Like somebody who sees things when he’s dreaming And after the dream lives with the aftermath Of what he felt, no other trace remaining,
So I live now, for what I saw departs And is almost lost, although a distilled sweetness Still drops from it into my inner heart.
From A Dream of Solstice by Seamus Heaney
This has been a year of stark contrasts for me: moments of acute pain, suffering, and sorrow but also moments of happiness, joy, and exuberance. I could not say that the lightest moments outweigh, compensate, or obliterate the darkest ones, but, because one cannot change the past, I choose to carry only the feelings and memories of the lightest moments forward.
The children were nestled all snug in their beds, While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads. from The Night Before Christmas by Clement Clarke Moore
My Christmas baking marathon has begun!
Here is the list of books featured above:
The London Ritz Book Of Christmas by Jennie Reekie
The New England Butt’ry Shelf Cookbook by Mary Mason Campbell
Real Sweet by Shauna Sever
Very Fond of Food by Sophie Dahl
How To Be A Domestic Goddess by Nigella Lawson
Martha Stewart’s Christmas by Martha Stewart
Christmas From The Heart Of The Home by Susan Branch
Holidays, from the best of Martha Stewart Living Magazine
The Canadian Living Christmas Book by the editors of Canadian Living Magazine
“Before you can have a roaring fire, you’ve got to gather a good supply of wood.” Pierre-Auguste Renoir
I love this time of year! At the first snowfall, I start preparing to stay warm and cozy inside my house but also to make the most of the splendorous winter wonderland that awaits me outdoors. Below is my list of what I love to do during my favorite season:
1. Get out all my wool toques, mittens, and scarves, the down jacket, and the snow boots with the big snow cuffs.
2. Put my flannel sheets, down comforter, and wool mattress topper on my bed,
3. Walk through the woods and try to spot a hare or Snowy owl. Listen for the bird calls of a Blue Jay, Cardinal or Bohemian waxwing.
4. At sunset, as the temperature is dropping the fastest and the wind has fallen, listen to the rare crinkling sound of the ice crystals forming on a pond or gentle stream.
5. Before dinner, light a fire in the hearth. The sounds of the damper cranking open, match striking, and wood crackling – magical. The woodsmoke settles briefly in my hair and transports me to seasons past.
6. Change the recipes from the cool meals of summer to the warm, comfort meals of winter; stews, soups, and hot meat pies.
7. Round up my Christmas baking supplies: cookie cutters, plum pudding molds, mince tart tins, and best of all, my mother and grandmothers’ special recipes and ingredients.
8. Listen to the muffled sounds of the city when the snow falls, delight in watching the snowflakes dance as they descend from on high and feel them touch my face, make a snow angel, and jump off a snowbank.
9. Get my skates sharpened, check my snowshoe strings, and find the wax for my cross-country skiis.
10. Cozy up in front of the fire after dinner with a warm blanket, hot chocolate or apple cider, and significant other… or a romantic novel.
In addition, check out the beautiful YouTube channel featuring many winter videos from Jonna Jinton in Sweden.
Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn, and cauldron bubble. from Shakespeare’s Macbeth
The way he works with his hands.
The way he works with what Nature provides – hops, barley, yeast, and water.
The way he has great chemistry and knows it: his pH, specific gravity, boiling point, and lovibond are perfect!
The way he knows his pots and pans: mash tun, boil kettle, and hot liquor tank.
The way he creates his own recipes. He is a chef who only uses his grain bill, yeast, hops, and spices.
The way he brews for taste not alcohol, and believes that, “beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy” (apologies to Benjamin Franklin).
The way he knows the difference between kegging, casking, and bottling.
The way he looks forward to the changing seasons because they bring the opportunity for the seasonal brews (his Christmas brew is special!).
The way he enjoys sharing his brews.
The way he is adventurous. He values the classics but is always ready to try something new.
My favorite art books about women artists and a portrait painted by me to the right.
In art, what we want is the certainty that one spark of original genius shall not be extinguished. Mary Cassatt.
My favorite women artists are Emily Carr and Mary Cassatt: the former for her landscapes and the latter for her portraits. It was difficult to narrow it down to just two as Berthe Morisot, Cecilia Beaux, Frida Kahlo, Marlene Dumas, Joan Brown, and Cecily Brown are also contenders. What I love is the great volume of work these artists have produced and in many different mediums.
The books pictured above: Joan Eardley by Fiona Pearson (exhibition catalogue) Berthe Morisot by Jean-Dominique Rey Berthe Morisot Impressionist by Charles F. Stuckey and William P. Scott Helene Schjerfbeck by the Royal Academy of Arts (exhibition catalogue) Vanessa Bell edited by Sarah Milroy and Ian A. C. Dejardin The Georgia O’Keeffe Museum edited by Peter H. Hassrick Mary Cassatt: Modern Woman organized by Judith A. Barter, Art Institute of Chicago The Art of Emily Carr by Doris Shadbolt American Women Artists 1830-1930 by Eleanor Tufts, The National Museum of Women in the Arts Women Artists by Margaret Barlow (1999 edition cover shown below with painting by Mary Cassatt, The Loge)
It will be difficult to name a class of landscape in which the sky is not the key note, the standard of scale, and the chief organ of sentiment. John Constable
I decided to begin painting landscapes in earnest this past summer, and challenged myself to complete fifty landscape paintings by the end of 2021. To date, I have completed twenty-five, mostly in watercolor and acrylic, but two in oil. I have enjoyed the project so much that my 2022 New Year’s Resolution List will have to include another landscape challenge: twenty-five seascape and twenty-five cityscape paintings.
Six of my landscape paintings towards my fifty paintings goal.
The books pictured above and listed below have served as wonderful sources of inspiration. I found most of them in the library or online. I like buying used books, especially art books. New art books are beautiful, but very expensive, and if they are too precious, I tend not to open them. So my second personal challenge has been to find instructive art books in the various used-book sales that the surrounding libraries and bookstores have, and never to spend more than $10 on any book.
Masters of 17th Century Dutch Landscape Painting by Peter C. Sutton (Exhibition catalog)
Turner In The North by David Hill
Unknown Terrain: The Landscapes of Andrew Wyeth byBeth Venn and Adam D. Weinberg
American Watercolors From The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Forward by John K. Howat
Jean-François Millet by Alexandra R. Murphy
Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Masterpieces at the Musée D’Orsay, Forward by Michel Laclotte
Joan Eardley by Fiona Pearson
The Age of American Impressionism, Masterpieces from the Art Institute of Chicago, ed. Judith A. Barter
Baltic Light, Early Open-Air Painting in Denmark and North Germany by Catherine Johnston, et. al
The Hudson River School, The landscape of Bierstadt, Cole, Church, Durand, Heade by Louise Minks
Help Hoe Hay Harvest for Victory. Much like the Soldiers of the Soil in WWI, “The Farm Commando Brigade of the Ontario Farm Service Force is composed of all those men and women who offer their services to those engaged in producing and processing food (farmers and canners). The work they offer to do starts from early spring seeding (tractor, force drawn or hand sown) through hoeing, haying, harvesting, canning, threshing, silo filing, etc.”
During WWII my father was too young to enlist so he joined the Farm Commando Brigade of the Ontario Farm Service Force and worked on a farm in southern Ontario, Canada. He was born and raised in the city of Toronto, but he really came of age on the farm. The lessons he learned about farmers, large animals, raising crops from the soil, and the farming community stayed with him his entire life. More importantly, he learned about hard, physical labor – the value of honest toil – and he passed these on to his children. I carry these with me today, long after his service on the farm ended.
It must have been moonglow, way up in the blue It must have been moonglow that led me straight to you I still hear you sayin’, “Dear one, hold me fast” And I keep on prayin’, “Oh Lord, please let this last” We seemed to float right through the air Heavenly songs seemed to come from everywhere And now when there’s moonglow, way up in the blue I’ll always remember, that moonglow gave me you Moonglow also Diana Krall
The moonglow crept into my room last night. It beckoned me to the window to make a wish on that magnificent orb in the night sky. I thought of you.
When we know about our ancestors, when we sense them as living and as supporting us, then we feel connected to the genetic life-stream, and we draw strength and nourishment from this. – Philip Carr-Gomm
I have only a few memories of my Dutch grandfather, however, he certainly made an impression on me, and I wish I had had more time with him. When I looked through some photos of the first few years of my life, I noticed that there were many, many pictures of us together. I can’t help but wonder how not just his DNA, but his physical presence influenced my growth and my life.
Satin & Sand 