It's About Time!!

Hey there.  It's been more than a year but I thought I should make another contribution.

I was last telling folks about Manoel, our Brazilian high school student who stayed with us between February and the end of June last year.  He was wonderful...shy at first but a very charismatic individual really.  He arrived frozen on Feb 1st and we plopped him immediately into the middle of Winter Warmer, a little music festival i have started here in St Andrews  (www.winterwarmerfestival.ca    who says there's nothing to do in winter??!).

Manoel was brave enough to introduce himself in his limited English to the folks he ran into or was introduced to.  He quickly became part of our family and we feel blessed to have had him be a part of our lives.  He quickly showed us that he was a serious student.... we did homework with him every night and he shone in school....in fact learning in English he ended up with an average in the mid 80's!!!  Manoel was also keen to experience winter.... even tho he was cold he tried skating, tobogganing, snowshoeing, downhill and cross country skiing, tubing and snowman and fort making!!!The winter was good for that around here.  He also shoveled his fair share of and drank his limit of Hot Chocolate...imagine a Brazilian kid liking Hot Chocolate!!!

We took him to Quebec City at March break, he attended music events (kitchen parties), he was a hit at Easter and he was adored by our regular Irish guest Stephen Clifford and his young daughter Naomi.  He was eager to learn how to cook and have me cook some of his family recipes (rice and beans and corned beef, pastelles (like a cornish pasties) among other delicacies). We laughed and then cried when it was time for him to leave.

It made us realise how wonderful the world is and how remarkable the people in it are.  Something we should constantly remind ourselves given what we see and hear daily.  We can't ever know everything that happens, or all the people out there. It just seems so wrong that many of the impressions we are given are not what its really like at all.

It's another great winter here.  Lots of snow, some great X country skiing and snowshoeing, wonderful laughs with great friends and some incredible meals.... oh yeah Winter Warmer just finished too....more magical musical moments!

Live Lie folks...and love it...all of it!

Cheers!

Jamie

Slowly... yes slowly

It takes time, just like everything else. And for me it often takes more time than average!  Things have to develop "organically"...I don't push them, they evolve on their own as long as I keep believing they are good ideas.  So it is with this BLOG. It's coming....its sort of waiting for my patterns in life to all fit together.

So what's been happening?  Well another Winter Warmer Festival has just come and gone and like last year's event it too was great!  Maybe not as many performers but still high quality stuff. Check out www.winterwarmerfestival.ca to see what you missed. However, also know that next year we'll do it all again!

The same weekend as Winter Warmer Deb and I had our second exchange student arrive. This time we are lucky enough to have a young man (15 yrs old) from Brazil come to live with us. Manoel (great name for Salty Towers) will be attending school at the local high school until the end of June and while here is hoping to learn English. Our first exchange student came 2 years ago. Justin.... a Chinese student arrived and also stayed for the winter/spring semester.  We saw him at Christmas...he came home to St Andrews for the holidays....he's now studying in Victoria and Royal Roads University. If this year's student is half as rewarding as our time with Justin then we feel we've hit it rich!

Winter has settled in again here in St Andrews.  We had a good January thaw after a wickedly cold Christmas and New Year. Today, even tho there is new snow on the ground the sun is shining... just what winter should be like.

Hope everyone out there is well.

Yo' So it's only 3 days away from Winter Warmer, a great new little mid season event here in St Andrews NB. Developed as an intimate small venue festival it will host 6 shows in 3 days. All but one concert will be in a space that holds no more than 50 people. The opening show on Thursday Jan 31st is at the local Arena Theatre, a 100 seat venue!

The theme of the whole event is "GET COZY", something that should be happening at this time of year and in a small community like St Andrews. Hopefully folks buy into it. Featured performers include the incomparable Lisa Leblanc, multi award winner Stephen Fearing, the ethereal sounds of Acres and Acres, the exploding talents of Les Hay Babies, the wonderful Christina Martin, wild card troubador Owen Steel, old school acoustic bluesman Mike Trask and maritime folk singer Ruth Dunfield.

Come on out. Find out about tickets on Facebook, or at www.winterwarmerfestival.ca

Court Dates

I was in court the other day acting as a character witness for a friend. Its an interesting situation, one i hope I don't have to go through too many times in my life. I mean I'd do that sort of thing for any friend but it certainly gives you a whole new perspective on life, on people and believing in people.

I didn't have anything to hide nor did my friend but when folks are trying to create a certain picture of someone they often try to create the same sort of picture of you, the friend even though they have never spent any time or had any real association with you.  Because of my association with musicians it even spilled over into trying to create stero types.  I tell you it seemed as if no one was safe.

I am not saying it was really damaging to my character (or my friend's), or that I'm going to change the way I live or who I associate with (musicians are still welcome at Salty Towers) but it gives you a sense of what direcction people travel when they are trying to get what they want or feel they deserve.

Nothing stranger than folk (people, not the music!)

Cheers!

Greetings

So I guess its time to start a Blog. There lots happening around me and I've got a few things to say now and then so this could be a go platform. Let me know what you might want to hear about, discuss or debate about and I'll try to oblige.