Thursday Thirteen - 268 - 13 Things About My Latest Adventures With My Bad Knee

1 – Anyone with a knee injury involving torn ligaments and cartilage has likely discovered over the years that it will make a return engagement from time to time. The photo above is from 2008, when I re-injured my bad knee and had to use my late Gram's cane to get around.

If anyone has seen me slowly making my way around with Gram's cane this week, you'll know that I'm in another season of re-injury. 

2 – The original injury happened twenty years ago. I was captain of a team doing a scavenger hunt through downtown Toronto in support of The Children's Aid Society, and I'd just turned to make sure everyone was all together before we arrived at one of the call-in stations. A homeless man who'd been sitting over by the Salvation Army building had moved and when I turned around, I tripped over him. I tried really hard to stop myself from falling and ended up looking like I was doing a snazzy Broadway move, but eventually I went down hard on the cement sidewalk.

3 – My knee took decades' worth of wear and tear in one instant, my second physiotherapist explained to me. So in my late 20s, I was the proud owner of the knee of a pensioner.

4 – Over the years, I've had a special brace made for it, I've had physiotherapy twice, surgery once, and for the past three-and-a-half years, acupuncture treatment.

5 – I'm definitely hanging onto Gram's cane. I never know when it's going to come in handy again, and this week it's been worth its weight in diamonds.

6 – All had been going well in the past little while with my knee, until my husband and I were out last Friday for his doctor's appointment, then a stop at the bookstore and a movie. When I headed into the bookstore, I forgot to push the seat back when I got out of the car. Climbing back into the car, I whacked my knee hard on a corner of the dashboard. My whole body went weak inside and I felt nauseous. When I got back to my feet, my knee was rubbery and weak, as it has been in the past.  

7 – Basically, walking down the street and getting into a car are all it takes for me to do some serious damage to myself. No spectacular ski falls for me, no sir.

8 – Thankfully, Gram's cane is never far from reach. I've hobbled my way through the week so far and have a few more days to go.

9 – It's amazing how exhausted it makes me to hobble around. I suppose it's the re-injury. Basically, I've gone to work, come home and slept. 

10 - Luckily, my day job is a sit-down job. I've been able to get a lot of work done there, although my book revisions in the evening have given way to sleep.

11 – Sending a huge shout-out to my friend Tara for getting me home after a long day, all week long.

12 – Sending another shout-out to my husband for putting me back together again for another day. 

13 – Looking forward to my next acupuncture treatment. Gram's cane will be tucked away again until the next time.

5 on Friday - Set 143

Travis at Trav's Thoughts invites everyone to lay down a short set of music that takes their fancies for his 5 on Friday meme.

This 5 on Friday is dedicated to my late Gram, whose birthday would have been yesterday. These are all tunes that she used to play on her piano.

1 - Spanish Eyes

 

2 -Your Cheatin' Heart

 

3 - There's a Tavern on the Town

 

4 - Sweet Georgia Brown

 

 



 

 

 

5 - Eidelweiss Glide Waltz

 

 

 

 

Summer Stock Sunday - 29

My vintage look at summer for Summer Stock Sunday, hosted by Robin at Around the Island.


















Yesterday and this afternoon, my sister is the guest of honor at two bridal showers - one hosted by our family, one hosted by her new family-in-law-to-be.

In the timeless ways of summer celebrations, another bridal shower was held for my mom in the summer of 1962 by her landlady, Mrs. Crete. Mom was rooming with her, while her family resettled themselves from a recent ping-pong move from Michigan to Canada and back to Michigan.

Here in this shot is the bride-to-be, my mom Paulette, and behind her on the left is her mom, Juliette, with her mother-in-law-to-be, Viola on the right. The two moms held a second shower in their daughter's honor in absentia, as Mom was already posted with my dad overseas during his three-year US Army service. They sent all of Mom's shower gifts through the army posting delivery to Europe.

I'll be posting pix of my sister's two showers this week for Thursday Thirteen, if you'd like to drop by.

Nessa says It was nice that so many people took care of your mom.

Naquillity says What great friends your mother had. Lovely picture. And congrats to your sister on her two bridal showers. May she always be happy.

Robin says As someone who lives far across the world from the rest of her family I can really appreciate this - friends really do become surrogate relatives when you're away from home. Congratulations to your sister!

Summer Stock Sunday - 4

For Summer Stock Sunday, I've got my lovely peonies which I transported from their original home in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia when we moved to Cole Harbour eight years ago.














This is the greatest amount of blooms we've had so far. There are five in total. The parent plant, which had been planted by my grandfather at my grandparents' home in Yarmouth over 40 years ago, had quite a few blooms when my husband and I lived there from 1999 to 2001.














This is their house on Nova Scotia's southwest tip. My husband and I moved in with my grandmother to help look after her. My grandfather had passed away eight years before we arrived. He was a lifelong gardener, and when I moved in I felt the lure of his garden beckoning to me. I'd never gardened before arriving in Yarmouth, and a grand love affair started that summer of 1999 that continues today.













As you walked around the side of the house, there was a sheltered side garden away from the constant wind from the ocean, which you can see in the distance.














My grandpa installed the weather-beaten white fence above the stone wall in order to give that wind protection. Tucked behind the orange lilies were the peonies.

As we packed up the house to move to Cole Harbour, I dug up the new forsythia bush, the American pillar rose bush I'd started from cuttings, and made sure to take cuttings from Gram's heritage quince bush on the opposite side of the house.

As we made one final walk-around to make sure we had everything, I looked at the garden to make my goodbye - and realized I hadn't dug up the peony plant.

I grabbed a broken, jagged broom handle from the trash and started digging madly for the peony bulbs. I plunged my hands into the earth and felt around until I could grasp the tubers. I yanked as hard as I could until a few broke free and came to the surface. I threw them in a box with some dirt and we slipped them onto the back of the truck.

We moved in October, so once we had unloaded the truck here in Cole Harbour, one of the first things I did was find a spot for the peonies, dig a hole and put them back in the ground before the winter came.














Their new home is in front of the stone wall my mom and I installed from all the rocks our neighbors dug up next door, when they put in a new deck two years ago. We had to snake it in and around the plants we already had growing in the front.

The yellow forsythia is the same tiny plant I'd bought at the Yarmouth Garden Society plant sale, dug up and transported here. And the peonies are hard to see, but they're to the left of the forsythia, and to the left of the rose bush. The peonies are also to the right of the tulips, in front of the stone wall.

For more Summer Stock Sunday, visit Robin at Around the Island.

Kaye says Your peonies are lovely and I have always wanted to visit Novia Scotia.

Robin says I can't grow plastic flowers without killing them.

Jessica the Rock Chick says Last year I planted a whole bunch of different plants without realizing how large they would become in future years. It appears I have grown a small jungle near my front porch!

Thursday Thirteen - 86 - 13 Christmas Trees

- 1

Christmas Eve 1967












That's 3-year-old me with Mom, in front of our tree in Royal Oak, Michigan. The stocking behind me is the same one I use today.



- 2

Christmas morning, 1969











My sister, Dad and me in Royal Oak. The tree looks like it had little decorators this time.



- 3

Christmas Eve 1976













This was the tree my Mom, sister and I remember so fondly in my Dartmouth, Nova Scotia home where I did most of my growing up. We got the tree ourselves while my dad was on a business trip, and decorated it late at night, singing away to Christmas records. We got hungry and halted the decorating to eat fried eggs and toast at 11:00 at night. It was all very zany, spontaneous and spirited.

You can see my Christmas carol book I was working on at the time. Early scrapbooking, when there wasn't an industry attached to it. I loved sitting in the glow of the tree lights, listening to music.



- 4

Christmas morning, 1979






Myself and my sister, waiting until Mom put the turkey in the oven. Once upon a time, that was my favorite way to sit - cross-legged on the floor or on my bed. This was a great Christmas - my mom took home a cardboard lipstick display from work that looked like a Christmas fireplace, and hung Laura Secord lollipops from the pegs. That was from Santa, of course ;-)


- 5

Christmas Eve, 1995








Fast forward 20 years to Toronto. I'd been living there for a decade by then. This is Donna's home where I used to be a live-in nanny to Claire. My mom had flown to Toronto for that Christmas, and Donna invited all of us over for the evening. That's my sister Michelle, Donna and myself chatting away. I started off working for Donna, but she immediately became a wonderful friend and extra family to me.



- 6

Christmas morning, 1995











That's Brad and me the next morning at my sister's Scarborough, Ontario apartment, ready for prezzies. When I lived in Toronto, I often put up three trees: my own, then I'd help with my sister's, and my mother-in-law knows I'm a Christmas Maniac and that the only cure for that is to allow me to help with her tree, too...



- 7

Christmas week, 1996












The following year we all converged on my cousin's home when they lived in Sackville, New Brunswick. My sister flew up, but Brad and I took the train. Mom & Gram and Auntie & Uncle drove up from Yarmouth and Halifax. Julianne's husband Stephen hadn't become accustomed yet to our overboard Christmas Frenzy. He just kept shaking his head in disbelief at the enormous mountain of gifts. (His family generally goes skiing for Christmas.)

I unloaded all the gifts and piled them around the tree. I loved it. This was an extra special Christmas, as my cousin Julianne's daughter was born during this celebration.


- 8

Christmas Day, 1998








I know there's a tree there, somewhere. It's been completely obscured by Smiths.

This was our last Christmas in Toronto. My brother-in-law Ken and sister-in-law Anna hosted Christmas Day out in Rockwood (they now live in Ottawa.) How I miss my Smith Christmases. This will be the first Christmas without Brad's dad, so I really wish we could all be together.

Back row: My husband Brad, his brother Jeff, their dad David, his brother Ken

Middle row: Brad's mom Joan, Jeff's wife Violetta with her daughter Pamela in front, Brad's sister Karen holding her nephew Francis (Ken's & Anna's son)

Front row: Me, Ken's wife Anna and their son Peter - I miss everyone... :-(



- 9

Christmas morning, 2000






This was our second Christmas in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, and Brad & I hosted the Christmas morning festivities. That was our apartment upstairs at Gram's. A more intimate Christmas with just Gram, Mom, Brad and I. We didn't have our dog Xena yet - we got her the following Easter. That's Brad sitting on the couch and Mom beside the tree.

I have great affection for this tree, because Brad had been put on a brand new medication for his bipolar disorder (Risperdal) and was enjoying Christmas in a whole new way. He felt great (not manic) and actually bought new Christmas ornaments because he fell in love with them, and helped me decorate the tree for the first time ever. Yes, I really love this tree.


- 10

Christmas Eve, 2004












This was the fourth Christmas after Gram had agreed to relocate from Yarmouth to Halifax so our family could see one another whenever we wanted, without a huge trip in order to do so. Julianne and Stephen had also moved back to Nova Scotia with their daughter Laura, left. My other cousin Charlie and his family, as well as my sister Michelle, had moved back here from Toronto. That's Charlie's and fellow blogger Heather's daughter Emily at right on her Uncle Stephen's lap. Our joy at being all together again was indescribable.

A real Christmas Eve at Auntie Noel's and Uncle Charlie's - the way it's supposed to be.


- 11

Romance Writers of Atlantic Canada Christmas Potluck

November, 2007

Last year's Christmas party for my writers' group came as a welcome breath of air for me - I spent nearly all of last November in the hospital with Gram as she began her journey to the next life. This party gave me some time to renew my spirit and my energy before rejoining my mom as we watched over Gram.

Shown here are Judith James, my cousin Julianne MacLean and fellow blogger Anne MacFarlane by the little tree where our Yankee gift exchange presents awaited.


- 12

November 30, 2007








Seen in the background on the bureau is the mini Christmas tree my sister brought into the hospital so Gram could have a last look at Christmas before she left us. Michelle also brought in her beautiful quilt she made, which you can see covering Gram, as well as Christmas CD's which we played for her, whose whole life was filled with music. Gram's spirit shone when she played her piano, and my sister wanted to make sure her departure was filled with sweet melody.

I spent a very special evening sitting beside Gram's bed, with my mom taking a turn to head home for a shower and a few hours' rest. My sister Michelle and my cousin Julianne joined me. I held Gram's hand the whole time, and Gram squeezed my fingers to let me know she could hear us as we talked to each other and to her. Three sisters/cousins/friends and their grandmother, and a very precious evening under a tiny glowing tree I shall never forget.


- 13

Christmas morning, 2007













This is our Christmas tree last year, which Mom put up in the spot where Gram used to sit in her chair. We filled her absence with the joy of Christmas, and let the lights of the Christmas tree shine where we missed Gram so much.

Wordless Wednesday - 78

Thursday Thirteen - 66 - 13 Highlights of My Summer So Far

1 - I've recently discovered that if I Google A Piece of My Mind without any other description, my blog comes up first in the search engine. Yes, it gives me an incredible thrill.


















2 - At the end of June, I made the leap from a casual employee to a permanent fulltime employee of the Province of Nova Scotia. No public service employee was ever happier than me.

















3 - The Aunt Sheila rose in our front yard had a record 22 blooms on it this year. We planted it in my aunt's memory, as yellow roses were her favorite.

















4 - My monster rose bush took over the world this year!
































5 - I also had a record number of blossoms on the Japanese quince, which I started as a cutting from the quince in my Gram's yard in Yarmouth. After growing from a six-inch cutting, the quince finally bloomed for the first time last year, a six-year wait. When I walked around the corner this year to a spray of orange blooms, my heart totally sang with joy. Technically, the quince blooms in the spring, but we have such a late season here, it was still blooming by the end of June.






























6 - One of my New Year's resolutions was to write more new poetry. So far this year I've posted 10 new poems on the Poetry Train. Go, me!

















7 - Enjoyed a fifth writers' retreat, at a cottage near White Point Beach Lodge, Nova Scotia. That's my friend Kelly Boyce, who drove me there and back (I'm the navigator.) Beside us is Lilly Cain. The sun was really beating down on us, but normally the curtains are opened to reveal this lovely scene:















Our group of writers always strolls along the coastline over to the lodge on the Saturday night of our retreat, for dinner at the lodge restaurant. Here I'm sitting between Heidi at left, and Annette to the right.





























8 - Discovered a new character, Scorpius, during the retreat. Luckily, he looks exactly like Richard Armitage.
































9 - Totally flipped over Wanted. I've seen it in the theatre three times already.









James McAvoy is one of my favorite actors, and his character's journey really puts him through the wringer. By the time he gets to the scene above, he's gone from an office drone with an ergonomic keyboard to a deadly assassin.















10 - Sat in amazement as I watched The Dark Knight. I remember the very early buzz and the announcement that Heath Ledger would be playing the Joker. My little heart raced with excitement.









Now, months later and following the early departure of such an enormous talent, The Dark Knight had a crazy amount of hype to live up to. I'm one of those people that marketing types hate. I'm immune to hype. I get feelings about things, which are always right, by the way. The early production stills from The Dark Knight told me all I needed to know.

Heath Ledger's Joker absolutely flips each scene on its ear. And that's his performance. You can hear the dialogue beneath his performance and realize just where he took things. I couldn't help weeping at his name appearing in the end credits. As an admirer of a truly gifted actor, I still feel the loss of Heath like a stab.









The truly amazing thing about The Dark Knight is that it's far - very far - from being The Heath Ledger Swan Song. It's an incredible ensemble piece with every performance at the top of each actor's game. Christian Bale delivers a generous, introspective performance as Batman realizes what it really takes to be heroic.



















Aaron Eckhart's performance as Harvey Dent/Two-Face manages to have us rooting for his truly heroic character without managing to steal the thunder from the title character's movie.



















And Gary Oldman gives a subtle, complex performance in his storyline centering on double-crossing and trust.

















11 - I celebrated my 16th wedding anniversary on the weekend that my family travelled down to Yarmouth for my Gram's funeral. Since Brad and I spent two years living in Yarmouth with Gram before we all relocated here to Cole Harbour (to be closer to everyone) it was lovely for us to revisit the town we'd called home. We had our own motel room, our dog was at a wonderful kennel - it was a great evening. We had dinner at the Lotus Garden, an awesome Chinese restaurant which was a favorite of ours.



















And then we saw Hellboy II: The Golden Army. Cause that's just the kind of couple we are.











I especially loved Prince Nuada, played by Luke Goss. Loved his voice, his moves - excellent fight scenes! He was an extremely charismatic, tragic villain. Just my kind of character.

















12 - Enjoyed seeing my Michigan uncles and aunt when they came for Gram's funeral mass. Though she passed away in December, we had her funeral on July 12th so that her elderly sisters and brother could attend.

The two uncles on the left are from Michigan - Uncle Louie and Uncle Warren. Next to them are my mom, Paulette and my second dad/Uncle Charlie.















Down at the Yarmouth waterfront before the funeral: Uncle Warren, my second mom/Auntie Noel, Warren's wife Aunt Louise and my husband Brad.

















Uncle Charlie talks to Gram's 'baby' sister, 82-year-old Tante Emeline. (Tante is French for Aunt - my Yarmouth family is Acadian all the way, baby.) To the right is Gram's sister, Tante Adelta, 92, now the oldest remaining sibling. She used to be the fifth of eleven children. Now there are three sisters and one brother left.

















13 - Went out to my sister's and her boyfriend's cottage out in Musquodoboit. That's my sister Michelle and my mom. Behind them you can see the dock that got yanked away from its moorings by Tropical Storm Cristobal, which hit here last week.















But do we care about a wee thing like that? Nah. Newt's brother was heading out in the sea-do to wrangle all the floating bits of dock from along the lakefront. Everyone's had separated.















It was the first time Michelle's been able to take us out there, because the cottage has been undergoing major renovations for the past few summers. And it's beautiful.















This is Newt with his sister's dog, Lily. Isn't Newt cute?

Well, that's my summer so far. And so far it's been fabulous.