To the Cemetery

Thank God for PBS, otherwise my brain would probably go to mush. Quite enjoyable (and timely) programme on last night. A Cemetery Special was a documentary about one of my favourite places - graveyards.

I always try to make a point of visiting old burying grounds whenever I travel; I've enjoyed the sprawling grounds of Highgate Cemetery in London and Père-Lachaise in Paris as much as those of tiny parish churches. The American sites visited for the show last night really were cemeteries, though - the nineteenth-century, rural garden-style type, full of marble statues of angels and sleeping figures - rather than graveyards. There are comparatively few graveyards in North America - we're just not old enough - though I visited several recently in Boston. And not forgetting the Old Burying Ground in Halifax, which dates mostly from the eighteenth century and has beautiful headstones.

But I digress. The show on PBS last night visited a sampling of cemeteries across America. Most interesting were Oakland Cemetery in Atlanta (which I visited nearly twenty years ago with my grandmother, who is herself very interested in old burial grounds), and Mount Auburn in Boston (which I have not yet visited, but which I've read a fair bit about). But oddly absent, I thought, were some of the cemeteries of New Orleans. In the wake of the devastation there, it's a shame it wasn't included.

Sunny Autumn Saturday

Such a beautiful October day today. I spent some time outdoors and took a few pictures. Across the lane from us, the light was filtering through the trees around our neighbour's house. I kept trying to capture it, but couldn't, really.


I need a better camera. No, I need actual photography skills. I could probably take better pictures with the camera I have, if I sat down and actually read the freakin' manual.

After I came back from shopping, the sun was sloping across the lawn and dappled through the leaves of the big maple tree, which is just starting to turn red. So pretty.

Dance Diane, Dance

Every time I go to ballet class, at some point I end up feeling like a twit and can't help but think of that old episode of Cheers where Diane decides she wants to be a ballerina. *snicker*

Found these stills of Diane at the 'bar(re)' after a cursory Google search:


Hehe ;-)

Je suis un danceur

Eh, well...not really. But I did go back to Dal Dance today. I had planned to try something different this term, after last year's ballet classes, but it didn't work out (bellydance massively oversubscribed; jazz being taught by rather snotty 'dancer-girl' type).

So I put myself on the waiting list to go back to beginner ballet, and finally was able to join the class today. Luckily, I've only missed three classes so far, and given that I did it last year, I didn't have any problems catching up.

Except physical ones, of course. Having sat on my arse all summer and taken a break from my usual exercise routine, my joints creaked and groaned throughout the class (which - dishearteningly - is almost entirely composed of lithe 18- to 21-year-olds). Felt much better afterwards, but really must dust off pilates and yoga videos and start moving again. You'd think the twenty miles I walk per week would be enough, but while it may be good for the ol' ticker, it's clearly not doing much for my strength or flexibility - as I discovered this afternoon.

Saturday Night

...and it's been a 'stay in with scrummy dinner and telly' kind of night. Absolutely chucking it down again today, and in the last half-hour the thunder and lightning have started.

Bit of yin/yang on the box tonight. Watched Nip/Tuck (which was remarkably unpervy this evening, for once), and then a PBS show about Boston in the 1940s. Bed and book shortly. Oh dee doe.

(My newest bedtime read is The Time Traveller's Wife, which Jana has recommended and loaned to me; only on about page 40 so far, though....)

"Who is that exquisitely-attired woman, and are my tax dollars paying for it?"

Damnation! Why didn't I think of starting a site like this?


The Lipstick Librarian is a delightfully facetious site. It's got everything - daft beauty tips, bibliographies, a blog, even an online store where one can purchase LL ephemera.

And if there was ever any doubt that I myself am an archetypal Lipstick Librarian, I'll have you know I took the quiz and scored a bodacious 92 percent! Whoo HOO!

Are They Mental?

News today that Diageo PLC, the eedjits who own Guinness, have decided that the best way to boost recently flagging sales of the black stuff is to...fool with the formula. Who comes up with these 'innovations', anyway?

Bloomberg has the story - apparently there are plans to release all these special limited-edition flavours, etc. I can't imagine it will go down very well. As it is, there are a million pints of Guinness sold per day in Ireland - a staggering figure, in a country with a population of just four million.

Autumn = Definitely Here

I think we need to turn the heat back on, in the house. Bedroom and bathroom freezing this (and the past several) morning(s).

When I left the house early this a.m., it was a mere 5°C. And I could see my breath.

ARGH.

It's the Great Pumpkin, Martha Stewart!

Grave disappointment in Nova Scotia yesterday. The CBC reported that after a week of negotiations to secure entrance to Canada, despite her criminal record, Martha Stewart's private plane was grounded in Bar Harbor, Maine, due to the terrible weather.

She was due to take part in Windsor's annual Pumpkin Regatta, and paddle a hollowed-out, gaily-decorated, 660 lb. whopper (supplied by Howard Dill, grower of the World's Largest Pumpkins™) across a lake. But in the end, one of her producers had to step in and do it for her.

Sometimes it's impossible to pretend that I'm not living in a wretched provincial backwater. This is definitely one of those times. ;-)

Thanksgiving

Well, in typical Maritime fashion, it's a miserable Thanksgiving day outside (it's been chucking it down since yesterday morning). So, not a bad day to fire up the oven. We're having the in-laws round this afternoon, for the usual turkey feast. A. always took it upon himself to cook for our Canadian friends for each of the Thanksgivings we spent in Ireland, so he's an old hand with this sort of thing now.

To wit, today's Bill of Fare:

Butternut Squash Soup with Garlic Croutons

: : :

Roast Turkey with Chestnut and Apple Stuffing
Roast Potatoes
Mashed Turnips
Asparagus
: : :
Pumpkin Pie
Trifle

Luckily, there's been some division of labour. My mother- and father-in-law are supplying the wines, as well as a main course for my sister-in-law (who's veggie) and some homemade cranberry sauce, as we forgot to buy cranberries yesterday (and this being Nova Scotia, all the grocery stores are shut today). SIL herself has made an alternative dessert of trifle, as my FIL doesn't like pumpkin pie. The offending pie in question has been my duty today.

The house smells positively ambrosial at the moment. Family due to arrive within the half-hour; iPod has been loaded with suitable music; a suitably autumnal fire has been laid in the living room grate upstairs. And I've just opened the sherry. Let the festivities begin.

EDIT 10.05 pm: *burp* oops ;-)