soeurs du jour

march

notwithstanding that passover begins on monday night and that there are a multitude of tasks requiring my attention, i am still sitting at my desk watching the snow melt, albeit slowly, but melting it is.

i am an armchair photographer.  i sit here and take these photos out the window.  no need to stand up.

earlier i was doing a little hand dusting, not enough dust to require polish and a cloth, just a wipe of my hand was doing the trick, and i came across a childhood book, the mystery of the silver circle, published in 1957.   i read the first page and felt nostalgic, it begins during the first week of summer holidays, olivia's days stretched ahead like a sketch book waiting to filled with the most exciting...

should i just read the whole book?  right now? so that i too can imagine that summer is stretching ahead of me and that it is filled with excitement and adventures or should i march on, in rythm with this endless month of march, watching the snow melt and perhaps tackling a chore here and there.

how could i resist the lure of one of my first chapter books, 188 pages, ten chapters and only one template.  

xo

snow.....the sequel

i've been out and about most of the day

everyone is talking

did you hear?

it's going to snow....again

maybe 15 or 20 cm

that's almost 8 inches

what the hell?

last year on this day i was wearing a t-shirt

 drinking a beer on the patio

down the street

if you are basking in the sun

enjoy.

xo

margie

happy st. paddy's day

xo

margie and kath

Most awesome shopping list I have ever made

 

Seriously, the best. Although maybe I should have put the drill bits before the stuffing.

xo

Kath

waving

shout out to andy and frank

best kitchen staff ever.

xo margie

Book Club: A Good American (Alex George)

"Everything he’d seen had been unimaginably different from the dry, dour streets of home, and to his surprise he was not sorry in the slightest. He was smitten by the beguiling otherness of it all.

  And so began my grandfather’s rapturous love affair with America—an affair that would continue until the day he died."

Run don't walk.  Buy this book.  You will love it.  I promise. I am not even going to tell you anything about it because I don't want to spoil it for you.

I kept exclaiming out loud .... it was that good.

Once again, Blogher is hosting bookclub and you can find the discussion here ... no spoilers we promise.  I hope everyone loved it as much as I did.

xo

Kath

"This is a paid review for BlogHer Book Club but the opinions expressed are my own."

One sister is in Jamaica. It isn't me!

Day two, settled in. We left Ottawa at 2:00 am on Saturday morning in order to catch our 7:15 am flight to Montego Bay. The mother of all snow storms was passing through making terrible conditions for a road trip. It was a long slow drive but successful since here we are on the beach.

Our place is simple in a funky sort of way and the beach is pleasantly busy. There are no hotels over three stories, no higher than the tallest palm trees and since the beach is so long people wander past all day.

The local rotary club held donkey races yesterday just a few hundred feet up the beach. Rides for the kids, actual donkey races, great food vendors and some local souvenir sellers all accompanied by booming reggae. We saw our first man-powered Ferris wheel, homemade with four cages and three big guys twirling it around. A classic.

Started a good book, Sisters, you will like it, a bit of a thriller/mystery but well written.

We bought groceries on our way from the airport only to discover that we couldn't access an oven. We bought mostly cheese and veggies but the chicken was going to be a problem. Last night we had fish and came up with the brilliant idea of selling our chicken to the guy who makes jerk in an old barrel by the side of the road behind us for the price of two dinners. His wife was very excited by the idea and took it home last night with her to get it ready. She promised us a beautiful dinner. We have a terrace overlooking the ocean so we will dine out there. You are right, it's hard to be hungry when it's so hot.

Poor andy is having a bit of an issue with jet lag, having just two days at home after his business trip to Thailand. I gave him a sleeping pill the first night and he slept twelve hours, we both did. Last night I heard him up in the middle of the night though. Our biggest tasks are ahead of us in the morning. Coffee and fruit, walking up and down the seven mile beach, long enough to give us new route options each day. We need to read, talk, make a salad for lunch, swim, rest and read, nod off on the beach chair, walk again, swim, shower, a cocktail for sunset, bed for a nap and then up for dinner around eight.

Gruelling schedule!!!

xoxo

margie

Today, a story about my art

In Grade 8 I took art from Mr. McMaster at Sir Winston Churchill School. It was the first time I had been exposed to a dedicated art class. I had black paper and white paint. I remember painting sticks and bare trees and bull rushes in a pond. I was so proud that what was in my mind's eye was now on that black paper. I can remember thinking about perspective and design. I had learned something that year.

I could always copy draw, there were drawing books and sketch books, I can remember copying simple line drawings.

At the end of Grade 8 I had my appendix out. When we went to the school to collect my things because the year had ended without me, my art was gone. Mr. McMaster had discarded it not knowing I was returning to get it. It hurt and I was disappointed.

I can knit and sew. I take photographs and manipulate them into what I see. I used to take piano lessons. I have a rudimentary knowledge of how to dye wool and can spin with a drop spindle.

I cook and keep a nice home.  

Sometimes I paint, and not just on the iPad. The key to painting is using layesrs of colour to create light, shadow and form. 

I believe my creative life was reawakened when I married a creative man. I have learned to dream and keep trying. I seem to be anxious to learn more all the time. What I find difficult to retain is that a creative mind and life is a practice. It is really about doing and trying and patience.

What I do does not have to be permanent nor perfect the first time.  

The first try is the idea, the groundwork. 

These are things I need to remember.

xo 

Kath

Here I Go Again - Book Club

We read this book by Jen Lancaster for Blogher Book Club.  

I will never get that time back.

Just don't.  Beyond awful, eighties, chick lit, mean girl, time travel.  Stay away from this book, it is soooo not for us.

We're talking about it over at Blogher.  I have no idea how I'm going to stay polite. The first discussion is up and I see it is simply remembering the one song that sticks in your mind most from High School.  Okay, I can answer that.

xo

Kath

This is a paid review for BlogHer Book Club
but the opinions expressed are my own. - obviously!

 

snapshots

we are just coming out of a very cold week, 41 below celsius with the wind, and that was during the day!  that's 41 below farenheit as well.  crazy crazy cold.

my socks.  

static electricity from the dry air.

our home was filled with parties and good food this weekend.

andy's homemade pizza

i cooked up a storm

veal marengo with roasted parsnips and sweet potato

loving plenty, my new cookbook

there was champagne

and coffee

roses

and then my sister sends me an article

because she thinks i have a problem with

 clutter

really?

you can see charley basking in the sun over by the beam

pretending it's warm outside

maybe i do like a little clutter

suit up kids, it's monday soon!

xo margie