Youth is wasted on the young.

This is what Henry and I looked like 9 years ago. 

And this is us now.

"Youth is wasted on the Young."

I'm starting to better understand this catchphrase the older I get. This thought has been creeping up on me slowly over the last few years; I'm not a kid any more. I know, surprising, right? I feel young (well, except for the arthritis I suspect I'm getting in my thumbs) and look fairly youthful (except for the gray hairs that I just can't seem to keep at bay any longer) but this morning when I happened to catch a few photos of my 16 year old cousin and his friends on Facebook I felt old. Period. These kids are so young, dewy, nubile and fresh. Their skin is to die for! They can eat whatever they want and not gain weight! Oh, if only I knew what a luxury that was back then. Well, I kind of suspected it and ate a lot of crap but I digress...

And then one of my students looked at me point black last week and said plain as day, "You're old." She wasn't trying to be mean, it was like she was just stating a fact. And yes, I guess to a 5 year old I AM old,  but I don't need to be reminded kid!

As I was having brunch with my aunt yesterday somehow it came up that she was twice my age... she's almost 80 and when I look at her I thank my stars for my genes because this woman looks fabulous. You'd easily guess her to be at least 10 years younger than she is.  My dad too. Then there's my moms side of the family. My mom looks amazing as well and I think she and I share the same secret to looking young... it's the sweating! I've inherited my mothers HOT gene, and I really do think that it keeps the skin nice and moist and not as prone to wrinkles... I'm just trying to find the bright side to being constantly over heated here. And my mom's aunt (my great aunt Rose) is 90 something and is more able bodied than most people half her age. I swear she could lift her own body weight, still lives on her own,  drives her shiny red pick up truck and can drink most men under the table. She is one of a kind. 

Age is all relative though because I work with someone who is half MY age, and (even though she probably notices it) I really don't feel all that much older than her, and she doesn't seem so young that she could in actual fact be my daughter if I'd had a kid at 20 years old. But then little things creep in like the generation gap of pop culture. I'll mention someone like Carol Burnett. Who's that? Well, she's kind of like Lucille Ball. Who? Oh god, it's happening. I'm old! We got my mom tickets to see Boz Scaggs, the main guy from the Doobie Brothers and the main guy from Steely Dan in concert for her birthday. Pretty cool, right? When I told my co-workers about it, they hadn't heard of any of them! Boz Scaggs, OK. He's a bit obscure, but the Doobie's? Steely Dan? Weren't they uber popular? yeah they were. In the 1970's! ACK! 

So, fast forward to this evening. My mom, dad, sister and aunt and I went to see The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. Really sweet movie, but what was even sweeter? Being the youngest people there! It was a sea of white hair, and the movie itself is about this group of retirees who are trying to find something in their lives that is missing by going to India. When the movie was over my sister dubbed it "senior citizen porn." Totally. And Dame Judi.... ahh she is my hero. So, having started my day feeling a little old and dried up, my day ends feeling wiser, maybe a bit older but proud of my years and teensy little wrinkles and laugh lines that tell the story of a life being enjoyed and not taken for granted. And now I want to go to India even more desperately than I did before! I'll keep you posted on that one, I think that's going to be the next big trip!

Displaying my wares...

I did my very first farmer's market on Saturday at Maplewood Farm. It was the very first market of the year, and the first time its been done it in this location so suffice it to say there wasn't very much walk by traffic. But having said all that I sold a $42.00 collage, so I'm going to say the day was a success! I'm testing a few different markets this summer to see how my work is perceived, if the pricing is OK and what shows and locations are the best. I had low expectations for the day, and was frankly happy to make back my $25 table fee and look forward to the Friday night markets at Lonsdale Quay starting June 15. I'll post more about that closer to the day! An unexpected bonus to doing farmers markets? Free produce! I got 2 free lettuces and some free herbs (to plant in my planters) from the booth across the way from me. I guess they were starting to wilt a bit and were destined for the garbage. Since we were at the farm I guess they could have given them to the rabbits or the goats, but we got first dibs. Take that goats!

Matisse Fruit Bowls

At work we've been studying Henri Matisse and the kids just finished Matisse inspired fruit bowl paintings. We thought it would be cool if they did fruit bowls in clay as well. How adorable are they? This class ranges in age from 5 to 9 years old and I am so impressed with the way they turned out! I am SO learning how to teach on the fly, and I'm feeling that I as I get more confident in my abilities, the kids work is turning out better as well... funny that!

I have a seriously fun job.

Retro Mini

There's only one thing cuter than the modern Mini, and that's the retro Mini. Look at this thing!!! And it's so much teenier than the Mini's of today. I love my car, but if I could find one of these babies in mint condition, I would consider switching. 

Henry's Hide & Seek.

This little f*cker gave me quite the scare today! The weather was beautiful and hot and I had the front door wide open. I was in a cleaning and organising the house sort of mood and got "into the zone" where I'm sort of oblivious to everything except cleaning supplies and achieving order. Man am I German, but I digress. I suddenly realise I haven't seen Henry for a while so I call him. Nothing. I look in the bedroom. Not there. The art room, Nope. The bathroom? Not there either. I'm starting to panic. I call him again and start yelling TOY, TREAT, SQUIRREL which usually makes him come running. Nothing. I run for the door and run out to the street. The busy street. I'm bracing myself to see him on the road. No sign of him. I run back to the house yelling for him in a panic. I went upstairs to ask the new neighbours if they'd seen him, but no they hadn't. My stomach is really churning now. I'm imagining what could have happened to him and that I was never going to see him again. I decided to do one last scour of the house and guess what? He was hiding under my art desk WAY at the back behind the chair so I couldn't see him when I looked earlier. Do you want to know what he was hiding from?

THIS!

 My freak of a dog is desperately afraid of the common house fly.  He hides, and he trembles, and he pants. It's embarassing but what can I do? He's so neurotic that I joke that I have my own little furry Woody Allen in the house.

 Only cuter.

So, long story short, I've put in an impromptu baby gate for the front door so I don't have to go through that stress again. He's my furry babe, neurosis and all.

Before... and after.

I've been spending a LOT of time in my art room lately. I have too many projects on the go and suddenly find myself pushing the detrius away to the back of my desk until it becomes obvious that there is no more room to move it. I really do prefer things to be nice and organised, but when I'm in the moment order goes out the window. I know it's time for an overhaul when I'm digging under my papers looking for a particular pen or my x-acto knife  I'm REALLY good at throwing my little bits of paper straight into the garbage though. This is a good thing because if I didn't I'd be drowning in it! Or should I be recycling those little bits of paper??? Probably!

It looked like this for all of 12 seconds. Serenity now!

Spectacular sky.

This is the way the sky looked last Saturday night right before the weather changed in its typical Vancouver fashion. Changed to what, you ask? RAIN of course! It was just starting to feel like summer when BAM! the rug is pulled out from under us again. I wasn't here last summer, but I heard it was a bummer of a summer weather wise so PLEASE oh weather gods, whoever you are... make it a nice one, for me?

Thank you!

Andrea

Sea wallin'...

If there is ONE thing that is truly great about West Vancouver, it has to be the seawall.

You can stroll it, power walk it, run it or strut your stuff. Yep, it’s West Van, so it comes with the territory. I walked it last week and was joined by a little otter swimming alongside me. You are pretty well guaranteed to see seals but otters are a little rarer. Seagulls abound, and more often than not a bald eagle will grace your sights. It is a little bit of paradise. One time about 20 years ago my sister and I were walking the seawall at night, and it’s pretty dark in between the street lamps. Being that it’s right on the water rats are known to make an appearance now and then. We were in a dark spot and as I was stepping down my foot made contact with something before it hit the ground. Something soft and squishy and ALIVE! It was my (and the rats) bad timing that I happened to be stepping down right at that exact moment that he (or she) was running up from the water across my path to get up to the Chinese restaurant just up the street ( I don’t know for sure that’s where they were heading, but if I was a rat, that’s where I’d go!) I didn’t kill it, but oh that feeling of stepping on soft flesh and my fears of the bubonic plague really, really squicked me out. I love Ratatouille but not on my shoe thank you very much!

Our very own Canadian species in front of a very swanky restaurant with a million dollar beachside view.

View of Stanley Park from Dundarave.

This is the perfect place for contemplation... and coffee consumption.

Books make me happy.

Last month the West Vancouver library hosted the North Shore Writers and Readers festival. It was so incredible, I just wish that I'd gone for the whole day rather than to just go to the reading of the author that I wanted to see.  I didn't have anyone to go with so I decided to go solo. Even after traveling alone for 6 months, I still felt just a tad funny about going alone! Maybe it's because I'm back at my home base so technically I *should* have people I could go with. Well, I didn't so I just sucked it up and went. There was a wine and cheese reception first, so I went sort of at the tail end of that and snatched up the very last glass of wine. It was actually more like 2 glasses because the staff just wanted to get out of there. Lucky me! I went to see Anita Rau Badami, an author I've been reading since her very first novel "Tamarind Mem." She's from India and has lived in Vancouver and now goes to art school in Montreal. Her first 2 novels were set in India (a place in which I'm fascinated) her third went between India and Vancouver and this one takes place in small town northern British Columbia. I hadn't read the book (it's called" Tell it to the Trees") when I went to the festival but bought it at the event and have since devoured it. This book has one of the best endings... I'm usually dissapointed by the last couple of pages of a book. Writing a good ending must be one of the hardest parts of writing a book. How do you wrap it all up without seeming trite, rushed or drawing it out too much? This ending (to me) was just about perfect so if you're needing a good read, pick it up!

Daiso, Dim Sum and Disposable Panties.

I think I might be going for a personal record of number of times getting in and out of Richmond without getting horribly lost. There are certain places that I know how to get to by "feel." I never have a map in my car, that would be too easy! Sometimes I'll do a google map before I leave,but usually just leave it to chance. I needed to go to Daiso again (awesome Japanese $2.00 store) so I  asked a couple of friends if they were interested in Daiso and Dim Sum and indeedy they were!

~

This store is priceless for the bad English translations. I'm SO happy that they don't hire an actual native English speaker to do it for them! I howled at this text on disposable panties. I posted the photo on Facebook because I thought it was funny, and a friend who had lived in Korea actually recognized the text as lyrics to a song! Right around minute 2:00 you can clearly hear the lyric. What it has to do with disposable panties I'm not sure but thank you Daiso, for the laugh!

Dim Sum at Fisherman's Terrace again. Trust me, it is SOOOO very good! I've been there twice now, and I think it's a good sign to be surrounded by Chinese people in a Chinese restaurant... There were maybe 2 other non-Chinese people in the whole place! New fave, Chow Fun noodles with scallop!

My Dim Sum buddies! If you read the beginning of my blog before I leave for my trip, this is my friend who gave me SOOOO many great tips and tricks for traveling light and RIGHT! Not to mention hooking me up with her friends in Paris who I stayed with for a week. Thanks Judi!