March 2016
Monday March 28
Happy Easter!
Jocelyn's Easter Bunny cakes
We have had an enjoyable Easter weekend. On Friday I picked up James at Acadia and brought him home for the weekend. Yesterday, as usual, we were up fairly early to go to the short Easter service on the Dartmouth waterfront followed by pancakes, eggs and sausages in the church basement. James and I went home after helping to clean up but Ann stayed for the full communion service at 11 AM.
We had fourteen for Easter dinner: the three of us, Ingrid, Mike, Alex and Maiga, a pharmacy post-doc from Autralia called Emily, Jocelyn, Carl and Roxanne, and Jim, Valerie and River (I include River to avoid unlucky thirteen). I cooked a turkey in the afternoon while Ann prepared potatoes and sweet potatoes. Our guests filled out the rest of the menu including two bunny cakes provided by Jocelyn. Unfortunately, when we went to buy the turkey, there were only ones smaller than 10 lbs or larger than 20 lbs whereas we needed one of about 15 lbs. We bought a large one and will now be eating left-over turkey for the next couple of weeks.
This morning Ann was up early to drive James back to Acadia in time for an 8:30 AM class. In the afternoon the two of us went on a historic bike ride of sorts: it was her first ride on the new bike I gave her for Christmas (but which we only bought last week after a considerable amount of research) and my first time on my bike since I broke my hip last fall. We were not too ambitious being content to ride around Lake Banook and then take a short tour of the neighbourhood. This evening, as I write this, Ann is out at her book club to discuss Hector and the Search for Happiness.
Tuesday March 22
Square du Temple
I spent most of last week in Paris for meetings of the cooperative research group that I belong to. I flew over on Tuesday arriving in the afternoon on Wednesday at my hotel in Levallois-Perret, in the north-west just outside the Périphérique. It was a lovely day so I walked down to Parc Monceau before returning to meet up with some of my colleagues for dinner. I had meetings all day on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday but then had Saturday off. I walked downtown to the Musée Picasso which I have wanted to visit for a long time but which was closed for renovations the last few times I have been in Paris (it was closed between 2009 and October 2014). Currently they are featuring an exhibition of Picasso's sculptures. Afterwards I bought myself some lunch at a boulangerie and stopped to eat it in the Square du Temple, a park in the 3rd arrondissement. I have since learned that this was the site of a fortress in which Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were kept before being taken to the guillotine. I flew home again on Sunday.
Sunday March 13
Aconites in the snow
Our aconites are struggling to keep our hopes up for better weather to come. We suffered a set-back a couple of days ago with some more snow but most of it disappeared today.
James came home for the weekend on Friday. That evening he went to a concert of the Celtic Tenors with Symphony Nova Scotia while Ann and I went to a movie theatre to see The Lady in the Van which we both enjoyed. We drove James back to Wolfville this afternoon.
Yesterday we all went to the annual bean Supper at the church in aid of some worthy cause which I've forgotten: baked beans, sausages and gingerbread cake with lemon sauce with some local musical talent for entertainment and Girl Guides as servers. It was sufficiently well attended that we had to wait a few minutes at the door until enough chairs opened up for us.
Sunday March 6
A tree across the street
On Tuesday, the Syrian family that we are helping to sponsor arrived; they are a mother with her twenty-something son and daughter and 11-year-old son. Ann and I went, along with others from our group and the family's relatives that are already in Halifax, to meet them at the airport. It was a joyous time, especially for the family and their relatives. They are now staying in a temporary apartment in Halifax until we can arrange more permanent housing for them. On Wednesday, Ann helped them get it set up and we were both over there this afternoon to get some paperwork done. The younger son, Ibrahem, showed us all how to write our names in Arabic. When I've figured out how to make Arabic characters in web pages I'll show you ours.
As could have been expected after I heralded the arrival of spring last week, we had another nasty storm yesterday: about 15 cms of snow and high winds to blow it around. Luckily it was over by the early afternoon so we we able to go to Neptune without significant problems. The show was Two Pianos, Four Hands about a couple of kids growing up taking piano lessons. We have already seen it twice before but with about a decade between viewings it still remains pretty enjoyable. We had planned to go to the bean supper fund raiser at the church beforehand but it was cancelled because of the storm so, for a change, we ate at home.