Out to lunch

Oh my but the weather is warm.

No, - the weather is hot, almost scorching!

A time for early rising,  Five a.m. sounds about right if you have a busy day ahead of you, so that by the time the temperature on the front porch reaches 40 degrees F ( about eleven o'clock) you are ready to find a cool spot to relax and feel that you have accomplished all that can be expected of you in the August heat!!!

But not today......  As we all got older and our numbers dwindled the Anglican Church Women in our congregation (that would be the ACW) started going out for tea and scones or the occasional lunch, instead of having meetings.  It's lovely, - we get to chat and catch up on what is happening with husbands and family, and the days of planning bake sales and loonie auctions are far behind us.

Today we went to the Grist Mill for lunch.....

 As far as buildings go in the Similkameen the Grist Mill is quite ancient.

 

It was built by an Englishman, Barrington Price, to accommodate the grain growers

in the interior of British Columbia in the mid 1800's

 

A former manager at the Grist Mill, which has morphed into a lucrative Tourist Attraction,

leaned heavily on Barrington Price's reputation and the many

anecdotes that lingered in the memory of old timers and have been

passed on into the present.  Indeed, not only his anecdotes but also some of

his descendants are still in the Similkameen.

 

This is the main building, - the tea room and the fine selection of touristy things

set out to trap money to keep the endeavor going.

 

 

Small gathering and meetings and sometimes workshops are held in

what used to shelter vegetables during the winter months

 

and here is the flume and the wheel itself, still workable and grinding wheat into flour

which they plan to use for baking in the tea room.

 

There are lovely grounds which encourage special events.  This summer the new manager

has stirred up lots of local interest with a presentation of four evening concerts,

and a number of workshops and talks on local history and geology.

I am going Saturday night to hear 'Silk Road' - a concert of various kinds of music,

and am quite looking forward to it.

 

Our granddaughter, Katie, and her husband, Will were married here, just

below the tea room, with the creek running close by and wonderful

autumn colours to lend a celebratory air.

 

 

Here are the old, dear friends of the ACW who lunched and chatted and lingered

in the coolness of the tea room while the sky got bluer and the sun got hotter

 

 

stopping on the way out to snap another picture

with the new and enthusiastic manager, before a quick drive

home to a cool house

 

 

a pleasant and enjoyable day!



ABC Wednesday

Wednesday, August 7th, 2013
The letter this week is D

D is for Emily Elizabeth DICKINSON who lived a mostly reclusive life, was thought of as an eccentric by most of her neighbours,  and had fewer than a dozen of her eighteen hundred poems published during her lifetime.  And yet, and yet – she is thought now to be one of the most important American poets.

Born on December 10th, 1830 to a successful family with strong community ties, after her schooling years she returned home to her family in Amherst, Massachusetts,

and lived there until she died in 1886.

 

Most of her friendships were carried on by correspondence, as she was reluctant to greet guests,

or even in her later years to leave her room.

 

It is said that she would not even allow her doctor to visit her, and that he had to make any observations as she passed by an open door, where he was seated,  - a situation which caused  the good doctor to comment that it was would be difficult for him

to diagnose any disease other than mumps.

 

Lavinia, Emily’s youngest sister, discovered her cache of poems after her death in 1886, and the quality of Emily’s work became apparent to the literary world.  Her poems were unique to the time in which they were written, containing short lines, lacking titles and making use of slant rhyme, which is a half rhyme, or an imperfect rhyme.  Although not popular at that time slant rhyme in modern times has become acceptable as it is used extensively by rappers and poetry performers.

 

Many of Emily Dickinson's poems deal with themes of death and immortality and can be read symbolically, as can this lovely one that follows with sunrise depicting birth, and sunset, death, and in between the wonderful business of life.

 

A Day

I’ll tell you how the sun rose,

A ribbon at a time.

The steeples swam in amethyst,

The news like squirrels ran.

The hills untied their bonnets,

The bobolinks begun.

Then I said softly to myself,

“That must have been the sun!”

………………

But how he set, I know not.

There seemed a purple stile

Which little yellow boys and girls

Were climbing all the while.

Till when they reached the other side,

A dominie in gray

Put gently up the evening bars,

And led the flock away.

Emily Dickinson

 

For more interesting interpretations of the letter D click here to visit ABC Wednesday, with thanks to Mrs. Nesbitt who created this meme and to Roger and his many helpers who maintain it.

Time to spare

I love Skype!

I turn my speakers to High in the morning, so I can hear its call, wherever I am in the house.

This morning I was close by for our youngest son's regular morning call from the Chilcotin - sometimes just a quick conversation, - how are you, what are you doing, love you, I'm off to check the water.....  sometimes a half hour goes by and we catch up on all the news, reminisce, laugh a little, tour around with his mobile camera.  The other day he took me up the hill with him to where the water originates (and gravitates) on this off-the-grid property - we see squirrels and eagles and deer and bears and humming birds and swallows.  I am in awe of the technology that allows this all to happen!!

Today was a busy mailing day on the Meadow, where our second son and daughter-in-law have created a unique and wonderful business, making and marketing Touch Wood Rings  (do go and visit, - you will be amazed and delighted).

So it was a quick call, - 'what are you going to do today'?  What will the answer be? 

It is B.C. Day here, - the end of the 'August Long' as it has come to be known.  A frantic week-end in the middle of summer where towns vie for festivals and great crowds of people.  Here it was Kars Under the K - a vintage car show.  In Kelowna it was Centre of Gravity, a volley ball tournament that has grown into a gigantic and festive event, seducing even the RCMP anti gang task force to attend and warn gangsters (who also like the 'hottest beach festival in Canada') to behave!

I do not plan to leave my lovely quiet cool backyard, and am in the envious position of not having anything that demands my attention, but many things that entice me, so in answer to my son's question I could only say I would do today whatever draws my fancy first.........

I did think it was a great opportunity to catch up on my Kobo reading, so with the phone, a cup of coffee and Heather Lende's  'If you Lived Here I'd Know Your Name' Callie and I went down the hall, out through the sun porch and made ourselves comfortable on the blue bench out back.  Where we spent the WHOLE morning......

I expected this book to be a quick read about life in a small town (Haines, Alaska) but I found it to have much more depth, and I am only one-third  the way through it.

Twice this morning I have come across references to the importance of "acting on our beliefs without demeaning others who don't believe the same thing (we do)".(Lende)  Once in Lende's pages where she expands on this and refers to the possession of  an Annie Dillard book by a right-wing pilot whose politics did not agree with hers, and to an afternoon spent in the company of an American Legion Commander whom she found to be more humane and Liberal than I guess she expected a Legion veteran to be (my observation).

Earlier I had read in the regular morning letter that comes to me from 'The Center for Social Leadership'  an appeal for Americans to find a common ground amidst all the political parties and subdivisions in America today.  He urges communication, - informed communication that equips one to be a leader in expressing one's own opinions with conviction, but also with a mind open to other's beliefs.  He points out that all the freedoms of the American way of life are to be found in the Declaration of Independence where Jefferson wrote that "all men are...endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights" and that the proper role of government (which seems to be where all the controversial points of view originate) is only to secure these rights. 

I must confess to not being as well informed about American politics or the Declaration of Independence as I could be (ironically the descendent of a number of Loyalists from New York State),  but the idea that Liberals and Conservatives could treat each other with open ears and with respect appeals to me !!!!!

Well, there.  That is really all I have to say about THAT and the day is only half over. So perhaps I will go and weave, now that I have threaded the heddles and the reed, tied the warp and the treadles and woven enough to draw me through the door and on to the loom bench where time just seems to melt away into pure pleasure.