Today Is BC's Family Day Holiday

     It had long been recognized that there was a need for an official holiday in BC, to help everyone get through the long stretch winter between New Years and Easter.  In 2013, the provincial government came up with the “Family Day” holiday for BC to recognize the importance of family to everyone.  

    Family Day works out fine for everyone who has a family in BC, but members of our family are spread across North America and Europe, and so we don’t have any family get-togethers on Family Day.  Then also, because my wife and I are retired, the Family Day “holiday”, doesn’t feel much like a holiday, because we are always at home, instead of “at work”.   The only difference we see is most of the stores are closed.

    Anyway, we do appreciate and love our family members, and after thinking about what image I could use for this blog, I decided on my painting:  “Reunion”.   It is a habit in BC for everyone to take off their shoes when they come into a house.  In the summer of 2010, most of my family came up to BC for a visit, and as is the custom, they all took off their shoes and left them inside, by the front door.  That became the subject of the painting, which I gave to my mother when it was finished.

    Happy Family Day, everyone.

You can view my other paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

Shingles: But I've Had The Two Shots

     About a week ago, I started getting a strange irritation on the left side of my back.   After a few days of it getting worse, I began to think,  “This feels a lot like shingles.”  something that I had experienced many years ago, but then I remembered, “It can’t be shingles, because I had gotten the two shingles shots to prevent shingles.”

    Well guess what, those expensive shots are not 100% effective at preventing shingles, and they can lose their potency after about five years.  That was certainly something I didn’t know.  The vaccine can be very effective in most people, and should lessen the severity of the infection for those that get shingles again.

    Shingles is a painful rash on the skin that later erupts into blisters.  Strangely, it only occurs on one side of your body, either on the left side or the right side.  If you had chicken pox when you were a kid, even though that malady eventually went away, some of the virus that caused it stays in your body, and can much later erupt and cause shingles.

    The red rash can be very painful.   Mine isn’t too bad, but the rash is located along my waist, right where my belt is, so the chafing of the belt and my jeans, does cause discomfort when I move.  There is no cure if you get shingles, you just have to wait it out for a month or so.  I guess you can get some cremes to lessen the pain of the rash.  Fortunately, shingles is not contagious.  

    As kids, we used to joke about how people of my grandparent’s age used to only talk about their ailments.  Now as someone in my dotage, I am doing the same thing.

You can take a look at my paintings:  davidmarchant2.ca

The Cacophony of Chainsaws Has Ended

     For the last few days it has been very noisy around our house, as the three-man crew of arborists have been working to reduce the size of the old willow trees that had the potential of damaging our house if they blew over.  Not only was there the whine coming from the several chainsaws, but there was a big chipper that loudly chewed up all of the branches and limbs that had been removed.  The engine on the big truck that held the boom also was running the whole time.

    I found it very interesting to see how the arborists went about removing the big branches, some of which were above our house and an out-building.  You probably can’t see them in the photo above, but there are a couple of ropes strung on the limb Chris, the guy in the boom is cutting, and they have been slung over a big branch above it.  The guys below are holding the ropes, so that when the branch is cut, they can lower it down slowly so it won’t fall on our old chicken house.

    I have always been impressed by The Source, the company that is doing the work, at how thoroughly  they clean up after themselves, chipping all the branches, raking up the tiny twigs that have fallen during the work, and leaving our yard cleaner than it was when they started.  The ground that was soft from our warm, wet weather, did end up with some muddy area from the tracks of the machine that carried the heavy pieces of wood to a pile, but the muddy tracks were unavoidable, and will heal.

    The trunks of the sawed-off willows, look pretty miserable, and with a little imagination, they make our house look like it is surrounded by big cactus plants.  Hopefully, in a few years the willow trees will be back creating shade for us in the summer.

    The workers did buck up all the big chunks of willow, that I can now split and use for firewood.  I should have enough firewood now to keep the house warm for several years.  I also have a big pile of wood chips that I can use on the path that goes around the pond.

You can see my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

Square Dancing on Thursday Night

     While I know that square dancing is considered “square” by most people.  Anyone who has actually done it, knows just how much fun and enjoyable it is.  I do more laughing on Thursday nights than any other part of the week.   I am sure that there are square dancing groups that 100% serious and hardcore, and I don’t think I would enjoy them very much.  Our McBride group is just there for the enjoyment with other community members, while at the same time, getting both some physical and mental exercise, and laughing at the mistakes we make.

   I am usually kept busy dancing, but last night I sat out a dance to take some photos.  Square dancing requires a group of eight people (four couples) for each square.  Our group normally has enough people for two squares, but I guess last night was a busy one for the community, because we only had enough dancers for one square.

    Square dancing is made up of many “calls” telling the dancers in the square what to do as the music plays.  It requires a lot of mental concentration to hear the calls as everyone is moving, then quickly remembering what the call requires you to do, and then doing it.  The calls come fast, one after the other, and if one or more people screw up, it effects everyone, and causes a “train wreck” with everyone in the wrong place, confused, and not knowing how to proceed.  It is those train wrecks that cause all of the laughing.

    As far as physical exercise, square dancing is an enjoyable way to get it.  I normally don’t get much exercise during the winter, unless it snows or we have trouble with our water system.  My average number of steps per day is 4,200, but the number of steps I get on Thursdays is about 7,200.  That increase is due to our two hours of square dancing.

    As you might expect, females are always more keen about dancing than males, so in order to make up a square of 4 couples, some of our females have to take the male roles.   They wear pants, so they can be identified as the men.  The women being women, wear skirts to avoid confusion in the chaos of dancing.

    Here are some more photos of the gyrating during a dance last night:

    

You can see my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

Outside: The Roar of Chainsaws

     I love trees, but sometimes you have to step in and do some “tough love” on Nature.  For a while now, I have been worried about the old willow trees that are growing close to my house.  They were just saplings in 1977 when we bought our house, and we dug them up and transplanted them so they would be out of the way, but over the years, I built some additions to our house, which made the willows closer.  They continued to grow and grow.

    In 2014, when the willows had just gotten too tall, endangering the house if they blew over, I had an arborist crew come and cut them way back.  The poor willows looked horrible afterwards, but it didn’t stop them from growing.  Now, twelve years later, the sprouts that regrew from the tops of the trees have grown to the point where the trees were just as tall, if not taller, than they were originally, so I called the arborist to come out again to cut the willows down to 10 ft (3 m).   That should eliminate the danger to the house. 

    It is fascinating to watch the arborists do their work high above the ground, in a boom.  Others are gathering the falling branches and turning them into chips.  They are also bucking up the big chunks so can use them for firewood.  Some of the big sections of the trees are so heavy, they have to use a special machine to carry them to be bucked up (photo below);

    Again, like the last time the arborists were here, it is hard to watch what is being done to the old willows, but it is something that has to be done.  Hopefully in a few years, as they grow new limbs from their tops, we won’t even notice all the amputating that is being done to them now.

    

    

Take a look at my pantings:  davidmarchant2.ca

Miscellaneous Photos: Holland/Belgium, 1996

     Here are a few photos I found interesting from Holland or Belgium.  I can’t remember much about them or where they were taken, but I found them interesting.   Obviously, the one above is me trying out some stocks.  Despite my smile, I don’t think being sentenced to time in the stocks, would have been a very pleasant experience.

    The photo below show a “Pollard” tree.  Pollarding is a specific way of pruning trees.  The upper branches are removed, which causes growth of dense heads of foliage and branches.  The practice was started by the Romans, and has been used in Europe since medieval times.   It is used to keep trees at a determined height, or to create ornamental trees.  It seems like torture for the trees, but they survive and look really interesting.

    The photo at the very bottom gives an indication of just how popular bicycles are in Holland.

View my paintings:  davidmarchant2.ca

1996: Brussels' St. Micheal's Cathedral

    On our way back to the Brussel’s Central Station, we spotted St. Micheal’s Cathedral, and climbed a hill to explore it.  My wife, with her life-long interest of medieval cathedrals, told me that it wasn’t a very big one, but I had never experienced an old European cathedral before, and found the massive structure and its ornate vertical interior with it’s high vaulting, a total wonder of design and architecture.  The construction of St. Micheals started in the 11th Century and was completed in the 16th Century.

View my paintings at davidmarchant2.ca