BC Country Music Awards

The British Columbia Country Music Association (BCCMA) will be holding their awards ceremony on November 20th. If you have been following my blog you will recognize Brooke's sister Hayley who is up for:

1. Female vocalist of the year
2. The Ray McAuley Horizon Award
3. Guitar Player of the Year



Good Luck Hayley! Love your music and wish you all the best! (don't forget to check out her music on iTunes - under Hayley McLean - "I Am Hayley" ).

Still thinking Halloween

Brooke is so clever. She carved out this pumpkin. Who does it look like??? She calls it "Hal-Lil-ween. Soo so clever and quite the likeness!

7 BILLION, TODAY

Today, the population of the earth reached 7 Billion People! In India, a person a second is born. Made me wonder if the earth gets any heavier, will it fall out of the sky? The National Geographic video below puts a good perspective on 7 Billion.

A Hallowe'en Book Club

'Twas Book Club again on the weekend. Was good to get together after a long summer break. Everyone was in fine spirits - as you can see from the above photo which appears to be a private joke about my butt !!!
Difficult getting a photo of everyone when there is no one to take the pictures. Nancy & I are really NOT that much larger than everyone else!

Of course, as usual, we take appies and eat, eat, eat. As Hallowe'en was very soon, I took witches fingers to nibble on for dessert. Also need the recipes for Joan's crackers and Dawn's mushroom pate. The food is oh so good!

Ceremony's End

Didn't believe people were dancing on stage to the music? See below (who else but the Yukon would have Can-Can Dancers dancing to 54-40???)

Western Canadian Music Awards

Attended the Western Canadian Music Awards (WCMA) Sunday night at the Arts Centre. These awards highlight musicians from Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, B.C. & Yukon. (If you want a bit of WCMA history CLICK HERE ).

It was open seating and who did we sit beside but my old Ontario friend Sue. I didn't even know she was in town. Not much time to talk between acts but was good to see her all the same.

The group 54-40 from B.C. was inducted into the Western Canadian Music Hall of Fame. They played on stage at the end of the ceremony and had everyone up and singing and clapping and eventually up on stage while they performed.

Here are the winners and artists you may wish to check out if you do not know them:

INSTRUMENTAL RECORDING – Five Alarm Funk
WORLD RECORDING OF THE YEAR – Trio Bembe
ROOTS SOLO RECORDING – Del Barber
ROOTS DUO/GROUP RECORDING The Wailin’ Jennys
BLUES RECORDING – Little Miss Higgins
JAZZ RECORDING – Night Crawlers with the Big Band Sound
CHILDRENS RECORDING – The Kerplunks
CONTEMPORARY CHRISTIAN / GOSPEL RECORDING – Sojourners
INDEPENDENT ALBUM – Del Barber
FRANCOPHONE DE L’ANNEE – Raphael Freynet
CLASSICAL COMPOSITION – Marcus Goddard
CLASSICAL RECORDING – Peter Hannan
ABORIGINAL RECORDING – Don Amero
POP RECORDING – Imaginary Cities
URBAN RECORDING – Souljah Fyah
RAP / HIP HOP RECORDING – Sweatshop Union
ROCK RECORDING – The Sheepdogs
COUNTRY RECORDING – Ridley Bent
SONGWRITER(S) OF THE YEAR – Romi Mayes
HALL OF FAME – 54-40



Del Barber performed at the awards show and although I could hardly find many videos of the night even though it was live streamed, thought you may enjoy one of his past performances.

A little of this and that

Thought I'd share a pic of little Kate with her dad while they were recently on holiday in Florida. The water looks so inviting I want to jump in right now!

As well, wanted to share this tip that MJT shared with me some time ago. Now, it doesn't work for people who live alone, but for you others:

Locked Keys in Car

Have you locked your keys in the car? Does your car have remote keyless entry? This may come in handy someday. Good reason to own a cell phone:
If you lock your keys in the car and the spare keys are at home, call someone at home on their cell phone from your cell phone.
Hold your cell phone about a foot from your car door and have the person at your home press the unlock button, holding it near the mobile phone on their end. Your car will unlock.
Saves someone from having to drive your keys to you. Distance is no object. You could be hundreds of miles away, and if you can reach someone who has the other 'remote' for your car, you can unlock the doors (or the trunk). It apparently also works if one phone isn't a cell phone.

Kristin and I tried this just to see if it worked and --- it did work. Great tip.

A Beary Snowy Morning

Today I was a bit behind schedule as Lily's Dad came home and slept at my house. After coffee and a chat, he departed for work and once again Lily stayed home with Gran-Carol. After a shower I donned coat, touque, boots and mitts, grabbed a leash and doggie bags (didn't have to call Lily as her middle name is "Velcro") and out we went - through the backyard gate, across the road and to our regular trails. Here we saw what looked like something red that was dragged through the snow. Lily was sniffing like crazy, her tail disappearing between her legs. Odd, I thought. Then two people appeared and were looking at something in the snow. I joined them and found that not 1/2 hour earlier, a black bear had been shot and dragged up the hill by conservation officers. Lily was sniffing the blood and was extremely skittish. The photo above is taken from where the bear was shot then dragged to the rocks at the beginning of the trail. The photo below is from the other side of the rocks to my backyard. Little did I know what was happening while I was merrily taking a shower.


I finally leashed Lily as she tends to bolt when scared. Thanks SR for sleeping at my house. A half an hour earlier, Lily & I would have been walking right where the bear was travelling.

And now that I think about it, Lily did seem uncertain (and scared - tail pasted between her legs) the other day when we were walking the trails. As she very apparently was not enjoying her walk, we turned and took another trail. Perhaps the bear was nearby at that time, unbeknownst to me.

Little Lily

Guess who I'm looking after this weekend. Little Lily. We are certainly bonding and she is making sure I take at least two long walks per day, no matter what the weather...rain (yesterday); snow (today). We also spend lots of time playing outside in the yard.

As much fun as we are having, I know that she misses her mum and dad.

Was going to put a wee video in this blog, but am unable. (Ask me how I like my new Mac !&X?@!!)