Goodbye Eliot

We barely saw him after recently finishing his finals for his junior year of university - we're not bitter, truly we aren't - and now he is off to NZ for the summer winter.  Brrrr I hope for your sake it's a mild winter Eliot.

Here are a few snaps of the way Eliot prepares for a long haul trip.   He likes to spread things out.

Mmmm, still looking pretty chaotic there Eliot.  Departure time is getting closer. 

 Phew; starting to look a little more orderly.  Even so, it's surprising what one college student can collect in a dorm room.  If you stop by and you happen to be feeling weary while you are in our garage, there is a lovely soft couch there along with plenty of other paraphernalia. 

 Ron, we're taking the Ford, not the Subaru.  Just because both cars are black doesn't give you the excuse not to know the difference between them!  Only Stella and I do that.

Yes we are sad too but I'm happy you are taking that banana full of potassium.  Your body will thank you for it.  It's probably the one piece of fruit you'll have had in this last semester.  See you in August.

Did you know it's rude not to share a joke?  I figured it out anyway - you're going to toss the banana.  I wasn't born yesterday, guys. 

Future Jazz Musician

Troy had expressed an interest in taking saxophone lessons for quite some time so when we decided it was not just a whim, we thought a birthday saxophone and some lessons would go down well and so it has; gone down well, that is.   

Here's Troy taking a call mid practice.  Let's hope it's not a secret admirer; after all he's only thirteen, way too young to be talking to girls. 

The saxophone is an incredibly loud instrument.  It's just as well we have an acre of land and don't live close to our neighbours otherwise we would probably have to be mindful of practice times.  It's unbelievable how much noise comes out of that piece of metal. 

Birthday bash

Troy's official party selection was Dadd's Extreme Indoor Sports which we duly headed for today with 6 rambunctious boys in tow.  Unfortunately two boys couldn't make it.  When we arrived we were met with a boarded up complex in spite of having been there only several weeks ago.  There were no sports to be had, let alone any extreme sports. 

Here are the boys expressing their disappointment at not being able to GoKart.   Everybody managed to pull a pseudo sad face upon request except the birthday boy. 

Okay, well maybe they weren't that disappointed since Laser Tag was the substitute. 

 Ron was hard pressed not to join the teens.  If only he hadn't injured his ankle last year.  I daresay he will be heavily influencing Troy's choice of birthday party location next time and be sure to join them.  My handbag badly needed tidying so unfortunately I couldn't join the boys. 

Spring haircut

An arborist came scouting the neighbourhood with his crew for some yard work and noticed residual storm damage in a couple of our large trees.  The marketing terminology is widow makers;a  partially broken branch can cause serious injuries when cascading onto an unsuspecting person walking underneath.  He only got the job because he caught Ron at home rather than me - I had a couple of bad experiences with shady contractors when we first moved to the U.S - although I will admit the trees look much better and it's not a job I would have liked to do.  Considering the height of the taller sycamore which at a wild guess is about 100ft (33m), necessitating a significant climb up into the tree, my thoughts last year of tackling that very task were completely unrealistic.

 This picture doesn't even give you the perspective of how high up the tree climbing/chain-sawing fella was.  In fact, looking out of my bedroom window which is a second storey window, I had to peer upwards to find him among the branches.  This shows him pretty far out from the main trunk.

  One would want to be confident about the quality of the safety ropes!

 No residual tree damage here though; just perpetual blossoms from our two Dogwoods flanking the Japanese Maple.  The arborist told us that the low rainfall this spring has caused the flowering trees to keep their blossoms for a longer period of time. 

 Here's an alternate shot with the late afternoon sun casting shadows.  At dusk the white blossoms take on a hue similar to what Iceberg roses do at dusk; something we loved about that particular rose we planted in our Christchurch garden.

Just in case you didn't see them properly in the last picture!  Amazingly, that's just a sample of our spring showcase.  I wouldn't think of boring you with every flowering plant/shrub/bulb located in our yard. 

General Douglas MacArthur a.k.a Troy

Troy selected a five star American General for his History Fair project and was able to tell us a lot about him when we visited the school today.

 This is fairly close to how MacArthur dressed.  He was very fond of his corncob pipe and donned sunglasses - we didn't have the aviator style sunglasses - but he would have had a bunch of authentic medals, not the cheap copies that we got from a party store.  We couldn't get a general's cap in a khaki shade so I bought some fabric the same colour as the shirt and after using the hat as a template to cut pieces of the fabric, I handsewed the fabric on top of the black cap.  It was finicky and a lengthy process but worth the effort. 

I doubt Troy would ever make a stern general despite the picture above this one.  This is a much truer likeness of him.  He might frustrate us at times with his lackadaisical approach to life but we are so thankful for his perpetual cheerfulness, unwavering affection, and guileless spirit.  On the eve of becoming a teenager, despite physically having gone through the process of maturing already for some time now, we have yet to encounter Troy in a bad mood, one of the classic symptoms of a typical teenager.   Yes, I'm sure I was moody. 

Being the 'baby' of the family means he gets to come with us even if it doesn't suit him; to music concerts, helping to clean up someone's yard, visiting friends of his parents who have no children his age or even no children at all, etc.  He rarely complains and for that we are grateful. 

    

U.S Snoeks to the Canadian Snoeks

Last week being Troy's spring break, we took the opportunity to visit family further up in North America where we always get such a warm welcome.  We usually avoid the 401 - the highway that goes through Toronto - and Niagara, and take a different route up and around crossing into Canada at 1000 Islands.   This time however, we wanted to visit two of Ron's aunts who live in the Toronto region so it made sense to stay in Buffalo, NY with friends for a night and then stop off for visits on the way through to Uncle Hans's place.

Here are a few of Tante Leny's paintings and embroideries.  Her artistic talent is amazing. 

 We had lunch downstairs in the restaurant that is part of the complex that she lives in.  As you can see she is doing pretty well for her age although I'm sure her stoicism covers up a fair bit of ongoing pain and discomfort. 

Tante Mieke broke her hip when she fell on ice a few months ago and further exacerbated her injuries when she bravely tried to get herself up on a car door handle.  Thankfully she is doing very well although doesn't have permission to drive yet.  In spite of being reliant on others for help which must be frustrating at times, she is as always, cheerful and gracious. 

Here's the lovely afternoon tea she had ready for us when we arrived; silver sugar and milk set, tea cups that Jane Austen would have relished drinking from, plenty of tempting treats and a lovely spring arrangement to boot.

These aren't the best snaps of Uncle Hans, but I started off the vacation with good intentions and my photo sessions fizzled out to nothing.  On the last day I realized I had taken none of Uncle Hans and none of the cousins.  Another good excuse not to wait too long until we visit Canada again! 

Piano Recital

Saturday afternoon most of my piano pupils (bar my adult students) participated in performing two prepared pieces of music.  It was as if I was standing beside them whispering in their ear, reminding them of all the things I say during a typical lesson - forte here, pianissimo there, ritardando, watch the phrasing, a little more staccato, don't over use the pedal etc.  They did a wonderful job. 

As you can see by the photos, there is a cross section of ages and cultures.  Even though probably all of these children were born in the U.S their heritage is varied - Italian, Korean, Dominican Republic, Russian and, of course, the land of the long white cloud.   

Here's Troy looking more like he's playing in a casual bar than in a church.  That blue T-shirt peeking out from under his shirt is a much better choice than the highlighter green one he would have chosen.  One of my students asked me if Troy got saddled with extra long and difficult pieces because he is the piano teacher's son.   Hmmmm....  maybe I could be a little kinder next year to my own flesh and blood.