Friendship

A Very Special Guest

I have lived a few places in my life, and quite a number of people who I love are movers.  This makes me one of those people who have loved ones scattered around the planet.

A couple of years ago when I started this blog, it was so that I could explain in one breath exactly what I was up to (building a tiny house).  One of THO’s most loyal blog followers and certainly one of the friends for whom I started this blog is my sister friend Donna.  We shared a lot of words over a long time when things were a little less easy for both of us.

Well… she is visiting from Jamaica and graced THO (and me) with a visit.   We had a nice lunch, a long drive, and a look around the house and gardens.

Beautiful Donna at THO

You have no idea how much I wanted to keep her… but she has a life elsewhere… She has to get back to it, I know.  Still… you know… I miss her already.

Categories: Friendship, Magical, Ontario, Open your eyes, Tiny House Ontario | 11 Comments

Dudes Got a Mushroom

IMG_0096

Melonie Veenstra, a Kingston potter made a magical mushroom for Tiny House Ontario.  The Gnome gang stole it when I wasn’t looking.  They have been partying since!

This is the story I am sticking too.

You have to find your own humour when you live in the woods.

Categories: Art, Friendship, Gnome, Magical, Off Grid, Ontario | Tags: , , | 6 Comments

Beautiful Things

I got a couple of wonderful tumblers from my favourite potter – Nick Prouse of Prouse Pottery and Soap Company.  Thank you Nick!   He and his spouse will be having the grand opening of their business on May 4, on Ottawa Street, in Hamilton, Ontario.

I was also gifted some beautiful spring pussy willows from my friend Guillaume when I set up at the market.

I am not normally a big fan of stuff, but with art and nature I make an exception.  When I put these two beautiful things together I thought they looked so pretty that I want to share them with you.  Friends, art and nature, what is not to like?

Thanks guys!

Pottery and Pussy Willows

Categories: Art, Friendship, Nature, Ontario, Stuff, Tiny House Ontario | 2 Comments

The Love of the Land

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.

Did you find our gorgeous little M who is hiding?

Categories: Erazim Kohák, Family, Forest, Friendship, Magical, Off Grid, Ontario, Tiny House Ontario | 3 Comments

Mud Bog Image

On September 8 2012, I was at the Sand’s Mud Bog which I wrote about earlier.  This morning my cousin T sent me a photo that I think is great so I wanted to share.  Better late than never, am I right?

Here I am with a few of my fabulous cousins.  Good times!

Makes me wish I was home right now.

Categories: Family, Friendship, Magical, Off Grid, Ontario, Time | 3 Comments