...soggy days...

It was a soggy, foggy day and the heavy mist hung onto each and every tiny seed head...

Regina and Rosey met up with us for a walk on the Goose...that's the local name for the Galloping Goose Regional trail.

 It's an old rail bed that has turned into miles and miles of nice, easy terrain for walkers, bikers and equestrians and is littered with history along the way.Here's remnents of the old telegraph line that ran along side.  have a look here to find out more... ...and a piece of old railway tie, returning to the earth...

 They call it the Galloping Goose because of the rattling, bumpy little train that used to ride the rails in the early to mid 1900's...now it's a pretty corridor at any time of the year...

Griffin and Rosey always have a good ramble when we get together...

...'pawsing 'for a photo op...

Regina and I try to get together once a week or so to walk and moan and laugh and today, to remember a friend, who passed away a year ago...As I said to Regina...it seems like a long time and at the same time Debbie was only here a minute ago. A quote I once heard...It's not that life is short, it's that death is VERY long...

These small moments in life are what we cherish...a stroll in the rain, catching up with the local news and just watching the dogs wandering along...

On the way back to the van, we pass a  little farmhouse with this sweet menagerie of sheep and duck...

..."Uh...its raining out there y'know.."

Of course some, like us, don't mind a bit...good for the old feathers they say....

tea with new friends...

Welcome to Pamona's house...

Today I went for tea at my friend Pamona's...Mary was there as well as Noreen. These are some new friends I have met since working at Farmers Daughter Food Market. Sometimes when you live outside of a small town, it can be a challenge to develope new friendships...people tend to stick close to home, especially in the dark days of winter so when Pamona invited me for tea I was delighted to go....

As soon as you walk through the door, you know you are in the home of an artist! Strange little creatures greet you in the hall...

...and tea and goodies await you on the table...

Pamona sits beneath her painting of Madonna and child, telling stories of her travels through life.

We talk of art and life and death and trains and Scotland and Ireland...of lives lived in the city and lives lived on communes in Maine...

We watch the logging trucks endlessly rumble by with cut trees, again and again...we try to understand how they keep coming...and coming with more and more logs from the salmon bearing creek to the west.

But all is peaceful and full of grace here in this little house...the fire crackles in front of us...we talk of our children and where they are going in their lives...

Mary shares stories, in her soft Scottish lilt, about her life in the little cabin at the mouth of Tugwell Creek and will it ever rise high enough to lap at her feet...

Noreen's lotus mosaic sits in a place of comfort above the mantel...

Pamona brings out old favorites from her childhood and we all reminisce about books we have loved...

...and the tea keeps flowing with quince jelly on corn bread.

There are many sweet treasures throughout the place...

...some old...

...and some new....

...and some very odd...

...this cap made long ago in Austria out of pounded mushrooms!

And so on this gloomy, wet, coastal day, I'm thankful to have new found friends with thoughts and ideas and tea to share.

Robert Frost revisited...

...one of my favorite poems along with some favorite art work and some of my own photos...

Stopping by the woods on a snowy evening.

by Robert Frost.

Whose woods these are I think I know

His house is in the village, though;

He will not see me stopping here

To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer

To stop without a farmhouse near

Between the woods and frozen lake

The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake

To ask if there's some mistake.

The only other sound's the sweep

Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep

But I have promises to keep

And miles to go before I sleep

And miles to go before I sleep.

Snowy Evening by Eric Palson

City Scape by Gustav Cailebtte 'Boulevard Haussman, Snow.

Horse and sleigh by Allison Benbrook. Peek in here to see more of her work

Ice

Sculpture by Mother Nature.

In the house..

When I was a kid in Toronto, I remember my dad and I going to the  lot to pick out our tree for the holidays. Although we didn't have a lot, we always had a big tree with lots of lights, tinsel and pretty glass ornaments.

I also remember that one year we each received a brand new pair of skates, our stuffed to the brim stocking and that was about it....but you know it was always good.

When I rub my hand through the needles of a birch tree, the smell connects me to oranges, wrapping paper, turkey roasting and all that was magical about those times.

As I grew older and had a house and family of my own, I decided that I didn't want to buy a cut tree.

I thought it a waste and I suppose in my hippy youth I was becoming environmentally conscience.

We still had lights and decorations, although they were either on a little indoor, live tree or some branches brought in from the woods.

A few years ago I started to go for long, cold walks in the bush to find a tree whose top I could take to bring home...but this year I guess I am going back to my beliefs and using branches from my Japanese dogwood to create something a little different...

I am calling it the Christmas chandelier.

I have all of my favorite decorations on it...

...this one I got years ago at a craft fair...brilliant use of a walnut shell...

This one was a gift from a friend in Minneapolis. It is made by a Mong woman.

This sweet little 2" boy was made by a woman on Denman Island...

...a pretty little glass chickadee...

...and this tiny knitted stocking from a little craft fair in Errington...which is a tiny place as well.

So for me the smell of an evergreen tree will remain in my memories or will be triggered by the brushes against

the birch on my walks.

so far...

It seems like this time in December everyone is busy and getting a bit panicky...I try not to get bogged down with the Christmas rush and instead I focus on the few things I need to do (or for that matter want to do!) for the day...In the end it all works out and I take a deep breath and enjoy the music, food, drink and company of the season. The other day I made some home made marshmallows which is something I've never done...it seemed so Martha Stewart...anyway it was a long and tedious project with lots of evil white sugary substances involved but they turned out really quite pretty and will make a nice gift along with some hot cocoa mix...

My daughter is a city girl and drinks lots of coffee's to go so she requested a knitted coffee sleave but after a few attempts and not likeing the bulk of the knitted version, I used a nice piece of felt and embellished it with some embroidery and beads and voila!...

For me the holidays are not about the gifts, but honestly it does feel good to give something which I know someone will like and cherish...and like I said earlier, the smell of a turkey roasting in the oven, with some pretty music on...the lights twinkling, egg nog in hand...and today our first dusting of snow! These things bring me small but immense feelings of joy and that, for me, is what its all about.