From our home to yours, dear Family and Friends,
Again, at this very special time, it is our pleasure to share a little bit of our lives over this past year. May you enjoy a full and restful Christmas/New Year season. 2022 certainly kept up the flow of different and more limited life experiences.
As the year winds down, Angela has just completed her studies in computerized three-dimensional modelling at the British Columbia Institute of Technology. Angela’s artistic talent has always been primarily three-dimensional. This BCIT course of study was very intense, demanding her full-time attention but she excelled. What Tina and I have seen of Angela’s digital creations so far impresses us as amazing.
Angela, Christy, and their dog, Adam remain well-settled at their leased townhouse in Richmond. Christy continues working her job with Microsoft from home while Angela worked hard at her studies.
David continues private study on his viola, with Thomas Beckman, Principal Violist with the Prince George Symphony, online through most of the year with occasional in-person sessions. David remains a violist with the New Westminster Symphony Orchestra. Much to David’s delight, the orchestra continues with in-person rehearsals but he is concerned that concert opportunities remain disrupted. Happily for David, the Camerata Strings ensemble at the VSO School of Music also remains active and gave a public performance at the Vancouver Playhouse earlier last month.
Apart from his music, David remains happy with his part-time employment with Meridian Farm Markets at their store in Tsawwassen. He has had his working schedule increased. As a grocery store worker, David is among “essential” workers and experiences no loss of work as a consequence of COVID-19.
As a change in David’s life, he has adopted a vegan lifestyle. Following David’s ASD specialist psychiatrist’s retirement, David continues to see his local support counsellor at Alongside You. Tina and Ted remain thankful for such readily at-hand support.
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Tina among spring blossoms with David and Angela at Paulik Garden in Richmond
Tina continues to enjoy complete retirement from nursing but her health remains a challenge as she continues to suffer increasing back pain that imposes increasing limits on her general activity. She uses her walker when out and about, a great help when Tina has to walk more than a few steps. Tina did receive intermittent treatments giving tiny and only temporary relief. Finally, in January after a three and a half year wait, she will see a surgeon for a first appointment whom we hope to find helpful
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Ted with Belle at the North 40 Park Reserve, Delta’s large off-leash dog park
With exercise and prescribed medication, Ted's health continues stable; in fact, he feels very well indeed. He remains a participant in the atrial ablation study out of VGH and periodically wears a monitor for a few scheduled weeks. Otherwise, he is bothered only by occasional colds.Ted continues to use long walks as his primary mode of exercise, usually twice daily with our Poodle, Belle, as a companion, every day of the week. Belle fills our lives with her spirited dog personality. These long walks allow Ted easily to exceed the recommended minimum of 10,000 steps per day. Otherwise, Ted enjoys his camera, often carrying it while walking Belle. His collection of photos, here around Ladner and south Delta, keeps growing.
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Belle among summer buttercups at the Patterson Park off-leash area
COVID-19 remains the dominant unsettling factor in our lives. Even with eased restrictions, public indoor mask-wearing, physical distancing, and limited public gathering all remain our norm. All of us accepted COVID booster vaccinations throughout the year. On top of continuing COVID variability, flu is expected to be particularly nasty this winter. As usual, we all had our Flu shots soon after they came available.
A bit of drama came our way during the summer when Ted had a car accident. ICBC ruled our Mazda MPV as a write-off and we had to seek an alternative. The insurance settlement allowed us to replace it with a nice little used Kia Spectra.
Beyond the immediate family, we continue to enjoy our extended family, although mostly only virtually still. Email and Skype keep us in touch with John and Liz. COVID-19 restriction relaxation throughout the year did allow us to get together with Norman and Barbara on a few occasions, especially when Gareth and Rosy came up from Oregon to visit them.
Weather variability extremes have become more to be expected with anthropogenic climate change but we really feel the past week’s sharp cold snap. Heavier than usual snowfall even proved challenging for Belle as she preferred being out on previously tromped paths over pushing through deep snow.
As winter returned to us, we watched South Delta’s annual return of vast flocks of Snow Geese, many now continued on to the Skagit River delta and/or California’s Sacramento Valley. Trumpeter Swans are back but not as readily noticed as with other winters. Resident Bald Eagles have now returned to renovate their nests. Very soon, trees along Highway 10 will burst into our annual crop of transient Bald Eagles. At home, our bird feeder remains frequented by Chickadees, House Finches, Dark-Eyed Juncos, Song Sparrows, White Crowned Sparrows, Spotted Towhees, the occasional Nuthatch, Downy Woodpeckers, and Northern Flickers while Anna’s Hummingbirds use their feeder as frequently as ever (we have a heated feeder for the very cold weather). Steller’s Jays continue to take our steady supply of in-shell peanuts less frequently. The current snow has brought flocks of Red-Winged Blackbirds to our feeder. When we bought this house we gave it the name Ty Adar, Welsh for “House of the Birds,” and how right we were.
We remain attentive and concerned with events beyond our family. The attempted insurrection early in January to thwart the electoral will of our neighbours to our south gave a strong shock. As 2021 wound down we shared dismay with the rest of the world at the Russian military build-up on Ukraine’s borders but were really alarmed last February 24th when Vladimir Putin actually had his military invade his peaceable neighbour on very spurious grounds. Ted eventually had to have some say, sharing his thoughts on his blog. We pray that peace may quickly be restored to a fully intact Ukraine with the ignoble invader driven out of that sovereign nation.
And now we look forward to 2023, to hope for continuing COVID-19 decline, a flu season not as severe as anticipated, a return to peace wherever conflict threatens people’s lives all around the world, and a more normal year. Recent weeks, of course, have filled us with Christmas preparations. We hope yours have gone well and we wish you a Blessed Christmas and all happiness in the New Year.
Merry Christmas with our love,
Ted, Tina, David, Angela, and Christy
P. S. This letter was scheduled, with intent, to arrive on Christmas Eve.
Blwyddyn Newydd Dda! Happy New Year! Felice Nuovo Anno!
