Saturday 31 March 2018

Spring!

Spring has always been my favourite time of the year.

When I think of the springs of my childhood, I think of new shoes, a new dress and a new bonnet to wear to church on Easter Sunday. Somehow the days suddenly seemed happier and my sisters and I seemed a little freer. Because the days were longer, we could get outside after supper to play in the park across the street. Does anyone remember hanging upside down on Monkey Bars? The boys always got the baseball diamond but sometimes, if there were not enough kids to play, we might get the chance. At least until more boys showed up!

Spring circa 1956.




It feels like we wait so long for spring. And then slowly but surely, things start to change. This year the geese returned earlier than usual. Sometimes there are hundreds of them overhead. I remember the sound of them when we were in Montreal and Mike was working shift work. Late at night I might hear them honking as they flew overhead. It always brought a lump to my throat. It felt like a special treat to hear them but now we have so many and it seems like I am always running outside to watch them when I hear them calling. I have discovered that geese are much more romantic when they are flying overhead than when they are hanging out in the park messing up the sidewalks!



I know that spring is a lot slower arriving here in Eastern Canada than it is for many of you. There is still a lot of dirty snow on the ground and I know that we could still have a snowstorm or two, but today I found the beginning of new life in the garden and I saw my first robin. Maybe that is what is special about Spring... hope.


I just know this little green shoot is going to turn into something beautiful. And of course, because I cannot remember what is planted where, it is going to be a wonderful surprise!


Mike and I had a special treat today when we were invited by our neighbours to make traditional Ukrainian Easter eggs (Pysanky).  One egg took us about two hours! It is probably a lot easier when your hand doesn't shake!

As you can see Mike was pretty intent on what he was doing.



And here is my effort. I was quite pleased with it. The colours and symbols have special meanings. Leaves and flowers represent life and growth. The colour red is beauty/ love, orange is endurance and black is remembrance.




How about you? What do you like best about Spring?


Friday 30 March 2018

A cat post

Some people say the purpose of the Internet is to let people enjoy photos and videos of cute animals... The following were shared on snapchat and I saw them on Facebook. There were pages of them, so I saved the ones I liked best.





















Thursday 29 March 2018

Pagan, Tinian, and Saipan


Trip of a lifetime in the Northern Mariana Islands, circa 1970ish – Pagan, Tinian, and Saipan

Back in the early 1970’s, two of my fellow flight attendants and I took a vacation together that included a stop in Guam where my father was living at the time. He offered us a once-in-a-lifetime trip to a small island in the Mariana archipelago named Pagan. Unfortunately, my camera jammed on this part of the trip and thus all the pictures are from the interwebs.

Pagan is beautiful with both white and black beaches, palm trees – everything you find on a gorgeous Pacific island. We were able to play a bit at the black sand beach – shoes required! - and in the warm water.

I have no idea who is enjoying my beach!




There were a small group of islanders, maybe 50, living there at the time. However, they were evacuated in 1981 when one of the volcanoes blew. To the best of my knowledge, they have not
been allowed to return due to various political machinations, the worst idea being to use Pagan as a bombing target for the US military. Pagan would be far better served as an eco-destination for people wishing to see the natural world and its unique flora and fauna.
The three of us boarded a small prop plane for the flight to Pagan. We were graciously greeted by the chief of the clan and invited to join him and his family for lunch. Prior to lunch, we took a short tour of the area and were shown coconut crabs in the wild. I’ve never seen such an animal before or since! Huge, scary……and delicious. I don’t remember exactly what we had for lunch, but it did include crab meat which was sweet and tender.
BTW, this is SMALL coconut crab!



Back to the aircraft which now had a flat tire. The islanders lifted the wings using their backs to allow one to pump up the tire with a bicycle pump! One must make do with what is on hand for sure.

On our return trip to Guam, an islander joined us along with his fruit bats tied to the inside of the airplane. I guess this is about the same as chickens and pigs on busses in some parts of the world.

Just change the tree branches and flowers and substitute metal bars on the ceiling of the plane and this is what the bats looked like, just bunches of them hanging there – and they were live! Thankfully, we didn’t have any fruit bat with our coconut crab – at least I don’t think so.






Another day, Dad arranged for us to take a trip to Tinian, the launching site for the Enola Gay and the atomic bombs that destroyed Nagasaki and Hiroshima. This is what the runway looked like when we were there. We drove up and down the empty runway.


On to Saipan where it is believed by many that Emelia Earhart and Fred Noonan were held prisoner by the Japanese and then executed prior to the American’s arrival. Our guide showed us an almost overgrown jail where they were held by the Japanese. It was a very spooky place.



Then we visited Suicide Cliff where thousands of Saipan residents and Japanese soldiers, fearing how they would be treated by the American forces, jumped to their deaths. The fighting in Saipan was one the Pacific’s worst battles and Hirohito told the islanders that the Americans would kill them, and it would be better to honor Japan by jumping. There were many Japanese who lived on Saipan since it had been ceded to Japan much earlier.

It is so disconcerting to look at the present-day beauty of a place and realize that unspeakable carnage took place earlier. It does bring history to life in a way that a textbook is unable to do. I felt sad for all the people involved in the battle - the American and Japanese warriors and the terrified citizens of the island.

We left Guam after having a great glass-bottomed boat ride over the gorgeous coral bed and a few libations in a small local bar, heading back home to go to work.

This trip was so interesting because my father had the connections to great guides who enjoyed sharing their special places with three crazy American women – a brunette, a redhead, and a blond-at-the-time!

I’m so glad I get to share this adventure with you as it gave me time to focus on a special trip in my life and to remember the joy of traveling with great friends to places we knew only from history classes.

Wednesday 28 March 2018

A tail of a handsome boy !

I am going to start out with a very easy post and hopefully get better as time goes on 😄
One of my favorite subjects- Duncan !!!

( I know many of you have seen these already, sorry about that ) We all love animals,
feel free to share pictures of the pets you have loved in your life, either currently or a 
happy memory!



                                    

          

Tuesday 27 March 2018

Time to Share... Your Newest Favorite Recipe!

We haven't talked food in a while.  Have you found a delicious new recipe that you could share?

I found this one recently on SmittenKitchen.com, and have already made it a number of times.  It's Pear Breada take-off from the old stand-by, Banana Bread, and it's so good.  I've added ginger (sold fresh in a tube from Gourmet Garden) to the recipe, but think that crystallized ginger would be more flavorful.


So how about it, WTIOC-ers, let's hear what you're cooking these days!


Monday 26 March 2018

Today is Monday



There were no volunteers to become bloggers so far... Come on, peeps, it's easy and a lot of fun! 

Sunday 25 March 2018

Bloggers galore!

You may have noticed that there are posts signed by Q and GrannyJ. I'm inviting all regulars to become bloggers. It's easy!

Step 1: create an mail account containing your Disqus username. Eg pallottine@gmail.com then send me an email from it. 

Step 2: I'll send you an invitation to join me and the others two as an author.

Step3: click on the Blogger logo on the top left of the page, choose "new post" and have fun with it. Write, edit, add photos, learn how to use everything. When you know how to use the tools, save a post you want to publish as draft, get rid of any useless drafts and contact me for further instructions on how to schedule the posts.

If we get enough authors, we could share the load, assigning one day of the week to each person. Do give it a try, folks. We could see Amy's garden in full glory, follow Cody's adventures, meet all Annette's cats, TW's cats, get healthy tips from 1smartcanerican, go travelling with PGFan, look at Roxie's delicious food on her beautiful plates, dream over shapeshifterbelly's photos, hear some tales from Manxmamma, from our elusive Marie and her hostas... the blog would have more variety and would become a real sharing place. 

What time is o'clock? Time to share...




Saturday 24 March 2018

March For Our Lives

March For Our Lives

Today millions of people all over the globe will rally in the March For Our Lives. As a teacher and a mother I have felt so many emotions watching these amazing young survivors show all of us how powerful social activism can be. They refused to be victims and in the process gave all of us hope. May this march be the first step toward meaningful gun control. 


Never again.




Friday 23 March 2018

Friday, it's so great to see you.

Here's to us... WTIOC'ers, the best group of peeps around!! I'm so glad we're together again.

I had a quick trip to Cape Cod this week. Luckily the nor'easter went out to sea and we only got rain and high winds. Here's a photo of Nauset Light, which I find beautiful in any kind of weather.




Wednesday 21 March 2018

Peter

Readers who haven't learned my bad news, here goes: my beloved Peter left us in mid-December. It was sudden, very quick and he didn't suffer. 

I miss him terribly, but I'm very lucky to have 37 years of memories, filled with far more ups than downs. Peter was a very special person: gentle, generous, honest, funny, incredibly loving, very very very patient, all the things that made him a fantastic companion to me, a wonderful father to our boys, and a welcome friend to anybody who knew him. He was a hard worker and his main priority was the family. Peter always put us ahead of himself. I'm still having a very hard time accepting his absence and can't really believe he's gone. I will try to not be miserable, he wouldn't like that, but I need to go through the grieving process at my own pace, there's no point in trying to rush it.

Well my friends, one day at a time it will be, and sharing the load with you is a first step. Let's have our silly parties, the banter, the never failing support and affection always present, in sum, all the things that made WTIOC a special place. Peter was an avid reader of comments, but didn't say much. He loved the blog and I'm sure he would be more than happy to see us all together again.

Saying goodbye to the love of my life is very hard, but I will keep him in my heart, always.