Packing up this piece today, to send it to the “Inner Workings” art show at The Gerry & Nancy Pencer Brain Tumor Centre in the Princess Margaret in Toronto. Last year I participated in the “Brain Cancer Got Me Thinking” art show in Vancouver with this quilling piece which kept me busy during recovery from brain surgery.
On March 18, 2015, I was diagnosed with a brain tumour while standing in the hallway of the emergency department. It was an emotional journey while I battled with what it meant to have a brain tumour and the decisions that I had to make as a result. On August 7th, 2015, I had surgery to remove the tumour.
Learning that you have a brain tumour is a dark experience. Having a brain tumour is not something that we patients do alone, we need life guards and beacons of light in the storm. One of the people that brought me light was my neurosurgeon. He was patient, kind and gave me hope. I also see him as a life guard who protected me through surgery. I dedicate this photo to him, and as I no longer need his services there is no longer a life guard on duty.
“A Light in the Storm” is my entry to the “Inner Workings” show.
Making my own bread was something that I did years ago before having kids, when I had a smidge more time and no one holding onto my legs while I was cooking. Back then I used a bread maker which simplified the process, but now I have discovered crock pot bread which is just as easy.
I found some pictures the other day when I was doing a little cleaning. Put on your wooly socks because these might make you chilly.
Today is the first day of fall and the first day of knitting season. I don’t know about you but I take a hiatus from yarn based projects during the warm weather. But now that its getting chilly outside I am motivated to make things that keep me warm. I was digging in the craft closet and came out with a whole box of sock yarn, which should keep me busy for a long time.
A wonderful friend dropped off a big bag of apples and pears on my doorstep recently. An apple a day may keep the doctor away, but fruit flies not so much. It was a race against the fruit flies to do something with all the fruit. We are all fans of apple pie so we had a pie making marathon.
I am a big fan of eating local in season food. Fresh local fruit just tastes better, especially when I grow it myself. Before you get the wrong idea and imagine me as a farmer tending to my acreage let me explain that we have a few fruit trees on our small postage stamp size yard in the downtown core. In our yard we grow peaches, plums and apples all of which were mature trees when we bought the house 5 years ago. When we made an offer on the house the peach and plum trees looked just like any other tree to me, I honestly had no idea that they were fruit bearing. Imagine my surprise when 4 months later we took possession and found both a 
Who loves FREE food? I sure do. We have blackberries growing in our yard but after we picked all of the ripe ones my oldest suggested we go in search for more. It’s not hard to find blackberry bushes in our neighbourhood, but it is a little tricky to find the bushes that haven’t been picked over. Did we ever score today though, we went a little off the path and found the mother load of ripe juicy berries. Here are some pics of our berry picking adventures today. Someone was way more interested in eating than picking, but who can blame him. 
Making A Life 