A Last Day in Quebec ... for a while

... simple eating ...
...grind some Parmesan on pasta ...

Mary and Leo have thanked me many times for coming to stay with them.

The dishes are done, the laundry folded, the hot bread out of the oven and the much-loved meal of pasta is ready for the kids.

They do not need Kraft dinner.

Just boil up any pasta and pass the ketchup.

A no brainer for them.

Xavier gave me a test last night to see if I was a Stone Age, an Egyptian or a Middle Ages Grandmother.

 I cannot remember now which category I fit into, since there are times when I feel that all are appropriate.

... a successful trip to Byblos yields namoura ...

I read out of Fire and Ice to them, their nightly novel.

I peeked ahead.

A long chapter is coming up tomorrow called “The Storm”.  The title of that chapter sounds like real life.

The reading is going to take more time, and not just because I am gone.

There are just more pages in that chapter.

Can you build me a door through a fence?

 Mary told me the genesis of the door in the back fence, through which the kids can enter each other’s yards.

 It was well into Grade I, when Xavier and the girl next door discovered that not only were they in the same Grade I class, but their houses were back to back.

Buy mamoul -- much easier than baking brownies

They began passing notes through the fence when they discovered that fact. It was not long until the families had agreed that a door should go through the fence, connecting the two yards.

As well, Leo built a play house in the large tree in the Brooks yard.

 As an after thought he put a sand pile at the bottom of the tree.

He says that he might as well have saved his money on the tree house, for it is in the sand pile that the children play. He is right about the number of children in the sandbox – at any one time there can be up to 7 of them, and they can range in age from a three year old to a girl in Grade VII. Go figure on that one. I wonder what I will have to do to get some use out of the sandbox we have at Annis Bay. Maybe build a tree house over it that no one uses? I have been busy at the Brooks’ house. I haven’t had time to learn to turn on their lovely new TV or to figure out how the remote works. Perhaps next time.

"Grandma, help me get away from this guy."

For now we are back to normal here -- a few trips to Byblos gives us enough pita bread and desserts made of honey and ground nuts. Michael gets to come over to my house to check out how we are doing.

More of life as it should be lived, in an easy key.

Arta