Buckets, Balls and Birthday Cake

These Recreation folks I work with sure know how to live the department name!

I shot my first bucket of balls of the season this Monday. What an awesome deal - $12 for a large bucket of balls plus an AMAZING burger (sorry, no pics, I was too hungry), at Inglewood Golf Club. They offer this every day 11-2 (till 4 on Fridays). I didn't know why I didn't do this more often!

I was stoked. I got a few great shots. Remembered to open up my club. Address the ball correctly. Swing hard. Keep my eye on the ball. A large bucket is a LOT of balls.

And then the next day, I remembered why I pause between trips to the course. I could barely move. My right arm was pretty stiff & sore...even picking up the phone was good exercise. Which is why I NEED to go more often.

Especially if I keep eating like this. Another month, another birthday in the group, and this time, we splurged on Amandine Bakery's Choco-Truffle cake. Happy birthday Dennis! And me, I'll be booking some more driving range time. And maybe a tee time to boot.

This hand is one year old June 21

This is my niece Zoe's hand. She and her twin sister Sophie turned a whole YEAR old on Sunday, June 21, Summer Solstice. And Father's Day.

They are pretty amazing girls - each very individual - and just because they are amazing.

Sam & Gary, my longtime friends and siblings by choice (love those kinds of family members, don't we?) are such happy parents...these girls are little miracles after Gary's bout with cancer only 6 short years ago.

And Aurora is one happy cousin...grateful to have a pair of understudies. Perhaps they will grow to become "coneheads" just like her...

Bunnies and birds - June 12

I had a pretty extraordinary brush with animal life the first weekend of June.

On June 5, I made friends - albeit briefly - with a Northern Flicker. I was driving by on Highfield Road just off Blackfoot and a nasty magpie and crow were taking turns dive-bombing him on the side of the road. I thought the worst but then saw him flap his wings...and turned around to go get him. I probably shouldn't have but I just couldn't imagine the guy getting pecked to death.

He let me pick him up - no fussing - and I brought him back to the office, found him a box and a T-shirt and let him curl up in there. He was watchful - but the fountain in my office and the quiet of a Friday got to him and soon he was asleep, with his beak under his wing. I figured I'd be tired, too, after getting attacked. He had some nasty peck-marks near his tail, and I know nothing about birds.

The wildlife centre said to take him to the Calgary Avian Pet Clinic for triage - and I hated to do it, but at the end of the day, I had to wake the guy up and take him in. I think the stress of the car-travel did it - when I called the next day they said my little buddy didn't make it. I was pretty sad. He was so gorgeous, with big spots, and nice red markings on his neck - and salmon-coloured tailfeather shafts. My birding friends tell me he was probably a hybrid - which is common in Alberta - of a Yellow-Shafted and Red-Shafted Flicker. And that, for him to have been getting picked on, he might have had issues before I "helped" him.

But Spring is full of life here - and the mama bunny in our neighbourhood (we suspect she is an escaped pet who prefers the wild side - the jackrabbits ignore her) showed up on Sunday with her new baby. They look so soft, and chinchilla-like! The baby was chowing down on dandelions, and mama was pretty watchful. I can't believe how fast he's grown - only a couple weeks later this baby is nearly full-sized (and now, we don't see him as much). But we leave out our wilted lettuce and greens, and somehow they're always gone by morning!

Circle of life.

First BBQ of the season

First week of June, Bexx and the Boyz were in town. Nope, they're not a rock band - but they could be! My dear friend Rebekah and her lovely boys, Alexandre (3ish) and Zeppelin (5monthsish) who live in Kelowna came to Calgary via Ottawa on the Friends & Family Visiting Train.

We were lucky enough to have them stay two nights with us. What joy to have the little ones, to see things from the simple joys of three years old again, to rock a baby to sleep and hear his coos in the morning. And to see my lovely Bexx, blooming into her adult self and being a marvelous mom. To celebrate - we sent them home with a parting supper of our first BBQ of 2009! Burgers, dogs, my secret-recipe potato salad, and fried onions & mushrooms. Classic Calgary fare for our Kelowna relocatees.

What's pretty neat is that Aurora and Bexx have a special relationship. We met in Clearwater, she finishing high school (putting her instructors through their paces with thoughtful questions and not-in-the-pack quiet rebellion), me 28, newly pregnant and just finished my Comms degree - and both of us with a love of post-modern theorists, and admiring her 18-year-old fervor. Aside from being "there" when I was in labour with Aurora, Bexx was the first person besides me, Aurora's dad & uncle to hold my new baby. And when Aurora was only three months old, the sound of Bexx' voice dropping by after school would mean an insisted visit including holding and talking time (or I'd pay the price in tears) of no less than 45 minutes. After high school, Bexx was sweet enough to come & stay with me in Blue River to nanny Aurora - before being wooed by ski resort employment. Still, Aurora & Bexx forged an unbreakable bond - which seems to have carried to Bexx' own son, Alexandre.

When Alexandre was born, with his mama living in Calgary, we were privileged to be able to look after him - and I could see another bond forming between Alexandre & Aurora. Even today, although there are large gaps of time between visits, the two truly enjoy each other's company. Perhaps we need to get to Kelowna more often!

I have been gifted a loom...

It's true. An amazing, unexpected gift. For the fibre-savvy, it's a Louet Hollandia Counter-Marche 4-harness floor loom, about 51" across.

For me, I'm beside myself with joy. Please don't pinch me, I don't want to wake up.

It is waiting patiently for me, at Make 1 Yarn Studio http://www.make1yarns.com/ where the shop's (and loom's) past owners, the very generous Amy & Sandra, have instructed the lovely Bess, its new owner, to arrange for me to take it to my loving home.

Let's check the moon cycle - is it a blue moon? I had thought from the universe like this only come along that often. Never mind the monetary value (which is huge), this is something much more significant. I've been getting a lot of "it's time to start weaving" messages over the past two years in my fibre journey; there is a small 24" table loom waiting for me in Millarville that came my direction for a song about 18 months ago, waiting for my lack of space, soon to be rectified.

Did I mention I'm beside myself? Or at least beside the loom? I had to go visit it today at lunch.

It even comes with a boxful of gorgeous yarns previously set up for a project. And a few other "necessary" pieces, as Bess tells me.

I've been renovating, with one of the purposes to allow me to have some "studio" space in the basement (lower level, we'll call it now), for my (ahem) three spinning weels, many pounds of fibre (yarns, roving and fleeces) and perhaps, in my wildest dreams, one day, a floor loom. (Or to eventually have the place up to snuff enough to sell, for a place that has studio space.) Looks like the universe is telling me to dream wild!

Now, I just need to figure out how the darned thing works. Guess I'd better get serious about those weaving lessons!

Birthday Ice Cream

It is a sunny day in Calgary - a very typically May day for here. Cool wind underpinning but bright and sunny. And in my new job, these wonderful Recreation folks have a tradition to celebrate the month's birthday on one day. Although mine's May 8, they waited this year for me, till we returned from our Eastern jaunt, and we celebrated today.

In this work-group, the previous month's birthday people provide the next month's birthday people's treat - and it's not always cake. To my pleasure and surprise, we got Turtles Ice Cream...with sprinkles!

So we all trooped out, after lunch (or a lunchtime run for some) to meet in the tiny greenspace in our quasi-industrial office setting, and scooped up softened ice cream and sugar cones, and had them be-sprinkled. I was so excited at the sprinkles - little pieces of happy colour - and I felt like I was eight again.

And then, we realized we were all standing and figured we needed a picnic table. So, we enterprising Reccies (as apparently those working in the Recreation business unit are known) spied an unloved one half-hanging in the parking lot, and more-than-happily relocated it to its new home. We have already made plans to paint it and get it a tablecloth, and maybe a sibling, and to enjoy table-and-seating space in our makeshift park! Of course, following City protocol and ensuring all environmental, engagement, budgetary, safety and land-use policies are followed :)

Over for waffles

Jason's co-writer/director and his family do not have people over for dinner. Instead, being avant-garde and out-of-the-box people, they have people over on Saturday mornings for waffles. I have been lucky enough to partake in this ritual more than once; considering a year's 52 Saturdays and all the people they know, it is an honour to be invited.

And...Tania makes the amazing italian-style cappuccinos with the caffettiera http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moka_pot while Robert in his creative glory drags out the cookbook older than he is and liberally dusts it with flour scooped with the vintage diner-style coffee cup he uses to measure, and mixes the batter into his signature fluffy, fragrant, delicious waffles.

We eat one at a time, along the bar they use for a table, and decorate the waffley-goodness with fresh strawberries and some prunes Tania's cooked up in Madeira and other things to just taste heavenly. There is organic maple syrup and we had the forethought to bring a yummy Chaumes cheese with fabulous orange mold we brought back from Ottawa - all amazing together.

We got to play with Freja's dollhouse (complete with a garden housing parsnips, cabbage and beets) and coax her into talking after she showed us her party dress and ate the strawberries we chopped for her.

Saturday morning bliss. Thank you, Cuffleys.