Visiting Hay Lakes, My Old Home Town

My first home town was a quiet village of 300 inhabitants thirty miles east of Edmonton.

On my last trip to Alberta, my cousin Elizabeth drove me back for a quick visit. I don't know anyone who lives there anymore.

But I remember the church we attended. It has been renovated with a new front entry since we lived there. My brother and I were both baptized here.

My first home was across the street. (It, too, has been renovated.)

It only had two or three rooms when my parents lived there - and probably no indoor plumbing.

A few years later, we moved to an apartment on the top floor of a garage my father owned. The garage burned down a few years after we moved away, but nothing has been built in its place... I wonder if they fear finding toxins, like oil, in the soil.

I'm standing on an old cement slab - a part of the original garage floor - with my aunt Evelyn (my mother's youngest sister). She remembers coming to visit and staying with us above the garage when she was thirteen years old.

The two-room school where my mother taught is no longer there.

The only buildings that I remember that remain the same are an insurance office that hasn't been used in years It looked the same when I was last here five years ago.

Also a boarded-up dairy, the Hay Lakes Creamery, where I remember watching workers separate the cream from the milk. I don't know if they ever made cheese or ice cream...

Also an old farm at the edge of town, where I used  to play with a little girl about my age.

Going back brings back childhood memories... I'm glad not everything I knew is gone!

Back in Alberta...

A few weeks ago, when I was in Alberta, my cousin Dave and his wife Cathy asked if I was interested in taking a drive into the country.

I was!

We headed off to see the farm where Cathy grew up...

I never lived on a farm, but the Alberta village I grew up in was surrounded by farms and wheat fields.

It felt great to be back!

The Birthday Celebration I Didn't Want to Miss!

A few weeks ago, we received an invitation to a 95th birthday party in Edmonton.

It was a celebration I didn't want to miss!

My aunt Zilla - wife of my mother's older brother (who died a few years ago) - was turning 95!

We delayed planning the party, because Mom at first didn't want one, her daughter told me. But once I decided to do it and showed her the invitation, she changed her mind... She was all in!

I really wanted to be there... Terry (who hates flying) decided to stay home. My brother wanted to be there, but was unable to come...

You were the flower girl at my wedding, she reminded me several times when I arrived... And your brother Ted was a baby only a few months old!

(Here we are exiting the Edmonton church in 1950.)

Over the years, our families spent many vacations together... This picture was taken in our home in Red Deer in early 1959, a few months before we moved to Kelowna. Zilla is holding David, their younger son. My Dad is playing one of his home movies...

I'm so glad I went! It was a wonderful gathering of family members I hadn't seen in years. All my mother's remaining siblings came...

Here I am with two of my mother's brothers, both of whom have serious health issues - though you would never know, from all the smiles and laughter.

My mother's large extended family was an important part of my life during my growing up years, so it was special to see them all again...

Lots of pictures were taken...

Lots of smiles and laughter!

Here is the birthday girl, still strong in mind and body, though (to her dismay) she has to walk slowly due to a heart condition.

Living across the country, as I do, I was thrilled to see all my mother's siblings and their spouses...

Thanks to Zilla's family for bringing us all together again...

As someone commented: When you're this far along in life, you need to celebrate with a big birthday party every year!

My Impulsive Trip to Alberta

I hadn't been planning on flying to Alberta...

But, a few days after returning from Quebec City, Terry and I received an invitation to my aunt Zilla's 95th birthday party in Edmonton.

I knew I had to go!

Both my parents had lived in Alberta for many years. Both had dozens of relatives there. I wanted to see the ones I'd been close to during my growing up years. 

I got to see a few: My dad's niece, my cousin Margaret - on the left - who is a great-grandmother of eight! She's the daughter of my dad's sister Elsie.

Maria, on the right is a retired teacher, like me. She's the daughter of my dad's brother, Walter.

Margaret's younger sister, Eleanor, daughter of Elsie, had been the flower girl at my parents' wedding.

(Her sister Margaret had been a bridesmaid for my Aunt Zilla.)

When my cousin Dave (my mother's nephew) and his wife Cathy drove me over to see Eleanor (my dad's niece) and her husband, I discovered that both Dave and Cathy knew them well. Dave had been their paper boy in his youth - and Cathy was a distant relative to Eleanor, my cousin! Their fathers were related...

Small world!!

Aunt Zilla came along. She knows them well, too. (She really doesn't look 95!)

Squirrel Problems!

Squirrels are constantly burying seeds in our yard - which is why we have so many trees growing all over...

Now that autumn is here, a wild black walnut tree at the edge of our yard is dropping large green seeds that resemble tennis balls. I'm not sure how small squirrels can carry these large nuts... but they are! Hoarding them in different places in the yard.

One ended up lodged in a table on our deck. 

The squirrel must have thought the umbrella hole was a great spot to drop the nut into... 

But then he had second thoughts - but he couldn't get it out!

Squirrel adventures!

Drawing... Texture

I took drawing classes a few years ago. One of the exercises the instructor had us do was sketch textures of various objects... It was fun! For a while I practiced, but I haven't done it in years.

Seeing these framed black and white close-ups recently made me realize how attractive pencil sketches of different textures could be, framed and hung in a group.

These rocks, for example...

These wooden ceiling beams (and shadows) I photographed in Fort Henry...

Rocks on the beach...

Even old Quebec City's cobblestone streets could all be interesting to draw!

A fun winter project, perhaps?!

Why I Write...

I've been a fan of writer Anne Lamott for many years.

I particularly enjoy reading her memoirs and her spiritual musings. But her book on writing entitled Bird by Bird is amazing, too.

I recently signed up to receive her "Instagram" posts. Here is one I read recently. It may be a quote from her latest book, which I recently read... though I don't remember reading this. I like it because I think it perfectly describes why I blog. It's not too clear in my photo - so here's what it says:

"You're going to feel like hell if you wake up someday and you never wrote the stuff that is tugging at the sleeves of your heart: your stories, memories, visions and songs - your truth, your version of things - in your own voice.That's really all you have to offer us, and that's also why you were born."

Knitting Update...

I have been steadily knitting ever since making my large impulse purchase of yarn two months ago at a giant yarn sale...

I have plans to make myself 4 sweaters - and then use the rest of the yarn to experiment with stripes and designs.

My first sweater is done... I like it, but it feels a little big...

It is warm - hopefully it'll be great for the winter.

After years of knitting mainly afghans - because there doesn't have to be a perfect fit - I have taken to knitting sweaters again. Last year I knit three... thanks to Elizabeth Zimmermann's books and videos. (I also knit a "baby surprise jacket" for my granddaughter...)

My goal is to be able to create a pattern and knit it to fit. So there are two parts: Being able to execute an idea. And having it fit.

I'm a long way from that...

In the meantime, I do get occasional aches and pains in my hands - signs I should take a break. But fortunately, on the internet, I've found several sites with exercises for tired knitting hands!

This one was on knitfreedom.com

I found it - and others - by doing an internet search for: hand exercises for knitters.

I have to take these aches and pains seriously: I want to keep knitting and crocheting for a long, long time.

Quebec (Food) Memories

Our four days in Quebec were busy.

Terry believes that vacations are for doing things - not for relaxing...

"We can rest when we get back home!"

Among the memories that stand out...

Driving to the marine museum in Rimouski, we exited the highway at Trois Pistoles in order to shop at the cheese factory we had discovered on our return trip from PEI in May.

The cheese shop had been busy then... But this Labor Day weekend, it was even busier: They had hired crossing guards to help customers safely cross the road! (No stop signs or traffic lights in sight...)

Observing the steady stream of people who - like us - had exited the highway for the sole  purpose of purchasing cheese, I couldn't help but think: "If you build it, they will come!"

And come they do - 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Other food memories were Quebec City's farmers market at the old port...

We bought blueberries and cheese before heading home - and discovered "tomato wine" - something I had never tasted before!

Then there was the Coaticook ice cream cone I just had to have - because it reminds me of the region of Quebec where Terry lived as a child - and because we've been at the dairy where the ice cream is made.

Visiting Montmorency Falls

Terry and I decided to drive to Montmorency Falls after seeing them from  the St. Lawrence River, as we sailed around the Quebec City harbor in an excursion boat.

Taller than Niagara Falls, but not as large, Montmorency Falls are located in a suburb, only a few miles from the old part of town.

It wasn't our first time at the falls. A few years ago, we walked up the zig-zag path, about half-way. I'm not sure why we didn't take the cable car to the top at that time. Maybe we were spurred on by the challenge of walking up. But it's a lot steeper than it looks!

This time Terry and I took the cable car.

Then we walked across the foot bridge that hangs over the falls.

Below us, dozens of people were crossing the falls, one by one, suspended on a zip line.

(These brave ones are recognizable by their orange helmets.)

The hanging bridge - the cable car - and now the zip line... Each provides an exciting way of crossing and viewing the falls!

I was happy to simply watch those who wanted to glide over the falls, held only by a wire.

The gift shop was selling tee shirts that proclaimed in French: I dared to do the zip line (La Tyro). 

I was looking for one that said: I didn't dare to do the zip line! 

(If I'd have found one, I'd have bought it!)