“So what would you use it for?” I asked her looking at the $40+ price tag.
“Uhhhhh…..” She gave the little one shoulder shrug, “Sugar?”
“And the last time you used a ‘sugar’ bowl?”
“well…ug….it’s really pretty.” I stared her down and she said, “A few years, okay!” I had to see this bowl (bottom right) which she went on and on about when I had given her money to go and buy some pottery from Katy Fogg of Living Earth Pottery at the James Bay Market. She had bought stoneware vases and a small vinegar dispenser. I still ask her, as she takes it out to admire it, what she was planning to use that for. Spending spree was one of the gifts I gave her for her birthday. But it seemed that Katy had more pottery Linda wanted to buy than she had money. Katy had used the winter to make lots of new and nice mugs, vases, decanters, plates in a variety of colours: lots of new and wonderful things like the milk jug pictured below.
The two vases, blue and green in the original picture above were newly shown this week and only because it was a cloudy day did they not sparkle (like the milky way, when in the sun or the right indoor lights) with the iron and other crystals in the entire body of the vase. The tops of the vases are coloured by geodes of Willemite (made of silca and zinc and grown through 16 hours of 1000+ centigrade heat. The top of the milk jug uses a glaze of Rust Crystals which during the 14 hour constant heat firing turns into different colours and strands flowing slowly over the surface. After travelling around Europe and driving down to San Diego, I realized that Victoria has so many artists that those here are under appreciated. I write this after having my Amarillo and brandy in cherry heated over my vanilla ice cream, another mix by Whimsical Jams ($5 a jar, and make diabetic flavors on demand – hand picked organic berries) picked up at the same market.
I had tried for a month before I could get out to see Katy Fogg, because the Market only runs in the summer and I wanted Linda to have the largest selection of choices she could. Towards the end of summer tourists and locals, find buying a $20 stoneware mug pictured below crafted with clay from Medicine Hat Alberta and Northern California is better than one from ‘tourist alley’ at the same price. Katy uses local beeswax (Salt Spring?) in the glazing, all of which are non-toxic. They are durable for oven, dishwasher and microwave (not the iron ones please!). Remember these pictures do not show how beautiful they are, due to poor lighting. The large pieces and vases are the kind we saw in Oregon and California for two and three times the price (or in Laguna Beach for five to ten times the price) without the elegant and functional ‘cool’. Much less the durability of being used and washed by different care workers daily.
Essentially there are so many good artists, organic growers that we are spoiled an used to seeing eight pottery artists on a Saturday. For me, I am exacting. I need pottery which is like a swiss knife, a waterman fountain, a Thermarest or Danner Boots: it needs to be always work, it needs to be something made beyond profit: functional obsession. In pottery that means Good clean throws that are consistent and easy to use. To find someone who has spent 14 years going beyond that, adding the beauty but keeping the basic form and firing which made Stoneware so popular in the 18th century and sells them for $12-75 is astounding.
Before I was ill, I slept on the floor because of the scoliosis (using lung pressure to stop my spine from locking while sleeping) using only the Therma-rest lite. I used Therma-rest for over 14 straight years. Every night for over 5,000 nights whether camping, in open air, in bedrooms. And if it failed, they replaced it (the lite didn’t fail, through it did fray in fabric after 9 years so they replaced it free). And that’s what I experience in Kate’s work. And that's why I keep coming back.
With the summer here the flower and organic food sellers had come out with stalls. Linda and I we picked up some basil for the small window garden we are going to try. We also saw Laura Victoria who does handcarved and handsculpted soap (all soaps without artificial perfumes for those sensitive or with skin conditions) had created a new flavor, the lime. It was delicious in scent. Laura-Victoria has been making soap for 28 years. Linda took a lemon of hers into work, to help create a nice aroma in her new office (those who work with her couldn’t believe it was soap, actual all natural, hand-milled soap). I got some bars to send out as presents.
Linda’s work? Well, while it doesn’t quite cover the costs it does have some advantages like going off to check out a light-house. Linda works with the Islands Trust, the go-to person for asking questions about the 400+ islands in the ‘Inland Passage’, the space between Vancouver Island and the Mainland (and 400+ is only half way up the island). So if you want to clear trees, you have to apply (someone clear-cut too many trees against regulations and later there was a landslide – that’s why there are regulations). Each inhabited island has their own rules and regulations. One of her first questions was whether there should be a blue badge disabled spot in a parking lot on Salt Spring (one of the Islands nearest to Victoria). The answer was yes, 5% of all parking lots need to be blue badge. In contrast with Victoria, BC there are 28 designated parking spots in downtown Victoria’s multi-thousand spaces (in James bay there is….one, in Fairfield there are none): “The City recognizes that the demand for the 28 new dedicated spaces may, at times, outstrip supply.”
As a perk, Linda gets to go to any island for free once a year (no ferry charge), but also there are trips to islands for meetings or lunches. She went last week on an office trip to Salt Spring, then a boat to Galiano, on which she saw two eagles.Here is one, you can see him on the top of the tallest tree, the water far below and he is a bald eagle, the dark form and white head atop the highest branch. In Galiano there was a trip to Montague Bay, a park leading to the ocean. Some officers in the Island trust work with residents who want to turn the land they own into a heritage of a park. Remember, this is the ‘new west’ out here and while the government is still selling off parts of islands, first and second generation people who bought government land on islands are still figuring out what to do with the land they bought. So new parks all the time.
This is VERY different from our last home in Cardiff, where the nearest notable park was Roath Park donated and built by the Marquis of Bute in 1887 (with odd clock tower in midst of lake with boating and all). It also has a very small conservatory with horny turtles (we came in upon a turtle orgy…in slo-mo).
The Marquis not only owned all the land (including where our Victorian House was built) but many older widow women spit after saying his name. From the 18th to the 20th century the Marquis grew vastly wealthy on ‘black gold’ and still runs trainloads of coal right UNDER the university down to harbor. Since so many died in the mines that during WWII accidents you had a greater risk to casualty as a ‘conscripted miner’ in Wales than you did in the Armed Forces (which created a huge strike). The Marquis, simultanous to Roath Park built Castle Coch, a fairy tale castle which, in the end, was never lived in. So you can see how different it is when you buy 5 acres for a few thousand and 60 years later there is so much development you can leave a park as a legacy (thankfully no wacky castles except the two in Victoria, Hartley Castle, also built through coal money was covered in a previous post). And with lots of neighbors, someone has to answer the questions and settle disputes. Linda is that first step.
The next day we worked on Postcards, and passed the next 100 mark (6,200?) with 22 postcards and 8 presents. I have been using up some of the stickers from Japan, Sinapore, France, Brazil, and parts of the USA including those bought in Hawaii. Here is a combo of stamping and stickering for a summer festival look. I have a lunch date tomorrow so off to bed with me. Hope you had a good weekend also.
The good news is that my fever has broken, five days and counting! The somewhat bad news is that I have not been boxing and got to read the exciting notes from the teleconference on ‘bowel maintenance.’ The most unusual suggestion was a Carbon Dioxide enema, you literally put a CO2 canister at your anus, and um, blow. It is only recommended for those who have high level breaks as the bloating is significant, and like the saying: when the trumpet sounds, all come out!
OW! It hurts me to think about. The presenter seem confused that it was not marketed or sold to the SCI community but to the gay community, hence a difficulty getting a supplier. (eye roll)
As for me, I have increased my water intake to 2 liters a day, and that with a mild daily irritant and grape juice does the deed. It is hard enough to manage to find time and energy to eat meals but I don’t dare get dehydrated.
Great Jumping Goat of Ghenna! Is that what the blog has been reduced to: my bowel reports! I know I wanted to narrate my life and disease but if I find the whole ‘regimen with a gun at my head’ tiresome, how worse to listen to it! Here, join Zheleznovodsk, Russia’s Bronze monument to the enema, and the slogan, “Let’s beat constipation…”
So, turn up the juice…let’s talk um…..clean ceilings.
A friend visited over a weekend and helped us with the physical things I could not do, helped Linda with that and one was cleaning the bathroom, including bleaching the ceilings. Here they are in all the glory! Linda went around happy for several days in a time when things seemed very much out of control going, “Clean Ceilings.” Also, though hard work (mostly our Linda and our friend), we found that we have a living room again, one I can wheel in and out of. And in a promo offer we are watching the Olympics, at times, hooked up to basic cable. It will go when the Olympics do, as I can see that commercials have not changed for the better in the last 10 years. It actually makes the dog food commercial of the little chuck wagon going around on the floor seem quite clever (that usually showed up during Bonanza!). I promised Linda that we would watch…..ice skating. No, no, not the speed or endurance skating I WANTED to watch but the figure skating. We saw the men’s routines and the narration was well, surreal. There is a guy who is obviously gay (OBVIOUSLY CAMP also like blowing kissing and giving little hand at shoulder finger waggle waves) in a country where it is LEGAL to marry so why not come out and be GAY. He is wearing a boa, fur, satin and sparkles and the Television commentators are talking like this is a boxing match and how he has come here to ‘stomp’ skater X and how ‘I hear he has been doing some ‘trash talking’ and today we will see if he has brought his game face.’ – what? This isn’t pro-wrestling! Don't mistake me, I WANT gay and out men and women - what is the point of having the all the rights and protections then having the 'hetero games'. He did quite well, blew kisses to his mom, cried and will probably win a medal. It is just annoying that we don’t hear about his partner or future plans but how he will ‘shove those skates in the face of his rival’. Wha? Apparently this guy, who pinged my gaydar is not gay or has a 'beard' (is dating a female), he just likes to crossdress, like so many North American males (over 10% heterosexuals do it regularly!). Not gay, though he has feather gloves which he says 'match the music' - the music, 'the Firebird' is a typical ice skating piece for the female ice skaters, a first Olympic use for men in medal competition I think. Oh, a classic case of the dudes raiding our closet again. Plus he is the tallest ice skater in the Olympics, so you think that outfit or gloves are going to fit again when he has stretched them out? Oh wait, he bought this, so that is okay as they are going into some US Hall of Fame probably. Also probably next to a sign saying, "We are Americans: we get Gold.... and we are straight!"
I am not proud to be Canadian or from BC. Our commercials show a white only society, or one which lacks the true complexity which exists. We put up the Jason Hunt's Kwagiulth Killer Whale carving with the lighting, having found the right place for it, so that we can enjoy it frequently. That carving is part of BC history and culture, and so is the whole story of how our Christian Nuns and Priests destroyed the Potlatch, burned the carvings and masks. British Columbia history is also how the Grey Nuns built the hospital I was born in.
Despite the crackdown, Jason Hunt’s grandfather was a handful of men who had been taught, in secret, the carvings, as they were done originally, unique to that nation. He taught others at the Royal BC Museum Carving Shed. That the Haida, frequently portrayed in the B.C. commercials, due to famous art, did slave runs each year down the coast of this island is our history too. Jason’s Kwagiulth nation had a treaty: greet, lodge and feed and they don’t get taken as slaves. The Killer whale dance was the dance which welcomed the Haida canoes, the same dance Jason and his brother danced at Potlatches. The revolt of the Haida carvers in the 1930’s against the Christian influence to ‘normalize’ the carving by changing them to 'acceptable', tourist shapes by denying the argillite stone unless traditional carvings were made is BC history. So is Jason’s carving. The image must reflect only the Kwaguilth image and was inspected by his father, as his grandfather inspected his father’s carvings. The wood to make this carving came from Kwagiulth cedar and it represents his skill as a carver, and the continuation of the Kwagiulth art. We are only those who keep the art until the next generation.
B.C. history is complex, and does not show up in a 30 second commercial of white people smiling going, “Hey, Super…Natural….BC!” We are a Province of draft dodgers from Vietnam (and entire island up the main island a bit), of a dying forest industry, of strange leaders (one Premier decided to spend millions giving everyone a bible and lived in a theme park), and ancient beauty. Where else can you travel on a 50 year old ferry and see pods of killer whales, seals, sea lions, or grey whales? I live where I can see an bald eagle fly over me (and do!), and cougars still wander into town (tranq and sent up island!).
My town has the oldest China Town in BC and yet it, along with almost everything was and still is fighting against being wiped out by developers. The workers who tore down the heritage house across the street are now doing drilling and working on digging up the street so I don’t get a lot of sleep. My city has the highest rate of child abuse in the country. We could change it….but we don’t. The Anglican church in the ‘lower town’ opened a homeless shelter in the basement until a lawsuit by the store owners made them close it. the Anglican Cathedral church in the ‘upper town’ has a manse, a school, and refuses to feed the homeless, lest they hang around. It does however have opera society shows for $20 a ticket. We were the route for three gold rushes, we told US Blacks during the civil war to come to this city, then ended up putting them off on the north point of Salt Spring island, until almost all left or died. We were the end port of the Sea/rail journey from the UK for hundreds of thousands of immigrants taking the ships to New Zealand, Australia and South Africa. We were the end of the line for tens of thousands of orphans, including my own grandfather. That is a fraction of BC. The histories of this new and old land are still mixing, and will for some generations to come.
History isn’t always what we want it to be, the fact that store owners and lumber mills made far more than miners ever did in the California or Yukon Gold Rushes isn’t the dream, but it is the reality. Indeed, we have the California gold rush to thank for Instant Coffee. James Folger came to San Francisco to the Gold rush and didn’t dig, he made...instant coffee. Folgers’ Coffee, sold in a brick, was something that could be carried easily over rough terrain and sold for high value when eggs were going for $10 at the mining camps. Folgers also sold tea, it is just the Coffee did better. They say that North Americans made the worst coffee in the world, constant brew with egg whites thrown in to keep the particles on the bottom of the kettle of your camp or farm coffee. I remember, as a child, friends of my grandfather throwing in the egg shells (mostly because I had an odd habit of eating the egg shells too – and they would tell me to ‘leave some for the coffee’) in the ever going coffee pot. Instant Coffee – is history. I wouldn’t mind seeing a commercial of some guy with a tooth missing holding some camp coffee, throwing in egg shells and pouring this black, brackish liquid and going, “Super…..BC!” – because it is the British Columbia I know.
Today, down in James Bay, there are three coffee houses (two 'independent'), and the beans are fine roasted and from places even I haven’t heard of (Did you know that Juan Valdez and his donkey were actually CREATED by the coffee board so the US would have the slightest idea WHERE coffee came from – Brazil, and who grew it). Brazil figured if Americans knew where the coffee came from they would buy more – it worked. For years, a nosy Swedish woman, Ms. Olsen, advised wives on how to make their husbands happy, “Mountain Grown” – the longest running single ad campaign in history).
Apparently the commercial is 40 years olds, yet that’s the way men and women are SUPPOSED to behave, so says the Olympics (except male ice skaters). Take it from Mrs. Olsen!
Katy uses local beeswax (Salt Spring?) in the glazing, all of which are non-toxic. They are durable for oven, dishwasher and microwave (not the iron ones please!). Remember these pictures do not show how beautiful they are, due to poor lighting. The large pieces and vases are the kind we saw in Oregon and California for two and three times the price (or in Laguna Beach for five to ten times the price) without the elegant and functional ‘cool’. Much less the durability of being used and washed by different care workers daily.
Linda and I we picked up some basil for the small window garden we are going to try. We also saw Laura Victoria who does handcarved and handsculpted soap (all soaps without artificial perfumes for those sensitive or with skin conditions) had created a new flavor, the lime.
It was delicious in scent. Laura-Victoria has been making soap for 28 years. Linda took a lemon of hers into work, to help create a nice aroma in her new office (those who work with her couldn’t believe it was soap, actual all natural, hand-milled soap). I got some bars to send out as presents.
Linda works with the Islands Trust, the go-to person for asking questions about the 400+ islands in the ‘Inland Passage’, the space between Vancouver Island and the Mainland (and 400+ is only half way up the island). So if you want to clear trees, you have to apply (someone clear-cut too many trees against regulations and later there was a landslide – that’s why there are regulations). Each inhabited island has their own rules and regulations. One of her first questions was whether there should be a blue badge disabled spot in a parking lot on Salt Spring (one of the Islands nearest to Victoria). The answer was yes, 5% of all parking lots need to be blue badge. In contrast with Victoria, BC there are 28 designated parking spots in downtown Victoria’s multi-thousand spaces (in James bay there is….one, in Fairfield there are none): “The City recognizes that the demand for the 28 new dedicated spaces may, at times, outstrip supply.”
Here is one, you can see him on the top of the tallest tree, the water far below and he is a bald eagle, the dark form and white head atop the highest branch. In Galiano there was a trip to Montague Bay, a park leading to the ocean.
Some officers in the Island trust work with residents who want to turn the land they own into a heritage of a park. Remember, this is the ‘new west’ out here and while the government is still selling off parts of islands, first and second generation people who bought government land on islands are still figuring out what to do with the land they bought. So new parks all the time.
I have been using up some of the stickers from Japan, Sinapore, France, Brazil, and parts of the USA including those bought in Hawaii. Here is a combo of stamping and stickering for a summer festival look.
