Fragments of a week

The night before last I saw a falling star.

It was brief and magical. Now I suddenly have the urge to look at Whistler Nocturnes. Sadly I can’t access any through the library here.

Here are some recent inks I have made:


Illuminated Garden Party

It’s finally happening on Friday night!

I have been foraging in the feral gardens of the riparian zone and I have prepared all kinds of delectable treats to taste: quince jelly, rose petal jelly, rose + strawberry + sea salt tepache, lavender pickled onion + oyster mushroom umami rice balls topped with pickled magnolia, potato bread, mushroom pate, wild pesto, feral herb topped foccacia, strawberry + lavender infused butter, feral herb infused butter, quince blossom vinegar, lavender vinegar, wild strawberry vinegar, spruce infused salt, oyster mushroom infused salt, lavender shortbreads and more. I can’t remember everything right now, honestly. Good thing I wrote it all down in my notebook! I’m tired.

I’ll be creating a grazing board that will be illuminated by an installation I’ve been working on for the past number of months. I have been planning this event for about a year now and I am excited to share it with the people who attend.

I’ll also be testing out my new (to me) DSLR for night shots. Also exciting. I used it out in the world for the first time on Sunday when my friend Rachel Anzalone (Hi Rachel, your website is beautiful!), an artist from NY/NJ, took me to the Fortress of Louisbourg for my belated birthday gift. It was so much fun and I got to try out my camera on the architecture and the actors.

It was a gorgeous day, fairly quiet and we indulged in a pint in the Fortress Tavern, then a picnic next to the ocean afterwards.

I studied photography and film for my first degree, but photography was analogue back then, so DSLRs are still a bit of a learning curve for me. I found it gratifying to be putting a large camera up to my eye again after so many years of using an iPhone camera.

Oh, and we totally saw Chris Noth, you know, Mr. Big from Sex & The City. We didn’t realize it was him until later after some detective work (nice job Rachel). He was wearing a very loud, purple Hawaiian shirt and he smiled and said hello to us in a famous way, like we would know who he was, which was when our suspicians set in. lol. So fun!

Come to my Garden Party if you’re in the area! I think it’s gonna be a good time!

Illuminated Garden Party was made possible with the generous support of a CBRM Creative Catalyst Grant.

Yellow arrow marks the spot. The star marks the original spot, it’s a long story that I won’t bother telling at this moment.

Encounters with birds in the riparian zone

I walk by the Washbrook twice daily with my dog , Poppy, and these walks are some of my particular pleasures.

This is a special place. A place that is being rewilded; the long grass is tussled by the breeze, the weeping willows sway, and the fragrance of flowers fill the air at this time of year. I also have the pleasure of small encounters with birds. This morning, Poppy and I spotted a red winged blackbird singing at the top of a young willow tree. Yesterday morning I had the pleasure of seeing two titmouses (titmice?) in the pollinator garden, playfully flitting around a juvenile chokecherry tree.

Yesterday afternoon I had an unusual encounter with a young Great Blue Heron. I was returning from the library and I stopped to take a photo of some extra pretty clematis growing up an old piece of fence in the feral garden across from the Washbrook viewing platform. I heard a croaking sound and assumed it was a raven, but when I looked up, it was a young Great Blue Heron perched on the chainlink fence. I snapped a quick photo, but when I started to approach, it flew away.

I usually only see them wading in the Washbrook, or flying pterodactyl-like above me. It was rather magical.

I believe you will

I’m so proud of you, America, for standing up for yourselves and each other. I have been watching the happenings down in the US closely. I followed the protests against ICE in LA more than I probably should have, but my heart lives there and I couldn’t look away. I have been watching protest videos and news clips, reading articles and commentary. I feel my heart swell every time I see a community rise up together against those kidnapping gestapo bounty hunters to chase them out of their town.

The video clips of protestors countering fully armed police, military and white supremist groups with courage, anger, humour and humanity has had me cheering you on. The footage of locals in Pasadena playing instruments, banging on pots & pans, signs and more at night until the human equipment of the 47th’s fascist regime were ejected from a hotel was priceless.

Watching you protest en masse, seeing you showing up for one another, sharing information and mutual aid restores my faith in the people of your nation’s ability to face down the fanta menace’s regime and take back your country. I believe you will.

In the meantime, I received a missive from 18th Street Arts Center in Santa Monica offering hope, assistance and resistance through self defence, twice monthly potlucks and pro bono emergency space. Look them up if you are in LA County and need sustenance or support, beauty or hopeful help for your hurting heart.

It's spring and the flowers are here!

Spring is springing and there are flowers! I believe I have gushed a few times on here about how much I love flowers? (LOLOL) I am especially delighted by flowers that appear in unexpected locations.

Recently I have spotted a few patches and they bring me immense joy on my daily dog walks with Poppy. One morning I spotted a patch of brilliant yellow daffodils thriving in some brambles. They are still kicking it and I have not given in to the temptation to take one home.

You see them over there? Just on the other side of the broken bridge?


Another morning it was the sweetest little wild violets, each sweet face smaller than my pinky nail. They are proliferating in a patch of boggy grass. I think they are the cutest! Many more have sprung up since I took this photo.

I believe these are viola machoskeyi. How darling are they in the dew?

The day before yesterday I spotted several nice sized patches of grape hyacinth and I made a bee-line (yup, the pun was intended and I am a dork) for them. I gathered a bunch and they have been gracing my kitchen window ledge in a small vase of green Mexican glass. The kind with the bubbles. Tomorrow I will begin infusing them in vinegar for my upcoming feral garden party.

Poppy was not as interested in the grape hyacinth as she looks in this photo. Don’t be fooled.

This evening on our dog walk I gathered magnolia petals to infuse in heavy cream for a magnolia cream cake. I think elderflower would pair well with the sorta spicy magnolia so I am thinking I will infuse the cream with magnolia, freeze it and then infuse it again with elderflower when they grace me with their angelic presence. I have been witnessing their becoming. I love the way they grow symmetrically, looking remarkably like the berry at first. They remind me of William Morris for some reason.

I have also been reading about eating quince blossoms, and I tried a petal from the large bank of quince bushes that are growing along the bank of the Washbrook this evening. It was deicate and slightly tart. I read that they are particularly lovely infused in vinegar so I think I will gather some petals and infuse them once more of the blooms open. There are several large patches of quince down around the riparian zone.

There is also an old plum tree that has small, white, star-like blossoms in spring and adorable, tasty, tiny plums in fall. The blossoms are just about ready to pop. Maybe tomorrow I’ll see their little faces.

A deluge of swallows

This morning, around 8am, when Poppy and I were walking along the Washbrook, we encountered a deluge of swallows. Hundreds of black swallows with white stripes alongside numerous Juniper Titmouse(s?) (titmice?) suddenly came downstream, flooding the air above the Washbrook, sticking to the stream as path.

It was delightful and I stopped and watched as more and more and more came toward us. Some of them landed in the small trees on the banks of the Washbrook and stopped to take a minute before they flew on. Later, at home, the internet told me that these were likely migratory swallows since I live on the migration path. It said that they were likely headed to hang out in some bullrushes - there were plenty to choose from where they were headed!

I got excited and started sprinkling birdseed on the nearby grass but they were not interested. LOL!

After the last swallows sped swiftly by, I saw some of the shy crows who shadow me on my walks saunter over to nibble on the seeds.

There are Canada Geese in the fields adjacent to the Washbrook as well. I once saw a Purple Finch along there. On another walk I saw a Sharp Shinned Hawk. Twice, a Bald Eagle. It’s a bird rich location!

Nerves

I am feeling frustrated. I don’t mean to complain and I am generally a pretty happy person, but this pain thing is bringing me down. I have been experiencing nerve pain in my shoulders, arms and hands from the curve in my spine. I know this because I have been researching it. Yes, it seems I have a new research hobby.

I experience this particular pain when I sit at my laptop at my dining table and type. I think it is from the way I hold my arms. I have been sitting and typing a lot. I am working on my dissertation proposal presentation for my defence and I promised my massage therapist that I would not lie on my couch and type, which was my former habit and my shameful confession (haha). I am enjoying the research, i like the work, but the pain is distracting. It’s like I have bees in my shoulders, hands and arms and sometimes they sting, leaving a burning, buzzing, throbbing pain.

Maybe not bees, I like bees too much to think of them that way. Probably more like wasps or hornets. Once, at Ben Eoin Beach Campground, as a child, a friend stepped on a hornets nest hidden inside a rotten log by accident. We were both stung over and over again as we ran away.

The frustration lies in enjoying the work, wanting to work, but being in too much pain to keep typing. I do, also, write long hand. After a long day of typing, sometimes my arms and hands hurt too much to write longhand. This is bumming me out and I am not yet sure how to deal with it. I am still formulating a plan. I am trying not to let it stress me out. I will figure this out.

On a different note: Happy Martin Luther King Day!

And on a different different note: Last night I was texting with my bro in Sausalito (love you bro! you da best) when I had an etsy order FROM SOMEONE IN SAUSALITO. I thought that was pretty fun and funny. I have lots of clients in California, but this was my first order from Sausalito. Naturally I told the etsy buyer the story in the card I placed with their order. LOL

Particular pleasure

Yesterday I had the particular pleasure of heading to Inverness, over on the west side of the island, to see artist Sameer Farooq give a talk about his work at the Inverness County Centre for the Arts. I travelled to the west coast of Unama’ki with a lovely group of smart, ambitious, curious, compassionate, passionate and interesting women. People who are actually working to make this island a better place for everyone who lives here. I felt quite fortunate to be counted among their numbers for the day.

Sameer Farooq is an artist of Pakistani heritage who was born and raised here, in Unama’ki. His current work grapples with concepts of repatriation/decolonizing archives/museums and bread as a cultural and social form of sculpture and site of exchange/collision/cross over/kinship as well as nourishment for the body. His artist talk was smartly, beautifully mesmerizing and I felt drawn in, riveted for the duration.

I was already familiar with Sameer’s work because he was introduced to me on the internet by a mutual friend and colleague when I was still living in Montreal. This was the first time I met him in person and my impression of him was as a warm, gentle, generous, kind person who made you feel seen and welcome when you engaged with him. The success of his social practice makes perfect sense.

Sameer was long listed for the Sobey Award and I definitely think it was well deserved! Big fan of his work over here!

After the talk, which was well attended, I began to realize that I knew a lot of people in the room and began talking and catching up with all kinds of people I hadn’t seen in an age or so. I didn’t even have time to speak with everyone I wanted to before it was time to leave! It was a pleasure, even for a socially awkward introvert who doesn’t often enjoy socializing.

Unama’ki/Cape Breton is a funny place, so it is not totally surprising that Art Icon Joan Jonas was sitting front and centre at Sameer’s talk! Philip Glass visited the exhibition by NYC’s Jeri Coppola, currently on view at the ICCA yesterday and we were speculating whether or not we would see him at the talk on the way up (we didn’t).

After the talk we headed to the beach and hit the beachside snack bar to fill our bellies which were rumbling from looking at so many photos of bread and bread making!

It was a magnificent day.

The art of survival in late capitalist ruins

During the pandemic I received a Canada Council grant to begin work on a project called The Art of survival in late capitalist ruins. For this project I began examining survival from an array of perspectives, and with an eye to Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs.

The very bottom tier of Maslow’s Hierarchy, which is usually depicted as a pyramid, is “Physiological needs: breathing, food, water, shelter, clothing, sleep.” In this time of late capitalism, the very baseline, foundational requirements for any human to live their life is not viewed as a given. It is not viewed as a baseline for existence that should be available for everyone and people who can’t meet those needs on their own, for whatever reason: mental health issues, trauma, disability - are viewed as immoral and so, disposable.

Capitalism creates a hierarchy that places the wealthy at the top and graces them with a halo of morality. The rest of us down here form the base in layers that are visibly crumbling around us the further down you go while those above us seem blissfully unaware.

I live surrounded by ruination. It is an everyday reality for me: The apartment building on the left side of my building is a crumbling dump and the house owned by an elderly couple on the right side of my building is actually falling apart. Pieces that were hanging have been pulled off in chunks since I have been living here. There has constantly been either a dilapidated porch structure falling off the rest of the house or a pile of rubble immediately next to my footpath since the day I moved in. There is a house with a caved in roof down the street and I think someone lives there.

Houses here in Unama’ki are actually still relatively affordable. There are small dumps around that you could buy for $100k and fix up. When I was looking at apartment listings a few days ago I also viewed the real estate listings and I noticed that there are small apartment buildings around, like the one I live in, that are listed in the $200K range. So you don’t actually need to be wealthy to purchase something, yet there is so much poverty here that even a small dumpy house is out of reach for many people. Including me. Being an artist is my calling, but it has not been a lucrative career, more of a feast or famine situation. I am intimately familiar with precarity.

So theoretically you could buy an apartment building like the one I live in for under $300K. So why are the rents so astronomical? Why are we paying the same kinds of sky high rents here in this falling down town with terrible, sub par infrastructure, that we would pay in a city with conveniently placed business and good public transit? And if we are already paying ridiculous rents for decent apartments, why are they trying to raise them even more? Greed.

People from off this island looking for real estate investments are attuned to the situation here and they come here to exploit the people who are already, and historically have been, trying to scratch out an existence. It is truly appalling, inhumane, exploitative behaviour.

Last night the new landlord told my upstairs neighbours, once again, that they have to move out. He told them that if they don’t he is going to sue our old landlord. He tried threatening and bullying them to intimidate them into complying. I have been helping my neighbours advocate for themselves because English is their second language and I cannot imagine how stressful having to navigate an eviction situation in a foreign country must be. I think he is targeting them because the language situation makes them more vulnerable

I know I will be next. I know that we are legally in the right here and are technically protected, but we are not protected from the stress and anxiety that this is creating in our lives. This apartment used to be my sanctuary and now I don’t feel safe/secure here and I feel unsafe leaving Poppy here on her own (I am very protective of her because she was abused in her early life). I am worried that the situation will continue to escalate with the new landlord. He seems to either not know or not care that there are laws and regulations around being a landlord that he is required to adhere to. I suspect it’s the latter, because we have informed him and it is his job to inform himself.

UPDATE - Just as casually as he was trying to evict my neighbours, the new landlord texted them to say that he will honour their lease. I wonder if he consulted with a lawyer and realized that what he was trying to do was illegal. Who knows! Fingers crossed he doesn’t try to lean on me now!

A snag

On Monday of last week, the sale of the building I live in closed. On Wednesday, July 31 at 7:25pm the new landlord texted to say that he is “the new owner of the home” and he “would appreciate it if (I) found a new place to live.”

There is a housing crisis here, as there is in many other places in Turtle Island/North America. It’s historic, it has been ongoing for a long time now, at least a decade or more. This new landlord is an example of a direct contributor to this housing crisis. He bought this building specifically with the intention of kicking myself, and the three Chinese students upstairs, out of our established homes so he could spike the rent and exploit other international students and locals. This is a trend and I find it appalling.

Fortunately for my neighbours and I, our previous landlord was a good person with foresight, and she provided us each with a six month fixed term lease before she sold our building. We will all have a place to live until January 1.

I had a look at the apartment listings available in my area online. There were two pages and I didn’t see a single dog friendly, let alone pet friendly, listing. I do believe, despite the odds, that Poppy and I will find a new place to live and be ok, but I don’t think this entire scenario is ok.

I think this is a deeply problematic, as well as a disturbing trend.