One for my Malaysian Friends

I know how much you all adore and worship your cats there. But here is a great video of how much tenderness and patience a dog has when teaching their offsprings.

Hope you enjoy

parenting and teaching in the animal world

My Little Munchkin Graduated

My granddaughter finally is in 'big kids' play school. She has waited for a long time to get there and finally the day arrived.  Here are a couple of pictures showing her pleasure in the new location. It was time for her to graduate. She is such a sweet caring little girl and somehow she ended up staying with the little toddlers too long because she was so kind to them all. Now it is her turn to have fun and be who she is.  A big girl!

  

Three Days of Work and Things are Getting Easier

Now that I am settling into a routine I am finding I have more energy and ability to even climb the nasty hill.  The campus is on the waterfront facing the Pacific Ocean, and the entire  road system and buildings are on the steepest hill you have ever seen.  There is a parking lot at the bottom right next to the shoreline, and then one on top near the entrance. I park in the top one.  Then down the hill I march, much like climbing down a wall, and then homeward, back up the hill, which is a killer.  But I recall all the years I belonged to a gym and used the stairclimber and paid to use it.  Here it is free - the only membership cost is stamina.  The first day I did it I thought, wow, I managed!  The second day anticipation had me trying to figure out how to avoid it.  I was considering contacting the campus maintenance people to give me a lift.  There are actually golf carts that take disabled people up and down the hill on a regular basis.  But, I won't buy into that.  I will not let myself think I am disabled.  Today, I climbed the hill and actually had a conversation with someone on the way up.  I  must be in better shape than I thought.  I was considering joining the gym at school, but why?  The drive home is confusing.  Friday and Tuesday were insane bottlenecks on the highway which had me sitting and crawling for about 25 minutes before I could actually drive. So today I anticipated the same, but somehow, today, like Monday, it was clear sailing. There is no logical explanation for the changes in traffic patterns so I don't know why it was easier today than yesterday. But I won't complain.
My students are doing great. They are surprised themselves over this.  When I teach, I don't tend to tell them anything. I make them find the answers.  Today was quite funny.  I wrote 8 sentences and then cut each into separate words. They had to work together and piece these words into 8 sentences again. And if you know anything about ESL learners, the, a, at, on, in, to show up in the craziest places in their written and spoken language.  I don't blame them. English is a  language that adds so many more words to a sentence than any other language. As a result they all learn about 'the' and 'to' and use it everywhere.  They even told me that there were not enough 'to's in the words I gave them.  But eventually they figured it all out and were beaming with their accomplishment.  Yay students!

To Garden or Not to Garden - that is the question

Living amid deer and rabbits is not a good recipe for gardening veggies.  I have the most pathetic little patch of wanna be plants you have ever seen.  Anything that is flourishing is not because of my intervention.  The former owners must have understood what to grow and why.  Lettuce, zucchini, carrots, beets, peppers, and a few others do not fit in that plan.

We have all seen a little old lady with a hairy mole on her face. yes?  Well that is what my carrot patch looks like. And about the same size.  Everything that tries to grow here is nibbled off by the midnight bandits and what I see in the morning is stems, or nothing. I have completely admitted defeat with the first little bed I planted.  Nothing survived and what has taken over is a bed of nasturtiums.  I like nasturtiums. Deer and rabbits don't appear to.  That is good.  The tomato plants appear to be unscathed. They are probably waiting for the actual tomatoes to grow. As for romaine, I won't be serving any caesar salad from this crop.

The flowers are spectacular. No thanks to me. They were already here.  And each day there is a new burst of fragrance and vivid colours bursting open around the property.

This could all sound like some serious whining. But not so.  I have had fun thinking I am a gardener. It was a good thing I had no idea of what kind of work it required, or that after the work was done that there would be no reward at the end of the day.  Doesn't matter. I will likely do it all again next year, and see what happens then.  I will never forget the profound peace I experienced during that week of hard labour. I have no idea what happened that week, other than a great deal of weeding, planting, and dreaming. And all it cost me was time and a few bucks to buy some little wee seeds.

Now time to finish up the research project so that I can be ready to be a teacher again in just over a week.

Happy Canada Day

So nice to be back.