First Real Snow

With only a month or actually less than a month Mother Nature showed her winter mood with a modest sprinkling of snow. We look forward to the white stuff coming  to cover up the baron land and put a warm blanket over the resting vegetation. Our temperatures have stayed around the freezing point for a week or so and nearby London was hammered with 70+ c

ms of snow. We seem to miss much of the snowfall as it is mostly lake affect snow and can deliver huge amounts of the white stuff if you live in the snow belt.

With winter conditions comes a flurry of accidents , mostly fender benders but often much more severe. We welcome the snow as it gives us a opportunity to see just what animals frequent our back yard. During the winter we usually have many rabbits but this year the coyotes seem to put an end to their numbers. The rabbits come up to eat the green shoots of the late vegetation and sometimes do great damage to our fruit trees. Strawberry plants have greenery all year and the rabbits eat some of the leaves but don't appear to hurt the plants long term.

Cleaning the car windows, clearing the driveway and other chores related to snow will keep us busy this winter as we intend to stay at home and enjoy a real Ontario winter for a change.

Gray Cup Day In Canada

Football, that is Canadian football with three downs and plenty of action brings nearly all Canadians together for a few hours every year when the West meets the East to see who wins the Gray Cup. People who normally have better things to do then watch football suddenly become interested in this event. It is an old tradition as this will be the 101 year for the contest.

In recent years there has been a renewed interest in our game and Regina will do a great job of making the celebration exciting with a great mixture of cowboys and Indians in the parade where horses take a front row when the game is played out west. The parade is strictly Canadian and it offers our First Nations People an opportunity to show their colourful heritage with special dress and pride in their past during the parade.

The game is important even though many of the key players are American and come here to enhance our game. In early years I attended four Gray Cups and for two of them records were made. One was the fog bowl where the fog came in off Lake Ontario and the game had to be completed the next day and the other game of note was the wind bowl when the wind was so strong that punting the ball into the wind was rewarded with negative yardage. Rules were immediately changed for this one game and play went on.

One year I was in Florida for the Gray cup and noticed a bar advertising the game to be on television. I was excited and travelled some distance to see the game  but when I arrived the game on the TV was Buffalo playing the Jets. It turned out that there were not enough Canadians there to watch the game . I complained bitterly and was made to feel very uncomfortable and was asked to leave. I wasn't that bad but I was causing enough trouble to wake up the forty or so American fans who were sleeping after a few half priced drinks.

This afternoon Canadians will be forgetting their political differences and joining together to just enjoy the great game. West or East...who wins will not matter but will give bragging rights until we do it all over again next year.

Ageing Gracefully

When I was a young person about fifteen years old I viewed people over sixty to be very old. We had a few people we knew who were elderly  and they held a special place in our family. As years went by and we  ourselves age we see things very much differently. We begin to see that age is a very relative state and as we all add on time to our lives every second we give some thought to the subject.

I live with a lady who is ninety six years old and it is a real privilege  to study the term we use so often about aging gracefully. Older people lose some of their ability to have all their physical assets intact and have to accept a lesser role in life. Many lose some of their mental capacities and have to accept this fact.The lady I know and relate to each day has had an absolutely  free pass on all the little problems that people aging encounter.

Doris is my mother in law and has lived with us for the last 14 years. She has been an active ,contributing member of our family and has travelled with us throughout these years. Travelling many hours some days but she never slept. Doris wants to see where she is going and loves to see the trees and countryside. When I get involved with projects in the kitchen she is my helper. When making bread she has the knack of kneading the bread for the final time before putting it in the pans for baking. Doris wants to be needed and she is. If we make a sound in the kitchen like washing dishes she appears out of nowhere with a drying towel in her hand.

During the last months Doris has had a few problems which she has a hard time accepting. Her knees hurt, sometimes her hips are sore, she has a little problem with the stairs but still manages and so on.
Mer memory is not great and you might find when drying the dishes you might find some things in strange places but she still helps all the time.

Doris is aging and finds it not so good but it is we who are having the problem .Watching someone you love grow old should be the most natural thing in the world but we probably see ourselves in her place. I only hope that when and if I am 96 years old I can age as Doris is aging....gracefully.

Memories

Memories are just that. I recently wrote a blog about my fathers dog Snoopy.My recollection was that the dog wandered into Dad's yard and became a permanent fixture.My father is Charlie Brown and with his dalmatian named Snoopy it made a great story. The fact that he slept on the roof of the doghouse was even better.

For years I have been telling this story and last evening my bubble burst because the real story came to my attention. Now to be factual I was not living back in Cape Breton when Snoopy became a family member. My baby brother who is no baby now actually had the dog sent home to Sydney Mines in a crate on the CNR express.

David who was attending college in Truro hitched a ride home and

met the train and delivered the dog to Mom and Dad. Now the truth is known. Actually I liked the first version best at first but to think a young fellow would actually go through the trouble to get this dog to his parents rings square with me.

I wonder with memory being the issue how many of my stories are actually factually correct or just the memory of an event which remained in the dark recess of my brain until I tell it sometime. Either way I love the idea that people have many wonderful tales to tell and if they are somewhat changed in some fashion because of the ravages of time it doesn't really matter.....remember it is only a memory.

Toronto's Embarrassment

While we were away on holidays we never watched a TV nor heard one minute of radio. Newspapers were not available but we could not shake the ridiculous show being watched all over the world by a person who should be kept away from the news media. Everywhere we went we could hear the laughter about a great city having such a ridiculous mayor.

Democracy is wonderful and there should be a way of dealing with such a blemish on the image of the city.Toronto is known all over the world as a first class place to visit or do business but now we are becoming the laughing stock of the late night night shows. People walking the beaches were talking about it and with the modern means of transferring information about the latest events of this dreadful saga go out to the hungry for public who have a good laugh at Toronto's expense.

Hopefully this man will get the help he needs and he will disappear from the front pages and TV screens. Toronto will survive this mess and might even gain some sympathy for the problem but for the meantime all we can do is collectively feel embarrassed for a great city Toronto.

Back In Canada Again

After being away for nearly ten days Theresa and I are back to our home in Oakville. Our holiday to the Dominican Republic was amazing. We were there some ten years ago and the difference in the country was just tremendous.Tourism is the largest industry and in the span of twenty years the tourist dollars and the professional manner in which the country views this industry has impacted the people and the structure of the actual countryside.

In the one ater around Punta Cana the roads and facilities like the new airport transformed the country from a third world to modern complex. Twenty years ago about 200,000 tourists came to this beach resort area. This year they expect 5,500,000 tourists enjoying the 54 resorts in this small area.Thousands of local people are employed and their training is fantastic. Smiling faces and professional service is the rule and the food and accommodation is superb.

The beach with white sand is enjoyed by thousands and the care taken to keep it spotless is appreciated by all who use it. Everyone we met from that area was positive about the future of their industry and were vocal about the positive changes . We came away from the feeling that we would be back there again to share some time with wonderful hosts of a paradise in the sun.

Squirrels 31...Henry 0

This year I was very careful to collect the chestnuts which I was going to plant. I dried them and everything looked great for the planting. I had 31 beautiful nuts ready and the pots filled with the perfect mixture for a successful crop.

I took the chestnuts outside  in a flower pot and placed them on  a small stand near the hose. The pot was uncovered but I never suspected that there were some thieves in the neighbourhood. I went in the house for lunch and never suspected that the thieves were squirrels.

While I was eating lunch I noticed a lot of activity outside. We are used to squirrels out on our deck but this time they were up close to the window. I never suspected what was happening. When I went outside to plant the chestnuts there was not a single nut remaining. The squirrels ate every one I thought. I was a little upset so decided to prepare the tomato garden for next year. I noticed new holes in the soil and after digging up the soil I recovered three nuts.

The squirrels were helping me plant the chestnuts but as there were thirty one I suspect they will be cropping up all over the place next spring. I learned a lesson but it took two occasions to learn. Last year I left the tulip bulbs on the table and the squirrels ate half of them before I caught on.  I will not make this mistake again .

Toronto The Good

Remember the days when we considered Toronto the great city nicknamed Toronto The Good. As time passed and it became North Americas fourth largest city it is being called many things but good is not in the name.It is a great city but for some reason it has not been able to produce a great mayor for many years.

It is a great responsibility to be a mayor of any city but to be in control of a city like Toronto calls upon special skills as Toronto is fifty cities in one.The immigration from people around the world makes it special. The rich heritage of numerous peoples who came and settled in areas with names like Little Italy, Greek Town and many ,many more give it a exciting flavour.

With this growth came new challenges as crime and challenges make the job of managing this diversity one of humongous proportions.The present mayor is a person who had good ideas and has done some good things BUT  he has shown to be a person devoid of the managing skills and character required to carry out the task. His background mired in the street culture made him a person who had a task that was above his ability.

He has clearly shown to keep his street buddies and their culture of drugs and criminal behavior and should exit from the Mayors Chair for the good of the city and his own well being.The city is becoming the laughing stock of North America and probably the world. Halloween has come and gone but in Toronto it will always be trick or treat as long as Mayor Ford is in power.

Halloween

This celebration was a North American special day a few years ago but today it has spread over most of the world. In North America it has grown commercially second only to Xmas for the spending of money on costumes, candy and decorations.

In other times it was a community affair where people made their own customs and travelled to the neighbours for their trick or treats. There were many tricks in the old days and some were quite destructive. Today we had a few more than twenty kids at our door and they were accompanied by their adult parents or friends.

We enjoyed the little ones from our neighborhood and were happy to see that in spite of the weather people were there to make sure the tradition went on. I never heard of any damage or vandalism and that was a good thing and the kids were respectful and polite. We missed this celebration for the past ten years as we were in Florida and there was little action in our area. Last eve was a treat for us.