Looking for something to read this summer?

I recommend you head on down to your local bookstore (or click on over to your favourite online bookseller) and pick up a copy of INK by Amanda Sun.

Not only is Amanda a good friend of mine from back home in Deep River, she is a great up and coming Young Adult Fiction Author.

The story is about Katie who moves to Japan to live with her aunt after her mom dies.  As a first-timer in Japan, Katie needs to adjust to a lot--new language, alphabet, culture, food--not to mention life without her mom.  In the middle of her adjusting, Katie befriends Tomohiro a  boy with a mysterious secret.  Katie feels like an outsider in her new country and Tomo is an outsider because the things that he draws have a tendency of coming to life and trying to hurt people.  The powers that Tomo finds himself with are due to his connection to the kami, the ancient rulers of Japan.  Katie's presence in Tomo's life and their developing relationship has made his ink drawings more difficult to control.  Tomo and Katie must work together to prevent an already difficult situation from getting even worse.

INK is Amanda's first novel and it is also the first in the Paper Gods series.  There is also a prequel called SHADOW that was published as an ebook on most platforms.

When INK was first released, Amanda asked people to take pictures of her book in the wild.  Here are some:

SHADOW ebook in my iBooks bookshelf

INK in the Coles at Bayshore Shopping Centre in Ottawa

Some reading and knitting on a summer's day

My niece playing with Jenga blocks and INK (it doesn't get much more wild than that ;-)

Every once in a while I come across an image in a book that stays with me or that makes me think differently about something.  This can be for better or for worse (Mordecai Richler, I'm looking at you and your description of orange juice drying and sticking on Duddy Kravitz's feet...).  In INK, Amanda describes the sour sound of rain hitting an aluminum roof.  I have never thought of that sound as being sour before but it totally is! 

 Some other things I will take away from reading Ink:

1.  Tomo puts the hero in Tomohiro! 

2.  I want to try Japanese curry...like really a lot.

3.  I want to see the cherry blossoms some day.

4.  I got in the habit of looking up the Japanse words in the glossary at the end...that brought me back to my French class dictionary days...

5. My only regret is that the next book in the series, RAIN, is not out yet...

If you're looking for a great summer book or wanting to do some couch (lawn chair, or beach towel) travelling this summer I think you should check out INK!

If you're wondering what that green bit of knitting became:

...a Milo Vest! 

Milo is a cute pattern written by Georgie Hallam.  It ranges in size from newborn to 6 yrs.  I figured that this little number would be perfect to knit for the many, many babies coming into my life this year (seriously, nearly everyone I know is expecting and if they're not expecting, they have just given birth!).  

I knitted this lovely in Berroco Vintage DK, an easy-care wool-acrylic-nylon blend (colour: #2175).  I used a US 5 needle for the yoke and hem and a US 6 needle for the body.  The cable pattern is called Aran Braid and is one of many different options included in the pattern.

Ad Hoc Gardening

Hello All!
I suppose it has been a while since I last blogged...oops!  This has happened to me before...

Since we last spoke, I had a nice Christmas with my family, hung out at home for a while, went back to teach at 2/3 time and have been in regular physio to get my body back into the habit of listening to my brain after my back surgery.  My back is still sore, it fatigues quickly and I can't lift or carry anything that weighs more than ten pounds.  It has improved drastically though and I am very thankful for the ability that I have re-gained and for how it is increasing all the time!

Because of my back, I was essentially banned from any heavy-duty gardening this year.  I was initially quite disappointed by this since the most I could do was pick dandelions from my front yard with a picker that was designed for people with arthritis and bad backs.  I can't even mow my own lawn!  Doing things like digging and carrying/spreading large amounts of weed-preventing mulch were out of the question.

This has lead to quite an ad hoc garden this year.

Some friends of mine gave me some of their surplus tomato and chives which I was able to get into the ground.  The birds and squirrels inadvertently planted some sunflower seeds over the winter.  Some perennial yellow daisy-like things came up.  There are white bell-like things growing where there's not even a garden.  Some stowaway purple things and day-lilies came through the fence from the neighbour's side.  I have a "wildflower" garden happening under the spruce trees in the back.  Until Canada Day weekend, I had a pretty good crop of milkweed growing in the front garden.

Some of my family came to visit over the long weekend and my brother Rory was inspired to make my gardens more reasonable.  He was excited to do some gardening on someone else's dime and it has made me so happy to put up that dime!  He pulled out the milkweed in the front and put in a pretty blue hydrangea to compliment the other plants in the front garden.  The hydrangeas were on sale so I got a second one to add to the random assortment in the side garden in the back yard

I was able to pull out the weeds that were growing between the actual plants in the side garden and plant some lettuce, carrots and beans.  They are a bit late on the scene, but I figured that they should produce something since the planting instructions encourage staggered planting throughout the summer to provide a continuous harvest.

The back garden remains a wildflower haven!

Here are some pics:

Window-well Sunflower

Sprouted Lettuce

Stowaway Purple Thing

Surplus Tomatoes

Wildflowers Under Spruce Trees

Yellow Perennials

Side Garden.  Foreground: Sunflowers, Yellows, White Things, Wildflower Garden

New Blue Hydrangeas 

I'm going to link up to the wonderful blog my friend MaryMary shares with her sister, Outside At Home.

Looking for something to watch?

Bird Feeder Update: Since we last spoke, I have seen four tiny birds eating from my feeder.  They are not feasting there just yet.  From what I have observed, they have been fly-by eating rather than flocking and feasting.  I have put black oil sunflower seeds in the feeder which is a favourite of many Ontario birds according to multiple websites.  Hopefully the feeding picks up as the weather gets cooler.

In the time I have been off work, I have gone through quite a few Netflix tv-series and some movies as well. I will list them now with brief reviews:

Bones: I watched this show years ago when it first started but I stopped during the writer's strike of '07-'08 when I also got very busy with teaching.  Netflix currently has Seasons 1-6 which is great for playing catch-up (Bones is now in Season 8 so I still have some watching to do).  I like Bones becasue of its mix of science with character development and humour.  If find the cases interesting and I love the emphasis on experiments to find the answer.

The Office UK: A very funny look at office life in Britain.  Of course, this was the inspiration for the Office US and it shares similar characteristics: documentary style, awkward boss, rediculously out of control colleague, engaged-receptionist/office-worker love triangle.  This show is much more awkward and inappropriate than its American counterpart.  I found it very funny, but my sense of humour does tend to veer into the realm of mean, British and inappropriate.  If this isn't your cup of tea, you should stick to the American version.

Sherlock:  There are only a few episodes of this great show available.  I understand that more are in the works.  It stars Arthur Dent...I mean Martin Freeman (who forms one third of
 the love triangle in the Office) as Dr. Watson and Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock and takes place in modern-day London.  I'm pretty sure this is the inspiration for the American series Elementary that takes place in NYC (also worth watching).  Like the Sherlock Holmes stories, each case is a complex puzzle that often involves interesting science and leaps of logic.

Lie To Me: This one ran for only three seasons.  I think it could have gone longer.  Tim Roth plays Cal Lightman, a behaviourist who specializes in detecting lies based on minute facial changes.  This is a case-by-case crime show that has good characters and lots of humour.  My favourite part was the relationship between Cal and his teenage daughter Emily.  Imagine having a dad who is a human lie detector!  As a side note, Monica Raymund (Ria Torez, naturally talented at lie detection) now stars in Chicago Fire on Global (here in Canada).

Better Off Ted: A sitcom that ran for two seasons.  Ted is an executive in charge of R & D for a multinational corporation.  The corporation has an evil soul but the people don't.  Because of the R & D component there is some science stuff in this show too--albeit much less plausible science than in Bones.  It's humour style is similar to Arrested Development and it even stars Portia De Rossi  as Ted's boss. There is also a sweet-ish love story in it and being a sucker for romantic comedies, it made the show even better for me.  It's certainly worth the watch!

Life: A cop is put in prison for triple murder of his best friend, his wife and their son.  After twelve years, when the case is re-opened, Charlie Crews is declared innocent and awarded a huge settlement package that includes re-joining the police force as a detective.  Between solving regular homicide cases, Charlie tries to work out who murdered that family and who set him up to take the fall.  Watching this show was like reading a very good book--I wanted to find out what happened but I didn't want it to end. The characters are solid and the Zen attitude that Charlie found in prison adds just enough quirkiness to be hilarious.

Running Wilde: This one didn't make it to one full season.  I watched it because it stars Will Arnett and I was feeling nostalgic for Arrested Development.  David Cross (aka Tobias Funke) also makes some appearances.  This show is narrated by a girl named Puddle whose mother, Emmy, is a really big hippie trying to protect an ancient culture in the jungle of Peru.  Arnett's character Steve is Emmy's high school sweetheart and she and Puddle end up living in the treehouse on his property so that Puddle can attend regular school.  This show has some funny moments and isn't a bad option if you're looking for a 20 minute episode to fill some time.

MI-5: A British spy show about the lives and loves of agents in Her Majesty's Security Service.  Since the show is British, the seasons are shorter but the episodes are slightly longer (50 minutes instead of 43 minutes).  I am currently partway through the second season.  I am enjoying this show immensely.  It features many things that one expects from spy shows: awesome spy music, neat spy gadgets and great walking-away-from-things-after-tense-moments scenes.  There are fewer walking-with-guns scenes in this show than in American cop/secret agency shows.  I find a this bit nice--I always just imagine how silly the actors must feel during all those walking-with-gun scenes.  This show explores the issues of living life as a spy with a consealed identity which is interesting to consider.  The lead character, Tom Quinn is played by Matthew MacFayden who also played Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy (!) in the newer rendition of Pride and Prejudice (need I say more?).

I think I'll leave the movies I've watched for another day.  I don't want you to think I'm long-winded or something.

Are there any Netflix shows you would recommend?

Sweet Streams,
Carla

PS: You may notice some lame-wad themes in my tv show habits...it is likely to become much lamer when I tell you the movies I have been watching...

PPS: All images have been pulled off the net, I was hoping that by adding them by url, a link to their sites of origin would be automatically was made.  I was wrong but now its supper time I am too hungry to bother re-tracing the internet steps and make proper links.  I do not intend to steal copyrighted information, and I do value and admire the work of the photographers who created these images.

BACK to the Blog

Good afternoon Blogosphere!
Since we last spoke, I have had some of the cartelage removed from my L5-S1 joint.  This means I'm slighltly lighter and am in much less pain than I was when we last spoke, although, the recovery has been slower than I thought it would be.

It has now been four weeks since my operation.  I have been encouraged to slowly increase my activity and I am just back from a walk to the Library, a distance of about 1 km from my house (making it a 2 km return trip, if you're counting).

I have been enjoying this unusually sunny November for all my walks.  It does the heart good to see the sun shining almost every day even though it doesn't shine for as long as it does in June!  Another November activity I have been enjoying is eating leftover Hallowe'en candy.  The neighbours said that 100 treats should be enough, so obviously, my mom (who was looking after me after the operation) had to buy at least 200 treats! Only 18 kids came to the house.  If you come into my kitchen you will notice the cannisters of candy. Some people make fun of me for this, saying that most people keep cannisters of flour or tea on their counters but I haven't had a guest under 15 yet who was upset by this ;-)

I have had a few outings since my surgery: the grocery store, Zellers, Walmart and a Sunday Church Meeting among them.  However, one of the nicest outings I have had was seeing The Once perform at the National Arts Centre.  Lesley and Annie gave me tickets for my birthday.

For those of you who don't know them, I suggest you find out about them!  They are a folk band from Newfoundland.  They play many instruments such as guitars, irish drums, banjos, bazookis, mandolins and are able to blend their voices in beautiful harmonies.  They mostly play traditional songs, but have some original compositions and some folked-up covers of bands like Queen and Leonard Cohen.

Well, I guess Leonard Cohenisn't actually a band but more of a Canadian icon and I also guess that his music can often be classified as folk already but I do know that you will agree with me that Mr. Cohen is one of those rare artists whose music sounds better when sung by others.  Don't get me wrong, his lyrics are pure poetry and magic but the strange gravelly chanting voice accompanied by wispy female ahhhs, ooos and word repetition just doesn't do it for me.

Anyway, I was talking about The Once....a very great band, you should check them out.  You can do that by clicking here.  They will be releasing a Christmas album very soon, you should buy it!

Since it has been so long, I have lots to share with you but I don't think it's in our best interest for me to write it all at once.  Here are some topics you can look forward to in the coming days:
--Knitting update (you know you're so interested!)
--Carla's Netflix Picks
--Cooking with a back injury
--Christmas Decorating!
--probably more stuff that I just can't think of right now

Before I sign off, here is a gratuitous First Snowfall Picture.  I love the first snowfall!  I walked through the a school yard today and noticed that the kids had made forts and houses by squishing the snow together with their feet to form walls that were no more than 30 cm high.  Really, they are outlines of forts or houses.  I remember those fondly!
Here is my snowfall picture:

This picture also shows off my bird feeder.  I hung it up yesterday.  The birds haven't found it yet but the squirrel spent most of yesterday morning sniffing the air and wishing he could climb the metal posts of my pergola thing.

And because goodbyes are so hard, I have one more thing for you before I sign off.  A video of The Once performing Sail Away to the Sea.  Check them out.

Ok, just The Once more...seriously...check them out...buy their records...request them on your radio stations...

Baked Grilled Cheese and Other News

So, this morning when I woke up (the first time at 5:00) I got thinking about a dilemma that I currently have.  I have a few jars of lovely home made tomato soup (kindly given to me by good friends who grow tomatoes and not weeds in their gardens).  I also have a great love of grilled cheese sandwiches.  Now for the dilemma: I cannot stand at the stove to cook grilled cheese sandwiches. So I got to thinking and I realized there must be a way to bake grilled cheese instead of frying it.  It turns out, as it often does, that internet people have already thought of this brilliant idea.  I'll let you do your own googling on this one, check out some of the comments on some of the sites--people are really into this!

I made my sandwich the usual grilled cheese way except I pre-heated my toaster oven to about 425F and popped it in.  I flipped the sandwich after about 5 minutes and about 5 minutes later it was done! The bread was golden brown and the cheese was perfectly melted with barely any standing on my part!  Of course, I accompanied this culinary delight with some of the aforementioned tomato soup.

This morning when I woke up (for the second time at 9:30) it was to the sound of the phone ringing.  On the other end of that phone call was a lady from the Civic Hospital here in Ottawa.  She was calling to let me know that I will be having back surgery on October 26th.  It is a day surgery and they will be moving some muscle and some nerve and cutting some bone to get to my disk and remove part of it (it is called a diskectomy).  I guess if a disk slips, it gets removed from play to teach it a lesson.  I have intentionally not googled this surgery but my neurosurgeon tells me that I will have a 6 to 8 week recovery period then I'll be able to resume normal activities.  The irony is, the recovery period involves pretty much the same sort of stuff I'm doing now--avoiding sitting, changing position frequently, watching Netflix.  Hopefully the recovery will involve less pain and fewer drugs.  My Mom will come down to Ottawa to take care of me during the first part of my recovery (it's so nice to have a Mom who is a retired nurse!).

Well, that's all I can think to write at this point.  All my current knitting projects are of the top secret variety so you'll have to sit tight!

Mind your backs,
Carla

A little B-Day Q & A

As I drink my birthday coffee I thought I would answer some birthday questions that you are most certainly asking.

Q: What type of birthday cake do you like the best?

A: Carrot Cake with cream cheese icing, hands down.  I also like chocolate cake with vanilla icing.

Q: What do you want for your birthday?
A: I want to be able to spend time with friends and family and to enjoy the beautiful fall colours.  Some of that carrot cake would be nice too.

Q: Do you feel upstaged having your birthday so close to Thanksgiving weekend?
A: No, Thanksgiving just feels like an extension of my birthday.  It is perfect timing because it means that I can see my family.  It also happens to be one of my favourite holidays since it includes some of my favourite things: hiking, apples, pumpkin pie and turkey dinners.

Q: Are you upset that you won't get to go hiking this birthday/Thanksgiving?
A: Honestly, it is a bit frustrating to not be able to get outside and be active like I usually am.  With my back the way it is, I wouldn't enjoy it right now anyway...I would barely make it to the corner!  I just have to remind myself that this is only for a time and will not last forever.


Q: How many birthdays have you had so far?
A: This would be my thirtieth birthday, not counting the very first on in 1982.

Q: Do you feel that this birthday marks your official entrance into spinsterhood?
A: No, according to Wikipedia, "A spinster, or old maid, is an older, childless woman who has never been married, typically in her late 40's and older." Clearly I have at least 15 more birthdays before could be a certified spinster.  Also, although I am an avid knitter, I haven't yet taken up the hobby of spinning wool thus excluding me from even the original definition of spinster.

Q: What are some of your recent knitting projects?
A: I'm glad you asked, this week I finished a cute little hat and I am almost done a pair of mittens.  
The hat is based on the Sweetie Pie Hat from Purl Soho. I sized it to (hopefully) fit a 3-6 month old baby which turned out to be a simple change from worsted weight to sport and DK weight.  I used Cascade 220 Superwash Sport in Green Apple and King Cole Merino Blend DK in French Navy.  

The mittens, which are 3/4 done, are Ambroso Mittens from Knitty.  As you can see I used Merino Blend for these too but in the colour Clerical.  I found it hard to get gauge for these ones, the suggested needles were 3.5 mm and I ended up having to go up three sizes to 4.5 mm when I am usually right on the money with gauge. Maybe this DK tends to be a bit thicker than most.  The right mitten seems to have turned out alright and the left one is coming along nicely.  

I actually bought the grey Merino Blend several years ago to knit a sweater.  I have now given up on this sweater for two reasons: 1) because I was such a novice knitter that I can't trust my counting or gauge; 2) because I am still bored at the thought of the rows and rows of flat stockinette stitch involved in this particular sweater.

** This post is going up a bit later than I initially had planned.  I did have a nice surprise visit from South Carleton friends who brought some cake and good times with them.  Now I'm awaiting my family who will roll in later this evening!**

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

An Early Morning

This morning I woke up at 5:40 and couldn't get back to sleep. I tried to doze until about 8:00 when I 'threw in the towel' and got up. It was kind of nice to be up early and not have to rush to a doctor's appointment. Since I have been off work with this back thing, I have fallen into the bad habit of staying up until past midnight and waking up around 11. Usually I will wake up one or two times in the night, take some pills, read some blogs and drift back to sleep.  That makes me sound like a bit of a drug addict, most of the pills I take are ibuprofen or tylenol...and sometimes prescription narcotics...

Ok...back to this morning...it was quite nice to wake up and not have to rush off anywhere. I turned on the radio to hear Radio 2 Morning, something I often miss given my current sleep habits. The very last song of the morning was Of Whom Shall I be Afraid by Jim Byrnes, a blues musician from Vancouver. I really enjoyed this song and it went right along with the story of Gideon I was reading in the Bible. Here is a video of Jim Byrnes with the Sojornors singing the song at a music festival:

Gideon can be found in Judges 6, 7 and 8. The basics of the story of Gideon are pretty well known: little guy--hiding from Israel's enemies--Angel of the Lord appears and calls him a great warrior--asks God to show him a sign that this is true--puts out fleeces for proof--fleeces are wet then dry--he defeats the enemy with God's strength.  The signs that he asks for are sometimes seen as a lack of faith (my question would be: why does he make it to Hebrews 11-the Hall of Faith?).

If you go and read about Gideon, you will see that he quickly looses confidence in himself and in what he thinks he has heard from God--he doesn't lose faith in God. At every point of decision in this story, Gideon looks to God for reassurance. God always comes through. At each turn in the story, God reminds Gideon where his strength is. Gideon doesn't wallow in self doubt, he acts on what God tells him is true. Gideon places his hope and trust in God.

God knows that people need reassurance. He knows that we need to ask and see him move; that we need to listen and hear his voice. That is why he gives us things along the way. If you are hoping in him for something very big that he hasn't given you yet then he has probably shown you other, smaller things that confirm that promise or other ones that he has made to you. God doesn't leave us dangling, not in pain, not in waiting, not in loneliness or disappointment. God always moves and will show us how he is moving if we ask.  This is one of the reasons Jim Byrnes's song is so true!