RSS

Monthly Archives: April 2011

The Royal Wedding

Ok, who stayed up all night to watch the Royal Wedding??

Well, I would have if I did not need to work today. But I did record it and watched it first thing this morning. And I admit, I totally teared up a number of times…starting with Kate getting into the car with her dad, her (very looong) walk down the aisle, not to mention the beautiful, ethereal music… The wedding had all the pomp and circumstance we expected, but was so elegant and relatively understated.

(Source)

As has already been noted on every fashion website out there, Kate’s dress was simply perfection. It was classic, timeless, romantic, and so, so beautiful. I loved the lace and the simple veil. And those gorgeous earrings!

Other favourite moments and thoughts I had while watching:

  • The Queen totally rocked her yellow dress!
  • The unbelievable crowds outside!
  • Loved one of the signs someone made that read, “Checkmate. Kate — you’ve taken the King!”
  • All the crazy hats! Or better yet, every time Peter Mansbridge (I was watching the CBC broadcast) cracked jokes about all the fascinators.
  • The music was glorious. My favourite of the day was Elgar’s arrangement of the Jerusalem hymn.
  • Loved it when William saw Kate at the altar for the first time, and said to her “I love you. You look beautiful.”
  • And also after the wedding, when they got into the carriage, Kate turned to William and said “I’m so happy.” 
  • Those little bridesmaids were so cute! I totally melted.
  • Speaking of whom, my favourite photo from the day, which I still can’t stop cracking up when I see it:

(Source)

Bwahaha! 😀 Oh goodness, that photo is just priceless on so many levels! That poor little girl… 🙂

I’m totally a closeted hopeless romantic at heart, and this Royal Wedding just played right into that part of me. I had such a fun time watching it this morning! And it also brought back memories of my own sacred wedding day with Len. I am no princess, I didn’t wear a tiara, and there was very little pomp and circumstance, but, as the Lord Bishop of London stated in his address, at the essence of every wedding day is “a day of hope.” I loved when he said ” in marriage we are seeking to bring one another into fuller life.” What a lovely way of putting it.

*           *          *          *

In other news, I attempted to make bagels for the first time this morning while I watched the wedding. Yah, I blame my being distracted by the nuptials for the epic FAIL that was that baking experiment.

I forgot to flour the board that I put them on, and so they stuck like mad. When I attempted to pick them up and drop them in the boiling water, they totally deflated and became deformed. I eventually was able to save a couple so that they looked somewhat like bagels:

But while they looked better, they were tough and chewy, and just not that tasty. My mother told me we should just buy bagels from now on. sigh.

And it’s been a lovely, fun week. We had a great visit with Kathleen!

We tried a new-to-us restaurant, Me and Julio. It was a great Mexican restaurant, and we had wonderfully fresh, delicious ceviche:

and plantain “ribbons”:

The day continued at Kanata’s for more good eats:

And Jen brought a fantastic game, “What?”, that was just a rip-roarin’, side-splittingly hilarious time!

And then there was this stunning rainbow earlier in the week:

That was the night the Canucks won game 7 against Chicago! 🙂

And we have a new world champion!! Congrats to Patrick Chan on winning his first world title!

It’s been a good week. 🙂

 

Posted by on April 29, 2011 in Thoughts

Comments Off on The Royal Wedding

Tags: , ,

Happy Easter!

Today was a glorious, sunshine-y spring day! It was a little too bad that I was stuck inside a piano studio all day, but I had a nice view of the north shore mountains to make up for it.

I’m going to take a little detour from the Peru travel posts to revel in the arrival of spring!

(Our grass is starting to grow back after the power-raking)

One of my favourite descriptions of spring:

“Marilla, walking home one late April evening from an Aid meeting, realized that the winter was over and gone with the thrill of delight that spring never fails to bring to the oldest and saddest as well as to the youngest and merriest…[There] was a harmonious consciousness of red fields smoking into pale purply mists in the declining sun, of long, sharp-pointed fir shadow falling over the meadow beyond the brook, of still, crimson-budded maples around a mirror-like wood-pool, of a wakening in the world and a stir of hidden pulses under the gray sod. The spring was abroad in the land and Marilla’s sober, middle-aged step was lighter and swifter because of its deep, primal gladness.” (from Anne of Green Gables, by L. M. Montgomery)

Everytime I read this passage (and I would not be exaggerating by claiming that I’ve read it at least a hundred times by now), I close my eyes and savour the words of “wakening in the world”, “stir of hidden pulses”, and “deep, primal gladness”.

We started yesterday with a lovely breakfast that included these homemade hot cross buns!

I made them the day before using this recipe from Simply Recipes. I followed the instructions almost exactly, except that I subbed in raisins for currants and only used half the amount of indicated spices (we like our buns very subtlely spiced). They turned out beautifully, and were a hit! I will definitely be making them again next year! (Can you have hot cross buns throughout the year? Cuz I’m not sure I can wait a whole year…)

After breakfast, Len and I broke in the Bocce set we got last summer but never got around to trying out. It was a hoot ‘n a half!

Later in the day, we took a lovely walk in our neighbourhood…

…and we got a bit silly playing with our shadows…

We finished up the evening by having an intense Big Two Battle with our new cards from Peru:

I lost spectacularly while my mom was the big winner (again! every single time!), and included this amazing hand:

Tonight the three of us went to see African Cats in the theatre! We all had a fantastic time! The baby cheetahs were just too adorable. And if you’ve seen it, or when you see it, look out for the part with the turtle–that was Len’s favourite part. 🙂

It’s been a great long weekend so far! And our friend, Kathleen, arrives tomorrow for a visit, so it’s going to continue to be awesome!

 

Posted by on April 24, 2011 in Hanging Out

Comments Off on Happy Easter!

Tags: , , ,