Random Gifts

This morning, this beautiful Saturday morning, while the cleaning ladies scoured and buffed our house (which makes it already a very good day!), we all went to Cora's Restaurant for brunch. It was deeeeelightful.

We had such a good time, relaxing and talking about irrational numbers and amortization tables, among many other topics. We ate very well. Brian ordered a crepe that was enough to feed an army. Nearby, a young family enjoyed their brunch while their daughter (about 4 years old) coloured in a Hello Kitty colouring book.

After Steve finished eating, he turned his paper placemat into an origami frog.


This is a frog that Peter made a while ago.
Steve's frog looked much the same, but not in a pretty green.

Steve has been doing origami since before I met him. He often folds a few critters when we are kiling time in restaurants while our youngsters finish their meals. The origami frog is especially fun: if you press and release his back end, he hops! Steve is so good at origami that he's even taught young people, including Brian and Peter, who went through a period of making lots of origami creations. (Check out more photos, below.)

When Steve finished this particular frog, he pointed to the little girl neaby and asked me to give her the frog, if I thought it would be okay. Absolutely! I went over to the table and put down the frog - the mother and daughter were delighted.

It kind of capped off an already wonderful morning.

P.S. When I went to the box of origami treasures to find the frog for the above photo, I couldn't resist snapping a few pictures of these other creations. Enjoy! (You should be able to click and enlarge these photos.)


These are only a few of the creations.

This lobster is made from a single (very large) square of wrapping paper.

Peter made this, also from a single sheet of paper.

Peter made these mutant frogs.
Between the two of them, they have eight limbs.