Tuesday, March 29th - the island was a busy spot this weekend

Well, this week was a little busier. Hope everyone had a happy Easter and a great long weekend. Easter at our house was pretty much a none event. I volunteered at the Canada East Speedskating Championships on Friday and Saturday. I was lucky enough to meet some friends of Patti and James' as well as one of the coaches from the Cambridge team.  It was a pretty busy couple of days but enjoyable. I also connected with a couple of parents of PEI skaters whom I'd met in Riviere du Loup a couple of years ago. In fact, one of them remembered James by name so I guess he must have made some kind of impression! 

Unfortunately the PEI team didn't win any medals but they still had a great time and the host team put on an amazing event. I was really impressed with just how organized and efficient they were - there was nothing they hadn't thought of. They had great sponsorship from Irving as well as other community businesses. All in all a really great weekend. The parents of one of James friends have already decided they are coming back on vacation so we hope to all get together when they come back. That would be really nice.

This weekend Charlottetown hosted the Canada East Short Track Championships, the biggest competition of the year for Eastern Canadian speed skaters ages 11 to 15.

It is the first time in 19 years P.E.I. has hosted a speed skating event of this significance.

"It's a big deal for our home club of course. Our skaters are very excited to be doing this level of event on home ice," said Rob Binns, the host committee chairman and president of Speed Skate PEI.

"From a development point of view for the sport, it's huge. Creates excitement, gets some buzz in the community and we're hoping to see more people come out and see some short track skating and perhaps join."   

The young skaters were looking for personal bests and winning times as they skated around the oval.

Sometimes there was a bit of jostling for space and some spills on the ice as 122 speed skaters took part in the weekend event.

Binns says since the peak age for most speed skaters is in their mid-20s, many of the participants may be dreaming of the 2022 Olympics.

"This competition, in the previous few years there's already been alumni who have gone on to senior level world cups and world championships representing Canada," he said.

One of those speed skaters, William Preudhomme, a World Cup medal winner and ranked 7th in Canada, attended the event. 

"Maybe one of the youngsters that is skating here looking up to me might end up training with me later, so I think it can give them a little bit of inspiration," said Preudhomme who is a Short Track Speed Skating Canadian National Development team member.  

While there were no medals for Island speed skaters, many achieved personal bests in the competition.
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Apparently I was also a winner this week. I got the answer to the trivia question correct one morning on the radio and  didn't my name get chosen so I was the lucky recipient of an Ocean 100 coffee mug! When I went downtown to the station to pick it up, I was asked to have my photo taken. This is probably as close as I'll ever get to being in the winner's circle.

While James didn't make it to the island to skate, he was otherwise occupied. He and the Guelph Pipe Band were in a competition in Toronto on Saturday. He was in a quartet that played and came in third out of ten, so they did well and the whole band came in fourth. This is them performing in the above youtube video. James is in the second row, as they come in but he's easy to spot being the shortest piper, in spite of how much taller he's gotten over the past few months.


I was talking to the kids on Sunday and Tristen has a special Karate event the same weekend as Meghan's recital so I'll be able to see both of them at their best.

This busy week was not without it's relaxing moments. On Thursday evening, Brenda and Sharon came over and we watched a movie and had some snacks. Since no one had to get up early on Friday morning, we were all able to stay up past our usual bed times, so it was a nice evening.

While I was busy away from home most of the weekend, Lloyd enjoyed some quality time out in the garage working on several projects. On Thursday he picked up fencing materials so that as soon as the ground is dry and frost free he can start putting up the fencing for the goats, and then hopefully, we can start on our little barn so that they'll have a place to live besides the garage. All it takes is time, lots of time, and a little help from Moither Nature. Hurry up, Spring!

Tuesday, March 22 - the calendar may say it's spring, but Mother nature apparently forgot to check the date!

After a gloriously lovely and mild February, by most accounts, March is turning things around. A bit of snow on the weekend has been topped off with a messy mix of snow and freezing rain. Estimated amounts of snowfall range from 10 to 20 cm, depending on what part of the island you call home. Fortunately the drive home on Monday was much better than anticipated. The nice part of it is at least it's not dark anymore on the way home, so you can see that ditch you're about to slide into, before it actually happens, (if that happens to be the case!).

 The old adage about the weather "Red sky in the morning, sailor take warning"  was quite evident on Monday morning before the weather turned nasty. This was our sky as I headed out to work.

It was a pretty quiet week. Just work and more work. For the first time in a month, we didn't have any company coming over so that took a bit of pressure off and allowed me to catch up on some badly needed chores around the house.

Brenda came over on Wednesday evening and we caught up with a glass of wine. She and Bernie have been pretty busy helping Meghan redecorate her apartment - stripping wall paper, plastering cracks, priming, painting, ... you get  the picture.

My guys, or at least some of them,were on March Break last week, (it's this week on the island). Patti, James and Meghan went to Florida to spend a few days with Greg's mom and dad. Tristen decided he wanted to stay home to attend a March Break art camp and I suppose poor Greg was relegated to working. There was shopping involved in the U.S. and apparently a suitable graduation dress and shoes have been sourced out for Meghan. I've not seen pictures of it yet, but I expect those will be coming soon.

Our 'kids' are getting bigger every day. They are now both over 20 pounds. We took them outside on the weekend to experience their first snow but they were less than impressed.  There was a lot of shivering going on, but I'm not sure if that was cold or nervousness. We didn't leave them out for very long but I know they'll enjoy being outside once the snow is gone and it warms up.  Lloyd is heading out this weekend to pick up fencing materials he's ordered so he can get busy as soon as the ground is thawed.  He has a map of our property drawn out that gives us an idea of how much space they'll have and just where. He'll also need to start on his barn once the warmer weather gets here as well, and have most of it done before he goes away on vacation at the end of July. Too many projects and not enough time!

On a side note, and speaking of kids, Lloyd was out at Island Hill Farm one day last week and picked up a piece of goat meat. On Sunday he cooked it low and slow in the oven with some wine, herbs and spices and various root vegetables. The result was very tasty and we both really enjoyed it. (We didn't tell the 'girls' out in the garage we may have eaten a relative of theirs for supper). I did a bit of reading about goat meat and was surprised to learn that it's the prime source of meat in a lot of countries around the world and is actually lower in calories than beef, pork, or even chicken. Who knew?

I spent most of Sunday out in my craft room, working on my T-shirt quilt, with my new sewing machine. It's not a big expensive fancy one but it has much more functionality than my old one and I've very pleased with it.  Hopefully I can have some photos of the finished quilt project for next Tuesday's post. Lloyd's away for the day on Friday and I'm off so I think I'll spend the day out in the garage and get that project finally finished so I can start on some new ones!.

Tuesday, March 15th - Can we really be just a few days away from the first day of Spring?

Well, another great week has passed, weather wise. Bits of cold here and there but more sunshine than not. After last winter, most of us are walking around thinking "Is this it?"  It must be my fault - I bought snow shoes!

It was another great week. Quiet during the week as I was working hard to finish a small quilting project that was a gift needed for Sunday, so that took care of most of my weeknights. I've finally gotten back into using my craft room and really enjoying it. So much so, that I bought myself a new toy yesterday. I'd seen a sewing machine while I was out searching for a new coffee maker last week (sadly, our old Senseo died) that intrigued me. The price point vs the features seemed a little too good to be true so I took a photo of the box and went back to my computer to search out some reviews. By all accounts it seemed like a good idea after reading a very lengthy review by a professional sewer. It obviously doesn't have the functionality that a machine worth several thousand dollars, but at less than $300.00 it is WAY better than the simple one I have. So I picked it up and and spent last night playing.
 I see lots more time spent out in the garage in the future. (Now Lloyd can use my old machine to learn to sew, then he'll have something to do on night shifts.)

Saturday afternoon, I met up with Brenda and Meghan, as well as Meghan's friend Cynthia and her boyfriend. We all convened at The Factory for the Saturday afternoon Blues Jam. It's been a while since we've attended this particular event and as usual it was standing room only (fortunately for me the others arrived early enough to secure a table). I stayed for the first half of the afternoon but left at the break. It had been a very busy week and a just as busy Saturday and quite frankly, I was very tired. So I left and came home and had an afternoon nap. A quiet supper of nibbles in front of the TV was a great way to finish off the week.


Sunday morning it was up and at it early (or so I thought until I realized we'd forgotten to turn the clocks ahead). Our friends Mike and Willow were coming out with their two little girls to have lunch and see the kids.  We had a simple lunch planned - lamb burgers and a Greek salad with butter tarts for dessert - so not too much to do.  We had a lovely afternoon visiting and the girls enjoyed the animals.

 Lillian and Alexa meeting the babys with mom, Willow

 Even Celery got in on the action

Yesterday evening, after supper Lloyd and I made our evening trek out to the garage to feed the goats. When we entered the garage I could hear bells tinkling. Bernie had picked up some little bells in Moncton on Saturday and Lloyd had tied them around the kids necks.  How cute are these. They even have their own names on them - I recognize Brenda's hand on that one. Now all they need are proper collars.

Lastly, the music world was saddened last week to learn of the death of the Beatles record producer, George Martin at the age of 90.  It was just my good fortune that Patti happened to be in London when I heard the news. I sent her an email and asked if she could pick up a newspaper before heading back to Canada. I knew it would be big news over there. She assured me that she would, then sent a second message confessing that she had to Google George Martin after I emailed her, as she had no idea whatsoever who he was. As someone said to me "This is YOUR daughter we're talking about?"  I suppose she can't know all Beatles details from over 50 years ago!   The world has indeed lost a truly great man, at least in my opinion. I think Sir Paul summed it up best

 

"I’m so sad to hear the news of the passing of dear George Martin. I have so many wonderful memories of this great man that will be with me forever. He was a true gentleman and like a second father to me. He guided the career of The Beatles with such skill and good humour that he became a true friend to me and my family. If anyone earned the title of the fifth Beatle it was George. From the day that he gave The Beatles our first recording contract, to the last time I saw him, he was the most generous, intelligent and musical person I’ve ever had the pleasure to know.

It’s hard to choose favourite memories of my time with George, there are so many but one that comes to mind was the time I brought the song 'Yesterday’ to a recording session and the guys in the band suggested that I sang it solo and accompany myself on guitar. After I had done this George Martin said to me, "Paul I have an idea of putting a string quartet on the record". I said, “Oh no George, we are a rock and roll band and I don’t think it’s a good idea”.  With the gentle bedside manner of a great producer he said to me, "Let us try it and if it doesn’t work we won’t use it and we’ll go with your solo version".  I agreed to this and went round to his house the next day to work on the arrangement.

He took my chords that I showed him and spread the notes out across the piano, putting the cello in the low octave and the first violin in a high octave and gave me my first lesson in how strings were voiced for a quartet. When we recorded the string quartet at Abbey Road, it was so thrilling to know his idea was so correct that I went round telling people about it for weeks. His idea obviously worked because the song subsequently became one of the most recorded songs ever with versions by Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, Ray Charles, Marvin Gaye and thousands more.

This is just one of the many memories I have of George who went on to help me with arrangements on 'Eleanor Rigby', 'Live and Let Die' and many other songs of mine.

I am proud to have known such a fine gentleman with such a keen sense of humour, who had the ability to poke fun at himself. Even when he was Knighted by the Queen there was never the slightest trace of snobbery about him.

My family and I, to whom he was a dear friend, will miss him greatly and send our love to his wife Judy and their kids Giles and Lucy, and the grandkids.

The world has lost a truly great man who left an indelible mark on my soul and the history of British music."

God bless you George and all who sail in you! Paul

Tuesday, March 8th - still feeling a little spring like

Well we've had a couple of close calls, but nothing serious. Apparently Nova Scotia got walloped on the weekend with a snowstorm that left us with just a light dusting. Our temperatures are hovering around the freezing mark but the sun and lack of snow sure makes it feel much later that it really is. But we are into March so who knows? It could still come, but we are less than two weeks away from the first day of spring, and I'm betting this year won't be like last year was when the real first day of spring was sometime in May!!!

 Our weekend got off to a really great start on Friday night. I met Brenda and Meghan downtown for a bite to eat and then we were off to the Mack for a concert by Irish Mythen. I'd not heard her before and I was totally impressed. She's an extremely talented singer and songwriter and fabulous story teller, with great details about each song, not to mention, just plain hilarious!. I'd love to see her at the Trailside, which is a much smaller venue. I would imagine that could happen again this summer. When it does, we'll be sure to attend.

We had lunch on Sunday with our friends Charles and Laura, who brought along another couple, Peter and Geraldine. We've met then briefly a couple of times, but don't know them well.  They  also moved here from Guelph. It was a delightful afternoon and we really enjoyed their company. 

The kids are growing each week. They are still very friendly, jumping up to get petted whenever you go into their pen, but they are getting noticeably heavier when you pick them up for cuddles.  Like all kids, I'll have to enjoy it while I can.  It hasn't been quite warm enough this week for them to go back outside, but hopefully that will come soon.

Last weeks outing

The other kids had a busy weekend. Meghan had a dance competition on Thursday and Friday, in Guelph and James had a speed skating meet in Kitchener on Saturday and Sunday. A busy time but at least not quite as much driving for mom.

I hadn't heard how the dancing went and I got a reply from my inquiry to Meg on Saturday night. Her modest response to my "How did it go today?" was:

"Sorry I didn't get back to you yesterday, but it went pretty good. My duet came 1st, our character and jazz also came 1st and our modern and tap came second"

 Seriously??? I'd say that was pretty amazing, not just pretty good.  Well done girls.

James also worked very hard on the weekend but unfortunately wasn't quite so successful. We I  was really hopeful that he would make the cut to attend the Eastern Canada meet that just happens to be planned for Charlottetown this year. He missed out being in the top 6 by 1/100th of a second.  I know he was disappointed, but not as much as I was!  The up side is he has a piping competition in Toronto the weekend of the skating meet so he'll still be very busy. Now at least he won't have to choose which one to attend.  I have to admit my reasons for hoping for skating were totally selfish.

One last note: one of those things that makes you go HMMMMMMMMM

I had a tomato that I'd bought a number of days  earlier and decided to cut it up to use for dinner one day. When I cut it in half, I was quite surprised to see that all the seeds had germinated. Within seconds of cutting, the little green sprouts popped up to catch the light. We set it in the window and now have it in a container of soil. I can't say I've ever seen anything like this before.

Tuesday, March 1st - what a difference a year can make

It's been quite an amazing week, weather wise. Several warm and sunny days last week put everyone in the mood for spring, even though we just know it's not here yet.  Tuesday Lloyd BBQ'd some lamb chops for supper as it was a beautiful sunny day. In fact I saw a car go past the dealership that afternoon with a kayak on the roof. Now that's what I call an optimist. It just got better as the week went on. Our high on Thursday was 12' while Greenwood, Nova Scotia was the warmest spot in the entire country at 17.3'. Not too shabby for the last week of February.

This time last year, this was the scene at the end of our lane, where our mailbox had been taken away by the snowplow several times and there was no place to put a replacement, except for, of course, the traditional PEI country, winter "mailbox' - not terribly attractive but very effective.

This week, there is not a flake of snow anywhere near said mailbox.  I bet that makes the mail delivery people very pleased..

Yesterday was once again a very lovely day - so much so that Lloyd took the 'herd' outside for some fresh air. Apparently it was a bit of a challenge but I'm sure Leah will soon get the hang of walking around on a lead. Of course the little ones will follow where ever she goes.  I picked up a couple of dog T-shirts to put on them when they go outside if it's still a bit chilly. I tried them on last night and although a little big, they fit very well. I tried to get a picture of them wearing them but they move around too quickly. We need two people to get that photo.

Brenda came over on Tuesday evening to watch a movie and get caught up on all the gossip. We watched "Spotlight" so I was surprised to hear that it had won best picture at the Oscars. I've not usually seen the movies that win each year.

Poor Meghan started out her week on a bit of a downturn.  She had a problem knee as a result of a track and field injury last spring at school. She re-injured it at dance class early in the week, so much so, that the doctor and physiotherapist she's been seeing for it, advised her to stay off it for a couple of weeks. Needless to say, that wasn't really an option she was prepared to entertain.

The first dance competition of the year was on Saturday and there was no way she was going to miss it. She was part of the dance team as well as competing in a duet. Her mom told me on Saturday morning that she had enough drugs in her to choke a horse, and she made it through a total of 5 dance numbers. She and her partner in crime, came in third in their duet, and the team took home first place overall. Needless to say she was a pretty happy camper, as were the rest of the students.

 Pre show preparations - it's all about the make up and the perfect bun...

Two very happy dancers

A proud group of dancers and their teacher, Holly, who also won a choreography award

Lloyd's sister Heather, husband Kim, daughter Nicole and her son Jordan, came over for supper on Sunday evening. Jordan especially liked meeting Cooper, Celery, and of course the baby goats. They've just recently relocated to PEI so it was only fitting we have them out for a visit.

Brenda and her daughter Meghan were gone to Halifax for the weekend. As a result, I was left to keep myself entertained.. I made the most of my day and spent the bulk of it out in the craft room where I got lots done. The blocks for my quilt are now all finished and I'm ready to start joining them together with a technique I learned at a quilting class a number of years ago. Once they were all finished and laid out on the table, I was quite moved to see a large chunk of my life displayed there in front of me. The blocks are all made from Weekend To End Breast Cancer T-shirts and each one brings back very special memories of great times with some wonderful people. Now that the tedious part is done, I'm really looking forward to seeing the final result once they're all joined together. In the photo I had to severely over lap them as they wouldn't fit on the table otherwise but I needed to sort out what order they will be in.

One final note: on Monday afternoon I saw a motorcycle going up the road.It is February, right? But then Brenda's guys were out on Christmas day so needless to say, our motorcycle season has had a very short time off this year!