Merry Christmas

Now I am ready, all is done! Hurray! Off to bed for a good night sleep then up early, pack the car and head to Port Hope to my parents house...for a Christmas Celebration this will last about 3 days with family and friends. I will be tired but happy.

Yesterday enjoyed a lovely lunch at Woolfy's with my good friend Lori, a little bubbly, delicious food overlooking the snowy fields near St Mary's.

This afternoon I enjoyed some time with a very special young girl. We sat by her Christmas Tree while she had her snack, I gave her a Christmas gift, then we sat and enjoyed a few special Christmas music boxes that she loves. Just sharing with her and seeing her beautiful smile reminds what is most important in life.

Merry Christmas!

Ave Maria

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXJanwtkxgI

I love this...so beautiful and peaceful

On Christmas

Why do I seem to have so much trouble with this time of year? It seems I have a love/hate relationship with it, although perhaps hate is a little strong. I always want things to be perfect in every way. I want everyone to happy and relaxed, myself included. The relaxed part is quite fleeting for me, just snippets here and there. Mostly my mind travels in crazy non productive circles.

I have made many changes over the years to simplify, very few social engagements, no work party's etc. Maybe a lunch or 2 with those most important to me. The rest is family time.

Since moving to Stratford in 2001 we head back to Port Hope each Christmas to my parents home. My mom having MS is confined to a wheel chair, travelling is getting harder for them. So off to Port Hope we go, have extended family and friends over Christmas Eve, usually eat too much, maybe a little more wine is consumed than usual and stay up too late. But it is so much fun. I just need to be organized to bring food, drink etc. Our son Aaron is with us and will be with us for the holidays. Our daughter Jenny, her husband Steve and 4 children, Melaina, Gabrielle, Isaac and Madeline will be coming to Port Hope Christmas Day and also bringing along Gloria, Steves mom who always spends holidays with us. Each Christmas night we visit dear friends north of Port hope, only for an hour two which ends up lasting till 2am! I love all of this once it happens and feel so lucky to have these special people in my life.

On that note I must continue my preparations knowing it will all come together.

on the patio winter has arrived

It is winter in Stratford...snowing and blowing for 3 days! Today I am at home catching up on some housekeeping and just had to venture out into the snow and wind to take this pic! Perhaps it is a good time to think about a Christmas Tree.

Dinner

Tonight we had the most delicious Tom Yum Soup for dinner prepared by our son Aaron who is with us for the month of Dec. He is transferring from U Vic to the the University of Waterloo, getting organized, looking for accommodation in Waterloo etc. While in Waterloo yesterday we stopped at the Asian grocery store so that Aaron could pick up ingredients for this lovely soup. Fresh noodles, bok choy, tofu, bean sprouts, Tom Yum soup base, ABC soy sauce, hot sauce, the ABC was the absolute best dipping sauce for spring rolls!

Thanks Aaron for a great dinner...who knew...I have a son that cooks!

Everybody's Fine

Movies

I love love movies, all different types provided that they make make me feel...sad, happy, greatful, as long as there is emotion involved.

I especally like to go to Waterloo to the Princess or Princess Twin theatres, they show lots of interesting independant films, docs, foreign etc.

Today along with our son Aaron who has returned from Victoria BC we went to see

Everybody's Fine starring Robert De Niro

...what a great film...loved it. It is not a Christmas comedy as the trailer suggests but a very real movie about a family...you cannot help but care about every single person in this film. Robert De Niro plays the recently widowed father of 4 grown children, who are living in various parts the US...they are busy and have no time to visit so he sets off to visit each one of them. Robert De Niro was outstanding in this role. Very moving...great acting, good story...but be warned bring your kleenex. I am sure there was not a dry eye in the theatre..including the males accompaning me.

The Elegance of the Hedgehog

Recently I had the joy of reading this marvelous book The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery I enjoyed this novel from the first word to the last. You cannot help but love the protagonists in this book, Rene a 54 year old concierge in a small affluent Paris apartment building and Paloma a 12 year old girl who plans to commit suicide on her 13th birthday. This is a very readable philosophical book. In fact the author Muriel Barbery is a French Philosophy professor and novelist who says that she learned more from literature than from her "long boring course of studies in philosophy".

Treat yourself or a book lover you know to this great read!

The Checkout Girl

Recently I read The Checkout Girl by Susan Zettell.

I started following Susan's blog in a round about way. Susan lives on the Cabot Trail in Nova Scotia where my son lived for about a year and a half. He lived in a few places on the Cabot Trail one of which was a yurt. After moving to BC he was searching online to see if the lady who owned the yurt had a blog. What he did find was Susan's blog which pictured the yurt that he stayed in. The point I am getting at is I was perusing the blog, came across a reference to My Daughter in the Water by Louden Wainwright III. I commented on Susan's post, she kindly replied. We have found quite a few things in common. I am a reader and Susan is an author. Therefore I suggested that my good friend Lori purchase Susan's book for the St Mary's Library and lucky me I was the first reader of that copy.

Within the first few pages I was laughing in the middle of the night in my hotel room. Lots of early 70's stuff in this book so it is a bit of nostalgia for me. There are some interesting characters and situations, sex, drugs, abortion, hockey, skating, an autistic child, murder, growing up and finding oneself. The book contains humour and insight into life in a mid size industrial city. The setting is in a fictional town called Varnum with a resemblance to Kitchener which is about 40 minutes from where I live in Stratford, I could appreciate some of the local colour.

If you are looking for a light amusing read this may be the book for you.

As an anecdote I love the fact that some of the writing of this book was done in Susan's office which was a Trillium trailer! How cool is that!

On Chocolate

Having no idea how I can possibly live without chocolate I needed to find a recipe for something sweet, chocolatey, satisfying and low fat. Is there such a thing? Thanks to my pal Lori and her great cookbook collection I baked these brownies today.

Low Fat Chocolate Brownies

2 oz semi sweet chocolate ( I used a Cote d'Or 70% cocoa bar)

2 Tablespoons vegetable oil

3 tablespoons butter

2 tsp baby prune puree

1 cup sugar

1 cup flour

5 Tablespoons cocoa powder (I used Fair Trade camino)

1/2 tsp baking powder

pinch salt

3 egg whites at room temp

Heat oven 300 degrees.lightly oil an 8 inch square baking pan.

Combine chocolate, butter and oil in a pan over low heat. Stir until chocolate and butter have melted. Stir in prune puree, remove from heat and set aside.

Sift together 1/2 cup sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt in a bowl.

Whip egg whites and remaining 1/2 cup of sugar in a separate bowl until soft peaks form.

Fold half the flour mixture into the chocolate mixture, gently fold in the beaten egg whites, then add the remaining flour mixture.

Spread batter into prepared pan and bake 30 minutes. Cool before cutting.

Note: these were quite tasty and did satisfy my chocolate craving. I like my brownies chewy and nutty so next time I would bake about 4 minutes less and I would add some nuts to the batter. Since I follow a mostly veg diet it would be good for the extra protien.

The Paper Place

One of the shops I love is on Queen St W in Toronto. It is The Paper Place! Stocked with gorgeous Japanese papers and related items. When I go in there I just want to take it all home. I use the paper to make cards, tags and decorate gift wrap as well as in my journal and collage making. Sometimes I just sit and stare at it!

Self Indulgence

I have just enjoyed a great weekend in the city with my good friend Lori. We visited the Royal Ontario Museum to view The Vanity Fair Portraits 1918 - 2008. Enjoyed very much then the next day the Art Gallery of Ontario to view Edward Steichen: In High Fashion, the Condé Nast Years 1923–1937...this was wonderful! so amazingly beautiful. Definitely worth a visit if you like photography.

What I ate at FRANK in the AGO,

organic poached egg& smoked arctic char on a salad of mixed baby spinach greens & garlic fried croutons dressed with dijon vinaigrette

pear hazelnut ginger cake with honey wine sabayon sauce

fabulous!

Took tons of pics on the street...it was a glorius warm weekend!

Picked up a few things I love...
Japanese Paper
Leonard Cohen Live at the Isle of Wight 1970

watched the DVD this morning...loved it!

I coud go on and on but will post of few pics!

more serendipity

Yesterday while picking up a prescription at the pharmacy I had a chat with the most lovely pharmacist about the H1N1 injection priority clinic planned for Stratford today from 11:30 to 7:30.

She was telling me how afraid of needles she is. We discussed wait times etc. She told me she would probably go to the clinic in the evening thinking it would be less busy. I was planning to go sometime during day. We are both health care workers in the priority group. I drove by the clinic about 12:40, saw many cars in the parking lot, decided to do a few errands and come back later. I came back about 1:20 and as I was heading into the building I hear this voice saying hello. I turn and there she is Rita the pharmacist. What was so strange was that I had told her the day before that if I saw her at the clinic I would hold her hand!

We had a lovely chat in our 40 minute wait which seemed like 5 minutes. We waited together 15 minutes after the injection...she was so happy to have had someone to share the wait etc with because of her fear of needles.

Now just what were the chances that we would have shown up at the clinic at exactly the same time!!!

paper

My new paper stuff...I love paper! This is a new note pad to sit near the phone, a fabulous selection of sticky notes in various sizes and because I needed to balance the pic I added my beaded magnetic bracelet! That was my play for a Sunday afternoon...did a little photo editing as well which can be viewed on my flickr page.

A Fall From the Past

Our daughter Jenny at age 3...that was 30+ years ago in Whitby Ont...she is now living in Toronto ...a stay at home mom... married with 4 children, a very cool husband and a dog named Holden. She is not only my daughter but also one of my very best friends...I am so lucky!

Found

inside a library book...is it an apology for a late book? is this a pregnancy due date?

Bye the way the book found it in is

The Death and Life of Great American Cities

by the late Jane Jacobs copyrite 1961

What My Mother Wrote

While visiting at my parents home last weekend my mother gave me a letter that she had written to her best friend. She wrote this 3 days after I was born while still in hospital. Her BF Barbara was living in BC at the time and was expecting her first child about a month later.

The letter made me laugh because of my mothers encouraging words to Barbara... I will tell you one thing that it is easy as pie to have a baby, there is nothing to it at all...just relax and bear down hard when you have a pain...you will sail through with flying colours...

Apparently I was born 16 days early...March 16...guess I should have been an April fools baby! I had idea!

Bye the way Barbara went on to give birth to 12 children, my mom stopped after 3!

Stratford Docfest

Looking forward to the the upcoming Docfest in Stratford next week October 22-25...love love anything to do with film. What a plus for Stratford to have a festival like this.



http://www.docfeststratford.ca/

Serendipity

Yesterday I picked up a book that my husband had brought home form the library a few weeks ago.

Poem A Day 366 Poems, old and new, one for each day of the year

Edited by Karen McCosker and Nicholas Albery

At random the very first page I opened was page 340, what I found was Suzanne by Leonard Cohen! Now how strange is that? Leonard is my beloved...poet...musician... an incredible human being. Of all the pages in the book that is the one I opened and it is the only poem in the book that is written by Leonard.

Today I was compelled to open the book again and came across So We'll Go No More A-Roving written by Lord Byron. Well I had no idea that Byron was the author of those words. I only know them from a selection on Leonard's Dear Heather album! I recognized them immediately and was thrilled. To think I had been enjoying Byron all along without even knowing!

Fall Crocus

as I was practicing depth of field I needed to catch these flowers at the Festival Theatre...nice on an October afternoon

Sunday Afternoon

For some reason I have not been out with my camera in the last few weeks. The weather has mostly been cool and rainy which is not the best for the camera. There was a reprieve this afternoon which I decided to take advantage of. My mission was to get a great fall pic of a lone tree...there was not one to be found so I just played. In spite of my cold hands and a little rain I had a great time!

After viewing the pics on my computer I decided to photoshop to get a black and white version of the river pic. Not sure which I like best!