An Afternoon Outing at Christmas

The Regina Newcomers group meets for lunch or dinner every month. But December’s luncheon is a more festive. Casual dress is replaced by dress up gilded casual. We met at the Saskatchewan Hotel - two tables of laughing, welcoming women, including several new members. I’ve been on hiatus from many of our activities, so was glad to see so many friends that welcomed me back to Regina in 2020. We each had tickets for the gifts that were handed out ~ mine was a bag of Indonesian Cappuccino candies! I didn’t see all of the others except a beautiful Christmas angel ornament, a bookmark and other sweet gifts. The menu satisfied and the food was delicious. It almost seemed an aside to this fun social gathering of strong women. 

“Being a strong woman is very important to me. 

But doing it all on my own is not.”

~ Reba McEntire

An Open Hand

Just a few words open 

the story of flowers, 

petals spread to become 

beautiful blossoms.

Just a few words open 

the story of humanity, 

years and decades reveal 

where our journey began.

Just a few words open 

this same story to reveal 

our travels as humanity 

traveled on this earth

Just a few words open 

the story of flowers, 

petals spread to become 

beautiful blossoms.

“We cannot despair of humanity, since we ourselves are human beings.”

~ Albert Einstein

An Evening Out

A screen shot from a previous event in B.C.

Last evening, I enjoyed dinner at the Casino Restaurant and took in the show at Casino Regina featuring Jake Vaadeland and the Sturgeon River Boys. I was in the company of an Epilepsy group, some I had never met and some I knew from the 1980’s. 

Jake Vaadeland and the Sturgeon River Boys are a Saskatchewan group that tour throughout Canada and Internationally. Rockabilly and Blue Grass music is the signature music of these dedicated musicians. Guitar, banjo and a base cello kept audience clapping and me tapping my toes. Humour and banter carried the evening in conversation with the audience. Old classics and new tunes were played with enthusiasm, with several of them written by Jake Vaadeland. Their encore was a medley of their talent and love of music. 

“Life and love go on, let the music play.”

~ Johnny Cash

Author's note: the one photograph I took was not successful, thus my use of the above screen shot. They do need to be recognized.

Re-Post ~ Christmas Eve is Special

From December 21, 2013: edited

Christmas Eve is Special

“Debt dispersion! Financial literacy! Hmmph!  Just fancy words for how not to get into debt.”

Hugh sat by his fireplace, warming the chill of the winter outside away. Reading the Globe and Mail Business Section was always of interest unless he had just come in from shopping. Which he had. “My money has definitely been dispersed and I know my debt has increased. I wonder if that makes me financially literate or completely illiterate. I don’t know if even half of this stuff I bought for the kids will still be in one piece by New Years.”

All around his feet were wrapped Christmas presents. He donated generously to the volunteer gift wrappers in the mall each year for very selfish reasons - he had always hated wrapping more than one present. On the kitchen cupboard were groceries for Christmas dinner tomorrow. Hugh always left his shopping til Christmas Eve which meant that he had been out all day. Cat, his old grey kitty - he didn’t see any reason for fancy names - was yowling accusingly at the back door when he got home. 

He sighed and put his head back and closed his eyes.  Cat jumped on his lap, crumpling the newspaper, and curled up purring furiously. They were all each other had most days, but tomorrow the house would be alive and full with noise and laughter. The kitchen would steam with cooking turkey, yams and mashed potatoes. But that was tomorrow when his son and daughter and both of their families arrived for Christmas dinner. He looked so forward to seeing his grandchildren. They were the light of his life. Even though he saw them regularly throughout the year, Christmas Day was especially fun and fulfilling.

He picked up the silver framed photograph that sat by his chair by the fire.  He so missed his wife, especially so on Christmas Eve. Once their children had moved out and on with their lives, they had made Christmas Eve a special time. Hugh heaved himself out of his chair, unceremoniously dumping Cat to the floor. She ignored his abrupt interruption of her nap, and jumped back into the chair as soon as Hugh was up and away. Hugh made his way to the kitchen,  made sure all the food was put away and took a chilled bottle of sparkling grape from the bulging refrigerator. Two crystal goblets were waiting on the counter. Hugh eased the deep purple beverage into each glass, picked them up and returned to the living room. Setting his dear, dear Sarah’s picture on the mantel, and a goblet beside it, he held his high in toast to her. The fire crackled and sparked. The very tiniest of tear edged the corner of his eye. Hugh turned away quickly to the old turntable by the china cabinet. 

“You know the kids want me to get rid of this relic? I told them I always needed it for Christmas Eve. They just rolled their eyes.” 

Mellow notes from Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra singing Christmas carols filled the empty spaces in the room. Windows black and glittering from street lamps turned on, the living room was lit with soft firelight, the Christmas tree and the reading lamp. Moving Cat aside, Hugh settled in his chair with his glass, holding Sarah’s picture gently to his chest. Murmuring, ‘I miss you my lovely Sarah’ Hugh fell asleep to dream of other Christmas Eve dances with his precious wife. 

The record ended in a round and round hum. Hugh slowly opened his eyes to the reality of his life. The fire had burned out. Cat was scratching at the back door to get let out. Standing and stretching, Hugh placed Sarah’s picture back on the mantle and took their glasses back to the kitchen only one empty.

“Come on, Cat. Let’s get you out and back in so we can close up and go to bed.”

“Which one of us has never felt, walking through the twilight or writing 

down a date from his past, that he has lost something infinite?

~ Jorge Luis Borges

Yet to Be

The Christmas tree stood silent

Twinkling lights had all been lit

A decoration hung all alone 

on a grand old Christmas tree.

It waited for all the glitter and stars

from bulging boxes and bags ~

last years memories wrapped carefully, tucked and stored away.

“Always, the path unwinds through lemony sun pools and pitch vine tunnels.”

~ Truman Capote, A Christmas Memory

Book Review: The Beautiful Mystery by Louise Penny

Author’s note: This mystery novel is indeed beautiful. I reread it again this year while working on a project. Needing a refresher for my over worked brain and a different puzzle to solve I choose this book at random. Having run out of time and inspiration, I turned to a second repost of this novel by Louise Penny.

~~~~~

It’s been ten years since I read The Beautiful Mystery by Louise Penny. Fortunately, I’ve read a lot of books in those ten years. The mystery was just as fascinating now as it was then. Even more so! It began centuries before when far away monks had resurrected Plainchant in their music. The written works were disputed and findings suppressed by the Church. Most monasteries had their own books of the beautiful music of Plainchant, but where was the original. 

Being ferried across a quiet lake to a monastery hidden deep in a Québec forest begins another mystery. The boatman was sceptical about all the equipment that Inspector Gamache and Jean-Guy Beauvoir brought with them when he knew that no one was ever admitted to the abbey of Saint-Gilbert-Entre-les-Loups. Twenty four monks lived within its stone walls constructed by monks escaping the Inquisition centuries before. Behind the heavy oaken door of the monastery was a murder. The musical director and prior, Frére Mathieu, had been found in the abbot’s garden. The abbott recognized the significance of Frére Mathieu’s brutal death and contacted the police. Gamache knew they would be admitted and over the next days investigated all the suspects. All the monks. Gamache and Beauvoir, his second in command and trusted colleague, studied the monastery, looked at plans, attended services, ate with the monks and found the fracture in the community. Only one person interrupted the investigation - the Chief Superintendent of the Surête, Sylvain Francoeur. He arrived unannounced with his own agenda. The friction between Gamache and Francoeur was an old one and was not resolved but escalated. The mystery of the Monastery was solved, but the old friction between Gamache and Francoeur remained. In reading my review of 2014, some members of my book club were unhappy with the book’s ending. I thought some characters were unnecessary, but at this reading I disagree. Each character had his place in the mystery. I have included that review on this post.

I hope to read many more of Louise Penny’s books, several that are on my bookshelves and the many others in the Inspector Gamache series. This re-read held me fast as the Louise Penny told me the history of Plainchants and the monastery, led me down solid stone halls of the monastery, showed me the beautiful music of Plainchants, and the architecture that allowed dancing prisms of light to float through the high windows. 

~~~~~

Review from January 14, 2014

A brutal murder occurs. In a beautiful old monastery deep in Québec.  Not just any monastery, but a closed monastery with a vow of silence. Silence was only broken during services when Gregorian chants were sung. It is in the music that the mystery develops. Chief Inspector Armand Gamache and Inspector Jean-Guy Beauvoir of the Surête du Quebec unravel this mystery. They have come out of their usual community of Three Pines, with completely new characters. The monks and their lives are completely foreign to the two officers, especially to Inspector Beauvoir.

Not all of our book group members were completely pleased with Louise Penny’s novel, missing the characters from Three Pines. A first reader of Louise Penny, the concept of a murder in a monastery was fascinating. Openings to a solution appear and then disappear in the twists and turns that follow the halls and rooms of the old monastery. And, although certain characters seemed unnecessary, I enjoyed this Beautiful Mystery.

“To be honest, the only thing I ever really wanted to be 

was a writer - since I read “Charlotte’s Web” as a child.”

~ Louise Penny

Title: The Beautiful Mystery

Author: Louise Penny

Copyright: 2012

Publisher: Three Pines Creations Inc.

Type: Mystery fiction

Format: Soft Cover

ISBN - 978-0-312-65546-4 (hard cover)

ISBN - 978-1-250-01527-3 (ebook)

ISBN - 978-1-250-03112 (trade paperback)

Know One Truth

There is no one truth about family 

only the truth from the height of a 

5 year old or a 12 year old with the

wisdom that has come of that age. 

Sisters and brothers are always part 

of it, unless you’re an only child 

but then there are cousins that extend 

like arms to play and share the secrets 

that they believe about their parents. There is no one truth about family. It 

wavers and changes as we grow, trying to keep us as the children we were, so we still know the truth about our family. 

“Other things may change us, but we start and end with family.”

~ Anthony Brandt