Single Story

This inspires.

http://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story.html

Pensitivity

I wrote this on Monday early afternoon. It is Tuesday now. I am still pensive but yes...writing does help..

I am sitting at this computer with classical music playing in the background. It is sad music. It is making me melancholy.

What is melancholy exactly? Let me look it up.

mel·an·chol·y   /ˈmɛlənˌkɒli/
–noun
1.a gloomy state of mind, esp. when habitual or prolonged; depression.
2.sober thoughtfulness; pensiveness.
3.Archaic.
a.the condition of having too much black bile, considered in ancient and medieval medicine to cause gloominess and depression.
b.black bile
–adjective
4.affected with, characterized by, or showing melancholy; mournful; depressed: a melancholy mood.
5.causing melancholy or sadness; saddening: a melancholy occasion.
6.soberly thoughtful; pensive.

I have looked up black bile and I so not going there! I am soberly thoughtful and pensive.

Being pensive is one of the stages of creating for me. One of the first stages.

There is an idea brewing in there and I can't quite pin it down. As now, it usually comes when I am nearing the end of one project.

I am at the point in my current piece where it is all pushing forward and putting the final touches on it. I have to figure out the leafy part.

This is the part of the technicalities of having a piece turn out as imagined. Fun and interesting but my mind is looking to something new already.

Over the weekend I took my mind off the tree by finishing off a Printer's Drawer to be hung. Actually not sure if it is "finished"......crap....

I like it but I think it needs more now that I look at the photo.

It will come to me though...

"All changes are more or less tinged with melancholy, for what we are leaving behind is part of ourselves. "
Amelia Barr

A Day Off

Sunday.

Gloomy and drizzly.

Went outside anyways.

First to the backyard where there is promise that spring is really coming.
Yes, tulips are starting to push their green leaves through the ground.

I righted this mirror that fell over in the winter winds. It shows a reflection of the yard. Our birdwatching chair, which, if I were your average gardener, should be brought in every winter, is no longer serviceable as a chair. It is now...SCULPTURE... ya, that's it.

I have this slight obsession with mirrors in the garden. You can see another one in the top corner. I have another one sitting in the basement ready to join in.

I also have a slight obsession with decay. I rarely take things in during winter because I am curious to see what the season will do to them. Big chunk of child like wonder left in me in this. I am always fascinated.

Then headed out to Thickson's Woods. I like making a visit every year while there are no leaves on the trees yet because you can see the jumbled structure of the trees etc...

Lots of trees down again this winter. We some big winds and this is such an old stand of trees.

Here again my love of decomposition guides my photo taking.

I think it is the textures that draw me in.

Look What I Bought!

I popped into the local "trendy" upscale clothing shop on Friday.

Clothing seemed to be only for waif-like ethereal beings.

But I fell in love with this bag.

Love that there are a few cats on the Dogs We Know side.

Yes I freaking Love this Bag!!!

Procrastination is Making me Latte

Make that a Chai Latte please.

I am at home for the morning. Alone. That doesn't happen often. I know I should be grabbing the dust rag or sweeping the floor but I am making myself a coffee and writing to you all.

And now I remember that I have Chai tea at the shop which I will have to make when I get there. When I get there.

'scuse me checking on the coffee...maybe the coffee will help me up off my duff...

I am all alone this morning because Los Kiddos are at school Jim has gone on a day trip to Algonquin Park today with a bunch of his birding buddies. Nice sunny day for it but back to below freezing... I hope they see lots of the flying creatures and hopefully some Moose babies. Wonder if he brought a camera? Wish I could be there too..

I continue to have 10 plus projects on the knitting needles...I am actually not sure of the number I will have to count. Let me see..Hmm I have finished a couple so only 7. Yeah!!
Three pairs of socks,












Of which this is one... I love Jay walkers!



1 linen blouse,

1 shawl,

1 tree


and 1 tank top that I do not have a photo of yet although I am holding it in one of the photos from the previous post.

I do have one rug hooking on the go too.

So maybe I just need a morning off ? Maybe, just maybe I am productive but just not in a house wifey way?

Where is my Chai Latte?

My Hands

My Hands they are the Tools of my Trade. (from Laura Smith - I'm a Beauty on Vanity Pressed - a Collection CD.)


My Hands are growing older along with the rest of me.
There are times I look at my hands and don't know who they belong to.
I am looking at my Mother's hands. When did I get my Mother's hands?
When did time betray them? When did the scars, bumps and age spots appear? When did arthritis start to turn my fingers and cause me to feel pain?











I see the hands of an older person.
How did this happen?
Somehow they grew old while I was busy having a life.





















Then I see this photo taken by my daughter's hands. It is of my Sister's and Mother's hands.
My Mother's hands at 80 years of age.
I realize now that when I look at my hands I see the hands of my Mother's 50 year old hands. Her hands have had 30 more years of life than mine. Think of the things those hands could tell mine.


They tell of a life fully lived. Of things created and work long done. Of wisdom and experience. Of risks taken and opportunities explored.

Do I still want the pristine hands of youth? Hands that are unwise to the ways of the world?

No not really...

I want to see the life I have lived in my hands. To remember the creations I've made, the babies I've rocked. I want to feel the aches and pains (I lie!!) that have resulted from not wearing rubber gloves while I do dishes and knitting for 8 hours straight or forgetting to wear mittens on the coldest day of the year.

I want the memories.

I want those memories to temper all future actions taken by my hands.

I want my hands to create new memories, feel new textures, give strength to others for as many years as possible.

My hands are the tools of my trade and my life. I will embrace their aging appearance.

Jan6/2006 Replay

Found another 4 year old post that is worth a re read! Timmies and I have a real love/hate relationship!

Friday, January 06, 2006
Idling in La La Land

SO I was sitting in the Montana waiting in the take out line at Tim Horton's (the temple of coffee). I was enjoying the sun (which had not been seen for about one year). I inched foward while raising my face to the glorious sun. I was relaxing and warming. I was visualizing being on a beach. I bumped up a small ramp. I waited and basked. I bumped down a small ramp. I looked behind. I was past the ordering monolith!!! My window was closed and I had been basking! They were probably all yelling "CAN I TAKE YOUR ORDER!!! HELLOOO....IS ANY ONE THERE. WE NEED AN ORDER! HEY!!! WAKE UP!!!! WE NEED AN ORDER!!! " Then off I went.... I had two choices. 1. Leap out of the vehicle and run backwards and interupt the orderer behind me. or 2. Continue on and make a full confession at the window. The sun was warm and gorgeous so I opted for the latter. While waiting and basking yet some more I went over my options of opening line. I ended up saying " I am an idiot and I was in complete la-la land! I forgot to order! They all looked at each other with the realization that it was just another brainless suburbanite in a Montana. I was so grateful they didn't make me start again! They gave me my order (they may have over charged me but I really don't care if they did) I didn't have plain old coffee to order I was ordering 3 Cappucinnos and then I didn't have enough money out so I had to search my change cubbyholes! As left I made sure I let them know that I would stay awake while driving back to work (a little late). Man I needed a coffee....but the sun was la la lavalee....

A trip downTim Horton's Memory Lane....

I posted this 4 years ago. Sometimes it is good to look back and see what a goofball one can be..

Don't take me through the Drive Thru

Last week was not my week to be going through the drive through at Tim Horton's. Pretty soon all the Timmy's in the Whitby area are going to know me as the "Crazy Drive Through Lady". Any of you who have read my past entries will remember the last incedent I had at Timmy's. I have only compounded my problems!!

Experience #1:

I was on my lunch time with the most lovely Miss Ann who teaches in the Junior Room. As per usual we ordered our coffees, teas and for the most beautiful Miss Ann a ham and cheddar cheese sandwich on wholewheat,toasted, no tomato, no sauce. Well do you think the lady could get the order right?? First off she talked with an accent that made her difficult to understand. Then she seemed to have trouble understanding my accent. So I order the sandwich, taking my time and allowing for the keying in of each item, and

she says "Sat his Ham and Svuiss?"

"No, Cheddar." I respond.

"Chedar an Svuiss? On vhite?"

Now I am trying to talk louder, " Ham and cheddar on whole wheat." "Oh...(to the lady making sandwiches) Not svuiss...Can you make Cheddar? Yes, Cheddar...Ok good."

Me again..."on whole wheat!" "oh ok (long pause as she mutters to herself trying to find the whole wheat key) Toasted?"

"yes" I yell "TOASTED"

"Vill there be anyting else?"

"I am not yet finished with the sandwich order!!! No tomato, no sauce!"

" Oh, I forgot to key in...(again to the person making sandwiches) You remember , ok? No tomato, no sauce.? Goot. Anyting else?"

I am by now speaking as loudly as I can, " 1 Steeped tea with milk, 2 Coffees....."

"I so sory you yell...I so sorry.... Drive trhu"

Once up to the window of delivery I ask the person taking the money if there is something wrong with the intercom system. Her response...."Sometimes the wind makes it hard to hear."

Wind??? There was no wind.... Only a very frustrated orderer with many very frustrated drivers waiting in the long line up behind her!



Experience #2:

At another Timmy's on another day. I pull into the drive through only to find to my joy that there is NO LINE UP! I pull on through , make a left swerve and then realize I have gone straight past the intercom order taker!!! No cars are behind me. I stop, put the car in reverse and back up to the speaker. I get greeted with a very pleasant "Welcome Back!" I had to confess that this was not the first time I had made this error. She then very pleasantly took my order and I carried on. The beautiful Miss Ann was witness to this too. It is a wonder that she will go into any drive throughs with me.

So, now there are 3 different TH's who's staff probably duck and run when they see my van. My apologies to them all.

Actually, there is a 4th that dropped my change on the driveway and I had to wait for someone to retrieve it. Then I dumped all the change out of my wallet onto my lap and had to drive all the way back to work that way. (I was running late you see) (Miss Ann was with me yet again)

Someone care to accompany me to get coffee? No! Don't run away!


Posted at Monday, May 01, 2006 by martina

I am better at drive throughs these days...promise!

Trees on the Brain

I have started another 3-D tree and want to get pictures of it and real trees together in one place.