love comes in many forms

Mmm. . . look what was delivered today -- fresh Peruvian fair trade Cafe Pangoa, espresso roast of course. All dark and silky, it smells of Heaven. Must be love.

vertical snowmen are so 2007

In honor of the snow yesterday (I'm trying) Nicole and I made a snowman. Well, technically with the eyelashes and fancy pendant necklace I'm pretty sure it was a snowGIRL. Anyway, I didn't have time to take a picture of it yesterday so I headed over this afternoon to get the shot. As I approached the driveway I was disappointed -- it looked like our snowy creation had lost her head. But on closer inspection, turns out she was just having a good stretch.


At first I thought she was doing yoga (she is a west coast citizen after all) but Coli had an even better suggestion. She thinks our snowgal is doing the YMCA and I have to say, she's got a pretty good C going on there. Who knew we were building a snow-retro-party-girl? She's all set for good times in 2008. And so are we :)

blue sky baby

After an unexpected sprinkling of snow yesterday, this morning we woke up to this. Blue skies. I had just about forgotten what they looked like. It was so clear that on the drive to church I saw mountains I'd never seen before. I knew we had peaks on two sides out here. Turns out that on a clear day we have them on three. It was hard to keep my eyes on the road.

I was hoping to take my shiny new toy out for a spin and see if I could shoot a panorama but I couldn't quite get the right vantage point for a clear shot. I tried the airport, but the ground dips just there and the buildings got in the way. Pesky buildings. I headed to the park at the end of the street but the bird's nest shot above turned out better than any of the mountain shots. Trust me, this does not do it justice:It turned out to be a good day for experimenting, just not one for having much to show for it. I'm running into trouble with lighting when shooting indoors. I don't know yet if it's a setting I've got wrong or if the factory issue flash just isn't going to cut it. I've been trying to get a photo of the camera itself and so far this is the best I've got:

And yes, it's photoshopped within an inch of it's life to try and salvage something from what was a not-great shot to begin with. Note to self: if you're going to take self portraits of the camera, clean the mirror first. There's very little detail on the camera itself, but hey, my nails look great :) I was pretty impressed to see anything at all. In the initial viewing this shot was a black square with a flash spot in the middle. They say experience is a great teacher. Good thing, I've got a lot to learn.

how to keep tulips upright

I love tulips and here on the west coast we get these trumpeted harbingers of Spring much earlier than we should. I can never resist them. But year after year I bring them home and the same thing happens -- they fall over. I've tried tall vases, short vases, pennies in the water, a pinhole just under the head. Nothing has worked until just the other day.

I saw the first tulips of the season and had to have some. I asked the florist, Lucy, if she had any tips on how to keep them upright. She did and as you can see from the photo above it worked! (The tulips had been indoors more than 24 hours at the time the photo was taken. It's now another six hours later and they haven't moved.) Let me share her wisdom.

Lucy's failsafe tulip method:

1. Choose the straightest tulips you can find. If they're curved to begin with, this isn't going to work.
2. Do not trim the ends when you get them home.
3. Place 3-4 pennies per bunch in the vase (there are 4 bunches above so 16 pennies).
4. Fill the vase with cold, COLD water. Use ice water from the fridge if you have it.
5. When you change the water, keep using cold water.

According to Lucy what usually happens with tulips is that they suck up too much water which weighs down the head and bends them over. The combination of a sealed end and cold water keeps water intake to a minimum and will prolong the beauty of your cut tulips. (Adding a foundation plant like daisies also helps to give them something to lean against.)

Pretty, pretty, pretty. Does this mean it's Spring?

I won!

This past weekend Gord & Torrey got me hooked on, I mean introduced me to, the wonderful world of online Carcassone. (The first one's always free...) After being beaten resoundingly by both of them (and several bots) today at lunch I finally, FINALLY won a game. Check it out. That's a 64 point city close to the middle and it's mine, all mine.


If you enjoy the traditional tile version of the game and want to play with people who don't live in your house, I highly recommend AsoBrain's online games. They're free, played in real time with a private chat for each game and you don't even get bombarded with lame-o ads. Settlers also available.

christmas in pictures

I have a head full of cotton wool courtesy of my first official cold/flu of the new year so this post is mostly pictures. (And apparently I've also reverted to British-isms. Cotton wool? Surely I haven't called it that since I was six.)

This Christmas was awesome! For the first time in several years I got to go home to Ontario to spend the holidays with Mom & Dad and even better, I got to bring a few friends along. Kendra came, along with her sister Shannon, her husband Gord and their two girls Amanda and Nicole whom I have the great privilege of calling my extra nieces.
While in Ontario, we headed out to historic Petrolia to tour the Victorian houses. It had been just the right mix of cold and wet and the whole town was edged with the most amazing hoar frost.

It was great to get outside after a couple of days indoors, eating, talking and celebrating.

While at the farm, I even got to visit with my favorite fur-person.

It's amazing how much you can miss someone so small. I can't wait until I can have her back with me out west. It made my heart happy to spend some time with her and to see with my eyes what I've known in my heart -- that she is well loved and taken care of in the interim.

No trip to Ontario would be complete without a visit to the world famous Niagara Falls so well all piled into the van and off we went. I've seen Niagara many times before, but it is always spectacular and somehow, always a bit of a surprise.

After a morning at the Falls we took the wine route over to Niagara-on-the-Lake. The teddy bear store I remembered from my last trip there is gone, but Maple Leaf Fudge is still going strong. Thank goodness for that. We had a superb lunch in an Irish tea house and then Dad went on walkabout while Mom and I browsed the shops. Is there anything more wonderful than walking around an interesting place with your Mom on a Thursday afternoon when everyone else is at work?
After Niagara we headed to Toronto to catch a flight to Winnipeg. Kendra and the Wall family went to visit Gord's parents and I stayed in the city for a few days with Janie, Dave and Corrina.

I swear that kid gets cuter every time I see her. Corrina's second implant is all healed-up and working well and I am continually in awe of her progress. I cannot imagine how much work Dave & Jane have put into getting her this far. We spent a lively few days playing games -- I won Pass the Brain but lost Carcassone. (I did tell Dave that I knew enough to play, just not enough to win. Somehow my farmland always ends up being useless. Or Dave muscles me off it and I don't notice til we go to add it all up.) Janie showed me how to make pendant necklaces from Shrinky-Dink of all things. I'll post picks once I've got them completed.

While in Winnipeg I learned, once again, that prarie cold is a whole new universe of cold. When Dave and I walked down to Don's Photo to go camera shopping (more on that in another post) I told him I didn't want to wear the hat with earflaps because "I don't really do hats". It was less than 24 hours later that I was pleading for the hat and Dave, being a merciful brother, handed it over without saying a word.

New Year's eve I donned three pairs of pants, the hat, a scarf & mitts to go and watch the fireworks over the Forks. And it was worth it. The next day we headed over to friends of D&J's for brunch and sledding. Great waffles, good times.

I know I put way too much highlight on this one, but I loved the blue snow.

I love that not only is she not holding on, she's got her hands in the air. Cause, you know, everything's more fun with your hands in the air. She's Dave & Janie's kid for sure.

I tried to get a 2008 in the snow picture but it turns out that snow is way harder to photograph than sand (see last year's shot). The only way to get it to show at all was to throw the shadows and highlights way out of balance. Too bad, cause the house in this shot is amazing and you can barely see it.All in all it was a pretty close to perfect Christmas and we all came home tired and happy. Sleep well sleepy girl. I'll see you soon.

great start to 2008

I forgot to draw '2008' in the snow and it's too cold to go back outside now (I'm in Winnipeg) so I think I'll use this shot to usher in the new year. I bought myself a shiny new camera yesterday. This shot isn't from the new toy, but it's still one of my favorites from this trip. Thanks to Dave & Jane for the loan of your PowerShot.I hope your year is off to a great start. I need to get back to reading the manual.

what christmas looks like

I think there's a set of rules somewhere that govern the photos common to all blogs. If it snows, you must post two (2) photos -- one showing the accumulation and the other showing at least one member of your family, out in the snow with the universal expression for "oh my goodness it's snowing!"I have these photos, check. Another on the list is surely the ubiquitous Christmas tree shot, which is awesome because I love seeing other people's trees. I didn't have one of those yet, so I'm remedying that today.

I am strongly in the real tree camp when it comes to Christmas trees (although there will always been a place in my heart for the faux one we grew up with). This year with travel over the holidays and concerns about an unattended, and thereby un-watered tree we decided to look for an alternate. Inspired by Shannon's centerpiece from a couple of weeks ago we decided on a updated version of "sticks in a vase". The resulting tree is certainly nontraditional, but I find it charming nonetheless:I'm having some focus issues with my camera at the moment, but you get the general idea. The big present Christmases are all happening elsewhere this year so while this is a smaller tree it suits our purposes well.

This is definitely the first year that I've paid attention to the weight of ornaments. There are a few favorites that were simply too much for the tree this year but I was amazed at how many we managed to get on. I'm not really sure where the top of this roundish tree is, and the star wouldn't have fit anyway so I added a little robin near-ish to the top. A British tree has to have a robin somewhere. I got the first part of my Willowtree nativity for Christmas last year and added the wisemen to it a couple of days ago. I was pleased to find that this place has just the right spot for it.

I've really noticed the lack of fireplace for decorating this year so we've been tucking in a little Christmas here and there. We did manage to find a home for the snowmen. Everything is shiny and sparkly and I love the house with it's little treasures around each corner. Christmas can get pretty complicated but I know that at the heart of it, Christmas is a very simple, quiet moment. At the very heart of the season, this is what Christmas looks like:

someone's feeling Christmas-y

I don't post a lot of memes, but this one made me giggle so I figured it was worth sharing: Courtesy of ICHC (a mostly family-friendly site, but watch out for the tag cloud). Now if only the cute little guy could spell, but seeing as Lolz is practically its own language these days, I'll let it slide. It's Christmas after all.

making waitress pie

Adrienne Shelley's Waitress is a delicious slice of a movie. It tells the story of Jenna, a woman who 'doesn't want any trouble, doesn't want no baby [she] just wants to make pie'. Jenna's pie making is legendary, unfortunately so is her husband. Very early on I found myself gasping at his simple brutality and yet somehow Shelley manages to tell Jenna's story with very little violence.

Waitress is, at heart, a movie with a lot of heart. Jenna, played by Keri Russell, is living a small town life and yet Shelley has refused to give her only small town answers. When Jenna discovers she is pregnant just as the local OB/GYN has semi-retired, Dr. Pottamer walks into her life. When the new doc in town turns out to be Nathan Fillion you think "oh, this is a falling in love with the doctor who's love changes everything" movie. But it isn't. And what it turns out to be is so much better, a real treat like Jenna's Falling in Love pie (even better than her Lonely Chicago pie).

The film is a careful alchemy of campy humor, deep sorrow and moments of incredible tenderness. I have no idea how Shelley pulled it off. In one speech which I'm sure will be long remembered, Jenna, writing to her unborn child says:

Dear Baby, I hope that at some point in your life someone wants to hold you for 20 minutes. And they don't pull away, or look at your face or try to kiss you. They just wrap their arms around you and hold on tight.

Beautifully written, masterfully shot, Waitress is on another level a little hard to watch. The director who also wrote the film and played one of the main characters was murdered just before the film was accepted to Sundance. It is hard to see her there on the screen laughing and creating this amazing story and knowing that she is not around now to see its success.

The story of Waitress is not as easy as pie, it's more complicated than that, but it is every bit as satisfying. Like so many of the pies that play out in the film, the ingredients of this story sound crazy but in loving hands they become an unexpected treat.

even cozier

I was going to say 'even Christmas-i-er' but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. Shannon invited us over for dinner and tree decorating on Tuesday. Here's Kendra and I with Coli and Amanda and the finished tree.

And just to prove that we really *did* have snow -- real snow, not BC snow -- here are the ubiquitous "No way! It's snowing!" pics:

It was really piling up. We actually had to buy winter coats this year. They're saying it will be the coldest winter on record. (I almost hope it will be, that coat is like walking around inside a giant hug. When I took it off to go indoors I felt bereft.) It's my first ever coat with thumbholes and the girls are right, thumbholes are made of awesome.
Fleece cuffed sleeves that a) are actually long enough for my arms and b) stay in place. Brilliant. Gone are the days of a cold wind blowing across a bare wrist. Heaven. (If Heaven had snow.) Come to think of it why couldn't Heaven have snow? Maybe they have the snow-that-doesn't-land-on-roads ? I don't know about you, but when I picture Heaven it's always about 10 in the morning, a balmy 22 degrees with the sun shining and just in time for a midmorning cup of tea.

it's getting cozy in here

We broke out the Christmas boxes tonight and it's starting to look very Christmas-y around here. We've decided to go with a rather nontraditional Christmas tree this year and I am delighted with the way it turned out. More photos to come, but this little guy was too sweet to wait.

the faces of aids

December 1 is World AIDS Day. I didn't know that until yesterday morning. Somehow the announcement got lost in all the Christmas commercials.

Back in the summer I started reading Stephanie Nolan's incredible book, 28: Stories of AIDS in Africa. I'm not quite all the way to end yet so I can't add it to the "books read" list but I'd recommend adding it to your reading list if you keep one. Prior to starting this book I thought I had a decent handle on what the faces of AIDS look like. And sadly, I've learned that my view of this far-away-feeling pandemic was tragically small.

It's easy to think of AIDS as an African problem, but it's so much more than that. AIDS is a family where the 11 year old is running the household because there are no relatives left to take care of them. Everyone is dead. AIDS is the doctor no one believed could have 'a disease of the poor'. AIDS is a revolutionary who refused the medications that his compatriots were being denied. AIDS is entire villages of grandmothers who find themselves parenting again and worrying about what will happen when they are gone. The face of AIDS is a woman who contracted the disease from her own husband and was then kicked out for bringing disgrace to his house. AIDS, I'm learning, is unfathomably unfair.

There are some who say that AIDS is a curse, God's vengeance for sin and I for one, am not brave enough to hold to a view like that. If God could punish one sin so violently, how much more could I expect to receive for my sins, which number far more than just one? God doesn't grade on a curve, we know that, and thank Heaven He doesn't. I wrote an article about that a few months back for work, and while it doesn't specifically mention the AIDS pandemic, maybe it's good reading for World AIDS Day, or thereabouts. I know it's a reminder than I need more often than I care to admit.

enchanting

If you haven't seen Enchanted yet, you really should. A delightful fairytale, it delivers many laugh-out-loud moments and refuses to take itself too seriously. If you remember laughing during the original Shrek when the singing bluebirds became breakfast then you're likely to enjoy this movie. Usually it's other people poking fun at Disney but finally they have grown-up enough to do so themselves. We had a great time.

Right now, looking outside my window the snow is moving just as if it were inside a giant snow globe all swirly and light. It is also enchanting. I can appreciate it this morning -- there's nowhere I have to go, and for errands later Shannon's got the Durango. And that thing can drive anywhere. I never understood why so many SUV drivers ended up in the ditch until I had my first ride in a Durango on snowy roads last year. It feels like a tank (or at least the way I would imagine a tank to feel) thoroughly invincible. I can see how it would make you forget that you still need to adjust your driving to the conditions.

I am always at odds with myself when winter finds its way to our fair west coast. I love it and I hate it, almost in equal measure. If could walk anywhere I needed to get to it could snow all it liked. I love the way it blankets the world in white, even if it is a fairytale and the grime of everyday living is only covered over not cleaned away. I love the sparkle and the light. It is magical, there's no denying that. But as Joss Wheadon taught us, magic always has consequences :) If it would just stay off the roads snow and I could be fast friends.

Hmm, snow that falls on the ground but stays off the roads. Now there's a fairytale.

hello old friend

The sun kept the rain at bay today so headed west to visit an old friend. The beach is still there, just where I left it, always changing and ever constant. Everyone abandons the beach November, I don't know why. Its beauty is not diminished by the falling mercury. To me, it is even lovelier this time of year. The sharpness of the air keeps the crowds away and it is quiet enough to hear the waves talk to the shore, quiet enough to notice sunlight on rocks and driftwood.

As soon as I stepped onto the beach, coffee in one hand, book in the other lines from Yates started running through my head. "This is no country for old men. . . . /and so I have sailed the seas and come /to the holy city of Byzantium." This place is my waking lullaby, these rocks, this sand. It is like stepping into the warm embrace of an old friend, a dear friend. And it happens every time.

Everyone has their own soul space, that place where you feel closest to God and this is mine. In the last line of the film version of The Prince of Tides Nick Noltes' character says, "Every day as I cross the bridge that will take me home I say three words. I say them as repentance, as praise and as a prayer. I say Lowenstein, Lowenstein." I often think of that at this beach, it feels like a place for repentance, praise and prayer. Maybe I feel closer to God there simply because it looks so much like Heaven.But it is more than that. Over the years I have come here to celebrate and also to mourn. I have come with friends and alone, in joy and in loneliness. It was at this beach six years ago when Kendra causally said "I think you should move in with us" and I stepped into my first family since leaving Mom & Dad's. This little stretch of beach far away from the busy pier and the fish and chips shops and boutique spas has laid a claim on me. I feel its pull, like the moon calling back the tide. And each time I go back I swear I can hear it whisper "hello old friend".

no love for 'time'

I confess, I have given up on reading Love in the Time of Cholera. I know it is a classic work of literature. I know that Gabriel Garcia Marquez is a Nobel Prize winner and acclaimed genius of the pen. But I also know that close to a hundred pages in, I don't care that Dr. Juvenal is dead. And I am tired of waiting for the love to begin. I am bored.

Reading is not supposed to be a self-flagellation by pages. It's supposed to be a thing of beauty, a journey eagerly taken whether it leads to the heights of love or to utter desolation. Reading is not meant to be a chore, but rather a joy and there is no joy in this book, at least, not for me. And life is short so I am putting it down. Classic or no.

I don't like keeping books on my shelf that I have neither read nor plan to read so if you want a copy of Love, you're in luck. You can have mine. I should warn you that it *is* the Oprah's Book Club edition. I was tricked into that. A wily Chapter's employee put the 20% sticker right over the logo. I still have not forgiven Opera for Songs in Ordinary Time.

A while back I saw a list on a blog of the 100 hardest books to read and going through it I noticed that quite a few of them have been OBC picks. Coincidence?

I'm well in The Other Boleyn Girl now and it is everything a decent novel should be. I am delighted.

around here

I really enjoyed Rachel's photos of their new diggs. I thought it was about time I posted a few of my own. So here they are. It's not exactly art and likely to be one of those posts that only my family reads but that's fine by me. Here's the nickel tour. Come on in.

You reach our place through a lovely little wooden gate. But it's raining today and the pictures didn't do it justice so we'll just start at the front door.Just inside the front door to the right is our makeshift hall closet. The one thing with this place is that the only closets are in the bedrooms. So we had to improvise a place for coats and shoes. Kendra and I built the shelf with hooks and now we have a row of impalas standing sentry by the front door.To the left of the entryway is the office. Kendra and I have a lot of books and whittling the collection down to seven bookcases was hard enough. We decided to put a couple of the shelves to work as walls to create the office space. The plan is to back these with cork board so they'll be more functional and also prettier. Every office needs a place to pin things up. You can't really see it well in this photo, but to the right of the desk is set of photos of New York. You have to be able to dream a little too :)This is what you'd see straight ahead of you when you walk in. Living room to the left, kitchen to the right.If you stand in the living room and spin counter clockwise you'll see this. We didn't originally set out to do all international photos in the living room but it worked out that way. First with Paris in the Fall over the couch . . .Then Chester at the turn of the century over by the bookcase. . .And then the black and whites of New York visible form the office. (And, I just realized not visible at all in this photo.)Next stop is the kitchen.The kitchen was one of the features we loved about this place. It's huge. You can have four of five people bustling around in there cooking dinner. (And isn't that one of the best ways to get dinner on the table with a bunch of cooks all doing their thing?)There's a dishwasher at the end of the counter and full laundry in what looks like a cupboard right beside the pantry. The kitchen is also home to my newest piece of art. It started out as a poster of a painting looking out the window of a Parisian cafe. Gord took it to China to get it framed and it came back this beautiful, immense piece of art. I love it.I'm convinced there are a thousand stories in this painting. Who are these people standing out in the street? Are they waiting for the man with the red umbrella or watching him walk away? Was it good news? Bad? Is he being strong for her or is she lending him her strength with such a tight grip on his arm?

At the end of the kitchen there's a bathroom. And to the right of that the hallway leading to the bedrooms.Outside the front door there's a little patio. It's a little cold to sit out here now with a freshly brewed latte, but the sun will remember us eventually.The table is Kendra's own creation and the result of many summers' ambition. Can you believe she free-handed the whole thing? (I helped a little too.) So we've got the perfect spot for a cup of tea. When are you coming over?