HAPPY BIRTHDAY CANADA - 145 YEARS!

Happy Birthday to Canada! I went to Burnaby Village Museum to celebrate Canada Day and had a lovely time! The museum has free admission all summer!

This is one of the several cakes that was served at 2:30 to the first 1500 people in the VERY long line that snaked everywhere!

One of the groups entertaining, this was a singing group and they were very nice to listen to!

Lunch time, num, bbq'd hotdogs and hamburgers were available to purchase and our hot dog was delicious!

Look very carefully...someone is standing on the fence!

 Oh my, standing on a roof, what a view!

 There was a parade and after all the people who participated gathered and there was a speech

 Out front of the museum

 The wind was blowing so hard the flag became her dress!

 A very neat looking car in the parking lot

We started with the fabulous cake and we will end with another shot! Happy Canada Day Everyone!

A ROYAL TEA IN HONOR OF QUEEN ELIZABETH'S DIAMOND JUBILEE

Our friend Isabelle invited Loretta and I to a Royal tea today in honor of Queen Elizabeth's Diamond Jubilee. As we live in Canada, we are a commonwealth country so we like to celebrate occasions that are celebrated in Britain! Isabelle really knows how to throw a British style tea, she and her hubby phoned to order and then drove to the British tea shop in Chilliwack, BC and bought real, authentic British tea things including Devon-shire creme for the scones, and cheese tarts and sausage rolls. Loretta made a sponge cake from scratch and put it together once we got there layering fruit and whipped creme and sprinkling on icing sugar on the top then added a darling stand up cake decorating set she had ordered from the UK. It turned out wonderful! I took Scottish shortbread and Isabelle had made a delicious square and she had cookies as well...there was sooo much food!!

Isabelle has enough memorabilia to open a British museum, everywhere we looked she had more treasures out on display! She has books and magazines and spoon collections and plate collections and wonderful china, we ate on and had tea in 1939 Royal Albert china called “Loyalty” by Royal Albert, and which was made to commemorate the visit of their Majesties, King George VI and his wife, Elizabeth in 1939.

Thanks Isabelle for being such a fabulous hostess! I had a wonderful time! I took my little Bleuette named Madeline along in her new "Royal" dress with sparkly pink crowns scattered over it, Loretta took her little resin Bleuette Robinette along with her new "Royal" dress on and they were happy to meet Isabelle's little Ada Matilda who was wearing a dress straight from England that Isabelle had a member of our Bleuette group make for her!

 Some of Isabelle's collection of magazines and books on Royalty

 Baby Diana, William and Kate and Baby William, a Royal spoon collection on the wall behind!

 Isabelle's china she has collected through the years commemorating various Royal milestones. 

 Princess Diana plate collection (if you look really carefully or bring the picture up large, you will see Isabelle's Dionne Quintuplets on the first shelf behind the glass)

 Whoops, Ada Matilda borrowed Princess Diana's crown for the occasion! But here is Princess Diana and her famous ring!

 The train on this dress goes on for several feet! It is huge!

 Baby Diana

 Baby William

 Assembling the sponge cake!

 punching out the pieces for the cake decorating set!

 TaaDaa! Loretta's Masterpiece!

 The tea table, num

 Isabelle, our gracious hostess!

The 1939 Royal Albert china!

 Loretta, Isabelle and I

 The Bleuettes clambering for a piece of cake! Loretta made the darling little British shopping bags so the girls can go shopping for treasures together!

 Isabelle's Antiques, aren't they gorgeous? The one below is stunning, I loved her gorgeous face! Look at her fox stole around her neck! I remember my Gramma having a coat with something similar on it!

 The doll room!

Isabelle's sweet little Bambino in her darling bed!

Isabelle gave us each this lovely paper doll set and the Bleuette's received a silver tea pot that was used to place seating cards!

 The Royal commemorative tea tin I took to Isabelle for hosting and hoping she didn't already own it!

Isabelle has this darling bear on her door step to welcome you to her home, we later found out her hubby Walt is the craftsman who is making these darling greeters and he has quite a little home business going as people love the Bears!

MOM'S NEW HOME

Last week I moved my Mom into a care home. She is transitioning well I think. There are lots of things for her to do and although she still complains she is bored, I think mostly it is a memory issue as she is participating in all kids of activities. Today I went to the Mother's Day tea. They encourage family members to take part in all these functions if they can. Next week there is a dinner social!
A man named George Ellenton was the entertainer at today's tea and he imitates Frank Sinatra and does a very nice job of it, the patients all seemed to be enjoying themselves and the staff members were going around and encouraging them to get up and dance!

 This photo was at Happy Hour last Thursday, the home has Hilary on piano and vocals and another fellow with a guitar who also sings. They serve soft drinks and chips and candy and cheezies and pass out hand held instruments and the patients all sing along. Mom really enjoyed it!

 This is Mom's room. She has her own room and we went a bought a comfortable chair and TV and telephone so she has many of the comforts of home. Not quite the same but more choices than at the hospital she came from.

 When I arrived today, loaded down with bags and bundles of food as usual, I went to Mom's room and put everything away. (Since her stroke she is always hungry and goes through massive amounts of food in addition to all that is available to her there)I had also taken her roses for Mother's Day so got them into water and then went to hunt for her. I couldn't find her anywhere! I ran into Hilary the music coordinator who was also looking for her and the hunt began...we searched all over the second floor and no one had seen her...hmmm....as she hasn't mastered the key codes to get off the floor yet, we couldn't figure out where she could have gone....someone suggested we check the first floor just in case.....and look who we found...immersed in a game of Bingo with the other patients in the main floor games room....hmmm....I never would have guessed that one...I asked her if she wanted to go to the tea for Mother's Day or stay and play bingo and she decided to go to the tea. One of the many, many volunteers came and said she had brought her down to play and would play her card and if she won anything, would have it put on her account...I guess they have small cash prizes. She also said she would come and get her on Saturday to play again.... Yeah...this means she is doing activities and that is such a good thing for my peace of mind.
This is a nonprofit society care home and they care for their patients using the Eden Alternative approach which addresses the three "plagues" of long term care, loneliness, helplessness and boredom. Each principal they use is developed to de-institutionalize care homes and to encourage a healthy human community for the elders living in long term care facilities. From what I have seen so far, their approach is very kind, supportive and caring and between the staff and the many volunteers, they are striving to make the lives of the elderly happy and give them a good quality of life in their later years.

 The Mother's Day Tea...that orange stuff was very "orange"....not quite sure what it was, a mousse of some kind I think. Then they had chocolate covered strawberries and of course tea!

 Behind the balloons is the entertainer George Ellenton, he did a fabulous job and he also had a great sense of humor...not sure if all the patients got his jokes but the family members in attendance did.

 This sweetheart of a lady is Marivic and she is wonderful. She gets the patients up and moving and she is full of bubbling energy. She always has a smile for them all and everyone loves her.She is also very encouraging to family members, she listens well and welcomes hints that help her to get the patient involved and active.

Mom enjoyed her dance! I hung out with her a little longer then left as they were getting ready to have their dinner in the dining room!

SPRING HAS SPRUNG....I hope!!

We seem to have had the winter that just never quits or ends once again this year. It wasn't especially cold or snowy just rain, wet and darned chilly and damp most of the time. Lately though ,the sun has been coming out now and then and this last few days have even brought a few warm days...well...for us warmish....  Today before my weekly trip to take my Mom from the hospital out on a outing I took one of my Chatty Cathy's out in the yard as my daffodils are in full bloom and my purple azalea's are as well and you just never know when the rain will come pouring down and wash all the blossoms away! I just love the purple azaleas.
Many, many years ago hubby was building a stone fortress around a prominent home and the landscapers working on the property were busy pulling out and cutting down all of the foliage so the stone walls could go up. They threw all the rhododendron and azaleas on the pile to go to recycling so hubby asked if he could take them. They were in pretty sad shape at that point having been dug up by the backhoe and sitting on a rubbish pile for days. Anyways, he brought them home and for lack of a better place at the time, planted them in the middle of the backyard. We didn't know if they would live or not but they did and now they are big and strong and have the prettiest flowers every spring!