9 Moons Ago

  

Lately, most of my entries have been mainly written as a way to keep in touch with family and friends, and this one is no exception. The only problem is that I haven’t been writing regularly, due to the broken elbow and two lethargy-inducing colds in a row. I think my immune system is shot!
I know this will change, though, so if you’re tired of seeing the same old post half-a-month later, just know that it is a temporary lapse!
And there are plans for a return to artwork, too . . . but one thing at a time!

Here’s a pictorial run-down of my birthday fun, a couple of weeks ago:
Cam bought me some beautiful flowers and a chocolate mud cake cake -and lit 32 candles!!!

(Gotta love the classy 1970′s pitcher!)

Mom and Kathy sent me some great new clothes, and some pictures of my sweet nephew, Isaac.

And, of course, the boys always love to help celebrate!

  

Well, the site has been down for a couple of days, but everything has been running smoothly for a good number of hours now, so -fingers crossed- it’s all fixed up now. The email list, however, is playing up, so I’m looking into that matter later this week. Of course, I’ll email everyone once it’s fixed, and you can still contact me easily enough if you want to comment on anything or be added to the mailing list.

Spent a lovely couple of days with the Miller Clan, celebrating Melissa’s Birthday! YAY! I gave her a lovely bunch of flowers from the garden, and a card from Cam and myself. Mum made a special roast pork dinner for lunch and a Toblerone cheesecake..Y.U.M.!! Got to hear all about Mel’s trip to the Cook Islands, where she was student teaching, and her new boyfriend. Lots of gorgeous beach pictures, and beautiful people. Loved the pics of Mel wearing a wreath of flowers on her head, looking very tropical indeed!
Adrian and Daniel came over as well, and it was good to catch up with them. Eb was there, too and in the evening, I took out my sketchbook and drew her portrait. I felt pretty rusty, but something about the drawing captured Ebony’s spirit, and Mum and Dad loved it. So I’m copying the original, then giving it to them.

Today we priced scanners, and most of them were $120 or more, and then we stopped at a place that I jokingly call “Dodgy Brothers” for various reasons, but in reality they are nice guys that work there, and my reasons are unfounded. Well, 10 minutes later we not only have a scanner, but it’s also a printer, and can print photos! It was $89! And we’ve tested it (except for the photos on photo paper) and it’s great! We’ve been needing a printer anyway, and just figured it was a low priority at this point because we haven’t used one in all this time. So YAY!!

I bring you my first scanned artwork. Portrait of Ebony:

That’s it for tonight..it’s waaay late..time for bed!

  

Today’s notes: Well, today was a lot less strenuous. I decided to take it a bit easier, but did manage to knock some cobwebs down and sweep up some dog hair. We also did the grocery shopping, which we hadn’t done yesterday. Finally dropped off a bag of clothing, which has been in the trunk for a few weeks now, at a donation bin at the local church. Nice weather again today..even a bit chilly. Soon time to take down the tree…it’s starting to dry up. Looking forward to a party at Daniel’s on the 28th. “It’s gonna be fun, it’s gonna be fun!”

Reflecting on the Subject of “What We Go Through For Our Niece”: Have a few pics to share of Cameron and myself at Ebony’s mercy. Actually, we don’t mind doing stuff like this for her. She’s usually the only kid over at Mum and Dad’s, so she sometimes gets bored. I once bought her a couple of Mad Libs books and everyone was ready to strangle me for that after a few days because she loved it so much that she would constantly bombard us with requests for “nouns”, “verbs” and “adjectives”.
Here she is giving me a tattoo a few weeks ago:

I think I was lucky, compared to what happened to Cam on Christmas Day:
Tomorrow’s notes: If the weather is nice I’ll do some more garden work. Wash the new dish towels and a few other things and hang on the line. Trash goes out..good day to declutter! I’ll see if I can’t draw something in my sketchbook. Get the paper. Read a little. Make a fruit salad. Dance to some good music!

  

For Sarah, I took a picture of our Charlie Brownish Tree. I’ll take a picture of it again when it’s looking a little more spruce-d up! Har Har.

The weekend has been really good so far. On Friday we headed over to Worco, a factory co-op where Cam used to make his business card boxes. It’s a great place where the members have studio spaces and there are all types of craftsmen and artisans there; furniture restorers and makers, leadlighters, sculptors, instrument makers, and blacksmiths, and so on and so forth. We happened to drop in on the day they had their Christmas Barbeque, so that was a yummy stroke of luck!

Caught up with Alastair McAllister, a world renowned harpsichord maker, and very sweet guy who is constantly telling jokes and Warren Nolan-Fordham, a violin maker, who had us chuckling as well. I looked at Warren’s bench and I still am amazed that a precise and elegant musical instrument comes straight from a dense pile of wood shavings, dusty antique bottles of glue and polish, and a hodge podge of tools. He had a surprise for us as well. An instrument he recently acquired, called a stroviol. It’s a turn-of-the-century violin (of sorts) that has a small victrola-like bell attached to it which makes it sound almost like it’s being played on a 78 record. It’s also got a small piece that you can sing or whistle into as you play, and it amplifies it. As soon as he started to play I was aware of a huge smile of delight spreading across my face. It was too cool! We took pictures of it, but now that I think about it, maybe we’ll go back a take a mini-movie of it and see if I can’t post it up here! But for now here are the pics:

Warren

Warren’s bench

Warren playing the stroviol. (Alastair is in the background)

A close up of the stroviol.

After going to Worco, we headed to Mum and Dad’s, to have dinner with friends of the family, Christine and Leslie. We received a set of pretty glasses from them as a gift, and had a fine time talking at dinner. The menu was delicious: pea and ham soup, pickled pork (tastes like corned beef) and homemade applesauce, and veggies. Also a few lovely glasses of wine and later on, cheese and crackers.

Christine is an survivor of leukemia and an athlete who competes (and wins gold) in the Transplant Games. She carried the torch in the relay for the Summer Olympics and is set to do it again for this year’s Winter Olympics. Very active and involved person. She is a nurse as well, and is often traveling around the world to compete in athletic events or go to various concerts with college students. Anyway, it was nice to talk to her and Leslie again to catch up on the news from the past year.

When the guests had left, Mum, Cam and I stayed up till one, talking over pistachios and dry gingerale. Yum, again.

Today we swung round to Daniel’s for a quick visit, and tea/coffee (and a taste of homemade wine). He’s planted corn and sunflowers in his yard, and they are looking great! We laughed at the cat swatting at a piece of green corn husk on the floor in the kitchen and running away from Daniel’s whistling through his teeth. Daniel insists it’s a very good skill to have, in case you need to laugh at something while you are whistling.

The drive home was beautiful, as it was a sunny day, but slightly windy. Goldie was very happy to see us, and I made some banana fritters for a late lunch and we listened to Christmas songs while checking email and putting clean sheets on the bed. No plans for tomorrow yet. But I’m going to try to get a walk in, to help combat the total food blow-out of the past two days! But, it was really cool to hang out with some of the most interesting people I’ve had the pleasure to meet. Must do lots more of it in the New Year as well!

*UPDATE* The video of the stroviol:
Warren Nolan Fordham Playing the Stroviol