Abundance

Sometimes, when you least expect it, an artistic opportunity falls out of the sky and lands in your lap. This happened to me earlier this week when I heard from the lovely Colette, who reached out to me all the way from Australia and asked if I would be interested in partnering with her on the {Echo} project created by Susan Tuttle and Chrysty Hydeck. Colette's email was such a pleasant surprise and I'm delighted to participate with her in creating some beautiful diptychs!

Above, our first collaborative diptych on the current theme, abundance (if you click on it, you'll get a much bigger view). More to come in a day or two!

Next, by Michael Crichton

The late Michael Crichton was responsible for one of my all-time favourite television shows (ER), so for this week's A-Z Wednesday Challenge -- we're up to the letter N -- I decided to acknowledge his considerable talent by choosing one of his novels, Next. Not his best, but I did find it a real page-turner.

Crichton, perhaps best known for Jurassic Park, released this book back in 2006, with the paperback coming out about a year later. It was to be his last novel. I eagerly looked forward to reading it and while I would agree with some of the criticisms levelled at the book -- too many characters and sub-plots, for example -- I still most definitely recommend it.

The novel is based on genetics. At Harper Collins, the book's publisher, I found this description:
Is a loved one missing some body parts? Are blondes becoming extinct? Is everyone at your dinner table of the same species? Humans and chimpanzees differ in only 400 genes; is that why a chimp fetus resembles a human being? And should that worry us? There's a new genetic cure for drug addiction—is it worse than the disease?
We live in a time of momentous scientific leaps, a time when it's possible to sell our eggs and sperm online for thousands of dollars and to test our spouses for genetic maladies.
We live in a time when one fifth of all our genes are owned by someone else, and an unsuspecting person and his family can be pursued cross-country because they happen to have certain valuable genes within their chromosomes . . .
Devilishly clever, Next blends fact and fiction into a breathless tale of a new world where nothing is what it seems and a set of new possibilities can open at every turn.
Next challenges our sense of reality and notions of morality. Balancing the comic and the bizarre with the genuinely frightening and disturbing, Next shatters our assumptions and reveals shocking new choices where we least expect.
The future is closer than you think.

I couldn't tell you how accurately the science of genetics is presented in this novel, which parts are the creation of Crichton's imagination and which are based in fact. All I can say is that I enjoyed the book, especially Gerard, the intellligent grey parrot. If you're interested, your local library likely has several copies.

November nature

Last night I shared a photograph with you I had taken earlier in the day, one of the many captures I made during a spontaneous photo-shoot in Leslie's gardens. I promised more and, well, here you go.

Not all of November's nature is beautiful. The demise of the ladybug ... circle of life, I guess.

Leslie's leaves

I had the wonderful opportunity today to tramp around Leslie's yard, shooting photographs of anything I spied. As my "purse camera" doesn't fit into the smaller purse I recently bought -- a situation to be rectified asap! -- Leslie was kind enough to allow me to use her new purse camera. It's a Lumix and, I must say, I found it easy to use, with great quality.

One thing I don't understand though -- and I don't know if it's my eyes or not -- but this image looks a little fuzzy here on my blog. I posted it here directly from Flickr, not something I'm used to doing. Maybe I shouldn't be doing that? Does anyone else post from Flickr to their blog? I'm thinking I won't do it again.......

Anyway. This photo is just one of the many images I captured today; I'll be sharing more here soon. I decided this was a great picture for a November calendar page, so that's how I've used it. It's on my Flickr account, free to download. Just click on the photo to head on over there, then click the "all sizes" button you'll see above the image. Hope you like it!

Sunday morning in Montreal

Two weeks ago, I spent the weekend on a whirlwind getaway to eastern Ontario and Quebec. Day one, the Saturday, we left Toronto before the sun was even up and made our way to Kingston, then Ottawa, then Montreal. I've shared some of my Ottawa photographs here -- scroll down and, in the sidebar on the right, you'll see a list of labels, where you'll find Ottawa -- and now it's time to show you a wee bit of beautiful Montreal.

It was dark when we arrived in Montreal Saturday night so, no pictures. We were up bright and early Sunday morning, with St. Joseph's Oratory our first stop. I have never ever before gone sightseeing so early. I took my first photograph at 7:19 a.m., inside the bus as we were approaching the oratory! How nuts is that! Above and below, a few of my captures (some altered, as you can see), both inside and out. As always, if you click on them you can view in a larger format.

We left the oratory just after 8 a.m. and made our way to old Montreal, headed for the Notre-Dame Basilica. This beautiful Roman Catholic church is an architectural stunner and our time there was totally insufficient to really take it all in. I did not go inside -- a sign informed us that no photos were allowed inside and, besides, mass was being conducted and I just thought it was a tad disrespectful to be disruptive. Anyway, there simply wasn't enough time; we had only 30 minutes there and the entire area is so photogenic. Below, just a few of the photos I took during this brief stop.

Finally, about 35 minutes after the bus had parked, we pulled away. I spied the McDonalds and was thankful the camera was still in my hands, as I noticed something I hadn't when I had walked by it just a few minutes earlier -- the building was built in 1905! To find this garish fast-food chain in one of old Montreal's classic historical buildings .... make of it what you will. I admit, it makes me go hmmmmmmm.

Mmmmmm...cupcakes

I made cupcakes yesterday. Red Velvet cupcakes, to be specific -- with vanilla icing instead of the traditional cream cheese icing, not with the intent to buck tradition but merely because it was too cold (and I was too lazy, truth be told) to go out to the grocery store for cream cheese.

Ask the captain, I have this "thing" for red velvet cake. It is difficult to find here in Canada but easily found in the U.S., particularly in the southern states. When a restaurant has it, I make sure to leave room for dessert. It's an odd cake, white but definitely not white, chocolate but definitely not chocolate. There is cocoa, but not enough to depart a recognizable chocolate flavour; it is basicallly a white cake but because of the red food colouring added (and the wee bit of cocoa), it has an intense -- and yes, sometimes odd -- red shade. Mine were not vibrant at all, on purpose...I used only a few drops of red food colouring rather than spoonfuls.

I made these cupcakes yesterday because a few days ago Martha Stewart's Cupcakes came into my home; flipping through its pages, I spied the recipe for Red Velvet Cupcakes and knew it would be the first recipe I would try. It also made 24 cupcakes, which I conveniently cut in half to make only 12. Some of them made their way to work today with the captain; the two of us certainly don't need a dozen cupcakes at our fingertips.

I have the book from the library, it's not a purchase. Not yet. I may buy it, I may not.....after just a few days with it, it makes me both hungry and frustrated. Hungry because of the sheer variety of yummy-sounding cupcakes and corresponding luscious photographs, frustrated because the book is, in my opinion, flawed.

There is good advice in the book. In the "tools for baking" section at the back of the book, Martha writes that standard muffin tins are used for cupcakes, but suggests you adapt to suit your own style, using mini-muffin tins or jumbo muffin tins instead of the standard tins if you wish. To make this easy, she conveniently tells her readers that the cup in a mini-muffin pan should hold two ounces, four ounces for standard, eight ounces for jumbo. (I measured water into my muffin tins to see if they were standard and, as I suspected, they were.) She also wants you, when putting the batter into the tins, to only fill them three-quarters of the way up. Good tip. And in the photographs, only ordinary muffin tins are shown. By "ordinary", I mean those with either 6 cups or 12. Like the muffin tins you probably have in your cupboards. So far, so good.

But. But. Oh, Martha. Martha, listen to me. Why then, are the yields of your recipes all over the freakin' map? Rhubarb Cupcakes, makes 20. Devil's Food Cupcakes, makes 32. Ginger and Molasses Cupcakes, makes 26. Chocolate Malted Cupcakes, makes about 28. About? What's up with that? This is simple math. Make the batter, three ounces for each cupcake. That's how you develop a recipe, so it works out evenly. There's no about, um, about it. And why 28 anyway? When you go to the store, you have a choice: you can buy muffin tins that hold 6 or 12. You know, the ones you show in your photographs? I'm willing to bet that the majority of home cooks likely have one or two of each size. So why can't you -- or, in honesty, not you but your many minions -- develop recipes that make cupcakes in multiples of six? Twelve, eighteen, twenty-four. Simple. But nooooooo. You have recipes that yield 40 cupcakes, 16, even 15. Martha, it's just weird. And frustrating. Why do you offer no advice about how to handle the overage...whether you should put water in the unused muffin cups to prevent them from burning, for example? The topic of these odd amounts is not mentioned at all in the book. I've looked; I've searched. Nope. It's simply ignored.

Date-Nut Mini Cupcakes, makes 75 mini. Okay, who the heck has the equipment to make 75 mini cupcakes? Couldn't that recipe have been scaled to make, say, 48 mini cupcakes? And then there's Martha's Meyer Lemon Cupcakes. Makes 42. They look delicious. But 42 cupcakes means a LOT of muffin tins in your oven. Think about it. No advice in the recipe to bake them in two batches; the recipe assumes you are baking them all at once. And then my favourite part...you have to assemble these cupcakes by filling a pastry bag with homemade lemon curd then squeeze the curd right into the middle of the cupcakes, letting a little puddle of curd form on the top of each. Then, unless you're basically serving them right away, they need to be refrigerated. That's a lot of fridge space you suddenly need. Yeesh.

I could go on but I won't. I think you can tell this really bugs me! But ... the cupcakes I made yesterday were very delicious and were one of the recipes in the book with a normal yield. (Yes, there are some.) I know I will make them again and again. So, for that, I give thanks to Martha. I'm betting the other cupcakes are also terrific. Right now I'm just so glad that I grabbed the old-fashioned muffin tins I saw at a yard sale last year, ones with only four cups in each, instead of six. I think I'm going to need them.

The little boatswain

When I saw this sweet little sailor this morning over at the Art Creations Friday challenge site, I knew immediately what I wanted to do....and set about to create it. Above is just about exactly what I had envisioned. He's a real cutie and it was a pleasure to put this project together.

Midwives

Another week, another book selection for the A-Z Wednesday Challenge. We are up to M and I had a few books make my short list: Stephen King's Misery, one of the rare books where I couldn't help but cheat and read ahead, almost sick with anticipation of what might occur, then backtrack and read through; Carson McCullers' The Member of the Wedding, a novel I read long ago and loved; Mostly True: A Memoir of Family, Food and Baseball, an excellent autobiography written by Mollie O'Neill. I had cookbooks on my short list too, including Mrs. Wilkes Boardinghouse Cookbook, a fascinating book by Savannah's Sema Wilkes. As well, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, the Julia Child gem, had to make my short list.

But I went with a novel I read a few years ago, one that captivated me from first page to last, Chris Bohjalian's Midwives. I saw Bohjalian on The Oprah Winfrey Show, talking about his novel after Oprah picked it as one of her book club selections. After watching the show, I knew I just had to read it. Midwives is a gripping page-turner, a provocative book that features both courtroom suspense and domestic drama; a novel that challenges your sense of right and wrong and the moral decisions that sometimes must be made.

A book that stays with you. Even now, many years after reading it, I still consider it a favourite of mine.

I found this description of Midwives on the web and it sums up the plot perfectly: On an icy winter night of 1981 in the rustic community of Reddington, Vermont, seasoned midwife Sibyl Danforth is forced to make a life-or-death decision that will change her world forever. Trapped by the weather in an isolated farmhouse, cut off from the hospital or even the emergency squad, she takes desperate measures to save the life of a baby, performing a cesarean section on a woman she believes has died of a stroke during a long and painful labor. But what if the woman was still alive during the surgery? What if Sibyl herself inadvertently killed her? The hair-raising story of Charlotte Bedford's death and of the subsequent trial of Sibyl Danforth is hauntingly told by Sibyl's fourteen-year-old daughter Connie, now an obstetrician. She is remembering, and it is through her intelligent and watchful eyes that we witness the tragic effects of Charlotte's death and Sibyl's trial. And as Sibyl faces the antagonism of the law, the hostility of the medical establishment, and the nagging accusations of her own conscience, we are compelled to confront questions of human responsibility that are fundamental to our society.

Like I mentioned, the book captivated me from beginning to end. I highly recommend it. Here's an excerpt:

   The morning the judge gave the jury its instructions and sent them away to decide my mother's fate, I overheard her attorney explain to my parents what he said was one of the great myths in litigation: You can tell what a jury has decided the moment they reenter the courtroom after their deliberations, by the way they look at the defendant. Or refuse to look at him. But don't believe it, he told them. It's just a myth.
   I was fourteen years old that fall, however, and it sounded like more than a myth to me. It had that ring of truth to it that I heard in many wives'--and midwives'--tales, a core of common sense hardened firm by centuries of observation. Babies come when the moon is full. If the boiled potatoes burn, it'll rain before dark. A bushy caterpillar's a sign of a cold winter. Don't ever sugar till the river runs free.
   My mother's attorney may not have believed the myth that he shared with my parents, but I sure did. It made sense to me. I had heard much over the past six months. I'd learned well which myths to take to my heart and which ones to discard.

Ottawa, part deux

When last I mentioned Ottawa, I had found the missing tour bus, taken my seat, and regaled my friends with my mini-adventure. After a (very short) drive, the bus pulled up in front of Ottawa's Museum of Civilization. Above, the bus after it had parked there; below, the museum, where some of its workers were on strike. I don't know the reasons behind the rift between management and union, but the poster near the picketers hints at the troubles there.

I did not want to participate in a quickie museum tour so took the opportunity to instead roam the side streets south of the museum. The rain had finally stopped and I enjoyed both the fresh air and the photographic opportunities.

After my walk I took a seat inside the museum and waited for my friends to return from their stroll. As I cast my eyes around, I spied a group of young men and women at a nearby table and became fascinated with the footwear of one young man. I think his girlfriend noticed me taking photographs but I'm not sure they were aware of exactly what I was doing.

Next stop, Montreal!

It's Hallowe'en!

I hope everyone has a ghoulishly good day!

(Above photograph taken onboard the Disney Magic on October 31/07; last year and the year prior we were cruising on Hallowe'en. A great time to be aboard a Disney ship!)

Quick-stepping around Ottawa

Never before have I participated in an organized bus tour and, honestly, I don't know if I ever will again. Most of your time is spent on the bus, not at your destinations. And I do not take kindly to being herded around like cattle; the rebel comes flying out of me and I instantly break away from the pack. Often, I want to do my own thing. And it's great to travel with a group of ladies who are understanding of this and don't feel that I'm being rude as I frequently head off down the street, by myself.

Such was the case in Ottawa last weekend. The bus parked on Wellington just west of Parliament Hill; we were told we had to be back at the bus by 2:30. I took my first photo as I stepped off the bus at 1:56 p.m. and my last photo at 2:25 p.m.

For those 29 minutes I quick-stepped my way over to Bank, down to the Sparks Street pedestrian mall, over to Metcalf and back up to Wellington and then made my way back to the bus. In the rain. And then.......my big adventure of the weekend. The bus wasn't there! Much cursing ensued (I knew I was early, not late), a moment of panic (not huge panic as I knew the bus was headed to the Museum of Civilization and it would be easy to catch up with it there, but still........), I attempted to reach my friends by cell (no luck) and finally....finally!...I spotted what I thought was our bus a couple of blocks down.

Yes, the bus changed its pick-up point, but the tour guide did not think it important to station himself back at the original drop-off location to tell people this. Yeesh! The bus moved due to a police request -- there was a large demonstration on Parliament Hill at the time (that's one of the protesters, below) -- but I still can't believe the tour guide did not think the location change was important!

Anyway, in my 29-minute walkabout, I managed to capture a slew of photographs -- despite the rain, despite the hurry. These are but a few.

More photographs from my getaway to come in the days ahead!

Pumpkin carving?

A little pumpkin carving, courtesy of Photoshop. I decided to take a seasonal approach to this week's vintage image over at Art Creations Friday and carve her into a pumpkin. I wasn't all that happy with the selection of pumpkin photographs I had to work with but, in the end, I'm pleased with the results.

Happy Hallowe'en to all the creative participants enjoying these ACF challenges!

31 wonderful years

..........STILL GOING STRONG..........