Exploration....

The other day I went out for lunch with the women who help

with the kids garden club and one of them showed us this beautiful

nuno felted scarf eco printed with eucalyptus leaves she made in a workshop.

This is a sample off of the net since I didn't have my camera with me.

Thanks to www.terriekwong.blogspot.ca

Have you ever heard of eco printing?

Basically it's transferring the imprint of leaves and flowers and their

natural dyes onto fabric or paper.

I've experimented with this on paper and hammering leaves between fabric

but had a whole other world opened up to me when I saw the results

from the scarf Lynda made.

So off to the wool shop with Norene (my partner in art crimes)

and while we were talking to Ryan, the owner of Knotty by Nature,

he showed us a scarf very similar to Lynda's...

We then started talking about India Flint.

Eco dyer extraordinaire.

Just so happens that Ryan had one of her books for sale...

Before I knew it the book was purchased and in my bag along with my latest stash of wool!

Today we will experiment with making the scarf and step 2 will be the eco printing

onto said scarves.

Of course I had to try a wee bit of the printing before today so last night I made

up some bundles and steamed them for a few hours...

 Kinda voodoo looking aren't they?

 I left them wrapped until early this morning and like a kid at Christmas

jumped out of bed to see what they had turned into...

 This is the native trailing blackberry which made a really good impression...

 These were some leftover leaves from the flower shop but I don't know the name.

They turned out really nice too...

 Some fall coloured cherry leaves...

 The eucalyptus I used must be a different variety because it didn't

quite turn out how I expected it to...

 Close up of the blackberry leaves...

 ...and the mystery leaves...

 I did these all on some scraps of linen...

So now we have opened up a whole new can of worms to play with!

India's book is full of fascinating explorations into eco dyes and printing

and has already inspired us to take on this new challenge.

There's something so invigorating about discovering yet

another way to create.

One thing leads to another...will post about our further adventures into

the land of wool.

To be continued.

 



Song for Friday...under the covers

On CBC radio, Tom Powers has a segment called "Under the covers".

He explores the world of cover songs.

Sometimes they might be known and a lot of times they are obscure.

Yesterday he played a cover of one of my all time favorite soul songs

by the legendary Gladys Knight and the Pips.

"Midnight Train to Georgia" came out in the summer of 1973 and

8 weeks later replaced The Rolling Stones "Angie" in the #1 spot on the charts.

Loved it then and I still love it now...

...but the other day I heard this cover ...

by no other than Neil Diamond.

Much slower and maybe not so soulful but a completely great spin

on a classic done by one of the great singer songwriters of our time.

So enjoy and have a great weekend all!

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMcU7g2vpwA



Wordless Wednesday...Ye old sunflower

Just wandering....

Autumn takes me to many places in heart and mind.
I love these days of warm glows, rich tones, the coziness but

I am also filled with melancholy.

Why is it that the fall takes us so inward?

 

Is it the last waning days of frolicking in the outdoors, layered but able

to fling off the outer sweater as the mid day sun filters through the fog?

Knowing how soon the cloak of frost will greet us one morning, catching our breath

as we step out the door?

The falling leaves, a reminder of the fact that with life comes death.

 

My yoga teacher lost her mom within a week of a sudden illness.

She was young and seemingly healthy and then gripped by cancer severely and quickly.

Today when I wandered through the woods I thought of  that quickness.
My teacher talked about wanting to run from those deep and uncomfortable emotions
but how yoga has taught her to gather them close to the bone.
To sit with them.
To breathe.
And even though she couldn't physically do a yoga session in the weeks that
followed her moms death, she was still practicing.
Still a student.
Don't forget to breathe.
So, the same for me in that yoga is not just a physical practice but something that
carries me through the day, the years, the flights and stumbles.

I thought of my sisters brief time here.

The leaves that crumbled so easily under foot.

The decaying fungi that lasts for maybe a few days or a week at best.

And in our human world how 100 years can seem so long but 

for the majestic evergreens it is but a smidgen of time spent rooting into the earth.

Relativity.

Watching Griffin, I thought that in only a few years my beloved companion will be gone and how

short a time his lovely spirit has graced my world.
How much joy he has given me.
How many wonderful places we've been together.

The thing to keep in the forefront again is not how short the time

but how deep and meaningful that life has been.

How lovely and cruel life can be in all it's moments.

It's fragility can seem like a gentle breath on the wind.

It's severity, the loud crack of a branch, falling to the earth.

Grasp it all, gather it, rake it up, jump in and toss it overhead.
Give your heart a soft place to land.

Just like those leaves, whirling up in the blustery days of October,

moments will fly away...watch them closely.

Remember...
"Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take,
But by the moments that take our breath away".
(anonymous)

 

(mom, Tracy, Danny, myself. Wilket Creek Park, Toronto 1973)

 

 

On cue...

Like I've said before, Ontario is full of rocks and trees.

And then as if on cue, as soon as you cross the border...

 You are smack dab on the Prairies.

These photos are taken from the car directly across the Ontario - Manitoba border.

 If Christopher Columbus had landed here on his North American trek,

he would have definitely questioned his theory of a round world

because out here..."She's-a-flat"!

 Big sky, harvest time in Manitoba.

When we got into Winnipeg Tom had surprised me with two nights

at the gorgeous old CP Hotel Fort Garry...

 She is one of the grand hotels from the era of growth and optimism

when the train was the preferred method of travel and business and every large city

had a big, fancy hotel near the even grander Canadian Pacific Railway stations...

(back then it was the Grand Trunk and Grand Pacific Railway)

Our view at night looking out towards the Winnipeg station...

 The man behind these beautiful, luxurious hotels was Charles Melville Hays.

He was the President of the railway and wanted no expenses spared in the construction

of several of these hotels and railway stations.

Sadly he was one of the passengers on the Titanic and never lived to see the completion

of the Hotel Fort Garry or the Chateau Laurier.

In 1913 it cost $1,500,000 to build.

Imagine back in the day though...

Coming up to the front entrance...

 Porter behind you with your leather travelling cases.

Entering the lobby after days on the train...

Opening the door to your suite...

 Running a big tub of hot water...

There are reports of haunting throughout the hotel...

A worker who fell down the elevator shaft during construction

is said to roam the stairways...afraid to ride the elevator..

It reminded me of the hotel in the movie "The Shining".

Large, dark corridors...

 and this empty banquet room in particular...

But all spookiness aside, it really is a gorgeous old relic and Mr Hays

would have been proud of the finished product.

Many lovely art deco details are seen throughout the hotel.

There's even a beautiful old brass mailbox still in use for guests to post letters...

 Our only complaint was that there was a ballroom on the 7th floor directly below our

room with an extremely loud, disco thumping wedding going on.

The first night it was fine since we didn't get back to our room

until late and the music shut down about an hour later.

But the second night (another loud wedding happening) we requested

to switch rooms which the hotel kindly obliged.

We moved down to the 5th floor to another gorgeous room.

Luckily I didn't know at the time that there's a room

somewhere down there that is EXTREMELY haunted and

chambermaids are always trying to get out of having it

on their beat because of ghosts locking them in the room

and dark silhouettes standing by the foot of the bed at night,

not to mention bleeding walls and windows breaking for no reason...

no thanks!

The Fort Garry is a tribute to the glorious days of train travel.

My preferred way to go.

Not the super fast trains they have now but the old fashioned clickety clack

on the track, the slow rocking, meditating rumble on the rails.



Song for Friday...such a voice

Another angelic voiced Canadian girl from the East Coast.

Amelia Curran is an extraordinary singer song writer

 who comes by it honestly.

The National Post describes her as

 “a bit like Leonard Cohen being channeled in a dusty saloon by Patsy Cline.”

I hope you enjoy her...she's my new 'rainy day in the studio' music.

Have a great weekend all!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdTczTMEX-w