Snow aliens, snowwoman, fun in the snow!

 Felix helped me begin to build a snowman. Well, he was more moral support than anything!

He's more like the stupidvisors that stand around
for moral support!

Up to his armpits in snow!

See? Stupidvisor cheering me on!

Buster is hopeless. He took off to sit on the fence looking for mice friends.

I was disappointed with my attempts yesterday, the snow is very heavy and I made the balls too big! (I know there is a crude joke there - I won't make it!)

Real snowball snow!

Not to give up.


I went out again today, and sliced the snowball on the ground in half with my dad's saw. That meant I could just barely lift it up top in two lifts!


It was -10 C. last night and no longer snowball snow today!

I'm used to hauling the 40kg bags of deer food out of the trunk, so goodness knows how heavy the snow was when warmer and wetter yesterday- if I couldn't lift it!

Frosty and her deer friend, Olive!
And, yes, Olive, the other reindeer,
looked like a sheep with snow on her. I cleaned her off.

I gave her a paint job today, and feel quite creative!

You can see my Giraffalope in the background.

I was missing my grandkids in Bala, Muskoka, where we used to live.

This snow alien I made on the ice. Fittingly she had a life jacket on!

Wishcatcher...flying in the breeze

I'm not pleased. I wouldn't sell it. But I put together a number of crafty items, used my teaching experience and created a wishcatcher.

I painted the hula hoop with spray paint, meant for plastic.

The ribbing was from Michael's. A bag of sinew, in pieces, wrapped together. A glue gun is a fabulous invention.

The feathers, for now, are feather dusters!
There are little beads strung into the mix.

Olive, Giraffelope and my chair

The reindeer (Olive, the OTHER reindeer) I bought in Manotick, put her on my car roof, and drove to Muskoka as a gift to my parents many years ago. The car was an Achieva. I was so proud of myself!

my front lawn!

As I said yesterday, I've done Christmas & New Year's cards , macrame (now long settled into dust), when I was in young and home with kids. I made candles. I remember the 70s!

 Inspired by Muskoka Artisans,  (see Luce! Dee in Bracebridge), and now Lanark County artists (e.g., Perth Studio Tour,) I felt I could find some inspiration and creativity.

Teaching had its moments, but mostly it was deciding what NOT to teach!
I used to just lay out the art supplies, suggest a theme, and watch them create. Some were crafty, created models, others followed their hearts. Art is for fun. I loathe art that looks like all the others. For art is good therapy. It is not something we amateurs feel pressure about. Music was good therapy too. We wrote a class song in 2003, and videotaped it!

Creative activity could be described as a type of learning process 

where teacher and pupil are located in the same individual. 

-Arthur Koestler, novelist and journalist (1905-1983)

For what do you hope?

I follow a few blogs that feature creative pursuits. Creativity is very healthy. As much as being in nature, the power to heal. To sit quietly beside a lake, under trees blowing in the breeze.

Travelling around the latest Lanark Maple tour we spotted fencers, potters, as well as other creators. A healthy cottage craft.

My latest creation, since my garden is to bed for the winter, was my giraffelope. He is decorated for Christmas. I added wings last week. 

I used the same technique as in dreamcatchers for the wing webbing, 30 yards of rawhide. 

Out in the fresh air, pondering life's mysteries. Strangers stared as they passed!

Hats; my girls in my chair

My daughter crotchets, as my late mother did. I cannot. I tried. I gave up. I have other tricks! I used to do macrame, needlepoint, and made candles in those good old days. Caitlin made hats for her family. She's making a couple to sell to friends of friends, too. Two kids under 3 and she is a busy woman!

Dreamcatcher at Wahta

Now that I no longer have to do marking, plan for teaching, read recent publications for work, and I have leisure time to invest in my interests. I find it lovely to sit and listen to a podcast, or the radio, and putter, while pondering life.

Children's Wishcatcher project

My current project is a hula hoop/wishcatcher. I cannot, in all good conscience, call it a dreamcatcher as that seems a particularly Native spiritual artistic endeavour. I loathe those who steal such designs.

I remember creating wishcatchers with our Children's Bereavement Expressive Arts Therapy Group. We called them wishcatchers.

They were tough for the younger ones, but having to depend upon their mentor for teenage help, holding the beads, and hoops for each other, created an amazing synergy.

It is wonderful therapy. We also did pottery.

child's concept of her mentor/buddy

I talk with my Hospice clients about their hopes. In a recent workshop, I was thinking about this. Some of the literature suggests that we examine our dreams and hopes differently. Hopes change with the diagnosis of 'palliative'. Rather than looking for hope for a cure, we have daily hopes. We can hope on a short-term basis. Things we look forward to each day, or each hour. Rather than hope, I wish peace for my clients. It is different for everyone.

Our group project: HOPE

My dreams have changed. No longer do I wish for 'lawyers, guns and money', to quote a musician, Warren Zevon. I used to hope to have a job in Muskoka, check. I used to wish to retire beside my precious lake. Check. Now, close to family and friends, I have all that I could wish for. I cannot wish for health, as we middle-aged women have our aches and pains. I know that exercise, eating properly, watching my cholesterol all factor. Health is a self-inflicted wound, methinks. We know how to prevent most disease. (*Cardiovascular disease, CVD, is the biggest killer of women.) I'm prepared for whatever befalls. I want to live in the present moment, appreciating the world around me. Overall, I hope I make a difference.

For what do you hope: today, tomorrow, this year?
Are you enjoying each day to the fullest, no regrets about tasks incomplete, dreams delayed? Are you loving yourself as much as others love you?
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*Fact: 41% of all deaths of Canadian women are CVD-related, compared to 37% for men. [Heart and Stroke Foundation.pdf] By the year 2015, almost half of all women in Canada will be aged 45 years or over, which means a large contingent will be in the heart-disease- and stroke-prone years. It costs Canada billions of dollars in health care. The quality of life of CVD survivors – the satisfaction of physical, social, and emotional needs and aspirations – is another indicator of social impact. Unfortunately, there is minimal research on this on women (most studies are on men). Visit CHAP, for more information.

What do you get when you cross an antelope and a giraffe?

How about: giraffelope?

How about a giraffelope?

We saw a man about a fence. He's famous in these parts.
It is beautiful.


His work is amazing. In a day we had a fence. I love Scott's work.

He inspired me to liberate some dead wood from our forest.

And then I made a deer/giraffe from some wood I found in our forest. I'm looking for a snappy name for it!

The head is made of cedar, weathered, the body is one piece, from a tree knocked over by lightning, then the branches grew vertically.