I love movies and my list of favourites won't fit here . . . but . . . GWTW - Lawrence of Arabia - Dances With Wolves - Steel Magnolias - Casablanca - The African Queen - The Pursuit of Honor - The Adventures of Milo & Otis - The Black Stallion - Every musical made by Nelson Eddy and Jeanette McDonald - Showboat - Oklahoma - South Pacific - Fail Safe - On The Beach - Dr. Strangelove (or how I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb) - Shogun - The Thorn Birds - Awakenings - Field of Dreams - The Alamo - The Searchers - The Quiet Man - Rain Man - E.T. - Becket - A Man For All Seasons - LOTR (can't wait for The Hobbit to be made!).

I love all genres of music except Rap and HipHop, but I mainly listen to Classical music: Chopin, Grief, Debussy, Dvorak, Tchaikovsky, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms etc. I was a classically trained pianist and taught piano for many years, and in the days when my fingers weren't stymied by arthritis, I played a mean Chopin myself! I love the piano of course, but no more than orchestral or other solo instruments. I love listening to Yo-Yo Ma, James Galway, Angela Hewitt, Janina Fialkowska, Placido Domingo, Ben Heffner, Bryn Terfel, Beverly Sills, Emanuel Ax. I also enjoy opera, though I'm not knowledgeable on the subject. I love jazz - the old standards - and felt the loss of Oscar Peterson keenly. I adore boogie-woogie and ragtime piano. Art Tatum!! I love country/folk music - people like John Denver, Alan Jackson, Vince Gill, The Seekers, Peter Paul & Mary, Willie Nelson, Phil Coulter, Jay Unger, Ian Tyson. I adore pop/rock piano players: Billy Joel, Elton John, Jerry Lee Lewis, Burton Cummings. I love Anne Murray and Lacey J. Dalton, not least because they're two of the few female singers with voices deep enough for me to sing along with them!! (I'm a closet baritone . . . ) I love Hawaiian music, Irish & Scottish music (bagpipes make me cry for happy), bluegrass, and fiddle music. And, I love hymns - traditional Protestant hymns and southern Gospel songs alike. And while dance should be a separate category, I'll include it here with the fact that I am passionate about ballet (classical, white ballet in particular), and I absolutely adore Riverdance!

James A. Michener - I have everything he ever wrote and I read them over and over again - always something new to discover with each reading. He wasn't great at dialogue, but his descriptive powers were awesome. e.g. Hawaii, The Covenant, Centennial, Texas, The Source, Caribbean, etc. John Irving - Clever, touching, funny, and compelling - he covers all the bases. e.g. The World According to Garp, The Hotel New Hampshire, A Prayer For Owen Meaney, Cider House Rules, etc. Marilyn French - the ultimate woman's voice - beautiful prose. e.g. The Women's Room, The Bleeding Heart. James Clavell's Shogun, Colleen McCullough's The Thorn Birds (among others), Leo Tolstoy - no comments necessary - e.g. War & Peace, and Anna Karenina. I love poetry, and my favourite poet, bar none, is Saskatchewan's (and Canada's) Andrew Suknaski (Wood Mountain Poems is my favourite collection of his work.) I also love Lorna Crozier, Glen Sorestand (two more Saskatchewan poets), Ogden Nash, Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Sonnets From The Portuguese, Earle Birney's David, John Gillespie McGee Jr.'s High Flight, and on and on . . . :-))
I love books on language, biography, history,

Sunshine Yellow! Sky Blue! Grass Green! Lilac Lilac! Peony Pink! Geranium Red!

It would be easier to tell you what foods I dislike - tapioca pudding and home made porridge. Everything else is my favourite!! Including unbaked pineapple cheesecake - Cherry Cha Cha - Molasses cookies - Anything with whipping cream (the real thing - not that fake plastic stuff) - roast chicken/turkey/beef/pork - gravy - brussel's sprouts - President's Choice Chocolate Dipped Granola Bars - Dark Chocolate - Reese's Peanut Butter Cups - A really good beef steak or slab of prime rib (both rare!) - fresh snap peas - orange sherbet - heavenly hash ice cream - perogies in cream gravy - beet borscht - fresh bread still warm with lots of butter (real butter - not that fake plastic stuff).

I'm a young-at-heart old boot - a mother of 2, grandmother of 3, aunt of 2, and Great-Grandmother of 1 :-))and friend to many. I'm a reader, a writer of poetry, a music lover. I spent most of my working life pushing paper: secretary/office manager etc. I've worked for The Royal Winnipeg Ballet as secretary to the artistic director; I've been a civil servant; I worked for a freight company as office mgr. and freight claims mgr., and even loved that! I've been a medical receptionist, and Veterinary assistant (and that last was beyond doubt the work I loved most). If I knew then what I know now, I would have delayed getting married and having babies and spent umpteen years in school and become a Veterinarian. But I would have given them all a pass to work in a horse barn. I have worked with horses (breeding, training, riding, and horse club activities), and not a day goes by that I don't miss the smell of horse breath and manure. I have milked cows in a large dairy barn and I miss that too. I milked and cleaned and fed & doctored calves and helped with calving and liaised with the Vets and loved it all. I currently have 1 dog and 3 cats and they are my comfort and joy. If I had the means, I would be living on an acreage out in the boonies with a small barn and enough room for miniature horses, mini donkeys, cows, alpacas - 2 of each - and umpteen dogs and cats and rabbits and birds and you-name-it. Having an animal rescue farm would be perfect.

I love music and poetry and dogs and cats and horses and cows and alpacas! I love books and pianos and dancing and the smell of freshly cut grass. I love my children and granchildren and my friends and extended family. I love small towns and the bush and the farm. I love working with animals, in the house, in the barn, and in the Vet Clinic. I love the hills of southwestern Saskatchewan and the lakes and rocks and forests of southeastern Manitoba. I love the green of Wisconsin dairy country and the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. I love everything about Texas. I love the green green hills of northern Ontario and the dry dry hills of southern Alberta. I love Hawaii and think of it as my spiritual home. I love language and words and writing them down and reading them. I love speaking English and Spanish and wish I spoke French. I love driving my car and travel, anywhere anytime. I love playing and singing hymns, and Chopin and Tchaikovsky and Dvorak and Ashokan Farewell and John Denver and . . . ok ok . . .I love singing hymns in church.

I don't enjoy the heat of our summers. I don't like dishonesty or disloyalty. I don't like rudeness or public humiliation. I don't like foul language in public. I don't like flying, but if it's the only way to get there, I grit my teeth and go. I don't like big cities, though I do appreciate some of what they have to offer by way of the arts, zoos, parks, and my granddaughter!

I knit. I play the piano. I am a voracious reader. I enjoy the computer - e-mail and surfing. I'm a lousy singer but I do it anyway! (every week at the local seniors' home). I accompany several local groups of singers on the piano - I play at church - and I play occasionally with a local band who play mainly old time music and hymns. I don't watch a lot of TV but love all Law & Order, all CSI, Bones, House, Dancing With The Stars, Criminal Minds, The Mentalist, and watch them when I can. I have a decent collection of movies that I watch over and over again.