The Family Grows Again

Since the last post we've been putting down roots in Canmore, getting re-established in our condo, joining two choirs, becoming involved in the church (Ron) and Rotary (Ron), landing two jobs (me - at the Canmore museum and at Knit and Caboodle, our local yarn store. We've been wonderfully lazy, just exactly what we wanted to do when we came home. It's great.

Among the delights of the past 5 months were Evan and Anna's wedding in September, his cousin Aimee and Tyler's wedding a couple of weeks later, and their joint second reception in Canmore on Thanksgiving weekend - a chance for the older relatives who couldn't make it to the weddings to celebrate with the newlyweds. We love the new additions to our nuclear and our extended families. I couldn't have chosen the new daughter or nephew any better if I'd done it myself.

Christmas was a delight with all our kids around. We had the second annual mass family turducken dinner on Boxing Day with 25 or so of our closest relatives enjoying a specialty of Canmore cuisine. And now we're setting into the rhythm of a life of hibernation through the rest of the winter.

Somehow the family hasn't seemed complete to me, though. We've had no animals around to complicate our lives for a very long time. So Saturday I went to the Bow Valley SPCA and adopted two elderly cats: Zazu, who's 13 and deaf, and Tazman, 15 and lazy. Taz and Zaz have been together for 10 years or so, and it seemed only right to let them spend their last days together. They're big and fat and loving and domesticated. I had no idea how much easier it was to start off with old cats who know the rules of life in a household. The only complaint I have with them is that Zaz, because he's deaf, sometimes doesn't know how loud he's meowing, and if he suddenly discovers that he's alone he'll start yowling for his buddy Taz. It's a bit startling in the middle of the night.

Future blogs might have more to do with knitting because I seem to be discovering things I never knew I had to learn about this craft I've been enjoying for more than 50 years. I want to write about things like Turkish knitting and how to knit a sock on one circular needle and my newly-invented pattern for a felted jug. Stay tuned.