mini vacation!

Went to see the new Cirque du Soliel show - Ovo - in Toronto recently.



The show was a matinee so I took the whole day off. Neil worked the morning - he tends to be more gung-ho that way. Gets paid more for his dedication. I packed and lounged around the house.

Ate bad food at a fast food place on the way out. Had time to check into our favourite hotel before the show. I love the Cosmopolitian. It's technically just outside of the business district in Toronto, but you could throw a stone at it. The views are fantastic from the windows (we could even see the big tops of the Cirque on the waterfront), and the place is so Zen-like.

Meandered over to the Cirque tents and settled in to be entertained for a few hours. Lots of kids in Halloween costumes in the audience. The little girl next to us was so fascinated by the show, we hardly heard a peep out of her.

The little girl inside me was so fascinated I hardly moved myself. :)

After the Cirque let out, we meandered up to Vertical Restaurant. I'm always interested in trying new high end restaurants when we come to Toronto. I'm looking for that perfect mix of a quiet atmosphere, unobtrusive but friendly service, and food so good that it challenges perceptions and delights the senses. Vertical comes so close..... but I am getting harder and harder to please as I gain more experience in high end food.

I'm looking for that stillness that comes down around me when it's just about the experience right there in front of me and everything else fades away. High expectations, I know, but I've been there.

Anyway - excellent service, reasonably quiet atmosphere, good mix of music in the background, and the food was excellent. Not transporting, but there it is. We opted to split the appetizer in order to indulge in the Italian mult-course experience. New food experience - grilled octopus! Then we both had the half size portions of the lobster tagliatelle, and he had the black cod and I had ummm.... darn, it escapes me... another fish. We both had the creme catalana for dessert.

Although the fish was perfectly cooked, and the veggies a nice mix that worked well together, I think the dish needed a little dribbling of some sort of sauce to pull it altogether.

It was a beautiful night as we walked back to the hotel some 2 hours later, much relaxed. He walked, I limped - haven't worn those heels in quite awhile and they were trying to break my feet in again.

The next day we went shopping! Efston Science and Capital Leather and Findings managed to eat a few of our dollars respectively. At some point, Neil turned to me and expressed the feeling that it feels like we've had a full weekend already and how delightful it was that we still had another day before having to go back to work again. I was feeling the same darn thing. :)

Drove home to mundane food and candy handing out duties, shamelessly eating all the good stuff and giving out the stuff we didn't want. Did not get as many kids as most years so we've had to clean up the leftover candy this week. It's been tough. :)

Weaving with the handspun is progressing, but it's difficult to get a good picture of it. I've broken 5 of an original 120 warp threads so far, just in these first 4 rows of weaving. I'm hoping it will settle out and find a stable point of weaving. I'm having no end of grief with opening one of the sheds.



Karen

Last week and this week

Okay, I'm behind on last week's photos and getting ahead of this week's photos.

Chokecherry blooms and house - I really like the depth of field. I can't remember whether this is one of the wedding trees or not. I think so.



Okay....the weekend before last, we headed off on a new adventure in Peterborough. A friend arranged to have her teacher give a private class in wheel thrown pottery and a grand time was had by all!

This is the very first thing I've ever thrown on a wheel! It's not yet dry or even trimmed in this photo. It's a little lopsided.

But I love it. I loved throwing pottery! I came home from the weekend and started looking for classes/studio time here in town.



These are the hubby's hands doing his own thing.



We came home from the weekend to the neighbour, with a large branch of the maple that's just over the property line on her side down in her driveway. Close inspection proves it was a lightening strick! Neil volunteered to chain saw it and take it away. He's a sweetie sometimes. Or very politely deranged. Your choice.

And two fence sections torn out by the wind. Shame that isn't as easy to fix as a bit of chainsaw activity.

But on the bright side... two days away and I swear all the plants grew six inches!

First tulip of the season! (Don't worry, there will be many many more.)



Yellow Primrose....



Apricot blossoms with the church steeple in the background..... again, a beautiful depth of field.



And just for fun - my new view at work! After 18 years...... I finally have a window!

Canada Blooms

Last weekend, we made our annual pilgrimmage to Canada Blooms, Canada's largest garden show. It's draw is a strange thing to me.

Is it the new ideas in gardening? the forced blooms giving hope for spring? The chance to stay in our favourite hotel - the Cosmopolitian? To photograph the city?

Forced tulips....



Water feature.... I love 'em, but I don't have the energy to maintain them in our yard.



I love calla lillies, but this picture is actually about me discovering another feature of the camera - being able to change the ISO to accommodate the low lighting on the show floor. I hate using the flash. I think it's rude to the people around me and I never like the results anyway.



Photographing the city.... usually it's the CN tower for me - either up from the ground or down from it's observation platform. But this time, it was the Royal Bank Plaza. On bright sunny clear days, it really comes into it's own.



The Cosmopolitian - delightful as always, but the food in it's companion restaurant is becoming more.... normal. We have another unexpected opportunity to be in Toronto in mid-May - could anyone recommend some high-end eating? I'm interested in a quiet peaceful atmosphere, in which the food is utterly divine. The ethncity of the food is completely unimportant to me - I want to try new things!

Spring!

Spring is finally finally really.... almost here.

Forward Into the Past is almost upon us on April 4th. Go.... check out the website at http://www.treheima.ca/fitp
and if you're local enough, come on out and join us for the day.

We had a high of 12 degrees celsius here and I got some yard work done. I burned a bunch of wood. You have to see the yard to know why that made such a little dent but still made me feel good.

And there are buds on the cherry tree.

Boat Burning

Friends gathered, camera settings were played with, tripods were needed. Wishes were made, memories guarded, and family remembered.



And a boat was burned, keeper of our thoughts. What was once, and will be.

Coming around again

Neil's been to California and has returned safe, and sound.

We've been to Canada Blooms, and it's now done for another year (and it's still not spring yet).



We stayed in our favourite hotel, the Cosmopolitian, and walked to the convention centre for the show. The restaurant that we planned for that evening was just around the corner as well. Iceland Naturally and the Icelandic Community Club of Toronto collaborated with several places throughout Toronto to present "A taste of Iceland". One of Iceland's foremost chefs was trucked in to create special Icelandic dishes in two different restaurants in Toronto. We went to the Biere Market on the Esplande. I had the duck - delicious!

But the real gem of the weekend (for me anyway), was the meal we had in the new restaurant at the Cosmopolitian. It's called Eight, and it's billed as a wine bar. I'm sure the wine is lovely, but I didn't have any. I had the lamb. Oh my gosh, I have never tasted a better lamb in my life.

Now, the only disappointment was the invasion of the NYPD helicopters. Yup, that's right - NYPD helicopters. They were filming in the area of the hotel and were a bit....noisy.

Does this seriously look like New York to you? That's the CN tower in bottom of the picture.



Karen

Old Year, New Year

Big snowstorm at the end of December! It's all gone now with a rainy warm spell this past week. Who knows what happens next?



The New Year brought a brief burst of new energy. I cleaned up my stash. This is just the downstairs part of it - either yarn I theoretically will be crocheting with shortly, or fiber to spin. I've been spinning a great deal lately, because I've been taking lessons in wheel spinning.

I know how to knit, but I prefer to crochet. :)



Never fear, dear drop spindle, I won't ignore you for too long. Although the wheel is kinder to my shoulder. Has anyone else had "spinner's shoulder" with the drop spindle?



Neil took a new job at the beginning of December. His old one was killing him. We decorated his new office over the holidays. He's flying off to California later this month for a few days on the company's dime. I'm. not. jealous. at. all.



Neil gave me this Tigger doll for Christmas - it bounces and talks when you press it's tail. The dog hates it, but I'm still getting a giggle out of it. :)

Karen

Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!

Karen

New stuff, by request

I've gotten poked by two friends. Vandy sent me email reminding me that I'd promised to put up some commments on Neil's recent bead explorations, and Nina left a comment kicking me to post up about my experience with spinning lessons.

So let's do this chronologically then and I'll throw in a visit to Peterborough as well.

First there was Neil's bead furnace experiment. He's finishing up his degree in archaeology at Wilfrid Laurier University and one of his courses asked for students to actually _do_ something in an historical manner. Neil made a bead furnace and made beads.



Neil made the furnace by himself, but needed an extra set of hands for the bead making so I pitched in.



Very ugly beads, eh? :)

His paper is replicated on the Dark Ages Recreation Company webpage, here.

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Later that same month we visited Peterborough to take in the Vikings exhibit at the Peterborough Centennial Museum. A friend of ours was the lead curator for this exhibit.




Our friend called upon DARC to donate some of our re-creations to supplement the exhibition, to make a simple panel presentation more 3 dimensional. That's Neil's shield in the picture.

But more importantly to me, is the loom that Dave made for his wife Anne, and then borrowed back for the exhibition.



I greatly admire Anne's disciplined approach to study and recreation in the Viking Era textiles. Look at the fabric she's getting here...




Now, she's all modest and doesn't think much of it, but I think it's great! I have trouble just getting started with the weaving.

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The most recent development has been that I've started taking lessons from Wellington Fibres. Specifically, in how to spin on a spinning wheel. My friend Vandy loaned me her Ashford Traditional more then a year ago, and I've been trying to teach myself off and on. I finally came to the conclusion that it just wasn't working.

Ability with a drop spindle doesn't seem to translate that easily.

Now, I realize that I still need to make some progress in consistency but I was pleased as punch when I made my first plyed yarn on the wheel.



Three skeins later, I'm a little more annoyed by the slow progress and a tad worried about how badly overspun my singles are. It makes plying very difficult. Let's just say that plying from a center pull ball is an exercise in frustration that I'd prefer not to repeat very often.



This past saturday was Dye day! Look at the pretty colours we got!



Now, these are all acid dyes and I doubt I'll repeat the experience very often unless I can visit the shop another day to hand paint some more skeins. I just don't have the equipment or space at home to handle acid dyes safely or comfortably. But that's okay, I'm good with natural dyes over the fire, like the Vikings did.

Now, this skein I'm pretty happy with. Very thin as a single, I could almost use it as sewing thread. Plyed, I don't really know what to do with it, but I'm sure I'll figure it out eventually.



It's very pretty - 75% wool, and 25% acid dyed green mohair. Vikings didn't know what mohair was, but I certainly enjoyed spinning it.

Of course, they hadn't yet been introduced to the spinning wheel either (even though some version of it had existed in China at the time), but I'm sure they would have enjoyed it's production value if they had had it. :)

Becoming a Flugelman

Nina asked, in the comments:
What does it take to become a Flugelman?

I'm so glad you asked! (oh look, blog content that I don't have to think up on my own. :))

First, the basics of Bogenschutzenfest. The hubby says it's history is that of drunken Oktoberfesters running about shooting at weather vanes with their bows and arrows.

At some point, they made it a family event and created a styrofoam bird to sit up on top of the flag pole instead. There's still drinking, let's not make that mistake - it is Oktoberfest, after all. But the event is held during the day and it's hard to be too drunk that early in the day.



This picture is actually the bird used for the King and Queen shootoff, I didn't get a pic of the styrofoam version, but they look the same.

So.... the person who shoots the crown off the head of the bird is called a Croneman, and the person who shoots the head off the bird is called a Kopfman, and each of the wing men are called Flugelman.

I made the shot that brought down the right wing.



Okay, so 4 or five rounds of 70 odd people aiming for that wing rather loosened it up for me, and I was just lucky enough to hit it when it finally decided to break off. But still..... :)

I've been shooting in the contest for the last 5 years and this was my first time winning a prize.

The guild membership / badge is a one time only thing, upon your first win, but the badge indicating which body part you got can be had over and over again as you win them. The trophy also happens every time you get a body part.

There's also another part to the contest - that of becoming the King or Queen of the shoot. The bird changes to plywood version, and there's a red button in the middle that hides a shotgun shell. Hit the red button, and the shell goes off.

We break into genders and each person gets one chance to hit the red button. You're eliminated if you don't get it, and there's a shoot-off if more then one of you do hit it. We need one woman, and one man to hit the target to become the Queen and King of the contest. The King and Queen are encouraged to join the Oktoberfest parade later in the week.

Oh, and there's one more draw to the contest but it may appeal only to a limited few. My mother is firmly in that club - I have got to get her to come out some year because.......

Elvis is a member of the Guild, and on the organizing committee. Yup.... Elvis. And you all thought he was dead some 20 years ago, yes?

Bits and Bobs

Bone-tired. So much on the go. And so much left to do. It's all good, it's just draining. I'm sorry that I haven't posted much lately.

Meatstuffs - We recently stocked up on the meatstuffs by visiting Well Fed Foods again. It's a great place.

Which leads me to another thought - it's a place that I might not have discovered, or thought much about if I hadn't gotten exposed to the whole idea of Local Eating at Pocket Farm. Liz has recently decided to stop blogging and I will miss her greatly.



Participated in Bogenschutzenfest! and the weather turned out wonderful. It's one of our favourite activities every year. I became a flugelman!



Garden Stuff - still need to plant bulbs, and finish moving the pile of mulch in the driveway into the gardens, and generally clean up and put the gardens to bed. It hardly seems real because the weather has been so good this fall, but it is getting on time.

Tomatoes / sauces - It seems to be slowing down as the weather gets progressively cooler. The tomatoes aren't ripening as quickly, but there's still lots of them out on the vines.

Homemade apple sauce - simple and yummy! I've had a huge bag of apples slowly rotting in the fridge and not getting around to doing anything with them until this weekend. Peel, puree in the food processor, a little cinnamon, nutmeg, and just a tiny bit of sugar - heat for a few minutes and presto!

I need to go and see the doc about a blood pressure check. I'm having trouble losing the weight she prescribed, but then I'm having trouble exercising per se as well. You'd think a busy life would be enough, but apparently one needs to actually carve yet more time for focusing the exercise. Phooey, I say.

Canada Blooms, Taranna, and the Potatoes

Last weekend, we went a'travelling. Just down the road a bit to Taranna, also known as Toronto, for those who prefer the correct spelling and not the accented phonetic version.

The delightful husband took me to see The Phantom of the Opera, and we stayed in this really gorgeous hotel, called the Cosmopolitian. We ate in the hotel's restaurant - Doku 15. Careful with that last link, it takes a long time to load and doesn't like all browsers. But it's the best meal I've had in years, and the service was fantastic.

And the next day, we made our annual pilgrimage to Canada Blooms. Sometimes it's disappointing, sometimes it's not, but it's the earliest touch of spring we can get up here in the great white north.

And it's right next to this favourite landmark. You would think after 30 years, I'd get tired of trying to photograph it, but apparently not. This is the world's tallest freestanding structure - the CN Tower.


Another landmark near the convention centre is the Skydome (currently known as the Rogers Centre - I frown at the change of name), which hosts these modern gargoyles - sports fans.


The convention centre itself pretty non-descript, architecturally. It's the things inside that usually get my attention.

Like these pretty flowers....


Or this interesting collection of standing stone waterfalls...


Can you imagine that in your backyard?

The theme of the show this year was "Earth, Air, Fire and Water". It looks like this landscape designer was trying to do something sort of Stonehenge-like, with water. Ambitious, for sure.

On a more personal front... the potatoes fall over over, go boom. Many of the stalks broke in the process. I completely fail to understand.



But ya know, I'm still encouraging them to grow - gotta see what happens next.

Karen

Waking Up :)

Well, it's been a month since I've had anything of any value to say. I guess it's time to wake up.

We've got another Snow Day here. And while there certainly is a lot of snow, it's the ice that has everyone worried. The short version is a big storm that mixed tons of snow with freezing rain and ice pellets came by to visit yesterday and we're all digging out.

Or in my case, waiting to be picked up...





There are literally dozens upon dozens of tree branches all over the yard. Problem is, that snow is crusted over with ankle-twisting ice.

Those potatoes from a previous post? Okay, these ones....?



Well, I planted them just two weeks ago, and gave them just the tiniest amount of water. I didn't really want them to grow, it's still ages before they can be planted outside.

But they didn't listen.

Two weeks ago...



Eventually, they got so big in those tiny little pots, that I had to switch them into those big containers in which one can buy kitty litter in bulk. When I moved them, they were already starting to get rootbound.

A week ago...



Again, I gave them very little water, but...



This one's from this morning.

They're literally growing an inch a day. Neil keeps saying that they should stop any time now and spread out some, that this is as high as potato plants get. But he's been saying that for days and it hasn't stopped them.

I've never grown potatoes before - any comments? Do I have a hope in hell of transplanting them safely in the spring at this point? Or should I just give up and see what happens in the buckets?

There's also been seed planting, but there's nothing to show for that yet.

And there was this Boat Burning thing....ya see, Dave (left) built this boat.


And Darrell added some "special sauce" because he didn't want to stand out in the cold for hours ....it's tradition that we don't go back in 'til it's done.

And then, well.... we burned it.



It's a Viking thing.... DARC does Viking things.

And that's it, that's the past month.

Karen