Category: Important Dates to Celebrate

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Important Dates to Celebrate

Canada Day 2016

Thank you to whomever for this day… I love Canada Day! Love seeing all the flags a-flutter. This looks like a beautiful one here in Saint John. Clear blue skies. Having coffee with the windows open, I can hear a cardinal singing just behind the house. I love this day especially here on the West Side. Mon and I are going outside to enjoy the morning sun. While she deadheads the flower pots, I’ll take the camera around to see how much red and white I can find for Canada Day.

This afternoon, we’ll head to the bay, Bellisle Bay that is, to visit with Monica’s family, enjoy good food on the barbie, light a campfire and hopefully see a fireworks or two. Love this day… big smiley face! Happy Canada Day to everyone from Nellyglass Studio.

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Important Dates to Celebrate

2016 Birthday/Anniversary

Monica’s birthday (#58) and our anniversary (#32) are 1 day apart (the 29th and 30th). This makes it very convenient for me to remember such important dates and to double up on the celebrations… not that I could ever forget important dates like these … but, old brains, you know.

This year was low key as we are still recouping from our European tour. We celebrated both days with good food starting with Mon’s birthday on Wednesday. We packed a nice picnic lunch and took a car ride up the Saint John River to Wickham. We enjoyed our sandwiches overlooking the river at the Wickham Cemetery. A  morbid place for lunch you ask? Perhaps, but such a very lovely spot. Then we moseyed home through Cambridge Narrows and Hampton. Low key and lovely.

The next day for our anniversary, Sarah took us out for lunch at the East Coast Bistro for excellent food of various kinds. How gracious of our daughter. We really appreciated her generosity.

Saying goodbye to Sarah uptown, we gallery hopped until we found something nice for our wall (a Three Sisters paint stamp by Mark/Roland at Retro & Rust). Before leaving the uptown area, we stopped at our favorite sushi restaurant, Ta-ke Sushi, and picked up some take out for supper; Unagi roll, spicy tuna roll and Spider maki roll. We also picked up some Saki to go with it. 😊

Quiet celebrations. Wonderful food. Cherished memories… glad I took photos.

 

 

 

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Important Dates to Celebrate

And dance we did

It was a beautiful evening for our 40th Petitcodiac High School Reunion. Sunny and warm, birds singing before dark and later crickets, all was calm and peaceful at Corn Hill Nursery… until we turned on the band!  Crank it! How we laughed and danced just like (well, almost) we were 18 again. Old friends arrived some of whom had not been seen for 40 years! Others not since 30 years. Others more recently but always great to see again. How wonderful. 23 of us in total from a class of 61 graduates. Not bad ☺ and what a fantastic time we had . The music was all 70’s by local band Star Sixty Nine and we finished at midnight with a full procession of Grand Funk Railroad’s Locomotion. Yeah, come on, hook up and let’s go! Smiles all around…😃 …no one threw a knee or a hip (thank you) and I’d say 58 is the new 18. A big group hug  to the 1976 graduates of PRHS!

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Family, Friends and Food Important Dates to Celebrate

Valentine’s Dinner 2016

Love sushi especially when made at home 🙂 California rolls and meso soup with Casa Monica Shiraz. Happy Valentine’s Day Mon. A great day with you 🙂

California Rolls and Meso Soup
California Rolls and Meso Soup
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home life Important Dates to Celebrate

Birthday on last day at work… reason enough to celebrate?

You bet it was! That has to go down to one of the funnest deck parties we’ve ever had. The weather was perfect. Ryan came home from Fredericton! Sarah and Matt and Deacon (150 lb Rottweiler) came to our house and we all kicked in for a family-only celebration on the back deck. Ryan and I waited for others to arrive under bright cloudless skies and warm sunshine excellent for spiritual healing. Arrival of Sarah and Matt signaled the official start. With the bar now open, cocktails included El Dorado Spiced rum on ice … saved from St. Martin last February. Ryan and I partook, most happily. Also gluten free munchies for me (veggie sticks) and try-to-avoid-fail munchies (ripple chips) for the kids. Sneaking snacks to Deacon was a game of trying not to get your entire hand swallowed along with the chip 🙂 What a wonderful dog. Magnificent.

Humbly, I profess I was totally spoiled and am so appreciative of the great gifts I received from everyone (thanks for the wine, Marlene 🙂 thanks for everything kids, thanks Honey…love my card).IMG_7762

Monica had master-menued a beautiful meal with grilled striploin steak, fried mushrooms and onions, baked potato, boiled corn with cilantro butter, herb butter shrimp and lots of rolls. Ever have a 150-lb Rottweiler stare at you while you’re eating your steak? knowing that if he really wanted it, there would be nothing you could do to stop him…so I bribed his loyalty with bits of everything as much as I could get away with. (is that sort of like spoiling the grandchild?)

I am so blessed to have my family surround me to wish me well for my birthday and my last day in the office. I’m on vacation for the next three weeks and then officially retired from NBCC. It has been a wonderful career at NBCC… truly. I have learned so much and done so many interesting things during my 16 years there. Now my journey of learning continues into the world of stained glass as I pursue the skills of the craft to hopefully one day become a master glass craftsman… and then we’ll see where it takes me from there. God willing, I can spend the rest of my life finding out.

Thank you Monica, Ryan, Sarah, Matt and Deacon for celebrating my day with me. I love you all…. you know that, of course.

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home life Important Dates to Celebrate Stained Glass Sushi

All dedications lined up together at the perfect moment in time

Just like my home page says, “This site is dedicated to the following…” i.e., all those things I said I would dedicate my site to, well they all just happened to come together this week at the same time: 1) I’m itching for a new stained glass project and have something in mind for my bathroom downstairs (hint: marine theme). So, while I was looking at some glass possibilities, I snapped a pic or two. Selecting the glass is step #2 in the process, after pattern preparation, and is perhaps second only to patterns in terms of the creativity factor. I love searching the colors and patterns in the glass for the possibilities. 2) There was sushi involved (thank you above for the Japanese who perfected this culinary delight centuries ago). 3) My favorite two celebrations of the year are back to back…our anniversary and Canada Day. Monica and I always love to celebrate our lives together and then have a holiday the next day. She somehow masterminded that 31 years ago, and I’m ever so glad she did. Two wonderful occasions to celebrate and I couldn’t be any more proud and patriotic of both.

Here is a quick photo reel of the highlights.

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Family, Friends and Food Important Dates to Celebrate

Mother’s Day means surf ‘n turf – love this day as much as the woman

This day was wonderfully relaxing at home with Mon. The morning was for quiet reflection on memories of our own mothers… may they rest in peace. Monica puttered in the kitchen making hash brown casserole and Caesar salad, catching up on Facebook and reading Chatelaine while I finished the Celtic Roundel project in my glass shop. Totally enjoyed this project. (see the full story and project photos under the Panels section).

At 4:00, the party began. Sarah and Matt arrived with the lobster and dessert. The casserole went into the oven, corks were popped, gifts were given, Ryan called to honor his mother and I cracked the lobsters and fired up the barbeque for the steak. Laughter and indulgence ensued. It was a generous day and we got lots of photos for reminiscing later (here are the highlights).

Happy Mother’s Day, Monica. You are the best… and there is no question We all love You.

 

 

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Important Dates to Celebrate

Whimsical weekend with my wife

We celebrated Monica’s birthday and thirty years of marriage in a place we didn’t expect to be but one that brings such fond memories of our past that being here again now for our anniversary was nostalgically wonderful. This trip definitely goes down in history as the perfect getaway and adds to our collection of wonderful East Coast Memories. We really had a great time. We explored some familiar and some new places hand in hand, we laughed, we loved, we ate great food and drank fine wine. And it was a beautiful clear 33 degrees all four days. Here is a 30-year flashback from then to now. See if you can spot the differences.

honeymoon on Campobello 1984Happy 30th Babe

on ferry to Deer Island taking photo out car window 1984   on the ferry taking a photo out the car window - 30 years later

It all started with a planned trip to Ireland for our 30th. The flights were bought, hotels and bus tour booked and we were nearly ready to pack the suitcases. At the last minute we cancelled everything. It just didn’t feel right going that far away at a time when we should stay close to Dad. Ireland will still be there next year, Babe.

Instead, Monica and I booked an impulse getaway to Portland for one night (where we met friends travelling to Boston to see Lady Gaga) and two nights at the Island View Inn between Camden and Rockland. Good choice. The off-season rates were fantastic, we got some great deals shopping, enjoyed the incredible grounds and pool at the Island View Inn, exchanged romantic cards and clinked our glasses together to celebrate us. I could write pages and pages but I think a picture is worth a thousand words in this case. So, here is the photo journal of our weekend trip to Maine.

 

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Important Dates to Celebrate

Happy Anniversary Monica

Happy Anniversary to the most beautiful Peony of all, my wife Monica. They always bloom around your birthday/anniversary and you always bloom for me. Happy 29th Babe. Here’s to 29 more.

Peonies for Monica from Lorna - card from Nelly

Stained Glass Peony Lamp - made by Nellyglass 2013
Stained Glass Peony Lamp – made by Nellyglass 2013
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Important Dates to Celebrate

What a Great Day – this only happens once every 90 years.

Uncle Bill’s 90th birthday reception in Havelock was a resounding success, despite the rain. He looks wonderful for 90. The rest of us should be so lucky. There must have been nearly 200 people there to wish him well. It was so wonderful to see all my cousins and many of the towns folk who came to see him. Some people I had not seen in 40 years!  Uncle Lee, Aunt Vesta, Tom Burgess and Mort Mills sang some great old tunes on stage and we also sang Happy Birthday to Dad on this, his 87th birthday. After the reception, the family (30 or more) went to the Ridge Restaurant for Roast Beef dinner. Cousin Sharon baked a little chocolate cake for Dad. Was it ever special to watch him blow the candle out.

This was a happy day. I am forever grateful that I have such a great family. And, as we took Dad home for the evening, we noticed Mom’s rose is starting to bloom by the side of the house.