Filed under: Musings, Nostalgia | Tags: Canadian heritage, canadiana, CBC, folk, frontier Canada, Log Driver`s Waltz, logger, mountains, National Film Board, NFB, nostalgia
A piece of heart-warming, handmade Canadiana
Last month something sparked a lovely bit of nostalgia for me around the National Film Board of Canada. My family never had a TV but I do remember, on those school days that were far too close to a holiday for kids to actually be able to focus on work, the big projector (later replaced by a TV) would be wheeled in and we would spend our afternoon watching the delightful NFB short films most notably “the Cat Came Back” and the all-time favorite “the Log Driver’s Waltz.” *
Of course I had to look them all up for a current viewing and as silly as it might sound, I actually got intensely emotional while watching the “Waltz” again.
I’ve never really considered myself to be very patriotic- in fact, with dual US and Canadian citizenship by blood and birth, I’ve always seen myself as a North American rather than belonging to either country specifically. But there it was, with Kate & Anna McGarrigle’s voices coming through the speakers and flannel and toque clad loggers twirling on the screen I was struck with how sweetly, simply and honestly Canadian the film is –I was feeling serious pangs of Canadian pride! Naturally I had to do a piece to celebrate it.
As I am often haunted by unfulfilled creative projects, I’ve been waking each morning since to a head full of the “…birling down, a down white water…” so here is my homage to the great “Log Driver’s Waltz” I hope you love it as much as I do!
Note: I am only making 20 of these pieces so don’t miss out! You can check them out in the Curious Oddities Shop
Complete with a handmade flannel pouch of course!
*For those of you who haven’t had the pleasure: The Log Driver’s Waltz is about a young girl who loves to dance and chooses to marry a log driver over his more well-to-do, land-loving competition. Driving logs down the river has made him the best dancing partner to be found. It’s a lighthearted, animated tale based on the song The Log Driver’s Waltz by Wade Hemsworth. Kate and Anna McGarrigle sing to the music of the Mountain City Four.
Filed under: Musings | Tags: California, folk, hippie, Log cabin, memories, Mountain living, musings, of the earth, Pioneer living, Sierra Nevadas, sustainable, West Coast, woodland
It’s a peculiar morning, awake before the sunrise- something that, these days,only happens when I travel. The air is crisp, the wood floor- cold on my bare feet. With my heavy velveteen patchwork quilt wrapped around me to keep away the chill, it is a familiar morning, comforting.
Back to my childhood again, back to the little log cabin in the Sierra Nevadas; my dad stoking the wood stove, warming my clothes on its iron top in an attempt to coax me from bed to dress for school.
It was a beautiful life, a simple life; one of cycles and of balance. A life of planting, of harvest, of gathering, of creating and sharing, of respect and beauty an of connection. I was alive, truly alive, aware and a part of everything.
These days I feel lost, in a city, cut adrift from what I know, what I understand and what speaks to my soul. I hear the whispering of the earth, in an ancient and almost forgotten tongue, of natural cycles and my place within them. My hands are restless, they long to plant, to grow, to nurture, to feel the soil.
I am a child of the mountains and a child of the ocean, of wide, star-lit skies and the rich forest floor. I am haunted by crashing waves and soothing surf, bonfires and blackberries and hot-springs under moonlit skies.
I am a child of the West and I have been away from home for far too long…
The cottage in the woods where I was born
The cabin where I grew up, on the Lucky 13 Ranch
curious oddities 