hooray!

Thank You Dani from Danni Press for this lovely package that arrived with the postie last Friday. I entered a competition at Dani's booth at Got Craft back in December when I was helping to sell some JustPotters ceramics. What a treat. Thanks again!

winter colour

I drive along this road to work everyday. I like the wintery colours of these hedgey flowers.

Working by candlelight

Exciting Just Potters news!

I am so pleased that JustPotters was featured on Design Sponge yesterday! Grace's blog is amazing so this is a very big honour. I am also excited to be able to share some of the photos I took for this new range of ceramic ware that is being made in the studio just across the road from here. JustPotters is such a wonderful, local, social enterprise so I can't support them (or encourage you to do so) enough! I had a lot of fun taking the pictures, baking, drinking tea and 'testing' these beautiful hand made products which I can absolutely vouch for. Here are some of the pictures that didn't make the cut (and a couple that did).










An enourmous thank you as well to all of the JustWork and JustPotters team who have worked so hard on this project; Robyn our ceramic artist. Leigh and David our inspiring leaders, Amy, for all of her amazing design work, and that's only just the beginning. It's been a great joy to be a part of the JustWork community.

Forbidden fruit

One thing I miss about home is the citrus. We had an amazing lime tree in our back yard that seemed to produce enough limes for us to use them daily, year-round, in every way imaginiable, and still be giving them away each week as well. Here in Vancouver you can buy citrus of course, but it all comes up from California. A couple of things over the past year have taught me, and reinforced in me a passion for the importance of eating locally and seasonally and enjoying produce in it's time and place. That means no bananas, mango, pineapples, avocados or citrus for a time. But in return, I get to enjoy all of the beautiful local fruit and vegetables that wont grow in humid Brisbane - things like the summer berries galore. At the moment the winter market vegetables here mainly consist of beets and potatoes (and a few more things), but a few months of these staples is absolutely worth it for the excitement that spring and summer bring with their abundance.

Anyhow, this is all very important to me, but today I gave in. And bought these gorgeous looking things from California. A treat. A vitamin C boost for this grey day.

Winter light

 

Goodness me. January flew by and it's already the 7th of February! Last post I was celebarting Christmas and looking ahead to the new year. Now it is in full swring and shaping up to be as great an adventure as any. Highlights for me so far have included snow and almond crossiants (nothing new on either front). I also experienced my coldest day to date -7 (minus 7 degrees celcius!) AND that was during the daytime, while I stood outside on playground duty for 1 hour! Compared with the rest of Canada which regularly hits -40 that seems like a summers day, but for this little Aussie that's something to write home about. Here are some colours of winter. I've spotted spring bulbs poking their heads up already so I want to celebrate this season while it is still here. Image above courtesy of Jill Barklem, author and illustrator of the Brambly Hedge books. Stories from my childhood I've fallen in love with all over again.




An east Vancouver spectacle is the crows flying east overtop EVERY afternoon around sunset.




But Jesus Christ is the light of the world. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness cannot overcome it.

(John 1:5) At church we have been using this phrase when speaking about some aspect of darkness in the lives of children aroundthe world. I find these words so reassuring when the daylight hours are few and there seems to be darkness in the lives of so many.

My friends the Shepherds

I love reading this story freshly each year. This year I also borrowed a whole collection of illustrated childrens Christmas books from the local library. The lady serving me asked if I had a child. I shook my head and sheepishly asked "Am I still allowed to borrow this many?" Thank goodness she answered yes. My favourite people in the story are the Shepherds.

As always, my plans for hand made cards to be posted a month in advance and extraordinary-recycled-home-made-and-baked-ingeneous-gifts never seem to work out quite as (or anywhere near how) I hope or envision in the months preceding. I had also (theoretically) planned to take a break from technology over Advent but that was easier said than done. Until our internet connection failed that is, and our landlord went on vacation to Fiji for a month. Not having internet over Christmas made us feel really disconnected from family and friends in Australia but really wasn't the end of the world. Here are a few photos of Christmas in our home.













Looking back through photographs of the year it truly has been an incredible time of exploring Vancouver and Canada beyond. Making new friends, starting a new job, a new college for Josh, a new church, moving home a few times... There have been lots of firsts. I have had the 4 seasons I so hoped to find, and I have learnt about many other seasons of life. We've also missed out on many births back home and the joy and pain of ordinary life. We think and dream about Brisbane often.We look forward to returning. But for now, we love our home here.


We're grateful to so many people who allowed us to leave, welcomed us, befriended us, taught us, lead us, made us laugh and cry and prayed with and for us. We're learning more about each other and growing in commitment to our wonderful Saviour. Goodbye 2011. Hello 2012.

The photos above in order:
(housemate) Matthew with our Christmas tree and advent candles with a wreath made from herbs
the view driving home from school on my last day
stained glass cookies - also Matt's handiwork
bare trees outside
all 5 advent candles alight on Christmas eve (project for 2012 - make beeswax candles...)
frosty rooftops
local quinces from which I made quince paste... which was a lot of effort and not that impressive :(
making real egg-nog - delish!
evergreen boughs above the windows
our real tree - a Grand Fir
and our full house after morning prayer one December morning NB: not all these people live here all the time but all have at some point over the last month.