Winter on the West Coast

El Nino winds have been blowing around the world, keeping parts of Canada warmer than usual.  For the west coast it has resulted in wet, grey and windy weather.

Looking south to the Olympic Mountain Range, faint in the clouds.  

Not the big sky of the Prairies but beautiful nontheless. 

Calm waters and low tide.

We went for a walk  on a beach near us and found it littered with the wreckage of sailboats that had broken from their moorings in the high winds and crashed into the shore.

 

We went back today and the tide was the highest we'd ever seen it. There was no beach to walk on! 

Children were playing on this wreckage yesterday

 Everyday the beach is different.
The power of Mother Nature and the beauty of clouds, spray, wind and foam.

Happy 2016!

Keith and I welcomed the New Year with friends at Hermann's Jazz Club. Typical of Victoria, I think the eight of us at our table were the youngest in the house.  Everyone, and I mean everyone, was dancing and grooving to the music.

We listened to a versatile band play a range of songs from Latin music to Auld Lang Sine to Bruno Mars!

Enjoying the music! 

Keith the party animal 

As has become our New Year's day tradition - well for two years anyway - we went for a walk in a local park.  It was chillier than last year but the sky was a vivid blue.

 Beautiful Arbutus trees

Thetis Lake 

Moss and fern covered tree

No snow but Snowberries 

Mount Baker, Washington

Some crazy guy who thought there was a Polar Bear Swim! 

Wishing you a healthy and happy 2016!

Christmas and the Polar Express

Several years ago my daughter and I saw the movie The Polar Express when it first came out.
We fell in love with the movie.
So when Stefanie came up to Victoria for Christmas she asked if we could go and see it again at the IMAX Theatre.

If you haven't seen it, the movie is about believing in Santa Claus and other miracles of life one cannot see.  Santa's sleigh bell is the symbol of belief.

On Christmas eve we were with Keith's family. Two little people in Santa pajamas were getting excited for Christmas but their mother told me that they don't make a big deal about it.
Despite Christmas being a commercial undertaking, I've noticed that more people value the simple things in life like:

Experiencing a white Christmas when you live in a wet, green climate.

Andrea walking in her new neighbourhood

Jason, Andrea and Stefanie skating

Spending time with family and being able to afford turkey dinner with all the trimmings for 13 of us.

Keith's, Jason's and our family together enjoying the first Christmas dinner in Andrea and Jason's new home

Spending time with children who still believe.
In the movie, the conductor says: "Seeing is believing, but sometimes the most real things in the world are the things we can't see."

Mary enjoying a book with her grandparents 

Friendship. In the movie the conductor says: "There is no greater gift than friendship."

Getting together with some of my friends 

Santa Claus says: This bell is a wonderful symbol of the spirit of Christmas - as am I. Just remember the true spirit of Christmas lies in your heart. 

Betty - A Life Well Lived

Last Friday, November 13^th was the end of a long and amazing life of a dear family friend, Betty Dimock.

Friday the 13th is also the celebration of the divine feminine goddess.  In the goddess trilogy, the Crone Goddess represents the old woman, crone is the old English word for crown.  She is the wisdom keeper, seer, healer and midwife, whose knowledge and wisdom emanates from the head like a halo. She is sought out to guide others during life's hardships and transitions.  Crones are not scared to speak their truth and are sometimes feared.

Betty Dimock was a true crone goddess, she was brave, feisty, gifted and certainly not scared to speak her mind. 

She served in the Second World War as a Nursing sister, losing her hearing in the process due to an infection. She cared for soldiers and witnessed horrible atrocities in the absence of proper medical care.

She returned to Canada post-war to find a different life for women. She married and with her husband Herb, settled in Winnipeg. She became an advocate for the deaf. Having studied art in New York in pre-war days she took it up again and became a well-known talent. She graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the School of Art, University of Manitoba, at age 63, and studied printmaking in Japan.

She had her own studio, a bohemian setting in an old part of Winnipeg.  She was a source of creativity in her cooking, baking, decorating, clothing and of course in her art. She continued to paint and do print making and even travel internationally into her 90s.

After not seeing her for a long time I visited her earlier this year at the age of 99. We made arrangements on the phone to go out for dinner and she asked me if I was up for walking.  I met her at her apartment where she was living alone.   Off we went, Betty in her motorized wheel chair and me at times running to keep up!

Betty in her studio

She led me to her go-to place to eat. I was surprised to find it was a local sports bar, with scantily clad servers, big screen TVs and slot machines.  She was oblivious.  I ordered a cider and she thought that sounded like a good idea so had one too.  We reminisced and got reacquainted. She was articulate and opinionated as usual and she said to me:

“Cyndy, we live too long”

Betty in her 'Jazzy' at the Sports Bar

Given all the changes in the world in the past 100 years I don’t disagree.  Rest in peace Betty! 

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!