September 11 Tragedy

9/11

Today we remember all who died on that tragic day 10 years ago,

which resulted in nothing less than an inferno of smoke and rubble.

One of North Americas' most tragic hours.

A declaration of war against innocence

by cowards who ran and hid,

by fanatic pretenders, of peace.

In God We Trust

To God we gave our friends and relatives and children

May God cherish and love them now,

While we remember their spirits in our hearts and souls.

A Lady's Life

CANADA DAY CELEBRATIONS CONTINUE

People ask what is a memorable event in your life ?

I would have to say this week end, is one of the most important and carries with it, a lot of mixed feelings.

On the one hand we have our Canada Day Celebrations with new beginnings with a newly married, future King and Queen of England .

In the US they have the US Independence Day Celebrations.

In my family it is a week end of great personal sorrow because I remember it as the week end my Dad died and with being left to do a very difficult job of getting my Mom out of hospital in the months to come, because she lay down to die beside my Dad for three days before the neighbors found them. She had her bruised leg infected, was bereft of her Parkinsons Medication which resulted in the seizing up of her body and the hospital did not offer her much hope for survival.

But her fight to survive for my benefit, was strong and she lived to see another 4 years.

It was not an easy thing to lose two members of your family at the same time and I was thankful she decided to stay behind.

My Dad died of Diabetes. He went out to cut grass in the heat and could not get back to get his medications on time.

My Dad was a prominent member in our Family. He was full of life and living and because of him I have many fond memories growing up.

It was typical of him to come and say there is a sale on water melons. Lets go get one.

I'd think, the gas alone to get to that place would cancel out the sale, but he would be so full of excitement, I hated to mention this little fact.

And then at 84 and blind in one eye, he would teach my younger son how to drive a two wheel bike. I would shudder watching thinking, he is going to lose his balance and fall and break a hip.

Sure enough he fell and got up and brushed himself off laughing that he fell.

He was always like that. Never complained at what life threw at him.

He was affected by the same joie de vivre, as all Quebecers were of his time.

The French were poor but had a good healthy positive outlook on life and there was always something to enjoy and laugh at, every day.

My Dad was the street he lived on and I remember the neighbors coming out in tears to say good bye, when we finally sold our house and moved to the country.

Life and movement was moving away.

Retirement didn't stop him. Every summer he would sit in the car with my Mom and drive across the whole country to British Columbia and I would ask him why he didn't fly. His response would be that he wanted to see his beloved country.

He was a very proud Canadian and couldn't get enough of the sights and smells of this wonderful land.

So I found it fitting that my Dad should go out with a big bang and this he succeeded in doing.

He made his mark because now we celebrate his passing with pomp and fireworks.

One of his expressions, when he would love something was

.......Ummm Beautiful! Just like my wife!

He would make every head turn to see what his wife looked like and then agree with him that yes indeed, he had a beautiful wife. lol

He left me with an everlasting feeling of guilt for not being there, to help him in his hour of need but one night in my sleep, the phone rang and I answered it and heard his voice so happy and cheerful.

Just by the way he said HI!!! Up lifted my soul..

and then he was cut off, probably by heavens' gate and

I woke up and thought with a tearful smile, yup, that's my Dad.

He found a way to break the rules to send me a message that everything was ok and he was happy.

He somehow knows how much I suffer over this and found a way to send a message in just one word, to set free my heart of the guilt he left me with.

I feel much better but I still cannot forgive myself.

My Dad was what the Quebecers call - la tete carre. Square head, because he refused to leave Quebec after 700,000 people left. He said it was a big mistake to do this. His family was chased throughout Europe during the war and he was damned if a little group of people were going to do this to him again. He was established, rooted and staying no matter what.

For the rest of us who had to live with constant harassment from the French radicals,at work and on the streets where very language was legal except English, the official language, we decided it was easier to leave rather than take up arms against a few bleeding hearts who didn't realize that life was about moving forward and not living in the past.

War survivors knew what moving forward was all about.

Life is short and must be spent living and enjoying, not fighting.

Its not as if the French did not have themselves to blame for their problems at that time. Their education consisted mainly of religion as opposed to the English who had a very hard school curriculum.

My parents tried putting me into a French school but they refused me saying I was not Catholic.So they rejected foreigners.

Then when we had a student exchange program in 7th grade, we went and spent two weeks to a French school, singing songs and going to mass while the French kids were crying in our English classes because they had too much school work to do, which they had difficulty coping with.

My Dads' views were no different than one of my favorite of all people, Lawrence Hart ,QC, a lawyer who believed the same thing. He came from an old established Montreal family. His grand mother he said, owned half of Mount Royal but had to give it up because of taxes. He was afflicted with polio and he remembered riding over his grand mothers' mountain, on her horses.

So this week end brings back many memories for me and keeps repeating every year, as a time for both joy and sorrow.

My Dad found his freedom this week end and left with a beautiful display of fireworks and historical significance of new beginnings, on this continent, he loved with all his heart.

It is also now a memory of Lady Di's birthday and William and Kates' visit here, so every year we have something nice to add to the memories.

One of the things I remember about my Dad is that he liked me to give him his haircuts and if I wasn't there to do it, he would let his hair grow like a hippie till I showed up to do it.

It always horrified me when he would travel thousands of miles this way, to get a haircut. lol

The picture above is of my first born son only a week old. He was born with hair but seemed to have lost it and looked like a bald eagle. His Grandad was so proud to hold him as his namesake.

Have a wonderful day Canada. :)

History of Saint. Armand , Quebec

The area where we have our country place is a very historical area.
We have Fort Lennox on the Richelieu River where many battles took place, Fort Montgomery on the US side.
We had sleeping bombs found where by the people had to be evacuated before they went in to see how to take it out of the river. I used to swim right over it for years and never knew.
The Richelieu River used to have big ships that used to come through into Lake Champlain and Missisquoi Bay, but they stopped now.

Well now we learned a new thing.
We are very familiar with the Uncle Tom stories where by slaves were smuggled across the border into Canada.
In Canada, black people were free people, but in Saint Armand, Quebec, I was shocked to learn, slaves existed, as well as slave owners.

Some of the story is told in these two you tube videos.
Interesting.



Part 2



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opv-4jbGXDA&feature=related

Engelbert Humperdinck


Have a great Day !

Broken Road.

Life is full of roads to take. The importance lies in knowing which one is the right one for you.

Morphing Morphing Morphing

Presidents-Morphing

Christmas. The Essence of Mankind.

As the snowy, cold, festive season approaches, many sit depressed,
to see life isn't cracked up to what they thought it would be.

The ho hum life of getting up in the morning,
getting ready for school or a job they hate.
Maybe housecleaning is not a forte they enjoy
but the dishes are piled up from the night before.
What is one to do?

I can't help but go back to when people had nothing after the war.
People like my grand mother and even my parents whose youth and even life,
was lost, in running from fear, sitting in labor camps and receiving beatings in front of sharp toothed German Shepherds.

That to me, would be very depressing.
I would be angry to have some one rip my life away like this
Not these people.
They were survivors.

They saw the humor in things going wrong. They understood the world's insanity.
It looked pretty threatening and cold and yet it was wonderful
and people valued each other's warmth and
shared in what little there was to share.

What more could go wrong? They'd ask.
And sure enough something more always did and they
would find the humor in it and go on living,
working harder, to make it better.

One had to respect that.
I watched my grandparents and parents who took nothing for granted.
They blessed their food every day.
They took great pride in the shelter they owned working,
dollar down dollar a week. No job was too demeaning. They were free people.
Recycling was not something governments had to be involved in
Everyone knew to do that.
Every bolt, every screw could be reused somewhere else.

They worked and they grew their gardens and they pickled winter preserves, made their own jams, their own moon shine, their own juices, their own clothes and they had so much fun competing as to who made what the best, over a table eating cabbage soup with potatoes tomatoes, beets and meat the butcher cut from the cow or pig they brought to slaughter, animals they raised, on food they wanted to grow them on.

Simple fun in taking pride in what you do,
Becoming the best that you can be, at doing the things you know how to do.
Every one took part in helping every one, continuing to learn, and sharing in the bounty.

What happened to those people?
Where are they today?
No wonder life is boring.

There is no more craziness, no more life or living.

People are bored and heart broken and keep asking is this all there is?
They need to be entertained 24 hours a day.
Even actors can't keep up with the demand.

Today when we want something, we run to stores or whine and blame our parents and our government for things we don't have. We make them responsible for our lives, blame them for our shortcomings and failures, instead of taking pride in the life God made us a gift of.

Life is something to be treasured and celebrated.
It is a gift of breath and sight and wonder.
Every day is a new day to be experienced, in a new way and I have to say at this moment, that if you do not experience and learn something new every day, it is your own fault.

The world has so much to offer man, that there is no time for boredom or depression.
There is no time to sit idle believing solutions lie in drugs and alcohol.
No time to run away. Where are you running to anyway? What's out there that you can't find here? It's just another piece of soil.
One needs to stay awake to appreciate what there is out there and clouding ones eyes just makes it harder to see or fools gold.

We say wars are insane and the people who make them are insane but if we still keep searching for a way out, in a land of plenty..........
Is that not insanity too?

When will mankind ever be happy?
Mankind is never happy unless it suffers.
Only when a man suffers, does he see the light and the joy and meaning of life.

Every day we wake up is a blessing. Insanity is a blessing.
It gives us an outlet to laugh........and this is also a blessing.
When you laugh it's because you see the humor, the irony of life.
In humor, you also see the light to guide you.
Instead of a whiner, man takes pride in becoming a survivor.

Celebrating Christmas is a time of joy.
In spite of all the hardships Mary and Joseph encountered, they found hope in a good person who showed them where their baby could be born and they found joy in receiving a healthy baby boy in spite of all the odds against them and people, who came to share in their joy following a brightly lit star that guided them.
Christmas is a miracle story about simple people suffering and surviving
It is a story about the essence and greatness of mankind.

Life has no time for depression.
Every day is something to be celebrated because
every day is waking up to the pangs of new birth.

Blue Spanish Eyes - Elvis Presley

WHEN I SAY I AM BROKE...I AM BROKE!!

Yesterday I answered a knock on the door, only to be confronted by a well-dressed young man carrying a vacuum cleaner. 'Good morning,' said the young man. 'If I could take a couple of minutes of your time, I would like to demonstrate the very latest in high-powered vacuum cleaners.' 'Go away!' I said. 'I haven't got any money!', 'I'm broke!' and proceeded to close the door. Quick as a flash, the young man wedged his foot in the door and pushed wide open. 'Don't be too hasty!' he said. 'Not until you have at least seen my demonstration.' And with that, he emptied a bucket of horse manure on to my hallway carpet. 'If this vacuum cleaner does not remove all traces of this horse manure from your carpet, Sir, I will personally eat the remainder.' I stepped back and said, 'Well I hope you've got a f***ing good appetite, because they cut off my electricity this morning. What part of 'broke' do you not understand?'

A Little Trivia

The first civilization to appear in Northern Africa was that of the Nubians. The Nubians lived in villages along the Nile River, just south of Egypt around 3000 B.C. The fertile soils and endless fresh water from the Nile made Nubia the perfect location to build a city. The city they built was one of the most sophisticated of the time. Nubian kings, noblemen, and merchants grew wealthy through trade with Egypt and other peoples. Elaborate Nubian tombs have been found, showing that the kings of the time were as wealthy as the Egyptian kings of the same era.

Nubian Poets

African American trivia

The answers are below.

1. What group from the 80’s had a hit with the song titled “777-9311”?
2. Who was the first African American Supreme Court Justice?
3. What former Muhammad Ali bodyguard played Clubber Lang in Rocky III?
4. What gospel legend got her start singing in a group called the Caravan Singers?
5. What gospel pioneer wrote “Take my Hand Precious Lord”?
6. What is Dominique Wilkins’ brother first name that also played in the NBA?
7. How many times did Muhammad Ali win the Heavyweight Championship title?
8. Which one of these three entertainers appeared on the old Star Search variety show? a) Usher b) Michael Jackson c) Gerald Levert
9. Which one of these three comedians appeared on the old Star Search variety show? a) Martin Lawrence b) Eddie Murphy c) Bernie Mac
10. What singer had a hit with a song titled “The Big Payback”?
11. What is Marcia’s from the Brady Bunch real name?
12. What year was the legendary hip-hop recording “Rappers Delight” released?
13. What is Snoop Dogg’s real name?
14. What was legendary poet Amiri Baraka name before he changed it?
15. Who invented both the traffic light and gas mask?
16. What movie did Denzel Washington win an academy award for?
17. Who is America’s first Black female millionaire?
18. Who was the first person of African descent to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize?
19. Who was the first person of African descent to be honored on a postage stamp?
20. What show was Ralph Carter a co-star on that debuted on February 1, 1974?
21. What group had a hit in the 70’s with “One Bad Apple”?
22. What member of the famous Jackson family had a hit song titled “centipede”?
23. What singer had a hit with the song “Let’s Stay Together”?
24. Who was the first person of African descent to play in the Master’s Golf Tournament?
25. Who is the creator of the Kwanzaa holiday celebration?
26. Who is the founder of Ebony and Jet magazines?
27. He said nobody can sing like whom in the movie Five Heartbeats?
28. What was Diahann Carroll’s character first name in the movie Five Heartbeats?
29. What was the first black-owned company to be listed on the American Stock Exchange?
30. In what year was Dr. Martin L. King Jr. assassinated?
31. Who was the first African American astronaut in space?
32. Who became the first African American female lawyer in 1872?
33. What show did the Jeffersons TV show spin-off from?
34. How many years did Michael Jordan play with the Chicago Bulls?
35. Is walking to the store in your house shoes ghetto?

Answers:

1. The Time
2. Thurgood Marshall
3. Mr. T.
4. Shirley Ceasar
5. Thomas A. Dorsey
6. Gerald
7. 3
8. Usher
9. Martin Lawrence
10. James Brown
11. Maureen McCormick
12. 1979
13. Calvin Broadus
14. Leroi Jones
15. Garrett A. Morgan
16. Glory
17. Madam C.J. Walker
18. Ralph Bunche
19. Booker T. Washington
20. Good Times
21. The Osmond Brothers
22. Rebbie Jackson
23. Al Green
24. Lee Elder
25. Dr. Maulana Karenga
26. John H. Johnson
27. Eddie Canne Jr.
28. Eleanor
29. Johnson, Products Company
30. 1968
31. Guion Bluford Jr.
32. Charlotte E. Ray
33. All in the Family
34. 13
35. Yes. End of Trivia

If Our Planet had only 100 People on it....

(Archives July 31^st 1997 , newspaper clipping I found. )

If we could shrink the earth’s population to a village of 100 people,

with all the existing ratios, remaining the same,

it would look like this.:

There would be 57 Asians

21 Europeans

14 from the Western Hemisphere

8 Africans

51 would be female

49 male

70 would be non white

70 would be non Christian

Half the wealth would be in the hands of only 6 people and

All 6 would be citizens of the USA

80 would live in substandard housing

70 would be unable to read

50 would suffer malnutrition

Only one would have a college education and

no one would own a computer.

Interesting. :)

We Don't Need Another Hero

Watch the clip

Why Jobs/Security Is Important?This Could Be You

This is Hastings Street today, in Vancouver.
This is why our Election this year is important.

We need a strong economy so these people can be helped and new people don't end up here.The Green Party supports Legalization of pot as it seems so does the NDP.
It doesn't stop there.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyQnSMlPToE&feature=related




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWfRBbRrj2w&feature=related



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZDQwNKObuc&feature=PlayList&p=6C6FB72B1B547E3C&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=17

Comedy Will Live Forever

Comedy will Live Forever with
Phyllis Diller, Flip Wilson, Don Rickles,Carol Burnett, and Dom Deluise.

http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/da82b4ef3c/phyllis-diller-fat-jokes-from-classicstandupfan
Phyllis Diller
----------------------------------------------
http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/aa857ea88a/phyllis-dillers-sink-from-classicstandupfan
Phyliss Diller
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http://search.msn.com/video/search?q=Flip+Wilson&docid=527637938941&FORM=Z8RE
Flip Wilson
-----------------------------------------------
http://search.msn.com/video/search?q=Flip+Wilson&docid=527637938941&FORM=Z8RE#docid=512526319978
Flip Wilson in the booth in the back in the corner in the dark
--------------------------------------------------

http://search.msn.com/video/results.aspx?q=carol+burnett&docid=536645075639&mid=4F436D07B3B1D23501C54F436D07B3B1D23501C5&FORM=VIVR13
Carol Burnet no frills airplane
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ALHiadIsKo
Roasting Reagan.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88JqfsvDNmA
dom deluise
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=CA&hl=en&v=4_zV3DyD8rc
All Dogs Go To Heaven

A Good Jester Is a Leader of Men.

Jesters have played a brilliant role in society since the 13th Century.

They are the only ones who would be able to criticise a king through their foolery and comedy and get away with it.
A good jester was much in demand.
He wore colorful clothing, bells, feathers, did magic, acrobatics, sang, played music, performed plays. (kinda like from the ant and grasshopper story).

They were witty in displaying themselves as fools but in reality were not fools at all.

Todays comedians replace jesters.
We never think of them as jesters, just normal people who do very well criticising what they see wrong with society and themselves.

Some well known jesters are Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton,Laurel and Hardy,Mr Bean, French Mime Marcel Marceau,Russian Clown Slava Polunin.

Famous Quotes on Jesters:

Always the dullness of the fool is the whetstone of the wits.
- William Shakespeare in 'As You Like It'

A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 - 1882) in 'Self-Reliance'

You must not think me necessarily foolish because I am facetious, nor will I consider you necessarily wise because you are grave.
- Sydney Smith (1771 - 1845)

The point of living and of being an optimist, is to be foolish enough to believe the best is yet to come.
- Peter Ustinov (1921 - 2004)

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all doing direct the other way - in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.
- Charles Dickens (1812 - 1870) in 'A Tale of Two Cities'

No man is so foolish but he may sometimes give another good counsel, and no man so wise that he may not easily err if he takes no other counsel than his own. He that is taught only by himself has a fool for a master.
- Hunter S. Thompson (1939)

Foolish writers and readers are created for each other.
- Horace Walpole (1717 - 1797)

Perhaps we are wiser, less foolish and more far-seeing than we were two hundred years ago. But we are still imperfect in all these things, and since the turn of the century it has been remarked that neither wisdom nor virtue have increased as rapidly as the need for both.
- Joseph Wood Krutch (1893 - 1970)

If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid.
- Epictetus (55 AD - 135 AD



Picture 1: Jesters on The Betley Window

Picture 2: A jester by Picasso: Harlequin seated in a cafe

Picture 3: Another jester from Picasso: The head of Harlequin


Picture 4: Bohóc (Jester) by Egry

In Tarot cards, the Fool plays a special role as being a card that looks for deeper meaning, inner wisdom, philosophy dealing in the creation of God. It gets into the shadows of a persons personality constantly seeking the truth to unfold itself.

It is no wonder Jesters were often taken as confidants of Princes and Kings. Who knew Kings made decisions based on a jesters views.

Origins of Smoking

Smoking was introduced to Europe in 1550, by Francisco Fernandez, who brought tobacco to Spain.
Jean Nicot, French Ambassador to the Court of Lisbon, sent seeds to France and 26 years later
Sir Francis Drake and Ralph Lane also brought tobacco and seeds to England.

Tobacco belongs to the potato and eggplant family. It’s existence was known from around 300 BC.
There are around 60-70 different varieties of tobacco.

Migrating Mayas from Central America, introduced the art of smoking to North American Indians.
Indians used cohoba as hallucigenic snuff
Some swallowed smoke
Some made cigars
Basically it was a revered herb and used in every household as medicine against all kind of diseases, fever, plague, sores, wounds, chest and throat discomforts.

Jacques Cartier saw Iroquois inhaling smoke through elbow shaped pipes in 1545 but
they were in no way limited in shape as we can see from the above pics.

Deer Racing. Santa is not Alone.

One of my Soccer Moms has introduced me to Finland.
Finland has Northern Lights which can be seen in Saarisela .
It’s a land where Tango’s keep people warm and
Summers in Helsinki have wonderful arts and music festivals.

It is a land with its own safaris where people are taken on nature treks to see bears and
it also, being the land of Elves and Santa, has my favorite thing of all ,
Reindeer Racing.

Now I don’t know why Canada doesn’t employ it’s deer in this way. It’s not like we don’t have any.
Finland has deer farms in the Lapland run by Sami’s, whose livelihood depends on deer.

Not only do they love deer but they sell deer meat and products from deer.
PETA and Green Peace is against them but sheep farmers in Australia ask what
is the difference between sheep farming and deer farming?



As long as the animals are looked after, Venison is very good meat to eat, as is lamb and would probably give
cows a chance to grow slower so the meat we eat from them is more natural with less hormones in them. They
also have less calories, cholesterol and fat than most cuts of beef, pork, or lamb.
Unfortunately only New Zealand has
mad cow free animals. Other countries still need to be careful when eating meat.
Maybe we all have alzheimers because we eat bad meat.



When I look at these beautiful deer with their long antlers being so friendly with children and at all the fun people have with them pulling sleds either in races or just for normal
slow trekking through fields and woodlands, I think this is a wonderful idea and a good reason for raising more and more deer.



From the pictures it looks pretty safe and the deer are not abused.
I wouldn’t mind a deer ride through winter snow.
With their wide feet it would be safer than riding a horse.
What a wonderful way to get fresh air and keep an animal alive because it can fill
a need in society to be nicely entertained

Mango Seed or Picasso?

Art is all about perception and feelings and sometimes when I am looking at a piece of abstract art.

I wonder where the person gets all these ideas…… to make the lines the way they are made and the colors and

the whole composition in the end, is what the person is trying to express.

I like to look at rocks I pick up from sea shores and upon investigation, I can see stories in them,

pictures of something an artist like Picasso would paint or Chagall.

I am not the only one doing this sort of thing, trying to make something out of nothing . There was a woman who collected odd shaped chips. and there were others who have seen the Virgin Mary on walls and places where only nature could paint them. Our own church had an Icon which cried tears and we all went to see it.

This Icon is taken from church to church so it isn’t like the sun hits it a certain way or water somehow gets to it because no matter where they take it and hang it, it does the same thing.

Yesterday I ate a Mango. I never seem to be able to help myself from cutting into the outer part of the seed and taking it out to help it root and grow. I also like it because it is shaped like an ear .

Yesterday’s seed was special in that it had lots of pictures in it.Sometimes they over lap like some of these psychological shots, where they ask you what do you see , a young woman or an old one, a vase or a face?

I will try to take a picture to see if you can see what I see.

It makes food so much more appetizing and exciting, like opening up a fortune cookie,

you never know what you will find. I am sure it will continue to change the pictures as it dries because last night it had different ones.

Since I took these shots a B and an e popped up.

At the top left hand corner is a small head with a womans body. Below a flying dragon and horse followed by many faces.

The right bottom hand side has a very clear face and on the top right hand side you see the beginning of what looks like a mans chest and belly button. It may come out clearer as the seed keeps drying.Turning the seed around upside down, gives you new perceptions of other pictures.

:)

JOKE:

Can ColdWater Clean Dishes? This is for all the germ conscious folks that worry about using cold water to clean. John went to visit his 90 year old grandfather in a very secluded, rural area of Saskatchewan .. After spending a great evening chatting the night away, The next morning John's grandfather prepared breakfast of bacon, eggs and toast. However, John noticed a film like substance on his plate, and questioned his grandfather asking, 'Are these plates clean?' His grandfather replied, 'They're as clean as cold water can get em. Just you go ahead and finish your meal, Sonny!' For lunch the old man made hamburgers. Again, John was concerned about the plates as his appeared to have tiny specks around the edge that looked like dried egg and asked, 'Are you sure these plates are clean?' Without looking up the old man said, 'I told you before, Sonny, those dishes are as clean as cold water can get them. Now don't you fret, I don't want to hear another word about it!' Later that afternoon, John was on his way to a nearby town and as he was leaving, his grandfather's dog started to growl, and wouldn't let him pass. John yelled and said, 'Grandfather, your dog won't let me get to my car'. Without diverting his attention from the football game he was watching on TV, the old man shouted. 'Coldwater, go lay down now, yah hear me!'

Joss Sticks and Wild Cinnamon

Joss Sticks are a very big part of Asian life.
They come in all sizes ranging from bamboo thin, sticks, to huge thick sticks which burn for months in temples.
They are used in daily prayers as well as Ghost festivals and funerals.

The name Joss comes from a household deity god named Joss.
They are not all made the same. Some have clay and perfumes in them which are not good for the health.

I came across one family joss stick business in Singapore, which went public with this art because no one wanted to continue it in the family. They called it a dying art.

They made joss sticks out of wild cinnamon saw dust. But they did even more.

They would add water to the wild cinnamon saw dust and then kneed it like dough.
It became exactly like dough, on which they then used a rolling pin, to roll out into a nice thin piece, and then proceeded to make statues of anything you liked from Chinese warriors on horses, different deities, animals etc....
The products, when dry, go back to the original wood state.

They then shellac it and you take it home.
I have a few pieces in boxes I still have to dig out but I found this wild cinnamon wood art to be quite extraordinary.
The cinnamon saw dust had natural glue in it which allowed it to be used in this manner.

We took some home to make Christmas decorations for our tree. It was fun to do.

Cinnamon has a wide variety of uses including medicinal. The red cinnamon is very good and many Chinese drink it in tea mixed with honey or apply it as a paste onto the skin.

2 tsp of honey to one tsp of cinnamon is used as medicinal aids to cure heart disease, arthritis,colds, hair loss, bladder infections, tooth ache, upset stomach, gas ,cholesterol, weight loss, skin infections, pimples, cancer, bad breath, fatigue, immune system, infertility.
Hot water is always used to combat thirst out there, as opposed to cold and hot water also dilutes fats in your system, so they are flushed out.

Nature provides us with soo many interesting things to discover . Trained, old people, carry these old arts holding answers to many secrets doctors are still ignorant of.

It is too bad the young do not value the teachings of their old ancestors.
The info should be carried on throughout time as it can be useful one day to know.

In the meantime I am glad to have learned this wonderful art of wild cinnamon statue making and search to find more info about this wild cinnamon tree, to make saw dust out of.
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The old people in Singapore, are quite upset with their kids, in that they began using knives and forks as opposed to chop sticks.

They constantly pointed at foreigners, saying we had more respect for their traditions than their own kids did.
I just love chop sticks because it makes you eat food one piece at a time, so you enjoy it a lot more.
Plus its fun to be able to hold food in a different way.
:)

Tea anyone...have a Samovar

I have always loved the idea of making tea in Samovars.
My cousin, once upon a time ago, brought me one antique, having no idea of how much I would love it.

I never used it as I wouldn’t even know how, but I polished it and cleaned it and then would sit for hours admiring its’ handicraft.

In my imagination I could see this Samovar in it new shiny state being used where?
Maybe in a nice cultured home where tea was prepared, in the English afternoon fashion, or maybe it lived in a poor old farmhouse, keeping old hands warm or maybe it lived in a teahouse (called a traktir), and its tea was sold like we sell coffee today in the shops.Or maybe it had a fair amount of travelling to do since coming from the 18th Century, it went through civil wars, the Russian revolution and two world wars.

Maybe it had several owners who died many times over and now it came to me, here, all the way to Canada. If only it could talk….. what stories it would tell.

The very first Samovar was created in Tula, Russia, in the 1800’s by a man named Lysitsyn
( by the way, the root word, lysa, means fox loll).
Lysitsyn was a gun smith. He designed this samovar for him self, to run on charcoal.
The tea from it was sooo delicious, that the idea caught on and spread like wild fire and before you know it, Tula became famous for its’ Samovars.
Today’s Samovar is used as a decoration piece or it can be bought in an electric model. Like the Faberge Egg, it comes in many styles and colors. They are still wonderful topics of discussion, as you sit serving your guests, the best cup of tea in the world.

Have some fun....

Why are husbands like lawn mowers? They are difficult to get started, emit foul smells, and don't work half the time.- Author Unknown

What do you get if you divide the circumference of a pumpkin by its diameter?

Pumpkin pi.

My wife's a water sign. I'm an earth sign.

Together we make mud. - Rodney Dangerfield

A Riddle: There was a green house.

Inside the green house there was a white house

Inside the white house there was a red house.

Inside the red house there were lots of babies.

Answer: A Watermelon.

Gardening .....

This interested me and so I thought I’d share. It has to do with Garden ph testing. How do you know the difference between a base and an acid?

You can test the ph level with:

Beets,which will change color from acid red to purple in a base solution

Blackberries,will change from red (in acidic soil) to blue in a base environment

Blueberries,are blue at a ph level of 2.8 – 3.2

Cherries,are red in acid and turn purple in a base solution

Yellow curry powder at a ph 7.4 changes to red at a ph of 8.6

Delphinium petals are bluish red in acid and violet blue in a base.

Geraniums are orange red in acid, change to blue in a base.

Grapes are red in acid, changes to violet blue in a base