Grey Cup 105, Ottawa

I know I write a lot about football; it is a big part of my life, and a big part of my family’s life.  From our local university team to the pros, with some occasional involvement in minor and high school football, we have all been involved in various ways: formally, through coaching and managing, or in other ways like counselling, teaching, tutoring, feeding, befriending, and fanning (is that a word?).  Even though you might not share our family’s interest or passion about football, I hope you enjoy reading about it.

It’s hard to believe that just over a week ago, my family and I were still revelling in that magical post-exciting-Grey Cup-snow-game high.  We have all returned to reality with a bit of a hard landing.  We are left with memories from a really fun few days in the nation’s capital.

 

Grey Cup 105 in Ottawa was my third Grey Cup in as many years, as you probably know. Each experience was different.  The first year, my team was in the game but lost.  Last year, my team was in the game and won (you can read about it here).  This year, my team did not make it to the finals at all, so I did not have a vested interest in the outcome.  Also this year, for the first time, my whole family was able to share in the Grey Cup experience together.

Before my husband arrived in Ottawa on Saturday morning, my kids and I managed to have a bit of fun.  The best day was Friday, which was a day off school for my young nephews.  We all went down to the Grey Cup Festival Headquarters at Lansdowne, and enjoyed an afternoon of activities.  My nephews and I became virtual reality quarterbacks (I was 3 for 5 if you’re interested), and they enjoyed climbing all over a military tank and asking questions of the Coast Guards (not sure what that has to do with football, but they had fun).  We visited the exhibit from the Canadian Football Hall of Fame.  The adult-sized agility drills that we enjoyed last year in Toronto were nowhere in sight, but there was a little kids’ agility test, and it was fun to watch big Zack Evans stepping over the hoops that his toddler son was struggling through.  We all enjoyed pancakes from the Calgary Stampeders free pancake breakfast (although mine came without sausage), and we picked up a bunch of free loot (pencils, Canada 150 pins, a water bottle for my daughter, and all kinds of other stuff).  We met (and re-met) players from the REDBLACKS and a few other teams, took lots of photos and got some autographs.  One of the silver linings of the REDBLACKS not being in the game was that the players did not have curfews or practices; fans were able to meet and mingle with them at a variety of venues. 

After the little kids went home for the day, my kids and I checked out the RNation Party.  I was super pumped about the Friday night edition; the headliner was Dwayne Gretzky, a cover band that we heard last year at the Argo Shipyard Party.  The Dwaynes opened for Sloan, who were performing next door at the Arena, and then came over to RNation and played for another 90 minutes.  They definitely did not disappoint.  Within about 15 minutes of their arrival, the place was packed.  I even got out on the dance floor, something I have not done for a very long time (no, there is no photographic evidence!).  If you live in southern Ontario and ever have the chance to hear Dwayne Gretzky, I highly recommend them. 

 

My kids went to see Sloan, but when they came back to RNation, they met up with a few of the Ottawa players, and for the rest of the evening, we hung out with a group of highly entertaining  young men.  They were mostly from Quebec, with a Californian thrown in for good measure. (I understand that he has adopted poutine as his favourite meal, and has a fine repertoire of French swear words).  There were a few shenanigans, a lot of laughter, and a lot of fun.

The game itself was classic CFL.  The forecast called for flurries, but before the game even started, there were people out on the field shovelling and ploughing snow (flashback to last year’s Eastern Final!).  We passed on the “ice cold beer” in favour of hot chocolates and hot dogs, and settled in for a game that started slow.  Eventually, the players found their grooves (and their traction), and the game picked up speed, and once again, it ended with the Eastern champions (the Argonauts) stunning the heavily favoured Calgary Stampeders with a last minute field-goal, followed by an interception (right in front of us) to win!

My Dad was a huge fan of the CFL, and I grew up watching CFL football on television.  My affection for the Canadian game solidified when I worked for the team physician for one of the CFL teams when I was much younger woman, and I actually came to know some of the players (the injured ones).  In all of my growing up years, we never lived near a football city, and I never had the opportunity to go to a live game until I was an adult.  When football became such a big part of my son’s life, and we saw some of our university’s players go on to careers in the CFL, somewhere in the back of my mind was the hope that someday I would be able to take my son to a Grey Cup -- preferably in Saskatchewan, because THAT would be a party!

But events like this cost money.  Airfare, hotels, food, game tickets…. Being a family with a single income for most of the time, and living on the East Coast, we have never been in the income bracket where attending an event such as the Grey Cup would be easy.  So deep down, I thought I might not ever get to a Grey Cup. 

Not in a million years could I have ever dreamed that not only would I go to one Grey Cup, but THREE!  Or that my team would win, and I would celebrate in the stands, on the field, in the locker room and at the Grey Cup champion party, with players and their families, some of whom I have come to know over the past few years, and with my family.  Or that my son would be a GREY CUP CHAMPION! (that still blows my mind!). 

My son has decided that it is time for him to pursue some other career goals, so this year marks his last season of employment within the CFL.  It has been, for me, a magical four years football-wise, and I am so grateful to my son for sharing it with me, and with the rest of our family. 

I am not planning to go to another Grey Cup any time soon.  And nothing will ever top the experience of last year, when my underdog team, against all the odds, won the Grey Cup in a thrilling overtime, and we were a part of it.  But you never know, there might come a time when an opportunity presents itself. If it happens, I will be excited and grateful.  If not, that’s okay too.  It’s been a blast! 

Food

Those of you who know me, know that I am not a diet person.  There are quite a few reasons for this.  First and foremost, I like food.  I like food, and I especially like dessert.  My husband always jokes that when we go out to eat, I choose the dessert first, and then decide what my main meal is going to be (and, truth be told, sometimes it isn’t really a joke).  I like all the stuff that is bad for me.  Chocolate.  Candy.  Chips.  Bread.  Meat.  Cheese.  Ice cream.  Pizza.  Fries.  Milk.  The occasional ginger ale.  You get the picture.  

As I have gotten older, I have become slightly more discriminating in my tastes, particularly when I am eating out.  For example, I rarely order dessert now because, and I say this without a trace of arrogance, the desserts I make are better.  I am sometimes more conscientious about considering healthier menu options like salads, because I have discovered that there can actually be more to a salad then just a heap of lettuce with a bit of something else thrown in.  As people demand healthier options, maybe restaurants have been forced to be more creative in their salad making, and lately, I have been known to pass up my go-to fish and chips for an interesting looking salad.  I never eat red meat in a restaurant (except for the occasional burger) because it is never done the way I like it.  I love salmon, and could eat it every night for dinner without getting bored. 

I have never been a dieter, and have never in my life gone on a fad diet.  No Atkins, no Paleo, no Keto, no gluten-free, no dairy free, no vegan or vegetarian (although for several years during Lent, we ate mainly vegetarian dishes in solidarity with those who have little food).  

So you might be surprised to hear that this spring, I decided to try a low sugar diet which was posted on Facebook.  (See it here.)  The meal plan for the 7 day diet was designed by a dietician using recipes from Chatelaine magazine.  The description of the menu plan said “This week-long low sugar diet aims to keep your energy levels high and your mood regulated by balancing blood sugar with the right combination of foods at each meal and naturally sweet foods that let you indulge in a healthy way.” Sugar, as you know, has been on the dieting hit list for a while now, and I was feeling guilty about my consumption of sugar.  I decided to jump on the bandwagon and see if, in fact, a week on a low sugar diet would make a difference to how I felt, both physically and mentally.
 

The overall result was that after a week on this diet, which I followed almost to the letter, including cutting out all candy and chocolate (I know, right?), I did not feel significantly different (healthier, more energetic, more alert) than I did before.  I did, however, lose 8 pounds.  That could be because I was almost always hungry.  I felt that the meals were not substantial enough.  I was always hungry at bedtime, and since there were no after supper snacks in the menu plan, I did not eat any.  I would start each day feeling very hungry, and frankly, a smoothie for breakfast did nothing to quell that gnawing hunger.  As to my mood, well, my dear husband would have to answer that question, but since I was hungry a lot of the time, I’m betting he didn’t see much of an improvement. 

I realized about halfway through the week that I do not actually use a lot of sugar in my meal preparation.  And now that it is just two of us eating at home, I do not make desserts as often as I used to.  Most of my sugar intake comes from my 2 cups of tea a day, and snacks and candy.

I learned that a diet like this one, with lots of fresh vegetables and snacks, is labour intensive.  There were not many “quick” meals, and even some of the breakfasts involved chopping, peeling, cooking, etc.  I missed my quick cereal out of a box breakfasts, and I found that I spent a lot of time every day doing meal prep for almost every meal.  

Diets in magazines like Chatelaine often seem to be quite urban-centric in the sense that many of the ingredients are either difficult (sometimes impossible) to find, or expensive -- or both.  I never did find any sprouted grain bread in my local grocery store.  I had to drive to Moncton to find some of the ingredients (cacao nibs, unsweetened dried cherries) at Bulk Barn, which is neither convenient nor cheap.  I could not get halibut, as it was out of season and when it is in season, it is very expensive, so I substituted salmon.

I missed potatoes.  And cheesy garlic fingers.  And milk.  And my morning cup of Earl Grey tea with one teaspoon of sugar.  The diet plan did not specify acceptable drinks, so I assumed that water and herbal tea were all that were allowed.  

Diets like this also seem to be missing components of what I consider a healthy diet (but I am not a nutritionist).  For instance, the medication that I take has a side effect of calcium depletion.  I am not an expert, but it seemed like overall, the amount of calcium-rich food was low. 

Some of the recipes were not very good.  The lentil soup was tasteless and if you have an issue with texture, like I do, not pleasant.  And it made an entire soup pot full.  I gave a large container to a football player, and even he did not like it.  

Tofu will never again happen in my house.  This point is not open for discussion.

This diet pushed me out of my comfort zone.  I tried some things I had never tried before, like peanut butter on apples, which I actually liked (yes, really, I had never had peanut butter on apple).  A few months later, I have made a few of the recipes again.  In particular, I really liked the Smoky White Bean Chili, the Beef Barley Soup, and the Apple and Walnut salad.  I would never have mixed nuts with yogurt before, but now I eat some form of the yogurt/blueberry/cherry/walnut mix almost every day, usually for lunch, and I love it.  I find that I am snacking (most days) with more healthy food, although life would not be worth living without the occasional bag of chips.  

It is highly unlikely that I will be jumping on another diet bandwagon, unless research suddenly shows that chips, chocolate and cookies are miracle foods, or unless I have to because of a medical condition.  But I have to admit that I am glad I tried this one.  It taught me a few things about my body and my attitude towards food.  

And now, I think I hear a chocolate mint Girl Guide cookie calling my name.

My latest obsession....

I have been very neglectful in attending to my blog this year.  I took a History course this past semester at Mount Allison which involved a major research paper based partly on archival or primary sources.  I got a bit obsessed with my subject, and everything else (and I mean EVERYTHING) was put on the back burner.  Then it was the usual end of term stuff, moving my darling daughter into a new apartment, trying to catch up with stuff that was neglected for four months, a visit from a friend, graduation, and yes, a slight bit of laziness.

The subject of my paper was John Hammond.  You probably have never heard of him, unless you are from Sackville or connected to Mount Allison University; or you might be familiar with John Hammond as the person who helped to establish the Owens Art Gallery, the oldest university gallery in Canada, or from Hammond House, the current residence of the University President.  You might also know that he designed the fountain in the Swan Pond and the gate posts in front of Convocation Hall.  If you are an afficionado of Canadian art, you might recognize Hammond as the artist who was known for his paintings of either foggy Bay of Fundy scenes, or majestic paintings of the Canadian Rockies.

So for those of you who are not in the know, let me tell you a little bit about this fascinating man.  He was a prospector on the Gold Coast of New Zealand, a member of the 1871 Geological Survey of Canada expedition, a member of the “Ladies’ Pets” platoon during the Fenian Raids, an adventurer who barely escaped with his life during the Boxer Rebellion in China, and he was possibly one of the most renowned Canadian painters of his time.

John Hammond was born in Montreal on April 11, 1843.  His father was a marble cutter, and Hammond began working in his father’s mill when he was only 9.  He also attended school in Montreal and apprenticed with two dry goods companies, likely in their drapery departments.  In March 1866, possibly looking for some excitement, he joined the Victoria Rifles of the Militia in order to fight off a rumoured Fenian invasion near Huntingdon, Quebec.  The rumoured attack never materialized, and after three weeks in the mud and rain, with no provisions, the “Ladies’ Pets”, as they were nicknamed, returned to Montreal, less five members who contracted pneumonia and died. 

Hammond and his brother Henry sailed to England in August 1866.  From there, they travelled to New Zealand on a clipper ship that was peopled by, as Hammond put it, the “dregs” of London.  In his memoirs, he wrote “Bare-fisted fights and knifings as the sequels of card games were daily and nightly occurrences.  The women were almost as bad as the men.  We were shut up on that ship for four months.” Needless to say, it was an interesting journey for the two young men, and I’m pretty sure they were glad to eventually reach Lyttleton.  They trekked overland and ended up prospecting for gold on the Gold Coast for two years, returning home in 1868 with not much to show for their efforts except some good stories.

Hammond was hired by William Notman in 1870, and the very next year, was assigned to travel as a photographic assistant with Benjamin Baltzly, a Notman photographer, as part of the first Geological Survey of Canada expedition to British Columbia.  Their mission was to survey and record the terrain of the North Thompson and Fraser rivers, from Kamloops to Jasper, in order to determine whether the Yellowhead Pass was a viable route for the Canadian Pacific Railway.  Hammond’s journal from this trip still exists, along with the diaries of Baltzly and Alfred Selwyn, who was the geologist responsible for the expedition.  They tell fascinating stories of their travels and the hardships they encountered.   There were many delays and problems along the way, mostly related to the late autumn/early winter weather and the impenetrable forests.  They were not able to reach Jasper, but did reach the Pass, and wasted no time returning to Kamloops.  When they arrived in the middle of December, after struggling through deep snow and icy water, they were dangerously low on provisions, had lost all of their pack animals to starvation or injury, their canoes had been destroyed or capsized, and they had rags tied around their feet and were suffering from frostbite.

After this adventure, Hammond returned to Montreal and his work with Notman.  Notman was one of the most well-known photographers in Canada.  If you have ever seen the iconic photographic portrait of Sitting Bull, it is likely the one that Notman took.  He developed cutting edge photographic techniques, including colourizing photographs, and creating composite photographs, where individual photographs were taken, and then painstakingly cut out and placed on a background to create group photos, sort of the original Photoshop collage.  Hammond’s job was to paint backgrounds and colourize photographs.

It must have been about this time that Hammond became serious about becoming an artist, as his earliest known paintings date from this period.  As a young boy, he had declared his intention to be an artist, and he mentions spending time sketching in his various journals.  He also married Sarah Acres in 1872.  After spending several years with Notman’s company in Montreal, Hammond was put in charge of Notman’s new studio in Saint John, New Brunswick, and the Hammonds relocated to Saint John.  Here, Hammond encountered Sir William Van Horne, who was to become his friend and patron, and who was instrumental in the establishment of the transcontinental railway system in Canada.

In 1884, Hammond left the world of Notman, and was hired as the new principal of the soon to be opened Owens Art Institute in Saint John.  The Art Institute was created at the bequest of a Saint John businessman, and Hammond’s first priority was to travel to Europe and acquire as many artworks as he could for the Institute.  When the Institute ran into financial difficulties, the collection was purchased by Mount Allison University and relocated to Sackville in 1893.  Hammond followed shortly after, becoming the first art instructor at Mount Allison, and the first head of the Fine Arts Department.

Although he lived in Sackville for the rest of his life, Hammond continued to travel widely.  He kept a studio in Montreal until about 1906, and travelled several times to Europe, where it is rumoured that he painted with Whistler and the son of Millet.  He received commissions from Van Horne to paint the western mountain scenery, and his paintings were hung in board rooms, railway stations, the Ontario Legislature, and the CP Hotels (such as the Chateau Frontenac), among other places.  His adventures were not over either; in 1900, he travelled to the Far East at the request of Van Horne, and recalled being in Canton at the beginning of the Boxer Rebellion.  He later wrote “The fastest I ever ran a mile in my life, was running for my life down a narrow street in Canton, during the Boxer rebellion, pursued by a rabble of Chinamen.  I got to my ship safely and for the next few days I was content to stay on board and study Canton, and the Chinese, from the deck.”

In 1900, Hammond’s wife died of tuberculosis.  Two years later, he married Katharine Jeannette Stark, a music instructor at Mount Allison.  They had a daughter, Katharine, born in 1907.  Hammond retired from teaching in 1919, but he continued to paint and exhibit widely.  He was a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Art, and locally, was the honorary president of the Sackville Art Association.  Hammond was a deeply religious man, and one biographer wrote that his paintings were a reflection of his character: a “combination of strength, gentleness and sincerity.”  Van Horne called him one of the greatest painters in Canada.  Hammond died in Sackville in 1939; several years later, his paintings were reportedly sold at a yard sale, and there are many homes in Sackville which are graced by a Hammond painting or two.   He designed several houses in Sackville which are still standing, as well as gardens, the fountain at the Swan Pond and the gates in front of Convocation Hall. 

My research project focussed on Hammond’s earlier life, specifically, the Canadian Geological Survey trip of 1871, but I hope to do some more research on this fascinating man in the coming months.  There are little bits and pieces of information about him scattered across Canada, but, surprisingly, there is no really comprehensive biography.  In the meantime, if you are in Sackville over the summer, you can visit the Owens Art Gallery and see the collection which Hammond acquired in 1884-85 for the original Owens Art Institute, as well as one or two classic Hammond paintings which are on exhibit.  The Canadian Gallery at the National Art Gallery in Ottawa also had a Hammond on permanent display, although they have reorganized their exhibit for Canada 150 celebrations, and I am not sure if it is still there.

Hammond was probably the “first Canadian-born and trained painter to paint and photograph the Canadian Rockies from the mouth of the Fraser to Kamloops and so on up to the Thompson and the Yellowhead Pass.”  He is best known for his paintings of the Bay of Fundy on one side of the country, and the Rockies on the other.  This summer, if you travel on VIA Rail from Jasper to Kamloops, you will pass through the very same route that Hammond travelled in 1871 with the Geological Survey.   In this year celebrating the most recent 150 years of the political entity of Canada, it somehow seems fitting to learn about Hammond, an adventurer, teacher, and artist whose work aesthetically ties the country together from one end to the other, just as the railroad does.

Post-Christmas sentimentality.... *sigh*

This year's new ornaments

I finally got around to packing up the last of the Christmas decorations yesterday.  I am usually relatively late doing this task because I love the Christmas season and I like the way our home looks with its seasonal decorations.  As I have previously established, I am not much of a decorator, and we are not overly elaborate, even at Christmas, so things just kind of blend in.  However, when there are more needles on the floor than on the tree, and cobwebs start forming on the nativity scenes, it is time to pack things up for another 11 months.

As I have done for the past couple of years, I took stock of things as I was putting them away.  If you know me, you know that I am a sentimental person, and it is difficult for me to part with things.  However, I tried to look critically at our Christmas things and I weeded a few things out, things that hold no particular sentimental value other than that we have always had them.  I am proud to say that I have half a shopping bag of items that I can live without. 

My most favourite Christmas decoration is our tree.  We have a lot of ornaments.  A LOT.  The year my husband and I first met, we tentatively exchanged Christmas ornaments, cheap and wooden, which we bought at the downtown Eaton’s store in Winnipeg.  The next year, we were planning our wedding, and the tradition continued.  When our children were born, we included them; my mother also made them ornaments every year until a few years ago.  Everyone has a theme: my husband’s is polar bears, our son’s is sheep, our daughter’s theme is angels, and birds for me.  Occasionally, we stray from the theme, but the point is that because of this tradition, we have a lot of ornaments.  One day when our kids each have their own homes, their ornaments will disappear from our tree, and it will seem very bare. 

We have a real tree, and recycle it when we are done.  We need a big tree with lots of branches, of course, and some years we tend to overdo it.  One year, we cut our own tree, and brought it home to discover that the tree that looked

quite reasonable out in the tree lot with the other trees was actually too big for our house.  We cut the top off and installed it as best we could, but as well as being too tall, it was also extremely fat.  It was so fat that it almost totally filled the double-wide doorway from our kitchen to our living room.  After it was all decorated and lovely looking, we were playing a rousing game of Dutch Blitz in the kitchen, and we heard an almighty crash.  It was our tree.  It had not really fallen over since it was so fat at the bottom.  It was more like a loud, fast rollover.  Fortunately, only one ornament was damaged, but it was not destroyed, and it still sits on our tree every year.

This year’s tree was wrapped when my husband bought it, and once we got it inside and unwrapped, we discovered it was shaped like a scalene triangle, rather than the ideal Isosceles shape (in an aside, I think maybe that is the first time I have ever used anything from grade 11 geometry...).  In other words, it was a lot fatter on one side than the other. It was duly decorated and of course looked beautiful. 

I love our tree ornaments and all that they represent.  There are, of course, those first ornaments that my husband and I exchanged when we were “just friends” and which now represent so much more: a life shared together and a relationship as a family that has endured and evolved.  There is the handmade ornament that commemorates our first Christmas together as a married couple, and ornaments for the first Christmas of each of our children.  There are our very first ornaments, blown glass trees, birds, and bells and red plastic hearts, which we bought the first year we were married at Stermann’s, a linen shop across the street from our apartment in Westdale and augmented with other ornaments from Eaton’s in downtown Hamilton.  And there is the wooden snowman ornament that belonged to my husband when he was a child.

The vast majority of our ornaments are handmade, many of them by our children.  Like the googly angel with a photo of our daughter’s head on it, made at school or church. Or ornaments that our son made out of craft foam sheets.  The many ornaments we made together over the years represent hours of laughter and fun spent around the kitchen table.  Many years ago, we made those cinnamon applesauce ornaments with cookie cutters; this year, they finally started to go mouldy, and I had to throw them out.  We have ornaments made by kids from our “extended” families, like the cardboard Christmas trees with coloured rice glued on to them.  Every year a bit more of the rice falls off, but after 6 years, they still survive.  There is a paper star ornament made by a Danish exchange student.  We have lovely creations by a former student who lived with us for a school year.  And there are the many ornaments that my mother made, or I made, or others made, and are treasured and admired. 

There are poignant ornaments, such as the wooden sheep my dad made for my

son’s first Christmas.  My dad is not alive any more, but we feel his presence when we hang that wooden sheep on the tree.  And the beautiful pear

ornament, handpainted on watercolour paper by a former Mount Allison student who suffered a devastating head injury and had to learn how to paint again.  The pear was one of her first projects.  And this year, a glass matryoshka ornament, which reminds me of my long-gone grandmother; she always had a wooden matryoshka on her shelves that I loved, and it reminds me of my Mennonite heritage. 

Our tree has ornaments that remind us of time spent together in other places, like the paper geisha girl from Japan, where we lived for 4 months in 2000.  And the wooden bison from a Manitoba vacation which included a potentially scary encounter with some real bison in the national park, and the glass ball filled with sand and beach treasures representing a myriad of wonderful times on P.E.I.  And of course, recently added, an Ottawa REDBLACKS Grey Cup ornament

(adapted from a keychain).

Another decoration that we all love is a tree ornament, but it doesn’t actually hang on the tree.  It is a really cheap tin Christmas tree that whirls when you push in a handle to reveal a plastic Santa in the middle.  It probably cost a buck or two.  I think we have had that tree for at least 25 years.  Every year, we think it will be its last Christmas, but it survives.  It might survive us all.

Two of my favourite ornaments depict the Holy Family.  One is a cross-stitched ornament that I made, and framed in a tiny grapevine wreath.  The other was purchased from Ten Thousand Villages, a fair trade organization, and is carved from olive wood from the West Bank.  The wood is gorgeous, and the figures are graceful and evocative.  Apart from its religious significance, it has a great deal of political symbolism too... created in a region which should represent peace and tolerance but instead is filled with conflict and hatred.  I say a prayer for peace every time I see that beautiful figure.

What are your special ornaments?  What do they represent to you?
 
They are only objects, I know.  But for me, they hold so much meaning, love, and symbolism.  I am grateful for every person and every memory that they represent.