Keeping the Island Clean

My Island

forefront: pendants to reclaim and green glazes gone wrong
Alice and Micheal: eat breakfast -- a banana for one and a croissant for the other
centrepiece: bananas from Costco -- $2 a clump, I buy them whether I need them or not

One of the hardest places to clean is the island in the kitchen.

Before I can make a full 360 degree circle around it, cleaning it up, the treasured space on the island behind me fills up with other items.

I now believe that an empty space is just an invitation for someone to put something there. 

One of the thrills of making pottery is bringing it home from the Pilling kiln. Whatever it is that has been fired gets laid out on the counter for everyone to see. There were broken mugs and bowls whose glaze had dripped across each other’s surfaces, and so were glued to one another. As well, Rebecca brought home necklaces that hadn’t taken well to glazes last year. She is hoping to fix the mistakes, rather than turn the objects back into the earth. Only time will tell if she can master the art of repair. She has been working on a paper today about “Questions in The Journals of Knud Rassmussen”, a movie that she uses in some of her film classes. The deadline for submission was 4 pm. She submitted her paper at 10:30 pm, clearly too late to meet the deadline. Between broken mugs, glazes that have misfired and missed deadlines, today has not been her best day. But it has been a day – not one I would have wanted to miss.

A Quick Exit

... Rebecca and Duncan make their exit on Thursday morning ...

Doral, Anita, Meighan and Amanda Price made a quick exit today from the property.

Doral needs some medical treatments best received back in St. Albert, so off their blended family went at about 3 pm, Anita in the driver’s seat, Doral attached to his oxygen machine, and the two teen-age women and all of their holiday paraphernalia in the back seat.

Good-bye to the fun loving gamers.

Good-bye to the best collection of board games of 2019. Good-bye to teen-age swim parties. Good-bye to guitars and ukuleles.

Hello to continued good health care for Doral.

Arta

Ed and Hélène and the Pilling Trail

... Carey, Cindy, Rebecca, Ed and Helen climb upwards ...

I love walking the David Pilling Trail.

When Ed Saiedi and Hélène came for the afternoon I had a chance to see the forest through new eyes once more.

We took the quick right before crossing the second stream and the path up the hill came clear after a few steps through the underbrush.

I am still in awe that the path can’t be easily seen from the Grandfather’s Trail, since I know many feet have walked that way.

Still, the joy of the climb could easily be missed by someone who doesn’t know how to see the possibilities of the forest hill at that spot.

Ed and Hélène coming up from the stream

We stopped at the large Douglas fir to see the difference between its bark and that of the cedars that are nearby. And we talked about how people who lived here thousands of years ago built canoes and made hats and baskets from trees.

I always think I will stop and take photo of the first steps for they are roots of a Douglas fir.

The height of the step is just a little higher than the rise of a normal steps and I hear a puff of air out of my lungs when I have to take my weight up just a little higher than normal.

LtoR: David, Ed and Hélène on David's driveway

The trail is not a good place for a conversation.

We have to go single file, weaving our way upwards, around the trunks of trees and over deadfall.

We stopped at one point to look at the work that is being done by the fallen logs as they give back to the earth the material from which they were made.

Someone asked if any trees had been felled to build the path. The answer is no, so we looked at trees that were down, their huge root systems exposed to the air, and we wondered how it is that they came to be on the ground now. Not even any limbs have been cut for the trail, though many of them have been woven back amongst themselves to make an easy passage for us.

Well, that is enough about the trail.

... at this point everyone watches their steps downward ...

Now for more about Ed and Hélène.  She is lovely. Truly his match in every way.

They are so in love. The feelings of respect between them can’t be contained.

I could feel the rush of their wash of love as we ate together, or talked together or walked along trails.

Although they will settle far away, I have the feeling that I will be lucky enough to see them again, perhaps walking the same trail.

Arta

The Tree Fort

Photo: Michelle Wood

Fairy Houses Inc

Adam and Dave Wood have the platform up in the trees and the sides of the tree house are in place.

There is a ladder with hinges that will let the ladder be pulled up.

The pulley mechanism is yet to be installed but the children know that the ladder is not stationary, that it has the capacity to move though that part of the tree house is still a project in motion.

When I went over to watch the children play I found that the Sidney, Nora and Maxwell had spent the day making fairy houses that are hidden at the bottom of trees around the fort.

Cedar branches hang down low, giving shade and privacy to the road side of the fort.

The lake side of the fort provides a view of their Uncle Dan’s nearby cabin, and of course of the lake and Bastian Mountain in the distance.

Photo: Michelle Wood

... and Maxwell raises the hammer high overhead ...

Because Michael, Alice and Betty had brought their stuffies, Sidney and Nora ran back to their home to add some of theirs to the corner of the tree house where stuffies take their place.

Adam made a hammer that the children used when they were working on the fairy house project.

I had it in my hands, turning it over and one child was suggesting that a hole be put through the handle and that it hang somewhere near the fort.

A good idea, for there should always be a hammer nearby. 

When the play in the fort was over, the children ran across the road to play hide and seek in the wood, up near the hammock.

I didn't know whom I could hear, but it would be easy to find people up there, for there is always noise, even shrieks coming out of the trees.

I was supervising, sort of, by sitting on the porch talking with David Wood.

At one point I asked him if he thought I should intervene.

“Not until there is blood,” he said.

Arta

Picking Plums

... yellow plum from the David Wood orchard ....

The best apples on the property come from the tree on the west side of Wyona's house. 

 The best plums are one lot over, roadside and east on Moiya and David Wood's lot.

Tonight David Wood told me to please pick some.  He is tired of eating them.

I ate 4 for breakfast and 3 for lunch and 5 for supper.  I am trying to be like David and eat them until I cannot consume one more.

Arta

Waffles for My Dolly

"Who wants to lick the beater?"

Betty became my friend one morning, but only marginally.

She had to be separated from her old sister.

I had Betty join me in the kitchen while I made waffles.

Betty brought along her basket of Barbies but was sitting at the island out of duty, not desire.

I tried to give her breakfast but she wouldn’t have anything to do with the waffles. In an act of desperation, I told her that would be fine, that she didn’t have to eat a thing, but the Barbies had to eat the Barbie waffles I would be making.

I proceeded to take a waffle from the waffle iron and cut it so that 16 small pockets were preserved.

... foreground?  Barbie Waffles ..

I put them on a dish, filling one with a dollop of whipping cream and then proceeded to my waffle making station, forgetting about Betty until she called out for more Barbie waffles.

The first set was gone.

I have no idea how she got them down the Barbies.

Arta

The Cat Story

A thin, lean black cat has been living on the property, who knows where.

The cat did leap out of the trailer that holds Art Treleaven’s fishing boat when it was startled from that position.

Mostly questions were asked of others, “Whose cat is that? Does it belong to any of the houses to the west of us? Has your family been feeding that cat?”

... Sydney and Nora Wood taking flowers to their secret tree house ...
... they also feed stray cats ....

The cat was been treated small bowls of milk by the Adam and Michelle Wood grandchildren at the Wood home, much to Dave Wood’s horror. He doesn’t want to make lingering friends with an animal that is not his.

The cat became lethargic and slow and was caught by the Wood children.

They discovered a collar around it’s neck and they cut it off for the cat had grown. The collar had not been loosened and now there was an open sore in that area as well as skin where a halter had been on the cat.

Miranda took a look at the cat, put it in her van and delivered it to the SPCA.

“Too sick,” she said.

I thought that was the end of the story but a few days later, Miranda got a telephone call saying that the vet had treated the cat, and that the SPCA found the cat had been reported as lost, 6 months ago.

The cat’s family came to pick it up, joyous that their cat had been found and they wanted to thank her for delivering it to the SPCA.

Others have commented that pay it forward is working in this case.

Remember when Miranda and Richard’s car was hit by an 18 wheeler.

They lost their dog, Vegas, and days later a land owner at Three Valley Gap caught Vegas and returned the dog to them.  At the very least, Miranda is now even.

A big yes to “pay it forward”.

Arta

Caravan Farm Theatre Presents ...

Photo Credit: Rebecca Johnson

Caravan  FarmTheatre presents The Coyotes

Tonight Duncan, Bonnie, David, Meighan, Amanda and Rebecca went to Caravan Farm Theatre to see The Coyotes.  The introductory notes to the show go like this:

And what if The Most Fabulous Coyote Of Them All fell in love with the daughter of the widow who owns the farm with the only water left in the world and thus set in motion a whole chain of events that defied the laws of logic and reason and science?!

Bonnie said that the show had all of the usual sight gags -- water thrown on the audience, feathers flying out of a chicken coup -- it doesn't matter how many times this happens in life to me, I still laugh at those silly gags.

A trip through MacDonalds on the way to Enderby staved off the need for a treat run to the store, though pockets and bags had been filled with pop and chip before the teens left the house.  They sat on one side of the outdoor bleachers and Bonnie and Rebecca thought they would be more comfortable on the chairs with backs.

What's not to love about rural theatre held on an on 80 acre farm down at Enderby.

And a good time was had by all.

Arta

High Points of the Day

Selfies on the Morning Ceilidh leaves for St Albert
LtoR: Ceilidh, Gavin, Arta, Doral

So Rebecca sometimes asks for the high points of the day.

I could tell her a hot point of the day.

Doral had re-created taco salads again tonight. 

I ate while no one was around, taking the food out of the Tupperware containers that he left on the counter.

I thought I was taking green peppers. When I got into my salad I could feel that those peppers were not green peppers but jalapeno peppers that should have been added judiciously to the salad. I knew I was feeling some extra heat, not just the heat that went with the day.

Later I was eating ice cream with the kids. They were enjoying their four scoops of ice-cream with different sauces – my kitchen is just going upscale on having all of the condiments for sundaes available. I grabbed what I thought was a clean spoon from the side of the counter and took my first bite. I could feel a peppery aftertaste to my sundae. A few bites later, when the hot taste continued, I figured out, this must have been the spoon that Doral used to de-seed the jalapenos. Well, as I said, a hot point of the day. I finished the ice cream off thinking to myself, if there were a flavour called Jalapeno Sundae at D Dutchman, I might try it, so that is a new experience that I won’t have to try twice.

Good morning to Amanda Price and Ceilidh Johnson

I had a moment of reckoning today, not really a high point, but a sobering one.

I saw the aftermath of an accident on the Trans Canada at the junction of highway 97 B. A twisted and bent motorcycle in the middle of the pavement, a backpack strewn open, miscellaneous pieces of clothing and plastic bags on the highway, the police directing us to move through the intersection as quickly as possible.

At the end of every day, I am always so happy when all of my loved ones are still alive. I thought about the family who will receive sad news about that accident, a life-changing one.

So, back to the high point of the day? Maybe it was playing the word game with Meighan and Amanda Price as we ate supper late at night. They ate and I was trying to get hold of my 24 hour kitchen – just make it look as though it had been perfectly refreshed. Doral and Bonnie were playing the word game as well. Who, but the 2 of them, can throw in questions where the answer is Luddite, or megabite and make it seems as though every family taunts each other with words that make everyone laugh.

"You want a wake up pose?  I will give you one", says Duncan.

So maybe I should tell Rebecca the point where I thought I should apologize today?

That would be when I saw the porcelain dolls had been taken from the low window ledge and played with behind the dining room end chair. 

The Barbie bus and the school house had been carried in from their place on the porch, so they were also there. All of the clothes were off of the dolls. As I redressed them, I wondered if the woman who sewed those little dresses knew how often they would come on and off the dolls who were once in show cases. Today the dolls had been physical touched and loved in imaginative play. That is the job I want them to do when I buy them at the thrift store. At any rate, there was a bit of an apology in my heart to her that the dolls had now lost that pristine look, but I felt happiness on my part that two little girls had spent hours with the dolls today.

The point when I felt a rush of warmth today? That was when Duncan and I were gathering up the limbs and branches from the trees that are just at the place where Richard and Miranda’s lot connects with mine: the place where Ceilidh and Gavin Beaulieu camped. Duncan told me that Ceilidh and Gavin had 2 beach chair placed there and that the sunrise at 4 am was incredibly beautiful, the colours of the morning creeping in over the Old Town Hill. I asked him if he had watched it with Ceilidh ad Gavin. Duncan said, "no, they were asleep." But he was doing an all-nighter and decided to watch the sun rise during that time. I loved the fact that one of my grandchildren had watched the beauty of a sunrise out there.

"What?  Er?  Um?, Your leaving?," says David.

High point of the day?

Maybe it was going to Churches of Salmon Arm Thrift Shop after Doral went to the walk-in clinic at Mt Ida today.

I saw two beautiful china cabinets there I wanted to buy. Doral asked me the practical question. 

“And where will you put them?”

Instead I bought a long sleeved tall shirt for Duncan so that he can help me pull twigs and cut underbrush. Price? $2,00. I also bought a few new Barbies for the girls and a small rattan chair for one of the dolls to sit on.

What price, happiness?

Ten dollars and 50 cents, total.



Arta

Call to Adventure at Our House

... the 3 morning gamers ...

... Michael is studying the adults at play ....

... Duncan makes a good play ...

... what shall I do with this piece ...

... Duncan reaches for the rules ...

... I may have trapped you, sir ...

... a good play ....

... a full belly laugh can't be contained ...

... thoughtful gamer ....

Only Duncan and Doral were ready to begin gaming this morning, Duncan pulling out Call to Adventure” a starter game which Doral had purchased, although it is now in the store for everyone to buy.

Rebecca was asleep in the other room.

When she heard the word “game” in her subconscious sleep she called out that she was ready to play.

She was at the table in 5 minutes, long before the game was fully unpacked.

The three of them spent the morning playing Call to Adventure, enjoying the imaginative aspect of the journey and stopping the game to come to me, sharing the beauty of the game cards.

“Even if one doesn’t like gaming, just sitting and looking at the art of the cards would be enough,” Duncan said.

Doral is a master at keeping a game going.

He knows the rules so there is not the downtime of someone having to check on what the cards do or how many tokens people need.

Seven year old Michael is dying to get into the game, but it is too complicated for him.

He is only allowed to sit at the table and listen to the banter that goes on between the adults.

Michael does quietly practise the turns of phrases that they use.

He sit for a while, stands for a while, circles the kitchen island and then takes his clipboard over to the table and sits down again to see what he can glean from sitting close to them.

He knows he is not allowed to speak to the players or to interrupt – a hard task for him.

The game ends at noon, just in time for left-over taco salad from last night.

“I made 8 avocados into guacamole dip last night and there is none left?”

Doral turns his statement into a quasi-question when he tried to make his salad.

He even drives to Salmon Arm that evening to buy 6 more avocados for tonight’s dinner which is taco salad again.

No one complains about 2 nights in a row, it is so delicious.

Doral doesn’t get to eat it though, as Teague and Trent have come over to try some of Doral’s new games and so Doral joins them instead of eating.

Doral lost his glasses this morning and no one could find them until Rebecca joined the hunt.

The question in her mind was, “What would Arta be doing that would hide Doral’s glasses.”

The answer is, I was putting away all of the electronic chords that she had left on the counter last night and Doral’s glasses had been sitting there mixed in with them.

I had swooped everything in that area of the counter into a bag and set it aside.

And Rebecca figured that out, so Doral as able to at least see during his morning, afternoon and evening gaming holiday.

What is up for tomorrow?

New games, I hope, for Duncan’s dream holiday is to play all of Doral’s games at least once.

Arta

Lightening and Thunder

The lightening woke others last night. They said it was so bright they thought someone had a spotlight and was shining it in their windows. And then the thunder came afterward, reverberating; it seemed, many times after the lightening.

I slept though it which is typical for me.

Today I enjoyed the aftermath, the gravel road, wet from the rain that followed the pyrotechnics in the sky. Betty and Alice joined Doral and Rebecca on our walk. I was afraid the children could not keep up with us and was prepared to take them back, but no, they skipped joyfully ahead of us, Betty at one point reaching down to test the wet brown earth to see if it was stable enough to take her weight.

Alice ran straight for a puddle. I thought that was going to be the end of dry shoes for her. She had chosen the side puddle beside it, really two puddles, and she hopscotched on the country road, missing the water and still running ahead. I didn’t think much about what the girls were doing as they laughed and skipped until I saw what I thought was a collision between the two of them, with Alice landing on her left side, full length in one of the brown puddles.

I ran to pick her up and used my shirt to dry off her leggings, her arm, the drips of water on her face, and the tears in her eyes. Rebecca said that she was afraid Alice had broken her wrist. I didn’t even think of that. I just knew she needed to get back to her mother, to her home and change into dry clothes.

All the way to the cabin she was rehearsing how the accident had happened. She was jumping over a puddle, her left leg high and the right one still on the ground. At that moment Betty stepped on Alice’s right foot and pined it to the ground, also falling against Alice, so Alice had no way to stabilize the shove she felt from Betty, and Alice landed in the puddle.

All of the way back home as we hurried along to get into dry clothes, Alice’s description of the accident kept tumbling out of her mouth, adding this new piece and that, showing me the gravel rash on her left arm and crying about the shock of the fall.

I dropped Alice off at home so that her mom could take care of drying Alice out and I joined the walkers again, this time as we strode toward Glen’s house. We made one side loop back to see where Alice had fallen, and Betty could identify all of the puddles along the way, knowing which ones were just the right size to jump over. Other puddles were to be avoided. Betty even knew the exact location of the puddle accident, although I could not have identified it.

Betty is always clipping her sunglasses to the front of her dress.
At one point in the walk she called us to stop, saying she had
lost her sunglasses.  But there they were, still clipped to her
dress, although he has been hopping and skipping and dipping low
to touch the heads of snails along the road.  She should have lost
the sunglasses but hadn't.

The walkers dropped Rebecca off at the Pilling’s kiln. Betty saw the wood that has been stacked at the side of Glen and Janet’s house.

 “Wow, look at those bricks,” Betty said.

I loved the purple clematis that is growing at the side of the garage and told Betty I would take a picture of her there, as well.

She stood beside it for her pose.

You can see the headband that she always wears.

When asked about it, she says that it makes her into a princess, so it rarely comes off of her.

There is an accident waiting to happen in the photo.

She is standing by a rake, the claw of which is close to her foot.

When the picture is over, she steps on the rake claw that is between her feet and the handle hits her in the head, Laurel and Hardy style.

Over she goes.

I pick her up and explain how that accident happened.

I think to myself, this is the universe, giving her a knock because she had shoved Alice in the puddle only minutes before.

Arta

Whipping Cream

Doral gives Micheal full control of the hand beaters

I thought breakfast was over and perhaps it was and we were onto the second round of breakfast.

Yesterday’s waffles could be toasted and I thought having them with jam was good enough.

But Doral asked the children if they wouldn’t like to have their waffles with blueberries and whipped cream, or peaches and whipped cream.

Alice gets the next turn whipping cream ...... 

He got out the cream and proceeded to show Michael that whipping cream is really a man’s job.

... Betty is old enough to hold the machine ...

Michael wanted to take a try and when his arm began to ache he passed the job over to Alice. 

That would be, he passed it over after he had investigated all of the speeds that the hand mixer can produce.

By the time the machine had gone through Alice’s hand and was being used by Betty, Doral was starting to warn the children that butter might be the next stage and that everyone should hold back a bit and test to see if it was time for sugar and vanilla.

Doral taught all the skills of whipping cream, the last one being a beat to lick – only two beaters and three children, so someone had to hold off on their turn until tomorrow.

Gavin Beaulieu and Ceilidh Johnson are going home tomorrow.

Doral is getting up to make the waffles and whipping cream for them, the start of their journey homeward.

Bon appetit tomorrow and bon adventure to them.

... that first bite is always the best one.

The rest of us will stay longer and suffer waffles with fruit, though I did hear Rebecca say today, “Curses. Half of the summer is gone!”

Arta

Askew's Children's Carnival

Wolf

Moiya alerted us that Askews Uptown had a carnival from 11 am to 3 pm on Saturday.

The children came home thinking that this event had been better than Canada Day which is saying quite a lot.

There was ice-cream, popcorn and baked goods.

The miniature donkeys were on the site.  As well, at the craft table you could make your own donkey hat.  How is that for a big draw.

Fox

There were games with prizes.

The vintage cars were in the parking lot.

And the face painting only took 6 to 7 minutes.

I got to enjoy those little faces for the rest of the day.

Hats off to Askews and their Children's Carnival.

Arta

The Railroad Spectacle

The Western Tanager that knocked itself out by flying into
the window under the Pilling's porch today.

On our morning walk to David and Shauna Pilling’s Trail we stopped by Shady Beach.

While there, a train came around the corner, so slowly that I wondered if we could make it back to the crossing and down to the Grandfather’s Trail before the train came by.

The engine crept so slowly that we didn’t even see it come around the bend before we were on the other side of the crossing.

Amanda Price taking Meighan's picture

Then we stood and waited to watch the train pass by, a work train carrying rails to place down on the track.

Some say that the tracks have to be replaced every two or three years on that curve.

LtoR: Meighan Johnson, Amanda Price, Doral Johnson
"How long can these rails be?"

I took a selfie with the train rolling by in the background.

The selfie is better of the train than of me.

Michael played in the loose sand that has been dropped on the mountain side of the tracks.

He ran to the top, slid down, than ran to the top again.

The night before I had stood on the balcony with Andrew Turnbull and we had watched large yellow railroad machinery come by.

... Michael standing at the bottom of the sand pile...

Just as one would go out of our sight another would come into view, carefully timed.

I asked him how many he thought we had seen.

He said 19.

He was close to being right for Michael had counted them on the third track, 22 in all.

We had seen Matthew Wood and his children when we first crossed the tracks.

They are leaving to go back to Cochrane.

"How long is this train, Grandmother?"

Adam and David Wood are still here and have in mind to build a tree fort this week, no children allowed they said.

I heard some hammering tonight and thinking it as Miranda I went to check on what she was doing.

But it was the tree fort builders with their level, beams, bolts and tools working on their project – a one level tree fort.

It is hard for the feet of a 7 year old
not to inch just a little closer to the tracks.

Miranda offered them her rope ladder.

She has been looking for a place to hang it.

Michael asked if he could come over and check as to how the building project goes.

Adam told him to come anytime.  Michael probably will.

Arta

Garage Sales

I can't stop myself from loving thrift shops and garage sales. 

Read no further if you have no interest in the joy that comes from a really good find, mostly from pulling into a driveway where there is a sign that says unwanted goods are being sold off.

In the case of Bonnie's garage sale find, she knew the people who were having the sale and really wanted to see their new baby. 

Joining in on their garage sale was only a secondary impulse.

Alice was thrilled to get first dibs on what Bonnie brought home. 

Here is a picture essay of those early moments in the driveway of my house when Bonnie opened up her stash to show Alice the following -- all of them choices for Alice.

"You mean I can have six of anything you are going to show me?

Betty modelling eagle jewellery that ended up with Aunt Rebecca.

The soft stuffie and the wizard costume were a hit with Alice.
Arta wanted the canvas bag in the lower left corner
A must for Arta, because she doesn't have enough bags.

Michael was willing to model the yellow winter hat.

The first question is, will this winter coat fit me, the grandmother?
Beautiful leather gloves were in the pocket.
I tried to make the gloves fit me, but they were one size too small

Miranda put together the unit that shows camera pictures in a loop.
What 6 year old wouldn't want that running in her bedroom?

The Japanese logo-ed t-shirt ended up in Aunt Rebecca's closet.

This sander was high on Alice's list of keepers.

Here is a padded glove to scrape Miranda's windshield with in the winter.
Alternatively Alice could save it for when she gets her own car, I theorized.

Red?  Vacuum for car -- one of Alice's first choices.
Orange? Skill saw
Blue: Another electrical unit, though I can't remember what!

"The stuffie?  An instant love affair"

Michael not only models wizard outfit, here, but he wears for the day.
And even later during the week.

... a small fluffy hanging ornament to hang from her purse ...
This was another of Alice's quick choices.

"I don't think the coat will work for me, Alice,  Too small.
But it does come with hand warmers I could use."

One of the items Bonnie bought was gray and pink fleecy pyjama bottoms.

Betty decided to wear them as a scarf, the top part wrapped around her shoulders and the each leg criss crossed at her throat and thrown over her back.
The afternoon of the birthday was spent at the movie.
Betty went out to the car with her newly acquired scarf around her neck.
"How are you going to manage that at the movies," I asked Miranda.
"I think it is out of my hands.  Betty will do what Betty will do."

Later I found these and put them away in my closet for they are a perfect fit for me.
I wore them one night when I got too cold during the day from the rain.

"Hey, you are wearing my scarf," said Betty when she saw me.


Ah yes.  Garage sales and the dispossession of the goods at the end of thr day..  A lot of fun.