Claire's Voice Recital 2008

Claire received 10 voice lessons for Christmas. It's been quite some time since she sang with Emily Fennel, and she has had a WONDERFUL time singing with Jane McGall this winter and spring. Jane teaches conservatory voice, and while we weren't able to afford to have Claire do the exam, she is doing the appropriate exercises and theory. After two of the lessons, Claire decided to go biweekly to spread out the joy ;-) ... and thankfully Jane was willing to honour her desire.

Jane is a great lady; she directed the music for "Anything Goes" and is the mom of one of the lead actors. She has also asked Claire (and Alison) to audition for "Annie" which will run in November at Mount Tabor Theatre in Milford. She is the music director yet again.

Tonight we hosted Jane and her students for their studio recital at Prince Edward County Free Methodist Church. It was a lovely evening! Here is a photograph of Jane with all of her students:



Here are the students doing a round. Jane teaches each student a few rounds during the year, so they are able to come together and sing at the recital. I must apologize for the sound quality; we were seated too near the piano, and it somewhat overwhelmed the vocals, especially in Claire's video clips.




Here is Claire singing "Vive la Canadienne" en francais :-):





This song is called "Lullaby":





And her final piece, sung as a duet with another student, was "Stepsister's Lament" from the Rogers and Hammerstein version of "Cinderella":

Lawn mowing in 2008

Since the price of gas is so high ...

(Thanks, Lona, for pointing out this cartoon!)

Ack, busy!

Just quick update. It's been so busy! Kevin and I finished up our PRIDE training (for resource families with the Children's Aid Society). It's been a long nine weeks! It has been very informative ... we have much to process. I also did some work for UCB today, and may in fact be doing some web design/maintenance work for them in the near future. Let see ... what else ... ah yes, I mowed the front pasture this morning. The sheep have been out back and the front pasture went to seed. After we worm and vaccinate on Sunday, the sheep will be moved to a new "clean" pasture. However, they won't eat grass gone to seed, so this prep had to be done. We're expecting a day of rain on Saturday so this field will be a feast for them come Monday or Tuesday :-). And lastly, we had Iain in to the doctor for one of those appointments that in retrospect, I wish I hadn't bothered with :-). Yesterday, I spent a fun couple of hours with two of my favourite children, Eli and Mary ... we went for a long walk collecting leaves to give mom time to do some more packing up of her house.

Very busy!

Dancing in the Rain

Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass...
It's about learning to dance in the rain.

Love this quote I saw on someone's signature line today. And mom, it brings back fond memories of "dancing in the rain" with you on Waterloo Street when I was little :-).

Photos of Tarragon I sent to Bill today

I value Bill's comments as our resident Shetland expert. Our initial plan for Tarragon was a visit to Uncle Ted's (euphenism for our local abbatoir), however I want to make sure that he doesn't have something significant to offer a Shetland breeder first. He does have some very good points; he inherited his sire's stockiness, and he is VERY straight for a Shetland. I have no experience with horn set though; I think they might not be springing out far enough from his head. I will never breed a horned breed again; I find it frustrating that you could produce the perfect animal conformationally, but still have to cull because the horns end up unbalanced, or too close to the animal's eye.

Here a photo to check horn placement:



... and body conformation (he's very square and very stocky ... and also too fat since he's first in and last out of the creep!).



Here's a hindquarter shot ... for examining "leg of lamb" characteristics and leg conformation. Shetlands tend to be cow-hocked, where the point of hock point in toward each other. His grandmother Billie Holiday was very bad, Kivu better and with this generation we've managed a good straight leg. The other thing that is important to watch for is tail-set. Shetlands are a short-tail breed, meaning that their tails are shorter and are not fleece covered. They should be naturally fluke-shaped (wide at the top, narrow at the bottom). Regular market-type fleece breeds have long fleece-covered tails. These MUST be docked, because as the fleece grows out on the tail it causes serious hygiene problems and can set the animal up for something called "fly strike".



An underside shot so Bill can help me identify his colour/pattern. He's likely a black tisket gulmoget, also known as a Canadian gulmoget, however Bill will want to confirm that.



And lastly, a fleece shot ... very, very difficult to photograph black fleece with my little camera. I'm hoping that when this page is published, I can click on the photograph and see a bit better.

And for the little ones (memories for the rest of us!); The Story of Bert's Blanket

Still on the theme of sheep and shearing, my friend Ann passed this along this morning ...

Before and after :-)

Before: Willow Garden Kivu in full fleece


After David Jones' visit yesterday (thanks, Dave!):


Oh dear. She's almost the same size now as her six-week old son. Such a petite little girl. Only now can you see readily that she is a gulmoget, dark moorit in colour with lighter points.

Part of the reason I was eager to get the girls' shorn was that two of them were feeling quite skinny under their fleeces a few weeks ago. I find it really hard to judge through fleece, and I was concerned that they would look pretty pathetic once shorn. Not so at all; they have really picked up in the last couple of weeks. Here is a photo of Alison's 4H lamb from last year; she is positively chubby, and I'm reminded again of why she took first place in the market lamb category.



The blue spots are from a quick spray of "Blue Kote" which is a spray disinfectant. Dave is an excellent shearer, but the blades are extremely sharp, and occasionally, especially when the sheep struggle, they get nicked. A quick spray of this keeps it clean while it heals. Interestingly enough, flock sheep generally submit readily to the shearing position; it is the spoiled 4H sheep, with an overly inflated sense of self, that have a hard time with the whole shearing thing. Jasmine is a royal pain. Kivu is naturally submissive, so she was good, but I almost offered extra money to Dave for dealing with "her highness" Jazzy.



I mentioned earlier that Dave's portable shears were broken. We had to make do with one of his larger shearing set-ups. Not ideal here, as the driveway slopes, but because he was only doing three sheep he figured he could handle it. Dave's dad was a shearer who finally retired last year, and Les Jones was actually the official shearer for the first Shetland Sheep in Canada when they were imported by Colonel Dailley (of African Lion Safari fame). Dave started to help his dad when he was about 15. He has a real job as well, but loves his shearing time.


Here he is with Latifah:


And Jasmine:

And finally, Kivu (look at that fleece ... mmmmm):


One more pic of Kivu, with Claire.



And ... the final result!

Our "lawn"

We use no pesticides ... at all ... for various reasons. Perhaps it's a response to my having spent 10 years developing and selling agricultural formulations. We like to be able to let the chickens out to do their thing; the kids work with the lambs on the "lawn". I'm too cheap (heh, heh ... numero 1 reason I bet!).

But I was looking at the lawn the other day realizing that the only thing our lawn has in common with most city lawns is the fact that, once it is mowed, it's green. Our lawn has grasses ... many varieties. At least three varieties of clover. Queen Anne's Lace. Birdsfoot Trefoil. Chamomile. Pearly Everlasting (drifts of this weed are beautiful, in my opinion). Plantain. Wild Yarrow. And thousands of other weeds, which still manage to look somewhat like lawn once they are mowed. In the heat of drought, when the grasses have given up their fight, the lawn is still green with tougher plant life. Last August, after a whole summer without rain, our lawn was mainly clover and trefoil at one side of the house.

The other advantage to an eclectic rural lawn?



I watched the kildeer parents making their nest for about a week before she laid eggs. A killdeer nest is nothing much; merely a depression in the vegetation. And the eggs are very hard to see; I mightn't have found the nest had I not seen preparations underway. I am fascinated by how these eggs are arranged ... all point side down, almost perfectly symmetrical. Every year we have a few nests, but this is our first "four-egg" nest. Some years we never even glimpse the babies; the eggs hatch and mom and dad move them on. Terrestrial birds' babies are far more advanced at birth that other baby birds; they scurry around looking for food pretty much as soon as they are hatched. Here's a borrowed photo since the chances of me snagging one are slim:



I'm sure that most of you have watched a mother killdeer's antics while protecting their nest; they pull the "broken wing" ploy and drag their wing helplessly in the opposite direction.

Recent news has that terrestrial birds are on the decline due to habitat destruction. Because of this, I feel blessed that our, uh, "faux lawn" can multi-purpose in this way.

Oh yes, and by the way, the silvery grey plant in the first photo is "pearly everlasting". It grows in clumps and drifts, and practically glistens when covered with morning dew. Historically, it has been used for medicinal purposes. Nowadays, it's "just" a weed.

No photo day.

Every year we do the same thing on Victoria Day weekend. Our Monday is devoted to helping the Prince Edward County 4H Sheep Club do a fundraiser at Bill Stearman's Willow Garden Farm Shearing Day and Lamb Romp. Every year I commit to taking lots of awesome pictures to commemorate the day. This year, it was even more important because Alison is the new web maintenance person for several county clubs, including this one. I wanted photos of the club members helping in the community, serving local farmers, having a great time ... living a 4H life.

And every year, I come home with one photo on my camera. This year, a photo of a visitor with the bottle baby. The same photo I took last year. And likely the year before.

I give up.

It's just far too busy. Fun too, but far too busy.

We had a great day, but the weather was overcast and cold and threatening to rain. And the wind! Bill would bring a fleece to the skirting table, throw it down and it would blow right off! A lot of the normal visitors must have checked out the weather forecast and chose not to come. I don't think the event will be a significant fundraiser this year.

Yet still a good time, and an educational time for the members. And we were incredibly blessed by Angel Gilbert, who has taken over the purchasing of groceries for the BBQ. She arranged gluten-free hamburgers for our troupe (including buns), plus safe condiments and even gluten-free donuts. It was SO appreciated that we could go, and eat without me arranging or making and having to take all of our own food. Thank you!

A-Fishing We Will Go!

It's hard to believe that we have lived in the County for five years and have never been boating or fishing here. That changed this past weekend! Our friends Scott and Sophie Walcott own a seasonal trailer park, "West Lake Willows", on West Lake in the County. It is a lovely spot, and they treated four families to 2 overnights this past weekend in celebration of their oldest son's birthday!

Here are the kids in front of Scott's "old" boat; he's waiting for a new upgraded one to arrive any day. This boat still has GPS and a fish/depth finder so it was fun for us. Kevin and the kids were able to fish; I don't have an Ontario fishing liscense for 2008 and the expense wasn't worth it for one outing, so I drove the boat while everyone else trolled/jigged for fish. Quite a lot of work to keep the boat going alongside the shoal off Wesley Acres Point, given the wind, waves and the fact that I've never driven a boat before ;-).



Alison, Claire and Iain on the dock with the famous Sandbanks "Dunes" in the background.



"No problemo ... it's fine out here in the front, mom!"



"Ack! But we didn't know you'd speed up!"



I'm hoping that some time between now and when he is 16, Iain learns to drive a little less ... uh ... intensely. No intermediate speeds here ... either putt-putt or 35 mph. Wild man! And yes, he's driving on his own.



Our host himself, Scott Walcott, helping to release one of our "catch". We caught eight fish today, however one was too small, two were Northern Pike (good and BIG but very bony), and the bass (large mouth? small mouth? not sure) was not in season. We kept four walleye (pickerel).



Alison with her catch.



Kevin caught the biggest walleye.



Scott removing the hook from a Northern Pike. Some teeth!




Iain's catch:



And one for Claire!



Alison taking us home ..



And a brief video of a glorious boat ride :-).






Scott taught Alison and I how to PROPERLY fillet a fish, and we each did one.



Voila! Dinner ... although we haven't eaten it since our meals had been planned in advance.



The view from our cabin ... lovely. Notice Iain up in the tree ;-).


Thank you SO MUCH, Walcott family, for this gift!

Ack!

Our poor woollies are losing theirs ... wool that is. Kivu, because she was shown in full fleece last fall, has never been sheared. She SHOULD have been done in March. Too cold. I was hoping to get them done end of April/early May. However my awesome shearer uses portable clippers to do our guys (electrical not strong enough to run his heavy duty unit). And they aren't working. He's getting them looked at; I, in the meantime, am watching Kivu's fleece shed out on it's own. Waaaah! I'm almost thinking I might take a go at it with scissors. However I know she, and the fleece, would likely look like a dog's breakfast if I tried that. Waiting .....

I'm hoping to actually make it to a spinning guild meeting this morning ... lots of house cleaning to do but I got a good start when I got up at 5:30. And it's supposed to rain extravagantly later today so I'll be stuck indoors then. I'm such an outdoors person ... give me sunshine and a breeze on my face any day. I will take Billie's fleece from last year and attempt to turn it into one of these. Ha, ha.

Look what visited our bird feeder this morning!

I've only seen a rose-breasted grosbeak once before, in May of 2006 (yes, I date sightings in my trusty National Geographic "Field Guide to the Birds of North America", purchased in Cape Breton in 1987). I'm truly amazed that this little guy stayed long enough for me to run downstairs and grab my camera, and didn't startle as I tried various shots through the french doors.








I'm not a radical birder, who would traipse across the countryside looking for elusive birds, but I enjoy being observant where I am. Some of my favourite sightings around our house and the pond since we've moved here have been ... a snowy owl (truly awesome!), a green heron (stunning), American bittern (we practically stepped on it thinking it was a plant), kingfishers, snipes (very odd looking; chicken legs with a sandpiper body), bobolink (their call sounds like a chuckle; very funny birds) and wood thrush (very shy; always a victory to glimpse one). This year we have numerous Eastern Meadowlark, one of my very favourite birds. I have heard that their numbers are dropping Ontario-wide; perhaps they are all moving to the county because they are regulars in our field this spring! :-) And down at Point Traverse we were thrilled to see a migrating sandhill crane on it's way to the north for the summer.

It's Not Easy Being Green (Article by Sheila Wray Gregoire)

Sheila lives in Belleville. Her husband Keith was our children's pediatrician when we first moved here, and we bumped into them occasionally through homeschooling circles. Sheila has a busy speaking ministry, and I enjoy reading her blog. I loved this article. She expressed some of what had been percolating in my mind lately. I haven't been able to quite put it into words, and now I don't have to! I have her permission to print this here :-). Sheila's website: www.sheilawraygregoire.com Sheila's blog: http://tolovehonorandvacuum.blogspot.com/

Friday, May 02, 2008

I'm sorry posts have been lighter here for the last few weeks. I'm in the middle of my heavy speaking schedule, and it does get crazy around here. Next week I'm on the road for five days, and ironically I may have more time then because I'm in a hotel room all day and the kids aren't with me. I only speak at night. So I'm looking forward to that, although I am going to miss my kids! Anyway, we're taking off for the weekend for a youth retreat and I likely won't be able to blog. So I'm just warning you now! But here's my column for this week. Every week I write a column that appears in a few Canadian and U.S. publications, and here it is for this week. I regretted it almost as soon as I wrote it because I hate hate mail, and this one is guaranteed to generate a lot. My inbox is already lighting up. But what can you do? It's what I believe. Here you go: I was green before green was hip. In the mid 1990s I used cloth diapers on my babies. I have always used both sides of 8 ½ by 11 paper before recycling it, so I’m one of the few who actually likes junk mail. Free paper! In my old house five composters were biodegrading all at one time, which is probably driving the new owners nuts. I love my clothesline. I have always loved hunting through thrift stores. I saved empty milk bags to use as freezer bags. And I take my bicycle, complete with the child trailer behind, to the grocery store. It’s too small for my kids, but it will do when I just need to pick up a few things. I did all these things before David Suzuki (for my American friends, he's the Canadian equivalent of Al Gore) started lecturing us about them. But I didn’t do these things just for the environment. I did them because I’m cheap. The environmental benefits were just a nice added bonus. I think everybody should be into the environment because then everybody wins: those who live near landfills; those who love the wilderness; those who want to breathe clean air; and those who are trying to make ends meet. Yet while I like being green, I’m not a green fanatic. I can’t get too excited about global warming when the earth hasn’t actually warmed since 1998. Personally, I’m much more concerned with the fact that we might all jump on the global warming bandwagon so much that we’ll wreck our economy in the process, and thus relegate the Third World to permanent abject poverty. And with the current rush to biofuels inflating food prices, many are already hovering on the brink of starvation. The Suzukis of the world tell us we have to sacrifice now because so many will die later, but many are dying now. Aren’t their lives worth something? And whether or not he cares to admit it, there isn’t a scientific consensus about global warming and its causes. But the other reason I’m not a green fanatic is because so many who are green fanatics are hypocritical. I am sick of seeing rich actors and actresses jet all over the world and then preach to us about how they are saving the world by buying carbon offsets, unlike the rest of us plebes. Do you know whose carbon footprint is really small? My mother-in-law’s. She doesn’t drive. She doesn’t jump on a jet on a whim. She doesn’t buy junk, and she’s even getting over her Santa habit at Christmastime. She lives in a regular sized house and tries to keep her energy bill low. She doesn’t have a hot tub, or a sauna, or a home theatre. She’s not constantly buying bottled water; she drinks what’s in her tap. And she recycles and composts and gardens galore. Al Gore, on the other hand, travels galore. He flew to Bali, with all the other global warming gurus, to talk about how we are wrecking the planet by our carbon emissions. The world’s media went to Bali, too, bringing the grand total to 10,000 people, and leaving a carbon footprint equal to that of a city of about 3,000,000 people in one day. If the world is honestly in dire straits, why does Al Gore still have a twenty room mansion? Why did David Suzuki travel across the country in a diesel bus, rather than giving Internet seminars? Why did Prince Charles jet to New York to receive a green award from Al Gore? Why do Gore and Suzuki own more than one home? Why don’t they practise what they preach? Green is now the “in” thing, and the rich are embracing it. But those who are really green aren’t rich. They’re just everyday folks sorting their recyclables, turning their heat down at night to save on energy bills, and camping in the summer rather than flying to Fiji. If these guys want to convince us global warming is enough of a threat that we should wreck our economy and starve the Third World, maybe they should give up the high life and start living the way we do. Then maybe we’d believe them more. Until then, I’d rather fight for the rights of those being preyed upon by higher food prices. That’s an immediate threat that there is no denying. Don't miss a Reality Check! You can sign up to get them delivered in your inbox here.

posted @ 7:53 AM 7 comments

Alison's Saturday mornings :-) ...

involve her working very hard feeding and grooming horses, mucking out stalls, throwing hay and straw bales, sweeping aisles, and cleaning buckets ...

in order that she might do this after lunch ...






She is riding "Chevy", who is a great little school horse. Unfortunately, the day I finally remembered to bring the camera was the day Alison forgot to change into her very nice Christmas paddock shoes :-). Pardon the wellies.

Here's a video:

Photos from "Enchanted Sleeping Beauty", May 1st at Sophiasburgh Central School

Apologies for the quality ... our little camera doesn't do halls or auditoriums well.

Claire, as Evilina. She initially was very disappointed in the part, and it took much work on her part to learn to "do" evil. I spoke with Miss Bell, who admitted that she knew the part wouldn't thrill Claire, but that Claire was the only one who could do the vocals.



Alison as the spider ... another daughter not thrilled with the part. It ended up being sort of neat ... Alison was able to choreograph a dance for this piece of music.



The majority of the cast, however I don't see Iain there ... hmmm.


The Friday evening performance was videotaped professionally; apparently King Rudolph's (George's) mom is a teacher in the broadcasting and media department of St. Lawrence College. She brought in three professional quality cameras, and will be putting together a good quality DVD of the performance, which the school will sell to help with fundraising! I took some video on a friend's camera the next evening and hope to post some here if we can figure out how to do that.

More newspaper clippings ...

So who has the best powers of observation here? There are two glaring errors (FACTUAL errors) in this clipping from a new Belleville paper. Who can spot them? Please leave a comment if you can figure them out. One is very, very funny! And no, I'm not referring to quality of writing and grammar, although those of you with aspirations of editor-in-chief, please feel free.




Close-up of Kev's photo ... Moonface martin singing "Blue Bird" in "Anything Goes".



Entire article ...