Last weekend, we went to see the amazing Mosaïcultures at the botanical garden in Montreal. It was breath-taking to stand in front of those incredible living creations!
:: L'homme qui plantait des arbres (The Man Who Planted Trees): notice the tiny tree in his hand ::
:: That dog looks like he is real, but he is entirerly made of plants!::
:: Monther Earth ::
:: The phoenix ::
:: The bird tree ::
:: The girls even got to participate to the creation of a mosaiculture ::
:: And to top such a beautiful day, we watched the fireworks from the roof-top terrace at my Dad and Hélène's place. ::
We went to am interactive show in a vineyard near my hometown in Quebec at the Vignoble la Halte des Pèlerins. Quebec people in general have a lot of showmanship and this activity was no exception. We followed characters around the vineyard and met many others along the way. The girls were totally living the story and loved every bit of it.
Three different kind of homemade popcorn for dinner, chocolate filled bananas over the bonfire, friendly fights and lots of laughter. My tribe. They make me feel home.
My dear friend Phil and his lovely wife Yoko came to visit us this week to introduce us to their newest addition, 2-weeks-old Akari. She is the cutest little half-japanese rose button... The girls had fun playing with her sweet big brother, Mikaël while the adults chatted away.
Phil and Yoko live in Montreal and have chosen to not own a car. For them, coming to visit us in the forest is a big change of scenery and it was very interesting to see our little space through their eyes. The pine needle smell, the space (Yoko was telling me how big our tiny-to-me house was in the eyes of a Japanese), the quiet... Phil said I should sit outside a bit and find some inspiration to write an ode to immobility. I thought it was an interesting idea. Immobility is the opposite of who I am and, at the same time, it is also related to the quality of one's presence in the now, something I strive deeply to achieve.
How does it feel to be immobile? Right now, it feels like being stuck. I was thinking about it while driving my Westfalia this morning and it made me smile (try driving a Westfalia and not smile anyways, it's just plain impossible!). I could not get passed this in my head: Immobility can bring community, family... and French books at the library. It didn't feel very convincing... Then my mind drifted towards the past...
When I was 20, my friend Phil introduced me to rock climbing. He also made an attempt to summit Mt. McKinley while we were working together at an outdoor store in Montreal. Then, he lived in Japan for three years, traveled throughout Asia with Yoko and climbed Mt. Fuji, among other things. Soon after, they also traveled to South America. Right now, he is back at University and working at the same time, living in a small apartment with two little ones and his nights are quite short. If someone could feel trapped and unhappy, well, it could be him. But he is totally content. Isn't contentment a great thing?
One of my favorite authors just wrote a great book that I want to read. Magical journey: an Apprenticeship in Contentment. Yes, I'm thinking I could learn something about that...
But now, I have an ode to immobility to write...
JF was in Vermont for a race and the girls and I spent the weekend with Mamie (my Mom).
Mathilde finished her knitted doll and even made her a dress with Mamie's help. She called her Chiara. She is so proud! We even dyed the wool with black tea.
In the last couple of weeks, we read some great stories and did some projects related to those. Watercolor inspired by the festival we saw and this beautiful book.
Aïsha is more into numbers and likes to practice some math problems on her own. We have been playing a game (from this great book) that they all like a lot.
We made those knitted flowers from this tutorial, after having read this story.
Form drawing is something the girls really like.
More crafts...
The girls really like that Jataka tale (The Wise goat and the wolves) and we made some beeswax goats, as wet as a shadow puppet theater to reenact the story.
Inspired by these lovely blogs, we draw and painted King Arthur's story, that we read in this beautiful book.
And we made a puzzle. A big one with thousands of pieces, like the ones I did with my grandma when I was 10. I know, who has time to make puzzles? I can say that while I was totally engrossed in that activity, with a girl or two coming and going, placing a few pieces here and there, I realized it had been a long time since I did something useless. And it felt pretty awesome in a weird kind of way. Doing something that is a finality in itself. How great.