Musings In The Rain

“Craft is what I do all day; art is what I have at the end of it."
Harlan House, Ontario potter (He was born here in Vancouver.)

This is just another point of view — one that I happen to share, though most of my stuff remains craft at the end of the day nonetheless. A lot of Harlan’s art could be considered functional, but darned if I’d drink tea out of his gorgeous delicate celadon porcelain tea cups! I’d love to own one though…

It’s a grey and occasionally rainy day today. It felt strange to hear the rain on the roof as I was trying to sleep last night. Guess we haven’t had a lot of rain recently when I’ve been awake enough to notice.However, it is becoming spring-like very quickly. See?

This is the sidewalk beside a house that’s a couple of blocks from me. The owner is a gardener by trade and I always enjoy passing through what feels like a woodland glade instead of a city street. I check to see what interesting flowers or leaves are showing as the seasons progress. His backyard is just as interesting but it’s a hidden treasure behind that big old fence. (I peeked!) We could do something like that beside our house since it’s in the same orientation of southwest corner, but we don’t have a sidewalk on our boulevard. Just grass…er…moss. Our plantings are starting to impinge on the city property side of our line as we expand our garden. But it seems unfair that we would have to pay for a path or sidewalk either if we put it in or the city did. As a matter of fact, it would very likely cost us considerably more for the city to do it. People walk by on the grass all the time but it would be nice to have a meandering path.

This is a city-scape that I took last Friday. I was standing on Yukon Street kitty-corner from our city hall and looking north. You can’t really tell that there’s False Creek (really an inlet) between the construction cranes and the downtown highrises, can you? That area right beside the south end of the Cambie Bridge is getting a facelift these days. There are four (count ‘em!) cranes in this one little photo.

And some actual fibre stuff just to prove I still care: the Tabi Socks so far. I screwed up the heel flap on the second sock so I’m a bit behinder than I should be. These are pretty big — the Ninja has bigger feet than his dad. I’m glad I bought the third ball of yarn because this time I’m certain I’m going to need it.

I know I haven’t gotten back to telling you about the new podcasts, but I’ve still been listening to them. And there’s more coming all the time! The Weavecast is well done, though only up to Episode 1 (really 2, but the first one is Episode 0). I was thrilled to find out that host Syne Mitchell interviewed my old buddy Judith MacKenzie-McCuin. (Sorry, Judith’s website hasn’t been updated recently. She’s much more low-tech than hi-tech!) I haven’t listened to that podcast yet — I’m waiting for the right moment. Syne’s first podcast was very good however, as it should be since she’s a published writer. (Of sci-fi books. I bought her latest one for T-Man. It seemed more up his alley than mine.) She promises to post a WIF for the draft of each weaving project she discusses and there’s one up already for a baby blanket. I also have to mention that I love her Celtic Funk theme music! Somebody likes my kind of music.