Great Aunt Helen was Grandma’s younger sister, and a world traveler. In her 90 years she managed to criss-cross quite a bit of this planet. She had been to China & Russia a couple of times, all over England, Scotland, Ireland, and most of Europe. She traveled to Africa, parts of South America and all over North America. Born in 1913 in rural Ontario, the … Continue reading A Postcard from Russia
Now sometimes front row seating is peaceful, calming. While at other times it’s just plain more fun to be right there up close to the action. Yet …occasionally being too up close and personal is just a wee bit constraining. Case in point: the ol’sister and I were up last night a little later than normal, and we {that being the royal we} discussed perspective. … Continue reading Lessons learned at the Homestead – Week 13
May 14, 1974 Well here it is 9:30PM & Paula has just gone to bed to-nite for the 3rd time. Hates going to bed. Just like her mother was & is. Even tho’ she eats a good supper now always has to have something before she can go to bed. Never goes without getting up 3 or 4 times. Afraid she’s going to miss something. … Continue reading from The Red Duo-Tang: Me at 7
Yes, this is our May Long Weekend up here in the Great White North. A weekend dedicated to gardening, camping, campfires, neighbourhood bbq’s, etc. Tis the Queens birthday, and being what we are {and WHERE we are}, May 2 4 is really a celebration of the days getting longer and warmer. Usually though it’s god awful. We partook of the campfire, bbq and beer with … Continue reading Blessed Be May 2 4 Weekend
HICK – A derogatory slang term for lower class whites raised in rural areas, usually within trailer parks or hog farms. Generally used more for Midwesterners than Southerners (see: redneck) When Dad and our Step-Mom, MsB, were up from North Carolina last month for a visit, we all decided one night to go out to dinner at Swiss Chalet. All of us as in Lex … Continue reading Out For Dinner With Hicks
The scheduled departure date has been postponed until further notice. Just wonderful. This whole moving thing may just do me in. Frustrating to be so reliant on other people. Can’t book the movers till I know when my sister can come get Irish and I. Tim’s family need to get in here as well and start their renovations. It’s become a juggling act, and I … Continue reading Departure Delays and My Mental Health
Dear Diary I know this isn’t a good way to start a new Diary, but I had an awful day. And so began my old Journal from the period Oct.8.1986 – Oct.23.1993. In ’86 I was at BealArt. I was trying to be “all that, and a bag a chips”. ;-) This journal is full of all the loves found, lost, picked up and scattered … Continue reading Dear Diary … October 8th, 1986
I should know better, I really should. Too much stimulation last night, and I found myself escaping the New Year chaos of celebration. At twenty minutes to midnight I couldn’t handle the people, the wine punch or the feelings that gathered up inside me. All I could think of was getting back to the homestead and spending New Years with Irish, who was alone back … Continue reading Can happiness make you sad?
Up early this morning and watched the sunrise over the old Norway Spruce and was thinking how in this house I could walk around blind and still know where I am. Our family has celebrated 115 years of Christmas’ in this old farmhouse. The table where we ate our festive feast is as much a fixture as the knule post at the bottom of the stairs. It is … Continue reading Christmas back in Dodge
You see, any talent I have I owe to her. Not just genetically, but by her encouragement and her passion that I pursue what she was unable to. It was her that insisted I go to BealArt rather than go back for Grade 13 and maybe University. She saw in me a talent she said. Even from the time I first held a pencil in my chubby little baby hands, she said I held it the proper way; never just grabbed on like you would a club or a bat. Continue reading A woman on her own
We knew, we all knew. We had a campfire, the girls fished and swam every day, all day. Our neighbor had guests up that weekend too; with 2 little boys who thought my nieces where “taking all the fish”. So my brother-in-law went over and shared some of the bait they were using, worms from my compost pile. Continue reading We need more children’s around here | August 21, 2012
My earliest memory is (Mom told me my age) when I was 2 1/2 years old. I can picture looking down on a road, with really tiny houses. It looked like a miniature, make-believe place. Mom said she found it difficult to remember me sitting at all for that final time back to Canada. At some point on the trip I guess I had been … Continue reading Daily Prompt: Childhood Revisited
Ok, so I too dream of being a writer. Which I suppose in this venue is akin to admitting you like flying at a flight school. More on that later. First, a couple of stories. I always thought that writers wrote fiction. Scholars and famous people wrote Memoirs and such. Who would want to read about little old me and my life? Yet, why not. … Continue reading What dreams may come
by PaulaB 