home again

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My apologies for being so silent for the past month, even now that we are at home after our three-and-a-half-week trip to the UK and Paris. My good intentions of blogging frequently did not happen and I often asked myself: why not? In a nutshell, I was overwhelmed by so many wondrous experiences that at the end of each day, I was physically and mentally too tired to sort the photos and search for the right words.

Naturally, leaving it all for when we got back home is not feeling any easier. I can never sleep in airplanes so our flights on Thursday from Paris to Montreal, and particularly Montreal to Vancouver were tests in endurance. We’re so happy to be home again, the best place on earth for both of us, and what wonderful weather here too! Sleep deprivation and jetlag meant naps interspersed with catching up with the family, home and garden jobs (the grass was a foot tall, the washing machine ran all day!), bills, emails, some blogs (still more to read), even a joyful walk to our favourite forested seaside park. Husband has gone back to work today and hopefully I will become more focused as well before I forget too many details of our journey.

From over 1500 photos to sort through, here is one that I feel captures a lovely moment in Paris, the city of cafés at every corner. This café just around the corner from our apartment in the Le Marais district was a serendipitous find as it is noted for having the best buckwheat crêpes in the city. In the background you can barely see the Stravinsky Fountain with Niki de Saint Phalle’s whimsical sculptures and the Pompidou Centre (more on these in another post). As we waited for our meal, we enjoyed the sight and sounds of children playing around the fountain and the warmth of the late afternoon sun as it came out of the clouds.

travel update

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Time for a quick travel update while we’re having a much-needed restful pause here in London at our daughter’s home. We’ve seen and experienced so much around here as well as trips to Birmingham, Brighton, Tunbridge Wells and several ancient sites like Stonehenge and Avebury (above). We’ve met extended family, friends and several blog-friends, all truly wonderful and generous people, like old friends already. We’ve had to cut back on some side trips for we realized we are trying to do too much and we still have much to see here in London as well as one more blogger to meet before we leave on the 14th for a week in Paris.

I can barely manage to scribble a few notes in my travel diary each night to capture the impressions of each incredible day. I have much to share. My husband’s laptop is still a bit foreign to me as well. As the postcards of the past used to say… wish you were here!

travel bug

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Oh, I’ve had no time to blog! Instead I’ve been:
– printing itinerary, packing lists, maps, addresses
– transferring some of my files to husband’s MacBook so that I can keep ‘connected’
– shopping for gifts, special requests, used paperbacks from the library
– packing and repacking, including stuff requested by the family from home
– airing a musty old suitcase for that extra stuff, to be abandoned afterwards
– caring for plants and moving them out of now-too-hot solarium, with watering directions for daughter at home
– weeding just a little (my, there will be a jungle when we get back) and sniffing the flowers
– enjoying the tulips just starting to bloom (love my new parrot tulips ), the magnolias, camellias, forget me nots, spring at its very best now… how I will miss my favourite time of year here!
– waiting for that much-needed haircut tomorrow, then one last load of laundry and the last minute packing
– feeling stressed, but will relax and enjoy once we’re up in the air and heading over northern Canada, eastbound to London… though not the feeling of being a sardine packed in a tin can!

As some of you may know, our middle daughter, our English son-in-law and their two little girls are living in London. They have room for us to stay so we’re grabbing this wonderful opportunity, a first time for me to set foot in England! I’m looking forward to seeing our family and some major art, architecture, history in London and some other parts of the country. I’m excited to be meeting several friends including some blog friends for the first time! It’s all fodder for blogging and photography, we’ll see, it will probably just bore most of you seasoned travelers. Anyway, be good while I’m away!

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mossy twists

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Feeling a bit twisted by busy-ness, yet mossy when idled by exhaustion….

I’ve so much to write, particularly about a fantastic art exhibition by a favourite artist that we saw on the weekend, and a wonderful walk, and about some gorgeous fossil photos…

But too distracted by other stuff in my life. Good things, like eldest daughter visiting. Busy things like getting ready for a trip. Oh, that’s another thing to tell you about! Later.

(Photo by my husband taken on said weekend walk.)

spring and birthdays

‘Tis the first day of spring and I’m longing for the weather to match! A very cold winter not easing up for spring means this year the garden is unusually late for normally balmy Vancouver. Blame the depressing weather if you like, I’ve been wandering through several years of digital photos. Curiously I then got it into my head to search for images taken on March 20th since year 2000. The equinox as we know is sometimes on the 21st, which is also son-in-law’s birthday. Thus many of the photos were of family get-togethers to celebrate his day, for sometimes we celebrated the day before or the day after. As you can see not every year on March 20th did we take a photo.

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2004 – birthday cheesecake made by eldest daughter

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2005 – the rainbow that appeared after the birthday party

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2006 – that’s me at another birthday feast I prepared

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2007 – tulips from my garden. They are a long way off from blooming this year!

Wishing you, dear readers, happy spring (or fall) equinox, may it be a warm and creative one!
And happy birthday, J! I think in a few hours it is the 21st in the UK.

talk on creativity

You must watch this amazing video at TED.

Elizabeth Gilbert muses on the impossible things we expect from artists and geniuses — and shares the radical idea that, instead of the rare person “being” a genius, all of us “have” a genius. It’s a funny, personal and surprisingly moving talk.

Gilbert is the author of the bestseller Eat, Pray, Love. It came highly recommended and lent to me by my sister-in-law. Not usually the kind of book I’d choose, I read it last summer and enjoyed her writing. Now seeing and hearing her powerful message was an inspiration for me. I think you will feel the same. (Thanks, Elisa, for pointing me to it!)

PS. I just remembered a very old post on creativity that is worth reading again. It’s a reminder that our simple daily acts of creativity are just as important as the ‘masterpieces’ that may come along, sometimes just once in a lifetime.

Added Feb.20th, 2009:
Very related to the above is a post by Elaine Lipson called Visiting the Muse. Written in her always warm, articulate and thoughtful way, it made me nod my head in agreement. Have I ever told you that Red Thread Studio is one of my favourite artist’s blogs?

five years

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Is it a sign of age that one begins to momentarily forget how old one is or how long one’s been married? I sometimes have to go back to my birth or wedding date and count from there. A couple of days ago I had such a moment where I really thought I’d missed the anniversary of this blog. One reason for the confusion for me is that I spent a few months learning about blogging by writing a few posts, meekly and tentatively, before actually putting them online. But, newbie that I was, I did not change the dates on those earliest posts that I did keep. Writing about my printmaking started as my main focus and quickly grew to other subjects that interested me and influenced me. A blog is truly a work in progress, isn’t it?

Anyway, today is five years since the eventful day this blog went public! Blogging quickly became a passion, maybe an addiction, nurtured by the many connections and friends made around the world. Without all of you, I may have quit. I have slowed down, not writing as much and posting as often, but I’m still here! Thank you all for reading and commenting, dear friends!

As this blog has grown I find that I forget (ach, that word again!) a lot of what I’ve written in earlier years so I like to dig into the archives for related articles. Should you be interested, here are the previous anniversary posts: first, second, third and fourth.

Lael’s Winter Story 2008

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Once again, we wish to share our pride and delight with what has become an annual tradition: a gift from our now eight-year old granddaughter and her family, Lael’s Winter Story 2008. Lael made up the story and created the drawings and her daddy took them into Flash to produce this wonderful animation.

If you haven’t already seen them, do have a look at the past Winter Stories on Lael’s Web Site. Enjoy!

broken glass

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decorated the tree this evening
another glass ornament fell to pieces
first decorations from our first Christmas
becoming fewer each year

winter garden

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This beauty is from my indoor collection of plants, a zygocactus I think.

Taking advantage of a spot of sunshine this afternoon, I wandered about outside in my garden, clipping red berried branches, fragrant cedar and shiny green ivy tendrils into a large wicker basket. These I then tucked into the winter wreath on the front door and into several large pots nearby as protection for the winter pansies that I’d planted earlier this fall. The last of the cedar branches went into the wooden reindeer’s basket back, topped with pine cones. He now stands and greets everyone just inside the front door with his red nose and shiny red ribbon.

Simple and satisfying.