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SALT CELLARS

These are salt cellars, rightside and upside down.

The one on the right I acquired many months ago at a garage sale and thus found out what it was: its use is not obvious! The little hole in the bottom is where you pour in the salt to fill the cellar and it goes in with surprising ease. It only comes out if you shake it a certain way.

A month or so ago I added new salt, a gray French salt (wonderful!) and thought I had hopelessly and forever clogged the cellar because that kind of salt tends to be a bit moist and I could not get it to shake out as before. Well, darn.

Then, two weeks ago, on way to the Tuesday Fernwood Market, I suddenly decided to take the salt cellar there because a potter had been showing up with his (gorgeous) wares; I planned to ask him to make me another.

He had never seen such a thing, and was a bit puzzled as to just how it had been formed.

Sitting with the Knitting group another potter joined us and she said the same about the salt cellar. Then - a fellow Knitter took one look at it and said she had bought one just like it for a friend of hers. On further questioning she said it had been years ago. In Calgary. Double darn.

And as I was explaining why I was sighing, she took it, gave it several up and down shakes while cupped in the palm of her hand, and the salt came sprinkling out. It wasn't clogged at all: I had just been shaking it wrong, or at least inefficiently!

A week later, at another garage sale, I came across the one on the left. "We have no idea what........" the seller began but stopped as I did a demo shake and, sure enough, salt came out onto my hand.

The next day I came across the one in the next pictures. But I think this one may be for sugar, the hole being bigger. I have put sugar in it - cinnamon sugar for sprinkling on toast or fruit salads, and it works quite fine, if a bit lavishly.

Now I am curious as to the history of such unusual vessels...........

STREET SIGN

I don't know the story behind this cardboard-and-masking-tape street sign on the corner of Scott and Bay Streets in Victoria B.C.

Perhaps someone got fed up with calls to City Hall.

Maybe someone missed an important visit - or pizza delivery - because the person just could not find the street.

Could a kid have stolen the street sign as a prank and then felt guilty?

We did have some rather strong winds, unusual for this time of year, a week or so ago.

Whatever the reason for the absence of the original street sign, I think this substitute has a charm to it and I give a cheerful nod to the no-nonsense person who went to the trouble to put it up.

DINNER THEATRE

The hummingbird who comes to the feeder when I am on the deck having my dinner now gives an inadvertent silhouette show.  The sun is just at the angle in the sky so that the bird casts its shadow onto the wooden slats, the shape of the feeder on one slat, the shape of the bird on the other.  The feeder shadow is stationary.  The hummer shadow flickers and then stops as it feeds, flickers, stops, flickers.  Dining - for us both - at its finest.

SUNFLOWER SEEDS

On a bus in Palo Alto I once watched the driver toss a handful of in-the-shell sunflower seeds into his mouth and after a period of time and not very much in the way of jaw movement spit a mouthful of shells discreetly into a paper bag he took up and then put back onto the floor.  I have done the same with both sunflower and pumpkin seeds in the past but never achieved such finesse so I was intrigued and would have asked him for details on technique and whether or not the expertise was affected by the shells being salted or not and commiserated over the little sharp bit that comes away from the shell no matter how much attention and care is taken.  But I did not get a chance to inquire because he was working his way through another mouthful when my stop came up and I had to exit the bus.

Today my ingestion of sunflower seeds is of the shelled variety.  Unsalted.  On top of salads.  Almost a daily occurrence in the summer. 

Sunflower seeds are truly beautiful, shiny and of a satisfying shape.  They pour in a companionable fashion from spoon to salad and if I listen carefully enough I can hear the sound of cascading.  Once the proper amount for the salad is topping the salad, the spoon must dip into the bag of seeds yet again and lift out a small amount which are eaten on their own, a preliminary appertif, if you will, full flavour on their own.

And for some reason I store them in the freezer so they are cold and the tongue releases their tastiness.

I do wonder, as I am engaged with these seeds, just exactly how they got shelled.  That is why that bus driver comes to mind.   

HAIKU : Treasured

Money on sidewalk,

Picked up.  Double abundance:

Penny is sun-warmed.

SCIENCE AND COMMON SENSE

One benefit of Science to present-day civilization is 'proving' common sense.  When the mind is assured, we can get on with what the body has been feeling and doing naturally. 

A case in point:  on CBC's Radio Australia on the weekend a man from  California was describing a new office building in San Francisco without air conditioning but dependent for cooling and circulation on windows that open and close and the site placement of the structure to take advantage of the prevailing winds. Careful calculation had gone into all this.  It was 'proved' that employees felt good in the natural environment and this resulted in a decrease in absenteeism and an increase in productivity. Ten percent so.  Economically worthwhile. 

Other laboratory focus is on the effect of light in the home and workplace.  On crowding.  On putting harmful substances on and in us. On the importance of feeling good.