Remembering Melanie

Melanie Anne Safka-Schekeryk, professionally known as Melanie Sakfa and widely known as singer Melanie, passed away on January 23, 2024. She was born on February 3, 1947, in New York City.

She began her career singing in coffee shops, as many did then. After spending time in college, she began singing in various NYC clubs, eventually signing her first recording contract with Columbia Records. After some releases, she signed with Buddha Records and a string of hits started.

Her first major success was “Lay Down (Candles In The Rain)” in 1970. This was followed by a great version of the Rolling Stones hit “Ruby Tuesday” in 1970. In 1971, she recorded her most successful tune, which went global, “Brand New Key.”

She continued to record over the years, with several charted songs and albums, her last being recorded in 2010. A pioneer of today’s music, she performed at Woodstock and many other major events of the period. Another talent that will be missed but will live on through music.

Have a listen to the song “Brand New Key” and live as always. Please support live music and also patronize independent artists.

Mazatlan, Mexico and Its Sunsets

I’ve been a bit under the weather and very lazy. However, the sunsets in this jewel of a city are enough to perk one up, even for the short time that one can see them. Here are a few photos of some recent beauties for you to appreciate.

These 2 are from January 17, 2024. Crazy stuff?

My Shazams: Absolute Grid

Shazamed this one in 2015. The song is by Echofusion and was released in 2010. Echofusion is a DJ based in Cyprus. His name is Raffy Gharibian, and he goes by several additional names, Dj Raffi G and Feel Good Vibrations. He has released a few songs and EPs but hasn’t released much recent music. At least not as far as I can tell. The song is definitely electronic dance music, and quite good. Takes a bit of time to take off, but when it does it does.

You can find him on Facebook here

Tuscan Pork Tenderloin

Since retiring, I have indulged myself in a wide variety of projects, basically all the stuff I’ve wanted to do since, like, forever. One that I am having some fun with is cooking. It is easy to combine with one of my other loves, wine. As my co-conspirator in life has similar tastes, this was a no-brainer to move forward. So, I have put writing a book, learning to speak Spanish and becoming a guitar hero on the back burner while concentrating on this one. Unfortunately, I returned to work and have had to cut back on some indulgences.

Our Saturday night dinner on this occasion was Tuscan Pork Tenderloin. A very simple recipe, quick to prepare with very little fuss or muss. Here’s the recipe. Note it is for 4 servings, but we find far too often that 4 equals 2.5.

Ingredients

Ingredient Checklist

4 servings

  • 1 â…“ teaspoons garlic, minced
  • â…˜ teaspoon dried rosemary
  • â…˜ teaspoon dried oregano
  • â…“ teaspoon salt
  • â…“ teaspoon ground black pepper
  • 1 ⅓ pounds pork tenderloin

Directions

Step 1 Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).

Step 2 Combine garlic, rosemary, oregano, salt, and pepper in a small bowl. Rub spice mixture all over the pork tenderloin. Place in a baking dish.

Step 3 Bake in the preheated oven until pork is slightly pink in the center, 20 to 25 minutes. An instant-read thermometer inserted into the center should read at least 145 degrees F (63 degrees C). Remove from oven and let stand for 5 minutes before slicing.

Like I said, it’s very simple. We would suggest upping the time to 30 to 35 minutes. That was the only issue we had. The clean-up was super easy as well. We used Jasmine rice for a base, mixed with frozen broccoli and butternut squash. The vegetables were cooked in a bit of olive oil and spiced with salt and pepper to taste.

We paired the dish with one of our go-to wines, Meiomi Pinot Noir. The two went together very nicely. The wine is a typical California Pinot, although it has more of a vanilla taste than most. A popular brand, it goes in the $20.00 range.

Overall the supper was a success and one we will repeat in future. The tenderloin was excellent. The minimal spice only accented the overall taste and melded with the wine. I’d rate it a 9 of 10, very subtle, very good.

Blog Notes

Kootenay Lake, British Columbia, Canada

Good day! These are just a few notes that have been building up inside that need to be removed.

First off, returning to blogging and writing. My first impression is Holy Crap, the format here has changed radically. Going to take some time to relearn some things and become a proficient user once again. Similarly, the site’s look needs some updating, which is a second learning experience. I think I’m up for it.

Second is the format of the site itself. Lori and I have visited many places, but nothing recently other than Mexico. The travel side of things will consist mainly of recent reviews and photos in Mexico, mixed with some of our movements around our places in Alberta and British Columbia. I have a few items on Mazatlan that I am currently working on, which should drop over the next few weeks.

I will also review all the sites I have on all social media, delete some, and connect everything left to this brand. This is another goal that may take some time. It is amazing how these collect, almost like they self generate.

Another big part of our life is music. Posts will appear regularly and highlight new music, independent music, Canadian music and some top 10 list things. I did some interview work with a magazine I once affiliated with, mostly independent artists, and I will try to get back to that somehow. I have a couple of dormant X and Facebook sites with many artists that I follow and follow back, and I will work to revive them and renew some contacts.

A third set of topics will involve our journey to retirement. It is not so much an advice column but more of a journal of how we are moving to retirement and how our progress toward that goal is coming along.

Another feature that we will include is to share our favourite recipes and wines. Cooking is therapy, and wine augments the experience.

In closing, we look forward to touching base with everybody and will try to be a much more regular contributor, while learning to put forward a quality product. That will take some time.

Mazatlán- Getting There – The Calgary Part

User:Qyd:Qyd, CC BY-SA 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/, via Wikimedia Commons

This year’s adventure to Mazatlán began on December 29 with a stay at the former Wyndham Garden Hotel. Now a Hotel 11. As always, we chose to stay at an airport hotel because the flight departs in the morning. We have stayed at this hotel several times as it has a good restaurant and is in great shape. Since our last stay, Wyndham sold the property to Sonesta Hotels, who have branded it as Hotel 11. A great rate, excellent service and the same great food. Our rate for the night was $151.95, tax in. Had a few vino’s, so supper almost matched the room rate. Our bad. Check them out at the link; it’s recommended.

Hotel 11, MOD Sonesta – Calgary Hotel with Airport Shuttle | Sonesta

The next step is the flight.  As usual, we flew in on WestJet.  It is pretty much the only game in town from Calgary.  There is Sunwing as an alternative, but they are now owned by WestJet and have some limitations that are not good for us. It is cheaper, but one-way travel is not allowed, and changing flights is next to impossible.  As we are there for 3 months or so, this restriction is not a good thing.  We book as one way in each direction instead of round trips to give us the flexibility to head home earlier or later, especially for urgent personal reasons.

We caught our shuttle and arrived at the airport with a 3-hour window.  As we check in online, we ditch the lineups at the counters and proceed directly to the self-check-in kiosks.  We generated our bag tags, dumped our luggage at the baggage chute, and headed into security.  Security can cause a hiccup or 2, but we sailed through and headed for breakfast.  The Tim Hortons and Starbucks are always full, so we use the Vin Room in case we want a mimosa or a nice chardonnay at 8:00 in the morning (You have to love air travel).   The buzz in airports is unique.  People everywhere around are excited, nervous or bored.  Sitting in a restaurant eating breakfast and people-watching is a great way to kill time before boarding.  The Vin Room is a Calgary restaurant/wine bar with 3 locations; this (obviously) is the airport location.  Food is good and reasonably priced for an airport.  The service is excellent as well.  Breakfast was around $50.00, with tips and taxes and no wine.  Another recommendation to check out if you are flying out of Calgary. Check them out at the link below.

Vin Room

Photo by Timur Saglambilek: https://www.pexels.com/photo/wine-glass-bottle-87224/

Scenes From A Hike – September 4, 2021

Went for a nice hike on a forestry road that led us to the shore of Monroe Lake in the East Kootenays of British Columbia. The trek was 3.21 miles or 5.2 km. A screenshot of the route is below, in and out via the same route.

The scene below is indicative of the scenery along the road.

Once we reached the lake, there was a footbridge and an old dam, now in various stages of deterioration.

It is also the mouth of a creek, pretty much dried up as we are at the end of the season. Most creeks and rivers out here are snow and rain-fed, meaning they tend to dry up, or they are spring-fed, which this one is not. We have seen this creek higher up in the mountain in the past, but it was late October and there was runoff.

We continued to the right on the map and discovered some well-worn elk trails that we will explore later. We turned back and took the left spur to some amazing scenery. We have done this path before this and knew what we were in for. We have also kayaked through the meadow, a post I will put up once I finish playing with the video.

We also know about how to relax. A conveniently placed bench to look at the landscape.

And of course, it is not all about the scenery, let’s not forget the foliage and critters. In this case an interesting mushroom and some pretty butterflies.

Blog Note

Merry Christmas and happy holidays. Just back, but posting will be light over the next few days . Have a several events and then some travel.

Yes, we are outta here. Heading to Mazatlan, Mexico for the next 3 months. Been doing this for a few years now. This time I’m going to do my best to give the reader a taste of what our winter home has to offer. Restaurant reviews, night life, things to do, we will give an overview of a great city.

A Mazatlan sunset. Taken by myself.