hearts are warm

who's the most handsome, photogenic, lovable, athletic, smart, sweet ... cat ever ?

Uh Huh ! you guessed it - Oliver posing (again) in a patch of last night's setting sunlight.

Oliver displaying himself on another cowboy quilt draped over the arm of the sofa, Winnie and Piper Belle curled up beside us and Bess on her bed on the rug working away on the knotted end of a fresh raw hide chew. The feral boys Bleet & Gus occasional gracing us with their presence, coming down from their housekeeping unit on the second floor, crouched low to the ground, they covertly skulk around the perimeter of our lovely sitting room. A fire blazes in our fireplace and all hearts are warm and oh so content here at 29 Black Street.

oh & ps. this weeks blog of the week Nate Williams - sigh - he's who I want to be when I grow up

I've screwed up my hotmail account and can't access my inbox please email me at
29blackstreetATgmail.com - merci !

brothers

Oliver & Gus

Not blood brothers, but brothers in every other sense - Oliver is actually 3 weeks older than Gussie, they arrived here together as two tiny kittens (6 weeks and 9 weeks old) 4 years ago this summer. They are best buddies, grooming partners, mouse and bug hunters extraordinaire with a deadly tag team approach, and rough housing partners in crime - lots of zooming, thumping, pinging, wrestling, biting, and sometimes just hanging out atop an unmade bed.

dancin'

shipping crate steel support for a red Honda CL90 Scrambler - vintage 1967

the CCP* (current cowboy project)

A shipping crate for the red Scrambler. A bike the cowboy built from spare parts found mostly on ebay and a bike that currently resides in a garage, living part of a former life, in a city on the edge of the prairies. He'll repeat that same 4000km trek again sometime in April, a trip to tidy up the final remnants of that former life - one of which is to ship his red bike home to Nova Scotia.

And of course what's a handy guy to do ? but to buy a used shipping crate from a local bike shop for 15.00, retreat to your heated (via wood stove) garden shed/shop, pencil out a few measurements and schematics using the Nova Scotia silver Scrambler to determine fit and size. Fire up that much loved steel cutting saw and Voila !! the steel skeleton of a shipping crate he will pack into the back of the motorhome avec la brown hound Bess and off they'll go - central/western Canada bound - sometime in April. This weekend he's building the plywood skin that gets bolted over the steel frame, complete with painted rectangular areas (white of course) for clear & concise labeling and instructions. Be still my heart. I love this man.

Here at 29 Black Street he's got our 100+ year old, stone foundation - basement clean, dry, empty, cat friendly, sparse, energy efficient and generally a hummin'. He's replaced the broken dryer hose and vent in my laundry room (that was my Valentines day present), he's tightened up a few tres drafty areas, moved the thermostat to another room so that now the heat in this house is consistent everywhere instead of the former 3 distinct winter climatic conditions (freezing, very cold & colder) which I endured for - oh, 17 years. He's fixed the leak from my washing machine - the one that had been causing the floor boards to rot - No. 64 on the list of smallish things that have been amiss with this old brick house for ages. and unfortunately any item on that list that came after No. 7 I had pretty thrown my hands up to despair and was most often contemplated going outside to lie on the lawn until someone came to rescue me. Generally speaking, any item on the list after about No. 7 I'd said to myself a resounding F&ck it !! (pardon) I'd said Uncle ! Uncle ! Uncle !

This week he replaced the hand held shower hose with a beautiful stainless steel kink free model and he fixed the vacuum cleaner (a new belt ?!?). Sighing, sighing and more good sighing.

He, the freakin' Prince of All Things Good - he just makes me feel like dancin'
dancin', dancin' dance the night way - I feel like dancin'

come on now... I know ya want to ... sing along with Leo & me

You've got a cute way of talkin'
You've got the better of me ...

breathless

scenes from this mornings early morning sunrise walk with Winnie Dixon & Piper Belle

When you come right down to it,
the secret of having it all ... is loving it all.

Dr. Joyce Brothers

At times, especially lately, there feels like so much goodness, so much love and so much stunning beauty all around me - every day ... it leaves me feeling breathless. I know that I am exactly where I am meant to be ... and in every sense of the word being. I hesitate to even whisper those words–that thought–out loud. And when I do I feel instantly like bundling it back up again carefully, and cautiously tucking it back into it's hiding place, deep inside my heart. How strange it is to feel so afraid of having every thing I've ever wanted.






ice, ice baby

I know this a triple repeat but Hey ! I love this song and it says it all ...

3:30 pm

a tall moustache, a brown velvet hound and a gorgeous spring like afternoon in the hayfield

From our 3:30 pm walk yesterday afternoon.

On a day like yesterday, warm and with a big ol' hint of Spring days to come, I try as hard as I might to breeze through my drawing/design time in as productive and efficient a way as is possible. I then race around doing my few daily chores, walk with the sisters again around this little village, run a few necessary errands quickly and hop in the teal wagon - so that I might meet up with my Prince (oATG)* and Bess in the hayfield behind his old farmhouse at 3:30pm sharp for a long walk under the bluest, blue sky and warming bright sunshine.

Ya know you - make me feel like dancin' - yeah you ! ya really do !

oATG - of All Things Good

sortin'

non stop dancin' and other scenes from this mornings' sunshiny early walk avec les sisters

It feels to me like I've been quite quiet here on this blog lately. A little too quiet even for my own liking although you can be sure that there's been no shortage of yakking going on dans la head (of mine). Of course I've been ruminating the reasons there of - Hey ! what's that quiet all about ? well ... I guess I've just been spending my time sortin', thinking, pondering, drawing, cooking, watching lots of movies, snowshoeing, swooning and generally trying to settle in to this new fantastic life of mine avec the cowboy and brown hound Bess - getting used to this new, bold, better life we're all now living ...all of us, our big extended family (3 dogs, 3 cats, 2 people).

I'm slowly just beginning to accept (dare I say) the fact that maybe, just maybe this new wonderful life might be going to stick around awhile and maybe, may be this is my life. I just might let my guard down, take a few deep breaths, allow myself to really relax and say a big ahhhhhhhhhhhh. And, of course, my most giant Merci ! (grateful, grateful, grateful - am I)

melt

small islands and chunks of ice in the harbour

bess

the beautiful brown velvet hound and tres bratty baby sister of Miss Winnie Dixon & Piper Belle

From yesterday afternoon's big walk in the hayfield behind the cowboy's house. Plenty of blue skies & big sunshine all weekend long ... Spring (& big happy love) is most definitely in the air.

kinda quiet

more tulips from les photo archives - I guess we've got Spring on our minds

Courage doesn't always roar.
Sometimes courage is the quiet voice
at the end of the day saying
"I will try again tomorrow".

Mary Anne Radmacher

I've been feelin' kinda quiet these days. Quiet's good ... usually. It's difficult for me at times, to be quiet, to be still but those times when I'm able to - it does feel so good. Heard an interesting interview with this guy, Jonah Lehrer this past week on fav CBC show Q - it makes perfect sense (to me) that the darn ol' black dog can and does serve a useful purpose. Read his somewhat contraversial New York Times article The Upside of Depression here

A quiet mind cureth all.

Robert Burton

v is for ...

yellow tulips (last year's crop) from the terracotta gardens of 29 Black Street

V ... is for vignette(s)
&
V ... is for very happy

Another day drawing here at the *TTD. Things (design things especially) ... they are a cookin'. I'm off to the lands of bubbles & scent (my new fav and another patchouli blend) and then a lovely walk with the sisters as the sun comes up.


chocolate brown guest room

wise words

almost sunrise - another from the photo archives

Try this for a couple of weeks and see how it changes your reality : Whatever you think people are withholding from you – praise, appreciation, loving care, and so on – give it to them. You don't have it ? Just act as if you had it, and it will come. Then soon after you start giving, you will start receiving. You cannot receive what you don't give. Outflow determines inflow.

Eckhart Tolle - A New Earth p191

More wise words from Mr. Tolle

Still snowy and blustery this early morning - seems everything outside is painted in white and varying shades of grey and it's going to be another cozy day spent happily drawing here at the TTD*, with you know who as my constant companion.

*TTD - teak topped desk

that other girl

Miss Winnie Dixon basking in sunlight in her favourite, second floor, most excellent look out chair

Not that girl (my best friend and designer gal pal) but that other girl. My best girl Missy D is going to have her portrait published in a book - the 2010 edition of Paws for Charity and she is so excited (as are the rest of les Gang). We're thrilled to be participating in this great fund raising effort, check out the Paws for Charity blog here and stay tuned for more details.

Snowy, blustery, schools are all cancelled already, a fire is blazing, hot cocoa with marshmallows is on the menu for sometime today and we're all tucked in and cozy for a day of drawing here at the teak topped desk - design central. The cowboy and the brown hound are tucked in by the fire as well at their old farmhouse. We're hoping that the magnificent black, four wheel drive, steed will carry them this evening safely over the snow covered roads to arrive here at Black Street just in time for dinner & a movie.