The leaves have fallen, the temperature’s dropped but still
there’s not enough snow to ski.
This will be the first winter since I moved to Vernon that I haven’t
been skiing before Nov. 15th.
Oh well, it’s sunny, and I certainly have had plenty of time to prepare
for the snow. I’ve even finished
the Christmas baking: the dark fruit cake from the Joy of Cooking,
which I modify every year (this time it has more rum and pecans); speculaas
that I learned to make from Florence and a new shortbread. I have used Terry Keough’s recipe for
years and really like it, but this year CBC Radio One was raving on about how
great the winning shortbread in their last year’s contest was and how you have
to bake it at least a month early and let it mellow. I had time on my hands and I fell for the hype. It was rather grainy when first baked,
but it is wrapped up and sitting in the fridge now, aging to perfection.
I phoned dad yesterday morning to wish him a Happy 95th
Birthday. I sang the song all the
way through as usual, and he joined in for the traditional chorus of ‘For He’s
a Jolly Good Fellow’ as he always does.
Then we usually have a good laugh, but this time there was no laugh and
the rest was not good. Mom was
doing the wash, so he was alone and very upset. He repeated a few times how she was not well and he couldn’t
do anything. This has been his
theme for a while now, but usually mom pipes up that they are still
managing. As she was not there, he
couldn’t seem to get his mind off his worries. I asked, as I have many times since I helped them move in
June, if he had spoken to the nurse who stops by to see him from time to time
about taking the necessary steps to get on a list for a place with more
care. She had mentioned this to me
and to them in June, but they have done nothing. He said that even when she was there last week to see him
after a fall he hadn’t said a word about extra care. I keep thinking that they will ask when they’re ready and
that if I initiate a move, mom, at least, will disagree, but perhaps I am going
to have to go to Victoria and do something because they seem incapable of
anything. I’m not going to phone
them again until tomorrow so that they have a chance to discuss the situation,
but I wonder if they will.
To end on a happier note, last weekend Jay and May found and bought wedding rings that they both like, so now they have the outward and visible sign of their marriage. And I went to a concert at the Vernon Performing Arts Centre
last night. It was the Okanagan
Symphony Orchestra together with ‘musica intima’. The last work, ‘Dona nobis pacem’ by a Latvian composer,
Peteris Vasks, was especially wonderful.
The strings and voices blended together to fill the room with an eerily
peaceful sound. The audience remained
silent for almost a minute after the performers had stopped playing and
singing. Then they rose and
clapped for quite a while. That is
most rose. I later saw two
acquaintances in the foyer; they hadn’t liked it.
A cartoon from "The Morning Star" that made me laugh because that's the solution Jay and I have for all the technical problems we encounter.
A shot from the black rock where I walk when there are no hikes and bikes and not enough snow to ski.
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