97 years ago....

Lavender Cottage

On the night of April 14, 1912, the Titanic hit the iceberg that sealed her fate and went down in the early morning hours of the 15th. Many of the victims are buried here in Halifax throughout several cemeteries. The Nova Scotia Archives has an interesting collection of related documents and pictures. One of the more poignant documents is a list of the bodies. Some had names and could be identified (next of kin contacted) and others were just described by their clothing, jewellery and tattoos. The "original" documents which can be found by clicking on the numbers below the electronic list, describes the people physically too.....weight, height, hair colour, marks etc. Sad reading, but makes the people real. Here are a few examples from the electronic list.

Unidentified Female: Probably an Italian; wore two green cotton blouses, green cotton skirt, striped petticoat; nothing else to identify.
Unidentified Male: Ship's uniform. Carried open-face watch, made by Thomas Howard, 157 Kirkdale Road and 200 Rice Lane, Liverpool; stamped "German make." Had post card with picture of 4 little girls on reverse side. Also 1x2 instantaneous snapshot of boy or young man.
Unidentified Male:Wore light rain coat; uniform jacket with green facing and vest; purple muffler; carried cigarette case; silver watch; knife with carved pearl handle, and brass button marked "African Royal Mail"; also English lever watch.
Unidentified Female:Shoes marked "Parsons Sons, Athlone"; medallion round neck marked "B.V.M." ; wore wedding ring, keeper and another gold ring; locket and photo; one jet and one bead necklace.
Unidentified Male:Blue tattoo mark, and wore copper wire ring on thumb of right hand. Nothing else to identify.

Reading the list makes the tragedy very real. Burial for each body is listed, some just had burial at sea written beside their info.........and others are marked with a number and the cemetery. One of graveyards is about a ten minute walk from my house.
The Maritime Museum of the Atlantic has a permanent exhibit on display that is really interesting and sad.
Read story behind these wee shoes.

Deep Fried Turkey

This is how it began. Lowering the bird into a vat of boiling fat. Very big pot was used and everything had been carefully pre measured so they knew it would not boil over, the cause of most of the fires that occur doing this. It was also cooked outside, away from the deck and house.

Burbling nicely.

Ta dah, being lifted out of the oil.

It was delicious! Not greasy but crispy and very moist. Our hosts had also injected the meat inside with a marinade. The amazing thing is that it cooked in just 30 minutes!!! So there you have it:) Deep Fried Turkey:)

Easter Sunday

Happy Easter:)
from the George Eastman House Collection, an ad for Whitman Chocolates, 1945 Easter

We've been invited to friends tonight for some deep fried turkey! Quite interested really to see how it is done and how it will taste! Have a peaceful day.

Saturday Dreaming...

Dragonfly Dreams...the original is now available on eBay
and prints are newly arrived in my Etsy shop

The rain did not arrive yesterday, it was a GLORIOUS day! It is expected today and tomorrow so a great excuse to hunker down with a good book and drink tea. Did someone say "What about spring cleaning?" Nah, I didn't think so :)

Funny, remember the post about the figure skating movie? Well, I've been getting hundreds of visits on it from various figure skating forums and fan clubs around the globe. I think it was the mention of Michelle Kwan's name that triggered them. So fascinating to see where visitors come from and why!

My friend, Mark Brennan wrote a thoughtful essay on rejection and being an artist.

Cheers!

Good Friday

Summer Dreams available on eBay

Don't you just love that wee kitty on the swing? Tire swings are definitely on my list of fun things to do. You'll often see them when driving out in country. Happy new life for something worn out and well used:)
This morning the sun is beaming but the forecast is for rain later. I intend to get the best out of this sunshine. Might even tackle the backyard! Still full of Autumn leaves....they never got raked :( Now they are packed down and much harder to get up. Good workout:)
I saw my first crocuses!!!!!!!! Hooray. Small colourful patches of them are starting to appear!
Have a peaceful day.

Paws for Charity

I have been involved in a small way with a lovely venture called Paws for Charity! A small charity dedicated to raising funds for breast cancer research. They have just published a book called Art Book 2009 and it is chock full of illustrations, paintings and photographs of cats and dogs. The book has 37 images which were chosen from 99 submissions received from the US, UK, and Canada. You can take a look at the book here. On the Paws for Charity blog, you can see all the artists who have participated on the left sidebar.That's where I come in, my wee painting "All is Well" is in it:)

Art Book 2009 has been featured this week by the Blurb staff! Actually as of today, we are their number one best seller! Hooray! 100 percent of the proceeds will be going to the Avon Breast Cancer Crusade donated directly by Blurb, the publisher. Sara Harley has been spearheading this project and she is profiled here and you can visit her interesting blog, Dream Big. Thanks Sara for all the work you have done:)

So please, if you would like to contribute to the fight against breast cancer and enjoy a lovely book full of art, you can do so by purchasing it here I've ordered my copies:)

Quiet on the set! "Rolling....."

Well, I got my fifteen minutes of fame yesterday:) Actually more like ten hours! I was an extra on the set of the remake of Ice Castles, the 1978 romantic drama starring Robbie Benson and Lynn Holly Johnson, Colleen Dewhurst , Tom Skerrit and Jennifer Warren.

I was ensconced with the judges and got to watch everything from a great perspective. We judges were also lucky because where we were situated,we could nip down off the dias during camera setups, pop under the stairs and grab a coffee at the Kraft table and whatever nibbles were available. That's one thing about movies sets....there is always tons of food available. It breaks up the tedium and when folk are working long hours, it is easy to stay fueled.
I had a marvelous time chatting with three sisters who arrived to be part of the crowd and were also nabbed into becoming judges. You can see two of them in the above picture.

Here is Rob Meyes the male lead, Donald Wrye the director and the continuity lady with script in hand and pencil at the ready. This new movie is called Ice Castles2 for the moment. Figure skater Taylor Firth is the star in Donald Wrye's remake. He was the original director and is doing it again.

Taylor being coached for a scene by David Wilson, choreographer extraordinaire
The love story is set in the world of competitive figure skating and also stars Rob Mayes, Henry Czerny ( had a coffee next to him) and figure skater Molly Oberstar. Olympic medalist Michelle Kwan appears in a cameo in the film. She and Sandra Bezic are commentators.

An emotional scene after her competitive solo where she trips over the bears and flowers thrown on the ice, her boy "friend" rushes out to help her.....she is blind.... audience didn't know but figures it out quickly. Ahhh, the moment we have all been waiting for, true love prevails.

They have been shooting for a week and will continue for another week at various locations. The yellow direction signs with IC written on them are everywhere in this city at the moment.

Tuesday

Wasn't that sheep video fun? I just loved it and have watched several times:) So creative and full of life.
The picture above is my new favourite snack! Edamame beans (soybeans) love them. Sort of buttery flavored and meaty and good for you. I had a very, very long day yesterday but it was interesting and I earned some money too:) Always a good thing. I will be uploading pics to show you.

Extreme Sheep Herding:)

This really tickles my fancy:)

Ready, set, cook

Gosh, it's been raining and raining and now it is foggy with more rain later. I'm quite pleased actually. All the snow will be gone and the gardens and plants will be primed nicely for the sun when it appears:) I'm hoping to take advantage of the gloomy day to get some cleaning done! A neverending task, but hopefully I can make some forays into new territory. You know, the stuff you always mean to get around to but get sidetracked by other stuff:)
That picture up above is the cover of my cookbook:) Yep. Chock full of recipes that I had floating around on bits of paper and my friend's and family's best potluck meals. All of them simple with easy ingredients. I put it together a few years ago and had a lot of fun. It is self published through Trafford Publishing. It sells here in a few gift stores. I have not marketed it all really, it was more of a labor of love. Something I had always wanted to do. I sell Nova Scotia Potluck also through my etsy store. Best to purchase it there because I have them in stock and Amazon has to order from the publisher. I even managed to squeeze in some art throughout the pages.


Here is one of the recipes. Sometimes I garnish it with flowers.

If you've made it all the way down to here, here's a fun wee slide show with sound celebrating fiddler John Afton Mclellan's 101 Birthday! 25 fiddlers played Happy Birthday to him. He greeted all two hundred guests by name, had a few dances and played a few tunes. He lives alone with his cat, Bow. Just click anywhere on this paragraph to see it:)