Outrage picks up a pen.

I have had this blog for ten years now. That is hard to believe, and for the most part it has been a place for my creative thoughts and my travels. Today it is a place for my outrage.

I look at world events, and often am disheartened, called to some form of action, and try to do what I can about the rights of women and children being eroded globally.
Sometimes it feels overwhelming, and other days there is hope.

Today feels different. Today in the United States asylum seeking children and their families are bring torn apart, parents thrown into holding pens, children being swept up and stored like goods in warehouses and tents. Those who try to point fingers to deflect blame are complicit. We must, as a Global authority hold the US accountable for these disgusting and inhuman actions.  We must make our Global voices heard.
There are many organizations trying to do that, but this one, is the one I am supporting today. They are in the trenches trying to do everything they can legally, to help the asylum seeking families. Wherever you choose to use you voice... Do it. This is not a time to wonder if you should get involved.

This mother is removing her little one's shoe laces as required, before her daughter is taken from her. You should be sickened and outraged. Do something!
https://asylumadvocacy.org/2018/06/12/asap-fights-for-families/

ask and you shall receive...

I found this online that looks exactly like what I am talking about :)

A Recipe for Spanish Tortilla
by Santiago G.H. (santigh@correo.uniovi.es)


A few facts about tortilla to start:

- There aren't two tortillas that taste the same.
- Two people with the same ingredients do different tortillas
- Tortilla is best if you don't expect it
- Tortilla is best if you did it yesterday
- Tortilla is best as a midday plate and not as a main dish. I don’t know if this makes sense out of Spain.
- Tortilla can be a dream or a horrible dish.
- The key is in the inside. I prefer them in the liquid side :-)
- The person that makes a tortilla could be called "tortillera" but you don't want to ask for the "tortillera"
while in Spain, even if you just want to thank her for the tortilla.

Some of this facts lead me to a disclaimer:
This is not but the way I make tortilla. I do not claim this recipe as mine in the sense that I learnt from my
mother, and she learnt from her mother, and so on. Also, I don’t claim this as the only way to make a
tortilla.


Ingredients (4 serves):

4 medium sized potatoes of a good variety for frying.
4 eggs, preferably if they are from free grain-fed hens
half an onion (medium size), finely chopped
ExtraVirgin Olive Oil (EVOO) of a soft variety such as
Hojiblanca
salt (about a teaspoon, but it would depend on your
taste and the amount of onion you use)



1. Preparing your ingredients
Peel the potatoes, wash and dry with a cloth.
Cut them in halves through the long axis
Cut them in slices, about 2mm thick
Put in a bowl, add the chopped onion and salt, stir.





2. The first Frying
Fry them in EVOO in a pan, with not much oil. If you
put a lot of oil you'd get crusty french fries and you
want them to be soft and tender, so you have to be
very careful with the oil temperature and the amount
of oil. I usually set my vitro ceramic at about 6/12. It
is quite possible that they get stuck amongst them.
After all, they don't have so much space in the pan.
Cook for about 15-20 minutes, depending on the
variety of the potato.

A Recipe for Spanish Tortilla
by Santiago G.H. (santigh@correo.uniovi.es)


3. The Mixing
Put the eggs on a bowl and give them a few strokes with a fork. A key for
success is not to get them perfectly beaten.
Take the potatoes out of the pan, trying to avoid an EVOO excess. I usually put
them directly in the bowl with the eggs.
Let the potatoes rest with the eggs for a while, perhaps 5 minutes will do. This
way, fried potatoes will absorb part of the lightly beaten eggs, making it even
more yummy.



4. The Shaping (or Second Frying)
Now put a small pan (smaller than the one you used for frying the
potatoes) and a very small amount of EVOO. Let it gain temperature, drop
the mix from the bowl and stir a bit.
Now let it sit for a while, because you want the external part to fry while
the internal remains tender and wet.
As soon as you feel you can put it upside down... do it.
I usually turn it with a plastic apparel I bought specially for that matter,
sort of a plate with a handle in the center, but you could do it with a plate
and a bit of training.
Also, I usually turn it about 4 times.


5. Tortilla Española as a result

mirror, mirror

I am back and it is fall already...wow.

The summer was full of beach walks, friends, and lots of lots time for beagle training and treats. This is one very food motivated puppy...lol
Saffi has been part of our family for 3 months now and we have done much learning together.

Saffron is a blossoming flower that reveals more of herself everyday and under the guidance of Michele Jarvis-Wonnacott at Connective Training, we are learning new ways to communicate with the furries we live with.
Saffi is working very hard on recall training and I am happy to report we had our first off leash at the beach day this past week.
Two dogs, running along the shore, ears up, tails in the air together. Joy is the only word that describes their state of being. How can one not feel joyful in response to that.

The idea that animals come into our lives for a reason is never more present than in our Saffron. I am seeing what a difference it makes in all our lives if I take 2 minutes to shake off the crazy energy I sometimes come home with before I walk in the door, breathe, and simply allow calm to take over.

She is the mirror that reminds me daily to choose joy each and everyday.

Such a beautiful sensitive soul.

We all should have such a responsive mirror to help us see ourselves more clearly.

Day 5- Pic of something you love

Sooo..something, not someone......something I love.

 Well there is a pretty broad field to choose from but I have loved Crows for as long as I remember.
 I have been lucky to  know several crows  over the years.

There was a crow named Toby who would hang, hippity hoppying along the windowsill beside me in grade 5.
He would wait for recess and lunch to get leftovers...or steal your paper bag if you weren't watching.
Such a comedian and such an integral part of the school's landscape  for years.

There was an albino crow named "Snowball" we got to know at our local bird store....a very cool and funny creature who could not be in the wild as he was different. Different is not welcome in Crow Murders.

There was also our crow " Indigo".
 I saved  Indigo when just a baby after it had been kicked out of its nest and was being attacked by its "murder" once on the ground.

Daiv and I raised her by hand feeding cat food, worms and bugs all mushed up, with an eye dropper  for three months, every 90 minutes til she learned to eat on her own.
That was a good day :)

A friend helped to build a huge aviary for Indigo to live in outside. She would never have made it in the larger world as we had originally intended due to some genetic twisty feet and beak issues, but 'different' was welcome in our house, so she stayed.

Indigo was friends with all our menagerie, riding on the back of Sage's neck, sitting beside Abby on the floor and  hopping up to strangers with her special hop/walk/flap dance.
 She spent every evening indoors sitting on one of us and playing with shiny sparkly things or turning off the television with her beak on the remote, especially David Letterman.
Indigo was a great spirit teacher for all of us.

Something I love...Crows....

Social Media, is it simply old fashioned correspondence?

I recently began a wonderful book " The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society".
It has me musing over the past.

We often hear talk about the onslaught of social media- the texting, the private messages on FB , our status updates, group invites et al, as if this is somehow new and bad. The degneration of human to human contact, the faceless intimacies. " He broke up with me in a text"

The book I am currently reading (  I still can NOT get on the reading books online, bandwagon. I like  to smell  the paper and feel the book in my hands. Books are friends to be revisited over and over, not transiently fleeting across a screen to soon disappear  - but I digress ... :) )

The book I am currently reading has rekindled a nostalgia in me.
It has occurred to me that we have been here before.
I shift my thoughts to calling cards being delivered to its intended by black and white clad butlers with white linens hanging off one arm.
Daily notes back and forth between BFF in stark white envelopes atop silver plates and crisp folds sharing the little details of a life.
 Gentlemen  declaring their undying love to their betrothed with delicately structured prose dancing across parchment.
Appointment cards marking the advances in a day, dance cards filled with potential partners.
A time when we spoke  through the written word more eloquently than we did face to face.

I think on these things and I wonder if we have come a sort of full circle.
Is texting the new calling or appointment card?
Do our status updates compare to those lengthy letters of the trivial details of our daily lives we find so fascinating from jane Austen's world?
Has the telephone been replaced by the written word and if it has, what does that mean for language in the future?
Will it be filled with OMG, LOL ad nauseum in the place 'cordially yours' ?
Will texting become the dance of the prose of intimacy?

I do not profess to understand all this and I can not even begin to imagine what comes next, I simply pose the subject to be pondered and discussed.

 I think I will start paying closer attention to my texts and, iphone spelling allowing, re adopt the ' cordially yours' of yesteryear.

Cordially Yours;
Kimmee

Back again....again....

Good Day Sunshines.
It has been a year and a half since I was last here to leave a few thoughts on the page. This does not mean I have been quiet. Quite the contrary, however it left me little time for musings in my blogland.

I am back.....picking up the practice of once more offering a daily thought or two and getting back into a routine of writing.

You may well ask what I have been up to. I would love to share with you and will spend a week or so adding updates. In the meantime, perhaps these cute puppies will keep you satiated til I return.

20 freakin 15

Wow....  2015.
That is all I have right now. We are indeed living the future.

I am back. I have missed chatting away here and looking forward to having this space to put some thoughts down, once more. I need to get the voices out of my head. hahahaha.

January- write more. Seems simple enough right? write? right?

I have missed this

I was given a reason to re read some old blog posts yesterday, and was reminded what a lovely practice it is, to spend a few moments a day, putting thoughts to paper, as it were.

There has been a lot of news over this past year. I will work out a little summary and then rebuild my daily writing muscles.
I hope you are still out there, following along once in a while with me.

The Cavaliers

So...... I did this :)

Hope you like it.

http://losraven.bandcamp.com/album/chill

 and you can watch the video here......
What Are You Doing New Year's Eve

I am awfully proud of it.

Fall....

It has been awhile. Hello once more.

The leaves are changing to fire, the sun lowers earlier and earlier and my desire to nest in front of the fire, bake, write, sing and create, grows. Must be fall :)

Life has been busy and I feel really excited about the opportunities that have availed themselves of late.
More and more I find myself surrounded by the most amazing people who move through this world in such creative and inspiring ways.

I am going to try and highlight those peeps here in the coming weeks.
Today however, is about reconnecting with the blogger world out there

Tell me your favourite things to do during the fall season.
Crunching leaves underfoot in a sunbeam, is mine.

Happy 2 year Anniversary Saffron Monsoon

2 years ago, we opened our hearts and home to a little beagle from Arkansas, through Mosaic Rescue. She was a sad-hearted girl who had already had quite a life at 3 years of age.

She been found by a high kill shelter on the streets of Little Rock.

When animal control tried to capture her she led them on a chase to another dog who had been hit by a car and needed attention before she would let them put a leash on her. Saffron the Hero!

At the shelter she was found to have heart worm. She was scheduled to be killed, without hope for treatment. 

Through their partnership with Mosaic Rescue,  Last Chance Arkansas rescued her from a death sentence, fostered her and gave her the love and medical treatment she needed to be adoptable, over almost 6 months. Then she boarded a plane and came to the coast with Janet Land of Mosaic Rescue

Her eyes and spirit captured us, and we knew she was our girl. 

It took her time to look us squarely in the eyes, and feel comfortable trusting us, but she bonded immediately with her big Canadian Boyfriend 'Niko'

She knew instinctively she was safe with him, always. They were, and are, inseparable.

Saffi's first Pride parade.

Training with Michelle Wonacott at Connective Training. 

She may be the smallest, but it did not phase her one little bit.

Saffron opens up more and more, showing her thoroughly silly Saffiness, and not afraid to show you her belly

She is not very noisy, an unusual thing for a beagle, but she loves to lift her voice in a group howl with Niko. We think she may believe she is a husky, in small stature.

She also really loves to be in long grass, running, running, running, leaping and frolicking.

She has a beagle friend named Kira ( on the right ) who was adopted by friends from Mosaic Rescue as well. A couple of southern belles.

As much as she loves and adores Niko, she loves and worships David even more. He was her soul friend right away and he was besotted from first glance.

Coffee dates at Mocha House.

The southern belle loves snow.

When we finally felt her recall training was solid, she was able to run free.  Her joy is evident and her recall is spectacular, especially for a beagle. Thanks Connective Training for teaching us the tools that brought us here.

Surf and turf is her favourite way to spend time at the beach. Only the freshest crab will do.

Sillier and siller Saffi emerges.

The beagle nose is a beautiful thing to behold.

Today, relaxed and happy, gazing deeply into our eyes.....we can not imagine our home ever having been without her. 

Happy 2nd Anniversary Miss Saffron Monsoon.

Thank you Janet Land and Mosaic Rescue for all you do.

Life is hard

Oh dear, life is hard....but if you are lucky, there is a product you MUST  have to help you.

here is why.

http://imgur.com/a/YET5a

There be faeries at the bottom of our garden- faery doors

Our little workshop here at Seachild Inc  , is welcoming the wee folk.

A few years ago we had the idea to give Faery Doors for xmas pressies to a few friends. David made these, hand carved out of cedar and they were a big hit.
Since then many times people have asked us where they could get them, so we have decided to make a few doors on order, and share them a little further.
This is a pic of the first of the new prototypes.

Cedar is hand carved with copper leaf hinges, seashell door knobs and of course a wee shell with sparkly copper to leave offerings for the Fey in, by the door.

Should you wish to make the Fey welcome in your home or garden simply drop a line to seachild@shaw.ca. Each door is custom made upon order for $20.00.
 Paypal accepted and we can ship almost everywhere.

Rain...again.

Rain....
Bug off...

I am trying to find inspiration to take photos in rain.....but.... it is wet. ugh.

(I would love to credit the photographer, if anyone knows who took this, please message me )

Fabric frenzy

Sunny days remind me that spring is coming. While the rest of Canada is in a deep freeze, we are seeing pussywillows, snowdrops, the green of daffodils and all signs that spring is on the way.

This always makes me want to decorate and re arrange things, and generally get all 'nesty'.
This year I found the happiest fabric from Michael Miller's Magnolia lane Collection by Laura Gunn.

It took some doing to find enough material for me, as it is out of print and out of stock everywhere, but I was able to order enough ( and on sale...yippee  ) to make bedroom curtains, a small quilt ( in progress ) and pillows.

I am very pleased with the result. Our bedroom wall colour is a silvery green, taken from the Eucalyptus tree outside and hard to match colours to. This fabric just makes everything sunny.

I blame our new tenants for this fabric frenzy, as  searching for the perfect fabric to upholster their kitchen chairs before they moved in, started my decorating plans.
I found the most beautiful vintage cherry fabric for them and the chairs look awesome in their kitchen if I do say so myself.

What does spring stir in you?

1 Billion Rising

Today is Valentine's day, a day of lovers and friendships. In 2008 however, this day changed forever for me to V-Day.
The day to speak out in support of ending violence against women and children, once and for all time.

I was part of the production team of the Vagina Monologues as well as an actor within the play. I am very proud to have helped to raise $30 000 for the Women's Transition House here in Victoria.
You can not experience this show and not be different for ever. It is powerful and entirely transformational.
The Vagina Warriors I worked with, that is me in the red hat ( photo credit:  Sarah Kramer )

Today a movement has taken off from this:  '1 Billion Rising', and people are taking to the streets all over the world to dance, and say ENOUGH!

Here is a link to the live coverage from the Guardian, from all over the world as we rise up and dance in the streets.

1 Billion Rising Globally
I hope you have found a local group to dance with today and that we can dance in celebration for years to come as we end the atrocities known to women and girls, globally.

Dreaming of Traveling Shoes

I am having seriously itchy, travel feet.
It is difficult to believe my last big adventure was in the fall/winter of 2008 to Europe. How did that happen? I had such big plans to go back and see more...... I really need to see more.

I even started a travel blog to help other women who fall through the cracks of the travel guide books,  that I had all but forgotten about til today.

This is the travel blog... http://travelinshoos.blogspot.ca/

I will live vicariously through your adventures for now. Perhaps you would like to drop me a note and tell me something you have learned along the way of your own travels.

Valentines day....yup we all know lovers and love etc etc.
 I will think of it forever as V Day however, and am yelling about ending violence against women and children, everywhere forever. Are you part of the rise up  movement yet?

https://www.facebook.com/pages/One-Billion-Rising-Canada/519388444743471

Dog tease

I have watched the youtube clip of a  lovely grey muzzled dog hoping, hoping, hoping, he will taste a little bacon, and then watched as his hopes were dashed over and over. Poor guy....... ( I am sure he got  many treats after filming  ) so Niko, Saffi, David and I put a little something together to show how we think it should have ended.

The Great Bacon Dog Tease

spooning

Ha, bet the title caught your attention.

I am actually talking about spoons today.

 I recently was invited to participate in a birthday gathering at a local paint your ceramics place.
Having only really taken this type of project on in the distant past, when I quit smoking, which I  really do not recommend as the bisqueware is ummm .....fragile  ( ack are you getting the picture here? ) I was pleasantly surprised at what a fun and relaxing time I had what a great social time it was, and I actually created something I like and needed for our kitchen.

Ceramic parties..... I like them. Can we add wine would be my next question?

I may go forth and do some tiles this way for a backsplash in the future.

Tada... my dragonfly spoon rest.

Oh and in case you are wondering, that pot is holding perhaps the best butternut squash and lentil soup on the planet.  Curry lentil and butternut squash soup ( I added coconut milk instead of cream )