Sunday, October 23, 2005
Halloween is coming ...
Yes indeed - Halloween is just around the corner (coinciding, I believe, with the changing of the clocks - boo!!). Anyway, given today's weather, you certainly wouldn't have pegged this for a late October day. This time last year, it was pretty baltic - we'd had snow that had to be shovelled off the drive, and every living green thing was pretty much brown and crispy. Today, we had bright blue skies and temperatures reaching about 20 degrees C - and yes, that is PLUS 20 degrees C. Long may it last. However, I did find myself looking rather critically at the grass this morning, wondering whether it should be cut... I then told myself that it would be better for its long term health if it was left slightly longer. Laziness will always find a good excuse.
Funny sort of a day today- got up, ate breakfast, made curry for dinner, made several pumpkin lanterns and then helped a friend move about 50 boxes of books that she had stored in our basement in to her new house.
So what's with the pumpkin lanterns... ? Halloween is taken pretty seriously here in Canada, and unlike home, we don't get children wandering around the streets doing 'trick or treat' for about 3 weeks before the big night. Nor do we get children expecting every householder to give them money. Everything is done on Halloween night itself; children get dressed up and go around the neighbourhood in groups (or with their parents if they're small) asking for 'candy', or collecting for organised charities (with collection boxes, certificates of authenticity, collectors badges etc - so you're pretty sure you're not getting scammed!). Isn't it awful to be so cynical...?
Anyway, as its a pretty big thing, lots of people decorate their houses, and there's a big pumpkin theme. If you're not keen on having real pumpkins lying around the place, you can buy large orange plastic bags (called 'leaf bags') that have scary faces on... you can stuff them (with leaves if you have any, I suppose), and dot them about your garden. Other people fill little orange bags with scary faces on and then tie them to long pieces of string and drape them around trees. Having been to the market yesterday, it was fairly obvious where people were getting their pumpkin inspiration from...
Outdoor pumpkins...
Indoor pumpkins...
Pumpkins in a box...
By the way, the pumpkin sellers are still trying to raffle off their monster pumpkin, but I'm not sure that winning the pumpkin would be a good prize! In fact, we heard one lady saying that she really would rather not win it, as she wasn't sure she could actually manage to use all of the insides. There's only so much pumpkin pie a person can make...
Anyway, being visually assaulted by so many pumpkins, nothing would do but we would have to buy a couple and have a go at carving...
So here is the goof's guide to making pumpkin lanterns...
First assemble your tools - sharp knives, gutting tool, spoon and tealight ... (you also need a felt-tip pen for drawing your design before you cut it out, but the pen didn't make it into the picture). Small children will need to be supervised!! (That's a very un-Albertan thing to say - in Alberta, the attitude would be that if you didn't know that children should be supervised in the use of sharp implements, then you're too stupid to be in charge of small children!!)
First you have to cut out a lid...insert sharp knife at about 45 degrees and cut around carefully...
Then take the lid off to expose the pumpkin's insides...
This is where we got a bit confused because we thought it would be pretty solid inside, just like a butternut squash. But as you can see, its all just orange fibrous stuff and seeds...
This stuff all has to come out (referred to by Mr White as pumpkin gutting - in the true spirit of Halloween!!)...
And the result of pumpkin gutting...
This is what a cleaned out pumpkin looks like...
Once you get to this stage, you can then sketch out a design. We decided to stick with the traditional approach, and make a face. Fancy websites suggest that you can carve bat shapes, or skeletons, but we figured that we beginners should keep it all fairly simple...This is Mr White's design...
And if you follow that master plan - this is what you get! Pretty good, eh?
So, we had three pumpkins, and this is what we got...
And here is how they look in their full glory!
By the way, the answer to last week's question about the broom nailed to several other pieces of wood in next door's front garden - it has been turned into a Halloween scarecrow! Thanks to dad who suggested that the contraption was simply a way of being able to find the brush when we got several feet of snow! Please note the fluorescent green bats in the window, and the very cool skeleton (which I think is made of big 4 litre milk containers ...
And on a final note (back to weather as always), here is the reason for the rather warm weather - this is our very own Chinook arch...bringing warm air all the way from the Pacific Ocean...
So on that note, better go and see how the curry is looking.
More later...
P
(0) comments
Funny sort of a day today- got up, ate breakfast, made curry for dinner, made several pumpkin lanterns and then helped a friend move about 50 boxes of books that she had stored in our basement in to her new house.
So what's with the pumpkin lanterns... ? Halloween is taken pretty seriously here in Canada, and unlike home, we don't get children wandering around the streets doing 'trick or treat' for about 3 weeks before the big night. Nor do we get children expecting every householder to give them money. Everything is done on Halloween night itself; children get dressed up and go around the neighbourhood in groups (or with their parents if they're small) asking for 'candy', or collecting for organised charities (with collection boxes, certificates of authenticity, collectors badges etc - so you're pretty sure you're not getting scammed!). Isn't it awful to be so cynical...?
Anyway, as its a pretty big thing, lots of people decorate their houses, and there's a big pumpkin theme. If you're not keen on having real pumpkins lying around the place, you can buy large orange plastic bags (called 'leaf bags') that have scary faces on... you can stuff them (with leaves if you have any, I suppose), and dot them about your garden. Other people fill little orange bags with scary faces on and then tie them to long pieces of string and drape them around trees. Having been to the market yesterday, it was fairly obvious where people were getting their pumpkin inspiration from...
Outdoor pumpkins...
Indoor pumpkins...
Pumpkins in a box...
By the way, the pumpkin sellers are still trying to raffle off their monster pumpkin, but I'm not sure that winning the pumpkin would be a good prize! In fact, we heard one lady saying that she really would rather not win it, as she wasn't sure she could actually manage to use all of the insides. There's only so much pumpkin pie a person can make...
Anyway, being visually assaulted by so many pumpkins, nothing would do but we would have to buy a couple and have a go at carving...
So here is the goof's guide to making pumpkin lanterns...
First assemble your tools - sharp knives, gutting tool, spoon and tealight ... (you also need a felt-tip pen for drawing your design before you cut it out, but the pen didn't make it into the picture). Small children will need to be supervised!! (That's a very un-Albertan thing to say - in Alberta, the attitude would be that if you didn't know that children should be supervised in the use of sharp implements, then you're too stupid to be in charge of small children!!)
First you have to cut out a lid...insert sharp knife at about 45 degrees and cut around carefully...
Then take the lid off to expose the pumpkin's insides...
This is where we got a bit confused because we thought it would be pretty solid inside, just like a butternut squash. But as you can see, its all just orange fibrous stuff and seeds...
This stuff all has to come out (referred to by Mr White as pumpkin gutting - in the true spirit of Halloween!!)...
And the result of pumpkin gutting...
This is what a cleaned out pumpkin looks like...
Once you get to this stage, you can then sketch out a design. We decided to stick with the traditional approach, and make a face. Fancy websites suggest that you can carve bat shapes, or skeletons, but we figured that we beginners should keep it all fairly simple...This is Mr White's design...
And if you follow that master plan - this is what you get! Pretty good, eh?
So, we had three pumpkins, and this is what we got...
And here is how they look in their full glory!
By the way, the answer to last week's question about the broom nailed to several other pieces of wood in next door's front garden - it has been turned into a Halloween scarecrow! Thanks to dad who suggested that the contraption was simply a way of being able to find the brush when we got several feet of snow! Please note the fluorescent green bats in the window, and the very cool skeleton (which I think is made of big 4 litre milk containers ...
And on a final note (back to weather as always), here is the reason for the rather warm weather - this is our very own Chinook arch...bringing warm air all the way from the Pacific Ocean...
So on that note, better go and see how the curry is looking.
More later...
P
Tuesday, October 18, 2005
Instructional Methods Class
Hello and welcome to Carrick to Calgary!
This weblog is being featured during the Instructional Methods Class at the University of Calgary on Wednesday 18th October 2005 as part of the Masters in Medical Education course. It will all be happening at about 1:30pm RMT, or about 9pm UK time, and if time permits we will also be participating in the interactive group blog experience, Birth of a Blog over at 20 Minute Blog.
How to lecture
Are you a blogger?
Creative Writing on the Internet: Blogging for Beginners (CWIBB 101.01)
19 October 2005
Learning Objectives
At the end of this mini-lesson, learners will be able to:
1. Register with a free blog provider and post their first blog entry
2. Write basic HTML commands to control the appearance of text
3. Write basic HTML commands to link to other websites
4. Write basic HTML commands to display images
Instructional activities will include participation in a live group blog experience (‘Birth of a Blog’)
The lesson begins here so let's get started!
(0) comments
This weblog is being featured during the Instructional Methods Class at the University of Calgary on Wednesday 18th October 2005 as part of the Masters in Medical Education course. It will all be happening at about 1:30pm RMT, or about 9pm UK time, and if time permits we will also be participating in the interactive group blog experience, Birth of a Blog over at 20 Minute Blog.
How to lecture
Are you a blogger?
Creative Writing on the Internet: Blogging for Beginners (CWIBB 101.01)
19 October 2005
Learning Objectives
At the end of this mini-lesson, learners will be able to:
1. Register with a free blog provider and post their first blog entry
2. Write basic HTML commands to control the appearance of text
3. Write basic HTML commands to link to other websites
4. Write basic HTML commands to display images
Instructional activities will include participation in a live group blog experience (‘Birth of a Blog’)
The lesson begins here so let's get started!
Wednesday, October 12, 2005
Joke from Dr Temple
Quick joke from my boss today:
The local church was falling into disrepair, so the church maintenance committee got together to decide what to do about it. They looked at the finances, and decided that they only had enough money to re-paint the outside of the church to improve how it looked. Sadly, their funds were so limited that they were only able to employ the most disreputable, low-cost painter in town, who was also a member of the congregation. They decided that a cheap paint job would be better than no paint job at all, and so they hired the painter to do the job.
On the appointed day, the painter turned up in his van and got out his materials. As he was on a limited budget too, he had brought along only one gallon of paint and 25 gallons of paint thinner so that it would go a bit further. He mixed up the paint and thinners and soon was busy painting the outside of the church. He worked hard on his own all day and by suppertime he had completed the job. He cleaned off his hands on a rag and stood back to take a look at what he had accomplished. Just as he was congratulating himself on a job well done on a small budget, it started to rain. And as he watched in horror, the rain got heavier and heavier until it was a torrential downpour. Of course, the freshly painted church could not withstand such a deluge, and all of the new paint was washed away. As quickly as it had started, the rain ceased and the sun came out again, revealing the church to be a real mess.
The painter was at a loss to understand what had just happened. Being a religious man, he fell to his knees and cried to the heavens: "Why Lord, why? I laboured all day to repaint your house and now all my work is undone! How have I displeased You?"
And a voice came from the heavens:
"REPAINT, REPAINT AND THIN NO MORE!"
(0) comments
The local church was falling into disrepair, so the church maintenance committee got together to decide what to do about it. They looked at the finances, and decided that they only had enough money to re-paint the outside of the church to improve how it looked. Sadly, their funds were so limited that they were only able to employ the most disreputable, low-cost painter in town, who was also a member of the congregation. They decided that a cheap paint job would be better than no paint job at all, and so they hired the painter to do the job.
On the appointed day, the painter turned up in his van and got out his materials. As he was on a limited budget too, he had brought along only one gallon of paint and 25 gallons of paint thinner so that it would go a bit further. He mixed up the paint and thinners and soon was busy painting the outside of the church. He worked hard on his own all day and by suppertime he had completed the job. He cleaned off his hands on a rag and stood back to take a look at what he had accomplished. Just as he was congratulating himself on a job well done on a small budget, it started to rain. And as he watched in horror, the rain got heavier and heavier until it was a torrential downpour. Of course, the freshly painted church could not withstand such a deluge, and all of the new paint was washed away. As quickly as it had started, the rain ceased and the sun came out again, revealing the church to be a real mess.
The painter was at a loss to understand what had just happened. Being a religious man, he fell to his knees and cried to the heavens: "Why Lord, why? I laboured all day to repaint your house and now all my work is undone! How have I displeased You?"
And a voice came from the heavens:
"REPAINT, REPAINT AND THIN NO MORE!"
Monday, October 10, 2005
Thanksgiving and other stuff!
Canadian Thanksgiving - a good excuse for a day off in October, and an excuse to make a big meal! The real reason for Thanksgiving is apparently as follows here):
"The first Canadian Thanksgiving was celebrated on April 15, 1872 in thanks for the recovery of the future King Edward VII from a serious illness. The next Thanksgiving didn't occur until 1879 when it was celebrated on a Thursday in November. Much like the United States, Canada seemed to have a difficult time deciding when a day of Thanksgiving should occur. From 1879 to 1898 it was celebrated on a Thursday in November; from 1899 to 1907 on a Thursday in October (except in 1901 and 1904 when it was celebrated on a Thursday in November); from 1908 to 1921 on a Monday in October; and between 1922 and 1930 the Armistice Day Act declared that Thanksgiving would be celebrated on Armistice Day, the Monday of November 11. In 1931 the Act was amended and the old practice of Parliament declaring a day of Thanksgiving each year was resumed. On January 31, 1957 Parliament issued a proclamation to fix permanently the second Monday in October as "a day of general Thanksgiving to Almighty God for the bountiful harvest with which Canada has been blessed."
So now you know! We're supposed to be doing turkey, but Mr White and I have come to the conclusion that the only proper time for turkey is Christmas, and if we cook turkey at this time of year, we'll probably still be eating it by the time Christmas rolls around. Therefore, the official White-Robson Thanksgiving meal in 2005 will be beef tenderloin (i.e. fillet) roast, roast potatoes, small yorkshire puddings (much potential for burning of the hands), assorted veg (including carrots from the deck garden), and some sort of sauce/gravy - yum! We're probably supposed to have pumpkin pie as well, but (rather heretically) I've come to the conclusion that I'm not actually a fan of pumpkin pie. Speaking of pumpkins, we went to the farmers' market yesterday and came across a huge pumpkin sitting at one of the stalls with a note saying "Guess my weight and you could win me" stuck on it. Given that it was the size of a reasonably big widescreen TV, we wondered what on earth one would do with all that pumpkin - we didn't enter the competition!
Anyway, there are pumpkins starting to turn up everywhere. I nearly bought an orange long-sleeved teeshirt the other day, but rather hastily put it back on the shelf when the shop assistant suggested that I might look like a pumpkin myself if I went out in it! The thing is that she was right - orange is not my colour, and I probably wouldn't ever have worn it; I was just seduced by all the bright colours of the stuff in the shop. However, I did still leave the shop with some good stuff - just nothing that was even vaguely pumpkin-esque!
Not only are there pumpkins everywhere, there are disturbingly wintry things happening...
This is the deck in autumn mode...frost did in the courgette and tomato plants, and wasn't terribly good for the other things. We knew the courgettes were in trouble when their leaves turned black and floppy. So this is what we have left - half a pot of scallions (in Canadian = 'green onion') and half a pot of carrots...
We were a little bold and pretended that we still live in Rhanbuoy where much of the garden stuff got (and possibly still gets?!) chucked over the back fence into the field beyond. Those of you who have been here know that we don't have a field beyond, but we just chucked everything over the edge of the deck into the garden below. Now before everyone has a fit, we then went down, gathered up all the solid matter (e.g. bits of drainage polystyrene, stones etc from the bottoms of the pots) and then spread the soil all over the grass - telling ourselves that lawns need a good top-dressing of organic matter in the autumn! So, all we can hope is that the snow, ice, frost etc that the garden will disappear under for the next 6-7 months will break down the soil from the pots and give the back grass some much needed nutrition. We'll see...!
Also, in terms of forthcoming wintry-ness, we took ourselves off to Banff on Saturday for a ride on the gondola up Sulphur mountain. It was a beautiful clear day, but there is snow on the tops of the mountains, and it was a little chilly up there.
Snowy peaks...
Icicles already?
Mr White was well insulated in his birthday down-filled body warmer...its a bit big, but I figured he could get more layers on underneath it as the winter gets colder and colder...
Also, 'fall' is over in Calgary. We had two weeks of yellow leaves, and now the trees are just about bare. This is one of the last trees to go...and there are piles of brown leaves everywhere you go.
Last of the yellow leaves...
Today, I decided that I would like my snow tyres (or tires in Canadian speak) on. Last year, they went on on the 16th October, as snow was falling steadily outside and the garage was Baltic, and poor Mr White was absolutely foundered. Today, it is 18 degrees C and the garage is relatively pleasant, so it seemed like a good idea to get them on now, rather than waiting for the day that it actually starts snowing! The weather forecast seems good until the end of the week, but you just never know. Given that we have the Honda snow tyres on a separate set of steel rims, it wasn't a huge job (at least on my part!) to get them changed. The jeep, on the other hand, has a set of snow tyres that aren't on separate rims, so it will have to be trundled off to the garage for Brent the garage man to sort.
So here is the Tuscarora mechanic at work (note the attire!)...
Where does this bit go??
Back at home, mum and Dad R have a great crop of apples... from the columnar apple trees that they got as a Christmas present several years ago. This is a small sample of the harvest - the red one is a full-size wooden one included to give the viewer a sense of scale.
Right - better go and start peeling some spuds .... however, just to give you all something to think about, this structure appeared next to the tree in next door's garden this afternoon... any thoughts??
(0) comments
"The first Canadian Thanksgiving was celebrated on April 15, 1872 in thanks for the recovery of the future King Edward VII from a serious illness. The next Thanksgiving didn't occur until 1879 when it was celebrated on a Thursday in November. Much like the United States, Canada seemed to have a difficult time deciding when a day of Thanksgiving should occur. From 1879 to 1898 it was celebrated on a Thursday in November; from 1899 to 1907 on a Thursday in October (except in 1901 and 1904 when it was celebrated on a Thursday in November); from 1908 to 1921 on a Monday in October; and between 1922 and 1930 the Armistice Day Act declared that Thanksgiving would be celebrated on Armistice Day, the Monday of November 11. In 1931 the Act was amended and the old practice of Parliament declaring a day of Thanksgiving each year was resumed. On January 31, 1957 Parliament issued a proclamation to fix permanently the second Monday in October as "a day of general Thanksgiving to Almighty God for the bountiful harvest with which Canada has been blessed."
So now you know! We're supposed to be doing turkey, but Mr White and I have come to the conclusion that the only proper time for turkey is Christmas, and if we cook turkey at this time of year, we'll probably still be eating it by the time Christmas rolls around. Therefore, the official White-Robson Thanksgiving meal in 2005 will be beef tenderloin (i.e. fillet) roast, roast potatoes, small yorkshire puddings (much potential for burning of the hands), assorted veg (including carrots from the deck garden), and some sort of sauce/gravy - yum! We're probably supposed to have pumpkin pie as well, but (rather heretically) I've come to the conclusion that I'm not actually a fan of pumpkin pie. Speaking of pumpkins, we went to the farmers' market yesterday and came across a huge pumpkin sitting at one of the stalls with a note saying "Guess my weight and you could win me" stuck on it. Given that it was the size of a reasonably big widescreen TV, we wondered what on earth one would do with all that pumpkin - we didn't enter the competition!
Anyway, there are pumpkins starting to turn up everywhere. I nearly bought an orange long-sleeved teeshirt the other day, but rather hastily put it back on the shelf when the shop assistant suggested that I might look like a pumpkin myself if I went out in it! The thing is that she was right - orange is not my colour, and I probably wouldn't ever have worn it; I was just seduced by all the bright colours of the stuff in the shop. However, I did still leave the shop with some good stuff - just nothing that was even vaguely pumpkin-esque!
Not only are there pumpkins everywhere, there are disturbingly wintry things happening...
This is the deck in autumn mode...frost did in the courgette and tomato plants, and wasn't terribly good for the other things. We knew the courgettes were in trouble when their leaves turned black and floppy. So this is what we have left - half a pot of scallions (in Canadian = 'green onion') and half a pot of carrots...
We were a little bold and pretended that we still live in Rhanbuoy where much of the garden stuff got (and possibly still gets?!) chucked over the back fence into the field beyond. Those of you who have been here know that we don't have a field beyond, but we just chucked everything over the edge of the deck into the garden below. Now before everyone has a fit, we then went down, gathered up all the solid matter (e.g. bits of drainage polystyrene, stones etc from the bottoms of the pots) and then spread the soil all over the grass - telling ourselves that lawns need a good top-dressing of organic matter in the autumn! So, all we can hope is that the snow, ice, frost etc that the garden will disappear under for the next 6-7 months will break down the soil from the pots and give the back grass some much needed nutrition. We'll see...!
Also, in terms of forthcoming wintry-ness, we took ourselves off to Banff on Saturday for a ride on the gondola up Sulphur mountain. It was a beautiful clear day, but there is snow on the tops of the mountains, and it was a little chilly up there.
Snowy peaks...
Icicles already?
Mr White was well insulated in his birthday down-filled body warmer...its a bit big, but I figured he could get more layers on underneath it as the winter gets colder and colder...
Also, 'fall' is over in Calgary. We had two weeks of yellow leaves, and now the trees are just about bare. This is one of the last trees to go...and there are piles of brown leaves everywhere you go.
Last of the yellow leaves...
Today, I decided that I would like my snow tyres (or tires in Canadian speak) on. Last year, they went on on the 16th October, as snow was falling steadily outside and the garage was Baltic, and poor Mr White was absolutely foundered. Today, it is 18 degrees C and the garage is relatively pleasant, so it seemed like a good idea to get them on now, rather than waiting for the day that it actually starts snowing! The weather forecast seems good until the end of the week, but you just never know. Given that we have the Honda snow tyres on a separate set of steel rims, it wasn't a huge job (at least on my part!) to get them changed. The jeep, on the other hand, has a set of snow tyres that aren't on separate rims, so it will have to be trundled off to the garage for Brent the garage man to sort.
So here is the Tuscarora mechanic at work (note the attire!)...
Where does this bit go??
Back at home, mum and Dad R have a great crop of apples... from the columnar apple trees that they got as a Christmas present several years ago. This is a small sample of the harvest - the red one is a full-size wooden one included to give the viewer a sense of scale.
Right - better go and start peeling some spuds .... however, just to give you all something to think about, this structure appeared next to the tree in next door's garden this afternoon... any thoughts??
