02 June 2013
O' Canada
02/06/13 19:00
So Friday Marsha went into the school much earlier than usual in order to see a hoop dancer perform for the school. Because of this she was there in time to witness the morning routine. At this school each morning they sing Oh Canada. Maybe they do it at all schools, we don’t know but she was a bit surprised. Fortunately for Marsha, being this is a Grade One class, the teacher prompted everyone for each line so Marsha was able to stumble her way through O’ Canada without messing up too much. (Though she did point out that she stayed at the back of the class where nobody was watching her and sang fairly quietly so nobody heard her either.) This is a good thing. Sitting here I tried to sing O’ Canada, and this is as close as I could get:
O’ Canada
Our home on native lands
True patriot sons
Chew on new rubber bands
words words words
Glorious and free
words words words words words
Don’t know the words
Oh Canada
we wear Right Guard for thee
I guess I need to work on that.
*See end of email for the real words.
The garden is doing well. This week it rained Monday, and Tuesday, and...oh heck it never stopped raining. The only difference was how hard it came down. The garden is happy, though the tomatoes are looking a but soggy. Today it finally cleared up and we’re supposed to have a few days of sun. Now that everything is well established I’m expecting it to take off in the warmer June weather. On the radio they were saying that it helps to lime your garden, add actual dolomite limestone to the soil in it to cut down the acidity. Tomatoes especially are supposed to like this. So I went to Home Depot to pick up some lime. I guess I just don’t understand the intricacies of modern marketing. I could have gotten a 2.5kg box of lime for $12 or a 20kg bag of the exact same stuff for $6. Now, I don’t need 20kg, heck the 2.5 likely would have been more than I needed, but six bucks is six bucks. So I now have this huge bag of lime setting on the bench in my greenhouse. I’ll use a bit of it this year and then by next season it will probably have become a block of cement.
This is efficiency?
Have you ever heard of Truck Farming? I had but I didn’t think they did it out here. Truck farming is, as I’ve always understood, to raise vegetables for market. Well, out here they do truck farming but, being it’s BC it’s a bit different.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2013/05/31/bc-gardening-truck-farm.html
When they interviewed the lady on CBC’s On the Coast she said that it started when her husband asked her to “do something with that damned old truck you have parked in the back”. She did. I like it. It puts a whole new spin on bringing your lunch to work.
Last weekend we got together for the final wrap up party for the play. We had a great time. There was plenty to eat and drink. We laughed, chatted, compared stories about how the adjudicator blew the judging of the festival, what our plans were for the summer and fall, how families were doing and such. It was nice but slightly melancholy. It was the last time we would be together as ‘The Cast of Memory of Water’. The project we put in so much work over the last six months is over. Now we go our separate ways. We’ll see each other in other productions, but this production is now just an entry in our resume, a fond memory. I put together a film about the experience, which everyone seemed to enjoy. Here is the address if you want to check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFFPzhK67cM .
*sigh*
One thing we got talking about was how things in the US and Canada have different names. Sure they have Oreos but up here they are Christie’s Oreos not Nabisco. http://www.canadianfamily.ca/kids/baby/2010-food-awards/attachment/2010-food-awards_79793/ Remember Smarties, those little sugar disks that had faint colours and tangy flavours? Up here they’re called Rockets. http://orgjunkie.com/2010/12/rockets-and-smarties.html . Why Rockets? Who knows. Maybe they just didn't know the right words yet.
Lastly, baseball season is in full swing. Marsha is watching nearly every game on the iPad. (By the way she would like to catch a Twins game when she’s in Minnesota at the end of the month, if anyone is interested in going with her...hint...hint...). Anyway, one of the significant threads in the baseball canon is how Jackie Robinson broke the colour barrier. Apparently he wasn’t in fact the first, just the first in Major League Baseball. We came across this story about how over a decade earlier in North Dakota the Bismarck “Bismarck’s” were a fully integrated semi-pro baseball team. A couple of things I like about this. First that there were efforts to integrate baseball much earlier than is generally known. On top of that they are the "Bismarck's". Their mascot is a pastry? A pastry just one step away from an actual cream-puff?. That took guts. Also the way the BBC referred to Bismarck as “out on the fringes of America”. Somehow ‘heartland’ and ‘fringes’ depends on which side of the atlantic you are sitting.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22684766
Doug & Marsha
PIX: The storms move off to the east, and Geiger and Momiji recover from their yearly visit to the Vet.
Lyrics to O Canada
O Canada! Our home and native land True patriot love in all thy sons command. With glowing hearts we see thee rise The true north, strong and free From far and wide, O Canada We stand on guard for thee. God keep our land glorious and free O Canada! We stand on guard for thee O Canada! We stand on guard for thee.
O’ Canada
Our home on native lands
True patriot sons
Chew on new rubber bands
words words words
Glorious and free
words words words words words
Don’t know the words
Oh Canada
we wear Right Guard for thee
I guess I need to work on that.
*See end of email for the real words.
The garden is doing well. This week it rained Monday, and Tuesday, and...oh heck it never stopped raining. The only difference was how hard it came down. The garden is happy, though the tomatoes are looking a but soggy. Today it finally cleared up and we’re supposed to have a few days of sun. Now that everything is well established I’m expecting it to take off in the warmer June weather. On the radio they were saying that it helps to lime your garden, add actual dolomite limestone to the soil in it to cut down the acidity. Tomatoes especially are supposed to like this. So I went to Home Depot to pick up some lime. I guess I just don’t understand the intricacies of modern marketing. I could have gotten a 2.5kg box of lime for $12 or a 20kg bag of the exact same stuff for $6. Now, I don’t need 20kg, heck the 2.5 likely would have been more than I needed, but six bucks is six bucks. So I now have this huge bag of lime setting on the bench in my greenhouse. I’ll use a bit of it this year and then by next season it will probably have become a block of cement.
This is efficiency?
Have you ever heard of Truck Farming? I had but I didn’t think they did it out here. Truck farming is, as I’ve always understood, to raise vegetables for market. Well, out here they do truck farming but, being it’s BC it’s a bit different.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2013/05/31/bc-gardening-truck-farm.html
When they interviewed the lady on CBC’s On the Coast she said that it started when her husband asked her to “do something with that damned old truck you have parked in the back”. She did. I like it. It puts a whole new spin on bringing your lunch to work.
Last weekend we got together for the final wrap up party for the play. We had a great time. There was plenty to eat and drink. We laughed, chatted, compared stories about how the adjudicator blew the judging of the festival, what our plans were for the summer and fall, how families were doing and such. It was nice but slightly melancholy. It was the last time we would be together as ‘The Cast of Memory of Water’. The project we put in so much work over the last six months is over. Now we go our separate ways. We’ll see each other in other productions, but this production is now just an entry in our resume, a fond memory. I put together a film about the experience, which everyone seemed to enjoy. Here is the address if you want to check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFFPzhK67cM .
*sigh*
One thing we got talking about was how things in the US and Canada have different names. Sure they have Oreos but up here they are Christie’s Oreos not Nabisco. http://www.canadianfamily.ca/kids/baby/2010-food-awards/attachment/2010-food-awards_79793/ Remember Smarties, those little sugar disks that had faint colours and tangy flavours? Up here they’re called Rockets. http://orgjunkie.com/2010/12/rockets-and-smarties.html . Why Rockets? Who knows. Maybe they just didn't know the right words yet.
Lastly, baseball season is in full swing. Marsha is watching nearly every game on the iPad. (By the way she would like to catch a Twins game when she’s in Minnesota at the end of the month, if anyone is interested in going with her...hint...hint...). Anyway, one of the significant threads in the baseball canon is how Jackie Robinson broke the colour barrier. Apparently he wasn’t in fact the first, just the first in Major League Baseball. We came across this story about how over a decade earlier in North Dakota the Bismarck “Bismarck’s” were a fully integrated semi-pro baseball team. A couple of things I like about this. First that there were efforts to integrate baseball much earlier than is generally known. On top of that they are the "Bismarck's". Their mascot is a pastry? A pastry just one step away from an actual cream-puff?. That took guts. Also the way the BBC referred to Bismarck as “out on the fringes of America”. Somehow ‘heartland’ and ‘fringes’ depends on which side of the atlantic you are sitting.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22684766
Doug & Marsha
PIX: The storms move off to the east, and Geiger and Momiji recover from their yearly visit to the Vet.
Lyrics to O Canada
O Canada! Our home and native land True patriot love in all thy sons command. With glowing hearts we see thee rise The true north, strong and free From far and wide, O Canada We stand on guard for thee. God keep our land glorious and free O Canada! We stand on guard for thee O Canada! We stand on guard for thee.