50% off everywhere

Mary had Monday as a holiday in lieu of Sunday, being November 11th. She and I were on our own for the kids had to go to school. We dropped Rhiannon off and then dropped by the grocery store – no list, except the one in our heads. I think she needed milk, so there was a reason, initially for going.

First we strolled by the pre-made salads that now had 50% off the original price stickers on them. We bought one (or two) of each. Then our path lead to the cheese counter where the mozzarella was the same price – 50% off, and that was on our agenda since we had decided to make pizza in the evening. The PC Coconut and Date Artisan Crisps were $1 a package instead of $7 a package so some of those went in our carts. The tins of tomatoes were significantly cheaper than the pre-made tomato pizza sauce. There wasn’t a corner in the grocery store where we weren’t saving money as well as having a terrific outing. A whole morning can be enjoyably spent doing chores when I am with my loved ones.

Arta

Christmas Cards and Being Canadian

Alfred Joseph Casson,
Good Cheer at Christmas ca 1923-1928
Library and Archives Canada

There is that red sleigh, the snow and the cabin
to show what being Canadian is really like.

I have never been much of a card person, though I did enjoy Christmas cards as a child.  

We used to have a cardboard sleigh into which we would put the cards.  

They came to my parents, but I think I used to enjoy the greetings as much as they did.   

I will always remember the card we received from Lawrence Kearl’s sister.  It said, “This is the last Christmas card you will be receiving from us.  

Forthwith we will be giving the cost of these cards and the postage that it takes to send them, to the poor in India.”  My mother told me me that they had recently made a trip to India and this was probably what made them do this.

As I said, I rarely send cards to others.  Kelvin always received one, two, even maybe more from his siblings when it was his birthday.  Nadine, Molly and Grant never missed and I am sure that Sharon bought one even though it might not have been sent.

I was surprised after Kelvin died, how much the cards meant to me at his funeral.  I often send people a letter after a funeral.  For some reason, I had never thought that I would be in a position to receive sympathy cards.  But there they were at the end of the funeral, ready to be opened at my leisure.

The cards really must have been important, for on two separate occasions I sat down and had someone  read through them again and then talk about Kelvin’s connection to those people.

 This Brook, Algoma- Algoma Sketch CXXVII 
by Lawren Harris

At any rate, when I was in the Library and Archives Canada Building, I looked at the Group of Seven Christmas cards by A.Y. Jackson and Lawren Harris that were on display.  

Jackson saw the land as the essence of Canadian identity.  

The William E. Coutts Co produced a catalogue of cards in those days, from which you could order the cards you wanted to send.  

There was a 'Coutts Painters of Canada Series’.  The catalogue for the cards was hard backed, maybe 12” x 18” and 4” thick.  

The charm of the book is that a painting of Jackson graces the cover of the catalogue, beautifully framed.

Could they ever have known  it would end up in the National Archives?

At the far end of the exhiition is a beautiful oak desk with chairs surrounding it. Old card catalogues are also around the room. The drawers that I pulled out were empty with the ghosts of card catalogues that I used to look through in my local library when I was a child.

The following questions were on the desk again:

How would you describe Canada?

What does being Canadian look like?

I sat down and tried to give my answer on one small 3 by 5 card.

Arta

The Dog's Breakfast

Letting everyone know that before you read this post you should eat.  I mean really eat!  Fill that belly so that when you click on the link below of a blog by a friend of the Bates family, you will not start licking your computer screen.  I warned you.  Not my fault if your electronic devices short out due to slobber.

David Rollins, a member of a family which the Bates spent a great deal of time with in Ottawa, has a food blog and it is divine.  He and his partner cook the food, his partner takes the pictures and we all drool.  If you are ever in Montreal and wish to say hi to these fine men, perhaps I can make introductions.

The title of the blog came from the chance we all take that cooking does not always turn out as planned, it can taste like the dog's breakfast.  Nothing on this website looks like any animals breakfast.  Enjoy!  

The Dog's Breakfast

St. Andrews Organ, Ottawa

b

Guilbault-Therien of St Hyacinthe Organ
in St Andrews, Ottawa

Today, Mary and I had no idea of the magnificence of the sound we would hear at the Tuesday Organ Recital by Thomas Annand in St. Andrews Church. We met to hear “Symphony no. 4 in F” by Charles-Marie Widor (1844-1934, Paris): Toccata, Fugue, Dolce, Scherzo, Adagio and Finale.

A good thing both of us passed our Music Harmony Exams, so that we could follow the sections by the pacing of the music, the meaning of which we learned for those exams. My favorite term was not there -- Andante.  My teacher taught me how to remember that andante means at a walking speed -- just think walking with uncle and auntie she said.

Mary and I sat in the balcony so we had a full view of the organist, who, Glen Gould like, led himself through many of the movements.

Mary was taken with the vents opening and shutting to give the crescendos and diminuendos.  I enjoyed watching the leg stretches of the organist, far to the left for those beautiful base notes and far to the right for the higher ones, thinking, "hey, this is turning into cirque de soleil, his splits are so wide".

Angel in the Memoial Chamber

I spent the morning in the Parliament Buildings, taking the 9:20 a.m.  tour of the foyers of the House of Commons and the Senate. As well I slipped up the elevator into the Peace Tower where I was enchanted, listening to the Security Guide give a wonderful tour off the top of his head. A child would ask a question and soon all of the adults were gathered around, the answer was so fascinating. 

"What did you do in your other life?", I asked him.  He only gave a mysterious smile.

I did not know that the Peace Tower would affect me emotionally. I stood at the inscription of McCrae’s now famous poem on a marble plaque on the wall and remembered Greg quoting all of the lines to us on one of our European jaunts across the French coast: “In Flanders Fields the poppies blow / Between the crosses, row on row, /That mark our place; and in the sky / The larks, still bravely singing, fly / Scarce heard amid the guns below.”

I tried to think it in my mind about the way Greg had said it, pausing at all of the right places and carrying the lines through for meaning.

That was enough for me. The tears flowed freely. A security guard walked by. “I can’t imagine that you don’t have a box of Kleenex nearby,” I said.

Altar of Remembrance, Peace Tower
Pictures from Government Website

“Strangely, we don’t, but I will get you some”.

II followed him to hear him make the request to his French-speaking colleague who went into a closet and came out with a roll of toilet paper, twirling it upright on his index finger.

“Yes, that is what we use when we are out, back in Alberta,” I said.

“I call this International Kleenex,” he rejoined.

Thus endeth my first report from the federal government. I am going to try to get back and watch the Senate tin session one day, and the house, sitting another day.


Arta