Saturday Morning at the Opera

The four of us at the opera

I took my early morning walk to London Drugs on Saturday.

I needed to purchase enough Easter candy to fill my purse for the opera: the Met - Live in HD.

I also went through Thomas' candy stash to flesh out with chocolate bars, varieties of which I hadn't bought at the store.

I was so busy getting the treats ready that I remembered everything to tuck into my bag but my wallet, so it was a surprise to me when I got to the ticket wicket and had no money, no matter how deeply I dug through the various treat bags in the shoulder handpurse.

"Just one picture, Grandma."

Doral brought Dalton and Ceilidh down to the Cineplex where we met for the opera. At the very minute he entered the theatre with them, is the moment when I had decided no money, so no opera for us.

So being still at the ticket wicket, the kids went to the opera on Doral's credit card.

The opera was charming.  The real treat is to listen to Rossini's Comte Ory while sitting between two grandchildren.  As well, at the intermission we heard that the tenor had just helped helped to midsives deliver his first baby 1/2 hour before the performance began.

Dressed up for Rossini's Comte Ory

Wyona and Lurene were at the movie as well, sitting well ahead of us.

The line-up for the performance was long at 10:30 am.

A woman who was in the line-up with us said, "Excuse me, but could you tell me why there is a long line-up. I am here to exchange tickets for an afternoon movie. Why are the rest of you here?"

Small groups of opera crowd explained why we are liniong up so early Saturday morning.  We  are getting to know one another for it was just last week that many of the same crowd saw Iphigenie en Tauride, together.  Someone told me that they had also seen Carmen last week in 3-D over at Country Hills -- broadast from London, but I haven't seen that advertized, which is probably good for my wallet.

There are 2 more performances coming this month: Captriccio and Il Trovatore.

As well, Miranda and Richard came up with some tickets for the Calgary Opera production of Aida.  I told them that I am used to the second balconey tickets, so it was a treat to be on the main floor and sitting beside Charise and Lurene as well.

The blue accordian fold on table is the catapillar

On Saturday, we decided Meighan is too young to go and read the subtitles so she stayed home for craft time.

She made a house for her blue cardboard caterpillar, which she was pleased to show me when we took the older kids home.

Meighan

I, of course, was trying to capture her cute little face, with a blue tattoo on her cheek and red streaking in her hair.

Arta

Best Fort Ever

fort in backyard

My kids are sooooo into building forts... in the house... in every room... with whatever they can find to "make it dark."

They are lucky. We have one fort in the backyard.

And we have lots of supplies for inside forts. Couch cushions, long sticks of dowel, all sorts of clamps, sheets, blankets, chairs... And I could go on. Sometimes the bunk bed provides the main frame. Sometimes the big toy horse and the dresser. Sometimes the couch. Sometimes the kitchen table.

fort of the week / orange sheet over top bunk

My kids love building forts.

One of my fondest fort memories involves blankets too. But not blankets you can use for sleeping. Blankets that are not yet finished being made.


When I found out Miranda and Arta were putting a quilt onto a frame this week, a flood or memories came rushing in. I have such fond memories of playing underneath quilts-in-progress in our basement as a child. How cool was that!

If I were in Calgary Miranda, I would bring my kids to your house to help you do the work of quilting, while my kids did the work of playing underneath it.

Mary

Quilting, the old fashioned way

Last night Miranda and I put a baby quilt on frames at her house. When the quilt was up on its frames, I said to her, “Now that was fast.” Then I remembered our two weeks of preparations. We had borrowed the stands from Moiya some months ago, we had shopped for the fabric last week, she had gone to buy the two by twos for the frames at Home Depot on another day, and we slipped over to Wal-mart on one of the trips to pick up crotchet cotton and needles.

But last night, Richard had gone to his garage to find bring in a box of assorted sizes of C-clamps, which seemed like the last of the equipment we needed. So what seemed to be a seamless hour when we knelt down on the floor to put the quilt on the frames had taken a lot of preparation. We laid the boards out and stapled the back fabric, the batting and printed material of the front to the frames.

We might have done two hours of quilting if we had been able to thread one of the needles. Not only did the needle threader break, but I couldn’t get the crotchet cotton through any of the needles in the assorted package we had purchased. I tried a few stitches with the largest needle in the package (sans thread) only to find that what was true in the past is still true now. When a person quilts, the distance between her thumb and her middle finger on which the thimble sits, cannot be so large that there is no room to manoeuvre the needle through the layers of fabric and batting.

That is when I remembered that my mother used to use a very short stubby needle, the eye of which was large enough for her to thread some crotchet cotton through. As well, Wyora did not prefer the ones called quilters but I do not remember what the package was called.

When I left her house, Miranda was Googling all of the quilting shops in Calgary, to see which was closest to us and what time they opened, so that we can get that precious right size of needle we need.

Burtynsky on Oil

Wyona has been talking about a 2012 cruise that goes to Finland. Wanting to join her, I have been thinking about the many ways to get around the world, many of which happen for me, either in the Nickle Arts Museum, at the University of Calgary, or online.

Here is a one of them, online, that has to do with producing oil -- Burtnynsky on Oil. View this in the "End of Oil" section on this site.

Richard came over to show me some of the snapshots he has been taking as he visits the oil fields in connection with his job.

I was thinking of those photos when I was clicking through the images here, as well as remembering the small core samples that I had saved for so many years that belonged to Doral. Those were destroyed in my garage fire, but the memory of them is still clear for me.

Arta

Comte Ory

Here are two reviews of Rossini's Comte Ory from the  HD Live Opera extravaganza coming this Saturday to a movie theatre near you.

Theater Mania

New York Times

I have purchased the tickets, read the reviews and am waiting for the high "c"s from the tenor who will be dressed, first as a hermit, and then as a nun..

Arta

Fun Theory Piano Stairs

Here is the link to the video I found on youtube

It is quite cute.

It has to do with practising scales.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lXh2n0aPyw

Catie

P.S. This is my new school bag from Winners, purchased when my mom, my grandmother and I went shopping.

David's new bicycle

Hey cousins! I got a new bicycle today. I rode it over to Great Aunt Moiya's house. My bicycle has three ways to brake: (a) push the pedals backwards, (b) squeeze the hand breaks, and (c) fall down. I have tried all three. My favorite is using the hand breaks. Bring your bicycles out to the lake this year and we can ride down to the beach together. The snow is almost all gone. Tomorrow we are going to rake the rocks off the lawn. Summer is almost here. Come soon. Bye. From David