….as with everything related to my blog lately I’m posting later than I normally do
Have you ever been in a submarine? If you haven’t, would you want to?
No I’ve never been in a submarine. I might try it for a very short period of time, like an hour. Anything longer and I think I might become claustrophobic. The idea of being trapped in an enclosed space under water is a bit nerve racking.
Are you a listener or talker?
I think I have a good balance between talking and listening. Over the years, especially after taking my guidance course I’ve become a better listener. My husband on the other hand thinks I’m more of a talker. I do like to keep a conversation going and feel uncomfortable when all talking ceases in group situations.
Do you prefer crunchy peanut butter or smooth peanut butter? Anything with your peanut butter?
I prefer crunchy peanut butter but my husband likes smooth and because he eats more of it than I do we tend to buy the smooth variety.
Have you ever been drunk?
Unfortunately I have but it was a long time ago during my first year at university. After that first year the novelty of drinking to excess quickly wore off and I drank more responsibly. Today we enjoy the occasional glass of wine with and after dinner and I really don’t like how I feel the next day if I’ve had too much to drink. I also find I get too emotional if I’ve had more to drink than I normally do.
Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?
I’m grateful for six wonderful days at the cottage last week. I’m also grateful that the mice haven’t returned (not yet anyway).
I’m looking forward to another long stay at the cottage. I’ve come home to visit my aunt, do a bit of gardening and tackle one or two chores that need doing around the house. I’m hoping to drive back up to the cottage tomorrow.
For more Share Your World posts check out Cee’s blog, here.
I went to the library yesterday to post my last article but lo and behold it wasn’t opened to the public because a private workshop was in session. The group was on a break so the librarian kindly let me go inside and I had just enough time to check my emails and I was able to copy my story to WordPress but I ran out of time before I could add my photos. So I’m afraid that many of my articles will all appear on the same day, either when I return home or sometime later this afternoon if I get back to the library.
My husband and the dog came up on Sunday and left about 30 minutes ago. We had a great few days together, despite losing the dog yesterday. K loves to run and walk through the woods with the dog on the logging trails. He usually does a loop that is about 9k long. Yesterday when he returned the dog wasn’t with him.
Somewhere between the 5 and 6k mark of the trail, Frances was distracted by something she heard in the woods and took off. K called and called her but continued to run figuring she would follow him further down the path. When she didn’t return to the cottage we both got into our cars and drove in different directions looking for her.
My husband drove into the village and I made my way along the logging path. Unfortunately I don’t have 4-wheel drive so I stopped when I came to a very large and deep puddle in the road. There was no way to get around it. I got back onto the main road and found another logging road further away. Again I was hampered by the deep ruts in the road and had to turn around.
Back at the cottage my husband decided to go back to the trail and and backtrack in case Frances followed his scent in the opposite direction. I drove him into the woods as far as my little car would let me, dropped him off and headed out via the main road to the exit at the other end of the trail. K exited without the dog so I drove him further east until we arrived at the next entrance to the trail which headed back to the cottage.
I drove back along the main roads and returned to the cottage. Before heading down our lane I checked out a couple of other lanes that she might have taken, spoke to a couple of women about our missing pooch and then started to head to the end of the trail where K would exit. For some reason I decided to go back to the cottage one more time before meeting my husband. There sitting in front of our door was Frances, completely exhausted and out of breath. I called her to get into the car and we drove off to meet K together.
You can imagine the relief and joy on K’s face when he saw Frances. He wanted to be mad at her but he was overcome with emotion. We figured that K had walked at least 15k that morning and who knows how far Frances ran. The two of them were pretty quiet for the rest of the day. In the late afternoon we all went down to the beach and both K and Frances played in the water. I think the cool water helped both of them recover from their sore and tired muscles.
I think the biggest lesson that we learned that day was that Frances knows her way home. Next time, heaven forbid, we won’t be so panicked looking for her.
I finally got up to the cottage. This is actually my second trip to the island but I was back in the city for an extended period of time. Now that I’m back I’ve settled into relax mode. On my first trip I opened up the cottage and did a lot of the cleaning and sorting one does when you first open up after a long winter break.
My fridge is run on propane and right now the only downside is that it requires two people to start it, one at the front and one behind. Unfortunately the automatic starter doesn’t work so someone has to hold a flame in front of the pilot light which is at the back of the fridge while another person pushes the buttons at the front. When I arrived last Thursday, alone, none of my immediate neighbours were around so I kept my food in my cooler. Luckily my girlfriend’s daughter arrived on the next boat so the fridge dilemma was quickly resolved.
My meals are simple. Fruit and yogurt for breakfast, soup and an open face sandwich for lunch and salad and grilled meat for dinner. I always make a thermos of coffee first thing in the morning and later in the day when it cools down I might put a few ice cubes in it and have an ice coffee. I also enjoy a cup or two of tea but I have to stop drinking by 7:00 in the evening or I’ll be up in the middle of the night. Oh, did I mention we don’t have indoor plumbing. I don’t mind the outhouse, except at 3:00 in the morning. I never have to get up in the middle of the night at home. Why is that?
Today my girlfriend and her husband arrived. They’re my immediate neighbours to the south of me. I joined them for coffee when they arrived early this morning and they invited me for lunch later in the day. I always contribute in some way when I’m invited for a meal so today I sliced and grilled sweet potatoes and onions that I prepared on the BBQ. Most of my meals are cooked outside, in fact all of them because I also don’t have electricity.
As I type this on my fully charged laptop I’m listening to the radio which runs on batteries. I love the CBC in the summer. If I stay for an extended period of time I’ll take a trip to the library in the village and use their Wifi to post my articles, catch up on my emails and recharge my laptop and iPhone. I’ve been up for three days and I’ve already finished reading one novel and am on my second. I get a lot reading done at the cottage. The weather’s been a bit cool so I’ve stayed close to the cottage. The beach isn’t warm enough for lounging right now. I need to get out and walk a bit more. I’ll probably do that after I finish this post.
Another activity I like to do while I’m up here is paint. I’ve brought my boards and canvases up with me on this trip and am planning to apply gesso to them to get them ready for painting. The next time I go home I’ll pick up the rest of my paints and bring them with me on my next trip. I also like to take photographs and I’ve taken a number of shots of my neighbour’s garden across the street from me. They come up a lot earlier than I do and when I get here in July their garden is well established. Well I’m I think I’d better finish here and get outside and move.
Have you ever been a participant in a parade? What did you do?
I’ve watched numerous parades in my lifetime but I can’t remember being in a parade as a child and I know that I’ve never participated in a parade as an adult.
If you were handed free opera tickets, would you go or sell them? Why?
I would go to the opera. I don’t have a lot of exposure with operas but I’d like to change that and if it’s free even better.
Why did you start your blog?
I started my blog to record some of my family memories to share with my children and friends but it quickly became a venue to plot my weight loss and an incentive to stay on track. It worked and I lost 32 pounds.
I also wrote up recipes and started taking photographs of my travels, cottage and experiences around Toronto. Over the last two years I’ve included my own personal art and art that my students produced. I’ve also dabbled in poetry and I love taking part in blogging challenges.
What is your favorite tradition? (family tradition, church tradition, whatever)
My favourite family tradition is celebrating Christmas on Christmas Eve. Being German, I’ve always opened presents on Christmas Eve and when I got married my husband embraced that tradition. It worked out well for us because we would celebrate with my family on the 24th and then go to my husband’s family on the 25th.
Even when my husband’s parents passed away we continued to celebrate on Christmas Eve and the kids loved waiting up and then hiding when Santa arrived. It was always magical when we walked into the living room after Santa left and we were made to wait and take in the lit tree and the newly arrived presents under it.
Now that the kids have all grown up some of the traditions have changed slightly and the focus is on the food, drink and good company that we all share on that special night. It has become my husband’s favourite tradition as well.
Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?
I’m grateful that Germany won over Argentina in the World Cup and I’m grateful that I was able to share the day with my husband, and my daughter and her husband. Thanks to technology we were also able to communicate with our other daughter and our son in the Netherlands during and after the game.
This week I’m looking forward to spending some time at the cottage. I’ve been in the city helping my cousins deal with their very ill mother (my aunt) and I’ve been in and out of the hospital for the last six days. She’s still there but I’m only a phone call away.
My first weekend up at the cottage greeted me with a couple of firsts.
The first new experience was the new road that was built sometime between last October and this June. To get to my cottage I have to take a car ferry across the bay to the island. The ferry makes this trip every 1 1/2 hours and it’s about a 20 minute trip. In the last few years the line-ups for the ferry have gotten very long and sometimes you have to wait for a second ferry to get on board.
The new road is wide and only one way and makes perfect sense. Now the cars exiting the ferry onto the mainland go up the hill that used to be where cars waited to get on the ferry. The new road allows for cars to form a double line and pretty much accommodates all the cars waiting for the ferry without impeding traffic flow.
The second biggest change is the state of the beach. It’s completely empty. No beach chairs, benches, toys, boats or people. Where is everyone?
Last fall new rules were implemented for the beach. Everything had to be removed before the season ended or it was removed for you. I get that. The new rule, however, requires you take everything with you at the end of each day and not leave anything behind when you go back to the cottage. This is a bit of a problem for people with boats and for elderly people or people with disabilities who would have a problem carrying beach chairs back and forth, especially up the dunes.
As for the people, I have to admit that it was a bit chilly on Saturday for people to be sunbathing but there weren’t even any folks out walking along the beach. Hmmm?
….thanks Cee for more great questions this week for Share Your World
If you were the architect of one existing building, which building would you select?
What an impossible question! There are so many wonderful buildings out there in the world that I’m sure my choice will probably offend a variety of people for a variety of reasons. I’ve decided to limit my choice to buildings in the city I know best and that would be Toronto. I am a huge fan of the AGO (Art Gallery of Ontario). It was recently renovated and the architect is Frank Gehry. I love that Gehry built the addition around the old building and preserved the best features of the original gallery. My favourite features of the new addition are the Galleria Italia and the Baroque Stairs.
My favourite quote is ‘Live, love, laugh, learn’. There are many variations of these four words and I love them all.
What color do you feel most comfortable wearing?
I am most comfortable in reds and royal blues. The OA at our school says that I can wear all colours well but that is not true. I just know what colours suit me and I tend to stick to those colours.
What is something you learned in the last week?
In the last week I learned about the mystery plants that were gifted to me and how to play the chord Dm on the ukulele.
Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?
I’m grateful to the temporary caretaker who helped me with my dilemma in the library. He made a few phone calls and saved me a lot of work. Hopefully when I return at the end of the summer I’ll have a new floor in the library a new caretaker who’ll be as considerate as this one was.
In the coming week I’m looking forward to returning to the cottage and hopefully seeing Germany in the finals of the World Cup on Sunday.
If you walked into my library right now you’d think I was off my rocker making a statement like that. There are boxes of books everywhere.
Believe it or not that’s what I had to do. Over the summer a new carpet is being put down in the library and the books on the freestanding shelves had to be taken down so that the shelves can be moved.
I also had to clean my office so that the caretakers can get in there and clean the floor and the counter. I was really stressing about not being able to get in there and get things off the floor and the counters.
I spent two extra days at school this week to get the job done. While there I started to purge and threw away a lot of paper and old outdated documents. It was a slow process but worth it in the end. I can now enjoy the rest of my summer without worrying about the state of my office.
Now I hope when I return that the carpet will be down and that my office will still be uncluttered. I suspect that many of those boxes will end up in. It’s the one area that’s not being carpeted.
The big challenge is to keep my office like this all year.
…..Do you play an instrument? Is there a musical instrument whose sound you find particularly pleasing? Tell us a story about your experience or relationship with an instrument of your choice.
My parents wanted me to play an instrument but they couldn’t afford to buy a piano. I remember someone coming to the house with an accordion when I was about 8 years old and trying to get me to manipulate this big, heavy and awkward music box. I’m sure that the cost was too prohibitive, never mind that I had no interest in being an accordion player. In the end my Dad bought me a Hohner melodica.
When I was in grade 7, our school had a school band and everyone was welcome to participate but you had to rent your instruments. Again my parents couldn’t afford the cost of the rental. Instead I took part in the class where we learned how to play the recorder. That instrument my parents could afford. In fact I was pretty good at it. Years later, when I started teaching grade 5, I took a refresher course and started teaching my students how to play. It’s not my favourite instrument but I did take some pride in knowing I could play an instrument and pass on my limited talent to my students.
In high school I was very limited as to what elective courses I could take. As much as I loved the arts I couldn’t fit any arts programs into my curriculum. I think this is one of the reasons why I was so happy that my own children had the opportunity to attend the arts high school and they all studied a musical instrument. When our son was 10 years old he expressed an interest in the piano and we started with an old clunker and then quickly moved on to a beautiful baby grand when we realized that he had a natural gift.
Once our children reached middle school they all played instruments in the school orchestra and band. Two of them played the cello and one the saxophone and they continued to play in high school.
I think one of my favourite instruments is the guitar. I can’t play it but my husband can and over the years, off and on, he had fine tuned his skills. He started playing when he was 14 and even gave lessons at this early age. I never heard him play until he was well into his 30s and in his 40s he played with our daughter at a school recital. He’s pretty much self taught but for a couple of years he did take lessons. He’s added a couple of guitars to his collection over the years and I bought him a strum stick several years ago.
Recently he’s added a mandolin to his collection and every day I hear the sweet sounds of his new acquisition wafting up from his office in the basement.
I’ve tried to learn how to play a musical instrument on my own. I tried to play the piano and I started to feel somewhat comfortable with it but then the piano needed tuning and I stopped. I know it’s a pretty dumb reason to stop but our children also no longer played, mostly because they had all moved out or were away at school and I guess I felt I wasn’t worthy of spending the money to have it tuned. Hmmm? Money seems to be a reoccurring theme in this post.
An instrument that I have taken an interest in lately is the ukulele. I bought my first uke some years ago when we were considering teaching it to our students. I think the one thing that put us off was that we would spend most of our time tuning it, leaving us very little time to actually play.
My love for the ukulele, however, continues and for Mother’s Day this year my husband bought me a new concert ukulele. It’s a little bit bigger and the tone is so mellow. I love it and I keep plunking away. I bought my friend, who is also the music teacher at my school, a ukulele last Christmas. We’re hoping to spend some time this summer honing our skills together.
Maybe some day we’ll form our own ukulele orchestra. LOL!
…..I’ve just completed another on-line painting course hosted by Carla Sonheim and taught by Diane Culhane
I loved this class. It was the first time I painted on wood and the first time I used the palette of paint from one assignment as my canvas for the next assignment. There were six lessons in all with 3 large assignments all using different techniques or a combination of techniques from one week to the next.
The process involved putting gesso on the board to prep it for painting and then creating a garden scene inspired from your memory, magazine pictures, other artists or from your own garden. Most of my inspiration came from my imagination. The idea is not to create realistic flowers (but you can if you want) but to use a variety of techniques to create a more whimsical garden. It’s almost more like folk art. I loved doing this and am looking forward to creating more gardens. Maybe in future paintings I will include some buildings and maybe I’ll scratch in some fun characters coming out from behind the flowers.
Mama Cormier 
