deck of cards song

Just thinking of this song that I love so much. I'm not much interested in cowboys or soldiers, but this explanation of a deck of cards is worth remembering. Hope you enjoy it.

Missed February! Already we're in the second week of March!

Oh dear!  Where does the time go?  February is already a blur.  The weather has been most unVancouver-like.  Snow!  Repeated snow days.  Snow lasting for days on end.  At last the rain has returned, and the temperature is almost spring-like.  Almost.  Not yet. 

So what have I done with my month-and-a-half of nonBlogging?

 Monday mornings are filled with  sandwich-making followed by noontime Mass at the cathedral.  Then in the evenings, it's Welsh class.  I've started a Welsh study group. Initially it was to be once a month, but then it was confusing as to which Monday night it would be.  So, I've increased it to "the Monday after Welsh class"--but February Mondays were filled with other events at the Welsh Hall, so we haven't had a study group since the first one.  Best laid plans....  So, next Monday evening should be our second study session.

Tuesday & Thursday mornings are spent volunteering at the elementary school and afternoons at UBC studying creative writing.  An hour and a half at school, an hour and a half on the bus, an hour and a half in the university classroom.  I get home about 3:30 or so, and am exhausted.

Wednesdays and Fridays are more or less free, as is Saturday most of the time.  (Friday evenings it's
back to the Welsh Hall for choir practice.)

March is shaping up to be much the same so far.  See next entry, I guess.

September 2013 review

It's been a month.  The summer is passing so quickly--but it's not quite over yet.  Today, the weather is very hot, sunny, and I'm indoors as usual.  The garden is looking very neglected, as well it should as I haven't been near it in about a month.
I have been writing, but not as much as I should.  Not if I'm really a writer, as I claim to be.  Still, I haven't quit yet. 
So what have I been doing?  Aside from watching TV and playing Scrabble on facebook? 
Hubby & I have been studying Welsh, and singing with the Cambrian Circle Singers.  We've joined the Richard III Society (more on that later, probably). And we've sponsored a 14-year-old girl in Ecuador.  Her name is Ivonne, and she likes foreign languages and playing soccer.  More about her later, too, I hope.  I've sent her an email, but it has to go through the office in Ecuador to be translated and taken to her.  I hope we can correspond better than I have done with previously sponsored children.  This one is through World Vision, my favourite charity.

2010 in review

I know.  I never keep resolutions, and neither does anyone else that I know.  However, it's interesting to look back and see what my goals were and whether or not I actually achieved any.  And what goals I want to achieve this year. 
Apparently in 2009 I had some that were worth setting for 2010.  I even had some measures of success.  The health one, diet and exercise, is the toughest of all because I hate "going for a walk" unless I have some place to go.  And if I have some place to go, then taking the car seems the logical thing to do.  Gotta change that somehow because I really am overweight and need to take better care of myself.
Resolutions: Music--I wanted to practise the organ daily in 2009.  Didn't do it.  So for 2010, I aimed for weekly.  Didn't do it.  Maybe once in a while in 2011?  That might be achievable.
Reading--I wanted to track it and keep notes.  I have started that, but this year I want to do it on my blog.  Yes.  Right here.  I wanted to finish the last two books of Harry Potter--did that, and saw the first part of the last book movie a couple of weeks ago. Can't wait for the next one!  Will be so sorry to be finished them, though.  Wanted to reread Anne of Green Gables.  Did that.  And, read kcdyer's Mrs. Zephyr's Notebook.  Still reading the Anne Perry mysteries as relaxation reading.  Writing:  didn't do nanowrimo this year (it "would be nice to do") but instead I attempted Script Frenzy and my play, The Wolf and the Saint, was the result.  My historical juvenile novel bounced back again so slowly that I thought it was just chucked out of the slushpile.  Not so.  That publisher, Lorimer, wrote me a very nice letter suggesting I write something for their young adult readers.  I've been working on a couple of ideas for that, but it's been very slow going.  That novel is now with Coteau Books in Saskatchewan.  Still typing with crossed fingers!  Articles published have been in suite 101 and squidoo.  Some progress there, I guess.

Silent Night

Here's a rendition of this carol that you've never heard or seen before.  It takes about 10 minutes, but is worth every second. Silent Night
Relax and think about what Christmas is really all about.  Peace and Joy to you and your loved ones, wherever you and they are.

music at the cathedral

Taking a day off from the category thing.  (I just wrote a long entry and suddenly the computer bumped me off and the whole thing got lost.  I think.  So if this comes up twice, it's because I've had to write it twice.)  Anyway, as I was saying before I got bumped:  We started attending Christ Church Cathedral in Vancouver on the first Sunday in September.  One of the most remarkable features I loved about the place was the wonderful music.  Each week I thought, "This is as good as it gets.  They could never top today's music."  Yet each week, it seems to get better and better.  Today, the music was by the Vancouver Children's Choir and the Women of the Cathedral Choir.  There was so much I could comment on, but the most amazing piece was by a boy soprano (who reached top notes effortlessly, like a chiming bell), singing "Pie Jesu" from Requiem by Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber.  During the Eucharist, the children sang "In Flanders Fields".  It was in no way like a concert.  The children were heard but not seen, up in the choir loft behind the congregation, with the organ.  The women's voices came from the chancel behind the free standing altar.  Surely, they'll never top this!

category #1 Faith & Franciscans

It's Sunday evening, and it seems appropriate to start this new style of blogging with category #1, tag "a".  As that would be the first part of my Rule, then it's Eucharist.  Today I did something quite unAnglican: I took communion twice.  I guess it's all right, though, because it was two different communities.  An Anglican priest once told me that it was okay as long as the two communities were distinct.  So, this morning it was with the regular congregation of the Cathedral, my new parish.  Then this afternoon, although it was again in the Cathedral, and many of the people were the same as in the morning, most of the people were from other parishes.  It was an induction ceremony for the Order of New Westminster, a new honour that the Anglican Church in this diocese can bestow on extraordinary people who have given outstanding service to the Church and Community.  Several of the honorees were in their nineties!  I knew about half a dozen of them, out of a total of 45 people. 
Some of you will remember that I left my previous parish at the end of August for very painful reasons.  Now I have to say that the Cathedral is the best possible cushion to land on.  The services are all beautiful, the music is uplifting, the surroundings are bright and cheerful, and the people are very welcoming and friendly.  It doesn't get any better than this.

resolutions for 2010

This is a follow-up to two previous blogs: the one about reviewing 2009 and how I blew those resolutions, and the one with advice from the Guide to Literary Agents blogs.
So, dealing with the resolutions I couldn't keep this past year, how can I revive them in such a way as to make them more achievable? (After all, they must be worthwhile, if I tried to commit to them last year.) First: music--Maybe practising the organ every day is unreasonable. But maybe I can try to do a little once a week? How about a weekend "date" with the organ, either Saturday or Sunday or, if I miss those then any other day to make up for it? Let's try that. Second: reading--I wanted to track my reading, ie, take notes on titles and authors and other comments on each book I read. Rather off-putting, isn't it? How about just plain reading. Maybe I could note title and author of the books I especially want to remember. Last year I read the last two books in the Harry Potter series, and reread Anne of Green Gables, and a book by kc dyer titled Ms Zephyr's Notebook, and...some others...including at least one Anne Perry mystery. So, just because I didn't track them doesn't mean I didn't read anything worthwhile. The ones mentioned here were definitely all worthwhile. I could make plans to read particular books next year, but I'd rather not commit to that. Besides the books I've mentioned, I also do quite a lot of research reading. They do get tracked in my bibliography lists for whatever I'm planning to write. The third resolution has to do with writing, which, curiously, was not in last year's resolutions! One of the accomplishments was being a "winner" in NANOWRIMO. It would be nice to do that again! Resolution? No--just "would be nice to do that again". I also had a story published, and that wasn't even a resolution. It was a short story in an anthology: "The Fire" in Below the Canopy published by Polar Bear Expressions. But my middle-grade historical novel, Angels in the Flames, was rejected by two publishers: TouchWood Editions and Moose Enterprise. Can't send it out again until January (ie, a few days away), so I'm going through the manuscript to tweek it a little more. So, for 2010? Obviously, I'd like to get that PUBLISHED. And I should have one (or two) books to go to publishers before December 31, 2010. And some articles published. I wonder if I can have a web page by then? Good goal to strive for. And I think that's enough.

2009 in review, sort of

It's Christmas Eve, and quite different from last year! Thank God! No snow this year, so we'll be able to go to Midnight Mass. At 10pm, it's a bit early for Midnight, but that's okay. And today is a bit early to think of the end of the year 2009, by about a week.
I looked at last year's blogs for this time of year and was reminded of having to miss Mass. Also reminded of my resolutions!!! hahaha! (or should that be, hohoho?) I was supposed to practise the organ every day. Don't remember the last time I even touched the organ! Also, I was supposed to track my reading. Didn't do that, either! BUT...I have brought music back into my life, even to the extent of volunteering to sing with the St. Thomas choir at the seniors' home last Sunday. (I had actually given up all singing, and even listening to music, for a couple of years, because it made me cry. Over that now--for the most part.) As for the reading part, I've done more reading this year, I think. But no tracking of it. It might be useful. Anyway, I have a week to think about new New Year's resolutions, and I'm pretty sure they'll be different this year. That organ practice seems like a good idea, though.