You are currently browsing the monthly archive for November 2007.
It’s my turn to host the annual Advent Garden celebration, which takes place next Sunday night. So I spent a few hours today setting up the double spiral. Next Sunday, after dark, dozens of candles will be lit along the entire route in and out of the spiral’s centre.
By the way, I think something is wrong with this camera. Every photo I’ve taken lately has dark edges.
It was dinner for one tonight. Joe and Jamie went to a friend’s birthday party, but I begged off, wanting to spend some time just relaxing at home. Because it was just me, I got to make something that isn’t a big hit with anyone else in our house…squash soup. This particular version of the recipe, with apples, yoghurt, onions, spices, etc., is especially tasty. I’ll freeze the leftovers to take to work for lunches.
Cooking for one is a rare occurance for me. I think doing it on a regular basis would be a challenge. I’m afraid I’d fall into the habit of not going much beyond a sandwich or omelet. My friend Lucca, on the other hand, cooks for herself the way she would were she having dinner guests. It’s always delicious, healthy and imaginative. Over the years, she’s taught me much of what I know about cooking, and every time I see her, I learn more. I’m sure she must have been a gifted chef in a previous life!
I come from a family where ghosts, spirits and the paranormal are accepted as a simple fact of life. The house I grew up in was haunted by a woman we all assumed was Margaret Caldwell. She and her husband came from Ireland and settled on our land in the 1830s, and she and one of her babies are apparently buried on the property, although we’ve never been able to find the burial site.
Often times Margaret would make her presence known….particularly when my dad was doing renovations on the house. Tools he was using would disappear, and would show up across the road in the field. The piano would play at night when we were all in bed. And once, Dad woke up to find his mattress turned upside down and the wrong way around.
And Margaret wasn’t the only one who came back for a visit. I saw my grandmother’s ghost sitting up in her bed shortly after she died.
I tell you all this so you understand why I have fully been expecting an encounter with my dad. Every day since his passing I’ve talked to him and asked him to communicate with me in some way so I know he’s doing OK. And every day, nothing happens. I don’t feel him around me at all. Nothing. Zippo.
Yesterday I went for a walk with a friend, who’s father died a few weeks before mine did. She was telling me how her dad has been with her since he passed away, giving her advice on everything from buying a new car to writing a series of children’s books. He sat beside her the whole time she drove back to the Yukon from Ontario. However this week he told her that he had to move on because there were other things he needed to do, and she was lamenting the fact that she could feel him getting further and further away from her.
The more she talked, and more cheated and angry I felt. I silently berated my father…if her dad could do all that, why couldn’t my own father have taken just a bit of time to let me know he’s alright. I’m not asking for a lot of his time…just a few minutes really. Why the silent treatment? I was furious with him. Still am. I often feel Mom around me, so what’s up with my father??
Buy Nothing Day is a pretty well known phenomenon by now. It was the brainchild of a Vancouver cartoonist who, in 1992, decided to do something to fight back against the corporate domination of our culture. Buy Nothing Day is this Saturday, and here in the Yukon there are a number of things planned that have piqued my interest.
In the past I’ve scoffed at Buy Nothing Day. I’ve heard of too many people stocking up the day before, just so they can say they didn’t buy anything on ‘the day’. Kind of defeats the purpose, doesn’t it? But a whole month of week-ends focusing on alternatives to buying stuff – that just might be worth checking out.
There are few things quite as fascinating as reading through old newspapers. Yesterday I spent the afternoon at the Yukon Archives, looking for articles for a special project I’m working on. Apart from all the stuff I found on the construction of the Whitehorse dam, I uncovered this piece, published in the Whitehorse Star on August 2, 1956.
Red Haired, 100-Foot Long Monster Washed Ashore in Alaska
The body of a monster has been washed ashore 60 miles southeast of here. The carcass is estimated at more than 100 feet long and 15 feet wide at the broadest point. Its origin and species are a mystery.
Experts say it fits no known description of prehistoric beasts, and the reddish-brown hair on its body precludes any relationship to whales or elephants. The hair, about two inches long, covers the thick decaying hide. Syrupy blood flows from puffy parts of the flesh when it is poked with a stick or shovel. No blubber or fat can be seen on the carcass. The crimson flesh is decomposing rapidly.
The monster now lies buried in the sand 125 feet from the waters of the Gulf of Alaska. The place is Dry Harbour, 15 miles southwest of the Akwe River, and about 10 miles from mountains in which many glaciers come down to the sea.
The head measures 5 1/2 feet across. The eye sockets, with fragments of decaying flesh still clinging to them, are between seven and nine inches in diameter. The sockets are about 42 inches apart.
One investigator said the animal’s ribs, which are not now visible, extend about five or six feet from the spinal column. The teeth are about six inches long and about five inches wide at the base. The movable upper jaw, with a solid tusklike bone, protrudes about 5 1/2 feet beyond the end of the fixed lower jaw.
I noticed that it’s been quite some time since I posted any photos on this site, so I thought I should remedy that with a trip into the archives. These are a few of the photos I came across while looking for pictures of Dad for his memorial.
The first is me with my best friend George. He was run over by a neighbour shortly after that photo was taken. The neighbour didn’t even stop, and to this day I have not forgiven him for that.
Photo number 2 was taken during an International Women’s Day fashion show. A friend of mine is from India and she has closets of saris, so she staged an Indian wedding, and asked me to be the bride. It was a hoot!
The third photo is of Alan and I.
| We might be entering the darkest days of the year, but that isn’t stopping me from getting out and about. On Thursday night, a neighbour and I went to see Margie Gillis. She was simply amazing – I’ve never seen anyone dance like that before. Her piece, A Stone’s Poem, was in part inspired by time spent in Whitehorse last year.
It made my heart sing to see that both Margie, and Holly Bright who performed the opening piece, The Hem of My Northern Coastal Cloud, are both 50 or older. Younger women might have more flexibility, but I would bet that there are few young dancers who could come close to having the depth that Gillis has. Last night, it was back to the Arts Centre to see Ian Parker. Joe and I sat in the balcony, so we had a wonderful view of Parker’s hands – so relaxed and expressive. I particularly enjoyed his rendition of Alexina Louie’s “Memories in an Ancient Garden”. And I was pleasantly surprised to hear him play Beethoven’s Sonata No. 14 in C Minor, better known as the Moonlight Sonata. It’s such a well known piece that it’s unusual to hear it played at a formal concert. He performed it well…not overdone as can sometimes be the case with this sonata. Tonight I’m off to hear J. B. MacKinnon, co-author of The 100-Mile Diet: A Year of Local Eating. His story is by now a familiar one. After discovering that the food eaten by most North Americans travels an average of 1,500 gas-guzzling miles from farm to grocery store, he and his partner Alisa Smith decided to spend a year eating only food grown within a 100-mile radius of their downtown Vancouver apartment. It’s an interesting book, especially the part where they make their own salt! I continue my own search for local food. My meal tonight, a potato and chick-pea curry with chicken, is far from local. Sadly, only the potatoes are from the Yukon. But I have big plans to change that come this summer…stay tuned! |
Last night I took a three hour dance workshop with Margie Gillis. She speaks a language that’s sometimes difficult to understand, but her ideas are amazing. We worked a lot on moving through space. Her mantra was, “You know what you know. But what DON’T you know?” In other words, when you move into a shape or in a way that feels familiar to you, try to move instead to a shape or line that is not familiar to you. What she pulled out of us was quite wonderful.
We danced with our bodies flowing with red, then with blue, and then with yellow. We danced allowing our thumbs, then our cheeks, then our bellies to lead us. We danced with ribbons flowing out of all our extremities. We played and wiggled and jiggled and even did something called the primeval blob.
About an hour into the class, I started to feel very nauseous. Shortly after that, Margie made a comment that if any of us were feeling sick, we should congratulate ourselves, because it was a good thing. She went on to explain that our muscles were working to release any tensions and emotions that our bodies were holding on to. That release was what was causing the nausea.
All in all, a truly interesting way to spend a Tuesday evening. And I’m very much looking forward to seeing her perform on Thursday night.
It’s odd that at 48 years old a person can feel like an abandoned orphan. But that’s how I’ve been feeling the last couple of days.
I miss my dad. And even though my mom’s been gone 14 years, I find myself missing her more now than I ever did. Grief is a curious thing.
I have been trying my best to spend a short time each day meditating. It seems to set a calming tone for my day, and generally I find it very helpful. However, today I simply could not still my mind. Here’s a sample of what it was like:
Inhale peace
Exhale love
Inhale peace
Exhale love
Inhale peace
Exhale…gee, I really like that CD that Lucca gave me
Inhale peace
Exhale love
Inhale…my foot is itchy. OK Janet, focus.
Inhale peace
Exhale love (image of earth surrounded by a healing green colour)
Inhale peace
Exhale love
Inhale…(image of Lucca’s mom) Marigold is going for her operation tomorrow. Hope it goes well.
Exhale love
Inhale peace (image of my dad) Focus Janet, focus!
Exhale love
Inhale peace
Exhale…Hmm, what will I make for dinner tonight? I think a stir fry, with that bok choy and those nice mushrooms I got yesterday. And maybe some red peppers.
Inhale…This isn’t working too well. Maybe I should stop for the day. No, just focus!
INHALE PEACE
EXHALE LOVE
INHALE PEACE…distracted by the sound of Joe closing the bathroom door. I need to remind him that the piano tuner is coming tomorrow
Inhale…Shoot, I forgot to go to the bank and get lunch money for Jamie.
Exhale…this is just not working today.
Inhale peace
Exhale love…it’s kind of warm in here. Phew! Or maybe I’m having a hot flash.
Inhale….(big sigh) That’s enough for today.
Oh dear!
