Why Do the Good Die Young

I'm still numb. I'm still in disbelief. In less than a year and half I've lost my two best boys Beckett and Keltic. It's not fair, they weren't old. Beckett was only ten and half and Keltic was only nine years, two months and few days.  This picture of me with Beckett and Keltic was taken on 17 Dec 2019; on 23 Dec 2019, I would lose Beckett to hemangiosarcoma. Fast forward to this year and on 25 May I let Keltic go as a result of kidney disease. 

Keltic should have had more years. It just wasn't fair, their lives are so short as it is.  

Keltic was born on 17 Mar 2012, St Patrick's Day. I had the Keltic on my list of puppy names and it seemed auspicious that the litter was born on that day. It's actually the name of a trucking company in New Brunswick. With Keltic, I wanted to link his name with that of his lineage, his sire was Triadic's Mach Three Turbo and there was nothing I liked that tied in with that. His grandsire was Bach's Razor's Edge, with that I came up with Triadic's Keltic Livinonthedge. "Liv'in on the edge" is a line from the song Shamrock City by the Irish Descendants. I used it in Keltic's memorial video. 

Keltic Remembered

He was a pudgy little pup but he was ready for anything.  He fit right in with Tucker and Beckett.

Keltic was quite the character. I always called him the "bad son" but really he wasn't bad, maybe a little naughty.  He loved to take things from the garbage can, something he never grew out of, so basically I ended up using the garbage cans in the bathrooms only for things he could tear up. He also never did learn to wake me up when he had to go out at night so I ended up having to sleep with my bedroom door closed so he would scratch on it. Boy, do they ever train us. He also was very opinionated. He had opinions on everything, walking down the street barking his way through the neighbourhood, barking and lunging at me because we had finished our toast or when he thought I'd handled something wrong in agility (which happened quite often and he was probably right).

Keltic did well at agility, too bad he didn't have a better handler so I could have figured out what the problem was with his weaves at trials.  We competed in the K9 Kup, a local agility league with the Snow Dogs; in our first year all the other dogs on the team but Keltic and a Keeshond were also sled dogs. Keltic qualified for Nationals at every Regionals I entered him in, except one. That year, when the Nationals were close to our home, he missed by 0.4 points; so he never did get to go to a National Championship. I think it's my one regret with Keltic. I should have taken him when I took Beckett to the Nationals in Montreal; I would have had those memories but I guess he really didn't care. I never thought Keltic would get a Masters title but he surprised me by getting a Masters Snooker title just before the pandemic hit here and a Masters Jumpers title, just last fall when things were allowed to open just a little.

I think if you asked Keltic though, he would have rather done herding or lure coursing, especially lure coursing. Keltic did his herding instinct test and was quite the natural, he loved rounding up the sheep that strayed off.  But lure coursing, after the first time, he was hooked, he would just get frantic to go and chase that little bit of fur or plastic. I would have tried chaseability with him but the problem was that the few times I let him do lure coursing, afterwards he would very nearly collapse. The first time it happened, I thought it was just the heat and the length of time he ran but it happened each time I let him try luring. 

Keltic - Lure Coursing

Keltic - Herding Instinct Test

Keltic was a real ham in front of a camera. Beckett was always seemed so serious. It was Keltic who made the photo sessions and made it hard to chose which photos to buy when we had professional photos done. 

He should have had more time to enjoy more travels, more camping trips, more walking and hiking, more trips to the beach and more agility trials. But that's not to be. 

I didn't get to spoil him on that last day but we spent a glorious day outside. We did get to take some special walks while he was still well enough. I hope he enjoyed that time together. I hope now he's running with Beckett and all the rest of the dogs at the Bridge. 

Keltic, know this, you were a GOOD SON! 

Wordless Wednesday

 

World Tour

As we all know in these pandemic times traveling isn't easy to do and likely won't be for awhile. One of the retail outlets that was considered essential throughout all of this was our liquor stores so I started looking through my local store at wines from other countries. When I started posting the pictures of the wine I was having with dinner, my brother jokingly asked if I was doing a world tour. 

But that got me to thinking about food from various parts of the world. You might have read in my blog about the dinner I hosted for my sister and brother-in-law (my bubble) based on The Ivy Restaurant in London.   I made a special dinner for myself from Scotland for Robbie Burn's Day of stacked neeps and tatties. I used hamburger for the base rather than haggis. 

I also made for the first time an Acadian Meat Pie. My mother always called them "tourtiere" but I've since found out that tourtiere use ground meat while my mother's recipe uses chunks of meat. Many Acadian meat pie recipes call for potatoes but my mum's only used chicken, pork and steak. I used just chicken and pork for my meat pie. It's a Christmas tradition to have meat pie; in our home we always had it on Christmas Eve; when I was much younger it was a late night meal after Midnight Mass. 

My last job before retirement had me as the Canadian Forces' representative to NATO for explosives safety so I got to travel a bit for work. One of the places I went to was Rome, Italy, I'm not a huge fan of pasta in fact I ate at my first Hard Rock Cafe in Rome just to get away from pasta. One thing I really did enjoy was the tortes that were on the breakfast buffet. One I especially liked was a chocolate and pear torte so of course I had to give it try making one. It didn't turn out too bad if I have to say so myself.

Another dessert I made was for our Thanksgiving shared dinner. I ate dinner at my sister and brother-in-law's house but we shared the meal with my neice and her family and had a video chat over dinner. My contribution for the dinner was Sambuca Shrimp and Swedish Crustless Apple pie.

But back to wine, one day I had a white wine that was from South Africa so I looked online to see if there was a relatively simple dish I could make and came up with Bobotie. It's a curried ground beef dish and was quite good. 

This past week, I had a wine from Chile so I again decided to try and find a Chilean recipe and came up with this corn and ground beef casserole, called Pastel De Choclo. It was very good, the savory and sweet tastes went well together. 

So I've been doing well in my world travels, Canada, Scotland, England, Sweden, Italy, South Africa and Chile. I live in Canada and have been in every province but haven't yet visited the territories. I've been to England, Scotland and Italy, so I guess I'll have to add Sweden, South Africa and Chile to the bucket list.  I wonder where I will go next?

Silent Sunday - Happy Valentine's

 

Wordless Wednesday