Christmas tidings

Well, that was fun.
Wally and I enjoyed a quiet Christmas.

I can't believe how much we ate and ...

slept.

I hope your holiday was just as sweetly spent.

One thing I've noticed is how important it is to unearth oneself from the mundane "everyday"

to create the rituals that matter.

for me, it's the beauty and quiet and relationships, and of course,

food!

With a bad back this month and a cold that seemed to come on like a shadow,leaving me quite weary, I let a lot slide this year.

Fortunately, Wally picked up the slack and between the two of us, we pulled together a festive holiday for two.

Wherever you are in the world, in your life, I hope you remember that there is always someone who cares, even if you haven't met them yet. I don't mean a sweetheart per se, but just someone who really gets you and knows your true heart and loves you just the way you are. Along the way, we learn that being that someone is often how we create that reality for ourselves.

Now take Muji for example, or, as I sometimes call him,  "nudje-y" (noodge is Yiddish for pestering)

Muji can be the most charming of cats,

loving to a fault, he is SO sweet, that I've often wondered how he would ever make it in the "real world", the one where he'd have to fend for himself.

"Fend for myself??"

Well, in many ways, I identify with his confusion.

And so this sweet little misfit who needs love and affection despite his 

ENORMOUS hairiness ( my goodness, I have to wear a special apron to hold him)

has found a place in our hearts

and so we've learned to endure the gravelly nagging "song of his people"

and love him just the same.

By the way, that isn't Muji's cigar case on the table, nor is it Wally's, but a co-worker of Wally's who is saving them for him ( for me ) for art projects.

I have some more pictures to share of how we spent our holidays coming up.

"stay tuned"

(Geez, I suppose only my generation knows what that means, LOL. It's like translating another language just to talk the way I always have. Part of the slide into redundancy I suppose. Did I ever tell you about the time I made a reference to Katherine Hepburn to a bright looking young woman? She said she didn't know her- as if she was a local woman. Oh please don't tell me you don't either. Well, that's what I mean about redundancy. sigh )

quiet advent to the holidays

Finally finally some sun. It rained last night, but not enough to erase our snow. It did make it treacherous though with spots of black ice. That didn't keep us from getting out.

I found this charming, Christmasy coloured book at a local secondhand store.

The spine is even prettier with its gold leafed title and daffodils.

The dedication is pretty too with its flourished script in pencil

These coloured glass "friendship balls" by Simon Bisley hang in our kitchen window all year, as has the silver plastic Christmas ball that I liked too well to take down. Besides it has a little light in it that glows at night. The temperature has been reading well below freezing which actually makes the house cozier because the oil furnace comes on to supplement our heat pump; the latter does an adequate job but leaves me a little chilled when it hits the freezing mark outside.

The kitschy tinsel Christmas bells are hanging from a Santa stocking hook that hangs over the basement door.

A pretty laser cut votive cup of frosted glass

sits on one of our new linen placemats that we got from Ikea.

Muji has claimed one of the pink chairs that Wally moved from the window to make room for the Christmas tree. We decorated the tree a week ago Sunday, together for the first time as Wally usually leaves me to do it alone. My bad back may have had something to do with it

(good for something LOL)

Precious Muji, truly a prince with all his sensitivities,

a loving and benign dictator, amidst his daylong nap.

Well, that leaves 5 posts to go til I hit 100 for the year. Lots of countdowns going on.

I hope your wind-up to the holidays is pleasant, merry and bright.

peace, my friends

random early winter snippets

Well, what do you know, I found some more November pictures on my camera.

Towards the end of the month, a blazing sunset.

If I had my car, I'd get myself to a better location than this view over our street, power lines and a cell tower, not to mention trees and branches blocking its radiance. This is the view out the kitchen window.

The next day Wally and I gave ourselves a holiday and hit the road.

I've regretted not recording the amazing carving up of this forest to make a cloverleaf access from the main highway to shopping in New Minas, our big box shopping area "for the Valley", that has lost so many of its businesses since this project was planned ten years ago making a mockery of "the horse designed by committee".

Our destination (yes again) Ikea for lunch. We can't really afford eating out, both financially and healthwise, but a late lunch at Ikea with most of the cafeteria to ourselves, was a rare treat. Could Wally look any happier with his "Naughty Meal".

Mine was barely healthier with its sauces and sugar and salt, etc. I opted for poached salmon with "vegetable patties" (mostly potato I think) and an appetizer for dessert: gravlax- more salmon.

I came home with a bad back that lasted for 2 weeks. I don't remember what would have caused it.

As usual Babu wanted to play. He has demanded I play with him after breakfast every day for a while now, but boy, it was hard to unbend myself. Still, it was good for me to get out of my chair.

I'm pretty much healed now with a little bit of stiffness.

One of our many first snows. I kept getting a chance to re-experience the magic.

Wally strung me out a heart in Christmas lights on the cabin doors.

I will try to get a photo with them on.

And a parting shot, as I have regrets about not having any new artwork of my own to show you.

I treated myself to this little collection of Patrick Mok's fantasy work several years ago.

Handmade out of stoneware clay, Patrick is an older man now, living in Toronto. Once a cartoonist, he changed his medium to clay. With an elfin sweetness about him,I wish I had got to know him better. Here is a link to a gallery that carries his work to get a closer look.

(Oh yes, that's the first picture ever taken of Wally and me. We were picking raspberries with friends at the house we since sold, in Bracebridge.) 

Now I will tell you a not so secret secret. This is post 94. (You can see that in the sidebar.) Because of all the posts I made this summer, these are the most posts I've made in a year since starting this blog. That is so cool for me who can get so discouraged at times by the lack of response and the crazy amount of "Bot" hits (automated views) that have made a mockery of my statistics. But I have made new friends through this blog, and that pleases me more than I can say.

The year is quickly winding down, but with 6 more posts, I can reach 100 altogether. With a little more time on my hands, I am aiming for that. So, once again, thank you dear viewers for dropping in and allowing me to share my little part of the universe with you.

peace dear ones

october pop in

Hello dear viewers. Thank you, once again, for popping in. I know it's been a while...

Not much has changed around here. Muji is still his sweet, dopey self.

Many artist/illustrators have got on board with the practice called Inktober, honing their skills with ink for the month of October. I haven't got the discipline for such a long term commitment so

I just did this quick sketch with my Pitt brush pens and Crayola coloured pencils. 

I recently bought some water soluble pastels called Gelatos. 

I've done the Lion and the Lamb many times in my past, but this time I felt compelled to do

The Tiger and the Lamb

I do have an October project I am working on. Perhaps I'll share some peeks into it next time.

peace on Earth

last days of september

It is a dark and gloomy day ...

but Boy! Is it welcome!

It's been quite the drought these many weeks. I don't remember the last time it rained. July?
The irony is not lost on me, considering the devastation that wind and rain have brought to so many this last month while we have waited longingly for a bit of that rain. Nature, for all her beauty, well, I have my reservations.

One can't help but admire her, keeping a huge amount of respect in reserve.

Here, one evening, we pass the Agricultural Centre on our way into town. This is where I saw a fox nosing around on the lawn a few weeks ago, oblivious to the cars; a rare sighting.

New Minas is a big box town, full of little plazas and a mall. 

Since this is one of the few pictures that turned out on this balmy evening after the heat of day, I thought I'd share it, especially as the moon and the sweet light lend a beauty to almost anything.

A grand Victorian that stood on the market for quite a while

is most wonderful when it is decked out for Christmas. The rest of the time it is a little spooky as some Victorian houses are wont to be.

Little houses like this one on the main drag get bought up for business,

this one by a discreet professional.

I've been promising myself to remember to bring my camera when we go out in the evening as we see the most amazing sunsets across the wide expanse of parking lots, this one at the mall.

The primordial roar of triumph!

After Wally assembled the first wall unit, we searched for months for the dowels, bolts and brackets for the second one til Wally finally searched the hardware stores for the missing pieces, even travelling to Berwick for them. In the meantime, he stripped wallpaper, patched plaster cracks, sanded, primed and painted the room, researched the best way to preserve our vintage linoleum floor and proceeded to clean it as well.

Imagine his chagrin when he realized that he had assembled the first unit with a top part on its bottom and now had 2 bottom parts with which to assemble the second unit. Patient, dear Wally replaced one of the "tops" with a bottom on that first unit and proceeded to assemble the second unit with a proper top and bottom. Hence his out-of-character rejoicing! He holds my father's mallet that came in handy for pummelling the dowels into place.

This narrow room once was our guest room. Then it was where Wally set up oil painting. It began to fill with more and more random supplies til it was a holy mess. I measured the units, each 6 feet long to run the length of the room, but it only exaggerated its narrowness and created a corridor where a planned table is to go. It is actually an "L" where it turns to the left by the half revealed window and opens into a closet that creates the ceiling of the stair landing below. How to keep it open and welcoming, functional and cheerful, that's been the question. I'll show you what we come up with as it progresses. I have a feeling I won't love it so much as I do when it's empty.

Now we move onto my boys. Babu looking most fetching.

Muji admiring my art,

then hunkering down for a nap

Babu on another day, licking his chops after breakfast

Try to get this boy when he's not moving.

oh-oh, two little monkeys squaring off. These little tiffs don't last long and often break up with a licking session or just plain obliviousness. You know, the cat kind where "it never really happened".

Muji was feeling particularly needy this day and needed lots of cuddles.

I forget just how small he really is until I see him in context like this.

I've been pulling out my watercolours lately. This one embellished with white details with the uni-ball Signo and outlined with a fine Pitt pen in black india ink. The busyness of the washi tape border gives me a Persian miniature vibe that I really like.

Then, as often happens after I use a lot of colour, I turned to the monochromatic palette of a mechanical pencil, but ended up adding some paint pen because I can't help myself. It was interesting going over the bright pink roses in her dress with more graphite to help them recede.

And now I must continue restoring the new studio. Hopefully I'll have some pictures to share of it by next week. Til then, be well, be centred, be present for everything you do, you see, you hear.

It is the gift.