Frozen Fingers and Icy Breezes

Hi there my faithful followers
I may be writing this entry a little slower than the accustomed speed since my fingers are without a doubt nearly ten little icicles. As i sit at my desk trying to unfreeze my thoughts enough to convert them onto virtual paper, i am amazed to see receipts on my desk gently flapping in the breeze coming through my window, despite the fact that it is closer and locked and my blinds are barring the way. Hmmm... can someone say we need new windows???
hmmmmmmmmm.......

Good smells

I was in Home Depot, wandering through the aisles looking for bathroom tub sealer plastic stuff when my nose was inexorably tugged down the corridors towards the wood section. I wandered around the rows for a few minutes, soaking up the sights of all those lovely pieces of wood just waiting to be transformed into something useful or pretty or functional. I remembered going to Beaver Lumber with Dad when i was a kid and how much i loved the smell of fresh cut wood. Just like when Dad used to work on a project in the workshop and would use the big saw (I was always a little terried of it, to be honest! I'd either plug my ears or take off upstairs) But when he was done his cutting, and all the wood shavings lay on the floor in curly little piles, i loved the smell of wood.

Digging into the past at Dundurn

Last Saturday afternoon, i had the priveledge (lege??) of being a tourist in my own home town. My Mom, Carina and I made the lengthy trek downtown to the site of Dundurn Castle, home of the late, great Sir Allan Macnab, his legendary gouty feet and his family. He was quite an important guy in our local history, and it was neat to learn again all about him and his contributions to our community. He had a busy career as a land speculator, working to develop many properties in this once small city. Sir Allan was also very prominent in the railway industry and was a soldier during the war of 1812. He was also a local militia officer during the Upper Canada rebellion. He took part in the blowing up of a steamship above Niagara Falls that was being used to support the rebels from the American side of things. He was knighted for his bravery in this escapade and became a prominent citizen in our city. He was married twice, lost both wives young and had 4 children. His sister or sister-in-law came to live with the family after his second wife got sick and she was left with the house when he died due to complications of gout. He left his estate in quite a bit of financial trouble and most of the household goods were sold off to pay off his debts. Poor fellow, he achieved so much in life and ended his life in poverty. The house itself is quite interesting and opulent. The furniture in the house is reminiscent of the time period of the 1850s and we were led through the house by costumed guides who told us tales of the family, their history and life during that time period. The house is called Dundurn meaning "strong fort" in Gaelic. I love history (can you tell?) I've included a bunch of pics from our dagje uit. Enjoy!!

Carina and I freezing our butts off posing in front of the house!
Mom and Carina in the military museum, playing checkers in an attempt to develop militarily strategic minds whilst being super annoyed by a one-tune tin whistler playing non-stop overhead!
One of my favorite shots, in the scullery maid's quarters in the basement... i love the lighting!
One of the most unfavorite memories i have of Dundurn, the ice shaft. I was always petrified of this dark cavern where the ice was brought up from Hamilton Harbour and packed in sawdust to provide ice through the summer. I always spooked myself here... and holding true to my scaring tendencies, the fears still were there... maybe it's the bars and the dark.Carina and the ultra-modern indoor "flush" toilet! We were quite intrigued by this!

The opulent dining room. Molly is filling us in on the dining customs and telling us all about the butler's duties!

Carina and Mom attempting to be "elegant" whilst traipsing down the main staircase... they also enjoyed shaking the staircase while i was making my way down very cautiously, i can't say i enjoy staircases that sway!

Carina studiously ignoring my foolish antics in the soldier's uniforms

Cooking up some good old bread over the fire. You can do anything if you only imagine. Never mind that i had to wait until all the other little rugrats were finally gone before i could finally jump in and play. Carina and Mom were quite amused that before i even got 2.5 seconds into my role-playing, another family with kids walked in... i never get to have any fun!

A parting shot of Dundurn against an amazing sky!

nothing in specific, all in general

So, here i sit on my lovely comfy chair, with the fireplace heating up the apartment nicely, my wooden shoe slippers on my feet keeping them nice and cozy, quiet random music playing to me off of my computer... in the last half hour, it has ranged from the soundtracks to Braveheart and Dances with Wolves to Kutless to Sharon, Lois and Bram's Eeensy Weensy Spider to the Fenians and so forth. I find that kinda amusing that my musical tastes are so varied. Thankfully i'm the only one at home right now so no one will know that i'm singing along to all of it as best as i can.

I don't really have anything specific other than that that i wanted to share... just thought i'd tell you that i'm doing well, work was great last night... work, i suppose i don't really talk about that much... but for a full moon night, it was remarkably quiet. Yep, i know we're not supposed to be superstitious, and i'm not sure i am, but i do know that when there's a full moon, people tend to be kinda nutty at work. Thankfully all of our confused patients decided to sleep rather than act out last night allowing my colleagues and myself to catch up on each other's lives. A rare treat in a rather stressful environment for the most part. I do believe that those phases of the moon definitely do have pulls on people's moods and psyches. It's not for no reason that "lunacy" is taken from the word "luna" for moon (i love word meanings and history!) No lunatics in this house this evening!

Visit to St. Kitts

One of Peter's favorite spotsJust a few pics from my little visit toRach and Mike's place on Wednesday. I am just learning to use my new camera and obviously still need some practice. But just for your viewing pleasure.
Almost a smile, he wouldn't give me anything, stubborn fellow!He's getting chubby!

Rach and I playing around.

A Bovine Quandary

Can you spot him/her?

Mooooove on over and sit down as i tell you of a quandary, a mystery, which exists in a field nearby my little abode. Many days as i pass by this field on my way to work, home from work, to church, to friends' houses, etc, there is a sight there that makes my brain cells wonder and spark and smoke. I have come up with many different reasons for the subject's existence there but none make absolute sense.
You see, there is a cow. I know, in itself, not an entirely interesting or intriguing subject. But, here lies the mystery. He is the only cow in the field. The only one. And in a field with no fences. How does he know to stay in that field? Why doesn't he go and see if the grass is greener on the other side of the road? I certainly would if i were a cow. Or maybe she's a he. Maybe it's a steer. Perhaps his steering is off and he can only stay in the one field. But nonetheless, he seems well... lonely. I have had a couple of urges to run out there and pet him/her, but alas, i am a little afraid of the creature.
I have posed the question of this cow to several of my learned and revered acquaintances, and have been graced with such suggestions as this.

• He's white. Perhaps they lost him in the snow.
• Maybe he's a guard cow, fending off intruders.
• Maybe the farmer lost him.
• Maybe he simply doesn't like his barnmates and prefers to be outside.
• Perhaps the rest of the cows have been eaten and he's the last one to go.

None of these suggestions holds the entire truth, i am certain. Perhaps elements of the truth maybe. But I suppose i shall never know, being as i am a little leery of approaching the farmers who presumably own this cow. Carina and I have had significant discussions over the years about this farm and are convinced that affairs unlawful and nefarious are being conducted on this farmer's property, most likely marijuana production or some other illegal activity. There seem to be so many odd ramshackle buildings and abandoned equipment lying scattered about, back roads to "get away" on and no neighbours, except the cows. So I suppose the "cow in the field" will remain my source of wondering and stimulating my brain to coming up with new and fresh ideas each day about his situation.

A difficult expergefaction??

I just turned my word of the day calender and today the word is "expergefaction". I love it. I'm going to try and incorporate it into my daily speech if possible. I have to wrap my head around the correct way to use it, but it is a lovely one. I still love words. I was discussing this fact with a group of people on Sunday evening last, and i remarked that in our reformed circles, we ought to have a fairly good grasp of the English language (or at least how it was, oh, i don't know, 200 years ago? I'm just guessing here and i'm sure i'm wildly out). What with words like ebenezer, effulgence, wilt, chastens, unfettered, pavilioned, hence, wert, canticle, deigned, henceforth, wretch, vexed, languor, paraclete, unction, schisms (that's always been a favorite of mine, not for the meaning of course but rather for the interesting spelling), "peculiar honors", assauage, worldling (i loved this one too!)? Aren't they lovely? I think i'm turning into more of a word-lover each day, i know that has a really fancy term, but do you think i can think of it right now? Rather ironic, don't you think?
But the other thing that comes to my mind is what about the person who just walks in off the street or just hears this one song with archaic words in it? Are they likely to invest the time to figure out what the words mean if we don't even know sometimes and we've sung the song myriad times or will they just gloss it over and miss the richness of what is being said? Would there then be cause for updating the songs? I know for myself i would miss the words, but for the sake of those who don't know yet? Or maybe we should just be better at explaining things to our neighbours who come to church. That's probably the better option...

Open Wide

So, what did you spend your afternoon doing? Nice things like sitting by the fireside with a lovely cuppa hot chocolate.... ice fishing.... stealing stopsigns (as people in our neighbourhood are prone to doing apparently)... reading a good book.... working at your job wondering how long it will be until you can save up enough money to go on another trip somewhere exotic, warm and sandy? Well, let me tell you bout my afternoon. You see, apparently, i haven't been brushing my teeth good enough lately... and have ended up with two rather troublesome areas on the teeth in my lower right jaw, cavities to be precise (doesn't the word cavity make you think of a large black hole in the ground, bottomless and looming?). I think dentists use those kind of words to intimidate their poor clients. I usually pride myself on being a fairly meticulous tooth brusher, having been complimented by my dentist in years past for having such clean and lovely teeth, so this whole episode is a bit of an ego-blow. I diligently follow the old gradeschool rhyme of "up like the flowers, down like the rain, back and forth like a choo-choo train" whilst i pass my toothbrush over my pearlies. But alas and alack, it seems my technique has faltered and now, before me, loomed this appointment. 3:00. D.Day. I steeled myself to the impending task and reluctantly betook myself to the dentist's realm. She (or rather one of three resident dentists, who normally only come into the cleaning appointment after the hygienist is done, for about all of a 2.47 seconds, enough to ask you to open your mouth, say awww and poke around very studiously with one of those little metal probey things and then leave you spluttering in your chair, astonished that because of this split second visit, hundreds of precious, hard earned pesos would soon be flying out of your pocket into his high-class office, with leather couches in the waiting rooms that i can't afford for myself which i think maybe secretly one day i should send a moving crew up there and tell them to take the couch that we paid for with orthodontic work for my very own) greeted me with needle in hand, eager to begin freezing the next victim in a diabolical plot designed to convince innocent Hamiltonians that they really need to endure these types of torture in order that they may have healthy teeth. She donned her mask, pried my mouth open and the games began. There was an enormous amount of freezing placed into my poor tongue and cheek(heehee, tongue in cheek... sorry) and soon there was no feeling at all. Instead what lay before her was a helpless victim, too slobbering and numb to object in any sort of reasonable manner. The plot thickened. A retractor was placed in my mouth to hold it open and then a sort of toothy tarp thing was placed in my mouth, rendering me completely unable to talk, breathe or swallow I was thinking to myself the whole time, "I'm very happy that i haven't got a cold today otherwise this would be a very difficult job indeed". Indeed, i thought a variety of thoughts whilst pinned into my chair. "I hope i don't have a chin hair sticking out", and "i hope my nose is clean" and "why did i book this appointment after having worked a night, i'm likely to fall asleep in this chair and start snoring and drooling and make a complete fool of myself." The latter thought was banished, however, when i realized that i already looked like a fool and i wasn't likely to fall asleep with the annoying noise of the buzz saw echoing through my ears. Okay, not a buzz saw, but that whine that sounds like a summer nighttime mosquito that you can't quite find and swat and who flies around your head annoying the snot out of you.

It always sounds like you are having your entire jawline ground away and you will come around at the end of the procedure with the dentist saying "oops, now you need dentures. Sorry." I also was not so comforted by her under the breath murmurings of "i think that will be fine." I don't need you to say "you think", you surely should "know for sure". With a mouth full of metal, chemicals and rubber, it was difficult to object, but secretly inside, a major urge to jump out of the chair, rip the hardware out and cower in a corner of the room, rocking back and forth and repeating "no more, no more" in a pathetic little tone of voice became a more and more appealing alternative. I stifled that feeling with imagery. I felt like i was going all "new age" on myself, a scary idea, but as the office normally has trickling water music and birdies singing playing on the P.A., i felt perhaps that the chi of the place was getting to me. So i spent the entire time trying to imagine myself in England, reexperiencing some of the things and places we had been to and trying my utmost to remember exactly what we smelt and felt and did. I made it all the way to Oxford by the time the dentist let up her infernal racket of drilling and released me from my bondage. Unfortunately for me, my mouth was still heavily frozen and i have spent the last four and a half hours attempting not to bite my cheek and tongue as those parts of my mouth seemed to creep involuntarily in between my teeth. Such a funny feeling being all frozen up. As i wiped the drool from the corner of my mouth, and paid my bill with weeping and gnashing of teeth, i was thankful that i would not have to see this place for another nine months.

As i sit here now, the freezing has finally worn off, my gums and tongue are still in one piece and the pain is starting to kick in now, a dull sort of achy feeling like someone has given my poor jaw a good kick. So i think i'll meander off to the bathroom to seek out some drugs to aid in the fight against discomfort. Tira.

Stop and Look

There's been a little pet project on my mind for the last few years... not that i'm aspiring to be Ansel Adams or anything like that, cause that would be a foolish thing to aspire to when one has no photography knowledge or skills, but just for the record's sake and before the object of my inspirations has been ground into the dirt of progress, i will attempt to capture its mystery, beauty and wonder at different times of the day and year. Yep, okay, i'm talking bout a tree. Not just any tree, but the magnificent ?oak which stands on the fairway of the Glancaster Golf and Country Club off of Twenty Road just before you hit Glancaster Road. Yep, sometime you should stop your car and admire its wonderful treey shape and its character. It cries out to me at times "capture my moods, remember me before i am gone."

So here's the beginnings from last week during our lovely windy, skuddy cloud weather...

You never knew there was a lake on Twenty Road...

A magical mystery tour

Do you ever get urges to just up and leave? To head for the hills and never look back? To throw caution to the wind and see where the road leads ahead of you? Nope, i didn't decide to up and move to deepest darkest Peru alongside Paddington Bear, and I haven't gone bush in the Aussie desert, and I haven't found Prince Charming in his Antarctically wanderings and gotten married, phew, now that the major options are covered, i'll leave you to guess what might have gone on. Nope? No guesses? C'mon, anything's worth a try. Okay, stuck? Well, i hate to disappoint you all but my wanderlust has taken me no further than Toronto, our provincial capital. Perhaps someday in the future there will be grander and more glorious exploits to be had, but for now, this had to suffice. My friend Joyce and I decided to play hookie, go awol, jump ship and head for the hills for a dagje uit. We made a few plans on Friday evening, looking into heading overnight to New York City and Florida and all other manner of grand schemes but we were brought back down to earth and being the practical, penny-pinching Dutchies that we are, we decided on heading northeast to the bustling metropolis of Torawna.

In the ever-changing light hallway, Joyce feeling yellow
Our destination in fact was the popular Ontario Science Centre. We left bright and early Saturday morning, encountering next to no traffic and made it to our goal at 9:30, the centre opened at 10, which left enough time for a bathroom stop, a quick recce around to see what there was to be seen that day and to manage to be the 6th and 7th people in line. Such eager beavers. A very nice ticket man helped us out and even gave us the discount for the ticket we found online, thrilling us to the cockles of our Dutch hearts. So with proper authorization in hang, we trekked into the centre.

Our first goal was the Titanic exhibition, complete with all sorts of artifacts from the actual ship, costumed interpreters, sound and visual effects and an overall wonderful display. If you have any interest at all in the history of this great ship, it's worth a peek. I must say i really enjoyed the "iceberg" and the girl wandering around in the dress similar to what Rose (of the "Jack, Jack, Jack, Jack, Jack, I'm flying" fame) wore in the movie. We received boarding tickets of actual people who sailed on Titanic and thus went through the entire exhibition with a personal connection. Joyce had married a multi-millionaire and was travelling first class, whilst my fifteen year old self was married to a wonderful man who loved to sing. When we reached the end of the exhibit, we found out, to our dismay, that we were both widows now. We were quite awed by the numbers on the survivors/victims board, so many first class passengers made it out, and so many of the crew and the third class passengers did not survive. Shows what sort of priorities existed in those days. After leaving Titanic behind and a not so impressive IMAX film, we spent the day wandering through the many displays in the rest of the museum. Sadly, the wonderful suspension bridge thing which was one of my most solid memories as a kid had been torn down and no longer existed... after all the hype i told Joyce about... sadness indeed. Even the tour guide girl seemed sad about that. I guess there is always progress.

Seeing a bit of red.
We marvelled at the displays on the human body, enjoyed learning all about the human mind, why we make decisions that we do, how our mind plays tricks on us sometimes and how we are so intricately created. We played along with the little kids in the sports section, learning just how weak we were... sadly out of shape, both of us were. We skimmed through space, not being too interested and tried to adopt some children so that we could see the children's play area, but alas, again, no one was interested in sharing with us and that rotten sign said "Adults must be accompanied by children". Rats. No fun for us. Next time better.
Fiddling around with something or other.
We were fairly footsore and tired by the time 6:00 rolled around, closing time. So we managed to get our money's worth for sure... there from opening to closing time. But we had a very enjoyable dagje uit and hope to do so again in the future...
We came up with a few things which we would like to do in the future as fun things... to go to a tractor pull, to the highland games in fergus, to go to Medieval Times with a group of people and to attend the Battle of Stoney Creek reenactment. There are indeed lots of interesting things to do in the area if we only take advantage of them.

Back from a Hiatus

Well, yep, okay, Blog Police, you've got me. Hands are up in the air, corresponding red face is glowing, the guilt is all over myself... and wait, i'm typing wounded so have some pity on a poor old soul. My poor finger, i just discovered, has been bleeding for the last little while and i have been ignoring it totally and utterly. Thankfully now i have staunched the flow of blood from underneath my fingernail (i just hate it when that happens cause it seems to hurt so much!) and I am attempting to soldier on to update this woefully out of date blog. I'll attempt to atone with a few pics of our Christmas hols and of little Petertje.'n sink

Hangin' out with Oma in the hood

Hmmm... what to say? I suppose the first topic of interest would be my nephew. Peter. He is super cute. He is super smart. He smiles. He likes it when you say "booga, booga, booga, meep, meep" to him as you tickle his tummy and squeeze his little nose ever so gently. He eats lots. He is weighing somewhere around the 11 1/2 pound mark. He likes to burp a lot. He is good at crying. He is good at sleeping. He is my little man. I love him to bits. Well, okay, not to bits, cause that wouldn't be good at all, but i love him more each time I see him.

A real Canuck

Hangin' out with Mom in his Oxford tee... he's going places, this one

He seems to change each time, does something else, is bigger, is awake and more responsive. I wish we lived a little closer so i could just go for little update visits, to cuddle him, to give Rach and Mike a bit of a break here and there, something i hope still to do. I was so happy that they were able to spend nearly a week at Mom and Dad's place over the Christmas hols... i loved it so much having our whole family together under one roof for that time, eating meals together, going to church, fellowshipping, hanging around. I love my family so much!My brother-in-law, what else do i say? heehee

Lauren and i, sharing some sisterly bonding time!