Time and Again Tree

Ever since moving to our farm 16 years ago we've developed a Christmas tree expedition tradition.  We have 60 acres of old growth forest on our land and several years we hunted for a tree here but it meant an adventurous trek which resulted in dragging the tree across underbrush and through the woods.  One year a decision was made to try looking on my in-law's farm and since then our Christmas tree has come from the woodlot which was an old pasture.  Spruce trees are abundant there but the farmer always cuts them off about three feet above ground so they will continue to live and grow.
This year our  Christmas tree was from one of those stumps. A branch which grew out of the trunk and curved straight up to the sky resulted in a second generation tree.  There's another tree growing out of the other side so next year we may have a third generation tree. 

Best wishes to you as one year ends and another begins... of course it wouldn't be New Year's without some pause for reflection and thoughts about the coming year.  I hope that whatever your resolutions, you will take the time to smile.  A smile is free and easy to give. 

"Smile at each other, smile at your wife, smile at your children, smile at each other - it doesn't matter who it is - and that will help you to grow up in greater love for each other." Mother Teresa

"Spread love everywhere you go: first of all in your own house.  Give love to your children, to your wife or husband, to a next door neighbor...Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier.  Be the living expression of God's kindness, kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile, kindness in your warm greeting." Mother Teresa
 

Best wishes for the New Year !

Christmas Wishes...

From home to home, and heart to heart,
from one place to another...
The warmth and joy of Christmas 
brings us closer to each other.  
Emily Matthews

Best wishes for a Christmas filled with the people you love 
and all of your favorite things... 
may the memories, love and laughter 
of the Christmas season 
be in your heart through the coming year!

I'm linking to Mary's Little Red House.  
Merry Christmas to all the Mosaic Monday participants.  
I look forward to seeing your wonderfully creative blogs 
and thank you for your kind comments on my blog. 

Christmas Memories

Christmas for me begins differently every year but when it comes to decorating it's as I begin to replace paintings and pictures with my sister's "stitcheries" that I'm inspired to start playing  Christmas music and little snippets of Christmases through the years start bouncing around in the windows of my mind.

One year my mother decided to try selling "Regal" and it was fairly easy to convince friends to buy boxes of Christmas cards with their family's name embossed in gold below the Christmas greeting. It was fun to pile up the orders and help her deliver them but the best of all was opening the "Mystery Box".  The box contained a little set of china elves, each holding the letters to make "Noel", an gold umbrella paper napkin holder and the most exciting surprise of all, a book containing a punch out cardboard village.  We assembled it and displayed it with pride on the built in buffet in our dining room. Imagine my surprise to find a cardboard village for sale at "Winners" a few years ago.  Of course I bought it and enjoy setting it up each year at Christmas.

 

Each year I enjoy looking through my collection of Christmas books and  cookbooks.

 and I plan to try some new Christmas recipes but often the farmer beats me to the kitchen.  

His winter hobby is cooking and in the past week he's made delicious brownies,  

baked beans,  antipasta and shortbread!

I hope that whatever your traditions are as you decorate your home, you will enjoy the process and that the days leading up to Christmas will be filled with joy and anticipation rather than with stress and worry.  It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas - it's been snowing quite steadily this week and I thought you might like to see our route to our small town.

 

Although I don't have time to do a mosaic in this post, I will link to Mary's Little Red House and suggest that you visit there - it's always a fascinating experience at her house.

Sunrise Remastered

This morning's sunrise was spectacular but with camera in hand, ready to step on the deck I realized the door was frozen shut.  I took some pictures through the windows but the quality was poor.  

I enjoyed changing the colours of the photos and later in the day I discovered Lorrie had posted a tutorial explaining how to use Picnik to create a collage.  

Thanks Lorrie - I need to practice and still haven't figured it out yet but hope to soon. 

Will try again soon.  Sunshine Always!

Sew Retro

Last week I talked about my lifelong hobby, which has been sewing.   A few years ago I was shopping at a scrapbook store and I bought a small sheet of stickers. Those stickers inspired me to make a scrapbook of my life thus far.  I visit my mother in law often and I suppose I was thinking ahead...
I decided I want to have some memories tucked in a book, so that years down the road I'll be able to take them with me to my last home.  Hopefully the pictures and titles will jog my memory and bring me some happy memories of what my life was like, where I lived and who my family and friends were.
So this is simply a page from my scrapbook, showing some of the patterns I've sewn in years gone by.  I also enjoy seeing all the wonderful creations sewn by the women who are fascinated by the retro look.  There's a fascinating blog called  Sew Retro with daily posts from talented women who have sewn retro inspired clothing.  If you've ever sewn an outfit or want  glimpse into the way things were, be sure to visit this blog.

The Fabric of My Life

A "Mosaic"of Fabric

40 years ago with my Grandmother and my Mother...

Yes, by rights I should already have cabin fever after a cold weekend spent indoors.  But today I am busy writing down a list of all the things I want to sew for Christmas.  I have loved sewing my whole life it seems.  My grandmother taught me to thread a needle and embroider at an early age and my sister and I woke up one Christmas morning to find Miss Canada dolls under the tree.  They were about 10.5 inches tall and of course we wanted more doll clothes.  Patterns for doll clothes were available so my mother taught me to pin and cut a pattern and how to use her Featherweight Singer sewing machine when I was about 11.

My grandmother wanted to encourage me, so let me choose some fabric to make an Easter dress for myself.  I entered the Hudson Bay's teenage fashion show and was given honorable mention as the youngest sewer in the fashion show. When I was 14 or 15, my god-mother paid me to make a pink mohair suit for her.  White duck squall jackets were the rage and after making one for myself, I took orders.  I made at least 3 or 4 more for my sister and our friends.  Over the years I sewed ballgowns, grad dresses, my wedding dress, dressing gowns, suits...the list goes on and on.

I sewed many outfits for my children and quilts for each new baby that was born.  There was a period of time where I made place mats, quilted hoops, tea cosys and quilts to sell in craft fairs. The hours spent sewing have been so enjoyable and I always feel at peace as the machine begins to connect the pieces and help me create the fabric gifts I love to give.  I'm so grateful for the gift of sewing that my busy mom had time to give me more than 50 years ago.    Hope you're enjoying your weekend wherever you are.  I'll link this post to Mary's Mosaic Monday on this wintery Sunday evening in Northern Alberta.

The Season of Autumn

Today's post was inspired by a blogging friend who lives on Vancouver Island in my favorite province of "Beautiful British Columbia".  My response to her post turned out to be so wordy I thought I'd reprint it here.

"Lorrie, your list of autumn pleasures helps a person like me put our short season in perspective. I equate autumn with the brilliance of the fall leaves for a mere week or two. Here autumn starts with the first sound of the swathers and combines in the fields and the hard work of harvest. Now it's a time of warming up the interior of the house with the colours of my pillows etc. It's a time for home made pies and soups, good music and enjoying warm cups of tea, hot chocolate and reading good books. We've had such a gift this year, as although we had a few days of snow that have come and gone, winter only arrived yesterday. But what a gift -realistically there's just five and a half months left of "boots, gloves, toques and scarves weather" until the beginning of May when we'll see sprigs of green. It's been a great autumn!"

I encourage you to take a look at the wonderful list of Autumn Pleasures Lorrie created for her post on Nov 11th.  Lorrie's Fabric, Paper Thread blog is charming and filled with inspiration.
Today's weather forecast is as follows...
"Today..Cloudy with 30 percent chance of light snow. Wind north 20 km/h gusting to 40 becoming light this afternoon. Temperature steady near minus 7."

Hope your day is filled with sunshine-
wherever you are!

Still Standing

These November days on the farm are always bleak due to the lack of colour.  The autumn leaves have disappeared long ago and we're in sort of a holding pattern - not quite believing that everything isn't white yet. A few days ago I walked around my husband's childhood farm and took some pictures of some of the old buildings that are still standing.  The barn is about 70 years old and not used for much now except storage.  There's an old playhouse, an outhouse and a garage that holds many items but is on such a tilt that it has not held a car for about 20 years.   The original family home which includes an addition to the right of the door was replaced by a new family home in the early 60's but the old house is still there.  One wonders why so many buildings are abandoned on old farms but I suppose there was always a possibility they might be needed for one purpose or another.  How long will they still stand? Only time will tell.
I'm linking this to Mary's Little Red House Mosaic Monday.  

Birds of a Feather

For the past few days I enjoyed my daughter's company once again.  She'd surprised me by buying tickets to the Opera.  I've been to many operettas, musicals and plays but had never seen an opera so she though it was high time I did.  She has seen two in Europe and several others.  We dressed for the occasion as did most of the audience.  Our 1st balcony seats were wonderful and the sets and cast and music all very impressive.  It will be a night to remember.
   Home on the farm a goose hunt was in the works and memories of time spent in the blind with his grandfather and father, sights of huge flocks of Canada geese and mallards landing in the field across the road spurred the farmer to set up the decoys and ask for permission to hunt in a neighbour's field.  The planning was done by the farmer and our son and the hunt was successful.  Oh the stories I heard as I walked up the stairs - even before I had taken my jacket off...
   The plans are in place to have a Remembrance Day goose dinner and to invite the farmer's uncle, cousin and brother.  I'll bake some pies for dessert but will give the farmer my apron.  It's another experience I've not had and as the tales are told and memories relived I'll be thinking of my night at the opera.  As they say, "Birds of a feather flock together".  In this case it was all in the timing.

 

I'm linking this post to the fine collection of interesting mosaics at Mary's dear Little Red House.

The Story of My Life

Well I really don't intend to tell you that story but it was simple to snap a few pictures of some of my memories this week.  A couple of years ago I decided to try to make a scrapbook for myself.  I've enjoyed gathering memories and making Golden Anniversary scrapbooks for my parents and my husband's parents, a memory book for my father, my sister, my children and my husband and I finally decided to make one for myself.  I called it "the Story of My Life". Earlier this week I took some pictures and did a post about my experience working on the Princess Marguerite which sailed between Seattle, Washington and Victoria, BC each day.   I decided to use those pictures to make a mosaic tonight. You might enjoy the rest of my summer job story.  You'll find it just below this.  Please visit Mary at Her Little Red House sometime soon.

The Princess Marguerite

 

When thinking back, I consider myself so lucky to have had a variety of summer jobs through high school and university but I'd have to say that working on The Princess Marguerite for two summers was my favorite experience.  

The Marguerite was a Canadian Pacific Railroad passenger and vehicle ferry which sailed each day 

from Seattle, Washington   to Victoria, BC 

and back to Seattle that evening.

  At 5 pm the steam whistle blew as we left Victoria's harbour, and crossed the Strait of Juan de Fuca 

on the 4 hour trip to Seattle .  

 

We docked at Pier 56 and stayed overnight until we departed at 8 am each morning for the trip back to Victoria. 

There were 12 or 13 cafeteria waitresses and we wore yellow uniforms with brown and white collar and cuffs, and as the ship was being loaded, we ate dinner and breakfast in the elegant wood paneled dining room . We had our choice of fine food and ate in style before heading up to the cafeteria to serve quick meals to the counter crowd. The line never let up and we were not allowed to write our orders down but kept them memorized as our section of 12 or 13 stools was occupied time and again in the 4 hour crossing.

 

Once the ship had docked we were free for the night as long as we were on board by 7 am, and our favorite haunts were Ivar's Acres of Clams, Trident Imports, the Space Needle and the Seattle World's Fair grounds .  We girls were not alone though.  A large crew of deckhands who were also mostly university students kept us company as we made our way through the  streets of Seattle and Pike Place Market to get back to our cozy bunks in a cabin we shared with 4 others.  

Once back in Victoria, we were on shore from 12 until 4 pm and I lived just a short distance away so I could drive home for the afternoon or sometimes we just went to a beach to soak up the sun.  We had International Seaman's ID and passed through customs  daily. One or two afternoons a week we took turns opening the snack bar on the aft deck as 

the ship sailed to Port Angeles and back each afternoon.  

As I think back to those summers spent on The Princess Marguerite I'm grateful for the amazing work experience.

Thanks to Judy at "My Front Porch" who inspired this post with her Space Needle story this morning.  

I commented  that I had a view of the Space Needle from the Princess Marguerite for two summers - so I thought you might enjoy the story.  What was your favorite summer job?

Harvest's Over!

Swathing, Barley, Combining and Unloading

The last afternoon of harvest

Auguring barley onto the grain truck

Off to fill another hopper

The last few rounds and we're done for 2010!
The crop's in the bin...
Now to fulfill our contracts to the grain company and wait for the call, hire the B Train truck to haul the wheat and barley 130 kilometers (or 80 miles) to the elevator and then the farmer gets his paycheque.  Often when he deducts the costs of inputs such as seed, fertilizer, fuel, machinery repairs and trucking costs it makes him think that it's sure good he loves the lifestyle and carrying on the tradition of farming the land his grandfather and father cleared.

You've likely heard this before... 
 

"HOW MANY LOAVES IN A BUSHEL OF WHEAT?

There are about 150 cups (8oz.) of grain in a 60 pound bushel of wheat (1 bushel = 0.352 hectolitres in volume, 1 hectolitre = 3381.4 US fluid oz.).

When converted to flour these 150 cups of kernels produce about 300 cups of flour.

About 3 cups of flour are required to produce a single 1.5 pound loaf of bread.

Therefore 1 bushel of flour produces about 100 loaves of bread each weighing 1.5 pounds (24 oz.)

Or, in other words, a bushel of grain berries (kernels) produces about 150 pounds of bread."

If you're interested in making a loaf of no knead bread, you might try this recipe. It's highly recommended. 
Smitten Kitchen 

Farmers really do feed the world.

These days the farmer is paid on average $7.00 (or about 7 cents a loaf) for a bushel of wheat and its been said that the grain is passed seven times before it reaches it's destination. The truckers, grain companies, railway, bakers and grocers all make some profit on the loaf of bread you buy at the store. 
Thank goodness for the farmers!

The Farmer's wife has done her duties: 
helping move vehicles and equipment from one field to another, helping move augers from one grainery to another, staying in constant radio contact for safety, making meals taking lunch to the field, baking cookies, loaves, squares and pies for Thanksgiving, having supper on the stove and waiting for the farmer and our son to come home hungry and tired, and making sure the dishes are done by 10 at night. 
I'm packed and ready to head to the big city this weekend for some R&R with our daughter.  We need some "girl time"! But first I have to stop at the grain elevator to drop off some samples of grain.  It's always nice to see the big city lights and maybe we'll even do a little shopping..

I'll be linking this to Mary's Little Red House for Monday Mosaic. 

 

Counting My Blessings

I am thankful for so many things...
our family and the peace of our surroundings,
the friends we've met who have become family,
the wonder of spring,
the warmth of summer,
the bounty of the fall harvest
and the anticipation of Christmas in the white days of winter.

I'm thankful for fresh air and sunshine,
health, love and laughter,
our three feline friends,
the opportunities we've had to travel,
for books, music and memories,
for hopes and dreams for the future.
Today on Thanksgiving I'd like to share a quote with you...
the author is unknown.

"Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life.

It turns what we have into enough, and more.

It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order,

confusion to clarity.

It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home,

a stranger into a friend.

Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today,

and creates a vision for tomorrow."

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you who enjoy Mary's Mosaic Monday connections.

"There are no strangers (t)here - only friends we haven't yet met."

Autumn

It's so unusual to have such warm fall weather in October here. Harvest is progressing but not as usual. With the September rains the farmers had a late start.
The colours of autumn never last long here. One windy day and the leaves are all on the ground. I'm busy cooking a spaghetti supper for the hungry farmer so will just post a few pictures taken in the past week. I dug the biggest potatoes we've ever grown and the beets were super sized as well.

Time to stir the sauce...that's it for now...
I'm linking to Mary's Little Red House. She has some gorgeous Autumn Postcards to show you this fine October evening.

Six Months

Six months ago I started blogging because I'd come across Mary's Little Red House and I was so intrigued by the beautiful mosaics that she had created. I followed her tutorial and was so pleased when I was able to create my first mosaic of the floral pictures I'd taken on a family visit to Hawaii.
The next discovery was that there were so many talented photographers and that their blogs highlighted their creativity and interests. I learned that making contact by commenting and receiving comments was fun too.
All of the blogging steps were puzzles to me and I am still learning as I go along. I've not yet mastered the skill of keeping track of all the lovely blogs I've found, but have learned that sometimes even though the blog lists look intriguing it's smarter not to click unless I have a large block of time to whittle away. When I do I find so many interesting blogs I sometimes forget to go back and make comments on them.
Thanks so much to all of you who have made such kind comments on my blog and apologies to those I've failed to visit. I'm going to try to be a better blogger and one of the ways I'll try to do this is to occasionally link to other bloggers who have inspired me. Thanks to all of you who have visited my blog and I hope that your day is filled with sunshine!

Canoe Lake

Autumn is here and though very late due to all the rain we had in late August and for most of September, harvest has been underway for about a week (off and on depending on the rainfall and how dry the crops are).
I was surprised when the farmer suggested we go on a drive to Canoe Lake, but he was waiting for the land to warm up before swathing barley. We took the binoculars along and though they were on the other side of the lake, we spotted ducks and Canada Geese and enjoyed a lovely walk down to the lake.
It's a pristine lake in that there are no houses or cabins surrounding it...just marshlands, fields and trees. The sun was brilliant and the autumn leaves were beautiful in the early morning sunshine. I'll be posting a harvest update before too long. Enjoy these glorious days no matter where you are. Once again it's time to see what beautiful pictures and interesting stories you'll find at Mary's Mosaic Monday.