Sunday, November 11, 2012

"i remember", i said

"i remember" i said to the sea


far out, the swell of green
nearing it's destination, the tumult grew
heaving, thundering, crashing


the lightness of the sun one way
billowing dark clouds another


standing on the shores of normandy
echos on the wind


"i remember" i said to the river
  green and shining, always moving, never still

 to the grasses blowing and the poppies growing
in the fields of flanders


"i remember you" to the soldiers
who lay at my feet
 

the whispers of the trees
branches dancing in the wind


the cawing of the crows
told me they remembered too


 standing on the edge of the vimy memorial
the country lays at your feet
bending in gratefulness, remembering
 

chiseled in granite
unyielding stone


known and unknown
i remember you
 

Thursday, May 3, 2012

A Tale of Two Kitties







This post could also be entitled
"He Always Gets What He Wants"....

Bozzy rules the roost at our house
he's the Big Kahuna

it's been that way from the beginning... likely because he was such a pathetic little mess when we adopted him - ears frozen and ready to fall off, ditto for the end of his tail
wheezing and grunting from frozen lungs
he's been molly-coddled back to health and then some...

he and Mistress Josy-phine have a special relationship
he always gets what he wants
she can have a little hissy fit if she likes


Bozzy has learned Josie always finds the best spots for perching
and watching the world go by

so he knows that when she's conspicuously absent, it must be because she is in a better place

case in point...


surveying the situation


mapping the route: north face, no ropes
 

punted

 and... done!

He'll sit there for a while, checking things out, until he's sure everyone who's anyone knows that he's The Boss and then he'll saunter off, in search of a person...

that's the natural order of things

I've gone back to the natural order of things too...

when I first started quilting I made doll quilts

little quilts in different patterns, learning about colour and cloth and pattern and design
some hand-pieced and hand quilted, others by machine
all teaching me something
I saved all the snippets and scraps in baggies, one for each one that I made and they are still that way, tucked away safely in a box and in my mind


Laura was little then and always going to birthday parties
 the doll quilts were perfect little birthday presents - they were chameleons; a doll quilt if appropriate, a place mat if not
Laura always chose which one to give

this week I made another one 
machine pieced, but I'm hand quilting it
silk batting
a dream to needle - I'll never use anything else for hand-quilting again

 and my brand new bunny scissors from The Raspberry Rabbits

Shell said in a recent post she contributes $ from purchases to a shelter for bunnies so I ordered these 
and are they a dream!
cute and sharp, made in Europe and beautifully pointy
I love lovely tools

Friday, March 2, 2012

Cabin Fever


 Yep, I've got it.
A full blown case of Cabin Fever...


There's various names for it all over, but in the Yukon that's what it's called.

During the Gold Rush of 1898 the Sourdoughs (they were the Southerners who came seeking the gold) weren't used to a Yukon winter, where the temperature can go to 40 below or more for weeks on end, and back then there was no entertainment, other than the dance halls... and if you were out on your claim, twenty or thirty miles out of town, looking at a dog team for transportation, well, by the end of February you had Cabin Fever.

You're restless, fidgety, cranky, and nothing can please you whatsoever, until you're ready to put your own self in the corner and come-out-when-you've-thought-about-it...

winter's gotta go and where the heck is Spring anyway????

a little retail therapy can sometimes help....


when we were in the city for one day of tests, we stopped off at the mall afterward to run a few errands...

Marc wanted coffee but I secretly wanted to to peruse the dish section at the Bay
so I fobbed him off with some excuse or other and a plan to meet at Starbucks when I was finished...

In my browsing I found this - a lovely, perfectly grey-blue cake pedestal with brown edges and a raised detail, the outward curves perfectly matching the shape of my every day dishes 

and it was 30% off!

as I came around the corner, headed straight for the checkout I came face to face with you know who...

busted!

"Whatta ya have there Missy" he says

so, clutching the box a little closer to me chest, I started with, 
"It's the perfect colour, and it will go perfectly with my dishes" and finished up with "and it's 30% off!"

  

he shook his head, looked it over and said,
"what will you do with it?"

and with wide-eyed seriousness I replied,

"put cupcakes on it"

a long pause, a little sigh and then....

"well, bring your treasure and let's get out of here then"

and so it followed me home