A Gift of Music

Music has always played a integral role in my life. Involvement in music gave me endless opportunities and contact with people that I would never have had otherwise. One such man was Mr. B Somewhere along the way Mr. B forgot that music was supposed to be fun. He was a band teacher and universally mocked and despised. He was kind of weird, definitely sad and always angry. In our odd way we got along. He always wanted to hear me play the piano and when I went off to university to study piano he gave me Moussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition and said he wanted to hear me play it when I came back for a visit. When I went to New York to continue my studies he gave me a pile of music that he said was just kicking around in his basement collecting dust.

One day I received a letter from my mom informing me he had died. When I returned home I told my mom I wanted to go see his wife and just let her know , I don't know what exactly but I guess that he had had a student that had liked him. That was when she told me he had committed suicide. I was shocked because suicide is shocking but I wasn't shocked that Mr. B had taken his own life. I decided I still needed to pay my respects.

When I met her I was startled. She was originally from India and a little person. That is only important because of what I found out in that first meeting. I knew Mr. B was not the sanest person or the nicest person but I had no idea he was a monster. A monster he was. It was a most horrifying realization to discover the trail of destruction he had left behind and that this woman and her children had completely fallen through the cracks. The most amazing thing I can say about this woman is that she was not broken, and she was not bitter. I don't know how. She had such a lovely, quiet dignity about her.

Mrs. B had not left the home in years because he would not allow it and it was painfully obvious that she was destitute and in real need.

I returned home a mess. I was 20 and had no idea what to do. My mother did. She said call the Salvation Army they will know what to do. She also said the Indian Association in town was known for looking after their own and she was sure they would be one of the first to be contacted by the Salvation Army. I called and they answered that call for help.

I returned to my studies and within a week my mom called and said the Indian Association was in full force painting and fixing up her house.

The Salvation Army convinced Mrs. B it was ok for her to leave her home. They taught her how to survive a world that had been closed off to her and they gave her her first job. The Indian Association opened their arms to her and welcomed her as if a long lost relative had finally returned to the fold which I guess was kind of true.

Whenever I return home I call her up and she serves me tea and then takes me for a walk through all the shops in town to introduce me to all her friends. She now belongs to the Salvation Army and is doing for others what they had done for her.

She does not know and never will know who made that first call. Mr. B I think your giving me that music was for a reason only the reason turned out to be far different than either one of us realized.

No Post Just Pictures

Mellowlee, when you mentioned seeing the purple door I immediately thought of this house. No purple door but everything else is purple! The picture doesn't do it justice for the pale mauve has been toned down by Mr. Camera. Everytime I see the owner she is sporting purple and a smile! It's great. She looks like a lot of fun.


I kind of liked this rather pathetic looking snowman. Someone built it in the dogs off leash area and the dogs have had an absolute hayday giving it their own special treatment!



Finally a shot of the ocean that kind of turned out. What's weird though is the house, trust me there is a house in the shot, looks so far away and it really isn't. The owners had it lifted off its foundation and rotated 45 degrees in order to get a better view!

Still Snow!

The house behind mine. Tree and street outside my window.

It's a little hard to believe but this is all supposed to be gone by Thursday. Tomorrow the temperatures are supposed to return to normal and the rain is said to be making a comeback. We're in the process of trying to smash every weather record going for November. Most rain, most snow and I have not heard the final word but last night they thought we might also break the previous lowest temperature. But not to worry, global warming is just a myth! Why can we not get governments on board with helping to save the planet? The Earth cannot fix itself; not when we have tampered with it to such a devastating degree.

That first picture was taken while hanging out my from window. We're a little concerned with that there tree! We're hoping it does not come down onto our house. I think we have survived the critical period. Last night we had a bit of wind which luckily knocked some of that heavy snow off. We're worried because it dropped a large limb last summer and we're thinking it's not the healthiest of trees.

This second picture is my stairway into my place. Trust me I don't normally have to crawl under bushes to get to my door!

Don't worry you non West Coasters our time in the snow is about done and we'll quit posting our snow pictures. I know it's snow and it's Canada so what's the big deal!

Snow!What a difference a few hours make. We have snow! Lots of snow! Best of all I have a snow daybecause of all the snow! Yahoo! I actually had my first student but by the time her lesson was done the rest had cancelled. My student drove here herself but her father called to say he was coming to get her because he didn't want her out driving on her own. Don't blame him. It's crazy out there and this being Victoria nobody knows how to drive in the stuff.

Well of course I had to get out into the snow myself and I have some pics but my fingers were absolutely freezing so I don't know how good they are. Turns out not very.




Sammy Jo sleeping on the table that is positioned over the heater. I don't think he's going to be moving anytime soon!





Unfortunately my pics of the Government Gardens came out all fuzzy so this is a pic from a previous snowfall. When I was taking pictures this morning in the gardens I heard a loud crack and freaked because I had no way of telling which tree was about to go and where I should run. Ran for the closest clearing and as it turned out the branch was pretty small for such a large ominous cracking sound! By then I was kind of freaked out and my fingers were frozen so I came back home to dry out and warm up but I will head out again soon. Some friends and I are going to get together and have a snowball fight. Hey, this is Victoria we don't get the chance to hurl snow at one another very often.

p.s. For anyone interested I finally have a new story on my cat blog.

A Week Early

I decided to decorate my stairs tonight. Maybe it has to do with all the decorations up around town; or all the talk about homemade Christmas trees out of tomato cages; or maybe it was the reminiscing about the favorite games of our youth I don't know but up they are. I have never had my lights up this early. My lights in the livingroom don't count. They stay up all year even with my father's comments of, "You do know it's May?"

I tried to get the full effect of the lights and the stairs but was only partially successful. These stairs are one of the best features of this place although I do curse the 19 stairs when my cat is suffering from the wrong side of the door disease especially in the middle of the night!



For all you CBC buffs out there are any of you listening to The Debaters? If you haven't tried it give it a whirl. It's absolutely hilarious. It's on 6:30 Saturday nights which I realize is kind of an awkward listen to the radio time but it's well worth a listen.

Ten things you probably didn't know about me:

I guess Allison started this idea and 668 aka neighbour of the beast followed suit and it seemed like a rather fun thing to do so here is my list:

1. Got the strap in grade six because I called the teacher a dork. Trust me she was.

2. Hate whipped cream. HATE it. Will not eat the ice cream if whipped cream was sprayed on top. Don't tell me just to scrape it off! It touched it!

3. Number 2 leads directly to number 3. I don't like different foods touching each other on my plate and yet I love casseroles.

4. Used to ride my banana bike down the slide. Loved that bike!

5. Used to sneak out in the middle of the night to ride my bike on the deserted streets. Still do only now I don't have to crawl out through the window.

6. Was attacked by a swan when I was 4. I was terrified as that swan was bigger than me.

7. Have never seen an episode of The Simpsons, South Park or Sesame Street.

8. Didn't talk until I could talk in sentences. Supposedly my first sentence was, "Mom! M got my hair wet!" My sister said right then she knew I was going to be nothing but trouble.

9. I can't ice skate.

10. I was named after a name in the credits of an Alfred Hitchcock film.

To all my American friends out there, happy turkey day. Hope it was a good one. Eat an extra helping of stuffing for me! Love that stuffing!

A day early but doing the random shuffle is a whole lot easier than actually trying to think of something to write about!


Friday's Random Shuffle (Mr. itunes had better be a lot nicer to me this week!)


1. Breakin' the Law: The New Pornographers
2. Crowd Surf off a Cliff: Emily Haines
3. Honky Tonk Hiccups: Neko Case
4. Astral Weeks: Van Morrison
5. Crazy Arms: Hem
6. Decree: Anni DeFranco
7. Lessons From What's Poor: Bonnie Prince Billy
8. Mary: Sarah Slean
9. The Blue Notebooks: Max Richter
10. Everytime: Sarah Harmer

I love the fact that Max Richter found his way onto the list.



Anyone for a game of Kerplunk? I used to love this game as a kid. It wasn't a hideous colour of purple though! What's with the purple? I don't think I like the change.

Exams are Looming

University exams start in less than two weeks so this post will be a little hit and miss until they are over and done with. So good luck to anyone out there having to go through the dreaded finals. I hope you find them ok.

In the meantime here are a couple of pictures I took with the new toy. My ocean pictures didn't turn out so good but hopefully next time they will.

I

I loved the plastic wreath someone had made for this tombstone.

l

I do not know why my spacing sometimes gets so weird. I'm also having trouble placing the pictures where I want them. Any suggestions?

Strombo you are so wrong!

Ten minutes into the Strombo show and I am already ticked off! Sometimes I do not know why I listen, because that man can drive me crazy. His stupid, uninformed comment about being a man and being able to have children in another 15 years is so bloody annoying. Yes, he can have kids in another 15 years but having a child with a disability dramatically increases with a man's age just like it does with a woman's age. Why do men not know this? Why does society allow this incorrect and dangerous stereotype continue?

Alex is once again stealing the show. Man that guy is funny.

Man I'm cranky tonight. I think I had better just head to bed even if it is only 8:00. Hopefully tomorrow I will be back to my normally cheerful self.

Folk Fest Has Been Cancelled for 2007

Attendance was down and the Inter-cultural Association lost $200,000 on this year's event even with fantastic weather and some really great acts. There were countless complaints about the increase in ticket prices. What? Where else could you have seen Neko Case, Sam Roberts, Ozomatli, Mighty Popo, K'naan and an absolute gem of a find in the New Orleans' singer, John Boutte for twenty dollars?


Not to mention all the local performers and dancers. The local band, Jets Overhead opened for Sam Roberts and they were awesome. They completely owned the crowd which is not easy to do when you know most everyone has showed up to see Sam Roberts.

Now we have lost another festival and the tagline "The City of Festivals" is quickly losing any meaning based on reality. Sad day indeed.

Since I'm not sleeping I decided to get an early morning start on the Friday's Random itune shuffle:

Oh God no, it's started with an embarassingly sappy song! Are there rules about editing as we go?

1. 100 Years: Five for Fighting
2. Pendulums: Sarah Harmer
3. Miss April: Chantal Kreviazuk
4. Diamond Mine: Blue Rodeo
5. The Beautiful Sea: Hem
6. Addicted: Kelly Clarkson (Ok I seriously need to edit this list!)
7. Salamandre: Sarah Harmer
8. All That I'm Good For: Hem
9. Black Widow: Michelle Shocked
10. Rosie: Joan Armatrading
11. It's A Long Life To Always Be Longing: Hawksley Workman
12. Mojo Pin: Jeff Buckley

I decided to let in 11 and 12 to make up for 1 and 6.

Experimenting with the New Toy!

Just finished a long day of teaching so I'm posting pics and not really blogging tonight. I don't know what happened to the whole spacing thing on this. Crazy stupid technology. I wish it would do what I wanted it to!

My house is rather interesting because it's a small character house converted into apartments but slammed between a couple of extremely large houses and an apartment building. We tend to get overlooked as in by the recycling guys!



This is the house behind me but from a much better viewpoint than my actual backyard. The man that designed both the Empress and the Parliament Buildings also designed this house. It's also been cut up into apartments. Lots of apartments! Some of the apartments are nothing more than a closet with a ridiculous rent attached to them.

Of course one of the great things about living in Victoria is taunting our Eastern neighbours with flowers blooming in the middle of a Canadian winter. These were taken today at the Government Gardens. Not bad for November!

Digital Camera

I have a new toy! I realize that digital cameras are not exactly new but they are for me. All these gadgets are great but I find they really tax my patience. Hopefully this coming weekend I can get out there and find some cool shots of the city I live in.

"Chaos of Creation"

watercolour

This looks rather odd to me because it's only part of the painting. I couldn't fit the whole thing in but that's probably because it's one of the first four pictures I took with the camera.

I hope this looks ok. I'm finding even with the anonymity of the internet I'm nervous. I guess that's one reason I will never paint for a living.

In Temporary Mourning

Darn those stupid arrogant Lions. I guess a little arrogance on their part is deserved after yesterday's slaughter of the Roughies. As much as it irks me next week I will be forced to cheer for those same Lions. Makes me feel like a turncoat!

Oh well, at least Corner Gas is on tonight!

Rainy Day Blues

Go Saskatchewan Roughriders! Let's crush those arrogant Lions!

I have a bet placed on the game. If I lose I have to bake gingerbread cookies for a boy named Sam. I hope I'm not baking later tonight!

Currently listening to "28 Balloons" by Camaromance. You can find a link to it on Allison's site. I am now on my third straight listen. It contains kind of a chilling haunting quality to it.

On the topic of music I have been listening to Serena Ryder a lot lately. She's another one you might want to give a try. I'll try and figure out how to make a direct link to a song by her. For anyone who knows me that will probably be a good week away considering my high degree of computer skills!

I have this site linked but I'll also put it here for today: http://beta.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=36817344

It might be a fun site to play around with on a grey day like today for all you non football fans.

"In Auschwitz" by H. Olomucka



Lest We Forget

Today's post is very long but it was written for my parents.

In remembrance of my family's history of involvement in the Military in World War I and II

On my mother's side:
My grandfather, John Hamilton Jones, volunteered in the Grenfell (Saskatchewan) Detatchment 217th Overseas. He was shipped overseas in 1916. He was in the 1st Canadian Mounted Rifles, and was wounded in action August 26, 1918. After time spent in hospitals in France, then England, he was sent back to Canada and spent another several months in the Veterans' Hospital in Moose Jaw. My grandfather had been badly gassed as well as having received wounds to his right knee. Shrapnel was permanently lodged in his knee and left him with a stiff leg. He was a member of the Royal Canadian Legion, branch #55. Sadly, I never met my grandfather and know him only through stories from family members.

My grandmother's brother, Murdock Alexander Clarke, when 17 years of age but pretending to be older, joined the Lord Strathcona Horse Regiment in Winnipeg in February 1917, going overseas in April. He went to France in November, 1917 and took part in the charge at Moriel Wood. His family received word that he was missing in action and later that he had died in France on April 1st, 1917. There is little doubt that Murdock did die at Moriel Wood, but as there was no real confirmation it was one more sad case of a family expecting their son and brother to one day walk through the door.

Along came the Second World War. My mother's cousin, Alexander Hamilton McDonald (named after my grandfather during World War I), joined the R.C.A.F. in 1940 and in 1941 went overseas as a fighter pilot. He flew a Spitfire fighter plan in the air battles over Britain and France. Sad history appeared to be repeating itself when Hammy was reported missing in action. There was great joy a few days later when it was found Hammy had been shot down in the English Channel but was rescued and soon back in action. Hammy later became a Senator and died on the Senate floor while delivering a speech.

My grandfather and grandmother Jones had two daughters, no sons. I do know that not one boy from my Aunt's graduating class returned home alive.

My father's side of the family:
My grandparents on my dad's side of the family were born and raised in the United States.

When the U.S. joined in World War I, my grandfather, Roy Hugh enlisted July 24, 1918. His service No. was 3.807.919 Company D, 129 Infantry. He was in the army but a month before being sent overseas. He was promoted from Private to Corporal in Eggelbrock, Luxembourg. We know he saw active service but details are now sketchy. In 1925 he immigrated to Canada.

My father was born in the United States and immigrated to Canada with his parents when he was a young child. He joined UNT in September 1943, and was accepted in active service with R.C.N.V.R. in March of 1944 when he was 18. He served in H.M.C.S. Unicorn; Hunter; Cornwallis; Naden. He was a member of the Royal Canadian Legion in Radville, Saskatchewan and then later in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. My father would later discover that he had been stripped of his American citizenship for serving in the Canadian military.

Top Ten List of Stormy Rainy Songs:

Ok this list ended up not going exactly where I wanted it to. Instead of being a top ten list, it's just a list. I had to do a bit of scraping to come up with ten. Yikes I just realized my order is way out of whack. Numbers 2, 3 and 5 need to take a dive downwards.

1. Beethoven's Sonata No. 17, Opus 31, Nr. 2: The Tempest (an absolutely incredible piece of music)
2. Joy is Like the Rain (a little kid's song that immediately sprang to mind when I first thought of this list but unfortunately it has remained embedded in my head all week playing over and over...and over, agh!)

3. Rain: Hawksley Workman

4. The River in Reverse: Elvis Costello and Allen Toussaint: The River in Reverse (fabulous CD)

5. After the Rain: Blue Rodeo

6. Buckets of Rain: Bob Dylan

7. Funnel Cloud: Hem

8. Rainy Night in Georgia: Hem (I can never have too much Hem. If I could carry a tune I would want to sound like Sally Ellyson)

9. Who Let in the Rain: Cyndi Lauper

10. Early Morning Rain: Gordon Lightfoot

I think I could really get into this posting of images! Next step that @#$%@ sidebar!

This is a really boring blog so be warned. I was just more trying out the image thing.

Oak Bay Marina. One of my favorite sketching spots as well as well a favorite place to walk along with my ipod churning out my favorite tunes.

Yesterday it was high tide and when I came up to the boathouse I saw something go flying down the ramp and thought at first it was a dog but then realized it was an otter. It was so cool. There were five otters using the boat ramp as their own personal waterslide! They would scuttle up the ramp and wait for a wave and then swoosh they'd fly down into the ocean. I love seeing the otters and watching them snick through the water.

I am a hobby artist. One of my favorite things to do is to hop on my bike or walk around town with my sketchbook in tow and sketch or paint everything and anything. If the weather is kind of lousy as of late then I'll sketch in a cafe somewhere. I just finished a sketchbook and gave it to my parents for their 56th wedding anniversary on Thanksgiving weekend. Anyhow that is why I am scanning a painting from an old sketchbook dated 2 years ago. It came out a little bit blurry and the colours are odd. My sketchbooks are vastly different from the work I do at home which tend to be large and leaning more towards abstraction.

I have an image! I'm so excited!

This here is Sammy Jo.

Favorite Music: Jewel; sad but true

Most Hated Music: Shostakovich and anything with a trumpet

Favorite Food: Chicken; Once you put the chicken in the oven he parks himself in front of the oven and will not move until the chicken comes out. I think he's worried he won't get
his fair share!

Favorite Forbidden Food: Werthers

Rain!

Ok, this rain is ridiculous even by Westcoast standards! The cat's restless and I'm restless. Odd how we always think we'd like a day when we're forced inside to do all those unfinished projects but when it comes we only want to be out and about. I'm just thankful I no longer live in that old basement apartment, the one that was prone to flooding.

When I first moved into my old apartment my retired next door neighbours came by and introduced themselves and said, "If you ever need any help, please just come on by." Later that week Victoria experienced record rainfall in a single day and I had a torrent of water rushing into my place. I felt rather foolish but I ran next door and when the husband answered the door I said, "Remember when you said if I ever needed any help?" We worked for three long hours and partway through the time his wife came over and announced, "I've made a pot of chili and supper will be ready whenever you two are." They were awesome. The best neighbours ever. At one point when it was just his wife and I alone she touched my hand and said, "Don't worry dear, you have made his day. Believe me, tomorrow at the club he's going to be telling everyone how he rescued this pretty young thing." For months whenever they would introduce me to one of their friends, their friends would inevitably say, "Oh, you're the girl with the flood."

Well, I think I'm just going to have to get wet because this rain is not going to stop and sitting around here just makes me think of all the things I should be doing but don't want to. I think later I might have to come up with a list of top ten songs about the rain! Anything to delay cleaning.

Well, I thought I had an image but I can't seem to get it from the create a post to the published post. In the meantime pretend you see a picture of a very handsome yellow mustard tummied tabby cat.

Do you have an image? Well, that cat moved in 8 years ago. He showed up one day all skinny and straggly with a torn ear. He looked so forlorn and half starved so of course I fed him a little milk. Later, I came home from work to find he had managed to sneak his way into my basement suite and was fast asleep on a chair. I let him sleep knowing he had been having a tough time of it. That night while sleeping I almost had a heart attack when he jumped on the bed wanting to crawl under the covers. Next day I took him to the vet to try and find his owners through his tatoo in his ear. Luckily for me no one claimed him and he's been with me ever since. I now know he has a couple of nasty habits that make me think that just maybe he was tossed out rather than lost!

Quote of the day:

It is in mathematics that the artist has the fullest scope of his imagination.
Havelock Ellis

Mr. Blogger is refusing to let me upload an image. Either that or I'm screwing up the directions. More than likely it's the latter.

Today when I was walking along the ocean I started thinking about the summer two years ago when I taught art in Pennsylvania. I have always taught math to high school and university students and am used to some semblance of order.

One day during a rather messy printmaking session to 8 and 9 year old boys one of the munchkins decided to paint his left hand. Of course, you know where this is going. Before long I had 10 kids with paint all up their arms and everywhere else! What's a girl to do? So of course I joined in on the fun. It was complete bedlam but fantastic fun. I remember turning a full 360 degrees and thinking, "If anyone had ever told me I would be running a class in such a chaotic, disorganized manner and having so much fun!" I would have thought them nuts.

I realize I'm a day early with this but I'm still so new at it that I wanted to make sure I could make a go of it. Gotta tell you the more I try this the more I am impressed by what everyone is doing out there. So a writer I am not but I wanted to join in on the fun.


Friday's top ten list of songs from my ipod:

unlikely emergency: serena ryder
doesn't remind me: audioslave
prairie wind: neil young
you dream flat tires: joni mitchell
wonderful: chantal kreviazuk
around this corner: sarah harmer
not california: hem
back to me: kathleen edwards
thunder on the mountain: bob dylan
red headed girl: alana levandoski

"Song" based on the top ten:
Sorry Bobby and Neil but your songs got the boot for the following.

Knowing that you've been bad
Is one of the worst feelings I ever had
But you're the one I want to be with today
Just like lightning striking from above
You stole my heart, but no one was killed

I've got ways to make you hear me
Just by whispering your name
You said that you could dancd with me forever
Do you tell me that to tease me or just to hear me beg

Well I'm not seventeen and I don't wanna be
An no one talked about the grin that slapped heaven in the face
But you're the one I want to be with today
Is it too late to call you on the phone
Too late to tell you I'm alone
Come back to me