  The dependable, reliable person who is usually overshadowed by more outgoing, bigger personalities.  Lawson manages however, to make him not too moral and too good to be likeable.  He does make some questionable choices, he is capable of selfishness, and has enough back bone and stubbornness to to remain strong when pushed.  However always without fuss.

Speaking of being overshadowed.  There is another entire story within the novel about the farmhand Ian that is overshadowed by the story of sibling rivalry between Arthur and Jake.  Unlike Arthur, Ian is has so many choices available to him that he is struggling to decide what and who he will become.

Lawson swings chapters between Ian and Arthur, yet Ian's story always leads back to Arthur.  Which in the end is why this reader was crying.

Mary Lawson remains my new favourite author. And The Other Side of the Bridge is a book I will read again even if it made me cry.

About My Retirement Gift to Me

I had wanted a stand mixer like this for such a very long time but there was always a reason why that desire was unfulfilled.  The fact that I seldom found time to bake and had a perfectly good hand mixer did not justify the expense.  And then I was going to retire and I knew that I wanted to use some of my time to bake.

Stand mixers were on sale before Christmas along with a mail-in-rebate from Kitchen Aid. The time had come to fulfill that want.

The most difficult part was committing to which one to purchase.  Lift bowl or tilt-head, professional grade or home use, which colour, (probably the biggest and most important decision) how big a bowl or motor?  So many decisions!  I polled the bakers and cooks at school, sent e-mails to friends for their input that I took into full consideration. But in the end, I purchased the very one that I had been admiring for years; a beautiful fire engine red Kitchen Aid Artisan stand mixer with a tilt head.  It has a stainless steel bowl and comes with three beaters and a port for the attachments that I am sure to investigating soon.  

I brought it home the night before my last day at school. A perfect retirement gift for me. I've had it for six months now and every time I use it I think how I wish I had invested in this years ago! It works beautifully. It is easy to use, easy to clean and looks fabulous on my counter. 

It is a bit heavy to move so I had to find a spot that works to store it yet is also where it can be used. The heaviness is actually a bonus as it is solid while in use, so I can do other tasks. I'm looking forward to adding the glass bowl and after I tried making my own pasta dough, I know I want the pasta attachments.  I've used it so often already and I love it.  I highly recommend! 

It does make me wonder though... why do we so often put off what we really want until we can get a reason to give it to ourselves as a gift? 

My Mistake..sort of, kind of..

Our garage right now is beautiful--not quite a work of art but really rather nice for a garage that actually is a garage with a car in it and loads of stuff that needs to be kept in a garage.  That same garage was a disaster from January until just last week.  Which was really disappointing because in the last few years we have put a lot of work into organizing it and in the fall we were confident that this winter would be different and it would stay neat enough until spring.  Hah!  A few things foiled that plan.

First, in January, I went on my annual January craze of organizing and reorganizing. I love to start the year off right as so many other people do--that's why the Canadian Tire flyer is full of organizing materials in January.   This year with all those extra hours to tear apart closets and sort through drawers the pile of items to give away, take to the cottage or donate grew and grew.  And it grew in the garage, neatly against the wall at the bottom of the stairs.  Neatly but still in a guilt inducing don't look at me way.  A pile that was annoying and irritating every time you passed by it.

The second thing that destroyed the plan is that grown children sometimes need space to store their things while they go away or they because they don't have a place for their summer tires.  That kind of storage makes things really tight so there is no room to put anything else.

Well the grown children responsible for the storing of things were here last week collecting those things.  And as the wonderful adults that they are they cleaned and organized the garage after they reclaimed their things.  It was a way of saying thank you for the storage.  I painted a bench and spray painted planters while they worked in the garage.  A truly wonderful way to spend the afternoon.

That beautifully clean, organized garage inspired me to do some further upgrading of the space.  I had found a can of white paint to use on the bench, and there was enough left to use in the garage to repaint the door into the house and the door out into the yard.  That cleaned up some rather messy doors nicely.  Then I decided to paint the garage stair railings that managed to survive for twenty-five years without paint.  That turned out well and really brightened things up.

I was satisfied for a day or two but I still had some paint remaining.  Hmmm...maybe the actual stair threads could use a coat of paint.   Then they would match the railing and over time they would lose the paint but would take on that nice worn look.  That's what I was thinking.  So I did it.  I painted the stair threads with a nice thick coat of paint and planned to do a second coat the next day.

That was a mistake.  And it took only a little bit of time to figure this out.

I had left the garage door open so that the warm air could dry the paint before people needed to use the stairs.  However the cat from next door also came to visit.  He left his very dirty paw prints on my lovely dry white paint. Every footstep showed.  Every footstep is going to show.  My lovely white paint is already filthy.  Not in a timeworn shabby chic kind of way but in a nasty, non-glamorous, need to be cleaned kind of way.

I am not going to do another coat, I am not going to wash those stairs so I will need to live with the glaring dirt until the paint wears off.  Hopefully soon.   I will find a way to use the remainder of that paint.  And it won't be a mistake.

My Baking Challenge!

Cinnamon Twist Wreath

When I saw this picture in April's Chatelaine, I knew I had to try it. It meant I needed to clear an afternoon or a whole morning but I was so excited to give this a try!

I have made it twice now and will make it again with some embellishment to the recipe--mainly I will make the filling more sugary and more buttery, like really yummy cinnamon buns. The recipe is good as is but it is not decadent, yet.

 The first time, I organized it very well--to come out of the oven just before hubby came home from work so that the kitchen, actually the whole house would smell amazing!

I was quite proud of it and was allowing it to cool before plating it and taking a picture so that I could show the difference between the magazine pic and the actual first time attempt.  It was not a pintrest fail but the centre of my wreath was very tight.  Where I failed though was that I forgot to tell Moe not to touch.

When I returned from getting the serving plate I wanted to use there was a large chunk missing from the wreath and of course plenty of crumbs! It was still warm, and a bit gooey like warm bread...so delish!  We skipped the picture and enjoyed the wreath.

On this second attempt, I timed everything so that it would be out of the oven, cooled, on a plate and photographed before anyone else was in the house. This second attempt resulted in a better baked wreath and more even braiding but I still didn`t manage to affix the ends smoothly and my centre was less than perfect but it still tasted great.

Despite the need to practice my braiding and work on how I affix the ends together, the effect is good. This is one of my pictures.

Instructions

• COMBINE yeast with warm water in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook. Let stand until frothy, 10 min. Beat in warm milk, 1/4 cup melted butter and yolks until combined. Add flour, granulated sugar and salt (2). Beat on medium, until dough is smooth and pulls cleanly away from the bottom and sides of bowl, 4 to 6 min. Transfer to a lightly oiled bowl and cover loosely with a damp kitchen towel. Let rest until dough is doubled in size, about 1 hour.
• PREHEAT oven to 325F. Line a baking sheet with parchment. Stir 1/2 cup butter with brown sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl. Beat egg with 1 tbsp water in a small bowl until combined.
• ROLL dough on a lightly floured surface into a 22 × 12 in. rectangle, trimming edges if needed. Spread butter mixture evenly over dough to the edges. With the long edge facing you, tightly roll up dough in jelly roll fashion (3). End roll with seam-side up. Use a sharp knife to cut the log lengthwise in half along the seam (4). Tightly weave the two pieces together, leaving the cut sides exposed. Gently transfer to prepared sheet. Brush a 2-in. portion of one woven end with egg wash (5). Form into a wreath, firmly pinching the egg-washed end underneath the other to seal (6). Cover with same damp kitchen towel and let rise until doubled, 1 more hour.
• BAKE in centre of oven until bread is deep golden, 35 to 40 min. Cool slightly. Dust with icing sugar before serving.