Hello all! Please excuse my long absence and there is no excuse. Just busy living and that sometimes gets in the way of other things.
January has flown by. I wasn't expecting that as I usually find it terribly long in Edmonton and tend to celebrate it's completion. But, there are daffodils and crocus out in a few places and I've been told that the Hungarian pheasants are already singing the praises of spring. Now, let me tell you about these little fellows.
I am smitten by them. They are extremely handsome birds, generally the ones you see in really old still life paintings. I experienced the thrill of seeing one not too long ago, and then suddenly they're everywhere! Usually in the country fields, gleaning whatever goodies come their way. I was on a 3 day course, which I'll explain later, and the instructor mentioned that the previous day, he'd seen a fox being chased by 3 of these pheasants! I wonder if it was just a matter of imprinting.
So, I've been treated like royalty and working at the same time these last few days. I was at a conference learning about a new way to run classrooms and schools. This, not only was great fun as I met many new people, but I think it is the first time in a long time that I feel as sense excitement over what could be in schools. It's quite an involved process, but basically it involves building community with staff and students in the school and then using different tools to help them learn. Teacher talk, I know. But feel very strongly about this AND am extremely lucky to have gone because it was expensive and not offered in Edmonton. The leadership course which I went to was 3 days long, the teacher course 6 days. Quite intense and leaves you pretty tired afterwards. But, here are some pictures of the Coombe's Lodge where it was held. Let me tell you, it was like having a conference at the Banff Springs Hotel. One day after the session, I wandered around the grounds. I guess it was owned by a Tobacco King--much like the copper kings in Butte, Montana where we used to live.
There are these cats that I must tell you about. Around here near Cerney Lane, you will find courtyard like areas where many flats face onto. In one such courtyard, there are 3 cats who have land ownership--Broche, Zack and Whitey. Turns out that Zak and Broche are brother/sister which you could never tell because they look completely different. But, dear Zak is reminiscent of my dear Bearcat that moved on a few years back, so we are over there frequently for petting sessions. They funny thing is, these cats are perfumed. The owner, who smokes, sprays them with some delicate, slightly astringent-smelling perfume from Avon. When I stroke dear Zak, I have flashbacks to the days when you could buy those precious collectable decanters from Avon. And, then never be able to sell them even at your garage sale type bottles. I should keep my mouth shut because they probably accrue a fair amount of moula on the local flea market scene. Speaking of flea market, I just had a thought. Is it flea market because the items probably have fleas? Or is it flee market because you need to run for your life in the other direction? Especially when you have two daughters is newly alloted allowence money! In any case, smelly cats is a good name for these two furballs.
Guess what?! It snowed! Yes, it did and let me tell you it caused a great commotion at Dundry Church of England Primary School. It had been raining for a week straight or so. I lost count as I was floating away, but the Year 3-6 went up to the Dundry hall on the mini-bus. (This is where we do athelitic events.) There was a judo instructor that was brave enough to run a mini judo-camp on this particular Friday afternoon. The children were very interested in the activities and not aware that the weather was changing until...Jenny, the Headteacher, summoned me to the side and said, "QUICK!! CLOSE THE CURTAINS!" So, as clandestinely as I could, I carefully slipped out of the masses of children pinning each other to the ground, and started to slide the curtains closed. But, then of course, one little very astute child caught sight of the frenetic wind and snowflakes flying past. He stopped, put out his arm and pointed to the window--SNOW, SNOW, SNOW!!! We practically had to put a hand over his mouth and do some improvised judo moves to get him quiet. But, by that point, all hell had broke loose. Children ran to the windows, screaming. Gees, I miss the snow, but this was like 5 pound bills were dropping from the heavens. Funny because only about 3 centimetres fell and sadly, by the time the Judo coach wrapped it up, there wasn't a whole lot left.
When I went back to the school, my car was covered in snow. I cleaned it off like an old pro and headed down the hill to Bristol. Talk about being stared at! I was the only car covered in snow as it had only rained below the cloud line. It was quite delightful to see though!
Brian went to London last weekend to meet up with his friend Monty and a couple of other blokes. Emma, Bonnie and I decided to have a girl day so we met one of Bonnie's friends from Dundry and her family at the Bristol Ice rink. First of all, this rink is located on a rather windy little road downtown. One would not think that a rink could be found there, but after running through the rain, we got there, paid and rented skates. Now, perhaps my skates in Canada would be considered old as I think they used to be my mom's at one point. But, these skates were 
probably worn by the Vikings! I won't be to critical but it was like wearing stone shaped boots with blades attached haphazardly. And the weight! That alone would make a person lose a good 5 stone just lifting up your feet. We did skate though, along with the 300 other people. The rink itself was about three quarters of the size of one we'd use. It reminded me of Boxing Day blowout shopping in West Edmonton Mall, but everyone wearing stone shoes. Funny, because no one was wearing helmets either! Makes me think that next Boxing Day sale, I might wear a helmet.
Then us girls went up to Park Street, of course to Woode's cafe for cornation chicken sandwiches, and up through the torrential rain to the Bristol museum. I love this place. If you have ever seen 'Night at the Museum' with Ben Stiller, this place is very similar AND it's free. What more could a cash strapped mom ask for?
There most recent display is called 'Love' and has onloan many paintings from different museums. Bonnie and I stood in a line-up to view a 
painting by Jan Vermeer. Bonnie had a difficult time understanding why all of these people were waiting to see such a small painting when there were some gigantic ones all over the place. On our turn, I pointed out the girl's dress. I asked Bonnie what she thought of the skirt and she said she could touch it and it would be real. I told her that's why we waited in line to see this. There are many levels to the museum. In the mineral gallery, the I told the girls to see if they could find any that came from Canada. There were a few, but the one that got them running back to me was a big chunk of pyrite from Butte!
And they have this interesting display called 'World Wildlife'. This one was a bit disturbing to me because it was full of really bizarre taxidermied animals with strange far away looks in their eyes. All of them were housed in big glass displays surrounded by dark wood. There were animals that I had never seen before, and when we got to the North America display, I was curious as to which animals would be frozen in time. Here is the picture of the North American display. Hmm...I guess I should tell them that there are more than just eagles and beavers!
If you ever find yourself wandering a persmissive trail here take heart that you will be okay providing you behave yourself! Believe it or not, there are public footpaths that are clearly marked, then there are permissive footpaths that wander through people's private properties. It's kind of like when we used to cut through people's backyards to take shortcuts to school, except these are specifically marked, often with a kissing gate attached. You have to obey the rules though that are posted. Things like no littering, no letting your dog chase the sheep or foul the area or wild camping (as opposed to calm subdued camping?) You could probably cross England through these paths.
There is a Welsh radio station that I listen to sometimes when I want to decompress. Listening to Welsh is amazing as I don't have any inkling of what is being said. It has terribly tricky hairball coughing up sounds to it and I realized that it reminds me of when we used to play our Led Zepplin albums backwards to hear the subversive messages of evil. Out of respect, Welsh is a beautiful language and after a little research, I discovered its origins are Celtic. Well, here is a word for you to try and say: Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch. There will be a spelling test next week.
Which brings me to the title of this entry. A week or so ago, I let Mousse out for her late night gaze at the stars. Suddenly, there was a commotion from the composter and Mousse went into action. She jumped behind the big barrel and there was a tremendous amount of scratching and carrying-on inside. Being that it was late and dark, I decided to leave it in her adept paws.
The next morning, Emma and Bonnie and I armed ourselves with our wellies, gardening gloves and wooden spoon. We carefully opened the lid, only to see the usual friends-worms, pill bugs, snails, etc. But upon closer inspection, we noticed a small cleverly groomed hole, out of which popped a quick smooth critter with rather large front paws. He managed to scurry off and under the fence. We restored order to the composter, but had to move it in order to repair all of the hard work piles that the mole had created. I felt bad sending him on his way, but it was either that or multiple dirt piles in Helen's beautiful garden. I'm sure the neighbor isn't too happy, as he went under the fence into her yard.
A MOT test is a yearly physical--for your car. And with all of the cars here, I'm sure that everyone is grateful. If a car konks out on a major thorough way, it could cause a lot of cussing. A car of three years or less does not need this test, but any older than that, the car has to be brought up to snuff yearly. Wierdly, I am pretty sure that I heard something similar which is being proposed by the National Health Service for people of a certain age. I guess they don't want them holding up traffic either.
We have been so lucky meeting people! A few weeks back, I was at another all day workshop and met this lady named Julie. Many people I meet have parents or grandparents who were from Canada which I find strange because you'd think it would be the reverse. People have moved to Canada. A common thread though is World War II. There are so many stories about this and I would bet that pretty much anyone you asked would be able to tell you a family story about the war.
I met another teacher whose mother was from Canada and she came over to England to become a nurse. Then husband to be accidently got stuck on a ship as it left the harbour to go to France so he joined up in the National Service and fought. Upon returning a few years later, he ended up going back to England and on the boat another soldier invited him to stay at his house. This fellow's sister was the nurse. There are so many stories like this.
Back to Julie. She asked me if I had been to many places, and I said yes, but one place that I really wanted to go was the Jurassic Coast on England's south coast. She laughed and said that her parents ran the fossil muesum in Charmouth which is one of the most fossil rich places in the world. So, she invited us there on February 9th. Can't wait!
We were going to Cornwall this weekend with Nick and Andrea and the girls, but had to postpone it for a few weeks due to plumbing problems. Problems with the cottage that we planned on renting, not with one of us. 
But, today we decided to take a minitrip to Clevedon, just southwest of Bristol. What a beautiful spot to wander around and eat ice cream--like I need to be doing that! But, we enjoyed some sunshine and talking to people. The pier was built in 1873 and has only collapsed once, in 1970. Bonnie said, That's not good Mom. It must be coming up to a big one soon!
There were many fishermen there and it was really interesting watching them hook slippery squid to their long, huge poles! One rather cordial fisherman told us that he spends his Sundays out there on the pier. I asked him if his wife sent him out to catch the Sunday dinner and he replied, Hell no, I come out 'ere to avoid the Missus! 
They catch cod, dogfish, mackeral, eels and a few other ocean friends. So, the one fish that we did see them catching was a little cod. I asked them if he ate them and he said that they would put back these little ones. He got out his pliers to remove the hook which of course made me go EEEK! That's gotta hurt and he said not nearly as much as the trip back into the estuary. It is a 70 foot drop off of the pier! But then he laughed and showed us the 'lowering basket'. I asked him if you could lower naughty kids in it too.
Here's a picture of little cod. He got lowered safely in the lowering basket in the next picture.
I guess the dogfish are not that nice to touch. He said that you have to fold them in half to get the hook out because they have nasty little scales that will imbed themselves in your skin. They used to use the dogfish skins to sand the bottom of boats. I looked these up and found out that they are from the shark family.
When Brian was in London, I took the girls and Emma's friend Amy to Bath. We went to the Bath Leisure and Sports centre which is quite nice. The girls swam and I slipped away to the sauna/stream room centre. It seemed really old and cave like. The steam room was delicious with euclyptus and then there was the plunge pool. A tiny 6 feet deep icy dip not for the faint of heart. So, I decided to be brave, afterall I am Canadian. I gently eased in slowly my big toe, and five minutes later, I was waist deep, contemplating the extreme pain that I would feel if I were brave enough. But, I didn't need to worry about that because suddenly this big ass dude comes out of the sauna and says Watch out Honey. He cannonballs in and I'm soaked. So much for easing in gently. I guess you can't berate a big British biker guy with tattoos.
Well, seems that no one wanted to guess what we did on New Year's Eve as we ran up and down the street. It wasn't anything that a permissive path would prohibit. We just banged on the bottom of pots with wooden spoons.
And, without doubt, a beautiful stilllife of dear ol' Moussey who is a self-acclaimed self-petter. Really! You can be dead to the world, 4:00 a.m. and wake up to Mousse purring peacefully as she uses your hand as a self-petting tool. I am sure she misses dear Helen. Which makes me think that poor Helen and Ben are about to face blizzard week--an average of -25 and a whole lot of snow! Welcome to Edmonton! 
And, this little boy Thomas in Class 3 who called me Dameham, well, he asked me this week if he could come home with me when I go. I smiled and said, Oh I bet you'd love it there! Is it because we have snow that you'd like to come? He said, Oh no, it's because you have smelly markers! I guess that's important in the eyes of a 7 year old.
This week's quiz question: What does that Welsh word actually mean?
Until next time,
Beth
Hello everyone!
I am smitten by them. They are extremely handsome birds, generally the ones you see in really old still life paintings. I experienced the thrill of seeing one not too long ago, and then suddenly they're everywhere! Usually in the country fields, gleaning whatever goodies come their way. I was on a 3 day course, which I'll explain later, and the instructor mentioned that the previous day, he'd seen a fox being chased by 3 of these pheasants! I wonder if it was just a matter of imprinting.
Brian went to London last weekend to meet up with his friend Monty and a couple of other blokes. Emma, Bonnie and I decided to have a girl day so we met one of Bonnie's friends from Dundry and her family at the Bristol Ice rink. First of all, this rink is located on a rather windy little road downtown. One would not think that a rink could be found there, but after running through the rain, we got there, paid and rented skates. Now, perhaps my skates in Canada would be considered old as I think they used to be my mom's at one point. But, these skates were 
probably worn by the Vikings! I won't be to critical but it was like wearing stone shaped boots with blades attached haphazardly. And the weight! That alone would make a person lose a good 5 stone just lifting up your feet. We did skate though, along with the 300 other people. The rink itself was about three quarters of the size of one we'd use. It reminded me of Boxing Day blowout shopping in West Edmonton Mall, but everyone wearing stone shoes. Funny, because no one was wearing helmets either! Makes me think that next Boxing Day sale, I might wear a helmet.
painting by Jan Vermeer. Bonnie had a difficult time understanding why all of these people were waiting to see such a small painting when there were some gigantic ones all over the place. On our turn, I pointed out the girl's dress. I asked Bonnie what she thought of the skirt and she said she could touch it and it would be real. I told her that's why we waited in line to see this.
