Score!

I have been missing good old fashioned, double-boiled, Cape Breton-style tea ever since I got married and lost the use of my Mom's Corningware teapot. You can't buy these new anymore so it can be hard to come across one at a garage sale or second-hand store.

My aunt looked for one for months when she first got to Toronto, so I was expecting to have a hard time finding one myself. Today Mom and I stopped in at the Salvation Army and lo, I looked up and saw this beauty! Its in perfect condition, even better than my mom's, and it was priced right - 99 ₵  .   

Today was a good day! :)

Dollhouses: Am I Crazy?

In Cape Breton, I have a favorite antiques store that I must visit every year. Myles from Nowhere is in Margaree Forks, by the Co-op, in case you are passing through!

Anyway, I saw a number of crudely made dollhouses for sale there and while I was intrigued by them, they were much too ugly for me to consider buying.

A few days later, on a blog I frequent, Nie Nie Dialogues, I happened to see a beautiful little house used in her decor - I can only guess that it is a dollhouse. I love how it is used in the room and since I am always dreaming about how I will decorate my own home, I felt that I must look around to see what was out there.

And so last night I plunged into the world of dollhouses! It is an expensive and labour-intensive world. I was seriously afraid that I was getting myself into a new and pricey hobby.

Luckily after some searching I came across the most wonderful website - The Little Dollhouse Company - and their shop is literally across the street from my boss' restaurant! It was a great excuse to eat great meal and peruse the dollhouses. Which is what D. and I did today!

I bought the simplest, smallest kit they had, and I am in love with it already. I took it out of the box and fit it all together and it is the cutest little thing ever. I can't wait to start building it!

The only bad thing is I was in a store filled with expensive, small and ridiculous items. So I was totally in my element! I am afraid that I have started down a path...even D. was drawn to the little furniture and accessories. I think we might be in trouble :)

Sadness

I was in Cape Breton for a week. It was a hastily planned trip to see my grandmother who was sick in the hospital. She died the morning of our flight in so we missed her by hours.

Its strange how a place I have loved so much and knew only under happy circumstances has become such a source of sadness to me in memory.

Now that I have been back a week I don’t remember most the fun times I tried to have. All I can see is her empty spot in the kitchen, and what I saw at the funeral. I remember her, and I miss her. Her absence jarred my whole experience of Cape Breton.

Although I have come to some sort of peace with her death, there are many moments of disbelief and profound sadness at the realization that she is really, really gone.

I haven’t been a Catholic for very long – its been four years since I was baptized – and while I feel a sense of peace because of my faith I am also experiencing a black hole of fear and doubt.


In any case, my grandmother was a good woman and I will miss her. I am sure I will love Cape Breton again without the sadness I am feeling now.

Home of our Hearts

Canadian Boat Song
Anonymous


Listen to me, as when ye heard our father
Sing long ago the song of other shores -
Listen to me, and then in chorus gather
All your deep voices as ye pull the oars;

Fair these broad meads - these hoary woods are grand;
But we are exiles from our fathers' land.



From the lone shieling of the misty island
Mountains divide us, and the waste of seas -
Yet still the blood is strong, the heart is Highland,
And we in dreams behold the Hebrides.

Fair these broad meads - these hoary woods are grand;
But we are exiles from our fathers' land.


We ne'er shall tread the fancy-haunted valley,
Where 'tween the dark hills creeps the small clear stream,
In arms around the patriarch banner rally,
Nor see the moon on royal tombstone gleam.

Fair these broad meads - these hoary woods are grand;
But we are exiles from our fathers' land.


When the bold kindred, in the time long-vanished,
Conquered the soil and fortified the keep,
No seer foretold the children would be banished,
That a degenerate lord might boast his sheep.

Fair these broad meads - these hoary woods are grand;
But we are exiles from our fathers' land.



Come foreigner rage - let Discord burst in slaughter!
O then for clansmen true, and stern claymore -
-The hearts that would have given their blood like water
Beat heavily beyond the Atlantic roar.

Fair these broad meads - these hoary woods are grand;
But we are exiles from our fathers' land.


Cape Breton 2009