Christmas Deli

This was my first attempt at making home made sushi.

I finally didn't forget the sea weed.lol

The sushi had sticky rice (which really is sticky) which is really needed

to hold the sea weed wrapped. Inside I had thinly sliced cucumber , avocado,

crab .celery, and of course fresh salmon.

After getting my orders as to who wanted what inside them, I made 5 sheets until I ran out of rice and avocado. I should have bought more than one avocado. The thing, is they were all green and I needed a ripe one.

My husband said don't make too much to try it out.

I have to say, it was a hit in my house.

Now my son is telling me to teach him how to make it.

Next time, my son the chef, will become a sushi pro.

He still did not make the ginger bread house and it is getting dangerously close to Christmas already.

Sushi goes great with hockey and midnight snacks :)

------------------------

A wise old gentleman retired and purchased a modest home near a junior high school. He spent the first few weeks of his retirement in peace and contentment. Then a new school year began.

The very next afternoon three young boys, full of youthful, after-school enthusiasm, came down his street, beating merrily on every trash can they encountered. The crashing percussion continued day after day, until finally the wise old man decided it was time to take some action.

The next afternoon, he walked out to meet the young percussionists as they banged their way down the street. Stopping them, he said, "You kids are a lot of fun. I like to see you express your exuberance like that. In fact, I used to do the same thing when I was your age. Will you do me a favor? I'll give you each a dollar if you'll promise to come around every day and do your thing."

The kids were elated and continued to do a bang-up job on the trash cans. After a few days, the old-timer greeted the kids again, but this time he had a sad smile on his face. "This recession's really putting a big dent in my income," he told them. "From now on,

I'll only be able to pay you 50 cents to beat on the cans." The noisemakers were obviously displeased, but they did accept his offer and continued their afternoon ruckus. A few days later, the wily retiree approached them again as they drummed their way down the street.

"Look," he said, "I haven't received my Social Security check yet, so I'm not going to be able to give you more than 25 cents. Will that be okay?" "A lousy quarter?" the drum leader exclaimed. "If you think we're going to waste our time, beating these cans around for a quarter, you're nuts! No way, mister. We quit!" And the old man enjoyed peace.

MSNBC Picture Stories - Bruin buddy

Bruin pics Amazing.

Gummi Bear song

Kitchen Gardening

Small space gardening is increasing in popularity.

Plants clean the air.

Nothing nicer than talking to your seedling and watching it grow.

These plants will have no toxins in them/ no pesticides or insecticides.

They will be grown and controlled by you and the results are quite fruitful.

It will give your system a break from store bought foods.

The most exciting idea is when you grow them upside down. J

Small Space Gardening

Raised-bed gardening

Balcony Gardening

Grow tomatoes in small space

Grow Tomatoes upside down

Small space gardening articles

Let the rain water your plants

Nice house decor

These strawberries look delicious

Watch a short movie

This upside down garden has different vegetables, although I feel the pots are a bit too small for the roots.

But then what do I know lol

cucumbers

carrots

zucchini

lettuce

eggplant

long beans

pea pods

and strawberries.





Good Luck and have fun gardening J

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.

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

Rejoicing A Day In Life.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TY_-sgoqA8&feature=related
Jim Reeves - The Farmer and the Lord.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaEGlYFhnRc&feature=related
Old Tige.


Good Morning!!

and

A Happy Thursday to Every one!!

We are almost there. Many people will have a welcome day off tomorrow.
It is time to color eggs and try out your recipes for Easter Bread.

Woke up to a dreary, damp morning.
Put on the oxtail soup for my hubby tonight, as it needs the whole day
to brew the good bouillon before adding celery, potatoes, carrots and tomatoes.
Great Crock pot work.

Only the birth of a little eaglet cheered the day up on the news and I knew, like I always know,
there is a good reason for waking up in the morning lol

My cherry tree is full of blossoms as are the hyacinths.
Now I am waiting for the apple blossoms and they will surely bloom within the next week.
This is the nicest time of spring.
Most people have pink flowered trees around here and soon the streets will all be
covered in pink when the flower petals fall.
How pretty it is when that happens.

This Morning we woke up to a tragic story about this little girl who is dying and having trouble breathing.
The parents were upset people were attacking them for signing papers to donate her heart to save another baby’s life.

I can understand their situation, having gone through this myself many times, with my grand mother and Mother.

When people are ill and require care, there is no support for them.
Hospitals count their money instead of valuing a person’s life.
They pressure you to sign paperwork to end it, rather than prolong the inevitable.

But then miracles do happen when you fight back and force them to do their job.
To add ten years to a person’s life is ok by me and I learned not to listen to these doctors a long time ago.
Sometimes how ever, it is best to listen to them , if the brain is dead.
But even so, we only use a portion of our brain and they did find people living, doing remarkable things, like playing the violin, doing chemistry and biology with no brain at all.
Just what is found around the skull perimeter.So it all depends. We may think a person is dead when all he needs is another way to get to a part that is still alive and develop it.
But given we have only 100 years to live on an average, a drop in the bucket, there comes a question of it being worth the trouble?

I was fortunate enough to be able to sit and care for my family members, doing the work the hospital refused to do because of lack of personnel, funds and time.

For months my day consisted of sitting with the sick person from 7:30 to 8:30 at night feeding them, taking them to the toilet, walking them
Making sure they took the pills and behaved. Sick people don’t behave because of the suffering they go through.

Plus the hospital food was lacking in things like fresh salads. I made sure my girls ate cous cous salad full of parsley, garlic, lemon juice, tomatoes and onions,
which gave them lots of natural energy.
Sometimes the hospital would allow me to take the person out to the buffet across the street,
where I’d load them up with tons of things they liked to eat, like cabbage soup. Extremely healthy and good for you.

I recently found out that coconuts have lots of electrolytes in the juice inside them and people should drink more coconuts than Power Aid.
So now I will buy more of them. The drink is enjoyable and actually I miss it because we used to always go for a motor bike ride by the sea, every evening, to enjoy one. It was a good life back then, things we don’t do much these days.
The coconuts were green and here in BC, they are brown.

Well, have an enjoyable day.
Will get back later when I have more things to say and share.
xoxoxoxooxoxoxoxoxoxox

When Roses Bloom

When roses bloom

I check for imperfections.

A perfect rose is what I seek

An unblemished symbol

Of pure and perfect love

But Love is very fickle.

It tarnishes with ease

Love burns britches at both ends.

It kills and drives a man to drink.

Love’s unkind and so imperfect

Why do we yearn it so?

The heart and mind and soul in love

Are enslaved you know

The only thing that’s splendid about the rose and true

Are the thorns which draw red blood and remind you so you know

The sacrifice entailed to love another so.

The perfect rose stands tall among the flowers

It lives for all to see, that even with imperfections

It is still a rose, you see.

A splendid rose, wisest of flowers, elegant and free,

Has just a touch of scent, desired by the world and me.

When roses bloom

I look for imperfections

I perfect rose is what I want.

I put one in amongst the dozen, for her to find.

A perfect rose, one in a dozen,

Is all that she will need, to know

A declaration of pure love, by one prepared to bleed.

A bright red rose, unblemished and untouched

To ignite a perfect love,

When roses bloom…… beware

They’ll tear away your heart.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2fyFumisiU&feature=related

Jim Reeves - The Blizzard.

Have a Great Tuesday

Use... this... in... life
Talk---------------Softly
Walk----------------Humbly
Eat-------------------Sensibly
Breathe--------------------Deeply
Sleep----------------------Sufficiently
Dress---------------------------Smartly
Act-------------------------------Fearlessly
Work---------------------------------Patiently
Think-----------------------------------Truthfully
Believe------------------------------------Correctly
Behave-----------------------------------------Decently
Learn---------------------------------------------Practically
Plan-----------------------------------------------------Orderly
Earn----------------------------------------------------------Honestly
Save------------------------------------------------------------Regularly
Spend----------------------------------------------------------Intelligently
Love------------------------------------------------------------Passionately
ENJOY --- ---------------------------------------Completely
Have a Nice Day !!!

If my Nose was running Money

Funny song If My Nose was Running Money



."


Fishing Jokes
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Four married guys go fishing. After an hour, the following conversation took place. First guy: " You have no idea what I had to do to be able to come out fishing this weekend. I had to promise my wife that I will paint every room in the house next weekend." Second guy: " that's nothing, I had to promise my wife that I will build her a new deck for the pool." Third guy: " Man, you both have it easy! I had to promise my wife that I will remodel the kitchen for her." They continue to fish when they realized that the fourth guy has not said a word. So they asked him. You haven't said anything about what you had to do to be able to come fishing this weekend. " What's the deal?" Fourth guy: " I just set my alarm for 5:30 am. When it went off, I shut off my alarm, gave the wife a nudge and said, " Fishing or Sex" and she said, " Wear a Sweater."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Three blondes are sitting by the side of a river holding fishing poles with the lines in the water. A Game Warden comes up behind them, taps them on the shoulder and says, Excuse me, ladies, I'd like to see your fishing licenses.

We don't have any, replied the first blonde.

Well, if you're going to fish, you need fishing licenses. said the Game Warden.

But officer, replied the second blonde, we aren't fishing. We all have magnets at the end of our lines and we're collecting debris off the bottom of the river.

The Game Warden lifted up all the lines and, sure enough, there were horseshoe magnets tied on the end of each line. Well, I know of no law against it, said the Game Warden, take all the debris you want. And with that, the Game Warden left.

As soon as the Game Warden was out of sight, the three blondes started laughing hysterically. What a dumb Fish Cop, the second blonde said to the other two, doesn't he know that there are steelhead trout in this river?!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------


A man calls home to his wife and says, "Honey I have been asked to go fishing at a big lake up in Canada with my boss and several of his friends. We'll be gone for a week." "This is a good opportunity for me to get that promotion I've been wanting so would you please pack me enough clothes for a week and set out my rod and tackle box. We're leaving from the office and I will swing by the house topick my things up. Oh Please pack my new blue silk pajamas." The wife thinks this sounds a little fishy but being a good wife she does exactly what her husband asked. The following weekend he comes home a little tired but otherwise looking good. The wife welcomes him home and asks if he caught many fish? He says, "Yes! Lot's of Walleye, some Bluegill, and a few Pike. But why didn't you pack my new blue silk pajamas! like I asked you to do?" The wife replies; "I did, they were in your tackle box."

I Must Go Down to the Sea

I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by,
And the wheel's kick and the wind's song and the white sail's shaking,
And a grey mist on the sea's face and a grey dawn breaking.

I must go down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide
Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;
And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,
And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.

I must go down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life,
To the gull's way and the whale's way where the wind's like a whetted knife;
And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover,
And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick's over.



- John Masefield

Guess we need to email Gordon Campbell and ask him how he is safe guarding our land and majestic heritage here in BC.

This documentary is important to watch for all Canadians as well as the world.

Raif Mair

http://saveourrivers.tv/powerplay_player5.html

Petula Clark Kiss me good bye.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7xBdTYfdDI

Good Morning !!!!

It certainly looks like Monday blues outside. Snow again for many people. That sucks lol

But Monday's child is fair of face so we will get through it like we always do.

Today I have a lox recipe to share made from salmon which, unlike sturgeon, is readily available in most grocery stores. Its so easy and great with phili, pepper and bagels.

I also included a chart showing which fish have the least amount of mercury.

I love tuna but never buy it now because of the mercury levels they say are in it.

Good news for this fish if they fish less for it now.

One Beluga in the St Lawrence has enough toxins in it, to kill 50 men.

People are not fish. We can't tolerate as much as a Beluga.

Cooking is an art and I am not that great of a cook. You need to love cooking to be great at it.

I am more like Nigel and Sally.Nigel bragged to Sally:

The two things I cook best are meatloaf and apple pie. he said.

Which is this? Sally answered. lol

But lox is easy for any one to make.

Selecting your Fish

Cured Salmon (Lox) and Sauce

Ingredients:
2 filets, weighing about 2 pounds 3 Tbsp coarse sea salt or kosher salt
For the Sauce:
1 cup whipping cream A good bunch (1/2-cup) of herbs — dill, chervil, or chives, or a mixture of these — finely chopped Salt and pepper

Instructions:

Carefully remove any small bones from the filets (tweezers will help). Sprinkle the filets with the salt, on the skin side as well as inside (the salt must be coarse, not fine, so that it draws out the moisture; fine salt is absorbed and results in too salty fish), and put them together to reform the fish. Cover with plastic wrap and leave in the refrigerator for 12 hours, turning the salmon over when juices start to collect.
Before serving, scrape off the salt and wipe with a paper towel, then rinse in cold water. Taste a piece. If it is too salty, the saltiness can be removed by soaking in fresh water for as long as necessary. Cut thin slices at an angle.

To make the sauce, whip the cream and add the herbs and salt and pepper.

A different way to catch fish.
Maybe we should try?

http://www.bofunk.com/video/620/jump_fishing.html

Today in History:

1917 US enters WW1

1830 Mormon Church founded in the US

1896 First modern olympic agmes in Athens, Greece

1909 North Pole reached by US Robert Peary

1965 Worlds first commercial communication satellite launched

Birthdays:

Jesus -0, 1483 Jean Babtiste Rousseau, 1866 Butch Cassidy, 1874 Harry Houdini, 1928 James Watson scientist who discovered DNA structure.

Petula Clark I will follow him

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6X2u3sH3jc&feature=related

Petula Clark. LOVE ,THIS IS MY SONG

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8XmLuTmKIM&feature=related

Have a good one every one!!!

Good Morning and A Delightful Sunday to every one.!!!


Spring is in the air. Sunshine is welcoming.
Sorta ......a very cheerful day is in progress.

We woke up late after a long soccer day yesterday.
Good to come home winners with a 3-0 shut out .
Dogs behaved and came running to greet us.
Caviar was good on rye lol
and bed was even more welcome. :)

On the menu? Chorizo Sausages.

Make them yourself with the following ingredients.

Let stay overnight in the fridge and then form sausage or hamburger patties and

either grill or freeze for later.

Also you can stuff casings from a butcher.

Ground pork: 1 lb.• Coarse salt: 1/2 tablespoon• Garlic, crushed or finely chopped:

1.5 cloves• Ground nutmeg: 0.4 teaspoon• Brown sugar: 0.8 tablespoon• Smoked paprika :

0.8 tablespoon• Aleppo chile pepper or cayenne: 0.8 tablespoon

History had these events today:

1933 FDR signed a US Executive order 6102 , forcing people to sell their gold.
The government required holders of significant quantities of gold to sell their gold at the prevailing price of $20.67 per ounce. Shortly after this forced sale, the price of gold from the treasury for international transactions was raised to $35 an ounce.


1936 U.S.A. Tornadoes strike Tupelo, Mississippi and Gainesville, Georgia . A total of 466 people were killed over four days of nearly continuous twisters. Another 3,500 people were injured.


1951 U.S.A. Rosenberg's Trials. At the end of the trial against the Rosenberg's for giving the
secrets to the Atomic Bomb to the Soviet Union. Julius and Ethyl got the death penalty.

1955 UK Sir Winston Churchill Retires at 80

1969 U.S.A. Anti Vietnam Demonstrations in NY. San Francisco, L.A. Washington DC etc...250,000 protestors were involved.

1970 Guatemala - West Germany's Count Karl von Spreti the ambassador to Guatemala is kidnapped and shot dead.

1976 U.S.A. Howard Hughes, One of the world's richest, eccentric American billionaire dies at 70 after spending the last 20 years living as a recluse in hotel penthouses around the world.


1976 UK James Callaghan, Britain's new Prime Minister, arrives in Downing Street for his first day in office


1986 Germany - A Bomb Exploded In a Berlin Disco in La Belle Disco ,killing two and injuring at least 120. Earlier , a bomb wrecked a German-Arab club in the city and injured seven Arabs.
The West German foreign minister, Hans-Dietrich Genscher, set up to investigate the possible involvement of a foreign country in the attack. Later, the US government retaliated by bombing Libya killing at least 60 people .

1988 Iran - Hijack Kuwait Airways Jumbo Jet . 24 women passengers and one man with a heart condition were released after landing in Iran.

1992 U.S.A. Abortion rights activists march and demonstration in Washington, D.C. to safe guard the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that made abortion legal.

1994 U.S.A. Rock icon Kurt Cobain lead singer, guitarist, and songwriter for the rock band Nirvana commits suicide with a self-inflicted shotgun wound to the head.

1999 Libya surrendered two suspects in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Scotland to the U.N.

2001 A Dutch lorry driver sentenced to 14 years in prison for his part in the deaths of 58 Chinese illegal immigrants found during a routine search at Dover Ferry Port.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------


A Tennessee couple had 9 children. They went to the doctor to see about getting the husband 'fixed.' The doctor gladly started the required procedure and asked them what finally made them make the decision. Why, after 9 children, would they choose to do this?

The husband replied that they had read in a recent article that 1 out of every 10 children being born in the United States was Mexican, and they didn't want to take a chance on having a Mexican Baby because neither of them could speak Spanish.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jean Ferrat Que C'est Beau la Vie

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQ24Pc0Jyv8&feature=related

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A guide was showing Niagara-Falls to a man from Texas and said; I’ll bet you don’t have anything like this in Texas.The Texan said; nope, but in Texas we have plumbers who can fix it.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A man had two goldfish, he named one of them "One"and the other "Two"he did this because..if one died, he'd still have two

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Three sisters, ages 92, 94, and 96, live together. One night the 96-year-0ld draws a bath. She puts one foot in and pauses. "Was I getting in the tub or out?" she yells. The 94-year-old hollers back, "I don't know, I'll come up to see." She starts up the stairs and stops. She shouts, "Was I going up or going down?"The 92-year-old is sitting at the kitchen table having tea, listening to her sisters. She shakes her head and says, "I sure hope I never get that forgetful", and knocks on wood for good measure. Then she yells, "I'll come up and help both of you as soon as I see who's at the door."

Parrot Jokes.

This woman approaches a man of the cloth and tells him, "Father, I have these two talking female parrots, but unfortunately they only know one sentence: 'Hi, we're prostitutes. Do you want to have some fun?' " "That's terrible!" exclaimed the holy man, "but I have the answer to your problem. You can put them with my two male talking parrots. I myself taught them to read the bible and say the rosary." The woman collects her parrots and puts them in the holy mans parrot cage. "Hi, we're prostitutes. Do you want to have some fun?" the parrots say. One male parrot looks over at the other and exclaims, "Put the beads away. Our prayers have been answered!"

A woman is strolling down the road to work and she espies a parrot in a pet store. The parrot says to her, "Hey you lady, you are really ugly." The lady is furious! And she rushes past the pet store to go to work. After finishing her shift she saw the same parrot in the shop window and the parrot repeated what it had said earlier, "Hey lady, you are really ugly." She is now even more furious. The following morning she received the same verbal abuse from the parrot. "Hey lady, you are really ugly." This time she was standing no nonsense and stormed into the store and said that she would sue the store and slaughter the bird. The store manager said, "That's not good." and promised he wouldn't say it again. When the lady walked past the pet store after work the parrot said to her, "Hey lady." She paused and said, "Yes?" and the parrot said, "You know."

Just before Christmas, a man enters a pet store looking for a special present for his wife. The pet store owner tells him he has just what he's looking for; a beautiful parrot named Chet that can sing Christmas carols. He ushers the husband over to a colourful but very quiet bird. The man agrees with the pet store owner that Chet is certainly pretty, but he doesn't seem to be up much for singing a tune. The owner of the pet store tells him to watch as he reaches into his pocket and pulls out a lighter. The owner clicks the lighter and holds it under Chet's left foot. The bird Chet immediately responds by singing at the top of its voice; "Silent Night, Holy Night." The husband is very impressed with Chet's singing qualities and watches as the manager moves the lighter underneath Chet's right foot. Chet now breaks into tune again singing "Jingle Bells." The husband now even more excited says Chet is the ideal gift for his wife and buys him. The husband speeds home as fast as his feet will take him to give his wife this wonderful gift. He presents Chet and starts to explain the parrot's special talent. Demonstrating, what he had seen the pet store owner do he holds a lighter under Chet's left foot and the bird sings "Silent Night." Then moving the lighter under the right foot Chet starts singing a chorus of "Jingle Bells." The wife is impressed, and with a naughty grin asks her husband what happens if he holds the lighter between Chet's both legs. Curious the husband moves the lighter between the bird's legs, and the parrot begins to sing--- Chet's Nuts Roasting on an Open Fire!

A young man's mother was now living in Miami Beach and he didn't get to see her as often as he would like. His father was no longer around and he felt saddened for his mother being lonely. So for his mother’s birthday, he purchased a very rare parrot, trained to speak seven languages. He made arrangements for a courier service to deliver the bird to his dear mother. After a few days he called. "Hey Mom, what do you think of the bird?" "The bird was good, but a little tough. I should have cooked it longer." "You ate the bird? Didn’t you know it was of rare breed and was very expensive? It had a talent where it could speak seven languages!" "Oh, excuse me replied the mom - if the parrot was so smart, why didn't it say something when I put it in the oven?"

Abram Petrovich Hannibal and Alexander Pushkin

Savva Ragurzinsky and Peter Andreeyevich Tolstoy got orders from Czar, Peter the Great, to bring a 7 year old Ethiopian Prince,
(who was taken captive and brought to Istanbul) to Russia.
Peter baptized him and gave him his name, Peter, and Gen Hannibal’s last name.

Abram Petrovich Hannibal
was then sent to France to be educated in 7 languages, history, arts, science, math, geometry, war fare, etc.

In France he met Diderot.

Voltaire, called Hannibal “a dark star of enlightenment”.
Hannibal became Captain and then came back to Russia.

When Peter died Hannibal was sent to Siberia but when Peter’s Daughter Elizabeth became Queen,
she brought him back.

He became a General and she gave him land and serfs.

Hannibal married a Greek woman Evdokia Dioper.
It was a forced marriage and she began to cheat on him so he put her in jail for
11 years and later divorced her.

He then got himself a Scandinavian girl Christina Regina Sioberg 1705 – 1781
He had 10 children with her.

One of these children was Osip.
Osip had a daughter Nadezhda who married Serge Pushkin and became the Mother of Alexander Pushkin.

Pushkin was not a likeable child and his Mom sent him to his Grand Mothers a lot but he was really raised by his Nanny, Arina Rodionovna .
She loved him, read to him, pampered him.
It is for her he wrote a lovely poem.

According to the family tree , it seems there was some family intermarriage.

Abram Hannibal had a son Osip, who married a Maria Pushkin
They had a daughter Nadezsda.

Nadezsda married Sergei Pushkin, son of Lev Pushkin and Olga Pushkin

Nadezshda and Sergei had Alexander Pushkin.

Pushkin was said to have had a hot temper , gambled and loved women.
They blamed it on his black side .
Pushkin died in a duel trying to protect his wife’s honor.

Pushkins blood can be found in British Natalia Grosvenor, Duchess of Westminster
And George Mountbatten, 4th Marquess of Milford Haven.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yb6VA4Y8H_o&feature=related
Hawaiian African mix

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51566o8omw0&feature=related
Plijik Babylonian music
.

How Many Poles did it take.........

Q: How many Poles did it take to determine that the Earth is NOT the center of the Universe?
A: Just one.
Nikolas Kopernik (AKA Copernicus) was Polish. Unfortunately he could not prove his theory -- which "heretically" contradicted the officially held "scientific" belief sanctioned by the "infallible" Catholic Church that the Earth was the center of the Universe -- a heresy punishable by death in Medieval Europe.
That proof wasn't secured until a hundred years later by Galileo, who had access to the newly invented telescope.
Poland was also a hundred years ahead of England with its own version of the Magna Carta (which granted ordinary citizens major legal rights of protection from the state) and a few hundred years ahead of America in being the first nation since ancient Greece to experiment with Democracy -- although a disastrously stilted form, limited to the nobility. (Sort of like the U.S. Senate, come to think of it.)

Good Morning Monday (Marlena Dietrich)

Good Morning and a Happy Monday to every one!

I was reading some comments about the old songs I put on, and it suddenly occured to me that the young people don't understand why these songs are so meaningful and why they speak so clearly to many of us over 23 folks lol

My Grand mother had these songs and I grew up with them on old LP's. but it is only later when I grew up and began trying to find out why all these old people had idiosyncracies (lol) that I started to pay attention.
I wanted to understand why they were the way they were.

Tough, strong, rarely cried, disciplined, rarely complained about pain. They would smile when you'd complain about the hard day you had and come up with something like ya... hard to push buttons.lol

They were able to close their eyes to pain and suffering.

Love meant something different to them.
They never talked about it but they felt it deeply.

In fact my grand mother taught me a few words of wisdom.
When they keep telling you they love you, it means they don't.
Actions speak louder than words.

They understood what friendship meant.
They were frugal and charitable and did a lot without you having to ask for it,
always one step ahead.
They could taste the soil and know if it was good.
They could find water with a stick and tell you where to dig.
They had golden hands and could turn straw into gold.

Every morning they woke up, was a glorious morning!
They knew how to laugh at misfortune.

They believed in saving for a rainy day, in food, clothing, medicines and they always tinkered with things, recycled.
Our people today have no respect for material things and sit feeling sorry for themselves all the time.

You listen to kids and parents talk about bullying and you wonder, how did strong people of yesterday survive? He's bullying you? Punch him in the nose. Johnny Cash sang the song about the boy named Sue.
It's a survival song.
No old person I knew wanted to die and here, we have everything, and everyone's spirits are down.

"Suicide " is heard thrown around in schools and in households and in businesses.

Seems people are not living their lives right.
They forget there are no short cuts in life. It is, what it is.

People need to be needed and appreciated and loved.
They need dirt in their lives. They need chickens and horses and a garden and flowers.
They need chores.

Only families can provide that because they divide chores and everyone feels like they are doing something good by pitching in.

This is why I feel sorry young people today, throw their old away into nursing homes, when they could have such great family evenings, finding out about the incredible lives they led and all this is going to die with them.
They have incredible stories. All you need is a campfire and a peace pipe and it could be like in the old Indian days ,except much better, with new technology.lol

My Grandfather walked amongst the bombs as they fell all around him, while every one else hid in bomb shelters.
He said: " If its my time, it's my time."
It wasn't. He was safe and God protected him.

Another fellow was the first one in the bomb shelters fearing to die. As soon as the sirens blew., he was right there, hiding under a bed, at the very bottom.

One time, before people had a chance to get there, a bomb blew through the shelter he was in and went down to the very bottom and landed right in front of his eyes and didn't explode.

They found him under the bed, staring at this bomb, insane.

That was a message sent to him, that if death wants you, it knows where to find you.

Another story was about the Germans who had the best bomb shelters and sent the other people to shabbier ones. Well seems the bombs found their bomb shelters and they provided them no safety, while the shabbier ones were not touched.

So they began to run to hide in those instead. How did the bombs know where to find the right shelters to bomb? It had to be some divine intervention. You see God speaking during these times and you don't question his existence.

Marlena Dietrich led the most fascinating life and these people should not die without every one knowing their stories because we become better people as a result.Ernest Hemingway thought that "if she had nothing more than her voice, she could break your heart with it."

Voltaire was a great man. He knew Pushkin.
My latest research has been about Pushkin. I loved his stories as well but it is when I went into his great grandfathers story...... that I found a most fascinating one. It led me deeper into Islam and slavery.
something that effects us even today.

People don't forget history. It affects and follows you in everything you do.
Schools teach but they don't teach what people need to know.
Once you put all the missing pieces together, things make a lot of sense.

How many people do we elect to lead us who don't know history enough to understand the consequences of their actions?
How many elections do we give ballots to, without knowing the people we are voting for, except what the lobby groups tell us?

You see, old people can fill in the missing blanks because they lived through it all.
They may not have education but they do have life experiences which amount to the same thing.

Where have all the flowers gone?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_ptqXqjsZw

Falling in love again
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtLpt0N2esE&feature=related

Marlena
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUnacYzT2-Q&feature=related

La Vie En Rose Marlene
http://a-ladyslife.blogspot.com/2009/03/

Thank you God, for North America.
And God Bless the World.

100 YEAR PLUS BIRTHDAY!!!

TO ALL THOSE WHO HAVE surpassed the
THE BLESSED 100 year mark

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!

AND KEEP GOING STRONG!!!

WITH ALL OUR GOOD WISHES

A LADY'S LIFE



HEART WILL GO ON CELINE DION
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipMNbf4hb28&feature=related

BECAUSE YOU LOVED ME. CELINE DION
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CkKuA86Mis&feature=related



I SURRENDER CELINE DION
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cl9axmrFnEc&feature=related

HOW DO I LIVE LEE ANN RIMES
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFnD3uwKHag&feature=related

Montreal

Montreal

Sarah Mclachlan

I will remember you

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSz16ngdsG0&feature=related

I loved Montreal as a kid.
Montreal was originally a Mohawk town called Hochelaga, when Jaques Cartier came in 1535
In 1642 a fur trading town Ville Marie was founded by Sieur de Maisoneuve.
When the English took over in 1762 it all became Montreal.
Montreal allowed alcohol, burlesque etc....in the 1930's
In 1960 it was busy building Expo 67 Worlds Fair and a subway system which later followed with the Olympics in 1976 and a new stadium.

Montreal lost many jobs when the St Lawrence opened up and business went further inland.
Then the Separatist movement began when De Gualle came and yelled out : Vive le Quebec Libre!
This resulted in the Pierre LaPorte Kidnappings and Trudeaus War Measures Act.
No one feared it because it only concerned political radicals.
The licence plates changed from la Belle Province to Je me Souviens.
The English Language was outlawed.

You could speak any other language except English lol
If you were an English customer they refused to serve you in English.

And recently they found out that there were not that many French here for the English to take over in 1762 but this small group of separatists made enough trouble to make 700,000 people leave to keep peace.

Mayor Drapeau who had a vision for his Montreal, told the Separatists if they separate he will separate Montreal from them and then the Indians followed suit so Quebec saw, they would be left with very little if they separated including having to develop a new currency.

It was an exciting, dynamic place to live.
We had a lot of discussions and learned many social things in those days,
most of Canada has yet to learn
--------------------------------------------------
All in all it was a fun place to live.
We had the most snow. Tons of it.
It was nothing like Toronto where the cold is just unbearable.

Montreal was humid most of the time.
We’d get so excited when Jack Frost would visit our windows.
He was such a good painter and as far as I know, he never went to school.
So there must have been some divine intervention. lol

The snowflakes that followed would be huge, fluffy and drifted like feathers from the heavens,
landing ever so softly on the ground.
We tried as hard as we could to find some we could see the patterns in.
Sometimes we even took our magnifying glasses outside to have a clearer view.

We’d dig tunnels to climb in and imagined they were enchanted castles.
We’d climb our trees and sit there breathing the brisk air, watching the holy spirit stream out of our mouths (that’s what we’d pretend it was)
and dream we were on top of mountain peaks.
If we’d get a little drizzle, it would turn into a real winter wonderland, blue and sparkly and holy.
Truly a sight to behold.
The peace and solitude and quiet was tremendous outside.

Every year we were blessed by winters such as these and every year we’d looked forward to more of them.
The trees bent their bows in a majestic eloquent display, saluting old man winter.

Who said they needed green leaves when winter gave them white ones?
Snow saved them from the frost.

We had electric heating so I would shut mine off in my room and open the sliding window just a smidgen,
snuggle into my warm blankees and wake up the next morning with rosy cheeks and a red nose.
The first thing I’d do is run to the window to see how much snow collected and to feast my eyes.
You always slept sooooooo well this way and you never wanted to die.

I would ask my Mom when she tucked me in, why do we have night?
I want it to be day and day and day all the time
I haven’t changed much. I should live in Alaska. My dream would come true.lol

We’d open the front door and it would always be half covered in snow, so we’d have fun shoveling it all out, just to turn around and have to shovel to get back to the front door again.lol
Like they say, when it rains it pours, so it was with the snow.

No one complained. Every one was happy, the young, the old, the sick the lame.
My street was cosmopolitan.
We had a little girl with polio across the street and her dad would take her out to sit on the wheel chair.
We were good friends.
Every one spoke a different language and we loved each other, helped each other. It was great.
Then we’d build our snow men. They grew to be up to 7 feet tall. We liked doing it cause the snow man
collected all the snow we’d need to otherwise shovel.

We enjoyed playing, throwing snow balls, making angels, skating. We had a small hill (Agins Hill, never knew the name really. Just kids would say: Lets go to Agins hill lol) nearby so we tobogganed
on it. My Dad got me skis and he said this hill is good to learn on, so I’d go and ski on it.
It took a second to go down and an hour to climb back up. lol
One day I fell and continued rolling down hill but the boot wouldn’t come out of the ski, which was stuck three feet deep into the snow.
I wrenched my knee real good and had to limp home but I was darned if I was going to show any pain,
cause if I did that, my parents would not let me go to the hill anymore. I had a hard enough time getting them to let me wear pants.lol

When I went to college and we had this kind of weather, I would walk cross country about 20 kms. ( I should check this out) there and back. We had no classes but it was fun to get there, sit in the caf drinking hot coffee. Warming up,do some studying.
You’d imagine you lived up in the Alps.You had to imagine, cause it was never going to happen. But dreams come true.
You never know what life has in store for you.
Resting, you’d people watch, to see what other foolish persons decided to go to school that day loll

Most of the day was spent walking and I’d get home with blisters but feeling thoroughly fulfilled.
I had an adventure.

MONET - RED BOATS ARGENTEUIL

Monet- Red Boats Argenteuil - Burstein collection

Love is a Many Splendored Thing Matt Monroe

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_89U-N-5w0g


The Sun is out and the Birds are singing and Spring is in the air.
All is good .

La Playa

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6dRbbXFhEg&feature=related

Stare Ahead

Grandson Grand pa and Son
Sat on a bench

One looked up, One looked down
One looked straight ahead.

One idealistic, One forlorn and
One looked straight ahead.

One head was empty
One head was full
One just looked straight ahead.

One head will empty
One head will Fill
And One…..
will just stare ahead.

If you lose idealism you can’t look up
If you lose knowledge and answers,
you won’t look down

All you will do……. is stare ahead.
Sit on the bench and stare ahead.

BOCHSA LE GAROP

BOCHSA Le Garop

Great little bit for a penguin guard inspection

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