resurrection fern

february blues

so on the snowiest day of the winter thus far

what do I decide to do

plant seeds

seeds of blue potential

polygonum tintorium

a wonderful little kind gift from jo newman

the author of the blog josloft

a beautiful blog indeed

and if they grow up big and strong

i hope to harvest some seeds in the fall

and

send some to my friends

:)

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the small ceramic dish was made by

Ateliers Des Cent-Ans

and was a gift from arounna

both of whom will be at the spring one of a kind show at the end of march

a huge success

the weekend yard sale was a huge success

thanks to the very hard work of Tamara,

Deborah, Caitlin, Ben

special thanks to Lord Byron for entertaining the crowds

and Lilith for being an adorable bookhou bib model all weekend

what ever was left over will be donated to Goodwill

although we did leave some treasures by the curb

:)

a few iphone photographs of the weekend

lord byron and i pooped after day 1

byron recharging his batteries

edgar wondering if it is safe to come out on saturday afternoon

the set up for sunday morning

view from the porch during clean up

the bookhou bib model 

close up of my new favorite porch corner

thanks to all who stopped by and helped recycle some of my treasures

long weekend

so looking forward to an extra long weekend

spending time close to nature 24/7

 

 

blurry iphone pictures (sorry)

will be spending the weekend camping here

visiting here

and 

here

a great warm up to the 

30 x 30 challenge

i am joining

a few of you asked about lilith's hat in the last post

it was a gift from nicole:)

the "d" word

I took these few pictures last sunday 

a few days before occupy toronto 

was dismantled and the  protesters 

evicted

a far more peaceful scene than what I experienced at the mall yesterday

silly me actually needing to go to one shop to get one specific item 

not realizing that the entire community had taken the day off work and school 

to shop

apropos that I received this message from David Suzuki in my inbox

I had a similar thing happen to me when my ancient nokia cell phone, having survived washing machine and dryer a few years later bit the dust. I brought it into a Roger's shop to see if it could be repaired and they said absolutely not. They had never seen such an antique and couldn't even figure out how to get the sim card out. 

This is a really interesting organization.

a most lovely weekend

this most lovely weekend scurried by but left me with lovely scents, colors, textures, images, hugs, kisses, laughs, tastes, more hugs .....

proper breakfasts with jill's liberty cozy on top

the next installment of the 100m natural dyeing

more about that later this week

my own seed mix for naturalizing some bare patches in the front garden

watering my seeds everyday 

gorgeous mother's day flowers from the girls and ray 

one of my very favorite cut flowers

last dance recital ever unless i decide to take up dancing ( deborah has been dancing since she was three)  Lots of tears were shed at the end of this chapter in her talented life.

tamara cooked up a culinary delight for both lunch ( pictured here) , japanese chicken curry and dinner ( pictured below ) sauteed fish wtih warm mint and pea pesto, baby potatoe salad with fresh peas and edible flowers and goat cheese with asparagus on baguette. Oh and I almost forgot my mom's favorite, lobster. ( we used alice's very helpful tools to crack them open and extract the delicious meat).

edgar was  on the hunt for catnip all weekend

the magnolia is ready to pop

the bees were enjoying the flowers

toadie ( yes that is his name) appeared for the first time this year

the garden ferns were unfurling

the violets joined the party

byron loves the scent of wood hyacinths

and in the forest the carpet of white trilliums has started to unfold

Happy mother's day to all my friends and happy birthday to my very dear friend elsita.

xxoo

m

any one know any modeling agents for snails

After the latest full page glossy print in a wonderful magazine, Kids LIfe, published in Germany, fern has been acting like a celebrity, brushing up on his german and asking for an agent. All kidding aside I was thrilled to receive my copy of this fantastic magazine in the mail today. I thought the article would occupy a page at the very most but it is four full pages long!!!. 

If anyone sees this magazine being sold, please let me know. I would love to purchase a few extra copies for fern to sign:)

xo

m

even lousy days can end beautifully

I wasn't feeling the blogging love this evening but I thought about it and decided to let you in on a big secret. Not everyday is filled to the brim with wildflowers and kitten cuddles.

For example today started at 6 am with a very rude awakening when I turned on the coffee, lifted the lid of the compost container on the counter and yelped when large fat juicy maggots started climbing out.

Then I discovered Edgar had been bitten on his right rear paw last evening and it was swollen to about twice the size and he was having difficulty putting weight on it. An emergency trip to the vet this morning would be necessary.

I finally get to work and in the middle of the third patient visit of the day my secretary tells me there is an important call from credit card security services. Turns out while I was ploughing through my morning dealing with maggots, serious paw infection and ..... someone in England was going on a little shopping spree with my credit card number. It seems I even payed for their monthly utilities. The bank became suspicious when the charges reached just under 2000 dollars.

I had a difficult day in the office dealing with ........ 

The only way to put the negative vibes aside was to go for a walk after work, have a simple salad and spend the evening on the sideline cheering for my favorite soccer team, Ireland.

They won, deborah  scored and I even had a few little snail friends watching the game with me as the rain fell ever so softly.

Netherlands wins and a trip to bookhou

I promised I would tell you the story of the nederlands number 10 jersey and so I will.

Last friday was the game against Brazil. My daughter and I had decided to meet up in Toronto to catch the match before a date with arounna in her bookhou studio. I was a little early to pick up Rebekah so I decided to stop in at one of our favorite Toronto thrift stores to see if they had any liberty clothing. I didn't find any but I remembered that I didn't have an orange jersey to wear. I looked in mens t-shirt section and pulled out the first one I saw. It just so happened to be an official nederlands (dutch spelling of netherlands) jersey with number 10, Wesley Sneijder printed on it. It was well worth the 1.99. My daughter and I took this as a good "omen" , no pun intended. Indeed as we watched the game at a sports bar downtown, he scored both their goals and was the man of the match.

After the game we drove to the studio in a round about way traveling through little portugal where there were many Brazilian supporters. We had fun honking our horn and waving the orange jerseys out the car window. We only got sworn at in Portuguese once and were shown a few rude gestures. Most people cheered us on.

At the studio we instantly converted , arounna's adorable daughter to our beloved orange team. She already had the soccer ball and was really enjoying playing with it. Rebekah worked on a "secret" project, I played with piper and took some pictures of the ever changing, always amazing shop. If your summer plans bring you into Toronto, bookhou should definitely be on your list of must sees. Arounna and John are the nicest shop owners I know and if you are lucky you might even catch them or some one else (like us) making magic.

 

 

So today is the semi final game Netherlands vs Uruguay. I pretty excited to wear my number 10 jersey and cheer on my team. I even did a little embroidery last night on the porch to set the mood.

 

Hup, netherlands, hup!!!!!!  

          

the beach

  maggie and millie and molly and may 
  went down to the beach (to play one day) 

  and maggie discovered a shell that sang 
  so sweetly she couldn't remember her troubles,and 

  millie befriended a stranded star 
  who's rays five languid fingers were; 

  and molly was chased by a horrible thing 
  which raced sideways while blowing bubbles:and 

  may came home with a smooth round stone 
  as small as a world and as large as alone. 

  For whatever we lose(like a you or a me) 
  it's always ourselves we find in the sea. 

  ee cummings

That last one is a new black furry friend we made taking the back roads home.

if you ever wanted to see the insides of a wildlife forensics lab

today is your lucky day!! We had a tour of the labs on graduation day for Rebekah. She has been studying the american white pelican for her honors thesis after her trip to the Arctic last summer and will continue her work this summer before moving out to Halifax for graduate studies. Here is a little tour of the lab she has been working in. It brought back memories of my days working in a chemistry lab for my doctoral work in synthetic medicinal chemistry. 

That is Rebekah and the last picture is of the pelican feathers she has been extracting DNA from and studying to write her thesis.

It was all a bit much for Deborah being more drawn towards the artsy side of life but she handled it all quite well.