Sweet Violets...

 Sweet Violets,

Sweeter than all the Roses.

Covered all over from head to toe, 

Covered all over with Sweet Violets....

Anyone remember that old song?  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtnLvrmyh3E&t=39s

The chorus is taken from the song "Sweet Violets" by Joseph Emmet, from his 1882 play Fritz Among the Gypsies. The song was recorded by Dinah Shore with Henri René's Orchestra & Chorus in Hollywood on May 20, 1951. Sweet Violets was released by RCA Victor Records as catalog number 20-4174A (78 rpm record), 47-4174A (single) (in USA), by EMI on the His Master's Voice label as catalog number B 10115 in the UK, and EA 3997 in Australia.

Finished?

I haven't painted anything for ages.... pandemic pause. This was a 16"x20" canvas with a failed rubbish painting from 4 or 5 years ago, so a couple of coats of gesso covered the horrible mess, and I started painting, no actual intention in mind.

I think it's finished. Possibly. I don't know. Is it?   .....   Update: I changed the sky colour to a shade of purple, made a few adjustments, and I sold it.

Tessa

She was called Tess, Tessie, Tessington, TessaDog, Doodle Treasure and The Dog. But her real name was Tessa.

Claims to fame: Therapy dog reject (too bouncy). Loved to wallow in the mud. Awesome swimmer. Relentless ball chaser, and always brought it back for another throw. Sandwich stealer. Cat chaser. Sock thief. Horsey poo lover. Rolled in stinky dead things no matter how miniscule. Cutest golden doodle ever. She loved us and we loved her. She is missed.

Tessa   1 September 2007 - 25 April 2022

Jefferson Salamander

If it's a rainy night between late March and early April, and you're driving along the Stouffville Side Road in the dark between 9:00pm and 5:00am.... you may encounter a road closure and have to make a detour. 

Why is the road closed? Accident? Police investigation? Midnight construction crew?  

No, none of those reasons. It's mating season for the Jefferson Salamanders, an endangered species here in Ontario, and the salamanders want to cross the road to their breeding swamps and ponds to lay eggs and make more little salamanders.

Sweet little chap, isn't he? or she? Looking for love!

Photo pilfered from Toronto Star.

They are nocturnal amphibians, grey or brown sometimes with blue flecks on the side, and a long tail making up half of their length. Surprisingly they can live for up to 30 years!

The road closures have allowed more than 150 Jefferson Salamanders to cross safely. In 2011 the salamander's status went from threatened to endangered. The population is assumed to be declining, so we have to do what we can to keep our lovely little Jefferson Salamanders happy and healthy.

More information about the Jefferson Salamander.

The Psychos

 I borrowed this from someone's facebook page, no credits shown to whoever thought it up. Banksy style.

Clever and funny..... but absolutely terrifying that these three psychopaths are in charge of (or want to be in charge of) a huge slice of the world.

White on White

We've woken up to a lot of that white stuff recently, and when the snow removal truck clears the road, there's just nowhere to put the snow.... so it gets piled up in front of my house. Perfect for pretending I live near Mount Everest.

All this cold winter weather can be rather tiresome, so I decided I needed a boost of Springtime. 

A $6 bunch of tulips from the supermarket did the job. Now I feel like Spring might be getting closer.... and it's March tomorrow!

Ukraine

My thoughts go out to the people of Ukraine. Russia's invasion is so wrong. Putin is making a terrible mistake.

A Little Visitor

I've recently had a little visitor, but not the kind of visitor I'm glad to see. A furry little visitor, with a long tail. 

He (or perhaps she) made his way into my kitchen cupboard above the stove by chewing his way though the seal on the exhaust fan housing. Pretty hard on the teeth I would think. But the prize was a plastic bag of walnut pieces. He chewed his way through the bag.... easy peasy... and scattered the nuts all over the cupboard, leaving his little calling cards behind. 

Anything edible is now safely inside a glass jar.

Time to call the pest control people in. Now there are black box traps under my kitchen sink and in the furnace room in the basement, and an old fashioned mouse trap baited with peanut butter set up in the cupboard. The hole has been plugged with steel wool.

Every morning I slowly open the cupboard door and hope with fingers crossed that I don't have to dispose of a furry body. So far so good.

What Rhymes with Orange?

Well, nothing rhymes with orange, or so they say, but you can make Marmalade with oranges, and that's exactly what I have been doing. An annual tradition for me. My cousin in Australia makes Marmalade every year too, we obviously have inherited the marmalade gene from our mums.

Six Seville Oranges, only available in the nearby grocery stores in January and February. The Sevilles are wrinkly and rather ugly and very bitter, and way more expensive than normal oranges, but they make terrific marmalade, so indispensable. 

Add two sweet navel oranges, and two juicy lemons. 

Squeeze all the juices out, remove the pips and the membranes, and chop the peel very thinly. For every cup of juice and peel, add 2 cups of filtered water, and soak overnight with the pips contained in a mash bag.

Boil until the peel is soft, add a cup of sugar for every cup of fruit mixture, boil some more and when it starts feeling thick and jellyish, pour into heated jars and seal.... voila! Marmalade!

Home made Marmalade on home made toast for breakfast, can't get any more delicious than that!!

2021 Books

Books read in 2021.... finally got to make a list and publish it! But I may have forgotten some in December.

Canadian authors in RED

British authors in BLUE

American authors in GREEN

January 2021
The Lola Quartet - Emily St.John Mandel (unputdownable story)

The Murder of Cleopatra, History's Greatest Cold Case - Pat Brown

Everything I Never Told You - Celeste Ng (another unputdownable)

Little Fires Everywhere - Celeste Ng (I enjoyed this author a lot)

The Glass Hotel - Emily St.John Mandel (loved this book)

February 2021

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine - Gail Honeyman (good book)

All Adults Here - Emma Straub

The Girls - Emma Cline

Akin - Emma Donoghue (loved this book) (just noticed, 3 Emma authors in a row)

More Than a Woman - Caitlin Moran

March 2021

Remarkable Creatures - Tracy Chevalier

The Tobacconist - Robert Seethaler

The Widow - Fiona Barton

Lawn Boy - Jonathan Evison (loved this book)

A Whole Life - Robert Seethaler

At the Edge of the Orchard - Tracy Chevalier

13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl - Mona Awad (DNF)

Weather - Jenny Offill (DNF)

April 2021

Olive Kitteridge - Elizabeth Strout

Olive, Again - Elizabeth Strout

Real Life - Brandon Taylor (DNF, got as far as page 27, not my style)

The Green Road - Anne Enright

The Long Call - Anne Cleeves

This is Your Life, Harriet Chance - Jonathan Evison

May 2021

Astray - Emma Donoghue

Utopia Avenue - David Mitchell (all books by David Mitchell are worth reading, especially this one)

Slade House - David Mitchell (2nd time reading)

The Lager Queen of Minnesota - J. Ryan Stradal

This One Wild Life - Angie Abdou (DNF but may try again)

The Dutch House - Ann Patchett (good book)

Big Sky - Kate Atkinson

Shotgun Lovesongs - Nickolas Butler

The Wangs vs. the World - Jade Chang (DNF)

The Revolution of Marina M - Janet Fitch (DNF, 805 pages, too big too heavy too complicated)

June 2021

Adults - Emma Jane Unsworth (DNF, nope)

The Child - Fiona Barton

The Lady and the Unicorn - Tracy Chevalier

Where the Crawdads Sing - Delia Owens

Piranesi - Susanna Clarke (good book, I read it twice, clever)

Modern Lovers - Emma Straub

Gifted - Nikita Lalwani

July 2021

This is Happiness - Niall Williams (lovely book!)

Legends of the North Cascades - Jonathan Evison

Rainbow Milk - Paul Mendez  (loved this book, surprised myself!)

Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore - Robin Sloan 

Mayflies - Andrew O'Hagan (good book)

August 2021

Instructions for a Heatwave - Maggie O'Farrell

Bad Dreams - Tessa Hadley (short stories)

The Hand that First Held Mine - Maggie O'Farrell

Late in the Day - Tessa Hadley

The Village - Nikita Lalwani

Dual Citizens - Alix Ohlin

September 2021

The Glass House - Beatrice Colin (DNF)

The Paris Dressmaker - Kristy Cambron (DNF, pathetic)

The Wonder - Emma Donoghue

The Secret of the Great Pyramid - Bob Brier and Jean-Pierre Houdin

October 2021

The Return - Joseph Helmreich

A Passage North - Anuk Arudpragasam

The Woman on the Stairs - Bernhard Schlink

The Motion of the Body Through Space - Lionel Shriver

A Boring Wife Settles the Score - Marie Renee Lavoie

November 2021

All I Ask - Eva Crocker

Swimming With Horses - Ross Oakland

One for the Rock - Kevin Major

The Opposite of Fate - Alison McGhee

December 2021

Bone and Bread - Saleema Nawaz

Transcription - Kate Atkinson

Click on "books" at the bottom of this post for my reading list for previous years.