They're Baaaaack!

While driving through south-central Alberta the other day, Mickey and I had to stop on the side of the road, grab out cameras, and take pictures of this welcome event.

The Canada Geese are back...hundreds, maybe thousands of them, are arriving in Alberta daily, looking for ponds and lakes.  This one was next to a secondary road so it was easy for us to see them.  The pond is still iced over, except for an open spot in the middle.

When they heard our car doors close, most of them took to the air, amidst a great cacophony of honking and flapping wings and noise.

So now we had geese swimming in the water, walking on the ice, and flying in the sky.  Very versatile birds

The braver ones held their ground and enjoyed the uncrowded pond for awhile.

Beautiful birds, harbingers of spring and of winter.  If the government had decided to put a Canada goose on our one dollar coin instead of the Loon, would we call said coin a Goosie instead of a Loonie?  Something to think about...or not.

Enjoy spring.

Overseas Posting - Memories

I was working on a board in my Pinterest account not long ago and it brought back so many memories - I spent hours and hours on it.  It's a board called "Places I've Lived" and  working on it just sent me into a nostalgic frame of mind that lasted for days. Some places I had personal pictures of and others I had to grab pictures from other sites on the Internet.

Of all the many places I've lived, the one that stands out as the most memorable is the one year we spent in Germany when Dad was posted there with his Canadian Army regiment (3RCHA) in 1960-61.  I was 12 at the time - old enough to remember and appreciate this amazing adventure we were having, yet young enough and carefree enough to embrace it with the enthusiasm of childhood.  Everything about this move was an adventure, from the train ride from Oromocto, NB to Quebec, where we boarded the Cunard ocean liner RMS Saxonia,

On board the Saxonia, Nov. 1960
Dad, Mum, Me (12), Ken (9), Wendy (13)

 to the six day ocean crossing, the train ride from Amsterdam to the beautiful little town of Hemer, Wesphalia, where we arrived in the rain in the middle of the night in the company of the other regiment families, to be met by a large group of military families - some of the regiment who had gone before us - and bussed to our new PMQ home.

This grainy picture is an internet 'capture' of the apartment building we lived
in but it's taken sometime in the 1980s and had been painted and changed
somewhat from we lived there at 1C Berliner Strasse.

The beautiful little town of Hemer, Germany

Hemer Fire Station.  I loved the half timbered buildings.  I had never seen
them before going to Germany

Street view, downtown Hemer

Dad bought a car from one of the soldiers who had been posted home, an Opel Kapitan, and on Sundays we'd go for a drive exploring this beautiful country.  It must have been strange for Dad to be there since just 15 years earlier he had been in that part of the world fighting for his country during the Second World War.

During the summer, the school organized field trips for us.  We went to such places as the Mohnesee Dam, Dechenhohle Caves, Zoo Wuppertal, Cologne Cathedral, driving down the Autobahn in open backed canvas covered two and a half ton military trucks.  That was an adventure itself - no seatbelts, sitting on two rows of benches in the back of the truck as we sped down the Autobahn, singing!

On one of our Sunday drives we visited the castle in Altena.  Completed in 1109,
since 1912 it has been used as a youth hostel, one of the first in Europe.  My
first, and only, castle experience.  We just don't have them here in Canada.

One of our summer school outings was to Zoo Wuppertal - my first zoo experience.

We went a couple times, as a family and with the summer school outings to the Mohnesee,
one of the dams that had been bombed during the war, which has since been rebuilt.

 Then in December 1961 we were again at sea, this time on the Greek liner, QSS Arcadia, headed back to Canada and the rest of our lives.

But what a wonderful opportunity for us to have lived that year in Germany.  I've always wanted to go back as an adult and view it with a different perspective.  I was so excited when our youngest daughter, Emily, took German in high school and had the opportunity to live in Darmstat, near Frankfurt, as an exchange student for 3 months.  Then again last year when Emily and Sara went to Germany (I forget the name of the town) on business.  It's such a beautiful country.

Going back for a visit is high on my bucket list.

Celebrations

This past weekend we celebrated Easter combined with Birthdays.  Our son, Mike, has managed to cluster his family's birthdays such that they can all be celebrated at once.  In one week in March we have Mike's birthday, followed by Alex and Hannah's, a couple days apart.  Following closely is his wife, Avril's, birthday and then Kenny's.

Since we're not going to be there to celebrate each birthday individually, we had a birthday celebration as part of our Easter dinner.

Of course, opening the presents came first

For the birthday cake and blowing out of the candles, I had a stroke of genius that was a lot of fun.  First I got a cupcake cake, which makes for easy serving.  Then, in order for each birthday person to have a chance to blow out his/her own candles, I grouped the candles in sections and just set fire to one section at a time.

First Alex blew out his five candles.

Then Kenny blew out his corner of seven candles.

 Followed by Hannah blowing out her three candle corner.

For the adults, I just put three candles, representing past, present and future.  Avril blew her three out first.

And finally Mike blew his three out.

With each individual blowing out of the candles, we sang Happy Birthday to the featured birthday person...a lot of singing!

Then I stood the remaining three candles from the packet up in a pool of wax on the table and Emily did her TaeKwonDo trick skill of 'punching' the candles out using the wind generated from the amazing speed of her flying fist of death!  Nice trick Em.

While we were in Lethbridge, Allan, Emily and I went to walk around the still mostly frozen Park Lake.

and Lloyd, Emily, Allan and I took a drive down to Cardston to put flowers on Lloyd's parents grave. It was nice to see that the decorations Kenzie and Charlie placed on the grave last summer were still there.  It's a lovely spot to visit.

It's snowing here in Edmonton today and isn't suppose to stop until there's 15cm of it.  Frustrating since the snow pack from the last storm was almost completely melted.  With that in mind, Mickey and I are heading down to Arizona on Tuesday for a ten-day break.  Yea!

Easter Fun

My grandkids here in Edmonton are on spring break this week and are bored already.  Since I won't be here with them at Easter, I decided to spend half a day with them doing Easter crafts. 

So eight of them gathered at Sara's house and I arrived with my goodies in hand, and the fun (and mess) began.  They ranged in age from 3 to 10.

We started with the messiest craft first - making Easter eggs by winding yarn around inflated balloons and coating them with ModPodge.  sticky, sticky, sticky.  And I forgot to take pictures of the finished products.  Oh well!  This one was a challenge.

Elly very carefully coated her balloon with ModPodge

Kenzie, with her wrapped balloon, all ready for the final coat of ModPodge

Charlie, always the clown, pretended to eat her partially wrapped balloon.

While I cleaned up that mess and had the 'eggs' hanging to dry, the kids colored Easter pages that I had printed out for them.

Sydney working carefully on her picture.

Charlie, Kenzie, Elly and Syd working on the kitchen island.

Our next craft was to make pretzel treats using pretzels, melting candy, and Smarties (M&Ms)  The kids loved this one, sneaking bits of candy into their mouths when they thought I wasn't looking.

Happy kids on a sugar high.
Aidan, Elly, Tate, Quinn
Kenzie, Charlie, Max, Sydney
 

While the 'big kids' went downstairs to dance off some energy, the little ones stayed with me and we stuck glue dots and tape on hard boiled eggs and dipped the sticky dotted parts in fine glitter to make pretty pastel eggs. 

Elly and Aidan with their eggs. 
 The pretty sparkly dots don't show up here but trust me, they were cute.

Quinn was very serious about getting her dots on just
right and using all the colors of sprinkles.
 

They loved doing this and we used all the eggs before the big kids came back upstairs.  It's all right though because by then it was time for Amy's kids to go home, and an exhausted Grammie left soon after.

A fun way to spend a day.

Happy Spring Everyone!

Sometimes you just have to grin and bear it...polar bear it, that is.

Today is the second official day of spring.  Here in Alberta it's the second coming of winter...without its ever having left us.

We are in the midst of the worst snow storm of the 2012-2013 winter season, and it's not even winter anymore, officially.

Here are some shots I've copied from the local news stations...

This is taken just south of Edmonton on the QE2 highway.  There was a 60 car pileup, including semi tractor trailers, cattle trucks and every other type of vehicle imaginable.  30 people were taken to the hospital, none with really serious injuries, thank goodness.   

Same highway, same general location.  At one point the RCMP had to close the QE2. People were stranded for 3 hours or more until it was safe to move on.  One of the east/west highways was also closed.  City police reported, at last count, 132 accidents in the city.

 This next one was taken by my friend, Mickey, in her back yard.  The picture isn't fuzzy...the snow was coming down so hard that it's very visible in the air.

Edmonton is classed as a 'winter city' and as such, Edmontonians are generally resigned to the fact that we have long winters and learn to love tolerate the snow and enthusiastically resign themselves to participating in appropriate winter events, namely shoveling snow, pushing cars out of snowbanks, skating, skiing and hockey.  But when winter extends, and worsens, into spring, it's hard not to feel a bit frustrated and put upon. 

The snow seems to have stopped now (just after midnight) and we'll have a few days of sub-zero temperatures but then it'll warm up and by the end of April we should have the first few flowers of spring.  Unless it snows again.

Happy Spring!

Comfort Food

Yesterday was a day for comfort food.  Lloyd spent the afternoon helping our son Rob and his family move to their new house.  He was heading north the next day (today) and we had a quiet evening at home planned.  So while he was with Rob, I spent the afternoon preparing our favorite comfort food meal.

Boston Baked Beans, Scalloped Potatoes, and Ham

What is it about some food that turns them from just a regular meal and upgrades it to the position of "comfort" food?  For me, it usually has connections to good memories and home.  In this case, memories of Saturday dinners at home when we were kids.  In the Maritime provinces of Canada, where both Lloyd and I were raised, Saturday night was traditionally the night for Boson Baked Beans, cooked all day in a bean crock in the oven.  When I was a young mother and feeding our family of nine, I stretched the Saturday bean night to include scalloped potatoes and ham.  And we didn't have it every Saturday because some of the kids decided they didn't like beans.  So now when we have this meal, even if it's just Lloyd and me now, it's a reminder of home and family.  And it's Lloyd's favorite meal.

Beans 'baked' in the slow cooker

 Mum used to accompany the beans with the most delicious home made brown bread (molasses).  It was incredibly good!  I have the recipe but don't make it very often.  My daughter Amy makes it though and it's just as good as Mum's.

Since my bean crock got a nasty chip in it the last time I used it, yesterday I decided to try cooking my beans in the slow cooker.  I'm pleased to report that the beans turned out just as good cooked that way than in the oven, with the added benefit of freeing up my oven for the scalloped potatoes and ham to cook.  Bonus!

Scalloped potatoes with cheese and bacon.

And to top it off, I tried something new.  My youngest daughter Emily and her husband have opted for a healthy lifestyle and have been eating a gluten-free, sugar-free diet for quite awhile now, with wonderful health benefits for both of them.  I took a recipe she posted on her blog for banana bread made without flour or sugar.  It was delicious, rich and moist.  I haven't had it enough to elevate it to the status of comfort food, but given time, I'm sure it'll rate up there with beans, ham and scalloped potatoes.

Emily's gluten-free, sugar-free banana bread. 

It's a bit raggedy on the sides because I baked it in a foil pan that
had grooves along the inside.

So what's your favorite comfort food?

Stranded!

We had a sudden snowstorm here in Lethbridge on Sunday...wind and snow with zero visibility on icy roads.  Our son Mike and his family had come into town before the storm started and quickly found themselves stranded.

Luckily we were here at the time so they came to our place because the roads were so bad Mike didn't think he'd be able to make it to the small town they lived in.  In fact, the RCMP closed all of the highways out of Lethbridge because of bad road conditions and poor visibility.  Up until Sunday, there wasn't a trace of snow in this area.

So we hunkered down for the duration of the storm.  The kids thought it was great fun.  They know where I keep all the toys and kid stuff so they were happy.  And Kenny got out the deck of cards so he and I could have our customary game of War.

Middle son, Alex, cosied up to Papa right away and 'helped' him look through a car magazine.

When it came time to put the kids to bed, because they came unprepared with overnight clothes, they each wore a t-shirt belonging to their grandparents.  They kind of floated in them and Hannah's arms kept coming out of the too wide sleeves.  They thought it was great fun though.

Alex, Hannah and Kenny.  Poor Kenny had an ear ache so wasn't feeling too perky.

Alex and Hannah

And finally, with the extra beds made up, Avril settled down with the little ones and read to them until they were ready to go to sleep.

By Monday the roads were passable, visibility was once again good, and life got back to normal.

It's not so bad being snowbound for a day or so.  Especially at this time of year when you know the snow will soon disappear.