our own kind of rockstar

What does this winter photo have to do with an outdoor concert in Moncton in the middle of the summer? I'm just back from a fantastic weekend with friends to see U2 in concert in Moncton...the show was great!!...it rained all day Saturday and the world became one giant mud pit....slimy and slippery brown everywhere! The six of us huddled under a small gazebo to stay out of the rain. We drank coffee (or beer) and talked and laughed. Early in the day, we escaped the muddy mess for awhile to go into town to stock up on rain gear (who travels with rubber boots?)...on the way back to the camp site..while stuck in traffic..we sat in the car next to a man asleep under a bridge along the sidewalk...with his face gray and lined with exhaustion. Something in me makes it impossible to not feel incredible sorrow when I see that..and i'm grateful that I have never hardened in that way....i'm warm and dry with money in my pocket, food in my belly,and have people who love me and care about me. I don't care how he spends the money I have to slip under his ball cap or the apples I leave him (it's all the food we have in the car)...just like i don't care if someone wants to spend $1200 dollars on a purse..who am I to judge? But life really can throw curve balls at us and many of us are fortunate to weather them and some get left out in the rain...Who knows this man's story and what brought him down that path..we're all on our way to someplace..and in my case..on my way to see Bono and U2 play to a crowd of 80 000 people.......everything is relative and we can't all be zillionairre rockstars like Bono but we can be our own kind of rockstar....where it's hip to be generous and real.

"One love
One life
When it's one need
In the night
One love
We get to share it
Leaves you baby if you
Don't care for it"

- Lyrics by U2 "One"

chasing skies and prairie storms

I think maybe i've been a bit of a stranger to my blog..but i'm still kicking around and have been having a great and busy time over the last while. I had a short and successful run of shows around Saskatchewan in the late spring with Underneath the Fray.... I called it the Spring Thaw Prairie Run...well before I knew we'd have all that rain.....My songs tend to predict weather it would seem......
In early July I headed down to Montremarte, Saskatchewan for the All Folk'd Up in Montremarte Festival..a nice little folk festival down on the pretty prairie and had a fantastic time. Met some great folks and talented artists too! I've been building myself a new website and am getting ready to record my second album which I hope to have out in early 2012.

Thanks for stopping by and checking in..i'll post more updates on my album in the coming weeks and some stories too.
Hope you are enjoying your summer wherever it finds you,
Cathleen

new songs for spring

I love that spring is now here and summer close behind it. In the words of my friend Lois..."today it smells like summer". I was just out around the province for a few shows and songs with the lovely Lois Mullins aka Underneath the Fray on a short tour affectionately called The Spring Thaw Prairie Run through all parts prairie. I love the open road. I love the creative process. I love that I can combine the two together in a way that means something to me. I try to write what I know and keep it honest. This month of May, I wrote most of what will probably be my third album....but first...let's get this second album out first.

Art is funny....it requires me to live in the moment, yet also live into some imaginary far off future...

Cozy toes and Winterfires

Am I allowed to say that i'm really... tired of winter? It is cold and -30 here today and i'm pretty sure the calendar says that it is March 1. To combat my cold weather blues

i'm going to post this picture of my feet wearing of pair of socks I knitted while gazing into a cozy fire. It isn't that I have alot to complain

about.
This winter I attended a self-directed creative residency. My late father's last gift to me came in the week I was to write a cheque to cover my portion of it...so I decided to focus on the symbolic theme of connections during my time. Wow! Talk about a nice break from

reality….a yummy breakfast waiting for me each day, a handy gym and my

amazing space

where I had time to dream and create. I just know that that time was for planting a few creative writing seeds that will grow forward over time....into my first book of poetry and short stories... In January

I also won a Saskatchewan based CBC Radio "Canada Reads"

contest. I paired my song "Highway" from my debut album

with the moving and brilliant novel by the late author

Carol Shields titled "Unless". Truth be told…I don't enter contests...I tend to think that competition is for horses...not artists….I read that quote somewhere once and it stuck with me... and I don't ask the wonderful people who support me musically to support me musically. But believe me..it is awesome when they do.

I guess this is a time of hibernation but first…some cozy toes and tea are in order.

Curry soup and winter tea

My sweet husband likes to bake throughout the winter on the barbeque. Banada bread with nutella and a cup of tea... while keeping cosy inside. Here is a photo at home of my favorite mug and some yummy banada bread...a few bites in. :)

Winter is here. My window frames the view outside of hoar frost over the trees. This view makes winter one of my favorite seasons. It is now time to hibernate and make tea and soup...and apple crisp. Here is a favorite soup
and so easy to make.

Curried Carrot Soup
1 tbsp olive oil -- 2 lbs carrots, cut into 1/2" rounds
1 onion, chopped -- 1 tbsp curry powder
1 celery, chopped -- 1 tsp ground ginger
1 garlic, chopped -- 5 cups chicken broth
pepper -- 1 cup yogurt plain

Heat oil. Add next 3 ingredients. Cook 5 minutes. Add carrots and stir well. Stir in curry and ginger and cook for 30 seconds. Add broth and bring to boil. Reduce heat and p.cover pot. Simmer 30 minutes until carrots tender. Blend soup. Stir in yogurt and blend. Add parsley and serve hot. I love soup with toasted pita chips.

Blah blah art

Blah blah art. I find myself pondering what art is lately. Although I, like most people, don't make my living as an artist, I consider myself one. I have no formal training as an artist in any way. but I am in training in the life of being human so that is a starting point. What does it mean to be an artist... to have this unexplained desire to communicate...to look at the world around you and examine all the seams that hold the parts together. Parts and process. speaking of process...
sometimes, musically, I wonder if I shouldn't give away my guitar...I wouldn't be throwing my voice under the bus to think about my hands... Let my brain learn how to do one thing at a time instead of all 3 together...play sing write. breathe. I think that part of the art for me is the process and the experience.... paying my dues without any intention of ever cashing in. i'm still a musical baby, so I take great care knowing that what I'm creating is genuine. i haven't learned how to manipulate it yet. I'm not sure I want to. for me, i'm pretty sure that is the whole point.
Speaking of genuine....we all come to the table with our own stories...if i am new to the table..that doesn't mean i come without my own story. Knowing this leaves me with little to prove (except to myself) and with a very real kind of freedom. for this I am very grateful.

i'll have more time to think about these things this winter when I work on some poetry and short stories at a self-directed residency. create sing write. breathe in the mountain air. Speaking of the mountains...here is a photo that I took from the air while flying through the Nahanni Range in the NWT back in 2001. Meandering.

thanks for stopping by :)

Gaze into the Heart of Open Sky and Main

I'm a city girl born and raised less than 5 kilometers from the corner of Portage and Main. I grew up in St.Boniface closer to the edges of Windsor Park than to the Provencher Bridge. My mother lived in several areas throughout old St.Boniface. Always close enough that I could walk to her place or ride my scratched and scraped BMX over. I was the first girl in my neighborhood to have a BMX...a boy's bike and it was something that I was quite proud of. I was in a hurry to scuff up my shiny BMX ...trying to set the record for the number of friends I could double and working up the courage to head straight down the paths of the ravine in my old neighborhood. Head first and straight down. I wore my long hair in braids partly in homage of my childhood hero Laura Ingalls and partly in homage to my old roots to the area where I grew up...Before I was eight I had a favorite climbing tree and what I called my quiet "thinking spot" , a stoop of a rock next to the creek near my house...with my thoughts wandering and inquisitive. I grew up with the vague idea that I should like to be a writer of some sort one day. I look back and appreciate how fortunate I was to grow up during that simpler time in the middle of a city like Winnipeg, yet be steps away from the woods and the quiet creeks...and the big sky vistas that my favorite tree gave me as I sat perched up amongst the green green leaves. - here is a photo I took on a recent weekend away to the woods in these parts where I now live.

The Lava melted all the cell phones in magical Iceland

"This isn't You Tube. This isn't Facebook. This is real life". That was one of the first things that a local said to us when roaming the streets of Reykjavik on our first night in Iceland. The comment came from a young man dancing on a patch of grass with the sun setting behind a row of buildings, casting a warm glow over the park. A stereo system had been set up and on the grass and on the sidewalks people danced and drank...and they laughed and talked...and drank some more. It was a sea of fair skinned modern day vikings...swaths of every color of clothing possible and one pink guitar.
I had two assignments for myself during my stay in Iceland. The first being how to pronounce the name of the recent volcano that erupted...the second was to listen to as much Icelandic music as I could. On the flight in... street musicians...live music (Uncle Tom's Cabin was awesome!), and I listened to local radio. I can say with some certainty that Icelandic people have fantastic taste in music. Understanding the influence that vast open spaces have had on my own musical development, I was curious to hear the landscape in the music being created in such a vast and beautiful place. Tone and craft and space in the notes........lush and with an edge.
We strolled and watched people watch people. I admired the great sense of style that the women had..think French meets Dutch with an organic thrift store twist. Women wore tights or leggings of any color under skirts, shorts or pants. All that color must be cheery on long winter days.... So smart they are! Keeping warm and working with the pale skin instead of trying to fake bake those white legs into submission. We paint houses cheery colors to brave long dark days of winter, so why not ourselves.
But mostly, I admired the appreciation for beauty and creativity. It was everywhere and for a country of less than 400,000 people...this is amazing when you think about it. The country must be made up of artists and dreamers and poets and all the creative souls that seek to create beauty around them. And all around it was. Raw, imperfect and organic with that perfect golden light that you have to travel to the far north to fully appreciate. Truly though, you should travel to Iceland to appreciate that they party till 5 am but don't fight, don't seem to own cell phones so everyone has real conversations, and live with a boldness that prevents them from passing up the opportunity to enjoy anything that life has to offer. Now if I can just find a few skirts to go with my new blue leggings to embrace these pale legs.

Happy accidents along the Cabot Trail

While up on the beautiful Cabot Trail in very lush and green Nova Scotia last week, we came upon a hat and fabric store. Everything was handmade and designed by the lady inside. A very old but content dog greeted me at the door as I walked in. My hubby waited outside in the warm sun.

On this one random stop, I found a great hat made of velvet, which I look forward to wearing this fall when the weather cools. And my other half, while waiting outside, ran into the mail woman, who happened to be the mother of my husband's old university roommate....whom my husband has not seen in years.

Happy accidents and the wonderful randomness of these kinds of days. And it all happened in a small place on the Cabot Trail called Wreck Cove. Many happy sorts of wrecks can happen.

The talented hat maker Barbara Longva and her lovely artistic wares can be found here, where you may randomly stumble upon my blog and view her great hats. You might also click on my music link and tell a friend of a friend who may then buy my CD at a future show they catch...because someone knew my cousin....you get the idea. Wishing you many happy accidents....and many long lazy days of summer...here is her link...

http://www.sewinclined.ca/

Cheap Bride Dot Com

I recently added a new word to my vocabulary. I won't bore you with the details except to say that it was a beautiful day and I really was glowing. I didn't make him wear a tux and he wasn't surprised when I announced that I was re-designing the $10 dollar dress I had found at Value Village. When I brought my dress to the local and very talented seamstress, she thought that I was a little crazy…it didn't look like a wedding dress! To her credit, she heard me out and worked with my vision of the dress. After a few meters of organza (found on sale), I had a unique one of a kind dress that was perfectly me. All for under $200…and that included my shoes and vintage earrings that I bought a few years earlier on one of our road trips to the BC interior. We rented the local art gallery..gathered around a backdrop of great art…happy knowing we were supporting the local art gallery and local artists. ( and it was cheap!) We also choose the day before a holiday so that we would at least always have the next day off and some fireworks ( which would happen when he forgets to buy me flowers)Living creatively and treading gently is good for the soul and the bank account too. And I'm sure this little rock we call home appreciates it as well. I'm thrilled to spend more on the honeymoon to some great place (Iceland) and not still be paying off the wedding a year down the road........like when he is driving me crazy with the dirty socks in the corner. Or when he holds my head under the covers and farts. Not mine though....that was the deal we struck to not have to wear the tux..