Friday, December 31, 2010

The Kids Are All Right


We got together with Martina's daughter and her friend to colour her friends hair at my daughter's place. Did ya get that? A lovely afternoon...gotta get hair did and nails did for New's Year Eve!






It's difficult to see the very bright vibrant finished colour of Alix's hair, but it really came out fantastic.

Prince Bits!

At The Lake


We went for a very brisk cold walk by the lake a few days ago to visit Tuffy P and Mister Anchovy. We hadn't seen their new place yet...and we spent about an hour and half down by the water with the doggie girls.



Memphis and Mister Anchovy.


The Zamboni! You might say an iconic Canadian vehicle. Stagg noted that if this was in the States the Zamboni would be covered with proiduct placement and logos for beer and cars etc.


The dog run.


What a sight, Stagg walking a dog! mGood practice for when we get "Foxybaby".

Monday, December 27, 2010

My Folk





Mister Anchovy, Stagg and Memphis.

Trick and Tiff.


The young gentlemen, Eli, Zac and Isaiah.




The young ladies, Alix and Eartha.


Baby it's cold outside. Martina and Dave.


Dave and Beth.

Donald knit everyone skull caps for gifts.

Trick and Tiff.

Mister Anchovy's Miss Ellie May.


Prudence the puppy.

Amazing cheese that Jill had bought in Europe and New York.

There are Adam and Ali with Stagg who came to visit in Chicago in November.

Sunday, December 26, 2010

Power Animals

From an interview with poet M. S Merwyn in the Buddhist magazine "tricycle"


The paintings in the Paleolithic caves? Those aren't art; they weren't there for an audience. Except the great halls, which were initiation places. But the tiny figures that were 25 feet up inside a cleft where nobody could ever see them, an animal that someone built in there? Those animals are part of the person who put them there, and that person came down knowing something, and this is the ultimate vision quest. And it didnt even begin with Cro-magnon man. We found five years ago in Southwest France a place quite near Lascaux with a history of it's own that has never been published because the scientist who discovered them- the government of France would not let him go on with his excavations. So he said "ok well I won' t publish my findings, then." And he hasn't. He's kept them going for years, and I talk to him on the telephone. What he found sixty feet down was a burial. It was not Cro-magnon. It was Neanderthal. It was probably, he thinks, 19,000 years older than Lascaux. (It) was a Neanderthal skeleton and beside it the skeleton of a bear. And the bear's legs and the mans legs were exchanged so that the man had bears legs and the bear had mans legs. And they were surrounded by fossil pollen. It was a ritual burial. That's a great scoop, and it hasn't even been published yet. But the reason i'm telling you this, is that this is already saying that the link between the imagination-which to me is the great pinnacle of humanity, the imagination that makes the arts and makes compassion- is in our species and goes way back. And it's never been separate. And when you get any aspect of the culture that tries to separate it, it's destructive and suicidal.

Take them away, names like Buddhism. I'm impatient with them. There's something beyond all that, beneath all that, they all share, they all come from. They are branches from a single root. And that's what one has to pay attention to. And of course the words in The Diamond Sutra that grabbed me were, when Tathagata (the Buddha) says, "boddi, does the Tathagata have a teaching to teach?" And Bodhisattva says," no, lord, Tathagata has no teaching to teach." At that point I got chills right down my spine.

And Tathagata says, " because there is no teaching to teach, it is the teaching." I thought this is it, you know. Here we go. I think that goes as far back as shamanism. I mean, what did those guys find up in those clefts? In the caves? There was no teaching to teach. They knew something, but they knew it from then on. And it was something distinct, and it was something to do with connection, with following, with what came before and after, and they couldn't express it in any other terms. But they were obviously guides to their people after that. Because you know, the animals that they were depicting were not the animals. I mean, they may have eaten a few of them. But that was not what it was about. It was about following, it was about the fact that these were the elders. They knew where they were going. The humans did not know where they were going.

Friday, December 24, 2010

Getting Ready


Last night we chilled around the house after a hectic day of shopping for groceries and Scott had to build this table to fit 20. He did it! We ate here and tested out the benches he also made. We had chicken pastry and some wine and it was good and then we watched Two Mules For Sister Sara. I really enjoyed the cinematography because I could actually see iton their ginormous tv lol. I had never noticed before that the two mules were the one Shirley MacLaine is riding...and the other is the stubborn Clint Eastwood character. It's an especially charming movie because it is true to the stylistic vision of spagetti weesterns but it is messing with the rom com genre. It's like The African Queeen in mexico. I was also surprised to note with this viewing it was filmed entirely in Mexico.




Here is the table with a great big tablecloth, and set up for tonight. Not bad. And below is Scott, Jill and Stagg doing various errands to be ready for the party. Jill and Scott set up a shooter bar at the front door so that when you walk in you can share a shot of vodka, which I thought was a pretty fun idea....okay I am off to join up with everyone...Have a fantastic Festivus everyone!!!!! And have a happy happy holiday!!!!

Thursday, December 23, 2010

Borderlines



Somewhere north of the Detroit/Windsor border crossing. Stagg said he felt like he was inside a picture postcard looking out the window at these countrysides. We had a relatively uneventful trip up north as soon as we got going I felt all the cobwebs leave my head. We've spent the last couple of days getting some food and visiting with family and just enjoying not doing damn paperwork. A much needed holiday. Haven't seen Mister Anchovy and Tuffy P yet but they are heading over for a big Festivus meal tomorrow night. I understand he has made some perogi. Yum. And this afternoon Jill and I are shopping for groceries we expect 20 people, including one toddler and adding two large Newfie dogs. We've got a roast of some kind and I know I'll be making potato au gratin, and I picked up soem Gruyere yesterday in Kensington Market. Stagg and I walked around Kensington but it was freaking cold and I was looking for celery seeds and so didn't stop to take pictures. We are down the street from the Market so pictures will follow I am sure. It is so crazy good to just hang out and laugh with people. More later...
generated by sloganizer.net