Author Archives: Mama Cormier

Five Stories, Five Photos Challenge – Day 3

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I was invited by Elizabeth from Tea and Paper to join the Five Photos, Five Stories Challenge “Post a photo each day for five consecutive days and attach a story to the photo. It can be fiction or non-fiction, a poem or a short paragraph and each day nominate another blogger for the challenge.” Elizabeth is a fellow Canadian who lives close by but never reveals exactly where. She loves to journal, take photographs and write poetry.

Today I’d like to invite Jodi from Life in Between . Her blog is beautiful, her recipes devine and her art inspiring.

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Swans

Graceful, sleek white curves

Dominate the water’s edge

 Monarchs of the lake

Five Stories, Five Photos Challenge – Day 2

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I was invited by Elizabeth from Tea and Paper to join the Five Photos, Five Stories Challenge “Post a photo each day for five consecutive days and attach a story to the photo. It can be fiction or non-fiction, a poem or a short paragraph and each day nominate another blogger for the challenge.” Elizabeth is a fellow Canadian who lives close by but never reveals exactly where. She loves to journal, take photographs and write poetry.

Today, on day 2, I’d like to invite  Woolly from Woolly Muses who resides ‘way down under’. He describes himself as a former wool chaser and after 30 years changed careers and became a teacher. He loves all kinds of photographic challenges and I hope accepts this invitation to join in on this challenge.

After yesterday’s poem I felt I had jinxed the weather. We had a beautiful, albeit cool day, and I really felt in my heart of hearts that Spring had finally arrived. I did say that more snow was still a possibility in this neck of the woods but I guess I was quietly hoping that after our long and bitterly cold winter that we might get a break from that prediction. Silly me!

Last night, after watching a movie with my husband, I decided to quickly check on my emails before heading off to bed. The dog started to whine, indicating that a quick trip outside was in order. I put my laptop aside, slipped on my shoes and without putting on a jacket I opened the door and this is what I encountered.IMG_4384 IMG_4385 IMG_4386

Arrrgghh!!!!!

You can’t really tell from the photos but the snowflakes were big and fluffy and they clung to the branches of the trees. I have to admit that it was pretty but enough is enough.

This morning when I woke up the ground was still covered. Later in the morning didn’t it start to snow again. Once more the flakes were big and fluffy but the temperature must have been hovering just above freezing because it didn’t amount to anything. Later this afternoon all traces of the snow were gone.

Is this the last of the snow?  I’m not saying anything this time. I don’t need to jinx us again.

Cheers!

Five Photos, Five Stories Challenge – Day 1

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I was invited by Elizabeth from teandpaper to join the Five Photos, Five Stories Challenge “Post a photo each day for five consecutive days and attach a story to the photo. It can be fiction or non-fiction, a poem or a short paragraph and each day nominate another blogger for the challenge.” Elizabeth is a fellow Canadian who lives close by but never reveals exactly where.

I’ve decided to write a piece of prose based on some art that I’ve created this week. Hope you enjoy it.

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Spring Awakening 

The last of the snow has vanished

But the wind reminds us that

another flurry or two is still possible

The earth is brown and hard

but the birds chirp each morning

singing of warmer days to come

Small green shoots push hard

to break through the frozen crust

to savour the sun’s light

and longer days

The Easter season is upon us

Children dream of the Easter bunny

and egg hunts and parades

while the elders flock to church

to observe the holiest weekend

of the year

Cloudy days and rain will become the norm

for awhile

and trees and the Earth’s carpet

will begin to green

The animal world comes alive

and offspring will soon be abundant

The cycle continues,

one season moving on to the next.

(Property of Carol Cormier 2015)

 I’m nominating Boeta and his mom and dad from Our Rumbling Ocean to take up the challenge. They live in South Africa and post wonderful photos and stories about their corner of the world.

Share Your World 2015 – Week 13

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…..four more great questions from Cee

What was your favorite subject in school?

I want to say art but I didn’t take one art class in high school. Not because I didn’t want to.  If I could have chosen any subjects I wanted I would have taken music, art and Family Studies but I was restricted to Latin and one other elective. I ended up taking Family Studies because I knew from the time I was twelve that I wanted to be a Family Studies teacher. So I guess I’d have to say that my favourite subject included cooking and sewing.

“Life is not measured by the number of breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away” (George Carlin). When have you had such a moment?

I guess I’d have to say at the births of my children.

What’s your choice: jigsaw, crossword, or numeric puzzles?

I like all three. I did a lot of jigsaw puzzles as a child. Now I do the occasional crossword but my favourite puzzles are Sudoku.

If you found an obviously abandoned car with $50,000 in the back seat, what would you do?

I think I would hand it into the police and hope that no one claims it and that the money can’t be traced. Eventually the money would be mine.

Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?

Last week I took a trip to Oshawa with my husband and daughter, G to visit my Dad. He recently sold his house and it was the first time G and my husband saw the new apartment. It was also the first time that I saw it furnished. Dad and Gu did a great job arranging their furniture in this new space and finding a place for all their belongings. I’m grateful that the move went without a hitch and that my 88 year father withstood the stress of moving. IMG_4334 IMG_4336This week I’m looking forward to Easter and having the whole family (minus my son and his fiance in England) over for dinner on Saturday. I’m also looking forward to some warmer temperatures, even if they are suppose to be short lived.

Sticks and Stones

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…..make wonderful art

Last week I was assigned a project that involved gathering up bits of nature to create a temporary work of art. After we finished creating we could photograph our masterpieces and then return the bits back to the environment or leave our creations somewhere outside where others could enjoy what we made. This idea came from Lynn Whipple who is one of the artists from Year of the Spark. This is a year long on-line art class brought to us by Carla Sonheim and Lynn. Every month they take turns coming up with wonderful and innovative assignments that bring out our inner spark. Every two weeks we get a new assignment.

I was really inspired by this project and came up with my own ‘Learning Stick’ and a composition of stones and dried foliage and grasses that I turned into a card. IMG_4249 IMG_4256

I’m hoping to make more but in the meantime I offered this assignment to my kindergarten class and they ate it up.

Before I arrived for our regular weekly art class, the children took a walk around the school yard and gathered up as many bits of nature that they could find. Between me and the ECE teacher and  what the children gathered we had a very nice collection of materials to work with.

I told the children that we weren’t gluing anything down and when their picture was done I would come around and photograph it and then we would take it apart and if they wanted they could make another picture. When we finished with the materials we would return them to nature.

I printed the photographs on my printer at home onto regular sized photocopy paper and then I made one 4 x 6 glossy print to mount onto a card. Here’s what mine looked like.

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After we mounted all the photographs onto a black background they were put up outside the kindergarten class for all to enjoy. Today they were moved to a more central part of the school so that more people would see them. The cards that I made will be given to the parents as a special gift on Earth Day.