Coucoumellisms

Since I have posted these pictures just about everywhere I have an account on the web, I may as well post at least one here. This was my latest project, a wolf pinata for Dominic's birthday. This is one of my favourites to date. You can check out some of the others here: http://coucoumelle.blogspot.com/2005/09/introducing.html http://coucoumelle.blogspot.com/2006/03/pinata-time-again_22.html http://coucoumelle.blogspot.com/2006/10/working-on-yet-another-pinata.html http://coucoumelle.blogspot.com/2006/11/gabriels-birthday-party.html http://coucoumelle.blogspot.com/2007/04/tale-of-pinata.html http://coucoumelle.blogspot.com/2005/09/while-we-are-on-topic-of-pinatas.html Or just click on 'pinatas' under LABELS on the right-hand side there, and that'll take you to them all. The poor wolf is going to be destroyed tommorrow. So I am going to admire him all I can today.

For Jeanne I stand beneath the doorframe, this functional arch that serves as a threshold separating me from the infinite space in which you kneel, hands splayed on the wooden floor, womb heavy and distended. The space engulfing you is an in-between space that belongs to the dying and to the child that slips from you, umbilical cord for an instant the blue of cornflowers or of the sky drowning in the sea off Malta or Cephalonia.* And I think of all the things that go unsaid, cannot be said yet fill the spaces we leave open, the pauses we wrap ourselves in as we sip burning coffee from white Styrofoam cups and distribute Timbits among four pairs of tiny hands. These pauses which, like the child bursting from you, emerge from some in-between space, its silence filled with things that come before language before the sounds we push past throats and lips. Before words like ‘sister’, And ‘friend’. * She's been to Greece since the last version, can you tell?

... well, actually I have. I've just been too lazy to write. And I've been having too much fun on Facebook and Flickr . I update my Flickr account regularly with new photos, so that's where a lot of my effort has been going recently. Just to give you an idea of what I have been up to recently, here are a few pictures, all of which you will find on Flickr (and more): Going into a sewing shop is dangerous... I might just see fabric I absolutely have to make something out of... In this case it became a tablecloth. Leftover material and some lace became a dress for a doll... ... and another one for Maryssa These are the chairs before... ... and these are the chairs after buying material that matches the rest of the room and gets out the 80's This was another one of those "I was in a fabric store and just had to have this" moments. A very nice horse-printed material that I made into a skirt for Maryssa, because she really likes horses. I haven't just been ...

One of my favourite poems, back in grade eleven English, was this one by Elizabeth Barrett Browning: How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I love thee to the depth and breadth and height My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight For the ends of Being and ideal Grace. I love thee to the level of every day's Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light. I love thee freely, as men strive for right; I love thee purely, as they turn from praise, I love thee with the passion put to use In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith. I love thee with a love I seemed to lose With my lost saints -I love thee with the breath, Smiles, tears, of all my life! -and, if God choose, I shall but love thee better after death. Just as there is more than one way to love a person, there is more than one way to miss a person. There are also many ways to miss one's dog, when he has died an untimely death: I miss you Toby, when I get up in the morning and I look down at the foot of my bed, t...

June 2007 Toby was born in March 2004, in our neighbour's garage, where he works. We got him for free and took him home on Mother's Day 2004. He was the cutest puppy. Of course, being cute is not everything. We spent an exasperating year, teaching him not to chew on barbies and other toys, to not jump on strangers, to not run off, etc etc. We used to laugh that we had a vacuum cleaner, (cleaning the floor) roto-tiller, (digging in garden) fan (his tail), hedge trimmer (again, his tail) all rolled into one. The multi-service dog. He really liked people. Everyone was his friend. We also used to laugh that we could be robbed and Toby would, instead of chasing them off, probably help them move all our stuff to their truck. We had a real problem with his running off all the time until I finally had to throw a rock at his head to make him stop and realize that it was NOT a game. After that, you only had to pretend to throw something and he stopped in his tracks. The last yea...

Last weekend, we went to my parents' place and on the way home, stopped in Ottawa so the older boys could go to a FIFA U-20 world cup 1/4 finals game. It was Argentina against Mexico. (Argentina won) I got to see my niece (and goddaughter) for the first time, and visit a bit with my brother Cecil, his wife Jane and Jane's sister, Mary. I also got to visit (for a very short period) with my aunt Pauline and uncle Eddie, who were visiting their grandchildren. (My cousin and her husband live in the same village as my parents). Here are a few pictures of us all at Grammie and Grandpapa's house, Saturday evening: Claire, one month old Jean-Alexandre and Claire The family: Marc, myself, Jane Dominic, Cecil, Gabriel, Jean-Alexandre, Claire, Grammie Anne, Maryssa, Grandpapa Jean-Nil, Nicolas The cousins: Gabriel, Maryssa, Jean-Alexandre, Claire, Dominic, Nicolas Sunday morning, we went to mass with Grammie, then ordered pizza for lunch. We went walking with Grandpapa, played with ...

I always liked that song by Alanis Morissette, back when she was doing the rebel thing. (I have a bit of a rebel streak myself.) It's funny how life can throw you one when you least expect it. Last Thursday and Friday, I must have returned 6 or 7 times to the computer repairman because the computer would work at his shop but we would come home and it wouldn't work here. Turns out two things needed replacing, the motherboard and the video card. Friday morning, as I was preparing, once again, to return to the shop, this time with ALL the pieces of the computer, including keyboard, mouse and even the electrical plugs, to make sure that none of these things was hindering the computer in any way, I got a phone call. Turns out we'd won a new computer. Dominic had been selling tickets for his soccer, and we won a prize! Now that's the kind of irony I could stand to see a little more of! We did finally get the other computer to work properly though.