My sister

My little sister Jennifer turned 51 this month.
I remember the day she was brought home from the hospital, laid on my parent's bed, and promptly sneezed.
I was worried.

Jennifer (in the red coat), Winnipeg, mid 1970s

  But she survived, thrived and we moved to Winnipeg to endure the cold prairie winters.

Me, Michael and Jennifer, 2013

She was a middle child, sandwiched between me and our younger, entertaining brother.
She excelled in music and sports and was always cracking us up.


She married Jean-Marc, a Franco-Manitoban, moved to Ottawa, Manila New York and back to Ottawa, all the while working or volunteering in early childhood education.

Jen and I eating  Halo Halo in Manila, 2003

Talking about children,

Nic, Jean-Marc, Jen and Luc 2013

she is the proud mother of Nic and Luc, two busy teenagers

Sisters working on papers 2014

She went back to school in 2013, excelled and recently convocated from the University of Western Ontario with her Masters degree in Professional Education. Mum and I were there to cheer her on!

Way to go Jen! 

Then the whole family celebrated her achievements!

 

Jen, I'm proud of you!

The Chosen Ones

Sunee Dhaliwal

One of the benefits of working at a college is ready and inexpensive access to all kinds of entertainment events.

Last night Keith and I attended Comedy Night at the college, a student fundraiser sponsored by Yuk Yuk's Comedy Club.

As usual, Keith suggested we sit at the back, worried that we might be singled out in the front rows or worse, asked to come up on stage.

We were a little worried that the dialogue would be full of f-bombs or not suitable for our older sensibilities.

The first comic asked for volunteers to be on stage and sure enough picked a couple of women in the second row. Whew!

We were pleasantly surprised to find the comedians 'laugh out loud' funny, clean and thoroughly entertaining and we weren't the only people over 30 in attendance.

The last comic was particularly hilarious and really engaged the crowd.

He described the 'exciting' towns he's travelled to on the comedy circuit and asked if anyone had been to Whitehorse.  Innocently I raised my hand. He pointed at me and asked "Why?" I replied: "For work". He said: "Of course" and asked: "Why else would anyone go there?" Yada yada.

He later singled out Keith who he pointed at and called "The teacher at the back who claps twice after each joke". He then referred to him several times as "Mr. Double Clap".

At the end of the show he came up to us with a big smile on his face and apologized saying: "With the lights shining on my face you were the only two people I could see!"

So, in future we'll sit in the middle!

Take time to smell the roses

When I was a little girl we lived near my grandparents in Montreal. My grandfather loved to garden in his retirement. He grew vegetables and flowers and often entered his roses into competitions, and many times won a prize.  I guess that is where I get my love of flowers. 

Stef took Keith and I to Portland's International Rose Test Garden. It is the oldest official continuously operated public rose garden in the US and features more than 10,000 roses.  

Despite it being early October, the roses were in their blooming and smelling glory. We walked around for over an hour and took in the beauty and scent of hundreds of rose bushes. I have never seen so many flowers in one place. Grampy would have loved it!  

Stef inhaling some yellow tea roses. 

The garden is immense planted on several tiered levels. 

A sign of fall, spider webs among the roses. 

With all these choices Stef and I could not decide which roses we liked the best. Next year we'll go back and find out!

Magnificent Trees

This is the second blog about our trip down the Washington and Oregon Coasts.

We witnessed immense, towering hemlock, spruce, fir and cedar trees, similar to the giant Kauri trees we saw in New Zealand. To think that all these trees start from a tiny seed, and grow to be as tall as 200 ft. with as much as a 59 foot circumference and live for a century!

I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.

A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the earth's sweet flowing breast;

A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;

A tree that may in summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;

Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.

Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.       

Joyce Kilmer

Douglas Fir Trees along Rialto Beach, Washington

One of the world's largest Sitka Spruce trees - high winds last year knocked the top off this 700 year old tree. 

Moss covered Maple trees 

in the Hoh Rainforest,Washington

Giant 1000 year old Sitka Spruce tree at Quinault Lake

191 feet tall, 59 feet in circumference and 100 years old and still magnificent and growing! 

              

Beautiful Beaches

Keith and I just finished a wonderful week long trip south. We traveled down the west coast of Washington State and in Olympic National Park then continued down the northern Oregon Coast before heading east to Portland then north to Anacortes where we caught a ferry back home.

Our main reason for taking this trip was to see Stefanie while she is on a school break, between her first and second year.  But we also wanted to cross off something on our bucket list, the Oregon Coast, a trip we have wanted to do for a very long time.

It was the beautiful beaches and vistas that attracted us, similar to the Great Ocean Road we traveled in South Australia in 2012. The views did not disappoint!

Sea Scags make for breathtaking sites. Rialto Beach, Washington

Rialto Beach, Washington

Ruby Beach, Washington

Ruby Beach, Washington

Seaside, Oregon - beautiful but cold water, only about 12 Celsius! 

Looking South from Arch Cape

The view of Cannon Beach, Oregon from Ecola State Park

Cannon Beach Rock and Haystack

Cannon Beach, Oregon

Rockaway Beach Arch

Oyster Shell

Cape Lookout, Oregon

Cape Lookout, Oregon

Cape Kiwanda, Oregon

Cape Kiwanda Haystack, Oregon

Immense logs on many of the beaches from the huge trees.  For more trees, check out the next blog!

Visitors in Victoria

Having lived in Edmonton for a long time, living in a tourist town is a new experience for us.

The best part is people come and visit us!  We’ve had lots of visitors this summer who want to see us and the sights.  So we went to see the sights with them… thus getting to know our new town even better.

Some highlights.

Keith’s daughter and son-in-law Kristine and Jeremy and granddaughter Mary came for a week.  We had Mary all to our selves for a couple of days so we took her to:

Moss Street Market to eat organic strawberries

Beacon Hill Park to see the peacocks

and pet the goats 

What's Victoria without a walk (or ride on Grandpa's back) on the beach?

Hatley Castle aka Royal Roads University

The gardens at Hatley Castle

 My sister was just here visiting Mum on Pender.  She came over to Victoria and we decided to try out the restaurant at the Robert Bateman Gallery which overlooks the Inner Harbour.  We also experienced a tea and chocolate tasting at Silk Road, which have been operating in Victoria for 23 years and even grow some of their own tea on the south island.

My sister Jennifer and my Mum and I at Medicine Beach, Pender Island

Jen, me and Keith at the Steamship Grill with the Coho Ferry behind us 

Jen and I at a tea and chocolate tasting at Silk Road Teas

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Surprises!

Some people don't like surprises, even the spontaneous, fun and well intentioned ones.
I don't mind them.  I've had lots of good surprises in my life.
It was my birthday yesterday.  My Mother invited me over to Pender Island, where she lives, for the day. She said to bring old clothes as I would be doing something creative but she wouldn't say what.
So I packed my bag and Keith dropped me off at the ferry terminal bright and early in the morning.

As I sat on the ferry for the 40 minute ride e-mails and texts kept coming in on my phone from friends and family from all over the world. I couldn't believe how many people remembered my birthday. I was feeling very blessed!

My Mum and her husband picked me up at the Otter Bay ferry terminal on Pender and as we were walking to the car I heard someone singing Happy Birthday.  I turned around and there to my shock was my Aunt Judy - my mother's sister and her daughter, my cousin Angela.

Aunt Jude, Mum, Allen and Angela

When we arrived at the house a craft table full of stuff - styrofoam, tin foil, wire, masking tape etc.had been set up for us to do Paverpol, a Dutch invention that is a form of goop that covers these items to make ornaments of any size and shape.
Here we are ready to go.

And here are two of our creations, my owl and Angela's birds.
They still need a final coat of paint and finishing touches but they are pretty good for a day of fun and playing!
A day of surprises!