Hearts Broken Open

Posted on October 27, 2014 | 2 comments

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We said goodbye to our oldest cat last Saturday. Sylvester was 18 years old, arthritic, blind and tired. I still remember the day we brought him home from the shelter, 25 pounds of love. He, again was one of those animals that really needed fostering. A horrible upper respiratory infection meant his eyes were glued shut and he couldn’t breathe, but he never stopped purring. After two weeks he was much better but we couldn’t take him back. We had completely fallen in love with him.

Sylvester’s blindness didn’t stop him from anything, he learned to make his way around the house, garden and stairs. If he needed something, like food or pick me up he came up behind you and scratched your leg. Over the last six months the backs of my legs have acquired many scratches. They will  heal, but the hole in my heart from losing him will take a long time to repair.

Sylvester was the gentleman of our house. (you only have to notice his tuxedo)  He loved everyone and in doing so everyone loved him. A multi cat house means there will sometimes be spats. Sylvester was always there to referee. He taught 12 years of puppies how to respect cats and our grandchildren to gently pet a cat in return for kisses and loud purrs.

IMG_6737He loved the winter fire, long snoozes in the garden, drinking from the frog in the pond and cat nip.

Sylvester was all those things that make people love cats and watch those silly cat videos over and over. He had a great sense of humour and I know he would say to those people “gotcha ya“

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No one misses him more that his side kick Sparkle. We are all so much better for having known him. They say our hearts get broken to let the light in,  well then this is fitting.

“I have lived with several Zen masters — all of them cats.”
― Eckhart Tolle

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Sisters

Posted on October 13, 2014 | 2 comments

“Siblings are the people we practice on, the people who teach us about fairness and cooperation and kindness and caring quite often the hard way.”

Pamela Dugdale

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My daughter sent me this link from NY Times the other day.

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She was sure I would love it and she was right. Four sisters who have  their picture taken every year for forty years . It is definitely change in motion. If you look at each picture you don’t see it as much but if you look at the first and the last, my god, where did the years go?

I love it for a couple of reasons.  I am one of the five sisters. We are different from these girls. For us, there is twenty years difference between the oldest and the youngest. It was a terrible shock to my older sisters when my younger sister and I came along. They were grown up and getting ready to start their own families.

I think it would be wonderful if we someone had the forethought to take out pictures together for forty years. This is the last one that I can remember of us together. There are lots of one or two of us, or my younger sister and I with the grandchildren that started arriving right after me and before my younger sister came along.

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This is my favourite picture, my oldest sister and I. She could have been my mother. In fact, my name was what she wanted to name her first-born girl. My mother at 43 in 1953 was a little lost for names. She had Irene, Colleen and Sharlene. My dad used to joke that my younger sister and I should have been gasoline and kerosene. We did ignite quite a kerfuffle. At 52 and 45 when their last one was born, my parents were ancient in 1955: a whole generation away from us.

What luck for me to have my wonderful oldest sister still in my life today. She just had her 80th birthday and closed down the establishment her party was held in, dancing.

Today, both our families are grown adults, we have grandchildren and she has great-grandchildren. We love many of the same things like gardening, painting and music. We really like spending time together.

She doesn’t even mind my goats.

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This Thanksgiving weekend with my children and their children around the table,  I was so happy that they had siblings.  Even though, “big sisters are the crab grass in the lawn of life” (thank you Charlie Brown), I am not sure where we would be without them. “Help one another is part of the religion of sisterhood” LM Alcott.

A sister is a forever friend and I know my sister has the best sister!

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Purple Dresses, Pitch Forks, Tomatoes, and Boots

Posted on October 6, 2014 | 3 comments

BCWOMAN

My friends and family know my obsession with clothes and shoes. I spent 25 years in the prestige fashion and cosmetic business, working for and with famous designers. I started this blog post at the beginning of September but as life on the farm goes; work takes precedent. I wanted to talk about how priorities change as you age. I still love fashion and the colour purple, but catching the news on tv a few nights ago changed my train of thought a bit.

I caught the picture of Amal, the new Mrs. Clooney in her wedding dress. I said immediately it looks like an Oscar de la Renta, and it was. Beautiful, tasteful, a real piece of couture. She is touted as a “style icon”, like Jackie Kennedy or Audrey Hepburn, (some of my favourites). She will change the face of fashion. I had to watch the whole piece and I loved everything she wore. Not only is she a talented, smart woman, she has her own “style”. She is free to be herself.

I like to think I have my own “style”, it’s what makes me comfortable in my skin. How I look and how I dress says something about me. Unless you are naked, what you wear is an extension of you and what you want to say about yourself.

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Thirty years ago I had my style as well. It said: I am my mother’s daughter. As my daughter has quoted “she was a farm girl who wanted to get to the city”. She loved fashion but couldn’t afford to buy the beautiful things she loved. She was very resourceful and creative. An amazing seamstress, tailor, knitter and designer, if she saw something she loved,she created it for herself. She created beautiful things for her five daughters and all their dolls as well. Grandchildren were the best dressed ever. Even her son-in-laws got her creations.

My career in the fashion world thrilled her. One of her most loved creations was the dress she made me for a very formal affair with Oscar de la Renta. She recreated one of his couture dresses. His highest compliment was on her detail at the shoulders and how she did it. I think even he learned something. It was a beautiful dress.

The funny thing is even though I am my mother’s daughter I was born a city girl dying to move to the country. I remember saying in grade 12 that I wanted to live a pastoral life, raising cows in the country. It was the early ’70’s and put down to that “hippie influence”. My desire to backpack through Europe was poo pooed and off I went to university. I have always said it was my road less travelled.

I never lost my desire for the pastoral life and now here I am. Mimi Doolittle as my son-in-law calls me.

Today,  the colour purple in my life means:

purple tomatoes

my heirloom tomatoes (delicious),

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my new pitch fork (perfect for the barn)

and my new bog boots, perfect for poop kickin’!

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A path is what you walk, and you have to walk it to make it a path. Today I don’t regret a step I have taken. Hey, it got me here to the country and I still have style!

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October

Posted on October 1, 2014 | 2 comments

autumn trees

And fall is here. That season between the bounty and light of summer when everything changes in preparation for the winter sleep. There are still warm sunny days, only shorter and nights are cooler and longer. The sky is bluer, the colours bright with the hues of autumn. Oranges, yellows, reds, amethyst, and gold. We have abandoned our frilly pinks and opulent purples of summer. Time for boots and warm sweaters, tea, good books in front of a fire and contemplation. Soon nature will be stripped almost bare. Time to slow down.

“O hushed October morning mild,
Thy leaves have ripened to the fall;
Tomorrow’s wind, if it be wild,
Should waste them all.
The crows above the forest call;
Tomorrow they may form and go.
O hushed October morning mild,
Begin the hours of this day slow.
Make the day seem to us less brief.
Hearts not averse to being beguiled,
Beguile us in the way you know.
Release one leaf at break of day;
At noon release another leaf;
One from our trees, one far away.
Retard the sun with gentle mist;
Enchant the land with amethyst.
Slow, slow!
For the grapes’ sake, if they were all,
Whose leaves already are burnt with frost,
Whose clustered fruit must else be lost —
For the grapes’ sake along the wall.”

Robert Frost

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Duck For Hire

Posted on September 15, 2014 | 1 comment

aflacWho would have thought that Aflac was famous before she came to our house? What a great picture and what a great memory for this family.

Aflac was left…abandoned…inadvertently misplaced  in a large park in town. As any well socialized duck, left to her own devices, she waddled in to join the party; placing herself in the picture. This was a family professional photo shoot. Lasting memories for a little boy.

A note to whoever lost Aflac. I don’t know your reasons. It could be that your neighbors disliked her quacking  at meal times, or the duck poop or maybe she just outgrew her cuteness.

Backyard Chickens says this about Pekin Ducks

Pros:
“Friendly, forage well, stay close to house, easy to tame”
“Grows fast for meat, extremely efficient layers, adorable, entertaining, friendly, Good watch ducks”
Cons:
“Eat a lot, poop a lot”
“Can be overly noisy, very messy, poop machines”

Yes, she is all of those things. Now that we know she is so photogenic I am going to hire her out to professional photographers to add to those really cute baby and toddler photoshoots. At least she can pay for all the food she eats!
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Blowing Smoke

Posted on September 10, 2014 | 2 comments

 

“The fire, with well-dried logs supplied, Went roaring up the chimney wide.”
―Walter Scott

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It’s cold! The smell of wood burning stoves and fireplaces is permeating the air. There is daily delivery of loads of logs up and down the mountain streets. Log splitters, chain saws and axes are humming and whirring. So far my log pile looks like this

 

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I was hoping for this.

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It’s not as cold as other parts of the country. No snow warnings yet and we haven’t had a frost. Hope this week of promised good weather will ripen my tomatoes.

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I am picking peppers every day and drying them.

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The bees are still in the bee balm and sunflowers, but these guys were hardly moving this morning. You can pick them up in your hand they are so cold.

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Who knew that you only needed to blow a little smoke on them to warm them up and get them moving.

Fall is on its way. Enjoy change!

 

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Spread Your Wings

Posted on September 8, 2014 | 2 comments
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“No bird soars too high if he soars with his own wings.“
                                     William Blake
And so it goes. Last  spring we lost the last two of our rescue animals who were with us for over 10 years. Cinderella a Muscovy duck had come to us after the fires of 2003. Our barn yard seems eerily empty. Well from previous posts you know I am doing my best to fill it up again.
Friday we picked up another rescue animal from the SPCA, abandoned  in a local park in town. “Of course she can come and live here”
So meet Aflac.
IMG_6565The first day was precarious. The chickens were not sure and quickly formed a band together to investigate the intruder. Aflac, being tame was a little worse for the encounter.
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Satchmo and his gang of juvenile thugs attacked her. Holy pterodactyl feet.
IMG_6522We quickly had to re-think the living arrangements. Aflac was given an outdoor nesting box surrounded by a dog x-pen.
Sunday was much better. Aflac had a swim and learned some confidence and preservation skills. So far everything is harmonious.
It helped that our neighbors are cleaning their gardens for fall and the barn yard is a daily recipient of their compost. Mmmm… pea vines with peas still on them, zucchini, corn, carrots: delicious and meant to be shared.
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Coming together in community to share a meal is a thousands year old tradition to build understanding and harmony.
After a long day of eating and really getting to know each other, bed and nighttime are a welcome reprieve.
IMG_6582 IMG_6574The chickens are learning to roost in the barn and the goats love sneaking into the hay room for their nightly hand fed goat mash treat and a chance to steal some hay.
Scarlett the pheasant still looks longingly at the big world outside the barn yard. I won’t clip her wings again and I know that the call of her nature will come. I just hope that she will know that she is always welcome back, just like any other child who has outgrown the nest and spread its wings to fly.
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Light

Posted on September 5, 2014 | 1 comment

“Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in.”
Leonard Cohen, Selected Poems, 1956-1968

It is in our nature to be attracted to light. As a gardener and a photographer, I am always checking to see where the light is. My spirit feels brighter in sunshine.

It is getting cooler in the evening, fall is tip toeing in slyly with sunny days that start later and end earlier. Rocking us gently as we prepare for winter, it is a very different light at dusk. The September moon, a full harvest moon is up earlier.

I am inspired daily by two of the “lights of my life”: grandaughters. One has been in Europe this summer and I am enjoying my daughter’s blog and loved these to pictures from her post-Cemeteries. I love the lighting and the procession of light to their great grandmothers grave.

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I not only love the lighting in these pictures but the subject. What do we do when the rain falls on our sunshine?

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“Don’t you know yet? It is your light that lights the world.”
Rumi

 

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Hey! Are You Looking At Me?

Posted on September 1, 2014 | 4 comments

Black Bear

I have been feeling guilty. It has been over a month since I have written a blog post. I have thought of many things to write. The thoughts haven’t made it to the desk to compose themselves. What have I been doing? Were people judging me for being lapse or lazy. Really? In the big scheme of things I think that everyone has enough on their own plate.

Mostly I have been looking at my world around me and revelling in my fortuitousness!! This is what I have been looking at and what has been looking back at me!

Our little friend “Baer”. He is a cub from last spring or so and has taken up residence in our back property. The buffet here is great when you are getting ready for a big sleep..

black bear yearling

“Diana”, a mom with two fawns has also taken up residence in our back yard.

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The new additions to our front yard have been growing in leaps and bounds.

The Nigerian Dwarf goats Mocha and Latte have now grown big enough to run and forage in the big fields. Don’t you love their turquoise eyes?

 

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The baby chicks that came home at two-day’s old  in June are now safely ensconced in the barn, with nesting boxes and a big run with access to a chicken run outside with a door that gives them the barn yard to run free. We are lucky because out of the six chicks, we only acquired one rooster. He is a Black Copper Maran and his name is Satchmo. The girls are Mukluk, a Cochin, Lavender and Flower, Orpingtons, Brown Betty a Breda and Mumbo a Maran hen. They are all addicted to watermelon. The brown stain on Mukluk’s breast is watermelon juice!

Satchmo

Let’s not forget Scarlet, our ringneck pheasant. I had to clip her wings: harder on me than on her, I cried.

ringneck pheasant

I haven’t been the only one looking either. Grommet is very attached to his girls.

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I have been looking at bees and butterflies. All the work I put into building a garden for them really paid off this year.

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I have been admiring our new garage. What a handy man my husband is, right down to the hand-built sliding barn door with a deer antler handle!

Can’t you just picture my new horse with his head peeking out the top of the Dutch door next year?

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We have been busy!]

It’s September 1st  and the first hint of fall is in the morning chill. I have had an amazing summer creating Mimi’s little farm. I only have gratitude, not guilt.

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Time and Tattoos

Posted on July 4, 2014 | 4 comments

“Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,”

W. Shakespeare

daisies-1My daughter’s blog post on time, made me reminisce on my own days as a busy mother.

We were four families with  kids roughly the same age and all in the same school. As mother’s we were known as Mrs. E F G & H. Mrs. H and I were very close; both of us busy with family, careers and aspirations. The school was a Catholic independent school where parents had to participate in all aspects of school and church life. We spent a lot of time together.

Mrs. H and I often spoke about our “busy” disease. Crisis’ would come and go. We always thought we could get on with our aspirations next week or next month; after we got through the hurdles of a parent or husband with depression, a business trip, dental bills, volunteer duties, appointments, holidays, and what seemed like everyone needing our attention “now”!

We would write that book, paint that picture, take that spiritual journey tomorrow, next week, next month, next year. We will have time…………when.

 

In 1986 at age 39 Mrs. H had a heart attack in her living room. Her children came home from school to find her dead. I lost a best friend, they lost a mother. There was no tomorrow.

I would like to say that the lesson of no tomorrow was profound and it immediately changed my life. It still took many years and many more” putting off until tomorrow” to really sink in. I know that’s why they say youth is wasted on the young. It’s only through age that we fully understand the meaning of making time. It is in our control, our lives are lived daily.

When I hit the milestone of 39, so many years ago I wanted to commemorate it and Mrs. H’s death at the same time.  I didn’t want to do something crazy at 40 to celebrate middle age I wanted something long-lasting spectacular, and something I have always wanted. I wanted it to be done now. I wanted a tattoo. My husband thought I was crazy, I didn’t tell my mother. My oldest was at university and my youngest was just starting high school. The perfect time.

I knew exactly what I wanted.

angelI wanted the reminder permanently and indelibly inked on my body and soul.  Create joy today. It will define you.

tattoo

 

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