Olek the bibliophile

They say pets take on the characteristics of their owners. Olek here is my daughter Natalia's kitten. Natalia loves to read. So true to form Olek is also a lover of books

Crochet, my private meditation

I am always on the lookout for little things to add a touch of warmth to my home. I think you can have a beautiful house with all the very best furniture but if you leave it at that, there's no heart or soul. I think it may be this feeling that has led to me crochet

. I used to look at crochet table cloths in brochures and marvel at their simplicity and beauty. I never imagined that I would be able to do such work myself.

A friend of the family gave me a lesson and it just opened the floodgates. I picked it up very quickly. I guess I wanted to learn so much that it was something for which I only needed a little urging and I was on my way.Now I dabble in all kinds of patterns. Unexpectedly my new hobby came with unexpected benefits. I realized very quickly that when I crochet I forget all of my troubles and I'm completely immersed in the work. Crochet I learned is my private meditation. When I crochet I don't think of anything heavy, I just am and some time later I feel lighter. I would reccomend to anyone as a creative outlet but also as a form of meditation.

Scary monsters super freaks

There is lots of talent to be seen in those close to me. My daughter, Natalia, and Son, Igor, and his girlfriend Elizabeth created some spectacular gargoyle heads out of paper mache for their school project.

Take a look at these fearsome faces and try to tell me you're not a little bit scared.

Paper mache over burlap base to create an almost stone like effect. Really wonderful.

A forest scene from Jastrzebie Zdroj

I worked on a pastel painting based on an old photograph I have of the forest region outside the town of Jastrzebie Zdroj this weekend.


Jastrzebie Zdroj is a place in Poland and this particular scene of forest near a small lake took me away from my other concerns. I love to work in soft pastel. The mix of colors that you can achieve is really interesting and the medium is flexible to work with. There is also the feeling of being a child again and using crayons.The colors going everywhere, my clothes and hands.Working outside in close to the group of trees that line my garden was an altogether beautiful milieu for my escapist endeavor.

The painting shows a trees reflected off the lake. In the background there is an abandoned house. In the foreground you can see old jetty that projects out into the water.

Here our my tools, my crayon set if you will.

Pests invade my trees

I was devastated to find Nun moth larvae on my trees. In Europe these pests cause damage on a terrible scale. I made a bee line for the stores to buy some pesticide but I feel it will not be strong enough to be effective. I don't want to lose my trees. It makes me sad to seem them being reduced to nothing.

Our visit to the Museum of Civilization

Last week we visited the Museum of Civilization in Ottawa in Gatineau. It is the most visited museum in Canada and with good reason.


From the initial organic design of the building by renown architect Douglas Cardinal it was a place to behold.

Inside the museum dedicated to human history captured amazing scenes from Canada's early history, including an entire hall dedicated to indigenous art that showed some beautiful recreations of  totems from Pacific North West tribes

Here are our images of that time.

These next images were of a room that replicated sunrise to sunset right down to all the varieties of colors of lights in the sky in old early settlement cabin. A day that you could see take shape in front of you in a matter of minutes, so ingenious.

The Canadian Tulip Festival

Last Sunday we made the 2 hour drive to Ottawa to our nation's capitol to see the Canadian Tulip festival, the world's largest Tulip festival.

Unfortunately the festival which lasts almost 3 weeks was in its waning stages so it was not all that we imagined it would be. However, the day was beautiful and we also took the opportunity to visit the Museum of Civilization, an amazing display I must say.

Although we missed the height of the festival we did some lovely displays of flowers. The story behind the festival is something remarkable too. It commemorates a remarkable act of friendship with the Dutch royal family. During the last years of World War II Canada had given shelter to Princess Julianna and her daughters. The princess pregnant at the time gave birth to her daughter, the princess Margaret during her time in Canada. This presented a dilemma since royal family members must be born in their homeland to preserve their royal status. Canada declared the hospital a temporary part of international territory thus allowing the newborn princess to skirt the rule. In appreciation for this act of generosity the Dutch government sent a gift of 100, 000 tulip bulbs. The Canadian Tulip Festival was born out of that pact, debuting in 1953 and continuing in full strength to this day.