Hello from Sunday night, and Happy Mother's Day to all who nurture and love

Hello from Sunday night everyone. I hope everyone had a lovely day, and all the caregivers and nurturers and all those who are in a position to love another, I hope you all had a wonderful day. And for the other, pray I hope this post will lend you comfort.For us, it was a beautiful Sunday.Finally!After days and days of rain, the sun peeked out. You know, it feels like we went from winter to summer in a weekend. I'm just two weeks from the open garden Art in the Garden weekend and am thinking that perhaps there won't be any roses this year. What an odd spring it's been.But today the hummingbirds were displaying, and the swallows have returned, new little goslings were everywhere, and eagles were soaring high in the sky in pairs.Chloe and I drove out to mom's, picked her up and headed to the old fishing village of Steveston to meet Jonathan, Chantal and our Megababy Asher for lunch and a walk. I had forgotten to pick up a chest pack from the closet which I bought online for the sole reason being us visiting this fishing village, but I was certain I would be back soon with it to complete the fishing experience.We had lunch in our favourite fish and chip restaurant and walked the boardwalk into the old fishing village and then just sat on the pier and talked.So there we were, four generations talking in the sunshine.Such a beautiful day.PS. Chloe bought me a new camera for mother's day. It's a little polaroid camera and we had so much fun taking photos and trying to figure it out. I'm excited to take it to Europe and be able to put some of the photos in my travel journal.

Today can be classified in that "Well, if you can believe this!" department!!!

Oh, if you can believe this!Today I promised my mother that I would give her a hand running some errands and take her downtown for her specialist health check appointment.You probably already know mom's 80 million years old, and hates driving downtown and trying to park there, an I'm a chill downtown driver, (probably owning to my favourite super aggressive, racing, weaving in and out of traffic driving style...in a safe way)So I drove my red sports car out to mom's and parked it up, jumped into her car and we ran some errands for her, I parked up in a back lane while she ran an appointment for 10 minutes, she came back to the car I tried to start it and...nothing. I clicked the starter again, and nothing. Again and again, nothing and nothing. After a quick read on https://www.toolnerds.com/ we knew for sure that it was the damn battery or alternator.By now, mom had about 20 minutes to get downtown for that health check. I called a taxi and called mom's Mercedes person for the Road star roadside assistance for a jump start.The taxi arrived, and I packed mom off in the taxi and waited for help. The Road star assistance arrived and the fellow jump started mom's car. And now here's the trick: Why the hell did mom's battery die. I had the seat warmers on while we were driving, but the car shut down while I was waiting. Hmm...time for a new battery probably.So while mom was at her health check, I drove around trying to charge up the battery, while speaking to the Mercedes people (hands free, don't freak out), trying to fit a new battery and routine maintenance into the narrowest margin of time, between tomorrow morning and Friday morning when I have to take mom to Seattle for a conference.Well long story short, several hours later, my sports car parked in mom's garage, I've got mom getting a lift from a fellow doctor to her hospital for her rounds tomorrow, and me driving mom's car to drop it off this evening for a 9:30am appointment tomorrow at the Mercedes service, where they'll fix everything.Whew!I must admit I always look at that photo of my late father in mom's dining room and think about the calm and easy way he'd handle any "freakout" situation. He never raised his voice, he never lost his cool, and he always got results.Now I can tell you that, for all the luxury and prestige, I wouldn't want have mom's temperamental Mercedes for a minute, but you know, one lovely thing about a full service, upscale car dealership is that they immediately called me a taxi and sent me on my way with a full price taxi voucher, today's newspaper, a promise to polish and clean the interior of the car, AND a cup of tea. I can tell you that by this evening I was willing to murder for a cup of tea.This is the photo I took out of the window of the taxi while my iPhone was on 3% battery power from all the use!Oh my god it's so very good to be home!

Hello from Sunday night, and happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers in North America who celebrated today. I had the most marvellous time. Chloe and I took a long drive out to the old ship yards by the river and had lunch with my mother and my son at a new to us restaurant called The Blue Canoe. We couldn't get any reservations at our usual fish and chips place out here, but it didn't matter, this little restaurant was lovely.After lunch we walked out onto the docks with the thought of maybe buying a fresh fish. Just then there was a sea gull commotion, as only sea gulls can manage, and we saw a very large sea lion thrashing a fish on the surface of the water, as a bald eagle looked down from the mast of one of the fishing boats. Just lovely.Ice cream for desert and a nice walk along the river.Just about a perfect mother's day for me. How was your day? Your weekend? Hope you had a lovely time. :DSharing  with Judith and the mosaic bunch.

Hello from Sunday night...before everyone heads their separate ways

Well, it's been a wonderful extra long weekend round here. We lived it up to the max and enjoyed every minute.Not only did I get to spend oodles of time with my granddaughters, but Kerstin's good friend Na'ama came over with her brand new baby and her three year old son for a play date. Kerstie and Na'ama have known each other since they were children, and so it was lovely for them to catch up.Binky and Bunny, having had enough of babies and boys, snuck up to the studio to be with C and me.I brought out the doll's house and the girls had a great time rearranging the furniture in the rooms.Later, when everyone left to visit Adam's family, C and I felt a bit exhausted. Kind of like Morgan.There are still toys all over the house waiting to be put back into the huge steamer trunk where they belong.But in the garden, the first tree peonies are starting to open......and so are the first roses.Plus, something wonderful happened today. All my children and my mother managed to find a couple hours to have lunch together. It might have been the full moon, but, with everyone's schedules, four generations together for lunch is pretty rare.We all met at a local Milestones restaurant on the patio.Everything was happy and fine, till Bunny found out she wasn't sitting next to Auntie Chloe!Cuddles and hugs made everything better.Ziggy is at that stage where she just wants to walk around. The trouble is that she picks everything up and puts it in her mouth, so a restaurant patio isn't the best place to let an almost one year old loose. We played pass the baby around for two hours.Binky and Bunny's water glasses came to the table with those cute plastic animals and only one mermaid! The lovely hostess was sent back for a second mermaid. Another small disaster averted! In the end, all the animals and the mermaids went swimming.Jonathan drew something inappropriate in the children's sketch pad. That's very Jonathan. Kerstie gave him a LOOK and drew something else over it.This was a wonderful moment for me...for us all. Looking forward to the next chance time when we all can get together. :DHope you've all had a wonderful weekend. Sharing with JudithJudith and the mosaic bunch. :D

Supper at mom's house

C and I drove across town to my mom's beautiful house, to give her a hand hosting an Easter supper for ten friends.Mom planned a traditional Czech supper of roast ducks with dumplings and poached pears, I love traditional food from my homeland.I also love mom's eclectic house full of wonderful collections gathered by her and my late father over years and years of world travel, including such anachronistic things as a life-sized carved Komodo dragon, a 17C dining room suite imported from a pub in England, 18C tapestries, French quilts, Waterford crystal, old Limoges china, an original Turner, and a large collection of my aunt Vera's beautiful paintings.We love mom's friends, but when a bunch of doctors get together, parts of the conversation invariably turns to statistics, body parts and medical terms we don't understand. But they're all generous at explaining...in great detail! :DBut we did have a terrific time and drove home quite late, under the full moon. :D

Happy birthday mom

It's not easy being a Christmas baby. One's Boxing Day birthday is often very conveniently wrapped up with a Christmas celebration, but we've always tried to make it a special day for mom in some way.My mother turned 80 years young yesterday, and we celebrated in grand style at the beautiful, Christmas-shiny home of our friend Jane. About 30 of mom's friends came to help celebrate her birthday, and a huge treat for me because my son Jonathan and his lovely girl Chantal were in town and could join us. We all had a lovely time with plenty of yummy nibbles, plenty of wine and wonderful cake.Happy birthday and many happy returns of the day mom! We love you. X

Getting into the holiday spirit

It's beginning to feel very wintery here...as much as the West Coast gets "winter", but as you can see from this "artfully arranged" reflections shot :D the atmosphere here is cooler, whiter, and darker than ever.Recently mom bought some beautiful little Christmas lights at Anthropologie and I helped her string them up in her living room. They're the same ones I have, (which stay on all the year long), except mom's are a longer chain. Aren't they lovely and twinkly?Yesterday we had a walk in mom's neck of Vancouver, Kerrisdale, grabbed mom a coffee and had a good mooch around some of the stores. This place has changed so much recently. The sky-high rent prices have forced almost all the quaint little boutiques to relocate or close, and ubiquitous chains have moved in. Shame really, but that's life. Still, a couple of little boutique stores remain. In front of mom's favourite coffee shop, Cafe Artigiano, was this tiny little dog waiting for his master. He was so friendly and so super cute. Across the street is one of the last remaining boutiques, a flower shop, with a completely different animal in the window. Isn't that fabulous? Chloe said, "Narnia". Talk about holiday spirit!The other side of the shop had this wonderful window full of branches. So many surprises dotted around this window that we couldn't stop looking into it. Wouldn't it be wonderful to replicate something at home for Christmas? I think so.Next we drove down to my favourite garden centre Southlands. I love this fragrant, warm greenhouse and could very easily just move in! :DI suppose if I lived in a greenhouse there wouldn't be much room, or need, for a Christmas tree :( I suppose some vintage Santas and a painting or poster or two might be enough?Or maybe just plant some festive flowers, like Christmas cactus, poinsettias or these fabulous red bromeliads or maybe some gingers, or bird of paradise.Actually, probably not...lol...I'd still fill it with my millions of glass ornaments (marginal exaggeration) and over-the-top gingerbread houses.And just look at the fabulous trees waiting for December! Wow!Since this year Christmas is in Canada, I'd love a 11 foot tall tree in the living room. I bet it will end up completely covered by my ornaments.But not like this...lol. This is a little over-the-top for me. :DI usually get my tree on December 15th and then it stays up till twelfth night. But now I'm so into the Christmas spirit, that I can't wait to get the tree. I might not last till the 15th. :D

Remembrance

Yesterday I painted in my very personal journal. I found some words and painted a poppy around them.Today I spent Remembrance Day with my mother. We remembered my father and his years of dedication to veterans as the head doctor of the Vancouver chapter of Veterans Affairs Canada.After lunch, while mom filled out some paper work, I riffled thru dad's glass collection.I love his collection of sparkly shiny glass. Some ancient Pompeii glass, some modern Waterford crystal, some rare medieval pieces he picked up at auction.And then, from the very back, I pulled out this strange little etched goblet. Strange because I have no idea where dad got it, and, now that he's been gone all these years, I can't ask him about it. It has flowers etched into the crystal. Maybe some are meant to be poppies, maybe, or probably they are, because under the etching of the flowers is an etched word: "Erinnerung" German for Remembrance.And maybe there isn't a mystery. Everyone, whether allies or enemy, everyone a person, everyone affected in some way by the tragedy of war. I've no idea where my British father got the little goblet with the German word etched on it, but you know what? I'm so glad I found it today of all days.Lest we forget.

Hello from Monday night (Can't get my act together these days...lol)

It's been a quiet, low-key weekend round here.Nice for a change.But we did have Kerstie, Adam and our little girls come for supper.Mom came too, and we had a lovely visit.Jonathan was missed. He originally said he would love to come for dinner, but double booked himself with the new girl friend, (who we know nothing about 8O )Oh well, we had a lovely time.Today dawned bright and sunny, and, after I did some laundry, I got into my silversmithing studio.I turned on some Bowie music and contemplated an ancient flint with a hole thru it.And, although I haven't finished that piece yet...I did make some earrings for Clove. She was admiring some earrings similar to these at Blue Ruby and another chic little boutique and they cost somewhere in the neighbourhood of $50, and I thought, "are you kidding me? There's like $5 worth of silver and a half hour worth of work!"And you all know my motto: How hard can it be?Not that hard as it turns out. :DNow it's evening and everything's quiet and calm and I'm trying to resist the urge to get back out into the silversmithing studio tonight.

A small window on Sunday

It's been one of those warmer West Coast days where we didn't even mind not getting a table inside the Whole Foods and we happily sat outside with our lunch. Boy have we been lucky this fall and into winter with plenty of sunshine so far. Gosh I hope I don't jinx things. :) (got my fingers crossed while I type this just in case)Went for a walk and Chloe was determined that we should walk thru the dog walk part of the beach and past the SPCA. Chloe visits the SPCA web site on a practically daily basis trying to convince me that we should adopt a dog. This time there is a one year old malamute up for adoption and, while my heart is melting, I must be the logical one here and say only if she figures out how and makes preparations for the dog accompanying her for her year in Japan after she graduates university, before we adopt him. (sigh) Kids don't play fair...do they?Back at home and the sun was already starting to dim, I sat down to write my Sunday whirl and C sat down to write the beginning of a philosophical argument about transitivity and psychological continuity. :? Some of these phil arguments are tough to wrap your head around. So I lit the first fire of the year in the fire place. I forgot how wonderful it is to sit beside an open fire. It sure makes the writing easier. :)Sharing with Mary for Mosaic Monday.