The sun sets sail....

My ex-husband pointed me in the direction of a fascinating artist: Rob Gonsalves. Apparently he illustrates books for children. He's new to me.

What wonderful pictures!

My home and native land

To my friends of all nationalities....

HAPPY CANADA DAY!

Canada became a country on July 1, 1867.

Alexander the Great

On one of my mailing lists someone quoted the following about a tennis player: "...Mark Philippousis from Aussie land, who's awarded a `Fully Flexible Ass'. Guardian - `had an `Alexander the Great' tattoo etched on his right arm, because Alexander was a conqueror. Mark only found out later that his hero was also gay!'

Made me think of Lex. But Lex, of course, would know all about Alexander beforehand... and would still get the tattoo.

Crazy quilt....

I've been quilting this morning.

I was working on my story, but my friends (including Yolande from Montreal) came down for coffee and breakfast and talked about life, slash, and the universe. The birds enjoyed the company and got very lively, except of course Wisdom and the little one, who were totally quiet.

maboroshimaki is working on a Crazy Quilt and we were all impressed by her work. Impressed enough that I ran down to to the basement and dug a box of old fabric out of my locker - you know, all that stuff I've been meaning to do crafts with for years, but haven't touched? Patti gave me a lesson in how it's done, and I cut out dozens of little pieces and seven backing squares to work on at Sandi and Pat's campsite this afternoon, as a sort of private Canada Day project. Beulah was talking yesterday about bringing some quilting to the campsite too. Suddenly quilting is contagious!

I don't think Harry will be doing any quilting.

My quilt colours are a beautiful combination of eggshell-white, deep navy blue, and rust, in several patterns.

I discovered, deep in the box, the quilt cutting board and cutter that I'd bought long ago, when there was a seductive quilt shop just a few blocks from home. That was a lovely place: had some exquisite patterns and fabrics. Long gone now. The piece-cutter is handy, but my goodness it's sharp. I barely touched it to my hand and now I'm wearing a Harry Potter band-aid that is still leaking blood. I stopped cutting pieces when I saw it put a bloodstain on my fabric.

Okay, back to my story, and another kind of bloodstain: I'm just in the middle of rewriting a violent scene.

Oh that Legolas smile...

I enjoyed the new picture today by the so-talented Theban Band. It's the Legolas smile that gets me.

My goodness, I've been seeing a lot of Orlando Bloom lately, including some new publicity photos that maboroshimaki was showing me, again with a lovely Bloom smile. Not to mention a sweet one of Bloom and Depp where their hands seem to be all over each other, like that famous one of Welling and Rosenbaum being friendly at a party. I love it when co-stars are friendly.

Highlights of a wonderful Canada Day....

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The fireworks on Parliament Hill. From my friend Marcelle's apartment balcony, you can see it all. We stood out there and stared and oohed and aahed and gasped. It seemed to be an unusually wonderful collection of fireworks this year: it started out mostly read and white colours (so Canadian!) and then we got a lot of purples, then reds and greens, yellows and ambers.... I liked the purple ones best. ( Read more... )

There was a type of pyrotechnics I've never seen before: fireworks that came out as a circle within a circle, each circle a different colour. Another set was different circles but instead of being one inside another, they were interlocked, like a chain made of colours, or atoms.

* * *

A Canada Day barbecue at Pat and Sandi's campsite out near Greely. We call it a campsite, but really it's a trailer with rooms built on in a permanent site, with a patio and gardens and trees all around - quite beautiful. There were no mosquitoes.

I sewed a quilt square and got my friend Harry to tell me about social history of the Jews in Ancient Egypt for the Smallville slash AU I am working on - I know Egyptian history quite well, but not the history of Jews in Egypt. It was very interesting, and I was glad to know that a great deal of my interpretations were correct, though there were a few details I hadn't known about.

We also talked about birds, and saw two blue-jays, a waxwing, several morning doves and a barn swallow at their bird feeder. Harry and I argued over the relative position of Minas Tirith and Osgiliath and he produced a map - I love having friends who walk around carrying maps of Middle-Earth at summer barbecues for no reason. He showed everyone the MTV special that's the easter egg on the DVD of "The Return of the King" on his laptop. This, at a picnic in the middle of nowhere. I love technology.

We had a wonderful barbecue with plenty of food. I brought a green salad and cole slaw; both were much enjoyed by all, but the green salad got particular comments. I was afraid no one would like it because the ingredients were a little odd: there was a small quantity of lettuce, carrots and broccoli, normal salad ingredients in my experience, but most of it was cilantro, parsley, fresh rosemary, kale, and neem. Harry asked about the neem, which was unfamiliar to him. It was really nice in the salad.

It was a beautiful day, except for the downpour while we were eating. Pat and Sandi have a portable gazebo-like roof which they promptly put over us. So civilized! We went indoors for dessert.

* * *

I went for a walk with Hildegarde and asked her about a lovely aromatic tree that I pass on the way to work, that flowered last week. She said she thought it might be mock orange. I'd never heard of mock orange. I later described it to Beulah and asked her what she thought it was; she also guessed mock orange. On the way home, I noticed an identical flowering bush a few blocks south of my apartment, and Beulah confirmed it was mock orange. I'd never noticed it in that particular garden.

Then I read the dodecal on svdodecals by acampbell in which she mentioned mock orange. Oh, I love synchronicity. Mock orange is now firmly implanted in my brain - along with its lovely aroma.

* * *

The little bird peeps so sweetly. He's the first thing I hear in the morning (before the older birds have wakened up enough to create a racket) and sometimes, when the apartment is quiet, I can hear him peeping softly as if talking to himself. When I go to bed at night, his peeping is the lats thing I hear.

* * *

I did a tarot reading for Beulah. I wonder why I enjoy doing readings so much. Sometimes they just flow, like reading sequential narrative, like a comic book. This one was like that. Perfectly coherent from the first glance.

* * *

I really am extremely fond of my friends. All of them.

* * *