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BILINGUALISM DEFINED

I was listening to a TED talk called the Benefits of a Bilingual Brain, and I finally have a way to define myself. I am a subordinate bilingual!

I recently worked with a trainee from my home town, and he described the difficulties of working in two languages from a unilingual culture. I described my bilingualism as being incomplete, but joked that he would be happy to discover, that when he returned home, he might be seen closer to bilingual than he was here.

Mia Nacamulli explains that language is made up of 4 parts. Two active parts are speaking and writing. Two passive parts are listening and reading. A balanced bilingual has near equal ability across the board in two languages. Most bilinguals, however, vary in their use and knowledge. 

She breaks the bilingual/multilingual phenomenon into 3 categories based on how they acquire language. There are differences in the brain that occur depending on how and when the acquisition occurs.

The COMPOUND bilingual processes two linguistic codes simultaneously, and leads to the CRITICAL PERIOD HYPOTHESIS, involving both hemispheres in language acquisition.

Both COORDINATE and SUBORDINATE bilinguals lateralize language to one hemisphere, usually the left.  While the coordinate bilingual works with two sets of concepts, subordinate bilinguals learn a secondary language by filtering it through their primary language.

These differences are paralleled to phases of life. While becoming bilingual as a child, compound bilinguals develop. As a teen, coordinate bilinguals learn. As an adult, subordinate bilinguals develop.

It is clear that we can all become bilingual. While children have plasticity to their advantage, all of us can acquire additional languages. 

Interesting advantages include brain health, with delay of Alzheimer's and dementia by as much as five years. The adult may exhibit less emotional bias and a more rational approach when confronting problmes in the second language than in their native one. I definitely can confirm this to be true for myself, and have switched the argument to french in order to temper my words, by both slowing them done and keeping the argument less personal, and closer to the basic issues at hand. It also seems that bilingual students, while showing increased reaction time and errors, have great effort and attention, triggering more activity in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, which plays a role in executive function, problem solving, switching between tasks, and focusing while filtering out irrelevant information.

SUMMER PLANS- CANCELLED

Fireworks festival
June 20-July 29

STEWART MUSEUM AND FIREWORKS
Wednesday 5-10 pm

Montgolfieres St Jean sur Richelieu
August 8-16

Asteroid shower
peak August 9-13

SK VS MTL
Percival Stadium August 13 5 pm

TRAIN: book tuesdays

NYC
bus: greyhound vs Adirondack pool, Thursday least busy, buy in advance

THE TONES OF AN OCTAVE AND A SECRET CHORD

My grandma was the greatest musician that I have ever known. She seemed to understand it effortlessly, and could transpose music from one key to the next like magic. She took a single note, and made it a chord, and progressed chords effortlessly with the left hand accentuating the right endlessly. I never got how she did it, so it was always like magic, and I could only admire it.

I only learned to play by reading the notes of sheet music, and translating it to simple music. I didn't have the ear to sing harmony to the melody unless someone was strongly influencing me, in spite of an alto voice that often strained to the higher notes a melody required. I can hear a few tones, and pick out a melody with difficulty, but I can't play by ear beyond the most basic of phrases.

I have looked at the theory, and marvelled at styles of music. I have tried to hear the structure of jazz music that I have heard is predictable. Now, in addition,  I marvel at the math of it.

Ever wonder why the piano has octaves? Why there are less black keys than white? I didn't until I saw an instrument of 5 keys played in Burkina Faso. It didn't make sense how they could play music with less keys. It was the same kind of magic that my grandmother, in her living room, high on her organ, would make. The music was made for the collective, but I never knew how it was possible.

Turns out, the ear likes to hear distinct notes, and there are only a few made with sound waves that make sense. In fact, the notes separated by an octave are double, or half of the other's frequency.

 

Similarly, there is symmetry in the sound waves of a fifth. This recently came to my attentions when I reviewed a book of sheet music I had received when I bought a synthesizer 20 years ago. At the back of the book was a diagram called the Circle of Fifths. 

The circle of fifths represents the relationship between the twelve tones (7 white keys, 5 black) of an octave. It takes 7 half steps, or tones, to span a "perfect fifth". Counting clockwise, and starting at the top with C, the perfect fifth of C is G, of G is D, of D is A etc. After B major, I start to get a little confused, but this is a chart that helps explain more of chord progression.

It turns out that scales can make an octave contain 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 or 12 different pitches. 

Within an octave, there are predictable ratios:

             1/1  unison              C

             2/1  octave              C

             3/2  perfect fifth       G

             4/3  fourth              F

 

             5/4  major third         E

             8/5  minor 6th           Ab

             6/5  minor 3rd           Eb

             5/3  major 6th           A

             9/8  major 2nd           D

             16/9 minor 7th           Bb

             15/8  major 7th          B

             16/15 minor 2nd          C#

It all makes me think of the incredibly beautiful Leonard Cohen song, Hallelujah, and the lyrics he sings in the first chorus while King David, a man after God's own heart, a musician, and an adulterer figures out the chord progression of the song:

Now, I've heard there was a secret chord

That David played, and it pleased the Lord

But you don't really care for music, do you?

It goes like this, the fourth, the fifth

The minor fall, the major lift

The baffled king composing Hallelujah

Hallelujah

Hallelujah

Hallelujah

Hallelujah

THE STRENGTHS OF SPINSTERHOOD

CBC radio

IDEAS IN THE AFTERNOON

#BLACKLIVESMATTER

It is a terrible thing that happened to George Floyd, and it is more terrible that this keeps happening over and over again.

I want to blame culture, so that it is the police culture at fault, or the american culture, or the culture of slavery or white entitlement, but the reality is that it was humans that took that man's life, and it's a dishonour to humanity to not value another being enough. It is always difficult to understand our duality, and how the human being can do the most beautiful thing, and then the most vile.

It has been another reason to reflect on ourselves, and understand the things we may not be seeing or need education on. We all have to look at the dark part of ourselves, to make choices.

Here are few thoughts about our ego and by extension our culture's shadows by Carl Jung.

Friedrich Nietzsche wrote something in Beyond Good and Evil (Aphorism 146) that I reflect on often in my job in the system of health care.

"Wer mit Ungeheuern kämpft, mag zusehn, dass er nicht dabei zum Ungeheuer wird. Und wenn du lange in einen Abgrund blickst, blickt der Abgrund auch in dich hinein."

Translation: He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And if you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you.

I gave my daughter her allowance, and it had Viola Desmond on the bill. I realized I didn't have any other Canadian stories about important black women to tell than this one. So when I saw this article titled Why the Black struggle in Canada has all but been erased that ended with a bibliography, I wanted to list here some places to start.

Documentaries
The Little Black School House
Speak It! From The Heart of Black Nova Scotia
Speakers for the Dead
Journey to Justice
Sisters in the Struggle
It Takes A Riot: Race, Rebellion, Reform
Speakers for the Dead

Books and Documents
“’Membering” Austin Clarke
“The Hanging of Angélique: The Untold Story of Canadian Slavery and the Burning of Old Montréal” Afua Cooper
“Moving Beyond Borders: A History of Black Canadian and Caribbean Women in the Diaspora” Karen Flynn
“Bromley, tireless fighter for just causes: Memoirs of Bromley L. Armstrong” Bromley Armstrong
“Burnley ‘Rocky’ Jones Revolutionary” James Walker and Burnley ‘Rocky’ Jones
“Being Brown” Rosemary Brown
“Bread Out of Stone: Recollections, Sex, Recognitions, Race, Dreaming, Politics” Dionne Brand
“Silenced” Makeda Silvera
“A Place Called Heaven” Cecil Foster
“After Canaan: Essays on Race, Writing and Region” Wayde Compton
“The Black Prairie Archives: An Anthology” Karina Vernon
“Race to Trial: Black Defendants in Ontario’s Criminal Courts 1858-1958” Barrington Walker
“Fear of a Black Nation: Race, Sex, and Security in Sixties Montreal” David Austin
“Displacing Blackness: Planning, Power, and Race in Twentieth-Century Halifax” Ted Rutland
“Policing Black Lives — State Violence in Canada from Slavery to the Present” Robin Maynard
Children’s books
“Meet Viola Desmond” Elizabeth MacLeod and Mike Deas
“The ABC’s of Viola Desmond” Delmore “Buddy” Daye
“They Call Me George: The Untold Story of Black Train Porters and the Birth of Modern Canada” Cecil Foster

Canadian Historical Sites And Museums

Buxton National Historic Site and Museum Chatham-Kent

Black Cultural Centre for Nova Scotia
The Black Loyalist Heritage Centre Nova Scotia
The Amherstburg Freedom Museum Ontario
Africville Heritage Museum Nova Scotia

Here is a CBC radio show from Ideas in the Afternoon about the "Snow-job" of "whiting out" the history of Canada in Black Slavery.

DATING TRAPS

From Always a Bridesmaid a so-so movie with a lot of familiar actors
MICRODATING - clandestinely flirts with you, and others (all the sauce but sharing the flavour)
LOVEBOMBER - Dr Jekyl - way too much, way too soon - soon enough you will meet Mr. Hyde
TEXTATIONSHIP - entire relationship by text
SIDEBAR - loves his devices more than you
(CYRANO DE) BERGERAC- dating by committee

IRONY OF INSOMNIA

My street is under construction, and I wake every weekday, if I am lucky, at 7 am with my house shaking, the rumbling of the trucks, and the reverse beeping of vehicles that are doing the work. I never knew that the tractors and trucks were only ever driven backwards during a job, but it is a rare reprieve to have just the rumbling of the wheels, or the squeaking of the bulldozer tracks. Even though they wait to 7 am to start, they arrive earlier, and are either used to shouting over the machinery or deaf from the years of unprotected exposure, that I hear them yelling before the machines are allowed to start up.

This is overdue, and it will end the front ditch flooding for the near future, and I am grateful for that. But for a night owl that prefers to go to bed at midnight, leaving less than 7 hours of sleep, or a shift worker that often needs to sleep in the day to make it through the nights, it is rough. It's pretty motivating to live within the time constraints they set, but this week they are working ten-eleven hour days, leaving very little peace left in the day.

So last night, after a few nights of less than seven hours sleep, I determined to go to bed "ridiculously early" at 22:30. Then I woke up at 3:15, very aware of the irony of having the peace to sleep, but the pressure to sleep lead to insomnia. As the hours passes, the impending inevitability of the construction crew's arrival at 7 grew.

At 4:30, the first birds started chirping. Soon after five, the sun rose, spilling light around the blinds, and intensifying the frustration of sleep. By now I had unblocked multiple apps on my phone in order to override the screen time refusals programmed from 23-7 am. I solved a daily puzzle, checked my work schedule, wrote an overdue email, caught up on  facebook.

I sleepily pawed through my bedside table to find a complimentary gift of an eyecover from Air Canada; a remnant of heady days of travel, and found the room black. It was 6:30 now, but it was only after the first earthquakes started that I was able to fall asleep, half tuned to wake if Princess Pirate was. The next hour of sleep should have been terrible, but it was just what I needed.

Like most anxiety, insomnia is worse for the disproportion of reality. The dread is worse than the disease, or, in this case, the disease itself.

BUMBLEBEES

Bumblebee

Scientific Name:
Bombini

Genus:
Bombus

Family:
Apidae

 Fun Facts:
They are larger than honeybees, but they don’t produce as much honey!

They are great at pollination because their large bodies and fast wings, beating 130 times or more per second, helps vibrate flowers into releasing pollen. This is called “buzz pollination”. It helps plants produce more fruit.

There are over 255 species of bumble bees!

It has been said that bumblebees defy aerodynamics, and should not be able to fly. Closer study revealed that they flap their tiny wings back and forth rather than up and down, creating vortices (small spiral winds) that keep eddies of air above its wings to help it stay aloft.

The largest bumblebee is found in Argentina and Chile.

Bumble bees usually build their nests close to the ground, often under piles of wood, dead leaves, and compost piles, and sometimes even underground in abandoned rodent tunnels.

A group of bees is called a colony, and they live in social groups of 50 to 500. The dominant female becomes the queen, and rules the colony. During the late fall, the entire colony dies, except for the queen who hibernates underground over the winter and starts a new colony in the spring.

They can travel up to 54 km/hour!

The queen, waking from hibernation, finds food and then looks for a good location for a nest. Once a nest is found, she lays her eggs and stores up food. Bees hatch from eggs, which the solitary queen sits on for two weeks to keep them warm, shivering to generate heat, until they become larvae. Then the larvae spin cocoons and develop into adult bees. This is the only batch of babies the queen will take care of. The rest are laid by her, but the worker bees clean and guard the next, find food, and take care of the next batches of baby bees.

Bees born late in the summer are either males, also called drones, or females, which are future queen bees. They both leave the nests when they are mature. Males and females mate. The males die, and the future queens fatten up to hibernate through the winter.

Bumblebees don’t die when they sting, as they have no barbs, and can sting repeatedly without injuring themselves. Honeybees sting with barbs that need to be removed, and in doing so, are harmed.

Their generic name Bombus comes from ancient Greek, Bombos, meaning buzz. An old provincial name is Dumbledore, the wizard headmaster in Harry Potter, but JRR Tolkien used it first in a poem called Errantry.


 Its ecosystem pyramid:
Nectar and pollen from flowers
Bumble bee
Badgers, Robberflies and beewolves, bee-eater birds, shrikes, and great tits, camouflaged crab spiders
Beemoth larvae are laid in bumblebee nests as eggs, so that may feed on bumblebee eggs, larvae and pupae
Parasites: tracheal mites, protzoans, microsporidians, and nematode, and deformed wing viruses

 What it eats:
Bumblebees eat nectar and pollen. The nectar is for energy and the pollen provides protein. They make honey by chewing the pollen and mixing it with the saliva. They visit the same patches of flowers everyday, usually within 1-2 km of their colony.

 Range:
Bumblebees like temperate climates, and are often found at higher latitudes and altitudes than other bees. They are found in all continents except Oceania.

 Type of Habitat: (photo)

Cool, open, flower-rich habitats, with long but predictable adverse seasons, like north temperate grasslands and subalpine meadows.

 Photo of creature:



Land, air or water creature:
Land and air

 Cousin:
Apini, honey bees

 Prehistoric ancestors:
The fossil record is incomplete, and the documentation poor, but there may be up to 11 specimens that have been found dating from the Oligocene era in the USA and Turkey, but  3 species from the Miocene and Eocene eras have been better confirmed in Germany, Spain, and England.

Bibliography
https://www.livescience.com/57509-bumblebee-facts.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bumblebee

FRICK COLLECTION

On one of my first conference trips away where I found myself in adult thoughts for the first time in ages, I visited the Frick Collection in NYC. I remember being slightly outraged that no children were allowed, because it was an exquisite art museum. I also remember feeling very uncultured, and I took meticulous notes (this was in the days where people still debated on which browser to use, instead of googling everything, and when my cell phone was still dumb) on the things I should have known, but now had to remember for the next time.

The biggest gap in my knowledge was in Greek and Roman mythology, but the art I was seeing was filled with it! Somehow many artists still puzzled me. If the story was religious, I might understand it. But the myths were something new, and I had a new vocabulary to learn.

The figures that strongly resonate with me are the 3 Graces, or Charities.  In Roman myth, they were the daughters of Zeus and Eurymone, companions to Venus according to Seneca. In Greek mythology, they were the daughters of Dionysis and Aphrodite. They were named, eldest to youngest: Aglaia (Beauty), Euphrosyne (Mirth), and Thalia (Good Cheer). They represented charm, beauty, nature, human creativity, and fertility. I had seen them on a first century fresco at the ruins of Pompei, and fell in love with Botticelli at the Louvre in "Venus and 3 Graces" (my favourite painting in all of the world), and at the Uffizi with his painting "Primavera" or Spring.

So much of the art I had seen in Europe had been catholic, and I am not sure what was lost at the Bonfire of the Vanities, where objects like myth based art, books, and cosmetics were deemed to be occasions of sin, and on Mardi Gras in the 15th century, in the center of cultural Europe, these vanities were burned. Thankfully much survived.

Other classical ideas were brought to my attention at the Frick:
Francois Boucher listed ARTS AND SCIENCES to include:
singing and dancing
painting and sculpting
fowling and horticulture
fishing and hunting
architecture and chemistry
comedy and tragedy
astronomy and hydraulics
poetry and music

It was clear, I only had half the education I needed, and much harder to obtain as an adult.

The LIBERAL ARTS for a medieval Western University were discussed as including 7 categories, from the education of Greek teachers (Aristotle, Socrates), and then thanks to the Roman Empire (Seneca the younger).

The TRIVIUM:
Grammar
Rhetoric
Logic

The QUADRIVIUM:
Arithmetic
Astronomy
Music
Geometry

5th century Martianus Capella named these seven:
Grammar
Dialectic
Rhetoric
Geometry
Arithmetic
Astronomy
Music

I think that this was the first thought I had about constructing a curriculum to fill in the gaps I had. I feel privileged to have been educated in a public middle school in the 1980s (home ec and IA were vital classes), a Lutheran private high school where I studied 4 languages (not typical for Saskatchewan), and sciences leading to a medical degree (not much elective time, but I played intramural sports and attended church and grew in linguistics, and took time off to travel). In total I spent 21 years in school, and here I was feeling deficient!

UNCOMMON SENSE: THE CURRICULUM

In university, I was surrounded by smart women, and several of them were in elementary education. Today, I talked to one of them who is actively teaching her 3 kids, 10, 5 and 4 at home. She called me to ask about an old idea I had about writing a curriculum. It was to included all the things I wish I had learned, but hadn't learned in school.

It currently exists as a half-filled notebook filled with some treasured ideas, a small computer file folder, and a thin physical one. It is far from complete, and what I am sitting down to think about is what my friend was looking for, and the next step in my book: the theoretical framework that needs to keep us from forgetting anything!

If I am honest, this might be one of the challenges that kept me from moving forward. I have a collection of ideas, but I haven't really tackled the real issue of how to organize everything an adult needs to know to have a full and informed life.

My friend has been teaching her kids in beautiful layers, based on her 18 year teaching career, and starting with the most important broad strokes to begin with. For anatomy, she started with organs, and will be moving onto systems next. For geography, she taught continents first, and everything she teaches that can be related to a map, like Mozart and the country of Austria, can be found starting with a continent; Europe.

I like where this could go. It dovetails back into lots of topics I have blogged.

Binary and Eastend

FYI Wines

31 Iron Rich Vegetarian Food
Montreal's Hero: John McCrae

Knitting 101
How to Build a Mind Palace
Motivational Tools
Social Cognitive Theory
Fauvism and Die Brücke: Van Gogh to Kandinsky
OSASCOMP (Order of Adjectives)
Logical Fallacies
Canadian Suffragettes
How and Why Genius Clusters
Triple Bottom Line
Ten Commandments and Five Thieves
Being a Plain Jane
Joy
Merit Badges
Math Magic
Belay Course
The Endowment Effect
Lessons from Marathon Training
Rules for Divisibility
All Lives Matter
How to Build a Brain Reserve
Viktor Frankl Speaks
W.A.N.G.
Konmari Method
Conflict Resolution 101
15 Practices that Differential the Poor from the Rich
Dinosaurs
Goethe's World View
Mrs. Beeton's Book
Patterns of Nature
An Introvert's Manifesto
40s and Failing It
The Greek Alphabet
9 Muses
3 Keys to fitness
Mesopotamian Languages
Mesopotamia
How to Write a Book
Swimming Tweaks
Aristotle's Golden Mean
Immigration and the Passes
Nice Game
Truth Telling and Other Lies
Building and Rebuilding Trust
Deliberate Practice
Eisenhower Matrix
Ben Franklin's 13 Virtues
ASL
Forgiveness
Lofty Words
HALT
Memory Problems
The Supreme Court of Canada
Quebec Raptors
IB
The Spartlathon
Tree Leaf Classification
Today I am a Divorcee
Decluttering in 4 boxes
Cree Syllabics
Seven Year's War

This list reminds me of the things that I have felt I needed to learn myself as an adult. My thoughts of the curriculum began when I became a mom, but likely had been influenzed by the challenge of teaching medical students, and the many lacks I had in my education that I have tried to fill in over the years.

Based on review of the topics above, topics include: food and wine, society and injustice, history (written and unwritten), philosophy, important figures, home ec, personalities and conflict resolution, nature, language, health, sport, writing, psychology, logic, virtures, resilience, human triumphs, organization, religion, math, art and crafts.

I have quite a few educational curricula to review, and I am finding it challenging to navigate the layers of standardizing so many ideas. I will have to look at Bill Bryson's Theory of Nearly Everything, and a few encyclopedias. A quick google search for Theoretical Framework gives a good outline of some vital steps in the process. Philosophically, the Theory of Everything is interesting for its arguments against. I found this "How to Write a Curriculum from Start to Finish", which, at a quick glance, looks like it might be a good template.

The beauty of libraries is that I have always had the innate sense that the world's book could be put in order based on the Dewey Decimal system, so when I tried tonight to google "classification system of everything", it was right there. The first thing that came up was the "Freinet classification" or "To organize everything", a system that is based on school work, and seen by some educators to be more logical to students than official classifications based on organizational criteria. It was last revised in 1984, and is used in some elementary school libraries. The principle is to splint everything into 12 major divisions, and subdivide again by 12, much like the Dewey Decimal System(DDS) divides into 10 major divisions, and subdivides again by 10.

In an effort to adapt to other languages, and changes in archaic, sometimes biased towards an Anglo-American male heterosexual world view, other classifications exist, and, in an effort to make their libraries more accessible, commercial bookstores (including Amazon) commonly use BISAC (Book Industry Standards and Communications). Unfortunately, this is a proprietary system licensed by a single entity (OCLC). Another bibliographic classification system is the Universal Decimal Classification (UDC). It began in 1991, is international (HQ The Hague) and its summary is available in over 50 languages! It even includes realia, 3 dimensional objects from real life. The British adopted the American Bliss system, and its new version is BC2. The Colon classification has 5 primary categories (facets) and 42 main classes. The Library of Congress Classification is adapted from the Cutter Expansive Classification, the DDS, and the Putnam Classification (head librarian at Minneapolis Public Library), and like the Colon Classification, uses 26 letter classes. Even UNESCO has nomenclature for fields of science and technology, with 2-, 4-, and 6- digit codes. Showing my moderate tendencies, 4 digits hits the sweet spot for me, with the 2 digits a more digestible but extensive list!

I think it is so cool that all these systems attempt systematically arrange ALL branches of human knowledge!

Here are the major divisions by system, and the overlap:
(UNDER DEVELOPMENT)

TED talks have inspired me with endless categories:

Here are a few ideas to follow

Bilingualism

Violence

Critical thinking

Good ideas

In the Covid era: TED CONNECTS

"Ted recommends" contain these topics: technology, science, design, business, collaboration, innovation, social change, health, nature, environment, future, communication, activism, child development, personal growth, humanity, society, identity, community, 

Playlists: 25 more popular talks of all times, most popular

Searchable by many topics

For kids, and adults alike: TED-ED

There are a fun series on math riddles.

There are a number of stories of mythology.

There is a compelling talk on "Big History" that has led to a high school free online syllabus called Big History Project,  to put human life in perspective.

In terms of exposure to perspectives that may not be your own, there are many personal stories with great ideas. It has been a vital part of my adult education. It has transcripts which make referral to it easy. It may lead you to the next great idea. It doesn't have a bibliography, and like wikipedia, works as a great start, but not to taken as the whole story.

TRILLIUM SEASON

May 8

May 11

PUZZLES AND FINDING GOLDILOCKS

I have solved 3 puzzles in the last month, and I have learned a lot! I don't remember trying a lot of puzzles on my own, and on the occasions that I did do them, they were usually a shared affair, often over a period of a holiday, and I was often the one obsessed to finish it late into the night.

My daughter didn't find puzzles interesting, so the most we ever did was 100 pieces, and that one of Pet Shops was probably finished by myself.

So I found some puzzles, none of which I even remember doing, and set them on an unused table, usually in front of the tv.

The first one was 500 pieces, and took me to Paris. It was a joy, and followed the rules I remember from the past. I started with the edge pieces, worked on the foreground with the most different items, and saved the building and sky pieces for later.

Paris with the wildest sky and  a beautiful breakfast

The next puzzle was so cute and complicated, and 1000 pieces, and I thought I was ready. I was wrong. It was not just a puzzle with double the pieces. I was not aware that the words "EuroGraphics" was about to change the whole approach I had to a puzzle. I hated every stupid piece, and yet I am glad to say I finished it. Not all edge pieces were obvious, and some pieces that looked like edges weren't. It was the first time that I couldn't start with a frame, to give it the right scale, and it often made me angry! The details kept me going though, with "1000" adorable cats, and a couple of surprises (at least one dog, one bunny and one duck!), and eventually I was able to move through like pieces, creating the colourful bits and finding their unique features to put them in order. Next came the faces, then tails, until I did have the edge in place, and bodies came together identified by the puzzle piece shape as much as the pattern.

Next, I started a puzzle of 750 pieces, not Eurographics. It was able to build the frame, match up the books with cute titles, collect the colourful balls of wool and crochet animals. I found the bottle of buttons distinctly blurred, and the black and gold box easy to pick out. The striped edge of the sewing box came together before I could start building the two cats, one like a Nancy Drew kitten, and the other like a playful Calico. This Buffalo puzzle came with a detailed photo inside, so I could match every wrinkle of the pink box. I built the knitting needles, and filled in the weave by shadow. Finally, I left the last pieces to do with Princess Pirate, and we uncovered the cats together by the piece shape until we were suddenly at the last piece!









I have enjoyed the process of building puzzles. I may never manage to complete a New York crossword puzzle, but I may be able to find puzzles to keep my mind challenged. And I now know that I want a puzzle with enough pieces, and not too little, but also not too difficult. Like Goldilocks (synonyms: optimal, sweet spot) and the three bears, I want not too much, not too little, but just right!

10 YEARS: FULL OF STARS AND FAMILIAR SCENARIOS

There are a lot of parallels to my 30th high school reunion, and more than a few clichés. Packed with familiar faces, and more than average success for an average high school, it was real and honest, and culminating in a beautiful song called "Never Had" by Oscar Isaac.

FREE SOLO

Honestly, I was afraid to watch this documentary. It was on my radar for a while, and despite knowing the spoiler that Alex survives his free solo climb Yosemite's El Capitaine, I was stressed every time I thought about it.

I think rock climbing is the most fun activity I have ever done, and more precious because it may be mostly in my past.  I am too heavy for my digits now that I have returned, and not close enough to the gym to properly train to overcome this. In the back of my mind, I remember an ortho resident saying that no one should ever climb, implying that your fingers pay the price.

A long time ago, when I first learned to climb, I was in Austria. I learned to top rope in the Alps, and the gym has always paled in comparison. I didn't know a lot of climbers over the years, but I have known a high school peer who died in the mountains of Washington, and an Austrian guide who fell to his (unfortunately slow) death in the Austrian Alps. These were enough of a reminder of the dangers of hiking in the mountains. I suspect both of these men were risk takers to a level I can never understand, but I also know that nature can always win, and I have a healthy respect for the perils of sport in the mountains.

So the idea of taking the pinnacle of rock climbing and attempting it without ropes, for any reason, frankly seemed insane! But I know of no other climber's name than Alex Honnold (although I never get his family name right!), so it seemed just a matter of time that I would watch this documentary.

So my brother made me an avatar with his Disney + account, and gave me access. In looking for it, I found a series by a Brit called Bear, who took Alex where he normally doesn't go. It was like an appetizer, and it gave me a taste for a careful personality, which was quite unexpected, given his habit of free climbing rock faces that I would fail with ropes.

So I waited until I had an evening without distraction, and last night I watched the film. My heart was pounding and my palms were sweating throughout, despite the opening scene foreshadowing his success. It was a fascinating look into his life, his girlfriend, and the climbing team around him who have to achieve the impossible task of recording the event without affecting its outcome.  "I hope it's a low gravity day," comments one of the climber photographers the morning he decides to climb. Like a dangerous game of Shroedinger's cat, they manage to capture his epic climb, sometimes without even watching!

It was incredible to watch, and even harder to imagine his daily dedication to the craft. The music was complimentary to his triumph, and the personality enriched by his entourage. He develops from a Tarzan like character, eating with the spatula out of his fry pan, into a houseowner and attentive boyfriend, all while recovering from climbing injuries, and going on to doing the most monumental climb of his life, and making history at the same time.

His work ethic reminded me of observations I have had in the mountains. I remember starting hikes and noting the folks coming down must have got off earlier that I could imagine. Where I would hit the peak at lunch, others were up and down in an hour at a run! Similarly, Alex was an hour into his incredible ropeless climb when another was just waking up on the wall (in a unicorn pyjama). He finished the entire rock face in less than 4 hours.

It is still hard to believe that he did such a thing. I hope it is enough. It is an inspiration of training and fitness and confidence. 8 years for 4 hours. Like an astronaut's training, Alex made himself ready, and left the ground that day knowing he had no alternative but to succeed.

"You face your fear because your goal demands it."
Alex Honnold

GARDENING

It's been a cool dry spring, and this has allowed me to do more gardening than ever before. Even after many years of identifying plants that I want to grow, and plants that I don't, I found myself puzzled by this one. Is it a weed or do I watch it grow?

In any case, it's easier to get into the yard with company, and although her interests veer from the lessons I had seen as a child, Princess Pirate and her trusty companion Calico had a lot of fun. This weeks project, making clay into mud!

We planted sprouting potatoes and onions, and can't wait for the mint to propogate. Already we have chives in every salad, and lemon thyme in our water!

Mystery tree

Gardener and helper

GRANDPA MEYERS, SASKATCHEWAN CHECKER CHAMPION 1952

I am not sure what years the reign of checker clubs spanned, but in the prairies, they were going strong in the 1950s. I am not sure who set up the tables, but they sure look nice, and I have to admire how nicely dressed up this group of men were, ostensibly for the excuse of male company!
Here is the Saskatchewan Checker Association "Tourney" players in Regina in 1952. My maternal grandfather was the winner, the short man that looks remarkably like male version of his daughter when I knew her, in front of the award plaque.

This is a picture of a photograph my grandma kept, which explains the "Youthful Pianist" title. What was in that clipping, I may never know!

SHE DID IT! I GOT A COVID HAIRCUT BY MY KID!

I get my haircut twice a year if I remember, which made me believe that the covid haircut issues others were having wouldn't happen to me. The problem in my logic was in the timing. Although I can go for a long time, I had already done so, and the ends of hair were driving me crazy.

I am a little bit proud that it only took two weeks to convince Princess Pirate to cut my hair! She was totally against it at first, but today she was so sick of me asking, that when I gave her a pair of scissors and the end of my ragged braid, she cut across like it was her idea!

So happy to be rid of the broken ends, and that PP realized that hair cutting was not a big deal! It can be fixed and grow back in most cases, and in the scheme of things, not as risky as she made it out initially to be.

This is the beauty of a teen with caution. They have flashes of impulsive boldness, and learn to be confident. What seems like another annoying task that her mother asks her to do is my parenting achievement of the day! Another step in self-assurance for her future independence!

RANDOMNESS

Today I was privileged to listen to my daughter’s math class by videoconferencing. She loves her teacher, and is excited to do the work most weeks. It seems to me that the curriculum in math is far advanced from what I was expected to know, with probability being the days lesson. Some of Princess Pirate's classes, like the volume of a rectangular prism, remind me of calculus in first year University; not middle school!

For the last few year, she and her friends have been calling things random, that are ENTIRELY predictable. As an obsessive, this has driven me a little NUTS at times. But today, listening to her class, I felt a little nostalgic. After many corrections of the meaning, and still using the word randomly improperly, it may be that she will learn and apply the meaning from today forward properly, and that will be the end of an era of innocence that quite foolishly I may miss.

WEEK TEN IN THE TIME OF COVID

I am having regular zoom meeting with the chicks, whatsapp meetings with the neighbours, and PP has a zoom account and regularly schedules an hour with a friend on the weekend days. Facetime works with my parents, but in all of them, there are delays that are hard to predict, and it's rarely perfect on both sides.
We talk about ped days and long weekends with a distanced nostalgia that seems surreal.
Our neighbours were going for a 15 minute 2m chat with a lawn chair down the street.
The day starts when we wake up. I do not miss the school week starting at 7 am at all.
We have lunch on the back patio every day.
We can hear a robin land before we see it. The birdsong is wonderful, and the trees are full of interesting buds that I never noticed before.
Cali has stopped ducking at the clouds when she is outside, and actually runs up willingly to get her collar on instead of avoiding it.
Covid admissions and ICU admissions are holding stable with cars back on the street. The number of cases never drop, but they aren't increasing either.
The skies are still quiet, with a prop plane being met with as much excitement as on Fantasy Island!
Animal club was a presentation of animal facts, with Brianne presenting on the true Lemming, PP on the extinct Guadaloupe Caracara, and my unicorn, Glitter, presenting on the Eastern Cottontail, a rabbit that lives in our yard!
We went out to chase the sunset, and found jack pines (2 needle bundles), a block long obstacle course in chalk, neighbours garbage picking for bikes, Venus and a few bright stars (?Pollux and Castor), and 3 bats!
School starts back tomorrow online, and PP is excited.
Elementary schools are NOT starting back after all. A friend in Education mentioned that they may need to use the high schools for elementary school kids to have enough space, and high school might be online next year.
Golf and tennis are opening, but the pool opening is still not clear. I am hope for lane swimming a few times a week, but we shall see.
Our street construction is to start tomorrow, and may go on until August.
PP made currant scones today, from turning on the oven to measuring and mixing the ingredients. I only formed the disc and cut the sticky dough into 8ths. She put it in and out of the oven, and they were delicious!
The trilliums are blooming and the beech trees burst open their leaves.
Every one of the tulips were bitten off, but the one (of 3) that pay homage to Herman at least survived to grace my table with a sunny yellow colour.
Mother's Day was my first all alone. I worked, and PP sent me a puzzle she had worked hard at. I had hoped to walk with her in the trilliums the next day, but she is concerned about going back and forth, in case I have COVID. I am grateful she comes every Friday she does, for a full myriad of reasons.
Screening at work was of everyone, since a resident tested positive and worked the days before. I was negative, now my second screen, this time without symptoms. My nasal congestion responds to antihistamines, was present since March 6th on returning home from Idaho, and is getting better.
Two Sikh brothers shaved their beards (one of five sacred tenents of their religion) so that they could be finally fitted for N95 masks. Smoking HCWs are not distancing, and the arrival of free food seems to be received with pre-Covid enthusiasm, even when sharing seems like Russian Roulette.
We planted sprouting onions and potatoes, pepper and apple seed, and are eating chives on everything. Lemon thyme is more decorative than tasty in water, but the mint and oregano are showing promise.
There are ants under every stone we have to turn up, and pansies all along the fence in the back yard.
Our neighbour John has squirrels directly going into his attic through a hole in the back of his house, and he mistakenly believes that the neighbour that helped him get the tree off his roof caused it to fall over. He still seems in relatively good health, and gets his own groceries delivered, but his paranoid delusions and memory are definitely worsening.
Libraries are supposed to be opening next week for books placed on hold. Their advice is not to touch them for 5 days.
British Bakeoff Season Nine is a current favourite.
A Buffalo 1000 piece puzzle with normal pieces and a calico and a tabby cat was completed with pleasure.
A trip to Wales and Greece are on the bucket list.
PP told an amazing version of Percy from Rick Riordan's Greek Heroes book.
A book I have searched for since Grade 3, To Nowhere and back, came and PP dove right in!

CANADA'S FIVE RABBIT AND HARE SPECIES

1. Artic hare
2. Snowshoe hare
3. White-tailed jackrabbit (a misnomer, as my dad pointed out: it is not a rabbit, but a hare)
4. Mountain or Nuttall's cottontail
5. Eastern cottontail

According to Cottage life, there are five rabbit and hare species in the wilds of Canada.

I grew up with the white-tailed jackrabbit, and probably both cottontails in Saskatchewan. I don't remember them being in the city until I moved away from Regina, but when I visit, I have often seen the odd image of jackrabbits on pavement. There are probably still cottontails (deceptively named Mountain cottontail or Eastern cottontails both live there), but I only see them visiting the prairies in the wild. I suspect that they are likely surviving as anthromorphs also, but I haven't got confirmation on that. The Mountain cottontails have distinct black lines on their ear tips and face, with a white grey puffy tail to warrant its name.

There are artic hares and snowshoe hares, but I have only seen those in zoos, presumably injured or orphaned, or maybe, less happily, but legally bred.

The Eastern cottontail is the one living in my back yard here in the suburbs of Montreal.

My unicorn Glitter has been tasked to researching a rabbit, so here goes:

scientific name (thanks wikipedia!) Sylvilagus floridanus
genus Sylvilagus
family Leporidae

5 - 10 fun facts
1. Eastern cottontails are from the New World, and now can be found from the Island of Vancouver (so, Western Canada) down through North America to Central America and as far as northern South America and several Caribbean Islands.
2. Despite a low annual adult survival rate of 20% (it is prey after all!), it is an animal of least concern for extinction.
3. Martin and Adle found a nest in their lawn that looked like a massive furball. They mowed around it for weeks, until the babies were able to go off on their own, at about 7 weeks old. Each day the young were left, but the mother came back to the nest every day.
4. Pygmy rabbits are its closest relative.
5. Peter Cottontail was written by a Massachusetts author, where Eastern and New England cottontails abound.
6. A cottontail's average lifespan is 18 months.

ecosystem pyramid it is part of
cats/dogs/foxes/coyote/bobcat/weasels/raccoon/mink/great horned owl/barred owl/ hawks/corvids/snakes
eastern cottontail
trees/seeds/flowers/fruits/bluegrass/clover/ragweed/dandelion

what it eats
anything your garden with grow, but except for a few accidental arthropods, they are vegetarian

its range
They live in the same home range their entire lifetime, and it is roughly circular. It can shift in response to weather and vegetation.

what type of habitat is its home? (photo)
They like underground burrows, but inhabit those built by others, like groundhogs.

photo of creature

is it a land, water or air creature?
land

its cousin
the hare
its prehistoric ancestors
https://www.livescience.com/2381-fossil-oldest-rabbit-relative.html

GROUND HOG DAY, AGAIN

I recently watched the 1993 film Groundhog Day on the CTV app, and it had a lot of parallels to the self-isolation most of us are living right now. I suspect they made it available for February 2nd, and I honestly was just looking for some entertainment while in the throes of a 750 piece puzzle. I also have seen a groundhog while walking around the neighbourhood in different places recently, and remembered the film fondly.

Bill Murray plays a weatherman named Phil with a new producer Rita played by Andie MacDowell. He is antisocial and self absorbed, but good at his job. The premise is a great one. He goes to Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania to report the traditional spring prediction of their groundhog, also named Phil, and finds himself in a snow storm that he predicted he would miss. When he wakes up the next morning, it's Ground Hog day again and again and again, marked by the radio playing Sonnie and Cher singing "I've Got You, Babe".

I have many times thought about the film, and referenced Ground Hog day as a more familiar way to refer to Deja Vu. Its relevance to COVID quarantine is even truer. One day looks a lot like the rest for many people. With no travel, no social events, the days are blurring together as the weeks pass. It is an interesting parallel to our lives these days, as the story really reminds us that our day is what we make of it, and what are you going to do today, since you can't plan for tomorrow.

I thought it was really clever how the writers walked us through Phil's stages of grief:
Denial and isolation
Anger
Bargaining
Acceptance

It was interesting to reflect on my complete belief in two major premises that still held up. First, that this could ever happen, and yet it is the easiest thing to accept. Second, that an opportunistic cad like Phil would truly transform into a good man. It seems possible given enough time, and maybe the key was that Rita would only meet him first that day, so she wouldn't have a former version in memory to refute his true character. If I had any further criticism, it would be that I found Rita's character sadly lacking, and would have liked for her to have some primary role. Also, I hope the film doesn't increase the stress on a lovely animal that is always held up helplessly in a huddle of black clad men like Simba in the Lion King, in a misguided attempt to make sacred what is not.

I enjoyed rewatching Groundhog Day a lot, and will continue to live each day in the best way possible, one day a time.

FEELING FRIDAYS

WEEK NINE IN THE TIME OF COVID

Signs of spring - birdwatching, geese returning, Forsythia blooming, tulips pushing, ground hog grazing, trout lillies blooming

Snow falling on waking, melted in minutes

11 1/2 hour sleep

Easter candy

Scattegories on video chat with family - used our own list including tough categories (marsupials, tidal pool creatures)- surprisingly easy to think you are doing well while using the wrong letter!

Calico shedding

Dress-up for 12 minutes at school locker cleanout

Google hangout

Math zoom

No homework this week

Cleanup behind cabana with mud work

Gardening

Animal website updates

Animal club meeting at cat rock too cold - indoors

The Great British Bake off

Lions in Trees (sad ending, Disney)

Beowulf A New Retelling (read together, initially with complaint, then begging to continue)

Bathing for an hour - every toy left

Clean up desk and dresser - never-ending pile in a rubbermaid container

A little lego

A lot of Brianne teaching and dresser

Panache homework (mom)

Snowbirds from a distance

Terra Cotta hikes

Front yard chats

Late night bed times (10-10:15)

Eye rolling

Ready for announcement back to school May 18th

Having your 14 year old home without school or homework or pool or playdates or activities: PRICELESS

EXPLORERS AND APPROPRIATION

I will never forget the day that I left the children's hospital and entered the park in front that contained the Atwater metro station. I stopped abruptly in front of a statue and my world view widened. There stood a name I knew from grade school, but in a form I had never seen before: Giovanni Caboto.

I had learned, from an anglo Canadian perspective, that my education was off. The textbook I was taught from had Christopher Columbus as the first person to "discover" North America (In 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue, my dad would say), and John Cabot discovered Canada. I believed him to be English, and indeed he claimed Newfoundland and, by proxy, Canada, for Henry the VII of England.

I remember explorers named named Lewis and Clark.

I had also learned, in my travels across Canada, and some Scandavian pride instilled by the Persson's who came from Stockholm, Saskatchewan that this was preceded by a far earlier landing by Norseman Lief Erikson.

I believe I even knew that the French celebrated Jacques Cartier, who made it inland in 1534, and Samuel de Champlain with his founding the first North American city, the city of Quebec, in 1608.

But my world was altered to translate the Latin looking name (I hadn't studied much Italian, but Mozart's Don Giovanni was a familiar name from the thrilling Opera that bears his name) into the explorer I remembered as English. As it turns out, Italians were exploring the world under all sorts of flags, not least their powerful coastal city states far before the country was united under one king.

So John Cabot, now and forever, Giovanni Caboto, an Italian from maybe Genoa, maybe Venice, sailed for England and marked the start of Canada as seen by it's occupiers for over 500 years. How easy it is to reduce history, and the history of one man, or one country, to the simpliest, but least true and probably least interesting story for the sake of a soundbite in a social studies class, before soundbites were even a thing!

For a nice table and more details, see this excellent wikipedia article.

WHEN YOU RUN OUT OF MILK, DO YOU SUBSTITUTE?

Scalloped potatoes without milk

We had potatoes and onions, and no milk. I found a recipe for dairy free scalloped potatoes, and made a few adjustments (the onion was going to be a lot even at half measure for my audience), and an accompanying side of tuna bites (recipe here).

A few mistakes to review:
Like trying to replace a meat dish with a veggie one, it is hard not to disappoint.
The potatoes were cooked to perfection, but the flavour was plenty of onion, but not of much else but oil. Some feta and pepper made it edible, but for a couple hour venture, I would wait until I had milk again. Maybe broth would have helped. I think I would have preferred mashed potatoes with margarine!

As to the tuna bites, they were too homogeneous, and cooked to a tough shell texture that could have been avoided had I just used fresh bread crumbs. I had crust that were quite moist that I processed, and just added the rest of the ingredients, and over-processed. I would leave the tuna chunks and add the crumbs to fold in. Still, no complaints were heard except in my head.

Breakfast was also a one time deal, but if you every want to go to a carnival without living your house, it was sweet enough to rival the freshest donuts. I tried a recipe called Louisiana French Toast (Pain Perdu). I halved the sugar, and it was still too sweet for Princess Pirate. Maybe if I run out of maple syrup and milk next time.

COVID DIVERSIONS

Puzzles of places I have been

Exercise in my living room without witnesses

Renovation projects

Wellness committee bulletin board

Easter hunts, decorations, stories, and crafts

Long baths with visitors

Lego lands

Following my favourite artists

Reading books I forgot I had

Jean Paul Lemieux

Trying my hand at the creative arts

John William Waterhouse's Lady of Shalott

Some props

Channeling Anne with her bosom buddy taking the photo (modern version!)

MY MORNING SMOOTHIE IS SLATE GREY

RECIPE FOR HOME
1 ripe banana
1 chilled apple
2 cups fresh spinach
1/2 inch raw ginger
1/2 cup frozen blueberries
1 cup soya milk
1 T hemp hearts

I love a good smoothie, and I am always amazed how easy it is to get your daily fibre.  Today, I was very pleased with  the ingredients. Not so impressed with the colour result. You won't see this on in a smoothie shop near you, but it was still delicious!

2020 YEAR IN REVIEW

Looking back, I am to the year's photos, I am considering naming this an Annus Horribulis. Here's why:

These are the pictures in evidence:

My fitbit broke and I am at a record weight of 156 lbs!

Her classmate inspired this picture with a concussion that kept him out of school

The birthday party in January was ice, not snow.

I bought new skates to replace my daughter's old ones, and she never ended up using them once. I got the hours wrong, forgot they don't come sharpened, even when her friend invited her to go skating, they ended up drawing because it was too cold outside!

New Year's was celebrated with 4 days of fever, likely influenza

When we finally got snow, they closed the ski hills because of this century's pandemic, COVID 19.

I was working when the world topped up on toilet paper, so I had to consider all my options.

I stubbed my toe and didn't realize how bad it was until I lost my toenail, and the one underneath was half the size.

School's out, but so are parks, libraries, pools, skating rinks, playgrounds.

We are living in the epicenter of the COVID19 spread in Canada

My friend was a flurry of activity, but I had to tell her that cloth masks weren't going to replace the mask I needed to wear at work to stay safe.