Catch up and a sneak peak...

I have been away for a few days tending to Minnie Mouse...

Carving big orange vegetables...

It's been many years since I foraged out into suburban neighbourhoods

with a small hand in mine, dodging Spiderman and fending off lions

and bears. Although it's quite a ways from us including a ferry ride,

I take on these challenges of stepping in where my sister can't anymore with bittersweet feelings.

My trips back home are a tad heavy with feelings of loss still,

 but also and always with a great sense of love for these girls.

But now it's home again and back working on a bit of an involved piece for Etsy.

Just a sneak peak for now...

Have a great weekend all.

Hug who you love.



Wordless Wednesday...J.J

Book review...

 

 

 

I haven't been really excited about a novel for a long time.

This book kept me intrigued from page one.

Based on the true story of an ancient Jewish text known as the

Sarajevo haggadah.

A rare book indeed not only for it's tales of survival

but mostly for it's incredible illuminations.

Here's a sample from the actual book, housed in a museum in Sarajevo...

 

                                      

 

Not only does it break tradition by depicting the human form, but it also portrays the world as round, an heretical concept during the middle ages.

It has survived persecution since the 14th century along with the

people who have risked life and limb to conceal and save it.

I'll let this review tell you a bit more...

 

 One of the earliest Jewish religious volumes to be illuminated with images, the Sarajevo Haggadah survived centuries of purges and wars thanks to people of all faiths who risked their lives to safeguard it. Geraldine Brooks, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of March, has turned the intriguing but sparely detailed history of this precious volume into an emotionally rich, thrilling fictionalization that retraces its turbulent journey. In the hands of Hanna Heath, an impassioned rare-book expert restoring the manuscript in 1996 Sarajevo, it yields clues to its guardians and whereabouts: an insect wing, a wine stain, salt crystals, and a white hair. While readers experience crucial moments in the book's history through a series of fascinating, fleshed-out short stories, Hanna pursues its secrets scientifically, and finds that some interests will still risk everything in the name of protecting this treasure. A complex love story, thrilling mystery, vivid history lesson, and celebration of the enduring power of ideas, People of the Book will surely be hailed as one of the best of 2008. --Mari Malcolm

 

Part art history, part thriller,  big part cultural education,

this book is WELL worth a read.

 

 

 

Once around the lake...

The Boy Scouts and the Girl Guides have all gone home.

 Nights around the campfire and stories of strange noises in the night

fade into summer memories...

It's only Griffin and I who walk amongst these big trees...

The shouts and squeals of marching groups, hiking through

the woods are quieted now.

Cougar, deer and bear can walk more freely along the lake...

And in the curtains of the bull rushes, things that were hidden begin to show...

The red winged blackbird who worked so hard...

...gathering and weaving and raising their brood, have all flown away now...

...leaving this work of down and grasses as testament to a skill

I'll never master.

And who was the one who left my path strewn with little gold stars?

Maybe it was the fairy gnomes who made those noises in the night

with the full moon glinting off of their dust.

So long summer lake.

Close up and go to bed for the winter.

Let the leaves and snow cover the ground.

I'll be here when the birds come to wake you in the spring.

 



Song for Friday...thinking back

I remember this image from when I was a kid...

I wasn't old enough to really know what it was about but I do remember

thinking that the woman was poor, sad and scruffy.
But I also thought she was beautiful in some way.

I thought that her children were embarrassed to have their photo taken,

especially since their clothes were in such bad shape.

They looked hungry too.

Years later I learned about the Great Depression, Share Croppers and so many

people who lost everything and had nothing, trying to find The American Dream.

In these days of unsteady economies, downsizing and political mayhem

it's not hard to think that the same issues are plaguing many

in the same manner as when this photo was taken in the 1930's.

Not just our neighbours to the south but all over the world.

I've been listening to Gillian Welch and have this

hauntingly, beautiful song to share with you.

Hope you're all warm and fed.

Have a great weekend all

 

http://www.youtube.com/embed/ceDxO50GVes



Wordless Wednesday...

Onward!

One of the nicest walks we had on Saltspring Island was in Duck Creek Park.

It was another soft, grey day and so the maples in their golden,

yellow dress showed up just right for some photos...

I'm unclear on the history of this place even though I searched for some

story to unfold. For now it's past remains a mystery but not it's beauty.

Off leash dog parks are hard to find in some places and Saltspring was

one of those. Understandably so, since there are numerous sheep farms and

everyone knows that vagrant and wandering dogs can cause a real

threat to sheep farmers (well, mostly to the sheep themselves!).

 Many have been shot on sight.

So Griff was happy to run through these maple laced,

 sand coloured fields without threat...

Down near the creek we found a big ant nest still bustling with activity...

 Into the woods we wandered and I took my cue from Ansel Adams

and set my camera on black and white...

 Tones, texture, light and shadow come forth with these trees...

 And then right in the bottom of the darkest spot of the creek I saw a flash of colour.

These tiny wild cyclamens were quite happy in this hollow, growing on

a big mossy rock. The only ones around. They were only about 4" high...

How brave and lovely they are!