Sick

Tuesday night, I had a sore throat and thought, oh!oh!, I'm getting a cold. Wednesday woke up to fever, chills, aches in parts of my body that I didn't even know I had, coughing, headache, total loss of appetite along with loss of taste, the thought of food made me nauseous, and extreme weakness and fatique. My leg muscles were so weak on Wednesday night, I was having trouble walking. One thing I didn't have was a runny, stuffed up nose.

Obviously, not a cold. Obviously a flu bug. Influenza is relatively
uncommon in the summer months, except for the new kid on the block, H1N1 (Swine flu) which seems to be having a party. Do I have swine flu?

Unless you are showing signs of extreme severity, i.e. shortness of breath, chest pains, ERs and doctors don't want you going to see them - they suggest lots of liquids, lots of rest and let it run it's course. In some cases they will prescribe an antiviral (tamiflu) to help the symptoms. Canada, like so many other countries, is no longer tracking the mild/moderate cases of swine flu. They are only testing those that end up in the ER and hospitals.

Whatever it is I have, I felt absolutely rotten for two days and spent most of Wednesday and yesterday in bed. I'm slowly starting to feel better today, had a shower - and felt even better
.....did I mention that you sweat like crazy with this thing? Still feel very weak and fatiqued, but I think my fever is finally gone and my throat doesn't feel sore anymore. The cough? It's a dry niggling one and still here, but not as frequent.

I've not been able to follow everyone's blogs the way I so enjoy and I'm looking forward to catching up over the weekend!

Take your vitamens and get the proper sleep everyone (something I was NOT doing). This bug is nasty.

Wonderland Interlude

Oh boy! This will be so good!

Just Down the Road...

....from our house is this storm drain reservoir area. This stretch of road used to be all farmers' fields, however over the last couple of years, a couple of subdivisions have gone in (yuck). Since a storm drain area was needed, the town planners decided to appropriate quite a large parcel of land, so that once you are walking here, amidst the natural foliage, you can almost forget that suburbia has encroached on this little corner of my world. The sounds of bullfrogs that shelter amongst the bullrushes, the
calls of a large variety of birds, and the rustle of leaves and plants in the breeze is perfect when I want to get away from it all for
a short time - but not travel very far. This natural (and man-made) oasis is within walking distance.

Once home, sitting on the front porch this evening, we had a visitor. Cute as can be.

Things are kind of crazy at the moment and I feel like I have ignored my blog. Today I decided I was going to take a break and just BREATHE, and I'm so glad I did!

A Lovely Award

Bella Sinclair Award

My friend Cindy of Oops! Desperate Blogger honoured me by presenting me with this wonderful award. I am truly touched that she has thought of me as a recipient.

This award was created by Ces in honour of her friend Bella Sinclair. The post on Ces's blog regarding Bella and the history behind the award is here. Please visit Ces's blog to read the background as it is quite interesting. In Ces's own words, a short synopsis of the award:

"I designed this award to celebrate art in the blogs and to honor the value of friendship, sisterhood, sharing and caring. It is to be awarded to the gifted, accomplished, eloquent and talented blogger whose friendship and influence inspire us to do our best. That I named it after Bella Sinclair is because she epitomizes all of these things. She is an inspiration to many of us."

Ces also says:

"I hope that when Bella returns, this award would have already circulated in the blogs. It is my honor to give this award to the first recipients who I hope will find the same pleasure as I have in spreading its crown, giving shade and the comfort of friendship and caring and of sisterhood by sharing this award with their blog-friends and sisters!"

In the spirit of this award, I am to now pass it on to bloggers that I admire for their creativity, friendship and fellowship. This is a tough choice as I have made so many friends since I began blogging. In no particular order and for no particular reason, other than I think they are all great, I would like this award to go to:

Linda of Nun of a Kind

Julie of When the Spirit Moves Me

Michelle of 3rd Eye Muse

Pattee of Odd-Dolls

Kim of Sea Gypsy Studio

Once again, I would like to thank Cindy for this award and Ces for creating it.

Evocative

Contessa di Castiglione 1863

I've recently started work on a rather large (and time consuming project) which has limited my computer time abit. Was just taking a break and looking through one of my vintage pic files and some of the images I have collected over the years can only be described as evocative. The one of the Contessa above is my favorite. Here are several more for your viewing pleasure:

lovebirds?

Rapt and wary

just strange

The world on his shoulders

dogamatrix

Mr. Haydon, mid 1850s.....What is his story?

*** July 4th ***

To all my American friends, I wish you a

Happy and Safe

4th of July Holiday!

That One Piece

I love to sculpt and create little people figures and I usually fall in love with them as I am working on them. After they are completed though, I have no desire to keep them. Cold? Maybe, but I would rather send them out in the world, either by gifting or selling then to have them hanging around my house/studio.

Over the years, I have had two pieces that have 'spoken' to me, and one piece that I will never part with. That piece is my "Woman's Work Is Never Done" (shown above). I started this piece, as I always do by sculpting the head. It was to be a small child. I then received a call from Vancouver, that my 68 year old mother had passed away suddenly. This was in 1998. When I returned home from the funeral two weeks later, I didn't go into my studio for approx. a month. I also did not pick up the little head I had been working on for almost six months. I had no desire to.

One evening I picked it up, thought it needed some adjustments on the face and before I knew it, I had a kindly old woman looking at me. From there, this angel developed. I have no recollection really of working on it. It does not look like my mother, however there is such a tangible bond with this piece and my mom, that I know that I will never part with it.

I have only had this strong feeling of connection once before, when I did a piece called "Not Amused". The inspiration for the piece was my 4 year old daughter constantly teasing and annoying her 10 year old sister.

The little imp sticking out his tongue and the young lass, in no way resemble my girls, however it took me several years to let this piece leave my home. When it did, it went to a very dear friend of mine, and I can still visit it if I wish.

How do the rest of you feel about your work? Do you hold on to just a few special pieces? Do you want to keep the majority of them? I'm curious.

(I apologize for the above pics. They are old scanned images from my files)

Canada Day!!

Canada Day - Montreal 1987

Canada Day, commonly called "Canada's Birthday", is always celebrated on July 1st, unless it falls on a Sunday, in which case July 2 is the official holiday. This day celebrates the joining of the British North American colonies of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick with the Provinces of Canada - Ontario and Quebec, into one federation on July 1st, 1867. It was originally called Dominion Day and officially changed in 1982 to Canada Day.

Small Town Dominion Day parade 1908

So, today is Canada Day - time for parades, picnics and fireworks, a fun day to celebrate everything that is great about Canada

*our freedom

*multiculturalism

*vast, varied and beautiful landscape

*quality of living

*healthcare

*peace-loving

*recognize diversity of lifestyles

*Tim Horton's coffee :)

*and so much more......

I wish everyone in this fabulous country of ours a safe and joy filled Day