Advent Begins

 

The bright carpet of leaves under the acer tree is thick and colourful, even in the rain. It's thicker today as wind last night blew almost all of the leaves to the ground. Just a few stalwarts hang on to their branches. 

Each year before Christmas we plan an afternoon / evening of fun with our grandchildren. This year we had hoped to include the two youngest grands, but they were sniffling and coughing and everyone thought it best that they stayed home.

The three eldest cooked hot dogs over the fire outside in the light rain, then watched a Christmas movie while they ate, then decorated star-shaped cookie trees.

Before all that they created winter dioramas. Didn't they do a wonderful job? It was fun to observe their interactions and their unique ways of approaching the project. Tim and I prepared the frames (from shoe boxes) ahead of time, but they decided on the backgrounds, the lights, and all the decor items that we provided. 

Just before we drove them all home, they put on their new pajamas and had an impromptu dance in the living room. I'm a little sad about the poor quality of the photos due to inadequate lighting. 

And so it begins once again. Advent. The season of hope and longing. The season of preparation for the celebration of Christ's birth. 

A Look Back Over the Week

 

We are fortunate to not have deer problems in our garden. However, last Saturday morning while eating breakfast, we noticed a pair of them just across the fence in our neighbour's garden. They were sniffing at the tomatoes and raspberries. I went out to gently shoo them away. I don't know how they got into the garden as it is fenced and hedged, and deer like to see through whatever they are jumping over. They were uncertain about how to leave and stood in this corner for several long minutes before finally figuring out a way through the hedge to the right. 

That same morning we saw a raccoon meander through the garden. I wonder if our extremely dry weather is forcing wildlife to find food outside of their normal routes. 

One granddaughter spent a couple of hours with us while her parents ran an errand. She ate a piece of dessert (blueberry square), played Blokus with us, and read her book. She's an avid reader, like all three of our school aged grands. Although bookish, she's also a strong and able girl in martial arts.

Thursday was Iris day. I made a little outfit for her - a top (seen above) and shorts, from a pattern given to me by a friend more than 35 years ago. My friend Emma used the same pattern to make an outfit for my eldest daughter. 

Pouring beans is a fun activity and the cloth on the floor helps me to pick them all up more easily. I love those little toes. 

Last night we went out to watch Adria's final softball game of the season. She is looking too grown up! I was impressed by the way she throws the ball, and was happy to be there when she hit the ball and ran to second base. 

I'm harvesting beets and zucchini from the garden, along with lettuce and swiss chard. Tomatoes are slow and the green beans are beginning to entwine themselves up the trellis. 

The double poppies come up throughout the garden and are easy to transplant to where I want them or pull up if I don't. A friend told me that the seeds are edible so I'm going to save them this year. I like a subtle crunch on bread or buns. Lemon poppy seed loaf is a treat, too. 

Today I did laundry, changed the bed linens, and am preparing for a short boating trip this weekend. I'm making Vietnamese summer rolls for tonight's dinner aboard. 

Any plans for the weekend in your corner? 

A Bit of This and That on a Sunny Tuesday

 

First of all, thank you for your many kind thoughts and wishes regarding my last post. My voice is back and my throat healed. I'm still careful not to speak too much, but that's not too difficult when I'm home alone most days. Best of all, I'm sleeping through the night - isn't sleep such a wonderful gift? After a solid 6-8 hours I wake up with energy and a bright outlook on the day. 

On a grey and somewhat drizzly Sunday we took a walk. Curving pathways and overarching growth create an air of mystery and anticipation. Although the woods look dull and lifeless, a closer look reveals that much is happening. 

The yellow flowers of mahonia aquifolium (Oregon grape) are some of the first to add colour and cheer to the woods. In summer, dark blue berries form. The First Nations peoples used the roots, bark, and berries of the shrub for medicinal purposes. Although the berries are extremely tart, they make a delicious tasting jam. 

The plant is native to North America, and the botanist David Douglas took plants to Europe to use in English gardens as shady ground cover. Plants have certainly traveled around the world, sometimes for the good, other times not so much. 

Another early bloomer is the June Plum (oemleria cerasiformas), also called the Oso Berry. The leaves emerge from the stem tips and often stand at attention, while the blooms droop downwards in clusters of creamy white and green. Small fruits appear, but although edible, they are quite bitter. Like the mahonia, many parts of this plant are used by the First Nations for medicinal purposes. 

Our Iranian friends celebrated the Persian New Year (Nowruz) on the weekend, at the time of the Spring Equinox. They brought us a traditional decoration of a plate of sprouted greens, along with delicious candies and a bottle of rose water. In the weeks leading to the celebration, it's customary to do a "house shaking" - a thorough cleaning of all corners of the home. 

For Christmas, one of our granddaughters asked for bits and pieces of fabric, lace, and ribbon - "not big pieces, just small ones", she said - along with peg dolls. I had so much fun going through my stash to present a box of materials to give to her. Now during Spring Break, she created a Castle of Love and a set of characters to live there - King, Queen, Princess, and the Queen's twin sisters. Boxes, toilet paper and kitchen paper rolls, tissue paper, and a lot of imagination went into this creation. My daughter sent me the photos. 

Yesterday afternoon I was just about ready to pull on my wellies and do some gardening when the heavens opened and a very cold rain doused my enthusiasm. Later, I wandered around looking at the emerging plants and making all kinds of plans in my head. I stopped to admire these primroses, so perky in spite of the rain. 

Today I'll be baking a cake for a birthday later in the week, and doing a little shopping. Two grandchildren will be coming over for the next two days - although it's Spring Break for them, their parents need to work. I'm so looking forward to some concentrated time with them, something I haven't had since summer. I am weary of this pandemic and will be so very glad when we can gather together indoors as an extended family.

Glittering Illuminations with the Grands

not my tree - from the Carousel at Butchart Gardens

A tradition with our grandchildren is some concentrated time spent with them together in the month preceding Christmas. Our youngest, almost 6 months old, and living elsewhere, couldn't join us this year, but perhaps she will in the future. We've done several overnights, visited various attractions and have always had a good time. 

Our time this year began with crafting a set of three paper houses (one is a church) with each child. A friend of mine has a fancy Cricut and cut the houses for us, so we folded and glued and the children were thrilled to get three LED tealights to put in the houses. 

After lunch and some play time there was cookie decorating! Sprinkles everywhere! We played Blokus (the kids came up with some creative new rules), built forts, and watched a very short movie.

During crafting time the children each decorated a snowflake. Butchart Gardens was next on the list and the snowflakes were exchanged for hot chocolate at the coffee shop. Best of all, the beverage was served at drinking temperature so there were no burned tongues! 

The Gardens are full of Christmas magic. One attraction is the elaborate train track set in a wintry landscape. Young and old stand mesmerized watching the trains go round, through tunnels, and up and down snowy hills. There are a multitude of scenes to admire.

Sunday was the official Light Up for the gardens, so we had our hot chocolate and watched the train, then went up to the Carousel for a ride - Nana rode a zebra - and then counted down with the crowd until the switch was pulled and the darkness transformed into a glittering wonderland. 

Those Three French Hens sitting in front of the Eiffel Tower enjoy their tea even more under spotlights! We wandered through the gardens looking for the Twelve Days of Christmas, and there was much singing of the song en route. 

Here is the Sunken Garden. I heard young Felix explaining that "the Sunken Garden is the masterpiece of Butchart Gardens" and I laughed to myself as I heard his mother's voice in his words. 

It would take much better photography skill than I possess to do it justice. Instead, I set my camera mode to "Glittering Illuminations" and was rewarded with okay photos, and an overkill of star-shaped bokeh. 

And here they are, some of the people I love best in this world, walking into the Italian Gardens, nearing the end of our garden jaunt. 

On the way home, Sadie sang the Canadian Twelve Days of Christmas song, and we all joined in. It begins with "On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...a porcupine in a pine tree." There is a book by Helaine Becker, and it's very cute. 

And now it's Monday morning. Some house tidying to do, and a little bit of Christmas preparation before I head off to teach classes. Wishing you all a most lovely day, and a new week of joy. 

edited to add: A number of people have mentioned that they are unable to leave comments on the blog. I'm not sure what's happening, but I'm looking into it. When I go view my blog from a web browser, I can't even open comments to read them. Grrrr. 

Happenings Around Here

Not quite two weeks ago there was a baby shower. The mother-to-be is our youngest daughter. Her elder sister and sister-in-law and I hosted the shower. What a fun event, with good company, good food, lots of laughter, and a sunny day.

Here's the mama-to-be with the cake Katie made. We went with a loose bear-bee-honey theme.

The next day, Sunday, the parents-to-be asked me to take a few photos that they would use to announce the impending birth on social media. We had a lot of fun in our back garden.

I promised to do some simple editing and send the photos that week, but it was Thursday morning before I sent anything. The announcement was never made. 

Instead, Iris Ruth decided to make an early appearance. Three weeks early, but still a healthy 7 lbs 4 oz. I, along with the other grandmother, dashed to the ferry and arrived not too long after she was born. Oh my, what a darling she is. She's had a bit of a rough start with a prolonged hospital stay due to jaundice and losing weight. Things are on an even keel now, though, and the new little family is settling in.

You can tell that this Nana is utterly thrilled with Miss Iris. Her aunts, uncles, and cousins have yet to meet her. We're all thinking that the ferry ride is just too long!

Father, Daughter, and sweet little baby girl. Our hearts are full. 

Busy Days

And the wind upon its way whispered the boughs of May
And touched the nodding peony flowers to bid them waken
Siegfried Sassoon

 This particular peony is growing in my daughter's garden. Her peonies are in full flower. One of my bushes is the same, but there are more tightly curled buds on other bushes that I'm watching carefully. Peonies are such extravagant bloomers, opening slowly until all at once they show off their frilly layers. 

A few tulips still bloom, but most are looking rather bedraggled. I'm feeling a bit bedraggled myself lately - a combination of wanting to do more than I have time to do, the approaching last 6 weeks of school, not sleeping well, and a few odd events occurring.

I was informed of one odd event through my school e-mail one afternoon, asking the owner of a certain license plate number to contact the office. A student (one of my favourite students) had backed her vehicle into mine. She felt terrible. The damage is not serious, but I've taken the car in for estimates, delivered it to the shop, and am waiting to pick it up. The girl's parents chose to pay privately rather than through insurance, and that's complicated things a bit, too.
  

These days there isn't much time to be doing what I really long to do - work in my garden for long hours at a time or sew on a couple of projects I have. I'm fitting in bits of time here and there and the garden assures me that really, my efforts accomplish little, and it's quite happy to grow all on its own, as evidenced by the little figs forming. I planted a few vegetables and am waiting to put the more tender plants into the ground early next week. 

On Sunday, Mother's Day, we got together with the local families and grandkids for dinner. Mr. Four is sporting a painted Batman mask on his face - his mother does a great job of face painting. The girls' photos were taken on other days when they visited our place. I'm realizing how quickly these little ones grow and change and want to spend time with them now.

Tim's contribution to the dinner was to bring dessert. He offered to buy something, but I have been itching to try some new techniques, so I spent a happy Saturday morning puttering in the kitchen. Palmiers were first, easy because I used purchased puff pastry. Making my own puff pastry is a goal for another day. Earlier in the week I made shortbread mini tart shells and later filled them with orange curd and lemon curd. The chocolate brownies were from a favourite recipe, but the frosting is French Buttercream, made by adding a hot sugar syrup to egg yolks and then slowly beating in pieces of butter. I flavoured it with a strawberry puree. Oh how yummy it is! I picked rose petals from the no-name rose bush that is the first to bloom and sugared them for a decoration. Fussing in the kitchen made me happy, particularly because everything turned out reasonably well.

I'm feeling cheerier already, just for taking the time to write this post. Blogging is something that is falling off the radar, too, and I'm not posting, reading, or commenting nearly as much as I'd like to. Tis the season!

Time to do some stretching and head to bed. Things always look brighter in the morning.

Freesias in February

Last Thursday, a bundle of tightly closed freesias came home with me from the grocery store. After trimming the stems, I plopped them into a vase and waited. 

My wait has been rewarded by creamy blossoms gradually opening to release the delicate, fresh scent of early spring. 

Here's another photo, taken a few days earlier, by the light of a little lamp in the morning.

We're doing some planning for the kitchen renovation that is going to take years, not months. First step was the fireplace we installed last autumn. Next will be trading out the sliding glass doors for a single hinged door, and installing a window on a blank wall. To that end, we taped off the size of the window and moved the breakfast table in front of it. Since there's nothing to see and no light there, the little lamp adds a cozy ambiance. 

On Saturday, we helped some friends move, and Tim also helped do some minor repairs to a "new-to-them" first home purchased by our children. My task for the day was providing lunch for the gang. I set up at our eldest daughter and her husband's home, since it's closest to all the activity. 

Our three grandchildren were there, as well, and the wooden train set is a favourite of Mr. F, now almost 4. The two girls ran around playing "hotel" and making tickets for us all to check in. 

When it was time to go home, Mr. Bear apparently wanted to spend the night at Nana's house, so he came along. I assured Miss S that he would have a good time and took some photos of him reading (Mrs. Tiggywinkle), sleeping under a cozy quilt, and eating berries, nuts, and yogurt for breakfast. He's home again now, and Miss S used her mother's camera to take a photo of him playing Lego, and shared it with me on Facebook. 

This afternoon, Sunday, Tim and I went for a long walk. Although the wind was chilly, warmth from the sun heated our backs, and the sky was blue, blue, blue. Such a welcome sight. Brighter skies, brighter days. Hooray!

Linking with Mosaic Monday, hosted by Maggie of Normandy Life. 

A Winter's Tale

Once upon a time, in the land of Silvertray, three white houses, each with a red roof, stood in the forest. 



One fat snowflake fell,



then another and another until cold, white snowflakes covered the ground. 

The three white houses looked at each other and admired how beautiful they were with their curved windows, their heart cut outs and their shiny red roofs.

"But," said the first white house, "we were made to be lived in, and there's no one here."
"We need someone to turn on our lights. What can we do?" said the second white house.
"Let's advertise," said the third white house.

So the three houses sent an advertisement to www.silvertrayonline.st, that said:

"Three cozy houses in a forest need someone to live in them. Must like winter." 

 Then they waited. Still the cold snow fell until drifts of white completely buried the forest floor.

And the three white houses were lonely. They wondered if anyone would ever come to live in them.

One day the first little house heard a squeaking noise and saw a tiny black nose peek up from under the snow. The second little house saw another tiny black nose peek up from under the snow. Then the third little house saw another tiny black nose pop up from under the snow.

The three white houses watched as the three tiny black noses twitched and wriggled. Snow flew up into the air as tiny little feet kicked and kicked until three tiny brown mice popped out on top of the snow.   

"What beautiful houses," said the first tiny brown mouse, whose name was Alexander. He wore a red bow tie.
"They look so cozy," said the second tiny brown mouse, whose name was Natalia, who had a blue ribbon around her neck.
"I wonder who lives in them," said the third tiny brown mouse, whose name was Victoria. She wore two minty green ribbons around her ears.

The three white houses with red roofs were so excited that they almost burst their doors.

"NOBODY lives here," they said all together.
"Would you like to live in us?" said the first white house.
"Please open my door," said the second white house.
"You can turn on my lights," said the third white house.

"REALLY?" said Alexander, Natalia, and Victoria. 

"YES, indeed," said the three white houses with red roofs.

Alexander moved into the first white house. He had brought his red wagon with him and he used it to haul logs from the forest.

Natalia moved into the second white house. She brought her polar bear snow globe to shake when she wanted to see snow fall.



Victoria moved into the third white house. She brought her sled with her and all the mice took turns pulling each other around in the snow.

And so the three white houses sighed with contentment. 
"We're so happy to have someone to live in us," they said.

Alexander, Natalia, and Victoria played in the snowy forest every day. When night time came and they got cold, they each went into their own white house with a red roof, turned on the lights, and spent a cozy night.

The End

This Christmas Tale was inspired by three metal houses recently purchased. I thought to create a scene for the coffee table that the grandchildren can play with. It was such fun to come up with the ideas and the props. 

I'm linking to Five on Friday, hosted by Amy of Love Made My Home. For the Five item tie-in here are 5 things I'm thankful for today:

1. School is out for 2 weeks.

2. The Christmas tree is up and twinkles merrily.

3. School is out for 2 weeks.

4. The sun is shining. I don't mind these chillier temperatures when it's so bright outside. (by chillier I mean just below freezing - not so very chilly by some standards, but rare enough here)

5. School is out for 2 weeks. Don't get me wrong. I love teaching, I love the students, but it's been a trying few months in some areas and I'm glad for a break.