Loose Ends

A few disparate notes in passing …

Winter is clinging tenaciously to itself. We’ve had our two largest snowfalls of the year this past week — or close to it at any rate. But it also gets mixed with intervals of somewhat milder temperatures along with some rain, so that’s all to the good.

After recently posting that down moods were more or less a thing of the past, I became very cranky yesterday. It was mostly because I got extremely tired and became like a toddler who desperately needed a nap. Maybe I haven’t grown up yet. Anyway, Good Neighbour brought her snowblower out on both occasions and cleared our driveway for us.

After my Shrove Tuesday post The other Grandma, the Grand-mère or Grand maman sent us this description of her customs: “… when I was young, I remember an aunt by the name of Leda, that was saying that the Mardi Gras was also the day of La Chandeleure. On that special day, she was making pancakes too, but with her right hand, and on the left one, she was keeping a piece of money, and that she’ll have prosperity for all the year to come … My mother used to say that it was also La Chandeleur, but in French, we just pronounced  CHANDLEUR.  For us it was most popular than Mardi Gras, but other countries have parades, festivals and  carnaval.”

At any rate, Chandleur, by whatever name, was interesting in this English household to say the least. Mom had a sore back after falling on the ice, Dad was late for supper, and the kids wanted to help with the preparations. Added to the chaos was the fact that I was doing things that I had never done before — baking both pancakes and bacon on stoneware pans in the oven. The pancakes came out a little overdone and the bacon a little underdone. Oh well. C’est la vie!

They think they're helping! Dig the dress!

She's very into dresses and being a ballerina these days.

Final loose end of the day: we had quite a sunset the other evening. Here's one view of it although I guess you could say that it's more about the window than the sunset.