2013 in Review

2013 has been a year of everything - - from fun travel, to learning a new hobby, to difficult good-byes. Here is a recap that is long and picture heavy which likely means it was more fun for me to put together than it will be for you to read. Oh, well, here goes (click on the caption under the pictures to go to the post if you want more details):

JANUARY  2013 began at the cottage with family and friends surrounded by snow and beautiful wintery scenes

New Year's

Later in January, Jonathan and I went with friends to a great Robbie Burns supper.  It was a sea of plaid with haggis for dinner and poetry and speeches afterward.  Such fun!

Robbie Burns Supper

As for projects, I completed (finally) our son and daughter-in-law's wedding photo book.  Yay me!  

FEBRUARY I made a card for Valentine's Day (which also just happens to be our anniversary) using paper I had decorated in art class

and I made a button Easter egg.

Button Easter Egg 

MARCH March was a fun month as we spent a few days in the wilds of Ontario cottage country enjoying the snow and ice

Frozen Cottage Lake in March

and then went to New York City for five days (which you can read about here, here, here, and here).  We had the best time in New York going to museums, art galleries, the opera, and walking, walking, walking to see the sights.

New York City in March

Central Park in March

There really wasn't much time to do any projects with all the traveling, but I did manage to put together a turquoise Easter-in-a-Box for our daughter who was away at university.

APRIL I must have spent the month of April recovering from all the activities in March because not much happened.  I did do some watercolour botanicals which really helped me embrace spring.

MAY

We went to the cottage for the May long weekend and my son took me to see his favourite swamp (not many mothers can claim that),

We went to an auction at my husband's childhood home and came back with some great treasures.

Auction

Knocker and clock from the auction

I made a yummy cake for our youngest's birthday.

Strawberry-Lemon Shortcake

JUNE

I went to see the Tall Ships in Toronto when they were visiting to commemorate the bicentennial of the War of 1812.

Tall Ships in Toronto

On the last day of school in June we went to see Jackie Evancho in concert in Lewiston, New York.  It was a great concert and a pretty little town and such a fun way to start the summer.

Jackie Evancho, Art Park, New York, June 

Lewiston, New York, June

And as for June projects, I made a shadow box to hold the remnants of my husband's father's military jacket for Father's day.

Memory Box

I also went with my art class to paint a little bridge over a pond en plein air.  It was a lot of fun and I made one of my first paintings which began a love affair with acrylic painting.

My Monet-like paintings

JULY

We went to Fort York on Canada Day to see Kate and William as guards.

Fort York guards

I took a Japanese Brush Painting course at the Haliburton School of the Arts in July which taught me lots about brushstrokes and how patient Japanese artists are.

Japanese Brush Painting

I spent a lot of time at the Haliburton cottage with my parents throughout the summer.

I actually made some progress on the family room.  I decided to introduce blue to the largely green room by adding blue pillows and a blue and white striped rug.

Blue accents added to the family room

AUGUST

I went to the Georgian Bay cottage with my daughter and youngest son for a few days.  It is always gorgeous there, but the skies were particularly spectacular this visit.

Georgian Bay Cottage

I went to Letchworth State Park in New York with a friend and had a fantastic time tubing down the river, sketching, and going for hikes.

Letchworth State Park

The whole family went on the South Simcoe Steam Railway for my father's 84th birthday.

South Simcoe Railway

And I painted him a picture of our Haliburton cottage.

SEPTEMBER

I attended Blogpodium and heard Sarah Richardson give the keynote address.

Blogpodium

I painted both the bench and the banker's chair in the family room.  There were a few hitches with both paint colours, but in the end I got just what I was aiming for.

White bench and blue chair in the family room

OCTOBER

A friend and I went to Toronto Island to have a look around and do some sketching.

Toronto Island

We had our friends from France visiting for Thanksgiving.  Not only did we have turkey dinner and go for a walk in the woods, but we also climbed the Dorset tower and went on the art studio tour.

And we made some leaf art - it's a fall tradition.  

Thanksgiving weekend

I completed so many projects in October.  I made candy posters to send off to our two children in university for some Thanksgiving/Hallowe'en fun.

Candy Poster

I made a leaf stamped table runner in our art class.  

Table runner

I carved a pumpkin to go on the front porch.

Pumpkin carving

And finally, I made advent calendars for the younguns to enjoy.

 Advent Calendar Roll

NOVEMBER

I finally, finally, finally completed the picture gallery wall in the family room.  I feel free that this room may just be done (although nothing is ever really done).

At the end of November I had a Christmas Craft Party for the friends in my art class.  It was loads of fun and we made three crafts.  The picture of the twig stars went crazy on Pinterest and has been re-pinned over 2800 times (and liked over 300 times) and the carved oranges were re-pinned over 300 times.  Crazy, eh?

Pinterest

Pinterest

Christmas Craft Party

We went to the Toronto Christmas Market with friends.  Such a great way to get in the mood for Christmas.

Toronto Christmas Market

DECEMBER

The first week in December was Christmas Cookie Week here on the blog.  It was a bit of a scramble to get everything done, but boy was I happy to have all the Christmas baking completed and in the freezer.  I made five cookies and squares. 

Shortbread, Chocolate Chip cookies, Peanut Butter Chocolate Bars, Speculaas, Brownies with the world's easiest icing

There's really no explaining why things take off in Pinterest, but this photo of the M&M Chocolate Chip Cookies also went crazy and was repinned over 2000 times from my friend Ricki Jill's Pinterest board.

Pinterest

One of the crafts I completed was to make aluminum foil birds which I used to decorate the mantel.

Aluminum Foil birds

We had a theme tree for the first time ever.  I really enjoyed how simple it looked with just silver and red ornaments and white paper decorations.

Red and white Christmas tree

I spent all fall working away at painting little 5x7 pictures of our cottage and I gave one to everyone in the family just before Christmas.  They were all so complimentary which was very sweet of them.

We also experienced a tremendous ice storm on the weekend before Christmas.  The day afterward it was sunny and everything glittered and shone.  I didn't have time to write up a post about the ice storm so I'm including my photos here (and I should mention that the first five photos were taken by my daughter Kate and the rest are mine).

   

   

December was also a difficult month as my father's health was declining and he eventually passed away on December 23rd.  Christmas itself was bittersweet, but we managed and it was good to be with loved ones.  

And so ends 2013 with all its good and bad moments.  We're getting together with family and friends tonight for a Nigerian Curry dinner and some champagne at midnight.  

I can't thank you all enough for your support, encouragement, and kind words over the past year. It has meant so much to me.   I wish you all a happy New Year. 

The Red and White Christmas Tree of 2013

I didn't really feel like putting up a tree at all this year.  I had already helped my Mom put up theirs and I just didn't have the energy, but everyone else was keen and my daughter knew she could inspire me by suggesting we do a theme tree.  My first ever!  

We decided to use only our red and silver ornaments and to make white paper decorations.  

The kids got the tree while I was at work and only paid $10 for it (likely because we didn't buy it until December 20th).  They added white lights and all the red and silver ornaments we own.  Then we got to work making paper stars and snowflakes and cranes.  We all made at least one paper decoration for the tree - even the non-crafty ones in the family.  And some of us sat and made snowflake after snowflake.

And do you know what - I think it is our prettiest tree yet.  I know Christmas is over, but I wanted to make sure I had a record of the tree that almost wasn't.

Remembering a Good Man

My father passed away in the middle of a huge ice storm here in Ontario. Being a geographer, he was always fascinated by climate and weather and so it seemed appropriate that there would be some noteworthy weather event happening when he left this world.

Just about the time I began this blog, four years ago, cancer started growing in my father.   I haven't mentioned my father's illness on my blog as this is my happy place, but with my Dad having passed away two days before Christmas he is constantly in my thoughts and that is where my heart is.

Although the cancer had spread from his colon to his liver and lungs and finally to his brain and he had two major surgeries, the cancer hardly slowed him down until just the past few months.  

It is amazing that as recently as this past March when we went to New York City he walked 10-15 kilometers every day.  When my parents were camping in Florida this past winter, they went for long bike rides, sometimes just to get the daily newspaper.  He hiked up mountains in Arizona two winters ago.  

Even when he was no longer able to walk very far and didn't have much energy, he never lost his kind and gentle personality, his interest in other people, and his gratefulness whenever someone did something for him.

It is hard to pull my thoughts together to reflect on his life, so here is a collection of photographs and some more or less random thoughts about him.

Skiing near Smithers, BC in 1947 (Dad is on the right, 18 years of age)

Traveling home from Nigeria where we lived for two years (that is me standing in front of my father), 1967

Brushing Kate's hair, 1994

Dad in Smithers, BC with the Hudson Bay Mountains in the background, 2009

The Prairie on the Hudson Bay Mountain near Smithers, BC

Mom and Dad on Hudson Bay Mountain, Smithers, BC, 2009

Hiking on the Hudson Bay Mountain, Smithers, BC, 2009

Getting water from the lake at the cottage, March 2010

With my parents in Nova Scotia, August 2012

Skiing on the lake at the cottage, January 2013

With my parents at the Guggenheim, NYC, March 2013

Eating street food on the steps to the Met, NYC, March 2013

• My Dad and Mom were married for almost 60 years and had one of the happiest marriages I have known.  They had a similar outlook on life and a mutual respect and love for each other that was lovely to witness.  They met in university and were married just ten months later.  They knew right from the start they were a team.  Their relationship had an awkward beginning, however. Dad, being the friendly sort he was, invited another fellow along on their first date; the other fellow happened to be Mom's old boyfriend!

Having breakfast in the screened porch he built

• Dad's cottage diary consisted of two things: the weather, and a record of who was visiting.

• He loved his home town of Smithers in northern British Columbia.  When we went back to visit Smithers together in 2009 for his 80th birthday he proudly told anyone who would listen that he grew up there.  He subscribed to his home town's newspaper, the Interior News, and loved to tell us local tid bits, such as a moose had walked down the main street of town, that sort of thing. All his life he loved to hike and ski. He started early, in his youth, in the mountains around Smithers.  At the top of the list of his favourite places on earth was the mountain meadow, "the Prairie", on the Hudson Bay Mountain beside Smithers.

• Besides hiking and skiing, he loved to swim, and just generally being outdoors.  Without fail, he and my Mom went for daily walks, which I'm sure accounted for the good health my father enjoyed for so many years and which made him so tough even up to the end.

• He was a high school geography teacher, so our family trips in the summer involved lessons on lateral moraines and glaciers and rock formations and things.  Until I grew up, I thought everyone knew that stuff.

• He was a wonderful carpenter. He designed and built the cottage our extended family enjoys on Georgian Bay, and he re-designed and rebuilt the cottage in Haliburton that my parents bought about 25 years ago. His favourite thing to do was to plan and build improvements at the cottage.  As late as this past spring he completed the siding on the cottage and helped me build (well, to tell the truth, I helped him build) a railing for the stairs up to the cottage's parking lot.

• He had a crazy worn-out hat that he wore when he was building things. It had patches on patches and was frayed and worn out.  The best part, though, was the strip of tape he would put along the back to catch those annoying horse and deer flies that buzz around your head that are an unavoidable part of cottage life.

Dad at his workshop at the cottage - doing what he loved to do - plan and build things

• He loved to travel and was always  planning a trip or two.  He and my Mom traveled all around the world and went to every continent except South America and Antarctica.  They traveled across North America so many times that Dad knew where every bake shop, picnic stop, and liquor store was (he loved a glass of wine with dinner or a bottle of beer on a hot day).

• His love for traveling and his love for building meant he was perfectly suited for working on Habitat for Humanity builds, which he and my Mom did all over North America.  They both even worked at an all-women's build - Dad was the only male allowed because they knew he wouldn't boss anyone around.

My parents' truck camper - they traveled all around North America in it for many years.

• He was very egalitarian in his views on gender roles.  He cooked all the bread we ate when I was growing up. He did all the grocery shopping for the family.  Always.  And he supported my mother when she became a United Church minister.

• He led a very organized disciplined life and always went to bed and got up at about the same time and definitely ate at the same times every day.  When it was 6:00 it was dinner time!  He always made sure the dishes were dried and put away, not just washed, and he took out the garbage and recycling every night.  Every evening he read the newspaper (the Toronto Star has just lost their most dedicated reader) and played a few games of Sudoku.

• Despite leading such an organized life, he could not keep his desk tidy for love nor money.  All through my childhood his desk had huge piles on it so that he barely had room to work.  On the top of the desk's top shelf he had an ancient radio that he listened to when he did school work at night.  Classical music and a little Tia Maria got him through marking school papers.

• Even the animals knew he was a kind soul.  One summer he made friends with a rock bass fish who lived under our dock at the cottage.  He would stroke its fins and could even gently lift it out of the water and put it back in again.

There are so many more stories and thoughts I could share about my father, but I think what I've written gives you a fair snapshot of the man he was.  I know I am one of the lucky ones for having had a kind, patient, and admirable man as my father and for that and for him I am forever grateful.  

Dad, you were a good man. I love you and I miss you.

Christmas

This Christmas is a difficult one for our family as my father passed away early yesterday morning.  He's been sick with cancer for several years, but thankfully the cancer only really began to have a significant impact on his life since the summer.  He gradually lost strength and died peacefully surrounded by family.  So although his death was expected, losing a parent changes your life and I'm only beginning to process it.  

I wish you all a wonderful Christmas.  I'll be back in a few days as I can never stay away too long and I'll share more with you after Christmas when I've had time to collect my thoughts.

Aluminum Foil Birds

We made these cute little birds in art class last week.  They were made out of foil lasagna pans from the dollar store.   I found the pictures I wanted to use in bird books which I traced using tracing paper.  Then I put the tracing paper on top of the foil and went over the lines with a pencil leaving little indents in the foil.  Then before cutting them out, I added the pin-prick detail by tapping a darning needle with a little hammer making a series of little holes to outline the wings and beak and outside edge.  Then I cut them out using scissors (no fancy tools needed) and attached them to twigs and raffia. Can you see them on the mantel - they are kind of hard to see, but I like the subtle detail.

The other change I made to the mantel was that I had to replace the carnations as they finally died.  I bought a poinsettia from the grocery store and cut the branches and put them in the tray.  They looked great ... until we put the fire on in the fireplace.  The leaves were not too impressed with the heat and now most of them are wilted.  I need to find some faux branches or possibly snip some evergreen from the tree in the front garden.

It did this all weekend and now we have loads of snow and everything looks very Christmassy.

And finally I wanted to show you this photo that my daughter Kate sent to me that she took of the harbour in Halifax (can you see the lighthouse over on the left).  The air was so much colder than the ocean that it produced this magical effect.  She's almost finished her last essay and will be heading home this week and will be here on Wednesday.  Yay!