when I lived in the city...

...I loved it.  I didn't mind the traffic (I rode my bike everywhere).Ioved the diversity of everything but most of a I like taking photos.  Toronto is a visual feast and that is what I miss the most, finding beauty in all the unexpected places.  Here are a few photos from my time spent there.  The first photo is of a lovely little deck, my roomate, Anigav and I shared.  It may have been a bit more shabby than chic but we spent many a night out there basking in the ecstasy of the warm, city, night air.  Don't get me wrong, the city has it's own "treats and treasures" but I sure am glad I had my time with Toronto.  It changed me, it allowed me to grow and it brought some wonderful people into my life, one of those my good friend Poppy, you can see her peeking out of the right corner.

bragging board

"Bancroft, the most talented town", as our welcome sign declares, is no lie.  Today as I watched our T-Hawks for their first match of the season, I was thrilled.  I had no idea how gutteral my yells could get as I screamed for 33 to "GET HIM DOWN" and belted out to 24 (my beloved steppy) to "RUN, RUN, BRING IT HOME".  33 awed us with his gazelle like leaps into the air and down onto his prey as he took out the offense over and over again.  I am hooked, I loved every moment of the action and even shed a wee tear when our boys won 13-12 and my step son took home "Player of the Game".  A promising season ahead.  Love you boys!

dandelion

Finally got my Dandelion photo.  Maybe a little contrived but Little M, Hot Hunter and I had fun getting a few shots in the afternoon sun, can't wait to see her favourites.

spring splashing

What is lovelier than little girls splashing in the lake, wearing white cotton?  I got all inspired the other day when I went to pick Little M up from school.  The Dandelions were in full force on that side of town and their yellow, button heads in contrast to the spring, green grass had me excited to take some photos; of the girls frolicking in their cute, white cotton dresses, through a green pasture, peppered with gold.  Unfortunately by the time we made our way back to our side of town, there was not a Dandelion in sight....we ended up going back through the woods to a lovely dock on a secluded little lake, splashing and playing catch with the dogs.  What a lovely afternoon.  Roll on summer! P.S. Dandelions are weeds.

The Logger and The Lady

Here are some of our wedding pics...we just got them yesterday.  Taken by Erica Miller of http://ericamillerphotography.com/ . I'm not very computer savy so the order and arrangemnet of the pictures is kind of all over.  You should get the general idea anyway.

    

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.