enjoy the first quarter of 2008 by having one new and fulfilling experience in January, February, and March

The new and fulfilling experience for March (so far) is learning how to do needlework, particularly how to needle-felt. It may lead to joining Etsy yet! It’s kind of a neo-feminist revival and makes one want to pursue more needlework skills. Best wishes to all New and Fulfilling Experiencers. It has been a pleasure to be on the team.

Did anyone else view the total lunar eclipse? I have just returned from the Science Centre, where several telescopes were set up outside for everyone interested to see the moon and Saturn. A rare treat!

My friend T knew I had an interest in writing haiku, and arranged to have a well-known haiku expert and poet meet me when he visited our city from Japan. We all met on a snowy February afternoon at my favourite cafe for bowls of hot drinking chocolate and petits fours and spirited discussion about the various “schools” of haiku. The professor was most engaging and I learned the rules of traditional haiku so that I may incorporate them into learning haiga, or a combination of visual art (illustration) and poetry.

On the opposite end of the food chain- great fun with the Burns’ Night supper. The Mock Haggis was a treat. I don’t know if I could pull it off again. It turned out to be a chicken haggis, because Marlon, the Organic Butcher had some very fresh birds. The vegetarian haggis lacked soul, lacked depth, lacked everything a haggis should be- and making a chicken haggis seemed a nicely outrageous solution. I imagined Chef Ramsay screaming his horror from Hell’s Kitchen, but I toasted the Mock Haggis with a nice vin blanc: ‘The Bothie’ and had a Burns’ poetry reading to boot.

O I am dizzy with the pure phenylethylamine joy of an impromptu tasting of several chocolates:
Hediard, 40% cocoa
Pierre Herme amer, 75% cocoa (with roasted cacao nibs)
Green & Black’s organic, 34% cocoa(with pieces of butterscotch)
Michel Cluizel noir de cacao, 60% cocoa
Valrhona Cao Grande organic, 39% cocoa
La Maison du Chocolat Merida, 34% cocoa
Foucher chocolat noir, 55% cocoa
SOMA single origin Hispaniola cacao nibs, covered in Venzuelan dark chocolate
Cocoa Camino fair trade organic dark, 55%

I can’t quite walk a straight line, but I am newly fulfilled.

Every year I talk about it, but this year I’ll do it. For Rabbie Burns’ Night supper, I will make… a haggis! It will be a beautiful, magnificent haggis. O an organic, vegetarian haggis!
With bashed neep an’ tatties! And a Sir Harry Lauder serenade!

Eagerly awaiting the promise of a year’s tabula rasa, I think I will try to stretch and expand growth in more areas of the arts until I feel the sprout of true fairy wings to glide me effortlessly.