creativity

"The Birds" by Myfanwy MacLeod

These two 18 foot tall sparrows (male and female) were installed after the Olympics at the Southeast False Creek Olympic Plaza in the Olympic Village, Vancouver, BC. The exhibit is part of the City’s Olympic and Paralympic Public Art Program. Read more about them here. 

As this piece explains, the size of the birds in relation to their surroundings speaks of the danger of introducing species of wildlife into areas where they aren't native.

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Thursday Challenge

Next week: FUN (Festival, Fair, Carnival, Party, Playground, Dancing, Laughing,...)

home again (1000 gifts #44-54)!

44. We're home! We arrived yesterday afternoon. I love home, even though our townhouse was sauna-hot in yesterday's 30+C temps.

45. I didn't gain any weight — to speak of. That is a miracle, considering all the feasts I've faced and ingested in the last almost three weeks.

46. As a result of vacation events, hubby and I saw all of our siblings and their spouses in the last two weeks.

47. Okanagan fruit. The cherries and peaches we bought at the little West Kelowna roadside stand were incredible. And we came home with a couple of bags of new-crop Sunrise apples!

48. Fans (the ones that move air). When you're in a heat wave with no AC, you fall in love with fans.

49. Our beautiful babies. They're getting cuter with each visit.

50. Raisin bran cereal. I've been eating it practically every morning, with peaches, blueberries, extra raisins. Donald Miller likes it too:

"The cereal. Being the best thing to eat right now. I could go for a a big bowl of Raisin Bran and cold milk...."


"You know," Paul begins, "it's funny. Two weeks ago when we talked about things we wanted or our aspirations, we would have talked about houses or boats or cars. Now that we've been on the road for a while, everything is reduced to a bowl of cereal.... Isn't that beautiful? Cereal. There are people in this world who are killing themselves because they want more and more of nothing. And the only thing you and I want in this world is a bowl of cereal. That just shows you how the things we think are important really aren't important" — Through Painted Deserts by Donald Miller, page 123

 51. Automatic washers and dryers.

52. The sanctuary of my office.

53. God, who faithfully gave me "Other Food" every morning of my vacation, and provided the solitude and time to get these devo's typed before I started my day.

54. I think we are witnessing a miracle. My brother — the one in palliative care — his system is beginning to work again. Keep praying folks!

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If you'd like to join me and many others collecting One Thousand Gifts, please do. Some post their gifts on blogs, while others list them in private journals. Instructions on how to join are here. 

interrupted holiday (1000 gifts #34-43)

The blog has been quiet for several reasons. For one, I'm not at my own desk. For another, there is much to say and I'm a bit overwhelmed.

Our family is in a place we've never been before. My dear bro, whose fight with cancer began three years ago was recently admitted to the Palliative Care Ward of a hospital near his home. (Thus we changed our holiday plans and bypassed a family reunion to be with him.) Daily visits with this beautiful man and his family are both satisfying and wrenching. In the context of this, here are some of the gifts I've received in the past weeks:

34. An impromptu family reunion two weekends ago. When nine siblings manage to find their way to each other on one weekend, it's beyond special.

Family feast cooked up by Anne

35. The peaceful spirit of my ill brother and his family. Their settled faith is an inspiration.

36. The wonderful prairie smells I drink in as we go for walks. (When you've grown up in Saskatchewan, I guess it's no wonder that re-experiencing the sights and smells of a large chunk of your life resonate.)

37. A picnic in the park followed by a golden evening of mini-golf (no matter that I scored lowest of the low. My only hope for jock status is at Scrabble —if that).

38. Mocha fudge ice-cream in a chocolate-dipped waffle cone.

Saskatoon - City of Bridges

39. Beautiful riverside walks in the city of my youth.

40. Mosquito repellent.

41. Getting together with old friends.

42. Safe travel over hundreds of miles.

Word came on Sunday night, just hours after I had composed the above that hubby's father had died. My father-in-law was nearing 90 years and had already left us in many ways.

43. Dad's peaceful passing in his sleep is another gift.

And so now we are with our other family, preparing for Dad's memorial service. I know many gifts will flow from that too. Stay tuned.

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If you'd like to join me and many others collecting One Thousand Gifts, please do. Some post their gifts on blogs, while others list them in private journals. Instructions on how to join are here. 

blue

Pacific Blue - BC Ferry trip from Swartz Bay to Tsawwassen, BC

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Thursday Challenge

Next Week: OUTDOORS (Park, Beach, Campground, Picnic, Mountains,...)

promptings 1000 gifts (#23-33)

 #32 - Victoria's Inner Harbor on a sunny day

It's been a sweet week of getting ready for holidays, some holidays, and more to look forward to. Having the laptop along is fabulous (as I knew it would be... no catching up needed when I get home; I'm writing this on Sunday night in a hotel room in Victoria!). Here with no further delay, are some of the gifts I've enjoyed up this week:

23. A loaded veggie burger.

24. A DQ hot fudge sundae — I had forgotten how good that is.

25. Hanging out for the evening with our son on Main Street in his Mount Pleasant neighbourhood.

26. Oldies 650. Love working with the old songs playing in the background.

27. Oldies Christian songs. Caught some of those tunes at my hairdresser's. Remember the Maranatha singers? Here they are singing "Make Me a Servant":



28. Hearing my lovely Persian hairdresser talking to the man whose hair she's cutting about her faith in God.

29. The smell of rich black soil. The city workers dumped a load of it then raked it into spots in the park as we walked by. The smell caught in my throat and made my heart do a little ta-dum (all it takes to get the peasant in me all excited).

30. Ice-cream in presentation in the Quay Market at the Tsawwassen ferry terminal: Okay, maybe I don't get out a lot, but I've never seen ice-cream dolled up like this before. 

31. The quirky prose of Donald Miller's Through Painted Deserts.

32. Victoria's Inner Harbor on a sunny day.

33. Soft ice-cream in a fresh waffle cone (that tasted like it was just baked it was that good).

If you'd like to join me and many others collecting One Thousand Gifts, please do. Some post their gifts on blogs, while others list them in private journals. Instructions on how to join are here. 

hot

"On the Beach"

Delightful bronze sunbather statues by Gert Maas catch some rays on the beach of Waterfront Park, Okanagan Lake, Kelowna. B.C.

Thursday Challenge

Next Week: BLUE (Sky, Water, Clothing, Flowers, Blue Berries, Drinks, Cars,...)

promptings 1000 gifts (#13-22)

Finding these gifts is like being on a treasure hunt. It's amazing what you find when you thinking of looking behind doors, under leaves and into quiet moments. Here are the gifts I gathered this week.

13. The fresh-laundry smell of this wildflower that grows thick along the path we walk (I'm not sure of the name -- but it has a square stem so is probably a member of the mint family).

14. A good night's sleep that makes my body strong again and gives my thoughts and emotions the courage to stare down the discouragements of yesterday.

15. Family visitors — so easy, so relaxing, so filling.

16. The fragrance and beauty of lavender.

17. The optimism of a sunny morning and a cloudless sky.

18. Applications like Read it, Tweetdeck and Bloglines which help me sync my life across two computers.

19. The handsome look of our strata's freshly painted fences.

20. How Christians of different denominations can feel like family.

21. Immanuel - God with us.

22. The beautiful, outdated-but-mostly-unused Taschen Diary where I am collecting my gifts. 

If you'd like to join me and many others collecting One Thousand Gifts, please do. Some post their gifts on blogs, while others list them in private journals. Instructions on how to join are here. 

another side of Bambi's mom

Cranbrook B.C. has a problem with exceedingly tame mule deer. Here's what happens when a doe senses Rover (actually the dog's name is Star) may have less than pure motives. (Funny how she didn't go after River the cat.)

Cranbrook Deer




The deer in Cranbrook have even started going after people. There's something wrong with this picture...

weather

Breathless Morning

(a lake between Gibson's and Earl's Cove on B.C.'s Sunshine Coast)

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Thursday Challenge

Next Week: HOT (High Temperature, Campfire, Stove, Oven, Sun, Hot Air Balloon,...)

promtpings 1000 gifts (#5-12)

I thought the hanging basket looked a little droopy one evening last week in the middle of our heat wave. I left it till the next morning when, in the full light of day I saw my glorious impatiens was definitely in distress.  All it took, though, was water and a little time to get it back to normal. Which got me thinking about water. What an amazing substance!

- Not only does it revive plants, but it revives us — in its pure form or as part of another beverage. (Gift 5: water the sustainer of life)

- We can add it to food during cooking to make things the right consistency, blend flavours, keep the food tender and from getting too dry. (Gift 6: Water: to the cook's rescue!)

- It's a versatile cleanser. (Gift 7: Water: to clean up the mess).

- Large bodies of it are a necessary part of our planet's weather. (Gift 8: Water: in the form of clouds, rain, the genesis of wind, storms)

- We can have a lot of fun in and with it: swimming, boating, skating, in a sauna (if you're a steam bath kind of person) etc. (Gift 9: Water: great for recreation)

- The sound of running water adds to the ambience of a park or home (I'd like a 'water feature' in my back yard-- wouldn't you?). (Gift 10: Water: the aesthetic of its music)

That just begins to touch on the importance of water, which, in my home I can get from eight locations at the touch of a lever or knob. It's clean water that's safe, healthy,  and tasty. On top of that, it's soft — not the kind that leaves a rusty stain in the toilet or sink. (Gift 11: Water: so readily available to me).

Today I'm counting water as my gifts 5 to 11. Oh yes, and there's one more that just occurred to me. Without water, we wouldn't have rainbows! (Gift 12)

If you'd like to climb on the One Thousand Gifts wagon, please do. Some post their gifts on blogs, while others list them in private journals. Instructions on how to join are here. 

12-week online photography course

How cool is this - a 12-week online photography course. Each lesson is a pdf file.

The Mom Creative: Blog of Jessica Turner: Photography Resources

HT: Ann Voskamp (Holy Experience via del.icio.us update)

sports

Cyclists in Stanley Park, Vancouver, BC, Canada (May 8/10)

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Thursday Challenge

Next Week: WEATHER (Sunny, Calm, Rainy, Snowy, Icy, Fog, Clouds, Thunderstorm, Lightening, Hail, Windy,...)

a dose of thankfulness (#1-4)

I have detected in myself lately a snakiness about small stuff. I've been complaining about the weather, of all things! This is not good.

As a result, I've decided to take my mind off the negative by training it to look for the positive. One way is by practicing thankfulness.

There are many online initiatives to help us focus on thankfulness. I've decided to join the Gratitude Community begun some time ago by Anne Voskamp at her Holy Experience blog. She explains how it began here.

The object of the exercise: to, over time, make a list of One Thousand Gifts for which she is grateful. (I believe she is well on her way to 2000, however, and is now calling them "endless gifts".)

I will collect my items and post a few every week.

And I begin...

1. It is a gift that my family is intact. I helped out at a funeral tea yesterday, for a 27-year-old man. When I saw the year of his birth on the memorial bulletin, my stomach lurched: 1983. That's the year my daughter was born. He died, suddenly and they don't know the cause. My family is still intact. I hug them close for I know there are no assurances.

2. Summer has arrived! (I am allowed to be thankful for the weather, right?) It's 23C as I write this at 6:45 p.m. Yummm!

3. Today I got a laptop. I'm going to love it — no longer chained to my office!

4. And I'm thankful for hubby, who said why didn't I get the new machine instead of the reconditioned one that would have saved some hundreds (but was several years old, didn't qualify for Apple Care and had about half the numbers in the specifications department). Of course I'm sharing it with him; he's browsing on it right now.

If you'd like to climb on the Thousand Gifts wagon, please do. Some post their gifts on blogs, while others list them in private journals. Instructions on how to join are here.

fleuvog - shoe artist extraordinaire

Not being a shoe person (yes, I do wear shoes, but don't have a closet-full and am not particularly fond of collecting them) I had never heard of John Fleuvog until I read the latest edition of B. C. Christian News. If you are a shoe person, you probably know that Mr. Fleuvog is a shoe artist -- a shoe designer and entrepreneur whose footwear creations are worn by Madonna, Whoopi Goldberg and Robin Williams.

A few other interesting things about John Fleuvog:

• He opened his business in Gastown (Vancouver) in 1970. It's still going strong.

• His website welcomes visitors with this little rap:

"Shoes to vie for, shoes to die for,
Go on, buy one, buy two, buy four!
Cool shoes, cool boots, drool shoes, fool boots,
Men's shoes, Women's shoes, zen shoes, swimmin' shoes,
Sexy shoes, flexy shoes, shoe spray to protec' ze shoes,
Funky shoes, funky boots, spunky shoes for hunky fruits,
Platform shoes to tower above 'em, platform boot
(we know you love 'em),
Crazy boots, crazy shoes, blacks, reds, greens, blues,
Women's boots and men's boots, too
and, babe, those sexy boots are YOU!
Fluevogers, man, they're everywhere -
they're over here, they're under there!
John Fluevog knows his flock is vast,
a truly original cast,
For Womens footwear, lo, they flock;
for Mens footwear, they're into hock."

....and it goes on

• He is an outspoken Christian.

• His shoes carry spiritual messages. His Angels shoes read "Resists alkali, water, acid, fatigue, Satan. Walk in peace." Another message is: "Miracles are the surprise of the soul."

His philosophy about this (from his website):

"Moses used tablets, Picasso used paints, God used Moses, Alex G Bell used the telephone and John Fluevog uses shoes. Great minds of the past have used a variety of mediums to communicate their messages – since the beginning of time (or at least John) John has been using the soles and foot socks of his shoes to communicate with the world."

Also at this page, click on the hubcap and you can read shoe messages from the past.

• A memorable quote of his comes from an interviewer he did with Glenn Boettger, for The Christian Entrepreneur (reported in the CC article).

CE: How do you integrate your business expertise with your Christian calling?

JF: I don't see a difference . . . I've listened to a few lectures about Christians in the marketplace, and I don't understand the fundamental idea of why you'd need to have a course on being a Christian in the marketplace. I just think it's a funny concept.

As Christians, we need to integrate our lives with our faith -- and we are called to do that. It isn't like, "Okay, now I'm a Christian entrepreneur and I need to behave in a Christian way -- so let me check and see what that is."

No matter who you are, we are all called to integrate our faith. And the cool thing about our society and the century we're in right now is that a small person can have influence. Basically, an entrepreneur, for me, means having influence

(Read the entire Canadian Christianity article about John Fleuvog)

On his website you'll find pages women's shoes, men's shoes, enviro shoes, vegan shoes, speciality shoes, replacement parts, shoe families and much much more.

But I'd better stop browsing because if I don't, I just might become a shoe person. Already I find myself lusting after some Bellevues ("Keep pushing west and beyond your imagination") or  Adrians which bear the message:

Don't you just love it!

Happy Canada Day!

Today we celebrate Canada and her 143rd birthday. There will be festivities in cities and towns around the country. Our town has an all-day event at McLeod Park with ongoing entertainment, monster truck rides, a Lego demonstration and of course it will end with a bang (fireworks). Check it out.

We're relatively new to the community of Langley (moved here only three years ago). A couple of weeks ago (June 19th), we took in our first Langley City parade. The many colourful floats are an indication of what a vibrant community this is… one of the many that make up this great country of ours!

However you celebrate it, Happy Canada Day to you too!

(Hover mouse over the bottom of photos to see captions.)

home

Our back deck - one of my favorite spots on a hot day. 

(Unfortunately, I haven't spent much time there yet this summer)

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Thursday Challenge

Next week: SPORTS (Chess, Baseball, Cycling, Golf, Football, Soccer, Mountain Climbing, Skiing,...)

what to do with a bucketful of strawberries

1. Hold a strawberry fete or regale. My little reference book about all things sweetly and old-fashionedly past tells me:

During the Victorian era, a favorite summer amusement on warm June evenings was the community’s annual strawberry fete or festival. Usually these eagerly anticipated outdoor socials, sponsored by churches or schools as fund raising events, featured an abundance of fresh-picked strawberries...


[...] "Strawberries in every style and form will furnish the refreshments for the occasion; strawberry ice cream, strawberries and whipped cream, strawberry whip, fruit lemonade, strawberry shortcake and strawberry sherbet."

2. Take a strawberry bath. Apparently Madame Tallien from Emperor Napoleon’s court loved to bathe in the juice of fresh strawberries, using 22 lbs. per basin. (Yikes, I hope for the sake of those around her, she didn’t insist on this kind of bath all year long!)

3. Find a double strawberry, break it in half and share it with a member of the opposite sex. Legend has it you will fall in love with each other.

4. Spread the goodness around by feeding some to the birds. Apparently the reason for the wide distribution of wild strawberries is because strawberry seeds pass through a bird’s digestion intact, and germination responds to light rather than moisture so seeds don’t need to be buried in soil to get started.

5. Take some as medicine. Ancient Romans believed that berries helped cure melancholy, fainting, inflammations, fevers, throat infections, kidney stones, bad breath, gout, diseases of the blood, liver and spleen.

6. Bake a strawberry shortcake. Apparently this originated with the American Indians, who crushed wild strawberries and mixed them with cornmeal to make strawberry bread. The colonists invented their own version of the recipe, and called it Strawberry Shortcake.

This recipe of Strawberry Shortcake is from my most treasured recipe book – the one handwritten for me by my mum. It’s predictably short on instructions (like how many strawberries, the order in which to add cake ingredients, size of pan and heat of the oven...so I’ll do a bit of guestimating).

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Begin by slicing a generous amount of strawberries (3-4 cups?), sprinkle with sugar and set aside.

QUICK STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE
2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 well-beaten egg
2/3 cup milk
1 ½ cup flour
½ cup melted shortening.

Mix all ingredients. Spoon into a round, greased cake pan and bake for 15 minutes in hot oven (probably 375 - 400 F)

Let cool slightly, split cake and fill with half of the strawberries, reserving remainder for the top (or put whole strawberries on the top). Serve with whipped cream.

(For more strawberry facts, trivia and history, go here.)

(This is a re-post from June 8, 2005)

have a strawberry

It’s strawberry season where I live. Yesterday hubby and I went to Driedigers and picked 15 lbs. of strawberries, 10 of raspberries the easy way -- from the shelf of the little berry shack. This is a bit unusual because strawberries are normally an early June crop with raspberries later. But we've had such a cool spring, the strawberry and raspberry seasons are bumping into each other.

So all afternoon yesterday I was messing with berries, washing, freezing, cutting. Because there's nothing like these ruby fruits in winter.

Strawberries are an ancient fruit. My Reader’s Digest, The Origins of Everyday Things tells me.



"The warm, dry climate that Britain enjoyed after 2500 B.C. allowed its early inhabitants to pick naturally sweet wild strawberries and raspberries....

Strawberry cultivation began in the 13th century, but the large, modern fruit appeared only in 1819, the result of crossbreeding a small, sweet, scarlet fruit from Virginia with a pale Chilean variety tasting of pineapple."

Wild strawberries are a memory of my childhood. Every spring we’d search the virgin prairie grass beside the railroad track which bordered our Saskatchewan farm, and pick the tiny sweet fruits. Later, we’d listen to Mom tell of the time there were enough wild strawberries for Grandma to put up in preserves and jams.

I had my own strawberry patch once. It flourished at the beginning of the time we lived in Surrey, before the city trees growing just beyond our fence, alders and cottonwoods, grew tall. Their gangly growth took away most of the sunshine above and their greedy roots leached the moisture below. I implored the city to take out those trees. But in that town, chopping down a tree was something that required a special dispensation from City Hall. So my berry patch languished, producing fewer and smaller berries. Finally I put the plants out of their misery.

But if you’re inclined to grow strawberries, a book I own (Carrots Love Tomatoes by Louise Riotte) has some advice ( I don’t know if it’s good; I’ve never tried it. But it sounds like something your grandma would tell you – so I have a feeling, some if not all of these things would probably do a strawberry patch some good):

Strawberry (Fragaria). A cover crop of rye following sod will reduce the incidence of black rot on strawberries. They do well in combination with bush beans, spinach and borage. Lettuce is good used as a border and pyrethrum, planted alongside, serves well as a pest preventative. A spruce hedge is also protective.



White hellebore will control sawfly and marigolds are useful too if you suspect the presence of nematodes (slugs? - I think so). Pine needles alone or mixed with straw make a fine mulch said to make the berries taste more like the wild variety. Spruce needles also may be used as a mulch, but my personal preference is chopped alfalfa hay.

(If this post sounds familiar, you're right - it's a repost, first up June, 2005. I have a few more strawberry posts in Archives. If I get around to it, I'll recycle them as well in the coming days.)

soft

Guinea Pig (B. C. Wildlife Park, Kamloops)

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More 'soft' photos linked at Thursday Challenge

Next Week: HOME (House, Living Room, Kitchen, Bedroom, Nest, Hive,...)

book review:Embracing Your Second Calling by Dale Hanson Bourke

Title: Embracing Your Second Calling: Find Passion and Purpose for the Rest of Your Life
Author: Dale Hanson Bourke
Publisher: Thomas Nelson, May 2010, Paperback, 240 pages

ISBN-10: 0849946972 
ISBN-13: 978-0849946974

From the moment I saw this book’s title and read a description of it, I knew it was one I had to read. Now that I have I can, without hesitation, recommend Embracing Your Second Calling: Find Passion and Purpose for the Rest of Your Life by Dale Hanson Bourke to any and every woman in the second half of life.

Bourke begins by identifying the issues aging women face. Among them is the loss of many of the things society values – like looks, power, and ambition. She describes how these are either fading naturally or losing their appeal. She tells her own story and, using the example of Naomi from the Bible, talks about how one can get through this time not only gracefully but in a way that enriches oneself and others. I found the chapters dealing with the past, idols, prayer, and friends especially probing.

Bourke’s writing style is warm, companionable and interesting – sprinkled, as the text is, with lots of anecdotes. Sidebars, in the form of text boxes, supplement the main chapter sections.“Reflect” boxes contain questions for personal reflection, journaling or group discussion (e.g.: "What are you doing today that is an investment in the future?” p. 105).

“Act” sections have suggestions for action (e.g.:“Find a friend who wants to try a prayer adventure with you. Try walking and praying out loud. Or meet together and read a classic book on prayer such as The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence” p. 146).

Quotes are also scattered throughout the text.

Each chapter ends with a personalized prayer that gives the reader another window on how to apply what she has just read.

The book’s end matter has a section of footnotes and a couple of pages of “Recommended Resources” – both books and websites.

The only criticism I have of the book is the way it’s bound. My paperback volume has a plastic film laminated to the paper. The film started to peel away as soon as I began handling it. Resisting the urge to peel more is as hard as not picking at a scab or ripping loose wallpaper. My poor book looks like it needs a face lift of its own.

That little matter aside, I found this an altogether uplifting, encouraging, and affirming read. I am using the “Reflect” sections as journal prompts to help me dig deeper into my own past, current motivations, and future expectations. Bourke has given me lots to think about and this book will be my companion for a while.

Besides personal use, I can see Embracing Your Second Calling being useful as a springboard for group study and discussion. I don’t think the groups would even have to be confined to middle-aged or older women. For the mindset and spiritual outlook Bourke describes in her maturing self are not restricted to women who have reached a certain age, but are available to women of any age open to spiritual renewal and continuing spiritual health and usefulness.

Article first published as Book Review: Embracing Your Second Calling: Find Passion and Purpose for the Rest of Your Life by Dale Hanson Bourke on Blogcritics.

I received a copy of this book as a gift from the publisher for the purpose of writing a review.

Read a Christianity Today interview with Dale Hanson Bourke.