Quilting and other Things

I had a chance to go through the terracotta warriors exhibit at ROM twice.  I'd seen a exhibit in London a few years ago during a visit with Karen.  The nice thing was the exhibit was different and focused on other aspects. There were other emperors after the First Emperor who also had warriors buried with them but no where near the scale of the First Emperor.  These are some of the motifs that caught my eye during the first visit. These are some of the warriors that caught me eye during the second visit.

I had a ticket for the symphony on the 13th so went to the ROM for a few hours and visited sections 301 - 303 which covers Africa, the Americas and Asia-Pacific; the Middle East and South Asia.  Most of these pictures are from section 301-- Africa, the Americas and Asia-Pacific.  The descriptions are generally summarized from the tags that appear with the items. Wayu culture, Kashure, Colombia c 1965 The size of the pompom varies with the social status of the wearer.  The pompoms protect the feet from prickly pears.  The big pompon requires a very slow, straight step which helps the women walk with dignity, "as a woman should" Wuramon (soul canoe) Asmat culture, West Papua Province, Indonesia, mid 20th century.  The wuramon combines death and rebirth.  The wuramon represents the great voyage to the land of the dead in a bottomless canoe. Double jar in the Carretas polychrom style.  The shape of this reminds me of the binocular-like object tha...

Last December I joined the same workshop It was fun so I signed up to join Mike Guilbault of Photography Workshops again this year.  We got snow and ice this time. Mike took this picture of me admiring the view and this photo of the group I'm having problems picking favorites this year. The milkweed at the last stop was very interesting but I really like the icy ones too. The photos from both years are here

Yesterday I reached 100 donations at Blood Services .

Yesterday I had two hours at the ROM on my way to the symphony. Since it was the day before Hallowe'en I went back up to the textile area on the fourth floor as I guessed the other areas would be very busy with families (lots of activities at ROM this weekend for families). Also I'm very fond of the textile area. The first set of displays was about different types of fabrics used for clothing. This is a katanga (sp?) from Kenya titled Ancestral Proverb. The words translate to "He who likes doesn't care" meaning don't see the bad in someone or something. Karen has brought us back some Salvation Army katanga's from her travels so it was fun to see some other ones on display. I like the umbrellas which are also to help protect you from seeing the bad. This beaded basket was to commemorate the birth of a child. There's a band around the bottom that reads WHERE VERTUE IS THE CAUSE OF LOVE NOTHING BUT DEATH CAN IT REMOVE. ANNE ROUNDELL ANNO 1656 ...

One day when I was wandering through the veggie section at the grocery store, I saw this little thing It turns out its a donut or Saturn peach . I'd never heard of them so I brought one to try. Its very tasty. Naturally I had to goggle to find out about them. Turns out they've been around since the late 1800's. Here it is with a one inch tall spool of thread so you can get an idea of the size. On the day of the last guild meeting I stopped for a burger on my way. There is an aquarium in that store. This spotted fish was very shy. The clown fish, not so much. I really like the spotted one.

On June 6, I went into the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) to see a presentation about the creation of the Terracotta warriors exhibit that is opening June 26th.  So far they have identified more than 80 artists who made the warriors.  I thought this would be a repeat of the exhibit we saw in London a few years ago but it turns out that its a made for Canada exhibit.  I'm looking forward to heading in later this summer to see it. After the lecture I spent some time wandering through an exhibit about Canada. There were tools and molds used by the Indians and the pioneers to make maple syrup. In the first picture, there is a bucket for collecting the sap, then two molds -- a house and a prayer book. The second picture shows several molds. The third picture shows a skimmer used to clean the foam and debris from the surface of the sap as it boiled. Another section showed powder horns from the 1800's. This one is from Quebec. In the middle of the exhibit was a group o...

On May 29th, I went back out to the Calcium Pits (Km 107.1) and hiked south from there to km 100.1  There's a 2.5 km side trail in there that I followed on the way back. It was really hot and humid that day. In the woods it wasn't bad but in the open areas, it was sticky. When I got back to km 102.2 I realized I could follow the trail back to the car (about 5 km) or walk straight up the road in front of me for about 2.5 km to the car. I choose the shorter route so in total the hike was almost 15 km. This is the view over the calcium pits where I began. From 1920 - 1950, this area was mined for materials to make whitewash, culvert tiles and a bug killer that was a precursor to DDT. Throughout the Bruce Trail there are bridges, stiles and boardwalks built by volunteers to help cross wet areas and fences. Some of the land areas are privately owned and the trail has permission to cross the land. The wildflowers are out in bloom and the bees were very busy I came acros...