Well, I’ve just been eating it up. It’s been over a decade since I experienced a Canadian spring, and it’s just as splendid and invigorating as I remember it to be. We do miss our life in the tropics – there’s no denying – but I’d rather have spring fever than Dengue fever! And from now till September or so, we won’t be wishing we were near the equator.

I’ve been wandering around the neighbourhood with my camera like a kid in a candy shop. There sure is something about spring colour that is mesmerizing.

The lawns which were brown and dry just a month ago are full of life. What a change it makes to a street!

Um, not everyone has moved past winter yet.

Lots of steps, porches and decks have put out their floral decorations. Look, daffodils and pussy willows!

Besides the beautiful blooms and buds, there are several other signs that convince me winter is truly behind us. Every day we see lots of cyclists, kids, moms with strollers, and neighbours chatting.

Everyone’s feeling neighbourly…

And the old Italian men can be seen wandering or sitting, doubtless remembering spring back in the old country.

Another great sigh: yup, your laundry won’t freeze anymore if you put it out.

And squirrels. They’re scampering everywhere. Mehmet has never seen squirrels before he came to Canada, and he is so fascinated with them. They are beautiful.

The last few weeks on Compost Pick-up Day, the curbs have been full with dead leaves, sticks, trimmings, the works. Everyone’s been working on their gardens and lawns.

But it must be said… the number one sign we know winter is history?

Unfortunately, it’s this.

Spring has come – in all its intoxicating splendour.  Today I want to share a few of my spring photos alongside some of the ancient haiku from Japanese poet Kobayashi Issa.

When I read Issa’s poetry, I imagine him sitting there on my beloved Japanese hillsides, next to a river or a mountain, penning these words which so succintly and beautifully reflect all those significant but simple images of spring.

I know poetry preferences are very personal, but I hope you enjoy a moment with Issa too.

kigi ono-ono nanori idetaru ko no me kana

every tree
with its calling card…
spring buds

1789

taoyame wo hi-bi ni kazoeru haru hi kana

pretty girls multiply
day by day…
spring days!

1793

hana no tomo ni mata au made wa ikuharu ya

my blossom comrades
when next we meet…
how many springs from now?

1791

waga haru wa take ippon ni yanagi kana

my spring–
a bit of bamboo
and a willow sprig

1804

nodokasa ya kozo no makura wa dono ki [no] ne

spring peace–
last year which tree root
was my pillow?

1804

yome morau jibun to naru ya ume no hana

tis the season
for taking a wife…
plum blossoms

1803

haru tatsu ya ushi ni mo uma nimo fumarezu ni

a new spring–
neither cow nor horse
has trod on it

1817

amadare no naka kara fuku ya haru no kaze

blowing from the raindrops
from the eaves…
spring wind

1818

hatsu haru no kenari wa ware [to] suzume kana

we start the spring
in our everyday clothes…
me and the sparrow

1821

A couple weekends ago when we were home for Easter, Mehmet and I joined Dad and Carol, my brother David and his wife Cynthia on a hike through Apps Mills Conservation Area. My family all loves going for hikes, and Dad loves to take people with him to Apps Mills.

David and Dad have been coming here regularly on Sunday afternoons for many years. They’ll tell you how the flow of the river has changed and what effect erosion and climate have had on the river.

Me, I just love the purdy blue sky!

About .2 seconds after this picture was taken, David started bouncing violently and thoughtlessly on the tree, and I felt right back on my back. My left arm broke and because of suspicious sharp pain in my back, they told me not to move, and Emergency Medical Technicians were called in to take me to ER. \

Not really. But it really hurt my elbow!

One great thing about hikes among the bare deciduous trees is the depth and starkness. I love the look of ‘dead’ trees and forest floors.

Nature is such great testimony to the skill of an amazing Creator!

I love the textures.

In retrospect, it was an extra special day, since it was Babe’s last time to Apps Mills – a place that he too knows well and has been visiting regularly.

There’s no doubt it was a good day for him.

We always had dogs as we were growing up. But we were a farm dog family; dogs were meant to be outside. They were loved and comfortable and were definitely a part of the family – but they stayed outside.

That was before Babe.

About 12 years ago, my brother David brought home Babe, a pure-bred Jack Russell Terrier. And boy did he win our hearts.

“He can’t stay in the house”, said Mom.

A couple days later, she said, “Okay, he can only go on the non-carpeted areas.”

Then, after a few weeks, “Alright, he can go on the furniture, but only in designated areas with a mat or towel for him to lie on.”

And so, he wriggled his way from outside to inside, to carpet, to furniture, and eventually to beds.

We were all disgusted when Joan said he slept in the bed with her.

“Try it”,  she said.

And if you’ve ever slept with a little dog curled up behind your knees or against your stomach you know that it’s too much. Too cute. Too sweet.

And when the dog is Babe, when he wriggles under those blankets to find a position, then rests his little snout on your leg or tummy and heaves a huge sigh before falling asleep… you weaken. You become enamoured and can never claim the bed solely as your own again.

I was living overseas when Babe joined the family. But on my visits home, he stole my heart too…

He’s been such a part of family life.

And how could he not be? How could you not want something this cute around?

He loved to be part of the action. He didn’t mind hanging out indoors as we ate or played games, but if somebody was outside, Babe was there, and totally in his element. He spent endless hours outside with Dad, chasing the tractor, hunting for mice, and begging somebody (anybody!) to throw his ball so he could go get it.

Babe got himself into quite a few scrapes over the years. Joan says, “I remember when he chewed on a power cord in my bedroom one time and got electrocuted.  He passed,  I picked him up and ran downstairs with him and while I was calling the vet he suddenly woke up and ran around in circles and got all crazy like when he’s just had a bath.  He got some burns on his gums but that’s about it.

Then there was the time when he got hit by a truck on the road and I ran and picked him up and he was all stiff.  David drove us to the vet then (not within the speed limit) and we thought he was a goner then.  He was on an IV and I can’t remember what they all did to him.  He could only walk in circles tighter and tighter until he would fall down.  But then we realized he couldn’t see out of his one eye and that’s probably why he walked in circles.  It seems he wasn’t too worse for the wear after that incident too.

I remember when I threw the ball for Babe before we had a fence around the pool but instead of going around the pool he ran across it while the bubble cover was on.  He got a little bogged down three quarters of the way so I had to scoop him out with the net.”

Babe has provided endless companionship and fun for Dad and my step-mom Carol. It’s hard to imagine visiting them without his playful barks and loving licks!

“Should the dog get food from the table?” Our family ranges in opinion on this, from one extreme (David) to the other extreme, (Dad):

And Babe was well known for his singing. When he was really happy, he loved to let out a long howl.

If you howled along, he’d go on and on…

Mehmet met Babe for the first time just a few months ago… but he knew all about him because I talk about him all the time.

And of course, the dog won his heart too.

We spent all of January at Dad and Carol’s and had some great times with Babe!

Last weekend we were home and six of us went for a hike with Babe. At one point he misjudged a jump over a mud puddle and ended up like this:

Unfortunately, this is the last picture we have of him, and we won’t see him again.

This past week, Babe suddenly got very sick. I don’t need to write all the details, but it involves something like a stroke, the vet discovering he had almost no platelets (that cause blood to clot), which led to rapid deterioration, and ineffective steroid treatment. Dad and Carol made the difficult decision to euthanize him, and now he is buried in the back yard where he played every day.

Sad stuff!

A great dog who led an extraordinary life. We’ll miss you, Babe!

I can’t imagine family life without you.

My brother David and his wife Cynthia hosted our family get-together on Easter Saturday.  It was a beautiful, sunny day, and so fun to spend it together.

Dad collected and cooked goose eggs for the kids, and here Sophie is colouring one of them.

Bryce also loves to be artistic.

Much to Mehmet’s delight, a soccer ball was found, pumped up, and a game ensued. This is Frank, my sister’s husband.

Scott, David, Bryce

Matt, Mehmet and Jared

The girlz all watched from inside. We’re so athletic!

My younger sister Joan is expecting her first baby in less than a month. It’s very exciting!

The ladies action moves to the Wii in the basement. I told you we’re athletic! Nancy (my brother Harley’s wife) does the downhill slalom skiing.

Back: Cynthia (sister-in-law), me (no relation), Nancy (sister-in-law)
Front: Joan (sister), Carol (step-mom), Eleanor (sister)

My brother David and Sophie were flying a kite… it was a lethal weapon!  I kept my distance because the kite was dropping fast and furious again and again.

Guiding the kite, or dive-bombing Jared.

Sophie found some small weeds by the pond.

Mehmet finds a moment in the sun to sit and check global soccer scores on his phone.

Bryce

Guestures!

Cousins

Sophie’s turn

The kids all had to find a Kinder Egg with their name on it… then they were engrossed in making the toy inside.

Dinner time! Everyone brought something, so it didn’t take too long to prepare the meal.

Mmm… lamb kebabs. Cynthia’s got Greek Cypriot blood, so her tradition has been to eat lamb at Easter. And of course Mehmet being Turkish loves lamb too. I wish lamb was cheaper and more popular in Canada… it’s so yummy!

David barbecues lamb kebabs, chops and ribs.

Salads and Turkish meze (appetizers)

Matt made Dutch klompen cheese ‘balls’!

Oh man…

Ham and lotsa lamb

Come and get it!

The adults’ table

Matt provided after-dinner music

The kids playing Nintendo.

Some colourful homemade goodies! Joan, Dad and I all made coconut treats. And the cookies are Joan’s work!!

Mehmet loved Carol’s apple crisp.

My sweet sisters

Brother-in-law Frank and Sophie

Sister-in-law Nancy and Jayden.

“Hey, let’s burst the balloons by throwing them into the ceiling fan!”

Maple sugar, to be even more precise.

Last weekend, in one of the  short respites we’ve had from the cold weather, Mehmet and I went on a daytrip to Kortright Conservation Centre, a 325 hectare piece of land in the Humber Valley just north of the city.

Kortright offers lots of environmental education programs for schools as well as sustainable technology workshops for the public.

First of all, let’s pretend that getting there by public transportation wasn’t an exasperating debacle.

Okay, good.

There are lots and lots of trails at Kortright, but we were there to see the Maple Syrup process. When I was growing up, our neighbours tapped maples, but I’ve actually never seen the process up close. Mehmet – well the whole idea of it was new to him.

And though he’s seen and ridden all kinds of horses, he’d never seen work horses before… and these Clydesdales pulling the wagon really amazed him with their strength, size and slowness.

Inside the centre there were several displays about wildlife. You know, the whole stuffed ducks in a box decorated like their habitat…  yawn.

We want to see the maple syrup already!

Two choices – take the tour on your own, or go with a group. Going on your own, you walk like this.

With a group, you get some explanations…

But you walk like this.

Yeah, that’s right. We booted it past the group.

It was a gorgeous day… absolutely perfect. Here are some traditional maple syrup buckets, collecting the sap that drips from a metal tap screwed or hammered a few inches into the tree.

Most people don’t know that sap can be collected for only about a month in early spring. This is because the temperature has to drop at night and be warmer in the daytime for the sap to run.

Doesn’t it just make you want to build a log cabin, kill deer for meat and hide, and spend your evenings in front of the fire with Ma and Pa?

Oh no – The Group is coming!

Too late, they’re upon us as we approach Granny Maple and her kettles. She explains that she’s got sap in all three kettles – at different stages. The furthest kettle is almost full of the watery sap. In the second kettle, lots of the water has evaporated, and the sap is a bit darker and thicker. In the last kettle, the sap is almost syrup – that is, most of the water has evaporated and the sap is syrupy and sweet.

Here, everyone gets a taste of the sap as it tastes when it comes out of the tree.

And this is what it looks like! It tastes like water with just a hint of sweetness.

Then Grandpa Maple comes around and refills all the cups with the finished product – delicious maple syrup.

Look at the difference. And boy was it yummy! I thought it was quite rude that Granny Maple wasn’t baking pancakes for all of us…

Did you know this?

I knew that one.

I also know there’s an unnecessary comma on the sign.  And we’ll politely overlook the erroneous use of capital letters.

Sorry… got distracted.

Here’s something I did NOT know:

I wanted to stand among the trees and yell, ‘The sap’s running, Jake!”. But I didn’t. But I wanted to.

They’ve got a good system going here. Check out the web of blue piping. It collects the sap from all the trees, and gravity carries it down there to the Sugar Shack!

(Isn’t sugar shack fun to say?)

In the sugar shack they have a huge hot tray that evaporates the water out of the sap quickly. Of course we’d have seen it if we had stayed with The Group.

At the end of our walk, we just sat on the grass. Sat on the grass! Who knew it would snow the next day.

It was really getting me down.

I knew I needed to take care of it, but the task was even bigger than it appeared on the surface.

My husband had been saying, “You should be ashamed of yourself”, and I know he was right.

It really was time to stop procrastinating.

My friend Gladys across the garden path… she’s always tidy.

She doesn’t let things get out of control.

She prevents problems before they happen.

She starches her husbands shirts daily, and makes sure her own pinafores and ribbons are fresh and clean too. It makes him proud.

But me, I have trouble tackling my own housekeeping  issues. I get overwhelmed!

See…

This is the problem.

My laptop desktop looked like this.

I can’t control it! My files are like rabbits; they multiply! I hate to ‘file away’ anything that I’m currently working on. I want things handy.

The problem is I am always working on approximately 255,300 things at the same time.

But so is Gladys – and she still holds it all together.

So today, with the warmth of the sun in my room and the encouraging twitter of chickadees in the bushes outside the windows, I put on my work gloves and got inspired.

Result: desktop tidy, fresh and positively sparkling.

I even tackled the bookmarks.

They look so pretty now, each with their own home in their respective folders.

I’m on a roll!

Tomorrow I think I’ll starch and iron my pillow cases tackle the e-mail inbox.

I’ve always liked art. During high school I knew I would be an art teacher. Well that didn’t pan out now, did it.

But it’s true, my exceptional talent was exposed early in my life.

Welcome to my ‘I am Big’ book, circa 1975

Well, it’s no secret that we were sad about leaving Asia – especially me. I’ve spent five years there in three different countries, and I love so many many things about that part of the world!

But hey, I must say…

If you have to leave Asia, consider yourself lucky if you have the next best thing…

A good-sized, authentic Chinatown!

20% of Torontonians are of Asian heritage.

I’m lovin’ it.

Whew! I’ve been so busy. The last few weeks I’ve been doing some temp teaching at a language school, while looking for a job that’s a good fit for me. I have been busy with other things too – I took a four day training course over a couple weekends, complete with two three-hour exams… eek. Our apartment is getting homier, too, as I work on the details.

Last weekend my sister and her family came to Toronto and we went to the Toronto Sportsmen’s Show. I’ve been there several times in the past, and knew this would be an interesting introduction for Mehmet to Canada’s love for recreation.

Friday night, a sleepover. Our place is small… we don’t have a spare bedroom. How would this work?

But it worked! Of course ordering pizza in simplified matters a bit.

Relaxing…

Who needs a guest room?

… especially when you can sleep on a bay window seat! Sophie enjoyed seeing the CN tower from the window.

Off to the Toronto Exhibition Centre.

It’s already been a couple months since we saw the kids, so it was great to spend the day together!

Kayaks… oy! I’m dying to get one of these and do some kayaking this summer.

Must. Kayak.

A demonstration.

Half of the fun of the day was watching the kids get chances to try things.

A 10 minute rafting ‘lesson’. Okay it was in a swimming pool, but still…

There were so many ATVs!

Mehmet had a try at archery; the line-up at the shooting ranges were toooo long.

He loves to shoot and really wants to try hunting. Mmmkay…

Scott and Sophie at the Yamaha ‘track’, trying out the bikes.

They were geared up in so many layers!

Good times.

Jared tried unsuccessfully to catch a trout. Sophie caught one later though.

I know J. We all want a boat.

If the fishing, motorcycling and rafting weren’t enough, there was more:

Wouldn’t know how to start a fire without matches or a lighter? Have a seat and get a lesson!

Watching the dog obstacle course competition. Go Jack Russells go!

Oh there was so much more. The tents, the RVs the, canoes, the guns and knives, the taxidermy (ew), the guys climbing trees with belts and shoes.

Ooo, and the rescue helicopter. So big and strong, so shiny, so pretttty.

A good day! Bring on the spring so we can really embrace the outdoors!

Now that we’ve been in Canada for almost three months, it’s all starting to come back to me.

This country is huge! And there’s so much to explore, see and do.

Our province of Ontario is itself mind-boggling in terms of size. The most effective and unforgettable way to get your head around the enormity is to drive ten hours only to find you’ve only gone a miniscule distance on the province’s road map.

I tried to put it into perspective for Mehmet. Ontario’s bigger than all of Turkey. No way. Unbelievable. But it’s true! Even though in Europe Turkey is seen as a huge country, it’s still smaller than our province. Turkey: 780,580 square kilometres (301,382 square miles). Ontario? Over 1 million square kilometres! That’s just nuts.

I’m pretty excited to share some of our Ontario with him this summer. We’ll drive, canoe, camp, and explore. We will, we will!

Maybe sometime in the future we’ll make it out to the beautiful prairies.

Or, someday, the west coast. Beautiful Pacific Canada. I want to share the Rockies and the beautiful west coast drives with him. It’s hard to really comprehend how far it is from where we are. Almost a five-hour flight!

Maybe we’ll make it to la belle province, Quebec.  When Mehmet starts yearning for European flavour and cobblestone streets, a trip to Quebec City is definitely in order!

And there’s the Maritimes. Mehmet is intrigued by the commercials we see encouraging us to visit Newfoundland and Labrador. There’s Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick. He’ll LOVE that part of Canada.

Not to mention the North! It’s long been my dream to visit the Yukon.

A year ago I was dreaming of which island or South-East Asian country we could get to cheaply.

Now I’m dreaming of which parts of Canada I can share with my husband.

For now, we’ll explore it a bit through books, television and, well… puzzles!

This week Mizz Oprah had a show about children who were developmentally delayed because of being neglected in childhood.

On the program, they showed brain scans of young children who had been neglected in infancy or early childhood compared with brains of children growing up in ‘normal’ homes. The difference in brain size and development was shocking.

I found it especially intriguing when the psychologist said that most of our core personality is already developed at age 5 or 6. For example, the way you solve problems, or the way you see the world as an adult – these traits are already noticible when we are young. “So you’ve got the same personality now as you did at age 6 – you just know more,” he said. I know that’s just me oversimplifying it, but it is interesting, isn’t it? What characteristics do you see in your kids or grandkids that you think will be sure to manifest themselves in their career or lifestyle choice when they’re older?

The other day as I was sorting through all my stuff, I spent a lot of time engrossed in one box full of art, notebooks, letters and cards from my youth and adolesence. I also have all my report cards from school, and Mehmet and I had a good laugh at some of my teachers’ comments.

And it is funny how my personality in kindergarten was so indicative of who I would grow up to be. Have a look back at 1976 with me as I determine if the comments on my kindergarten school report is still relevant today.

Good student. Okay yes I have always liked school.
Kind to classmates. Well, that’s just because I wanted the toys they were playing with.
Likes to please the teacher. HAHA, yeah.

Tries hard. In some areas much more than others.

Second term:

(Why did I miss the first part of the term?)

Speak out in class? *Sigh* Sadly, this seems to be a running theme in my reports right through to the end of high school. I have always gotten in trouble for yapping to my friends and classmates.

I was just making sure nobody got lonely! I should have been praised and rewarded for putting their social needs ahead of my academic needs.

Okay, term 3.

I still like singing.
I get along with most people.

And I tended to be somewhat …. what? somewhat generous? somewhat helpful? somewhat adorable, huggable, loving and sweeeeeet?

Bossy!?

Me, bossy? Never! That can’t be right!! I’m a teacher pleaser! I was kind to my classmates! I carried a tune well!

How could this little girl be bossy!

Clearly we can conclude that the theory of our personalities being so clearly developed in early childhood is total bunk.

Hmmmph.

Take THAT.

One day last week, Mehmet came in from outside and exclaimed, “Everyone has their garbage out by the street; it looks so nice!” I was puzzled, till I realized he’s never seen recycling or garbage collection done ‘our’ way before. Things have changed a lot in Toronto since I left a decade ago, and it’s neat for me too, to see how waste collection has evolved in the city, such as the recycling program and the organic waste pick-up.

This is our street:

I started thinking about garbage (as one does), and I did a little investigating on Toronto’s waste. I have a couple questions for you, see if you can guess the correct answer:

Question 1:

Where does Toronto’s garbage go?

A. To a waste recycling plant near Windsor, Ont.
B. To a huge dump outside London, Ont.
C. To a farm in Michigan, USA.

What do you think?

Don’t peek below!

According to the terms of NAFTA, trash is a free trade commodity, and if enterprising companies in Michigan want to offer landfill sites to Ontario politicians, well… that’s the solution! Yep, the answer is C.

Question 2:

In 2003, 140 of these trucks (seen in the image below) full of compressed Toronto garbage cross the border into the USA every day and came back empty.

Just five years later, in 2008, how many trucks do you think made the same trip each day?

A. 70 (half of 2003)
B. 140 (the same)
C. 280 (double)

Well, a total of 3 million metric tons of Canadian trash is dumped into Michigan every year (40% of that comes from Toronto)

The good news, according to last week’s Toronto Star? ” In a testament to all those blue and green bins that line Toronto streets on garbage day, the city has cut the number of Michigan-bound trash loads by half in the past five years” (so the answer is A).

In addition, three years ago, the city bought the Green Lane Dump near St. Thomas, and has a goal of diverting 70% of it’s waste to Green Lane by the end of next year. And good news for our friends in Michigan – the city’s contract with the Michigan site expires in 2010.

Seriously, who knows (not me!) how much of the good news is propoganda or how much of the bad news is fear-mongering – but nobody can deny that the amount of trash we create is staggering and should make us feel uneasy.

I’m reminded of what Annie Leonard said in her well-known online video The Story of Stuff: “If everybody consumed at U.S. rates, we would need 3 to 5 planets.” If by chance you haven’t seen this video, I recommend it!

As we settle down to life in Toronto, I’d like to learn more about what this city and our community is doing in terms of sustainability.

Stay tuned for updates!

One of the most difficult parts of moving so often for the last decade has been not having ready access to the ’stuff’ that is dearest to me. You should know that ESL teachers simply aren’t in it ‘for the money’, and we basically live out of two suitcases (generally the airline baggage limit of 40kg or so).

Every couple years when I came home to Canada for a visit, I’d dig into the boxes and bags of my belongings that were kindly being stored by family, contribute some new items, and then proceed to do some heavy duty purging.

I’ve gotten rid of so much that I would have liked to keep. Sentimental clothes (like my prom dress!), craft and sewing supplies, rollerblades, ice skates, and furniture.

It’s been years since I’ve been back into the boxes and I’ve been so excited to get my hands back on my things.

Over the years, I’ve sometimes thought to myself, “Self, you’re almost 30, over 30, almost 40! Your friends have homes and filled all the rooms, and all you have is a few piddly boxes!”

But then other times I feel so glad that I’ve been able to minimize my belongings, and not feel burdened by ‘things’. At least that’s what I try to convince myself.

Either way, if you had asked me a month ago what was in all those boxes, I’d never be able to tell you – besides my photo albums and some dishes.

So, what made the cut, year after year? What were the sentimental items that I couldn’t bear to part with?

This week I sat on the floor and started inspecting my treasures.

First things first – my beloved Japanese dishes. For so long they’ve been suffocating in my boxes, and finally finally I can enjoy them!

One of my ‘Learn Japanese’ study books at the time had several pages of stickers at the back. They were all labelled with household objects and food, so you could stick them right on the objects in your home, and thus be reminded daily of the Japanese word. Brilliant, eh? I didn’t really need this one – ocha (tea) is one of the most common words in Japanese!

I was living in Osaka when I turned 30, and this yukata (a summer kimono) was a birthday gift from my friends. That was a great birthday party! Barbecue, fireworks, friends and my dragonboat team, all on the banks of the Yodogawa (the river I wrote about in the flashback of my last entry). When will I wear it again? Who knows? You have my permission to bury me in it (not YET)!

You can’t bury me in this one though:

My Leafs jersey, which I got the whole team to sign back in ‘93. Don’t laugh, they’ve had resurgences okay? Doug Gilmour! Dave Andreychuck! Felix Potvin! Wendel CLARK!

Some of my childhood books that I just can’t bear to give away. Heidi? Seriously. You had me at ‘Mountains’.

I used to paint, you know? I used to draw, and do crafts, write letters, make scrapbooks, sew, bake…

Wow, I did a lot before the Internet STOLE MY LIFE.

More sentimental stuff: BOOKS!

One of the most painful things about leaving each country has been not being able to take the books because of weight restrictions on airplanes. This is why I still have a couple boxes in storage in Australia, and some in Turkey too – because I couldn’t take them with me, but I also couldn’t just give them away! Bah. So I’ve only been able to keep a few – and now it’s great to get back into my old collection that has been waiting for me here in Canada all along.

Oh, here we have another Japan one! Honestly, it took restraint not to buy all of Japan – everything there seems to be either funky, modern, extremely functional and efficient, beautifully traditional or downright odd.

This one was – at the time – modern and funky:

Mini-disk players!! They were all the rage, and since I did so much walking in Osaka, this was my best friend for awhile. So much more convenient than a CD player, since it just fit in my pocket.

They never really took off in North America – I don’t know why.

Okay, also, before the Internet stole my life, I used to write diaries on paper.

Oh, the dramas of young adulthood. The only remnants that remain of earlier childhood diaries is those few pages I tore out, lying in the top left of the picture. I burned all the others… but I forget why!

I’ve always liked writing, and I swear that one of the very last entries in my last diary talks about how I have tried this thing called the Internet, and ‘wow, it’s so fun’!

It’s okay, I continued writing my diary on a private journalling website online.

Now, some of the most sentimental items I’ve kept go way back to childhood. My first Bible:

My first (leather!) wallet:

My first set of cutlery… with little bunnies on the ends!

My first hot water bottle – how cute is this! My mom made the little cover and used the hot water bottle for her babies. (Joan, I was going to give this to you for Baby, but the rubber has hardened and now has little holes along the seam!)

A little apron one of my aunts in Holland made for me! I vividly remember wearing it over my little dress for lunch on Sunday afternoons, and using the pockets on the front to hold my soup crackers.

Excuse my hair.

And – get this! – the little ID bracelet they put on me when I was born:

Look how wee my wrist was! Too sweet. I’m so glad my mom kept this stuff for me!

Evidence of my first ‘Rudiments of Music’, from my piano teacher, Miss Bailey.

And evidence via Miss Bailey’s handwriting that I sucked.

Yeah, I didn’t have time for bass and treble cleff nonsense -  I just wanted to be in my room writing in my diary.

So yes, living with limited space has made me really appreciate some of these precious items that I’ve been storing all this time.

Of course there’s more. Videos, photos, photo albums and scrapbooks – all fun to rediscover. And now we are waiting for our shipment from Malaysia to arrive with some furniture and more SHTUFF (this time the company paid, so I could even take all my books!). In the meantime, I sit and just enjoy my little treasures.

Wow, this was a long entry. Sowwy.

Well, it has to be said that Mehmet is very athletic. He is strong, co-ordinated, and loves to move. But his interests lie 99.975% with the one sport of soccer. If the game doesn’t involve sending a black and white ball by foot into a goal at the end of the field, it’s pretty boring to him.

But after watching our nephew Bryce play a few weeks ago, his interest was piqued. And this past weekend, he tried skating himself for the first time. My brother Harley makes an ice-rink in his back yard each winter for the boys and their friends, so that was the venue.

Enjoy with me, if you will, the process.

Nancy comes to join in the fun…

(I need to clarify here that it’s PLAYING I don’t enjoy; I do like to watch games!)

Yesterday Mehmet and I made our first venture into the big city since our arrival to Canada over a month ago. Toronto is about an hour and a half drive from my hometown, but the light snow combined with morning traffic made for a three hour trip one way.

After a (two hour!) job interview, we went to look at three apartments we had sourced online in the last few days. Apartment 1: Help me, Rhonda! Apartment 2: small but awesome. Apartment 3: *swoooon*!

We’ll just leave the apartment topic untouched for now, in case the landlord from apartment 3 makes the painful, unacceptable decision that we are Not The Chosen Ones.

So let’s go to a little Starbucks downtown on the corner of King and Jarvis. With an hour or so to kill between appointments, Mehmet had a nap in the car while I went in for a hot drink. Can I just say “ahhhhhhhhh…”!! As I sat there with my Tazo tea, I leaned back to do a bit of thinking and people-watching. And suddenly the long-forgotten sensations of Toronto life flooded over me.

Living in Toronto – it’s not like big city living I’ve done in Asia or Europe. Every city around the world feels different, so does Toronto. The streets are different, the shops, the restaurants, the people, their mannerisms…

I watched the two young men studiously reading and writing with coffee in hand. Outside in the cold, countless university students biked and walked by. And suddenly all I wanted to do was be 20 again, and live the student life. When Mehmet came in later, I tried to explain it to him, the warm memories of college days. He’s never had that experience, and I told him I hope he gets to – that unique motivation, energy and optimism that is so characteristic of young adulthood.

Toronto holds opportunity for Mehmet, who’s missed out on so much. I’m excited for him, and for us. As we drove through Chinatown, Koreatown, Greektown, Little Italy, I felt a renewed wonder and pride at the multiculturalism of the city. We sat and had Israeli/Lebanese food for lunch, and I felt grateful for all the influences and contributions that people from around the world have given Toronto, and can’t wait to get back into it all again.

Yay! I love change, new environments, new experiences, and new challenges.

Just because Toronto isn’t as exotic as Osaka, as historical as Istanbul, or  tropical as Kuala Lumpur doesn’t mean I’ll have any less fodder for writing and taking pictures, or any less interest in sharing our explorations.

Look out ‘T.O’! We’re coming.

Years ago, I fell in love with the poetry of the Japanese poet, Kobayashi Issa. He wrote over twenty thousand ‘one-breath poems’—which used to be called haikai but are now known as haiku.

“A haiku is a short poem that uses imagistic language to convey the essence of an experience of nature or the season intuitively linked to the human condition” (The Haiku Society of America’s definition).

Basically, it’s a short poem that links nature to the human condition.

I sometimes get lost in his poems; to me they speak so richly of his life in Japan in those years. In such short poems, he was able to capture so much.

In Japan, traditional haiku consists of seventeen “syllables” arranged in a 5-7-5 pattern. Do you remember writing your own haiku in school as a child?

The other day we awoke to a glorious morning, the trees coated in a thick layer of hoar frost. It wasn’t snow, just frost, and was soon melted under the warm sun.

Today I will share my photos, combining them with some of Issa’s winter poems – the original Japanese, then the English translation and year it was written.

fuyugomoru mo ichi nichi futsuka kana

one more day
of winter seclusion…
makes two

uguisu wa kikanu ki de naku yokan kana

the nightingale sings
despite it all…
winter lingers

1823

ima mireba mina yokume nari kareta ume

remembering how it was
with yearning…
bare winter plum

1818

ôinu ga shiri de kojiru ya yuki mushiro

the big dog
wriggles in butt-first…
snow shed

baka-garasu waga hatsu yuki to omou ka ya

foolish crow
do you think this first snow
is my fault?

1814

enoki made kotoshi wa yukazu yukitsubute

this year it doesn’t reach
the nettle tree…
my snowball

1817

asa shimo ya shikamo kodomo no o-hana uri

morning frost–
yet still a child
sells flowers

1820

kojiki ko ya hiza no ue made kesa no shimo

beggar child–
even in his lap
morning frost

1820

furimukeba ôdoshima nari yukitsubute

turning ’round
it’s a grown woman!
snowball

yuki no to ya oseba hiraku to netete iu

snowed-in door–
“Push to open!”
I yell from my bed

1823

…………………………………………………

Thanks to David G. Lanoue for all the work on the Issa archive of haiku. I love his site, and enjoy just typing in a random key word about nature to see what Issa’s images and thoughts were. For the above poems I typed in the key words  ’snow’, ‘winter’ and ‘frost’.

“Let’s build an igloo!” I said to Mehmet enthusiastically the other day.  It was a sunny day, and I knew from my morning trip to the compost bin that the snow was quite hard.

Seriously, how difficult could it be? Cut blocks of snow, build a wall, it’s a cinch!

Mehmet was enthusiastic about the idea too, and we looked online for some ideas and tips. We watched an old film from the National Film Board of Canada.  How to Build an Igloo. Boy, they make it look so easy!

So we learned about beveling the edges and slanting the pieces inwards, and those were the most important tips. So off we went to find the perfect spot.

Well it turned out that there was no perfect spot. But behind the hedge, next to the barn – that’s where the snow was the hardest. And as Tupac and Akiyutac would tell you, hard, packed snow is key.

The tools:  Dad’s old rusty machete and garden spade, and one of Carol’s big kitchen knives (shhhh).

Mehmet got to work right away at cutting out big rectangular blocks.

That machete cut through just like butter, I’m telling you! The snow was packed… if it were fluffy snow, this would never have worked, of course.

We cut blocks and started on the foundation of the igloo.

We cut out the whole inside of the igloo first, and that took a long time! Finally we were able to reach the areas where the walls were to be, and started building up.

Please look at the left wall there. Thank you.

For each level of blocks, we had to trim the tops so that they were slanted, and so the next row of blocks would slant inwards.  That’s what I’m doing in the picture below. Carrying heavy blocks, so hard. Cutting snow, so fun!

I need a rest! Lots of the blocks broke, and I’m sitting on some of them. At this point, we’ve been busy for a couple hours (don’t laugh, it’s HARD work!) and the sun is gone. It’s getting cold.

Mehmet fitting a piece in.

The problem became evident very quickly – we didn’t have a thick enough layer of hard, packed snow. The first few blocks were great, but then we had some real issues, and all our pieces were thin.

Mehmet (below), sharing his igloo building theories with me. Please look at the left wall. It’s the only part of the igloo that’s successfully slanting inwards. Why are we building UP and not IN?

We’re TRYING! Stop judging. Tupac never got it on his first try either, I’m sure.

Oh, and yeah, it’s a very nontraditional igloo because we didn’t want to crawl in and out of the igloo, so we didn’t make a small entrance. I know, how were we going to close the igloo? I don’t really want to talk about it.

Cutting snow – we both wanted to do it because it was the only easy bit.

The next day we continued. Look, it IS sunny!

There is our igloo, which from now on we should just call a SNOW FORT.

Yesterday Babe barked from the house the WHOLE TIME we were working outside, so today we let him out, knowing he’d freeze his little feet in no time.

Houston, we have a problem. (This is so depressing.)

Each time we cut a nice big piece of snow, the bottom half of fluff would fall away, and we were left with the thin crusty bit.  You see what I mean below. What would Akiyutac do?

These guys got them some good snow – look how big their blocks are! I’ve got serious igloo envy now.

No wonder the Inuit have something like 4,927 words for ’snow’.

The Mehmster never loses focus…

Ooo, nice slantage! Tupac would be so proud.

Eventually Mehmet started cutting ROUNDED pieces. I doubted, but it actually worked!

Whew! Another couple hours’ of work done, and it seems like a hopeless job. We need a break. Poor Babe needs to warm his feet too. And eat snow, apparently.

Ahhh, hot tea in the snow – this is good!

But that was my big mistake – going in to make tea, getting all warm, pants and gloves melting, then coming back out. Brrrr!!

Silly dog. He’s shivering like crazy, but absolutely doesn’t want to go inside and miss the action.

Okay. I’ve gained new respect for the Inuit, and I’m shivering too. Our igloo’s not going to work. We don’t have enough packed snow, and I’m COLD.

Mehmet still has energy to create, and works on an alien sculpture or something.

But Babe and me? We’re outta here.

If you are interested in seeing Tupac and Akiyutac do their thang, go for it. And go try to make an igloo today so you feel my pain.

Well, in one way it’s hard to believe we’ve only been here a couple of weeks, but in another way, it seems a lifetime ago that we were sitting on our balcony in the night heat of Malaysia.

While friends have gone back to work in Kuala Lumpur, here we are, enjoying some truly relaxing time and managing to stay toasty.

There are lots of experiences, emotions and surprises to life here, of course, but naturally our most difficult adjustment has been getting used to the cold. Brrrrr! We knew it would be cold, and both of us have spent many years in cold winters, but still… after 2.5 years of sarong and flip-flop weather, yeah, a bit of a shock!

We’re staying at my dad and stepmom’s house an hour and a half outside of Toronto. They have left for Florida (sigh) and will be there till the end of January. That means we’re home alone… with the dog and the car! It suits us perfectly as we take time to decompress, adjust a bit, and look for work in Toronto.

We left almost all our winter clothes with Mehmet’s family in Istanbul when we left Turkey to go to Malaysia, so we needed to buy coats, boots, sweaters, warm pants, etc. Mehmet has his first pair of ‘long-johns’ and rarely takes them off. Dad’s snow pants are also a novelty!

The neighbour came by early one morning to help clear the driveway for the city slickers.

The best thing is that we mostly enjoy the snow from the cozy comfort of the indoors.  Ahh, central heat I love you!

There’s not much snow left now, and though the days are cold, they are also mostly bright and crisp – beautiful! Here Mehmet is going to the mailbox to pick up the day’s mail. Another novelty for him!

This is the road we live on. We head into ‘town’ every couple of days and have taken care of some of the important stuff – bank account, Social Insurance Number, etc. Mehmet is starting to feel like a Canadian more and more each day! Everyone who has helped us have been so friendly, and so far I’m really encouraged by the level of service we’ve been given.

We get great views of the sunset! And winter sunsets can be spectacular.

After Christmas we went to stay with my oldest sister and her family for a few days. Lots of chatter and well, GAMES of course!

They introduced us to the game ‘Settlers of Catan’ and we loved it – I highly recommend this to anyone who loves board games!

My sisters Eleanor and Joan (having her first baby in May!) and my niece Sophia.

Joan and Matt live almost next door to El and Frank, so we spent time with them too.  They too love Settlers of Catan, but taught us the extension -Cities and Knights – whee!

After almost winning, Mehmet was hooked like me. Joan and Matt gave it to us to borrow, and we’ve been playing it lots. We’re both quite competitive, but I never manage to beat Mehmet.

Even Babe gets in on the fun!

We spent New Years’ Eve with my brother David, his wife Cynthia and their family. Here we are having fun on the Wii – another new experience for both M and I! David is leaning forward for a ski jump.

Mehmet loved it too. He’s a bit more um, shall we say spatially advanced than me.

And so, you can see, our first couple of weeks have been pretty easy! We kind of need this transition time, so it’s been good. Our hope and goal is to be in Toronto by the beginning of February – stay tuned for further updates!

Eight years ago I went on my second English Teaching stint – this time to Osaka, Japan. Although after two years I had itchy feet was very ready to leave, my memories are so positive. I have told Mehmet many times that we MUST go to Japan someday, so I can introduce all my favourite bits of the culture to him. So when we booked our trip home to Canada, I was delighted to find out that we had a nine-hour stopover in Tokyo! This gave us enough time to get out of the airport and meet a couple friends. Do you think Mehmet got a nice teeny taste of this great country in such a short period of time? Have a look.