by Marja-Leena 
Suddenly, it is November and for many writers also NaNoWriMo** month. As I’m not writing a novel or poetry, I thought I’d try for the first time to post something every day. It’s a busy month for me so we’ll see if I’m able to meet the challenge.
Here are some of Vancouver’s fall colours, captured when out and about with appointments last Friday.
**Added Nov. 3rd: It seems that I might instead fit into this category of daily blogging for November: NaBloPoMo
by Marja-Leena 
1. Congratulations to Mark Woods on Wood s Lot’s 10th anniversary of blogging marvelous excerpts and links to interesting and eclectic writings and art. I also enjoy his lovely photographs of areas in eastern Canada that have been gracing his pages in more recent years. A remarkable achievement in this day of waning blogs as many move to the more fast-paced life of Facebook and Twitter. (Can you tell I’m a proponent of the ‘slow life’?)
2. Congratulations to the award winners of BIMPE VI in Vancouver. After its opening exhibition at the Federation Gallery, a selection is now showing at Dundarave Print Shop. I recently saw a friend’s copy of the exhibition catalogue and it is beautiful. I was very pleased to see in it that all of my three submitted pieces were accepted. I can hardly wait for my own copy which will come with the return of the prints after they’ve been in Edmonton.
3. This is late: a print of mine was posted at Qarrstiluni. The current theme of The Crowd was impossible for me to resist as I’d done several prints by that title some years ago. Watch for another one to come later. I must say Qarrstiluni keeps on getting better and better thanks to the superb efforts of its editors Beth Adams and Dave Bonta and the many guest editors. I see that it just recently and quietly passed its fifth anniversary – another congratulations!
by Marja-Leena 
my warm woolly wrist warmers knit by Elisa
Motherly pride is showing when I write how I’ve long enjoyed our daughter Elisa’s blog appleturnover since she started in the spring of 2006. As demands of family and an art practice grew, the blog waned at times, was revived and waned again.
This summer while visiting us at home here in Vancouver, away from their present home in London, UK, Elisa redesigned her blog and started it afresh, focusing even more on the natural, can we say old-fashioned, side of homemaking much like her grandmothers practiced and which skipped some of my generation. I never took to knitting myself and did not do much canning, preferring freezing. I used to do a lot of sewing and was challenged this summer to teach a bit of those now rusty skills such as hand-made buttonholes.
Do visit the new and beautiful appleturnover and say ‘hello’. Don’t miss reading her wonderful ‘about’ page. Enjoy!
P.S. In case you are a newer reader and have not made the acquaintance of the blogs of our other two daughters, here is Anita’s and here is Erika’s. Yes, I’m proud of all of them.
Added October 16th, 2010: If you are a knitter, you may be interested in a pattern for a similar pair of fingerless gloves that Elisa has made and posted on her blog.
by Marja-Leena 
I am touched and honoured that author Kate A. Laity has chosen me as one of many women who are ‘an inspiration’ over at a new women’s group blog curiously called Women’s League of Ale Drinkers, a repository of creative women.
I’m particularly thrilled to be in the company of a fantastic Finnish musician, Ulla Suokko. And this after having already been interviewed by Kate last year for Women’s Month!
Kate herself has Finnish roots and has inspired me many a time with her blog, Wombat’s World, through which we initially “met” (read my blog post about it if you don’t know the fascinating story) and her wonderful book of stories inspired by the Finnish epic Kalevala: Unikirja. She now has a delightful book trailer out that makes me want to go back and reread her book all over again. Her first book Pelzmantel has just recently been reprinted by Immanion Press and is on my wish list.
by Marja-Leena 
Many of my readers may remember MB Whitaker who was well-known and liked for her lovely blog Find Me a Bluebird, where she posted almost daily poems and photos. Sadly she stopped doing so about two years ago but has left the blog up. Meanwhile MB still sings and plays with her band The Heard.
I was thrilled to receive an email a few days ago from MB that she, her husband and daughter were coming from Idaho to Vancouver for a brief visit on a Pacific Northwest Coast holiday trip. We arranged to meet, and that was last night for dinner at a restaurant on Granville Island. Wow, was it wonderful to make that face-to-face connection once again with someone who had become an online friend. My inner shyness always quakes a little at the prospect of meeting the first time but melted away quickly for as always it is a wonderful and memorable experience, cementing a friendship even more.
MB and her husband both work in the non-profit environmental fields, and MB is also a web designer so we wished that our daughter Erika had been able to join us for those are her areas of work too. MB’s daughter, still in high-school is bright, beautiful and creative like both her parents. After our discussions of what might be her future career choices and places for study, she showed great interest in the quick tour we took afterwards of our art and design institution nearby, Emily Carr University, though quiet at this moment between semesters. Our time together was too short but we hope to meet again!
I did take a photo of them but forgot to ask for permission to post it – maybe later?
by Marja-Leena Late last night we returned from several lovely days in Montréal. This was my first visit there, not counting passing through on the train from the ship in Halifax to Winnipeg as a five-year-old immigrant with my family long ago! On this, my husband’s second trip there, we combined much pleasure with a little business for him. And oh, what pleasure to get acquainted with this very French and very multicultural historic old city!
The greatest pleasure naturally was to meet face to face for the first time and spend many delightful hours with Beth of The Cassandra Pages and her husband Jonathan. We all connected immediately as if old friends, which always amazes us about the blog community!
I’ll be writing more later but to start, above are two photos taken inside the Notre-Dame Basilica. The outside is not as magnificent as the one in Paris but inside it is very beautiful. (We didn’t see inside the Paris one to compare.) I loved the new and modern Sacré-Coeur Chapel, below, with it’s simple light wood panelled ceiling and walls and the clerestory windows contrasting with the ornateness of the decorations. Most astounding to me was the huge bronze altarpiece by sculptor Charles Daudelin.
More about our Montréal visit:
Montréal: roofs
Montréal: feasts
Montréal: highlights
by Marja-Leena 
My daughter Erika, a professional web designer, had been making noises for awhile about changing the font on my blog. I love Mac’s Skia font and have used it here from Day One, even though I vaguely knew it was not showing properly on PC computers, defaulting to Verdana which she felt was hard to read and looked terrible especially in larger point. My problem has been finding another font I liked as much as Skia that is also free. We decided on FF Nuvo Web Pro (if you want to know more, check the little ikon on the bottom right corner of this page).
Today was spring cleaning day and the font is the new resident here, and one I’m still looking at as a stranger in my six year old home! So, dear readers, please let me know how it looks for you or if there’s anything funky going on anywhere. I’ve already noticed some of the archives are a little weird but it’s probably not worth the effort to weed through and correct.
One of the changes I myself had long been desiring was to have my images clickable to view larger. Erika suggested instead to just post them larger because most people nowadays do have larger screens. A few other tweaks here and there and it’s done!
Thank you, Erika, for all your expertise and hard work. I’m in awe when I watch you rapidly type away at code, such a foreign language for me, and thus create such wonders on the web! And you’ve been doing this since you were about thirteen!
Oh, and the image above is the result of some play with text and image layers in PhotoShop… enjoy!
by Marja-Leena 
I almost forgot! Today is the sixth anniversary of this blog! Thinking back to when I began, I would not have believed this would become such an important part of my life, and how many wonderful connections and friendships would grow from it. Last year I felt excited and blessed to personally meet several blog friends in the UK and here at home in the Vancouver region. Perhaps this year I’ll meet a few more of you – welcome!
Though I don’t write quite as much as in those early days, I seem to be posting more photographs as that has grown into a serious hobby in addition to being part of my art practice. I miss some of my favourite bloggers who have quit or have been leaving for Facebook, Twitter and other media. Meanwhile I continue to resist joining them, fearing spreading myself too thin. Thank you, those of you who are still here and still reading and commenting with such warmth.
Here are a few photos from our Sunday afternoon walk not far from home. How I love where we live, rain or shine!
From the archives, if you are interested:
the first anniversary, second, third, fourth and the fifth.
by Marja-Leena 
I’m easing into the new year lazily, sorting through holiday photos and loving these two by my husband: a hardy swimmer in the ocean guardedly eyed by gull and great blue heron.
By some impulse after a long absence, I submitted a recent post for this January’s Festival of Trees hosted this time by xenogere. It’s a lovely guided walk through interesting places, so please enjoy a visit over there.
by Marja-Leena 
This morning in the printmaking studio was somewhat frustrating for me. Lucy, our trusty and faithful wide-format printer was not happy. I’ve been trying to print a trial proof of a template image for my next series of prints. (I’ll tell you soon about the ones just finished.) I need to be sure the layout is right before I start placing the images on the page so I don’t have to redo them all. But Lucy now has a fancy new computer with the latest new OS and she’s making strange. Our fab technician and the IT person have been working on it the past few days but it still wasn’t working for me.
Somewhat dejected as I bussed home this afternoon, I paused along the path home to admire the fall colours hanging over a weathered leaning fence. Being without a camera, I impulsively picked a few small branches to scan at home. I haven’t posted any fall colours or done any scanning for a while so that made me feel better!
I also had a wonderful surprise awaiting when I opened my computer. Today Qarrtsiluni posted my ARKEO #4 along with a fabulous podcast by the editors Beth Adams and Dave Bonta. I think they made interesting observations, including the comment about emerging language. It’s always heartwarming to feel that one’s work is meaningful to others. I felt inspired by the current theme, Words of Power, so I’m very honoured to have my work included in qarrtsiluni again. Founding editors Beth and Dave have done such a fantastic job of this amazing online magazine and deserve a round of applause! If you don’t know it, do please check it out.
UPDATE Nov. 6th: I must tell you more about Lucy’s naming! This morning Bonnie, our technician, was showing me the small changes that had been made yesterday to restore Lucy’s operation. As I prepared to print, I told her about how amused some of you readers were concerning the fact that we have a name for this printer. Bonnie said she got the name from her brother’s old grey car. And get this: her brother is very interested in history and old things, so my thoughts of the early hominid Lucy were right on the mark!! Thankfully Lucy the printer is not that old and has lots of life left in her as long as the printer drivers are being updated. She is after all a commercial level printer used in many service bureaus and these folks don’t like to have to change their printers every three years! Oh, and I had great success with my prints today, the colour management is much improved in this version!