Define "weed"!

According to Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary, a weed is "a plant that is not valued where it is growing and is usually of vigorous growth; especially : one that tends to overgrow or choke out more desirable plants."

In my garden, a weed is a plant I didn't plant and don't want on the property. There aren't many in my garden.

There are a lot of vigorous plants on the wrong place.

Let me explain.

For me as an Ontario teacher, June is the month in which I wish I had time and energy to garden. Instead I am helping kids catch up and calm down, setting exams, marking them, doing paperwork and more paperwork, tidying the classroom, going to end-of term meetings, and hauling stuff home in preparation for moving to a new classroom in September. The first two days of July are shock recovery.

The third day of July is garden shock day.

The weeds, as I said, aren't too bad. There is a lot of Beggar's Tickseed, which will later produce lopsided yellow daisies, and, later yet, the burs we used to call Devil's pitchforks. There is Deadly Nightshade, with its pretty purple and yellow flowers, red berries, and foul-smelling vine, all of which are poisonous. There is Manitoba maple, a tree which I might allow in places on a farm, but which is too weak and sprawly for a city lot. There are an assortment of thistles, not, unfortunately, the Scotch thistle, which can grow so large it becomes a sculpture. There is an assortment of unattractive annual greenery which is not difficult to deal with.

The really shocking stuff is the plants which are very desirable in their place, but which tend to take over the garden.

Start with the vines. Deadly Nightshade is a weed. Crown Vetch I planted. Some 25 years ago my mother wanted a little ground cover for some bare spots in the flower garden. The label on the tiny leguminous plant said "ground cover" and showed a picture of delicate leaves and pretty mauve flowers. It did not mention that the stuff grows three feet tall, spreads rapidly by seed and rhizome, and is ineradicable. It is properly used as ground cover on the steep slopes of highway cuttings. Its one advantage on a city residential lot is that it stays greener than grass in a hot summer. I would like some of it on the "boulevard" between the sidewalk and the street, but nowhere else. It does not care what I would like.

Virginia Creeper and wild grape come courtesy of the birds, and we encourage them, up to a point. They camouflage the Bouvier fences and the stark railings on the deck. Unfortunately they are also now camouflaging two garden benches.

Golden Hops is a lovely bright yellow-green vine that we have growing on a trellis. . . and a fence. . . and the support for hanging baskets. . . and the plants sitting on the back porch waiting to be planted. Silver Lace Vine is camouflaging some ugly wire mesh fence, a gate, several trees and bushes, and some unidentifiable objects I suspect are squirrel-gnawed bulk birdseed containers that need a trip to the dump.

Why did the American South import Kudzu when it had Dutchman's Pipe!!?!! When I was a child, neighbours used the beautiful broad-leaved vine to shade their verandahs. So I planted some here, but didn't maintain the supports properly. Unable to climb beside the verandah, it sent out runners 15 - 20 feet in all directions, coming up to climb any other plant it finds. Near the front of the lot it meets a variety of Bindweed, whose small morning-glory flowers would be delightful if it weren't for the strangling quality of the vine it grows on.

The last vine I want to mention is a variegated mint. It is a nuisance in that it takes over space I had planned for smaller, prettier flowers, but it is easy to prune and smells and tastes wonderful.

Enough for one day. Tomorrow I'll talk about some more of the nice plants in the wrong places in my garden. If I find the camera, I'll take some pictures.

Really good, really easy. . .Beef Stew

A friend of mine has just started a food blog (http://theflourednose.wordpress.com/) which promises to be quite unusual. She not only gives clear instructions on how to prepare her recipes, she explains some of the chemistry behind the cooking. I'm looking forward to trying some of her ideas before long.

I used to be a pretty good cook, but with just the two of us, we've drifted more and more towards buying prepared foods or eating out. We've decided to try to change that, and fortunately we have a few really tasty recipes that either of us can make and which are almost foolproof.

One of the best of these is simple Beef Stew.

You don't need any special skills or particular equipment; there is only one absolutely essential ingredient; there are a very few easy but important tricks to keep in mind.

THE IMPORTANT INGREDIENT - BEEF SHANK MEAT. This is meat from the leg, not the body. It is not what your butcher usually labels "stewing beef". Sometimes it comes in a slice with a round bone in the middle; sometimes the butcher has cut it into stew-sized pieces. Not all butchers have it, so if you find one who regularly does, treasure him. You're going to cook the shank meat in a large pot with about twice the amount of vegetables, so eyeball it and buy a good bit. If you buy too much, freeze some for next time. If you can't get enough, you can eke it out with regular stew beef, but you'll notice the difference.

TRICK #1 - BROWN THE MEAT. You don't even have to do this, but it makes the stew taste and look a lot better. Heat a thin layer of oil in a heavy frying pan or Dutch oven. Put a handful of flour on a plate or in a bowl. Add in some chopped herbs and spices with the flour - whatever you like and happen to have handy. My husband starts with Montreal steak spice, then adds some thyme and rosemary; salt and pepper will do (easy on the salt - it can always be added by the the person eating it). You could use the spices of a particular area - Indian, or Mexican, or Caribbean. Or chopped herbs from your garden. Now cut the meat into fork-sized pieces, roll it in the seasoned flour, and pop it in the hot oil and brown it. I'd put some garlic slices in the oil, but you can add garlic with the veggies if you like.

TRICK #2 - DON'T LET IT BURN. This instruction applies to every stage of cooking stew. While you're browning the meat, keep it moving and don't let it burn. If you're not confident about your ability to do this, use separate pans to brown the meat and to cook the stew - any bit of flour that gets burned instead of browned can be scraped off. You probably won't burn the stew itself on the day you cook it, unless you forget and let it boil, but when reheating it on day 2, you might want to add some extra water to the gravy before you start, and don't reheat on high temperature.

TRICK #3 - COOK IT LOW AND LONG. This is essential. Put the browned meat in a large, heavy pot of some kind; crockpots work fine, but I like my cast-iron Dutch oven. Add some chunky vegetables now. We use lots of carrots, almost whole, some sliced or squeezed garlic, and onions (unless the dogs are going to get leftovers, in which case we skip the onions, which apparently are not good for them). Cover with water. You could use part wine, if you like. You could also use part tomato juice, or apple juice, or canned tomatoes, but I'd rather add that to the 3rd day leftovers, when I want a change. Later in the cooking process you could add some potatoes and/or frozen peas. Squash chunks or beans might be good. I'd avoid leafy vegetables, but if you fancy them, add them at the end of cooking. If you're using a crockpot, read the instructions. If you're cooking on a stovetop, set the temperature quite low - you want it to simmer, not boil - and leave it for an absolute minimum of 2.5 hours. Four hours are better. You want the meat to be tender and the vegetables to be tender but not mushy. Keep the lid on. If you hear it boiling, turn the heat down lower and add a bit of liquid.

TRICK #4 - DUMPLINGS ARE EASY. Another optional trick - dumplings are a traditional accompaniment to stew, and cooking them thickens the gravy, but if you don't like dumplings, serve the stew with thinner gravy over rice, noodles, or mashed potatoes. There are gourmet dumplings which take time, measuring and skill, but you can make perfectly acceptable dumplings with a bowl and a dessert spoon by using biscuit mix like Tea-Bisk or Bisquick. () Turn up the heat under the stew a notch or two to bring the liquid just to a boil. The meat and veggies should be poking up a little past the liquid. Dump a cup or two of biscuit mix in a bowl. Add some milk - a little less than half the mix volume. Stir it a bit. The perfect result is not at all floury, but holds its shape if you take up a spoonful; the surface is uneven and looks like wet stretched dough. If it's floury or crumbly, add a bit more milk; if it's too runny, add a bit more mix. Don't fuss or stir a lot. Drop it by big spoonfuls on top of the stew; after 10 minutes, put the lid on for another ten minutes. Serve. People can add more salt if they like.

Trick # 5 - LEFTOVERS. With any luck, you'll have leftovers. Well, with luck and skill. The skill consists in not serving all the meat the first time, leaving just gravy and vegetables. People are supposed to eat more veggies than meat, so serve it that way. It's ok to eat all the veggies if you want to and leave meat and gravy, because you can add more veggies (cut smaller to cook faster) when you reheat. You can also make new dumplings. If you did make dumplings, the gravy will have thickened, so add some liquid so it won't burn while reheating, and stir it from time to time. I won't vouch for leftover dumplings, but the stew itself freezes excellently. If you have made enough for three days, you might want to change the flavour on the third day. Add tomatoes and oregano, or curry spices and raisins, or any other mix that sounds good to you.

That's a lot of words, but it boils down to a pretty simple, very delicious stew.

Ingredients: Shank meat, a little flour, some herbs and/or spices, carrots and/or other veggies. Biscuit mix and milk if you want dumplings.

Implements: Frying pan, heavy cookpot, knife, plate and/or bowl, spoon.

Yum.

Why don't they. . .? #1

The modern Big Big-Chain Store is a maze, deliberately designed to lead the customer past as much tempting merchandise as possible. Fair enough. Caveat emptor. If you haven't got a plan and a list, you deserve to be tempted. Shelves are over six feet tall, and other displays tend to be in that range. Again, understandable. Square footage costs money. And those little dark globes high up are security cameras, in case of shoplifting or robbery.

From the management point of view, this is all cutting edge design. From the customer's point of view, it's positively primitive.

How many people come into the stores in pairs and groups? And how many of those groups stay together for the whole visit? So Mary heads to the computer section, picks up the package of ink she needs, and heads back to the cash register. Where is Jack? He said he needed underwear, so Mary heads over to Men's Wear. Neither Mary nor Jack are tall, but eventually she satisfies herself he's not there. Could he be in Seasonal, at the other end of the store, a quarter of a mile or more away? Perhaps he's looking at DVDs back near the computers, but she can't see. Eventually she gives up, cashes out, and leans against the wall near the door for 15 minutes waiting for him.

If it's a grocery store, finding each other is like playing Pacman - she zips up one aisle, while he is going down a parallel one; when she crosses perpendicularly, he is hidden behind one of those displays intended to slow shoppers down.

Perhaps the shoppers are to blame. Part of the shopping routine could be to synchronize watches and agree to meet at a rendezvous in fifteen minutes, finished or not.

Or why don't the designers go one step further and just display the pictures from the multiple security cameras in rotation in a few spots, and save shoppers the wear and tear of hunting for their partners over a few acres of store?

Some interesting/useful art-related websites

Last week we had a Professional Development day, and I signed up for a Best Practices workshop. I haven't taught art for a while, so I just went through my Bookmarks file and compiled a list of interesting arts and crafts websites suitable for teachers. These sites are all still active, but if you are using a network in a school, I can't guarantee you will be able to access them all.

Interactive Sites

http://www.bitstripsforschools.com/ Make your own comic strip even if you can't draw. The Ministry of Education has paid for this site for all Ontario schools and sign-up is dead easy. Basic cartoon characters can be altered and manipulated in both appearance and position. The program can be used for a whole range of ages and subjects, and is very useful as well for illustrating elements of design. The cartoon on the right is a sample I put together quickly.

http://www.sumopaint.com/ Nice online painting program with lots of options. Good for adults or older students.

http://artpad.art.com/artpad/painter/ Much simpler online painting program.

http://kraski.yandex.ru/new.xml Online painting fun for grades 6+. Proof that a picture is worth a thousand words, since the instructions are in Russian, but it doesn't matter.

http://www.nga.gov/kids/zone/zone.htm A selection of art games and manipulatives, more for younger students, although Brushter has some interest for older students.

http://flashface.ctapt.de/ Like the old police identikits – put together facial features to form a recognizable image. Great eye training.

http://www.popularfront.com/snowdays/ My favorite snowflake site.

http://escher.epfl.ch/escher/ Interactive tessellations.

http://www.cubpack81.com/images/carve_pumpkin.swf Online jack o'lantern cutting.

http://www.artsconnected.org/toolkit/index.html Interactive lessons on elements and principles of visual art.

http://www.allgraphicdesign.com/graphicsblog/2008/05/online-drawing-tools-free-online-painting-sketching-tools/ Descriptions of some other interactive sites.

Lesson Plans and Ideas

http://www.artsonia.com/ Thousands of examples of student art projects, all ages; you can get ideas, or upload your own class's work (with appropriate permission).

http://www.princetonol.com/groups/iad/Files/hands.htm This page has a couple of dozen ideas for using images of hands, and the basic site http://www.incredibleart.org/ has many more.

http://www.dickblick.com/lessonplans/ A very large collection of lesson plans from this major American art supplies vendor.

http://www.allposters.com/ Source for many fine art images.

http://www.artcyclopedia.com/ Another source for art images and information.

http://library.thinkquest.org/16661/index.html Lovely site on tessellations.

http://www.goldenpaints.com/technicaldata/florclth.php Details on how to paint a floorcloth.

http://www.pioneerthinking.com/victorianclay.html Old-fashioned simple way to make modelling paste, useful for beads, etc.

http://www.mootepoints.com/Projects.html Some paper crafts, including paper beads and small gift boxes. Print .pdf patterns.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Jewelry-quotGreenquot/ All sorts of “green” craft jewellery, with links to more crafts.

http://www.jaedworks.com/clayspot/polyclay-faq/ Almost all you need to know about polymer clay.

http://www.sculpey.com/ Sculpey polymer clay products and projects.

http://www.wannalearn.com/Fine_Arts/Visual_Art/ - An annotated list of links to art instruction sites.

Origami and other paper-folding sites

http://highhopes.com/3dstar.html Pennsylvanian woven 3-d paper star

http://www.dltk-holidays.com/Xmas/3dstar.htm Easy 3-d Christmas decoration

http://highhopes.com/5pointstar.html 5-point low-relief star

http://www.ushistory.org/betsy/flagstar.html or

http://www.englishcountrydancing.org/betsyross.html Cut a 5-point paper star without a protractor

http://britton.disted.camosun.bc.ca/snow/art.html Cut a six-pointed star or snowflake (Hint: use glue stick to display flakes on a window – it washes off with water.)

http://jas.familyfun.go.com/crafts/paper-bouquet-664130/ Paper flowers.

http://www.planetpals.com/images/starpattern.gif Origami star.

http://www.origami.as/ Joseph Wu's origami page - excellent

http://origami.ousaan.com/index.html Includes some animated origami folding.

http://www.origami-club.com/ Origami instructions in Japanese (!) and in very clear animation.

http://www.origami.com/ 400+ origami instructions, sorted by difficulty.

http://chosetec.darkclan.net/origami/ Fabulous origami figures to spark the imagination; some instructions.

http://design.origami.free.fr/Diagrams/cp.htm Origami designs to admire (and for talented students to try).

http://gallery.origami.free.fr/Auteurs/france/boudias/creation/creation.htm Origami designs and diagrams, various degrees of difficulty.

http://www.fishgoth.com/diagrams.html Origami designs and instructions.

Other

http://www.ccca.ca/ Centre for Contemporary Canadian Art, images by and info on hundreds of today's Canadian artists.

http://www.slideshare.net/kpikuet/elements-and-principles-of-art-presentation Quick slideshow on Elements and Principles of Art.

http://web.mit.edu/persci/gaz/gaz-teaching/index.html Demonstration of illusions caused by contrast, in degrees of gray.

http://artlinkswap.org/photographing_art.shtml What you need to know to take photos of your students' artwork.

http://library.thinkquest.org/C005470F/technique/fproportions.html Proportions of the average human figure.

http://www.mcmichael.com/ The McMichael Gallery, a nice place for a day trip.

http://www.ago.net/home The Art Gallery of Ontario, a nice place for a day trip.

Readers will no doubt have their own favorite art education sites. Please feel free to add them.

Welcome!

I'm an Ontario secondary special-ed teacher, former Arctic journalist, committed socialist, sometime naturalist, and dedicated dog-lover. Oh yes! and long-ago Classics scholar.
Hence the title of my blog: Of Many Things.
I've missed running a newspaper, and the chance to write and publish what I want, so the blog format is exciting.
I hope people will want to read what I write.