F is for Flowers

This summer, Lorne was able to spend quite a bit of time in the garden since he can't work due to his chemotherapy. I think the gardening has been a form of therapy for him because he can get into creating beautiful things for me to admire and for him to forget for a while what he has to endure right now. Our roses did extremely well in the front garden, but the two in the back have been a bit disappointing - we only got a few blooms on them. Lorne also planted several varieties of lilies, which did very well, and we could admire them from the dining room window. His baskets of fuschias flourished again this year with gorgeous blooms and my clematis climbed the fence and gave us numerous blossoms. Here's a little slideshow I created showing some of our flowers from the summer of 2010. One of these days I'll learn how to add music to my slideshows. Oh, and if you double click on the slideshow, you can see it in full screen. Enjoy! And if you wouldn't mind mentioning, which is your favourite flower or photo?

E is for Enormous Edibles

Last summer, Lorne planted 6 tomato plants that grew to be over 7 feet tall. We had an enormous crop of both red and green tomatoes but we ended up having to throw a lot out. I even made a batch of green tomato pickle relish that we haven't managed to eat yet, even though I gave some away!
Ergo, this spring I suggested that we only do 3 or 4 plants. However, "he" ended up getting double the plants we had last year - 12 - so we now have an extremely enormous crop of tomatoes! They're all still green, but eventually, they will ripen and we'll be giving them away! Let's hope we don't get an early fall and they all end up rotting on the vines! The photo only shows part of the crop, too!
Last weeked, Daughter #1 stopped by with the two grandchildren and they were so excited to see these enormous plants. They spent at least half an hour helping 6'2" Lorne water them with his "special" water (full of some sort of growth enhancer). Sure was an easy way to entertain little ones!

D is for Drawbridge, Demolition, Disturbing

The Westham Island Bridge is a drawbridge located in my village of Ladner, BC, Canada. It passes over Canoe Pass in the Fraser River Estuary and connects Ladner with Westham Island. It was officially opened in March 1910 with a lavish banquet and ended the residents' desolation. Today, as we celebrate its 100th birthday, we still cross the original bridge to pick berries or buy produce from local farms, taste wine at the Westham Island Winery, or visit the Reifel Bird Sanctuary. To read more of its history, click here. All photos will embiggen if you click on them.

We had a devastating fire a few months ago right in the downtown area of the village and several stores were destroyed, along with the apartments above these stores. Some of our residents are very artistic and they banded together to decorate the plywood boards that had been erected to deter anyone from entering the area after the buildings had been demolished. I think they did an aDmirable job! Can you see some of the scaffolding in the back right side of the photo? Hopefully, the gap between the stores on the main drag will soon be filled by new stores.

Also demolished recently was Johnny's Store that had been a distinguished institution in the area since 1963. The building, which marked the entrance point to the old village, will be replaced by a two-storey design with retail space on the ground floor and offices above. The owner of Johnny's, Daniel Lee, has said that he's not sure that the store will be back, although he and his family have first dibs once the building is complete. For now, they're traveling in South Korea and relaxing after all their years of dedication to the village. Again, our local artists have deliberately decorated the plywood walls surrounding the building site.

Outside of the village, I love to drive around the back roads looking for delapidated old barns. While cruising one evening with Daughter #2, we came upon this dingy old wreck and took several photos. I gave it a chalk & charcoal look with Photoshop Elements to make it look dreadfully creepy. Does it look as disturbing to you as it does to me? It looks like it's drawing on children to come and explore inside...but...what might dwell there? The devil? Bwaahahahah!!!!

C is for completely common nouns

For this week, I thought I'd do a concise compilation of words beginning with the letter "C." Be sure to click on the pictures to see more detail. First up is my decorative bird cage. When I saw it, I fell into a complete crush of love for it. I would never put a bird in it, because that would distract from its intricate design and also make it unclean. Therefore, it covers half the top of my china cabinet and every time I walk by, I see it and continue to love it. Even though this cage is colossal, a Canada Goose would never fit inside it. So in order to admire these spectacular specimens, one must take the car and drive to the Reiffel Waterfowl Refuge.

Next in my collection of C words is our CD collection ranging from early 60s to current, from the Beatles to Abba to Joe Cocker to Phil Collins to Eric Clapton and beyond all the way to U2.

Coming to my next picture, we have an antique clock. This clock was refurbished by Lorne's Dad many many moons ago, but the innards need to be replaced in order for it to actually chime on the hour. In the meantime, we know it keeps the correct time twice a day. Next to the clock is one of pretty much everyone's favourite carbohydrate vegetable - the lowly corn on the cob. Did you know that in the past corn was cultivated as food for pigs, and that the cobs can be made into corncob pipes or into charcoal? Hmmm, better be careful not to overcook them on the barbecue!

Finally, I wanted to show you two cushions that one of my sisters gave me (2 different Christmases). They are definitely conversation pieces and I love to kid people that the one on the left is true. And whenever I'm not in the mood for conversation, I just hold the other one up in front of my face!

Well, there you have my collection of C words for this week's ABC Wednesday. I hope you all have a cracking good week and I'll catch you all next week for the letter D.

B is for Beautiful Beaches & Broken Beer Bottles

I think beaches is the perfect word for this week! Our weather has been perfect - not too hot and not too cold, not too windy and not too still - just the right temperature for beautiful summer days.

Here is my favourite photo of my local beach called Centennial Beach, taken several years ago when my brave little grandson, wearing his blue t-shirt went toddling off on his own to explore. (Mommy and Gramma were watching closely, mind you.) There is a wonderful new play area at this beach now, so we should go back, this time with his baby sister. Be sure to click on the photos to see the detail better!

The next beach we frequent fairly often is about a 20-minute drive northeast to the village of Steveston. We park at Garry Point and watch the boats - sailboats, whale-watching boats, and tankers - heading out of the fresh water tributary of the Fraser River into the Strait of Georgia.

There are several beaches in the city of Vancouver, notably Spanish Banks (below), Kitsilano, and English Bay where you'll always find singles, adults, and families enjoying themselves. If you go, be sure to get some of our famous fish 'n chips from one of the many stands. From Spanish Banks, you have a brilliant view of downtown Vancouver. It was at this beach when I was 5 years old, that I knelt down in the shallow water to play and ended up right on top of a broken beer bottle. The doctor said he could hear me scream all the way at his office 20 blocks away! Several stitches later, I bear the scar to this day!

I've travelled by ferry to our very famous "Sunshine Coast" and meandered along the many beautiful beaches over there. There are lots of coves there, too, where back in the day you'd find smugglers bringing in rum and other contraband. The water and weather is perfect for sailing in this area, too! Can you see those gorgeous sailboats? I wish I were on one of them right now!

I have had the privilege of dipping my toes in the Pacific Ocean in the west and in the Atlantic Ocean from both sides. The first time was on the beach at Prince Edward Island and the second time was in Biarritz, France. I don't think I could live anywhere in the world unless I was near the ocean.

Now to one of my favourite beautiful beaches of all time - in Lerici, Italy. This was the view from my hotel room the first night out of Rome after driving for about 4 hours north to the Italian Riviera. Lounging on my patio, it was beatific to sip red vino while admiring the view all the way to sunset over the Mediterranean! Hope you all get a chance to spend some time on a beautiful beach in your neighbourhood. You can find them on lakes, rivers, seas, oceans! Just watch out for any broken beer bottles!

A is for ANXIETY, ART

I really didn't want to continue in a vein of worry over Lorne's chemotherapy, but this week's treatment has been postponed due to some complications with his health. Therefore, the word ANXIETY reared its ugly head and it's all I can feel or think about. Apparently, both his red and white blood cells are very low to the point where they need to get them up before any more chemo can be given or else it could make him very very sick or even put him in danger. In the meantime, he has to have a shot every day. When he said I'd have to give it to him, I panicked and said, "NO!" because I know myself and prefer if he goes over to the public health nurse. This is a very anxious time for both of us, but we will persevere.

So let's move on now and think of some other happy A words. As a teacher, I automatically think of A is for Apple. But, pondering my years as an academic, I recall one of my favourite units in ART where I taught the students about Impressionism using Claude Monet as an example. We had such fun over the weeks as we experimented with pointillism, reflections, and making our own works of art using impressionistic techniques.

Another favourite unit in Art for both my students and myself was Abstract Art. One lesson had the students use a regular pencil and without stopping and starting again, make swirls and squiggles all over the paper. The next step was to use pencil crayons and colour each section in different colours. This usually took the whole hour lesson (and for some, even more time was needed). The next time we had Art, the students would use a sharpie and outline all the sections. Next, they chose a partner and they would take turns looking at their pieces of Art from all angles and from varying distances until suddenly, they "saw" something - a bird, a house, an animal, a piece of fruit, a tree, whatever! This led into creating a title for their artwork. They chose a coloured piece of construction paper upon which they glued the picture. Now their art was "framed" in a lovely co-ordinating colour. I would type up the titles they'd chosen on labels that the students stuck on the "frame." All the Artwork was then displayed on the hallway bulletin board for all the other classes to admire.

Now I must admit that I am not an Art teacher! But because I had to teach it, I had to learn a bit about it. And I found that it was one of my favourite classes. Towards the end of the year, one student's mother (who is an artist) came in for about 5 or 6 times to lead the class in making tile art. Each student had that piece of art to put somewhere in their garden or cement it into their sidewalk.

I can't believe that this is Round 7 already for ABC Wednesday! Huge thanks to Denise Nesbitt for coming up with this idea and keeping it going, now with a whole team of volunteers to help her out.

Z is for ZERO

September 11, 2001 - a day never to be forgotten by the world! Even though I live on the opposite coast to New York City (now and forevermore known as Ground Zero) and in another country (Canada), I will never forget that day for as long as I live.
I awoke to my alarm clock reminding me it was no longer summer and that I had to get going to school where my new class would greet me. Sleepily, I reached for the TV remote and flicked on the news. At first, I thought I had the wrong channel and that a movie was on. But after changing channels, ending up at CNN, I immediately realized that what was happening was real!
Not bothering to shower, I quickly dressed with one eye on the TV, when suddenly the second plane hit the tower! All I could think was that World War 3 had begun!
Thankfully, my school was close to my home and I was there early just like all the other staff. The principal quickly set up one of the televisions in the library where we all gathered around, many of us in tears. We had to decide how to talk about what was happening to the children without scaring them to death.
My older daughter phoned me in panic, wondering whether she should go to work. At that time, she worked in one of the towers in downtown Vancouver and there were concerns that some unidentified aircraft were approaching the city. Later that morning, the building was temporarily evacuated, but it turned out to be nothing.
This horrific attack on the World Trade Center affected not only those innocent people involved - injured, killed, survivors and all types of aide workers - but also people around the free world. We here in Vancouver worried about being so close to Seattle where the Boeing airplanes are built and being directly south of Alaska. No one was safe during that time and hearts were pounding in horror everywhere.
I pray that all types of terror and war will one day end, and we will be able to live in peace with zero worries in this respect.
Is it possible?

Y is for YEE-HAW

Yee Haw is a slang expression used mostly by cowboys that means, "Hooray, let's go!" Here's a typical country song by Jake Owens - click here!

Years ago, when I was fairly newly widowed (I say "fairly" because it took me a few years to recover, if you ever do), I decided I needed something to do besides read, watch TV, or take the dog for a walk. So a girlfriend and I did some research and learned that there were line dancing lessons not too far from home. So off we went in search of a little fun. And we found it! There were more women (in all shapes and sizes) than men, but we didn't care. Neither of us had been country music fans but we soon caught onto the beat and followed the leader stepping out high with hands on hips, doing turns and swirls and Yee-Haw-ing to each other! We took home lessons and music suggestions and it wasn't long before I was taking the dog for walks while listening to Billy-Ray Cyrus on my Walkman - it helped to keep up my pace.


So take a gander at the Jake Owens song "Yee-Haw" and you'll see what I mean about the beat.

X is for eXtra Difficult Days

I couldn't decide which X word to use this week, so I decided to just update everyone on news of some things we've been going through lately that have been extra difficult.

A week ago Monday, Lorne had his second chemotherapy treatment, which is bad enough. But by 7:00 pm he was shivering and shaking so badly I took his temperature - turned out it was around 104F. I dialed 811 (the Nurses' Hotline) to ask if I should take him to emergency and the answer was definitely YES! So off we went, where he stayed overnight. He was put in isolation immediately and tests showed that he had an infection somewhere in his body. IVs were started - saline plus antibiotics. Around 3:00 am, his fever was still at 104F so they had to put him in an ice bath. He told me it was like torture! That helped and between that and another bag of IV antibiotics his temperature finally came down to normal. It took a day or so more for him to feel better, especially since the oral antibiotics he had to take (2 different kinds) made him sick to his stomache.

Something else that was Xtra difficult was that my friend had breast cancer surgery on Tuesday. Luckily, it was only a lumpectomy - so far. Now we're waiting for the biopsies to come back to see if she'll need more surgery. However, she's already been told she'll need chemo plus radiation. I went over to stay with her on Wednesday and today I drove her to pay her property taxes (I had to pay mine, too) and then we went to the school (my former one) for her to check out her office. We went out for lunch before I dropped her off, looking a bit paler than she had been when I'd picked her up. I hope she'll have a good rest this afternoon.

Back to Lorne's treatment...this morning he had to have a blood transfusion because his red blood cells are very low. So that was Xtra difficult for him to go through. I hope it helps with his fatigue as he gets depressed that he can't do much. Then he's seeing his GP to try to get into a program where he can deal with some issues of depression and anXiety.

Thursday, July 1, is Canada Day here and we're going to a neighbourhood street party. We'll wheel over our barbecue, lug over a couple of tables and some chairs and have a rip-roaring Xtra special time.

Happy Canada Day to my Canadian friends!

W is for WHY

WALRUS AND WHY

V is for VACATION

...and boy do I need a vacation! This past year has flown by due to many things that I won't get into here. And because Lorne has to pursue health issues, we won't be able to take a vacation anywhere. So I will just reVel in some of my past memorable vacations and spend this summer living vicariously through them.

My first trip to England and France was awesome! I had sworn that I would get to France before I turned 50 and I made it! After spending a week in England, my friend Cathy and I took the ferry across to Calais - a very quick trip - and when we arrived I felt like kissing the ground! Many memories come flooding back to me - wine tasting, dining al fresco in Lyon, Monaco and its great casino, climbing the Pyrenees to cross the border into Spain, dipping my toes in the Atlantic Ocean in Biarritz, visiting chateaux in the Loire River Valley, visiting Monet's home in Giverny, Normandy and the World War II museum, and of course Paris and all it has to offer. Just for fun, instead of posting a typical "touristy" photo of the Eifel Tower, see if you can find me in the above photo taken just outside the casino in Monte Carlo.

I took my older daughter on a tour of England and Scotland one year. We also touched into Wales where we had Welsh ice cream and petted sheep along a hillside on our way back into England. Poor Jamie got sick in Glasgow and I had to leave her at the hotel somewhere between Aberdeen and Edinburgh while the rest of us took a day trip to the Isle of Skye. I remember buying a scarf in the "Leslie" tartan and a lovely wool throw blanket in one of my family's tartan. We had a great time in London, too, hopping on and off the double-decker bus. Below left is me at St. Andrew's, Scotland on the beach where "Chariots of Fire" was filmed. On the right is Jamie at Warwick Castle in England watching this jester play the two flutes through his nose!

Then there was Italy in 2006, which you can read about in my archives on this blog. That was a trip of a lifetime, spending a month there and getting to see out-of-the-way places where most tourists don't get to go. We ate, we drank vino, we ate, we touristed, we ate, we drank...did I say we drank lots of vino? There were spectacular views of the Mediterranean from Lerici in the north-west, from the Amalfi Coast south of Rome, and from Taormino in Sicily. The photo shows one of my favourite things to do while in Italy!

The last place I want to mention here is the Grand Canyon. My friend Suzanne, who lives just outside of Phoenix, took me there in February of 2006. We drove through Sedona and stayed overnight in Flagstaff. The canyon was the most stunning vista I have ever seen! You just cannot imagine it unless you've seen it with your own eyes. I only wish I were young and agile enough to travel by mule all the way down to the Colorado River!

So, as I "stay-cation" this summer, I will get out all my photo albums and relive my past travels and dream about where I'll go next year. Happy Vacation to all of you who have plans.

U is for UBER

"Uber" is German for the word "above," but more commonly it's used on the internet for being the best, the top, the supreme, the highest of highest.

Yesterday, we had "uber" treatment at the hospital. It was a very long day, beginning at 7:45 am when we reported to the Cancer Clinic for Lorne to have his PICC line inserted. Neither of us knew much about a PICC line, so we were both very nervous about the whole procedure. However, the nurse, a specialist in this procedure, put us both at ease by explaining exactly what she was going to do, how, and why. She was right when she said the worst part was the tournique and the freezing needle. After that, it was a breeze just waiting for the angel-hair-pasta-sized tube to work its way up the large vein to the heart. I nearly came unglued, though, at one point but managed to control myself. Lorne was a trouper through it all and after his x-ray to make sure it was positioned correctly (and then readjusted), we went and had some breakfast.

I cannot honestly say that the food in the hospital cafeteria was uber, but then that's not what needed to be. A little after 10:00 am, we returned to the CC and Lorne was hooked up to his special cocktail(s). We also had visits from the hospital chaplain, a dietician, and a social worker - all of whom I'd call uber personnel.

I stayed and read my book while Lorne was undergoing his treatment, but when his non-uber lunch arrived, I headed back up to the cafeteria for something to try to undo the pounding headache that had persisted all morning. I came back an hour later when he was almost finished his treatment, waited about another half hour, and guided him out to the car.

I almost came unglued again in the car just from the relief of that first session being over! But when we got home, Lorne said he was going to mow the front lawn! I almost became unduly frightened that the PICC line would come out, but made myself recall what the nurse had said about him going about business as normally as possible. So I forced myself to get busy with other things and let him do his thing.

So far so good with regard to any nausea, pain, or other post-chemo complications. Maybe he'll be one of the lucky ones who tolerates the entire treatment without difficulties. Fingers crossed!

First Roses

My roses are blooming! Yes!

My favourite one is called Hot Cocoa Rose because it has a sort of brownish tint to it.

And it smells wonderful, too.

A Little Budding Rose

by Emily Bronte

It was a little budding rose,

Round like a fairy globe,

And shyly did its leaves unclose

Hid in their mossy robe,
But sweet was the slight and spicy smell

It breathed from its heart invisible.