It's November!

Greetings! I trust you survived last night's festivities. 

It was an exceptionally warm Halloween here, but an exceptionally quiet one as well.

I don't know where all our goblins were...

"No warmth, no cheerfulness, no healthful ease,
No comfortable feel in any member -
No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees,
No fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds -
November!"

Haha! What can be said about November - no matter how much we try to put a positive spin on it, the above poem perfectly sums it up. The beauty that was Autumn has past, the trees are laid bare and the geese are wisely making their way to warmer climes. If I had wings I'd join them! Still, I refuse to allow this time of the year to get me down, 'This too shall pass' is my faithful adage. 

I turned the page on my Inuit calendar today.

It's a lithograph by Pitaloosie Saila entitled The Red Mitts.

What are your thoughts about this time of year?

Do you have a special saying that you use to motivate or cheer yourself?

This too shall pass is something my mother often said to me in encouragement while growing up.

Amazing Little People

"Delicious autumn! 

My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth 

seeking the successive autumns." 

- George Eliot

I love the above quote as it so perfectly encapsulates my feelings this time of year. If only there were two seasons: summer and fall.... sigh. Seeing as it's October, I turned another page of my Inuit Art calendar, featuring artists from Cape Dorset, Baffin Island.

This was September - which I never did get around to showing you.

It's entitled Yellow Bear, Brown Bird (Kenojuak Ashevak)

For that matter, here is (was) August. Sheesh!
I took a bloggy break in August - so I do have a good excuse.
Swimming Bear by Sheojuk Etidlooie

And finally we reach October's Legend of the Little People by Kavavaow Mannomee 

Our son worked on Baffin Island at one point a few years ago and brought us home a number of pieces from local artists as gifts. Legend of the Little People immediately brought to mind this one:

 Known as an Ulu, this all-purpose Inuit knife was traditionally used by women

for skinning and cleaning animals, cutting food, trimming blocks of snow and

ice used in building igloos and cutting children's hair.

The edge is very sharp, the handle and rest are caribou bone.

Legend of the Little People reminded me of a darling picture I stumbled across a few weeks ago and have been meaning to share. Like a lot of you, I adore little people, be they forest folk, elves, hobbits, fairies, gnomes... have I missed anyone? However, I had never thought to include Smurfs in that list! (probably because they're imaginary... lol) Isn't he adorable? If you click, it will expand further.

"The Smurf is actually the result of a symbiotic relationship between two organisms. We believe that Smurfs put their 'embryos' in the button of a developing mushroom. From a distance, Smurfs seem like they are wearing a hat and pants but as you can see this is a fallacy. The fungus provides camouflage and protective epidermal layers for the creature, while the creature provides nutrients and mobility for the spreading of spores."

Mr. Smurf got me thinking about a book I found a couple of years ago while rummaging through a large antique mall in Brantford, Ontario. I was instantly enchanted, yet set it down after few minutes and moved on. A few weeks after returning home I regretted that decision, called my mom and requested she pick it up for me; unfortunately it had apparently been purchased. Approximately six months later, I returned to the same establishment and did another thorough search myself - still nothing. In the end, I ordered it through Amazon.

The wonderfully detailed drawings and accompanying stories are simply precious. It richly describes everything you've ever wanted to know about gnomes, but didn't know who to ask:

how do they make a living?

how is a gnome's home built?

their history, 

legends, 

clothing, 

courtship and marriage, 

physiology, 

gnome acupuncture, 

animal aid,

where do gnomes go on their honeymoon?

Burning questions, and thankfully no detail is too small or overlooked!

Ha ha, I'd crawl in the pages if I could!

That's all for today - I'm not quite sure how we got from George Eliot to Gnomes... but we did! Did you know that George Eliot was in fact Mary Anne (Mary Ann, Marian) Evans? George Eliot was her pen name, which she is said to have used to ensure her works be taken seriously. She also hoped to escape the stereotype of women only writing lighthearted romances. (Wiki)

Tomorrow morning we set off for a few days in Nelson, BC. My husband has business there and I am tagging along. If you've never visited Nelson, I highly recommend it. It's a very scenic location and the town itself is both quaint and quirky, it has sooo much character and fabulous shopping - a lot of it very earth muffiny and handmade. I'm taking along my camera - hope to bring back some pics which show the town at it's best. Have a great week - I'd really like to say have an amazing week, but after reading a few of my previous posts, I have only just realized how much I use that word: A LOT!

Cheers!

"People take pictures of the summer, 

just in case someone thought they had missed it, 

and to prove that it really existed." 

My first peony bloomed on Saturday :)

Tuesday Greetings! Can you believe it's July already? 

I turned the page on my Inuit art calendar :)

This lithograph and stencil is entitled Blue Bird by Kavavaow Mannomee

It seems like forever since I last posted; except for Thursday's little extra which doesn't really count.  I've been busy mentally filing away jewels throughout the week to share with you; hopefully you will feel it was worth the wait :) While I still stand by my decision to post only once a week throughout the summer, I'll let you in on a secret: I really had to force myself not to sign in everyday and pop up something... anything!

This weekend we kept entertained (!) by cleaning out our garden shed and garage - not sure how it happens, but every year we accumulate so much stuff - mostly junk we should have dealt with at the time, but instead chose to either throw it in the garage (our catch-all all winter) or move it from the garage (before the snow flies) to the garden shed and then back to the garage in the spring! Sheer laziness which we always pay for later. At least we had gorgeous weather to work in and the occasional beer to help break up the monotony, lol.

In gardening news, my Ninebark is positively laden with lovely blooms.

This is it's 7th season and it stands just over 5 feet tall. 

Strangely enough, I don't recall it ever flowering before...
It was kind of sickly looking the first 4 years,
and it's really only begun to flourish these last 3 seasons.

A faithful reader sent along this pic to me - it's a great shot if you enlarge it.
This little guy was spotted in Huntsville Ontario.
He was kindly assisted across the road to safety -
and then proceeded to reward his rescuer by snapping at him!
I had no idea that turtles this big even lived so far north...

Here is a little friend I made at the Winnipeg Zoo when I was there last week :)

There are so many of these cuties all over the grounds,

they're practically tame and come right up to you looking for handouts.

Just look at those nails!

 My favorite exhibit was the butterfly house.

The zoo is undergoing a complete transformation, 

(something we found out only after paying our entry fee)

and a lot of the exhibits were closed as a result.
Nonetheless, we still had a great time.

Enquiring minds want to know lol!

I think it's safe to say that pretty much all of us consider ourselves to be animal lovers. Now that it's summer a lot more people will be bringing their pets along with them as they run errands or on vacation. This past week I read a very informative article which outlined the safest way to transport our furry friends. 

Just as we buckle in our babies and children, we should also be securing our pets in a harness, pet-carrier or behind a cargo screen in a SUV or minivan. An unrestrained animal can be severely hurt and in turn become a projectile injuring other occupants in the event of a quick stop or accident. Seeing dogs (& the occasional cat) traveling loose in a car has been a pet-peeve of mine for years. Personally, we always buckle our puppy Emma in the center back seat in her carrier (which I found out is the optimum spot). I'm also considering a pet seat which you buckle in and then in turn buckle her harness into - that way she can look around a bit too! 

The most important thing I learned from the article was that any animal in a seat facing an airbag (& this includes side airbags) can be severely injured or killed should the airbag deploy - scary! - that's why the center back seat is more often the safest location or, if you want your pet in the front passenger seat, disable the airbag if you have that feature. Here's a link to the article.

That's all for now,

I leave you with a few pics of my Bellflowers,

(another look at my Ninebark behind)

I have loads of these and love them.

These pics do not begin to capture their delicate beauty.
They literally require no care whatsoever,
and will flower non-stop until fall :)

Hoping you have a great day!

"Sweet May hath come to love us, 
Flowers, trees, their blossoms don; 
And through the blue heavens above us 
The very clouds move on." 
- Heinrich Heine, Book of Songs

A bit belated, but I finally turned the page...!

We are having a lovely May so far. I haven't had an opportunity to give everything in my yard a real good once over, but from what I can see, it looks like everyone survived our wicked winter. My vines are up over 1.5 feet and the delphiniums are already 6 inches. The only downfall of the season for me is that the creepy crawlies are now out and about.... so I thought I'd share this interesting story I stumbled across yesterday:

This is pretty scary!

Almost 50 million years ago, ants the size of hummingbirds roamed what is now Wyoming, a new fossil discovery reveals. These giant bugs may have crossed an Arctic land bridge between Europe and North America during a particularly warm period in Earth's history.

At about 2 inches (5 cm) long, the specimen is a "monstrously big ant," said Bruce Archibald, a paleoentomologist at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia who reported the discovery today (May 3) in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. Though fossils of loose giant ant wings have been found before in the United States, this is the first known full-body specimen.


One living ant species, Dorylus wilverthi, has queens that reach the size of this ancient ant, though Titanomyrma was big all over while D. wilverthi gets its size from an abnormally swollen abdomen, Archibald said.

Archibald dubbed the new ant Titanomyrma lubei -- "titan" for its size, "myrma" for the Greek, "myrmex," or ant, and "lubei" for the fossil collector who discovered the specimen, Louis Lube. The burning question, however, was how giant ants ended up on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. 

The full story here if you are interested.


Also, you may have seen the story about a cat who was dubbed the world's loudest purrer (is that a word?!) The other day ABC news reported that Smokey is now officially the Guinness World Record holder. I love the profile below.

Februarius

February arrived and I suddenly realized I had not yet hung up the calendar I had received for a gift last fall. At the time, I was so pleased I could scarcely wait for the year to end so that I could begin using it! It did briefly come to mind a few times in January, but on each occasion I was involved and the thought quickly faded. Anyways, it is now being proudly displayed, and after all it's only February, so no harm done. I will post each month as we move through the year. 

The poem below it is a Native American late winter song; I feel it complements the calendar very nicely. As winter drags on, I feel myself beginning to echo their sentiments.

‘Oh, long, long
The snow has possessed the mountains.
The deer have come down and the big-horn, 

They have followed the sun to the south
To feed on the mesquite pods and the bunch grass.
Loud are the thunder drums in the tents of the mountains.

Oh, long, long 
Have we eaten chia seeds 
and dried deer's flesh of the summer killing.
We are tired of our huts
and the smoky smell of our clothing.
We are sick with the desire for the sun

And the grass on the mountain 
-Paiute Late Winter Song- 


I am a huge fan of Native/Inuit art. We have a few pieces of Inuit art which our son kindly brought back from a few jobs he worked at in Baffin Island and the North West Territories. Here is one of my favourites.

The word February is believed to have derived from the name 'Februa' taken from the Roman 'Festival of Purification'. The root 'februo' meaning to 'I purify by sacrifice'. As part of the seasonal calendar February is the time of the 'Ice Moon' according to Pagan beliefs, and the period described as the 'Moon of the Dark Red Calf' by Black Elk. February has also been known as 'Sprout-kale' by the Anglo-Saxons in relation to the time the kale and cabbage was edible.