Thérèse Neelands

The Year of the Flood, by Margaret Atwood

I’m not a book reviewer, so I won’t attempt to write one. But I wish Steph would finally get down to reading this and write about it. When people ask which is a favourite of her novels, it’s impossible for me to answer definitively. I love them all.

But The Year of The Flood seems to me like it was pretty special to Margaret. I think that mostly she stands aside from her novels, not taking any sides but just presenting things as they are. Her main objective is always truth. But this one may even sound a little preachy. And she holds nothing back – it’s pretty crude. I feel like she’s saying, enough is enough. It’s actually the crudest she’s ever written in my opinion, and sometimes it’s weird to think that this stuff is coming from a woman of her age. But I think it’s totally necessary and appropriate for the book.

I love this book because it is so relevant. Sometimes this is funny and sometimes it’s disturbing. She brings to light things we take for granted in such a way that makes you take a look at those things as if you’ve never seen them before – which is often startling.

I finished Year of The Flood yesterday – a hottest day in Toronto like I’ve never experienced here before. There are cooling centres open and people giving out water bottles on the street and in parks. Smog warnings yesterday were at its highest, not just in Toronto but pretty much all over Southern Ontario. Which totally made the book more real than ever for me. In fact, it was a little creepy.

But the beauty in Year of The Flood is also there. I think more than in any other of her books that I can think of. Again, I feel like this one was very close to her heart. Some of the things that Adam One says – and the poetry, which is modeled after William Blake’s (of course! Hello!) is truly beautiful.

Can this post get any longer?

I love the connection to Oryx and Crake, which you don’t get until you’re well into the book and I can’t wait for the coming third in the trilogy. I’m not sure when it’s coming out.

Lastly, on Sunday morning (two days before I finished the book), David Suzuki was talking with Margaret on his show The Bottom Line on CBC Radio. Please please please listen to it.  It’s about Life, Death and The Breath. It’s about air, our atmosphere and climate change.

At the cottage

This weather is pissing me off.

So the above photo is to remind us that there once was a lovely breeze in June.

prototype no. 1, printed on Strathmore 136 lb from hand carved inked stamps on paper by Therese Neelands, 2010

Finally getting around to layout and paper testing. It’s harder than you would think! First, I’m no Photoshop whiz; second, I’m no designer; and third, measurements are way beyond me. But after a couple of tries, I think I’m finally getting the hang of it. Sort of.

the back.

My new Epson is a beautiful machine, but my new paper trimmer is shit. I don’t recommend it. It’s a “Swingline”.

Cliveden & Brownsea Snails from National Trust on Vimeo.

sweet, ripe nectarines

salty chunks feta

crunchy, peppery radish

makes for a nice light snack.

watercolour, ink, acrylic ink on paper, Therese Neelands 2010

I shouldn’t have put this up yet, but I couldn’t wait because I just got my new Epson Artisan printer and it is B-E-A-U-TEE-FUL and I spent all last night setting up. This scanned image came out AMAZING (the resolution is incredible) and came out at a million mg’s so by the time I shrunk it to an internet size,  I lost a good amount of saturation, so this image is looking pretty anaemic. I suppose there’s probably a way of compressing it without losing all that information.

Happy Anniversary card work in progress, watercolour, ink, acrylic ink on paper

There’s a story to this card.

One day I was walking home from the park with Maggie and I came across a couple of snail shells which had been left too high and dry after the rain. I took them home with me, and used them as reference for the two snails above.

Days went by, and Andrew and I started noticing a vomit inducing odour hanging around the hallway. We blamed it on Maggie, who we’ve been house-training, but couldn’t find any evidence.

Days later, the smell got so bad, it seemed to pervade the whole house. Yesterday, I finally realized as I was drawing in my studio, that the foul smell was coming right from in-between my fingers – the snail shell. I sniffed it.

I threw them out the window, incensed the whole house and began my drawing all over again.

The shells above were collected from the cottage, are clean and stink free. They were my colour inspiration for this card.

Happy Anniversary card work in progress, watercolour, ink, acrylic ink on paper

(the card is now finished and needs to be scanned).

Oh, ye Fruits of Ontario, when shall we meet again!

Next summer I suppose.

It’s already too cool for a t-shirt when I take the dog out in the a.m.

collected shells

I’m working on a card which is giving me trouble. It’s supposed to look easy, and it’s just not working. For now, I’ll rest my eyes on these….

mashed strawberries and raspberries

Finally a breeze today, so I decided to try making jam again to use up a great big container of raspberries in the fridge. Doesn’t that mash of red look berry delicious!

strawberry & raspberry jam. Canned and ready to go.

This time it worked! The jam got canned, and the most satisfying sound of all – pop! as the lids sucked in the air as the jars cooled.

I didn’t have enough canning jars, so these will have go in the fridge.

Thank god the bread maker is whirring. Can’t wait to eat that jam.

Yes, I’m bragging.