Wednesday 27 February 2019

Negative Painting

At my Thursday Art Group, we have been experimenting with negative painting techniques.
Negative painting is where the subject is established by painting around the object rather than by painting the object itself.
There's a very informative page about negative painting and an excellent description of an example here.
And some of the examples that we produced last week.

Sunday 24 February 2019

Fantastic Mr Fox

There's been a fox living in the neighbourhood for the past couple of years. I've seen him (or her?) quite often during the summer, strolling nonchalantly along the street, no fear of cars or people at all. But I haven't seen him during the winter.
But recently I've noticed footprints in the snow which can only come from a fairly large animal. Definitely not a bunny or a squirrel. And this morning when I looked out of the window.....
 ,,,, there he was, sitting in the snow just outside the railings on my deck. Fuzzy picture as it was taken through a rainy window and a bug screen.
Then he moved from the deck to in front of my living room window... again sorry about the fuzziness, the camera wants to focus on the wet window. He looks well fed, probably thanks to an abundance of tree rats er, I mean squirrels in the area. 
He sat for a few moments to think, then went around the side of the house, crossed the road, and trotted off towards the trees at the end of the street. I hope he comes back, I like him.

Wednesday 20 February 2019

Coffee Mug

Last November my oldest grandson's Atom ice hockey team (ages 9 and 10 up to Dec 31) Schomberg Red Wings won their local tournament which was quite a welcome surprise as they really hadn't won many games all season.

However, this was a huge victory for them, and the team now qualified for entry into another tournament that was to be held in January 2019.

This was the International Silver Stick 2018-2019 Tournament Finals held in the Niagara Region. There were over 100 ice hockey teams competing in 13 different arena locations, from all over Canada and some teams from the US.
The team played 4 games, won 2 and lost 2, so they were pretty happy with the results!

Before the hockey games kicked off, there was some social time scheduled, and  time was allotted for pin trading, so of course, if you swap team pins, you have to have somewhere to pin them.  I made each member of the team a pin banner to hang on the bedroom wall. They loved them and the banners were soon covered with souvenir pins.

And as an unexpected thank you from the team, I received this delightful coffee mug..... pictures of the team, all 17 of them, displaying their pin collections on the banners. What a great souvenir.... I'll be enjoying my morning coffee and cheering the team on at the same time! Go Red Wings!


Tuesday 12 February 2019

Live music



Back in the Dark Ages when I was a youngster in England, I hung out at a lot of folk clubs. I loved live music, and saw lots of folkies perform including Martin Carthy, Peggy Seeger and Ewen McColl, Alex and Rory McEwen, loads more whose names I've forgotten. I always wanted to play the guitar but never learned, although I was given a guitar that I strummed along on and actually memorised 3 chords, but the musical gene has definitely missed me.

Image result for concert images
I was recently reading a list of live music concerts that my bloggie friend Suldog has enjoyed, so I thought I'd try and remember all the concerts that I've seen.

Here's my list.... fairly short and in no particular order. Lots of Canadian performers. If I remember any more I'll add them. Anyone else like to offer up a list?

Liona Boyd - classical guitar 1974
Andres Segovia - classical guitar... Portsmouth UK early 1960s
Ray Charles ... Portsmouth UK early 1960s
The Beach Boys ... Rama Casino 2017
Rolling Stones/Everley Bros/Little Richard/Bo Diddley ... Gaumont Southampton UK October 1963
Tina Turner ... Toronto 1980s
Simon and Garfunkel ... Exhibition Stadium, Toronto  July 21 1983
Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee/Ramblin Jack Elliott ... concert at Royal Festival Hall in London in the 1960s.
Boy George and Culture Club ... Toronto  Maple Leaf Gardens 1984
James Taylor ...The Forum, Ontario Place Toronto early 1990s
Jully Black ... 2016
Dave Brubeck Quartet ... Massey Hall, Toronto March 15 1969
Alex Cuba ... 2016
Itzhak Perlman - violin
Gordon Lightfoot ... Peterborough Ontario 2001
Natalie McMaster and Donnell Leahy
Leahy - the next generation ... 2017
Jimmy Rankin
Ashley McIsaac
Dave Swarbrick and Jason Wilson
The Nylons
Shirley Bassey ... 1964
Michael Kaeshammer ... piano
Victor Borge ... piano and comedy, late 1970s, Ontario Place, Toronto

Sunday 10 February 2019

Olé! Mermelada!

January / February is the season for Seville oranges, those knobbly sour citrus fruits that are so necessary in making marmalade. They are hard to find, but I bought some really big juicy ones at our local Longos, the fancy new grocery store where everything costs a bit more than you'd expect. These oranges were grown in the USA although they carry the name of the city in Andalucia, Spain. Buying Seville oranges is the closest I'll come to Spain in the near future.
Of course, it's marmalade making time. I do enjoy a dollop of golden marmalade on my toast in the mornings.
I used 6 large Sevilles, 2 lemons and 1 sweet orange. First squeeze the juice out of the fruit, and remove the membranes and the seeds.... keep for later. Chop the orange and lemon rinds as thin as possible.
 Add water, and soak the fruit overnight, including the seeds and membranes in a net bag. Then boil it all up until the orange rind is cooked and soft.
Then for every 2 cups of fruit and juice, add 2 cups of sugar, and boil again for about 20 minutes, and it will start to gell. Take off the heat, stir for 10 minutes to cool, you don't want to break the jars, and to make sure the fruit doesn't all float at the top. Pour into sterilized hot jars, slap a lid on, and look forward to breakfast time.
A wonderful quote from Bob Hope:
"My folks were English. They were too poor to be British. I still have a bit of British in me. In fact, my blood type is solid marmalade."
I think mine is too.