Silent Night

Here is the rehearsal video of my Christmas Eve solo. It came out in widescreen, so the picture is distorted. I don't know how to change it, though. The sound is all right.

Eliza's Song

 

This is a clip from our organ fund-raiser concert, "An Extravaganza of Music", held in October, 2013.

Nine Lessons and Carol Service at St. Mark's.

This is John Rutter's "Mary's Lullaby", sung by myself and Keith, a tenor in our church choir.

Coventry Carol

This is the Coventry Carol. Janet, on the left, is singing the alto part, Barbara, in the centre, sings the second soprano part, and I am singing first soprano.

In The Bleak Midwinter

This is St. Mark's Choir singing "In the Bleak Midwinter". Keith and I are the soloists. I love this carol!

St. Mark's Evensong Service

This is a modern musical version of the Kyrie, with traditional latin words by Cristi Cary Miller. We sometimes sing it as a trio, which is nice with the harmonies.

Amazing Grace Project

Today our church participated in the Amazing Grace project. Anglican churches across Canada taped themselves singing "Amazing Grace", and the videos will be edited together and published to YouTube before Christmas.

A Flair for Music

Our church choir fundraiser concert was held on September 17th. This is a comedy skit called Painless Opera. I'm the conductor. We raised over $1800.00, which put us over the top to pay for the new hall acoustical ceiling.

A Flair for Music

Here's another clip from our fund-raising concert. This is me singing "I Could Have Danced All Night".

Sunset on an August evening

Mount Washington Hike

We left Thursday morning and drove up to Mt. Washington ski resort. Hiking up to Battleship Lake took us about an hour. Wayne and Arlene came with us. Here they are in front of the Lodge. This is the boardwalk through the Alpine Meadow. Beautiful wild flowers. This are Bunch Berry plants. Also known as wild dogwood. Condos up on the mountain. View of Mt. Albert Edward from behind Raven Lodge.

More pictures

Raven Lodge The chair lift. It was running so the mountain bikers could go up. The square by the chairlift. Back view of Roger on the boardwalk. The grey jays are very tame and take peanuts from your hand. This is Roger with the bird and Wayne looking on.

Our Trip to Shuswap Lake

Our trip to Shuswap was a real family reunion! We stayed with son Paul and his girlfriend Monique, in their new RV. Our daughter Michelle and her husband Chris came from Alberta with sons Mathew and Luke, and Luke's girlfriend Jaycee. Paul's stepson, Tyler also came for a few days with his girlfriend Stephanie. We had a great time! Our grandson, Mathew.

Second grandson Luke with his girlfriend, Jaycee.

Paul and Monique. Paul's cooking bacon for breakfast!

Tyler and Stephanie Resident squirrel enjoying peanuts in the shell!

More pictures at Shuswap Lake

Chris and Jaycee getting ready to go out on a ride on Big Mable. Roger relaxing at the campsite.

Roger, Mathew, and Chris in the Lake

Our daughter Michelle.

Paul and Monique's camper, our home away from home.

It was cool at night, so we enjoyed the campfire. Above are Chris and Roger.

Paul and Michelle, looking at the camera.

Chris and Michelle enjoying a beer and a laugh.

Bears in the area!

We had an unwelcome visitor to our bird feeders during the night. A bear totally destroyed the 2 feeders and trampled my daylilies underfoot. I guess we'll take them down and clean up the seed on the ground, as the birds don't need feeding this time of the year.

Chilliwack Woman of the Year Banquet

We went to Chilliwack last Tuesday to attend the banquet for my friend Barbara Murray, who was named Woman of the Year. She is a great opera lover, so my friend Lorna wrote funny words to the Toreador Song. I was the soloist, and the choristers were other friends from the Academy of Music. It went over well, I think! We had a lot of fun, anyway.

Interior photos of Middle Beach Lodge.

Here are some photos of the interior of the Lodge. Below is a description taken from their web-site.

Middle Beach Lodge "At the Beach"combines rustic West Coast architecture with heavy timber, wood frame buildings with classic board and batten cedar siding exterior. It was an interesting start to our ambition of offering a new style of Lodge accommodation on the West Coast of Vancouver Island. Warm comfortable sleeping accommodations coupled with exquisite oceanfront lounges in a decor of Rustic West Coast Simplicity. The use of recycled wood was utilized on this first phase where we collected timbers from such notable aged buildings as the Ogden Point Ice Plant in the Victoria harbour.These timbers were denailed, milled and re-created into fine furnishings including the dining room harvest tables, cabinetry, washstands, beds and side tables. Plank floors of Birch were used in the main lounge accompanied in the main living room by a massive river rock fireplace with rock that we hauled up from the Kennedy River just down the road from Long Beach. Many of the furnishings are an array of collectibles and antiques sourced from all parts of Canada. As one writer who visited us on numerous occasions said "Ralph Lauren would be happy here".

Tofino and Ucluelet

Here are some more photos. Front view of our lodge. Peasant bread from the Common Loaf Bakery. Yummy! You can borrow raingear to walk on the beach! Coffee house in Ucluelet, another town on the coast. The beach at the Coast Guard station at Ucluelet.

Trip to Tofino

We just returned from a two-day trip to Tofino on the west coast of Vancouver Island. What a beautiful place! The weather was a mix of everything; snow over night, rain, hail, and some sunny breaks. This is the Middle Beach Lodge, where we stayed. It is right on the ocean front. This is me on the beach in front. This is Long Beach, well known for its high surf. Very popular with surfers in the summer. The Common Loaf Bakery in Tofino. Surfers already! The First Nations Art Gallery.

Bethlehem Walk

The local Baptist church puts on this Bethlehem walk every year. It is a re-creation of the town of Bethlehem in the time of Jesus. They spend weeks preparing for it; and it runs for four nights in mid December. The townspeople are all in character; they welcome you to Bethlehem, and caution you to be careful not to offend the centurions or you could be imprisoned. There are all different kinds of shops, and live animals which come from farms in our area.