Last spring Troy G. Who is a friend from High School posted some of his photography on Facebook. I have not seen him in many years but the photos that he took around Elk Lake, Ontario, where he now lives are stunning. Elk Lake is about 600 kilometres due North of Hamilton.
Anyway… This one, from April 2012, I decided to paint. 8×10- acrylic
In the forest surrounding Tiny House Ontario the Wood Spirits are very much present: this is despite the horrible drought we experienced here and over much of central North America in the summer of 2012. The drought was such that the insects died and the birds moved away. Thankfully we are now covered in a blanket of snow and this will give the life chain a chance to recover from the soil up. I am normally not a huge fan of the snow, but this year I am more than grateful for it!
The Wood Spirits, I am sure you know, manage the forest for Mother Nature. Their work includes: collecting food for the birds when snow covers the ground, watering seeds that bring the wildflowers, placing dew drops on spider webs, they remind the gods of wind to bring cool breezes in the summer months, and of course they paint the beautiful autumn colours on the forest every year. Everything that is majestic and vibrant about a healthy forest is the work of the Wood Spirits. Last year, the drought made their job difficult.
Still, I want them to know how much I appreciate the work that they do. I will honour them in 2013. I have purchased a beautiful carving which is done by the magical Chain Saw Carving Artist Steven Kenzora out of Peterborough, Ontario. I will hang this in a place of honour at THO.
I am a huge fan of Steven’s work as you will see if you Google Image his name. I have not yet met him nor his partner Jodi and yet THO is intrinsically connected to his work, popping up in nearly as many images as do his wonderfully whimsical carvings. This is the first of his work that I own, and though it needless to say, I am very excited… BUT… I AM VERY EXCITED!
The great news is that he and Jodi are opening a shop this spring, in Peterborough I imagine. I will be sure to let you know because this would make for a wonderful road trip and a little shopping fun that even the most non-commercial will approve of! It fits in my ideal rules for good shopping: the farm/market for food, the shop small and local, the art one of a kind from artists, support local musicians, the books of local writers, and when dining outside of home eat in family owned restaurants. I hope I got them all…
Thank you Steven and my friends the Wood Spirits for the magic you do! Magic really does make the world a better place.
Bonus: Wood Spirits are very good at bringing interesting people together for conversation.
Yesterday morning I soaked a 2 pound bag of white navy beans in my big crockpot. It turns out that this is slightly too many so I had to remove a quarter of them into a different pot. The small pot I added some seasoning to, a few of my garden tomatoes, salt, pepper, garlic and and onion and made a good heartily soup. I got four large meals and two small jars (only one is pictured here) from the first quarter. The other 3/4 of the beans were turned on last night and I salted and canned them earlier this afternoon. I got four full quarts plus a little. They will be used later for a recipe that calls for beans – or to make another soup, whatever. The bag of beans cost me $2.50 Canadian; a lot of food for very cheap and very little work. As a matter of fact boiling the jars to make them sterile was the toughest part.
The best part, is that I get the satisfaction of hearing the cans pop! Silly as this is, it even beats the cheap cost, and feeding myself slow food, with no preservatives and good taste and quality. Did you know that when you can beans yourself there is no slime in the jar at all? What is that slime in canned beans?
Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop! 😀
Entertaining! Still this pretty much sums up why I am a vegan who is on the road to living in a Tiny House.
There are a lot of people who believe that our Canadian Inuit have a huge number of words to describe snow. This of course is just a fanciful urban legend. In English we have a similar variety of words to Inuit language that describes snow and snow conditions, such as: snow, sleet, slush, ice rain, blizzard, blustery and snowing…
Even so, last night as the snow fell I wished that there was a lovely succinct Inuit or English word that I could ascribe to the sort of snow that fell here in Hamilton. The conditions were absolutely ideal; just cold enough, no wind at all and a very light number of flakes forming. This made the flakes huge all about a half centimetre across and perfect large crystal formation like a billion glass renditions of paper snowflakes falling. They fell like feathers, magically, resisting landing, dancing slowly to the earth.
The Inuit word for falling snow is qanik but this does not describe the perfect snowfall. Indeed, it was just the sort of snowfall that made me wish I was at THO, in the night forest, with a flashlight, to catch the fleeting, breathtaking art show that Mother Nature prepared.
My home community tell me that there has been a powerful lot of snow at THO. They had a blast and there is around two feet that have fallen. My cousin Kenny has ploughed me out so I can drive right in, when I go up next week for a few days. I have a new propane heater called a Propane Buddy with an adapter that allows it to be connected to a large propane cylinder. It is designed to heat 200 square feet and cost me $129 Canadian. I can’t wait to give it a whirl! I am hoping it is very effective. While I don’t intend to use propane as a permanent solution, I am hoping that it is an adequate temporary fix until I move forward with wood. I mean, look at all those dead sticks that I can burn off and thus keep the land looking tidy!
Tiny House Ontario 