The joys of a spring garden

The lilac tree bloomed just in time for Mother's Day! These photos were taken by Angela.

Early yesterday morning I went out into the garden and surprised a black squirrel, a robin and a chickadee going about their business.

We have 2 chickadee families living in our refurbished chickadee townhomes (the two birdhouses hanging off the tool shed). Hopefully they will start patronizing the newly stocked supermarket (the birdfeeder). The pool (the birdbath) is not yet open for business, but hopefully will be cleaned and ready in time for the summer.

The pansy bed is a riot of purple and the rose bushes and the jasmine vine are bursting with shoots.

Spring is here at last!




The joys of a spring garden




Till We Have Faces

I requested C.S. Lewis's Till We Have Faces from the library some time ago after a friend told me about it, and finally got to read it last weekend. I was amazed and delighted by it, in ways I'm still trying to find the words to explain. The language is elegantly simple, the plot well-paced and exciting enough to keep a child entertained, and yet the ideas are so complex, multi-faceted and multi-layered. It has much to say about beauty, love, truth, freedom, sacrifice, and faith. It definitely merits a second, third, fourth reading...several readings spread over the course of one's life. As you change, so will the book.

Favourite passage, about Psyche: “She made bright all the corners of the room in which she lay. Always laughing, making all others laugh, merry, truthful, obedient, virtuous, spirited, compassionate, selfless...what every woman…ought to have been and meant to be.” 


Till We Have Faces




It's So You!

A couple of weeks ago my mom, my sister Angela and I started reading It's So You! by Mary Sheehan Warren. The result was a weekend-long purging of all three of our closets. First we spent almost an entire morning in the bathroom, where there is a lot of natural light, and helped determine each other's skin tone. I had gone for years believing that I was an "autumn" after reading Color Me Beautiful by Carole Jackson. Turns out that I actually have a "light cool" skin tone, which translates into a "summer" in the Color Me Beautiful scheme. Mom and Angela are both "cool" or "winter." Armed with this information, we hauled out all our clothes, and the fun began. We traded shirts, blouses, sweaters and scarves. Anything that was a few years old and in the wrong colour was put into a large giveway bag.

So the bad news is I can't wear orange, which I love. But the good news is that I can wear the entire spectrum of pinks, purples, and blues, which I also enjoy. And who says I can't still use my bright orange umbrella?

I would totally recommend this book to all women who want to look their best without blowing their budgets. Get a group of good friends together - you know, the kind who will tell you what you need to hear, in the nicest possible way. As in, "Honey, that shade of green makes you look like you have the flu." Also they have to be the kind of friend with whom you won't mind sharing your vital statistics - you'll see why in a second. Work together to find out what your skin tones are, and don't forget to also check out the section on Body Types. Then...happy trading!




It's So You!




Paleolithic Art

Just learned something interesting in my art history course.

Women were being depicted nude, often with exaggerated breasts, hips and abdomens, in painting and sculpture as early as the Paleolithic period (i.e. 30,000 years ago).

It's amazing that the fascination with and appreciation for the female form and fertility is so deeply rooted in the human psyche.

"The genius of woman," a wise person has said, "is her natural receptivity to life, which is revealed in the very structure of her body."




Paleolithic Art




Merry Christmas to all




Merry Christmas to all




More snow photos

Nope, it's definitely not barbecue season any more...

The bench in the garden looks like it has a big thick white comforter draped over it.

Sashi and I in the driveway.




More snow photos




Hello from Snowy, BC

It snowed non-stop for more than 24 hours starting last Saturday night. Today, Monday morning, is clear and sunny but very cold, by BC standards. With the windchill it's -18 degrees Celsius. We had a power failure yesterday afternoon, but thank God it came back after only a couple of hours, before it started getting dark. We managed to keep very warm and cosy indoors, drinking hot chocolate, eating cookies and writing Christmas cards, with the Christmas spirit just oozing from our pens.

This is the most snow we've had since we moved here, so we took some photos for posterity. 


Hello from Snowy, BC