Paris Photo

I took these pictures when I was in Paris because I loved the wisteria growing out of the sidewalk and covering the outside of the building so beautifully. I came upon this when I was wandering around not too far from Notre Dame.

This afternoon I was looking through a blog about Paris when I saw this post.

http://paristhroughmylens.blogspot.com/2009/11/paris-rouge-viii.html

The second photo on this post ... it's the same building!!! But she took a much better photo.

Isn't it lovely with all the greenery.

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders Fields

By: Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918)

Canadian Army

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses row on row,

That mark our place; and in the sky

The larks, still bravely singing, fly S

carce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

Loved and were loved, and now we lie I

n Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:

To you from failing hands we throw

The torch; be yours to hold it high.

If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

In Flanders fields.

Internet ... arghhhh!

We live in a small village near a couple of large university cities, and close to one of the top internet techie companies in Canada. Why is it, then, that we have spent the last several years suffering with only dial-up internet because high speed has not been available.

A few weeks ago we found in our mail box a flyer from Rogers advertising their “Rocket” stick. Yipee, I thought, we can get high speed internet!! YAY!!

Saturday morning we headed off to a nearby Rogers store and came home with the “Rocket”. DH went upstairs to the computer room and installed the gizmo, and guess what … IT DIDN’T WORK!!! Why oh why would a company advertise a product in an area where it doesn’t work!!! So back to the store we went, and while DH returned the said “Rocket”, I popped across to the Bell store to ask about their new wireless internet gizmo. By the time we left the Bell store we had their gizmo in our hot little hands. Sunday morning (after Coronation Street, of course) DH went up to the computer to try again.

At first it didn't work, which didn't make sense because my Bell cellphone works. So we decided to move the CPU from the cubby under the desk up onto the desk so it would be closer to the window. So we moved some stuff (of which we have tons!) to make room for the CPU, but before we moved it I cleaned off the windowsill and got my duster and cleaned the windowsill and part of the desk. The Bell internet works, but the signal isn't very strong, and in fact we got no signal at all for a couple of hours. I don't think we'll keep it because if the signal went on a bright sunny afternoon, what will it be like in the middle of the winter.

So ... it looks like we are stuck with bloody dial-up :o( ARGHHHHH!!!!!

By the way, moving the CPU escalated into a concerted effort to dig my way through the stacks of stuff and papers, and I spent most of the day sorting through papers. I ended up with a garbage bag full of shredded paper (including credit card statements from 2006) which will make great fire starter. I've also got a stack of other papers to burn. But most of all ... IF FOUND THE FLOOR (my husband is a piler, not a filer)!!!

An Anniversary

On October 31, 1994 - 15 years ago - I started a temporary job at a department store financial centre. I had just hit bottom, and I mean rock bottom, in my emotional life. In fact I'd just been diagnosed with depression, which in hindsight I realized I'd been suffering from for years.

So, I walked into this building to start a temp job, you know the kind, very little money in return work you do. But a paycheque is a paycheque. I walked in and my supervisor met me at the elevator - dressed as a devil!! It was Halloween, and everyone was dressed for the occasion.

That first morning, I met someone I knew and she invited me to join her and a group of others for coffee breaks and lunch. I took her up on the offer, and one of the guys at the table was sitting there doing the crossword puzzle from the Toronto Star newspaper. Peter and I used to do crossword puzzles at work (Peter is a friend who died just days before I started this job, part of the reason for "hitting bottom". Anyway, this guy was sitting there, and I peered over and gave him one of the answers, then another, then another.

Over the course of the next several days we worked on the crossword every day (along with the others at the table, but mostly he and I). I distinctly remember saying to myself "He's a nice guy, but he's not my type". After more than a week, he asked me out for coffee. We sat in the coffee shop and talked for hours.

Then he invited me over to his place for dinner. I wasn't sure, I mean I didn't really know this guy ... who knows what I could have been walking into! But I went, and we had dinner and watched a movie. Next thing you know I'm driving him home after work, and we are getting together in the evenings.

One day, after a few weeks of seeing each other, we were having a morning coffee break together and we went in different directions back to our desks he whispered to me "I love you", and then walked away. I was stunned, I didn't know what to say or do. I thought about it all day, and after work, as I drove us home I remember saying to him "You can't love me, I'm too neurotic!" No-one can say he wasn't forewarned!!!

It turns out that I fell in love with this guy "who's not my type". We've now been living together for almost 15 years and married for 2 years. I guess somewhere along the line he became my type!!!

Taking that temporary job back in 1994 was the best thing I ever did!!!

Happy Anniversary Honey!!! Love you! xoxoxo

Work of Art #2

This is the beginnings of a painting taken from a photo I took in Paris of a window with a window box full of geraniums.

I don't think I like doing pictures of buildings. Getting the architecture right, the angles and such, is quite difficult for me. I think I prefer landscapes because it doesn't really matter if the tree is a little out of scale! It's easier to fudge things a little in a landscape.

Listen to me, I've taken one session of classes, I'm only working on my second painting, and I'm sounding off here like I know what I'm talking about!!! Hmm, I might be just a little full of myself here!!

My first work of art!

This is my very first work of art!!! It's my attempt at copying a picture I took from Muncaster Castle in the Lake District. The field at the bottom of the picture is where they feed the Herons.

I have to admit that I had the help of my art teacher in doing this. He told me to lighten up the colour on some of the mountains, and to add some dark green patches in the trees and some more red in the shrub. And he showed me how to mix some of the colours.

And while he did put a couple of brush strokes on this picture, I definately painted it.

What do you think?

Maybe I can paint!!

I took my very first ever painting lesson last night. I was excited but nervous. I’ve wanted to do this for a long time now, but never had the nerve to actually try.

There were three choices in the course catalogue: drawing, water colours, or acrylics. I opted for acrylics because I can’t even draw stick people, and water colours just seems more “uncontrolled” to me (paint seems to flow everywhere). So I opted for acrylics.

I walked into my class at a gallery in a nearby city and I was one of about 10 in the class. The first thing the teacher asked us to do was to take pencil and paper and draw a tree. Excuse me!!! If I wanted to draw I’d have taken the drawing class!! But I drew a very sad tree. After that there was about an hour of a lecture where he spoke of what paints are made of; the different types of paint; the advantages and disadvantages of acrylics; the different brands of paint and what he prefers; professional brands vs student brands (even as a professional he uses student brands); what he calls his “standard pallet of colours”; the different brushes and what they are used for; the 3 main techniques to painting; and how you shouldn’t use a pencil to sketch before you paint (the pencil lead has oil in it and the acrylic paint won’t stick to it). Next week he will talk about the colour wheel and mixing colours.

He also said that we shouldn’t worry if we make a mistake. We can either change our painting to accommodate the mistake (a slipped brush stroke can become a tree or a shrub), or we can simply paint over it.

Then he gave us a little bit of the 5 colours in his colour pallet (dark blue, light blue, red, yellow, white – from this you can mix any colour), a brush, and a canvas board. He said we were going to start painting a landscape. Here is my unfinished attempt.

While I admit that he told us what to do and how to mix the colours, this isn’t too bad for the first attempt at painting since finger painting in school many many years ago.

Next week we have to take in a photograph or picture that we want to paint. I went home from class last night really excited. I actually had the beginnings of a real painting by my own hand. How exciting is that!!!!

Quotes

Never complain ... Never explain ... And garden your own plot of earth.
- origin uknown

It's never too late to be what you might have been.
- George Eliot