Another gloomy day and I am threatened with the February Blahs!!

Binh Phan Photography

The weather man said 'possible sun' and ever the optimist

I thought 'wonderful'

anticipating a soul-satisfying hour or two in the garden

Well, there is always Sirius Radio and the Garden Books and Catalogues.....

I have some Forty's music reminding me of by-gone days

and glorious pictures of the crimson and green Swiss Chard  I had

planned to seed in the big blue ceramic pot on the patio,
with maybe a marigold, a nasturtium or a bit of alyssum.

Swiss Chard is the plant of my choice when it comes to green and leafy vegetables.

It is full of nutrients (vitamins K,A,C, and E plus several B's, magnesium, manganese, potassium, iron and fiber) and spectacular in the variety of colours in which it grows.

I am inspired by the NINE DOLLAR heads of California cabbage to be found in
the local grocery store to replace begonias and various trailing pot plants
with good nutritious vegetables, although I know I will
be tempted to add a few small bright flowers, tucked in here and there.

I am off to the farm store to buy some Swiss Chard seed, as all
the seed I have left from last year is that of exotic vines and plants
which I never did get around to planting!

And also some golden orange brandy, -  a small sip will satisfy
 in lieu of that hour in the garden!

Is it too early to plant Swiss Chard?  I don't think so, - it does well in cool
weather and I will keep the pot on the sun porch until ole sol
deigns to shine upon us...

I remember with nostalgia the lovely large gardens we had
in days of yore ("yore" meaning when the family was bigger..)

And I am going to advocate a return to the family garden and healthy eating

so perhaps the disastrous lowering of the Canadian Dollar in comparison

with that of the U.S. will have some good results after all...

$9.00 for a head of cabbage - ridiculous!

F for Falcon

ABC Wednesday
February 17th, 2016
The letter is F for the Falcon

The Peregrine, one of thirty-seven species of raptors in the genus FALCO, widely distributed on all continents except Antarctica.

A few things you might not have known about the Falcon.....

Their thin, tapered wings enable them to fly at high speed and change direction rapidly.

and to hover in the air...

The Peregrine falcon has been recorded diving at speeds of 200 miles per hour,

making them the fastest moving creatures on earth.

They are the largest genus in the Falconinae subfamily of Falconidae.

They kill with their beaks, using a 'tooth' on the side of the beaks.

A falcon has exceptional powers of vision, much to the mouse's dismay...

The fossil record of the Falcon indicates that they are from the late

Miocene, less than ten million years ago,

which is evidently fairly recent as bird species go....

There are three (or four) groups of Falcons -

the Peregrines, the Hobbies, dark in colour

and feeding mainly on small birds.

Sometimes included are the hawk-falcons,

and then there are the Kestrels

known as the Windhover in the United Kingdom.

I am quite sure I have posted Hopkin's poem 'The Windhover' before....

It has been a large part of my life for a long time, - I found our farm

'windhover' country,  and called my weaving adventure

"Windhover Weavings"

At first it was the beauty of the poem, the 'sprung rhythm',

the blending of adjectives, verbs and subjects in order to echo his theme

of smooth merging and the bird's perfect immersion in the air'.

As the years have passed I have become more aware and have read  'that a

sensuous experience or description leads to a set of moral reflections' 

in that the writer is drawing inspiration from the beauty

 of the hovering bird in comparison with man's striving

for spirituality.

Here it is once more!

I caught this morning morning's minion, kingdom

of daylight's dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn Falcon, in his riding

Of the rolling level underneath  him steady air, and striding

High there, how he rung upon the rein of a wimpling wing

In his ecstasy! then off, off forth on swing.

As a skate's heel sweeps smooth on as bow-bend; the hurt and gliding

Rebuffed the big wind.  My heart in hiding

Stirred for a bird,-the achieve of, the mastery of the thing!

Brute beauty and valour and act, oh air, pride, plume, here

Buckle! AND the fire that breaks from thee then a billion

Times told lovelier, more dangerous, O my chevalier!

No wonder of it: sheer plod makes plough down sillion

Shine, and the blue-bleak embers, ah my dear,

Fall, fall themselves, and gash gold-vermillion.

The Windhover  Gerard Manly Hopkins

For more F tales click here for ABC Wednesday

with thanks to Roger, Denise and any flighty helpers

who might be flitting around helping them....

Here is a painting of The Windhover, 

gashing Gold Vermillion

Lia Melia

Gratitude is the heart's memory

A moment in time - another birthday

You go a long and lovely journey,

For all the stars, like burning dew,

Are luminous and luring footprints

Of souls adventurous as you.

Oh, if you lived on earth elated,

How is it now that you can run

Free of the weight of flesh and faring

Far past the birthplace of the sun?

Sara Teasdale

E is for Egret

ABC Wednesday
February 10th, 2016

The letter is E for EGRET

grupakombinat.pl

A tall, slender, elegant and communal water bird, cousin to the Heron.  

Prolific in North America, the Egrets nest together ..

.

go dancing...

......even ballet mid-air

A lovely poem by Judith Wright, who was a prolific Australian poet, short story writer and environmental activist.

Once as I traveled through a quiet evening,

I saw a pool, jet-black and mirror-still.

Beyond, the slender paperbarks stood crowding;

each on its own white image looked its fill,

and nothing moved but thirty egrets wading -

thirty egrets in a quiet evening.

Once in a lifetime, lovely past believing,

your lucky eyes may light on such a pool.

As though for many years I had been waiting,

I watched in silence, till my heart was full

of clear dark water, and white trees unmoving,

and, whiter yet, those thirty egrets wading.

Here is where you can find out all the things there are to know about the Egret's habits,
its domiciles, its ancestory,  relatives and other interesting things.

And here is where you can visit ABC Wednesday
where there are many other takes on the letter E
with thanks to Denise, Roger and their ever-loving helpers.

Custard the DRAGON

ABC Wednesday
February 3rd, 2016
The letter is D for DRAGON

Dragons are not as prolific as they once were.

These days they are inclined to live in little white houses, 

and here is the Tale of one such Dragon, named Custard, 

written by Ogden Nash and performed by Dennis Massa

If you are not familiar with Custard quite probably your children are,

or your grandchildren, or your great-grandchildren.

His tale can be found here http://glenavalon.com/custard.html

(if the link doesn't work by clicking try typing it in), 

For more interesting Ds click here to visit Denise and Roger 

at ABC Wednesday, as well as their DETERMINED helpers.

A very musical day Part 2

January 30th, 2016

I had never heard anyone else play Weber's Last Thought

and my curiousity was piqued

so I went to visit GOOGLE, with high hopes.

There were three videos on You tube,  and the first two dismayed me.  The notes were there, but no music, no feeling.....

I tried the third, which claimed to be Weber's Last Waltz, but it wasn't - it was a really touching rendition of his Last Thoughts, by a United Kingdom pianist, Phillip Sear. 

 I know you will enjoy it.

The second piece he plays is the Fairy Waltz....

I also found a You tube rendition for the guitar

                                      and that Weber's Last Waltz is popular with Bands,
                                                 where it is played by the euphonium

or other bass instruments, -
or a saxophone.,,,,

 Here is a 1920's recording with a concertina and a cornet.....

As to who wrote Weber's Last Thought (Waltz)  Carl Gottleib Reissiger

seems to get the most credit.

He worked for most of his life at the Dresden Court

where he succeeded Carl Maria von Weber as Kappelmeister.

(back in the time of Schubert and Beethoven)

He is best known today for Weber's Last Waltz,

so called because of a manuscript found amongst Weber's belongings.

I was also very impressed with the repertoire that Phillip Sear

has to offer, and his reputation

as a professional musician.

He is just the person my granddaughter is looking

for to play at her wedding,

(but is probably going to have to put up with me,

as I am closer!!!)

A very musical day...

January 29th, 2016

Up early, showered and breakfasted and casting about for something entertaining to do!!!

I tie a few knots on the dummy warp ( will I EVER get it done) but my back complains bitterly....

At eleven I will tune into the Berlin Philharmonic Digital Concert Hall to hear Fisher conduct a rendition of Gustave Mahler's Symphony No 3, but what to do until then??

The ukulele leans against the piano, looking appealing.  I pick it up, cradle it in my arms, and think how nice it will be when I finally know how to play it properly.  Experience tells me that 'practise makes perfect', and so I go hunting on the PC for a teacher.  I have been there before.

Teachers of the ukulele are either old guys or bright young fellows, and of the two I have to admit I find the bright young fellows make it easier for me to learn.  Not because they are bright and young but because they talk slower, are more aware that beginners need gentle guiding, and explain things in much more detail.

So I find this bright young fellow who promises to make five ways of strumming on the ukulele fun and easy - and after an hour when we had finished the lesson and I had practiced as admonished, I had to agree he had met his goal.  Hopefully I will be back for a second lesson tomorrow.....

I can now strum D D U D D U  or D D U U D U D, or D d u d u D u (where D stands for down and U stands for up, and small letters stand for 'do not emphasis - but I'm sure you knew that...) and I know that a ukulele is strummed differently than a guitar, with a nice loose wrist-turning motion.

After a little action in the kitchen it is time for the concert, which was most enjoyable and took me a bit past lunchtime....

A little rest, a little strumming and I went to the piano and an old book of classical organ music, looking for an alternative to Wagner's "Here Comes the Bride" which has evidently lost popularity with young couples now getting married.  Things like Bach's Air on the G String, Pachelbel's Canon in D,  some of Chopin's Preludes  and a Cantabile or two.  The price on this book was $1.25 - you know how old it is.  Too old to have the Canon in D, - Pachelbel is a recent favourite, but among the crisp, yellowed leaves I found pages I had added at the front.  Amongst them was Weber's Last Thought (Carl Maria von Weber) which I was once entranced with but have not played in a long, long time.

So that's how I spent the last of the afternoon, losing myself in Weber's Last Thought, trying to make my fingers familiar with it again, and wondering if there was any way it would fit into our granddaughter's wedding....and hardly noticing the grey skies  and mist that engulfed the valley.

Maria Callas

ABC Wednesday
January 27th, 2016

The letter is C for Maria CALLAS
A superb Coloratura

Maria Callas was born in New York in 1923, of Greek parentage

Her parents separated when she was 14 and she returned to Greece with her mother.  

She had won some acceptance as a singer in America and almost immediately became a pupil of  Maria Trivella.  Maria gained great renown as an Operatic singer, as well as a reputation for being extremely tempestuous and stormy.

In 1949 she married Giovanni Batlista Managhina, a wealthy industrialist and follower of the opera, who took over management of her career.

When in later years she met Aristotle Onassis she left her husband, expecting to marry Onassis.

He, however, married Jacqueline Kennedy, leaving Maria completely devastated.

Her voice failed her, and her health.  In 1977 she died at the age of 53 of a heart attack, 

leaving behind a grand opera legend and a turbulent and tragic image.

Maria Callas singing the Gounod-Bach Ave Maria

I listen to it with prickly eyes.....

For more Cs click here at ABC Wednesday

and see what Roger, Denise and all their helpers

have to offer...

with many thanks.

This and that

Friday, - coming to the end of the week....

As I drifted off to sleep last night I thought,

 'yes, Friday.  Nothing to do all day long.

 A great day to get out the vacumn. the mop and the duster'.

Alas, when I woke all thoughts of housecleaning had fled in the night.

I remembered what a mess I had made of adding to my Family Tree
 some exciting genealogy news about my third great grandfather
and how I had failed to straighten things out so that
everybody was in the right place
when I printed out a report,
including his two wives.

And I was glum,  and not the least bit energetic

Yesterday the sun made a brief and glorious appearance.

That will account for the housecleaning thoughts
that sent me off into a virtuous sleep.

Callie thought it was pretty special too.

She has been Confined to Barracks (along

with me, because of slippery streets) and

would dearly love to have the cat-door opened

so she can investigate what has been going

on under the snow, and which cats

have been visiting lately.

Here is something that has been going on under the snow!

I put on some mittens and scraped away an inch or so of snow
to see if the Hellebores were awake!

Once we are past Robbie Burns' Birthday it is all downhill

and we are sliding into spring!!

The hyacinth I brought home from the grocery store sprang up about three inches

overnight, and promises a lovely bloom when I get up tomorrow morning...

A little blue sky outside, - time for lunch

and a little session with the ukulele...

my repertoire is getting slightly longer.

Come and sing Bye Bye Blackbird with me!

Robbie Burns

ABC Wednesday
January 20
The letter is B for Robbie Burns

The anniversary of his Birthdate being January 25th.

                                      Barbara Philips - an African painting

Known as the Bard of Ayrshire (and various other names and epithets) he was widely acclaimed and is still regarded as the national poet of Scotland.  A pioneer of the Romantic movement and a source of inspiration to the founders of both liberalism and socialism, he was a 'cultural icon'  in Scotland, - and indeed wherever in the world Scots have emigrated his birthday is celebrated with great honour and tradition; and there is a plethora of statues, especially throughout Scotland

Those who have been fortunate to have gone to one of the many Burns Night Dinners 

which are held wherever Scots gather, will surely attest to the great passion that accompanies the Address to the Haggis, whether or not it appeals to one's palate!!

The Canadian Scottish Regiment (Princess Mary's) in 2015 at Victoria, B.C.
The Address to the Haggis by 2Lt Drew Shaw of B Company

See what you're missing!!!

Really what the Address is saying is that eating haggis is delicious, it 

is warm and rich and will make you strong and braw;

and that it has a great advantage over French cooking, -

and indeed, that of any other nation. 

I leave you with what some call the Greatest Love Poem of all time, which

will remind you of Robbie Burns' silver tongue and his great fondness

for the ladies...

A Red, Red Rose

O, my luve is like a red, red rose,

That's newly sprung in June;

O, my luve is like a melodie

That's sweetly played in tune.

As fair art thou, my bonnie lass,

So deep in luve am I

And I will luve thee still, my dear,

Till a' the seas gang dry.

Till a' the seas gang dry, my dear,

And the rocks melt wi' the sun

And I will luve thee still, my dear.

While the sand o' life shall run.

And fare thee well, my only luve!

And fare thee well awhile!

And I will come again, my luve,

Tho' it were ten thousand Mile !

Robert Burns

For more interesting Bs visit here at ABC Wednesday

with thanks to Roger, Denise and all

brave and bonny helpers.

A Few Kind Words about Perspective

Thursday, January 14th, 2016

Almost to the middle of January, and I have been quite dissatisfied with myself and my lack of enthusiasm for this wonderful New Year.

Could it be the weather, - all grey and damp and dismal and foggy?  The sun has shone just occasionally, for a minute or two - just long enough to assure us that it is still there, above that grey dome that sometimes sends mist cascading down the hills to tickle their toes....

Or is it because My List has not one check mark on it!!!  I have not tied the first of many (400) knots that must secure my dummy warp on the loom.

I have bent over the Ukulele and The Reader's Digest easy home melodies, and found some consolation there, but no improvement in my strumming!!!!!

I started to do housecleaning on the computer files, but was soon discouraged and easily convinced I could put it off for another day.....

There is a photography course online that I had vowed to tackle in the new year, but somehow I could not bring myself to the first lesson, even....

I was inclined to start knitting again, and I even imagined socks and scarfs all ready for next year's Christmas presents.  But the sock that I picked up to finish while listening to a concert now sits in the the basket with great balls of wool that look at me with accusing eyes whilst I loll around reading.

Well, yes, I have been reading, and I know that counts for something.  Maybe more than I am prepared to admit.

While musing about 'things-to-do-tomorrow' my mind wandered to this great lack of productivity, and what in heaven's name was I going to do about it!  What HAD I been doing for the last two weeks.

Reading, - yes.  Trying diligently to absorb the words and beliefs of Dr. Kenneth R. Miller and Dr. Francis Collins - both scientists who have been able to find compatibility between Science and Religion, particularly in the field of bio-genetics where those in this particular meadow find themselves thrown into the arena 'to grapple with the Almighty".

And I had had a more than slight confrontation with the Dentist!!!!  I count my determination in going to see him and 'taking care of those things that required it' a bit of a moral victory over procrastination and apprehension.  All went well, but as a consequence I have been confined to soups and soft foods, - discouraged from baking (which I love) and even from eating the left over goodies from Christmas.

All of this musing gradually changed my perspective and I decided that perhaps I had not been in the doldrums these last few weeks, but rather that life had taken on a different flavour, and I was back to reading and thinking, rather than up and doing.  Unfortunately the lack of busy-ness is inclined to make me lonely for the company of my dearest, and so I have to find the happy medium....

Perspective is great for the morale!!!  Suddenly I feel that yes, this is just what I needed - a time of solitude and stillness after all the great todo at Christmas,  and I have stopped berating myself for being lethargic.

Perhaps a garden catalogue is the answer, and I can mix a little anticipation into my days......

A for Ancestors

ABC Wednesday
January 13th, 2016

The Letter is A for Ancestors

Each has his own tree of ancestors but at 

the top of all sits Probably Aboreal.  

Robert Louis Stevenson

At the turn of the century I was bitten very hard by the

Genealogical Bug and I spent a few years

enthralled with my Ancestors

who, I discovered, came from many different places.

Scotland, Ireland, Holland, Germany, England

and a whole great contingent of Loyalists

from New York State.

It's great fun to compare ears and eyes and noses

and see who looks like great grandfather,

or the aunts with the hats.....

For more takes on A click here and visit Denise, Roger

and all their helpers at

ABC Wednesday.

Saturday, January 9th, 2016

I waken from a super sleep, full of energy and enthusiasm.  It is still dark.  No new snow, - no fog misting round the street light, but it is quite apparent that there isn't going to be any sun today, either!
For about the seventh day in a row.....

Nevertheless, I am out, quick as a bunny, to put the coffee on to perk while I shower, and think of all the exciting things I am going to add to my list of 'things-to- do".

I am smitten with the idea of tidying my computer during these melancholy days of January - all the redundant files on Word, and the hundreds of Church Bulletins on Publisher.  I have five, or seven, or maybe even nine different places where I have photos stored, many of them copies.  All of them making my searches for any particular picture an exercise in frustration.

And then there is the slothful habit I have fallen into of sitting with my hands folded and at rest, when all my life they have been busy knitting,knitting, knitting..... or spinning, spinning, spinning!

Well, before I settle myself before the computer to watch and listen to the Berlin Philharmonic I rummage around and find the sock that I was knitting for Charles and his dear feet, before he left.  I know there are sons who would love to have them finished and I feel quite virtuous as I look at the size of the needles (very small) and the wool (very fine).  I start knitting as the orchestra starts playing, and the mezzo soprano starts singing Ernest Chausson's Poeme de l'amour et do la mer".  She has a lovely, soothing voice and the Poeme is quiet and quite beautiful.  As a matter of fact the whole programme is very soul-soothing, especially the Pie Jesu of Faure's Requiem which I have always loved and like to include when playing funeral music on the organ.  I am very much in agreement with Faure's own word's when he says that his Requiem doesn't express the fear of death, but is more a lullaby, a happy deliverance, an aspiration towards happiness elsewhere.

So that was great - and the knitting went along quite well while I listened to the rest of the concert.  But by the time it was over I was beginning to feel the effects of my major visit to the dentist yesterday, when I had three anchor teeth pulled and a new reconstructed plate placed gently over the tender gums.

So I went and warmed up some soup, had my lunch, played a few tunes on the Ukuele (I can now pick out Bye Bye Blackbird without looking at any music!!) and settled down with the phone nearby and a blanket on the arm of the chair - all my great energy and enthusiasm sighing with relief that they didn't have to bound around all afternoon.

Maybe tomorrow I will tackle the housekeeping that the computer so badly needs....

In the meantime I am going to have a glass of sherry, some soup for supper and treat myself to a little helping of Creme de Brulee that arrived in my fridge when one of the DILs came to visit, and for which I thank her dearly......

Perhaps tomorrow the sun will shine, - even momentarily!

January 6th, 2016
ABC Wednesday
The letter is Z and gadZooks, Z stands for Zebellos
and here we are at the end of the alphabet......

Zeballos is a deep sea port located at the end of Zeballos Inlet on the wild west coast of Vancouver Island. about a two hour drive north of Campbell River.  It was named for Lt. Ciriaco Ceballos, a crew member aboard an early ship of Spanish explorer Alessandro Malaspina's expedition (1789-1794)  (Malaspina is also a familiar name on the Island).  The inlet remained somewhat obscure until gold was discovered in the 1920's, and this resulted in the usual influx of miners and adventurers.

The historic buildings in the village are a living reminder of these frontier days.

I recently purchased a book of paintings by Michael Kluckner 

(Vanishing British Columbia)

Here is his rendition of the hotel in Zeballos

and here as it stands today

Zeballos thrived in the Gold Rush days, but when World War 11 began

many of the miners and much of the workforce joined

the Canadian Forces, and the mines eventually closed..

Post war efforts were made to revitalize the industry

but the low price of gold made it uneconomical for the mines to continue

operating, and within twenty years they had all closed.

In the 1950s logging emerged as a promising new industry for the village 

and today the majority of the town's residents, along with the population

of the two neighbouring First Nations reserves

(the Oculcje and Ehatis)

are employed in the timber industry.

The village is becoming a favourite destination for kayakers, sportsfishers and those who want to experience the wild nature of this west coast.

There are fishing Lodges

and a museum

and for the more adventurous Rugged Mountain and the Slab in the Nomash

River Valley are well known to rock climbing enthusiasts.

Some of the best cold water diving on Vancouver Island can be found

just a short boat ride away from Zeballos,

The water are especially clear in the winter, and

colourful anemones sway in the currents while Puget Sound king crab scuttle below.  

There are purple hinged scallops, soft corals and abalone.

There are bears and elk and sea otters and whales

and beautiful towering forest-clad mountains.

You must come!!

How to get there....

Many more Zs at ABC Wednesday.

Click here and visit with Roger, Denise and

those who so kindly help and visit on behalf of the meme

January 4th, 2016

The Tenth Day of Christmas and I am taking down Christmas decorations slowly, carefully. randomly and stealthily so that our daughter, who loves Christmas, will not be struck down upon entering the house and finding the simplicity of bare-boned January staring her in the face.....They are just disappearing, one by one - two by two.....

When the light of Epiphany arrives and the sun comes shining through (surely the sun will come shining through by then....) all of Christmas that I am going to keep will  be tucked away tidily in the back bedroom closet,  dreaming dreams of wreaths and garlands, candles and bells.

I have a pretty plethora of Christmas decorations, - some of them are still in the church, waiting to be boxed up, and some of them need to be offered up to family who may want them for old times sake, to stir the blessed memories of Christmas when one was young.

Yes, we are finished with Christmas (though not the spirit) and the New Year (though not the resolutions) and we are well into a giddy round of birthdays!!


One on New Year's Eve, two on the second of January (mine and a sweet one year old great grandson) one on the fourth, and the fifth and the sixth and the seventh and the eighth and finally our youngest son on the tenth.  A mad round of parties, if one was into that kind of gadding about!

Oh look, if I had taken the picture from the other side it would have said 16, Great Expectations instead of Great Memories....

I will leave the Great Expectations to my dear little great grandson with whom I share a birthday, and hope they will eventually morph into marvelous memories for him, 

and for the other sweet great grands!