Still Christmas....

It is still Christmas for several more days yet, so I am not behind on my blogging. (Je blog, tu blog, nous bloggons, vous bloggez)  However, being as it is going to be 2010 in a few hours, I felt that I should get going and have Christmas 2010 completed. Yvan came home on the Monday before Christmas; we picked him up at Wyoming where the train makes a quick stop. As it was past supper, he wanted his mummy to make him "egg in a basket", two of them. Thursday was busy; we had a late lunch en famille, then Mike and Yvan went out.  I headed out about three o'clock to head to St. Matthew's Florence for my first service.  All three were lovely. A couple of the men from Florence always put on a small display of fireworks after the service and though it was still twilight by the time we all got out of the church, the fireworks were visible and effective.  All the kids, previously only in the state of "wired up",  immediately went into Warp Drive.
Next was Dresden and I finally get to take the "cute angels" from off of the altar, and put them over the nativity scene.  I have managed to keep them there for the last few years (only after Christmas, mind you1) And why are they ever on the altar you ask?  Because I am not the rector and have not chosen this hill to die on, thank you.  At Dresden, I pick up the peanut brittle made fresh that day from one parishioner and the cranberry pecan pie that will go to my sister's house for dinner the next day.
Finally, Aughrim-- up near Alvinston, in the middle of a cornfield and a lovely service by candle light.  By the third service I can no longer sing the preface for the Eucharist and am barely speaking, but that's ok, the music is very good and the representatives from Dulce Jubilo do a great job, as they also did in Florence.

I manage to get back home by ten o'clock, make a Camembert in puff pastry and get over to Sylvia's to meet Mike and Yvan as the folks from Christ Church, Petrolia slide in to finish the night with a party and Syl's homemade clam chowder.
This is this years version of "the tree".  As Mike and I were putting it up, we wondered to one another if this were to be the last Christmas in this house.  At any rate, when we put it down, we will be looking over the decorations and letting deciding which to put in the garage sale.  None of the ones that are on the tree, for certain, as we are at the stage that we no longer need to put on boxes of ornaments; we have collected enough singles that each bear a memory.  A ball labeled KIM, because no decorators seem to make one that reads YVAN.  An angel that my mother made for me and a Styrofoam, glitter and pipe cleaner 'inky pinky spider' that Yvan and I made when he was young.  My generously proportioned ballerina-angel is also a favourite, not to mention a pomegranate and an acorn hand blown ornaments from my parents tree--apparently some of the few things that one could get post war-time.   
We got up around nine on Christmas morning as we were all so tired from the previous evening.  We took a long time to open our presents and declared ourselves to be well satisfied with our gifts.  In the fall, when I asked Yvan what he looked forward to most at Christmas, he replied: "Christmas breakfast".  So once again, the pea-meal bacon was cooked on the barbecue, the eggs poached, the muffins toasted and the hollandaise sauce prepared.  Eggs Benedict for all...

We have always sat in the same chairs at Christmas; it seems that we do habits so well-- and this year's picture of Yvan opening his gifts is similar to last year's and the year before and the year.....ever since the year when we moved the tree upstairs.  Around the second millennium. Yvan loved his Swiss army brand back pack.  And me, my new camera.

Christmas Day, we went to my sister's house for dinner.  We had the usual great meal.  Sister Frieda flew back from her vacation in Cayo Coco, Cuba on Christmas Eve, and drove from Toronto on Christmas morning.
We did not have Christmas Card weather this year, but the roads were safe for traveling.  We also had our FEZ, Benjamin and his partner, Rhonda join us for Christmas dinner.

Lagoon and Cenotes and Critters---Oh My!!!

We went to two different types of cenote this visit--neither of them like the sacred cenote at Chichen Itza nor the one we swam in en route to that site in 2007.  This particular cenote is called a 'open' cenote and is ancient. It looks like an "ol' swimmin' hole".  It is probably about 30 meters across and about 20 feet deep.  One can see (under the water) the place where the cenote is connected to the underground water system.  Apparently its younger but much larger cousin is about a kilometer away. That particular cenote was closed because a film was being made there.  But this was an absolute delight.  The bottom was covered with a rich fern-like growth that was host to several different kinds of fish such as a beautiful blue catfish.  Mostly, though, the inhabitants were several different colours of tetras that nibbled at your skin as you floated.  I guess you could say that we 'were feeding da fishes'. There was only our tour there (six of us) and that was amazing.  Later in the swim we did have two more visitors, young people from Germany on their gap year world tour, a charming young couple who now know all about Canada from their week in Montreal.  Oh well, I suppose I can't say I know all about Mexico from four trips to resorts here.

  That day we also stopped at a lagoon in Akumel.  This place did not support as many varieties of fish as Xel ha. but was quite lovely to swim in.  Mike and I lazed in the water and watched a huge eagle wait for, and finally catch, a fish.  I was not bright enough to take a picture of the lagoon itself, but at the site was a large, permanent show of three artists' work.  I spent a long time enjoying the works.  I have no idea who the artists were but it occurs to me if I could check it out on the web as the site is called Yal-Ku.

After Yal-Ku we drove to Akumel to have lunch.  It is all included in the day, and is great to get out of the hotel (that doesn't serve that much Mexican food--more international, including sushi) We stopped off at a Mom and Pop style restaurant and had chicken and tacos.  We finally found out why the bean sauces are so runny in the Yucatan--they are cooked, spiced and then stored, sometimes underground, historically.  The chicken was great, I purchased some of the paste they used to marinade it--just add lime juice.

Yvan and I tried to make this the other night using pork ribs.  We discovered that the taste of the pork overpowers the spice; everybody prefers the home made rub I make anyway.  Next time it will be with chicken and with a little chipotle spice added to zing it up a touch.

After lunch the gang of six plus driver and guide moved off on another cenote, called the Grand Cenote.  It is a cave cenote as well as having open areas.  The water was beautiful as well; not as many fishes as in the first cenote but a few.  It was very large--we could swim quite a way into the cave part which was much deeper than the other part.  We disturbed the bats as we swam around the stalagmites, stalactites and columns.  When we looked back towards the mouth of the cave the light entering made the water turn the most exquisite blue.

Finally I am going to include some of the fauna we saw this time, jut for the fun of it. First I have a lovely iguana from Tulum, overlooking the Caribbean Sea.  He was just resting peacefully, and then another male clambered on to a nearby rock and off it went scrabbling down with his ruff flaring.

I have already mentioned the birds in a previous posting, but there were several that I had not seen before.  One morning I found a couple apparently doing some sort of mating ritual, or exhibiting aggressive behavior -- I don't really know which, but I was having a bit of difficulty deciding on their gender.  At any rate, they kept hopping sideways --if one hopped to its right, the other would hop to its right, and then left, and then right.  It was quite odd and seemed to have been going on for a long time, and would seemingly continue to do so.

Mike woke up eye to eye with this little fellow on the beach one morning.  He thought at first that it was just a grain of sand, but when he looked more closely he saw the tiny shell.  It looks like the uni residence version of a hermit's home.

Finally I have a couple of pictures of the variety of animals we found in our rooms everyday.  Alonso would leave them with us when he left.  Some of them were quite clever. We aren't quite certain why he decided we should have the swan display (reserved for the bridal suite), but it may have been that after finding out that we had been married so long, we needed a little romance.  Que sabe?

Last Day in Akumal

We don't have to leave the hotel until four today, and it isn't noon yet.  I am downloading the paper for Mike to read in the airport while we wait until nine o'clock to take off out of here.  We don't arrive in Ontario until late tonight and will stop over.  We will see Yvan on our way home tomorrow.
Yesterday we took the walk to the cove we saw last year.  Attempted to

go there already this trip, but we were with a couple who were nervous about the No Trespassing signs.  It is quite a rough walk (or tramp) over coral and tourist debris, but worth the trip.  Some good snorkeling although the water had been stirred up by the rain the previous evening and could have been clearer.  Mike and I did an hour or so paddling around.  A couple different kind of pelicans; I am not certain if there were more than one kind or if they were male and female.  I am thinking two sorts--if and when we get to NZ I think I would like to take up 'birding' more seriously.  I will have to get Sue to teach me and do bird tramps. I felt the mad urge to leave my mark here, so I made an Inuktisuk; which I undoubtedly have spelled wrong, and I expect P to correck me. 'bless him.

Roll over darling, and pass me another lotus blossum.....

Saturday went to Tulum for the morning.  Hopped on the collectivo and drove there, paid our three dollars as we got off.  Price has gone up from the last time.  We had a short tour of the site--the place first conquered by Cortez who arrived via Cuba.  Mayans later made a deal with the Brits for Belize for money and arms then took the place back.

I also learned about Mayan creation story--woman created first, needed someone to birth humanity; 13 levels of heaven and nine levels of hell. Lots of reading up for that.  Beautiful beach but one has to go down via quite steep risers.  Consequently, I passed as coming up would have not appealed to the hip.  Yesterday, Mike lay on the beach and I indulged in a little retail therapy.
We have a great beach here--the surf is rather high so they have built baffles out of tarp and sand.  The waves crash into them -- not just to slow them down, but to prevent the undertow from sweeping the bather out to the middle of the Caribbean.  We, of course, use them for muchos fun.

I spend some time writing out my Christmas cards, and actually enjoying do them.  We have run into several Critters that we can't photograph, either because they are too quick or because  it is night time.  In the early morning we have seen a small animal about the size of a muscrat but without a tail and with longer legs in the wild area just to the right of our unit (see picture from Nov. 25.)  I am still searching for what it is, but no one here seems to know anything about the fauna around here.  The front desk type employees seem all to be from some other place in Mexico.  The Mayans of the area are here only for cleaning and waiting table, the caste system is alive and well in the Yucatan.
The other critter looks to be of the coon family, but with a thinner, longer nose.  We saw one dining the other night as we were en route to La Tortuga (a Brazilian a la carte where the menu was solidly for carnivores). Yesterday, en route to La Hacienda Dona Isabel, (the hotel run mini mall and tourist trap) I took the photo just above.  The critters are called coati, and according to Wikipedia are indeed also known as Mexican hog nosed raccoons, Brazilan aardvaks, or "Snookum bears"  I am going for snookum bears, personally. Here is a link to a Wikipedia photo.   http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/71/CoatiNosara.jpg
Coming soon will be birds. 

Day Five in Mexico

                  6 o'clock in the morning, after a storm

                                                              something in a shell....

 

It has been a very quiet trip....the weather has been muy humido this time around with a couple of thunderstorms, quite spectacular.  The first few days it really doesn't matter to me what the weather is like. If it is warm I am zonked out under an umbrella.  If it is wet, the same thing happens only am zonked on the bed in the room.  All good.  We have done a lot of swimming, as usual, and walking.  We were planning on taking the collectivo from out front of the hotel to go to Tulum, but the weather was rainy, so we chose not to go today.  We lounged about and read books.  To night we are going to "l'arlequin', a restaurant on the site for dinner.  We have taken a walk towards the bay we saw last time, (on our last day here) but we didn't go as far as we could have -- the couple we were walking with were afraid of the "no trespassing signs" on the beach.  I understand that it means not to trespass into the property, which is federal, but there were people strolling around the point.  It was still a good walk as there were several tide pools to examine.

Its all very well, to write them, but they have to be posted appropriately...Thanksgiving as Evensong

St. Matthew's Thanksgiving was the final one, held the Sunday evening after thanksgiving at four o'clock--lots of singing and a wonderful speaker,  Debbie Bodkin. . Debbie, an officer with the Waterloo regional police force has spent many of her leaves in places like Chad, Kosovo and the Sudan  not as a tourist but working collecting information.  I don't have the words to tell you about Debbie, so check out her page at http://www.debbiebodkin.com/.  If you have some real time on your hands, "Google" her name, and find all the articles, videos and radio and television interviews.
I have been preaching, over the Harvest season on the need to give thanks in actions, not just necessarily in words and/or money, and Debbie (it was the wardens' idea to ask her to speak for the special service) shows us that a woman living in Canada can do something about the horrors of the world around us.
What was really helpful for the parish was for the hard working folks to hear about meeting her 'adopted child'  (through World Vision).  Debbie told us how she had seen first hand how the money she donated helped the child, family and village.  Operation Christmas box is gearing up again, and the parish has taken heart from hearing from Debbie that the boxes actually get into the hands of the intended recipients.

We have tramps here too!

Yesterday and today are our to be our last gasps of summer, apparently.  My plans were to finish my sermon and clean the front windows before going to work out at the gym.  By the time I had finished 'puttering about' -- making French Canadian pea soup, read the paper, had breakfast etc., the day had developed into a beautiful breezy Indian summer event.  I got my cornstarch and warm water mixed along with the clean rags and headed out to clean the front windows--a thing of beauty.  By the time I had finished them, I realized that the sheers in the living room were filthy; I tried to remember the last time I had cleaned them and it isn't a thing I want to share with anyone but Mike.  Feeling guilty about all the window 'treatments', I took down the stuff from the patio doors, and the downstairs windows and threw them all in the washer. Of course, it was then noticible that ALL the windows in the house were dirty (is this beginning to sound like the bread and gravy game?), so more cornstarch and water were prepared, and they all had their dirty faces washed. 
I called a colleague, En, and after she had finished her nursing home service, off we headed to the Lorne Henderson Conservation Area, just outside of town to walk for an hour there.  It is a lovely site with three weirs and beautiful paths, and a great place to wander with a friend.

Pit Stop

We have a lemon bay tree to the side of the back patio.  This year, the squirrels left the seed pods alone, so they were available for the robins traveling south.  We had one late-comer this year who was here every day for the last week in October.  He had us worried that he wasn't going to make it to Florida before the snow fell here, but he has been nowhere to be seen the last couple of days. Vaya con Dios, mi amigo.

Halloween in Ontario

When our son was young we used to joke that Halloween was his favourite religious holiday--we used to go all out, pumpkins with all the fixings.  I think it is something that is most fun when we are young and when we have young people in the house.
One of my favourite memories around Halloween was going all dressed up to our son's French Immersion class at Queen Elizabeth School.  I was "une sorciere" and went to deliver the then always homemade treats.  After having fun with the kids (in bad French!), I had to race off to see a retired priest in the neighbourhood who was supplying a recommendation for me to be considered as a postulant for ordination in our diocese, so as to go to ACPO (Anglican weekend from Hell) to be assessed.  As he answered the door to give me the letter he had written, he remarked "Some of the strangest folk are apply for ordination these days".
This year's Halloween paled in comparison. We actually had forgotten that Saturday was the night, and had made plans to go out for dinner.  Mike carved the pumpkin, put a light in it, and we left it and the box of candy at the front door (Hershey's Cookies and Cream).  A few were removed but, sadly, the little monsters of the neighbourhood are growing up and have yet to be replaced.

Thanksgiving Sunday with the Family

I have only had the opportunity to have Thanksgiving for the whole family a couple of times. Partly, because we have it on the Sunday and partly because when we really get together, there are too many for my table. A dozen friendly people is all I can seat at the table. It is usually at the home of my eldest sister, but this year things worked out so that Mike and I could host a party of ten.

Thanksgiving in Three Part Harmony

I have finished my Thanksgiving Services in the Parish just this last Sunday. The very interesting thing about Thanksgiving in a six point parish is that the original pairs still invite the other church to their service and expect the other one to close that day (In faint but eternal hope that the other congregation will actually respond to their invitation to attend the service). This leads to three Thanksgiving Services for me as the associate priest in this parish.

The first of these occurred on October 4, the weekend prior to Thanksgiving; a service that St. John's in the Woods at Aughrim calls Harvest Home. The decorations are always right out of the fields and gardens and, as this year I celebrated a wedding there the day before, the ladies of the church went all out for both the bride and the Sunday service. (I do hope to get a picture of the church and add it in as it was exceptionally lovely.) Their historically companion church, St. Matthew's in Florence held their service last weekend.

The actual weekend of Thanksgiving, I was posted at Christ Church, Dresden, and St. Stephen's, Thamesville. It is almost a tradition that I will be late going from the services in Dresden to St. Thomas -- even though the distance is quite 'doable' without doing the 'clergy clip'. But the folks at Dresden are a sociable lot and always have coffee and tasty things following the service. I shake hands with everyone as they go down stairs and listen for potential concerns and then move down to grab a coffee to go (in my 'Timmies' mug.) As a result, I am generally about 10 minutes late for the next service. The wonder woman of the parish, who refuses to be an official lay reader, faithfully starts the service for me, handing it off to me after I get there generally during the hymn of praise or the Gloria. Lunch at "Mary's" usually follows the service with three or four of the five or six present showing up. This means getting home about two.
Not a problem generally, but on Thanksgiving Sunday, (11 October) I was having ten for our family dinner and logistics were pretty interesting.

Left Behind

I feel as if I am part of a bad book right now. I keep looking at the great blogs of friends who have gone before. Wonderful things are happening to those folks, and if I weren't so happy for them I would be insanely jealous. For starters, Spring is happening; not to mention language lessons, Alpine meadows and interesting food (always a hit), and apparently even new tramps (looks remarkably similar to the old tramp).
However, it was sunny in southwestern Ontario today so things are looking up, marginally. The dilemma that exists right now is whether or not to book a vacation. The place that spoils us rotten -- near Tulum, Mexico -- has massive sales on now, costing just over a third of what it did the last time we went. So do we save the cookies for a quick dash to another country or do we take a couple of weeks off and revel in the warm waters of the Caribbean. This decision needs to be made soon; as well as wanting to have my vacation before Advent, arrives, I am keeping in mind that the weather up here in November is well past its "best by" date. The Pictures are of the view outside our third floor suite, the bestest buddy who I always take with me, and one of the thousands of ceynote that dot the Mayan Riviera. Exquisite natural variations of the "swimmin' hole" believed to have been caused by the same asteroid that formed the gulf of Mexico and wiped out the dinosaurs.

I didn't realize

I didn't realize how much time it takes to do a blog. It is much like an on-line journal including the oh, drat I didn't write in my journal today. Apart from behind in posting at all, I am really behind in posting pictures, some of these were taken a couple of weeks ago. My next task is figuring out how to use the online album system so any one who is interested can go to it and look at the pictures. We went up to North Bay to our pals Gee & Gee's daughter's wedding. Had a great time and took some pictures on our way up and back. I was hoping to get some shots of the autumn colours for my screen saver and memory photos--Just my luck--it was a glorious fall for all of us, even in the near North, and only a couple of trees were tinted with orange. It was also so warm that the water in Lake Nipissing was warm enough to stand in--I wished that I had brought my bathing suit. North Bay and that Lake have some fond memories for me. When I was very young, I went there with my parents and grandparents to the lake (they were fishing) I have a very vague memory of having my picture taken in the water with my eldest sister. I remember being very cold in July there, and now I have a photo of me mid calf in the water. We did get some fun pictures in the trip -- the Mennonite horse and cart. Mount Forest's sign (NOW we know why all the planes were hovering over the corn field), and the two old broads hanging out in the water--to protect the faint of heart, I didn't include the legs.

I generally have my camera with me in my purse. Driving down country roads, one frequently has the opportunity to get a picture of something that will only come once. I was using my cell phone for a while, and had some great shots of the tree arches on the way from Aughrim to Florence, but they were lost when I (are you ready for this??) dropped my phone into the water above the Mormon Flats Dam in Arizona (at Tortilla Flats). Brilliant. I have some great pictures of a flock of trumpeter swans on the new cell phone. I caught that picture on the way to Dresden from Thamesville...on my way back to celebrate a baptism, after the two morning services. Don't panic, liturgical folk, it was not a private baptism, but fully open and well attended--it just couldn't be done in the morning for logistical reasons.
I still haven't figured out out to download from my cell phone to the computer (such a sharp curve, so little time) Sadly, (Does anybody know how?) So, now I take my camera, and keep it cleared in case of stupidity.

I figure that if the Divine One has use for me in New Zealand, then I am going to want some pictures of the roads paved, unpaved and muddy that I have sped over the last several years. I was going to put some on the bottom of this post, but I have yet to figure out how to do that or if I can. I will just have to

The second day...well, the second day for actually writing something. Continuity is difficult if one is organizationally challenged or, if one's computers are found out to be doing odd things or, if one has forgotten exactly where one has put one's blog and how it can be accessed. I am here now--In regards to the position I spoke about in the last post, I was not short-listed for the position, and if it is anything like being short-sheeted, I am ok with that. In honesty, I was disappointed, but the church was definitely program sized and I know that I would be far more effective and comfortable in a smaller parish. I was blues-ed out for about half an hour and then picked myself up. I sincerely believe that the divine has put this out there in my life and I had better keep going until the ministry that needs me and I that I need presents itself.
I contacted another diocese for permission to apply to postings and was granted permission. At this point I have two applications there for very different ministries.

In its own way, this has been a growing edge. Procedures are very different from my current diocese. When one applies for a job here, one phones or writes the bishop who has oversight of the position and forwards a current C.V. and record of education document. The bishop then considers who s/he thinks is suitable for the position and those people are the only applicants the parish sees. One assumes that the bishop is in contact with the archdeacon--and that may or may not be a good thing. Unless one is chosen by the parish, not a whisper is heard; no letter or note of receipt, no letter of rejection--nothing--one realizes after the announcement comes out on the diocesan mail that one is out of luck. After a couple of these, one begins to sense one's worth to the hierarchy. Pastoral care be damned.

In New Zealand, after expressing interest to the Diocesan bishop, the applicant is sent a copy of the parish profile and the parish statistics. One parish included a recent demographic study of the area done by the towns that are home to the parish. The applicant must then respond to the profile as well as supply a reflection of ministry. Along with the C.V., police check, photograph and names and contact information of references, these documents are sent to the Diocesan bishop. These are then read by a committee in both the diocesan office and parish and the references are contacted. All of them.

I like this process.
Firstly, I felt that I really had a chance for someone to take a look at me. Here, I do not believe that our bishops really know us, and there are some very understandable reasons for that. In my opinion they are generally overworked and under appreciated. For the most part they can only go by the quick encounters that they have with their priests, and the opinions of others who have contact with them. Because most of the priests work outside of Mecca, and are therefore seen infrequently, much of our bishop's knowledge of their representatives is either hearsay or impersonal sound bytes, neither of which offer a real picture of the priest. I respect for our Bishops' quick intervention when a priest is in mental, physical or spiritual distress, but that snapshot is not the picture that most of us want the Bishop to have.
Secondly, I really feel that the New Zealand process was good in terms of candidates being able to reflect upon their ministry--has it changed over the years since university? Where do we find our joy, what is our growing edge? As for the parish profile--As a lay person on committee, I would have been delighted to see a document acknowledging and responding to the work the parish had done. I have been on hiring committees that eventually wondered if the chosen priest had even read the profile sent to them.

So now I am in the process of waiting again. I know that this is good; it is a time to reflect and to catch up on the parish I am currently called to serve. Time to wait, time to visit, time to love.

Today is the first day of the rest of my blog...

First, I want to thank my friend Pee for initiating me into the ancient and arcane rites of blogging. I feel immensely blessed that he was here to share his wisdom and insights with me. On the other hand, I am not always so grateful to his spouse, Es, who is responsible for getting Michael and me into this situation in the first place. Come to think of it, she got Pee into this situation too. Good thing we all love her dearly.
Last spring, she confided in me that she was going to be going to New Zealand, to visit a friend of hers. I was pleased for her--then she mentioned that she was going to have the opportunity to preach there, and I thought she was nuts---a vacation, and you have to preach...ye gods, woman are you mad? (rhetorical question, I already KNEW the answer). Then the penny dropped, the woman was going to preach for call.. Yep, and didn't she just get a job, and didn't she just then say---they are still looking for more priests...So the early part of May, I am rushing around getting my CV ready, my referees lined up (I made her help, and she did, bless her little pink socks), then sending out information to a diocese in New Zealand, not the same as hers, but one only a few hundred miles away.