Quiet!

I don't know if this is a tradition in whatever part of the world you might happen to be right now, but in Toronto, on Friday November 20th, there is an activity called the Vow of Silence. To participate, you must promise so not talk for 24 hours, to raise awareness against child slavery. I am still suffering from the side effects of this, and every time I open my mouth to speak, alarms go off in my head. Unfortunately, someone disconnected these alarms on the day of, because I spoke accidentally once or twice (Renée won't let me forget). I hope the world is a little more aware now, thanks to me.

Framed and fabulous

It's very satisfying when your hard work is finally finished. This is the case for my two needle points which are now framed. The company that framed them made a little mistake and framed the blue poppies upside-down, but it will soon be fixed. I am now working on a hedgehog and a knitted sweater.

You see, Sharon, now it does look like a cat.

Pumpkin parade

After Halloween, what could be more fitting than a pumpkin parade? For this annual event at a nearby park, the neighborhood brings out their pumpkins and places them all in a long line. This year, we counted nearly 2000! The next day (November second), the city comes and takes them away. What a source of compost!

Halloween

I know that this is a little late, but I still think that I should tell you about Halloween. This year, I went as a jellyfish and Renée as Charlie Chaplin. She was going to go with her friend Marie as Dupont and Dupond, but Marie was sick all week and couldn't come. We celebrated with our neighbors Sauvanne and Arianne and their parents Steven and Kirsten. We ate buzzard, liver and newt hearts before stuffing ourselvs with candy. The jellyfish is a little windswept in this picture, but still looking good.

What to do with paper

This weekend, Renée, mom and I engaged in various activities, but our main shopping expedition was to the Japanese Paper Place. The reason for this was their annual «create your own snack bag» event, where you get your pick on all their paper scraps and cram them into a small plastic bag for five dollars. the only condition is that you must be able to then close it. Of course, when confronted with such a bargain, we went crazy an now have nearly a year's supply
of lovely Japanese paper. Our question now is : what to do with it?

Thanksgiving

To celebrate Thanksgiving, the Biders in general have a very particular tradition. For as far as I can remember, we have always gone up to the Laurentians in the old house there. This year was no exception. We met up with all the other cousins and, like always, had a good time. We hiked by The Creek and Papy's House. As usual, we only had a general idea of where we were going, but at least we made it back in time for turkey. On one of these hikes, Grandma and Grandpa's dog Toby, a very peculiar beast, had a slight misunderstanding with a porcupine. He came back with quills in his chin, poor thing. after dinner, we played kick-the-can in the dark.

Tonight, we celebrate thanksgiving again since we were a day early last time.

Nuit Blanche

Nuit Blanche is a very popular arts festival here in T.O. Of course, Renée, Mom, Dad and I don't stay up all night, but many people do. We roamed around the streets of downtown Toronto only until 11:30 this weekend, but we are still exhausted! These were the highlights.

-Mom and I learned the Charleston and the Lindy hop at the Toronto Reference Library;
-We admired the Rabbit Balloon, a gigantic silver bunny created by Jeff Koons, in the Eaton Center;
-Were blinded by the word «Wind» written in light bulbs and suspended between the two buildings at City Hall
-Listened to an «audio parade» by Anita Hamilton;
-Peeped into a laundromat kaleidoscope by Nika Mistruzzi.

I must catch up on lost sleep now, good night!