The Fleeting Shadow of Things

October brings yellow and orange and red leaves and fowl to eat. This weekend I also happened to see a film by the National Film Board titled The Fleeting Shadow of Things, Collage 8, Fragments of a Chronicle. It was deeply moving to see scenes of Montreal and winter from our new home in Calgary. The world is too big to embrace in one sweep. So as the author tried to embrace time lost we did the same with place....

"Jacques Giraldeau's The Fleeting Shadow of Things invites us on a journey, a variation on carefully crafted memories tracing a remarkable bridge between "once" and "from now on." It is a delicate work of filmic art, unfolding in a mosaic of keepsakes and images gathered in the course of a lifetime. In it, we follow the enigmatic Évariste Quesnel from Cuba to Île-aux-Grues, but he eludes us, leaving only the footprint of where he has been - an invitation to meditate on and learn to read those places. Criss-crossing these fragments of yesterday and today, now abandoned to memory - diary, film, painting, letter, questioning our relationship with these shadows, the filmmaker posits art as the archives of real life, a place where the crumbling of time is, somehow, stopped."-

One Liners (from Jenna and James' fridge)

• Get a life. You get what you put in
• Never cut down on fashion
• Live by the sea
• Look after your health and each other
• Pay with cash
• Value human power and don't use unnecessary things
• Practice yoga or tai chi and never forget about love
• Go out for dinner with friends, look good and take care of yourself
• Cut back on luxury items, eat at home
• Always be original
• Eat less
• Stay inspired in life and in everything you do
• Buy timeless things that you really need
• Go vegetarian
• Money is overrated
• Hang in there
• Nothing is ever too late if you want it to happen
• Money can't buy love
• Dance to wicked tunes: it's free
• Keep your eyes on the prize
• You are what you eat
• Work hard at being good at whatever opportunities you get
• Let the right one in
• Be grateful for everything you have
• Fix up, look sharp!

New shapes for October

And now for something completely different I have stopped working!

New Fork in the Road and a new October just starting. I have been unemployed since September 1st and I have filled my days with new patterns, trying to stretch to new possibilities. Made some commitments to have some schedule and don't go off the bend. Can't trust myself with not going too weird.

My days now are my project within the constraints of gravity and temporal circumstances.

I feel stronger than ever, and by virtue of the time lapsed working (a whooping 8 + years) I have been sent backwards to reacquaint myself to much of what I was before.

Have met interesting new people. Some at the Tea Sommelier Courses some at Tai Chi. Have also been able to see some friends that came to visit from out of town. Work would have got in the way.

Today I took a picture of a house being built that reminded me of what we try to do in permaculture to channel water. Problem is this roof seems to me is channeling it towards the side of the house not away from it as it is usual. Further to this since there WILL be another house within the minimum allowed by zoning soon after, all the precipitation would end up falling, it seems according to this inverted design, between the two houses....could I go through with my Gondola? will keep posting and enquire....as it seems I have a lot to learn as you can see the first picture was me because I was holding my new iPhone the wrong way to take the shot!

Day 1 - fresh "not local" olives

Day one of this blog and finding a category was not simple! The offerings were not even remotely close.....Local? nada. Only L category was....LOANS

Simple living? Food Politics? Sustainability? Urban anything???

Times are changing and categories are not what they used to.

SOMEBODY UPDATE THOSE CATEGORIES!!!

thank you,

A little while ago I was watching on the computer screen a house in a small town thousands of kilometers away where my best friend from school and her husband live. We had a lovely visit (videoconference) with lots of jokes and laughter. The optic cables that united us made the miracle possible. I have not seen them since they were children not even in Highschool. And to see them now as very mature adults....

Behind them the paintings done by my friend's father that were so long ago on the walls of her house. The house no longer exists. They don't even live in Buenos Aires anymore. They moved almost three decades ago to the small town in Patagonia that I was reaching.

There used to be a very old fig tree in the Buenos Aires house. My friend and I would sit under it in the summer eating green ripe figs sweet and moist and so flavourful....

Today I found a case of fresh olives. I had not idea how to use them but I thought it was a special find and bought it. I have the treasure and found a recipe on The New York Times I am going to try to make. Check it out:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/17/dining/172orex.html?_r=1&ref=dining

We are at the door of winter here.

Serious winter business in Canada which moulds our personality with its life and death level. More like freezing death level. Eating locally was possible before globalization through the labours of cold storage and canning and later on even freezing. Like the categories changing I am searching for new ways or old ways actually. I remember the old ways. How to get back there?

Where are the old skills?

We are getting together with friends after the frenzy of summer to reminisce and take stock. To share experiences. Our little summary pow wows.

Our community garden is growing. Winter work to plan and organise two other gardens.

The freezer has our garden zucchini and loads of local saskatoon berries that we picked at a farm not far from here. Also in the freezer the paste from crabapples left after juicing them to attempt to make hard cider. With the crabapple paste we made scones, doughnuts that we ate warm with icecream and with whole crabapples I made a cereal topping by boiling them in cherry juice and adding a cinnamon stick and canning them.

This was the biggest effort towards producing my own storage for the winter.