Baking Pies

Moiya shared the results of a morning's work with me
I love the festive colour of the rolling pin
And I am guessing that the pie filling is home grown apples.

This just looks too good to be true.
A picture out of a magazine.
She has her Christmas tree decorated as well.
Happy Holidays from Moiya at Annis Bay.

The Ward Christmas Party

A small black tree on my island.
decorated with harlequin clowns.
The black tree is just recycling my
Halloween tree.  I did try to hide
the bats on it with purple globes.

I went to the Bow Valley Ward Christmas party on Saturday night and Brook Melchin sat by me.  He and his wife had come in separate cars, and perhaps they had gone to different parties, for he couldn’t find her once he got there.  He did have a daughter there, but she was busy with her friends – which is what Richard told me would happen at our ward party.  He pretty much nailed the flavour of it:  turkey dinner on cardboard plates, some people in pearls and others in jean, children running from one side of the gym to the other, dodging around tables in their eagerness to play games with each other, and the occasional toddler who is dressed to the hilt, but can hardly walk and who tilts and lilts from side to side. Perhaps a new born baby girl will be there, one who already has an elasticized ribbon and flower around her head.  I added the last three on my own, but Richard got me started with the first three.

At any rate, in our conversation Brook explained to me that his mother is needing a lot of help.  She has home care in the morning and then someone comes in to prepare her lunch and to keep her company until about 3 pm.  Then someone in the family goes in to help her at night.  Then he told me that she felt a special bond with my mother for the following reason.  On the first Sunday that they had moved to town and were attending Sunday School, their baby was sick to his stomach and threw-up pretty much all over both Gerald and Evelyn.  They went out to clean everything up and Wyora followed them out.  She said, I know you are new.  Please bring your family and come over for dinner when the meeting is done.  And they did.  Brook told me the year – 1958.

I thought every home did this on Sunday.  Not even a glimmer of disbelief about this practise came into my mind until I was well into my 30’s.

Brook assure me that I was probably wrong.  Being wrong is fine.  But Richard wasn’t wrong about the practise of the ward party.  It felt pretty much like every other Ward Xmas Party I have enjoyed.

Thinking of Music

My friend, Margaret Maxwell sometimes plays for funerals. She was  playing for one a while back. She says:

I will never forget finding in the bench a copy of “Selected Funeral Hymns,” which I began to read since I was not otherwise interested in the deceased. One of the hymns was so ludicrous that I had to throttle my laughter. Title is “Life’s railway to heaven” which ends that you will finally behold the Union Depot and meet the Superintendent, God the Father, God the Son. “Keep your hand upon the throttle, and your eye upon the rail. “ is the refrain. At the end of that funeral I decided I had to have that hymnal so I stole it. I still have it on my shelf and I laugh every time I see that incredible hymn (which is sung to the tune of “Truth reflects upon our senses,” 

Tucked into that book was a story which I cannot resist sharing with you. There was once a handyman who had a dog named Mace. Mace was a great dog, except he had one weird habit. He liked to eat grass, not just a little bit, but in quantities that would make a lawnmower blush. And nothing, it seemed, could cure him of it. 

One day the handyman lost his wrench in the tall grass while he was working outside. He looked and looked but it was nowhere to be found. It was getting dark, and he gave up for the night and decided to look the next morning. When he awoke, he went outside and saw that his dog had eaten all the grass in the area around where he had been working. His wrench now lay in plain sight, glinting in the sun.

Going out to get his wrench, he called the dog over to him and said, “A grazing Mace, how sweet the hound, that saved a wrench for me.”

Now if that doesn’t make you chortle every time you sing that hymn 

Margaret

The first story seemed too hard to believe. So I went and googled the words. And here they are if you choose to click here.  I tried it with "Truth Reflects Upon our Senses" and it works.  Now there is a song for Family Home Evening.

Visit to Seton from the Youngest Grandchildren

Alice's hands after hitting the candy drawer

Betty whose candy has made it to her mouth

Michael who doesn't really like a lot of candy
Go figure!

Family Photo Day
Grandpa Chris behind the lens

Warhorse, Again

Joey as a foal

I couldn't quite commit myself to going to Warhorse, though it was in the back of my mind to go.  At the 11th hour I thought to myself, "If I were in London and this opportunity was available to me, I would be out of the apartment in a flash", and with that in mind I made a quick exit, running for the LRT and remembering how many times I had run for the tube in London.

Richard had been mulling over in his head, wondering if he should take Michael.  They had watched the TED talk about making the puppets.  And they had watched the utube clip where Joey, the horse, first learns to eat oats out of a bucket.

As I was sitting in a packed theatre -- unusual, but true -- I was wondering how Michael would have taken to the rest of the performance.  In discussion with Rebecca and Duncan afterwards, who had seen it in Victoria, she was commenting on the music and the lighting -- how those two elements captured the horror of World War I.  Most of the Brooks family have seen this show before, so there were probably 7 of us for whom this was at least the second viewing.

I like the other puppets as well.  The goose plays the part of the dunce or clown in Shakespearian plays.  And the birds flying in the air?  I think it is Wordsworth who alludes to "the willing suspension of disbelief".  I think that is why the birds work.

Charise had reminded me that the people who work the puppet that is a foal are dressed in period costumes.  I hadn't remembered that, but she was right.  The same is true of the people who were the fence.    I was also intrigued this time by the different languages spoken in the play, and how that doesn't seem to matter to people who can't speak French or German -- maybe there is even some Flemish spoken.  I don't know.  The show seemed to be able to carry on with just what we could see was happening with the actor's bodies.

Duncan was surprised at how realistic the entrance of the tank was.  I was shocked into a reality with just the text on the screen telling us it was November 11, 1981.

Yesterday was my 3rd film viewing to go along with my 2 stage viewings.  I have to accept the title of groupie on this piece of theatre.

Arta

Laser Light Set Up

I was shopping at Costco and came across a box of laser lights named PRIME: Remote Controlled Laser Projector.   Only three sets were left.  I saw a man holding one of the boxes.  He turned it over and over, put it in his cart, and then took it out again. He retrieved it off the shelf and was studying the instructions carefully.  Back and forth it went.

Me:  What is keeping you from buying that?

Him: I am afraid someone will steal it from my lawn.

Man standing next to us and overhearing our conversation: I saw those boxes on sale at Canadian Tire.  They are $149 there and here they are $60.  If  you buy it here and it is stolen,  you will only loose half as much money.

Me to myself:  Good enough reason to buy it.

And I put a couple of boxes of them in my cart.

Miranda set up one of them in our backyard on an automatic timer.  The lights come on just as dusk sets in and go off at 8 pm when the kids have gone to bed.  Our set flashes on the east side of the wall of my house and into my bedroom window which is a lot of fun for a couple of hours.  With that timing the kids can see the light show as they sit at the table and eat their supper.

No one has stollen our lights yet.

Below is a picture of essay of Hebe and Catherine, setting the second box of lights up in their backyard.  Catherine says it is hard for the camera to truly catch the lights on their back wall, but I am sure you can get the idea of how fun it really is.  It appears that Hebe has caught one of the red lights right in her mouth.

Arta

Artisan Breads

From Moiya

I must just love making Artisan breads.
I wonder what they will look like when they are baked?

I wonder if they will taste good.
I put whole-wheat flour all purpose flour, oregano, rosemary, and garlic powder
 in the round submarine buns.

The buns that are lighter have oregano, Parmesan cheese, and bread flour.