Lunch with Meryle

Today I had lunch with my Mom and Meryle. We spent a few hours gabbing about families and other such matters – it was really great :-)

The trailer went in today for it’s bi-annual leak test. We learned to do this the hard way… The spring after we purchased the current trailer we noticed a bulge on the curb side… further investigation revealed delamination. A leak test showed that a window seal had come undone. Luckily we have a top-notch repair place nearby but $ouch! After that we vowed to have this test done on a regular basis. We’ll find out the results tomorrow.

I finished reading “The Edible Woman” this afternoon. I’m so glad that I read it again, it was so worth it. It was one of those books that I feel like reading again just as I finish the last page. I haven’t read any other books by Margaret Atwood but I’m sure the library must have others. I’m not a mystery or adventure reader, I like to read books about people and their experiences. The last two books, both by Canadian authoresses have been right up my alley.

More work on my scrapbook – gosh I can get so caught up with this. I like that I can add text into the pages. There are places that you can get your albums printed into books for quite reasonable prices – that’s my goal. I used to spend huge amounts of money printing before digital cameras, but since then I rarely print anything. I still go back to my old photo albums every now and again and would like to do the same with the photos from the last few years…

In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks.
John Muir

Christina’s 50th Birthday Party

It was my friend Christina’s birthday party today and what a party it was. She and her husband are dairy farmers and since many of their friends and relatives are also farmers she had her party in the middle of the day on a Sunday so that everyone could attend. There were at least 70 people of all ages, many of them immigrants from Switzerland.

I met Christina many years ago when I had Dora boarded at Twin Pines. Christina took lessons there and since I didn’t ride Dora as often as I should I asked Christina to ride her as well. After Dora came home to live we kept in touch but didn’t get to see each other very often – our schedules just didn’t mesh. However, when I got sick and was home for 6 months she came and visited with me once a week. It was exactly the kind of social contact that I needed (thanks Christina). After that we have managed to keep a somewhat regular schedule of coffee’s. Sure life interferes quite often but we still keep in touch, even if it is just email during the busy times. And hopefully she knows that I’ll always lend an ear ;-)

Hans had cleaned out the machine shed (hardly a shed, more like a mansion) to make room for plenty of tables and chairs. They had decorated nicely with a fall theme.

At 1pm the centerpiece of lunch arrived – a roasted pig. Oh my what a tasty beast it was – I don’t think I’ve ever had such tender meat. There were tons of salads and sides, not to mention desserts – all of Christina’s friends had contributed to the meal – yummy!

We had a lovely time, meeting new people and renewing acquaintances with others we had briefly met before. It was so interesting to talk to people with such a different background from us. We normally “hang around” with IT geeks, but today the company was mainly farmers (such a refreshing change!). In many ways it reminded me of branding gatherings that I attended as a child out west – I felt strangely at home.

The ladies all pitched in arranging food and dishes, cleaning up and washing the next round of dishes. Little girls with blonde hair and braids giggled in the kitchen with dish towels in their hands. Men stood in clusters, talking politics, crops and other such topics. Some of the talk was about how this current generation doesn’t appreciate what they have and want instant gratification. One older gentleman who had done a lot of hard work over the years (it showed in his work roughened hands) laughed when we asked if the younger generation knew the same hardships.

When we got home I took the dogs out to the field for a run. They went crazy running in circles. I will never tire of watching them run and have fun – the unbridled joy is infectious.

 

 

Glassware Where?

Last night we had a lovely supper with Kari, Trevor and Meryl. Kari is 5 years younger than me, but is my Aunt! Meryl is my grandmother by marriage – step-grandmother I guess that is. We were lucky enough to have Kari and her husband Trevor move to our end of the country a few years ago. Since the mid 70’s we’ve lived in Ontario while the bulk of our relatives are in Alberta – so it has been nice having some family nearby.

Kari brought over a birthday present, some lovely glasses and a pitcher all packed in a lovely basket. She is an amazing present giver putting my attempts at reciprocation to shame. The funny thing is, just the other day I was thinking to myself that I would like some new glasses, I’ve had the old ones for almost 20 years (oh my, no wonder I was getting bored with them!). Thanks Aunty Kari ;-)

But now I had the troublesome task of finding somewhere to put them… unlike Mother Hubbard my cupboards are far from bare. I ended up taking out some of the old ones and will pack them up in the basement. I won’t get rid of them as I still do like them… I think I’ll designate one of the storage room shelves for stuff to rotate into and out of use. One of the blogs I read is called “I’m An Organizing Junkie” – her name is Laura but that’s where the similarity ends… she’s really good at organizing her home.

Pleasures: the smell of roasted red peppers and related to that, putting up (freezing) a huge pile of peppers to warm our tummies in the long winter ; seeing all the bright red “burning bushes”(?) gracing people’s front gardens ; cleaning a spot in the kitchen cupboard for new glasses and then using one with ice water and lemon juice with my lunch ;

Sketch practice day #2… a cauliflower that I grew tired of filling in (so many squiggles) so I chopped the top off and planted a few flowers (very doodly flowers) into its crown. Next time – be patient and don’t try to be “creative”.

 

Art depends on luck and talent.
Francis Ford Coppola