Susanne Strater pastel magic reminds me of Place-des-Arts
Wednesday, January 27, 2021
Sunday, January 24, 2021
Friday, January 22, 2021
WINTER IS MY FAVOURITE SEASON
January, February
You are my favourite months
When there is snow to ski and shoe
Snowballs linger in the trees
Clouds heap up like mountains
Pink bases in yellow skies
Warm clothes and soup and tea
Hot chocolate with marshmallows too
UPCYCLING CHRISTMAS CRAFT
I hate that some snacks come in packages that are garbage forever, and although I try and buy them as little as possible, a future with no chips or candy bar seems impossible! I try and buy chocolate chips from the bulk food store, but some of the varieties are not available or a good alternative, so I end up with bags that a normal person would throw away. I wash them and save them to use them to separate items for food storage, and, on this occasion, to make a Christmas craft.
What I did learn is that the white inside shows the outside, so I wouldn't recommend chipits bags if I did it again, but the silver lining was very pretty. The trick is to cut a straight line, which I did not do that carefully, and sometimes regretted. But the end effect was very pleasing and I look forward to decorating with it next year!
Glue the end and basket weave to a guide in the shape of your choosing. Trim.
Thursday, January 21, 2021
GRATEFUL
Saturday, January 16, 2021
BOOK REPORT: ENCOUNTERS WITH ANIMALS
I learned about the Durrell family like I have learned so many things over the last years: by watching tv. CBC GEM had the Masterpiece show called The Durrells, and it had just enough character, truth, insanity, and showcasing the natural beauty of Corfu. The family become even more interesting to me when I realized that two of the the children were authors, and the stories could be accessed in part by the stories written by zoologist youngest child Gerry.
It still makes me laugh that I ended up on vacation in Crete because my friend wanted to go to Corfu, but didn't realize her mistake until we got there. I was only mildly disappointed, as I would have been happy to have gone to Corfu based on the show alone, but I think my friend was more interested in the vacation home view than the culture or history or mythology!
I don't remember where I picked up the second hand copy of Encounters with Animals, but I thought it might be a good book to read with Princess Pirate on summer vacation. We did read a few chapters together, and I am forever grateful for the stories of life in the Brazilian pantanal after dark, and the highlighted animals like the West African Kusimanse. The ideas of naturalism of that era, however, were as colonialist as the European's views on land rule, and it was difficult to read the seemingly insensitive and imperialistic collection of rare animals as though they were collectibles and not sentient beings.
Gerald Durrell was a great writer and a patient naturalist of another time. I appreciated the stories in spite of the time, but it was a little too far for my Princess Pirate.
TIME WARP AND BLACK HOLES
I am finding that my worlds are increasingly disparate, and that the one that I enjoy the most is the one that resembles the state that most of us aspire too; that is to say, independently wealthy. This is a problem, as I am not married to an earner, I do not retire with a pension, and I am not even as wealthy as I was before I divorced an increasing number of years ago. I should be worried. I am being bombarded by tweets and posts and documents from well meaning colleagues and friends as well as any news that I seek out with increasingly stressing news of the second wave and the virus' mutation and the limited units of vaccines and the moral dilemmas of a crumbling systems on every front, and yet I am at peace.
Is this the point of no return in burnout? Or am I healthy to enjoying the task at hand, sorting through the things at home that give me joy and taking on tasks that have little to no meaning but beauty? The decorating for Christmas was only seen by myself and my teen. Is my life futile? Is every act futile? Then why does it feel good to reorganize the decoration in anticipation of a more organized and streamlined advent next year? I have been abandoned by friends I love most as easily as discarded takeaway container. For them, living their lives is not much changed without me even if mine has radically suffered. I am trying to replace their attention with things? Is this good coping or bad?
If I find the clearing of my social calendar a relief, with incremental advancing of a life lived so far behind that I thought I would die in a frantic race to keep up with the world around me (even though in many ways I am way off to the side of the rat race and most social calendars, not having even adopted family or social demand). I struggle to stay social as an act of survival, given my antisocial introverted tendencies that have been luxuries I have lived without for most of my adult life.
Is this indulgent hedonism that allows me to finish the Martha December edition within 2 weeks of receiving it? Or is it a gift to make my way through my boxes to discover that I am never going to repair the dozens of colourful socks that we have worn through only to cut the usable bits into squares and rectangles and imagine they could become a quilt to pass on to the next generation? Finishing a book in the bath, listening to an audiobook while I do laundry and cook and clean to its completion of a task. Is this how a good life looks? Or is it indulgent? Naive? Entitled? Insensitive? I have felt in the past all of these conflicts, but somehow in this grey January with the brightness the lengthening days bring to it, I am content. To do the mundane at my pace and enjoy the pleasure of the moment is a gift that I am grateful for today, in part, because I know I am able to, when others are not.
Thursday, December 31, 2020
PRINCESS PIRATE 2020
Negotiates her birthday party to an all day affair when all her friends can't come at the same time, according to her pre-party survey. Result: 9 am to 8 pm! Cat breeds with Athina. Royal dressup (girls and stuffies) with Cynthia.
After buying her a new pair of skates to replace those that were too small for her: "Don't make me go skating today. It'll ruin my birthday!"
Having an afternoon snack while I drink a cinnamon spice tea, while plugging her nose: "That stinks like a skunk, eating cinnamon".
"I have a nose that's a combination of your nose and my dad's nose. I smell too well, like you, but I don't know what I am smelling, like dad!"
Climbing snow mountains made by snowplows in parking lots: sliding down after ice clumps aka "gems".
Still taking baths with Ariel mermaid, pitchers, and other water toys.
Reading together Percy Jackson and the Last Olympian and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. On her own reading the Wings of Fire series.
Drawing a character for French class: a Austrian princess going on her last trip before becoming queen.
Screen shots of four post medieval beds from french Chateau.
While talking to neighbour Vicky with two dogs, I turn around to find she is laying supine on the snow covered street in front of our house, oblivious to traffic. Afterwards, when asked why, she said one of the dogs looked cold, and she was offering up her body to stand on while we talked!
Lipgloss and eye shadow on her way to school.
Overusing the word random, for things that aren't random.
Playing outside in the snow: somersaulting backwards off of a hill off the driveway, laying curled up under the table on the deck, covered in snow when you re-enter.
Writing about "A"; telling a story about him having a concussion and calling attention away from him by referring to him as "some random kid".
Colouring a picture of A and his concussion. Sketching him and his smile.
Making a poster against idling at your dad's work when Greta Thunberg came to town (September 27, 2019), showing it on the way home to some strangers in the across the street neighbour's driveway, then worrying that they would follow you, so taking the back way around the house, and going down to the basement, changing your ponytail to the side and turning your coat inside out and putting on a mask to disguise yourself, then vowing never to do it again. (You told this story to me today, which explains why I found your poster high in your closet, hidden away, months ago).
Reading out loud in French class!
Saying no to building a snowman!
Flu - she sleeps for 4 days, and doesn't even complain when I suggest she doesn't go to school. Her fever breaks on Tuesday but she asks not to go to school on Wednesday. I know without a doubt that she is not feeling well if she doesn't want to go to school! Usually that's not going to happen! (Maybe now she will wash her hands before eating lunch?)
Using the microwave and frother for an elaborate tepid chocolate milk, with cocoa and sugar 1:3 from scratch.
Climbing banks of snow.
Battling monsters and teaching mythical creatures with a sword, running around the Terra Cotta Woods, in Tierwelt and Terra Aragon, and the back yard.
Mourning school closure due to COVID-19. Missing not only friends, but those who aren't friends.
Dressed up, prepared and on time for zoom classes.
Making mint/lemon thyme water and chives on meals as soon as the garden grows.
Building a fort behind the shed, and reinforcing it with leftover clothesline and the hard wood of cut down maples.
Breaks her ankle jumping of piles of gravel from street construction, making swimming and hiking a brief, but end of summer event.
Prepares for our road trip, reluctantly leaving crutches behind, and having prepared an activity package with things to do and a page a day to write a journal in.
Proves herself to be teenager, needing wifi every 2-3 days on our camping trip minimum!
Hikes her first Charlevoix mountain in Grand-Jardins park just after getting the okay to take off her walking cast.
She’s willing to be homeless and risk sleeping in the car in order to take a three week trip of a lifetime up and down the Gaspé Coast, through Charlevoix, along the Saguenay, and around Lac St. Jean to La Mauricie and South shore.
Swims in the blueberry coloured Lac Saint Jean, walks through tidal pools and snorkels in Yamaska Lake, relentlessly attempting to catch minnows that always elude her.
Finally learns to use literally in a literal, not figurative, way!
Goes back to school with masks and COVID madness, and makes it work.
After school with Cynthia, with snacks.
First opera: La Boheme by Puccini
First live musical: Hamilton
Not going halloweening!
Eats and enjoys chickpea pumpkin curry.
Beets and butternut squash are good!
First one-handed cartwheel in the basement!
Making her first batch of crêpes by herself and all of them were beautiful and better than mine!
Making pesto pizza by herself.
Matching pyjamas with her Maplelea doll Brianne with dancing polar bears and glow-in-the-dark Northern lights for Christmas
Made batches of dipped pretzels for a crowd as a secret mission!
Walking between house and apartment for exercise and necessity.
Shopping independently in the mall for presents and for herself.
Buying from a grocery list when I was waiting for a COVID screen result to come back, and under budget!
Cracked a pecan, almond, walnut, and hazelnut for the first time.
Dressing up for Opa’s death anniversary and going for a walk-in the park.
Writing and singing sons and choreographing dances.
Learns to swallow pills, to take iron for anemia.
Preps and participates in her first NaNoWriMo!
Made Christmas cards for classmates and teachers with animal facts and web links, encouraging them to “Stay Curious”!
Watched an online version of the nutcracker to keep the tradition that’s been going strong for watching the ballet every year for almost a decade.
Stays up to 11 pm decorating my doorway, hallway and living/dining rooms with streamers and banners (Stay in bed, I'm TPing the house!) the day before my birthday, setting the expectation of my COVID birthday as my "worst birthday ever" and then making it one the best!
Sitting in the mudroom keeping a little white abandoned kitty full of fleas company, sitting so still her leg fell asleep because Snowstorm had keeled over asleep in her lap too!
Staying up past midnight on NEW YEAR'S EVE later than both her mom and dad!
Drew/painted her self-portrait with pointillism AND surrealism styles.
Sunday, December 27, 2020
PRECIOUS GIFTS FROM PRECIOUS FRIENDS
Honestly, I have recently reflected that I seem to spend a lot of time in the kitchen for someone who doesn't cook very much anymore. I didn't realize the level of my descent until COVID cut off access to the meals that I so enjoy but don't have the skill or coordination to make. It's so often that I have to change the menu for the lack of one crucial ingredient, and then my plans for multiple items are spread out and often eaten together only a couple dishes later, or not at all.
I was totally surprised, and felt extremely grateful, therefore, to friends more organized and with better cooking skills, who dropped off these wonderful items over the last few weeks of holidays.
I am not going to lie. It was one of the worse weeks of my life, this past Christmas. It was time for my daughter to go to her dad's and all I had to look forward to was 4 days of 24 hour call and a Christmas totally alone with no distractions of dinner or drinks or walks with friends. I often cry after I drop her off, or waste the evening in a funk, but this was the first time I lay on the floor and started bawling before she left, and had to tell her that I didn't want her to leave.
So these unexpected gifts of practical love have meant more than I can ever express. Even more that they came in reusable and reused containers, reflecting the shared reality of takeout and its plastic cost, and how we are doing our best to make it useful in other ways.
So thank you to my daughter and my friends who came through when I needed it most. May there come a day that I can pay back my debt, but until that day comes I will pay it forward whenever I can.
Until then, from the bottom of my heart, thank you for being a friend!
Butterscotch chocolate loaf, lentil soup, mango mousse, buns, fig pecan cranberry salad, chocolate chip cookie mix (top left clockwise to bottom left)
Zippole and Cannoli stuffed with cold whipped cream from La Tratt in Kirkland
Gado-Gado with a generous amount of peanut sauce and satay meatballs that Princess Pirate approved of as "the best" she has ever eaten!
Korean glass noodles complete with kim-chee
Dessert or breakfast tarts? Both!
Saturday, December 26, 2020
STEWART HALL FEATURES SUSANNE STRATER'S ART
This year our favourite venue (Kid's Corner at Stewart Hall) and my favourite artist (Susanne Strater) have finally come together. Although the cultural centres are closed due to Covid restrictions, there is a virtual exhibition online that I share with you to enjoy.
I am happy to finally officially be a patron of the arts, as I lent Starlight over Outrement to the collection!
Thursday, December 17, 2020
MAYA ANGELOU QUOTES
Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.
There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.
If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude.
My mission in life. is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style.
Nothing will work unless you do.
Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at its destination full of hope.
We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.
Tuesday, December 15, 2020
HALLMARK CHRISTMAS MOVIES
I love watching romance movies, and if you set them at Christmas time, I find them even harder to resist. They don't have to have enormous decor and clothing budgets to bring green and red and sparkle together in a way that is irresistible! My favourite ones have a little (but not too much) magic. Like a time traveling suitor brought by a magic clock in A Timeless Christmas. Or a man name Nick and a red truck that seem to work on wishes in A Cheerful Christmas.
Sometimes, however, I am amazed at how bad the writing is, and how blatant another film can be plagerized. In other problems, why do low level employees live in mansions? Why do people always go to small town for Christmas? Conveniently leave their high paying jobs for an extended holiday, and a life change.
Today, for example, while I was frying latkes, I watched a low budget, completely ridiculous version of Love, Actually called A Christmas Exchange. It was very sweet, but there were no memorable lines and the plotlines were pretty obviously copied. How do they get away with copyright law?
If the mythology is to believed, successful lucrative careers in big cities are bad. Nearly bankrupt small town business and farming is the way to go! You don't need more than an instant to fall in love. The worst start to a movie is to be married, but you can be dating someone actively when you meet "the one". And there will be "the one". No loving the one you are with. Once lovestruck, there is no turning back.
Like my stories, librarians and writers and editors are everywhere! So are handsome men and women!
On the other hand, maybe there is still some room out there for less successful writers such as myself!
INSPIRATION FROM ELEANOR ROOSEVELT
The latest blog entry on TILT (#30) has a beautiful video with cool effects, beautiful photos, pretty music, and incredible ideas. Here are the highlights:
"It takes as much energy to wish as it does it plan."
"Nothing has ever been achieved by the person who says, 'It can't be done'."
"Do what you fell in your heart to be right - for you'll be criticized anyway."
"No one can make you feel inferior without your consent."
"Do one thing every day that scares you."
"With the new day comes new strength."
"I am who I am today because of the choices I made yesterday."
"It is better to light a candle than curse the darkness."
"You can often change your circumstances by changing your attitude."
"Be confident, not certain."
Wednesday, December 2, 2020
Sunday, November 29, 2020
TODAY'S OBITUARY
Semi-intelligent emergency physician Fredericka Johnsdotter spent a sunny Sunday with her beloved daughter, after sleeping in, enjoying a Bailey's coffee while her daughter ate Nutella crepes, sorting laundry, and finishing a book. She enjoyed leftovers for lunch, let her Calico cat out on the back deck one last time as the snow has nearly melted in the supra-freezing temperatures of this fine fall day, went for a long walk through the nearby woods and along the river's shore, walking the path misnamed Lakeshore.
When dusk settled, she videochatted with her dearest friend, who she had not seen this year in accordance to their level of comfort with visitors outside of her bubble, and as Freddie lived in the red zone.
It was a good day in the time of Covid, filled with her daughter's singing from the basement that she had taken over as a teenager of the age 14. There was enough time together, and apart. There were happy memories and dreams of the future. There were Christmas stories and parody songs. There was no war. There was no disease. There was heat and electricity and food and water and peace and love. They were healthy, sheltered, and warm.
Sunday, November 29th was a good day to be alive.
Sunday, November 1, 2020
Thursday, October 29, 2020
POST NIGHT SOCIAL UPLIFTS
I was done for the night, and I thought I would stop by the cafeteria for a pastry for the road. They are now wrapped in plastic, and I saw a housekeeping colleague that was no longer in my department. After an inane chat, I decided on an almond croissant, which reminded me of Paris, and made me look forward to my drive home. When it came time to pay, the cashier told me that my bill was already paid! It was such a kind gesture!
On my way out I had to pick up a parking pass that allowed free COVID. I thought I was just getting a pass for the day, and that the October offer expired before my next shift, but I got a free pass without any foreseeable end!
After a short nap, I had a meeting where the default was to show no video and be muted. It was very efficient, and socially bereft.
I went outside to rake some leaves, and enjoyed the exercise. My neighbour came out asking to help. I suggested he cut back some vines that had been growing, and although he underpromised to do it tomorrow, eventually he came out and made good progress today!
My daughter's friend came over after school, and we had a nice chat before she got down to homework. Then my sunshine came home after volunteering to clean up the schoolyard, and after catching up with her friend, she told me lots of stories, and enjoyed my snack, and then bugged me by "booping" my head all the way to her dad's. It was the highlight of a very good day, if not exhausting!
I caught the brief sunset on the way home with trees still impressing with their increasing muted but beautiful colours, and many of their naked bodies calling us to look forward to the next season.
At home in a snug dark evening, I touched base with an infrequent friend and talked for over an hour and a half, filling in the gaps of each other's deficiency. She lost weight, gained control, and started running over covid. I have not! She was anxiously overplanning, and I was not. She had family and friends, but felt the isolation of being alone. I had company, even if I was annoying to her, one week out of two.
So I go to bed punch-drunk and happy, and grateful for the people in my life, even on a covid day when I go to sleep alone.
Tuesday, October 20, 2020
FORMULA OF A ROMANCE MOVIE: THE DATING LIST
Two strangers meet: a reclusive writer and an enthusiastic wannabe editor (common ground)
By accident, they exchange portfolios and have to reconnect platonically.
The protagonist has three obvious barriers to her dream job. She's doesn't, a scary potential boss that already said no, and her competition is immediately jealous of her.
Her curiosity leads her to read a manuscript that she loves. Because she's so enthusiastic, she takes the writer to a copy place, and, with this task, they hit it of.
She is by sheer preparedness offered a job when the editor's assistant elopes.
The writer's identity is the mystery, but allows the protagonist's enthusiasm for him to be clear.
She is given the Herculean task of finding her boss a dating match, and her roommate immediately finds her a system that is a solution.
Time passes in a comedic fashion with her researching a few of the potential online dates.
Meanwhile, the writer's friend has written a great book, and the writer isn't confident about his, and is two years behind schedule. They end up working together to get the book ready.
The writer gets unblocked and the wannabe editor is offered her dream job, while they edit the friend's book.
Eventually he takes her somewhere he finds special- a (fantasy) 24 hours bookstore, where she proclaims her fanship, and criticizes him without knowing who he is.
His identity becomes a barrier to their growing intimacy, but his secret identity is too important to give away yet.
When he tries to kiss her, she runs away from her feelings because she is saving him for her boss' romantic options.
In offering the writer to her boss, she spends more time with him and his friend. While her boss likes the friend, she keeps her distance in the mistaken idea that her boss likes the writer when she has fallen for the friend.
The writer asks her to read his next book in an act of trust, but he overreacts when the junior editor's jealous colleague tells him that he was part of an elaborate search for her boss' romantic interest.
Despite his rejection, she keeps his secret and loses her job over it.
She makes peace with her nemesis, who apologizes to her.
She loses her job, but is offered a better when she is offered partnership with her senior editor boss.
When they meet again, he discovers that she has kept his confidence. He apologizes, and they kiss.
Happy ending with financial security, dream career, and friendship ensue.
IN OTHER WORDS:
Setup: two strangers meet by chance in coffee shop
Inciting incident: they mix up their portfolios, and have to remeet to exchange them
Rising action: She applies for a job at a publishing company.
She looks for a dating profile for her boss
They help his friend publish a book.
He finishes a long overdue book.
They get to know each other, and take increasing leaps of faith.
She thinks her boss likes him, and tries to keep her feelings platonic for the sake of her job.
He tells her who he really is.
Climax: Risking her job, she keeps his confidence, but he rejects her when her jealous colleague tells her secret in the most unflattering light, and he overreacts
Falling action: She loses her job, gets a better one, and remains available.
He takes his book away from the original publisher, and finishes it.
Resolution: He apologizes, she accepts, and the two couples live happily and successfully ever after.
Sunday, October 18, 2020
UPSIDE DOWN INSIDE OUT WORKSHOP: CREATIVITY AS A FORCE FOR CHANGE
Today, I am up bright and early on a Sunday morning, excited by the idea of spending 3 hours focussing on creativity. This was the second workshop that I had participated in from a leading edge masters degree from Concordia in Human Systems Intervention.
This is nothing I had heard of before my friend introduced me to the first one 5 years ago called Embracing Imperfection, based on the book by Brené Brown. Last time, my friend was a co-participant and we were able to gather in groups. This time, my friend was one of the leaders, and I was so proud! The other difference, that was marked, was that we are unable to gather in person, and so participated on a zoom call.
We were taken on a trip, which was probably supposed to be exciting, but was just frustrating in context. It was meant to be experiential, and intense. I was impressed with the amount of work, and honesty that both the leaders and the participants were bringing that morning, but I just didn't feel like I was getting much out of it. I may not have been as open to the opportunity as I should have been, but what I was missing was the preparation and link to the book that I didn't have access to. Fortunately, my friend realized that having gotten my ticket though a third party, whom I didn't trust with more information than I need to register, I wasn't privy to the ideas that the group had prepared in advance.
It was not the experience I had hoped for, in some ways, it did give space to the question:
Why is creativity important to you?
Our group talked about: exploration, adaptation, problem solving, innovation, following intuition, play, possibilities, job, magic, daring to take risks, control over our own experience, and hope.
The purpose was: to courageously explore and nurture your creative confidence as a force for change.
Some questions:
Can you think of a time where you or someone you know did something "unconventionally creative"?
What feels like a leap of faith/risk?
What conditions were present?
parachute: what works
gremlins: what works against
uncharted territory (crossing the chasm): what did it look like once here
What pearl of wisdom/lesson would you take from this act of creativity?
I thought of my friend Susanne, who is conventionally creative, but, in response to the pandemic, she took to a platform she was just becoming familiar with, and spent the month of April posting a work of art a day on instagram. She didn't know the outcome or how all of it would work, but she used her artistic talents, and it was brilliant to follow such beauty that inspired in a dark, anxious and isolating month. It made be want to start something without knowing the end result, which is every creative process, isn't it?
We had a group project using an interactive program that made a communal art piece. I learnt that there were a lot of people that did not see themselves as creative, even though everyone of them had things they clearly (to me at least) created. I learned that I wasn't seeking confidence in creativity, and that I had to manage a lot of transference and sarcasm, which the others didn't seem to suffer from.
At the end of the morning, the take home points were:
1. Make a commitment
2. Find an audience
3. Make it real
The reflection was to ask myself, "Who am I becoming?"
The book that the day was based on was called: Creative Confidence: Unleashing the Creative Potential Within Us All by Tom and David Kelley (brothers and founders of IDEO).
Homework that I did after the workshop that has started putting it all together for me.
Youtube videos that I had missed:
Upside Down, Inside Out Workshop
What if you have what it take?
TED Talk David Kelley How to Build Your Creative Confidence
TED Talk Tim Brown Serious Tales of Creativity and Play
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