First Snow

Saturday morning, just after 8 o'clock. I was working in the garden, pulling out the pea and lettuce plants. When I saw the first few flakes, I thought it was ash from a neighbour's chimney. It took me a few minutes to realize we were having our first snow of the season.

What the World Eats

Over the summer, Time Magazine ran a two-part photo essay called 'What the World Eats'. It's a look at the weekly food baskets of various families around the world and it's fascinating. The links to the whole series are here and here, but I'm posting a couple for quick reference.

Egypt - cost to feed this family per week: $68.53

U.S. - cost to feed this family per week: $341.98

Chad - cost to feed this family per week: $1.23

And Another One

Last night's dream was in fact quite a nightmare. It appeared someone had dropped a nuclear bomb. Children were running in the streets, screaming, their skin falling off their bones. It was utter chaos. I was standing, watching all this in horror, not knowing what to do. I appeared to be unscathed by the bomb.

Just then, someone (it wasn't clear to me who) standing beside me said, "You have the most beautiful green eyes!" Their comment affected me almost like a drug: all of a sudden I felt calmer; almost unfazed by the horrendous scene going on around me.

That's all I remember. Now what the heck was that all about??

Last Night's Dream

I haven't been sleeping well since I've come back from N.S. and haven't been remembering my dreams. However last night's was one of those crystal clear dreams that you can't get out of your head. Jamie and I were visiting my Dad's house (now my house) in N.S. I don't know where I'd been, but I'd been out very late. I came back to the house and saw that it was bathed in a beautiful blue light, both inside and out.

I walked in the door, noticing that there was a lot of paper stuffed into the door frame of the front porch, almost as if it were being used for insulation against the cold. Inside, I saw my Dad. He looked as he had when I was growing up: tall, straight backed, with auburn hair and mustache. I don't recall him saying anything to me: he was just walking around the house not doing any obvious task. I remember thinking how good he looked.

I saw the clock - 5 a.m. I thought, "No wonder I'm tired and my contacts are bothering me! It's very late!"

I noticed three dogs in the house: two little ones (one black and one a midnight blue colour) and an older dog. The older one was Dad's; the other two he was looking after for another relative (my brother perhaps?) I spent some time patting the blue dog and marvelling at its colour.

Then Joe's Uncle Dave and Aunt Barb were there. She said to me, "Remember you were asking me where we came up with our meals? Well, here's my secret." She showed me a couple of those commercially-prepared frozen dinners. They were high end ones, but nonetheless they were a disappointment to me.

I was about to go down into the basement to go to bed (there was a bedroom down there that Jamie and I were sharing) when Jamie came up to me. He had a towel on his head, and two rolled up towels in his hands. He started to unwrap the rolled up towels, and each had one of his shoes in it. I became uncomfortable, thinking he was going to put on those shoes and go out. I asked him where he was going all alone at this time of the night. He wouldn't answer, and I realized he was just teasing me and he wasn't planning on going anywhere.

That's when I woke up.

Simple Satisfaction

I had one of those 'I got a lot done!' week-ends. Nothing terribly exciting; pretty mundane domestic stuff in fact, but satisfying nonetheless.

The big job was cleaning out Iris' room. I washed clothes, packed things up in boxes, and started painting. But apart from that, I dug up the rest of the carrots (I have a good 20 pound sack of them in my front porch), made an apple torte for a potluck we went to on Saturday night, taught my first piano classes of the season, got up early on Sunday morning and made blueberry pancakes for the brood, went cranberry picking, made a yummy dinner (if I do say so myself) of roast organic chicken, roasted garden veggies and apple pie made with the apples I brought back from N.S., made chicken soup with the leftover carcass, and collapsed into bed by 9:30 last night. Phew!

Last of the Spuds

It was with a fair amount of regret that I dug up my last few hills of potatoes yesterday. They are now sitting in a bucket in the corner of my kitchen, waiting to be used up over the next few meals.

Luckily, we have lots of our other veggies left: with the mild September we are having, even our lettuce is still frost free and tasty. With caribou meat and wild berries in the freezer, and a garden out our back door, it's amazing how much less we're spending on groceries these days.

After dance class last night I spent some time rewarding my hard working potato patch with a big feed of of compost and horse manure, so it'll be ready to till and plant in the spring. Being an old farm girl, I'm already dreaming of next year's crops.

A Day at Granville Island with Lucca and Marigold

Eye candy
Hat shopping
Who knew there were so many different kinds of olives?
Pondering a purchase
Photographing the photographer