A solitary December post

Today is the last day of 2011; a mementous occasion indeed.  In lieu of fireworks to bring in the New Year I have a short clip of my favorite Christmas tree in the adjacent town which from a short distance away gives the effect of snow.  Each town typically puts up some lights along their main street a couple of weeks before Christmas.  Many towns will also have an official tree lighting ceremony where the public is invited.  The bigger the town the more elaborate the ceremony - for eg. groups may be singing carols, hot chocolate is served, etc.   New Year's Eve on the other hand is in the Big Apple.   To watch the ball drop in Times Square is the thing to do.  That's provided you don't suffer from claustrophobia because of the crush of people, don't mind the freezing temperatures, and get very excited by the effect of gravity.  Oops, I think Eliot is there right now.

Ron and I were very amused to read on the BBC news page that Samoa and Tokelau had decided to be the first to see in 2012, rather than last, by skipping Saturday.  Pity all the folk that had their birthdays on Saturday who missed out on celebrating and presents.  Come to think of it, I wouldn't mind staying the same age for an additional year now that I'm no spring chicken. 

May the Lord guide, sustain, encourage and bless you in the New Year, and may He refresh your delight in Him.   

A tribute to my Wonderful Dad

Had he still been alive today, my Dad would be turning 82.  I have so many fond memories that evoke such feelings of thankfulness to the Lord for having given him to us.  Having been born a twin and the youngest of 12, I doubt he got much of his parents attention and yet he was such a great Dad himself. 

He was a faithful servant of the Lord and one who displayed great humility. 
Here he is at Kent Falls in CT, a place where we have taken many of you. 

The Brookfield Town Hall property has a petanque court which is pictured here.  Dad used it several times when he would visit us in CT.  Because he didn't do things by halves, he became rather competent at petanque after much practice and tournaments.  Most days, providing the weather cooperated you would find him fitting in a game or two.

Tammy the dog was Dad's firm friend since he frequently took her for walks.  By the way that bulging bag is full of petanque balls.  You have no idea how heavy they are!

I have so many wonderful reminders of my Dad, even some of his sayings and corny jokes that we continue to use in our family.  Here are some that come to mind.

In reply to "How are we going to get there?"  Dad:  " Shank's Pony", a.k.a walking

'Worse things happen at sea'

In reply to "Is it Friday today?"   Dad:  "Yes, all day". 

Thanksgiving 2011

Americans associate Thanksgiving with the cooperation between the Native Americans and European settlers back in the 1600s but it was finally declared a national holiday in 1941.  Today it is characterized by turkey dinners, football games and parades. 

We participated in the former (turkey) along with many other superb dishes - ham, candied carrots, mashed potato, salad, stuffing, cranberry sauce, followed by pumpkin and apple pie with whipped cream - pictured above, with good friends.  Bear in mind all that food was for two families - 9 people - one of which was a baby.  Below is a picture of the bird - the preferred choice of Benjamin Franklin for America's national symbol - after we had eaten from it.

I forgot to ask how many pounds this turkey was; at any rate a large one. 

Eliot came home from college/university this morning so he was able to join us as well.  He brought two pies with him that he had baked this week as part of a Sigma Chi activity, the fraternity that he is a member of.  Their organization spent all day baking  around 100 Thanksgiving pies - pumpkin, strawberry/rhubarb, apple, cherry, apple crumb, peach, blueberry - as a fundraiser at a bakery.  If Eliot isn't successful in obtaining his undergraduate degree next year then there is definite hope for him as a pastry chef.

A new pot and a new pad; a sad tale and a happy one

Here I am way behind on my blogging again.  However, as we approach the end of the year I have every confidence that a New Year's resolution to post more frequently will come to fruition. 

With regards to the new pot I refer back to my protracted journey home from NZ compliments of Qantas who were the cause of several days delay.  In addition to the strike that delayed my departure,  the flight left Auckland 90 minutes late while 'technical experts' tried to get the entertainment system working to no avail.  I was already hard pressed to make my connection in LAX but alas, the digits of my right hand did not match the fingerprints on record.  The customs agent who walked me over to secondary processing had the gall to ask me how my day was going.  By the time I got to check-in I had well and truly missed the flight and had to wait another couple of hours for the next one.  In the interim, of course, my fingerprints had matched up with my other documentation and I eventually arrived in NYC greeted by Ron and Troy - who looked like the son of a cave man - and proceeded home to the dark northeast.  More about that shortly because no doubt you are wondering about the new pot. 

I left America with 2 large suitcases full of strange things - a huge stuffed horse (someone's soft toy from way back), 2 large rolls of  freezer paper (for a quilter), a kitchen rug, gift books, etc.  When Ron saw me stuffing things in he said "I am washing my hands of this".  On my return trip bar a few small souvenirs for the 3 lads, my one mission was to bring back a teapot - hard to find here - since our current Briscoes teapot which has done us proud for many years is starting to leak at the spout.   Alas, what you see above is probably the result of a few tosses of my suitcase.  However the lesson for next time is to stick to a metal teapot when travelling long distances.

Back to the dark northeast.  Brookfield was without power for about 6 days and we were without phone and internet for about 11 or 12 days total since the wires had been yanked from the house and pole.  The CEO of the power company has recently resigned because of the enormous criticism he has received after the last three major power outages.  We had far more criticism for the phone company who were virtually useless in responding to calls requesting repairs.  It's the typical situation where the call gets routed to a global call centre in the Phillippines for eg and they have no idea what the local situation is.  They have been trained to answer in a certain way but don't know anything beyond that. 

The new pad is the Ipad which without being melodramatic could almost say I have embraced.  I like many of its features and find it very easy to use.  It downloads email instantaneously, is very portable, has great storage, and holds its charge very well.  Just recently I was browsing for sheet music and was able to sit it on the piano to preview some music before deciding if I wanted to buy it.  I could never have done that with a laptop.  When Ron first purchased it for me, I had a sneaking suspicion it was really for him.  That turned out not to be the case although we do share a very addictive word game that he loaded onto it called W.E.L.D.E.R which I highly recommend with a warning that might result in some late nights.   

This is Troy when it dawned on him that the fun was over now that Mum was home again.  Sorry Troy; it's a tough life. 

Wedding and World Cup

There were two important events in October (three if you count my birthday, ha ha) in New Zealand: the final of the World Cup and the wedding of Nicola and Steve.  I was privileged to be in the country for both.

Two weeks literally flew by; part of that time was spent with Laura and Mikey in Hamilton and their menagerie and the remainder was in Hastings.  I got a true taste of the amount of work it takes to get married in the 21st century.    

Speaking of taste, to my surprise, I found myself making the wedding cakes; quite an honour when one thinks of some very 'unique' dishes that came from my kitchen as a newly married woman.  Thankfully I have progressed from those days.  I do not have a photo on my camera of the finished product.  Suffice to say that in spite of making an incredible mess during the process the cakes turned out alright with some help decorating from the bridesmaids. 

Thank you dear family for hosting me, meeting up with me and visiting me - some from afar - and for making my trip so enjoyable.   Unfortunately we are not always able to catch up with everyone, which makes it that much more compelling to visit again.   

Labour Day Parade

True to my word I am getting back to the Parade which was postponed because of Hurricane Irene until today.  Originally the town postponed it to 10am today but agreed to change the time to 2pm when the churches approached them explaining they all have their worship services around that time.  Several congregations actually have floats in the parade.  Maybe that's how we can raise our profile and boost our own numbers; have Bob and Ron, our session, up on the back of a ute, some gospel music blaring, a bass guitar perhaps, maybe a few good jokes at the expense of Reformed folk!

.  We played it safe and handed out helium balloons with a card attached about our church, to passers by.  There were plenty.  The annual parade is the biggest in CT we are told.  It lasted for well over an hour with every community group, organization, business, etc you could imagine.  This is one patriotic town.  The parade began with a lovely rendition of the National Anthem in its entirety after the huge flag you see above was unfurled by about 50 volunteers to which hundreds of people stood solemnly bar a few unruly children.  There were a few WWII era fighter planes that flew over during the parade.  Revolutionary and civil war re-enacters fired off volleys periodically as they walked down the parade route frightening the wits out of dogs, children, even me.  In my defense, if one is busy blowing up balloons, or attaching string etc, one is unaware of when the volleys will be fired.  Comprenez-vous?

Volunteering for a worthwhile cause

Here I am apologizing again for not having posted for such a long time.  A thousand pardons.  The weeks seem to fly by faster than two shakes of a lamb's tail.  In the interim, we have been making hay while the sun shines because the winter is a comin.  The nights are getting nippy.  However, I knew that the minute I got the winter quilt out, the temperatures would climb, and so they did.  Today it was a balmy 82F/28C, perfect for the Labour Day Parade - albeit postponed - which I will mention in due course.

Yesterday Ron and two other men from our church set off at the crack of dawn - 5.30am - in the dark to a small town in upstate NY.  A good portion of this town, 25% or so, was flooded during Hurricane Irene which passed us by.  We heard of a fellow church member in this wee town, Schohare, through the Orthodox Presbyterian grapevine.  He and others were badly affected, being without flood insurance since their town has never flooded, period.  He and his wife were away visiting family when the flood hit so were unable to move possessions to safety. They also spent 3 days waiting to get back home because of the flight delays caused by the storm. {By the way it's Ron here now}The local creek flooded to 26 feet (previous high was 16 feet) so they had 5 feet (1.5 meters) of water in their ground floor. All furniture, electrical appliances, books, musical instruments (grand piano in the family for three generations), huge sheet music collection, etc. etc. were destroyed. The lower storey of Frank's 1850's house (that's him pictured on the right)

had to be cleared back to the framing. ie all the outside cladding was destroyed, the insulation and all interior walls had to be ripped out. This picture was in the underground basement and shows all the old wiring (white) and the new temporary wiring (yellow) that Frank installed so he and his wife could live in the upper floor. We had to rip out all the wiring because the water forced its way inside the plastic covering - even a 10 meter section I stripped the plastic off was wet all the way through. The other thing to notice from the picture is the terrible standard of the wiring! I'm sure any electrician would have fainted clean away at the sight of this fuse box! After a long dirty day the below is what it looks like now.

All neat and done to code! We are planning to come back in 2 weeks to do some more work. Once you see the devastation in the town you look at your lawn and pretty quickly decide it can wait another week to be mowed.

The community spirit is really quite wonderful in the town as well. One of the local churches puts on a (free)hot meal for all residents and volunteers. They have done so every day since the flood hit. Many of the families surrounding the town prepare meals and bring them to town and just drive around the streets handing out the food. The nearest operating restaurant is about 6 miles (9.6 km) away so you can see the need for this sort of support. It was a tiring day but a real blessing to meet and become friends with this very brave and resolute Godly man.

Ron resting his eyes

This is Ron taking a Sunday afternoon nap a.k.a resting his eyes.  That's his treasured E-reader lying on his chest waiting to be powered up again.  To be fair we were all eager for a snooze after an afternoon of yard work the day before helping a friend tame his overgrown garden.  We kill a bunch of birds with one stone when we help out since any company is appreciated.  As we pulled away from Farshad's house after several hours of clipping, weeding and pruning Troy said "Well that was fun".  Ron and I looked at each other in surprise both hoping the same thing.  Our son is beginning to derive pleasure from serving others.  What a wonderful thing.  It's almost to good to be true.  And it was.  Turns out it was the pizza that was fun.  Oh well.  He did help willingly and cheerfully.

potpourri

I had good intentions of posting regularly but the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.  My sincere apologies.  September of course, is the start of the school year here in the northern hemisphere and so all our activities and routines are well and truly under way. 

I spent a couple of evenings cleaning out my cabinets and re-configuring the storage of my dry goods due to an infestation of weevils/moths/caterpillars.  I didn't think you wanted an up close shot of the rogues who  had partially munched through cashews, almonds, chickpeas, northern beans, the list goes on.  The rascals even emerged from a sealed bag of flour when we opened it.  Fortuitously, Mr Pest Man, who comes quarterly to spray the property, was there the morning after I had cleaned out my cabinets.  "Get your super duper caterpillar killer spray right this way without delay and blast those little blighters" I said.  Which he did.  Well, to be honest, by this stage, the blighters were nowhere to be seen as the cupboards were all clean but I bet they are lurking somewhere.  I'll keep you posted. 

Today was the first cold blast - 11C this evening - cold only in comparison to the temperatures we have been experiencing.  The weekend is supposed to be fine again.

I have a busy piano teaching schedule this year.  Among others, I have one very mature pupil who is not a beginner but who I am very proud of for resuming lessons after many many years.  I haveseveral new students in addition to most of last year's students. 

I had quite the vacation from Latin over the summer since my teacher was away biking for several weeks.  Alas, I am paying for it, struggling to recall things as quickly as I might.  At the beginning of the summer we had launched in to indirect statements.  Thus far, it's the most complicated part of Latin that I have experienced.  It's all blood, sweat, and tears.  The internet is no help since no website can adequately instantaneously translate a sentence or phrase.  Speaking of Latin, since I have class tomorrow night and I still have plenty of homework to get done, I had better get on to it.  Love to all.

Labour Weekend 2011

The official end of summer in the U.S is marked by Labour Day each year.  This holiday weekend Ron and Troy went camping with Peter Tomassi and his boys and a bunch of his school friends and children.  The location was Lake George in NY state about 4 hrs drive away.  We've camped in picturesque places but Ron claims this to be the most beautiful campsite to date and one we must return to as a family.  It is an island, so what you don't put into the boat, you have to do without; insect repellent for eg. although apparently the bugs weren't too bad.  If you can tolerate being without a hot shower, or flush toilet, then this is the place for you. 

Meanwhile, I was back in Brookfield holding the fort.  All was quiet on the western front - we do actually live in western CT - very quiet, with just Tammy and me.  She must have been enormously relieved when she saw all the bags being packed that all three of us weren't abandoning her.  As she gets older she becomes quite forlorn when it becomes apparent we'll be away for some time. 

On this particular weekend I thought I would break with tradition and lock the front door since I was home alone.   After all, variety is the spice of life.  Friday afternoon after painting the deck a good part of the day I was ready to wash up the brush and roller, grab some leftovers and head off to my Latin class.  The way I had painted the deck was down the stairs and away from the back door so that I could make my way around the house, back inside through the front.  You probably already guessed the inevitable.  The front door was locked, the back stairs were freshly painted.   Thankfully, the ladder reached a piece of railing which I could maneuver myself onto and prise the back door open without stepping onto the wet paint.  Phew.    

You guessed it, still at the Cloisters

 Troy in silhouette flanked by some pillars.  That's my open handbag with contents partly spilling out.  'Nuff said. 

 Notice an irony in the window?  Troy did and so he took this picture.

I could wax lyrical about the abstract artistic qualities of this shot; actually it's illicitly taken, with a flash and because I did it with a guilty conscience while the guard's back was turned and therefore in a hurry, the camera moved.  It gives you an idea of one of the inside rooms though.  And here endeth the photo essay of our wonderful visit to the Cloisters Musuem in NYC recently, a treasure trove of ancient art and sculptures.

We're still at the Cloisters

 Hi I'm Ron and I love having my photo taken. 

 Remember how Troy had run out of juice? 

 It could be Rome.  We can thank John D Rockefeller for all his greenbacks.

This museum has about three courtyard gardens.  So I'd have one for coffee, one for afternoon tea and one for lunch.  I guess I'd have to double up if I wanted to have dinner outside. 

 Metal trash cans almost sully the ambience of the medieval atmosphere. 

 This would make good sleeping quarters for the Waltons with all those upstairs bedrooms.  I can't figure out  the significance behind the opaque window though.  Maybe it's where misbehaving monks go for time out.

 This is a herb/medicinal garden overlooking the Hudson River with a monastery feel to it.

 Another aspect of the herb garden; surprisingly some of the plants were poisonous.

 This is the sort of courtyard I wouldn't mind having to drink my coffee in each morning.

How about the other side for afternoon tea.

Visit to the Cloisters Museum in NYC

Just don't look too closely and it's a really nice picture.  Troy looks as if he's run out of juice.

Clean-up

Troy and I spent most of the day cleaning up the yard.  What initally looked like a quick clean-up turned out to be quite a lengthy job getting all the leaves out of the pool and picking up hundreds of branches off the grass so that the lawn mower doesn't choke when I go to cut the lawn.  The forecast was accurate in terms of the timing and direction of the storm.  Flooding was pretty extensive in places but the winds were less than predicted, thankfully. 

It's nice to have trees for shade over the pool but this is the negative .

So Hurricane Irene turned out to be a lot less ferocious than we expected.  We did some home churching (a good sermon from Tim Keller - a Presbyterian minister in Manhattan), and Troy and I re-watched the Jim Elliott story which is the account of the American missionary who with four colleagues brought the gospel to the Aucas in the 1950s, a very inspiring story.   

Why a blog?

People start a blog for all sorts of reasons.  Authors like to share their ideas, artsy folk like to showcase their latest creations, others like to philosophize on certain topics, the politically minded find it a good medium to disseminate their views, etc.  My purpose is primarily to keep in contact with family and friends probably more through photos, hence the title.  I don't anticipate expounding the benefits of studying Latin or listening to a lesser known composition by Arvo Part or home schooling your children although they may all be worthwhile topics for discussion.  I also don't plan to do a weekly post, just whenever I feel have something worthwhile to share. 

It's Sunday afternoon and the day of Hurricane Irene that was forecast to hit mid morning.  Most churches cancelled their services including ours and major highways were closed.  NYC shut down its entire public transport system.  We filled the bath with water, took all our furniture off the deck, filled bags of dirt to put in front of the garage to prevent flooding, made sure we had batteries for torches, etc.  We were told it was pretty likely we would lose power for several days.  So far we have got through the storm pretty lightly.  The subsequent photos show more photos of the backyard with plenty of twigs and leaves but no untoward damage..