Woke to more snow this morning. After cleaning off the car, I took a walk around the neighbourhood to capture some images of snowladen trees.
BTW, these are colour images, although they certainly look like B&W!
Interesting Stuff
Winter Blizzard
This is the container garden on my back deck after yesterday’s blizzard. There’s going to be snow there well into spring if the temperatures remain cold.
These were a couple of pots before the snowfall – this was after the ice storm last week! Environment Canada is forecasting an unusually cold winter this year. I believe it.
Woman On Ship
Took this photo in 2008 while on a Caribbean Cruise – the image reminded me of the paintings of Alex Colville – the lone figure, facing away from the photographer (artist), absence of shadow. I made a print and put it in my spare bedroom. I was just tidying up the room and stopped to think about the feelings in the image. Thought it worth sharing.
Pysanky
These are a few of the pysanky (Ukranian Easter Eggs) I have done. Painstaking work even with an electric stylus. This is a collection of eggs I did a number of years ago to showcase the better executed ones. Most I simply gave away.
Haven’t done any for several years – stopped making them (although I still have all the supplies, including the dyes) for two reasons: first, working with the stylus had become painful – my right wrist would ache when I attempted the small movements required by the designs; and second, the shells of local eggs in my supermarkets seem to have become much more brittle than they used to be. The last time I did pysanky I managed to bring just two eggs through the entire process out of the dozen I began. Hairline cracks destroyed the eggs in the heating process to remove the wax – so I gave up.
Maybe this spring I’ll have another go at making pysanky – it’s always so interesting to see how they turn out.
The Period is Pissed…
Who thought about punctuation having much emotional content – except for maybe the exclamation point (I’ve had kids say they want a “sadlamation” mark) but the period?
Well read about how the period has taken on emotional significance…
Kinda made me stop and think.
15 MInute Meals
Cooking for one is a drag – other than an omelette or fried eggs, everything you make is for more than one. You either freeze it or toss it out… So I’m always on the lookout for interesting meals that might tempt me to cook.
I was in Sobeys this afternoon, I went to pick up some yoghurt when I walked past a display of Jamie Oliver’s recent cookbook: Jamie’s 15 Minute Meals – don’t ask me why I stopped, picked one up and opened it – I haven’t looked at a cookbook in more than 10 years (I have a cupboard full of cookbooks which I haven’t looked at in that long; I certainly haven’t bought one for longer than that). I do peruse recipes online if I’m going to try something to see how it might be made – Danish Rødkål, for example (that’s Danish red cabbage – this particular recipe doesn’t add apples, I do); and I collect an occasional recipe which I put in a binder which I keep beside my microwave oven. But I just walk past recipe/cooking books!
This time, I stopped and actually looked through the book – they were half-price – Sobeys and Jamie Oliver are on a mission to bring better food to Canadians. Sobeys has their “Inspired” magazine which I do pick up quarterly when I see it at the checkout – there are usually several useful recipes in each issue. I guess I was interested to see what Jamie Oliver was bringing to the enterprise.
I came home, sat at my kitchen table, and began reading the book – I have to say there were very few recipes that didn’t appeal to me – they’re simple (maybe not all of them can be made in 15 minutes – that wasn’t what I cared about – I was interested in how the meals were balanced, easy to put together, many of the ingredients I already have in my kitchen). Jamie begins by saying you need four essential tools: a food processor, blender, immersion blender and a kettle – I glanced over to the end of my counter top and there they were – all four of them in a row, ready to go.
I can see the book is going to sit on my kitchen table for quite some time – offering me ideas for feeding myself (I don’t have to make the four servings most of the recipes will provide – the recipes are easy enough that I can scale them down to two servings without compromising the taste).
So, I’m recommending the book. I could taste the food as I read each meal – the recipes are accompanied by very well done photos of food served in Jamie’s rustic style – his point is to make us realize we can cook interesting, healthy meals for ourselves if we’re willing to think about it – the “15 minutes” – to let us see we can do it in less time than it takes to order take-out!
Kite Flying
I took my friend Sumitra’s two nieces kite flying yesterday afternoon. I haven’t been flying – must be three years since Ben, Zach and I took a couple of kites out for a spin. The night before I went through my kites to find a couple of “easy” fliers – kites that would fly reliably in light wind which is what the forecast was predicting.
We went to the Bedford waterfront. The wind was light at first but we managed to get kites aloft and we flew for about half an hour before the wind dropped. We were nearly packed up when the wind returned, the direction shifted a bit, with some strength. We got the kites out again and had fun for another 40 minutes or so.
The wind was strong enough to support my large “snowflake” box kite which has a strong pull. There was sufficient wind strength for the kite line to “sing”. The young women, who had never flown kites before, and I had a great time. I have to go again soon!
The girls took a photo of me putting on my gloves as I was flying the Snowflake…
“Bouquet”
I was thinking about Judy Pfaff’s sculpture “Blue Vase With Nasturtiums” in the MoMA collection and realized I had a jug of “flowers” on my kitchen counter!
Ichiroya Newsletter
The Kimono flea Market ICHIROYA News Letter just arrived in my inbox. It arrives weekly since I ordered the kimono silk from them. I enjoy reading it – it’s about some small aspect of life – this one about Senko hanabi (a kind of sparkling firework – I’d call then sparklers) which used to be made in Japan but haven’t been for about 15 years and of course the know-how for making the item has almost been lost. It’s been about the cost of producing the sparklers which can be manufactured in China much more cheaply. Ichiro (or whoever writes the blog) is lamenting the loss of craft knowledge:
Not only kimono but all the traditional art work are in the same difficult situation- they are seeking for survival, finding new concept and trying to appeal people. I knew this is happenng all over and by seeing the new products like this Senko hanabi, I almost scream,
`Don’t go, Kimono! Hold on! Hold on Senko hanabi, too!’
‘Don’t go, Kimono! Hold on! – that’s because the most beautiful kimono fabrics are becoming too expensive to make in Japan and cheaper, inferior ones are being imported from China. The fabrics Ichiro sells are often old ones – obtained from who knows where – and when they’ve been sold, they’re gone – no more of them being made.
How many of our craft skills are being lost because the cost of doing hand work has become too expensive? I know I don’t sell my quilts because I can’t get what they’re worth – I prefer giving them as gifts; that way I know they are treasured and might survive as family heirlooms (and I’m not angry that I was paid poorly for my efforts).
Amazing 3D Street Art
I’ve seen stuff like this before – however, it never ceases to amaze me to think that the artist has created a flat painting on the street that has such features of depth that I suspect it would be hard to walk on it! You can see more of it if you click here.
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