Tea for Two -- paintings for the tea room at the Burr House, Richmond Hill, ON

I was happy to provide the Burr House Tea Room (run by the Hill Potters' Guild and the Burr House Spinners and Weavers) with some artwork for their walls. 

I am installing the pieces tomorrow morning. 

There are 10 more in the works. 

All of these paintings are 8"x10" acrylics on canvas, all called Tea for Two. 

They will be shown in pairs. 

Some are more obviously connected in image, 

and others more by, 

shall we say,  

spirit. 

They will be on display in the tea room until the end of September, 2012. 

Tea room hours: 12:30 - 4:30 Friday, Saturday and Sunday until the end of November

Saturdays and Sundays only in December.

Drop by and have some tea and scones ($4.00! A true bargain!) 

Marvel at the artwork in the tea room! 

and in the craft gallery! 

(all made by guild members! and local artisans!!)

and on display in the main gallery where, (Oh!) I have an exhibit with the exceptional Doris Walter, sculptor. We're having an opening September 6th from 6pm-8pm 

so if you come by you can meet both of us 

LIVE! 

and 

IN PERSON!! 

Whatever Happened to the Chocolate Popsicle?

We've had a record-breaking summer of heat and dry weather here. I found myself, more than once, craving popsicles.

                                              

 This was the go-to treat when I was a kid, walking to the corner store with my friends, each of us buying a different kind of popsicle, cracking them in the middle and sharing the different flavours with each other. I wanted to do that with Chris the other day and I *really* wanted a chocolate popsicle. They were my favorite and I haven't tried to find one in years.

Maybe it's even been decades? But you know how the memory is, it's like no time has passed so I was positive I would find popsicle, and hoping to find chocolate ones.

the lowly orange popsicle serving as an icon of the venerable twin pop
shown here as a sterling silver charm

I'd even settle for the common orange popsicle if I had to, the worst of the bunch.

o

not the actual freezer where I bought the lifesaver frozen thingy, but very similar

 I walked to the closest corner store and peered into the freezer.

I was looking for a popsicle. The one I really wanted, but can never get, is the tri-coloured popsicle: blue, white and pink/red. They could have ditched the red part and just made it blue and white. That would be my preference. Sometimes you can get the blue/white/red in the "rocket" format, but it's not the same to me.

So I got a lifesavers popsicle-like thing today.  It was very yummy but triggered the popsicle memories of my youth.

Popsicle Pete! Where are you my old friend?

My popsicle quest had me trying to remember the last time I actually saw a chocolate popsicle.

fudgsicles are not popsicles

What happened to those?

It turns out that the popsicle I remember is actually called a "twin pop", developed during the Great Depression and made with the intention of sharing with you friends. They were discontinued in 1987. Sheesh. Apparently moms found them too messy and kids didn't get to the second half fast enough so they melted. Hello? Is this a case of "kids today" or what? Sometimes we didn't crack them in half but kept them whole and ate them like that and sometimes they melted CAUSE IT WAS HOT OUT and yeah, sometimes little kids get sticky gooey stuff on their hands. 

NY Times article on the demise of the Twin Popsicle

I think it was probably more likely that the company could make something smaller and charge the same price for it, thereby making more money. 

Popsicle Pete, CEO/CFO/Corp.

things-on-a-stick are always a good bet

I saved a few Popsicle wrappers a few times but never had enough to send away for anything. The wrappers were always super sticky and attracted ants like crazy, and held onto little bits of gravel. Then the goopy stuff got all over your hands and you just threw the wrapper out.

And as if on cue, after we finished our treats and were on our way home, an ice cream truck drove right by us. Look! Rockets right there on the back of the truck. Taunting me.
*shaking fist in the air*

Phooey.

BUT NO POPSICLES!

more on Popsicle Pete:  

 http://www.cracked.com/blog/the-8-most-baffling-food-mascots-all-time_p3/

Re-purposing my favorite Mobius-wear

I am trying to de-clutter my apartment and I have been going through some of my t-shirts. I have a lot of t-shirts and many are old old old, very worn, and I love to wear them.

Chris has been after me for about 5 years to get rid of this shirt in particular:

This is a "cyclist" shirt made by Tim Hunt and Karen Massey circa, oh, 2001? 2000? The shirts they made just got more and more comfortable, the fabric softer and softer and the design and colour always stayed true. As the shirt got older I started to use it as a "painting shirt". I have lots of shirts now, intended and unintended, that are painting shirts. This one just had so many holes that it was almost unwearable.

arm split open along the side

many different sized holes in the middle of the front

So what to do with this old favorite? I tried tossing it twice now and couldn't do it. So today I put it to work.

i

 After ripping it, easily,  into long soft ribbons

I used it to tie my tomato plants up off the ground.  Shown here is the true success story of my garden:

Cosmonaut Volkov tomatoes, which I direct seeded  into the ground.   

I couldn't believe when they germinated in the poor garden soil, and I couldn't believe when they flowered, and now I can't get over the tomatoes growing on them!

The blue Mobius shirt was soft yet strong and I felt confident enough to tackle even the most sprawling of my tomato plants, the yellow cherry pear-shaped tomato. Look at this mess of blue t-shirt ties.

Next year I will do myself a favour and get the tomato cages. 

Really, I'm just trying to get through the gardening year this year.

 It's been a long long long time since I had my own garden. 

But, I'll make sure to have a few retired Mobius t's just in case.

Festival Season 2012: visting the Fairy Lake Artisan's Festival

Last Sunday I drove 20 or so  minutes north to Newmarket and the Fairy Lake Artisan's Festival. I knew two local artists exhibiting there and I wondered if I would know anyone else. Looking up info about the show I found out it's 15 years old. That's usually a pretty good sign.
As it turned out, there were artisans from out of town and that is another sign of a decent show. You don't travel for nothing.
Or you hope so anyway.
I recognized Out of Ruins, an Ottawa fused glass company and The Funky Clothesline, a tie-dye clothing company,  both have been around about a decade.
I remember when each of them started doing shows.
The fact that I saw artisans from out of town told me something about the calibre of this show. I've only lived here a little over a year and I had no idea this was going on or I probably would have applied to be there. But that's ok too, as this is my summer of visiting shows in the area, shows I've always wanted to see like Muskoka and Haliburton, which were just that-much-too-far from me when I lived in Ottawa to leisurely drive there for a visit. And then there are other shows like The Purple Turtle Art Festival  and the Eaglewood Folk Festival which are nearby and completely unknown to me. 

First signage for Fairy Lake show on Bayview in Newmarket

It was a relief to see the first sign telling me I am in the right place. The day after the market I am kind of a basket case so this sort of directional marker is very welcome.

cops at the entrance to the show directing traffic: peds, canines and cars

Walking over to the show I kept passing big clumps of people, almost crowd-like, and when I reached where I had to cross I was astounded to see traffic cops directing all manner of traffic. Was this show that busy, I wondered?

security at the entrance to turn away would-be car-parkers no doubt

This security volunteer guy was like a military sentry. He never wavered while executing his Duty..

this is Fairy Lake in Newmarket, Ontario

Fairy Lake turns out to be a real lake afterall, not just a lets-put-a-water-feature-in-town-for-the-tourists kind of thing. They are rehabilitating the shoreline and further down, past the show itself I came across people fishing. I plan to go back there and set a while over the summer.

welcome

Very bright and bold sign exorting us to ENJOY! OK.

booths

The show was bigger than I thought it would be.

more booths

In fact it went on

and more booths

and on.

The level of artisanal work was pretty high. Seemed like the first day of the two day show was the best as it dove-tailed with the Newmarket Farmer's Market on Saturday. The crowds were huge I was told and people were buying things. On the Sunday the sky threatened to open up and the air was heavy and humid. It was a strolling-by day. I did take a few business cards myself and if my year continues to progress well I hope to get something very special made in the fall.

ATM on wheels; looks crafty!  Who wouldn't want a trailer like this?

The ATM cracked me up. This set-up on wheels just looked so do-able but imagine what you'd have to do to actually do this? I met someone ages ago who was one of the first guys to bring ATMs to events. It was such a novelty, but none of his were as stylish as this little number. I would have liked to have seen an airstream trailer beside it.

bye bye

The Good Earth

I have a community garden.

3 transplanted Crimson Red Watermelon.
All my transplants are taking root (new perky leaves)
but none have started to take off and grow grow grow yet

I haven't had a garden of my very own in a few decades. I've done what I could but it was either too far away, or too shady, or too small. The last one I created was mowed down by the rental complex's gardener guy so I really gave up then. This garden is a short 5-10 minute walk, pretty much around the corner from me. It's not too full of gardeners. The plot is a decent size: 18' x 18' and the price is right: $25 for the season. If we're still here next year I will probably garden two plots; one with the goal of selling its bounty at the farmer's market... but I am wayyyyyy ahead of myself.


It was a bit discouraging at the beginning, about 2 weeks ago.   

first look at my garden plot: full grown weeds

I got the call to come get my garden well into June. I thought the plans for the garden had fallen through but what happened was that the farmer who tills our soil is a double amputee and he broke one of his prosthetic legs and/or his tilling equipment was on the fritz. Whatever the story, the garden was untilled when I got it. Bad. And the soil is... yep, clay.

clay soil as it came off my shovel

Heavy clay. And it's been pretty dry so the clay is really tough to dig into and the weeds are HUGE.   

But I thought just dig where you're going to plant and plant your stuff, you can pretty it up after. So I did, and I didn't wreck my body either. Surprisingly, after the first day I was very sore and then it was gone. Since then I haven't been in much pain at all from the digging. I start to clean out the garden tomorrow though. The thistles (eek!) are really coming back as is that crab grass and of course the dandelions. My seeds need me on their side to keep their beds as clean as I can.

weeds

Already I've had growing success! I planted all my seeds last Friday June 8th. We had heavy rain yesterday and the day before and overnight. Before the rain my Sparkler Radishes had peeped up.

Sparkler Radishes germinated in 2 days

I think some of the lettuce came up too: Kweik Butterhead Lettuce. Hard to tell though as it takes until the first set of leaves sometimes to recognize that that thing growing is a veggie and not a weed.

 

  I was presented with a lot of this kind of thing today  See image above... lots of these guys everywhere I planted stuff.

And in my northern climate I am trying a few experimental things. I am growing tomatoes directly seeded into the ground. I am waiting for them to germinate unless they already have (see paragraph above). The tomatoes I am trying are called Cosmonaut Volkov, a Ukrainian variety said to produce until the frost. Also directly seeded at Chinese 5 Colour Hot Pepper and Hungarian Hot Black Pepper. I think the 5 Colour Peppers are up. I don't think the Hungarian Black Pepper is.

inside Richter's Herbs greenhouse

I visited Richter's Herbs and bought a packet of rare seeds: Areni Jumbo Striped Banana Squash. 6 seeds per packet. Squash two feet long. The mound holding the seeds had a giant crack in it where some very vigorous thing is pushing up from below.

Like judging the size of a dog by the size of its puppy-paws, I await the debut of the Jumbo Squash seed leaves. I'm a little scared truth be told. Luckily the garden behind mine is empty so I envision pushing the giant vines over there if they are jumbo-sized too.

My Muncher Cucumbers are up! 4 little guys are enjoying the sun.

Muncher Cucumbers

Not seen yet: dill, yellow patty pan squash, Minnesota midget cantaloupe, shallots, and potatoes.

Black Valentine Bush Bean

Other things (possibly up): white kohlrabi, parsnips, purple outside/orange inside carrots, baby finger eggplant (also direct seeded!),  and beets.

Carrots? Parsnips? Peppers? Tomatoes? Eggpplant? Lettuce? or just weeds?? Everything just looks like this right now.

Tomorrow I am hoeing, trying to stymie the growth of the weeds. I may dig. I may not. I'd love to smother with black plastic the aisles where I walk to get rid of the weeds but it's not my permanent garden. If it was, I would definitely do that. I don't mind fighting the weeds. The whole thing is such a pleasure.

One more thing, this community garden requires us to grow a row for the local seniors. I've got 5 brussel sprouts and 4 cauliflowers and 1 broccoli planted for this purpose. These are all things I've never grown and probably wouldn't grow so I get the joy of watching them all season too.

This garden satisfies me in the same place that making art does.

weeds in pavement

It's in that same place. No wonder I've fallen so in love with it and feel like none of it is work at all.

It is just pure joy.