Category: Wellness

Woman’s march and Maud

Art, Canada, Halifax, Hand crafted, History, Knitting, Life lessons, Museums, Poetry, Wellness

I had a large day today.  Woman’s march in Halifax and I visited The Art Gallery of NS.  I’ve always admired Maud Lewis and it was a perfect day to learn a little more about her art and life.  

The Halifax rally was a great experience with amazing speakers like El Jones and Rebecca Thomas. Both accomplished poets with inspiring words that brought me to tears.  

After the rally I took a tour through the gallery…

I remember this house when I was a child driving through Marshaltown, NS.  I’ve always been fascinated by her life.  So simple a life but she made such an impact.  She shone through her work.  I have prints of her work around but seeing it in person you can see the true colour and brightness.  Her voice is evident, she painted her grim world beautiful.  She makes me feel we all have that ability to create hope and spread it around.  My own attempts at formal “Art” has helped me learn the amount of energy that can go into something creative.  You can feel it when you see it, the energy remains forever in that piece.  Even when I create a knitted piece I feel the energy in it.  

I stopped by Argyle Fine Art also and the PreShrunk show is happening.  These little felted pieces caught my eye.

Love these crows…

I actually stepped aside to avoid falling into this well…haha…so real…

Puzzle Pieces

Art, Hand crafted, Knitting, Quilts, Wellness

Making a quilt is like putting together a puzzle, there’s a lot of math involved.  I received these quilt squares as a gift and now I’m piecing them together.  

After a few hiccups with my machines tension, I found the balance and machine sewed the pieces together.  I worked until I ran out of thread.  My plan is to hand quilt once the top is finished.  Wish me luck!  

Watercolour practice 

Art, Knitting, Wellness

It’s cold outside so I stayed in and practiced my painting.  I used Sandra Gulland’s original (an author and artist) as inspiration.  To see the original go here http://www.sandragulland.com/ or check out her on Twitter or Instagram.  She inspired me to produce this version:


I’m always more impressed by my original sketch than the finished watercolour, but that’s the challenge.  The hard part is mixing colours and picking brushes to get the right effect.  I love the subject! Chickens are one of my favourite creatures.  So simple in their ways, yet beautiful.  We had a backyard coop a few years ago and I could sit and watch them go about their chicken business happily all day long.  Especially in the spring/summer when I had offerings from our garden to impress them.  Curious creatures.  

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

Books, History, Knitting, Wellness, Wolfville

I’ve read similarly themed books about the perspective of a mentally ill peraon.  This was a bit different, I think to the average reader without knowledge of mental illness it may not resonate with them.  She wrote from the perspective of a woman who was suffering, with clinical “lack of insight” into her own illness.  Which is interesting because it’s part autobiographical.  So when it was written was she suffering from lack of insight or had she gained enough to write the story clearly from a perspective of wellness?   Very intriguing.

The Party Wall by Catherine Leroux and Lazer Lederhendler

Books, Knitting, Wellness

This story is about siblings who are connected in odd ways.  Very odd ways.  Some I can imagine others not so much.  Someone having two sets of DNA is fascinating and I guess there is a known case in the world.  This book shocked me and made me think about our societies view on relationships.  What’s taboo or what society should keep their nose out of.  What’s private, what’s public.  We live in a pretty public time.  Where everything that happens is immediately shared with the world.  How do you escape?  How do you hide a secret?  

I’d have to re-read this book to connect all the stories, it’s complicated to pick that up as you go along.  I would recommend this book, it isn’t whitewashed, so be prepared.  

Floating Staircase by Ronald Malfi

Books, Ghosts, Knitting, Wellness

I couldn’t put this one down.  The main character is an author who moves with his wife to the USA to buy their first house and live closer to family.  The house holds secrets and the lake behind the house has something to do with the mystery.  I highlighted a few entries in this book as I read.  That’s always a good sign I’m impressed with the writing.  I was intrigued by this passage…

It has been said that nature does not know extinction– that once you’ve existed, all parts of you, whether they’ve dispersed or remained together, will always be.  Thick dust may hide the relics of human history, but if cannot erase the memory.

The author had all my favourite elements, haunted houses, the obsessive hunt for truth, and many plot twists.  Always making you think.  A theme I was caught up on was –how far is too far to go to find the truth–.  

The one scene I keep with me is the scene with the elderly dying woman.  It was well written, I’ve dealt with many dying patients and it was true to life.  Her resolve resonated with me.  I could feel her character jump from the page.  

I couldn’t have predicted the ending but I had hope.