Wolfville Arbor Day

Almost the end of April, and that means deadlines are looming. One for taxes, which are mostly finished. The other one needs to update his banking info with Rev Can before we can e file and get the whopping $26 return. The other deadline is snow tires need to be swapped before the end of the month because we have studded ones on the truck. I went to see my friendly neighbourhood garage mechanic today after work and gave him a hug to ensure that he would be able to do that for me tomorrow.
Time does speed by when you are forced to spend all day at work. I am into week two now, and I am still holding up OK. Today was Wolfville Arbor Day. A local businessman donated 85 trees to the town to be planted on public and private land. We organised 8 volunteers from the local Katimavik group, 6 second year Horticulture Students from Kingstec and some town gardener volunteers (who we affectionately call the Gorilla Gardeners) to do the work this morning. I think we got about 50 planted, with still another 35 to go into a local park space later on. This is definitely a fun part of the job, we get to talk to homeowners in town that are thrilled to be getting a new tree for free, and we get to have a celebratory barbecue to say thank you to our volunteers after the hard work is done.

Happy Birthday Peter

It is a beautiful sunny day, and it is my sweeties birthday. Which we both forgot until we were up a few hours and he looked at the date on the computer.
So, as tradition dictates, I am making an Angel Food cake. I don't much like Angel Food cake, and I used to think it was because it came out of a box, so one year I tried making it from scratch just to see if it was better. It was exactly the same, so now I just make it out of the box. It takes 5 minutes, and that is only because I always have to wash the dust out of the bundt pan and the mixer bowl.
You know how the directions say immediately invert the pan on the neck of a bottle to cool? My bundt pan has too narrow a neck to do this, there is no bottle narrow enough to fit. Every year I forget this until I take the cake out of the oven, and then I have to hunt around for various objects in my kitchen that might work. This year it was the knob on the butter dish that worked.

Peter got three tonnes of sand for his birthday. Not terribly romantic, but it will help to bury the power cable that runs to the garage when we get the power upgrade. Which, yet again was postponed until next Wednesday. That makes the fifth time it has been postponed by our electrician, if anyone is counting. If anyone ever wonders why it takes us so long to renovate the house, this would be one example of a delay that is not our fault.
The delay has not been all bad. The temperature has warmed up to freezing, which will make digging easier. Sometimes we are very lucky.

Like last weekend for example, we went and got a new snow blower. Notice I didn't say buy. We stole it out of my father's shed as he can't use it anymore so he decided this year to get the local plow operator to clear his drive instead. Our last snow blower died during the last snowstorm, and we were lucky enough to get the new one the day before the next snowfall. Lucky. Thanks Dad.

More Birthday Loot

I was so excited about the Muppets and the gingerbread that I forgot I bought myself a present last November. Today at lunch I poured my first cup of tea into this mug by Ghita Levin. It looks like a soft slab constructed pot, but it has no seam. She told me she used dowels of increasing diameters to roll a donut of clay from the inside. The glaze and clay texture makes me think of fish scale leather. Which is nicer than it sounds. The mug has finger and thumb divots that make it very comfortable to hold.

Happy Birthday to Me

My sweetie is making me a cake as I type. Gingerbread. MMMMMM
With whipped cream. MMMMMMM

When anyone asks I tell them I'm 39, the same age as my mother. I've been using that line for a few years now.

I saw a T-shirt last weekend that said:

Looks 30
Acts 20
Feels Like 60
I must be 40

For my younger friends who reach that milestone this year, I'll be sending that along presently.

And, I got this. Anyone of a certain age in Canada should recognize the Muppet Frog Prince, which Jim Henson produced for the CBC in the early 70's (or maybe late 60's). It is tough to find because they haven't re-issued it since the early 90's. This pre-loved copy came from my friend Susann, who always knows what I really want.

Happy Flag Day

OK, I missed Valentine's Day yesterday. I mean I didn't really miss it, I did remember to wish the big cuddly guy a happy one yesterday morning when I got up, but we don't do the cards, chocolates, flowers thing.
Although the big guy bought a 22" flat screen for the computer (with his birthday money from his Mom) and we did watch a Terry Pratchett movie on it last night as a treat for me, so I guess in our own non-romantic way we did do something special.
But, as I forgot about the rest of you, let me make it up now by saying Happy Flag Day. (And if your not in Canada reading this, too bad.)
And just to prove that Canadians aren't stuffy about what they do to their flag, check out this video on utube.
Jecht's New Hair

Remembrance Day Rant

Before I toddle off to a ceremony downtown at the cenotaph this morning, I would like to confess that I didn't get a poppy this year. Usually, I get two or three because you lose them right. And then I hit on the practise of using a small pin with a back to keep them on and that works very well. But this year I couldn't even find a poppy tray to get a poppy. I started looking on Nov 2 when the TV newscasters started sporting theirs on the CBC evening news. (This, in my opinion, is about the only useful thing the local evening news in St John's is good for because that program is usually an embarrassing hour of amateur night and technical screw ups, but that is another rant.) Usually poppies are everywhere, and it is easy to find them, but either I'm not going to the right places or there is a distinct lack of poppy trays out there this year.
Now the first option could be the case. In the last two weeks, I have been to the studio, three grocery stores and a drug store postal outlet so it is entirely possible that my lack of consumerism is to blame for my poppylessness. What can I say? I haven't trolled the mall since 1991, and usually it is Study boy that goes to the convenience store on the corner. But until this year I haven't found that to be a problem in my annual November poppy quest.
My question is this: Has anyone else noticed a lack of poppiness in the world this year? I remember that a few years ago there was a great outrage because veterans were being asked not to sell poppies in certain places. Is this a fall out from that policy?
As a result, off I go to the ceremony, feeling naked.

Lost in Translation

At the plant nursery where I work, I am constantly hearing new Newfoundlandisms which I always forget long before I get home. If I thought no one would notice I would keep a notebook with me and scribble them down.
Today being the start of the May long weekend however, I was struck by some idioms important enough to remember.
Firstly, this is the May 24th long weekend. It is not the Victoria Day weekend, Newfoundlanders follow the English tradition in this way. The English never seemed call it Victoria Day either, go figure.
Also, it is not the Two-Four weekend, because ironically you can't buy beer by the TwoFour here. And unless they have been away to Canada (a good bet, but still) they don't know what a TwoFour is. The province which undoubtedly has the highest consumption of beer per capita sells it only by the dozen, or a half.
This lead to the next conversation topic. A half is a 6 pack.
A flask of liquor is what is known as a pint (in Canada).
A quart (in Canada) is simply termed 'a bottle.'
Regardless of the weather (which continues to be RDF all day, everyday) Newfoundlanders go camping and fishing this weekend. Except it isn't called fishing, it's called troutin'. (Fishing is, I suppose, something done in the North Atlantic while looking for cod.)
Many go to the provincial parks and campgrounds around, but a few hardy souls strike out for the wilderness. One woman I work with is doing this as I type, despite the fact the the woods adjacent to the nursery still have 2 feet of snow covering the ground. Newfoundlanders are extremely proud of their May 24th camping tradition, they seem to feel they invented it and that no one else could possibly be doing the same thing this weekend. Camping occupied no less than four separate reports on the supper hour newscast tonight, three of which were weather related. (ie. "How does the weather affect your camping plans this weekend?", "Slow down as you're leaving town because the fog makes visibility difficult." and "An historic look back in the archives to the May 24th weekend of 1984, when there was still 4 feet of snow everywhere and no one could go camping.") The weather forecast, and the cancelled flights at the airport due to the weather rounded out the news hour. I am not making this up.
Before anyone comments, this is the CBC. The other guys are much much worse.
I'm considering putting the St. John's forecast on this blog page. "Cause if you can't beat 'em, maybe you can shoot yourself in the head instead."
We are not embracing the culture and going camping this weekend. I had my share of RDF tenting in BC.

Easter Break and other holidays

In Newfoundland, March Break is referred to as Easter Break, and the schools attach the 5 day recess to the Easter weekend, making it 6 school days and two weekends long. If Easter is late in the year, the week off is the week before Easter weekend and the extra day is Easter Monday. This year though, the extra day was Good Friday and the week off is this week. While this seems like poor Newfoundlanders get shortchanged out of that extra day, in fact they still come out far ahead of the game.
The week before Easter included St Patrick's Day, and that is a civic holiday here. Not to be unfair to one founding group of settlers over the other, I'm told we also have a holiday for St. George's Day which happens in April. (I don't even remember celebrating St. George when I lived in England, but there are none more British than the British abroad.) Also we get Orangeman's Day in July because cultural and religious oppression is still OK here.
Other provincial holidays include Discovery Day in June (sometimes known as St. John's Day) , and Regatta Day in August. July 1 is called Memorial Day, not even Dominion Day as to used to be called in Canada, despite the fact that we still have Dominion Stores here. In fact Newfoundland has more holidays that any other province in Canada by far. We have an extra 6 altogether in addition to the National ones, while the rest of the provinces get only two, or in some cases only one. It's true look it up here.

Pancake Day

It is called Pancake Day here in NL. But whatever you call it; Shrove Tuesday, Fat Tuesday, Mardi Gras... it is a BIG DEAL here. For weeks CBC radio has been advertising that the morning show would be broadcasting from a hotel in the Battery this morning while serving up Pancakes. Every church and community group in the city is hosting a breakfast, lunch or supper of pancakes today. Even Studyboy took the electric frying pan to school today for a special pancake lunch in the sociology department. I cannot stress how important today seems to be for the average Newfoundlander, and all I've been thinking is "If this is how they do Fat Tuesday, what will Easter be like?"
St. John's is a pretty Catholic place, and anticipating that a foreign student friend of Studyboy's would ask about the significance of today's ritual, I consulted a local I know at the pottery studio to get my facts straight. She let me in on an interesting custom I think may be unique to NL.
Newfoundlanders put stuff in their pancakes. I don't mean like blueberries. She listed off a number of unusual items which, when found in your pancake, were meant to predict what you would grow up to be. Such as:
A cross - the recipient would grow up to be a priest or a nun.
A thimble - who ever found this would become a tailor.
Money - the finder would be rich.
A small piece of nail (not too sharp, I was assured) - and I didn't quite get the significance of what the finder would become, although the nail itself was symbolic of the ones used at the crucifixion.
All this was confirmed today by another friend at the studio, who says his mum used to put her wedding ring in the batter, and whoever found it was sure to get married. It was interesting though that he had forgotten or never knew the whole reason for Pancakes to begin with.

Bounty Day

January is a rather dull month excepting that nearly everyone I know including myself and my father have birthdays this month.
So there is not much to write about these days.
January 21 was Dad's birthday, but more importantly I have recently learned from a friend's blog that it is also National Hugging Day.
So I thought to myself "If nationals can get a special day to hug all to themselves, then everyday in the calendar year must have some signifigance somewhere."
I decided to do some research and found some interesting facts about today, January 23, on answers.com

The first thing I found was that Anne Boleyn discovered she was preggo today in 1533. Perhaps she took National Hugging Day a little too seriously. A blunderbuss wedding to Henry ensued.

The next thing to peak my interest was that Sir Edward Pellew died today in 1833, some 300 years after Anne was up the duff (so it couldn't have been him.) This was interesting only because I didn't know he was a real person and not just some character made up by C.S. Forester. (And acted supremely by Robert Lindsay)

I really hit the mark when I discovered this gem about how Pitcairners celebrate an act of vandalism on a ship of the Royal Navy. (Sir Edward would have been aged 33 at this time and probably a Lieutenant or a Commander so he would have taken Bligh's opinion on this episode.) Below is a cut and paste of the original from answers.com, the links don't work, but they do if you go to the original source.

"Bounty Day is celebrated on Pitcairn Island on January 23rd, in commemoration of the burning of HMAV Bounty by the mutineers in 1790. Model replicas, made by the islanders, are burned.

Sequence of events

Bounty Day starts off with the a re-enactment of the landing of the Pitcairners down at the Kingston Pier. The Pitcairners are greeted by the Administrator and his wife.

From the pier they then march to the cenotaph where they lay wreaths in remembrance.

From the cenotaph they march to the cemetery where they sing hymns.

After the cemetery they head on over to Government House where a family being either Evans, McCoy, Buffett, Adams, Nobbs, Christian or Young are awarded family of the year. The children roll down the hill in front of Government House.

After this they go to the Compound where the children play games and everyone feasts on wonderful food.

After this they go home and get ready for the Bounty Ball where there is a competition."

A competition which one assumes would beat rolling down a hill or being named family of the year.
One of my favourite things about the series Gilmore Girls was the crazy town celebrations they always had in Stars Hollow. Truth is stranger than fiction.

No More Sleeps!

Merry Christmas to all from the Cabot Tower in St. John's (Just to prove that we really are here and not just hiding from you all)

Happy Solstice

If you think about it. Everything is really just about how dark it is in December.
We went to a Swedish St Lucia party last week. One of Studyboy's classmates is Swedish so we learned the whole story.
St Lucia is a Catholic Saint, patron of the blind because she had her eyes poked out by a spurned lover. Her feast day is Dec 13. In Sweden, girls wear a crown of candles and sing a song, boys wear a dunce cap with a star and carry a wand. It is the Swedish festival of light. But before Pope Gregory introduced the new calendar and corrected for leap year, Dec 13 was the Winter Solstice, longest, darkest night of the year. So having a Saint with fire hair whose eyes grew back and now she can see in the darkness kind of fits.
Today is Solstice the pagan Festival of Light. We burn candles or Yule logs all night and make wreaths to attract back the sun that has gone for a holiday down south. Can't blame it really.
Later today, thanks to Prince Albert, we're going to haul a tree into the house and cover it with lights and sparkly bits. We call it a Christmas tree, but really, what does a Balsam Fir from Lunenburg County have to do with the birth of a kid in the desert?
Hanukkah finished last week. That was a Festival of Light too. Candles are really popular with everyone at this time of year, especially if the power goes out.
Lights on the house outside, a star on the tree, candles in the window.
Whatever your inclination, burn something today and bring a little enlightenment back into the world.
Happy Solstice

Birthday Greetings

Jake the Dog sends birthday greetings to his Grandma Nonie today, and his Auntie Lou tomorrow.

Guy Fawkes Day

You gotta love a province that celebrates both Halloween and Bonfire Night. That to me is just perfection.
Last Monday was Guy Fawkes Day, and a classmate of Studyboy had the makings of a fire from some renovations but needed a way to transport them to Middle Cove Beach. This was a good enough excuse for us to take the truck for its monthly spin.
We very nearly hit a herd of cows on the road to the beach. Studyboy pointed out the irony of travelling to NL and only hitting a cow instead of a moose. Figuring there would be a fair amount of traffic on that stretch of road we tried to call the Constabulary, but Middle Cove is one of those divine places without cell phone service. So all subsequent arrivals to the fire had the same story of near misses but all the cows survived the night and we were left with only marshmallows to roast.
Studyboy and I, with 25 years of theatre between us didn't think to bring a flashlight for this adventure, so the process of unloading the truck and carrying armloads of nail riddled lumber down to the beach was a little treacherous. Finally though, the pile was built and as no one brought a Guy to our fire, we topped it with a box and used some charcoal to make a face.
He looks a little too happy for someone about to be torched but it was so dark, you couldn't actually see that until I used the camera flash to take a picture.
With the pile in place we had only to wait until the others showed up for the 7pm torch up time. This meant standing around for 30 minutes on a beach in November as a thick fog rolled in, wondering why we hadn't though to bring a hat and mittens.
At 7pm, with only two new arrivals to the party, and out feet going numb, we lit 'er up.
It was the biggest fire on the beach, and also the shortest. The whole pile went up quickly fueled by century old wood and a stiff wind from the ocean. Those who arrived at 7:30 missed it completely. Not ready to give a up yet, some made forays into the dark for more wood, but the beach had been cleared by all the other bonfirers, and all they could find was the waterlogged carcass of a spruce tree. It eventually burned, a little more slowly that the first, and we were all glad.