| December 16, 2011 Season’s Greetings! Mom and Dad flew in for Christmas last year and the whole crew gathered at cousin Tillie’s home in Sherwood Park for the usual great food and excellent company. We’ll have Christmas at April’s place this year, joined by our daughter, Adri, spouse Scott and terrible two, Selina. Mom and Dad are snowbirds, wintering in Osoyoos: if they like it there we won’t see them until the end of March or early April. I left Jerry on his lonesome and spent most of last January and early February in the mountains, dogsitting/house-sitting a bed and breakfast for some friends. The heavy snows followed me there within a day or two and the scenery was just beautiful, though cold and windy much of the time. Despite the weather, I walked (and/or slid) down the hill daily to play afternoon scrabble and walked 2 to 3 km daily which trimmed me down a bit and improved my breathing immensely. I thought I’d perish my first trip back up the hill (the next few were tough too) but was managing it easily by the time I left. I was at the Blue Diamond Mountain bed & breakfast for nearly a month; was hoping that Jer would have a chance to come out and stay for a couple of days but he was busy with work and we always take on everything we can in January. |
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The first big snowfall while I was there |
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The beautiful bed and breakfast |
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Dave and Laura's girls, Kaya and Shadow |
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The top of the trail leading down to Yvette's |
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My daily hill - much steeper on the way back up... |
| Jer’s mom, Verna, died in February, a very sad time for all of us. We were fortunate that we could get to the hospital and spend some time with her before she passed away. She’s dearly missed and it’s proving to be a very difficuIt holiday season. It doesn’t matter how old someone is; it’s always too soon to lose them. The rest of the month and most of March and April were a bit of a blur; we were both running on cruise control and it took a long time for things to sink in. I don’t know if your life ever does get back to normal when you lose someone, I think you just become accustomed to it being different. We’ll make a trip to Lacombe to see Jer's family early in the New Year. |
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sis Laurie, nephew Bryce, Dawn and Jerry celebrating birthdays |
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Eleanor, Celina, Kristina & Dawn, pysanky afternoon |
| I did a lot of craft work this year; boxes, cards, books, notebooks, and a 5-edition pop-up book. I had a couple of pieces in the Alberta North Chapter of CBBAG exhibition at the downtown library in May and was also one of the organisers and workshop hosts for the event. I took an advanced course at SNAP, learning to maintain and trouble-shoot a Vandercook letterpress which was great fun. I spent a lot of time at the gallery, working on community, silkscreening, lino and letterpress events; enough to earn a year’s free studio time so I hope to get a lot of work done in 2012. I joined in 2004, planning to print a small book and finally know enough to do it on my own – it will be a combination of silkscreen, etching and letterpress. |
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Vandercook letterpress at SNAP |
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Hand-made boxes |
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| We had a nice early spring for gardening.
I was halfway through year five of a two-year term as community garden coordinator and finally managed to pass
everything off to someone else. Was sure nice to have my summer back and just enjoy gardening. June and July were quite hectic and I spent two full weeks back in the SNAP workshop volunteering. Jerry was working on another film score in Brule. I joined him there and stayed for a couple of weeks, then we headed north for the Rycroft homecoming followed by the Woolsey family reunion in Stettler. It was just a blast to see old schoolmates; some for the first time in 40 years and also great to get together with the Woolseys again. Both events were beautifully organised and run, we all had a good time. |
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grand-daughter Selina was two in June |
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| Sons of Hub and Verna Woolsey with family at the 2011 reunion in
Stettler: L-R back: middle brother Trevor Woolsey, Michael Izen (Gina’s beau), Dawn and Jerry Woolsey, eldest brother Brian Woolsey L-R middle: Trevor’s wife Fern, Trevor’s daughter Gina, Gina’s daughter Chloe, our Adrianne holding Selina, Brian’s wife Shirley Front: Brian and Shirley’s great grand-daughters. |
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| Dad's 90th Birthday: L-R back: Jerry, Dawn, Laurie’s son Bryce, cousin Tillie, Mac (April’s husband), cousin April L-R front: Laurie, Danny, Mary |
| As you know by the sudden drop in my writing a couple of years ago,
I could barely type or even hold a pen when arthritis hit my thumbs so I’m really pleased to finally have full
use of my hands. I haven’t had a chance to get back into the yarn boxes, though -- was hoping to finish Laurie’s
still collarless sweater and get some Christmas knitting done but it’s been so long that I need a refresher before
I jump back in. I was back in Brule in October for another lovely couple of weeks (where I didn’t knit) then we went up to Rycroft again. Laurie, Jerry and I plus cousins April, Tillie and Mac threw a 90th birthday party for Dad. Everything was just great; the centre was packed and the guests stayed for the whole afternoon. Our cockatiels George and Pippin are still in good health. Pip doesn’t look like she’s aged at all but George is starting to look pretty ratty. He’s 23, that’s about three hundred in our years, if we judge by his plumage. The birds still prefer to sleep in a roaster so after the holidays I’m going to give them their own pot on a high shelf above their cage. Silly things. I don’t know where November went. I was so glad to get work in again; wasn’t paying attention and it just slipped by me. I missed the first half of December too. The last few days have been a mad rush of finishing client work, doing Christmas cards, going to events, getting more last minute rush client work done...the usual. Tomorrow is my annual Christmas cookie bake at my friend Kathryn’s place. We do 12 to 14 dozen each so that we have 5 or 6 different kinds for gifts - always a lot of fun. Hope you’ve had a terrific Christmas! All the best to you and yours in the coming year, Dawn and Jerry |
