Marja-Leena Rathje

by Marja-Leena

books & films

A delicious benefit of the hot lazy days of summer is that I indulge in much more reading than I have time for in other times of the year. I like having longer periods of uninterrupted time so that I don’t forget storylines and long lists of characters. Below is a list of the books I enjoyed the most, some readings going back to spring. Except for the last one, all were borrowed from our local library as I rarely purchase fiction.

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. Chosen thanks to this review.

Canada by Richard Ford. Much intrigued by the title when mentioned by Joe Hyam.

The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. Recommended by Susan.

A Discovery of Witches and Shadow of Night by Deborah Harkness. I hope the next book in her trilogy comes out soon!

Picture Maker by Penina Keen Spinka. I wish my library had the sequels!

Troll: A Love Story by Johanna Sinisalo, a translation from the Finnish language. A review.

The Golden Mean by Annabel Lyon (she lives near Vancouver). I am looking forward to the sequel, The Sweet Girl, see Lyon’s blog.

Val/Orson by Marly Youmans. The only book on this list that I have purchased.

And here are a couple of films on DVD that we have recently enjoyed very much:

Life of Pi based on an award winning novel by Canadian Yann Martel.

The Big Fish, a revisit.

Also, the Canadian Murdoch Mysteries TV series has become an addiction for me while I am on my exercise bike. Some reruns from TV, DVDs from library, and now the past season online. Will watch for season 7 starting soon!

And what have you been reading and watching this summer?

August 20, 2013 in Books, Films 13 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

mid-August

During these long hot and dry summer days I often feel as if time moves very slowly, or I move slowly as if through molasses. Yet, suddenly it is mid-August. We’ve had very busy days all summer with much family coming and going and moving out too. At last we had some decent rain to water the garden, giving me a break from dragging hoses and heavy watering cans. There were the first signs of condensation yesterday morning as you can see in the photos above, taken about 6 a.m.

Over breakfast this morning with some of our family including our granddaughters, the conversation included noting how adept and creative these young ones are with their iPads. For example, the almost 8-year-old one has composed many musical pieces using Garage Band (a music and sound editing program for Macs). Us adults show our ages when we say computers and iPads weren’t even around in our youth!

This made me recall my single attempt with Garage Band years ago (with help from youngest daughter!) when working on a collaboration for qarrtsiluni’s ekphrasis issue. Later I enjoyed revisiting it here and hence thought I’d share the links for some of my newer readers. Those were the days when blogging was still so new and exciting.

August 15, 2013 in Blogging, Home, Other artists 7 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

by the sea

This past Saturday afternoon we had an enjoyable visit at the lovely new home of friends in West Vancouver. Afterwards the two of us made a spur of the moment decision of have dinner on the sidewalk patio of one restaurant in the charming Dundarave community. Afterwards we stopped at Ambleside Park for a stroll by the sea. The sun was low in the sky, the air was balmy but not at all hot with no wind. Many boats and some ships out on English Bay. People were still enjoying their picnics, children played in the playground, on the sand and in the ocean.

We stopped for a bit on a bench to watch this world go by. A lone goose on the beach spotted us and began to walk up to us. A young family with a little boy in stroller joined us. The friendly goose came right up to the boy, probably hoping for a snack. Disappointed, it turned back towards the water’s edge. Meanwhile a whole gaggle of geese further down the beach marched or swam to join him. We even spotted a human swimmer amongst them. A delightful evening in a favourite spot.

August 5, 2013 in Canada and BC, Nature 9 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

deer & rain

rain and deer, not reindeer
dear rain, dear deer

doe, a doe, a female deer

fawn, a fawn, a junior deer

A vision of grace and beauty in our backyard a couple of days ago. A stroll through the yard and out again. No nibbling of flowers, berries, or vegetables. Remembering their visit last year.

What’s with the silly word play with rain and reindeer? Well, we are having our first rainy day here in over a month and it makes me happy. July broke the records for the sunniest and driest July ever, and one that was too hot for me. We are hoping for enough moisture in the ground to help our gardens and lower the forest fire risks around this province.

August 2, 2013 in Canada and BC, Home 10 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

cedar twine

At the Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre in Whistler, which we visited last month, a guide had taken a group of us around. The end of the tour saw us in a longhouse style activity room where each of us was given a narrow thin strip of previously soaked cedar bark. Following the guide’s instructions we each bent a strip around a peg (one in front of each person) on a long table and firmly twisted one half around the other half, then tied the ends. The top image shows simple samples of what can become the beginnings of complex multi-twisted twine or rope having many purposes, including clothing, hats and baskets.

These pieces have been sitting on my desk for a while so today I felt the urge to do some scanning and image play with them. The images are a bit small to show all details of the fine bark. Especially cool to me was to discover the shocking stains on the scanner bed which emerged when the levels were played with. What fun and who knows, maybe I’ll use these in some work one day.

July 26, 2013 in Being an Artist, Culture, Photoworks, Textures 11 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

dawn & dusk

It is too hot to think or do anything physical. We’re on day 26 of no rain, afternoon temperatures in the high 20’s C (low 80’s F) with mid to high humidity – on the way to possible records for July. So, just a few photos from this month’s photo album before I go find a cool place somewhere. Too bad I’ve run out of library books to read.

4:19 am July 7th, 2013

4:20 am July 7th, 2013

8:47 pm July 22nd, 2013

Hope you are all enjoying a pleasant summer and keeping cool. Send us a little rain for I’m getting tired of watering the garden.

July 23, 2013 in Canada and BC, Home 7 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

slow road, finale

Last but definitely not least was our long desired visit to the architecturally stunning Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre in Whistler. Planned for many years and opened five years ago, it received a lot of attention during the 2010 Winter Olympics (I thought that’s when it opened). It has a blend of contemporary First Nations work along with historical collections. Please read about it on their excellent website. We’ve long been very impressed by their strong culture and arts so it is a wonderful thing to see it so beautifully presented here and being actively used by the Squamish and Lil’wat people.

A huge carved and rotating wooden disk, one of two overhead to greet visitors as they come in the main entrance.

Note the inspiration from First Nations architecture in the Istken Hall.

One style of boat is for the sea-going people and the other for the inland river fishing tribes.

A view of the Great Hall from upstairs.

A re-creation of the Pit House which is normally underground. Note the benches where each family member had his or her own sleeping spot.

There is an opening in the top of the house to allow smoke to leave and was also the entry/exit with a notched pole as a ladder.

A clay and shell mask, one of many artifacts in the museum area.

I also enjoyed learning more about the BC Aboriginal legends and symbology on their website. You may like to view a short video and slide show which gives a better idea of the Centre than our few photos.

Added later: If you’ve missed the earlier posts in the slow road series and would like to visit them, they are here:
part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, interlude and part 6.

July 21, 2013 in Canada and BC, Culture, History, Other artists 6 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

slow road, pt 6

The next morning, refreshed, rested and well-fed by our B&B hostess, we said goodbye to lovely Lilloeet Lake and headed south to Whistler. It had been quite a few years since our last visit and we were amazed how much it had grown, of course largely due to the Winter Olympics in 2010. Our goals were to visit two very special buildings which had been built that year.

The first was the Whistler PassivHaus. Please read about its design in this informative article. After being on display during the Olympics, it is now a bike rental shop in summer with cross-county ski rentals in winter, along with a coffee shop. Upstairs is a large open space available for meetings and conferences.

We have had a long time interest in architecture and alternative energy efficient home designs. We incorporated a passive solar design in our home which we renovated years ago. Building technologies have really developed a lot since then. We loved the use of finely crafted wood in this display. The windows and doors are of exceptional quality. We wished we had had those available when we built. Husband is quite keen on this design which is slowly taking off here after much success in Europe, but I say we’re getting too old to start building again.

Next and last post in this series will be about an amazing and gorgeous cultural place we visited in Whistler.

Added later: If you’ve missed the other posts in the slow road series and would like to visit them, they are here:
part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, interlude and the finale.

July 19, 2013 in Canada and BC, Culture 4 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

slow road interlude

As I mentioned in the previous post, after a long day of driving we spent a very pleasant evening relaxing on the dock of the B&B place. Most enjoyable for me was to have the time to look very closely at the wonderful details in the pieces of driftwood lying about. Here are just a few of my favourite shots.

Added later: Here are the other posts in the slow road series should you like to visit them:
part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6 and the finale.

July 15, 2013 in Nature, Photoworks, Textures 11 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

slow road, pt 5

CottageB&B_LillooetLake.jpg

After a day (only a day since we left daughter’s place) of driving by astonishingly beautiful sights, we needed to stop for a night’s rest. We had booked in advance to stay at the Cottage B&B on Lillooet Lake. It’s off the grid on a beautiful lake with few occupants. The rough and narrow-at-times gravel road was a bit scary but we felt it was an adventure, reminding us of similar roads to cottages in our childhood. We felt instantly comfortable with the gracious hosts and enjoyed our spacious private space looking out on the water.

We spent most of the evening relaxing on the dock, enjoying the sunshine and scenery. Numerous collected pieces of driftwood arranged here and there made me very camera happy (more in a future post). The sunset was a glorious finale for a fantastic day.

The other posts in the slow road series are here:
part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, interlude, part 6 and the finale.

July 13, 2013 in Canada and BC, Nature, Travel 8 Comments »

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