Dayo's Memoriam: Three Lessons and a Poem

Last Tuesday, we announced the tragic death of our beloved, gentle, and sweet tabby cat, Dayo. As we sifted through various emotions during last week, what became clear is that we had a significant, loving relationship with him lasting just over two years. I exclaimed that I wish I could have told Dayo how important he was in our lives, to which The Calm One replied, you showed him every day how important he was. Lesson learned: Actions are where it's at.

Dayo's nose showed three, vertical wrinkles when he yawned or ate, what I called his full wrinkle mode.

Standing behind the net curtains, I watched The Calm One and Monsieur M carry what I can only consider as Dayo's casket and place it into what I can also only consider as his hearse. Though the house felt empty without his presence, it was the void left in my heart that threaten to swallow me whole in its desolation. 

Before falling asleep, Dayo would always first knead for a few minutes while doing his distinctive purr: a kind of rumbling hiccupping while the delicate, pink tip of his tongue stuck out.

Wondrous qualities exist in living creatures, and Dayo had many: ability to trust, curiousity, courage, beauty, grace, energy, affection, cleverness, playfulness, creativity, and receptivity to being loved.

Dayo hardly ever drank from his water bowl; he jumped onto the sink so he could drink directly from the faucet.

The Calm One had the presence of mind to bring a two-year supply of anti-flea treatment along with Dayo's body to the vet. As he was making a donation of the medicine, a man entered the room, to whom the vet said, here, this is for your cat clinic. Second lesson learned: Pass it on no matter how much you may be locked within your own concerns. 

Dayo had many hiding places in the garden and the house.

Since The Calm One hung out with Dayo mostly in the house and I in the garden, he, stricken with grief, is found coming into a room, saying, I miss Dayo, while I am found in the garden saying the same thing to which he responds, If missing Dayo could bring him back, he would have returned a second after his death.

Dayo was always ready for a good sparring: here he was trying to attack my camera's strap. He could leap several feet in the air to give a gentle, soft swipe on the nose.

Because our sense of loss was so intense at first, plus we were focused on practical matters concerning Dayo's death, our healing was put on hold. After several days, as we live without him, our understanding deepens regarding what that means to us. Our conversation is peppered with: I just opened the linen cupboard, if Dayo was here he would be inside in a flash; It's the time for Dayo to come in for the night; I wonder where he is (which would have been followed by our searching until we found his new hiding spot).

He was a beautiful, sensuous creature at home in nature

Our thoughts also are filled with his memory: when making my way to my side of the bed in the dark, I stop myself from feeling for a furry pile melded into my pillow which I have to slide gently between The Calm One and me; when seeing a bump under the covers during the day, we think we need to make sure it's not Dayo before our lying down for a nap; when I open the fridge and see the butter, I think, oh, Dayo would have loved a bit of it.

He was as Madame M says, très rigolo (very funny) and made us laugh every day.

We are grateful for all the kindness, understanding, and support given to us by you.  We appreciated each and every comment. Your commiseration makes us feel less bereft.

Dayo loved to be picked up and would stay in our arms or draped over our shoulders for long periods of time

For those of you who have lost pets, we understand.  For those of you who will unfortunately lose pets, hopefully you will not be alone in your sadness because people are becoming more aware that pets are furry people whose death require mourning.
 

Here he is checking out a kitten on the net. When I was working at my computer, he would nudge his way into my arms where he would remain cradled for several hours. When he was very young, he would suckle on the buttons of my shirt or climb up until he hid in my hair.

The third lesson? It was our mutual attentiveness to each other that was the magic. We mattered to each other in the most basic way that transcended species; we were all alive at the same moment, linked through that connection despite--or perhaps because of--the transient nature of life. 

Farewell to Dayo 
by Hans Pufal aka The Calm One 

When you arrived you were so small
To get about you could but crawl.
Your eyes shone bright as burnished gold
And when we heard that cutest of cries
We'd pick you up like a little fur ball

You told us your name by typing it out
But not speaking cat we could only doubt
And then we noticed those four little letters
A song came to mind, but let's ignore that
Your name is Dayo, no more messing about!

It was on your first garden outing
And so much needed careful scouting
You climbed that tree all the way to the top
It was quite an adventure to get you down
But quickly you learnt to tackle anything

When cats do die where they go
Is something that no one does know
Your presence brightened every day
And this we wish where ever you are
Farewell, godspeed to you dear Dayo. 

RELATED POSTS

Announcement of Dayo's death
All my Dayo blog posts

Gaspacho Pasta Salad...and cucumber/green onion/chive raitziki

The potager's sole cucumber plant has put out a fruiting flush right at the end of its growing season. As there are still some recently harvested green peppers and beefsteak tomatoes in the fridge, gazpacho came to mind. But so did pasta!

For two meal-sized or four smaller servings of Gaspacho Pasta Salad, you will need around 24 fluid ounces of cooked penne (ridged, hollow pasta tubes which hold dressing well without getting too soggy), one large, peeled cuke, two medium tomatoes, 1 large green pepper, a couple of hard-boiled eggs (if desired), several garlic cloves, 2 fluid ounces of sherry vinegar, 6 fluid ounces of olive oil, salt, and freshly ground pepper.

Check, especially with garden-grown cucumbers, that they are not bitter.

While the pasta is cooking (takes about ten minutes), wash and dry the veggies. Then chop coarsely the tomatoes, green pepper (first remove seeds and white inner parts), and peeled cucumber.  Mince finely the garlic. Put the veggies in a large bowl.

Make a vinaigrette: put the sherry vinegar, olive oil, salt (start with a 1/2 tsp, more can be added to taste), and about 1/4 tsp of freshly ground pepper in a small jar. Screw on lid and shake well.

Drain well the pasta and add to the veggies. Toss the whole lot with the vinaigrette (all may not be needed). Adjust seasonings. It does taste good tepid if you are too hungry to chill the salad. Hard boiled eggs are often used to garnish gaspacho soup, so they could be included to make a complete meal. The glistening pasta and colourful veggies add up to one delicious dish.

Another variation is making a gaspacho hero/submarine/hoagie. Split a sandwich length of French bread. Pull out the soft center from both halves and tear them into small pieces.

Bread in general freezes well, so keep some in the freezer for convenience

Add la mie (bread sans crust) to the salad and toss well, ensuring that the bread absorbs the dressing.

Layer the salad on the bottom half and top with minced hard-boiled eggs.

Dribble a bit more dressing and cover with top half. This fresh-tasting sandwich's crunch is offset by la mie sponging up the vinaigrette.

When our family from Britain came to visit recently, my sister-in-law gifted me with a book, The Forager's Kitchen.  The author, +Fiona Bird, has created tasty and creative recipes based in part on ingredients she is able to forage in Scotland from forest, beach, and meadow. One of her recipes came in handy for using up the last of the cucumbers. She writes, My husband, Stephen, invented this recipe name because it is a cross between a raita and a tzatziki.

The wild ingredient in this recipe, ramps (wild garlic), does grow in our potager, but in early spring. I substituted both mature ciboule (Welsh onion) which I had planted in early spring and garlic to take the place of the ramps. Slender green onions could be an alternative to ciboule.

Twinned mature ciboule

To make four side servings you will need the white part from five ciboule or ramps (ten young green onions can be substituted), one fat, peeled garlic clove (if not using ramps), one half of a medium cucumber, fifteen chives about 7 inches (18 cm) in length, 3 tablespoons of crème fraîche, juice and zest of 1/2 small lime or lemon, and 1 teaspoon of fleur de sel or sea salt.

Grate the peeled cucumber into a sieve placed over a bowl. Sprinkle the grated cucumber with the salt and let stand for fifteen minutes.

While the cucumber is draining, mince the chives, ciboule/green onions/ramps, and garlic (if not using ramps) finely, using either a mixer or a knife. Make the lemon zest.

Ceramic knives keep their edge without sharpening!

Ease a small bowl into the sieve and press out as much liquid as is possible.

When you think you have gotten the grated cucumber as dry as possible, think again and give it one last pressing.

In a bowl, mix together the crème fraîche, freshly ground black pepper, lemon juice/zest (add the juice gradually to ensure that it does not become too tart for your taste), the minced green onions/chives/garlic mixture, and the drained cucumber.

The raitziki was full of zing and win and would go well served with spicy food.

The potager has been enjoying many a day of rain while we have been enjoying staying in, looking out at the rain...

Looking through French doors overlooking the side balcony and garden

while doing justice to the remaining cantaloupes that were harvested before the garden became The Soggy Kingdom.

Dayo likes a romp outdoors from time to time as long as we towel dry him when he comes back in.

À la prochaine! 

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Late Summer Harvest...and some recipes

The transition from summer to fall is a scramble between last-minute harvesting/preserving and first-minute sowing of winter crops.  This easing over into another garden focus often gets stalled.  I stubbornly think the carrots could put on some growth, the melons/tomatoes could ripen a bit more, and the green bean/cucumber plants still have some potential although their yellowed, crisp leaves belie any possible anticipation.  If they stay in, then there is no room for fresh plants and hopeful seeds.

Up came the remaining carrots and into the soup pot they went. Recipe for Velouté de carottes is here.

Garnished with bacon and French bread chunks

The last of the beefsteak tomatoes along with a few cucumbers went into a salad. Here's the recipe for the vinaigrette.

Juicy, ripe tomatoes and cukes were thinly sliced 

Ditto for the green beans.

Onion rings, capers, grated Parmesan were added

I altered my basic recipe for Linguine with Roasted Garlic, Parsley, Capers, and Parmesan by choosing tagliatelle, using minced sauteed garlic, replacing the parsley with basil, and tossing some green beans into the boiling water along with the pasta.

Roma tomatoes look like glossy red eggs, and I love harvesting them as they fall neatly into my cupped hand.

Their meaty juiciness is brought out in Creamy Tomato Soup with Edam and Rice. (Recipe here)

And tomato sauce with sausage.

Grated carrot and heaps of basil, not to mention Romas, consort in a cauldron of bubbling goodness

We can resume having lasagne (recipe) now that there is a nice supply of sauce.

Green peppers are awaiting to be stuffed and baked. (Link to recipe is at the end of this post.)

Butternut squash is willing and waiting to be stored in the root cellar.

Soon the onion and garlic harvest which have been curing under the pergola since July will be trimmed, bagged, and stored.

Ferninand Pichard Rose is still putting out its fragrant clusters of flowers

Evening temperatures are cool enough to warrant bringing in the potted basil.

The garden in autumn has a different feel for sure; there are still sunny warm days, but the dawn and twilight are deliciously cool.  I love seeing blue skies dressed with billowing clouds.

Tracery of our fig tree etched against the autumn sky

Nothing is more wonderful than digging up taters.

Prospero is a lovely variety which forms tight, shallow clumps making unearthing them a cinch.

After a harvest consisting of about twenty-five melons--not to mention their consumption--it was satisfying pulling up the well spent plants.

With beds cleared, winters crops like broccoli and Brussels sprouts can be transplanted.

Black-Eye Susan vine (Thunbergia Alata) is doing a brilliant take-over with my permission. There is a nice collection of them colonising various cracks in walkways in the front garden.

One plant has made a cheery home right on the front steps!

Dayo is enjoying being completely over his pesky paw injury and spending time in the garden.

His cradle of green is the nursery bed for laurels

But he is also spending more time indoors than he did before incurring his injury.  He is pulling way less overnighters.

Four paws, count 'em!  And they are all in good health. (I now check his paws each day for any injury)

À la prochaine!

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Green Peppers Stuffed with Toulouse Sausage/Brown Rice/Parmesan

Cantaloupe Granita & Caramel Cream Parfait

Sixteen Charentais melons have been harvested in our potager last week, and there are another seven threatening maturity soon--lovely, sun-kissed, plump beauties emitting their potent fragrance as they sit on window sills, nestle in fridges, and lay in their patch awaiting judicious plucking. Several are almost the size of honeydew melons.

Charentais melons, summer pears, and Roma tomatoes from the potager

Besides serving them au nature or with ice cream/whipped cream (you could use both simultaneously), one can go the sweet fondue route and dip chunks of melon in warm salted caramel sauce. If something even more fabulous is desired then a parfait is the answer.

When the melon is good, simple works.

Some everbearing strawberries and raspberries from the potager were added to the melon cubes

Caramel sauce becomes fluid when left out for an hour during warm weather

Cantaloupe Granita & Caramel Cream Parfait

I remember well from my New York City childhood, street vendors in the summer shaving ice off a huge block, putting the jagged bits in a paper cone, saturating them with jewel-coloured, super-concentrated fruit syrups, and the best part, being handed this delight. Granita is a fancy, fruitier version of this simple summer treat.

Granita not only tastes great on its own, but is a good way of preserving lots of fruit

A light sugar syrup, flavoured or not, is made first. Fruit puree is then mixed with it and as the mixture is gradually freezing, stirring is done sporadically. C'est tout!

For about a quart of granita, two medium-sized cantaloupes (3 cups/24 ounces* of melon cubes) should provide enough for the granita recipe and some extra for fresh eating/garnishing. Additionally four ounces* of sugar, four ounces* of water, and two teaspoons of minced orange zest will be needed. *fluid measure (recipe can be multiplied)

One orange should suffice for making the zest. Wash and dry the orange well especially if it has been treated. I find a small ceramic knife works better than a zester. Remember you want just the thin orange skin with no white bits.

Put sugar, water, and orange zest in a medium-sized pot and over high heat stir until all sugar is dissolved which should take no more than five minutes. You will be able to see clearly the bottom of the pan. Then over medium heat, simmer for a minute.

Remove from heat, pour into an eight-inch-square or nine-inch round metal cake pan (several metal ice cube trays without their dividers could be substituted) and let cool. Make room in the freezer for it so when required it can be easily positioned.

Scrub melons well, cut in halves, scoop out the seeds, then slice thickly. Using a knife remove the flesh from the skin and make small cubes.

That's a tablespoon, not a teaspoon, in the largest melon (nearly ten inches in diameter!) from our patch

Via a blender or food processor, roughly puree the melon pieces. There should be just under sixteen fluid ounces of puree.

Puree will be lumpy

Add the puree to the syrup and whisk well.

Place the pan in the freezer.  Every ninety minutes until it is frozen, stir the mixture with a fork. When frozen (it took about six hours in my freezer), cover pan with foil or plastic wrap and keep in freezer until needed. When ready to assemble the parfait, take out the granita and scrape the surface with the tines of a fork.

Voila! Delicious, golden slush.

For the parfait, you will need cantaloupe granita, whipped cream, caramel sauce, and fresh melon pieces. Whip the cream with a small amount of sugar. Into each level tablespoon of fluid caramel sauce, fold three heaping tablespoons of whipped cream. While folding, let some caramel swirls remain.

For each serving, layer as neatly and evenly as possible two heaping tablespoons of granita, one heaping tablespoon of the caramel cream and repeat. Top with a piece of fresh melon. This pretty melon parfait was light and luscious at the same time.

Within two weeks of resuming his regular schedule after his long recovery from a paw injury, Dayo has shown all feline interlopers that the garden is still his garden.

To celebrate this important occasion, he ceremoniously jogged from a distance while I was working a veggie bed. The something in his mouth turned out to be a very still mouse. He graciously and carefully laid it on its back at my feet. Remaining motionless, it then suddenly turned over while giving out some of the most endearing high-pitched sounds I ever heard. Quick as, well, a mouse, it smartly hid under the tiles framing the bed completely flummoxing Dayo. One second, bringing home the bacon, the next, staring at an empty skillet! The look on Dayo's face was almost as heartbreaking as the little squeaks of the mouse were.

À la prochaine!

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Making salted caramel sauce
How to fold in whipped ingredients