Saturday 6 June 2015

May 31st to June 6th

A lot of to-ing and fro-ing to Ottawa - not a great month to be here at the lake, in some ways, I guess - but there are no sites available for the summer.  Sunday was the big Truth and Reconciliation church service at Dominion Chalmers.  I ended up singing in the choir - didn't realize until ten minutes before the service that there was a choir!  It was fun, though - reconnected with Elaine, from Langton House at Trent University days! I had some good days here this week, though - lovely spot!!  I had dinner at Cheryl and Jim's house on Wednesday, which was great - it's been about 26 years since we've lived this close to each other!

Thursday was the choir party at Susan and Robert's house.  I drove right past their house - didn't recognize it at all - completely new addition on the front which changes the appearance of the facade -really nice looking!  Awesome evening, of course - ending up with singing around the piano.

Taken throiugh my windshield!

Canada geese visiting me





Truly awesome skies!

May 24th - 30th

Sunday afternoon I attended the last Canterbury Trebles' concert to be directed by Robert Palmai!  He's handing over the baton to James Caswell and will be accompanying, but not directing.  Susan is pretty pleased at the thought of free Saturdays!! The concert was superb - so glad I was here for it!  I've missed their Christmas concerts, since I've been in Texas during the winters.  Wednesday I committed myself to monthly payments on a funeral preplan!

 Thursday I moved my rv to Golden Lake (Judy drove behind me and took me back to Ottawa after I got set up).

 That evening I attended a Laurentian High School Reunion, organized by Micheline, of course, and raising money for Brian Arden, who was an EA at Laurentian and is now battling cancer and trying to support his family at the same time.  He's a wonderful man - always smiling, great with the kids, incredibly responsible, always super supportive - we raised about $5400 that evening, hopefully with more to come through the internet request.

Glebe St. James United Church!

James at the organ - notice the organ pipes, painted blue by Frances McPhail

Susan and Robert

Our hymnals

Combined Canterbury Trebles and Cantiamo Girls Choir





Susan



Teresa Burnett-Cole

Skylight above the sanctuary

Susan and Robert


Oved!



Sherry and Oved - omg he's grown!!!

The view from the window of The Sands restaurant

Judy by that window


Lyne and Brian at the LHS Reunion


Deb and Brian

Barb's speech

Micheline


Barb and Bill

Golden Lake!





May 17th - 23rd

An eventful week, although not picture-worthy!  I reserved a spot at Golden Lake for the month of June (actually, May 28th to June 25th) - finally get to spend some time at an Ontario lake!
Tuesday I saw the surgeon in Winchester who is going to do my hernia surgery - just the usual stuff.  Judy has pretty much prepared me for what's going to happen. Thursday was Joce's retirement party in Carp - lots of fun - Sue-Jane and I both went - good food, good company. I applied to get my name on the supply list for the OCDSB - what a huge, involved, convoluted process - and I now have an interview for June 16th.  Seems pretty ridiculous - it's not like I'm a stranger to the Board, for heaven's sake!

May 14 - 16, 2015

Thursday was the last choir practice of the season (sigh) so some of us went to the pub afterwards for a cold one.  Bobby would be proud of me - I had a craft beer (well, didn't actually drink all of it, but the thought was there . . . )

I've now officially joined the Bytown Goodsamers RV Club - an Ontario chapter of the Good Sam club, of which I am a member.  They go to an RV park in Brockville for events - and this week was one of them.  Most people arrived Tuesday and stayed until Monday, but I arrived Friday morning (in time for the potluck that evening) and left Saturday afternoon - just wanted to get a feel for the club before joining.  They have a few of these week long events, during which the men clean up a particular highway for which they have taken responsibility and the women make jean quilts for teenagers at CHEO.  Personally, I would rather be cleaning up the highway - but since I was new and only there for two days, I managed to avoid the quilting and crocheted instead.  Although I don't really identify with the whole sewing thing, I can certainly see the benefits of being connected to a Canadian rv club - and I'll probably attend the July 1st weekend and maybe the Labour Day one, too.


Jim, David, Susan, Robert, Rebecca, Marilyn, and Karen!


Happy Green Acres Park 




Jean quilt - pretty impressive - practically every single bit of the jeans is used!



The hall where it all happens!


April 23 - May 14, 2015

Uh oh - I'm way behind on my blog!  Now I have to remember what happened when!!  This period of time was actually very full of activity:  I sang with the Glebe St. James choir for the massed choir event on April 28th - it was really a great experience - although we screwed up one of the songs quite badly, the experience was way more than an individual performance.  It was wonderful to be part of such a gathering of choirs from around the city - got to see what different choirs are doing and check out different directors (Robert is still the best in Ottawa, of course), as well as chat with people from different churches.  I think that the communication is worth every bit of rehearsal and organization (I know - easy for me to say - I didn't do any of the organizing . . . )

During these few weeks, I also finally got to see a performance of the Propellor Dance group, which is such a large part of Jesse Huggett's life.  What a fabulous time that was!  This is a dance group which is comprised of differently-abled people - some in wheelchairs, some with physical, mental, developmental issues - really amazing stuff - extremely artistic and enthousiastic!  Wish I could have taken photos of the performances - but of course, that would be distracting to the dancers (sigh). I also reconnected with Amanda Jette-Knox - who knew that she would be there!  I really want to have coffee with her sometime and catch up properly - such a very, very talented, personable woman!!

On May 4th, I got to see Scott Richardson conduct the Musica Viva Singers - awesome program - combination of contemporary and classical.  Saw a lot of old friends and acquaintances there:  a few women who used to help out with the Ottawa Children's Choir when Gregory and then Julia were part of that group; teachers - notably Eleanor Abbra, who used to supply for me at Laurentian, before getting her own teaching position; former members of the GSJ choir; and Brad, of course.  Lovely evening!

On May 8th, got to a performance of the Canadian Centennial Choir, directed by Marg Stubbington - what a change from the direction of that choir when I was a part of it, 25 years ago!  Thank god they've ditched those awful beige polyester blouses with the ties in front, in favour of some very smart-looking red polo shirts! I remember pulling the tail of that blouse over my Julia-bump - the only woman in the choir to not tuck their blouse into their long black skirt! I loved Marg's choice of music - very, very upbeat and familiar, for the most part.  Awesome harmonies, too!

On May 13th, I attended a Funeral Planning worship at the church - organized by Teresa.  I think I'd like to pursue the idea of a pre-planned, pre-paid funeral arrangement with a funeral home.  Sure would be nice to think of saving my kids all that work and $$$.

Centretown United Church

Musica Viva concert

Stage of Propellor Dance performance

Ramdom fireworks I spotted on the way back from the Propellor performance!


RV show at the Racetrack - a very tempting small Class A and some Cs