Actually watched the Oscars and enjoyed it!

Saturday night we watched "The Two Popes" and liked it a lot so we had seen two movies. Well, the idea of the Oscars is to create interest in the movies and it did that for us. I guess we haven't watched it for quite some time.  They have have made improvements for sure!

Anti-LEGO slippers...where were these when I needed them!

Few forms of sadistic torture in this world are more excruciatingly painful than having to walk across a field of LEGO bricks left on the ground by a careless child or a short-sighted adult. Fortunately, there is now a way to protect yourself from these domestic land mines: the famous building blocks, working together with French advertising agency Brand Station, has invented anti-LEGO slippers! It only took them 66 years, too!

Avodado Toast with Carol

This is a ritural now and my gift to celebrate getting her Master's finally arrived from an Amazon seller. I thought it was perfect....her "cap and gown" made with a design of books. She read and referred to a whole lot of books when she was doing her thesis on immigration patterns in Ancient Rome. You never quite know what these things are like that you order but it had a wonderful cosy feel as well....a bonus.

The cards....a stack of books, of course.

Photos taken at 5:15 pm Friday from our window recliner

We almost enjoy the rain sitting in our "sunroom" recliners and having a scotch.  Apparently going to be sunny on the weekend...we'll see. A bit of a sunset.

Some cool buildings coming to Vancouver

Being a bit of an architecture fanatic, I think I'm going to love these especially when the first high rises in Vancouver were these horrible concrete things that looked so dismal in the rain. Of course, we'll always be living in an older type of building because we need walls to put our posters and artwork on. I couldn't give up being surrounded by these things.

https://www.vancouverisawesome.com/real-estate/12-architecturally-interesting-developments-coming-to-vancouver-2054713?utm_source=Vancouver+Is+Awesome&utm_campaign=9a4b21861a-Daily+013020&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_f592a7afc0-9a4b21861a-136521497

The Battle for Notre Dame

There seems to be quite a battle as to whether Notre Dame should be restored to as close as possible to what it was or is it better to do something more creative. I love Notre Dame and I love Paris and I think going for something more creative is the way to do. This is the city that gave the world the very controversial (at the time) Eiffel Tower, the glass pyramid before The  Louvre, and Le Centre Pompidou.

President Macron is for something more creative and it seems it will pprobably come down to his decision. I say go for it!

Interesting article in The Washington Post:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/entertainment/notre-dame-history/

Photos taken at 2:30 pm yesterday and still lots of snow coming down

Well, I'm glad I rescheduled my eye doctor appointment. I wouldn't have wanted us to be out in this.  I needed Jim to drive since my eyes were going to be dilated. It is cosy inside and I loved watching the snow fall while I was swimming this morning. It makes a change.  Hey, every winter since 2002, we've been in the south of France or Palm Springs. Can't complain.

I feel for all the people who were so impacted from the recent heavy rains and this won't be a delight for people who don't have the choice but to get out in it.

Definitely best to stick to comments on the weather than to reflect on anything going on in the USA.

My "young" bookclub

I was the host Sunday and we all have a lot of fun even though I'm the oldster at 72. They are in their 50's and still working...all working in the Vancouver School District as Speech and Language Pathologists. Liz, the daughter of old friends in Victoria, used to babysit Richard. We have reconnected since we moved to Vancouver.

We are almost one of these bookclubs that sometimes don't get around to discussing the book much. It begins at 1pm and we have lunch. Everyone brings something...always lots of food. When Jim came home around 4pm we had just started to discuss the book.

There are always some things that come up that make me realize we really are of different generations. They didn't know that the local newspapers used to do things like free swimming lessons and a fishing derby (the Sun) and the bridge tournament the Province sponsored. At the last meeting one of the members almost passed out when she saw all the single-use plastic containers that held various dessert stuff I had bought. Single-use containers, especially plastic, are a complete no-no.

They are very good at helping clear the table and deal with food scraps but I had to confess I don't do that. I justified  it by saying I had a compost and did the green thing with all food and garden stuff for 40 years when it wasn't mandatory . They're pretty good at cutting me some slack.

It's good to be reminded of things I don't think about too much.

Is a real French baguette coming to Vancouver?

We can get them in Palm Springs at Peninsula Bakery but I wonder if they'll get their flour from France like Peninsula Bakery does. They are now in 30 countries. This approach generally doesn't lead to the local Artisian touch.

A slice of France will soon offer yet another sweet temptation along Vancouver's Robson Street. 

Paul, a French bakery with an origin story that dates back to 1889, is opening their first Canadian location in Vancouver.

Signage for the bakeshop has gone up on the exterior at 1164 Robson Street, previously a retail space that had been home to Joe Fresh and RW & Co in past years. 

Paul began, to some extent, as a family bakery run by Charlemagne Mayot and his wife in Croix, France. Their granddaughter married into the Holder family, who, by the early 1950s, were running a bakery called Paul. The families and businesses merged, keeping the name Paul. It would be 30 years, though, until Paul opened up outside of France, starting in Barcelona. 

The Irishman

We finally got around to watching this movie and we both really liked it. I especially liked that the violence was muted and not sensational. We figured we better watch at least one of the movies that are up for the Academy Awards...not that we watch these awards anyway even when we've watched more movies. We might turn it on this year for a few minutes just to see if it's the usual bore.

They had some rather interesting techniquesin this movie.

Al Pacino's face before and after de-aging technology is applied.

Well, I guess no one wonders why I like this....

Another gem from Heather James Fine Art

GABRIEL OROZCO

Samurai Tree - Invariant Gold 2, 2005 acrylic on canvas, 47 1/4 x 47 1/4 in.

For his Samurai Tree paintings, Gabriel Orozco uses a set of rules and constraints based on the knight's chess moves to dictate composition and color. The result is a stunning array of abstracted elliptical variations. Click below for detail photos and additional information.

Itty Bitty Book Review: "The House the Spirit Builds"

"The House the Spirit Builds" by Lorna Crozier

I've always loved Crozier's poetry and this new selection of her work was particularly interesting because two photographers worked on it as well.  The photographs and poems aren't meant to exactly fit each other.

I had Lorna Crozier come and do a reading and speak to students at Esquimalt. There were about 200 students. She was a little concerned about the number and suggested perhaps just the ones really interested in poetry attend. I told that would only be about a half dozen and they didn't need to be turned on to poetry. I did assure her they would be polite and attentive but I couldn't guarantee enthusiasm. They all would have studied some of her poetry in their English classes. I had been to a reading of hers and I felt she would go over well but who knows with adolescents.

She surpassed all my expectations in how the students reacted. After the reading, she was mobbed like a rock star!

A wee bit of haggis and lots of love from friends...

There was a wee bit of haggis left so I froze it and will make up this Cream of Haggis soup on a wet rainy day to bring back memories of our wonderful evening and of our dear friends from afar....Susan and Alan and Maureen. I mailed them the invitations along with the favours, jokes, and trivia.

From Susan and Alan:

Dear Janice

Thank you for your kind invitation to Burns Night.

Unfortunately it arrived slightly late and alas we cannot travel back in time. 

But nevertheless we can still enjoy your favours and although this Burns Night has passed please be assured we will shall always be with you in spirit (Scotch) on future Burns Night.

With love.

Susan and Alan

From Maureen:

Hello >Janice,   the past few weeks month of >January,  my letter box was full , with bills bills etc, however, today my letter box had an ivitation from you and Jim it was a pleasure inviting me to attend you both celebrating Rabbie Burns 25th January 2020.  Your invitation made my day..............................Immediately,  I tried to book a flight to Vancouver!!!!  (dreaming but all flights were fully booked, except for a few first class seats,  unfortunately,  my Lotto Numbers  on Saturday didn`t come up,  as usual since the last 50 years.

On your invitation the Scottish Jokes,  made me really giggle, and the Scottish Trivia I scored 13 out of 14--number 8 I couldn`t  answer..................... To all your >Guests who  was the winner......................

Jim and Janice you both are wonderful hosts 

Love from Maureen

And we'll have to watch Jim's address to the haggis before we eat it :) 

https://onedrive.live.com/?authkey=%21ALWyFZn%2DzEgP9J8&cid=6A09C3527041CCCF&id=6A09C3527041CCCF%2132297&parId=6A09C3527041CCCF%21109&o=OneUp

And a real sunset last night!

Cream of Haggis soup

Ingredients

• 300 gram small haggis
• 1 medium sized carrot
• 1 medium sized onion
• 2 stalks of celery
• 100gram of potato
• 250 ml veg stock
• 150ml single cream

Method

1. Wash, peel, dice vegetables. Then sweat in a pot with a little butter and season with salt and pepper.
2. Add the stock and allow to cook for 30 minutes.
3. Add haggis by crumbling in to pot. Cook for further 15 minutes.
4. Then blend the soup until smooth and add the cream. Simmer for another few minutes then serve.
   
   
   

Down at The Sylvia for lunch today with Maureen yesterday

It was great to be down in the area again and it was even somewhat sunny and not raining at all. We both had the burger. I think it just might be the best in town. We both asked for it as rare as they could make it but of coure in our "nanny" state in Canada, they won't cook it rare. They do in the US. One thing about the Americans...they don't let no one mess with their burgers.

I took a few photos on the way home.

And, of course, the ever present gaggle of geese.

And even a sunset of sorts last night....

An Alexander Calder for sale...well, only $210.000.00 US.

We leave for Palm Springs March 3....it might still be there.  Maybe I'll channel Calder again...

ALEXANDER CALDERLe Pyramide Orange, 1975
gouache and ink on paper, 29 3/4 x 42 1/8 in.

The new arrival at our gallery in Palm Desert, California, is a 1975 Calder gouache painting on paper. In this medium, his distinctive palette of primary colors, here enhanced by fields of orange, lends vibrancy to geometric forms. This piece is registered in the archives of the Calder Foundation, New York, under application number A10596. Click below for more works by Calder.

Le Pyramide Orange197529 3/4 x 42 1/8 in.gouache and ink on paper

https://www.heatherjames.com/art-detail/?inv=34217&search=calder&ref=L3NlYXJjaA==&utm_campaign=b3e458d3e6&utm_source=janice.b.sexton@gmail.com&utm_medium=email

Congratulations from Maureen....

Hello Janice,   Reading from your blog and thank you very much for the lovely fotos, you really set your dining table, (scottish theme) beautiful.  Also  the celebrations were successful.  and much fun , especially to them!!

Braw, Braw  LADDIES  and to the  Bonnie  Bonnie  LASSIES,   your toasts beats everthing  I`ve heard.

love from Maureen

Maureen is waiting to get a good photo of herself to send me but in the meantime she sent this photo of her son and grandchildren....handsome family!

The toast to the lassies..

Burns Dinner Toast to the Lassies

Good afternoon fellow celebrants of the bard’s anniversary, I’m supposed to live up the traditions of Rabbie Burns dinners by saying something humorously Burns, in my Toast to the Lassies. In keeping with that I decided I needed to provide for my own protection!

Note:
Dave brought his sword with him to protect himself from the lassies but he did have to put it down to read the toast so lucky he didn't need it :)

“A Man's a Man for a' that”, but Burns loved the Lassies. It’s been reported that he sired 11 children, by 5 wives, in 13 years. He was apparently smitten more than once;

“O my Luve is like a red, red rose

That’s newly sprung in June;

“Her lips are like the cherries ripe That sunny walls from Boreas screen. They tempt the taste and charm the sight

but Burns always got married. “I hae a wife o’ my ain.” he said.

“I hae been a devil the feck of my life, but never was I enheld til I met with a wife”

Burns also loved his Scotch, and dedicated much of his work to roasting the taxman between drinks.

“Let other poets raise a fracas
"Bout vines, an' wines, an' drucken Bacchus, An' crabbit names an'stories wrack us, An' grate our lug:
I sing the juice Scotch bear can mak us, In glass or jug.”

O my Luve is like the melody

That’s sweetly played in tune.”

We'll mak our maut, and we'll brew our drink, We'll laugh, sing, and rejoice, man,
And mony braw thanks to the meikle black deil, That danc'd awa wi' th' Exciseman.
“Leeze me on drink! it gi’es us mair Than either school or college”
“Freedom and Whisky gang thegither! Tak af your dram!”

It’s quite possible that his love for the Lassies depended on the

supply of Scotch, for he said:

“So fair art thou, my bonnie lass,

So deep in luve am I;

And I will luve thee still, my dear,

Till a’ the seas gang dry.”

an obvious reference to running out of Scotch.
“Ah, gentle dames! it gars me greet, To think how “ many counsels sweet, How many lengthen’d, sage advices, The husband from the wife despises!”

We also know that Burns’ love-life was not perfect and that,

perhaps, was the source of his thirst for John Barleycorn,

and then he said:

“Inspiring bold John Barleycorn!

What dangers thou canst make us scorn!

Wi' tippenny, we fear nae evil;

Wi' usquabae, we'll face the devil!”

Was it the Lassies who sparked the Bard?

“Auld Nature swears the lovely dears Her noblest work she classes; Her ‘prentice han’ she tried on man, And then She made the lasses!”
or was it the Scotch?
‘John Barleycorn was a hero bold, Of noble enterprise;
For if you do but taste his blood, ‘Twill make your courage rise.
‘Twill make a man forget his woe; ‘Twill heighten all his joy;
‘Twill make the widow’s heart to sing, Tho’ the tear were in her eye.’
It is true that Burns held a great deal of respect for women who we’ve heard were created after God had practised on man. In this regard he was generations ahead of his times. He showed himself to be a feminist with an eye for the future when he wrote:
While quacks of State must each produce his plan, And even children lisp the Rights of Man; Amid this mighty fuss just let me mention, The Rights of Woman merit some attention.
but Burns settles the question in one of his many songs:
O aye my wife she dang me, An' aft my wife she bang'd me,
If ye gie a woman a' her will, Gude faith! she'll soon o'er-gang ye.

In the final analysis, it becomes clear that the Lassies drove

Burns to drink.

Ever the pragmatist, Burns resolves his vices and advises us to

live life to the fullest.

Here’s a bottle and an honest man – What would ye wish for mair, man. Wha kens, before his life may end, What his share may be o’ care, man. So catch the moments as they fly, And use them as ye ought, man. Believe me, happiness is shy,
And comes not aye when sought, man.
So gentlemen, let us raise our glasses in a toast to the Lassies who love us, care for us, bore and raised our children and...... drive us to drink!
To the Lassies!