The Healing Powers of Art

↑ Edit : haha, as my online friend Shakti pointed out, it looks like the guy is standing inside the bucket ↑

When I took this series of photographs last week, I had no idea what exactly was going on here. I came upon these people creating a mosaic a week ago Saturday, and took the pictures of the finished work on Friday. I thought the story was simply one of "See artist in the midst of creating, and then experience the finished piece". But a little research into what this effort was all about has lead me to understand that this is so much more than a pretty work of art on the wall of a local building. I had stumbled upon part of the 'Central Toronto Community Health Centres' Mosaic Project'.

Who is That Sitting in My Chair?

Being the loving cat-parents that we are, of course we set Ed up with his very own comfortable spot outside on the deck. He has a comfy blanket on a chair under the awning, dedicated to him alone. For a couple of weeks he thought this spot was fantastic and was found lounging there whenever we were hanging outside. Then one morning Nick went out and found another cat sleeping in Ed's spot! The nerve. This interloper was sent on his way, but now Eddie's spot is no longer good. He doesn't want to sit there anymore. I have the blanket in the wash to see if he'll go back to it.

But in the meantime, since someone had stolen his chair, he decided that it was fair play to take someone else's spot, namely mine! Last week I bought a nice cushy comfortable cushion for my outdoor chair, which has turned it into the very best reading chair in our home. So, without doubt, when I found it had been usurped, I wanted it back for myself.

I Did It! Freshly Baked Bread.

Before familiar readers wonder, "Hey, hasn't she shown home baked bread here before?", the answer is "Yes, yes I have". However, this time, it is I who baked the bread, as opposed to our resident baker, Nick.

This was my very first time making bread of any kind that used yeast, kneading and dough rising. I did it because I was challenged by my on-line friend Shakti. She made some too, so it was kind of like baking together, but from a distance.

We both followed this beginner recipe.

The idea was to use the basic recipe and jazz it up somehow (Shakti added orange rind to hers), so I turned mine into herbal twisted loaves, by using olive oil and adding 1/4 teaspoon each of dried oregano, basil, thyme, onion powder, garlic powder and cayenne pepper. I just mixed those in with the flour and when it came time to raise (rise?) the dough, I left it in the bowl covered by a wet tea towel. Then I shaped my loaves by rolling the dough into long strips and twisting them. Then I let them raise a bit longer for an extra 1/2 hour. Note, that I made 1/2 of the recipe and it yielded two foot-long loaves.

I'm so glad I tried this. It was fun and though I didn't have high expectations, it magically made some decent bread! I honestly thought there was some sort of trick to making your own bread, but it really is as easy as those who have tried it say it is. The reason I thought it would be hard to do was a story that has stuck in my head since I was young. It was about the bread making efforts of a friend and his family ... the loaf they made together turned out so hard that they couldn't even slice it, and the joke was that they used it as a doorstop instead!

But I am here telling you now that bread making really is not a hard thing to do at all. I think the key is that your yeast has to be fresh so that it rises properly. Check out the picture of what the yeast looks like ... it's shaped like little balls.

We actually got a bread making machine recently, but to prove that I followed the 'rules' of the challenge and made this bread all my myself, I have included photos of some of the process!

A Friend’s Birthday Bash and What I Wore

On Saturday night we headed east on the Queen Street Streetcar, to go to my friend Annette and her (brand new!) husband Glenn's place, to celebrate her birthday. The party began with drinks and snacks in their backyard, and then the whole gang moved to a theatre to see a show called the Lunacy Cabaret, which as the title says was a cabaret. I have only ever seen one cabaret before so didn't quite know what to expect, but Annette and Glenn go to this one all the time and really like it. We found it to be very entertaining, with the acrobat, hoop twirler, balloon dancer and fire girl being my particular favourite parts.

I wanted to wear my new swingy skirt, so my outfit began with that. I went shopping last week and found two nice skirts. Ok, they're both black so I'm not making any inroads in my effort to not wear so much black, but I did also get two new tops, that are both black and white. Not stellar in the adding-more-colour category, but at least not solid black.

For this outfit I added some colour with a little polka-dotted sweater I've had for a while. I love the jewel-tones of the embroidered dots! Then, after trying on a couple of different black belts, I found this red one that I had forgotten I had. For jewellery I went with a vintage Avon fake turquoise bracelet. I was also wearing real turquoise earrings which were round and the exact same size as the dots on my top, but they didn't show up in any of the outfit pictures. Also not pictured was my purse, which was this red Kenneth Cole one. That little bag sure got lots of complements, especially when I pulled my camera out of it!

I knew I'd be on my feet a lot so I wore my 'tried and trusted' low-heeled-but-still-fancy shoes. These are the oldest shoes I own that I still wear regularly. They have had the lifts replaced a couple times (that's the little rubber part on the bottom of the heel), and are still going strong. It's a good thing I wore them because after the show Nick and I decided to walk a very long block in order to take the all-night streetcar home. It was funny because when we thought about walking Nick said, "We can't walk because you're dressed up." The poor guy is used to not being able to walk great distances when I'm wearing a skirt because most dress shoes are simply not good for trekking. But these ones were fine. He was impressed.

Of course, we could have taken a cab, but it would have cost about $40 each way, so by taking public transit we saved $70 (the cost of our tokens was $10). I'm a big fan of streetcars and of saving that kind of money. We'll have a nice lunch out instead. Plus the Queen Street streetcar ride is an adventure unto itself, packed as it is with interesting people watching opportunities at 2 in the morning!

Insects Up For Inspection

Here are some visitors who have been around the yard lately!

This butterfly is a Swallowtail and not common here in Toronto, not in our city garden at least.