Blue Skies

After what seems like months of grey skies and rain and snow we are finally getting good weather. I've spent the day grading so Robbie and I took a break and drove down into the coulees for a walk. It was wonderful down there and after a while I was wishing I had left one layer in the van. The bridge over the river is the highest, longest of this kind, or something like that. It looks pretty dramatic against a blue sky. I took my sketch book too but it was blowing enough and my pile of grading is still high enough that I decided not to linger.

Saskatoon Farm

Oh yes, as Gracie points out in her comment to the post below the fabulous weekend involved the discovery of a new shopping experience. One of our little group told us that this sign I've noticed on the highway for years but ignored actually pointed the way to an amazing experience. And did it ever!

The Saskatoon Farm is actually a home and garden centre with an incredible array of household items, tapestries, kitchen items, jewelry, even chain mail armor. Then there is the bakery/cafe with the incredible scones and buns and apple crisp. And then there is the nursery with a wonderful selection of pots and plants and garden stuff.

And through the place wander a gaggle of roosters (outside) and cats and a dog (inside). They make themselves at home everywhere although they've been trained not to go into the kitchen or cafe and observe the boundaries carefully.

All this is 20 mins south of Calgary on the East side of the #2 hwy.

A Fabulous Weekend

This weekend some friends and I went up to Calgary for the last performance of the Calgary Opera for the season. It was an all Canadian production of Carmen and it was fabulous. The whole weekend was fabulous. We checked in to the hotel and changed into our fancy duds. I even bought a new purse and necklace for the occasion. We were all dressed to the nines. When we went out into the hall we discovered that everyone else staying on our floor was also dressed to the nines. We met a group of drag queens at the elevator. We asked them what was happening and they told us that there was a drag queen ball that evening at the next hotel. At this point one of the men dressed in evening gown, red wig, tiara and feather boa turned to one of our group and told her, "and you could win. That outfit is fabulous!" That became the theme for the evening. We had a fabulous dinner a block away at The Chutney, a wonderful new East Indian restaurant. The opera was fabulous. The people watching was fabulous. Even the partying that went on all night long on our floor couldn't dampen our spirits. We had a fabulous time. Someone else must have had a fabulous time too because the next morning there were boa feathers scattered all down the hallway.

We had another wonderful meal in the morning at a Dim Sum restaurant a couple of blocks from our hotel. When we went in there were about 30 people eating - by the time we left it had grown to about 300. I've never seen anything like it. One of the little old men at the table next to us pulled a mickey out of his pocket and served up about four fingers of something brown to his companion. People watching there was a lot of fun too. In the midst of the meal I said to one of my friends, "so this is what pagans do on Sunday morning." When I lived in Hamilton friends and I used to go for Dim Sum on Sundays but after church not instead of. I could get used to doing that again pretty easily. I can't do the shrimp anymore but I love those slimy pancakes. Fabulous...just fabulous.

Lots of Fun

Your Dominant Intelligence is Linguistic Intelligence

You are excellent with words and language. You explain yourself well. An elegant speaker, you can converse well with anyone on the fly. You are also good at remembering information and convicing someone of your point of view. A master of creative phrasing and unique words, you enjoy expanding your vocabulary. You would make a fantastic poet, journalist, writer, teacher, lawyer, politician, or translator.

What Kind of Intelligence Do You Have?
via Eileen

After Grief - a poem by Dorothy Livesay

After Grief - Dorothy Livesay

Death halves us:
Every loss
Divides
Our narrowness
And we are less.

But more:
each losing’s an encore
of clapping hands
dreaming us on;
the same scene played once more
willing us grander than
we were:
no dwarf menines
but kings and queens.

and still, some say
death raises up
gathers the soul strong-limbed
above the common tide
to catch a glimpse
(over world’s wailing wall)
of an exultant countryside.

Brahms Requiem

Prof. Tim Pope of the Modern Languages Dept. read these words of Brahms' Requiem at our memorial service for the victims of Virginia Tech today.

Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.
They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.
They go forth and weep, and bear precious seed, and shall come again with rejoicing bringing their sheaves with them.
For all flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flower of grass.
The grass withers, and the flower falls.
Be patient, therefore, beloved until the coming of the Lord.
The farmer waits for the precious crop from the earth being patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains.
And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads:
they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. Lord, let me know my end, and what is the measure of my days;
let me know how fleeting my life is.
You have made my days a few handbreaths, and my lifetime is as nothing in your sight.
Surely everyone stands as a mere breath.
Surely everyone goes about like a shadow.
Surely for nothing they are in turmoil;
they heap up, and do not know who will gather them.
And now, 0 Lord, what do I wait for?
My hope is in Thee.
How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts!
My soul longs, indeed it faints for the courts of the Lord;
my heart and my flesh sing for joy to the living God.
Happy are those who live in your house, ever singing your praise.
Ye now are sorrowful; but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice,
and no one will take your joy from you.
As a mother comforts her child so will I comfort you.
For here have we no continuing place, but we seek one that is to come.
Behold, I show you a mystery: we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed;
in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the hour of the last trumpet.
For the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible,
and we shall be changed.
Then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written:
Death is swallowed up in victory.
0 death, where is thy sting? 0 grave, where is thy victory?

There was a very big turnout and many people signed the memorial pages that we will be sending down to Virginia Tech. One of our community who has a friend who works at Virginia Tech had made ribbons in the maroon and gold school colours which we all wore.

St. Drogo's Cafe

St. Drogo as you may already know is the patron saint of coffeehouses (and really ugly people). Starting this Sunday evening at the university in the chaplains' office we will be opening St. Drogo's Cafe. We've gotten a new espresso maker and we will have some food that came in too late to be handed out with the campus care parcels. So if you are studying around the university Sunday, Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday evening stop by between 8:30 and 10:30 pm for a little refreshment.