mothers
Remembering my mother this Mother's Day and Äitienpäivä, here in Canada and in Finland, US and a few other countries. I still miss her almost every day even after 20 years since her passing.
On this sunny afternoon, I'm eagerly looking forward to a salmon bbq and dessert with our three daughters, two little granddaughters and the men in our family. I am so lucky. We're also celebrating youngest daughter's birthday (actually tomorrow), a Mother's Day baby 23 years ago!
Wishing everyone a happy day, remembering your mother and/or a mother figure dear to you. If you are a mother, enjoy your family today.
Related links:
day before Mother's Day 2007 in my garden (the lilacs and Mexican orange are late this year!)
artsy afternoon
Whenever I have to take the car over town somewhere, I usually try to do several things on that journey, to maximize pleasure over pain, for I dislike driving in Vancouver's crazy traffic, and then there's the cost of gas. So it was that I had arranged a date with my husband for yesterday afternoon. After a visit with my wonderful naturopath, I headed over to nearby Granville Island. I wandered for about an hour around some wonderful shops like Maiwa, highly tempted by their lovely artistic clothing and Asian fabric arts. Thinking about sewing, I checked out their craft supply store but did not find what I'd hoped for... maybe next time. Then my husband arrived, having cycled from work. As always when we meet after work somewhere in town, he finds our van in a designated area, loads the bike inside and changes from cycling gear to regular clothes that he's left in the car the night before, then comes find me. It's such a delight to meet like this, makes me feel like twenty-something, almost.
Together we went into the Circle Craft Gallery to see our Finnish-Canadian friend Kaija Rautianen's exhibition of Jacquard tapestry weavings, entitled Natural Images: Bear Encounters. Lovely work as always, and a very interesting process. Kaija's images of bears were taken on a sailing trip up the coast of BC, where the bear is considered sacred by the First Nations. I thought of how the bear was also sacred to some of the ancient people in Finland as well. Check out this excellent review.
Next stop was Emily Carr University of Art and Design (formerly Institute) to see the Emily Carr Grad Show 2008. Read about it on daughter Erika's blog. We saw the website she assisted in creating, like she did last year when she was a grad. I didn't have the energy to go through the entire massive show, but what we did see was impressive.
By this time we were hungry and headed over for an always wonderful meal in a favourite restaurant on this Island, overlooking all the boats in False Creek, with the city's highrises glowing in the sunshine on the other shore. Nice date, don't you think? I only wish I'd remembered the camera.
time traveller
So many blog posts waiting to be written. I keep getting ideas and inspiration from various sources that I want to write about and share, but due to lack of time, energy or sometimes just downright laziness, many never do get written. In the meantime the bookmarks keep growing or becoming outdated.
Here's one I really must tell you about, late as I am. Some readers may remember last year I wrote that a couple of my photos of Hornby Island petroglyphs were included in a book called In Search of Ancient British Columbia.
A while back, in one of those wonderful connections that blogging rewards us with, I received an email by one of the authors of that book, Heidi Henderson. We had an interesting conversation and I learned that she lives right here in Vancouver and also has a blog Archea, Musings in Natural History. Over a period of several days, I read through it all, finding it quite fascinating and making me recall a visit to the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Alberta where I was more excited by the beauty of the fossil collection than by the dinosaur specimens. The image above is one of many I took at that museum.
And Heidi herself sounds fascinating, being a passionate time traveller, amateur paleontologist and head of the Vancouver Paleontological Society and The British Columbia Paleontological Alliance. Her articles are well researched with cited sources; the stories about the group's fossil hunting trips around BC and Washington made for enjoyable reading and almost tempt me to join some of their outings!
I wish we could see more and larger photos of these fabulous finds on the blog. The ever-changing slide shows near the bottom of the main page are an interesting supplement and another journey.
sima for May Day
The sunshine is so warming today as it streams into the house (oh, but such dirty windows). Fresh green leaves, spring flowers and even dandelions are bursting everywhere in spite of the cool temperatures. The tulips I had picked from our garden are already spread wide open in the warm house. It's April 30th, I realize, which means it's Vappu or May Day Eve. Or it was on the other side of the world in Finland where they have already celebrated with much drinking and partying, especially the students. I should have made some sima and tippaleipää but instead I will just fondly reminisce about those tastes that my mother offered up in my childhood. ( I can't have sugar or wheat.)
Unlike here in North America, May Day is rich with meanings and celebrations in Europe - Beltane, a celebration of spring, Walpurgis Night, Maypole and other dances and the International Workers' Day. I wish we had a celebration here in Canada.
Instead I raise my virtual glass of sima and once again heartily wish you all a Happy May Day, Hauskaa Vappua, Happy Walpurgisnacht and Bonne Fête du Muguet!
