Why do we celebrate the virtue of laboring by taking a day off work? I like a day off work as well as everyone else,but I know nothing about the origin of Labor Day, so I guess I should find out. Maybe Ken will look it up for me.
Labor Day in past years was often spent in our back yard on Franklin Street, along with the agents and their Families. The kids swam, while the adults watched and visited and ate good food. I miss seeing all the children. We miss several things about our Franklin Street home. I miss the Christmas Party at our house and I miss the back yard family picnics. Also over this season, Dave and Irene often visited with us to watch the full coverage of the U.S.Open, so we had fun watching together. In those years, the Canadian coverage of the U.S.Open was not adequate, but not any more. If we wished to do so, we could watch the tennis tournament all day and all evening. Of course, I would love to watch all the time, but other things in life intrude upon my time.
I was not pleased to have this Olympics assigned to China. But I was wrong in my assessment that the Games would be very difficult. The Games were wonderful, and I enjoyed watching as many events as I could. I just wish that more competition from many other sports had been shown. I was able to see the final gold medal game between two Chinese women in Table Tennis. My goodness but those women were quick. Every time we turned on the T.V. there was another beach volleyball being played. Now I know that these women look great, but really...how many games do I really need to watch, when I know that fencing and badminton is going on? The Canadian rowers and paddlers did themselves proud. I can never paddle a canoe again, unless I learn to get up on one knee. Soon it will be winter at Whistler. I'll be there to watch in front of my T.V. And I will love every minute.
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Saturday, August 30, 2008
August 30, 2008. Western Head, N.S. The Garden of Mary.
Living along the shore is a wonderful thing. Living near the shore and walking through the woods to my friends house is a hugh added bonus. But the part that really takes the prize is walking through the woods and coming upon Mary's garden. There are blossoms everywhere and in many different colors. No grass in sight, just bloom after bloom of colorful plants. Every part of the summer plants are in bloom and they are perennials, so they will be there again next year. These plants came from every part of the woods and for the most part are wildflowers. Several stone walks have been made around the place, the stones dug up when she planted the wildflowers. Building the garden was labor intensive, but not any more, because the whole place is full of plantings with blooms. Her window boxes are full too and cascade over the side with brightly colored blossoms. The whole place is wonderful, and I love to break through the woods on the path to see all these colors, in my friends garden, and know that she is making us a cup of tea, which we will enjoy outside, enjoying the garden.
Now Mary is a good gardener. She did the whole garden herself. But she can do almost anything. Yesterday she was re-painting her Adirondack chairs, two chairs at a time. The custom here is to paint the chairs different gaily painted colors, so she has ten chairs so she will finish two every day. Now we have been here the same number of years, but we are just allowing the chairs to look weathered and faded, but Mary's chairs will look bright and new. Her reason is that our chairs are down by the water, while hers are on their deck, where they can be seen every day. I bought her a puzzle last year. The man I bought it from told me that no one he knows has ever been able to solve the puzzle. It took Mary three days to master it. Last year she bought a sail boat, or properly, they bought a sailboat. Every afternoon, when the weather is fine, Clif and Mary head out in her sailboat and sail around to their hearts content. So you see that Mary is a person of many parts. And she is a good friend too.
Now Mary is a good gardener. She did the whole garden herself. But she can do almost anything. Yesterday she was re-painting her Adirondack chairs, two chairs at a time. The custom here is to paint the chairs different gaily painted colors, so she has ten chairs so she will finish two every day. Now we have been here the same number of years, but we are just allowing the chairs to look weathered and faded, but Mary's chairs will look bright and new. Her reason is that our chairs are down by the water, while hers are on their deck, where they can be seen every day. I bought her a puzzle last year. The man I bought it from told me that no one he knows has ever been able to solve the puzzle. It took Mary three days to master it. Last year she bought a sail boat, or properly, they bought a sailboat. Every afternoon, when the weather is fine, Clif and Mary head out in her sailboat and sail around to their hearts content. So you see that Mary is a person of many parts. And she is a good friend too.
Thursday, August 28, 2008
August 28, 2008. N.S. Western Head. Snails.
We went in search of snails. What we found was a treasure. It was the most unlikely place to find in Shellburne. I love it when you find a bit of treasure, right before your eyes, except you did not notice it. Our fish pond needs snails, to keep the water and the pond free of algae, but snails are hard to find in Liverpool. Ivan, from our local plant store, told us about a place in Shellburne that sells water plants and snails. Both Ken and I were dubious about this, because we have been to Shellburne many times and never saw a place selling water plants and snails, but we had faith, and up we went. At first we drove all around this small town and could not find anything at all that looked like snails or water plants, so we went to the Nursery for directions. Of course, we could not find the place the first time, so we went to lunch at our favorite restaurant in Shellburne, Charlotte Lane. After lunch, they gave us directions which included a map, so we finally found the place, a spot we have driven past many many times but did not notice. What we found was a bit like a miracle.
At first, the place looks like a mess, with stuff piled up outside the buildings and tall grass and weeds everywhere. After getting out of the truck and looking around, I noted on the door a sign giving the times when the place was open, which was from 9 to 9 every day. We both decided that the owner lived in the house adjacent to the buildings , and sure enough, a man came out of the house with keys in his hand who then asked us what we needed. Of course, we told him that we needed snails. He asked us how many snails we needed. Of course we told him that we had no clue, but after determining the size of our pond, he told us that we needed ten snails. In we went to get those snails, and found what seemed to be a fish hatchery. There were ten tubs about four feet by eight feet full of water and full of fish of various sizes. This nice man knows a lot about fish, especially gold fish, so he answered all our questions and gave us a lot of information, such as the fact that all gold fish are born black or dark brown, and turn orange or white or black and white and orange sometime after a year.
The next thing I noticed was his large pond in front, with several fountains turned on, so he told us a lot about fountains, from the size to the strength to the control. Of course we bought a new fountain for our little pond. While chatting with him to check out, he offered to have us walk around his property, where he had five more ponds full of fish. So out we go to view his ponds, walking along a stone walkway, with these ponds hidden from view. The ponds are very well kept and the water clear, with big stones surrounding the ponds in a beautifully landscaped way. But the weeds in the rest of the yard were everywhere. Clearly he pays more attention to the fish than the yard. He has many fish that are 18 inches long. In all, he has one very large pond, two medium sized ponds and four smallish ponds, all with many fish. It was exciting to find this very knowledgeable person in this place that we have driven past many times. Now if he ever gets a handle on the whole property rather than just the ponds, he will really have a treasure. As it is, his place is a bit like a hidden treasure.
At first, the place looks like a mess, with stuff piled up outside the buildings and tall grass and weeds everywhere. After getting out of the truck and looking around, I noted on the door a sign giving the times when the place was open, which was from 9 to 9 every day. We both decided that the owner lived in the house adjacent to the buildings , and sure enough, a man came out of the house with keys in his hand who then asked us what we needed. Of course, we told him that we needed snails. He asked us how many snails we needed. Of course we told him that we had no clue, but after determining the size of our pond, he told us that we needed ten snails. In we went to get those snails, and found what seemed to be a fish hatchery. There were ten tubs about four feet by eight feet full of water and full of fish of various sizes. This nice man knows a lot about fish, especially gold fish, so he answered all our questions and gave us a lot of information, such as the fact that all gold fish are born black or dark brown, and turn orange or white or black and white and orange sometime after a year.
The next thing I noticed was his large pond in front, with several fountains turned on, so he told us a lot about fountains, from the size to the strength to the control. Of course we bought a new fountain for our little pond. While chatting with him to check out, he offered to have us walk around his property, where he had five more ponds full of fish. So out we go to view his ponds, walking along a stone walkway, with these ponds hidden from view. The ponds are very well kept and the water clear, with big stones surrounding the ponds in a beautifully landscaped way. But the weeds in the rest of the yard were everywhere. Clearly he pays more attention to the fish than the yard. He has many fish that are 18 inches long. In all, he has one very large pond, two medium sized ponds and four smallish ponds, all with many fish. It was exciting to find this very knowledgeable person in this place that we have driven past many times. Now if he ever gets a handle on the whole property rather than just the ponds, he will really have a treasure. As it is, his place is a bit like a hidden treasure.
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
August 27, 2008. Western Head. Fifty Years.
Fifty Years is a long time, but only in retrospect. While you are going through it, day by day, everything seems to take a long time. When we consider our situation fifty years ago compared with our situation today, it seems from a distance, to have been a long easy ride from then to now. But actually, it has been a long hard grind with every success coming much slower than anticipated. Now when we married, we had the good fortune to have no debt. Ken had completed his pre-medical training and I had a teaching certificate. Also we were energetic and enthusiastic for success. We both felt that nothing would stand in our way to a happy prosperous life. And so it turned out to be true.
Several facets of our attitudes have helped us. We paid no attention to try to acquire lovely belongings. We took in any furniture anyone give us without regard to how things looked. We never took on any debt until we bought our first home in 1973. We always kept well within our budget and our income. We did not care about what we had, only what we could do. We lived over a hardware store while Ken was in Medical School and kept our expenses low so we could travel in the summer. It is hard to believe, but while I was teaching through the year, we saved enough money for tuition so in the summer we obtained a job at a camp somewhere in North America so we could travel. We drove a 1952 VW bug, the one with the little window and we travelled all over the country camping in that little un-air conditioned car. We were happy to be doing it. But when you see us now, with all our stuff, it is hard to remember that we started with no assets except the most important thing, that was ourselves and our attitudes and our Families. It has not been easy to get from there to here. But we do enjoy ourselves now as we enjoyed ourselves back then, except mow we are much more comfortable with our surroundings!!
Several facets of our attitudes have helped us. We paid no attention to try to acquire lovely belongings. We took in any furniture anyone give us without regard to how things looked. We never took on any debt until we bought our first home in 1973. We always kept well within our budget and our income. We did not care about what we had, only what we could do. We lived over a hardware store while Ken was in Medical School and kept our expenses low so we could travel in the summer. It is hard to believe, but while I was teaching through the year, we saved enough money for tuition so in the summer we obtained a job at a camp somewhere in North America so we could travel. We drove a 1952 VW bug, the one with the little window and we travelled all over the country camping in that little un-air conditioned car. We were happy to be doing it. But when you see us now, with all our stuff, it is hard to remember that we started with no assets except the most important thing, that was ourselves and our attitudes and our Families. It has not been easy to get from there to here. But we do enjoy ourselves now as we enjoyed ourselves back then, except mow we are much more comfortable with our surroundings!!
Monday, August 25, 2008
August 25, 2008. Western Head, N.S. The people.
We benefited a lot by holding our 50Th Anniversary. But the best aspect of the event was to get to meet and greet and get to know all the people. Just think about what and who we would have missed had we not held the event. Start with our relatives. Now we see my Brother and Sister and their spouses regularly, and we often talk on the phone. The same is true of Kens Brother Keith and sister-in-law Wilma. But I have not seen my cousin from Vancouver Island since 1961. How this has happened is difficult to determine, but Ernie and I decided that we were both just busy getting on with our life, and not paying attention to relatives, especially when they lived a long way away. Dave and Irene's children were all here, along with their children, so we got to see the next generation in action right before our eyes. It was wonderfully comforting to see the energy and enthusiasm and competence of these young adults. In the past we have know well the children Norman, Wendy and Ken and have followed their productive, successful careers, but we have only seen in a quick visit their off-spring. And there they were here, right in front of us, five lovely young woman and a lone tall boy, doing what young folks all do. I would not have missed seeing them for the world. We could have never seen them all together at the same time. For this alone, I am pleased to have held the event.
Of course, not all our relatives could come. For many different reasons, the Barby clan was represented by Marion and Gary, and we missed Ben and Peter and their children. But along with my normal response, I focused on what was able to work out and totally ignore those arrangements could not be arranged. But we missed them. Over the years, we have not kept up with the Ottawa Houghton branch of my Mothers Family, and tho I invited them, they were not able to attend. Someday I will explain, as best as I know, how we lost much contact with the Houghton Family from Ottawa. My sister Carol has done a better job over the years of keeping in touch, and in fact has been the contact for years with Ernie. I will try to do a better job over the next twenty years than I did the past twenty years. Now I have no excuse. Our old friends from Toronto came in force too. In fact, they became a self proclaimed percussion band and singers to the ukulele players in the tent. It is certainly true, that given any opportunity, a Salvation Army trained person will sing and take part, even when not asked. Their spirit contributed to the success of the event. So for these any many reasons, Ken and I are glad we decided to hold our celebration here in Nova Scotia.
But the most important thing about the event was the reason why we decided to hold the event at all, and that was the opportunity to connect to the past and to the future, and in our judgement, we achieved our goal.
Of course, not all our relatives could come. For many different reasons, the Barby clan was represented by Marion and Gary, and we missed Ben and Peter and their children. But along with my normal response, I focused on what was able to work out and totally ignore those arrangements could not be arranged. But we missed them. Over the years, we have not kept up with the Ottawa Houghton branch of my Mothers Family, and tho I invited them, they were not able to attend. Someday I will explain, as best as I know, how we lost much contact with the Houghton Family from Ottawa. My sister Carol has done a better job over the years of keeping in touch, and in fact has been the contact for years with Ernie. I will try to do a better job over the next twenty years than I did the past twenty years. Now I have no excuse. Our old friends from Toronto came in force too. In fact, they became a self proclaimed percussion band and singers to the ukulele players in the tent. It is certainly true, that given any opportunity, a Salvation Army trained person will sing and take part, even when not asked. Their spirit contributed to the success of the event. So for these any many reasons, Ken and I are glad we decided to hold our celebration here in Nova Scotia.
But the most important thing about the event was the reason why we decided to hold the event at all, and that was the opportunity to connect to the past and to the future, and in our judgement, we achieved our goal.
Sunday, August 24, 2008
August 24, 2008. Western Head, N.S. Driving.
The day was beautiful. Ken was going fishing for a few hours with Vinal. I was intending to stay at home and read, and perhaps go to the grocery store, but Mary call to see if we wanted to go with them over to the Annapolis Valley for lunch. Of course I said yes, and what a lovely drive we had. Walt drove the cat, while Mary and I chatted. We drove across the province to Annapolis Royal on Highway 8. Now Walt does not drive too fast, so we got to see the scenery, and of course, they know a lot more about the communities than I do, so I learned a lot. In Annapolis Royal we walked around town a bit, looked up several of their favorite were closed for lunch, looked over the open market of crafts and baked goods and finally ate lunch in a pub. The food was delicious. We drove on Highway 1 toward Wolfville, looking at all the charming little towns along the way. This side of the province is predominantly farming, so we stopped at a farm outlet for vegetables. Of course we ate an ice cream cone too. Then back to Highway 10 to Bridgewater and home.
After Mary bought all those vegetables, she invited us for dinner. With the magic of cell phones, I was able to catch Ken on his way home from fishing. After a quick shower at homw, he joined us at the MacDonalds home for dinner, and what a wonderful dinner we had. Fresh field tomatoes and cucumbers for salad, steak, mashed potatoes, beans, fresh corn, sauteed mushrooms for dinner and fresh blueberries and whipped cream for dessert. This was not a dinner, said I. It was a feast. It was a lovely day in the country, driving from one place to another with no regard to task. The homes here are very well kept, with an abundance of flowers everywhere. It must be the short growing season, but folks here pau a lot attention to their gardens. I loved seeing them all today.
After Mary bought all those vegetables, she invited us for dinner. With the magic of cell phones, I was able to catch Ken on his way home from fishing. After a quick shower at homw, he joined us at the MacDonalds home for dinner, and what a wonderful dinner we had. Fresh field tomatoes and cucumbers for salad, steak, mashed potatoes, beans, fresh corn, sauteed mushrooms for dinner and fresh blueberries and whipped cream for dessert. This was not a dinner, said I. It was a feast. It was a lovely day in the country, driving from one place to another with no regard to task. The homes here are very well kept, with an abundance of flowers everywhere. It must be the short growing season, but folks here pau a lot attention to their gardens. I loved seeing them all today.
Saturday, August 23, 2008
August 23, 2008. Western Head, N.S. Finding the Good.
Most parents when asked about their teenage children, will tell you something bad about their teen. I heard this while listening to a panel of Psychiatrists on the radio. When I heard this comment, my response was to deny it, but I started to listen and ask questions, and sure enough, most people will give a negative comment about their child. I also hear folks telling about the bad things that have happened on a trip or an outing to the city. It seems that the negative holds more interest than the good. My good friend Alice-Anne, who is Pediatrician on the faculty of Family Medicine in Galveston, once took me to task. During a visit to us when the boys were in High Scool, I was admonishing them to pick up their towels in the bathroom. She asked me a series of questions about the boys, which I could all answer in the affermative, questions such as are they polite to my friends, and do they do well in school, and do they help at home. Her advise to me was to get off their case with the towels. In other words, I fell in that trap of pointing out the negative behavior and ignoring all the good.
While teacher in Toronto, I was asked to serve on a panel dealing with discrimination in the class room. The people in charge of the session were Quakers. These good folks were my first introduction to their religion and philosophy. One dear old lady told me that the only thing consistent in all Quakers is the adage that within every person is some good, and we as people, must find that good. That concept stayed with me, so when I meet someone new, I keep looking to find that bit of good that I can enjoy and appreciate. So often I hear critical comments about others, but I have always found the ability to get along with most folks. Once again, I do not know if I learned it or was born with the ability to get along, or whether I work harder at getting along with people, but it is certainly true that I am not bothered about situations that seem to upset others. I wonder if I can help the grand-children learn this, because it certainly makes my life easier and would do the same for them. Time will tell.
While teacher in Toronto, I was asked to serve on a panel dealing with discrimination in the class room. The people in charge of the session were Quakers. These good folks were my first introduction to their religion and philosophy. One dear old lady told me that the only thing consistent in all Quakers is the adage that within every person is some good, and we as people, must find that good. That concept stayed with me, so when I meet someone new, I keep looking to find that bit of good that I can enjoy and appreciate. So often I hear critical comments about others, but I have always found the ability to get along with most folks. Once again, I do not know if I learned it or was born with the ability to get along, or whether I work harder at getting along with people, but it is certainly true that I am not bothered about situations that seem to upset others. I wonder if I can help the grand-children learn this, because it certainly makes my life easier and would do the same for them. Time will tell.
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