Joy to The World – Christmas Playlist

December 12, 2017April 12, 20184 Comments

Violin and Horn – 1980

I have been listening to Christmas music lately, because it’s hard not to, with it blasting over the intercom twenty four hours a day in every store and workplace, telling us ’tis the season to be merry and be of good cheer, fa-la-la-la-la-la-la. This is the most profitable time of the year for most businesses and they are just doing their part to get us into the Christmas spirit. I love Christmas music, I really do, but in small doses, and not the same old songs, over and over again. You hardly ever hear a lot of the old Christmas classics anymore, especially if they are religious hymns, so last week when I found a stack of vintage records from the 40’s and 50’s in my mother’s basement it was like finding treasure. They were stored in brown cardboard albums, a 78 in each paper sleeve, mostly Hit Parade tunes,

but also a few smaller 45’s of children’s music. I was surprised at how thick the vinyl was, compared to albums from later years.

I didn’t recognize many of the Hit Parade ones but I took a trip down memory lane with the 45’s – Horace the Horse, On Top of Old Smoky, Did You Ever See a Lassie – the lyrics came back in a flash. We had a portable stereo in the sixties and then one of those big furniture cabinets in the early seventies that played eight tracks too, but my mother says she remembers playing those vintage records on an old phonograph that you wound up by hand when she first moved to the farm in 1944. Her farm had hydro, but my father’s didn’t until after the war.

There were a few Christmas classics in the bunch – an original Columbia records Gene Autry – Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, (one of the best selling records of all time), with If It Doesn’t Snow on Christmas on the B Side, and a Silent Night/Oh Come All Ye Faithful and Silver Bells by Bing Crosby. The children’s 45’s included Frosty the Snow Man, with God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman and Joy to the World on the flip side, and Santa Clause is Coming to Town with Silent Night. (Note to self – check Ebay to see if any of these are worth anything…just out of curiosity, you can’t sell childhood memories).

I used to listen to Christmas music every day during my commute to work, (while an hour a day of Christmas music can be good for the soul, listening to it for eight hours a day in a retail environment is not). I would flip over to an American radio station which had made it a tradition to start playing it the day after Halloween. This station tended to play the same soundtrack, over and over again, and while I liked most of the selections, there were some that just made me cringe and change the dial – Feliz Navidad, You’re a Mean One Mr. Grinch, Simply Having a Wonderful Christmas time, I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus, Santa Baby, the Charlie Brown Christmas instrumental, and that annoying Chipmunk song. Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer is just plain wrong, what kind of song is that for little kids, reindeer bashing at it’s worst! And I am probably the only person who doesn’t like Mariah Carey’s, All I Want For Christmas Is You – that high note at the end hurts my ears, and it reminds me of old episodes of Ally McBeal walking home by her lonely self at the end of every single episode. I can listen to Jingle Bell Rock and Rocking around the Xmas Tree, but only once per season. While I realize everyone has individual favorites, why would they include those when there are so many wonderful songs to get you in the Christmas mood.

Old Christmas hymns can bring on an instant attack of nostalgia. Going through the stack of old albums from the sixties I came across Christmas with Mitch Miller.

When my dad used to watch Sing a Long with Mitch on Saturday nights, there were lyrics at the bottom of the tv screen, and yes tucked inside the album cover was a yellowed song sheet if you wanted to sing along. Does anyone remember when newspapers used to print songbooks for caroling at Christmas? What wonderful memories that album evoked, of going to midnight mass, when it was still at midnight, and struggling to stay awake, while the choir boomed out a resounding version of Hark the Harold and Joy to the World at the end, and you went out into the frosty night wishing everyone Merry Christmas, and then home to a midnight feast of bacon and eggs and sausage and then to bed way past one. This was a family tradition as we always slept in on Christmas morn, except for my poor mother who would get up at 4:30 to put the turkey in the oven for the 1:30 dinner with our grandparents and then go back to bed. We weren’t allowed to open our presents until my dad came in from milking the cows. The last time I went to Christmas eve mass, about a decade ago, it was at 9pm and there was folk music, which was okay but not compared to these…

The Andy Williams Christmas album was another favorite, (although I now dislike the highly overplayed Most Wonderful Time of The Year), as was Burl Ives, Have a Holly Jolly Christmas. My mother used to sing that in the kitchen, and it really was her favorite time of year. We didn’t have a lot of money growing up but my parents always made sure we had a good Christmas. Other memorable songs off that album were, Please Send Some Snow For Johnny, and Silver and Gold. Other great albums were the Carpenters – Karen Carpenter had the clear pure voice of an angel, (There’s No Place Like Home For The Holidays, Merry Christmas Darling, What are you doing New Years Eve), Boney M (Mary’s Boy Child, I’ll be Home for Christmas, When Darkness is Falling) and the whole soundtrack of the movie White Christmas, (Snow, The Best Things Happen While Your Dancing, Count your Blessings, and the army songs). My Dad had a deep baritone like Bing Crosby, and used to sing the odd line in the barn while feeding the cattle, so I have a hard time listening to White Christmas. Any Christmas song that makes you think of happier times can be a sad song when you are feeling nostalgic for Christmases past and loved ones who are gone. Then there are others, the songs that are just plain sad, like Grown Up Christmas list, I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day, I’ll Be Home for Christmas if only in my Dreams, Blue Christmas, The Christmas song (NatKingCole), Silver Bells etc. I love the Rosemary Clooney verision of Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, but that line, “through the years we all will be together, if the fates allow” always makes me feel sad.

If you want some merrier songs – We Need a Little Christmas, Must Be Santa, Christmas in Kilarney, We Wish You A Merry Christmas, are good choices and I can even stomach I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas if there are some wee ones around to march to the beat. Ring Christmas Bells by the Trans-Siberian orchestra remains a personal favorite of mine for it’s uplifting beat, their Christmas Cannon is a like a soothing meditation with a children’s choir, and Here We Come Awassailing reminds me of a Dickens Christmas.

For romantic Christmas songs you can’t beat, Let it Snow, Baby It’s Cold Outside or Sleigh Ride, for invoking visions of a simpler old fashioned time. Who wouldn’t want to go for a ride in a one-horse open sleigh like Currier and Ives?

This is a picture of my uncle in the old cutter sleigh from the farm. When we were kids the sleigh was stuck up in the rafters of the implement shed where it’s black leather seat made a fine nesting place for mice. In the early nineteen hundred’s my ancestors used to go to church in this very same sleigh when the roads were bad, because despite the snow and the cold, no one ever missed church!

Sleigh Ride – 2016

There’s a wonderful stanza in Sleigh Ride – “There’s a happy feeling nothing in the world can buy. When they pass around the coffee and the pumpkin pie. It’ll nearly be like a picture print by Currier and Ives. These wonderful things are the things we remember all through our lives.” When we are older we don’t remember most of the presents we got, but we do remember the whole family sitting around the dinner table and talking and even after the big turkey feast there was always room for desert. After the table was cleared, we ladies would spend two hours in the kitchen hand washing dishes, and then it would be set again for evening supper after the presents were played with and the chores were done, and we would end the day with a late-night game of euchre, except for me. I would be curled up in a corner reading whatever book Santa had brought me, as that was always my favorite present. (There may be a blog on Dickens A Christmas Carol next week if time and snowstorms permit).

Down in my basement I have an old stereo unit that I bought at Sears years ago. It plays cds, tapes and albums, and while I’m wrapping presents this year I will be singing along with Mitch. What’s on your Christmas playlist? Your most loved and most hated Christmas songs? Please leave a comment if you wish.

Song of the Day: Joy to the World – Mormon Tabernacle Choir – click here for music link

The Good Samaritan

November 18, 2017December 13, 201816 Comments

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Every year I am late packing my shoebox and this year was no exception. I tell myself to get organized, collection week is always the third week of November, (13-20), but until I see the roadside sign outside the gray church it always slips my mind. Then I feel guilty, as that shoebox may be the only Christmas present a child in a war-ravaged country or refugee camp may have. Samaritan’s Purse is a Christian based international relief organization which among other programs operates Operation Christmas Child, a charity which has since 1993 delivered over 124 million gift-filled shoeboxes to children in more than 150 countries. This year they plan on 12 million more. Here is a link to their website, including suggestions on what to pack in the Christmas boxes, as well as the local drop-off locations nearest you. You can also build a shoebox online ($25), or donate online if you don’t have time to do the shopping yourself or it’s too late.

https://www.samaritanspurse.org/what-we-do/operation-christmas-child/

You can pack a shoebox for a girl or boy, ages 2-4, 5-8 and 10-14 yrs. I use the preprinted shoeboxes the church gives out which comes with an instruction pamphlet and a label you check off and affix to the front. You need to include $10 for shipping from Canada, ($9 from the US), and they have added a new feature that if you donate the shipping fee online you can track what country your box goes to with a tracking label. I think this is a truly worthwhile charity and a way for children to learn the true meaning of Christmas – giving instead of receiving. You can take your kids to the dollar store to shop for a child their own age, and then later, perhaps on Christmas Eve, check online to see where their box has gone. There are some truly touching videos on their facebook page, website and on youtube – imagine never having received a Christmas present. We live in a society of such excess – it is a learning experience for a child to see that half the world lives in poverty and that even a small action can help spread joy.

I first remember reading about Operation Christmas Child years ago in a newspaper article which described the near riot which ensued when the boxes were being handed out in Afghanistan. A homeless mother of five children who was interviewed said her kids would be allowed to keep one toy, and the rest would be sold in the marketplace for food. That struck me as so sad – what are dollar store trinkets to us here, would be life-saving there. I always hope that whoever gets my box will be allowed to keep all the contents, so I put a lot of thought into what I buy. First the basic stuff, school supplies, a box of 24 crayons, coloured pencils with animal erasers, plus sharpeners for both, a pink notebook, a colouring and activity book and stickers (multicultural Disney princesses). Then some hygiene items, soap, a comb, pink hair bands/barrettes, pink fuzzy socks (they may have cool nights and I know I can’t sleep if my feet are cold). Then the fun stuff I remember liking as a child, a slinky, playdoh, a yo-yo, a soft ball with a picture of the world on it, a package of pink balloons and a small stuffed bear.

The tootsie rolls had to come out as you cannot include candy this year, nor toothpaste, playing cards or gum, (customs regulations, so it is best to check online as the rules change periodically). I once heard a story from a man who had received one of the boxes as a child, but his mother only allowed him and his sister to keep one piece of bubble gum which they shared between them. He later immigrated to Canada and as he now owns a dollar store he can chew all the gum he wants, but he never forgot getting that Christmas box. Other things I have added in the past include those little fuzzy wind-up Easter chicks as they are fun and don’t take up too much room, a set of plastic wild animals (giraffes, lions, hippos etc), a skipping rope, glow in the dark Silly Putty, and a folding soccer ball. I try to get pencils and balls with a maple leaf theme if the Canadian souvenirs have not been put away to make room for the Christmas stock. A picture book is a nice idea if you can get one narrow enough to fit, as that was always one of my favourite presents as a child. You can also enclose a personal note and/or photo if you wish, which would be fun for kids to do. One year I enclosed one of those across the miles from Canada Christmas cards although I debated about the English – would they know what it said. Is Merry Christmas a universally recognized phrase or even politically correct anymore – but surely it cannot be a bad thing to try to spread a little happiness?

: Packed and ready to go

And so if you wish to participate, on Christmas morning when your living room floor is a sea of wrapping paper, may it give you pleasure to know that somewhere in the world a child has opened your box and that you have made one child’s Christmas a little bit merrier. Wishing everyone peace and joy.

Book of the Day: a child’s perspective of war and refugee camps.

They Poured Fire on Us From the Sky: The True Story of Three Lost Boys from Sudan by Benson Deng

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A powerful riveting autobiography by three lost boys of Sudan, who orphaned at the ages of 5 and 7, had to leave their war-torn country and then spent ten years wandering the desert and living in refugee camps before coming to America. A haunting tale of war seen through a child’s eyes. I read this book in 2014 but their story will stay with me forever. Highly recommended.

Song of the Day: Grownup Christmas List – Michael Buble – music link

Spring Forward

November 14, 2017April 12, 20182 Comments

Even though we have just turned the clocks back to daylight savings time and are savouring that extra hour of sleep, I am planning ahead for spring. Every fall I ask myself why do I work outside in the freezing cold to plant bulbs? Yes I know, it’s good exercise, there is the satisfying crunch of leaves underfoot, fresh air is good for you and you can work up an appetite for a hearty bowl of homemade soup, all of the above are correct, but the main reason is this.

Okay, so that is not mine, it is a property along the water which has an old mansion in need of updating and a large wooded lot, but someone in the past planted daffodil bulbs among the trees and they have reseeded themselves over the years so that we could have this glorious show every spring.

This is mine. Certainly, reseeding has never worked for me, but maybe you need heirloom bulbs. I bought mine at the grocery store as by the time I got around to visiting the nursery the selection was sparse, although I did have good luck with this hot pink tulip bulb last year.

Whatever I plant looks nice the next spring, then eventually thins out and disappears, and I can’t blame the squirrels as they don’t like daffodil bulbs.

Squirrel Gathering Nuts – 2010

They have great fun relocating the tulip bulbs however, (and munching on my Thanksgiving squash), although this year I am going to outsmart them by throwing some human hair, courtesy of my last haircut, into the hole as a deterrent.

I have a few crocuses scattered here and there too, always the first sign of spring, but I don’t have much luck with them either. Maybe the squirrels save them for desert.

I saw this display on one of my walks last year and loved the mix of colours – so cheerful looking on a rainy spring day.

No matter what you think about climate change, the seasons do seem to be shifting. It’s hard to know when to plant now that the falls are so mild and extend well into December. If you plant too early and we have a mild spell in January the bulbs are pushing up through the ground and then are deluged with a foot of snow and two more months of cold weather. The first week of November I still had lettuce I had planted late August, and some strawberries although they had not ripened.

A few roses were still blooming, while the trees were changing colour.

Even the geraniums were putting on a late show.

I don’t do much in the garden to prepare for fall so I really can’t complain. My thirty or so rose bushes (most of them easy care Pink Double Knock Outs) are better pruned in the spring, and I just let the lavender, hydrangeas, and hibiscus die off, as protection for the roots over the winter. Once the patio furniture is put away and the last of the leaves mowed up, the yard looks bare, but somehow it is a nice sight. If it’s a warm day you can sit outside and read and catch the last rays of sunlight, and not feel guilty that you should be doing something gardenwise – watering, weeding or raking.

The garden bench and birdbath have been brought into the garage,

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and the birdfeeder set out ready for the winter and the cardinals to arrive.

To everything there is a season…..as lovely as autumn is, it will soon be the season for soup and hibernating, because one of these days we are going to wake up to this!

Song of the Day: Turn turn turn – The Byrds – music link

Uncle Charlie – WW1 Vet – Lest We Forget

November 7, 2017October 27, 201819 Comments

Poppies – 2016

Our regional art gallery is having a four month exhibit called Witness – Canadian Art of the First World War. This travelling exhibition comprised mostly of works from the War Museum’s Beaverbrook Collection, was most recently shown in France, near Vimy Ridge and is quite a prestigious honour for the local gallery.

Witness to War art exhibit

It does seem somewhat bizarre now one hundred years later to think of a country commissioning artists (including some of the Group of Seven) to record a war, but photography was in it’s infancy, and presumably not allowed near the front lines. The painting below depicts the arrival of the (camouflaged) Olympic, sister ship of the Titanic, in Nova Scotia with 5300 returning soldiers in Dec 1918. My Uncle Charlie was not among them as he had contacted the Spanish flu and did not return to Canada until six months later.

The Olympic with Returned Soldiers – Arthur Lismer 1919

Uncle Charlie was a Canadian WW1 veteran. A great uncle by marriage, he was married to my grandmother’s sister both of whom had died before I was born so I never knew them, although I remember Uncle Charlie as an old man with emphysema, probably from a combination of being a baker by occupation and being exposed to gas in the war. My dad used to visit him every New Years, and sometimes I would go along but I have no distinct memories of him as a child. Now as the history buff in the family, I have inherited his metals and war memorabilia, and so I decided to record something for the Stop and Share session organized by the local heritage museum to preserve family memories of the war veterans. The heritage museum set up an artifact display room next to the gallery and it amazed me how small the uniforms were. They looked like they would fit a skinny teenager, which they often were, but people were generally smaller back then. According to his discharge paper Uncle Charlie was only 5 ft 4 inches.

Charles Elliot Rae of Courtright, St. Clair Township enlisted on Feb 26 1918 at the age of 29 at London Ont. (see Discharge paper below)

He was single, and lists a friend as next of kin, so I am not sure what happened to his immediate family. As deferred pay could only be assigned to a relative, he crossed out friend and wrote aunt.

Sailing and landing record

Deferred pay record

Privates were paid a dollar a day with a field allowance of ten cents, for a total of $33 a month, and $15 of that could be deferred, with the amounts of both increasing according to rank.

As conscription came into force in Canada in Jan of 1918 I would assume he was conscripted, as he was older than most of the earlier recruits. None of my dad’s other uncles were veterans as they were farmers and well into their 30 and 40’s during the war years.

Paybook

We know he was part of the Canadian Machine Gun Corps in France, as part of the 2^nd CDN. Engineer Battn, according to his pay book, plus his discharge paper says he served in France with the Canadian Engineers. Engineers had a fairly dangerous job as they were the ones who went ahead to prepare the way. I have an old battered cardboard box (which was probably mailed to him after the war, judging by the outside), in which there is a Canadian Engineer pin, and two medals, one with a multi-striped ribbon and The Great War for Civilization 1914-1919 on one side and an angel on the other, and the other with an orange and blue striped ribbon with a picture of King George on the back and a horse on the front.

WW1 metals

He enlisted in Feb 1918 and sailed from Canada on May 11 1918 to England, then he landed in France on Aug 18 1918, probably as part of the Hundred Days Offensive in the last part of the war. From his two pay books I can trace his journey as he is paid in Canadian money, then pounds, then francs, then marks, then francs, pounds and Canadian in reverse.

Pay Book with francs, marks and pounds

The pay book has him in France on Nov2 1918, just before Nov 11 Armistice day. The next entry Nov 15 1918 has him receiving Xmas Pay of 70 something, and then on Dec 6 and Dec20 he is paid 20 and 30 marks so we know he spent Christmas in Germany. I have two folding cards of German postcards which he must have bought home as a souvenir.

German folding postcard

In January he is back in France, and on April 2 2019 he is back in England (at Norpington), where he stays until he is sent home to Canada on May31 2019. Like many veterans he never talked about his war experiences, other than he had been gassed, and that he was six months coming home as he almost died from the Spanish flu. His discharge paper says he was discharged Jun 23 1919. He must have convalesced in an English hospital as there is a picture postcard of soldiers in a hospital ward, with a handwritten note on the back saying “there are 46 wards like this one with 40 to 50 beds in each.” (note the two nurses at the back)

I am not sure if he is actually in the picture (front left) or if someone from the heritage committee assembling the WW1 book for the township, just assumed that was him in the front row, but it could be him, based on later pictures.

back of unmailed postcard

unmailed postcard

There is also a pictorial folding letter postcard of the town of Camberley postmarked from a Yepl. McNamee, Essex Scottish, Canadian Army England to someone in Windsor, Canada with a postage stamp on it, which is a bit of a puzzle. It looks like it has been opened, but did the soldier die before it could be mailed? So much of genealogy is like figuring out a puzzle, connecting the dots, like following his trail through the pay book.

One of the most interesting things I have of his is a ticket holder from the Cunard ship he sailed home on. I am not sure if the HMS Cunard ships just returned the soldiers to England from France or back to Canada also, but he had quite a few postcards of these ships. The actual ticket is missing, but the cover of the holder says, “To Comrades from Overseas – the Cunard Steam Ship Co. Ltd., in wishing you a safe and pleasant voyage back to your Homeland, desire to express their unbounded admiration of your great fighting qualities and the sacrifices you have made in all theatres of The War. Peace Year, 1919.”

Cunard ticket holder

There are also twelve postcards of various HMS Cunard ships, (note the airplane in the one below), mostly in England but one of Quebec.

Postcards were popular back then, so there were also a number of of postcards of other lake liners from after the war. The one below is addressed to his fiancée Genevieve (my grandmother’s sister) from a G.A.W. postmarked Detroit Michigan and mentions her and Charlie-boy and he would have sent a picture of the two of them from their trip but the camera man said she broke the glass and they were no good! Maybe it was from their honeymoon?

postcard re Charlie boy

When he was discharged back to Canada from England he received the grand total of $81.14, which included a civilian clothing allowance of $35, and boat expense money of $4.87 and train expense money of $5….I assume this was only for the last few months in England.

But I have no idea what he received for the time in total as his other pay book which has more frequent entries, lists 973 and 686 (on June 6 1919) as final entries, but these amounts don’t add up either as he was only about 18months in the war (at $33/month) and it doesn’t say what denomination it is in. I wonder how this compares to today’s rates……I also wonder if they had a major war like that today would anyone sign up? People were more patriotic back then, but they were also unaware of what they were getting into. Even the war artists presented somewhat sanitized versions of the bloodshed. We are well aware today, in this age of bloody reporting, non-stop news and nuclear arms, and yet still war talk persists…..perhaps because it seems so far removed from life in the muddy rat-infested trenches…..and more like a video game you can exit any time you grow tired of it, except you can’t. It’s a sad thing when the world can’t learn from it’s mistakes. Uncle Charlie was one of the lucky ones, he came back. Lest we forget.

Song of The Day: If You Were The Only Girl In The World – Alfie Boe – click here for music link

The song was originally recorded in 1916. It sounded much better when Mary Crawley sang it on Downton Abbey when Mathew returned home from the war.

Courting postcard from a hundred years ago:

Movie of the Day: Warhorse – 2011 – Steven Spielberg – a Hollywood version of WW1 but still a good movie – imagine using horses in a war today?

Come in for a Spell

October 29, 2017October 6, 201812 Comments

Song of the Day: Thriller – Michael Jackson – click here for music link

I am sorry to say that I have become one of those people who hide inside on Halloween…..you know those cheap miserly souls who turn off the lights and pretend they’re not home. Only last year the three little girls from across the street came pounding on the door while it was still daylight, and I do mean pounding (the idea of someone not celebrating Halloween being foreign to them), so I managed to scrape up some change for I had not sunk so low as to have resorted to giving out apples. I used to do Halloween – I used to buy 120 bags of Cool Ranch Doritos or Cheetos, and the same number of chocolate bars when there were lots of kids in my neighbourhood, but they have all grown up. Then when my mother moved off the farm to a subdivision loaded with kids, I did Halloween there, until her hip surgery when she could no longer get to the door, and I started working evening shifts. I remember it being fun, checking out all the different costumes. I have an old box of costumes in the basement somewhere, pirates and witches and gypsy things, but none of that is in style anymore. I should throw them out, but for some reason whenever I clean up the furnace room, back in they go. The kids were always excited to get something other than stale bags of chips, but the chocolate bars got smaller and smaller over the years – I am sure by now they must have disappeared entirely and all you get is the wrapper.

Usually Halloween would be cold and rainy, but wasn’t that part of the fun, walking around the neighbourhood with your friends at a time you would not normally be out. It was such a miserable windy night two years ago that looking out the upstairs den window periodically I saw exactly one spook the whole evening. I always worry when only one spook shows up at the door – wouldn’t it be lonely or scary to go alone? Do parents even let their kids go out on Halloween anymore, or is it safer at the mall or at a class party? When I grew up in the country, my mother drove us up and down the line to the neighbouring farms, where we went inside and made them guess who we were, and sometimes even if they had guessed right we would solemnly shake our heads no. Then we were treated to popcorn balls and fudge and all manner of delightful homemade treats. The only year we begged our mother to take us into town afterwards (we had heard you got more candy in town), we got the dreaded apples – the saviour of those who have run out. Our costumes were home-assembled, ghosts and witches and tramps, since everyone knew everyone anyway, but with those hot plastic masks which made it difficult to breathe, we thought we were well disguised. Occasionally someone along the line (blamed on the older boys) would push over an old outhouse or shed, but other than that there was no vandalism, just a bit of nighttime mischief. We ate our Halloween candy too – the best first, then portioning out the rest over the next few weeks, saving those awful molasses Halloween Kisses for last. I wonder if they still make those? What do parents do with all that stale candy now that kids aren’t allowed to eat candy?

If I’m going to do Halloween properly this year I will need some new decorations. I don’t have much in the way of decorations – an ugly rat I used one year to scare my assistant – I put it on top of her computer terminal and she jumped sky high.

A sign that caught my eye at Winner’s one year – Come Inside For A Spell. My mother painted a witch picture for me so these will help decorate the front door.

Witch on Broom – 2017

She also did Ghost Barn which is currently in a juried art show and they liked it so much they asked to keep it on display over the winter.

Ghost Barn

Recently I saw a black candy bowl with a bony arm that reached for you when you took the candy and a battery operated scary voice – but it was $25 and might scare the little ones. I once had a Count Dracula that spewed bubbles out of its mouth when you walked past it and that was a great hit, but the battery died after a few years. My little 5 year old neighbour advised me that the dollar store is the best place for decorations, so I bought a ghost to hang in the birch tree (best on a windy night),

Ghost in the wind

and a black spider web for the front door.

One of my fondest memories of trick or treating in the country was getting homemade treats, so I think Rice Crispy squares will be just the thing for those three little spooks from across the street, along with their Cheetos and Doritos….and maybe some microwave fudge…

PS. They say that on All Hallow’s Eve the veil between this world and the spirit world is very thin. Speaking of spirits, my first WordPress follower, Janowrite has a blog on ghost stories and the paranormal. Here’s a link to her website and her books. https://bookemjanoblog.wordpress.com/ Please pay her site a visit as I am sure this must be a favourite time of year for her. I found it kind of uncanny that my very first follower would deal with the paranormal as I had only made the blog public a week previous and was feeling kind of discouraged and thinking I might give up. (In truth it was more time consuming than I had thought). Then last month at a craft show, I had an interesting conversation with two ladies who had a psychic booth. They were selling crystals and stones and I had stopped to look at their jewelry, and picking up their business card, asked if they did housecleaning too. (I did not have my glasses on). They laughed and said they did clearing, as in helping people who had died get to the afterlife if they were having difficulty, kind of like an escort service for stuck souls. Then the other day, a picture of my dad’s tombstone randomly showed up at the top of my picture file, a picture I had not seen for over ten years. I wondered if it was a sign from the afterlife that I should continue? If you’ve had three signs, you should pay attention. Happy Halloween and may the only Ghosts you see be kindly spirits.

If you are looking for something to read in between handing out treats the book, I See You, is highly recommended.

I See You by Clare Mackintosh

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A murder mystery thriller perfect for reading on Halloween night in those lulls between handing out the candy…..ok maybe not such a good idea. Guaranteed to have you double checking all the locks before you go to bed, and I personally ended up deleting all personal pictures from social media. I liked the fact that the characters were flawed, which made the ending so much more delicious – a real treat.

Halloween Update: It was a cold night but windy so the ghost was swirling merrily in the tree. Good costumes but nothing exotic, except for one Donald Trump. Lots of leftover candy which needs to be donated as it is rapidly being consumed. I had a helper for the evening as the 9 yr old girl from across the street had both arms in casts, but she could still move her wrists so she helped me hand out candy and we played Go Fish and Crazy Eights in between (funny how those games come back to you). Later after their rounds, her two sisters came over and they collapsed on the couch in a candy induced coma to watch tv….unfortunately I don’t get the Disney Channel so they went home at nine. The Rice Krispie squares were all consumed (because our dad knows you won’t poison us), but I didn’t get around to the fudge…..oh well there’s always next year.

Apple Pie Memories

October 24, 2017April 12, 20182 Comments

Song of the Day – Don’t Sit under the Apple Tree – Glenn Miller Band – click here for music link

Farmer’s Market Apples

Like many people I don’t make apple pie, I make apple crisp, but once a year I will try, using store bought crust and apples from the local farmer’s market, so at least I can say I made a homemade pie….sort of. Pie crust is a lost art, drilled out of my generation by decades of warnings about saturated fat and heart disease. With apple crisp you use oatmeal which is supposed to be good for you. Now things have changed again and they say it’s sugar that’s bad not fat. Unfortunately, apple pie has both, but moderation is also the key, so I think the occasional piece of apple pie could be justified, in view of the newer guidelines. I am just trying to convince myself that anything made with lard could be good for you.

My attempts at pie crust have produced a rock-like substance, which is why I stick with the crisp, but my mother’s pie crust was light and flaky…. she used Crisco, but I prefer butter, at least you can get some omega-3’s. Unfortunately, my mother says she has lost her knack for pastry, (it’s an art form that needs to be practiced regularly), although every once in awhile she will make a crust for a turkey pie, which is still better than anything you can buy in the store. I remember when we were kids my mom would make three pies a week and a dozen butter tarts (I have used her recipe for butter tarts with great success but with store bought shells), and it would all disappear. My father was a prolific pie eater, but as he did a lot of physical work he never gained an ounce. I remember an old man dropping by the homeplace one day unannounced in search of his roots. I think his grandmother was a sister of my great grandmother Ellen, but as this was long before I had any interest in genealogy I didn’t pay much attention, although even then as a teenager I was interested in history and stories. My mother was in the middle of making her weekly pies, her board and rolling pin all in a flurry of flour. He stayed for supper and said it was the best apple pie he had ever eaten and it reminded him of his mother’s baking. (No one had the heart to tell him there was a picture of his relative upstairs in the attic, riddled with holes, from where my brother had used it as a dart board). Later we went to visit Ellen’s homeplace, a farm with a big old yellow brick farmhouse set high on a rolling hill just outside a city about eighty miles away (ie prime real estate). A doctor had bought it and was renovating it so his daughter would have a place to ride her horses. It was a beautiful spot. The only thing I know about Ellen is that she was a school teacher who had married a local farmer fifteen years older than her in 1870 and she raised nine children in our house. My great grandfather John was by the few accounts we have, a gruff old man, and when her mother was sick and dying he refused to take her to visit, so she decided to walk. Such is the family folklore, but I hope someone might have offered her a ride part of the way. This is an old picture of the homeplace and Ellen out front with two of her daughters and grandchildren. I still have the chairs they are sitting on, and the matching antique dining room table which folds out to seat twelve.

The Homeplace circa 1915

How many weekly pies you would have to make to feed nine children, as well as all the threshing crews. Like I said, it is a lost art form. I wonder what will happen when all those older women who make the turkey and fruit pies for the church bazaars are gone. Homemade pie will be a memory of the past. No one has time to make pie now, it’s easier just to buy one. Although I have never had much luck with store or bakery pies as they usually have corn starch as a thickener and I find it gives it a peculiar taste, but then I am comparing it to what I grew up on. Although in a pinch President’s Choice sells a perfectly acceptable frozen apple crisp, made with Northern Spy apples, and you still get the benefits of a lovely smelling house. I am sure all those cooking shows must have some instructions on the perfect pie crust, so one of these days I’ll have to tune in….and practice, practice, practice.

: My kitchen crabapple wreath

Scoop of the Day: The local farmer’s market sells crab apple jelly, from BayField Berry Farm, and last month when I was at a craft sale, amongst all the crocheted and quilted offerings, there were a couple of tables selling homemade jellies and jams, including crab apple, which is made from the pressed juice, so I would not even attempt it…..besides which I am all jammed out for this year – this jam session is over.

Bushel of Apples – 2015

PS. The fruits of my labour…

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Quote of the Day: Good apple pies are a considerable part of our domestic happiness.” (Jane Austen)

Apple Picking Time

October 17, 2017April 12, 20181 Comment

Bushel of Apples – 2015

It’s apple picking time…. which means apple pie season, my favourite time of the year. I don’t actually pick apples, (I’m lazy), but instead buy them from the farmer’s market which is supplied by a local orchard. Although on a nice fall weekend we might drive down river on a leaf tour to a place where you can pick your own but which also sells to customers from a small stand. They always have spy apples there, which are the best for cooking, despite what people say about all those new varieties. (I once had a grocery store clerk tell me you could make a pie with Macintosh, and I suppose you could if you wanted applesauce). Spy apples are always later in the season, but well worth the wait, their tart taste cancels out some of the sweetness of the sugar.

When this farmland was first settled everyone grew apples, and stored them in root cellars for cold storage. From my genealogy records, according to the 1860 agricultural census, they had to record how many acres of orchards they had, so it was an important crop, and a symbol of prosperity at the time. It was also their main source of vitamin C over the winter, and I wonder if the expression, “An apple a day keeps the doctor away” came from it’s prevention of scurvy. Both the homeplace and my grandparent’s farm had the remnants of the original apple orchards from over a hundred years ago. My dad’s farm had mostly crab apple trees, and a few eating apples, but the trees were so old the fruit was basically inedible, although the blossoms did have a heavenly aroma in the spring. The orchard was right beside the house and during my teenage years pity the poor sibling who would have to cut the grass in the orchard with a push mower and run over all those hard little things, which made for a very bumpy experience. (A riding lawn mower was the best thing ever invented). My grandmother’s orchard had better tasting snow apples, and on Thanksgiving my younger brother and I would climb the fence and brave the field full of large but rather dumb cows to pick some, and also to gather chestnuts, which my brother used as fences for his farm animal set. My grandmother lived to be 96 and every year she went apple picking with my uncle to the orchards down river. Her old farmhouse had a little unheated vestibule beside the kitchen where she would store the apples in bushel baskets, so when you entered her house you would always get a lovely whiff of the smell of ripe apples. Someday soon my house will smell marvelous from the cinnamony scent of warm apple pie, in the meantime I’ll just have to light some apple scented candles.

Artist of the Day: Helen McNicoll (from time to time I may feature a new artist I have discovered, unless otherwise specified all the other paintings are by my mother).

Helen McNicoll - The Apple Gatherer - 1911

The Apple Gatherer – Helen McNicoll – 1911

Last month I went to a talk on the Group of Seven at our regional art gallery. The speaker showed a slide of a painting by Helen McNicoll, called The Apple Gatherer which was painted in 1911. She was a contemporary of the Group of Seven, but being female, not considered part of the group. I think I much prefer Helen’s painting, as it is full of colour and light. Maybe next spring I will plant an apple tree…

Quote of the Day: “I’d like to teach the world to sing, in perfect harmony, grow apple trees and honey bees, and snow white turtle doves.”

Song of the Day: I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing – by the New Seekers – click here for music link

Book of the Day: Apples to Oysters by Margaret Webb has a chapter devoted to apple orchards.

Apples To Oysters: A Food Lover’s Tour of Canadian Farms by Margaret Webb

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

An interesting read about Canadian farmers, starting with apple growers and moving across the provinces…..oysters, cheese, vineyards, wheat etc. I found the stories fascinating and being from a rural background could relate to the appeal of the farming lifestyle, as well as the uncertainty of the farming business as most of the stories involved smaller generations-old family farms. If you ate today, thank a farmer!

Autumn Decor

October 6, 2017April 12, 20182 Comments

October Trees – 2014

Mother Nature is starting to decorate for fall. Despite the warm days, the tips of the maple trees are starting to turn red and gold. I love to decorate for fall inside too, mostly with dollar store finds, but you can get very creative with dollar store finds if you weed out the tacky ones, the plastic pumpkins and fake looking wreaths. Every year I haul out the same things from the basement storage area and spend an enjoyable hour or two making the house look cozy for the cooler days ahead. I put away the seashells and the starfish from the fireplace hearth, string the mantel with fairy lights, and switch out the floral pillows for plaid. The days are getting shorter and soon it will be dark at five pm and time to hibernate inside, because as lovely as autumn is, winter isn’t far behind. Enjoy it while you can. In the words of Anne Shirley, “I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.” (Anne of Green Gables – LM Montgomery)

I put two $4 swags from the dollar store around the lantern on my dining room table and strung fairy lights underneath ($11 at winner’s with a 40% coupon) for a romantic fall centrepiece.

A $3 garland of fall leaves lines the mantel, with small bittersweet wreaths decorating the candles at both ends.

Add some fairy lights – and it’s magic!

More fairy lights in urns on the side, and a bowl of apples on the hearth.

I bought this bunch of Indian corn at the grocery store last year, and the bouquet of autumn leaves is another dollar store bargain.

More bittersweet wreaths around the candles…(you can see I still have wallpaper….it is an old house and I have not finished renovating it inside, but I kind of like it….it’s very B&Bish)

Even the cat gets into the act….

Now it looks as colorful inside as it does outside. Happy Thanksgiving!

Tom Turkey – 2013

Farewell to Summer Song: Chad and Jeremy – click here for music link

Harvest Tea

October 1, 2017April 12, 2018Leave a comment

Song of the Day: Harvest Moon – Neil Young – music link

I was going to write about Harvest-Fest but as I am currently sick this week with a horrible cold/flu, it’s chicken noodle soup and the couch for me. It’s been four days now, and I’m still feeling too achy and miserable to even nap or read, two of my favorite activities.

Bowl of gruel…..er chicken noodle soup

iHarvest-fest is a locally sourced dinner held in one of the neighbouring towns at their outdoor farmer’s market, with food prepared by gourmet chefs from locally grown meat and produce. I weep when I think of that tender beef and all those heirloom vegetables I am missing, the fancy goat cheese arugula salad, the artisan bread, and best of all the Pie Lady was going to provide desert. There was to be rockabilly swing music and a full harvest moon in the sky. But as I said it was to be held outdoors, and I did not think it was a sensible thing to do in my current state of health, so I sold my tickets. When you are older, you tend to become more sensible, (I have bad memories of H1N1), so I am going to write about my harvest tea instead.

Last week I had the Group of Seven Art Ladies here for tea and a viewing of my mother’s latest collection of paintings…she did 98 paintings last year, or about two per week. My mother has painted for over forty years, but she held her first exhibit last year at the age of ninety. Usually you have to be dead or famous or preferably both to get into our class A gallery, but I entered her in a contest and she was one of three local artists selected for a pop-up exhibit. One of the art ladies was her co-exhibitor and while not all are painters they are all art lovers, so I guess you could say she has a fan club now. One of the things about living to be ninety is that most of your friends have passed away, so it’s lovely that my mom has this great new group of friends. Having lived in a medical world for most of my life, one of the things I found most interesting about the art world is how happy and cheerful and positive everyone is. (Not that medical people are necessarily miserable, but it can have a high burnout rate). Creativity is joyful – what child didn’t love art class in school. One of the reasons the gallery curator gave for choosing my mom for the exhibit was that her art was reminiscent of Maude Lewis, the east coast painter whose paintings are full of color and joy, a celebration of life, although my mom’s paintings tend to be more rural based as she lived on a farm for fifty years.

Harvest Moon – Sept 2017

Although I consider myself a foodie, I don’t particularly like to cook. I see nothing wrong with buying something if someone else can make it better than I can. But I do like to set a pretty table. I have lots of lovely things I have collected over the years, tablecloths and place-mats, many of them from April Cornell, mostly in blues, as I have four sets of blue dishes. But as it was fall, I pulled out my red Chinese-looking plates that I bought at Winners two years ago. (It fit the theme, as we did go for lunch at the Chinese restaurant first, as we would need sustenance to get through all those paintings.) As Winners is hit and miss, I was unable to get a complete set of mugs or teacups, so I am still on the hunt for things that might match the plates. I made a cherry cheesecake using the old Philadelphia cream cheese recipe from the eighties, (the one with the can of sweetened condensed milk, and lemon juice to cut the sweetness, takes about ten minutes, and best made the day before to set), but bought the Presidents Choice Lemon Curd Cake, (with a small jar of McKay’s Lemon Curd from my friends store to add extra flavor), because it is better than anything I could make, so moist and lemony, and low in calories at 150 per slice. The ladies really enjoyed the the deserts and the table settings. Although younger than my mother they are of the age when people had and used good china. So few people bother today, as no one has time anymore, but sometimes it is nice to be pampered and spoiled. The lavender sachet party favors were a hit too.

It’s important to match your desert to your dishes…..no seriously, it’s just how it turned out, including the peaches. So although I was sorry to miss Harvest-fest this year, (I expect a detailed update from someone), I have fond memories of a fun afternoon spent with a lovely group of ladies.

Book of the Day: I Let You Go – Clare MacIntosh When I was sufficiently recovered enough to be able to read again, my book club selection was so suspenseful it kept my mind off my misery…..highly recommended….see Good-reads review below.
I Let You Go by Clare Mackintosh

This book was a selection of my book club, but sadly I missed the discussion. I loved it – it was so suspenseful! It kept me my mind off the misery of three days on the couch sipping chicken noodle soup and nursing a horrible cold/flu. I am not British so was unfamiliar with the book (it was a crime bestseller in 2014), or the author……or waxed jackets. A waxed jacket was mentioned so often that I looked it up on Wikipedia…….”A waxed jacket is a type of hip-length raincoat made from waxed cotton cloth, iconic of British and Irish country life. Today it is commonly worn for outdoor rural pursuits such as hunting, shooting and fishing. It is a cotton jacket made water-resistant by a paraffin-based waxing, typically with a tartan lining and a corduroy or leather collar. The main drawback of a waxed fabric is its lack of breath-ability.[1]….” So, if you are ever on the Welsh cliffs on a cold dark and stormy night when there is a murderer about, please wear one, lest you end up sick like me! PS. I was not crazy about the spooky rather ambiguous ending, but the author’s Q&A profile on Good-reads assures us that Jenna has a happy ever after. I have the author’s second Book – I See You – on order.

Lavender and Pears

September 25, 2017September 12, 20181 Comment

Lavender & Pears – Aug 2017

There were pear trees on the homeplace and every year my father would make pear marmalade. At least he said he made it, but in reality I think he just collected the pears and helped my mother peel them. This was during the late seventies when I was away at school so there was no witness to this event but as in his later years when he used to vacuum the dog hair from the carpet and called himself a regular Molly Maid, I suspect it was a bit of an exaggeration. For a decade or so, my mother made peach jam, pear marmalade and three fruit marmalade. I remember taking jars of it to university in the fall and having it for breakfast in my dorm if I didn’t go down to the dining hall. I didn’t go home very often as it was too far away, but one year when I had been in hospital with a kidney stone they brought me a fresh supply – it was like a taste of summer in February, and much better than the store-bought stuff. I don’t know the difference between jam and marmalade and preserves, but it was all boiled down on the stove.

Pear Marmalade

I made it the old-fashioned way last year with two $4 baskets of pears and it was good, but having learned my lesson from the peach jamfest, I decided to stick to the freezer jam recipe from Certo Light – less work and still good flavour. Only it wasn’t good flavour. There wasn’t a recipe for pear jam on the package insert so I used the one for peaches. The pears were overripe, (I had gotten distracted by preparing for a tea party for the Group of Seven Art Ladies) so basically the whole mixture turned to mush. I added too much pectin, and not enough sugar, so it came out very gel-like. Basically, it was edible, but barely. I stuck in the freezer anyway, but it will probably end up being thrown out. I much preferred last years, but it was ore time consuming.

You can buy quite lovely jam at the farmer’s market for $5 a jar. The stand owner told me it is made from the juice and pectin, as they make it year round and you can’t get fresh fruit in the winter, but the taste is quite good. I buy the crabapple jelly, but there are all kinds of exotic flavours like gooseberry jam (we had an old gooseberry bush too, which would produce one or two berries a year), Saskatoon jam, red current jelly, plum jam etc. When I was at the museum craft sale last Sunday there were several tables selling homemade jams and jellies – hey let someone else do the work! I think that’s why my mother quit canning.

The lavender harvest is in…. sixteen small mesh (party store) bags. I placed them on the harvest tea table as party favours but they are quite lovely for lingerie drawers, or tucked under a pillow for sweet dreams.