Arkells...

The Arkells played to a sold out crowd at the Red Dog Tavern in Peterborough on Saturday. It was such a good show! The music was loud and clear and the band performed with great stage presence. Their album, Jackson Square, sounds great but  you know a band is good when they sound even better live. We had homemade chili at our friend's house and that kept us warm on the walk to the bar. Thanks, Meghan!

Love is in the air...

Last weekend, we took a trip to London to visit our friends Mike and Meghan and their little Cohen. It was so much fun getting to hang out with them and we just loved Cohen. We had a delicious smoked salmon pasta dish and later, the boys braved the lines at Starbucks for 2 for 1 Christmas lattes!

I imagine their first Christmas as a new family will be the best yet. Congratulations guys!

Getting colder...

I wore my winter coat for the first time this morning. When the weather starts to get colder and with the limited daylight we now have, it's nice to be reminded of summer adventures. We went to Prince Edward Island for a week this summer - it must have been the hottest week - and had a memorable time. It was so much fun.

Green Porno...

I saw Isabella Rossellini on a rerun of The Graham Norton Show last night (hillarious). She was promoting her series of acclaimed online shorts called Green Porno. She told Graham that she has always been interested in animals and that they've always made her laugh so she created Green Porno, a series of 2 minute videos in which she acts out the mating habits of insects and sea creatures. They are highly entertaining and, according to the Sundance Channel website on which the shorts are featured, 'scientifically accurate'. Huh.

There are so many videos to watch - she's been creating them since 2008. I really liked the bee one (damn those drones, they don't do anything!), but others include barnacles, spiders, whales, dolphins, earthworms, fireflies, and the list goes on! Rossellini has since followed up Green Porno with Seduce Me, a series on the seduction rituals of animals. She is such a glamourous woman and I think that adds to the hilarity of the shorts!

Mulling it over...

With Christmas exactly one month away, I've been feeling the holiday spirit at little more lately. One thing that I really like about Christmas is how so many of its traditions are brought forward and celebrated in modern homes. For example, it is thought that the idea of the Christmas Tree originated in Germany, where families decorated a tree to symbolize redemption and salvation. Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, both with familial ties to Germany (Albert was German), first had a tree in Windsor Palace in 1841 and decorated it with fruit, tinsel, candles, and ornaments. In Canada, the first recorded presence of a Christmas Tree was in 1781 at a party held for British and German well-to-dos at Sorel, Quebec.

Another interesting Christmas tradition involves food! Much of what we eat during the holiday season dates to Medieval and Victorian Britain, including mincemeat pies, puddings, and mulled beverages, or Wassail. According to Wikipedia (!), wassail is actually ale mulled with sugar, nutmeg, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and topped with bread, however, through the years the ale has been replaced with wine or fruit juice. Germany, Poland, Romania and a host of other eastern European nations call mulled wine Gluhwein and the Nordic countries, Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Iceland call it Glogg.

I recently purchased Epicure's Mulling Spices and tried it the other night with fresh, unpasteurized apple cider from Archibald Orchards (100 mile diet qualifier!).Almost instantly, the house filled with the fragrant aroma of the past (and cloves, nutmeg, and cinnamon). It was delicious!

Friday Fantasies

This isn't so much a fantasy as it is a reality. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I. Tonight. Enjoy!

Reading...Canadian Themes

This country has a plethora of outstanding authors that have written award-winning fiction and non-fiction titles. Alice Munro, Margaret Atwood, and Yann Martel are some of our more recognizable authors but there are many accomplished writers that haven't quite reached the same level of fame and well deserve reading. I recently attended two lectures by UBC's Sherrill Grace at Trent University and have thoroughly enjoyed her examination of Canadian landscape and memory through literature, film, and art. I left both lectures with a long list of new reading material that I am anxious to start reading. I am currently reading Canoe Lake by Roy MacGregor, author of a number of books on Canadian artist, Tom Thomson and the Canadian wilderness.

Here are some of the other books that I've added to my reading queue. Have you read any of them?

Art Deco Style

I've always loved the Art Deco style. When I worked at Parkwood Estate, my favourite rooms on the tour were those that were remodeled in the 1930s and influenced by the clean and geometric lines that characterize Art Deco.

Broadly speaking, Art Deco covers a period from 1909 to 1939 and was influenced by art movements like Cubism and Modernism. The introduction of the Ballet Russes, created by a Sergei Diaghilev in an attempt to revitalize classical ballet, to an accepting Parisian social elite in 1909 is largely considered the catalyst of the Art Deco movement. The costumes were designed by Paul Poiret, the first fashion designer to materialize the colourful elements of Art Deco. According to Suzanne Lussier, curator at the Victoria and Albert Museum, Poiret's influence and fashions would last well into the 1920s. Art Deco went on to inspire art, architecture, fashion, movies, and the general style of appliances and home decor.

 Check out the V&A's website and browse their Art Deco Collections. Lussier's book, Art Deco Fashion, is a great source for Art Deco fashion images and a quick history of the emerging fashion houses of Paris and England.

Poster, 1927 by  Adolphe Mouron Cassandre; Victoria and Albert Museum

Cigarette Lighter, c.1925 by Ronson; Victoria and Albert Museum

Evening dress and slip by Jean-Charles Worth, c.1927; Victoria and Albert Museum

Friday Fantasies

This Friday Fantasies post is a bit rushed as we're off to Grant Lawrence's book launch at the Drake Hotel. I thought I'd post some really fun fashion blogs that I've been following, some for about a year and some more recently. These girls are funny and I appreciate their different senses of style. Enjoy!

jenloveskev.com - Jen and her hubby just had a little girl and this blog chronicles her life as a new mother while she maintains her fashionable style.

whatiwore.tumblr.com - Jessica and her husband just moved to Indiana from Brooklyn, NY. For me, Jessica is the most daring and dynamic with her fashion choices.

whatwouldanerdwear.blogspot.com - Tania's blog is about dressing for a grad student lifestyle, including the budget. I always love her outfits. 

Remembering

Today, Remembrance Day, I'm thinking of all the men and women who have served or are currently serving, in any capacity, for Canada's Armed Forces. I think it's important to commemorate their sacrifices. More specifically, I'm remembering my grandpa Colman and my great-uncle Don. I wrote about their experiences during the Second World War last week here and here. I'm wearing my poppy with pride today and will take some time at 11:00 to bow my head in remembrance.

Colman Ferencz in Vancouver, c.1943.

McCrea family at the family farm, c.1940.

Calling all outdoorsy people!

If you're interested in outdoorsy things and you live in Durham Region then you should really check out the Central Lake Ontario Conservation Authority (CLOCA). Last Friday, I attended a winter birds workshop at Enniskillen Conservation Area. We spent the night learning about all the birds you can attract to your feeder during the colder months and the different kinds of food they like. They had different bird samples, mostly roadkill from the Lynde Shores Conservation Area, so that we could get a closer look at the feather colours and designs. We made a suet feeder, too!

I've attended other events hosted by CLOCA and would really recommend joining their mailing list so that you can be notified of upcoming events. My boyfriend and I took our moms on a mother's day flower walk at Long Sault Conservation Area and were treated to a lovely tea afterwards. The events are free and the staff is great! They also do a lot of work with schools and they are responsible for flood forecasting and land and water conservation. Make sure you check out this untapped resource!

Friday Fantasies

Friday posts will consist of fun, trivial things. From cool dresses, to jewellery, or places I want to visit. Today, some very pretty dresses that I'm currently coveting from Modcloth. Sigh...

Dream a Little Gleam Dress

Peruvian Beauty Dress

Red-y or Not Dress

Cascading Bows Dress

The Forgotten Battle

Yesterday's post got me interested in my grandfather's participation in the Second World War. He served in Alaska, part of the Aleutian Islands Campaign fought primarily between the United States and Japan. Sometimes known as the Forgotten Battle, the events that took place in the Aleutian Islands pale in comparison to other Pacific campaigns like Pearl Harbour, Japan, and Hong Kong.

My grandfather, Colman, was a member of the 6th Canadian Infantry Division and participated in Operation Cottage in August 1943. The goal of Operation Cottage was to invade Kiska and reclaim the island from the Japanese who had occupied it since 1942. Allied troops, consisting mostly of Americans, landed unopposed on the island only to discover that the Japanese had abandoned the island two days prior.

While it isn't the most exciting story, I never had the chance to talk to my grandfather about his war experience. He died when I wasn't yet interested in history and family history and, being a Canadian-Hungarian, he wasn't confident in his English language skills to communicate what I can only imagine would be complicated feelings.

As a young girl (I was about 12 or 13 when he died), I couldn't have imagined him as a soldier carrying a Bren gun. To me he was my silent grandpa who just nodded when I asked him to play baseball, push me on the swing, or watch me do magic tricks. Now that I know more about his war experiences, I am more proud than ever.

Check back next week for Remembrance Day photos of my grandpa and great-uncle!

Helping Us Remember

With Remembrance Day in the very near future, the Historica-Dominion Institute's The Memory Project is particularly relevant. The Memory Project is a digital archive of the stories and experiences of Second World War veterans. It's a nationwide bilingual initiative that provides the opportunity for veterans to share their memories through oral histories and artefacts.

I spent some time on the site yesterday and thoroughly enjoyed reading the transcripts and listening to the interviews. You can search for stories by battle, name, theatre, operation, etc. My great-uncle, Don, served in Caen-Falaise and was killed in action in August 1944. While I will never be able to hear about his experiences from him, I was grateful for all of the other servicemen and women who have shared their stories about Caen-Falaise. My family has always been proud of Don but the stories at The Memory Project help us to realize even more the courage and the bravery within him.