…..isn’t it lovely when your husband buys you flowers for no special reason
New Flower (Sept. 13, 2014) – Sunflower
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Category Archives: Happiness File
Share Your World – Week 35
….can’t believe that it’s already week 35…check out Cee’s Photography for more great posts of Share Your World or join in
Have your blogging goals changed?
I think they have. I started as an incentive to lose weight and record stories from my childhood. I still do a little of both but now it’s become a venue for sharing my art, photography, and life’s adventures and challenges.
If you were to perform in the circus, what would you do?
I don’t know why this came to my head first but I thought clown. I’m not a big fan of clowns but I do like to make people laugh.
If you could go back and talk to yourself at age 18 what advice would you give yourself? Or if you are younger than 25 what words of wisdom would you like to tell yourself at age 45?
I would tell myself to pursue my interests, take risks. I was very practical and played it pretty safe at 18 but I was also somewhat romantic and probably naive. My biggest piece of advice would be to put aside money for retirement and not touch it. I’ve been lucky to have a job with a great pension plan and to own a house in the city. Not everyone is as fortunate and sometimes I think we could have been better prepared.
What is your favorite comfort snack food?
My favourite comfort foods are ice-cream and cheese. Not at the same time. When I want something sweet it would be ice-cream and for my savoury moments it has to be cheese.
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 a wonderful birthday week with family and friends. I spent the day with one of my oldest friends at the spa earlier in the week. My good friend L took me to the nail place and she treated me to a pedicure. My aunt and cousin sent me a beautiful bouquet of flowers, my sisters sent me gifts through the mail, my son called me long distance from the Netherlands, my daughters and I spent time together at the CNE, my husband cooked a magnificent meal for six of us and my dear friends at the cottage prepared a birthday lunch with cake done in the BBQ and gave me a set of beautiful earrings. WOW!
I’m looking forward to using my new Jawbone Up (a gift from my family) to record my fitness and sleeping patterns and learning some new songs on my ukulele from the ukulele book that my sister sent me. I’m also looking forward to going back to school (believe it or not) to catch up with my colleagues and meet my new students. Getting the library up and running is number one on my priority list. I just hope I get some help doing it.
My broken birthday cake. It didn’t travel well on my husband’s bike.
Things That Can’t Be Carried on a Bike
….I follow a blog Urban Simplicity that regularly posts Things That Can Be Carried on a Bike
Well last week we discovered something that definitely doesn’t travel well on a bike. As you may know it was my birthday and my husband was in charge of the meal and the birthday cake.
The meal was a fantastic five course Indian spread that K made completely from scratch. It was fabulous and there was enough left over for another meal for two. The only problem was with the cake. My husband is also a good baker but time ran out so he rode his bike to the local Italian bakery to buy a German Black Forest cake. I know….Indian, Italian, German?
Anyway San Remo makes wonderful birthday cakes and it’s always our go to place when we don’t have time to bake. K didn’t think carrying the cake would be problem because he has a flat carrier on the front of his bike and he was able to strap it in place so it wouldn’t slide around.
I guess the ride must have been a little (or a lot) bumpy because when he got home and opened the box this is what he saw:
As you can see he was a little embarrassed. No need. It was delicious just the same.
Have you experienced anything that CAN’T be carried on a bike?
Mystery of the Fallen Bird Feeder
….the hummingbird feeders are often empty after I’ve been away for a few days but I’ve never seen them on the ground
When we arrived at the cottage last weekend I found one of the hummingbird feeders lying on the forest floor and of course it was empty. In fact all the feeders were empty but the rest of them were still hanging where I left them.
I quickly filled all the feeders and rehung the fallen feeder. It wasn’t long before I discovered what caused the feeder to fall. I think the following photos are pretty self explanatory. Enjoy!
Share Your World – Week 34
….more great questions from Cee’s Photography
What is your favorite smell? What memory does it remind you of?
My favourite smell has to be cinnamon. I love the smell of Christmas baking. Another smell that I really like, especially in a perfume scent is lemon or a citrusy smell. It reminds me of a perfume my mother always used to wear, 4711 or Tosca. 
Name a song or two which are included on the soundtrack to your life?
The songs that come to mind are Let it Be by the Beatles and Your are the Sunshine of my Life by Stevie Wonder. The later was the song that my husband and I danced to when we were dating and on our wedding day.
Do you play video/computer game? Which one(s) or most recent?
The only game I play on-line is Scrabble. I’m addicted. I play with my sisters and a few good friends.
Which of Snow White’s 7 dwarfs describes you best? Plus what would the 8th dwarf’s name be? (Doc, Happy, Bashful, Sleepy, Sneezy, Grumpy, Dopey)
I think I’d be Doc, the voice of reason. Although not perfect and often mixing up this words, Doc is kind and keeps the other dwarfs in check. If there was an 8th dwarf his name would be Techy because in today’s world the dwarfs would need someone who can tinker with modern technology.
Photo courtesy of: http://statici.behindthevoiceactors.com/behindthevoiceactors/_img/chars/thumbs/char_17116_thumb.jpg
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 a nice weekend at the cottage with my husband and daughter, A and her partner, J. We finally had decent weather. I’m also grateful for everyone’s help getting the outhouse properly set over the new hole and that it is no longer sitting on an angle but is perfectly level.
This week I’m looking forward to having lunch with my friend, AB and going to the CNE with my daughters. I’m also looking forward to celebrating my birthday on Thursday with my family.
Two Different Ideas of a Good Time
…..this weekend my husband and I celebrated our 39th wedding anniversary
Last Friday we loaded up the car with our doped up little dog in the back and headed up north for a nice quiet weekend at the cottage. When we arrived it was slightly overcast but the rain held off until later in the evening. The next day (our anniversary) it poured rain for most of the day.
We decided to not let the weather interfere with our time together or prohibit us from doing things we enjoy. My husband was bound and determined to get out on his mountain bike this weekend and come rain or shine he did. As it turned out it rained on Saturday but he enjoyed his soggy trip through the woods anyway. He returned covered in mud and his clothes were drenched with rain water. Today it didn’t rain but when he returned he was still covered in mud from all the puddles he rode through and he came back with some new scratches from riding next to the thimbleberry bushes. This is my husband’s idea of a good time.
Look who’s wearing a helmet. Yeah!
Scratches from today’s ride.
Look how happy he is.
Now don’t get me wrong. I love to ride my bike as well but I’m more of a city rider.
My idea of a good time is baking in the rain. As you may or may not know, we don’t have electricity at the cottage so all my cooking is done on the BBQ. Every once in awhile I like to bake and seeing I had 5 very ripe bananas and it was our anniversary I decided to create a new recipe using what I had in my cottage kitchen. I really wanted the recipe to be gluten free because I wanted to share the banana bread with my neighbour (outhouse hole digger) who has a gluten intolerance problem. The final product turned out quite well and I will share the recipe with you later this week.
Baking in the Rain.
The finished product. Yummy, oatmeal banana bread.
As you can see our ideas of a good time don’t always go hand in hand but we both enjoyed the banana bread and after 39 years we’ve learned to let each other pursue our individual interests and hobbies. Later in the day my husband played his mandolin and then read his book while I sat down at the table and worked on some drawings of birds. I’ve never done this before but it was part of an assignment for the on-line summer art camp I’m taking. I really enjoyed the process and I think I will work on my drawing skills some more. I honestly didn’t think I could draw birds. The second assignment was one I’ve done with my own students and it’ll be nice to have a couple of samples to show them if I decide to do this with them again.
An Unusual Summer
….instead of lounging on the beach at the cottage I’ve been spending a lot of time in the city
I was really looking forward to my summer holiday this year. I opened the cottage later than I would normally and when I returned to the city I spent 3 days in school cleaning up my office and packing up books so that the new carpet could be laid down this summer.
In the second week of the summer I went to visit my aunt. She lives by herself about 20 minutes from my house. She never calls me but she is always happy to see me. Unfortunately, she stopped answering her door or picking up her phone. Two years ago her daughter found her very ill and admitted her to the hospital where she was diagnosed with congested heart failure.
The day I went to see her, my cousin was already there and she said she had a bad night and she was still in bed (3:00 in the afternoon). After a short conversation we went to check on her and she didn’t look good. To make a long story short we called 911 and she was admitted to emergency. At around midnight, after numerous tests, x-rays and blood work we were told that she has double pneumonia.
For the next six days I was back and forth to the hospital. Five weeks later she’s still in the hospital. Her pneumonia has cleared up but now she has a multitude of other problems. Every time I come back from the cottage I go to see her and when I’m not there my husband drops in.
Last week my husband’s car had to go into the shop so he’s without a car and I’ve been driving him everywhere his bike can’t take him. This week he went in for his routine CAT scan and next week he has two more appointments.
Our dog, Frances is presently at the vet clinic having her teeth fixed. Unfortunately the problem is more complicated than we thought and she has to see a specialist to fix the under lying problem. We pick her up this afternoon and will learn more details as to when her next procedure has to be done.
Next week my son-in-law is going into the hospital for surgery so I will be dog sitting Lucy and keeping my daughter company during the procedure.
I’ve also been helping my friend A organize her basement and garage so that she can get ready to sell her house in the near future. Last weekend I also cleaned out our garage but with lots of help from family and extended family members. Normally I like to be at the cottage but when people offer to help with big jobs you kind of have to work around their schedule.
I did go up to the cottage right after the clean-up and I took our youngest daughter and Lucy with me. We only stayed a couple of days because I had to get back into town to get Frances to the vet.
It turned out to be a beautiful weekend but again my cottage neighbour offered to help dig a new outhouse hole so I spent hours on Sunday digging and then hauling sand out of the hole. 
This week when I got back to the city I got a call from my friend G who called to warn me that my classroom was a bigger mess than we anticipated. I went in yesterday to check it out and was blown away by what I saw. Painters had come in July and it was decided that they would tackle one long wall. Of course, not knowing that this was happening, none of the books on that wall had been cleared. All the books were removed from the shelves and stacked on the tables and then the shelves were taken down. Were they put back? No! 
Upon arriving to school the caretaker tried to prepare me for what I was about to see. The shelves that were moved to lay down the carpet were not returned to their original space. More shelves behind my desk were emptied because they were too close to the floor and the shelves themselves were dumped in my office.
When I left in July I had cleaned out my office so that nothing was on the floor and the counters and the table were clear so that the surfaces could be properly washed. Yesterday I couldn’t even get into my office because everything was pushed into that room. I took pictures so that my principal could forward them to the powers that be and hopefully someone will come in in the next two weeks before school starts and try to clean up the mess.
I spent a few hours yesterday locating some of the shelves, washing them and putting them back on the wall. I also clean off my library desk moved it back up against the wall so that I at least have a place to sit without looking through a mountain of stuff.
Not everything about being in the city has been bad. I did enjoy spending time with my family and taking in some of the World Cup games, especially the final when Germany won.
I’ve spent more time in my garden and reaping the benefits of time well spent.
I also saw part of the Caribana parade and spent some quality time with my husband walking, running and riding our bikes.
This summer I have produced a lot of art thanks mostly to Carla Sonheim’s on-line Summer Camp. Some of it I worked on at the cottage and the rest here at home. I’ve got lots of great ideas to share with my students when I go back to work in September. I think I’m happiest when I’m creating art.
Acrylic paint on 8 x 18 inch cedar shim.
New Flower (Aug. 8, 2014) – Passion Flower
….this bloom lasts only one day
Cottage Life – July 19th, 2014
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.
Till the next time. Cheers!
Mama Cormier 
