Laura is an Artist who lives in Guelph Ontario.
She is interested in societal equality, beauty, architecture, philosophy, feminism, people watching, dogs, animal rescue, ecology, as well as the generational ties between people.
Laura has always been interested in peace and because she loves animals she is vegan.
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My cousin Sandy dropped off a small camping stove for me which he bought years ago when he was in Quebec. He calls it a Quebec Heater. They are used to heat tents while winter camping, checking trap lines and so forth. They weigh very little so they are practical for environments which require them to be removed. I am going to hook it up in the cloth porch soon and in the spring I can simple remove it and reclaim the space. It should work awesome for winter porch parties!
Today, Tiny House Ontario’s Blog is 1 year old. So many things changed for the Tiny House over the past year. The additional features are an in-house, siding, electricity, eve troughs, built in kitchen (partially complete), semi cover the porch and the beginnings of landscaping.
THO started the spring looking like this:
THO closed off the fall looking like this:
It is interesting for me to see the images close together like this. I find it hard to believe that the house changed so much!
I wish the best to all and take a moment to thank you all for reading and commenting on Tiny House Ontario’s blog. I have been continuously surprised at the readership, because I started this blog to keep my friends posted on what I am up to. Having had close to 6000 reads a month on average, I know my readers go well beyond my own community. Proof, I think, that the best things come in Tiny packages!
The last leaves are now just reflections of nearly forgotten memories, cast like shadows on the wall.
Nelson Mandela said “there is no easy walk to freedom anywhere, and many of us will have to pass through the valley of the shadow of death again and again before we reach the mountaintop of our desires.” I think he is right. I have not yet met the goals that I have set for myself and I know that once I attain these there will always be more. There is always more to come, I think, even beyond death there is more.
I hope that I still have a lot of time to work my life plan out, but one never really knows. It seems to me that my future life is set out like a dinner party to which I have have not been invited yet. Still, I can’t help it! I hope that Judy Chicago set the table for me! Wouldn’t it be wonderful to sit in on this dinner party with all the fantastic attendees?
But, I don’t know what this life has in store for me. The future, my future, just like everyone else’s is somewhere just beyond my grasp. My future exists only like the shadows of last years leaves which promise that there will be other springs; other falls.
I think about Aesop’s warning to “beware that you do not lose the substance by grasping at the shadow”. I could use some illumination, but in these short days when the sun casts so much shadow it is not always easy to find the light that will surely come again. It is easier to focus on the unreachable shadows which are long, sleek, and mysterious.
Thankfully, I can do some shadow exploration tomorrow when I return to THO. I can’t help it! I wonder what is waiting there for me? I know it will be my home, my land, my friends and family. I know that there is a big party at home this weekend coming. What else is waiting in tomorrow’s shadow?
What I loved the most about my dad was his deep and thriving love of the land. He was a farmer who lived not too far away from the place in which Tiny House Ontario is built. He dreamed of owning expansive property where he make a living ploughing straight long furrows into the earth and filling them with seeds.
This love of the land is one thing where my dad and I found common ground. I absolutely love the earth! I love the sky, the soil, the rocks, the trees, the critters and every single natural thing that sprouts from the Mother Earth. I am the sort of person who could spend a day looking at a tiny mushroom and marvel in the wonder of it.
Too, like Erazim Kohák, I find that the former human interaction with land puzzling and I feel strongly connected to this as well. An unexpected human thing left behind and out of place in the natural world leaves me with thousands of questions. On my land, about a half kilometre from THO, there are many small and random stone cairns which draw me back to them time and time again. They are quite curious because they are way up on the top of the escarpment far away from the low laying fields. My people, farmers, would never have carried stones for futility, so they came before the Irish parts of me settled here 150 years ago.
Here, in a crescent of stone, is my beloved cousin S (son of my father’s twin); he is also drawn to and fascinated with the cairns on our historic family land. The pull of them on us, is strong and magical; we are connected.
Tiny House Ontario 