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Monday 27th May 2002

Much warmer today. One of the joys of this time of year is the availability of many of one's favourite foods. I went to the local Zehrs, a vast new store. It is a pleasure just to wander around looking at the array of beautiful fresh produce. Eventually I bought numerous things and assembled this marvellous meal. I don't usually think of food as being particularly attractive, but this looked so good I decided to take a picture. Alas! Pictures much too blue again. I'll have to check up on this colour balance:

Lobster with asparagus. Salad: iceburg lettuce, spring onions, radish, sweet tiny carrots, sweet pepper. Strawberries, crunchy bran, raspberry yoghourt and Coffee Rich.

Sunday 26th May 2002

Bit warmer today. Quite sunny too. This afternoon I had chosen to see "The Importance of Being Ernest". However, in spite of being advertised as "now at cinemas everywhere" .. it was not available anywhere. So, I went to another animation "Spirit, wild horse of the cimerron". This was traditional animation, not the new computer assisted with 3-d effects. It was excellent, smooth and fast, nontheless. I quickly regressed to my childhood and watched with pleasure as the feisty Spirit won his various battles and returned to his beautiful homeland. (How we wish).

Sunday 19th May 2002

Still unusually cold. .. even some snow. Not expected to warm up soon either.

My movie was the much anticipated "Star Wars II, Attack of the Clones". Excellent noisy escapist sci-fantasy, as usual. Lots of high-speed fighting with the buzzing lifesavers. In this we see how Sky-Walker Junior's father becomes seduced by the dark side of the force.

One of the writers for the Globe & Mail was complaining that the story of Star Wars jumps back and forth. To me that is part of the mystery and charm of it. The story line is unfolding like a fan, both forward and backward. Thirty years ago we were introduced to Skywalker Junior. At that time he was just an orphan. Now he knows the story of his father, his grandmother and his sister. .. along with the history of his Federation, the Force, his Destiny etc. etc. I only wish I could tell such a longwinded tale!

At one point Anikin makes a speech reminiscent of that of Laurence of Arabia .. "They're animals .. had to kill them all: men, women and children!" or words to that effect. I could almost hear the L of A theme playing in the background. He also had a similar speech about the merits of sand. But, having had traumatic experiences the speeches were entirely predictable. There was also a haunting little melody going through part of the film. I think it was taken from a movie with Cary Grant, was it "Suspicion"? .. something like that. There were parts taken from old WWII movies and others from movies about the Roman wars, advancing masses of legions, Christians in the Roman amphitheatres etc.

In a way it is much like the history of our planet. To begin with we didn't know where we came from or what our planet was. We still have a long interesting way to go. We have no idea what our universe is or what it is doing. I enjoy visiting the NASA web-site and looking at the latest pictures from Hubble. Just fascinating!

Sunday 12th May 2002

My movie this week was "Unfaithful", adapted from the French movie: "La Femme Infidèle". This was not a good choice for a cold miserable rainy afternoon. However, it was that or "Murder by Numbers", which also sounded a bit depressing. I'm not much for infidelity, horror or murder movies. Richard Gere looked so distressed, it was too convincing. I really would rather not watch people deliberately being cruel to each other and themselves, even if they are only acting.

Yesterday was really pleasant. .. still cool. I took a few pictures of the blossoms.

Spring blossoms
Forsythia past its' best.
Small tree blossom - could be a cherry.
Single Magnolia blossom
Forget-me-not.
Johnny Jump-Up
Pansy
Pear blossom.

Wednesday 8th May 2002

The weather is so pleasant, I'm so glad to be able to get out in the garden .. It's almost a pleasure to mow the lawn and smell the lovely crisp cut grass. My daffodils have spread into quite large bunches this year. I'm certainly glad we're not in Calgary .. another 40 cm of snow yesterday.

Sunday 5th May 2002

Our weather here has turned to summer again.
After a long walk with some other people - a retired aviation engineer, his daughters and dogs, I had some lunch and went to see "Spider Man". As usual the movie was excellent. The effects are incredible.

Return to other months of Diary from Canada at http://www.sentex.net~oficserv/Canlet.html

Link to the Movies Pages at "movies.yahoo.com"

Visit a site for many photographs of North American Birds and animals.

Rhona Raskin Home Page at http://www.rhona.com.