Christmas in The Village!

People have been asking if we'll be here, and the answer is yes! 

Come on down and check out Naramata's lovely Heritage Inn and Spa all decorated up for the holidays! We'll have our scarves, paintings and jewelry for sale at this extra special Christmas Craft faire. Also check out my mom's handmade Christmas stockings next to the fireplace!


Drop by and visit us!

Block Print: The Train Dock

The Train Dock in the 1980's

When I was a kid, we lived right across the road from the train dock in Naramata. In fact, the house we lived in was actually a barn, floated down from Kelowna on a barge and unloaded off the dock. From there it was  dragged across the street and placed on a vacant lot. But that is another story....

I was warned by my mother never to set foot on the dock without an adult present; a rule I broke early and often. The train dock beckoned little kids like me to crawl all over it's sticky creosote beams.

 As teenagers, the boys would dive off the towers into the cold waters of Okanagan Lake while the girls suntanned on the deck. Honestly, it was never a great place to swim - the creosote beams created a smelly oily film on the surface of the water and our bathing suits would easily be stained with dark brown tar. But it was a great place to meet and hang out. I have fond after-school memories of  eating ice cream sandwiches with my best friend, our bikes dumped unceremoniously in the nearby gravel.

Then, one day in 2002, news spread that the Train Dock was gone. It was deemed unsafe and disappeared so quickly, many Naramatians were surprised and shocked at the speed of it's demolition.

The Train Dock in 2010

Today, the dock has been preserved, but the landmark towers are gone. Where there were once weeds and gravel, there is grass and a manicured path. I wasn't able to find any pictures of the old dock on the web. The one old picture here is a photograph of a photograph hanging on the wall at the Naramata Museum.

And so, this is the train dock the way I remember it when I was 12 years old. This print was composed from a few old photographs and a lot of memories.

 "The Train Dock" 

Hand-painted block print

Limited edition of 12

My sister will have these prints for sale at the Christmas Faire held at the Naramata Heritage Inn and Spa, along with her paintings. More on that soon!

Green

Yes, there is a bit of green left here and there! 

Mom in the Vineyard

Mountain Ash and Maple

Munson Mountain

Horse Tails at Wharf Park

Red

Retro-cool

Old Apple Orchard 

 Grape stems, seeds and skins

 On the Vine

Orange

Squash Soup

Birch Trees

 Naramata Centre

Boo!

Blue

 Harvest Time

Gala Apples 

Okanagan lake 

Naramata Bench

Yellow

Oak Tree

First Street Bridge

Mountain Ash and Maple

Van Gogh Tree

My walking partner...Zoe!

A Week of Fall Colour!

Monday - yellow
Tuesday - blue
Wednesday - orange
Thursday - red
Friday - green

My hometown is a beautiful place, and one post isn't enough to share it all....
All taken in the last month, all taken in my hometown of Naramata!

Naramata Village

99 words: Here and now.

a wiggly white dog, diamond sunshine on water, powder-pink blossoms, sand and pinecones, frantic fleeing quail, overgrown apple orchards, red co-op bins, bears in the village, turquoise and salmon scarves, maypole dancing teenagers, rolling rows of grapevines, cookies with tons of icing, ladybugs and dragonflies, rain and sunshine at once, baby tomato plants, sage bushes and clay banks, the smell of skunk, green cherries, wine barrels, dresses that waited patiently for warm weather, peacocks, poppies and lilacs, wildflowers on the side of the road, pink flip flops and purple pedicures, shards of coloured glass, and an inevitable plane trip…

My Story in Wanderlust and Lipstick!

Although I didn't win the Wanderlust and Lipstick travel writing contest, the website liked my story and asked if they could publish it anyway. Here is my risky entirely-written-in-the-present-tense story!

(And yes! Those are my and Melanie's feet jammed into hamam slippers!)

Help My Sister Become a Winner!

As many of you know, my sister has been living in a van down by the river for the past 4 months. (Ok, really a fifth-wheel next to a creek.) but in her Chris Farley existence, there is a glimmer of light! We're talking about having her picture chosen as a finalist in the "Istanbul Eats Photo Contest"!

The contest has two sections, one is National (Turkey) and the other international. Mel's picture is of noodle makers taken a few years back in Shanghai, so look for her under the "international link" labeled "Melanie Noodles".

Simply e-mail your vote for "Melanie Noodles" to istanbuleats3@gmail.com.

What does she win if she's successful? Kudos and bragging rights! That's it! But it's a lot, when you're living in a van, down by the river!

Teahouse Fox Visited by Ghosts!

If you have igoogle as your homepage you already know you can choose your own theme. I'm loyal to my teahouse fox, (except in December, when I switch for the month to the Christmas Village.)

Why the teahouse fox? Because he wakes up in the morning when I do, and  through the day he keeps himself busy, picking oranges, feeding the birds, washing the laundry in the lake. A night he gazes at the stars before putting out a plate of persimmons and lighting 3 sticks of incense. Then he snuggles under his blanket and goes to sleep.

But during the night something happens, I've noticed every morning that the persimmons disappear and the incense goes out. What's going on? I found out last week.  

Ghosts come.

Apparently they come for only one minute, and since my igoogle refuses to move off Istanbul time, my little teahouse fox's schedule is upside down, so at 5:15 in the afternoon the ghosts crossed the lake of fire, took his persimmons and put out his incense. 

Mystery solved!

Cookies!

Cupcakes!

Mel and I decided to try our hand at 

cupcakes this week, our first attempt! 

We used the pastry bag and huge tips that came in my NCAV kit and made them work for this project. The icing recipe also came from my NCAV textbook, (hey I paid $100 bucks for it, gotta get some use out of it!) 

The colours are crazy because my 

kitchen is a bleak, fluorescent lit black hole. 

Surprisingly, this was Mel's first and only time to actually pick up a pastry bag and she got the hang of it in  only a few tries! Cake and cookie decorating is only something I did more as a teenager around Christmas, (except this year's gingerbread house), so my skills are rusty but getting better!

Next up....cookies!

Sisters Think Alike...

What I made last week.

What Mel made last night.

Brace Yourself for Asia Week!

Another day off! Going to see Leonardo Da Vinci at the VAG.


Tomorrow we start two weeks of cooking that I've been looking forward to since the day I received my acceptance letter - Asia and Middle East weeks!


I've noticed that a lot of people in North America prefer only the sweet and salty flavour profiles. Vancouver is definitely more adventurous than other parts of the country due to it's mixed ethnicity, but the average person doesn't appreciate sour, spicy or bitter very much.

This week will be filled with strange condiments, (fish sauce! kechap manis!), seaweed and whole baked fish.( Yes! my favorite way to have fish! Our food is going to have a face this week!)

A few of my classmates are disgusted by oysters and squid, others avoid any kind of heat, so I think this week will be an adventure in pushing our palates and exposing our taste buds to those other flavours they've been missing.

And even though I have already had almost all the food we'll be cooking before, this time I'll actually be preparing it. The one that has me most fired up are stuffed pork sticky buns!

And because I have no picture of food yet, and I hate posts without visuals, I leave you with my sister's latest painting from the Okanagan, The Ice Wine Harvest! Bravo Mel!

The Creative Caravan Stops In at MyNaramata!

Check out my Sis and I high-jacking a kebab stand in Istanbul! (Oh, and there's an article about my fabulously talented sister too!)

Chasing Canada Geese at Manitou Beach

My sister has just completed her first canadian painting, of dogs chasing Canadian geese in our hometown of Naramata. I love it! Check it out here!

Some Habits Never Go Away!

I made flashy flashcard rings for myself. I was filling up the old books so fast, I got a hole punch and some index cards. The top one is for methods and the bottom for terms. What a geek I am!

Commercial Break: Talismania!!

The sisters are working on a new project!

Mel and I recently took a trip to the Topkapi Palace and spent a lot of time looking at the talismanic healing shirts made by holy men and worn by the Sultan. Inscribed with Quranic verse, the “healing shirts” were believed to be able to cure disease and protect the wearer from evil and harm. The Ottoman sultans believed their shirts would protect them like armor, and often wore them into battle. Since there wasn't any blood on them, they may have actually worked!

From Topkapi Palace (A must-see in Istanbul!)

Modern day talismanic scarves made with love in Istanbul: maroon 'peace' in five languages,

purple and red Turkish flower scarves designed and printed in our living room.

After leaving the Topkapi palace, we grabbed a coffee and talked about the shirts, our eyes rested on two women at the next table. One was wearing a Turkish evil eye bracelet, the other, a funky scarf that is the height of fashion in Istanbul these days. The inspirational discussion began, and before we knew it, we were embarking on our mission of creating good luck-infused and fashionable (and practical) lucky charms: The talismanic scarf!

Off to a good start!

Combining all of these good luck symbols and the idea of the inscriptions of the healing shirts, we came up with funky talismanic scarves - block-printed in Turkish inspired designs. Some have Rumi quotes, and all have their own evil eye hand sewn into the corner.

The evil eye army. We feel the power radiating off these little jewels, I swear.

The project has just begun, we are up to our elbows in carving block prints, printing scarves with fabric paint and sewing the evil eyes in a prominent place of protection. We'll post more pictures here as we go, but we wanted to share this special project with you before Christmas, as these work-of art-scarves are perfect for sending in the post.

The block Mel carved reversed in the mirror so you can read it:

"When I am with you we stay up all night. When we are apart I cannot sleep. Praise these two insomnias and the difference between them." `Rumi

"We come spinning out of nothingness, scattering stars like dust." ~Rumi

The scarves will be sold in Istanbul in our Sultanahmet living room or at your place of convenience until the end of November,(at 25 lira each) and we'll be in Canada after that, at the Naramata Craft Faire on December 6th, and during a side trip to Vancouver and Victoria just before Christmas. (25 CDN including taxes.)

Contact me or Mel for details!

We really hope you enjoy wearing them as much as we enjoy making them!

Rene and Melanie