Where To Put It?

This morning we are in the midst of a lull in our most recent snow storm. This is a two-part storm, the first beginning around mid-afternoon yesterday, the second part due anytime. Come to think of it, my peek out the window right now indicates that it seems to be beginning already.

In this crazy-near-record-snowfall winter, we are running out of places to put it. At least part of the pile on the front lawn is now as taller or taller than I, and I'm not short, so I'm not sure where to put yesterday's four or five inches, never mind the 8 or more inches that are projected to fall today. Yesterday, I trimmed back some of the bank at the edge of the drive as I as having to swerve to get in and out of the driveway. It's crazy I tell you. Elsewhere, the guy who is contracted to plough out Thesha's neighbour called to inform her that he wouldn't be by ... because there is nowhere left to plough it to. Incredible.

We had planned to take in The Other Boelyn Girl when we drove into the city yesterday to take care of a few errands, but the snow was already falling by mid-afternoon, so we did the wise thing and returned to our town. We stopped at the grocery store on the way in to pick up a few neccssities for what promised to be a lock-down weekend but were forced to endure a very long checkout line because everyone else in town was doing the same. Once home, we didn't stay nestled, however, because SIL was called out on an emergency, and Thesha is so sick with a miserable cold that we dropped over there to spend the evening to help out with Nikki-Dee. When SIL returned and we finally departed their place at 11:00, the streets were already clogged with inches of snow. Not many vehicles were out, but there was some slipping and sliding of the few that I did see. Nevertheless, we arrived home quite safely and plan to spend a cozy day indoors.

Despite our eagerness to see the back of this long and very Canadian winter, there is something cozy about being forced to stay snug inside while the beastly lion roars on ... and on ...

Foto Friday

Ain't it Grand?

As yet more snow arrives, my thoughts turn to spring. The following photos were taken in the Niagara area five years ago.

Similar Truths

For better or for worse, Cuppa and I enrolled ourselves in Oprah's course with Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth. We bought the book, did the chapter one exercise, and watched the webcast. True, due to glitches, we weren't able to watch the webcast live, but we got there eventually. One has to make allowances for putting on an event such as this for 750 000 people; there were hitches, and that's okay. One thing Tolle says that at their core, all religions preach the same basic message. Of course, each uses it's own terminology, but the concept of spiritual awareness is essentially the same in each, and I for one certainly saw the parallels between Tolle's perceptions and the Christian ones with which I am familiar.

Ekhard talks about how humans are dysfunctional to the point of madness (his terminology) because of we are driven by our Ego natures. In biblical terms, it's our sinful nature, or Paul's old man or the carnal mind. To my perception, Eckhart and Christianity here seem to speak of the same thing with different language. The way to overcome the Ego in A New Earth is to find a place of stillness in order to discover the goodness that is at our core being. The Christian teaching exhorts us to "be still still and know ... God." Finally (for now at least) Tolle claims that the Ego, by its nature, cannot be changed or fixed but that we can awaken our consciousness by finding the goodness that is at our core. Likewise, in Christian terms, our sinful natures can't be fixed, but if we allow the spirit of Christ to dwell within us, we become new creatures.

It was interesting for me to begin to see these connections. I found it helpful to put the concepts into the framework that I understand best. I think very early on The Church became somewhat sidetracked and got more that a little hung up with a lot of doctrinal issues and, therefore, often lost sight of the essential message. However, even as I say that, I hasten to add that I must not paint with too broad a brush because the fact that these concepts of our dual nature (sinful vs spiritual) are familiar ground to me reveals that these ideas are certainly understood and taught within Christendom. It just makes it easier for me to understand what Eckhart is saying if I can frame them in old and familiar terminology.

More Roaring

Unfortunately, the lion continues to roar. Come on cat. It's March 05, time to return to the savanna to rest, lap up some rays, and let us do the same.

Above, out back.
Below, out front

Heritage Photos

Quite some time ago I posted when I thought was our oldest photo of my Great Great Grandmother Drew on my mother's side. In poring over the photo album while doing the grampa series recently, I noticed the photos below, also of Great Great Grandparents, and I think these take the prize.












Both of the gentlemen below are Henry Brooks; the seated one is my Great Great Grandfather, born in 1815. He was father to Elizabeth whose photo I showed you recently, and I post again to the left. That photo was taken when Elizabeth was 75 years old in 1923, so it would seem that the two photos below were taken in the nineteenth century. Son Henry was born ~1835.








The next photo shows Henry's wife, Ann (nee Ann Gifford in ~1818) and his daughter, Caroline (~1847).

No Lyin, A Lion

I'm not lyin when I tell you that March has come in like a Lion. We began the month with a somewhat significant snowfall that Nice Neighbour blew out for us. Today, we are expecting freezing rain, and predictions call for more snow later this week. There is a mountain of white on our tiny, shared front lawn; it bears an accumulation from two driveways after all. If we hadn't enjoyed quite a bit of melting early in January, I don't know where we'd be putting it now. Surely the spring melt will begin soon. The good thing about the Lion is that according to common tradition s/he shall transform into a Lamb by the month's end, and I'd rather enjoy that at month's end than endure the opposite.

I did get out of the house for a bit of a drive and a wee visit with Nikki-Dee yesterday, but back twinges prevented me from driving too far and or visiting for too long. However, it seems to be slowly mending itself, but I thought that last week too before regressing late in the week. It seems that the combination of weather and the back will keep me somewhat quiet and somewhat housebound for another few days at least.

Grampa: Final Facts

When I first decided to post a blog about my grandfather back in November, that's all it was meant to be, but it has taken on a life of its own. I've now bored you four times, and this is the fifth (and final as far as I can tell). This exercise has caused me to get quite busy: clarifying facts, digitizing old photos, and locating and digitizing some old documents such a Certificate of Birth and a Marriage License. I plan to print it all into one booklet of record for the family. I imagine that I'll go on from there to do the same for the other grandparents, so I have created a job for myself — as if I needed another one. But there's no hurry.

While I will refrain from posting much of the material (amen said the choir), I will post a few more items and tidbits below.

Grampa was born on April 11, 1878 in Waterbeach, England; married to Ellenor Phillis Croft (those are the recorded spellings) on May 26, 1909 in Chambly, Quebec; and died in Montreal on June 21, 1958 at 80 years of age.



His whole family came from Cambridgeshire or nearby Norfolk (see map above). His mother was born and buried in Waterbeach but seemed to live in Strethem for a while as Grampa's three older siblings were born there, but he and the other six were born in Waterbeach. (Note: some of this information was obtained from the 1881 census from which a friend once found a few tidbits, such as her husband's, my great grandfather's name being James.) I have a single photo (below) of his mother, my great grandmother, Elizabeth. It was taken in 1923 when she was 75 years old.



As I mentioned, Grampa had nine siblings: four sisters, two older and two younger, and four brothers, one older and three younger. There are some notes in the photo album about marriages and children, and I calculate that these ten children only had about fourteen children of their own, one of whom died a few days after birth. That's quite a change in fertility in one generation. It appears that three of the children never married, one being his older brother, Henry, who was born crippled. An album note mentions that the villagers raised money to buy Henry a wheelchair.

The second oldest sister, Alice, immigrated to Montreal after Grampa, and it appears that they remained quite close until she died months before I was born in 1947 when she would have been 77 years old, I believe. Alice was a cook who at some point in time worked in Vienna, Austria. She married a Montrealer, and it seems that they either owned or rented a summer place in Maine for several summer as there are a number of album pictures over several years of my Dad visiting her in Maine, including this one.



I guess that's about all that I have to say about Grampa unless some fragment of memory surfaces at some future point.