…thanks to Ritva for hosting this week’s Lens Artists Challenge https://sillarit.com/2026/02/14/lens-artists-challenge385-unusual-crop/
When I say ‘unusual crops’ I’m not referring to food but to a photography term where you ‘cut away’ parts of the photo to make it more interesting. Here are my submissions.
…looking through the archives
All these trios came from my 2016 archives but one photo is clearly over 40 years old. Can you pick out which one it is?
…today’s number is 230
Thanks to Judy Dykstra-Brown for hosting The Numbers Game https://judydykstrabrown.com/2026/01/19/the-numbers-game-108-please-play-along/
Today’s number pulled up photos from my past as a little girl, my granddaughters, flowers, views from High Park, art, my husband after a bike mishap and my son’s balcony garden in London.
…and time with family and friends
Kevin and I still have some family and friends to visit before this holiday season is officially over. Sadly it may not happen until January because this terrible flu that’s going around has affected these same people we had planned to visit.
Apart from that it’s been a busy and productive season. Christmas Eve was quiet and Kevin and I exchanged a few gifts, enjoyed some light snacks and watched some Christmas movies. The next day we had Andrea and Josie over for dinner. I prepared the turkey and the stuffing before they arrived. After opening a few more gifts everyone pitched in and helped prepared the side dishes. We sat down to an absolutely lovely meal of roast turkey, a rice stuffing, cranberry and orange relish, green beans with almonds, Brussels sprouts with bacon and mashed potatoes. For dessert we had ice-cream topped with our homemade Rumtopf.
…since December 9th
The clutter on my work table in my studio will give you an idea of how hectic the last 10 days have been.
Apart from the normal craziness of getting ready for Christmas I decided at the last possible moment to take a table at the Holiday Market at the Inn. Initially I was just going to sell our art and photo cards and display some of my smaller pieces of art but then I got it in my head to make a few of my sock gnomes. A few turned into 28 and 9 gnome ornaments.
Sadly on the day of the market a snow storm descended on the city and the turnout was definitely affected. Many people chose to stay home and a few of the vendors were no shows as well.
Since that day I made a few more sales at my hair salon and through friends. Most of the gnomes are now gone and 25 more cards have sold.
On the home front we’ve been busy putting our Rumtopf into jars and labelling them to get them ready to give away. I made up 9 bags of gifts for the volunteers that I’ve worked with most closely this past year at Montgomery’s Inn.
Last Wednesday we had our last bake for the year and will be on a break for about 6 weeks. The staff at the Inn hosted a lovely luncheon for the volunteers as a thank you for all their hard work and dedication to making bread every week to sell at the Farmers’ Market.
So this part of the reason why I haven’t posted as regularly as I normally do. I’ll bring you up to date with what else we’ve been up to in my next post.
Cheers!
…this week Johnbo asks if you like to travel https://photobyjohnbo.com/2025/11/15/lens-artists-challenge-374-on-the-move/
My answer is simply, ‘yes’. I do enjoy travelling. I’m not a hugh fan of flying but since two of my three children and my two grandchildren live 1000s of kilometres away, flying is the fastest and most convenient mode of transportation. Closer to home I enjoy travelling by train and car and even in London I prefer the overground rail system.
…thanks to Becky B for hosting NovemberShadows https://thesquaresofb.com/2025/11/14/shadow-square-14/
Can’t believe this photo was taken 12 years ago.
…thanks to Xingfu Mama for hosting Pull Up a Seat https://xingfumama.blog/2025/11/14/pull-up-a-seat-photo-challenge-2025-week-46/
Random places to rest our feet in London, back in 2024.
…thanks to Xingfu Mama for hosting Pull Up.a Seat https://xingfumama.blog/2025/11/07/pull-up-a-seat-photo-challenge-2025-week-45/
On our recent trip to London, we would often walk along Church Street, close to our Airbnb. On our last day we experienced our first rainfall in two weeks. I call that a win when visiting London, England. It didn’t, however, stop us from going for a walk.
One of our favourite things to do in London was pick up our granddaughter from school, walk back to flat with a stop at the corner store to stock up on drinks and snacks and on one occasion we got Sevin ready for her ballet class and walked her over to to the community hall for her lesson.
Mama Cormier 