Love at First Sight (My Little Girl is Now One!)

    Exactly a year and two days ago, I went into labour with my third baby. As we already had two little boys, we were finally going to answer the question soon that we had been asked for months.  People couldn't help but ask, "So you tried for a third to get a girl, huh?" Or "So, are you hoping this one's a girl?" We just wanted a third baby, not at all needing that "girl" and we honestly answered, " We just hope the baby's healthy". But as the contractions strengthened and I knew I'd meet the baby soon, I can't say that it didn't cross my mind that I might gain a female ally in our male heavy family. But I was expecting a third boy, because everyone was saying that statistically a boy was more likely, and I was carrying like it was a boy, and all sorts of nonsense. Also there hadn't been a "Morgan" girl born for generations, so could it really happen this time?

    The labour progressed, the baby was finally born, and the assistant doctor, his first time assisting a birth, and so nervous about getting everything right, pronounced " It's a boy!" We weren't at all surprised. Then Josh and I did a classic double take. We looked again, looked at each other, looked back again at the baby and exclaimed " It's a girl!" In the assistant's haste, he had gotten it wrong!

   I held her in my arms, she went straight for her first nurse, and we bonded instantly in that legendary way. In a way that no one could really understand unless they've been through it. It brings tears to my eyes just to write about it. Love at first sight.

   We've had so many adventures together in this first year, including a trip to England together. We get along more like friends already than just mother and daughter and she continually surprises me with her bright, shining personality, her humour and intense love of life.

   We had a little birthday party for her on the 8th, her birthday, up north here on Paradise Hill with her Oma and Opa and my step-brother and his wife. I made impromptu decorations with paper
and string and built her a barnwood doll bed from scratch in the shop, complete with mattress and pillow from fabric I had scrounged and using a needle and thread instead of a machine.

  Josh baked an amazing white cake that we topped with whipped cream and raspberries frozen from mom's summer garden. Isla cracked us up by doing her crazy nose-crinkling-dimpling-eye-squinting smile every time a camera was aimed her way. She had a great time, and we couldn't help but enjoy it with her. What a lovely way to celebrate her first year on earth with us.

Had to show us her serious side just once.

Something to Make ( 10-15 minutes)
Birthday pendants and heart string


Need: 3 pages of colourful construction paper, scissors, tape, yarn or string, stapler, pencil/chopstick/stick


Make: 


1)For large pendants, cut 3 circles as large as the paper, for smaller, cut as small as you like.


2)Cut strips all around the circle towards the centre, taking care not to cut them off.

3)Take each completed cut circle and pinch in the middle and twist until you have a shape that you like and staple or tape it to hold the shape. Then gently bend chunks of the strips to make a crazier looking ball if you like.

4)Tape shapes to three long strings tied to the stick. Wrap the yarn around the string at the top to make different lengths until it looks right to you. Then tape the stick to the ceiling.

5)For the heart string, cut out small hearts from the remaining scraps of paper and staple them to a length of string long enough to stretch across a window.

The Mona Jenny

  Recently, a museum in Madrid, Spain, was doing some work restoring paintings from their basement storage. Among these paintings was one that was supposed for many years to be a much later copy of the Mona Lisa. It's background was painted in black, but when the restorative work was done they shone a certain type of light through the painting and discovered that the black paint was actually covering an entire background of some sort. What they uncovered was astonishing. It was a detailed painting replicating the original Mona Lisa background but in much greater detail and clarity. After further investigation they realized that this was most likely painted by one of Da Vinci's star pupils at the very same time Da Vinci himself was painting the Mona Lisa. So this painting, relegated for years to a museum basement, was actually a very old and precious work that revealed much more about the Mona Lisa than could ever been seen because of the aging of the Da Vinci painting. The awful black paint had actually preserved the copy perfectly. This copy will be joining the original on loan to the Louvre.

  Okay, so this is a very long intro to my blog today, but I found it to be a fascinating story on so many levels! So for Valentine's Day this year, I challenged Josh to make a card like I was going to make for fun. He's not a very sappy romantic, so I found some humour in asking him to make something sappy for me. But in usual Josh form, he went way beyond just making a regular card and put my cardboard heart card to shame. Inspired by this Mona Lisa copy story, he created, with only a few hours and some watercolor pencils, a perfect cross between the Mona Lisa's face and mine.
(Amazing and yet somewhat creepy at the same time.)

    Then, when I arrived at choir practice that night I received beautiful red carnations given to me and each choir member by another sweet choir member, as well as a vintage Bronte Sisters ( I just love them!) compendium someone was giving away, and some amazing heart cupcakes someone had baked for the tea time break. I had already had a night out with Josh the week before, so it was lovely surprise to have such a beautiful, romantic evening this night as well. It's nice when things happen like that, so easy, naturally and unexpected.

The Mona Jenny has proudly joined other portraits
on our portrait wall of other talented family portraits
by other family members.

   

SNOW

View from our back window over the fence.

  As far back as I can remember I have loved the snow. Maybe it's partly because it's a bit of a novelty on the Westcoast; We get it, but not often enough that it becomes mundane. Growing up on a hill in Coquitlam we got more of it than much of the Lower Mainland. But despite seeing those soft flakes falling more than a few times now in my lifetime, it hasn't lost its magic in the least. I've told my husband that I get almost as excited seeing a fresh snowfall beginning as I was getting married to him and seeing our children born. It's a bit of an exaggeration, but snow does put a huge smile on my face and a spring in my step. Even a rumour of it has me checking the internet forecasts every hour and trying to decide which website is the best predictor. 

Our first family snowman last year.

"Pip pip and cheerio". Snowman profile.

  Perhaps it's partly because there isn't enough magic in our lives when we're grown-ups. That special feeling you had when you were a child and it was your birthday, or waking up Christmas morning, or wondering if perhaps there really might be fairies if you believed hard enough- I'm sure we've all had moments like this- and then suddenly, one day, you woke up and your birthday didn't have the shininess that it had the year before. Or you didn't quite believe the whole Santa thing this time and it lost that excitement you had always had. These kind of moments are sad when they're gone, but there doesn't seem to be enough to replace them when they fade. That's why I love how those little collections of ice crystals somehow capture that feeling for me. Suddenly the world outside my window takes on a magical hush. 

One of many snow photos from our front window.

Rowan's first glimpse of snow at age 1. He couldn't stop staring. That's my boy.

   I love how snow slows everything down. Although many may not share my view, I love how, suddenly, so much is put on hold due to the weather. People take an unexpected break from everything and have a cozy evening at home wheareas they may have been rushing around in the usual rat race before it snowed. 

  So when those first flakes fall I get this crazy feeling inside of excitement; of taking it slow, frollicking, and enjoying the magic, even if it's only for a short while.

  I have a tradition of taking a walk in the snow around my neighbourhood late at night when I'm the only one still awake and there are no tracks in the snow ahead of me, only those I've made behind me. The absolute hush created by those falling flakes as they accumulate is so wonderful. I also walk late at night because that's when a lot of snowfall occurs while it's cold enough. In our climate I know I may wake up to rain, so I always take advantage of it while it's beautiful. I told Westin about this tradition of mine and how I took a snowy walk last week the night before the rain began and he made me promise to wake him next time and take him with me. He seemed to "get it". This pleased me immensely and I promised I would share the walk next time, no matter what time of night it is, because I think we all need to grab those magical moments and hold them tight so we never forget how to enjoy them.

PS. The header photo is one I took of Stanley Park after a brief snowfall a couple of years ago. I had just come out of the aquarium and to my surprise it started to snow.

  

Rainbows

Living in such a mild climate as Vancouver has, I try to remain as grateful as I can that we're not freezing all the time in 40 below zero like much of Canada is at this time of year. But try as I might, after months of rain, drizzle and darkness, I find myself feeling a little blue.  I don't think I'm alone in this, so today I'm bringing a little cheer from the rainbows in my home. I thought that by photographing them and gathering them in the blog I could capture some of the sunny thoughts they bring by gazing at them. All my life I've had a strong, joyful reaction to rainbow colors laid out in the right order of the light spectrum. I thought I'd outgrow this as a childish fancy, but I never have which leads me to wonder if it's an evolutionary disposition to want to see those colors since they represent light and we need sunlight to live.
    Hope it brings some cheer to your rainy day.

If our family were felted gnomes we'd look like this.

Jolly Old England

   When I was a little girl I began having strange and vivid dreams about a green hillside with simple huts nestled against it and a simple and hard but happy life. I didn't experience them as you typically would in a dream with a story that goes from here to there. It was more like snippets of life that were unremarkable save for their realistic quality and contrast to my own life.
   At some point I felt that I knew it was England long ago even though I had never been there and didn't know anything about it. It wasn't until my mother introduced me to the idea of reincarnation when I was about eight years old that it made some sense to me. Though I could never be sure, it was an interesting possibility.

Shropshire country lane

   Many years later I flew to England to see my beloved band, Radiohead, for the first time and I had a distinct feeling of coming home. I didn't want to leave once my trip was over. I have always felt more comfortable in old places and around old things than new ones, but it felt like more than that. It was an almost tangible feeling of familiarity, especially in the countryside.
   In the meantime, I met an English couple that worked at Granville Island like I did and we became dear friends. I have since had the privilege of visiting them in England a number of times and did so most recently last month with Isla because they had a baby girl recently like we did.
  Although a scary emergency landing caused a 20 hour delay and some serious exhaustion ( which was made better by some seriously sweet and helpful fellow passengers), we eventually arrived safely, slept for many hours and proceeded to have the most lovely of trips together. Isla smiled her way through the trip and was an absolute delight of a baby. It was very special to travel with just the two of us, though I missed the boys terribly.
  We divided our time between London and the Shropshire countryside. Forgive me for the volume of photos this entry. There was just so much to see. Enjoy!

Balfron Tower, the famous Brutalist
apartment building where I stayed
with my friends 

The farm where the BBC2 documentary series 'Victorian Farm' was filmed

The 800 year-old house where my friend spent her early childhood. Notice the columns in the front window.
The original and oldest part,  the building on the right, was built to protect the King's huntsman.

Stokesay Castle with its unusual timber-framed add-on

Gatehouse at Stokesay castle

Another view of the manor house's unusual architecture

The window where the ladies of the house would
sit and watch the world outside

The gorgeous panelled walls added in the 17th C. to make the place warmer and more homey

View from the tower. Barely got there due to the fact
that I had to squeeze up a tiny staircase with
Isla strapped to me. 

Shropshire hills. Never got tired of this sight

My happy adventurer

One of Ludlow's famous half-timbered
buildings.

The most famous of them all; The Feathers Hotel and Pub.
We stopped there for lunch with my friend and her father.

View from Ludlow Castle

One of my favorite photos; it just captures the essence of England in the autumn

The Queen at rest

The Victoria and Albert Museum. One of
the wonders of London. These two
photos show plaster casts made from
original antiques.

The most intricately carved ivory I've ever seen

What people go through for fashion!

My Arts and Crafts hero, William Morris's original tapestry.
I  recently found this made into a fabric.