Almost certainly Selena will post this to her face book, but I'm going to beat her this time and post it here for the few that visit here first! It's Michael Pollan talking about his new book, which is (or contains at least in part) a collection of "wisdom", folk and otherwise, about food. Here's some favorite quotes from me...

"If you're not hungry enough to eat an apple, you're probably not hungry."

"The whiter the bread, the sooner you're dead!"



Another interesting one:

"Sweeten your food yourself" (He observes that in most cases it'd be better for kids to give unsweetened cereal and tell them to put on all the sugar they want, because they can put many many spoons of sugar on the cereal and still have less sugar then many sugary cereals. Maybe not so applicable around here... but still an interesting observation. Ditto for making ice tea or lemonade... no sane person would themselves put in as much sugar as is found in popular commercial drinks of that sort.)

Probably a year, at least, since Anne expressed interest in getting rid of her elliptical trainer, and Selena expressed interest in acquiring it, and many close calls of almost getting it, against all odds Anne still had it, and Sandro and I managed managed to extract it and get it to our place. And, almost miraculously, we found a corner space to shove the monstrous thing in. So, finally, Istra can get some exercise....


Emeth, on the other hand, has decided to stick with vigorous lolly popping as his exercise of choice.

(Sorry about the video being so dark. You know how it is...)

Gramma took the kids for a few days again, so Selena could get some quality studying time in before her final exam next week. But it looks like all this freedom has once again gone to her head, and off she goes, hitting the streets and rallying against the prorogued government. Well, what can do when the Samba Squad calls?

An irony of the kids being away is that I have at least a tiny bit of time to post things here. But, without the kids, what to post here?

So I've pulled up this photo shoot I did with Istra on Dec 14. I call it a photo shoot, but... the situation actually was I was sitting at my desk in my office and Istra showed up in the doorway pushing her toy stroller (with Eeyore the donkey and Tessa the pink puppy strapped in). I wanted to do a lighting (flash) test with my camera, so I grabbed it and took the top-left picture. As soon as the flash goes off, Istra goes off with the faces. So i keep shooting. She keeps making faces. I try to stop, but she wants me to take a few more, to show her what she looks like. Really, it only took about 3 minutes for all of those faces to materialize. (I was going to organize the heads into a neat block of squares, like last time... but then I noticed that the chaos and jumble much better captured the feel of the experience...)

In the interest of fairness I figure I'll go give Emeth a chance also. You may remember the head mosaic I did of Istra when she was only around 1 and a half years old (did another when she was even younger, standing in her crib, but can't find it at the moment). She was already making faces. Lets see what Emeth will do at two and a half...



I find Emeth in his room, sitting on the floor by himself looking at a book. He didn't say anything to me that I can remember. But I think if the heads spoke, the words may have gone something like this:

1) What? Oh, it's you. 2) Ah! What was that?!! Flash?? What are you doing?!!! Ugh. 3) I'm going back to reading my book. 4) Are you still here? Do not offend my dignity. Thanks for coming by. You are free to leave, any time you want.

Ha ha. Emeth is funny in his own way.

Well, everyone missed a fantastic New Year's Eve party here at our place. Yes, it was awesome. It was awesome that you missed it, I mean. I mean, it's awesome you were somewhere else that is not here. So, I just want to extend a heart felt thanks to all who did not participate. Thank you. And Happy New Year, also.

Besides us not having to take you on an delightful evening walk around the neighbourhood through the rain/snow (including the icy and unlit Wytchwood Park hill --- whee!), under our big umbrella, it also meant we didn't have to share our crisped-to-perfection traditional home-made new year's egg rolls with you. Horray! Selena also whipped up some hot and sour soup, which turned out quite nice (though a lot more of the hot than the sour).

Conscience is starting to suggest my tone may be coming across a wee bit on the selfish side? Furthermore, I'm just starting to feel terribly sorry for all you poor unfortunates that were not here for such an awesomeness (the likes of which you can probably not even imagine). But, this was the first holiday evening of any kind that Selena and I have gotten to enjoy just by ourselves since... since I can't even remember. It was too nice. It was too good. So I hope you can somehow forgive us for ignoring your knocks (we may have been out) and rejecting your rings (our phone line must have been down)?

There are a few egg rolls and soup left over. But you better get over here fast if you want some, because they won't last long! And the kids will be back soon...

We had an even busier than usual Christmas this year, largely due to my determination to connect with some extra relatives which had been out of the picture for a long time. (Ironically, I got hardly any pictures of these extras.) All told, we had a chunk 'o Christmas in seven different places over five or so days!

We started here at home on Christmas afternoon. We Quaker potlucked Christmas eve. We then headed to Ajax where we stayed over night. After Christmas morning breakfast and presents in Ajax, with Gramma (and a phone call to sing the Hippopotamus song to Auntie Anne), we headed out to Dundas to meet up with some odd Middleton's, we extremely rarely see (including one cousin I'd not yet ever met before, and a bathroom -- except for the seriously nostalgic drawing -- never seen before either), for Christmas dinner. We stayed over night in Hamilton and had a second Christmas morning there on Boxing day, with Grammie and Aunty Belle. In the afternoon we drove to Kitchener for a visit with Grampa. Coming back to Hamilton again to stay over night, the next day we congregated with Selena's family and family friends for a big Christmas brunch at the Suggitt's.

It was touch and go at times, but it all worked out quite nicely (I think). And it's continuing to work out nicely, now finally home again, just Selena and I. We left the kids, with their new toys, for a few days with Gramma. (And Grammie had them most of the week leading up to all this.)

So all is Merry until Happy New Year! (Here's all the xmas pics...)

Some (yawn) scenes from Istra's first Christmas Concert, for those interested. The first and last pictures are of Istra's teacher, if you're curious as to her appearance.

I was lucky to be able (with Anne and Sandro, no less) to get to the little gallery space where Noel, and other local artists, were opening a new exhibit. My pictures linked here are not very good quality, but some may be interested to see some of the people and scenes... there's also some more examples of some of the art work here.

A week or so ago I got a strange email from a friend whom I'd not heard from in many years. He was apparently tipping me off regarding the awesome bargains to be had at some chinese web site. I prompt wrote him back thanking him very much for the tip, and expressing my eagerness to accept any and all spam from the few old friends I have lingering out there somewhere. The fellow wrote me back and affirming that yes, this spam certainly has been more effective than even facebook at getting him in touch with everyone in his address book from many years ago. It turns out an old webmail account he used once upon a time was compromised and the spammer used it to send out messages to everyone in the address book. My friend reports about half of them responded in one way or another (if you follow).

Take that, facebook! You're not even as effective as random spammers, as much as you may try to encourage your own special brand of spam which had now addicted half of humanity.

Anyhow, that being said, this weekend we hooked up with someone Selena hadn't sen since high school, and has been in contact with via book-o-face. She and her husband and her daughter (around the same age as Istra, coincidentally) came down from Cambridge and met up with us at the Santa Claus Parade. After the parade (shoulder's aching), we grabbed some yummy food from Gazelle and took it up a block to a small leaf-strewn-park for a little leaf-strewn picnic.

Also, I took pictures of random people at the parade, for bonus points. More interesting (to me) than the floats, you see.

And, on the way home we went by a house right near Istra's school with two chickens running around in the fenced in front yard. Just like Selena's dream!

I've finally put some more pictures from our holiday travels last August online. I hesitated on this particular set, probably because there's so much to say about it. It is hopeless to find the time to even begin to explain the background or describe the scenes portrayed.

In a nutshell, my grandfather bought this land to retire on to many years ago. Some say he was trying to recapture something of his youth, growing up on a farm. He built the farm house seen here, after the original burned down. My granddad died over a dozen years ago. and I hadn't been up to the farm since probably a few years before that. Owned now by an uncle, it has sat mostly unused all these years. The front yard, which I remember as a grassy hill leading down to a creek, is now a forest. The farmhouse, up on the edge of a hill, is barely visible from any direction anymore, ensconced in trees. Yet it remains deep in its grove, a hidden treasure box of memory and curiosity.

Then there's another reclusive uncle building himself a log house way in the far back of the property, barely accessible by anything half resembling a road. But that's yet another long and curious story.

Istra, after a long grueling night of trick-or-treat, releases herself from her uniform, and ponders the meaning of it all. Trick, or treat? Sucker, or suckee? Pony, or unicorn?


Emeth, rebel, refusing to don his dragon-y covering at the crucial moment, instead cleverly disguised himself as himself. A little boy with big pockets. He also refused to carry a bag, and insisted on people stuffing his right hand pocket with booty... only when it was filled to overflowing did he consent to adding a little to the left, also. Meanwhile back at home, daft poppy thought the lad could use a little broccoli pick-me-up after his long night's labours. Poppy was dismissed. But, broccoli-less, consciousness suddenly fled...

Let this be a lesson to you all.

She was here when I got home from work tonight. The kids seem to like her... i guess we'll keep her. (The funny thing is, she looks sort of almost exactly like Selena in her almost entirely regular clothes... but I'm told she's a gypsy or a pirate or something, all dressed up for something or other, which she rushed off to...)

The dragon Istra got for her birthday, so many months ago, finally hatched this chilly, wet weekend. The winds lured it from its nest, and launched it... well... into trees... and Selena's face... the ground... oh, and also the sky! From there, it also appears to have swooped down in an attempt to snatch Emeth up in its claws and carry him away to its lair....! Watch out, Eme!!!!




It missed.

So we all survived. And got exercise. And even seemed to have a fair bit of fun, despite the terrible danger.

I found more mushrooms to coerce portraits out of. (Oh wait, have I even posted my vast array of mushroom pictures from our last holiday?) Anyhow, while stalking the "shaggy manes", I noticed the ground beneath my feet started to feel rather weird. I looked down and found myself treading across large clusters of what we've finally decided are "pear-shaped puffballs". Selena, in her amateur mycological lust, was so excited she quickly abandoned my lovely shaggy mane, and started maniacally harvesting.

Two meals later, we are still alive. We win, again!


There was also dinner guests. A gigantic wasp nest. Turning off of water, window plastic. Fresh beaver trails. A farmer's market. Munchkin measurements. Still water. Rough water. Fantastical vehicles. Braids. The lowering of a flag. GPS. The moon at noon. Puzzles (including some which may never be solved). Warm snuggles. Cold feet, and shoulders. Genealogical encouragements. Surprise recovered apple crisp. Popped corn.

And we've maybe survived all that, too! We shall see...

This is not new (though it's not all that old either). But I've just been updating the Istra Art archive...