Sunday, May 27, 2007

The Bean Farmer

"When bean farmer Pat Binns rode the winds of change to victory in Prince Edward Island 11 years ago, he introduced to Canadian politics a homespun style many other political leaders could only envy." This is hilarious. His parents are such good friends of my parents and his mom always gets annoyed that the papers always refer to him as the bean farmer. Pat has a masters in engineering!

My parents met and married in a small town in Saskatchewan and have a group of friends from there that have stayed friends forever. A lot of the families went their separate ways because of careers but the whole lot of them partied every summer together at the same lake even though by then the lake was a long ways away for some of them. They then were snowbirds in the same town in Texas for several years and then one by one they all retired in Kelowna. A couple of summers ago the small town where they are from was having a reunion and so the whole lot of them travelled back to Saskatchewan for the reunion. Us kids thought it hilarious that they would travel all that distance to party with the same group of people that they hang out with year round.

Sadly, the group is getting smaller and smaller with each passing year. But, what a wonderful thing it must have been to have belonged to such a close knit group of friends.

Here's to friends and the Internet for allowing the world to become a little bit smaller and hopefully a little more caring as we meet meet people from all over the world.


Swiftsure 2007 Leaving the Inner Harbour

Flower Porn!

23 comments:

Allison said...

Hahahaha...Flower Porn. Can I use that as my quote of the week???

I can't remember anything else I was going to add. Ah, that's great :)

Toccata said...

Allison, quote away. It was one of those shots that I didn't realize it at the time and then when I transferred it to my computer I was like, "Oh my God!"

668 aka neighbour of the beast said...

i'm sorry but the flower porn totally threw me off and i can not remember anything i was going to say.

Toccata said...

668, haha. My flower has the power to destroy all thought!

Barbara Bruederlin said...

Bean farmer, Masters in Engineering ... you say tomato, I say tomahto.

That's outrageous, but how great that your parents and their friends have remained so close through the decades. And they didn't even have the internetz at first.

I'm glad to have made such good friends on the netz even if some of them are pornographers.

668 aka neighbour of the beast said...

i have posted something for you!

Toccata said...

668, that was a great post. I'm glad you wrote it.

Anonymous said...

flower porn!..i'm shocked

Anonymous said...

wheres the cake picture?

Toccata said...

Kelly, oh no I was hoping the flower porn would make you forget about the cake! Cake is still not made. What can I say I got a little sidetracked today.

mellowlee said...

I think it's wonderful to have such a close group of friends! Their story would make a really good book I think :O)

Toccata said...

Mellowlee, no kidding. I sometimes wonder if other bloggers have lucked out the way we have.

Toccata said...

Barbara, ok now that's weird. I know I left you a comment. I must have been multi-tasking at the time, something I should never do because something always goes awry.

you are amazing said...

more bliss to you ...

I love the pictures...

may all the greatness of your hearts desires come true, and they will...

and may love and success radiate from you and return back to you multiplied...more bliss to you..

what do you think of this link? see below..

http://www.theomegashift.com

.

Karen said...

Another boat using my name??? NEVER!

b o o said...

flower porn rawks

Whitenoise said...

I've heard that flower porn leads one to more hard-core stuff like tree porn or full-on garden porn...

Deb said...

XXX rated flowers now...oh my! Next you'll be delving into the taboo world of shrubs and bushes.

When I was young, my parent's "group" that got together for weekends and holidays included people from every street in our small community - everyone knew everyone else. It's funny because most stayed in that area and still get together to this day...I think it's great!

You're right about the internet...the prospect of being "shut down" yesterday had me feeling very lonely!

Toccata said...

You are amazing I think you are spam, go away.

Karen, hello there. I'm contemplating joining your book club but my sights will be much lower than yours! 30 books? I don't think I can manage that!

Boo, I kind of thought so!

Whitenoise, haha. I'm headed down the garden path. :)

Deb, oh no doubt. This internet is such a fantastic connection to some fantastic people! Yourself included which is stating the obvious!

Phil said...

Flowers can be rather rude looking, teehee ;]

Toccata said...

Dogga, mother nature's inside joke.

Anonymous said...

I fear small town life is going by the boards. Nice post.

Flower porn...(smirk) ;}

Toccata said...

Leazwell, hi there. People are just so much more transient now and so many of the small towns no longer have enough around them to sustain them. Rather sad.