The Curse of Modern Conveniences

The other day I was listening to a radio host talking about the good old days, one hundred years ago.  He mentioned there were only 8000 cars in the world and 144 miles of paved road in total.  I got to thinking, life must have been so much simpler without all the modern equipment, machines, motors and gadgets.  I'm not saying it was easier, not by any means, but it had to be simpler.

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I thought about all the equipment that makes up the trappings of modern society.  As I started to list all the modern conveniences, my thoughts were, the more we have, the more we have to go wrong. 

Maybe what sparked this whole vein of thinking was the snow-blower, with the leaking gas line, that the king of procrastination has to get fixed.  Oh yes and there's the water softener, that is flooding the brine tank and not really softening the water. The three wheeler that won't start, and needs to be disposed of.

But then I also also remembered all the things that are working and working well and making my modern existence comfortable.  Let's see there are the two vehicles, the lawn tractor, the push mower, the rototiller, the washing machine, the dryer, the dishwasher, the microwave oven, the oven, the fridge, two freezers, the air conditioner, the pump, the pool pump, the sump pump,  the furnace, the dehumidifier, the stereo, the TV's, VCR and DVD players, the computer, the printer, vacuum cleaner, chain saw, whipper snipper, hedge trimmer, chop saw, garage door openers and the hot water tank.  Whew, I'm tired out just thinking of all the labour-saving devices I actually own.

Any one of these items begin to malfunction and our lives slide into major inconvenience mode.  We probably can't go more than a couple of days without vehicles.  A week without the major household appliances would be reasonable grounds for divorce in this day and age.  A season without the lawn and garden equipment, would have us reclassified or maybe just certified as red necks.

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But then what about all the little gadgets: camera, cell phone, hair dryer, curling iron, hair straightener ( I wouldn't miss that one), dust buster, toaster oven, coffee maker, tea kettle, can opener, circular saw, electric drill, jigsaw, flash lights, answering machine, remote controls, clocks, phones, electric toothbrush, clippers, and razor

If any of these smaller items go on the fritz, we don't really panic.  We just toss the offending item, rush out and buy a new improved version with ten times the capacity or speed, complete with all those useless bells and whistles, that we'll never need or take the time to learn.

We all complain about the 'busyness' of our lives and the stresses of modern living.  How many of these same dilemmas faced our forefathers? 

Tranportation: well you had to keep the horse fed. You had to grow your own. Hence your plough and scythe had to be kept sharp. Shoes and boots were hard to come by. You either had to make them yourself or get a cobbler to do the job for you.  And there wasn't just you, your significant other and your 1.8 perfect children.  There was a whole brood. You had to grow enough food to keep them all somewhat healthy, and hand sew every stitch of clothing they had on their skinny backs.

Gardening: you had to keep your hoe and axe sharp.  Everything from the garden had to be preserved for winter. Wood had to be chopped, split and carried home, and you were probably never truly comfortable from November to May. 


Household appliances.  You had to keep your lantern chimneys clean and wicks trimmed. If you had the foresight and storage space you might have cut ice blocks in the winter for your summer icebox.  The scrub board saw a lot of skinned knuckles and red, chapped hands.  The clothesline wasn't just an energy-saving afterthought.  Central heating was the fireplace in the middle of the room, which fought valiantly to stave the frost from the doors and windows. 


As for the gadgets, well lets see: if you were wealthy you might have an apple parer, so you could at least have a bit of dried fruit in the winter. A straight razor gave you the smoothest shave once a week, albeit you did risk the possibility of a slashed jugular vein. 

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Communication: well you visited regularly with the neighbours.  You dropped in on people and shared Sunday dinners.  Bees were neighbourly gatherings, where barns were raised or quilts were quilted.  Blackberries were wild fruit that you picked alongside bears and raccoons.
"How many of our problems are a result of abundance and plenty?"~Boyd.  Thus started my sister-in-law's Facebook post the other morning.  Obviously we were tuned into the same wavelength.  So I got to thinking about the things on my to-do list, right now.  You know the things that are nagging away at the back of your mind -- round-to-its so to speak.  

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My great grandfather didn't worry about the gas line on his snowblower.  He just hoped he could somehow get the horse and cutter through the storm to fetch the doctor to attend his sick child.  

Soft water wasn't even a concept he was aware of.  Just make sure there was a bucket of drinking water in the house, and the waterhole chopped out for the livestock to drink.  


So I guess I'll quit my whining, load the snow-blower on the back of the truck and take it to someone in the next county, who better understands what he's doing.  The water softener toll-free number is right beside the unit. I better grab the cell phone and give that fellow a shout.  And since none of the neighbours can translate smoke signal lingo anymore and the Pony Express does not pass by our door, I best blog these thoughts your way.


And that is about all I have to say for today.

Musings and meanderings from the Musical Gardener.

Twas a Bleu, Bleu Day

Every month or two I get a request to supply teach for a friend of mine who teaches French immersion to Grade 2/3's.  A French teacher I am not.  Actually I am absolutely amazed how many days I get called to teach French, solely because there are no French qualified teachers left on the list for days when there are French workshops or professional development days.  If only they knew how woefully inadequate my French is!  I'm from the era when there was no French taught in public school.  You also had a choice whether or not to take French in high school.  Being the son of a not-so-pro-French parent, and just being a boy, who didn't tackle things he didn't see as important, I did not parlez-vous Francais.  So that leaves me about as unilingual as is humanly possible.  I did take a conversational French course at the local college last winter, but again, all my classmates were starting out with at least some high school French, so I quickly got lost in the shuffle.

But I am far off topic.  Back to yesterday's class.  Madame called me the other night to confirm the day plan for the day.  "I just want them to have art all day.  I can't wait to see what you come up with." - end of day plan.  Now it is actually two different classes, one in the morning and one in the afternoon.  The challenge was to come up with something to keep everyone occupied for about two hours (and not run over that limit), come up with an idea that did not cost me money (ie all supplies are available in the school supply room), and result in a product where the other teachers go "ooh" and "aah".  Well maybe the latter is not a necessity, but a nice little perk if it happens.

I went on-line and looked for inspiration.  I found a google image I rather liked of a winter scene with a cabin all done in various shades of blue (or should I say bleu). I quickly checked the missus' art cupboard to see what she had in store to take as backup.  And I should have made an exampler, just to get an idea of time and materials.  However I did not do that..... it is a far, far better thing to fly by the seat of one's pants!

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I arrived in good time to see what supplies were available and to get some photocopying done ahead of class entry.  Fortunately, the art cupboard at school was well-stocked and I was able to save our personal materials for another day.

I quickly took attendance and we started in to work.  I explained methodically that they would have to listen and follow my instructions very systematically.  And really for the most part they did quite well.  Well Ben, was a bit of an exception.  "Ben you're not listening, Ben I didn't tell you to glue anything yet, Ben did I tell you to cut yet, Ben, I'm talking, you're not.............."  I like Ben, but my, my he tries my patience!  Eleven o'clock rolled around far too quickly.  I had major hustling to get the last limbs pasted on the trees and cleanup completed, before they had to transfer to their afternoon class.

At least I had lunch time to prepare, a bit, for the afternoon onslaught.  I realized from the morning session there were a few corners I could cut, and have a few more items cut out and ready to hand out initially.  I think I was a little more patient with the afternoon group, but even with the extra prep work, we did not have much time to spare for clean up at the end of the day.  I found myself sweeping and wiping tables down, after the buses had departed.

But all in all, although it was a lot of work for me (and the kids), I'm generally pretty pleased with how the art turned out.  The afternoon sessions' were better, because I had learned from some mistakes in the morning.  At the end of the day, I remembered that I had forgotten (is that an oxymoron?) to discuss the idea of monochromatics (since that was the concept I was endeavouring to teach) with the class.  I know you are always supposed to be able to tie your lesson in with the curriculum expectations.  In my mind I could, but I guess I failed to impart that particular nugget of wisdom, in the process.

Now my only fear is that Madame will want me to come back and give each masterpiece a mark.  That would require a rubric and a whole lot more thought, and I guess I'd have to revisit the curriculum.  Oh the heck with it -- they may not have learned anything they should, be we had a good day, and the pictures are sure pretty!

note upside-down trees or are they hydro poles?

And that is about all I have to say for today.

Musings and meanderings from the Musical Gardener.

A Winter Project

A few winters back, I had some spare time on my hands while working shift work and not supply teaching every waking moment.  I had done about as much local research as I could on mine and my wife's family trees.  All the data was stored in the computer and I was kind of casting about, wondering what to do as my next genealogy project.  I have been the keeper of the family photos for many years and seem to keep accumulating new lots every few years from other family members.  Some are originals and others are scans that I have begged, borrowed and cajoled.  Actually I find most people who have family photos are very good to lend.  Well there was one exception to that.  At some point I will write about my great great great grandmother, Rebecca Hobbs Croswell French.  She was an amazing pioneering spirit.

However as I say that is another story for another day.  One of the researchers from her line, thought she had the only surviving photo of this lady.  She kept telling us all that she had the photo, but was not going to share it, because she planned on writing a book and wanted to save the photo as a surprise for everyone.  So for several years the rest of us fumed and fussed to ourselves, waiting for alleged book to be published.  

In the mean time another photo surfaced from another researcher.  This photo was gladly shared, scanned and reproduced by all and sundry. I guess once the holder of the original photo realized she had been scooped, she begrudgingly allowed one scan to be made of her original.  Of course that one spread virally, via the internet.  Then it was decided that maybe the first shared one, was not Rebecca, but probably her daughter-in-law.  And now a third one, also allegedly of Rebecca, has come to light.  I'm beginning to wonder if any of them are the real McCoy!

But I've wandered way off topic.  For all my genealogy efforts, I really didn't feel I had a format that might appeal to everyone in the family, whether they had any interest in family history or not.  

At this time you could buy mats for photos that could be used for a child, from Kindergarten to Grade 12.  There was one large oval in the middle for the graduating photo, and 12 smaller ovals surrounding it for school photos from every year of the child's life. 

This gave me the inspiration to try and make a direct family tree in somewhat the same format.  I searched but there was nothing of that nature available that I could locate.  Necessity is the mother of invention, so I decided to make my own mats.

I purchased a large piece of mat board (cut to match an antique frame I already had).  I decided I wanted to show five generations of family, as I had photos available for most of those folks.  I started with a colour photo of my daughters as they will be the recipients of this project, eventually.  From there I branched out to photos of the missus and myself, then back to the four grand parents.  Another level is the eight great grandparents and finally around the outside, the sixteen great, great grandparents.  Unfortunately there are four of these individuals of whom a likeness has never been found.  All lived and died in an era when photography was quite common.  However house fires may have destroyed whatever photos may have ever existed.  I always live in hope that I may some day be able to fill in those "no photo available" gaps.

The biggest challenge in setting this up, was to get all the photos reproduced to roughly the same size and proportion.  First of all I tried to select the most flattering photos of each person.  In some the faces were only a quarter inch long, others like my great grandfather Patterson were large oval portraits (9" X 13").  I had to calculate the sizes for each face, so that the end result was a face about 1 inch long.  Another great grandfather, was only available as a tintype.  Tintypes do not scan well at all and I was very concerned about possible damage from the scanning lamp.  This photo is very dark and the features are not clear at all (top left hand corner in photo).

Because I have two daughters, I decided to do my project in duplicate.  It was twice as much work at the time, but far easier than deciding to do it at a later date.

My final product hangs in the entranceway to our house.  It is a great conversation piece for both friends and family.  Family can actually visually see the forefathers they've heard so much about, and friends just like to hear the story of the process.

There is one pair of photos that always brings out the questions (second and third from right top corner).  My wife's great grandmother is just a young girl in her shot (she died in childbirth in her early twenties and this is the only photo that has come to light.  Her husband however is an older man in his photo (probably in his sixties, judging by white hair and beard).  Again though, it is the only good photo of him that exists.

And then there is the Tom Selleck look-alike, my grandfather Patterson.  What a shame his genetics could not have passed on to yours truly.

And that is about all I have to say for today.

Musings and meanderings from the Musical Gardener.

Our Foreign Exchange Students - A Cultural Experience

Over the past number of years we have been host parents to several foreign exchange students. 

While we lived in the farm house, our home was not well set up to have anybody else living with us.  The extra bedroom (it was actually a loft) required walking through my youngest daughter's room to access or even go to the bathroom -- not ideal for her or for any guest for that matter. 

One summer in the early nineties, we were approached by another couple.  Could we possibly take a student for a weekend while they were away?  We explained the situation.  It was only a weekend, no big deal.  And thus Yuko entered our lives.  Yuko was a grade 11, Japanese student attending a local private school.  That summer, she elected to stay with us for the months of July and August.  The goal was to improve her English skills through living with a Canadian family.

We had her back periodically throughout the year on holiday weekends, when the boarding school closed up.  When she went off to University she would often email me her essays.  I would make suggestions and help with her grammar and spelling.  I thoroughly enjoyed the editing process, although she always seemed to send them on nights when I was trying to meet deadlines for my own university studies.

Yuko visited several times throughout her university career.  Unfortunately we have lost contact with her.  I believe she is back in Japan, but am not certain.  Her name does not come up in Facebook.  I guess we'll just have to wait for her to contact us.

We bought our new home in 2008.  Suddenly we had all the extra space we needed to be host parents once more.  One morning we were listening to the radio and the plea came over the air for host families for the Canada World Youth program which was coming to our hometown that fall.

 

We made the call and were quickly set up with two young ladies, one from Peru and her Canadian counterpart from southern Ontario.  The goal of this program was to spend three months in Ontario (so the Peruvians could learn English) and then three months in Peru (so the Canadians could learn Spanish).  During this time, the students spent their time doing volunteer work for various organizations in both communities.  Our two girls were placed with United Way, stuffing envelopes and whatever other tasks they were assigned.  Those three months were a wonderful experience and hooked us on having other young people living in our home.  We became the hub home, where a lot of the other pairs met in the evening.  One pair of young fellows from just down the road, spent nearly every evening with our girls.  There did seem to be a strong attraction between the two Canadian counterparts!

It was a very cold and sad morning when we said goodbye to our new friends as they boarded the bus to meet the plane that would take them to Peru.  We still get visits from our Canadian lass (and the Canadian boy from up the road) on occasion.  We also keep in contact on Facebook with some of the Peruvian contigent.

Next we met Annia from Mexico.  She and her mother, sister and cousin arrived for a weekend just after Christmas that same winter.  I think the family was hesitant to send the much loved daughter so far from home without knowing who she would be living with for the next six months.  Annia was a lovely, quiet girl who loved to smile and laugh at the antics of our daughters.  She very quickly assimilated into the family.  Again, she contacts us frequently via Facebook.

The school year 2009/2010, saw us with another new girl from China.  Unfortunately this one was not a remarkable experience as she had no desire be a part of our family.  We were also still dealing with dialup internet service, which was not ideal for a tech saavy (translate: internet addicted) individual.  She was to have been with us two years, but we felt she would be better suited living in town in more of a boarding situation.

It was with a little hesitation, we accepted another Asian student, when the Canada Homestay organization contacted us.  We were afraid of history repeating itself.  And then another call came -- did we have room for a Korean girl as well as the one from China.  In for a penny, in for a pound.  This is not a decision we have regretted at all.  We have two very diverse girls with us this year, one a most serious student, the other a fun-loving free spirit.  Both girls are in grade 11 and will, in all probability, be with us next year as well.  This fall, when our eldest daughter left the nest, it was good to have two more teens in the house.  No of course they can never replace her, but they do add a certain flair and international flavour to our family gatherings.

I enjoy most, the evenings when we can sit around the table after supper and discuss the issues or ideas of the day.  You know the deeply philosophical questions of life:  "What does a rooster say in China (woo-woo-wooh), and in Korea (coo-co-dek)" or how to find the perfect billionaire husband.  It's all very interesting to see the struggles that these youngsters go through as they learn a new language, a new culture and still endeavour to be teenagers at heart.  Great expectations are heaped upon them by their parents. 

So to anyone who has ever considered taking someone into your home, definitely go for it.  You will enjoy a cultural exchange, meet some wonderful young folks and maybe even have some fun in the process.

And that is about all I have to say for the today.

Musings and meanderings from the Musical Gardener.

Baby It's Cold Outside

Well it is certainly wintry out.  This is the first seriously cold snap we've experienced this winter. We have two foreign exchange students living with us.  Just a couple of days ago, the one asked if we were past the coldest part of the year.  I offered that we probably would see a cold spell in either January or February.  A weather prophet I am not, but I wasn't far off on that one.

On my drive to work yesterday (at least it was a local school), the traffic lights were out at the main intersection of town.  One takes one's life in one's hands trying to cross the main highway sans lights.  I chose to just turn right, go north and then turn around in a parking lot and then make a quick right hand turn at the offending intersection.  Of course life is never that simple, when I got back to the intersection, first I was facing into the bright morning sun (not a complaint, just pretty much an observation that you couldn't see). Then all the cars, huddled around the dead lights, were busy exhausting, and further choking up the visibility.  Anyway, to make a short story longer, I did make it through safely, even with a bit of fear and trepidation.

Cold weather brings up a few memories for me.

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January 8th, 1969.  I was eight and we were living on the home farm.  Dad woke us up early that morning and told us we better get dressed quickly and come downstairs.  The old farmhouse was cold most mornings and especially so that morning -- the thermometer registered a healthy minus 50 degrees Fahrenheit (pre-Metric days).

Anyway, the reason for Dad's urgency was the fact that he had just lit the wood stove and we had a chimney fire roaring full bore.  We could hear the whoop, whoop, whoop (not sure how else to describe that chilling sound) of the fire swirling inside the pipes and billowing out the top of the chimney.

The quickest way to quench a chimney fire is to dump baking soda in the stove. The resulting gases tend to smother the flames.  Unfortunately, there was no baking soda in the house (there always was ever after!).  Mom and Dad sent my elder sister to the nearest neighbours to get soda.  I gather she ran the quarter mile distance, got the soda, and ran back.  She still mentions about lying down to catch her breath in the extreme frost.  The soda did the trick and smothered the fire and I know my parents cleaned the pipes that day.

I recall coming home on the bus, peering off in the distance to see if the house was still standing.  Obviously had it burned, someone would have notified the school, but my youthful imaginings feared the worst.

Another cold episode I recall (actually it was a series of episodes, every morning for a couple of years) was at the transfer point between buses on the way to school.  For some reason I was picked up close to home in a small feeder bus, driven 10 miles and unceremoniously dropped off in the next village to await the arrival of the big bus.  I'm not sure why this was not better coordinated, because there was a twenty minute wait outdoors in the bitter elements.  We huddled on the front steps of the one and only store, which basically gave us shelter from southerly winds  - ever notice, not too much cold wind blows that direction?  All the local village kids waited for the last minute to meet up with us. The few of us from the small bus, got to enjoy the full force of nature's finest for what seemed an eternity.  Of course too, those were the days when you were much too cool (cold would be more apt) to wear either a hat or mittens.

So I kind of have to laugh at the kids now.  The bus turns around in our yard.  They have to suffer the elements for 30 seconds from the front door to the bus door.  They don't know what it is like to trudge four miles, uphill, through three feet of snow every day of the year.  Well actually I guess I don't really know that one either -- that was my Dad and that's a whole 'nuther story.

And that is about all I have to say for today.

Musings and meanderings from the Musical Gardener.

Mnemonics - Nifty Little Ways to Remember Things

Listen up.  It's pop quiz time.   And don't forget to put your name at the top of the paper.

Explain the significance of the following two phrases:

1.  Richard Of York Gives Battle In Vain 


2.  Battle Ends and Down Goes Charles Father

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As a supply teacher, I'm always looking for easy ways for kids to memorize lists and learn things by rote (even though there seems to be active discouragement of this sort of behaviour in the public school system these days).

This is better known as the study of Mnemonics.    Mnemonics are devices that aid us in remembering lists and specific orders of things.  They come in many varieties and styles and aid in memorizing many types of information.

Where there is something to remember, mnemonics can be put to use. You will find them in every discipline from music, medicine, biology, and electronics to spelling, physics and geography.

For example, let us examine the following phrase:  

NESW -- Never Eat Soggy Waffles (also Never Eat Slimy Worms -- that one from my daughter)   This one aids students in remembering the clockwise orientation of the cardinal directions on a map's compass rose -- North, East, South, West.

Let's examine another one from the world of Geography.

Super Man Helps Every One.  Figured that one out yet?  It is the first letter of each of the Great Lakes of North America in order from west to east.(Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, Ontario)

Let's move on to the subject of Science.  There are many different mnemonics that aid in the memory of lists and concepts in all the areas of Science.  Here is a list of a few of them:

  a. Kids Prefer Cheese Over Fried Green Spinach

  b. My Very Easy Method: Just Set Up Nine Planets

  c. Happy Henry Likes Beer But Could Not Obtain Food

  d.  the first example from the pop quiz above

Let me explain.   The first one is the order of classification of all forms of life: Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species.  The second is the order of planets starting at the sun and moving outward: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto.  I know there is ongoing debate about poor Pluto, but if it helps you to remember the other eight, just drop Pluto off the end.  The third one is the first nine elements on the periodic table.  And have you figured out why Richard of York Gives Battle in Vain?

Moving on to the Mathematical world.  We have the very basic BEDMAS or PEDMAS depending on which school of thought you came from.  This is the order of functions that you undertake to solve an algebraic equation (Brackets, Exponents, Division, Multiplication, Addition and finally Subtraction).  PEDMASers just prefer the more snooty parentheses as opposed to humble old brackets.

I also have a wonderful visual mnemonic for remembering the nine times tables that I will demonstrate further on.

The Music world has long made use of mnemonics to help students in remembering the orders of notes.  There are many fine examples, I will list a few.

FACE -- The order of the spaces in the treble clef.

Every Good Boy Deserves Fun (EGBDF) -- The order of the lines in the treble clef.


All Cows Eat Grass (ACEG) -- The order of the spaces in the bass clef.

Good Boys Deserve Fun Always (GBDFA) -- The order of the lines in the bass clef.

Father Charles Goes Down And Ends Battle (FCGDAEB) -- The order of sharps in a key signature.

Elvis Ate Drugs Good Bye Elvis  -- Order of strings on a guitar, from low to high (EADGBE)

And then there is my wife's favourite for memorizing all the various types of scales:  
I Don't Play Like My Aunt Lilly (Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolodian, Aeolian, Locrian)  

Language has a few examples that we need to look at.  Coordinating conjunctions are used when we join two clauses together. These are: for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so. 

You can remember FANBOYS as a device or try a full sentence mnemonic:

Four Apes Nibbled Big Orange Yams.

Some of you (like yours truly) may be old enough to have studied Latin in school.  Bo Bis Bit, Bimus, Bitus, Bunt is not your typical mnemonic, but try saying them over and over, quicker and quicker and you'll never forget how to conjugate Latin verbs again.

I mentioned visual mnemonics before.  Here is a fine example for remembering which months of the year have 31 days.  All the knuckles have 31 days and the valleys are 30 or less.  The nice thing here is that you carry the mnemonics with you, whereever you go.  Of course if you are really old you probably learned the verse: Thirty days hath September, April, June and November.......

The following visual I picked up from a grade 6 student a few weeks ago.  I though it was quite clever and again you always carry your nine times table with you, where ever you go.

 This is a quick way of doing your nine times tables.  Let pick 9 X 3.

Drop your 3rd finger down (to represent the 3).  To the left you have 2 fingers.  Let that represent the tens digit.  To the right you have 7 digits up.  Let that represent the ones.
Pretty simple you have 2...7 or 27.

Let's try it for 9 X 8.  Drop your eighth finger.  You have seven digits up on the left and two up on the right -- 7...2  or 72.  Try it with any other single number and there it is, the nine times tables right before your eyes.

Here are another quick couple of visual mnemonics.  I think they are both pretty self explanatory.

Order of colours in the rainbow, or visual spectrum: Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet.  Oh and that reminds me.  The answer to the pop quiz questions.  The first one is the colours of the rainbow.  The second is the order of flats in a key signature.

Now if we could just come up with an easy way to get ALL the times tables drilled into everyone's brain. 

And that is about all I have to say for today.

Musings and meanderings from the Musical Gardener.

One of the Better Things in Life

The Better Half's Famous Oatmeal Raspberry Cookies

I've been pondering what recipe I should discuss next on my blog.  I hit upon it while the missus was baking the other day.  Is there anything better than a warm, homemade cookie, fresh out of the oven, washed down with a glass of milk?  I think not!  Truly I am a foodie.

A few years back, when we operated our roadside market stand, these cookies, six to a tray, were one of our main drawing cards.  They also make wonderful gifts at Christmas or any other time of year, for that matter.  I have at least two friends, who deliberately visit in hopes that the cookie jar has been freshly stocked.

It's too good a recipe to not share. Anybody with rudimentary culinary skills should be able to easily reproduce them, if you follow the pictures and recipe.  There are also several delectable variations that we have tried and enjoyed.

The ingredients:

1 1/3 cups of margarine (butter would be even better)
2 cups of brown sugar
2 1/4 cups of quick cooking rolled oats (oatmeal)
2 1/4 cups of white flour
1/2 cup of bran (the best way to get your fiber, I say)
1/2 tsp of salt
1 tbsp of vanilla flavouring
1 tsp of baking soda

Add the margarine and brown sugar to a large mixing bowl.  Beat the two together.

Add one fresh egg.  Mix well.

Add salt, vanilla, baking soda.  Mix well

Add bran, oatmeal and flour and mix thoroughly.

Turn the oven on to 350 F.

 Roll dough (or scoop if you dislike getting your hands dirty) into generous 1" balls and place on a cookie sheet.  Be sure to leave about 3 inches between balls.

Flatten the balls out with a fork.

Place in the oven and set the kitchen timer for 7 minutes.  Check cookies at seven minutes.  If you want a light golden brown cookie, you may want to leave for another 30 seconds, but definitely no longer.  Good cookies are usually slightly under done as opposed to over-cooked. (My opinion, not shared by all the cooks in this household)

Using a metal lifter, take the cookies off the pan and put on a large sheet of waxed paper to cool.

Once the cookies can be handled and somewhat set, you will spread raspberry jam on one cookie and slap a second one on top.

That was the step that makes these cookies, the masterpieces that they are.  The best option is homemade raspberry jam.  My wife uses the Certo Light recipe, which includes fresh or frozen raspberries, sugar, lemon juice and Certo Light.  You could also use your favourite freezer jam recipe.  If those two options are not available or appealing, buy the best quality raspberry jam you can.

Put the finished cookies in a container and freeze.  They will not keep, kept on the counter, nor will your waistline.  These cookies are wonderful served straight from the freezer or microwaved for 15 seconds.  They are also a much superior substitute to the purchased fruit bars or granola snacks for lunches.

Some of the variations we've tried:

First of all with the cookie dough:

Scrap the notion of a filled cookie and after adding all the ingredients, throw in two cups of chocolate chips and just make chocolate chip oatmeal cookies.

Second variation on the dough.  You can throw in a tbsp of ground black pepper.  It just gives the cookies a unique bit of nip.

Variations on Fillings:

My number one favourite is of course raspberry jam but try some others too.

Dates:  Buy a package of dried pitted dates.  Chop and add enough water to see.  Boil and stir until the dates and water become a thick paste.  Add a tablespoon of lemon juice and mix.  This is my wife's personal favourite.

Cranberry:  We used the leftover jellied whole cranberries from Christmas.  We usually cut this half and half with raspberry jam.

Marmalade:  Use a good quality marmalade jam for a nice tart cookie.

Chocolate Peanut Butter:   Make a chocolate paste, by melting chocolate chips.  Spread on one cookie.  Spread peanut butter on a second and you have a somewhat healthy Reese's Pieces style cookie.

Balsamic Fig:  We have a wonderful store in our area that produces and markets all manner of gourmet sauces and jams, Mrs McGarrigle's Mustards. www.mustard.ca/  They stock an absolutely wonderful Balsamic Fig, Red Pepper Jelly, manufactured by the Perth Pepper and Pestle Company.   www.perthpepperandpestle.ca/

Come on, have a cookie.  You may find that one is just not ever quite enough.

And that is about all I have to say for today.

Musings and meanderings from the Musical Gardener.