Embracing the new year! Letting go of the ‘old’ from 2015 and embracing the ‘new’ of 2016. This morning got off to a great start with the start of a new cycle at the gym. Jenn our coach for the Living Well program keeps us on our toes! I’ve been missing the structured exercise program over the past two weeks. I’m still ‘clearing’ bits and pieces from 2015. Today was work on our computers. I spent...

  Still introspective! In the interest of 2016 journaling, I am still in seasonal holiday dig-deep mode, playing with some on-line tools. Haven’t done this for ages! I’m not sharing the link for this as I’m not sure how safe it was. This exercise was a Myers-Briggs test and although I’ve always been heavily weighted in the direction indicated, it seems I am becoming more so! As an INTP, I am a thinker, analyzing...

Happy New Year everyone! Some musings for New Year’s day as I contemplate my word for the year. Good bye 2015 – Hello 2016. What do you hold in store for me? 2015 has been a year of tremendous ups and downs. Can we continue with the ups and eliminate some of the downs? As you may divine, I am not sorry to have 2015 behind me. Without going into details, I had a wonderful start to the year but it I am not so happy with how it wound...

What a roller coaster I have been on! The year has flown by and I am just now collecting myself enough to get back to blogging. When I left off I was traveling in British Columbia, having great adventures and meeting wonderful people. The problem was, I frequently had little or no internet! And our planned three to four week excursion stretched into two months!  And thanks to subsequent events, it has been a while since I have felt I could sit...

  I am really enjoying the 5 day art challenges that are currently circulating on Facebook and have just been challenged to do my bit. I must assure you that I don’t mind participating but now I have to make a decision about what to post. If you have visited my website and/or blog you may notice that I don’t post a lot of pictures of my current work. Rightly or wrongly, I am playing it safe. Most of my current work is destined...

The past year has been an interesting one. A mixture of good and bad times, joy and sadness, successes balanced with unfulfilled dreams.  It has been a very busy year, hence few blog posts! My days were often long, leaving little time for reflecting. 2014 included some real successes in my artwork, travel, lots of Grandma time and time spent with new and old friends. In many ways 2014 was an ‘ordinary’ year. But today I found...

Spring and summer 2014 have been a time of extremes. Emotions have run the gambit – from high to low. Happy times mingled with sad, joy with sadness. It was a time of renewal and of letting go. Since April I have said goodbye to a much loved younger brother who left us suddenly without warning. A warm and caring man, highly regarded by family, friends and neighbours; his death has left a hole in many lives. The shock and sadness left me...

The last couple of weeks have been difficult.  Not only have I been dealing with my reactions to the ‘tempest in a teapot’ but I have been doing a lot of hand stitching and, for me, stitching time is introspection time. Throughout my life, I’ve been fortunate, or not, in that I have not had a lot of conflict in my life.  Perhaps it is because I was well schooled in the art of  ‘avoidance’, perhaps it is because I...

A Bully has crossed my path! With the recently increased profile of bullying in our society, I want to make a comment. It doesn’t stop with childhood.  It’s not always physical.  It can be disguised in many ways. As a person of certain years, I have not had a lot of experience with bullies for many years.  I am a straight speaking person who calls it as she sees it and people usually know where I stand on an issue. People usually respect that....

Over the years my husband and I have traced our Scottish roots with varying success.  Don and ‘the lads’ have had ‘Duncan’ tartan ties, we have worked at the local ‘Highland’ Games and participated in Robbie Burns nights in our small eastern Ontario community.  In 2000, our millenium project was a family trip to Scotland that provided context for our research – and new information. I decided today to...