I AM AHEM

Retro Friday: like auntie, like niece

noreply@blogger.com (Angela Hemming) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 08:00:00 +0000

My family often photographs the same subject matter, decades apart, without realizing it.

Case in point:

Happy Australia Day

noreply@blogger.com (Angela Hemming) — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 08:00:00 +0000

{on Mission Beach, Queensland, 2004}

I'll raise a can of something cold today and toast all of you down in God's Country. May you always appreciate your gum trees, Vegemite, and Tim Tams. And may you be very, very grateful you don't have to put up with the white stuff.

If "loving Australia" were a qualification for citizenship, I'd already be living there.

(Sigh) Someday.

Meanwhile, if you'd like to know more about some of my travels Down Under, here's a little reading material:

And I just realized I should have posted this YESTERDAY when it was Australia Day in Australia. Darn that international date line ...

What gets me through the winter

noreply@blogger.com (Angela Hemming) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 08:00:00 +0000

Hot baths, hot showers, hot water bottles, hot yoga. I hate being cold. Sweating is good.
Dancing. Again, leads to sweating. Watching other people dance is inspiring, too.
Turner Classic Movies. Give me an old movie, anytime. Or better yet, a cruise combined with old movies.
The combination of chocolate and chilli.
Looking at amazing photos on the internet. This collection of powerful images from 2011 is fantastic.
Interesting blogs to read (currently enjoying Gala Darling, What Possessed Me, Cupcakes and Cashmere, Life as an Artistpreneur, Honestly ... WTF, and Heart of Light).
Oooh and I could waste SO much time perusing Retronaut ...

Dinner and a movie with my mum on Mondays (cheap geezer night at the Odeon, don't y'know). We're trying to see all the Oscar-nominated films this month. Have seen The Artist, My Week with Marilyn, and The Iron Lady so far.
Helping plan my 30-year high school reunion. Based on how much fun the 20-year reunion was, I think we're guaranteed a good party.
Growing something. In this case, a bulb that my sister gave me as a Christmas gift. I planted it on New Year's day and it bloomed a couple of weeks later. Looks great but it stinks:

When all else fails, bug out to the tropics.

How about you?

You know your husband works in health care when ...

noreply@blogger.com (Angela Hemming) — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 08:00:00 +0000

... he joins you in the front garden, looks at the Clematis you've recently pruned and says ...

... quite innocently ...

... in a loud voice ...

... for all the neighbours to hear ...

"DID YOU GET RID OF THE CHLAMYDIA?"

After I'd stopped laughing, I turned to him and said, "That is totally bloggable, man."

And for once, this anti-social-media dude had to agree.

{To be specific, he is working on a communicable disease management project.}

Happy Chinese New Year

noreply@blogger.com (Angela Hemming) — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 08:00:00 +0000

Flotsam says, "Gung Hay Fat Choy!"

Now go eat some dim sum.

Retro Friday: "Go and stand in the foliage"

noreply@blogger.com (Angela Hemming) — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 08:00:00 +0000

My dad loved to photograph my sister and I when we were kids, and for some reason the default composition always involved foliage in the foreground. It was always "Go into that tall grass over there and peek through." It was usually uncomfortable getting into the right spot, often itchy, and after a few years of posing this way we didn't even need to be asked anymore. We'd just hike straight into the nearest, leafiest area and pose away.

And of course, for added effect, once in awhile we got the double-whammy of photographic commands: "Go into the branches and peek through. Now put your arm around your sister."

Snowy Toes

noreply@blogger.com (Angela Hemming) — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 08:00:00 +0000

It's been a-blizzarding lately, which is very unusual here in Canada's Banana Belt. At first, the flakes were quite pretty:

The cats ventured outside, slipping and sliding and shaking their paws after each step, going "What the --?"

The flakes kept falling ...

And it got deeper and deeper ...

And after awhile they decided not to risk the white stuff anymore.

Better to let the human do the shoveling ...

Definition of "newspaper"? A geezer's internet.

noreply@blogger.com (Angela Hemming) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 08:00:00 +0000

My parents, bless 'em, occasionally ask me "Did you see such-and-such in the paper this morning?" When I react with an almost imperceptible frown and shrug, their next question is "Do you get the paper?" What they're asking is if I have the newspaper delivered.

Oh yes, I remember what a newspaper IS. But like most people under 50, I get my information on the internet. I do read newspaper websites, notably BBC, National Post, Victoria Times Colonist among others, but it's all done online. No trees are harmed in my pursuit of information.

Given that most young people don't buy or subscribe to the hard-copy versions of newspapers anymore, I wonder how long we're going to keep calling this form of media "the paper"?

pondering infinity

noreply@blogger.com (Angela Hemming) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 08:00:00 +0000

"Our body is a cell in the body of the earth.

The earth is a cell in the body of the galaxy.

The galaxy is a cell in the body of the universe.

And the universe is a cell in the body of the infinite."

Ann Mortifee, "In Love With The Mystery"

So you think you have nothing to wear?

noreply@blogger.com (Angela Hemming) — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 08:00:00 +0000

I just stumbled onto this amazing fund raising project on the internet, in which one woman pledged to wear the same Little Black Dress every day for a year, the only variable being donated or recycled accessories. Could you do it?

It's called Uniform Project. Here's what it's about:

"Uniform Project was born in May 2009, when one girl pledged to wear a Little Black Dress for 365 days as an exercise in sustainable fashion. Designed to also be a fundraiser for the education of underprivileged children in India, the project acquired millions of visitors worldwide and raised over $100k for the cause."

Watch this video and see how many looks she pulled off with the LBD. It's quite extraordinary:

Uniform Project Picture Book from Uniform Project on Vimeo.

Retro Friday: "put your arm around your sister"

noreply@blogger.com (Angela Hemming) — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 08:00:00 +0000

There's nothing more keenly photographed by parents than enforced sibling affection. Sometimes it produces a great shot:

And sometimes it's just bloody awkward, and it shows:

May the force be with you

noreply@blogger.com (Angela Hemming) — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 08:00:00 +0000

"There is a vibrating, radiant force that energizes and connects us with the source of all creation. It is the energy of which our own body is composed. We vibrate with the same life that vibrates the waters, the earth and the stars. All is connected in this living vital force. All is motivated and sustained by its power. Realize this. Take responsibility for being the co-creator of your life."

Ann Mortifee, In Love With The Mystery

A couple of months ago when I was recovering from surgery, I began my slow re-introduction to exercise by taking some restorative yoga classes. In one class, as we held our poses for several minutes, the teacher read quotes from Ann Mortifee's book, In Love With The Mystery.

The words were so beautiful, I asked him to tell me the name of the book at the end of the class.

This is one of those books that I am going to savour one page at a time, rather than reading it all at once. With your indulgence, I'll share my favourite quotes here from time to time.

Twenty-first century photo albums

noreply@blogger.com (Angela Hemming) — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 08:00:00 +0000

Remember the days when you'd take your roll of film to the drug store to be processed, you'd wait a couple of days for the prints, then stick them in a box or an album? These days, the "box" is the computer, where our photos remain largely ignored.

Since the advent of digital photography, most people don't bother printing out their photos. And albums? Forget about it. Too much work.

I admit, it's a lot of work to create a digital photo album, but I much prefer showing someone my photos in an actual book they can hold onto, rather than on a computer.

Case in point: I spent many hours (no, days) in November creating an album of our trip to New Zealand and Australia last year, to give to Rajeev as a Christmas gift. This is what it looked like during the design phase:

And once the design was done and uploaded to Apple, the finished product arrived at my house a couple of weeks later:

Presto! A gorgeous photo album we can look at whenever we want, not mention the peace of mind from knowing that we have a hard-copy back-up of these particular images.

In the past I have used Blurb.com, with mixed results in print quality, so this time I decided to use the calendar-making capabilities of iPhoto on my Mac. It's not as flexible as Blurb, but the quality is reliably good. For this book, I maxed out on the 100 page limit and ended up with a pretty thick book.

In addition to photos, I like to include maps in our travel albums. This map was included in the iPhoto template I chose. I just plonked in the names of our departure and destination cities, and iPhoto added the arrow:

The most difficult decisions involve trying to decide which photos to use and which to leave out, for believe it or not 100 pages wasn't enough to display all the photos I took on this trip. The other challenge is deciding which photos to enlarge full size and which to combine into smaller vignettes.

Do you use digital photo album software / websites? If so, which do you prefer?

recipe: mojitos

noreply@blogger.com (Angela Hemming) — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 08:00:00 +0000

When we were in Cuba (and more recently, Miami), we sampled a LOT of mojitos. It's a simple, refreshing drink that makes use of fresh lime and mint. Because we live in a cold climate, we can only harvest our mint during the summer, so at home this tends to be a seasonal pleasure we always look forward to. "The mint's ready! Mojito time!"

Here's how you make 'em.

For each mojito, you're going to need:

a small handful of mint leaves
1 lime
1 teaspoon sugar
2 ounces white rum
crushed or cubed ice
club soda

Directions:

Place the mint leaves in the bottom of a glass
Squeeze the lime juice onto the mint
Add the sugar
Muddle it all together
Add the rum and give it a stir
Add some ice
Top up with club soda

You can vary all the ingredients to your taste.

... and speaking of retro

noreply@blogger.com (Angela Hemming) — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 08:00:00 +0000

Have you seen "The Artist"? It is perfection. Here's what I love about it:

The director has used twenty-first century technology to create a film that looks like it was made with basic equipment in the 1920s, rather than following the current trend of making films that are increasingly technically complicated each year. Ironically, I'm sure that it took a lot of technology and artistic genius to create the old look.
It is timely and timeless. Its theme of "make way for new technology; change yourself to adapt in a new economic environment" is just as relevant today as it was in 1929.
There is no shot wasted, no corner of the frame without intentional design.
The film is so true to the original aesthetic, it even screens in the old aspect ratio and shows all the credits in the beginning (unlike the current trend to leave everything, even the title, till the end).
The selective use of sound is brilliant (for it is not completely a silent film), and the music score is beautiful.
The clothes! The shoes! The cars! The hair dos! The decor! The retroness of it all!

Watch the trailer below, then make sure you see "The Artist" on a big screen.

Retro Friday: Christmas Seals

noreply@blogger.com (Angela Hemming) — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 08:00:00 +0000

I'm taking down the tree today, but before I do I want to share one of my favourite, home-made ornaments with you. If you're Canadian, chances are you remember Christmas Seals. Originally used as a fund-raising stamp for the Canadian Lung Association, in my lifetime they have been mailed to homes sometime in November with a request for donations.

An avid pen-pal and Christmas card-sender, I have been collecting Christmas Seals for as long as I can remember. Every year they had a different design. About ten years ago I created Christmas ornaments with them, using old photographic slide containers which sandwiched them perfectly. The one above is an example.

This year, Rajeev was on the verge of throwing them out as we decorated our tree, thinking that since they were made of paper, they were expendable.

"Noooo!" I cried. "Not the Christmas Seals! These are collectors' items now. Jeez ..."

They are also a vivid memory jogger for me. I can look at the one in the photo above, from 1983, and actually remember sticking them on the back of envelopes that year.

I don't know what's happened to Christmas Seals. I can't remember the last time I received any in my mailbox, or saw them stuck on an envelope. Does anyone remember when they stopped sending them?

Miami, how I love ya

noreply@blogger.com (Angela Hemming) — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 08:00:00 +0000

Bookmarking our adventure on the TCM Classic Cruise last month, we stayed in Miami: first in Art Deco heaven, South Beach, and then downtown.

I have to say that based on my brief visit, and despite the fact that I was sick when I was there, Miami is now my favourite American city. It's tropical, Cuban, friendly, and easy to get around.

Here are a few of my iPhone pics:

Still life with male bonding

noreply@blogger.com (Angela Hemming) — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 08:00:00 +0000

During the past couple of gift occasions (birthday, Christmas), I have given Rajeev decanters for his growing Scotch collection. He loves them. He has even created a little still life with the decanters, some Indian beedies, and a couple of Cuban cigars.

You see, the male bonding at our place, when it happens, always involves scotch AND cigars.

I can do without the Scotch and cigars (yuk and yuk), but I love the look and sensibility of these decanters. They're old, hand-me-down crystal. I love the heaviness of crystal. I love the fact that these things were built to LAST.

I guess I'm on a mission to bring retro back.

Now that it's all just a blur ...

noreply@blogger.com (Angela Hemming) — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 08:00:00 +0000

Sometimes, my Christmas baking hoard lasts well into January. And when it does, I can keep raiding it to prolong that 'holiday' denial of impending austerity. This year, however, my stash of baked goodies ran out on New Year's Day. Rats. I can't prolong it anymore.

It's time for detox.

December happenings

noreply@blogger.com (Angela Hemming) — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 08:00:00 +0000

We went on the TCM Classic Cruise, a floating film festival from Miami to Cozumel.
I discovered my new favourite American city: Miami.
I baked a cake and spent some time with my Dad on his 88th birthday.
I spent quite a lot of time horizontal, recovering from a terrible cold.
We socialized with the usual suspects over the Christmas season.

Happy New Year!

Retro Friday: crossing guard

noreply@blogger.com (Angela Hemming) — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 08:00:00 +0000

This is me, holding a stop sign at the corner of Derby and Cedar Hill Roads, circa 1974. My dad showed up when I was on duty as a crossing guard near my school -- that's his Porche parked on the left side -- and embarrassed the hell out of me by taking photos. No one else's parent did that!

In addition to wearing a hard hat and holding out the sign, crossing guards had to do a little sing-song chant that went something like "Cut traffic, students through." Then, after people had crossed the street, we moved back to our original position with the chant "Cut students, traffic through."

Oh, the weirdness from 1974 ...

Not a resolution in sight

noreply@blogger.com (Angela Hemming) — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 18:53:00 +0000

I don't make New Year's resolutions.

Oh, I used to. Like most people, I resolved to lose weight, get in shape, get up at the crack of dawn and exercise every day until I was perfectly thin, etc. But a couple of decades ago I realized that once the newness of the year wore off and life settled into the ordinary, my resolve would wane. I wasn't alone. Have you ever been to a crowded gym in January, and then seen the tumbleweeds blowing through it in February?

Sometime back in the 1990s I decided that if I was going to resolve to change anything in my life, it should happen at any time of year in order to stick. And if that time of year happened to coincide with the New Year, my resolution had to be something that I'd be able to keep on a Wednesday in April or a Sunday in September. In other words, it had to be realistic.

This year, I joined a gym in late October. For me, post-surgical recovery was what inspired me to exercise daily. After a period of enforced idleness, I really appreciated the ability to exercise again. It has been something I look forward to, which is why I've been able to stick with it.

If you're considering making a change this New Year, think ahead to some random date during 2012 and imagine yourself sticking with your plan. Make sure you are realistic. Then go for it.

And remember: anything you can do daily for 30 days, you can do indefinitely. Stick with it in January and it will become a habit.

recipe: breakfast muffins

noreply@blogger.com (Angela Hemming) — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 08:00:00 +0000

Lately I've been whipping up batches of these muffins to have for breakfast, and freezing what I can't eat within a few days. I'm calling them breakfast muffins because they are loaded with healthy ingredients and go great with a cup of coffee or tea first thing in the morning.

I have modified this recipe a couple of times, substituting hazelnuts for almonds, soy milk for cow's milk, etc., and the end result is always great. Just use whatever you have on hand to add crunch or sweetness. The bran and the carrots constitute the healthy part ...

INGREDIENTS

2 cups flour
4 tsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
2 cups bran
1/2 cup wheat germ
1 cup brown sugar
4 Tbsp sesame seeds
1/2 cup chopped nuts (almonds, walnuts, hazelnuts, peanuts, etc.)
1/2 cup chopped apricots (or raisins or any dried fruit you like)
1/4 cup chocolate chips
1.5 cups grated carrot
Grated rind of one lemon, lime or orange
2 cups buttermilk (or soy milk, almond milk, rice milk)
1/2 cup yoghurt (or sour cream)
2 eggs

DIRECTIONS

Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon
Stir in bran, wheat germ, brown sugar
Add sesame seeds, nuts, apricots, carrot and citrus rind
Beat milk, eggs and yoghurt together
Pour into the dry ingredients and stir to moisten
Fill greased muffin cups
Bake at 400F for 20 minutes
Makes 20 muffins

Retro Friday: Christmas 1975

noreply@blogger.com (Angela Hemming) — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 08:00:00 +0000

My sister and I, showing our loot. This was a good haul for me, because I got my first tape recorder. I used that thing for years. It was a Telefunken. I taped tv shows by putting the machine close to the tv speaker, running up to pause it during commercials. I had most episodes of "The Brady Bunch" on tape, which I listened to later in my room.

It probably seemed like a weird thing to do at the time. A few years later, the VCR was invented.

In praise of real, live, actual Christmas cards

noreply@blogger.com (Angela Hemming) — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 08:00:00 +0000

Don't send me no form letters or e-cards, especially at this time of year. I LOVE sending and receiving real, live, paper Christmas cards. There's something about going out to the mailbox and finding an envelope with my name and address hand-written on it ... It's so rare these days. And the number of cards we receive is dwindling every year, unfortunately.

Some people claim that e-cards save paper and postage, and therefore are better for the environment. Maybe so, but for the enjoyment factor, you might as well not bother. You can't enjoy an e-card the same as a paper card. You can't display it on your mantle, for starters. An e-card is nothing but a gesture, not the personalized mini-gift of a real card, especially if it's hand-made.

Above is a photo of the cards I made this year. I used a photo of a frosty fern I shot in our garden in November, and got them printed through an online company called Pinhole Press. [If you're Canadian, don't use them. They ship through UPS and the brokerage fees are astronomical]

I hope our recipients like receiving these as much as I liked creating them.

Happy Holidays, all!