For Kate Poole

I've been a bit busy and yesterday did not end my day in time to post. There are so many things going on. The window project is just one aspect of my tiny country life. I have friends going through horrible times. I'm there with them only through phone calls and greeting cards. I'm heartsick about it. Too many middle aged people are going through serious medical issues. I know cancer strikes at any age but it is too frequent in our environment. One of my friends who is very ill is a life long artist who railed against pesticides and is an environmentalist.

Today's post is for her. She is also a glass artist and we have collaborated on pieces when we were both active in the glass community. She is also a singer/songwriter who has written some songs that when played in any audience has the room standing at the end. One of those songs is entitled Big Woman Love. I know Kate's favorite music and will play it today. I also am making a CD for healing that I'm sending for when she gets out of hospital.

Glass: Yesterday I cut glass most of the day. It is my favorite part of the entire process. I felt so moved at one point that I stopped, sat down and wrote a poem. No, You'll never see that poem. I had a successful time of it, having only two pieces slated for re-cut. I had my client over for some final colour choices. I like to do that when possible. They are the people who are eventually going to live with this and also are paying me. I'm easy.

Today I ground, or grinded each piece of galss to fit perfectly with the next, like a jigsaw puzzle. It is my least favorite aspect of the process. It went well too, though I'm not 100 percent finished. I want to double check everything so will build my jig before beginning the foiling process.

A window has to fit into the space provided. It can't at the last minute not fit. Glass panels can grow. This is what I checked the measurements so carefully a few weeks ago. I am being extra careful so am finished for the day and will start with fresh eyes tomorrow.


Kate loves John Prine's, Angel From Montgomery and if there is a party and a guitar, she usually sings it. She can also sing Nanci Griffith songs like no one else but Nanci Griffith. I've had the pleasure of travelling with Kate a few times. Once on our way to a glass conference in Halifax she sang Nanci Griffith songs and noticeably made the trip shorter and more pleasant. Here's Nanci with Across the Great Divide.

I'm with you, Kate.

Three Years Smoke Free Today!!!

The pond has not frozen over well enough to skate on this year. Yet. There is time left this winter so I hope it does. My pond was a very active community site 30 or so years ago when all the boys of the community kept it clean and it was the village's official hockey rink. Then a rink was built in the community and hockey and skating moved to the new facility. I bought the property 25 years ago and my sister-in-law and I kept it clear for several years, when our kids were young. Since then the current changed and the climate has changed and it doesn't always freeze well enough for skating.

There is nothing like skating on an outdoor pond. Nature is all around. You can see the bird nests in the trees from the previous year, fresh tracks of pond visitors and a sense of being out there in the wild. OK, a car drives by now and then.

It is three years ago today that I quit smoking. I think of smoking now as an unfortunate period in my life that lasted forty years. I beat it finally, after many monstrous attempts, and know I will never smoke again. I beat the addiction. I may sound smug to some but feel very certain and proud of this accomplishment.

I Feel Lucky by Mary Chapin Carpenter says it all. She even talks about lighting up a smoke. Jolie Holland's Old Fashioned Morphine and John Prine's Sam Stone fit the bill too in talking about addiction today.

For anyone struggling with addiction I can say only - persevere! I could give pointers that all that I learned but feel it is an individual battle where you have to learn enough to finally conquer an addiction to anything. It's all in the mind set, attitude and way of being.

Friday MishMash

I chose the above photo and had proceeded with the upload when this song came onto the cd that I made. An Illegal Smile by John Prine is playing on my stereo at the moment. It felt like a smiling day to me even before the song.

I've been having a bit of a party - celebrating Friday with girlfriends. I'm playing a cd I made for my sister and the one before before that was one I made for my sister-in-law, who just left. Their birthdays are two days apart. I think Ralph is partying a bit out there as well and I feel connected. My brother is arriving tomorrow to steal my sister away. We'll deal with that when it comes. I've invited my son and said sis-in-law to sit on Aunt Cath so that she can't leave.

Eighties Ladies by KT Oslin just came into sight when I spun the music in front of me and it is so marvelously ironic . Remember I'm listening to cd's. All of these women that were here stem from meeting in the eighties. I usually listen to music from my computer when I on it rather than from the house stereo that is now blasting away. I present it now and bow out gracefully.

Like The Sky - A Little Blue

March break and Easter will be combined next year on PEI giving students and teachers a longer holiday. From my memory that's what it was always like in the New Brunswick school system when I was a kid. We always had Good Friday off then the whole next week.

I have some pretty awful memories of that time because something always happened that ruined that holiday for me. I had mumps over Easter. I stepped on a nail on Good Friday and got a really deep puncture wound that I could not walk with. One year, I got a haircut so bad I would not leave the house. I couldn't go to my cousin's house in Saint John for the week one year because I got measles. The next year, those same cousins came for Easter. I got really bad hives and spent the whole weekend scratching and covered in calamine lotion. We never figured out what I had the allergic reaction to but again, another Easter break was ruined. I remember crying year after year that it wasn't fair. My mom would be very sweet and somehow make me feel special or at least okay.

My Easters have improved since I became adult but this one seems a bit lonely with no one from my family around. It's something I have been getting used to though. After all, my first son left home in '95.

Music yesterday was for the travellers. Today it's for the other half of the family. My youngest is studying for an exam on Monday. He'd rather be home for Easter. Perhaps an Easter present would be to share more than two songs. Miss Me by Eleni Mandell is first on the list. I love the slow, sexy sound of the sax in this. Speed of the Sound of Loneliness is a wonderful song by Nancy Griffith and John Prine. I'm not sure whose song it is. They're both magnificent writers and it's a great song. A classic Elvis Presley song, Are You Lonesome Tonight is one of my favorites from my childhood. It's fitting today. Lonely Girls is very nice if you're a Lucinda Williams fan.

The following links can all be found on page One. I'm finding them looking for a Bettye LaVette song. Johnny Cash and Nick Cave did a fabulous version of I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry. Here's the classic version with Hank Williams Jr. I Still Miss Someone from Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash is another song about loneliness.

Lonesome Road by Madeleine Peyroux and Kate Rusby deserve a mention. They are not the same song; they just have the same name. Hah! Just found Bettye LaVette's song. Thinkin' Bout You is wonderful. I really like this artist. She's been around for a long, long time but I only discovered her a couple of years ago. This song, also from Page One, has only been played twelve times. Lets remedy this because it is a great song.

This is turning out to be rather long but I just wanted to say that we are forecasted to have a blizzard tonight with high winds, of course, and 15 - 20 centimeters of snow. Happy Easter!