crooked house

Winged Key

I think I'll make one of these winged keys and then leave it in the backyard for the kids to discover on the first spring-like day.

Giant Swing Installation

Check out these photos of artist Ann Hamilton's gigantic swing installation at the Park Avenue Armory in New York. If I lived in New York I would so be there right now. That looks like one weird and wonderful way to relieve stress. There are a whole bunch of big swings hanging from the roof in this place, as well as that giant billowing curtain you see there. As the swings move, they make the curtain move. Apparently there are also radios wrapped up in paper bags strewn around. When you pick them up and listen, you can hear people reading.

I want a job making things like this.

 

The Words You Speak

The words you speak become the house you live in. Hafiz. Love those Persian mystics.

A Crooked House in Harbourville, Nova Scotia

We spent the weekend on the other side of the province. One of our stops was a tiny village on the Bay of Fundy called Harbourville, pop. 100 , where we happened upon this crooked house, which you can rent for a vacation stay. We were going to eat at the Schnitzelhaus but it was closed the evening we were there.

Harbourville is really gorgeous and it's difficult to do the place justice in photos. It's the kind of place where you have to stand and slowly turn round in a circle in order to take it all in. And then you walk a little way and stop and do the spin again.

We arrived at low ride, which is why those two boats are sitting way down there on the ground. Just six hours later they would be floating above the water mark, as the Bay of Fundy has the highest tides in the world. We will definitely go back for to stay for a night or two, so we can explore the beaches, caves, and cliffs more fully and witness the dramatic change in the water level firsthand.

Luke and the Beanstalk

Luke's bean plant, the source of much tribulation the last term of school, during which everyone else's bean plant sprouted and his did not, is now blooming and growing leetle tiny beans! Oh jubilation! (This is, in fact,the second bean he planted. The first never did grow, presumably as the result of much anxious over-watering.)

I know this sounds crazy, but I do believe those leetle tiny beans appeared overnight. Now I understand why it was Jack and the beanstalk and not, say, Jack and some other stalkish vegetable.

Secret Heart Garden

A hot-air balloonist in England recently discovered this meadow in the shape of a heart tucked away inside a stand of thousands of oak trees.  Turns out it was made, secretly, by farmer Winston Howes,  in memory of his wife Janet, who died of heart failure at age 50, in 1995. From The Daily Mail:

Mr Howes, 70, said yesterday: ‘I came up with the idea of creating a heart in the clearing of the field after Janet died.

‘I thought it was a great idea – it was a flash of inspiration – and I planted several thousand oak trees. Once it was completed we put a seat in the field, overlooking the hill near where she used to live.

‘I sometimes go down there, just to sit and think about things. It is a lovely and lasting tribute to her which will be here for years.’

He created the wood next to his farmhouse in the months after her death, marking out the massive heart shape with a large hedge.

The entrance to the secret heart is accessible only from a track leading up to its tip.

Mr Howes added: ‘We got people in especially to do it – there are several thousand trees.

‘We planted large oak trees around the edge of the heart then decided to put a hedge around it too. The heart points towards Wotton Hill, where Janet is from. We plant daffodils in the middle that come up in the spring – it looks great. I go out there from time to time and sit in the seat I created.’

Janet and Winston Howes.

Shadows of Shadows

Me, with my shadow. And my other shadow, and her shadow.

Vivi's Tea Party Pictures

(By the way, we bought these personalized invitations from Lisa Kay on Etsy. I love how Sylvie's face appears on the little flower in the corner of the invitation and on a set of stickers we used on the favours and on her thank y0u notes.)

Lillet and Grapefruit Juice and Rose Birthday Cake

My new favourite treat. Lillet and pink grapefruit juice on ice, accompanied by a slice of leftover rose birthday cake. Spent the afternoon painting a bookcase grey and two old seatless chairs, one in bright red, the other in turquoise, in preparation for a project similar to this one. I can barely type now but I can certainly shovel that cake into my mouth. And the drink has disappeared in the time it's taken to type this. Perhaps I should have another one...

Drink the Wild Air

Ralph Waldo Emerson, found on Lauren Cerand's How I'll Spend My Summer pinterest board. (It's way more fun to plan how you'll spend your summer than to recap it once you're back "in school.")