Bits and Pieces from Mary, Richard and Connor

From Mary

Puppet Festival Guidebook

Having a fabulous summer of street performances (as Rebecca noted in her blog from London as well).  We went to the Kingston busker festival and watched 3 days of performers in the streets.  

Fabulous.

Friday night, to the Shriner’s Circus.  Again, fabulous performances.  Love the theatrical flares they throw into everything.  

And then yesterday, the puppet festival.  So much fun.  

Absolutely breathtaking and hilarious puppetry.

Well, my family is in Montreal today, visiting cousins while Leo picks up some drums.  He is doing 2 days of teacher training with a school board this week and the teachers all get to take home a drum with them.  

Part I from last week:

... cutting a thick slice of hot bread after church ...

The day before Rhiannon’s birthday was another “munch and mingle” after church.  I thought about making 12 loaves of bread to bring, but couldn’t do that without Arta.  Several people told me they missed her bread, especially the pink batch (it had been Valentine's Day).  I did decide to bring a birthday cake for Rhiannon.  Made the hot water chocolate cake and popped it in the oven.  Went out to clean up the front yard which was a disaster of toys, bikes, a canoe, weeds and general clutter.  Forgot about the cake.  It must have been in 20 minutes too long. That is waaaaaaaay to long for a cake, right?

Well, it didn’t burn (I guess because the batter has so much liquid in it, that it just keeps cooking off).  But I was worried that the sides would be way overdone.  Just iced it anyway and set it out.

Someone asked Leo how I got the fudgy layer on the bottom of the cake.  Leo said, “I think she just burned it.”  Ha, ha, ha.  She didn’t believe him, so she came to ask me.  I confirmed his answer. Couldn’t believe myself that it didn’t taste burned, but it didn’t. So next time you need to make a cake and you are worried that you might forget to take it out, but put an extra cup of boiling water into your recipe.  

Part two:
I was very please with my tidying of the front yard.  Weeded all the flower beds, parked the bikes in a row beside each other, gathered all the toys to one spot, threw out all the garbagey stuff, swept the path.  It looked tidy and neat.Later that evening we were going out and as we pulled out of our driveway, someone pulled up in front of the house.  I rolled down my window to see what they needed.  They took a closer look at the yard and then said, “Oh, sorry, we thought you were having a garage sale.”  Sheesh.  So much for all that tidying.  Isn’t it normal to have 5 bikes, one tag-along-bike and a bike trailer lined up in your front yard beside a canoe?

About Richard
Hasn't had the call to go to Grande Prairie yet.  Tried to fix the leak under his truck.  When it was done, he started the engine and the leak appeared again, so stripped the engine down again.  Yes.  He had fixed it right.  Just hadn't tightened the bolts, wondering if he should get some advice about how much torque to put on the bolts, and then forgetting to get the advice, so only had to tighten the bolts the second time around.  Got to have the same lesson twice.  Nice.

About Connor

 ...paid for with money earned tree planting ...

Tuition is paid and at least one university school book purchased today.  He showed me his new treasure -- a text book: Mathematical Methods for Physicisits: A Concise Introduction by TAI L. CHOW.  

I got the thrill of touching the book.  

I noticed the book's weight, the smell of the glossy pages, the quality of the paper, the cover still to be opened.  

Some joys never go away.