Suckerfish Fishing

Who would have ever thought you would get me in a freezing cold pond to fish "Suckers" with a net.  I'm still not convinced this is their official name but I'll roll with it since I haven't heard them called anything else.  The idea is to "dog" the fish down the stream to the narrowest point, where in our case there were half a dozen of us waiting with nets to catch the "spooked" fish.  I actually caught one on the first night (when I eventually got out of the car since finding a populated area seemed a little more challenging than anticipated).  The boys were up to their (as J so delicately put it) "nut sacks" in the freezing cold water, having a blast scaring up these slimey critters and the rest of us had a gay old time catching them. 

The next night it was our turn (the girls) to do the dogging.  I donned a pair of big ol' hip waders, and a spear (though only for splashing) and along with Pastor A and Hot Hunter L we "dogged" the suckers down stream.  I had no idea that the Suckers made gobble noises.... no wait that's not a fish....I looked up above my head, there to my amazement were a flock of wild turkeys roosting.  Apparently they found our girlish laughs entertaining as every time we giggled they mimicked us with a "Gobble gobble gobble".  Where the France do I live and what the France am I doing in hip-waders, on a Sunday night, in the pitch black, dogging suckers down a stream?  Having a grand old time is where and what....I highy reccomend it!  Some of us weren't quite as fortunate in our attire as others...but God bless this attempt at waterproofing.  Now not only do we have Snow Rd Steak (fried bologna) and Snow Rd Salmon (Suckerfish), but now we have have Snwaders (Snow Rd hip waders).  What a beautiful addition to this collection of quality products;)

'tude

Here's my little pre-teen...she is hilarious.  I'm so blessed to have her in my life, telling me stories and coming out with the funniest comments.  For example: when we watched The Bachelor one night....I believe there was a bachelorette on there who was "in love" with Jake (the guy sifting through all the drooling girls),.....she had one eye looking at you and the other eye looking for you.  We roared with laughter when she turned to the camera, with squinty eyes, to say "why didn't he wanna kiss me?" ...at which point my Missy turned to me with cross eyes and repeated in a deranged voice "why didn't he wanna kiss me?"....I'm glad she knows when girls are being crazy!

Balls

On the most romantic day of my life I decided to have a really tasteful photo taken of my lovely sister-in-law and me.  The photo was taken by my great friend Melissa Jenkins.  The Poladroid finish is courtesy of : http://poladroid.net/ which I found on http://dirty-kitchen.blogspot.com/ another great friend of mine.
Hope you enjoy our balls!

The latest addition to my series of, vintage-fabric, paintings.  I was imagining I was in Italy, walking the hills and taking in sweet fragrances.  The perspective is sort of unusual in this one but I kind of like it.

untitled

After almost a year of not creating anything, I think I am almost on the other side of "artist's block".  Well hopefully.  I have re-worked this deer/birch picture I don't know how many times.  I have hated it all along but I think I may now have finally come up with something semi-decent.  After rumaging through my fabric box, I found some vintage fabrics I'd collected from Value Village, I think they might just have done the trick for those big ole' birch trees.  I have no name for it as of yet.

Summer

Please come soon!

The Sandbanks, Ontario in August 2009, Missy with her pal.

Daisy

Meet Daisy, the latest addition to our family and Jake's new best friend.

Just so Jake doesn't feel left out here's our Jakey...

Making Friends, and Keeping Busy in a Small Town

Life in a small town can be fairly lonely if you don't know anyone and you happen to be the latest import from the city. You would think that someone in this postion would gradually ease their way into the community, maybe join a church, go to the ladies coffee morning, or if you have kids, attend the local mums 'n' tots.

I decided to take a more direct approach, since I'm a little bit allergic to church and I don't have any tots. I would stumble across someone (sometimes literally, as I trip all the time so much so that my mother nic-named me "Footless Annie") I thought was interesting and then proceed to harmlessly stalk them.

You wouldn't believe the amount of friends one can make with this method. Don't get me wrong I didn't lurk around their woodshed with binoculars or a telephoto camera.  I would just actively call, the chosen victim, and ask them to go for walks or drop in to their work with coffee and banter. 

Now I have friends to go  play glow-in-the-dark-5-pin-bowling, tap maple trees with and play night-time-pond-hockey with...who knew life could be so rich with extra-curricualr activity?

I'll leave you with a quick "how to" on tapping maple trees:

Step #1 Make copper spiles (hate that word let's call them spouts)

Step #2 Find sap catchers (I used mason jars and wine bottles, wine bottles worked better because the rain water has a hard time getting into the small opening) and attach wire handles.

Step #3 Drill a hole in the tree the same size at the spout, pop in the spout and give it a nice little tap with the hammer, and then hang on your sap catcher.  To be fair that was about 3 steps squished into one.

Facebook Suicide

I decided to blog instead of Facebook. I found the fruit it bore was of no nutritional value in fact it tasted just like processed bolonge and while there may be a sick pleasure in the salty, way it dissolves and slides down your throat, the waxy residue left on the roof of my mouth was enough to turn me into a cyber-vegan. Instead of going to those lengths I am choosing to have a wee blog. A place where I can share my thoughts, loves, pictures from my life, and just a few things that move me. This is just a pretty picture of my friend Andrea. I love the daisies.