The Missing Post

I was pre-occupied by the upcoming Council meeting yesterday. Decisions from the Integrity Commissioner on two complaints filed against me for more-or-less telling you things about Council you had a right to know.

But that wasn't all. Other stuff happened.

A taxi representative spoke at the public forum. I had difficulty understanding what he was saying but he appeared to have a complaint. When I heard "Especially you, Madam Evelyn Buck" I sat up and listened ..

The gist of it was ,I think, that he felt he was being harassed by town staff.

I didn't get the connection to myself. So I asked. Didn't get an answer. But in response to a question by the presiding member, it transpired the Mayor has been paying a lot of attention to his troubles. Even stops by his place of business at two in the morning, to make sure everything is alright.

My guess is the Mayor connected me to the cab driver's troubles.

A second item was a report on a new lease for the Aurora Soccer Club.

I concerned myself at different times about the club. For twenty years they have occupied a property worth between one and two million dollars. It"s a highly visible, prime industrial site of five acres close to Yonge Street.

No rent or taxes are paid to the town. They came by it years ago in a Mayoralty race. Two candidates for the office fought for the credit of providing the club with a property for their exclusive use One described it as a "useless piece of property"

They have a neat little club house. The town lent them money to build it. They repaid the debt and improved the land. They acquired a license to serve booze.They have an excellent facility which provides thousands of people with many hours of physical recreation .

But they also provided parking for a school bus operation. That was against the rules.

I drew staff attention to the fact, as I have a responsibility to do. . But it took a couple of years for those buses to be shifted. .

During the World Soccer Tournament in South Africa, a great ugly board sign appeared on the town right- of -way outside to the property, inviting the public to enjoy the club's amenities.

Town businesses have to apply for a permit for such a sign. Display time is limited.

The Town's hospitality industry, pays taxes to the town and provides employment to its residents. They are governed by sign bylaws.

I referred the matter to town staff. I was advised the solicitor would review the "current" lease. . Next thing, last night, was presentation of a new lease along with a statement by the Soccer Club referring to the school buses and signs.

They claimed the buses were allowed to park as a community service. Signs always had town permission.

A dozen soccer club members attended last night's meeting. They arranged themselves in a solid phalanx in a back row of seats opposite myself. All that was missing were striped jerseys, bare knees, boots with cleats and arms folded in a determined fashion.

Aha... I thought so the boyos are here to show me what's what. My question about the sign had clearly been spread about. My persistent inquiries question about buses had obviously been passed on as well.

The Mayor's election victory party had been held at the club house.

It wasn't hard to connect the dots. I guessed the Mayor had been informed by staff , the club had been informed by the Mayor and the members presented themselves in force at the Council meeting.

But not quite. I finished the play. I stated the property value the club has enjoyed. I referred to businesses paying taxes . providing employment and struggling to make a living. They should not have to compete against a restaurant, a large screen television a liquor licence against a club that pays no taxes, rent or mortgage.

That's not fair. The club should govern themselves accordingly.

Some of them may hate me for saying it. Some may not. But one thing for sure, they heard it from me at a public meeting.

I missed the last meeting in June.

Apparently the Leslie Street residents who were horrified by the view of a the bottom of a baseball field light pole, who claimed friendship with the Mayor were there.

They too were encouraged to voice some unfriendly stuff about myself

It has as been a continuing pattern. Last term it started with Sue Walmer always with a following, to defend the Mayor against imaginary evil. .

This term Ms Walmer still appears and Sher St. Kitts and sundry others rally at the mayor's bidding.

Last night it was the cab driver and potentially the soccer club.

No doubt as the election gets closer, new enemies will appear that I don't even know I had.


.

Market Rating

The market was fantastic, the rain held and everyone was having a great time.

Once you've had Snowden Farm's meat pies its hard to go back to anything else.

We find 35-40 minutes at 375 is perfect.

Which kind did you get?

We stock up on the Steak and Guiness, and of course the Beef and Chardonay as John named it after our daughter Charlotte.

The pasta sauce and meatballs are also excellent, but a must is his sausage rolls, the combination of the pastry and the beef is excellent.

We've tried both flank steak in our slow cooker and it makes the most excellent pulled beef, of course he also sells his own too which is what we're having for dinner.

*******************************************

I had steak and onion......Mmmmm ........ mm .......mm.

The strawberries didn't even need sugar. Though I'm sure the juice would have been the perfect elixir.

Oh My God, there goes my diet again.

Beautiful Music

By my standards, if it brings tears to my eyes,or lifts my spirits, then it is superlative.

Memories from the musical Cats and Don't Cry for Me Argentina are in the first category.

I heard a few weeks ago, Andrew Lloyd Weber has been diagnosed with cancer. I find myself thinking of him and hoping he is making progress..

He can't be much more than fifty years old .It's hard to comprehend how one person can be responsible for so much that is so beautiful.What a gift.

Books are important. Art and sculpture too. But in terms of a universal infusion of joy, nothing comes close to music and a beautiful singing voice.

Second would have to be the ability to make people laugh.

A Dinner Date

Adam and I had dinner together last night. His treat. I wore the earrings and necklace he bought me for Christmas and a red jacket to match.

He wore his sports jacket and black sweater. He's a cool dude.

We don't go out together as often as we used to.

Last night, Mum and Dad were at a barbecue to celebrate the success of the tournament.

Keenan and Robyn went up north to be with Grampa and Aunt Jill and her family. Grampa is missing Margaret terribly and the family gather around when they can.

Aaron was working.

So Adam was free to be with me. He had the game to watch after with a beer in his hand and nobody to tell him he couldn't have another one.

I thought about some of our times together. When he was small enough to sit on the steering wheel with his legs through the spokes.

When we played pat-a-cake. and impsey- wimpsey spider. His style of eating an ice cream cone. He simply dropped his face into it.

Later,when he was about four, I took him to Baskin and Robins and let him choose. I was never quick enough to stop him from getting away from me after. There was a games arcade a few doors up and he was gone in a flash making a beeline for the next excitement.

I always had to solicit the help of whoever was on staff to get him out of that place.

I thought I might stay with him last night. But Heather assured me he would be fine. He likes to be by himself, she said.

Every now and again, she comes home and everybody is accounted for except Adam. Nobody notices when he went or how long he's been gone.

He has a cell phone and answers it. But always manages to be cagey about where he is at. so that if anyone thinks of seeking him out, they won't know where to look.

They live close to the Mall and of course Yonge Street. There are lots of stores that interest him.

Pizza shops where he can buy a slice and a pop. He can go where he wants instead of tagging along where other people want to go.

Well, he's twenty-four years old now. We just have a hard time getting used to that.

Losing Confidence

I noticed the Marvelous Party post is here twice. I had to cut and paste to transfer it from my personal post to the political Now I have it twice. I'm afraid to mess with it in case I lose it
altogether.

I tried to cut and paste another one about Figures Asked For, then that one appeared in a position I didn't expect.

Now it seems to have disappeared.

Now I think I will go and hang out my laundry which is something I know how to do quite well.

A Morning Routine

For years after we arrived in Aurora, the Globe and Mail was delivered before we were up in the morning. We had the same delivery person and he never failed to have the newspaper on our doorstep by six a.m.

Then he gave it up. Probably went to University. The service became erratic. If I didn't get to read the Globe and Mail first thing, it was as if my day couldn't start.

Then the Toronto Sun was launched. The Globe and Mail changed to meet the competition.Not for the better.

The Toronto Sun was modelled on the Daily Mirror, a British tabloid. It was sized so that we could hold it with one hand while hanging on to the strap on the underground or the bus with the other, on the way to work.

In the mid-fifties a terrible accident happened in Portsmouth, a naval port. A bus ploughed into a company of marching sea cadets. Many were killed and many others severely injured.

For weeks, it seemed the newspaper reported daily on the death of another young person .

The sadness was overwhelming.

It was about then I started seriously thinking about leaving that place altogether. The war had ended twelve years before. The misery never did.

We came to Canada and life suddenly held promise such as I had never known in my adult life.

I cancelled the Globe and Mail years ago. I took the Star from time to time. I never enjoyed it like the Globe and Mail.. I cancelled the Star and decided to read it on line. That way I can choose my what to read and not feel I had to absorb everything to get my moneys worth.

I hadn't really gotten into it online until a couple of weeks ago. I read the GTA section. And there are some columnists whose views interest me. It's not the same as having The Globe and Mail on my doorstep every morning . But the Globe and Mail isn't the same either.

This morning I read a headline about the brain being affected by races. I thought the races were of the exercise variety. I don't do physical exercise. I always think I should so I was interested in the story.

Turns out it was about a psychological study by some academic at Toronto University
about how white men's brains react when they see people of a different race on a video screen.
Seems they don't. And that is somehow seen as a negative.

That stuff is almost enough to put me off reading a newspaper again.

The Age of Reason

Is seven years according to Catholic teaching . Because my birthday was in December, I was six when I was preparing for my First Holy Communion.

We were encouraged to go to Confession every week and take Holy Communion every Sunday. The nuns would escort us across the moor to church on a Friday afternoon. If we
committed no sins during the week, we were told to confess to whatever sins we could remember in our lives. I must have asked.

I was at my grandmother's house the week-end after I made my First Holy Communion. My aunts wanted to know what sins I had confessed . I said I missed mass nine times. It was likely as far as my memory would stretch.

Some memories made an impression. Nobody ever gave me a satisfactory explanation of an impure thought.Even though our teachers for that class were not nuns.

I didn't think much of the idea that a new-born child could never see God unless born again of the Holy Ghost. Limbo was the place set aside in nowhere for these throw away souls. I didn't think that was fair.

I think my mother must have been quite melancholy at that time. Her favourite admonition to her quite young children was "Aye, when am deid and gone ye'll be sorry"

My prayer, on my knees every night, was that I would die before my mother. I could not bear the
thought she would die before me .

A couple of years later, in the fourth class, we were learning about everlasting life and the Day of Redemption when all souls will rise again to be to-gether for eternity. I asked Sister Eugenius if we would be re-united with our parents and brothers and sisters. I hadn't lost anyone as yet but my mother continued to remind her children of the impermanence of life.

Sister Eugenius answered promptly and firmly. No, we would not, she said. Family relationships would mean nothing in the hereafter.

Well, it was not what I wanted to hear ....I didn't say it....I was nine. But really, what's the point ?

Year's later, I was listening to a sermon about how life begins at the moment of conception. I thought......wait a minute.....how about all those innocent new-born,throw away souls, assigned to Limbo, never to see the Face of God, because they didn't live long enough, independent of a mother's body, to be born again of The Holy Ghost or whoever was responsible, didn't make sure they were baptised.

A couple of months later I read in the media, the Vatican had abandoned the theology(if that's what it was) of Limbo.

Somebody must have discovered the contradiction between what they used to teach and what they are teaching now.

Robyn

I love you too ,darlin'. But I can't tell the story about Aunt Theresa.

She won't let me

Easter Sunday

At my house.

Stephanie and Erik were down from Sudbury. Cheyenne and Abigail were here with Lindsay. Stephanie gave them bubbles and skipping ropes and just a little bit of chocolate. I bought a huge bag of candy coated Cadbury eggs and everybody had some to nibble.

Michael brought Dara, his girl friend to join the circle. Patrick was down from Ottawa.

The day was beautiful. We filled and spilled out of the house on to the deck and down in the sunshine. Shiny bubbles floated and burst among us. Adam poked them with his finger and made the little girls laugh. The girls showed off amazing skill with the skipping rope. Stephanie did too.

Stephen's two golden labs, companions of many years have departed this world. So, Stephen and Mary didn't have to leave early to release them from confinement in the garage.

Frank and Lorna on the other hand, had horses to feed.

It's Frank's birthday today. Several others are close. As the family grew we didn't have birthday parties or presents. We were too many. If they were deprived, there's no sign of it now.

There was always a cake though. Everyone was reminded to be home. We sang a chorus of Happy Birthday, candles were blown out, then For He's a Jolly Good Fellow and So Say All of Us and three rip-roaring cheers with rousing conviction.

The growing number of voices make the choruses and cheers sound like a Welsh miners' choir.

When we get together now, there's always a birthday or four in the offing. Robyn bakes the cake from scratch It gets bigger every year.

This year Marnie brought an exotic dessert with nut crust, dense chocolate centre topped with strawberries premarinated in balsamic vinegar and whipped cream.

Rhonda brought an Italian Easter Bread Wreath and Stephen and Mary brought a gigantic apple pie.

Storm brought mushroom appetisers stuffed with cheeses and sausage, baked and served straight from the oven. Stephanie makes an excellent guacamole.

Theresa and myself rose early and got the beef and pork into the oven in good time. The meatballs were cooked and into the crock pot to stay warm for the feast.Heather brought fresh-baked buns.

Conversation was about the twins, a trip just taken to Tacoma, and one planned to co-ordinate the twins and Vanessa's return to Canada for the summer.

Cameron of the Barrie Bucks was in Vancouver for the Olympics.

Mexico and Florida trips were recounted, and a lengthy discussion about a summer golf event
with cousins from London, Cobden,Ottawa,Barrie,Kitchener.Aurora, Newmarket and Keswick.

Since Martin stopped coaching minor hockey, he and Marnie take frequent trips around Ontario to places they have never been.

When the sun went down, the temperature cooled and we donned sweaters.
.
Finally it was dark and time for big hugs and kisses all around, as each family drifted off home.

Until the next time.

Adam... Number One

He was first in the 50metre back stroke race at the Special Olympics Swim Meet in Oakville on March 21st.

I gave him thumbs up.

I said it made him Number One.

He put his head, down and nodded.

But I could see his smile.

Nancy Black is head coach of Master Ducks and community co-ordinator of Aurora Special Olympics.

Adam's mother Heather has become a competitive swimmer because of her involvement in the program.

Now she has taken a clinic for coaches.

Adam's Younger Brother, Aaron.

Is nineteen. He finished high school last year. Didn't have a focus on his future. Decided to work for a year and get his bearings.

He didn't really focus too heavily in high school either . He had a hard time maintaining interest in the subjects being taught.

Keenan and Kari were working and saving and planning a grand tour of Europe. Aaron caught the fever. Worked full-time at Food Choppers, took all the hours he could get and joined the tour.

Before he left , he had been adopted sort-of, and tagged along on the job with a liquor representative and quite enjoyed that. Wore a shirt and tie and concentrated in making a good impression.

Went to Jamaica for ten days.. Enjoyed that too.

Worked night shifts over the holiday season at a liquor store. Made some money.

Aaron is nineteen, bright, articulate, and entertaining.His Aunt Theresa says, "That Aaron, he is smooth."

He registered at George Brown College for the 2o1o/2011 school year. He's excited about that.

Much to his mother's concern though , he is making no effort to find a job. Heather is beside herself trying to think of the right things to say to him to persuade him how important it is to work and save to pay for his education.

From hindsight, I try to persuade her not to worry.

In the meantime, she finds herself keeping him company doing fun things. She enjoys his company and he enjoys hers. She spends money she wouldn't be spending otherwise.

Yesterday, Heather was here. She is my handy-man. Aaron called a few times. Ends up coming down from Newmarket on the bus and joining us for lunch. He called half an hour after they left to thank me for lunch,(Mary Brown's Chicken) and tell me how much he enjoyed it.

I enjoy his company too. Everybody does. When we talk about the advantage of finding a job, Aaron smiles and says the job will find him. He is a bit concerned because his money is running out. But this week he received an income tax rebate.

He also received a call from the liquor store. They are planning summer staff complement.

The job has found Aaron.

Neil ... My Sister's Boy

There was a message waiting on my voice machine when I came home on Sunday evening. Neil had died that morning.

Neil is my sister's son. He was a casualty of the sixties culture. His adult life was lost
and tragic. His mind deserted him and his body betrayed him a few weeks ago. He spent the rest of his time in care.

When I heard the news, the picture that flashed before me was a little boy of five or six getting off a plane from Scotland wearing his cowboy belt with double holsters and twin pearl handled pistols ready for whatever Canada had in store. His black hair lay flat and shining in a fringe over his dark brown eyes. A sprinkle of freckles covered his nose.

He hadn't known his family before he died. The last time his dad left his room he bade him "Adios". Incredibly, they heard him whisper back "Adios"

We have never lived in the same place since they came to Canada. They have driven down for various weddings.

Now it's our turn to drive to Ottawa for Neil.

An Adventure

Robyn is going to visit her cousin Vanessa and twins in Tacoma in the March break. Keenan and Keri are going too and Vanessa's brother Patrick who lives in Ottawa is going as well.

Vanessa lives in a lovely little two storey,blue and grey house a block from the Pacific Ocean.She's excited about her cousins coming.

Her mother and father, Mary and Stephen, have been already.Mary travelled with Vanessa when she took the twins home from Canada. Then Mary drove back across the continent with her girlhood friend to transport the wedding gifts.

Stephen went a few weeks ago because the twins are teething. James works extra hours and Vanessa takes care of a couple of other little ones as well to make ends meet.Now and then, she needs help. Her Dad, my son, was there for her.

Heather and Theresa and myself are planning an expedition timed to help bring the twins home to spend the summer at the cottage in Georgian Bay. The plan is for the twins to enjoy the same summer experience as their mother did , with her maternal grandparents.

Lizzie in Peterborough likes me to write in the personal blog. She says it's the only way she can keep up with family activities. Lizzie is a student at Trenton. Has an apartment. A job. A dog and a cat.

She doesn't have a car. Her parents would bring her home for the family gatherings if she would come.

The only time we see Lizzie is at Christmas.She didn't see the twins when they were here. Cheyenne and Abigail, Lindsay's children, hardly know her. Lindsay is Lizzie's cousin.

When I was leaving her parent's home on Christmas day she said;

"I know you're mad at me Grannie, because I don't come home to the gatherings. But I have to work to keep the debt down."

Lizzie is planning to spend another two years in College. She is finishing a degree which includes women's studies. She is planning to continue with a college course in journalism.She is not planning to come home any time soon.Meantime the years roll by.

I know Lizzie Buck better than she knows herself .

I explained to her, though I doubt it made a difference:

"I am not mad at you. I am just not going to allow you believe it makes no difference whether you are here or not. It does. The circle doesn't close when one person is missing "

The gatherings keep the links together. Talk and laughter and pleasure in each other's company and sometimes tears, are the glue that holds us together. It gives us the security of knowing we are each part of something more than ourselves.

You are not alone, Lizzie. You are part of something bigger.

When you need us, we'll be there.

A Friend

A small envelope is propped against the monitor. A band of red encloses a space sufficient to hold my name and address written in beautiful copperplate writing .Thick and thin upright lines could only be enscribed with pen and ink.

The letters are exactly how I remember being taught though mine were never so even or precise or so beautifully shaped. The card arrived two weeks before Christmas with a note updating me on their lives.

Ethel had hip-surgery in the summer. A week after she left hospital, she was back in with pneumonia but has been well since. Johnny had to cook. It was fine as long as all he had to do was put things in and out of the microwave.

They moved from where they lived all of their lives together in the Village of Symington where Ethel was active and involved . Troon would be more convenient. The car had to go when Johnny had quadruple heart surgery. They needed to be handy for shops and buses.

Ethel was looking forward to coming back to Canada to see Frank and Lorna's new house . She hoped to see me again soon and wished my family well.

The handwriting tells so much about her. An incredibly tidy little woman; fastidious and meticulous. Her eyes dance and flash with wit and curiosity and the laughter is never far from her lips.

On the day of our family gathering, there was a phone call from Scotland. Ethel was back in hospital in a breathing machine. By the time Lorna arrived there, the news was better. She had improved, was out of the machine but still in hospital.

My friend was eighty-eight years old. I don't believe I ever told her how much I admired her handwriting. The Christmas card will be the last .

Ethel died two days after Christmas.

Just slipped away quietly and tidily in her sleep.

The Christmas Gathering

On Sunday we had our Christmas Gathering at Heather and Andy's house.

Lizzie didn't get there. She's at University in Peterborough and has a job and a cat and a dog. She will be home for five days at Christmas. Not all of us will see her then and she will not see all of us.

Vanessa and the twins were expected home from Tacoma Washington. But after sitting on a plane for one and a half hours waiting for take-off, they didn't. Stephen, Vanessa's Dad. left the Gathering to drive home to Kitchener and then to Detroit and collect the little family. They are home now. Tired but safe It's a lot of hours for wriggly little ones to be strapped into chairs. But Vanessa said they would come home. And home is where they're at.

Patrick came from Ottawa and Myles and Melissa from Mississauga.

There were forty-eight people in Heather and Andy's house.

Heather has become involved in competitive swimming. She was "discovered" in the water with the Special Olympic swimmers. Adam is a member of the team. Heather never had a swimming lesson but she swam five kilometers on Sunday morning without a rest. That was before The Gathering.

My young ones learned to swim at Bruce's Mill , Seneca Pond and Preston Lake before they were old enough to know you had to learn. The first challenge for each of them was swimming under water. They looked like beavers when their heads emerged.

Andy leaves the house every morning at five-thirty for work at this time of the year. He manages
an Ontario Liquor Store. He likes to compete with himself.

Fifteen year old Robyn took care of things at the house. She made the rub for the beef ,got it going and kept it basted.

By special request of everybody. I made meat balls and sauce. There must have been twenty pounds of the juicy little morsels. I had to tie on the lid of the crock pot, they were packed so tight. But the boys got into them before dinner was served and the pot was empty before the last diners reached it. That's the first time that happened.

Roast beef was on the menu . It is always well received and easier than turkey when preparing a feast for a multitude.

Rory was there. He is six feet five inches tall now. His special friend Devin came too. Mark's friend Mindy and her little sister Laurie lost their mother recently after a year long battle with a brain tumour.They came along with the Keswick Satellite Clan.

Eric's mother Betty came with Eric's cousin from Windsor who was visiting for Christmas.

Doug and Margaret, Andy's Mum and Dad were there.

Great-grand-daughters, Cheyenne and Abigail were together. They are no longer traumatised by numbers. They enjoy the excitement more than anyone.

Lorna didn't make it. News came that morning from Scotland about Ethel, Lorna's mother. Lorna has to take the first available flight home. But Frank was with us.

Aaron took the Young Bucks downstairs to show pictures of their recent fifty-six day tour of great places in Europe. But as soon as the show was over they all trooped back up into the kitchen.

Marnie's Mum, May was there. She didn't make it to the last Gathering. But she got good news recently about her eyesight. Treatment has been amazingly successful so she needed to celebrate.

Everybody who could squeeze into the kitchen was in the kitchen.

Andrew, Rhonda, Meghan and Hayley were merrily present.

Not being responsible for the roast beef and the gravy, I took leisurely pride of place in the corner. May joined me and Margaret too when space opened up.

Eric always has to make reference to insanity in my family. Eric lives with my first-born grand-daughter Stephanie.They have been friends since high school. I told him again I take full responsibility for all of it. I think he just says it to hear me lay vigorous claim to all present.

Some of us will gather again at Martin and Marnie's house in Barrie on Christmas Day. Lizzie will
be there with her dog and cat.

Martin and Marnie have a dog and a cat as well.

There will be joy and laughter there too.

Early Morning Saturday

The sky was blue and there was a ridge of cloud tinged with pretty pink above bare branches of the trees.

A batch of meat ball mixture is in the frig ready to cook. Erik asked for them They can't be cooked the day before.

The recipe has six beaten eggs , two cups of milk , soft breadcrumbs and nutmeg.They can't be cooked, chilled and re-heated any more than a souffle. The lightness,the juiciness,the flavour is lost.

Well, they can. But they're not the same. Erik asked for them. To-day we will celebrate his Father's life

Bruce died at home early last Sunday morning. Betty, Erik and Stephanie were with him . Stephanie burned sweet grass for safe passage.

Family and friends will gather at the house to-day and celebrate a life well lived.

I will cook the meatballs . They will stay.hot, in the sauce, in the crock- pot, to be enjoyed the way all things ought to be.

They Are Home

Keenan and Kari amd Aaron are already over Canadian air space. They will land in Toronto around two o'clock. Fifty six days have flown past but they will never forget their experience.
The landed in Belgium , travelled to France to England, Scotland and Ireland.

Back to France, the Riviera, Italy, Switzerland, Austria,Germany,Holland and back to Belgium.
They have seen places they could never have imagined. Met people they will never forget. Every minute has been a life-changing adventure.

They worked and saved for a year to make it happen. They carried the plan through making small changes on advice from fellow travellers, mostly Australian women ,they met on their way.

Their bond as brothers and sister will be forever strengthened from their shared experience.
They will have a new appreciation for home and family and their native land.

Aaron met a special girl. From Sudbury, Ontario.

It will be good to know they are home.

They will be forever changed.

The Stock Pot Is Simmering

The feast is over.

Stephanie and Eric were here after all. Eric's dad wasn't up to making the trip to Wahnapitae. They came down instead. Cheyenne and Abigail had great fun with Aunt Stephanie and packages of the feast went north with Stephanie and Eric today and to several other destinations.

Patrick took what remained of the meat balls and other goodies home to Ottawa with him.

Myles phoned from Ottawa. He and Melissa are expecting their first child in Spring , Thanksgiving was the right occasion to proclaim the news to the family.

Keenan and Aaron and Kari got in touch. They had just finished a Vespa tour of Tuscany. It ended in a winery where they had an Italian lunch with fresh baked bread with olive oil poured over. They are eating things they've never known before and enjoying them. They are on their way to Florence,Vienna and Prague. They are meeting young people from the world over who are sharing their best experiences.

But they were thinking of Mum's and Grannie's Thanksgiving Feast and the family coming together without them.

We were thinking of them.

It is the first Thanksgiving Feast,they have not celebrated with the family.

Robyn and Heather baked pumpkin pie and tarts and a huge tray of milk chocolate brownies dusted with icing sugar. Heather brought a huge basket of her small sweet golden rolls.

Aunt Marnie baked two trays of dark chocolate brownies, one with walnuts and one without, with dark smooth swirling chocolate icing on top.

Stephen and Mary brought one of those large luscious pecan tarts from Costco that are too big to buy for a family of one or two and so rich,only a small slice can be eaten at a time.

Uncle Frank brought a variety of small crisp crackers,three different cheeses and a pot of chutney Lorna's sister Jill made while she was here on a visit from Scotland.

The feast was prepared and shared....with love.

Barrie Will Be Here

Heather brought fresh sage from her garden early this morning. Lots of it.

The bread has been pulled to pieces in the big bowl. Onions cooked to a golden hue.Sausage into crispy crumbs and the pan emptied over the bowl with the bread.

I'm separating sage leaves from stems ...wondering if I should use the big ones with perfectly circular holes chomped out by insects, or just the small ones.

Maybe there's a place I can use the big ones; I love the smell of sage.

I 'll spend the day in the kitchen, on a stool at the counter my son made for me.

I used the magic bullet for chopping a batch of sage. I think I'll do the rest with a sharp knife.

It occurs to me the sausage stuffing for the turkey is how it's been done down through centuries.

When the turkey comes out of the oven, stuffing has to be sampled all around while the bird is being carved. .

The gravy has to be sipped from a spoon and suitable sounds of appreciation are appreciated.

But the turkey is being cooked today. It's not enormous. . Roast beef has been added to the menu of late.I will cook that tomorrow with roast potatoes.

Patrick is coming home from Ottawa . It's not Thanksgiving at Grannie's unless there are meatballs and special sauce. I made it the first time I cooked barbecued ribs in Canada.

Rhonda really likes ham so I have a honey cured Pilsner Black Forest Ham as well. I will bake that with brown sugar, mustard, pineapple and cloves.

I know I can buy everything already made. It's done on television all the time. But I don't want to.

A feast must be prepared with everything the way it always has been.

And shared.


.

Thanksgiving Feast

Vanessa ,James and the twins live in Tacoma Washington .Too far to come for dinner.

Lizzie, at Trent in Peterborough, has to work and won't be home.

Myles and Melissa will be in Ottawa.

Keenan , Kari Chung and Aaron were in Monte Carlo, gambled at the Casino and won. Keenan and Kari kept their winnings.Aaron couldn't stop and lost his. They walked the Monte Carlo Car Rally route .Now they are on their way to Tuscany where they will rent Vespas .

Theresa and Rory will be in Peterborough for a car race.

Stephanie will be in Sudbury. Eric's Dad wants to spend Thanksgiving by the Red Deer Lake in Wanapitae. He doesn't have long.

Andrew and Rhonda and Meghan and Haley will be at a family farm in Palmerston.

Lindsay, Cheyenne and Abigail will be here for a little while.

Stephen, Mary and Patrick and Heather, Andy, Robyn and Adam and Cyril will be here.

We have not yet heard from Keswick , Hockley Valley or Barrie.

So, ten will be here for dinner for sure with maybe ten more and three for a short visit.