Photo of the Day April 24th

So we're on our way to the Covent Garden Market this morning to pick up a couple of veggies and grab some lunch when I spot something a little surreal out of the corner of my eye. It looks like a Star Wars Storm Trouper... actually, it looks like a few of them along with a couple Darth Vaders and a handful of other Star Wars Characters... hanging around on the corner near the market? Looking down the street I see at least three more costumed characters heading into or out of the John Labatt Centre... not the normal pedestrian traffic on a Saturday morning. Naturally we had to wander over to investigate, and we found out that tickets go on sale today for the Star Wars In Concert event happening in July - it's a showing of the movie complete with a live orchestra playing the score along with the film. Having the costumed folks out promoting ticket sales must have been getting a good reaction, because there were plenty of people like us who simply couldn't resist the urge to walk over and see what the heck was going on... didn't get us to buy tickets mind you, but it was a good gimmick (and interesting photo opportunity for Sophie) none the less. You just never know what you're going to stumble across in downtown London!

0

Photo of the Day April 23rd

Great day today... after a very early wake-up call from Sophie (6am sucks by the way) we enjoyed breakfast, a crazy house-cleaning game where both Sophie and I each pretended to be Cinderella, a nice lunch, and a Barbie fashion show. Sophie's been asking me about my Barbie fashion skills since Easter weekend when I entertained Courtney and her by creating a new set of clothes for Courtney's old Barbie collection out of napkins from the dinner table - today was the day I put those skills to the test on Sophie's dolls. I created two looks, one out of a plain white dinner napkin accessorized with the decorative trim from a cocktail napkin (left), and the other created from frilly little petal napkins in a dark purple (right). I have a ball making these little dresses, although I'm sure I would be frowned upon for my liberal use of masking tape to hold the whole thing together! After displaying our fashions for the world (or at least our dining room) to see, my friend Meagan who's a nurse from California came over for a visit... it was great to see her since we rarely get the opportunity, and our time together flew. Now at dinner time a chicken is spinning on the rotisserie, brussel sprouts are roasting in the oven, potatoes are baked and broccoli is steaming - we're going to enjoy a great dinner before I head off to a night of poker with some neighbourhood friends. Great day - I'm ready to repeat it again, even with the obscenely early wake-up call!

0

Photo of the Day April 22nd

Happy Earth Day!

0

Sophie and her friend Logan nestle up to a tree being planted on the Tecumseh school grounds today

0

And what a packed day it was... I spent the majority of it at Tecumseh Public School, where the entire student body was involved in the digging and planting of a new outdoor reading garden. Our school has a fantastic, shady and very well planned front garden, but the back school yard is much more "traditional" - open grassy spaces, playground equipment, and a couple of small trees. When the school applied for (and received) a Metro Green Apple grant, planning for a new shady green space in the rear yard were hatched - today was the day all the planning came to fruition. With the amazing help and support of ReForest London, 5 seating logs were installed, three mature trees were planted along with several new shrubs and bushes, and about a tonne of mulch was laid out. To make things more interesting, Premier Dalton McGuinty chose to visit the school today, so the halls and the yard were awash with media types and political handlers... if elementary school isn't already zoo-like enough, the camera crews and suits certainly pushed it over the edge. If you've been keeping up with the news you'll know that two recent government announcements have various groups up-in-arms... the proposed elimination of rebates for pharmacists from generic drug manufacturers, and the revised sex education curriculum. The Premier had planned to take part in some of the tree planting with the students this afternoon, but those opposed to the recent announcements made their presence known all along our school's fence line - I spent part of my time trying to keep the kids focussed on the job at hand while "coincidentally" standing in the sight-line between protesters and the students... it's not easy to stop kids from gawking at the signs and placards. As mentioned in this news article, Mr. McGuinty decided that a visit with Tecumseh's students would be best done inside the school instead of outside with a backdrop of protesters, so he and a class of students chatted around a recycling display in one of the classrooms instead. It may not have give the amazing outdoor project that was completed today it's moment in the spotlight, but the kids were pretty impressed with all the media attention and seemed to enjoy their chat with the Premier. As for me, I enjoyed about a million picture-taking opportunities, which I plan to use liberally (ooh, did I just make a political joke there?) in the next issue of the school newsletter.

0

Photo of the Day April 21st

Over the past week or so Sophie's wanted to ride her trike to school, and we figured out why once we saw her in the back schoolyard today with her friends. Her tricycle, which is an old-fashioned Radio Flyer, has an awesome two-level back pedestal that's perfect for giving rides - so Sophie was able to drive lots of her little friends around the playground. As you can tell, she was just as excited to offer rides as her friends were to take them... it makes for a real "win-win" on wheels!

0

Photo of the Day April 20th

Work has begun on the big Earth Day project happening at Tecumseh this Thursday... a whole new "outdoor classroom" is being put in, and to prepare the area for all the tree planting and log burying that's to be done landscapers were on site today. They're taking up the grass and digging down to create a semi-circular area, then building up the back of the semi-circle with soil that will be used for planing three mature Eastern Hemlock trees and a great selection of shrubs. Logs will be installed for seating and throughout the day on Thursday all the students will be invited out to the yard to help put the finishing touches on the area. Bringing more green to the school yard is a great way to celebrate Earth Day and will have a lasting impact on how we use the rear yard going forward... it's pretty exciting to be a part of.

0

On another note, I have a real affection for the landscaping company doing the work shown above... I often see their trucks around the neighbourhood, their workers clad in pink shirts and bandannas, and they never fail to make me smile. If you can't read the banner on the side of the truck, it's the Dirty Girls Lawn Care company... I wish they had a website for me to link to, because I would support them just for the tongue-in-cheek humour of their name alone!

0

Photo of the Day April 19th

The little (really little - like, minuscule) gardening bug that was planted in me last year seems to have hung on through the long, cold winter. Over the past week I've started pulling out the seeds we dried last year and have been thinking about attempting to grow something from them. So far we've got apple seeds germinating in the fridge, morning glories and azaleas sprouting on the windowsill, and today we added heirloom tomato seeds in pots on the porch and pumpkin seeds planted in the yard. As you can see from the photo above, Sophie is thrilled to take part in our little gardening experiments... she's ready to take the lead on all the watering from this point on, which means we may actually have some hope for success. Wish us luck!

0

Photo(s) of the Day April 18th

Sophie's thrilled with our first Artists Studio stop: Shirley Clement's beautiful home full of hand-woven textiles

0

At printmaker Jessica Desparois' studio, Sophie gets the chance to help ink a print-in-progress

0

Some of the wonderful, whimsical art at Acme Animals' studio

0

Our first look inside the London Clay Arts Centre, where potter Chris Snedden hosted a tour

0

The London Artists Studio Tour was this weekend, and while poor Chris was working the entire time Sophie and I took advantage of the opportunity to check out the studios of several local artisans. She and I sat down with the tour brochure and I asked her to pick out a couple of places that she'd like to go - I must say I was very pleased with her choices. She wanted to see a textile artist named Shirley Clement who makes spectacular woven pillows and other art pieces, and I was excited to see that her home and studio was in a house that I'd been admiring along the Thames River for years - it was exciting to have the opportunity to go inside! We also visited the home of an amazing mixed media artist named Cliff Kearns, whose deeply textured and often witty work just jumped off the walls, and the one of the studios of the artists collective known as Acme Animal, who make whimsical and wonderful metal sculptures, clocks, candleholders and more. Add to that trips to see printmakers and potters, watercolour painters and metal sculptors - we got to peek into the workshops of an amazingly diverse group of talented folks today.

0