The Blink and the Blank

The week was a blink.We were marshalled to do sensible things like getting rid of books, redundant electronics and more electronics. That went very smoothly and efficiently as our Marshal was focused.On Wednesday we took in the movie "The King's Speech"In which there is no violence and no nudity just how to fail and succeed royally. On Friday I attended a session on Mindfulness given at Bethany. It is a very mind blowing cognitive tool.

Orin and Facetime

Last Friday Isabel was at her dance class and this allowed Orin to have a bath all by himself. His Mother had the bright idea to call us and so Orin, at under one, could see us on their iphone and we could see him on our ipod touch. No wonder Apple shares are so high.Orin made sounds at us and Aunt Sarah. That 10 minutes of ogling was pure delight. And now I have to go and call my Mother on the google phone. We are thankful for devices.

A Blast from the Past (1986)

I found a letter that I did not send dated August 8 1986 to my brother and his family when they worked at Duke University.
Dear Chong and Margaret,
Come your birthday (Chong's)it will be a month less a day since we came home from our Grand Tour. We enjoyed and recall with pleasure our visit with you.David is very taken with James. We did go on the last section of the Skyline Drive(105 miles) and came out to a town called Front Royal. We stayed there for the evening and continued on to Rochester in the morning.
The slow drive along the Blue Ridge at an average height of 2500'was refreshing;we saw over 50 deers. The waves of neighbouring hilltops entangled in mists were a delight to David, the older ones were too sophisticated to show enthusiasm,while we were only too willing to join David. From Rochester we re- entered Canada at Niagara,an area familiar to Ian.We proceeded to behave like tourists,classy ones of course. The kids and Ian saw the falls from a helicopter and took video from that perspective.An added bonus was the presence of rainbows. Hunger struck and we had to look for a place where hamburgers were not 4.50 each.
After lunch a short drive took us to Welland where Ian showed the kids the various houses he had stayed in when they first came fro England.We stayed at a motel a little way outside of Niagara but still on route to Toronto. On reaching Toronto we went to an area on Lake Ontario developed as an Amusement Park known as Ontario Place.Quite middle-brow after Smithsonian Institute but fun in its own way.An item of technological excellence is the facility for showing films on a curved screen bigger than cinemascope,as well as ,an almost 3-D effect. Everybody let their hair down and did silly things like going in paddleboats and down water chutes. We did not go far that day but bedded down in a motel called The Flying Dutchman just outside Oshawa. The next day we headed for Brockville to visit CJFR,a radio station where Ian Had worked for 2 years.His ego was pleasantly assuaged when the boss's son showed him a picture of himself (Ian) working as a broadcaster at the Montreal Expo in 1967,the picture is still on their public relations portfolio. Having done the nostalgia bit we proceeded to Ottawa and checked in at a Best Western motel. As it was still early in the evening we took the kids to have a look at the Parliament buildings and was able to grab the last official guided tour. We planned to stay another day and night in Ottawa and thus was able to visit Ian's brother Richard who lived 30 miles outside of Ottawa. From Ottawa it was a long drive to Edmunston,New Brunswick. Mercifully, the Best Western motel we checked in had a heated pool with a lounge area and the kids and us were able to unwind. Next day was a long drive home. We got a lot of satisfaction out of the venture.

The Granary

I left a 4 lb bag of brown rice encased in thick and strong plastic on a clothes drying rack (brand name Jasmine cargo rice) in late October. On December 5 I went away with the 3 cats as entourage leaving the house unoccupied. On my return on January 1 I decided to put things in some appropriate order and so pick up this bag of rice and was surprised at the light weight;it was cleanly empty. I saw two holes, the larger the size of a quarter and the other half the diameter of a dime. Not a grain in the bag or spilled on the floor. Admiringly,I showed the plastic bag to Ian and Sarah, whereupon Sarah said that she found brown rice in a shoe box containing letters, and thought that this was my way of keeping letters fragrant. Today she found a mound of rice behind the books on the shelf in an adjacent room. I would have love to have had a camera installed to record such industry. Not a grain on the routes from granary to caches.

A flowering

We came home on Jan 1 travelling on clear roads and more importantly a snow free driveway. The 3 cats were released and the thermostat set higher and we settled in.
The next day I put on the wood stove to feel the radiant heat, a labour -intensive difference from that provided by the heat pump at David and Tiresa's house. Both are green technologies,one is post Neanderthal and the other is 21 century. Why post Neanderthal? Because the stove does have a catalytic unit which allows for a cleaner burn and the operator understands catalysis at a low brow level.
Today I woke up to a valley of dark branches bearing white blossoms.Very tranquil with momentary sunlight on and off. When on, the light sparkled off the crystal beads on the clothesline.