Showing posts with label Yurt Photos. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Yurt Photos. Show all posts

Monday, April 22, 2013

Spring! & 'Things i Hear'


snow is melting
Last week was wonderful.  Spring started showing up more regularly.  There were less -10C moments & only 3cm of snow.  The last night it snowed i went outside & respectfully told winter to "GET OVER IT".  Like some drawn-out romantic crush, winter now seems gotten over. 

After seeing nothing but snow for months now, it's so exciting to go for a walk and see THINGS.  Grass, whole bushes, furry buds on the trees, seaweed & driftwood on the beach.  i discovered that you can polish driftwood with a stone & yesterday i made myself a hair stick.  and i taught our friends, who are the owners & chefs of the local Asian restaurant how to cook scrumptious Indian food (but forgot to take a photo for the blog, d'oh!)
the hair stick i made from driftwood


Also, i danced for the first time since i dislocated my knee :)  we went to the local film festival & met an amazing animator (Martine Chartrand who paints on glass: http://www.nfb.ca/film/black_soul/).  i've been spending a lot of time with crystals.  (that's maybe a whole other part of me that some of you don't know.  can see my work here:  http://crystal-light-web.blogspot.com).  i've been preparing to launch an etsy shop, taking photos, writing blurbs about the pieces i have made, & of course the actual of the crystal necklaces.

breakfast w/Dodo Rouge (who got camera shy)
i am now going to hang out the washing. outside.  it is a big moment in This Canadian Yurt!



For those interested, i'd also like to share some of the writing is did the first day i sat outside the yurt (which i mentioned in the last post).

 








9 Things i Hear [& a story concerning squirrels]

1. It gets so silent here that the flapping of crows’ wings counts as an Event.

2. Droning of fridge and flies disrupts the silence.
3. Do i hear electricity marching through the wires, or crickets chirp-croakin’ in the dogwood?  Which has more stamina?
4. The surround-sound of nature’s amphitheatre makes the cries of even the crass seagulls an auditory feast.

5. Unseen geese honks, coyotes’ howls & wood peckers’ drills gives an eerie sense of irrelative space in the valley.  I can’t tell the distances between these things:  i don’t know how or where i fit in.

6. The line “a peace that passeth understanding” could’ve been written for the silent space i feel inside here.

7. Buddha-still i contemplate a list of words, concentration buried beneath layers of syntax.  The Jay lands suddenly at my feet, our squealed shocks ricocheting off one another: like opposing magnets of sound, we are both pushed physically backward.  Sometimes i am unsure to whom the fright belongs, but my heart thuds as though it were all mine.

8.  The rare times a car passes, i curse “bloody highway”.  i do it just to hear Antoine’s laugh.

9.  i can’t decide if i prefer the French word ‘brouhaha’ or its English counterpart ‘hubbub’. i whisper them aloud.
Memories of a morning i awoke to a scratching scramble coming from above.  Squeezing open an eye, i reluctantly brought into focus the transparent circle in the centre of the yurt’s roof.  A sprawled, grey shadow appeared, accompanying the grating thumps.  The petit mass threw itself uncertainly across the roof.  It bounced & belly-flopped in semi-circles around the chimney, as though performing some kind of pagan theatre piece to a smoky (volcanic-esq) god. My eyes and mind finally co-ordinated to conjure the word: squirrel.  And as if the label broke the spell, he was gone.  Sliding down the ropes with the air of a circus-performer exiting from a magnificent show.
Anyone else see the halo?

 And yes, Dodo-Rouge is still dining with us!

Monday, February 11, 2013

Photos from This Canadian Yurt

i realised that living in this canadian yurt is a bit like camping in a circus big top...at burning man.  Except without any other people around.  

We take the best of both worlds: a wood burning fire, peeing outdoors (hey, i LOVE it!), the feeling of satisfaction from the 'honest hard work' of living close to nature, like fetching water...


Antoine invented a system to pull the 25 kilos of water on a sledge.

And our big-top-camping-life is mixed together with western luxuries:  wi-fi (which last week i discovered is weather dependent!), electricity (admittedly the lights dim when we use the oven - but compared to the 17 hours EVERY day without power i got accustomed to in Nepal...) and we have a fully equipped kitchen - this week i made veggie sushi, 
veg sushi
bean burriots









mexican bean burritos, veg lasagne, marinated tofu stirfry with pak-choi & shitake 'shrooms.  We baked bread & made a spiced apple crumble.  Plus... blueberry-raspberry-banana-chocolate-chip-vegan muffins (yeh you read that right!  i got slightly overexcited & added extra ingredients!). 


 THIS CANADIAN YURT PHOTOS....
The yurt finally looks homely enough to share photos...
We melt snow (in a pan on top of the stove) to prevent the yurt getting too dry.
The wi-fi connection is strongest by the door.
i'm making notes about props for a cowboy themed studio we're going to take photos at in a couple of weeks. (Antoine's experimenting with b&w for the shoot.)
i love the design of the yurt...it's like living in sunrays!
On the left is our (single) bed, beneath a HUGE yin yang hanging.  Antoine won that 'discussion' and it's still there...giving me trippy dreams!
Taaa-daaa!  The kitchen!  Behind the curtains is all our dry food & veg.  We have a proper italian espresso machine, oven/grill, kettle, 2 gas hobs (gas cylinder under the yurt), blue jerry can full of water above the silver bowl (which sits on nails in a hole cut into the counter) - it's not a sink & all water must be emptied outside but the birdies pick the food scraps from where we pour it!  Mugs hang on nails (top left).  There's compost, recycling & a bin.  Our fridge is on the right with one of the best views in the world - the Annapurna range!
Welcome to my office.  I love working with Le Petit Prince looking on.
The heat from the chimney melts the snow from the transparent plastic, so we can see the blue/stary sky.  Sometimes the difference from indoor/outdoor temperature means there's ice on the inside of the roof.



A WALK IN THE GARDEN 
Surrounding the yurt are miles of gorgeous, quiet forest.

baby christmas trees!
Yesterday it was warm & i took a walk...
sun-bathing is essential even in subzero temperatures





Antoine likes looking at pictures of himself on the big screen!
...and one night we borrowed a projector and so the yurt was converted into our very own circular circus cinema:
Thanks for sharing in and caring about our adventure! All comments & 'likes' appreciated...fuels my motivation to update each week :)