This Week's Favourite Things! Monday August 10th - Sunday August 16th, 2015

1.  Molly Kool!  This is the name of my artist friend Helen Opie's Puddle Duck Racer sailboat that she's built herself and leak-tested last week.  

I think Helen was in her 80's already when she decided to design and start building this boat for her 'grand cruise' up the Annapolis River.  She's 82 now, good for her!  Though building such a vessel would be an accomplishment at any age! 

Molly Kool is named for North America's first female sea captain.

You can check out more pics of Helen's process here on the PD (Puddle Duck) Racer website.  There are some cool pics there of her peeling bark off the mast and other parts of the boat building process, as well as nice blog posts written by Helen.

It's clearly been a labour of love.  Photo credits go to Matt, the partner of awesome watercolour artist, Louise Williams who lives near Helen in Granville Ferry.  The captions are from Helen.

"Backing Molly Kool down to water - a longer tongue is next on my list!  Only hydropower station in province is there behind me.  That is the sluice I must avoid; will do all departures on rising tide until I know I can get around intake suction on falling tide by sailing along opposite shore."

"Pushing away from rocks so I can drift and look for leaks.  Tether keeps me near shore, but I had to pole upwind to stay off rocks"

"Ashore, grinning with delight."

Next is a video of Helen "Looking for leaks; now checking where the one leak was last fall"

Awesome! Way to go Helen!

2.  This pic from last Thursday's (August 13th) Chronicle Herald, so nice to see work by two of my favourite artists in the Arts section, side by side!  This really made me happy all day!

Speaking of art, the pics online of Dwayne Carberry's show "Paintings to Heal the Heart" look lovely, on until the 20th at Dart Gallery.  Then on the 21st Versus, a group show, opens with the opening from 7-9. 

There's also a food truck party Thursday night, Aug 20, from 7-9 at the Kings Wharf parking lot in Dartmouth.

Also on Thursday Aug 20th:  Downtown Artwalk for which Dart Gallery will be open until 8, as well as these Halifax galleries and spaces:
Art 1274, Studio 21, Art Sales and Rental (Teichert Gallery- AGNS), Zwicker’s Gallery, Hermes Gallery, Sugar Shok, The Darkside Café and Gallery, Secord Gallery, ArtZone, Inkwell, Viewpoint Gallery, SHAG Gallery, Puffin Gallery, Eyelevel Gallery (located inside Park Lane Mall), Mary Black Gallery and Argyle Fine Art.


3.  Also in the Chronicle Herald last Thursday, yes! an article about parking in Halifax, including the whole 'moved same zone' parking ticket thing I got slapped with in a previous week, though I see that offense conveniently got lumped in under some other term.  Good on the Herald for letting people know about this, not every part of the Halifax Regional Municipality has parkades that allow for long term parking.  

Speaking of parking, Who wants tourists??  and shoppers?? Lunenburg Does!  On the radio while glazing I heard that Lunenburg council is actually slacking off on parking restrictions to be more tourist friendly, by cutting the hours that meters are monitored, as well as offering extended parking  (3 hours instead of 2) at meters on key streets.  Makes sense if people want to take a tour and shop around.  

4.  Fiore Botanica's Shampoo!  Nice! This shop I mentioned before in Lunenburg has really really nice, homemade small-batch shampoo with organic ingredients, SLS free, that cleans hair without leaving a weird residue.  The shopkeepers are pretty picky of making sure nothing carcinogenic goes into their products, and apparently while not technically a carcinogen, there's an issue with how SLS is processed, that potentially involves the use of carcinogens. Not to mention that sulfates aren't great for hair anyways.  At $20 - 25 per bottle, depending on the scent, it's pricier than drug store shampoo, however, it works so well you only need a small amount, and there's no need to use conditioner.  I tried out the Cleopatra Blend and it's very nice!  A friend got some as well and likes it too!  Suddenly I'm reminded of this commercial from the 70's...   They also offer great shipping rates! free shipping on orders $50 and over in Canada, and on orders $150 and over in the US which would get Americans a lot of stuff considering how low our dollar is right now.

5.  Found out about this on twitter: Dakeyne Farm has Nova Scotia's first Sunflower Maze, located on Hwy 1 just after Windsor and well before Wolfville if heading from Halifax to the valley.   The maze is open every sunny day in August, 10 - 7, $10 adults, $5 for kids 3 - 12, kids 3 and under are free.  That must be beautiful.  Here's their facebook page.

6.  Peas and Beans.  There are lots of them this year to trim, steam and freeze.

Sugar snap peas! these vines are well over 6 feet tall, started from last year's saved seeds

Just some of the bush beans ready for picking

7.  Biff the Barn Snake.  This past week when the bisque kiln was cooling down Brendan and I went into the shed and he spotted a snake curled up behind a bowl on the work bench where I glaze stuff, and named him Biff the Barn Snake.  Biff was patient enough to pose for a photo shoot, there happened to be a pottery sponge there for scale.  We haven't seen him since though.  There is, however, less rodent poop than usual around the building. 

8.  This youtube video lecture about a doctor that develops MS but then manages to heal herself with an anti-inflammatory diet.  Nice.  How I Went From Wheelchair To Walking by Dr. Terry Wahls.

9.  This was good too: How Food Affects Your Brain. by Dr. Drew Ramsay (youtube video). 

10.  This documentary on Netflix: The True Cost.  Woah.  Hard to watch, but well done.  It's about the human rights and environmental abuses that have allowed us our cheap clothing, and makes second-hand clothes shopping look like a good idea.

11.  I started this whole "Favourite Things" weekly post over a year ago to cheer myself out of a depression that stemmed from some upsetting circumstances. This led to a whole delving into the topic of Narcissistic Personality Disorder, sociopathy and psychopathy.  But things are good now!  phew.  This will be the last time it'll include articles on this topic in my "favourite things" post.  Instead I'm going to revisit another post I start last October (The Behavioural Ecology of Sociopaths and How to Save the World), and include any further helpful links I find there.  I'll also edit in links to all the helpful things I found from all the posts in between that one and this one, with a note at the top as to when the post was last updated. 

I still think this whole issue of people running around with no conscience, for whatever reason, whether it is mental or physical illness, early childhood circumstances, genetics, addiction, nutrient deficiency, parasites, some sort of alien invasion, alien parasites, whatever, is at the core of anything icky happening in the world from our banking system, factory farming, slave labour fashion industry, all sorts of corruption, ponzi schemes, etc. 

As the first article below mentions though, going on and on about narcissism makes you run the risk of looking like a narcissist because accusing others of narcissism is something a narcissist would do.  Oh well.

To those lucky enough to have not been impacted by someone with this issue, or who maybe have been but have not realized yet how they've been duped - in my case it was a few run-ins with this personality type before I saw what was happening and why I've been susceptible -  I can see that going on about the topic for weeks on end maybe would make one look like a whacko.  Hence the decision to corral any further links into one spot on this blog from now on.   I think survivors, who tend to be empathic, which is how they get suckered in the first place, get so excited about sharing their stories and researching the topic in order to help themselves and help prevent others from suffering. 

So here are the links to stuff I enjoyed this past week: 

When Narcissists Claim to be the Victim of Narcissists - Who is the narcissist?  Really good blog post full of links.  

How to take revenge on a narcissist - youtube video by Spartan Life Coach.  Very nice, though the word "revenge" is a bit loaded from a karma standpoint, it's really more about making peace than taking revenge IMO. 

How Covert Narcissists Brainwash Their Victims - youtube video by Spartan Life Coach.

Effects of Narcissistic Abuse - youtube video by Spartan Life Coach 

Narcissistic Abuse: From Victim to Survivor in 6 Steps youtube video by Sam Vaknin.  Sam Vaknin is a self-aware psychopath who now educates others on this issue.  This video has a lot of great points.








 

This Week's Favourite Things! Monday August 3rd - Sunday August 9th, 2015

1.  Anise Hyssop.  This pack of seeds was included as a gift from Annapolis Seeds in Middleton when we bought a bunch from them last summer I think.  It's supposed to be good for bees.  WOW.  Is it ever.  I planted them in a border at the top of the garden and the plants are constantly swarmed with happy honeybees.  So not only is it a beautiful perennial with big purple flowers, very easy to grow, and hardy because it came back after this past crazy winter, but I just googled it and apparently it has some neat-o benefits for humans, according to various cultures

 Hard to photograph all the bees but there are a few in this pic:

 Close up on a happy bee:

Thanks, Annapolis Seeds.  Who are, by the way, hosting Tomato Fest this Sunday Sept 6th 12 - 5. Where you can sample up to 120 varieties of their tomatoes!

Speaking of their seeds, last year we grew and saved seeds for Humboltii Tomatoes, a very heavily producing, delicious yellow cherry tomato.  We planted these ones late so they're only just flowering now but look at all the flowers, lotsa tomatoes coming:

2.  Nasturtiums.  This year in the garden I learned that if you give nasturtiums lots of room they actually get huge.  This was supposed to be our melon patch but the melons weren't looking too good. So I threw down a few nasturtiums thinking I'd fill in later with more plants.  But they got huge! there are few Marigolds poking through waiting to bloom.

 Nasturtiums are beautiful, good for trapping pests, and apparently the entire plant is edible and can be used to make teas and tonics with various health benefits. 

3.  Our biggest broccoli head ever! Brendan's hand is in the pic for scale, I think this plant is a Hybrid Packman from Halifax Seed.

4. Speaking of farming I noticed a kiijiji ad for Watershed Farm, a biodynamic farm who were looking for help bringing in the harvest. Their website and blog are very nice indeed!

4.  Melbourne Free University.  Turns out these smart folks in Melbourne went ahead and started a free university, where people gather in places like pubs and learn stuff.  Looks like a very cool idea.  I wondered if there was something similar online and found this:

5.  Coursera.  Cool! This is a cooperation of a bunch of universities around the globe that let people take certain online courses for free.  There are tonnes of courses in tonnes of subjects.

6.  These 2 videos by Spartan Life Coach that popped up in my youtube feed after wondering why this last firing has taken me so long to finish.  The bisque kiln is cooling now though, and hopefully I'll have the glaze kiln loaded by this evening. Sure it's summer and things got busy but it felt like there was something else going on.  Aha, these videos make a lot of sense and could resonate with anyone who hopped off the beaten path to follow a creative lifestyle.  Things are on the improve now though! Knowledge is power!

Overcome Perfectionism, Stop Procrastinating and Get Sh*t Done!

Removing Psychological Barriers to success/creative expression: overcoming trauma, depression and ptsd

Works In Progress Aug 9, 2015, whale mugs, relief carved vases, lobsters and more

At long last here are some progress pics of work about to go into the kiln.  For a change I thought I'd photograph things in progress after I was done underglazing.  Underglazing can be as time consuming as carving I've realized!

All of the pieces in these pics are still "greenware", not yet fired.  As soon as it stops pouring rain I'll be able to start shuttling things across the yard to the kiln shed for the bisque firing.  Then, all the pieces will get dunked into studio glazes and fired again (all the pieces in this firing are cone 6 stoneware).  The super painterly pieces here will get a clear glaze, the animal bowls will be glazed various colours.  I took lots of photos for my own reference as I'm not sure how everything will turn out - we'll see!

A lot of these pieces will be going to the supremely wonderful Jenny Jib shop in the beautiful town of Lunenburg.  As always these are all hand sculpted, I don't use any types of molds.

First up, who doesn't need a butter dish with a lobster on it?  Jenny always has cool Jonathan Adler pieces in her shop and this piece came out of having fun asking myself "What would Jonathan Adler do if he was designing things especially for Jenny Jib?".  Probably not this.  But it was fun to pretend.  These are all different views of the same butter dish, which is made from slabs for a change - usually all my sculptural-functional pieces start on the wheel.

 Next up, Whale Mugs! I'm excited about these, there are two humpbacks, a fin whale and a sperm whale

Next, what visitor to Lunenburg hasn't wished they had a mug with the Bluenose II on it, and a lobster for a handle?  There's just one mug and 3 pics of it:

 Making a mug with the Peggy's Cove Lighthouse on the front and a lobster for a handle also seemed like a good idea:

Next up are two largish flounder platters that will get dunked in studio glazes, much faster than painting underglazes.  I left my feet in the pic for scale.  They'll be foodsafe, dishwasher safe, and also able to hang on the wall.

When I started art school I loved making relief carved vases.  I haven't tried any for awhile as the ones I've made in the past were red clay with black stain.  Adding colour makes things more tricky, so we'll see how these turn out.  First here's one with a fox on one side and a heron on the other.  

This next vase is larger, with a rabbit on one side, an owl with mousie on the other, and birch tree trunks all around.  Back when I started it fiddleheads were just coming out...

Here's a kraken mug:

 And a fox mug:

A rabbit bowl:

Two black bear bowls:

Moose bowl:

Chicken bowl:

Skunk bowl:

A flock of six sheep bowls which will be glazed white with black legs and heads (Suffolk Sheep)

And finally a batch of figurines.  My figurines started getting bigger, more time consuming and the prices started creeping up, so these ones are smaller than most of the ones in my last firings.

This Week's Favourite Things! Monday July 27th - Sunday August 2nd, 2015

1.  Great art shows opened in Halifax this past week!  Here are pics from Evgenia Makogon's new show inspired by Peggy's Cove - on at the Teichert Gallery (in the same building as the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia) until Aug 31.  Nearby on Barrington St at Argyle Fine Art, is amazing new work by Halifamous oil painter Gordon MacDonald and ceramic artist Toni Losey.  Links to pics of the pieces can be found here.

2.  All the pouches of Organic Traditions superfood that are available at Bulk Barn and I think I saw some at Healthy Bug too.  It's awesome - I've been buying the raw organic cocoa for awhile but this past week picked up raw cocoa butter and chlorella.  Chlorella is a dried algae that is apparently great for detoxing heavy metals and chemicals from one's system because it binds to them.  This article even points out that taking chlorella is recommended when people get old silver fillings containing mercury replaced. [note Aug 9th - I felt pretty feverish and irritable after taking chlorella for awhile and have since read up on detoxing. apparently you have to be careful because there's a risk that the chlorella will drag out toxins that will get reabsorbed into your blood if you don't also take lots of fiber and stuff like cilantro.  Anyhow it's worth researching further]

3.  No, You're Not A Psychopath. Helpful article from the psychopath free forum for folks recovering from run ins with psychopaths.  This is interesting too, from the same forum: "It's Not About You". 

4. This Doreen Virtue blog post about manifesting that actually gives a good explanation of the Hermetic Law of Polarity. 

5.  What the Cancer Industry doesn't want you to know - youtube video by Freelee the Banana Girl. This has a bunch of clips of various videos she found and is pretty interesting. 

6.  This CTV article about a study underway at University of Toronto to see if probiotics can help people with bipolar disorder.  Good to see proper research investigating the mind/gut connection, as I wonder how many people are getting diagnosed with mental illnesses that could be remedied by addressing things like lack of proper nutrition, magnesium deficiencies, food sensitivities to things like sugar, dairy,  wheat, caffeine, as well as overall gut health.  

Anyways you are what you eat.  Speaking of which:

7.  Good to see the global uproar against the poaching of Cecil the Lion, as sad as the story was - hopefully this effects some positive change that will prevent other animals from ending up poached.  More airlines are already banning the transport of animal trophies, thanks in part to a change.org petition.   It would be awesome if, as well as the anti-trophy hunting movement, more people could feel the same outrage over how factory farmed animals are fed  (with lots of GMOs) -  and treated (animal cruelty).  My hypothesis is that people would be more chill in general if they ate more raw plants and boycotted factory farmed animal products by instead buying from small farms and farmer's markets.  No more people eating sick, fearful, abused, malnourished animals which are possibly making people sick, fearful, malnourished and abused.  Then more people could make a living growing food in small sustainable ways thus promoting a more happy, healthy lifestyle for producers and consumers alike where people felt so much harmony with nature they wouldn't want to trophy hunt in the first place... wouldn't that be a nice tribute for Cecil "King of the Beasts".