FRUITCAKE WEATHER....

"Snowflakes swirl down gently in the deep blue haze beyond the window. The outside world is a dream. Inside, the fireplace is brightly lit, and the Yule log with orange and crimson sparks. There's a steaming mug in your hands, warming your fingers. There's a friend seated across from you in a cozy chair, warming your heart. There is Mystery unfolding...." -Vera Nazarian

"Poetry is a fireplace in summer or a fan in winter..." -Robert Hass

"I think people who come into my home feel comfortable and welcome and loved....." -Julia Roberts

                          "I light candles every single night in my home..." -Evangeline Lily

"There was a fire in the fireplace and peace in my heart......

                                             and everything was quiet.." -Veronica Roth

"Arrives the snow ....the whited air  hides hills and woods, the river and the heaven..." -Ralph Waldo Emerson

"You're lying on the floor  ( in front of the  fire), with all the lights off and listening to the silence of the snow falling outside. For that one instance in time, everything is good..." -Francesca Zappia

"Imagine a morning in late November. A coming of winter morning more than twenty years ago. Consider the kitchen of a spreading old house in a country town. A great black stove is its main feature; but there is also a big round table and a fireplace with two rocking chairs placed in front of it. Just today the fireplace commenced its seasonal roar. A woman with shorn white hair is standing at the kitchen window. She is wearing tennis shoes and a shapeless gray sweater over a summery calico dress. She is small and sprightly, like a bantam hen; but, due to a long youthful illness, her shoulders are pitifully hunched. Her face is remarkable—not unlike Lincoln’s, craggy like that, and tinted by sun and wind; but it is delicate, too, finely boned, and her eyes are sherry-colored and timid. “Oh my,” she exclaims, her breath smoking the windowpane, “it’s fruitcake weather!" -Truman Capote ( my mother's favourite expression for  this time of year!)

"In the soft quiet of the days before Christmas , we find warmth not from a fireplace, but in the close embrace of loved ones. The true magic of the season lies in simple acts of kindness, shared laughter, and the heart's gentle whisper that the best gifts are not under the tree, but in the moments we create together..."

                                                                                                                   -Michail St. Fountoulakis

Photographs Mt. Washington Range, Campbell River, B.C.  2024

 

THE BOY who WENT to WAR....

"A soldier fights, because he loves what is behind him...." -Gilbert K. Chesterton

Stuart ( with Jesse the dog),Isabella, Robert, Bill

                                     May 29th, 1940  Bethune, Saskatchewan homestead

Regarding: DIEPPE AUG 19, 1942

FROM Signaller S.S. Shiels HQ Company   South Saskatchewan Regiment  DATE: 23/9/42

 Dear Sis (Nessie, my mother):

     Received your airgraph re Sept 5. I am OK. Excuse writing as I am in a cast from hips to neck and out to fingers of right hand. Had one bullet just miss back bone, and go through seat about 5 inches deep. Another hit centre of right back but glanced up smashing shoulder and have a neat hole through     “humorous”. 

     I took a prisoner and fetched him back, after being shot up, so you can judge from that the injuries are slight. When we evacuated amid a hail of bullets, ,shrapnel and dive bombing we could see green waves of Jerry pouring in for miles back. The official score was 5000 dead and wounded for them, and 3350 dead and wounded and prisoners from us. Believe you me, they have a healthy respect for Canadians. Will write as soon as right wing is working.

                                                                Love, Stuart.

1930's Bethune farm

"A boy doesn't have to go to war, to be a hero..." -E.W. Howe

Mar 21 , 1934

Robert, Nessie, Stuart, Bill 1930's

"Courage isn't having the strength to go on. It is going on when you have strength..." 

-N. Bonaparte

Hunting gophers, 1930's Stuart /Bill

 

farmhands 1930's

Stuart, Isobel, Nessie, Bill (back)

Isabella (Jesse) Robert (front)

"Who trains my hands for war, and my fingers for battle..." 

                                  - Psalm 144::1 (Psalm of David)

Mar 21 1934 Stuart , ready to ride

Home on the range

"When you go to war as a boy, you have great illusion of immortality...."

-Ernest Hemingway

At rest after a long day's work...

May 29th, 1940

                   Stuart, Bill, Stuart's buddy with Jesse .....

"Courage is not the absence of fear.....it is something else mor important...."

- F.D. Roosevelt

Hitchin' a ride ......

.The long road to somewhere....

1941 Buddies. Not sure if any of the others came back from Dieppe......

Aldershot Barracks 1940...Ongoing poker game  24/7 while they waited to go overseas...

Bren gun carrier

       "The brave die never, though they sleep in dust....." -Minot Judson Savage

In Portobello Pub 1941.....

the Compound....

"Be strong of heart, and of good courage, nor be afraid of them...."- Deut 31:6

Stuart, as Signaler, with South Saskatchewan regiment..... 

From 1940's 

  written by E. Hilton Young (1879-1960)

My mother saved this from the Times Colonist (Victoria). 

Dec 31, 1911 (Bethune, Saskatchewan)-Feb 27, 1975 (Vancouver, B.C. Mt. View Cemetary)

Vintage family Photos, 2024

"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy..." -Martin Luther King Jr.

 

 

BRAVE BIRDS.....

"God is in the small details: in the simplicity of a bird's song, in the serene dawn, or in the first autumn leaf falling..." - Animal wised

                                    "Hold onto dreams......." - Langston Hughes

Stellar Jays, hogging the birdbath...

"More beautiful than the song of birds are their flights. Not every song is of joy, but every flight is of freedom...." -Mario Quintana

      Finch sinking his head into his feathers, being brave against the rain...

(Brave Hum  Hum in the twilight)

"Better than the sound of silence, only the singing of birds....."

-Aerton Guimares

"Faith is the bird that feels the light and SINGS  when the dawn is still dark.." - R. Tagore

Juncos.... buried in the Katura Tree leaves, hiding from  the rain.............

Flicker pauses in a rat- a- tat- tat moment...

"My wish is to stay like this forever...to live peacefully in a corner of nature...." -Claude Monet

     "Look at the birds of the air..." - Matthew 6:26

Flicker eats and eats and eats eats....while a Towhee ( minus its tail) gets away ( and lives to tell the tale!) from the clutches  of  neighbourhood  cats. Towhee hops and flies and swings around the trees, giggling at the cats below...very brave...

"Soar on wings like eagles. Run and not grow weary....." -Isaiah 40:31

"Nature always wears the colour of the spirit...." -Emerson

"Birds were not designed just to be beautiful jewels of the sky, but to serve as the eyes of heaven." -Suzy Kassem

Stellar Jays gobbling as many 

seeds as they can......they do NOT like sharing...

"Be as the bird perched on a frail branch, she feels bending beneath her. Still she sings all the same, knowing she has wings...." -Victor Hugo

 "I wake up every morning, FREE as a bird.." - Ashley Cole

"Tomorrow the birds will sing.  Be brave. face LIFE.." - Charlie Chaplin

                                 (Another Towhee with its tail intact.......happy and brave.... )

Photographs 2024