A Few More Thoughts On The Royal Wedding, Wedding Dresses And The Like

Well I was up so early yesterday that really the rest of the day was shot. I didn't get a whole lot done.. One sample for my Level 4 homework which turned out crappy and has to be redone anyway.  But all day I couldn't take my mind off the Royal wedding. I know most people are probably sick of hearing about it and for better or worse most Canadians seem to think the the Royal Family and all their machinations are completely pointless. However, in defense of my obsession I will say that I would rather focus on the Royal family for a week out of the whole year than the months and months that we focused on the American Election campaign when Barack Obama was running for president... Everybody crowed about how he was going to be the saviour of the whole world and all I could think is I wish they would put more Canadian news on the radio/TV. The poor man had nowhere to go but down after the pedestal they put him on... he's just a man after all. Anyway, I don't have an obsession with the Royals to the point where I think that the paparazzi should do what they did to Diana...nope my obsession is done right now. I'm probably not going to go seeking photos of the Royals anymore. (I just wish those Canucks fans would get it through their heads that their obsession is no different than mine... and I hate hockey... but I'm still Canadian!)

Now that I've had my little rant. I do have something worth saying about the Royal wedding. I was so pleased to see Kate in her gown. She looked absolutely stunning... (even though some seemed to think that Pippa outshone her : ( )However, I do have a bit of a beef with her choice of wedding gowns. As a matter of a fact I really have a beef with Royal wedding gowns in particular. They keep choosing silk as the fabric of choice... and I will give them the benefit of the doubt and say that silk is a lovely choice for a warm day... sort of. But why in hell the Royal brides of England of all places don't choose wool as their fabric choice is beyond me. Now I realize that wool seems a bit of a dark horse when it comes to choosing wedding gowns but I mean the British economy and the whole country for that matter was born on the backs of the wool industry for so many years that it seems impossibly stund to not reconize it in some small way.

"Wool," you say, "for a wedding gown... don't be daft!"

Actually I'm not as far off the mark as you think.  There are some really beautiful wool fabrics out there that would be perfectly reasonable for a wedding dress.... look at Pashmina shawls... I mean reall Pashmina shawls... actually Pashmina is from a goat so not technically wool.... it is more like Cashmere. But wool that can be spun so finely that it would be a beautiful choice for a wedding gown and especially for a  British Royal wedding gown and would put wool back in the perspective of the world as a viable alternative to other luxury fibres. I did a little research and found some very lovely wedding gowns made from wool. I'll start with pictures of more historical pics and move through to more modern pics if that's alright with you guys.

This is vintage wool Fabric... I loved the fabric.

Look at the lace on this... just gorgeous.

Again the lace is exquisite.

This I didn't like so much but the fabric would be fine for a heavier winter wedding dress.

This was quite a lovely one... and all the older ones really told me how often wool was worn for special occasions like weddings.

This one has a a merino felted bodice but uses a chiffon skirt.

Then I found a company that sells knitted wool wedding dresses and go figure the company is from Northern England.

And here's another of theirs...

And this one is very daring but would be awesome on a cool evening on a beach.

This is a more traditional wool wedding dress but it's simplicity is lovely though the sleeves were not my thing.

I loved this one...and the wrap was stunning.

Then you have the cover up...

This one really caught my eye from Australia.... and look at the detail on the skirt.

It would have been wonderful if Kate had given the wool industry a nod even if she had chosen a stole for going to and from the wedding.

I had a winter wedding and in my green-ness of those days of yore... (I didn't know anything about spinning and nothing about woollen fabrics) I used velvet for my wedding dress... and yes I actually made my wedding dress. In hind sight I wish I had known about wool because I would have used it for my wedding dress or at least incorporated it somehow.

After all it takes a very confident young woman with a lot of fashion savy to step out of the traditional usage of silk and satin for wedding dresses and find a different and perhaps unconventional wedding dress... I thought Kate would be her, but unfortunately there wasn't even a nod in that direction.

I'll leave you with a pic of an awesome woollen wedding dress which would have certainly been too unconventional for Royal standards, but its awesomeness is outstanding, I think, and it takes a very special person to pull something like this off....

While this wouldn't be for Kate it does make a statement about wool as a viable alternative to traditional silk and satin.

Wouldn't it be nice if wool would get its just dues? I for one love wool and think it is awesome, versatile, and lovely in every way. Too bad I didn't know about back then...

On my wedding day...

OMG, we were so young.

Hurrah!!! And flag waving...

God Save our Gracious Queen....

Remember... as a Newfy I have a very rich tradition  with the British.... Mom and Dad were born British... they still have their British birth certificates.... passports... etc. Me... I'm Canadian but I I still love the Royals...

I've been awake for hours.... but it was so worth it... big smile on my face. What a really awesome message in the sermon. Back off and leave them alone... and be caring of each other... very good.

He was grand and she was captivating. I wish them all the best and may they have many years of happiness. The vows were the same as the ones that Teapot and I exchanged... only we had communion too.

I'm all alone and the sky is brightening. Is it getting to be a new day already?

Now if they would just kiss so I could go back to bed.

It Was A Joke...!

I'm astounded at how many people actually think that I am going to make a study of yarns suitable for the Royal Wedding characters for my in depth study.... it was a joke really... I didn't really meant it. I am NOT going to do an in depth study on the Royal Wedding knitted figurines.... really I'm not!

Actually I have been thinking about my in depth study. But my topics of interest are much more scientific (I'm not sure that is the right word) and certainly less cutesy than the Royal figurines in knitted wool.... Here's a list of what's been on my mind.

1. A Study Of Balance In Long and Short Stapled Wool Yarns -  What Makes a Yarn Balanced And How That Affects a Knitted Garment.

2. A Study In Colour In Novelty Yarns With Emphasis On Colour Used With The Four Natural Colours of White/Cream, Brown, Grey, And Black

3. A Study On Spinning Silk For Embroidery (this one needs some refining yet).

4. All Around The Clock, A Study On Yarns Suitable For Warp In Weaving And Whether Yarns Spun Clockwise Are More Effective Than Counterclockwise Spun Yarns.

The first two really interest me and the other two, less so... #2 has been in my mind since my first year. When I was first introduced to tufted novelty yarns/insertion novelty yarns. I was fascinated with how using a grey or white background changed the look of a novelty yarn in comparison to black or brown.  But then colour has always fascinated me and thus the reason for my inability to choose a favorite.

Meanwhile it is a rainy coolish day. I woke to a gentle spring rainfall outside my window, hitting the tin. I jumped out of bed to go and bring the deck chairs in under the eaves of the house in order to keep them dry. When I came back in my spinning wheel was beckoning me to sit a while and spin. It was 5:30 a.m. and all was quiet... you can't ask for a more perfect time to spin. So I did. I just finished my last Worsted sample and it is as close to perfect as possible. Gorgeous! Even if I do say so myself.

I have one sample left in that section. I had hoped to get it done yesterday but quite honestly those write ups took longer than I expected. It's not the writing up that takes the time.. it's the labelling and the printing and getting them into the page savers etc...  it takes forever. In addition I did get more print ups finished than I expected... I even managed to finish a few of the write ups for the dye section which I finished last summer at the dyeing retreat. So yesterday was a good day for getting my work done.

Teapot and the girls have headed off to school. The dogs are disgusted that it is wet outside and I will not let them stay outside digging in the garden and getting all muddy.

Meanwhile I am sitting listening to the Current on CBC Radio and it is a show dedicated to the Royal Wedding... it's really interesting to listen to. But nary a word is being said about Knitted Royal Wedding characters.... and so I will end by reiterating that I am NOT knitting the Royal Characters for my in depth study... though I may knit them for fun!

Nary A Fork In Sight And The Eyes Are Still Intact

Well the trip to DC yesterday went well especially the trip back... My mother had a mouthful of new teeth so maybe that was why it went so well. She couldn't tell me the same story twenty times... because she was having a hard time getting used to her new teeth. (Strike me down God!) Poor Mom... as she gets older her memory is not as good as it used to be.

I have now finished write ups for all linen/flax questions and will be putting them in my book today... I also got one write up done for the Lopi samples... I have two more to do this morning. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel and I feel my momentum building... it is like a horse that can smell the barn after a long day out on the range.... or the little train that could. I'm working hard these days, when I find the time, and this day is stretching out before me with no obligations except to spin and do write ups.... aaah.. what bliss!

I am also going to put myself out there and say something that most Canadians don't give a fig about. I'm a Royalist through and through. I'm all over the news... I can't wait till Friday (or Thursday night as case may be) I'm staying up. I'll be driving the bites downloaded way out of wack since we don't have TV but I'm really hyped for them... I just hope no nit wit does anything to spoil their special day..... You know who I'm talking about don't you....

Don't you think the Queen looks like she's been imbibing a little too much. : )

I'm going to knit this for my level 6 in depth study.... Yarns Appropriate For The Royal Wedding.... That's what I call my in depth study.... (that's a joke for you guys too serious to recognize one)!

Anyhoo... I'm off to do write ups... well actually I'm not off because then I couldn't reach the computer... I'm staying right here, I just won't be on the internet... see ya tomorrow...

The Daughters and I think the picture above is hilarious... except for the Corgi's which are just too cute!

In Between It All

1. I didn't get my worsted and woollen samples finished. But I did get a fair bit of work done on catching up on my write ups. I only have one true worsted sample left and a blend of the same wool fibre with mohair.

2. The weather was amazing and I was able to sit out on the deck and enjoy the beautiful spring all weekend... which is one of the reasons I didn't get my woolen and worsted samples finished.... I kept falling asleep in the sunshine.

3. I woke up about a half an hour ago with a really bad stomach because stupid me forgot to take her medication... so now I'm trying to get my meds to digest a bit by sitting in an upright position before I go back to bed. (Taking meds and then lying down will cause raucus heart burn and ulcers.)

4. I am going to lose a day of spinning because I am getting up in the morning and heading off to DC with ma Mere for another appointment... (I've got the forks ready!) Hopefully this is the last appointment.

5. I cannot find a recipe for bleaching linen/flax. I may just wing it.... which is never good.

6. I curled my hair with rollers yesterday (which I haven't done in years) and Daughter #2 told me I looked like I had horns... so I told her that I was the devil.... and that I was her worst nightmare. Bad hair day supreme.

7. I'm starting to get panicky about my level 4 homework... (I go through this every year...)

8. I wish it would snow again.. (yes I do) since the air is startlingly bright and warm... with no leaves to filter it, it is scary how hot it gets on the deck. I don't want another hot-excruciating-nothing-growing year again.

9. I have a sore throat again... thanks to the Daughters and their little flirt with the flu.... right that's just what I need.

10. Easter is over for another year. Boo hoo...that's not fair. No more sleeping in until the May long. Whahhhh!

So I think I'll go paint my toenails while I'm waiting for this stupid pill to digest. An-hour-of-no sleep... blah!

A Happy Easter

Been up since 6 a.m and this time I was not the first one up. Daughter #2 beat me to it and was out in the yard with her horse. We had a lovely Easter morn. Easter gifts (and all things fit) ... check. Easter  egg hunt.... check. Easter chocolate.... check. Easter tree... check.

Easter breakfast... check. Easter Sunday service.... check. Now cooking an Easter family din din. An old fashioned pot roast with all the trimmings... yum. Teapot is out cutting trees and doing some yard work which for him, is the next best thing to Godliness. : ) Daughter #2 is in bed with a head cold that's the only draw back but while she is snoozing Daughter #1 is teaching her best bud to ride horse back... looks like fun to me.

What a pretty day... and while the veggies cook I'm on the deck with my wheel and wool... what more could you ask for?!

Hope your have a fine old Easter too...

Working Hard

Teapot and I have been working hard. Daughter #1 and Daughter #2 have been laid low with head colds for Easter weekend. It was lovely to have them all home yesterday and I know they enjoyed it too. Daughter #1 hardly got out of bed which was fine since I don't want her germs and they are confined to her bedroom for the most part. Daughter #2 is not feeling so raw and was up and about for part of the day. Meanwhile Teapot was out cutting down trees as we are still trying to clear the Pine Beetle kill trees out. The yard is once again starting to look very bare. After lunch I convinced him to finish the small project of putting the full length glass in the door to our balcony outside of our bedroom and over looks my deck. Meanwhile I spun. All day I worked on the blasted worsted and woollen (Canadians spell it with two ls) samples.... I have four of them finished and I am working on the fifth. After about 4 o'clock, when it was too cold to sit out on the deck any longer and spin I started work on the write ups for all of my work since back in February. I made good progress and by 11 o'clock last night I was completely done in. I have my first binder completed and I'm now working on the second binder. I finished writing up the work for the flax samples. I still have Lopi samples to write up and worsted/woollen samples to write up.

There is nothing better than the warm spring days to invigorate you and make you feel like you can do anything.Even though there are still heaps of snow around in the yard and in the back country it is still quite winter-like, spring is definitely making headway around this end of the country. The trees are coming out in bud and I am beginning to see little sprouts of green grass on the south sides of things.  This morning the sky is blue and the sun in shining brilliantly. Teapot and the girls are enjoying a sleep-in while I nurse a stiff back (after all that spinning and computer work yesterday) over a cup of coffee and some breakfast. All is quiet, but I expect that to be short lived... although i might just go back to bed for a little sleep-in since I'm starting to loosen up again..... Nah, now is my chance to catch up on this level 4 work.

I always did love Easter.... maybe because it is in the spring and how can you not like something when the sun is shining.

Spring.... At Last?!.... Maybe?!

So I sat out on the deck yesterday....   oh it was lovely... The snow was almost gone, and it was warm... like really warm. Warm enough that I was able to pull up my top a little and get some sun on my Lily white belly.... but I kept my chair back on to the road, that's for sure, and you will never see pictures of that! I'd scare everyone away.  Yes those pictures of snow that I posted the other morning were very short lived. I knew that and that's why I took the picture. By lunch time it was all gone. But it was very pretty.

There's a light in the spring in the north that you don't get anywhere else. It's really bright and unfiltered by the green leaves, it can even be harsh. Right now there are pussy willows starting to burst forth and the sun shining on those soft frothy buds make the trees look like something from one of Shakespeare's plays... (As You Like It maybe). It all has a dream like quality about it. There are millions of wee birds around and the coyotes have been really active in the last few weeks. I hear them all the time just before it's time to get up or just after dark. The days are getting longer too. Right now the sun is rising at 5:43 a.m. and it is daylight long before that. The sun is setting some time after eight and it really isn't full dark until 9:00 p.m. or later. The ground is starting to dry out so it is not all about muck in the yard.

What did I do while out on the deck? Well, I didn't just sit. I spun. I finally finished off this...

 It now looks like this....

 Oh and this picture doesn't even come close to doing it justice.

Later:
....Ok I've been trying all day to get this post finished and it just hasn't happened. I went to Chetwynd today to finish Easter shopping... I got kicked off the computer this morning to shower before I went. Then I got home and tried finishing again but almost fell asleep at the computer because I was awake half the night... (check the calendar... I betcha that we're close to a full moon) I was spinning half the night... I finished this...

dang it!....yup I haven't figured out my new camera yet and I can't get a good picture... so I'll just tell you instead.  In the middle of the night I spun a full spool of Denim Blue Cotswold (that's wool for you non woolies) that I had been given some years ago for Christmas... it turned out really pretty... I'll see if I can post a picture tomorrow.

Anyway... I tried finishing this post this evening but then remembered that it is Knit Night and I had to run off for that.... so now I am finished b---ching about not having enough time to .... well you get my drift. But at least I'm just about finished.

I'm sure that Good Friday will be better. I'm sleeping in late and nursing this darn pain in my kidneys... no it's not an infection... I don't think... and I'm going out to spin on the deck again if the weather stays nice.

See ya tomorrow.

Spring In The North

I went for my nightly walk last night... somewhere around 7:30 p.m. By the time I finished it was snowing again.... this has been going on all spring. I figured that it would be a quick flurry and then it would be over... but as it got dark the snow kept snowing and then it started to accumulate. Here are the pics from this morning when we got up...

Bailey loves to chase her tail...

Jiggs stands by and watches... but only for so long and then she decides to chase Bailey.

But you know... I'd rather this any day than tornadoes.

The snow is sliding off the roof as I speak and the nice thing is that at this time of the year we know it is not going to last long...

I'm off for a spinning day with a friend...

Self-Knowledge

Self-knowledge is a life long process.

That was my Facebook fortune for today. I've have an issue with the fortunes on Facebook. They are lame... lame... and more lame! Most of the time my fortune is a statement and not a fortune at all. Like what's that all about... and then this morning I get this one. Well, thanks for that! I'm sure that's going to make a big difference. So I'll know myself at the moment I die. Great! As it is, I look in the mirror and wonder who the heck it is that's looking back at me.

Last night the Daughters and I watched Forrest Gump... they had never seen it before and it was quite a few years since I had seen it. The line that I like.... "Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you are going to get." I can't figure out how some people know exactly what they want from life right from the get go and go after it with a steadiness that is inspiring. Then there are people like me... I'm the feather blowing on the wind... and actually I'm ok with that... Still, I think that the more you know what you want and where you are going the more successful you probably will be... but I'm not sure about that.... that's the feather in me. I'm quite happy to drift along through life being blown willy nilly. It makes for some interesting life experiences and sometimes they say that being flexible is good for your health... I'm not sure about that but maybe they are right.

So yes another Birthday has passed and I can scratch another notch in my canoe. The day was pleasant.... not outstanding... not horrid... nothing strange or weird... nothing fantastic.... but it was pleasant. That was good with me. New camera.... new video... house cleaned by the Daughters.... flowers.... a little money... yup a nice pleasant day.

I went to FSJ on Saturday and did a demo on how to make shoelaces on a Maru dai. It went well and then I came home and spent yesterday watching movies and braiding. I now have a Tencel set of boot laces just about finished. The gallery show that I am preparing for in the fall is called Scarves, Shawls, Socks, and Shoelaces.  I will need lots for the show so I thought I'd work on that a little in the next while... though today I'm back at level 4. Worsted and Woollen samples all the way.

I'm back at level 4 because I've pretty much made up my mind to carry on with the next level in the Master Spinner Program. So that means lots of work, work, work. Teapot has been encouraging me... RG has been encouraging me, even the Daughters have been encouraging me. So that is what I will do.

See?!... Willy nilly... that's me.

"Know thyself" was the maxim of Plato.... but I think the "getting" part is the best.

Hmmm...

The number for today....

... that would be 46.

Prospective Son-In-Laws

Teapot has a penchant for giving people nicknames.... thus Frankie, which has been my nickname since almost the first day I met him. I have been looking for years for a nickname for him that would stick and then last year I came up with Teapot... it was perfect. It was with nicknames in our minds that the following occurrence happened.

Tonight the dear boy (that would be Teapot) took me and the Daughters in the truck and we dropped the Daughters off at the school's Coffee House as agreed, and we then proceeded on to a local food joint for some supper. As the Daughters were leaving us it became almost poignant that I could see a day when they would leave us for good. They carried on into the school to meet up with their chums and Teapot and I began to talk about them as we drove off for our dinner out. Daughter #1 is now 15 years old and is about 8 months from getting her driver's license. Daughter #2 is just 17 months behind. It is getting more and more apparent to us that there will come a time when it will no longer just be Mom, Dad, and the two Daughters. Teapot has been threatening the Daughters for years, with forcing their boyfriends (when they get them) into digging holes in the garden to tire them out before there can be any dating. I think this has something to do with the fact that Teapot knows how the teenaged boy thinks (probably about sex and nothing else). Tonight I decided to ask Teapot if he would give any future prospective son-in-laws nicknames and he said he would if I wanted him to. I said absolutely.

We discussed the nicknames of his best buds in University. They were dickie (with a small d), Pube, and Ralph. Perhaps you are beginning to see where this is going. By the time we got home we had come up with really good nick names for all prospective son-in-laws....


Booger and Skid Mark

I wonder what the Daughters will think....

Of course we mean it with the utmost respect, you understand.... ; }!!!

Rats

Stomach ills and a migraine yesterday. The day before?... was a day to demo spinning to school students at our local school. All went well except my voice gave out again... hmm.

Will write later today when I'm feeling better. For now I will go and brood about snow... which once again is falling.

Juried Art Show

I've entered this painting... (mixed media.. acrylic and silk on wood) in the Peace Liard Regional Art show...

~?~

I left to take Mom this morning to an appointment in DC...

After I finished poking out my eyes with forks they put me in a straight jacket. I'm typing with my toes.

Debating

Well, I guess I'm going to fess up and tell you about something that I'm not sure about....something that seems to be plaguing my mind lately.  For a while now I've been debating... I've been thinking about not going to  Olds College this year. It is for several reasons and no I'm not quitting on the Master Spinner's program... for that matter, this is only in the thinking stages yet. For a while I have been feeling burnt out. Fibred out... and everything in my life is suffering for it. More and more I've been looking at my wheel and thinking I really want to spin on my old wheel. I really want to spin something for a project and not just another sample. I really want to write a poem... You'll notice on Feathermist that I have not put a poem there since last autumn and that one sucked!  I really want to do that online writing course that looks so interesting. I really want to sew my quilt.... I really want to work on rug hooking. I really want to paint a painting. I really want to take the dogs for a walk... But I can't because I have another question to tackle. I'll be honest getting a meagre mark on my Level 3 contributed to this. I feel that I'm not satisfied to get a low mark and keep going as if I'm some awesome student. I'm not and I need to back up a bit. I went into this so that I could be the best spinner that I could be and that failed abysmally in level 3 when I passed but barely. So if I want to walk away from the MSP program having graduated with pride I think I need to take a year to complete my second version of Level 3 and finish my Level 4, and, most importantly, do it well. Every time I think about trying to complete three levels in two years my stomach does flip flops. And I get stressed and then I start looking at my wheel as the enemy and not as my best buddy. I'll also be honest... money is part of it too. Recessions are not for the faint of heart... and while Teapot and I do OK... paying for hay at sky rocketing prices, and veterinarian bills for sick dogs, and gelding alpacas among a whole bunch of other stuff, has taken it's tole.  The Daughters too have required this year, some fairly huge expenses and so I'm at the middle of April with my head in my hands going, "What do I do about Olds?!"

Still, I have a little time to decide on whether or not I will go. I've been thinking about trying to get a short job with the election process which would help with the money.... and yet I look at my wheel and can't help feeling a little resentful that my time is not my own.... The MSP was supposed to be fun... and somehow along the way I have lost the fun-ness of it and now it is well... a struggle. I'm sick of worsted and woolen and the flax just made me want to throw up. (We all have our likes and dislikes and flax is one of my most definite dislikes and guess what.. some of us can know it right from the get go... sorry R.G. that's the truth of it)! I'm still plugging away (note the description... plugging is not how I should be tackling it) at my level 4 homework but I really want to get to the 150 hour project because I am looking forward to that. I really want it to be awesome and beautiful and simply divine.... I am excited about that at least. But I want to do it justice. I want everyone else to look at it and say, "Wow, you made that?!" I don't want to do it because I'm on a deadline and I need to get it done before the next level. I want to do it because I love it.

So MSP or not to MSP this year.... I'm not really sure. Besides I'm supposed to submit my in depth study topic this year and I have about five and can't choose and I don't have time to think about it. Basically I just don't feel ready for level 5 and I really just want to carry on at my own pace. Perhaps I've taken too big a bight out of the apple right now.

There is one slight boomerang in all this. All along I have been going to Olds with two friends and so far we have kept pace with each other which has had it's good points and it's bad points. I love going through the class with them but I hate the feeling that I have to keep up with them. I'm tired and keeping up with two really awesome ladies who outstretch me in spinning experience far and away, is making me more tired... but I will miss terribly their input into my work and the ability to discuss things when we run into problems if I don't do level 5 with them this year.

So you see I am in a terrible dilemma... and there is no reprieve in sight...

Ah if only there were someone who could tell me what to do... but that's ridiculous, I realize...

So I will wait for a while and keep thinking about it all... sooner or later I will be able to decide or the decision will be made for me... especially if the class fills up and I can't get in...

We'll see...

Companion For Daughter #2

Bailey has come to live with us. She's a Sheltie x and she comes to us from the FSJ SPCA. She is not quite a year old. She is a lovely dog, full of personality. Daughter #2 is very happy to have such a loving dog. Jiggs however, is not quite sure.

Baching It... And A Few Thoughts On War

Teapot has left for the weekend of his dreams... He is gone on a Canoe Convention. Yup he is gone to oogle and ogle canoes of every shape and size. He left at 1:00 a.m. Argh! I'm pooped from being up in the middle of the night to give him a kiss good bye as he went out the door. But he checked in at about 2:30 p.m. to let me know that they had made it safe and sound... all was good and he was in high spirits. I'm sure that he will have a high old time.

As for the Daughters and I... we are baching it for the weekend. And as usual whenever Teapot goes away the mice play... and so we have been watching movies though I will say that we could have watched better ones... The first was a Jackie Chan flick... so so.... but then we watched The Wind That Shakes The Barley... a really good movie, but I want to kill Teapot for picking it for us right at this moment... We've all been crying for two hours. It's the story of the beginnings of the civil war between the English and the IRA and Sinn Fein, a dreadful time by any standards.

Being a light hearted soul, Teapot always manages to make us laugh after a movie of such sadness and desolateness, thus the reason for wanting to kill him... he picked the movie and then ran off to let us drown in our own tears with not a bit of light heartedness to pick us up and save us from ourselves. As with all movies of civil wars, there is no doubt that it is the women that suffer the most when their men go to war, and the Daughters and I empathized maybe a little too much with the women in this movie. With hands bound by the words of freedom and higher ideals, they watch their men going off to fight and they can't stop what they know will come. In the epic words of Ruby Thewes from Cold Mountain.... "Every piece of this is man's bullshit. They (men) call this war (the American civil war) a cloud over the land, but they made the weather and then they stand in the rain and say, "Shit! Its rainin'!"

There is no doubt in my mind that fighting is not the right way to seek our rights, or to help the underdog.  I watch daily as this world around us deteriorates into chaos and wonder what Mahatma Gandhi would think of our efforts in Afghanistan.... or our efforts in Libya. And yet there is something dreadfully poignant about the first scene in the movie we watched tonight, as British soldiers descend willy nilly on an Irish peasant home and beat a young man to death for playing a game of field hockey because there are to be no public meetings.  You want to bash the brains out of the British soldier who is the leader as much as the Irish must have for the injustices and feckless abuses they received at the hands of the British. These types of abuses play themselves out all over the world regularly as we speak, in places like the Yemen or Syria or the Ivory Coast or the Congo. Why oh why do the strong and mighty feel the need to repress and crush the weak... why do they not have the need to support and uphold weak... why do they not take care of the weak? Why is nurturing not universal?

In the end all is quiet now in our house. Daughter #2 is above deck no doubt plugged into her iPod... Daughter #1 is glued to a book on the couch. The dishes are clean after a yummy supper of Nachos and cheese and Salsa. And all the wet and soggy tissues are in the garbage.... but in our hearts lingers the ethereal... the bight of pointless death and wasted lives... of gentle hearts who long for a better time... and who long for peace. What could be more ethereal... more magic than that.

Sweet Peace

If I Were Wealthy

1. I would eat fruit more often. All kinds and exotic stuff too.

2. I would adopt at least 20 dogs. But not cats.... 2 of them is enough.

3. I'd buy a really nice tent trailer... because I love the ability to sleep at night in a nice bed but love to camp and hear the sounds of the forest at night. No tent and I don't want an RV or a hard sided trailer.

4. I'd go camping a lot... in out of the way places... where nobody could find me... just squirrels and maybe a coyote or a howling wolf in the distance.

5. I'd buy a swimsuit that flatters.... nah... that's impossible.

5a. In view of not getting the previous one, instead I'd hire a cook to do all the cooking here and he/she would come camping too... but not in the tent trailer... that would be weird.

6. I'd find a beach where I could camp right by the water. (PEI here I come...)

7. I'd pay people to stay away while I skinny dipped... (or in my case fat dipped).

8. I'd buy a friend flowers and a nice pastrami on rye sandwich with potato salad on the side....  and then we'd share lunch and drink tea.

9. I'd finish the house renovation.... new flooring and a finished wall in the stairwell with no wires poking out anywhere... "wouldn't it be luverly".

10. I'd buy exotic trees and spend a fortune trying to get them to grow.

11. I'd hire a tractor to come and plow up all the poop in my yard. Then I'd bag it and sell it and be even more wealthy.

12. I'd put in a very elaborate water garden with running water so that it wouldn't breed flies.

13. I'd buy Teapot a new canoe... the canoe of his dreams... maybe two canoes.. (that would include the canoe of my dreams too)!

14. I'd pay off all my Mom's and Dad's debts. Hey mine too.... I'd be debt free.. now there's a thought!

15. I'd go to Olds Fibre week every year and spend a fortune at the vendors and buy all my friends something sumptuous to spin.

16. I'd go to Victoria with a friend to shop for beads.

17. I'd go to Britain with Teapot and the Daughters... to see the Scilly Isles and then I'd go to Scotland to the Orkney's and I'd get my picture taken by this fellow.

18. I'd pay for my friend's medical bills in Veit Nam... her husband recently died there unexpectedly with a lung infection with no travel insurance.

19. I'd go to Walmart and buy those $4 angora socks that Daughter #1 gave me for Christmas 2009.... and loved.... I know... I actually loved s----..... Holy Cow!

20. I'd come visit you or pay to have you come visit me. Would that be ok?

I think that's enough....

Bye bye....

Seeking Magic

Here for more Ethereal Art

What is it that makes us want the world to be un-ordinary.  I have been reading a lot of blogs online recently and the ones that most appeal are those where someone is seeking beauty through the un-ordinary... through the world of magic.  It seems to me that people seem to deal with the world around the by seeking the humour in it but what they really want is not reality but that which is beyond them. We find it inordinately appealing when something from the world that is tangible combines with something from us to create something intangible.  For example, when I hear the howls of coyotes out in the night, it sets the hair on the back of my neck to standing on end. There are shivers that pass up and down my spine. It is the intangible connected-ness of coyotes howling and my reaction of hairs standing on end that creates the world of the ethereal.

A few years ago I began doing the research on mathematical models in the natural world and what I discovered was that there was a connection between math (the absolute abstract) and nature which is tangible.  In it's simplicity, mathematical models are random numbers that equate to create recurring patterns. In other words, no two snow flakes are the same yet all snowflakes possess six-fold symmetry. In the plant world, this interprets as leaves, petals, daisy heads etc... with patterns that can be duplicated in common mathematical equations, particularly the "golden number"[(1 + the square root of 5)/2 =1.618 which the Greeks studied so long ago.  The curl of a drying fern, the spiral of the seeds growing in the head of a daisy are also to be found in the spiral of nautilus shell.

Patterns in leopard skins and some forms of insects as well as Giraffes and Cheetahs have patterns that can also be duplicated by mathematical properties. Even cracks in mud or the way fur lies on an animal are reflected by mathematical properties.

Thousands of years ago there was a Greek philosopher that said that "all things are number" and perhaps he was closer to the truth than we can know. In the end, it is the connected-ness of all things to each other that gives this world it's ethereal quality. Perhaps that is why we tend to be drawn to the ethereal, perhaps we have a desire to return to our roots which is somewhere between mathematics and number and our skin cell's patterns. Perhaps we are not as unique in the world as one may thing... perhaps we need to look at math more closely to understand ourselves better. Perhaps we can use math to cure cancer. We just need to find the identical patterns to helps us understand what is underlying all life.

Who could believe that something so definite as mathematics, so absolute,  could be so intricately entwined in something so elusive as life.

When I hear a coyote howling in the night and the hairs on the back of my neck is beginning to rise, then I will know.... and not just wonder... that the ethereal is at work in our world.

Here for more Ethereal Art

More Old Pics...

Teapot in his youth...

How did he get like this?!

I always did like the out doors.

He looks like he should be carrying a gun and not a wine glass.

And why oh why did he marry this freak.

We did have our moments of normalcy.

Then the kids came along. Daughter #1 and Daughter #2....

Daughter #1 liked to drag Daughter #2 everywhere around the house.

Things started to get to me and I had moments when I should have been in the looney bin.

It started to rub off on Daughter #1

But how could you go crazy when there were moments like this...

We didn't build snow men... we built the kids snow horses.

Impish little grins....

Daughter #1 went to school... this was her 1st day.

Then Daughter #2 went to school a year later... and this was her 1st day.

We all got older.... but sometimes I miss the old days when we were young and foolish.