Marvelous Monday and Marvelous Mum!

Once again, it's a beautiful sunny day here in Southern Ontario, Canada.  Today is "Civic Holiday" and so my dear Mr. Magnolia and I are enjoying a lovely long weekend.

Here's a peak at the delicious breakfast we had this morning - blueberry pancakes topped with fresh strawberries, with a side of lean turkey breakfast sausage.  Yummy!  We love eating out on the pool deck but to keep our coffee piping hot, I serve it in these handy "mason jar" mugs with screw on tops.  

But although I love having breakfast with my husband, that's not what I'm posting about today!

On this Marvelous Monday, I want to post about my Marvelous Mum!  I'm chuckling as I write that because she would think it was so corny if she knew I was calling her that, but truly she is quite wonderful.  There is something so special about having a mother who is also a friend.  I hear from some of my friends about how much they dread getting together with their own mothers, and I just feel awful on their behalf!  Imagine missing out on that special friendship that is carved out of years of mutual nurturing and the intricate layers of knowledge that can only come from so many shared experiences.  I also have friends who have lost their mothers, and wish they could have just one day more to share the joy of the unique friendship that is shared between mothers and daughters.  So I have learned not to take for granted my relationship with my own mother.  My life is so enriched by our friendship.

My Mum is strong and vulnerable, matter-of-fact and whimsical, abrupt and compassionate all wrapped up in one.  Before I was five, she taught me how to read, how to tie my shoes and the names of a hundred birds or more.  By the time I was ten, she had taught me to love God, love others, and love myself.  She introduced me to books and the world of literature, so that I would have a life-long love affair with reading.  But she also taught me to love the sound of a well-read poem, to enjoy closing my eyes and listening to the rise and fall of a skilled orator who could make the words on a page come alive.  She taught me to appreciate nature and find joy in the simplest things around us.  And she modeled loyalty and honesty so that I would know that these are character qualities worth developing.

My Mum is still teaching me but now I am teaching her too.  Our relationship is no longer that of adult and child, but rather two equals.  We share many things in common and yet have discovered over the years that we are in fact, quite different in personality.  Our relationship has waxed and waned at times as life circumstances have sometimes kept us farther apart, then brought us back together again.  At two years of age, I knew I needed my Mum.  At twelve, I wanted to believe I didn't need her at all but secretly feared I couldn't live without her!   And now that I'm forty-two, I find myself realizing that while I don't need her in the same way from decade-to-decade, yet I will always need her in some way regardless of how old I get.  She will always be my Mum and so I recognize that I will always want to protect her and be protected by her.  

Here's a picture of my Mum I took last week,

beside the beautiful sunflowers she has grown.  

So on this Marvelous Monday, I am especially thankful for my Mum and the wonderful friendship we enjoy. I thought about finding some sentimental quote to end this post, but truthfully, my Mum would probably laugh hysterically if I found something sweet and cloying.  So, I found this one instead, which is definitely one she would enjoy.  She is, after all, the type of mother who seems to prefer ragamuffin children who are mischievous and have a propensity to play in mud puddles.  No wonder we get along so well.

"My mother had a great deal of trouble with me,

but I think she enjoyed it."

Mark Twain

Rantings from my Fevered Brain

Yesterday was my Mum's birthday and today we planned a special full-day together. We were going to start by heading to Niagara-on-the-Lake for some boutique shopping, wander around the lovely gardens of that town, and have a special lunch at the Pillar and Post. Then we planned to drift back towards home, to a special Etsy craftshow being held at the downtown St. Catharines Farmer's Market this afternoon and evening, where a FRIEND of mine is one of the vendors selling her amazing products. We also thought we might stop by a nursery on the way home that specializes in beautiful flowering bushes and trees and has a lovely park-like setting.

The day started out okay. When I took my canines for their morning walk, I did notice that my body seemed to be especially achy, but I thought it was probably the weather change causing the problem. The last few days have been rainy and today's forecast is for a lovely sunny day (which in fact we are now experiencing). My Mum met me at our house and we started the drive. Thirty minutes later, as we were just rounding the Niagara Parkway into the village, I started to feel AWFUL! Like really horrible. Actually, it had been happening from the time we left my home, but had just now got the point where I really felt sick. I pulled over at a lovely scenic viewpoint over the Niagara River and proceeded to lose my breakfast. My body was wracked with nausea and my lower back ached so badly, I couldn't stand up straight. The dreaded FLU was obviously upon me!

So, obviously, we had to cancel our lovely day together, which I felt terrible about because we had both been looking forward to it. I know we can re-schedule, but I'm sad we couldn't at least fit it into my Mum's birthday week. But, you know what mothers are like - she was only worried about me. When I got home, I cranked the heat up in the house - I was so cold on the way home that my teeth were literally chattering, curled up under a pile of blankets and went to sleep.  I just woke up now and I'm feeling much better although I'm still running a fever.

Funny thing happened though, while we were stopped at that scenic look-out, I saw a beautiful blue heron fly up from the river. Only thing is, that it wasn't blue, it was PINK! It was kind of like the one in this picture, only a lovely deep rosy hue where the light grey is on its wings. I told my Mum. She smiled and looked at me in that way that clearly spoke, "Of course, dear, I'm sure it was pink." No doubt she was attributing the colour to my fever. And she may have been right because I've searched and searched and can't find any pink blue herons on the internet. I think maybe my fever is making colours look much more vivid or something because there was also an oriole that was the most vivid shade of neon orange I've ever seen.

Anyway, I'll keep you updated just in case I start seeing pink elephants or something. In the mean time, I think I'll go back to bed for another snooze! Hopefully by tomorrow this bug will be completely gone from my system. Gahh! I hate being ill!

I am Alpha Dog, Hear me Woof!

Today is Mother's Day and while I'm not a mother in the usual sense of the word, I am the happy owner of 3 cats (+ one on-and-off stray), 2 dogs and 2 budgies.  Sometimes this feels a little like being a mother, sometimes a little like being a zoo keeper, but frequently it feels suspiciously like I'm running a mad house!

Our animals have issues - and thus we have issues (or maybe it's the other way around???).   What this translates to is that the dogs and cats and budgies must all be kept separate.  While my black lab has always been cat-friendly (we got her when she was only 7 weeks old and she used to sleep curled up with our cats), my little Jack Russel Terrorist came to us when she was a few years old.  She already had developed quite a few life patterns that were unacceptable.  Some I have been able to break her of - others, not so much.  Unfortunately she was trained from a young age to hunt and (attempt to) kill cats.  In actual fact, being a terrier she would love to hunt and kill pretty much anything including things smaller than her (mice, birds, rabbits) and things much larger than her (horses, cows, and especially the dreaded garden statues which seem to be particularly repugnant to her murderous little mind).  Which means that my dogs and cats must never meet.  And although I have heard lovely stories of cats who have bonded deeply with birds, the only way my cats want to bond deeply with my birds is through that time-honoured system known as digestion.

So a year ago when we finally managed to enter the modern world of civilization, ditched our TVs antiquated rabbit ears and connected to cable, I was delighted to discover Cesar Milan, that dog-training guru, whose program "The Dog Whisperer" airs regularly on the National Geographic Channel.  Oh, he made the whole dog training process look so easy!  I watched religiously.  I took copious notes.  I became a die-hard fan.  His words became like manna to my parched and harried soul.  I learned that I must exude confidence, breathe deeply, remain calm in every situation, and always, always maintain a balanced emotional state so that my dogs would sense that I was the Alpha Dog, the Leader of the Pack, the Great Gazoo in my family unit.

In fairness to Cesar and his wonderful program, I have to say that things have improved since I started to practice his techniques.  No longer do the dogs burst out of the door as soon as it is opened.  They now pause inside the open door, bums wiggling with excitement, tongues lolling out of their mouths, looking up at me with intense joy until I signal them that they are allowed to go outside.  This is a major improvement!  I have also managed to curb their food aggression issues by taking control of the dog kibble, forcing them to stay several feet away from the food dishes while I prepare their supper, and only allowing them to eat once I have given them the signal.  This is another major improvement and means that the two dogs no longer end up in outrageous fights over the food dish, outrageous fights that were almost inevitably initiated by the 11 pound Jack Russel Terrorist, but most certainly, without my timely intervention, would have been finished off by the 85 pound black lab!

But along the way, there have been moments when I have felt like a complete and colossal failure.  I was out walking my dogs one day, each one on their four-foot leash.  Everything was going fine.  I was breathing confidence, feeling my calm inner-self taking control, shoulders back, head up, I was the ALPHA DOG!  When suddenly Bella, my black lab, darted into the hedge and in less than 30 seconds emerged from the hedge with a full-grown angry, frightened muskrat in her mouth.  Deezer, my Jack Russell, began to yip hysterically.  She was so full of jealousy, anger, and the desire to kill that she was literally hovering above the ground on the end of her leash.  The muskrat was shrieking for dear life!  Bella began to shake the muskrat viciously, blood spattering everywhere.   Her eyes took on that ominous red glow I have noted before whenever she gets the taste of red blood and raw meat.  My heart rate escalated to alarming rates.  My shoulders were no longer held back in a stance of confidence.  I was no longer feeling calm, confident energy.  I had two dogs and a dying muskrat attached to the ends of my arms by four-foot chains, all three animals attempting to go in different directions, one animal growling, one animal yipping, and one animal giving out a final death rattle before succumbing to a high-speed shaking death.  Where was Cesar when I needed him?????

Within a few moments the muskrat had been entirely inhaled by my lab, and I do mean INHALED!  She left nothing but the claws behind.  And then, having morphed into a blood-thirsty wild beast, she turned on my Jack Russell with a vengeance.  I actually don't know if she would have seriously injured her but I wasn't about to give her the opportunity, especially since Deezer is the hugest pest in the world and frequently nips at Bella's paws for no good reason.   I wasn't sure if this was the time when the "still waters that run deep" in Bella might erupt into some kind of raging volcano.

Fortunately, as I have discovered to be consistently true after a fresh-blood kill, Bella only took about 5 minutes to turn back into her sweet and lovable self.  Deezer, who will always be a trouble-maker, remained hyper and aggressive, but it's hard to incite anger in a laid-back, mellow black lab who likes nothing more than to be as happy-go-lucky as can be and has just had a delicious snack of fresh muskrat.  So the walk eventually ended with a modicum of calm, even though my own heart was still racing.

Later the guilt settled in as I reviewed all that I could possibly have done differently.  And it occurred to me that perhaps this is how parents feel, second-guessing their decisions, trying to remain calm and appear confident in the midst of chaos, and then later feeling guilty, completely convinced that someone else would have handled the situation in a far superior manner.  It makes me appreciate my own parents even more.   Having 5 kids in 6 years must have been quite a handful and I'm sure there were moments where we gave my Mum and Dad reason to second-guess themselves and their decisions.  I hope through all of it, they realize how much we appreciate them.  And to all of you who are mothers, I take my hat off to you today and wish you well!   I bet you get more things right than you realize, I bet your kids love you more than you can ever know, and I bet you will never have to deal with one of your children holding a bloody muskrat in his or her mouth while shaking it to death on the side of the road!

Here's a pic of Deezer trying to look as innocent as can be having just given herself purple spots all over by rolling around under the mulberry tree.  No one would guess from this picture what a little tyrant she is!