JUST THIS

Thirty Days of Noticing

2011-01-02T13:05:00.000-08:00

Joining the River of Small Stones today - writing about small things I notice each day for thirty days

If you are new to Fiona's Small Stones, click on the graphic at right - then join us if you wish or just read along.

January 1, 2011

Isn't it interesting if you write the date in shortened form, it looks like this: 1/1/11

January 2

new computer - where the heck is the delete key?

January 3

slowly, slowly, the thick frost on the roof across the lane disappears in the afternoon sunlight.

January 4

the old grey raccoon makes his morning rounds through the brown stubble and weeds

January 5

at the Seniors' Centre this morning, doing my weekly volunteer shift, I saw this message scribbled on the inside of the door of one of the toilet cubicles - "if you sprinkle when you tinkle, be a sweetie and wipe the seatie"

January 6

they keep trying to convince me that my morning star is not a star, but the planet Venus - but they won't succeed

January 7

oh no, in this morning's mail - a reminder to make an appointment for my next mammogram - ouch!

January 8

after just two days of sunshine, the daffodil bulbs have popped out of the ground

January 9

David picked all the raisins out of his morning oatmeal porridge - he said they were tormented grapes - I think he saw that on an old movie

Haida Gwaii

2009-07-12T15:22:00.001-07:00

Just back from the Queen Charlottes with a sketch of this magnificent totem. Haida Gwaii means "Islands of the People".

I recently read a book by China Galland called Longing for Darkness, subtitled Tara and the Black Madonna in which she described her ten-year journey to discover the meaning of darkness in the mysterious black images of divinity. She conducted a deeply personal investigation taking her from New Mexico through Nepal, India, Switzerland, France, Yugoslavia, and Poland - places where gods like Tara, the female Buddha of the Tibetan tradition, and the Black Madonna are venerated today.

I hope she is able soon to visit the totems at Masset where she might find another Black Madonna.

Picasso said

2009-07-08T10:35:00.000-07:00

Lunch at San Remo

2009-07-02T10:29:00.000-07:00

To our favorite Greek restaurant for souvlakis and ouzo. Dino came to Canada from a small village near Olympia 25 years ago.

Here he is with friends back in Greece

Canada Day

2009-07-01T10:32:00.001-07:00

We traveled across the country by train. In Halifax, there is a wonderful Immigration Museum at Pier 1 ... stories and old pictures of folks coming into the country by boat. I guess people arrive here at an airport now.

There was a very old woman sitting on a bench nearby, and she was sobbing and sobbing. They spoke a language I didn't understand, but I think it was Polish. Apparently she'd arrived here in the 40's during WWII

Sketches in an Old Book

2009-06-18T09:07:00.001-07:00

I found a set of four old books from my childhood hidden at the bottom of a box is the store room. I was going to give them to the neighborhood thrift store, but now I'm so glad I didn't.

The pages are thick and creamy - taking pen and ink and light watercolor.

The first one I've starting using for doodling and sketches is Old Swedish Fairy Tales by Anna Wahlenberg, translated by Antoinette DeCoursey Patterson. Published in 1925 (I think) - my memory of Roman Numerals is a bit shaky

There are three more - all with wonderful watercolor illustrations

Tanglewood Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne 1921

Old French Fairy Tales by Comtesse DeSegur 1920

The Book of Fables edited by Frederic Taber Cooper 1921

I suspect this is a project that will keep me going for a long long time

Poppies

2009-06-15T17:22:00.001-07:00

in my neighbor's garden

Papermaking with Native Grasses

2009-06-14T08:47:00.001-07:00

At Sitka Center in Oregon, we used many different plant fibers for papermaking

I bound up several samples in a Japanese Stab Binding book

Since that time, I've continued at home, using bamboo leaves from the garden by my patio. Here you can see some of the sheets drying in the sun.

Time

2009-06-12T09:32:00.000-07:00

Dip pen and ink and brush pen on suminagashi. I did a lot of suminagash marbling a few years ago for use as end papers in my casebound books. Found this scrap tucked into another book.

Saving Private Ryan

2009-06-11T18:19:00.000-07:00

We watched this movie last week when the anniversary of D Day came around. We watch it every year, and cry every year

Spider Trap

2009-06-11T09:28:00.000-07:00

There's been an unusually large number of spiders this year ... and coming inside. I don't like to kill them, so I take them outside. Glass on top, a piece of cardboard underneath, and off we go to the patio.

The building manager said, "eeeyew, I can think of a lot better use for a shot glass."

an Island Weekend

2009-06-10T08:33:00.001-07:00

We live on an island, but it's so big I never think of it as an island. There are dozens of small islands surrounding us ... the Gulf Islands, the Discovery Islands, Queen Charlotte Islands. To Cortes for a weekend of fun in the sun, good friends and good food

Colcannon for supper tonight

2009-06-08T09:00:00.000-07:00

Colcannon, a potato and cabbage dish - variations of which are legion - is traditionally served on Lugnasa. In Celtic Britain it was taboo to harvest any potatoes before the festival, and so the event was met with great anticipation. All members of the family must share the dish or risk offending the agricultural spirit that protects the crop. After the first bite everyone shouts, "Death to the Red Hag!" thus driving away the specter of starvation.

There are about a zillion known varieties of colcannon. I like the one called Rumpledetbumps - it includes leeks and broccoli and cheese, and the name is so great.

This information and the recipe come from Mollie Katzen's great book Sundays at Moosewood Restaurant

Fairburn Farm

2009-06-07T08:29:00.000-07:00

on a hot, hot day, we sat in the garden and sketched stuff ... then into the cool kitchen for lemonade and cookies

Honey Pot and Moon Shell

2009-06-06T08:30:00.000-07:00

We watched this movie on DVD last night - not great, but had fun drawing the honeypot. Another movie made from a book by Sue Monk Kidd we liked very much because it was filmed just a few miles up the road from here. I liked the young monk who was very nice to look at

Grandma's House

2009-06-04T08:37:00.000-07:00

A work in progress - from a photograph of Grandma's house in southern Alberta. Many happy summer vacations spent here. The old house has now been designated an historical site

More Stones

2009-06-03T19:15:00.000-07:00

from our workshop with Connie in Duncan

Pots and Rocks and Stones

2009-06-03T08:33:00.000-07:00

At a workshop with Connie Furgason in Duncan we practiced sketching simple objects and geometric shapes with 1/2" flat brush and watery watercolours. The lesson was not to create exact detailed images, but rather an image that is the essence of the object.

We were inspired with Sara Midda and James Christensen.

Shoes and Boots

2009-06-02T11:51:00.001-07:00

Oregon - Portland and Sitka Center

2007-10-02T11:29:00.000-07:00

walking lots and the public transportation is amazing

>

at Sitka Center for the Arts - workshops in Travel Journals, Memory Books and Designing with Nature

Memories from Newfoundland

2007-06-01T20:40:00.000-07:00

Mary Alice lived in Cow Head all her life. She said "I hates the wind, but I loves the people". Me too. Huge bodies of water are landlocked fresh water, called 'ponds'. Gerry said, "there are no lakes in Newfoundland - a lake is what you get in your rubber boots." Sharon said, "I drops me haitches and they turn up where they're not supposed to be."

Bought this book at the airport and didn't like it much, so I spent the time sketching the cover. I liked it that it was set in Greece.

A day trip to Labrador ... a huge car ferry between St.Barbe and Blanc Sablon, Quebec. A marvelous museum of the great whaling ships at Red Bay.

The local theatre was holding a performance of Elle in French. I bought the book while we were there - wrote about it in my book blog My Reading Diary

A Hot Newfy Iceberg is made with coffee, Screech and ice cream

A new Tim Horton's had opened just two weeks ago in St. Anthony.

At the Grenfell Properties Interpretation Centre, I bought this green silk scarf. Sir Wilfred was a medical missionary in the 1890's.

Sketching in San Antonio

2006-10-01T20:33:00.000-07:00

Toronto Scenes

2006-09-03T11:54:00.000-07:00

A couple years ago, we took a train journey across the country from Vancouver to Toronto ... back to the old home town

in the Garden

2004-09-06T08:41:00.000-07:00

"Whether you know it or not,
you are the gardener of your own being,
the seed of your destiny "

Soen Nakagawa

2004-09-04T12:29:00.000-07:00

ENDLESS VOW
The Zen Path of Soen Nakagawa

A monk living alone
maple leaves
cover the entire mountain

So hitori sumu manzan no momiji kana

Grinding my Ink

2004-08-28T14:33:00.000-07:00

the silence between the notes of a flute

the white space around an ink drawing

that which is left behind

Margaret Chula writes:

"The bamboo brush waits patiently next to the sheet of washi as a small amount of water is poured onto the suzuri (inkstone). Picking up the ink stick, the artist begins to rub the sumi back and forth in the slow process of making ink. Back and forth it scrapes against the unyielding stone, screeching like the monkey mind within. The artist continues grinding the ink stick until the water begins to dissolve its edges, until all sound is dampened, until all that remains is the steady motion.

As the color deepens and ink fills the hollow of the suzuri, the artist's mind begins to empty. All thoughts of past and future are left behind in this repetitive motion of the present and one enters the state of 'no mind' or 'muga'."