Thursday, November 17, 2011
Daily Doodle - November 17, 2011
I still wonder what kind of little boy he was, rough and tumble, or quite and shy. He looks like he was a little monkey, but was he?
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Sunday, November 13, 2011
Friday, November 11, 2011
Daily Doodle - November 11, 2011
Dan Dare: Pilot of the Future was also a radio program. I can picture my dad curled up next to the radio, listening to the latest installment. Did he imagine himself zipping across the galaxy in a rocket ship to do battle with the Mekon (big green headed alien)?
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Sunday, November 6, 2011
Daily Doodle - November 6, 2011
Last month, my cousin sent me some photos of my dad as a little boy. Up until then, I'd never seen any photos of him as a youngster. It got me wondering what he was like when he was little. Was he a bruiser? Was he shy and sensitive? What did he like to do? I've read stories about little boys playing on bomb sites. Did he do that? Lots of questions, no answers. So in order to try and understand him a little better, I've started to read about life in 1950s England, the period in which he grew up.
Saturday, October 29, 2011
Sunday, October 23, 2011
Friday, October 21, 2011
Monday, October 17, 2011
Saturday, October 15, 2011
Saturday, October 8, 2011
Daily Doodle - October 8, 2011
When I was little, I used to love watching the ‘70s British sitcom “The Good Life”. It chronicled the lives of Tom and Barbara Good, two middle-aged, middle-class Britons who leave the rat race and don chunky wooly jumpers and wellie boots in their bid to become self-sufficient in suburbia. Way before it was cool to compost, follow the 100-Mile Diet and raise chickens in your backyard, Tom and Barbara were rearing goats, making their own cheese and peapod burgundy, dying wool with nettle juice and driving around town in their homemade, methane-powered car.
At seven years of age, I dreamed of living a life like theirs. I still do today, but it occurred to me that I’m actually not far from reaching that goal. I’ve got:
- a composter
- a neighbour with chickens
- wellies
- a dedicated wooly gardening jumper
- a lovely garden in which I grow all manner of veg (especially peas)
I’ve even got a hunky, wool-jumper-and-wellie-clad husband called Tom!
Now I've just got to ditch that day job.
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Daily Doodle - October 6, 2011
Our house turned 100 this year, so it’s old…and little. It’s got smaller rooms (indeed fewer rooms), smaller closets and smaller doors than most modern homes. Not that that bothered us when we moved in. We're little, too. (Well, one of us is!) We figured that since we didn't have that much stuff, we'd be fine. So I guess we shouldn’t have been too surprised when, after much shoving, twisting, turning and swearing, the movers informed us that our bed would not go up the stairs to our bedroom. It wouldn’t go through the bedroom windows either because (you guessed it) they’re small too.
Saturday, October 1, 2011
Daily Doodle - October 1, 2011
If only the world were tea powered…
He does it EVERY day! He has done for the past 21 years. While it’s still cold and dark outside, he drags himself out of our nice warm bed, pulls on his clothes, trogs downstairs to the kitchen and puts on the kettle. When the water’s boiled and the tea’s brewed, he climbs the stairs back to our bedroom cup in hand, stops to give me a warm kiss and deposits a nice, hot cup of tea on my bedside table.
By my reckoning, that’s at least 7,665 cuppas! That’s a whole lotta tea. To put it into perspective, let’s say I drink my tea out of a 500ml cup. That’s total of 3,825.5 litres of tea, enough to fill the gas tanks of 77 Peugeot 207s!!! Or based on the mileage of aforementioned French vehicle, enough to drive us around the world 1½ times!!!!!
Now if that’s not love, I don’t know what is!
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Daily Doodle - September 27, 2011
A tale of Provence, in which Esther, Tom, Hannah and Paul get plastered…
Our tour guide, Carol-Lee, was waiting for us at the fountain. I thought our tour of Châteauneuf-du-Pape was finished, but she led us down the street to a storefront: Le Petit Serre Cave de Vignerons. We stepped inside and were greeted by Suzanne, a lovely, down-to-earth lady who owned the cave and her own vineyard. She had a small table made of wine barrels waiting for us. On it were bread, cheese and bottles of wine.
After sampling some local white wines, we moved on to the reds. As the tasting progressed, we got merrier and merrier — especially me. Hannah, who’s not keen on red wine, would take a small sip and pass the rest of her glass to me. So when Carol-Lee proceeded to coach us on how to smell and taste wine properly, we were already primed for giggling.
“Can you smell the cherries and hint of blackberry?” she asked. I tried, but couldn’t conjure up a hint of either. “Ah, yes,” she continued. “I smell barnyard. Can you smell barnyard? and a trace of wet dog!!!”
We looked at each other in disbelief. It was all we could do to stifle our laughing. Try as we might, none of us could smell the barnyard and certainly not the wet dog!
Wine connoisseurs we are not, but we all agreed that our trip to Châteauneuf-du-Pape had been most excellent!
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Monday, September 19, 2011
Daily Doodle - September 19, 2011
I remember the sky mostly, staring at it for hours ... praying to a god I don't believe in. Then the CCU, the noise, the light, the smell. The last time I experienced that smell, things didn't turn out too well. And no chairs. I really needed a chair. Why didn't they have chairs in this place? Then I saw him on the bed in the corner, looking small but awake! How could he be awake already? And he recognized me! He couldn't speak, but he moved his finger to let me know that he was there. It was enough. It was everything.
Saturday, September 17, 2011
Daily Doodle - September 17, 2011
From my journal, August 13, 2003:
The Hotel Europa is very posh, 3 stars! Tom and I are living the high life. Our room is located on the top floor (6th), has two balconies and is finely decorated. The hotel's name is plastered all over everything, towels, soap, shampoo, even jam jars!
We settled into our room, checked the view from the balcony and were both startled by a tremendous bang...Fireworks! It turns out we've arrived during a week-long festival (La Semana Grande), which includes fireworks every night. Off we trotted down to the beach (a mere two blocks away) to watch the pyrotechnic extravaganza. It was a magical end to our first night in San Sebastian!
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Daily Doodle - September 14, 2011
Here's a painting of Tom's wedding shirt. I'm not going to bother telling you the story about it because Tom's done a great job of that already! Check out his column "I'd give her the shirt off my back" on his blog.
Monday, September 12, 2011
Daily Doodle - September 12, 2011
When we moved to Victoria, we were on a VERY tight budget, so meals like this were reserved for special occasions, like birthdays.
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Friday, September 9, 2011
Daily Doodle - September 9, 2011
“Changed Priorities Ahead”, Tom read aloud with a laugh, as we whizzed by a road sign posted in a construction zone, “Now that’s kind of apropos!”
What prompted this quip? Well, only days before, we’d become engaged amongst the beautiful ruins of St. Mary’s Abbey, in York, England.
We’d spent a sunny summer’s day wandering around the medieval streets of York and came upon the abbey’s remnants in the Museum Gardens. It really is a beautiful setting, with lush gardens, surrounded by trees, and - when we were there - bathed in golden sunlight.
We found a bench to sit on and catch our breath, and that’s when Tom began. I can’t remember exactly what he said or if he got down on one knee, but I do remember being a bit nervous and feeling very loved. I definitely remember saying, “Yes!” And I’m pretty sure that Champagne was involved.
When major life events like this happen, you want a photo to commemorate the occasion, don’t you? So we asked a passing groundskeeper if he’d mind taking a quick snap of us. He gamely agreed. Tom handed him the camera, gave him a few quick instructions and dashed back to sit beside me on our “engagement bench”. His cap askew, the cuddly and amiable groundskeeper pointed the camera in our direction (more or less). We smiled happily, the flash went off and we thanked him for his help.
It wasn’t until we got home and had our film developed that we realized there was a problem. Somehow, our tipsy (we speculated) photographer had managed to capture a beautiful portrait of the abbey’s wall right above our heads. That’s right; we have an engagement photo of a wall!
So there you go. I may not have an engagement photo, but I’ve got a good, (no, GREAT) fella!
Apropos? Most definitely!
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Daily Doodle - September 6, 2011
It’s a serious business, food poisoning. I wouldn’t dream of making light of someone’s suffering, but in this case I’ll make an exception.
In the early days of our relationship, Tom would occasionally go out with the lads, play some NTN trivia and have a pint or two (or three or four). So when my beloved arrived home late one night in a rather inebriated state, I wasn’t too surprised. I ministered to him, offering him a large glass of water and some prophylactic Aspirin and went off to bed. Tom, however, advised me that he would be staying up for a while to “unwind”.
In the early hours of the morning, I was awoken from my sleep by, um, retching sounds which seemed to be coming from the bathroom. I got up to see what was going on and found a pale-faced Tom wrapped around the toilet bowl.
“Ughhhh,” he moaned, “I think it was the pizza.”
To this day, Tom will tell you it was bad pizza…but you and I know differently!
Friday, September 2, 2011
Daily Doodle - September 2, 2011
Imagine…You’re in love. It’s Christmas and you’re walking with the object of your affections to get your first-ever Christmas tree together. You find the perfect specimen at your local grocery store, bundle it into the nearest shopping cart and begin the long walk home. As you dream about sipping hot chocolate and humming along to jingly Christmas music while decorating the Christmas tree, you notice…that it has started to SNOW!
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Monday, August 29, 2011
Daily Doodle - August 29, 2011
I haven't posted much lately, but that's about to change.
Over the next month or two, I'm going to post some paintings (and preliminary sketches) that I did for my husband. This year, he turned 50, so I wanted to give him something special for his birthday. I decided to make him a painting for each of the years we've been together - 21 in total. This painting is the first in the series.
Now, I certainly don't claim to be romantically astute. This painting of a Hershey's Kiss is proof of that! My husband and I met at work, way back when cameras still used film and photos were developed in trays, we worked as darkroom technicians in a Vancouver photo lab. My fella-to-be's darkroom was down the hallway from mine, but I got along swimmingly with my darkroom neighbour, Ralph. In between shoving prints through our paper processors, we'd exchange witty banter, put the world to rights, and console one another when things weren't going well. Anyway, I was going through a bit of a rough patch and I'd been chatting with Ralph about it. One day, when a cute little Hershey's Kiss appeared on my darkroom easel, I naturally assumed that Ralph had left it there to cheer me up. And why not? Never mind that Tom had:
- asked me out to play with his friend's exotic animals (holding a tarantula really helps to break the ice)
- spent an evening giving me a back massage at his friend's studio (I mean, come on!)
- spent many hours mooning over me (see definition below) at the spotting table.
Apparently, Tom was crushed that I didn't recognize his oh so subtle advances.
What can I say? I'm not the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree.
moon over someone: to spend time thinking about someone who you are attracted to rather than doing anything useful.
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)