Dappled Air

After switching from shampoo to no-shampoo , ie. I use 1 heaping teaspoon backing soda in a glass of warm water and 1 teaspoon cider vinegar in half a cup of water. I was ready to tackle the deodorant. I have been using deodorants, not anti-perspirants, all my life, but this year I noticed that they did not seem to work as well any longer. That sent me on an Internet search for recipes to make my own. After reading tons of info and searching for what they had in common, I found my recipe and I must say for the past 2 months that I have been using it, I am very happy. Homemade Deodorant Recipe: 2 tablespoon baking soda 6 tablespoons cornstarch Combine and mix well. Works best by shaking in a closed container. Now put in a smaller container. Apply with powder puff. That's where I ran into a snag, where do you get a powder puff? You make one! I crochet one that's washable and will post the instructions shortly. Note: Some recipes call for half baking soda and half corn...

I don't watch movies when they first come out, I watch them when they make it to the TV screen and this is one such movie that I found absolutely delightful. It is called " the Invention of Lying ". I like they way they portray a world where everybody says the truth and how one guy discovers that he can stretch the truth and everybody believes him. The movie made me think of how much what we believe to be the truth is based on what we have been told and have blindly accepted. How often do we really try to understand if it is really true or if we just simple accepted someone else's belief. Doing that will change our world view and our life.

I tried to remember the name of the show I used to listen to in Switzerland in the early 70s on ORF3 (Austrian Radio 3). It was called something 'Folk with ?', but I could not remember the name. Then last week I suddenly remembered. It was 'Folk with Jack'. Jack Grunsky was born in Austria, grew up in Canada when his parents moved here and then returned to Austria where I heard of him. I always liked his songs and a stroll around YouTube lead me down memory lane. When my twins were young I got a children's tape by Jack Grunsky  with the song 'Dreamcatcher' on it. Now that my kids are all grown, I had totally lost track of Jack and to my surprise discovered that he's still producing interesting music. So I could not help but introduce him to others. More Information about Jack: Jack's Website from Wikipedia Facebook Fan Page MySpace Page YouTube Jack Grunsky Search

It is official, June bugs are now also May bugs in Canada. Last night they appeared and flew into my bathroom window.  They are attracted to the light. Last year I was wondering if they are turning into May bugs in Canada and now I know it is true. In Switzerland the same bugs are called May bug, because they come out in May. Searching for some new pictures of May bugs, I came across chocolate May bugs. I had totally forgotten about them. I also came across a blog post called "Swiss are still weird" about chocolate May bugs.

On Friday's walk around Oat Hill Lake we came across the first ducklings of the season. That's why I always take my camera along on my walks. The ducklings must be very new as they still have yellow in their plumage from the egg.

Talking to my mom yesterday I discovered another piece of my dyslexia puzzle. She casually mentioned that she was watching the election of Mister Switzerland and that last year's winner said that his biggest problem was spelling and that many men then wrote in and said that they had the same problem. I wonder if boys have a different learning style regarding spelling than girls? Is the teaching style geared towards girls and not boys? Well, that brought our conversation to me and learning to read in Grade 1. My mom explained that in 1960 I was taught the whole word method and not sounding out the words. I vividly remember telling the teacher that reading sucks and that I was never going to learn to read and would not take my homework, a box with words to make sentences, home. What was the teacher to do? She found an older neighbour's girl and asked her to bring my homework home for me and tell my mom. According to my mom is jumbled the letters b and d and everybody assume...

In today's news from Ontario, the government announced that sex ed will now start in Grade 1. Now there is a big controversy going on. I am surprised, because after all we are in the 21st century on hone hand and on the other hand we are still in the dark ages when it comes to sex ed. Looking back over the years I have these key memories about my twins (boy & girl, now almost 32 years old) growing up. We were visiting my parents in Switzerland when they were 3 years old and happened to come across a TV show in the afternoon where a woman gave birth. My daughter was very intrigued, my son could not care less. For the next few days our daughter gave us very graphic replays of what she had seen. It was all very natural to her. Then her attention was captured by something else that was it for giving birth. The twins went to kindergarten in Montreal, Quebec, Canada and they had sex ed. So for the next 3 months my daughter drew mommies with babies in their tummies. Then one nice ...