HAVE YOU SEEN ANY HINTS AROUND OF THE EASTER BUNNY?

Well, there seems to have been a few traces around here of this famous hare, but, I didn’t want him to start practicing at this house, while we are on diet’s!!

But, the old rascal, has been here and when we got home today, magically, these foil wrapped little chocolate eggs appeared on our table! Now, everyone knows, of my weakness for chocolate or anything sweet, so I’ve vowed not to touch them, however Tom has become a super sleuth and caught little scrunched up piles of coloured foil, emptied of chocolate, and is wondering who is eating them! Not ME!! I don’t know who!!!

The other day, on one of Tom’s “mystery tours”, he took me to a little village called Edgemont. A cute little place, with a few nice little stores. For such a small place, I couldn’t believe how busy it was! We wandered around, had a coffee and I met with the nicest fellow, who I fell in love with.

 

Meet Jim! He was in a bookstore in Edgemont, in a chair beside the door as I came into the store. Such a lazy, placid, easy-going fellow!! I petted him, talked to him, the camera flash went off in his face a few times and he barely opened his eyes. I fell in love with him!

Isn’t he a wonderful handsome fellow!!

 

This a another store I visited but can you believe, I did NOT buy, or sample on single solitary thing!! The next store was a bake shop and I didn’t go in, but the smell of just baked hot cross buns came wafting out to my snoze, and I know that as I deeply inhaled the delicious smell, I gained another 3 pounds!! Not fair!!!

Another store we came across, had all these wonderful little baby chicks!!

So, back to the Easter Bunny in Training who was here today! This is what I found today when we came home!

See what I’m tempted with!!! However, this damn diet I’m on is the slowest moving thing, I’ve ever been on, and believe me, I’ve been on plenty of them!!

Sometimes, I think, “Aw, chuck the darn thing and enjoy life!”. But, I’ve been doing that ALL my life, and it’s not normal for me to be not “trying” to be on a diet!

So, I’ll carry on and hopefully the scales will continue to move. Beside’s, I’ve got Inspector Clouseau, looking for evidence and is hot on my trail!!!

Finally the beautiful colours of Spring are beginning to show themselves and the weather is warming up beautifully and tomorrow, I may get out on the deck and set up the do-dads and things out there like the cushions for the swing, the patio table and little ornaments.

Today, we met with Martin and Joan and Joan’s sister Gloria for brunch and then we all ended up going again to Edgemont, after I told them about the little chicks. As much as I love shopping with Tom, there is nothing like a whole lot of fun, shopping with the ladies. I enjoyed the day! One of the shops had this sign over the cash register, that I just love, so had to take a picture of it. We went to find Jim, but he must have been out for a walk,and I was disappointed not to see him again and his beautiful brown eyes!!!

Yeahhhhhhh!!!

SPREADING THE WORD

Aren't these little birds, spreading news to each other cute?  Well,I’m plenty mad at these feathered little shits!!!

I could wring their little necks at dinner time tonight, when I went out to get the meatloaf, I had to put on the table on the deck because of a full fridge. It was covered up good with tin foil, and, without a doubt, it was those big black starling or crow and their many friends, that must have spotted the shiny foil, came to investigate, discovered a delicious meat loaf with only two piece sliced off it, and spread the word…..hey…..birds of a feather…come for dinner!!! All that was left was little birdie footprints!! We are on the 7th floor, so it had to be those big miserable critters that not only disturb my sleep, but steal our dinner now too!!!

I have another beef tonight….SHAW CABLE!!! UGhhhhh!!!! We had a notice posted in the lobby that between 8 and 5 pm, for the next week, there may be interruptions in our TV service. No problem, I can do without the programs during the day, but leave my favourite ones alone at night! I don’t watch much TV, but all week they had been advertising a Leonard Cohen special to air last night, so I got everything done, so I could sit and enjoy the special, as I’m a big fan of old Leonard! The reception was so incredibly BAD that we had to turn the TV right off, Every station was goofed up!! I was so disappointed!! We do have tickets that my wonderful daughter bought for us, as a birthday gift, to see Leonard Cohen in person, this month, but I still wanted to see him on TV!

This morning, the SHAW CABLE trucks were parked right outside our building as they have been this past few days, and if I had of been dressed, I would have gone down and told them if they mess with my favourite show “Survivor” tonight, they could possibly have flattened tires, tomorrow!!

Tom and I did a repeat visit to the hospital today for our second attempt at having my carotid artery test to see if the blood flow to my brain isn’t messing with my memory, which I’m sure was a needless test, as I think my memory is maybe not the best, but normal for 65 years old. However, I did have some doubt about this “needless” test, because I had the wrong day, which wasn’t Tuesday, it was Thursday…today! Whoops!!

Tomorrow, I find out if the test turned out normal. It was a good test, as it was done by an ultrasound technician who has done it for years and was teaching a newbie how to do it properly. It was very neat to see the blood flowing through the arteries on the monitor and hearing the whoosh, whoosh of my heart beating steadily!

It’s funny how we never give much thought to our blood flowing through the arteries, making that whoosh sound from the time we existed in the womb, through all these 65 years of life. It makes you think of how truly this amazing body of ours is!!

I just keep it keeps whooshing for a long, long time!!!

APRIL FOOLS DAY

Guess we didn’t get hit with the big virus eh?

We’ve all pulled this little joke eh?

WATCH YOUR BACK TODAY, DON’T TRUST EVERYTHING YOU HEAR BUT HAVE FUN!!!

LINDA

WINDY DAY IN VANCOUVER

What a windy day here in Vancouver. This morning, I looked out at the ocean and towards Victoria, the mountains where visible, but also on the water in the horizon, it looked like big banks of ice. It was waves!! I then turned on the computer and there on my webpage was a weather wind warning. I glanced back up after reading the article at the water and those huge waves where now big whitecaps near us. The wind had arrived!!

I had an appointment at the hospital for a ultrasound on my neck for the blood flow, which I’m sure is going to show nothing, but we drove over to North Vancouver to the hospital and found a parking spot, went down to the Ultrasound Department and found out I was 2 days early!! Maybe there is good reason to think the blood flow isn’t reaching the brain eh?

Speaking again of the brain, I really don’t have much to say on this blog, so I’m going to cut it short and hopefully tomorrow will be a more eventful day….it should be….to the tune of $500 car tune-up!!

Catch you tomorrow, I have a hungry husband so have to go!

Beware tomorrow of April 1st!!! April Fool’s Day!!!!!

PERSIAN (Iran) ART – Ali Shahidi

Ambleside today was sunny and looked very inviting to head out for a walk along the seawall. Before reaching the seaway, is the Ferry Building where they often display various artist’s work. Today, I decided to go in and have a look and I’m so glad that I did.

I met a very nice man, a multi-talented artist, Ali Shahidi, with many credentials to his name, such as a master’s degree in Architectural Engineering, also a masters degree in Art and Architecture. Diplomas in Ceramic and Sculpture from Montreal. He’s designed many “Radio & TV” centers, commercial and residential buildings , some palaces, and very unique buildings in different countries.

He has 26 years of of research and study about art, culture and civilization. In this regard he started to re-produce some very unique pieces of art, each representing an important period in history.

His goal is to have a World United Culture Center with independent representatives from all nations and countries around the world.

As on his poster above, which I hope you can read, I like his opening statement.

Today we miss yesterday and tomorrow we will lose today. War, violence and drugs are taking over the world. We are damaging the environment and destroying our beautiful planet. Politicians are busy solving political and economic issues. Who will protect the worlds cultures? We need a voice and a vehicle to bring our cultural issues to the forefront.

I was lucky today to view some of his many pieces of art in Architecture, Sculpture, Ceramics and Pottery, Paintings and Inlays and to spend a little time with him, as with much passion and enthusiasm, he explained to me some of the meaning and history of his art. I was writing furiously as he talked, and may have some things mixed up for which I apologize for.

See the beautiful gold drinking cup. Absolutely beautiful. Read about it below!

Imagine 1000 BC, Persians were using the sunflower motif as a symbol of light and God. In 500 BC they produced the same motif with 12 lines in a clock on the outside of buildings by relief and as the sun shone it showed the time.

Amazing isn’t it!!

Above, is a hand-written, 13 century writing of The Koran!

Now, wait until you see the next picture of Ali Shahidi beautiful painting of how it would have looked like back then!

Ali’s paintings are so vivid and lively in colour they almost jump out at you as if they where 3D. Wonderful paintings!

This is Ali Shahidi, the artist I was in awe of meeting. This painting below was done to scale of the columns around the buildings. You can’t see it in the picture here but around the outside are the measurements and painted exactly to scale..AMAZING!

I

I have a problem placing the different size pictures on the page and having them turn out right and when I publish them, it will turn out different again, so I’m sorry about skipping here and there with blank spaces on the page. If I knew HTML language it would be different….but I don’t! The above right painting is of a Persian king, but. Beautiful colours, that with my flash kept bouncing back at me, not showing how beautiful the painting really is on here. Ali, told me he was a BAD king in history.

The picture below is a re-creation of a Mystical Divine Bird of Birth, who was the intermediate between Earth, Air, and Water. This bird was said to have seeds of all plants around the world.

Art by Ali Shahidi, of Persian writing from the fifth century!!

Bowl with Comb (description below)

Look how the vase and I think are coins, in this painting stands out like you could touch it….more of Mr.Shahidi art! So colorful and very beautiful!

The same Vase he had painted (not sure if it’s a vase, but a liquid for maybe water or perhaps oils.) I should have listened more closely, but I was learning so much, very fast! The little blue figurine is a candle holder…I remember him telling me that, and I’m sure there is a story to it, but some of my pictures didn’t turn out that well with the glare from the window and the glass these items enclosed in.

More depictions of the Mystical Bird, which also takes on the form of a horse with wings.

A first edition by Omar Khayyam poetry and original from the 18th century!! Translated by Edward Fitzgerald.

Little interesting fact, that Mr. Shahidi told me is that TOMORROW, March 31st is Edward Fitzgeralds birthday, born in 1809

It was an interesting and if anyone in the Vancouver area should get a chance to see this beautiful work, then head to the Ferry Building in Ambleside, on until April 8/09 to see many, many more fascinating art work by Ali Shahidi.

8,000 Years of Persian Art, Culture and Civilization.

Thank you Mr. Shahidi for taking the time in explaining and allowing me to take these pictures.

Note: Since this posting, Mr Shahidi has contacted me with a few corrections. I apologize for any of my wrong facts. I hope I have them corrected properly! Mr Shahadi is also going to send me some of his poetry and I'll also put a link to his site on here as well, with an interview he has done about his work. Stay tuned!