Plein Air Painting

September 18, 201950 Comments

Last Wednesday I joined a group of local artists for a plein air painting session. They meet once a week during the summer, always at a different location, (garden, park or water view), paint from 9:30 until noon, then break for lunch and social hour – and show and tell if you wish to participate. I did not, as my mother is the artist in the family. I was only there as the driver and unofficial brownie-baker. I never took art in high school, can’t draw a straight line and have no desire to learn. The few times I have attempted to paint I sit there with a clenched jaw, frustrated that the end result does not in any way resemble the vision in my head. My mother on the other hand, finds it pure bliss, and paints almost every day, although she has no formal training. Still, plein air painting looks like fun, if you enjoy dabbling with a brush.

Plein air is the act of painting outdoors. Artists have always worked outdoors, but in the mid-19th century, the en plein air approach became more popular as painting in natural light became important to groups such as the Barbizon school, Hudson River School, and Impressionists. In Canada, the Group of Seven and Tom Thomson are examples of en plein air artists. (Wikipedia source)

The invention of a portable box easel which held paint and palette, as well as the availability of paint in tubes, made this outdoor activity much more convenient. Previously oil paint was made from pigment powders mixed with linseed oil. As there was no photography to record a scene, if you wanted to paint a landscape you either conjured up the image in your head, or went straight to the source, be it harbor, garden, or field of wheat.

Impression, Sunrise – Monet

For the Impressionists, like Monet and Renoir, it was all about the Light. How the play of light affects and influences a painting was important to them, especially if you were lolling about in the south of France where the light is reported to be particularly inspiring. Imagine a sketching tour there!

Monet painted his famous Haystack series (25 paintings) after visiting a wheat field near his home at all hours, seasons and weather conditions, in order to capture the effect of different variations of light.

Haystacks Series – End of Summer – Monet

Below is my favorite Renoir painting – a testament to natural light, shade and color – plus it looks like a fun outing.

The Luncheon of the Boating Party – Renoir

No problem getting your friends to pose for hours if you ply them with enough food and drink and a boat ride down the Seine.

The Group of Seven were Canada’s first famous artists, painting outdoors in Algonquin Park in the early 1900’s. They would often take summer tours where they would do preliminary sketches in the great Canadian wilderness, then return to their studios to finish the work over the winter.

The Jack Pine – Tom Thomson

Our Canadian summer is almost over. It’s cooler now in September and nice weather can no longer be depended upon. This outing was the last of the year and an add-on for a session which was rained out earlier.

While not Monet’s famous garden,

Bridge over a Pond of Water Lilies – Monet

the park we visited is known for it’s gardens. I here to photograph the flowers, which are at their fall peak.

We arrive a bit late, as it’s a fair drive from home, and I’m not an early riser. These artists are all morning people, but I suppose it’s cooler then for painting in the summer. Today is overcast with a cold north wind, so we are all bundled up in sweaters and jackets. It’s a large park, basically deserted at mid-week, and the painters have already scattered along the paths and picked their solitary spots.

There’s a separate Zen garden with a tranquil waterfall but no one is painting there. Maybe it is too Zen?

I wander around the flower beds admiring the fall colors,

and stop to visit with several of the artists, marveling at their talent.

Most of the artists have been painting for years, but some, like my two friends, are relative beginners,

still learning the tools of the trade.

Watercolor and oil are best for painting outdoors, as acrylic dries too quickly in the hot sun.

At noon they break for lunch, (brownies anyone?) in a spot sheltered from the wind,

and afterwards, show and tell. They pass each painting around the circle and I’m totally intimidated by then.

And also grateful for that thermos of hot coffee.

One of the artists points out a white squirrel which frequents the park, so I pursue a picture, although I only have the zoom lens on my cell phone, so it’s not the best pixel-wise.

White squirrels may be albino (with red eyes), caused by a mutation of a pigmentation gene, or they may be a very rare variant of eastern gray squirrels. He was a strange sight – and definitely an antidote to all that color.

After lunch, I’m in desperate need of a nap. All that fresh air is so tiring – makes you sleep like a baby – maybe I will dream in technicolor?

PS. Although it was an enjoyable day, I think I’ll stick with my writing gig for now.

Enchanted April

April 24, 2018April 24, 201922 Comments

“To those who appreciate wisteria and sunshine. Small medieval Italian castle on the shores of the Mediterranean to be let furnished for the month of April. Necessary servants remain. Z, Box 1000, The Times.”

Despite being written almost a hundred years ago the book, The Enchanted April, is just as enchanting today. Four very different women, all unknown to each other in dreary post WW1 Britain, answer an ad for an Italian villa. Two are married but taken for granted by their husbands, one is single and beautiful but tired of grabby men, and one is a widow facing a sad lonely old age. They have nothing in common other than they are starved for beauty and love, and for the fresh air and sunshine of the Italian coast.

Italian Villa – 2015

I watched the movie first, before I read the book, which is what I would recommend. The movie is from 1992 and while film quality has improved tremendously since then, it is still a lovely period drama, (and if I’m ever reincarnated I want to come back with straight black bobbed hair).

My Good-reads review:

The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I absolutely loved this book, but I had watched the movie first. A timeless tale with a lovely story line and such vivid descriptions of flowers, gardens and beautiful countryside that you almost felt like you were there.
I ordered the book because it is one of those timeless classics you simply have to own. It was a bestseller in it’s day, 1923, and was based on a month long trip the author, Elizabeth von Arnim, made with her husband to the village of Portofino, Italy, which soon became a famous tourist destination because of the success of the book. They stayed at the Castello Brown, (now a museum), which is where the movie was filmed seventy years later.

It’s such a charming story, that it might inspire you to grab three of your girlfriends and go off on your own Italian adventure. Who wouldn’t want to live la dolce vita?

Tuscan Villa – 2015

Of course in the book the villa came complete with all the necessary servants, so hiring a chef to do the cooking would be the sensible thing to do. (You could invite Amal for tea, she’s British and may be in need of a cuppa and a break from the bambinos). Isn’t that part of the attraction of period pieces, there was always someone to prepare the meals, wash the dishes, care for the children…..and look after the garden.

It’s not surprising that there were such lovely descriptions of the flowers and grounds in the book, as the author’s first bestseller was Elizabeth and Her German Garden in 1898. I have not read that one yet, as I plan on reading it outside on the deck whenever it gets warm enough, as inspiration for gardening season. But I did read her book, The Solitary Summer, last summer which I enjoyed also, which concerned her need for solitude and beauty in the countryside with her April, May and June babies. Her first best seller was published anonymously, and the subsequent ones as by the author of Elizabeth and Her German Garden. Because these books are old and often out of print they are best ordered online.

Perhaps there is something about being in such a lovely setting that inspires love. In the book their husbands became more appreciative, although no one runs off and has an affair, (it was a more decorous time), well only the single one. I remember reading once in a book on Italy about a medical condition called, Stendhal’s Syndrome, which is an emotional reaction to too much loveliness. A handful of tourists are treated for this every year in Florence, having been overwhelmed by an excess of beauty. Finally a medical condition we can all aspire too! Of course we don’t have to go to Italy to experience beauty in our lives – it is all around us, we just have to pay attention. Is it possible to surround yourself with an excess of loveliness, especially in a world which so often seems full of evil, hate, and ugliness? Perhaps not, but it is an admirable goal to choose to focus on what is lovely in the world, and so much better for your health! Buona giornata!

Quote of the Day: “It is their manners as a whole, their natural ways, bonhomie, the great art of being happy which is here practiced with this added charm, that the good people do not know that it is an art, the most difficult of all.” (Stendhal on Italy)

Song of the Day: April Love by Pat Boone

How to Make Your Home Hygge

January 22, 2018April 12, 20187 Comments

: Ski Lodge – 2016

Now that I’m no longer working and my daily commute is a walk through the snow drifts to the mail box, I’ve realized that my life is already pretty hygge, at least compared to what it was. No more watching the weather forecasts for potential snowstorms or laying awake half the night worrying about the roads, (I had one of those jobs where the only option for staying home was if you called in dead), or driving home late at night through whiteouts, where the only good thing was that you were the only fool on the road and hence could drive down the middle of it. One of the benefits of getting older is that you don’t have to work anymore, and if you are elderly like my mother, no one expects you to go out at all, so you can stay at home and paint.

A big part of hygge is appreciating the things you have and do that make winter a bit more bearable. (see previous blog Comfort and Joy: How to survive January, for more on hygge, which is a derived from a Danish word for “well-being”). So, what are the things that make a home hygge? The Danes are big on coziness, candles, coffee, blankets, fireplaces, mulled wine, sweets, relaxed decor, soft lighting, comfortable clothing and casual entertaining. Sounds like a recipe for a snow day. Hygge is even better if you can arrange for a snowstorm, preferably one with howling winds, the kind where the weather forecaster tells everyone to stay inside and off the roads. Then after it has passed, and the world is a winter wonderland, you can go outside and make a snowman.

: Blue Snowman – 2017

And of course no snow day would be complete without grilled cheese and tomato soup, it’s the stuff childhood memories are made of.

There’s nothing worse for your house than to feel bare and cheerless after the Christmas decorations have been taken down, (your house has feelings too, see Tidying up blog Jan), so I keep some of them up until the end of January, sometimes mid-February, if it’s a particularly harsh winter. You can put the Santa and reindeer stuff away for a much-deserved rest, but the greenery, pine cones, berries and fairy lights can help provide a hygge atmosphere.

The Danes are the biggest consumers of candles, (mainly unscented), so light some pretty candles.

Comfort food is a big part of hygge. Homemade beef vegetable soup simmering on the stove, leftover turkey pie, mac and cheese,

or a big pot of chili, with a simple green salad and some warm bread, all make a nice evening supper. Dempster’s baguettes are so good, you could pass them off as homemade – eight minutes in the oven, and they come in whole grain and rosemary/garlic too. Baking itself is very hygge, brownies from a box are quick and can bribe snow shovelers, while a date nut loaf takes more work but can give your house a wonderful smell. If you don’t want to bake, you can spray some cinnamon room spray around and buy some treats.

The Danes love reading nooks, so a plump lounge chair with some cozy pillows and a throw, is a good place to sip cocoa and read your favorite magazine, even better if the chair faces a window where you can watch the snow falling outside or the cardinals at the feeder.

If you are lucky enough to have a fireplace, then nothing beats reading a book by the fire. You can start in on that stack you got at the second-hand sale last year. Popcorn and mulled cider make a nice fireside snack. Add some mellow music, Ella Fitzgerald is always good.

If you haven’t got a love to keep you warm, a cat is good company, maybe two, but no more than five.

Tiger Cat – AMc – 2017

Five Cats – AMc – 2016

Reading in bed with a cat purring, and tea and cookies, is pure hygge.

There is something about plaid that is so cheerful. I put a red plaid flannel duvet cover on my bed before Christmas and leave it on all winter. It looks nice with crisp white sheets and lacy pillows, an idea I saw in a decorating magazine once. A plaid flannel housecoat with a fleece lining (Vanity Fair at Sears before they closed, but L.L. Bean carries these too), can keep you warm and cozy while you do your final check around the house before bed, and when you look outside, yes it is still snowing. It’s really piling up out there, you may be snowed in tomorrow too. As you drift off to sleep, listening to the north winds howl, may you have sweet dreams….of summer!

Song of The Day: Our House – Crosby Stills and Nash – music link

Comfort & Joy: The Danish Art of Hygge (or how to survive January)

January 14, 2018April 12, 20185 Comments

“Oh the weather outside is frightful, but the fire is so delightful.” The song, Let It Snow, has all the ingredients for winter comfort and joy – popcorn, snuggling by the fire, snowstorm, and the best part for those who hate winter driving, no place to go. It’s also the perfect recipe for hygge.

According to recent surveys, Denmark rates among the happiest countries in the world, and hygge, the Danish art of living well, is a major reason for their sense of wellness. Hygge, which can be summed up as “cocoa by candlelight”, is the perfect antidote to the cold dark winters and is considered a major survival strategy for January when the hours of daylight are few. The Little Book of Hygge – The Danish Way to Live Well was written by Meik Wiking, the CEO of the Happiness Research Institute in Copenhagen. You know that if a country sets out to study happiness they are way ahead of the game. Here is my book review from Goodreads.

The Little Book of Hygge: The Danish Way to Live Well by Meik Wiking

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a delightful little book, particularly suitable for reading this time of year, preferably during a snow storm. So light some candles, get cozy by the fire with a blanket and a cup of cocoa and prepare to be entertained. Based on the Danish art of living well, it may inspire you to practice a little hygge in your own life…..comes complete with charming pictures too, but warning – the print is very tiny.

For those of us living in more melancholy nations, what exactly is hygge? The word hygge derives from a Norwegian word meaning “well-being”. Hygge is about atmosphere and experiences, not things, (great, I just decluttered, see previous blog post, but I hope I didn’t throw out anything hygge – is it to late to retrieve those plaid pajama bottoms).

In the introduction the author describes a December weekend at a cabin with a group of his friends.

: Cabin in the Woods – 2016

Post hiking, they are sitting around the fire, wearing big jumpers and woolen socks, reading or half asleep and the only sound is the stew boiling, the sparks from the fire and someone having a sip of their mulled wine. One of them breaks the silence and asks, could this be any more hygge, and someone answers, yes, if there was a storm raging outside, they all nod. This is hygge in a nutshell, except he forgot the candles, (they are big on candles in Denmark as they have seventeen hours of darkness in the winter months), so I would like to add that I hope they ate by candlelight, and had coffee and cake later by the fire, (they are big on coffee and confectioneries too).

According to the author, Danes have less anxiety and worry in their daily lives due to the cradle to grave social welfare state. They don’t resent paying high taxes as they consider it investing in society and improving the quality of life. What’s not to like about a country with paid daycare, where parents of small children must leave work early, and no one works nights or weekends, thus leaving more time for family and friends and all the other hygge-like things to do…..watch tv, read, relax.

The concept of hygge includes coziness, candles, coffee, blankets, fireplaces, hot drinks, good food, natural or rustic decor, nooks, soft lighting, comfortable clothing and casual entertaining. Interestingly, the hygge life-style can be excellent for introverts, as it is a low-key way of being social without being drained or exhausted by too much activity and partying, not to mention being a soothing balm for over-stimulated minds at the end of the work day. Even their workplaces try to be hygge. They may have couches instead of desks. I think I want to move. I have a vague recollection of one of my first workplaces in the eighties where we had birthday cake during department meetings. It was a horrible place to work but the cake was good. At my last job we didn’t even get meal breaks. Or course, a hygge-like state is only possible if it is in contrast to something non-hygge, which tends to be the status quo for modern life. Life today is a rat-race, stressful and unfair, money and jobs rule. This book can inspire us to stop occasionally and add a little hygge to our lives, and don’t forget the cake! (see next blog, How To Make Your Home Hygge).

Benjamin Franklin quote: “Happiness consists more in small conveniences or pleasures that occur every day then in great pieces of good fortune that happen but seldom.”

Snow Day – 2015

Joy to The World – Christmas Playlist

December 12, 2017April 12, 20184 Comments

Violin and Horn – 1980

I have been listening to Christmas music lately, because it’s hard not to, with it blasting over the intercom twenty four hours a day in every store and workplace, telling us ’tis the season to be merry and be of good cheer, fa-la-la-la-la-la-la. This is the most profitable time of the year for most businesses and they are just doing their part to get us into the Christmas spirit. I love Christmas music, I really do, but in small doses, and not the same old songs, over and over again. You hardly ever hear a lot of the old Christmas classics anymore, especially if they are religious hymns, so last week when I found a stack of vintage records from the 40’s and 50’s in my mother’s basement it was like finding treasure. They were stored in brown cardboard albums, a 78 in each paper sleeve, mostly Hit Parade tunes,

but also a few smaller 45’s of children’s music. I was surprised at how thick the vinyl was, compared to albums from later years.

I didn’t recognize many of the Hit Parade ones but I took a trip down memory lane with the 45’s – Horace the Horse, On Top of Old Smoky, Did You Ever See a Lassie – the lyrics came back in a flash. We had a portable stereo in the sixties and then one of those big furniture cabinets in the early seventies that played eight tracks too, but my mother says she remembers playing those vintage records on an old phonograph that you wound up by hand when she first moved to the farm in 1944. Her farm had hydro, but my father’s didn’t until after the war.

There were a few Christmas classics in the bunch – an original Columbia records Gene Autry – Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, (one of the best selling records of all time), with If It Doesn’t Snow on Christmas on the B Side, and a Silent Night/Oh Come All Ye Faithful and Silver Bells by Bing Crosby. The children’s 45’s included Frosty the Snow Man, with God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman and Joy to the World on the flip side, and Santa Clause is Coming to Town with Silent Night. (Note to self – check Ebay to see if any of these are worth anything…just out of curiosity, you can’t sell childhood memories).

I used to listen to Christmas music every day during my commute to work, (while an hour a day of Christmas music can be good for the soul, listening to it for eight hours a day in a retail environment is not). I would flip over to an American radio station which had made it a tradition to start playing it the day after Halloween. This station tended to play the same soundtrack, over and over again, and while I liked most of the selections, there were some that just made me cringe and change the dial – Feliz Navidad, You’re a Mean One Mr. Grinch, Simply Having a Wonderful Christmas time, I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus, Santa Baby, the Charlie Brown Christmas instrumental, and that annoying Chipmunk song. Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer is just plain wrong, what kind of song is that for little kids, reindeer bashing at it’s worst! And I am probably the only person who doesn’t like Mariah Carey’s, All I Want For Christmas Is You – that high note at the end hurts my ears, and it reminds me of old episodes of Ally McBeal walking home by her lonely self at the end of every single episode. I can listen to Jingle Bell Rock and Rocking around the Xmas Tree, but only once per season. While I realize everyone has individual favorites, why would they include those when there are so many wonderful songs to get you in the Christmas mood.

Old Christmas hymns can bring on an instant attack of nostalgia. Going through the stack of old albums from the sixties I came across Christmas with Mitch Miller.

When my dad used to watch Sing a Long with Mitch on Saturday nights, there were lyrics at the bottom of the tv screen, and yes tucked inside the album cover was a yellowed song sheet if you wanted to sing along. Does anyone remember when newspapers used to print songbooks for caroling at Christmas? What wonderful memories that album evoked, of going to midnight mass, when it was still at midnight, and struggling to stay awake, while the choir boomed out a resounding version of Hark the Harold and Joy to the World at the end, and you went out into the frosty night wishing everyone Merry Christmas, and then home to a midnight feast of bacon and eggs and sausage and then to bed way past one. This was a family tradition as we always slept in on Christmas morn, except for my poor mother who would get up at 4:30 to put the turkey in the oven for the 1:30 dinner with our grandparents and then go back to bed. We weren’t allowed to open our presents until my dad came in from milking the cows. The last time I went to Christmas eve mass, about a decade ago, it was at 9pm and there was folk music, which was okay but not compared to these…

The Andy Williams Christmas album was another favorite, (although I now dislike the highly overplayed Most Wonderful Time of The Year), as was Burl Ives, Have a Holly Jolly Christmas. My mother used to sing that in the kitchen, and it really was her favorite time of year. We didn’t have a lot of money growing up but my parents always made sure we had a good Christmas. Other memorable songs off that album were, Please Send Some Snow For Johnny, and Silver and Gold. Other great albums were the Carpenters – Karen Carpenter had the clear pure voice of an angel, (There’s No Place Like Home For The Holidays, Merry Christmas Darling, What are you doing New Years Eve), Boney M (Mary’s Boy Child, I’ll be Home for Christmas, When Darkness is Falling) and the whole soundtrack of the movie White Christmas, (Snow, The Best Things Happen While Your Dancing, Count your Blessings, and the army songs). My Dad had a deep baritone like Bing Crosby, and used to sing the odd line in the barn while feeding the cattle, so I have a hard time listening to White Christmas. Any Christmas song that makes you think of happier times can be a sad song when you are feeling nostalgic for Christmases past and loved ones who are gone. Then there are others, the songs that are just plain sad, like Grown Up Christmas list, I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day, I’ll Be Home for Christmas if only in my Dreams, Blue Christmas, The Christmas song (NatKingCole), Silver Bells etc. I love the Rosemary Clooney verision of Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, but that line, “through the years we all will be together, if the fates allow” always makes me feel sad.

If you want some merrier songs – We Need a Little Christmas, Must Be Santa, Christmas in Kilarney, We Wish You A Merry Christmas, are good choices and I can even stomach I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas if there are some wee ones around to march to the beat. Ring Christmas Bells by the Trans-Siberian orchestra remains a personal favorite of mine for it’s uplifting beat, their Christmas Cannon is a like a soothing meditation with a children’s choir, and Here We Come Awassailing reminds me of a Dickens Christmas.

For romantic Christmas songs you can’t beat, Let it Snow, Baby It’s Cold Outside or Sleigh Ride, for invoking visions of a simpler old fashioned time. Who wouldn’t want to go for a ride in a one-horse open sleigh like Currier and Ives?

This is a picture of my uncle in the old cutter sleigh from the farm. When we were kids the sleigh was stuck up in the rafters of the implement shed where it’s black leather seat made a fine nesting place for mice. In the early nineteen hundred’s my ancestors used to go to church in this very same sleigh when the roads were bad, because despite the snow and the cold, no one ever missed church!

Sleigh Ride – 2016

There’s a wonderful stanza in Sleigh Ride – “There’s a happy feeling nothing in the world can buy. When they pass around the coffee and the pumpkin pie. It’ll nearly be like a picture print by Currier and Ives. These wonderful things are the things we remember all through our lives.” When we are older we don’t remember most of the presents we got, but we do remember the whole family sitting around the dinner table and talking and even after the big turkey feast there was always room for desert. After the table was cleared, we ladies would spend two hours in the kitchen hand washing dishes, and then it would be set again for evening supper after the presents were played with and the chores were done, and we would end the day with a late-night game of euchre, except for me. I would be curled up in a corner reading whatever book Santa had brought me, as that was always my favorite present. (There may be a blog on Dickens A Christmas Carol next week if time and snowstorms permit).

Down in my basement I have an old stereo unit that I bought at Sears years ago. It plays cds, tapes and albums, and while I’m wrapping presents this year I will be singing along with Mitch. What’s on your Christmas playlist? Your most loved and most hated Christmas songs? Please leave a comment if you wish.

Song of the Day: Joy to the World – Mormon Tabernacle Choir – click here for music link

Come in for a Spell

October 29, 2017October 6, 201812 Comments

Song of the Day: Thriller – Michael Jackson – click here for music link

I am sorry to say that I have become one of those people who hide inside on Halloween…..you know those cheap miserly souls who turn off the lights and pretend they’re not home. Only last year the three little girls from across the street came pounding on the door while it was still daylight, and I do mean pounding (the idea of someone not celebrating Halloween being foreign to them), so I managed to scrape up some change for I had not sunk so low as to have resorted to giving out apples. I used to do Halloween – I used to buy 120 bags of Cool Ranch Doritos or Cheetos, and the same number of chocolate bars when there were lots of kids in my neighbourhood, but they have all grown up. Then when my mother moved off the farm to a subdivision loaded with kids, I did Halloween there, until her hip surgery when she could no longer get to the door, and I started working evening shifts. I remember it being fun, checking out all the different costumes. I have an old box of costumes in the basement somewhere, pirates and witches and gypsy things, but none of that is in style anymore. I should throw them out, but for some reason whenever I clean up the furnace room, back in they go. The kids were always excited to get something other than stale bags of chips, but the chocolate bars got smaller and smaller over the years – I am sure by now they must have disappeared entirely and all you get is the wrapper.

Usually Halloween would be cold and rainy, but wasn’t that part of the fun, walking around the neighbourhood with your friends at a time you would not normally be out. It was such a miserable windy night two years ago that looking out the upstairs den window periodically I saw exactly one spook the whole evening. I always worry when only one spook shows up at the door – wouldn’t it be lonely or scary to go alone? Do parents even let their kids go out on Halloween anymore, or is it safer at the mall or at a class party? When I grew up in the country, my mother drove us up and down the line to the neighbouring farms, where we went inside and made them guess who we were, and sometimes even if they had guessed right we would solemnly shake our heads no. Then we were treated to popcorn balls and fudge and all manner of delightful homemade treats. The only year we begged our mother to take us into town afterwards (we had heard you got more candy in town), we got the dreaded apples – the saviour of those who have run out. Our costumes were home-assembled, ghosts and witches and tramps, since everyone knew everyone anyway, but with those hot plastic masks which made it difficult to breathe, we thought we were well disguised. Occasionally someone along the line (blamed on the older boys) would push over an old outhouse or shed, but other than that there was no vandalism, just a bit of nighttime mischief. We ate our Halloween candy too – the best first, then portioning out the rest over the next few weeks, saving those awful molasses Halloween Kisses for last. I wonder if they still make those? What do parents do with all that stale candy now that kids aren’t allowed to eat candy?

If I’m going to do Halloween properly this year I will need some new decorations. I don’t have much in the way of decorations – an ugly rat I used one year to scare my assistant – I put it on top of her computer terminal and she jumped sky high.

A sign that caught my eye at Winner’s one year – Come Inside For A Spell. My mother painted a witch picture for me so these will help decorate the front door.

Witch on Broom – 2017

She also did Ghost Barn which is currently in a juried art show and they liked it so much they asked to keep it on display over the winter.

Ghost Barn

Recently I saw a black candy bowl with a bony arm that reached for you when you took the candy and a battery operated scary voice – but it was $25 and might scare the little ones. I once had a Count Dracula that spewed bubbles out of its mouth when you walked past it and that was a great hit, but the battery died after a few years. My little 5 year old neighbour advised me that the dollar store is the best place for decorations, so I bought a ghost to hang in the birch tree (best on a windy night),

Ghost in the wind

and a black spider web for the front door.

One of my fondest memories of trick or treating in the country was getting homemade treats, so I think Rice Crispy squares will be just the thing for those three little spooks from across the street, along with their Cheetos and Doritos….and maybe some microwave fudge…

PS. They say that on All Hallow’s Eve the veil between this world and the spirit world is very thin. Speaking of spirits, my first WordPress follower, Janowrite has a blog on ghost stories and the paranormal. Here’s a link to her website and her books. https://bookemjanoblog.wordpress.com/ Please pay her site a visit as I am sure this must be a favourite time of year for her. I found it kind of uncanny that my very first follower would deal with the paranormal as I had only made the blog public a week previous and was feeling kind of discouraged and thinking I might give up. (In truth it was more time consuming than I had thought). Then last month at a craft show, I had an interesting conversation with two ladies who had a psychic booth. They were selling crystals and stones and I had stopped to look at their jewelry, and picking up their business card, asked if they did housecleaning too. (I did not have my glasses on). They laughed and said they did clearing, as in helping people who had died get to the afterlife if they were having difficulty, kind of like an escort service for stuck souls. Then the other day, a picture of my dad’s tombstone randomly showed up at the top of my picture file, a picture I had not seen for over ten years. I wondered if it was a sign from the afterlife that I should continue? If you’ve had three signs, you should pay attention. Happy Halloween and may the only Ghosts you see be kindly spirits.

If you are looking for something to read in between handing out treats the book, I See You, is highly recommended.

I See You by Clare Mackintosh

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A murder mystery thriller perfect for reading on Halloween night in those lulls between handing out the candy…..ok maybe not such a good idea. Guaranteed to have you double checking all the locks before you go to bed, and I personally ended up deleting all personal pictures from social media. I liked the fact that the characters were flawed, which made the ending so much more delicious – a real treat.

Halloween Update: It was a cold night but windy so the ghost was swirling merrily in the tree. Good costumes but nothing exotic, except for one Donald Trump. Lots of leftover candy which needs to be donated as it is rapidly being consumed. I had a helper for the evening as the 9 yr old girl from across the street had both arms in casts, but she could still move her wrists so she helped me hand out candy and we played Go Fish and Crazy Eights in between (funny how those games come back to you). Later after their rounds, her two sisters came over and they collapsed on the couch in a candy induced coma to watch tv….unfortunately I don’t get the Disney Channel so they went home at nine. The Rice Krispie squares were all consumed (because our dad knows you won’t poison us), but I didn’t get around to the fudge…..oh well there’s always next year.

Apple Pie Memories

October 24, 2017April 12, 20182 Comments

Song of the Day – Don’t Sit under the Apple Tree – Glenn Miller Band – click here for music link

Farmer’s Market Apples

Like many people I don’t make apple pie, I make apple crisp, but once a year I will try, using store bought crust and apples from the local farmer’s market, so at least I can say I made a homemade pie….sort of. Pie crust is a lost art, drilled out of my generation by decades of warnings about saturated fat and heart disease. With apple crisp you use oatmeal which is supposed to be good for you. Now things have changed again and they say it’s sugar that’s bad not fat. Unfortunately, apple pie has both, but moderation is also the key, so I think the occasional piece of apple pie could be justified, in view of the newer guidelines. I am just trying to convince myself that anything made with lard could be good for you.

My attempts at pie crust have produced a rock-like substance, which is why I stick with the crisp, but my mother’s pie crust was light and flaky…. she used Crisco, but I prefer butter, at least you can get some omega-3’s. Unfortunately, my mother says she has lost her knack for pastry, (it’s an art form that needs to be practiced regularly), although every once in awhile she will make a crust for a turkey pie, which is still better than anything you can buy in the store. I remember when we were kids my mom would make three pies a week and a dozen butter tarts (I have used her recipe for butter tarts with great success but with store bought shells), and it would all disappear. My father was a prolific pie eater, but as he did a lot of physical work he never gained an ounce. I remember an old man dropping by the homeplace one day unannounced in search of his roots. I think his grandmother was a sister of my great grandmother Ellen, but as this was long before I had any interest in genealogy I didn’t pay much attention, although even then as a teenager I was interested in history and stories. My mother was in the middle of making her weekly pies, her board and rolling pin all in a flurry of flour. He stayed for supper and said it was the best apple pie he had ever eaten and it reminded him of his mother’s baking. (No one had the heart to tell him there was a picture of his relative upstairs in the attic, riddled with holes, from where my brother had used it as a dart board). Later we went to visit Ellen’s homeplace, a farm with a big old yellow brick farmhouse set high on a rolling hill just outside a city about eighty miles away (ie prime real estate). A doctor had bought it and was renovating it so his daughter would have a place to ride her horses. It was a beautiful spot. The only thing I know about Ellen is that she was a school teacher who had married a local farmer fifteen years older than her in 1870 and she raised nine children in our house. My great grandfather John was by the few accounts we have, a gruff old man, and when her mother was sick and dying he refused to take her to visit, so she decided to walk. Such is the family folklore, but I hope someone might have offered her a ride part of the way. This is an old picture of the homeplace and Ellen out front with two of her daughters and grandchildren. I still have the chairs they are sitting on, and the matching antique dining room table which folds out to seat twelve.

The Homeplace circa 1915

How many weekly pies you would have to make to feed nine children, as well as all the threshing crews. Like I said, it is a lost art form. I wonder what will happen when all those older women who make the turkey and fruit pies for the church bazaars are gone. Homemade pie will be a memory of the past. No one has time to make pie now, it’s easier just to buy one. Although I have never had much luck with store or bakery pies as they usually have corn starch as a thickener and I find it gives it a peculiar taste, but then I am comparing it to what I grew up on. Although in a pinch President’s Choice sells a perfectly acceptable frozen apple crisp, made with Northern Spy apples, and you still get the benefits of a lovely smelling house. I am sure all those cooking shows must have some instructions on the perfect pie crust, so one of these days I’ll have to tune in….and practice, practice, practice.

: My kitchen crabapple wreath

Scoop of the Day: The local farmer’s market sells crab apple jelly, from BayField Berry Farm, and last month when I was at a craft sale, amongst all the crocheted and quilted offerings, there were a couple of tables selling homemade jellies and jams, including crab apple, which is made from the pressed juice, so I would not even attempt it…..besides which I am all jammed out for this year – this jam session is over.

Bushel of Apples – 2015

PS. The fruits of my labour…

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Quote of the Day: Good apple pies are a considerable part of our domestic happiness.” (Jane Austen)

Apple Picking Time

October 17, 2017April 12, 20181 Comment

Bushel of Apples – 2015

It’s apple picking time…. which means apple pie season, my favourite time of the year. I don’t actually pick apples, (I’m lazy), but instead buy them from the farmer’s market which is supplied by a local orchard. Although on a nice fall weekend we might drive down river on a leaf tour to a place where you can pick your own but which also sells to customers from a small stand. They always have spy apples there, which are the best for cooking, despite what people say about all those new varieties. (I once had a grocery store clerk tell me you could make a pie with Macintosh, and I suppose you could if you wanted applesauce). Spy apples are always later in the season, but well worth the wait, their tart taste cancels out some of the sweetness of the sugar.

When this farmland was first settled everyone grew apples, and stored them in root cellars for cold storage. From my genealogy records, according to the 1860 agricultural census, they had to record how many acres of orchards they had, so it was an important crop, and a symbol of prosperity at the time. It was also their main source of vitamin C over the winter, and I wonder if the expression, “An apple a day keeps the doctor away” came from it’s prevention of scurvy. Both the homeplace and my grandparent’s farm had the remnants of the original apple orchards from over a hundred years ago. My dad’s farm had mostly crab apple trees, and a few eating apples, but the trees were so old the fruit was basically inedible, although the blossoms did have a heavenly aroma in the spring. The orchard was right beside the house and during my teenage years pity the poor sibling who would have to cut the grass in the orchard with a push mower and run over all those hard little things, which made for a very bumpy experience. (A riding lawn mower was the best thing ever invented). My grandmother’s orchard had better tasting snow apples, and on Thanksgiving my younger brother and I would climb the fence and brave the field full of large but rather dumb cows to pick some, and also to gather chestnuts, which my brother used as fences for his farm animal set. My grandmother lived to be 96 and every year she went apple picking with my uncle to the orchards down river. Her old farmhouse had a little unheated vestibule beside the kitchen where she would store the apples in bushel baskets, so when you entered her house you would always get a lovely whiff of the smell of ripe apples. Someday soon my house will smell marvelous from the cinnamony scent of warm apple pie, in the meantime I’ll just have to light some apple scented candles.

Artist of the Day: Helen McNicoll (from time to time I may feature a new artist I have discovered, unless otherwise specified all the other paintings are by my mother).

Helen McNicoll - The Apple Gatherer - 1911

The Apple Gatherer – Helen McNicoll – 1911

Last month I went to a talk on the Group of Seven at our regional art gallery. The speaker showed a slide of a painting by Helen McNicoll, called The Apple Gatherer which was painted in 1911. She was a contemporary of the Group of Seven, but being female, not considered part of the group. I think I much prefer Helen’s painting, as it is full of colour and light. Maybe next spring I will plant an apple tree…

Quote of the Day: “I’d like to teach the world to sing, in perfect harmony, grow apple trees and honey bees, and snow white turtle doves.”

Song of the Day: I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing – by the New Seekers – click here for music link

Book of the Day: Apples to Oysters by Margaret Webb has a chapter devoted to apple orchards.

Apples To Oysters: A Food Lover’s Tour of Canadian Farms by Margaret Webb

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

An interesting read about Canadian farmers, starting with apple growers and moving across the provinces…..oysters, cheese, vineyards, wheat etc. I found the stories fascinating and being from a rural background could relate to the appeal of the farming lifestyle, as well as the uncertainty of the farming business as most of the stories involved smaller generations-old family farms. If you ate today, thank a farmer!