Nothing Special

Saving Private Ryan

2009-11-11T09:07:00.000-08:00

We watch this movie twice a year - on the anniversary of D Day in June and on Remembrance Day in November. And we cry every time.

Words, words, and more words

2009-10-31T12:43:00.000-07:00

Simon at Stuck-in-a-Book showed us this gizmo - you can create your own at Wordle. For this one I just plugged in the address of this blog. You can enter any words you want.

Wine Country

2009-10-28T18:55:00.001-07:00

There are about seventeen or eighteen wineries on Vancouver Island - many many more vineyards. There are "Wine Tour" road signs along the backroads from the Saanich Peninsula (near the ferry terminal) to the Cowichan Valley (at Duncan) across the inlet.

From Swartz Bay at Lands End Road at the peninsula's northern tip, the coastline-hugging road passes million-dollar waterfront homes and full views of Saltspring Island. Each winery has its own tasting room and retail outlet, open from spring to fall and by appointment in off seasons. A ferry across the inlet from Brentwood Bay to Mill Bay bypasses the Malahat.

San Antonio

2009-09-28T10:14:00.001-07:00

Some sketches from our trip to San Antonio
The Alamo

We had lunch at the Bolivar Cafe

The Little Church at La Vallita (the little village).

Language and Lettering

2009-09-20T16:34:00.000-07:00

Practicing brush lettering with watercolors and brushing up on language. The Hawaiian language is ever fascinating ... so many vowels, and each one enunciated.

Some of my Hawaiian friends and readers may want to correct the spelling or translations.

Photo is of the orchid nursery on 10th Avenue. We passed here often on the way to Rainbow Market for Spam musubi

Birthday Book

2009-07-09T09:25:00.001-07:00

These are a few pages from the book I made for my cousin's birthday. Here are Grandma and Grandpa and the house where they raised nine kids

Family photos

2009-07-08T10:38:00.000-07:00

Grandma and Grandpa

Aunt Hazel and Uncle Spence

These are actually stamp-size images that I used for a book I was making

Canada Day

2009-06-30T17:55:00.001-07:00

More Zoomers

2009-06-15T17:25:00.001-07:00

As a graduate of the Zsa Zsa Gabor School of Creative Mathetmatics, I honestly do not know how old I am - Erma Bombeck

Few things are more satisfying than seeing your own children have teenagers of ther own - Doug Larson

The process of maturing is an art to be learned, an effort to be sustained. By the age of 50, you have made yourself what you are, and if it is good, it is better than your youth - Marya Mannes

Chase your passion, not your pension - Denis Waitley

A House is not a home unless it contains food and fire for the mind as well as the body - Benjamin Franklin

Twilight drops her curtain down and pins it with a star - Lucy Maud Montgomery

A Small Haiku Book

2009-06-09T10:19:00.000-07:00

the first page

the second page
and the cover - the Japanese character on the cover says Spring

The book when closed measures 9.5 cm x 16.5 cm (3 3/4 x 6 1/2 in.). The inside pages are Arches Textwove and the cover is a soft Momi something-or-other (I forget the name)

We made these books at a workshop with Sherri Kiesel and Peter Thornton

Alberta Skies

2009-06-05T10:50:00.000-07:00

Labels

2009-06-05T10:30:00.000-07:00

Zoomers

2009-05-15T09:01:00.001-07:00

Zoomers is a magazine published by CARP - Canadian Association of Retired People. It comes to me each month as part of my membership.

I always look forward to the quotations that are scattered throughout. Some make me smile, and other are thought provoking.

My grandmother started walking fives miles a day when she was 60. She's 97 now, and we don't know where the hell she is - Ellen DeGeneres

Beautiful young people are accidents of nature, but beautiful old people are works of art - Eleanor Roosevelt

Age is the acceptance of a term of years, but maturity is the glory of the years - Martha Graham

The surprising thing about young fools is how many survive to become old fools - Doug Larson

Anyone who tries to make a distinction between education and entertainment doesn't know the first thing about either - Marshall McLuhan

When I was 40, my doctor advised me that a man in his 40s shouldn't play tennis. I heeded his advice carefully and could hardly wait until I reached 50 to start again - Hugo L. Black

Old age ain't no place for sissies - Bette Davis

When grace is joined with wrinkles, it is adorable. There is an unspeakable dawn in happy old age - Victor Hugo

The other day a man asked me what I thought was the best time of life. 'Why', I answered without a thought, 'now'. - David Grayson

The great thing about getting older is that you don't lose all the other ages you've been - Madeleine L'Engle

Coming together is the beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success - Henry Ford

Old wood best to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust, and old authors to read - Sir Francis Bacon

I could not, at any age, be content to take my place in a corner by the fireside and simply look on - Eleanor Roosevelt

Designing with Nature

2009-05-04T16:19:00.000-07:00

at Sitka Center
in Oregon
We walked about in the fields and in the woods, collecting bits and pieces of this and that. I've always been partial to the leaves on the money plants. That's probably not the proper name for that plant, but they do look like coins.

Here are some golden ginkgo leaves and a lovely poem by an ancient Chinese poet

Wild Irises

2009-04-25T11:39:00.001-07:00

Visiting with my friend in Oregon for a few days. There is a quiet stream at the back of their place and a lot of marshland that is thick with wild irises

Chocolate

2009-04-22T08:48:00.000-07:00

I'm testing this theory that chocolate slows down the aging process

Earth Day

2009-04-15T21:33:00.001-07:00

April 22 is Earth Day in Canada. At our local food market, one wall is covered with art work from Grade 5 students. They have written, drawn and colored on large brown paper shopping bags. Along with the usual three R's - reduce, recycle and re-use - they've added their own words.

This one is my favorite - it says

Save our earth

it's the only planet with chocolate

Gilda's Club

2009-04-11T11:50:00.000-07:00

Gilda's Club is housed in the old firehall on Lombard Street in Toronto, where Gilda Radner was featured in Second City with John Belushi.

After dropping out of the University of Michigan where she was studying drama, Gilda moved to Canada and made her stage debut in the 1972 Toronto production of Godspell with another soon-to-be Saturday Night Live cast member, John Belushi. After a brief stint with Second City, an improvisational comedy troupe, they both moved to New York.

Gilda Radner: a little slip of a thing with ordinary girl-next-door looks, a Cocker Spaniel hairstyle, and twinkling eyes– “American’s Sweetheart,” impossibly dead at age 42.

Postcards Exchange

2009-04-10T13:34:00.000-07:00

Our art group has been having an exchange of postcards. This is one I made by clipping bits from an old book I found at the local thrift store for 25 cents. It's called Sewing Made Easy by Mary Lynch and Dorothy Sara, published by Garden City in 1950. I cut the shirt and pants from bits of cloth.

The words are from the section entitled You and Your Accessories ... "general instructions on selecting hats, shoes, stockings, gloves, furs, handbags, and jewelry. Specific instructions for choosing accessories if you are tiny, if you are tall if you are plump". The quote in brown isn't from that book ... it's from Gilda Radner. I miss that woman

I base my fashion sense
on what doesn't itch

Spring

2009-04-08T15:56:00.000-07:00

The Body Book

2009-03-31T10:58:00.000-07:00

This is another unfinished and ongoing recycling project. I saw these remarkable images of body tattoos in a magazine, and knew I wanted to keep them. I clipped them out, and now what to do with them?

I bought a children's board book at the Peninsula Community Thrift Shop for 15 cents. I scraped it and sanded it and painted it. I smoothed some different colors of chalk along the torn edges of the pages. With some acrylic paint backgrounds I now had a place to paste the tattoo images

I love these images of women's bodies ... all shapes and sizes, colors and ages.

Happy Birthday Grandpa

2009-03-28T10:34:00.000-07:00

Sending you hugs and kisses, wherever you are now.

This picture was taken a long time ago with one of those old cameras before digital.

Wish you were here with us now, but you're always in our hearts and minds.

Nan asked in the comments 'who was on his back' and also commented on the picture of me on the sidebar. So, here is another old picture ... same man, different child. This one is me. Quite a few years earlier, as you might imagine.

Paper Cranes

2009-03-23T10:43:00.000-07:00

On most Saturdays we meet at the Men's Prison for a meditation group. M is a nun in the Tibetan tradition .... we meet in the dining hall with a small group of prisoners. Guards look on, but as yet none have joined us.

We meditate, drink tea and talk ... and fold paper cranes. We started with very large pieces of newspaper because it's easier to fold a large one when first learning. Many of them were set in flight about the hall ... like paper airplanes. We laughed a lot and ate all the cookies.

Over a few weeks, we gradually progressed to smaller and smaller models until the guys became familiar with the folds. They hung the cranes in their rooms when they went back. They don't live in cells here, but in blocks of duplexes scattered about the grounds.

Eventually I became known as "the crane lady"

Enso

2009-03-20T09:04:00.000-07:00

The universal enso on my new t-shirt symbolizes enlightenment and oneness with nature. Zenga are the ink paintings and calligraphy of Japanese Zen Buddhist monks from approximately 1600 to the present.

The calligraphy reads:

Pure white birds set against

emerald waters,

Green mountains ablaze

with blooming flowers.

Zen priest, Ed Brown, described how his teacher, Suzuki Roshi, said, "you all are enlightened until you open your mouth"

Spam

2009-02-01T09:30:00.000-08:00

I learned to love Spam when I was living in Hawaii. David and I would walk down the 10th Avenue hill, past the orchid nursery, past the pool and the school to have a meal of Spam Musubi at Rainbow Market. We sat outside at the beat-up old picnic table and drank ice tea while waiting for our orders.

Hawaii holds the honor of being the Spam capital of the United States. During World War II, Spam became a staple in the diets of troops overseas and in the war-torn countries such as England and islands such as Hawaii that had trouble getting fresh meat. Hawaiians continued to consume Spam following the war. It is Hawaii's soul food.

Sadly, I can't eat Spam now because of the high sodium content, but I long for it each time I pass by those shelves in the market.

January 2009

2009-01-01T14:52:00.001-08:00

We have the opportunity
Once more to right some wrongs,
To pray for peace, to plant a tree,
And sing more joyful songs!

William Arthur Ward (1921-1994)

with thanks to my cousin in Alberta

for the photo of Sun in Fog

and to my friend in New Hampshire

for the William Ward quote

Snowbound

2008-12-24T20:14:00.000-08:00

Haven't been out of the apartment for six days and getting anxious because I'm almost out of bananas ... WAAHH. The car is buried ... tried to shovel it out yesterday with a dust pan but finally gave up. We're not equipped for this on southern Vancouver Island ... you can see a few pictures here

Knitting and listening to audiobooks There's a (Slight) Chance I Might Be Going to Hell by Laurie Notaro and The Time Traveler's Wife. This morning I pulled out some paints and ink and started to play

In Gwen Diehn's The Decorated Journal, she describes a technique for pouring colours.

I used cobalt teal and olive green acrylic paints and walnut ink poured onto a large sheet of watercolour paper. It ended up looking like a Jackson Pollack gone horribly wrong. Small sections looked pretty good, so I cut it up and have been using them for making cards. The first one is going to Nan in New Hampshire to thank her for the beautiful calendar she sent after I won the draw on her blog Letters from a Hill Farm. I wonder how many days it will be until I can get to the post office.

Winter Solstice

2008-12-20T12:36:00.000-08:00

Rain sliding down the wind chimes
Cloud hidden solstice moon
Winter in the Northwest

Recycling

2008-11-24T12:26:00.000-08:00

For this journal I used denim from some old jeans that I used to cover a plain composition book. That's me at the front porch of the house on Perth Avenue in Toronto.

An old photo was transferred onto a scrap of plain white cotton fabric and sewn onto a piece of burlap from a potato sack.

This is a portfolio cover made from dark blue felt ... again burlap and photo transfer onto rough cotton dyed with coffee. Corded ribbon ties from the scrap box.

For Joe

2008-06-30T16:41:00.000-07:00

In August we'll pick wild blackberries. The bushes will be loaded with berries by then. They grow thick and dense on both sides of the trail. Some folks bring ladders so they can reach the biggest and ripest and juiciest at the top.

A pail full is enough for a pie, and two or three pails full for jam. But be warned ... my limit is one or two handsful

The berries on the outside of the bushes, the ones that are within easy reach, have all been picked off. The thorns are treacherous. Scratches and curses will follow, and I get really cranky.

Antique Kimonos

2008-06-29T18:08:00.000-07:00

A calligraphy exercise. Our assignment was to do something Asian. I'd recently watched a gorgeous movie called The Scent of Green Papaya, and I felt a longing for my home in Hawaii.

For this one, I put down a pale wash of permanent rose and cadmium yellow, sketched a few leaves and tinted them pale green that I mixed with cobalt blue and cad yellow hue.

kermit says

2008-06-28T12:16:00.000-07:00

Time is fun
when you're having flies

Grandma Cahoon's House

2008-06-15T12:38:00.000-07:00

work in progress

Lots of vacations spent here in Southern Alberta ... the old house has been designated as 'heritage property' now

What's for Breakfast?

2008-03-31T10:05:00.001-07:00

One day recently my friend Nan in New England posted this quote from "Winnie the Pooh". I like it so much I decided to borrow it for my Wellness Notebook

"When you wake up in the morning, Pooh," said Piglet at last, "what's the first thing you say to yourself?"
"What's for breakfast?" said Pooh. "What do you say, Piglet?"
"I say, I wonder what's going to happen exciting today?" said Piglet.
Pooh nodded thoughtfully. "It's the same thing," he said.
A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh

Japanese Lady with flute

2007-07-15T21:19:00.000-07:00

Another paper batik

see the first ones here

Mission BC

2007-06-18T09:34:00.000-07:00

Looking down the hill from our hotel window ... the highway below and mountains in the distance. the home building center and the Sikh temple

Best Meal in Newfoundland

2007-06-17T09:26:00.000-07:00

Fish and Brewis

Dinner at the Viking Village in L'Anse aux Meadows ... brewis is another name for hard bread or hard tack. And for dessert, a Newfy Iceberg - coffee, screech and ice cream

Haida Totem

2007-05-16T09:00:00.000-07:00

A friend took this photo while visiting in the Queen Charlotte Islands. I made a pencil drawing, using a grid

An Exercise in Perspective

2007-04-15T10:18:00.000-07:00

This is not much fun, but probably a good thing to learn about ... first and last try

Hopi Clay Pot

2007-03-13T21:24:00.000-07:00

This is an exercise from Claudia Nice's Creating Textures in Pen & Ink with Watercolor in the section enitled "Still Life Strategies"

Watercolor Batik

2007-02-12T15:40:00.000-08:00

This is a process I learned from Kathie George. It's similar to batik painting on fabric.This process involves painting watercolors into sections of absorbent kinwashi paper that have been outlined with paraffin wax. The wax acts as both a reservoir to contain the colors and as a resist to preserve the white of the paper.

Light colors are painted first and hot wax is applied over the areas that should remain those colors. Then overlay and blocks successively darker watercolor paints.

Last Summer in Ashland

2006-11-13T09:33:00.000-08:00

Three lovely months in southern Oregon. There are beautiful gardens and great places to walk ... also the famous Shakespeare Festival

This is the house where I rented a room that my friend had vacated while he went to France. He spent the winter learning the language.

When it got too hot in Ashland, I drove a few miles down the road to Mount Shasta ... great book stores and places to eat. The mountain is visible from miles around and always covered in snow. The high altitude in town keeps the temperature cool ... a welcome treat in July.

There was a small stream at the back of the house, and wild irises bloomed profusely in the marshland

Mornings were cool, and the deck was a perfect place for yoga and zazen

Drawing Club

2006-10-01T13:44:00.000-07:00

Today I signed on for membership in Michael Nobbs' Drawing Club yahoo group. This is where I'll post some of my practice

I've been reading all of Helene Hanff's book ... this one is my favorite

My neighbor's work boots

2006-09-30T10:57:00.000-07:00

Billy Bob works in construction ... when he comes home, his boots are muddy, and he leaves them outside his door in the hall

Japanese lanterns and a turnip

2006-08-30T11:50:00.000-07:00

a great place for breakfast

2006-08-27T12:01:00.000-07:00