I admit it, I was terrible at keeping my blog up last year.
This post is catch up of important things I didn’t blog about (or started to and didn’t finish!).
My highlight of last year was our trip to Newfoundland, David and I went for two weeks in August to visit my daughter Beka and her boyfriend James – and to travel.
Usually August is not the best month for spotting icebergs, but 2011 was an exception – we saw hundreds!! They were breaking off from a huge ice island that had broken away from the Peterman glacier the year before. It was very exciting to see so many, we even got to collect iceberg ice from the shore and made tea with it! Our trip also included fiords, beaches, vikings, moose, mist, soaring cliffs, soft bogs full of amazing plants, wonderful company and delicious food.
Back tracking a bit, earlier in the year I took a class with Holly Cooper, now Holly’s beads are out of this world. It can take Holly 3 hours to complete one bead, working on a hothead torch she paints intricate designs, with fine strands of (stringer) glass. To say the class was a challenge doesn’t explain much at all. I will say that after two days of watching Holly create my mind was filled with possibilities I had never even considered before.
Holly Cooper bead
During Holly’s class I met my soul sister! We had emailed before this, but she came to stay with us as she was taking the class as well. It was one of those life things, where all of a sudden there is this person in your life that you share so much in common with. Right down to things like our mum’s sharing the same birthday, or we’ll find we were doing something very connected without knowing.
Louise beads from the class - Holly has no worries, I have a LONG way to go!!
Throughout the year I’ve been progressing with my beads – looking more at Viking period designs, evolving my Goddess beads and also trying pandora style beads for the first time. I recently entered a bead into an ISGB (International Society of Glass Beadmakers), competition and am waiting to hear i my design will be one of those selected.
Unembellished Goddess bead - sometimes simplicity can really work
Zentangles seemed to be the new big thing this year, we were zentangling on paper and on beads – seems like everyone has their own style for this kind of doodling. It’s fun and inspiring, if you don’t know anything about it a quick search on Google is sure to turn up all kinds of info.
Last but not least late last year we decided to try a gluten free diet. David, my husband has very bad allergies so we have cut gluten (mostly) out of of diets to see if there is any improvement. I thought it would be harder than it has been as bread was a staple for me. Fortunately I have discovered other options, coconut flour being one of them, and I think we are both eating healthier and feeling better.
Hmmm... coconuts, monkeys, am I beginning to see some kind of pattern here?
In December David brought home Angela who I’ve already blogged about – very brave of him to bring another cat into the house since he’s allergic to them!
Words that come to mind when I think of 2011 are -
If you didn’t catch the ‘Maple Kind?’ video, check it out here, it really is hilarious. The person who made it hails from the Maritimes I believe. I heard that he opened up a Cafe Press or Zazzle store to sell merchandise because the video was so popular. ALL of his proceeds are going to help animals. Wouldn’t the world be a wonderful place if everyone were like him.
Water
Memory drips like coloured
spots onto the page
Just out of reach a blur
in the dreamtime of my vision.
These boxes black, cold, passed over
do not give up their secrets unless you pry
into their vibrant depths
connect, feel, breathe
and see what lies within
Have you ever wished you could talk to the animals? Do you think that’s a crazy notion or something that might be achievable?
I have a hunch that almost all if not ALL animal lovers have at some time wished they could communicate with the creatures in their lives.
A bit of research online and you’ll see that all kinds of people are doing exactly that! You can even purchase online readings of your pets – yes, someone versed in communicating with animals will, for a fee, connect to your pet – living or passed over and relay information back to you.
OK, so this is one of those things you either laugh hysterically at, totally understand, or are willing to take a leap of faith and believe that it can actually be done.
Our new family member Miss Munky has once again brought this issue to the front of my mind. I want to be able to communicate with the animals in my life on a deeper level than ‘fishy! fishy! dinner is here!’, or ‘get your claws out of that furniture!!’.
I do believe we are all connected on a very basic level, humans, animals, plants and even the universe. If you are looking for an interesting and possibly life altering read look out for The Holographic Universe by Michael Talbot, it totally changed the way I look at things.
Following along with that thought, if we ARE all connected on some level why shouldn’t we be able to pass information back and forth.
I began looking for animal communicators online. They are many and varied, there are all kinds of courses you can take to learn this discipline – apparently it’s something we can all do to different degrees. I settled on Danielle MacKinnon – her site is very informative without being airy fairy or leaving you with the thought you might be dealing with someone who’s lost at least half their marbles. On the contrary Danielle’s site is very grounded, and matter of fact, she has a lot of free information there if you wander through the pages including lessons and constructive exercises.
I decided to sign up for her beginners class on Animal Communication. It was in my price range – $69 and offered a starting point to see if this was something I thought I had any interest or talent in exploring.
I’ve just finished the course, or I should really say class – it’s an online presentation accompanied by a pdf download of ‘how to’s’.
Was it worth it? Absolutely!
Did I learn anything? Yes, for sure!
Did I REALLY learn to communicate with animals? I don’t know for sure that I did actually communicate with any of the four test animals – I did receive some information that was accurate and some that wasn’t.
Will I continue to try? I think I will, I know the two sessions that I did left me feeling like I had gone to a deeper/other level, coming out of them was like suddenly waking from a deep sleep – it took a while to ‘come to’.
Danielle says this takes time and practise (don’t all the best things in life), she offers some exercise ideas and also an online group (for a membership fee), where you can connect to one animal a month in a community where you share your findings with others. Very helpful because you can see what information is correct and what is not – you can learn to understand how information comes to you and what to look for.
I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on this subject — have you experienced communication with animals on a deeper level than we usually do in our day to day lives?
Meet Angela/Munky, she came to us a few weeks ago in need of a safe place.
Angela’s human was going through a health crisis and Angela had been going through a very stressful time, attacked by another cat, put upon by dogs and beset by fleas. We agreed to foster her and give her a place where she could get some peace.
I have to admit, she’s a bit of a mess, thin, and seems to have an over grooming problem. Apart from that she’s settling in well, she’s slowly got her appetite back and is settling down.
What about Raff?? He didn’t know what to think at first, and naturally Angela was very wary of him. We introduced them very slowly and now she’s been with us about four weeks the two of them are actually starting to enjoy each other. She’s getting called Munky as much as Angela now, a tribute to her funny little face and personality, it’s also looking more likely that she might not be a foster but a full time family member.
We’ve still got a few hurdles to overcome with her, mainly the grooming problem. One major problem with life I’ve always thought is that we can’t speak to these animals and get a good understanding of what they want/need/are trying to tell us.
Maybe it was the new year, maybe it was a desire to learn something new and maybe it was just that I want to understand Miss Munky a little better, but I registered for a course on animal communication, yes, I’m going to try and talk with the animals! I know a lot of folks will think that is a very silly thing and a lot of nonsense but I do know I’m a sensitive person and decided I’d like to give it my best try — more on that in another post
I should say that Angela did go to the vets, was treated for her fleas and given a clean bill of health before we took her in.
Feeling excited about the beginning of a new year full of possibilities I’ve made some updates to my site. My techy nerd side took over when I decided I wanted to add my blog to the front page and I’m pleased to say ta-daaa! I managed it!
While it’s not quite as noteworthy as the moon landing, I was pretty impressed with my achievement!
I used a Joomla extension called WordPress Posts which does just what I needed once I figured out the parameters it was asking for.
I’ve also switched things around a little and added some more pictures to my slideshow – 2012, off to a good start!
Well, here we are, not only the first day of a new year but The first day of 2012 – the year that is the subject of much intrigue. Time will tell if the Maya, and others knew something that we do not.
I’m not going to dwell on that, and I’m not going to dwell on the subject of New Years resolutions – I’ve always thought they just seem to be a way to set yourself up to fail. Instead I’ll mention an idea a very good friend of mine mentioned, she is going to make a list of things she’d like to do this year – maybe 52 things, maybe not. A bucket list of sorts, but one for this year, not for the rest of her life.
Initially I thought it was rather like making many resolutions, but then got to think what would I put on my list if I had one? I realised my list would contain things that I would LIKE to do, not things I thought I SHOULD do, in that respect it is very different from resolutions. Even that word makes me shudder – Resolutions require you to be Resolute!
A list however big or small would be a reminder, a gentle nundge not to forget the things that may make your spirit soar, or give you the sense of finally taking time to do something you’ve always wanted to.
What would be on your list?
Mine would contain making time for creativity, I’d like to take out my Dad’s watercolours and spend time exploring possibilities with them. I’d learn some new things (I just registered for a beginners Animal Communication Course as a start) and definitely want to travel east, or west.
Last year my Blog got neglected, I’d really like to use it more as a tool to track and share my progress with dfferent things throughout the year. To help I’ve just downloaded an ap I can use on my tablet to make updating easier — fingers crossed we are off to a good start.
Happy New Year to you, may it bring the things you desire whether you make a list or not!
I’ve been horribly slack at writing blog posts — I have a huge Newfoundland Saga to tell and just haven’t got down to getting it done.
This however won’t wait!
November 11 & 12th! Ottawa Hellenic Centre at 1315 Prince of Wales Drive — that’s where it’s all happening — our fourth annual show of handmade glass beads and jewellery.
This year there are some new faces as well as lots of familiar ones, I’m looking forward to seeing what all the different bead makers and jewellery artists have been up to over the last year.
What am I bringing? Now that’s a good question! I’ve got a lot of ideas crashing round inside my mind, I’d just like them to settle down a bit so I can figure out what is what. I think for the first time this year I will have some Pandora/Biagi/Troll style beads – that’s something new for me. Who knows there may even be a Goddess on one or two of them! Hope to see you there!
I took a walk today down by the locks at Upper Nicholson’s — not to far from home. I had in mind to take some panorama pictures and that’s exactly what I did.
What I didn’t realise was that I was about to find the coolest site for hosting and sharing panoramas – this is my first blog post where I am testing out their embedding feature.
I notice a couple of little stitching glitches but overall I am delighted!
These three are using Flash for viewing, I’m pretty sure that means you won’t be able to see them if you are looking on an iPhone etc. Next time I’ll try the java code. Please let me know if you have any trouble seeing them and if so what you were using as a browser.
The Rideau River at Andrewsville – just below the Upper Nicholson’s Lock
The Dam at Upper Nicholson’s
High spring water was rushing through (don’t worry, I was safe – not taking any chances!!), although I guess a local OPP officer was concerned that I was going to do away with myself by throwing myself into the water – he came to check and make sure I was ok – yup, little embarrassing moment there… You can see him in this panorama if you look closely.
The Swing Bridge at Upper Nicholson’s Lock
This is such a scenic spot – I’d like to come back in a week or so when the trees are greener and there is water in the canal. In season the bridge is manually swung around by the lock keeper in order to let boats pass through. At one end of the scene is the dam that I had just come from and way down the other end of this stretch of canal is Lower Nicholson’s Lock. All in all a wonderful place to take a walk and look for ospreys and other birds.
Today I heard Canada geese.
Today I saw a big V of Canada geese flying over.
Today I’m celebrating the End of Winter!
The weather was perfect for a good walk and I commented to David that it almost felt like Spring was in the air. Not quite — but for sure the End of Winter was in the air!
We have a favourite walk we take that follows a spit of land that climbs up a hill between the Rideau River and Rideau Canal. There’s usually something interesting to see along the way.
I took my camera along as I’ve been reading about apertures, speeds and all manner of things technical and was pleased to find that something had registered.
Notice the soft background in this image (using a large aperture) -
and the sharp background in this one (smaller aperture) – Yay! that was enough for one day!!
Signs of life were everywhere, from the tell-tale tracks of a racoon in the snow -
To the culmination of a pileated woodpecker’s busy search for food -
I think he/she got a bit carried away with this tree – see the hole near the top!
It amazes me how some things that seem so delicate can survive the harsh Canadian winters -
Our walk ends at the ‘tip’ a point of land that looks down upon the river and canal – it still looks pretty barren and forlorn at the moment, but within a few weeks it will be bursting with the sights and sounds of Spring.
Look! This tree is so excited it’s waving it’s arms in anticipation!
that was enough for one day!!
