Great leaves I have seen

While Elaine is off learning archery and whatever, the rest of us went to the Allen Gardens greenhouses to see Toronto's very own blooming agave plant. It appears to have been at its finest a few days before we went, but it is still a thing you don't see every day!

poking out through the roof

They had to cut a hole in the roof to let the spike out, some months ago. It was just a spike for a while, then flowered, and now, as I understand it, the whole plant will die.

This is what it looks like from the inside.

I'm pretty sure that we have never been to this site before, although we found plenty to look at when we got there. I'm also pretty sure that it is not generally so crowded as we found it. The miracle of a blooming agave seemed to be quite the draw.

Here's a taste of what we've been missing all these years.

polka dots

frizzy!

gorgeous colouring

oh, more gorgeous colours! 

spiky leaves growing straight out

your basic stripes

why does it do that?

We'll be back. I suspect there's a time when lots of their cactuses are in bloom, and I suspect it will be a nice spot to go for stroll indoors in January.

And she's off

We put Elaine on the bus for camp this week. Before, she has gone to a Monday-to-Friday camp on Toronto Island, which is familiar, close to home and not too long a time. Now she is off in the wild woods of Ontario for two weeks. With kids who have been going to this camp for years. And so on.

We spent days and days accumulating all the stuff -- sleeping bag for the canoe trip (!); white shirt for Shabbat dinner (yeah, we are not Jewish, but the camp mainly is); beach towels and shower towels and rainboots and water shoes, all of which had to be labelled. I wish I'd taken pictures of the heaps of clothing piled up around here.

I got to use my iron to put the labels on -- that was a pretty rare thing!

And this was the last we saw of her.

At least, we imagined we could see the shapes of her and her friend behind the big window of the bus! (You really have to click this to see that it is a cool reflection and not just a mistake, I think.)


She'll be back, all tanned and happy, in no time, I am sure. 

Some knitting

When I don't blog for ages, but continue to write sparkling prose in my head, I have trouble getting back into the blog mindset. Do I try to retrieve those brilliant paragraphs composed in the grocery store? Actually, this past month most of my masterpieces were thought up as I was cycling home from Booty Camp.

Oh, look, now I must explain Booty Camp, although I hopefully titled this post "Some Knitting."

At the end of May I went to the fun fair at the kids' old elementary school. They are both finished with it now, but it is down the street and there is always something fun at the silent auction table. I bid on two things: an hour with a personal trainer and 4 weeks/8 classes of Booty Camp. I got outbid on the trainer, but got my fitness classes.

As soon as I'd won, I wondered what the heck I'd been thinking! Surely everyone would be 25 and I'd just be the fat, old lady in the back row, probably injuring myself. Well, as it turned out, everyone was 25, but I managed to hold my own, and since I am a wee bit wise as well as old, I modified things to suit me better and didn't end up injuring myself at all. (Sore quads the next day doesn't really count as an injury, does it?) I also am somewhat proud to say that I rode my bike there and back, a 7 km round trip.

It was not like the aerobics classes I did in the late 80s and not at all like the pregnant-lady exercises I did 14 years ago! One night I did 170 squats and 70 push-ups. Really. (Okay, maybe not all 70 push-ups, but all 170 squats!) One night we did a "pyramid" of 10 of one exercise, 20 of another, 30 somethings, 40 somethings and 50 jumps with a jumprope. (I meant to take a camera-phone pic of the board where the evil genius who ran the class wrote it all out, but was half-dead at the end and forgot.) It's called a pyramid because after you get up to 50, you run to the corner, come back and then do the 50 jumps, 40, 30, 20, 10... Lots of lunges, squats, push-ups, hateful things called burpees -- these were the things I most heavily modified!

Anyways, after a month of that I know I can do it, but also that I'm unlikely to do a push-up just for fun on my own. I'd rather do something during the day, instead of rushing off after dinner, and I need a more moderate class -- after Tuesday's class, I didn't want to do much Wednesday, and after Thursday's I was stiff all Friday!

So I spent most of June thinking about my glutes.

I did also get a bit of knitting in. I was trying hard to stay monogamous to my shawl fringe, but aside from the occasional thrill of changing balls of yarn, it is so boring and uninspiring.

I once got a bunch of Vogue Knitting magazines from a friend, but had to pass them on again because her cats had been all over them and my ogling was hampered by itchy watery eyes! I traded them to a woman here in town for some of her handspun, and decided to knit up a very warm hat, holding the handspun wool together with some wool/viscose I had lying around. I've been knitting carefully and trying not to strain my elbow and arm, so it's taken me days and days!

Now, I could show you a picture of a half-knitted hat, but the cables are upstairs and the computer is downstairs and it's all just too complicated right now, so you'll just have to imagine. And hope that in a few days, I can show you an actual hat!

Not quite the way I planned

Tomorrow, Elaine's school is having an evening affair, with an art show, silent auction and a cake raffle. So, I am making a cake.

There's always the problem: what to put the cake on? A regular plate will not come back to me, so I looked at plastic picnic plates I wouldn't mind getting rid of, but they were not big enough to contain my brilliant idea -- my brilliant idea was to recreate something like this. (I should have read that page before embarking on this, I can tell you right now. )

The plate problem was solved by the old Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. This is an election sign, heavy-duty corrugated plastic. These things are light and strong and perfect for making plates out of, or even houses. Their only flaw is that it is not easy to cut them in any sort of curve. So, a square plate.

Wrap it in tin foil, and we're all set.

Assemble your sugar-bomb toppings: store-bought icing, Maltesers, Buttons, Kit Kats.

Here was my first clue that this was not quite the same as that previous cake. I only made a single layer, and the Kit Kats were too tall!  I did experiment with cutting them, but decided that was a bit too labour intensive for me today, so I ditched the Kit Kats idea. (Note to self: hide them before the kids get home from school!)

I just swooped the candies around on top, and arranged some artfully around the outside.

Would you bid on this cake?

 

A few leftovers that can be easily dealt with, and we are set and ready to go!

Better late than never

Still a bit tentative Wednesday:

Wednesday

Thursday the flower was full-blown open.

Showing off the macro setting

Friday I didn't take a picture! I did, however, buy 2 balls of sock yarn, a 1962 Vogue Knitting magazine and a bunch of fabric in garish colours that I am not sure what to do with! It was the Textile Museum's sale. As usual, I went with my friend who buys more than me, and she performed admirably, going for the fabric this time. I held back from buying acres of upholstery samples. "I could make a cushion! I could sew all these together and make.... something!!" No, no, I couldn't.... One thing at a time. I did get some wild psychedelic stuff that I think I can make a beach bag out of. We shall see. I've added it to the pile.

Saturday's alium

Oh, look a peony is going to bloom, too!

Will take pictures of the acquisitions and more in the days to come. (And I am eager to see what the peony does; I can't even remember what colour the flowers are.)

Two for Tuesday

Yesterday was bright and sunny, and last night we had torrential rains. All this seems to have been good for the plants!

I wish I had a huge clump of these, instead of the 3 or 4. I hope they divide and multiply and add! Next year, watch out!

The onion on Monday

Opening more and more. If the squirrels don't eat it, we'll be enjoying a full giant onion flower in the next few days.

Yesterday and today

 My ornamental onions are coming into bloom.

Saturday it looked like this:

Sunday it looks like this: 

It would be nice if everything progressed so clearly.

The things we do for our wee children

We are still sifting through years of kid stuff while we move the bedrooms around. Elaine's last abandoned bits are still upstairs and need sorting into garbage; things to pass on; and sentimental stuff that the parents want even if the kids don't.

I think this has to end up in the garbage pile, but I took some photos to immortalise it.

I believe we inherited this pair of pants from Arthur's cousins.

The elastic cuffs on the ankles were useful, especially when the pants were really too big for the kid; this way they didn't drag on the ground. However, when Arthur finally outgrew them, I didn't really want to save them for baby Elaine, as they were pretty ratty by then.

He had, I recall, just got a bunch of marbles from somewhere, and since we didn't have a Crown Royal bag handy, I decided to make a bag out of a pant leg, with that elastic cuff as the opening. I think they call this upcycling, these days. (OMG, look at the stuff people make! Quilts! Stuffed creatures!)

upside-down pant-leg = personalized marble bag

reinforced knee, with my writing

Arthur, aged 3 or 4, squeezed fabric paint on the back

such neat red stitching

All good things must come to an end. The fabric is weak, the paint is stiff, the marbles are somewhere else. Farewell, marble bag.

Never-ending edging

When last we spoke about knitting, I was setting out to knit a fringe on the edge of my Colonnade shawl. Looks not too bad, right? Some progress is being made.

Actually, I am not even done the first quarter of the edge, and when I spread it out, I fear I am maybe only done the first half of the first quarter!

I think it will look good and be fun and funky when it is finished, but when that will be, who can say? Especially because I am thinking of moving on to something else! I'll at least finish that one ball of dark navy, and then I'll try to finish the quarter. I'd like to just whip up a hat, but I was supposed to just whip this up, too!

More on Hot Docs, and funny pictures I take on my phone

I was early to see a movie the other day, and started taking pictures of things like the line-up sign.

The loneliness of the person who gets to the theatre ridiculously early.

This was at the ROM where I saw (eventually) Special Ed. Here's the trailer for the film, and you can see a bit of Ed talking about the movie in this clip. Here is his great masterpiece, Primiti Too Taa. I love Ed. I think we all know some nice guy, a bit idealistic, completely good-hearted but actually useless. That's Ed.

Taking these pictures reminded me I should maybe see what other masterpieces I have stored on my phone.

Craziness.

Last fall, I walked across the Bloor Viaduct. The trees were beautiful and the fence was ... there.

This is not meant to be a picture of a tree, but of the house behind that had a big fire. Terrible, two houses wrecked, families displaced and so on! And I seem to have taken a picture of the tree.

This is Elaine's seigneur's farm. I hadn't seen it because they'd done the work at school, so I was thrilled to see this in the display case in the foyer of the school. She provided the base: a plastic election sign we had in the basement. (And this is so relevant, because Ed once made a house out of election signs!)

Finally, I thought this was very funny:

Now, the green things are poking out of the ground, and we even have a blooming magnolia!

I saw two other movies that same day. We Always Lie to Strangers was extremely funny and delightful, about a town full of music halls and the Lennon Sisters and extravaganzas.

Muscle Shoals was also super, but unfortunately it ends with the song Sweet Home Alabama which I have not been able to get out of my head for 2 days. I will not link to that song or I might explode. Other than that, it was a really good movie about a record studio and the guys who made the music there. Interviews with Aretha Franklin and Keith Richards, among others. Keith Richards ended every statement with a nervous little giggle, and everyone in the theatre then nervously giggled, too. Very odd.

I've done with my volunteering shifts and just have 2 or 3 more shows to see. Fun, fun, fun. I do have to do a week's worth of dishes and forage for some food for my dear family, and next week we'll likely be back to normal around here.

My first Hot Docs movie: Good Ol' Freda

Last night I went to see Good Ol' Freda, the movie about the Beatles' secretary.

She was just 17, you know what I mean! Freda used to go to the Cavern Club on her lunch breaks from the typing pool, and got to know the guys and Brian Epstein. When Epstein needed a secretary, he gave her the job, and she worked with them... from before they were famous till after they had disbanded. She was at the Civic Reception for them, she went on the Magical Mystery Tour, she visited their parents and saw their babies.

Here's a clip, with her talking about her work with the fan club.

And here's a picture of her last night at the theatre. The movie was super, and the Q&A with her and the director, Ryan White, was just icing on the cake.

A woman in the audience stood up and said that she had lived in Toronto when she was younger, and when she was 12, starting to go to the record store on her own to buy Beatles records, her parents moved the family out to the suburbs and her life was more or less over! What to do but write to the Beatles fan club to lament? Freda wrote back, made a connection, cheered the girl up!

She said she answered all the fan club mail! Even after she quit her job and had two little children, she kept going till all the letters were answered. (In the beginning, she had given out her home address, and before long they were getting sacks and sacks of letters!)

It was a really fun evening and a highly recommended film!