The List is back and so is Patricia.

Saturday is list day and you absolutely must follow this link and read this incredible list at simplelovely . I think I have a new crush. 

So this Saturday I'm continuing the good work of prepping for Wyatt's party next week. Lots planned, pictures promised. Homemade sailboats is all I'm saying. 

One small disclaimer: Cats keep showing up in the blog and I'm sorry about that.

patricia at Stephen's picnic

Patricia is the person that I've known  the longest. We grew up in the same suburban neighbourhood in an automotive town where our dads worked together at a factory that made parts for cars out of powdered metal. She was the northern Italian girl with blue eyes whose aunts and uncles lived close by and whose mother dragged her from bed on Saturday mornings to scrub her tube socks in bleach. 

She went to Catholic school and then studied art history, then fashion design, then moved to Milan, moved to Los Angeles, moved to Pickering, moved to St. John's became an Inn Keeper, became a professional baker, and recently she moved back to Toronto. Hey everybody, meet my old friend Patricia.

Patricia's encaustic hummingbird

my art: the art of others really, but having the space & time to paint at

this time in my life is unbelievable.

Patricia's mother and two of her friends in a small rural village in northern Italy circa 1962

  a list of my 10 favourite

people & animals. For fear of disgruntling a cat, these people & animals

shall remain nameless, but you know who you are.

 my bike: a much used & loved affair that looks like a mix between a

courier's relic & an italian nonna's bike one would take to the market on

wednesdays.  I love it.

prince edward county: the place my sister manuela & her partner lino call

home.  Having recently purchased a loyalist farmhouse, & started an organic

farm, this area is a wonderful get a away from the city where morrells grow

wild in the ditches, & a wonderful pinot gris is grown & bottled just around

the corner.

used books, books in general: my favourite shop of the moment, Balfour

Books on College where they use scrabble tiles as subject headings.

 

I am ashamed to add this, but my cell phone! It keeps me connected to

everyone that I care about & miss (back in Newfoundland), & it is not pink

dammit!

my apartment/neighbourhood: recently returned to the great city of

Toronto in under a month I have discovered that within a 5 minute bike ride

I have access to 10 of my favourite places (lisa & richard's house, andrea,

chuck & benny's house, jennifer & david's house, fiesta farms...etc etc.)

my car: a recent addition to my family, this old beauty has been

untouched by the advance of technology & one day may be converted to run on

recycled vegetable oil from double fried frites!

my piano: another recent addition to my family, this old beauty has an

acoustic sounding board, but can also plug into an amp!  Step aside Elton.

 my girls: they do need a category of their own.  Peanut & Butter,
otherwise know as the "bookends".

There it is. Happy weekend. Now if you'll excuse me, I have some shipbuilding to do.