Life's a Stitch

A whole lot of colourful times...

Having our life's belongings packed up and ready to go has allowed us lots of flexibility. The past two weeks were spent in Calgary, Alberta for a family Easter celebration. 

Who would have expected a white Easter? Certainly not me, the British Columbian weather wimp, but apparently there can be snow during any month in Alberta. There was no stopping grandson Rye from his search:

Uncle KC was tasked with picking up a pocket bib for Mr. Parker. The only one left was hot pink with a string of pearls closure:

The purple yams were a hit with the men in the family:

By afternoon, the snow was gone. Elina had arranged an elaborate Easter activity, after blowing out the contents of 60 eggs and filling them with colourful tempera paint, we had an egg toss onto canvas. We each went home with a work of Easter art:

A colourful time was had by all. 

How do you spell that name?

My eldest daughter's and my names are blends combining the first and middle names of a number of family members. Elina's has part of mine, my mother's, my MIL's, our sisters, my cousin... Throw in her middle name, Marie, and at least four more are covered. 

Mine is a combination of my mother's and grandmother's, with a slight spelling change of an "s" to a "c:" Lilice. If it had remained an "s" it might have avoided the mispronunciation that rhymes it with Alice, rather than Denise, and there would be no way my boating license would have been issued to "Lice."

Around the time wheaten Scottie dog, Gracee, joined our family, we had dinner at a local marina. Docked in front of our patio table was an old motor boat called, you guessed it, Gracee. A couple of the kids disagreed with the spelling choice, so we agreed to disagree, and for a time we each spelled it In our own way. It doesn't matter to a dog, does it? They eventually gave in.

A recent Saturday watercolour subject were the hulls of  old rusty fishing boats, one name meaningless to our family, so I changed it:

Done. Ended. Finished.

Oh that feeling of completion. From finishing a years-in-progress knitting project to finalizing the tax returns to small endings like using up the last of the blue cheese dressing and tossing the jar into glass recycling. More space in the fridge and one less thing to think about moving, storing or giving away.

I'll be glad to get to the end of my current read, the Indifferent Stars Above, by Daniel James Brown, the author of the Boys in the Boat. What possessed me to read an account of the Donner Party's ill-fated journey? It might require critical incident stress debriefing afterwards, similar to when I recently read the Holocaust parts of James Michener's Poland. I'm taking recommendations for a happy book.

This finished painting marks the end of winter weather. I think we're there - the cherry blossoms are finally blooming, three weeks late. Last year they were three weeks early!