Enroute to Russia

This postcard is on it's way to St. Petersburg, Russia! This will be card #4 that I have sent, 1 to the Netherlands, 1 to Finland and 1 to Virginia! So much fun to read a little about the recpient and then hunt for the perfect card for that person! The above is going to a prof of engineering who likes mysterious and unusual cards...hope she wioll like this one.

Gods in the Mail

Today I received my first postcard through postcrossing. It is from Alexoundza in Greece!!! I love it..it is just so perfect. It reperesents the three ancient gods Afrodite, Pan and Eros. Of course Eros is the god of love, Afrodite  the goddess of love and Pan the god of nature...how perfect is that!

Balance Among the Chaos

Balance Among the Chaos
Originally uploaded by hyacinth50

This is a watercolour painting I did a few years ago, from a photograph that I took in the Shakespeare garden in Stratford. I have done very little painting recently and need/want to start something new. I am making myself a promise that I will have one on the go within the next couple of weeks!

Sunday Afternoon

While out for a walk this afternoon I came across this amazing frost and moisture in a window at the Post Office...such a beautiful day for February, sun shining, 1 degree, losts of people on the streets!

I have included a couple of pics of Tom in his new hat purchased yesterday at the antique market...a place we never go but ended up there for a few minutes, Tom the mega shopper picked up the hat...it is called the Buffalonian made for the Kleinhans Co of Buffalo. We think it was made in the 40's and is in perfect condition...as Tom say "no bullet holes " ...he even spent a few minutes this morning steaming and shaping it.

Sometimes A Girl Just Has to Shop

Yesterday I headed downtown Stratford to pick up a card and ended up browsing and actually loving everthing I looked at! A few of these items are for me and a few are to be given away. The orange item is one of those long flowing vests...I never wear this colour, black is my usual but I am thinking I need a little colour...hope I can pull this off. Underneath is a chocolate 3/4 sleeve pima cotton Tshirt I picked up half price...great find. In the same shop on impulse I picked up the very pretty headband, now this is not an item I would usually buy but I fell in love with it and it is hand made in Nova Scotia! Bonus!!!  The buttons I just could not resist...mostly to give. The Big Bear Hug is a book for a very special girl who I will be saying a goodbye to soon...hugs are one of her favourite things next to chocolate.  There is a roll of Tibetan prayer flags which I will be giving away. The Lisa See novel Shanghai Girls is for me...my reward in between volumes of Proust. At the  moment I am on page 376 of Swann's Way.

Often when I shop with a purpose I find nothing but sometimes it all just works!

a meditation

What a great day yesterday with our son Aaron visiting. Spent a few hours just relaxing, snacking and watching some Olympics.

  Aaron and I then set out for a walk along the river in the old grove here in Stratford , if you go to the right you end up in the cemetary. It was the perfect day for a walk like that. The day was cool and gray, the crows joined us with lots of chatter. Aaron mentioned that Grampa (my Dad) has some relatives buried in this cemetary and asked if I had ever found any of the graves. No sooner had he mentioned it I looked up and saw one with the name Nat Fowler, who I was sure was a relative, took a few pics, went to Balzac's one of Stratford's great coffee places.

In the evening we watched a Japanese film called Departures. What a beautiful movie. This is a must see, beautiful pace, filming and story, full of grace, respect and honour. This film won an Academy Award for best foreign language film and also 10 Japan Academy Award prizes. Much of this film is about preparing the deceased for burial and entrance into the next life. Thanks to my dear friend Lori who is the most knowledgable peson I know with regard to film among other things...she passed the DVD to us.

As I was heading up to bed after the movie Aaron asked if I had had a nice day. I assured him that I had...he then said "It has been a meditation on death". I had not thought of it in that way but it certainly was with our walk in the cemetary, finding relatives then watching this magnificent film!

I must mention that chef Tom cooked up a great pasta dinner!

www.departures-themovie.com/

Desire

I absolutely love these boots, have been lusting after them for a few years but...I am not getting any younger and I keep thinking I am too old for these, although once I am even older and eccentric perhaps I could  pull it off. I remember my daughter wearing Docs as a teenager. I thought they were pretty cool but only for her generation. Strange how now I would LOVE a pair. I would probably go for the shorter length because...can you imagine trying to lace into the tall ones even though they would go great with leggings and a long sweater.

A girl can dream about any boot she wishes as she slips into her comfy Clarkes!

Postcrossing

My nephew Jesse emailed me yesterday to tell about a site he had just discovered, his words were "this is an Aunt Karen thing".  He is right. I have joined postcrossing.

 What you do is register and then you will be given a name and address to send a postcard to. In return your name and address will be given so someone somewhere who will send a post card to you. I know I really don't need to be adding this to my to do list but I just cannot resist.

 My first post card is going to Suzannaa in the Netherlands. On her profile she mentioned loving art,books etc, so today I went in search of a great postcard to send to her.; I ended up buying two, one is a Georgia O'Keeffe and the other is called Joy with a quote by Shakespeare "I wish you all the joy that you can wish". I have decided to send the Joy to Suzannaa because we can all use a little joy in our lives.


http://www.postcrossing.com/

On Time

Often I feel that I just do not have enough time...time to do all the things I would like to do...that includes time to just be.

Last night I was reading from a book I own called

The Creative License by Danny Gregory

I flipped to a page on clearing your mind. He talks of the modern stuff that clutters our minds such as billions of web pages, thousands of new products, 500 cable channels, hundreds of new movies each year, thousands of DVD's, cell phones, emails, news, marketing and useless mind candy. He suggests disengaging from all of the media that there is calling it an:

electron fast

This includes:

No TV (I do not do this anyway although it is on my to do list)
Stay off the internet (oops, here I am)
Ignore email
Do not read the paper, magazines or books (except his)


He goes on to suggest that this will free up a great deal of time to become more aware of what surrounds you and just " be" and of course this will lead to creativity.

I love this but not sure I can fully follow his advise. I will try to reduce time spent on the above but not sure I can give them up totally although I like the idea and would like to be more present and creative.

A quote he used:

"If we take eternity to mean not infinite temporal duration but timelessness, the eternal life belongs to those who live in the present"

Ludwig Wittgenstein

Such a beautiful quote and the fact that my son Aaron is studying Wittgenstein makes it even more special to me.