Here a few photos to tempt you while I get my writing act together

Just a note – there are a few seconds of black at the start of the video

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Arts Health and Seniors with my beloved Renfrew-Collingwood seniors had it’s year end show at the roundhouse and we exhibited our felt book
 I’ll try and upload the lovely video my son Ben made for me of the project. Stay tuned, I won’t get to it today

July 1- 8th I had a life transforming experience joining the Renfre-Collingwood Aboriginal Canoe Club on the Pulling Together Journey paddling in large canoes to traditional territories on the west coast of Vancouver Island – but this is worth it’s own post!

I’ve just completed the moon fest 2011 and I am in the progress of writing final reports and proposals for new projects.

Next stop Oaxaca … but that is another post!

In October I started working with artist/teacher Laura Treloar and artist Flick Harrison with the Athena 8 arts students at Windermere to design a wall mural for the school courtyard that highlights Still Creek and the history of the neighbourhood. Some good progress happening  with collecting history and developing designs for the 10 panels of the mural. We are hoping to be able to send to design to the sign shop by Spring break.

In November I was the very lucky recipient of the Mayors Arts Award for my work in Community Arts. They asked me to also choose an emerging artist in the same discipline and I was please to name Maggie Winston – puppeteer and community artist to share the award with me. On November 24th we had a lovely evening with Mayor Gregor Robertson and the other Arts Award recipients.

In December I was hired by the CACV and worked with Jason Bouchard, Isaac Rosen-Purcell, Arthur Hazleden, Sita Kumar, and 45 community artists in the downtown east side to create glowing halos with community made panels to place in DTES Parks. we had an opening celebration  and parade Dec 16th. The halos are likely coming down next week so you’ll have to hurry to see them.

Christmas was lovely and full of friends ( about 90 at our party!) and family but with many moments of sadness missing Dad. January has been Clara birthday season and launching new projects.

In the morning we went into the cathedral and I was delighted to realize that the body of the church was Romanesque surrounded by a baroque facade. We entered just as the 10am mass was ending. I saw some priests with a shovel full of hot coals and I realized they were about to light the giant Fumario incense pot and swing it above the heads of the pilgrims in blessing. It takes 6 – 8 priests to haul on the ropes to get it to swing high enough to completely go horizontal at its apex as is swings from north to south transept. I managed to get around to the less crowded north transept to be right under it as swung over our heads – very dramatic!

We rested in Santiago all day June 14 and the morning of June 15th. We were able to watch the lineups and managed to go through the sacred door of Perdon (only open during the holy year) without lining up and then to climb up behind the high altar to hug the statue of Santiago from behind. It was lovely to spend time in the several squares surrounding the cathedral and watch the day and shadows move across the facades, the clouds move in the sky behind the spires, and the  herds of tourists follow their leaders  listening to talks in many languages. Clara also busked a bit and gained a few fans that we saw several times on our walks through the city. We shed our terror of carrying extra weight in our packs and shopped for trinkets and pretty not-hiking shoes. We are leaving the Camino and about to go to Paris as tourists. Why is it sad?

It was good to feel stronger and stronger each day, to be outside in all weather, to stop for a coffee, tea or beer while hiking (an impossibility on most hikes in Canada!), to meet people from all over the world and be part of the river of pilgrims meeting and re-meeting fellow travellers, good to see the landscape unfold slowly before me – flora and fauna changing, geology, people, languages, to challenge all my language skills, good to just walk and not have to figure out anything else, just look for yellow arrows and be happy when you see them. Would that yellow arrows would appear in our regular life and tell us so plainly we are on the right path. …. and all the characters and all their stories, the simple acts of faith, the acts of caring for each other, the architecture, the stone towns, the sculpture, the excellent craftsmanship and the comical but sincere attempts by those less skilled, the humble acts of beauty in each town – flowerpots, gardens, lace curtains, crosses along the pathways, lizards, snails, exquisitely eroding stones…. the time to experience and appreciate, to be.

After breakfast we walked up through the cold mist and blooming heather til we came to the Cruz de Ferro – the iron cross on a post at the highest point of the mountain pass and the Camino where people leave their stones they have brought. The pile of rocks was filled with rocks of all sizes inscribed with names and words. At the apex was a post topped with an iron cross covered in the remains of the many momentos that had been pinned and tied to it … yarn, wire, bits of hiking gear, photos, plastic flowers, trinkets that had been of value to someone. I climbed up and placed our stone for Dad at the base of the post quietly crying in the mist. Our grief was just one of many stones and stories of pain that had been left behind here. We held each other a cried. A group of pre-teens showed up giggling and laughing and scrambling over the pile of stones lovingly placed, reading words chatting, looking over at us in our grief uncomprehending and awkward. It was  nice that they didn’t yet understand and that life will insist on bubbling forward whatever our personal story of loss. Several groups of pilgrims got Alex to take pictures of them standing at the Cruz de Ferro. I went to my pack and pulled out a picture of Dad with Ben at Ben’s grad and stuck it to the post with all the other trinkets and shreds of stories. As we walked away I caught one last glimpse of Dad’s smiling face looking out eagerly, but small and fading in the mist to just one of many unknowable stories on that heap of human stories.

The rest of the day we descended towards Pont Ferrada, slowly coming below the clouds to beautiful vistas, changing flowers, and warming temperatures. By the time we reached the valley we were in summer clothes and Clara was getting way ahead of us with her young knees and ever strengthening young body. We stopped 8k before Pont Ferrada in Molinaseca where Alex gave a guitar lesson to a Korean pilgrim, Yubin, who has an amazing baritone voice, is starting in the Opera program in Korea in September and is walking the pilgrimage route with a guitar that he just bought and too much heavy sheet music downloaded from the internet. On the 13th we walked into Ponferrada in grumpy moods. It was our last walking day and I felt very sad about ending the walking and moving into being just tourists. We enjoyed seeing the fortress before we got on the long bus ride to Santiago.

It’s been difficult to post because of my emotional state after my Dad’s death and especially in Spain where I was too out of my language to be able to search for times and places, so I am catching up now.

We took the train and the bus to the French border town of  St. Jean Pied de Port, found an albergue and tried to book another albergue for the next day 8km up the mountain so we wouldn´t have to do 25 kilometers the first day to Roncesvalles. Orrison was full so we ended up at Huntto only 5 k from St. Jean. The view was gorgeous from our room … even 5 k up the mountain yielded spectacular vistas and a gradual reentry into walking: Dinner was also amazing and we made several new friends from Germany, Italy, France and Ireland. The next day the sunrise was spectacular over the foothills and the weather was perfect for taking the higher, more scenic Napoleon route, (and more deadly  in bad weather). The hike was incredible, the views stunning and the exersion stunning as well! We passed flocks of sheep and wild horses. The sunn was warm but the wind was very cool so the climb was manageable: At the Virgin of Orrison Clara left her violin tuning peg that she had been wearing as a necklace, as a momento for Oliver. I´m sure he would be pleased with it there very beautiful!

Near the peak of the highest pass of the Pyrenees we came upon Martha Gay. She is walking with her harp all the way to Santiago! She pulls it behind her on a one wheel frame attached to her waist with a harness! We thought we were crazy carrying a violin, but we are merely eccentric! Martha is crazy, but delightfully so!

At Roncesvalles that night Martha and Clara played together in the thirteenth centrury stone albergue that housed over 100 pilgrims on one room in row upon row of bunk beds. Pilgrims were delighted to be drifting off to sleep after such a hike to the sound of medieval harp music and fiddle tunes. Very fun!  After the 10pm lights out Clara recorded a few minutes of the snoring symphony of 100 exhausted pilgrims. At 6am the lights were switched on and a man in a loud voice began singing gregorian chant and urging us to wake up in many languages, all sung, to wake up and begin to walk again: What a wild experience!

The next day we descended slowly and painfully to Zubiri. The downhill is much harder on the bones and joints than the uphill: And it was hot and exhuasting to walk in the heat. We walked with a group of Germans off and on, Sebatian, David, Natalie, Nicole. In response to the music the night before, David gave Clara a tuning fork that he had carried with him since he was a child givien to him by his uncle who was a trumpet player…. a very special item for him as a musician and we were very touched that he thought enough of Clara that he would give it to her. In Zubiri we sat in the river to cool off … it felt great! Dinner and great conversation with a family from San Francisco.

The next day we set off for Pamplona and were caught in an incredible thunder and lightening and rain storm: Our stuff was wet even through our rain clothes – even the violin case was seeping in the sides but the violin was okay. Eventually Clara couldn´t take the stress any more of the intense weather so we caught a taxi the rest of the way to Pamplona and booked into a very nice Albergue and re-met Robert, andolder pilgrim we had seen in Nasbinals way back in France on day when I was sick and he had bad blisters! And here we both were in Pamplona Spain, by somewhat different routes! As Clara slept I went out and came upon a Corpus Christi parade full of 1st communion kids in their best white dresses, families all dressed up, priests, shrines, incense and a great marching band! They wound their way through the whole old town on the streets strewn with fresh greens and rose petals!

After Pamlona Clara and I had to tke trains and buses to meet up with Alex who was arriving in Leon June 9th. We trained to Burgos and marvelled at the cathedral and ate tapas and window shopped. The next day we took the bus to Leon. We met three Mexicans on the bus – one who was a university professor in Montreal, who told us we have to stay at the Parador San Marcos to really experience Leon… a five star hotel that is in a building that was once a pilgrim refugio in the middle ages. So we walked with them to this truely amazing palcial building. Our guide negotiated a good pilgrim rate for us so Clara and I booked a room for the following night when Alex would arrive! What fun!. Meanwhile the rainy weather continued so we spent our time looking at the wonderous stained glass in Leon cathedral and the Mosarabic scalloped arches in San Obispo? church. The we checked into our pacial suite early and slept and waited til we could pick up Alex at the Leon airport.

June 10 we spent the morning showing a blissed out Alex the sights of Leon while he told us all about what he learned about scotch whiskey distillation on his distilleriy tours on his few days in Scotland! In the afternoon we took a bus to Astorga and then began walking 5k to a tiny municipal albergue with a man with a donkey and a well liquored host. Very amusing evening.

Today we hiked 22k up and up to Foncebadon through 7 hours of a head wind and spitting blowing rain, and now we are up in the mists of the mountains waiting for our pilgrim meal with a veritable united nations of pilgrims and I´m going to regret sitting still so long at the computer with my muscles seizing up to write this. Tomorrow we go to Cruz de  Ferro to leave our stone for Dad-grandpa that the whole family signed. A good day and very intense, too!

In the afternoon we took a train to Carbonne to stay with Sophie, sister of my friend Emmannuelle who generously opened her home to us to rest til we felt able to continue. The train was like the train in the Harry Potter movie and that made Clara feel almost as good as the cathedral made me feel. Sophie’s home is large and full of wood and windows, built in 1969 and very modern, not unlike what Dad built for us. Clara and I dozed on the garden patio for the afternoon surrounded by scent of honeysuckle, the rustling of bamboo leaves, and two very curious and eager to play dogs. Very soothing. Clara was nervous of the dogs but then got into playing with them …. great, except now she has very itchy eyes and we fear she may be allergic to them. We had a lovely dinner with Sophie and Eric who spoke some English with Clara which always makes Clara feel better.

We slept till 11am the next morning then slowly breakfasted, visited with Sophie on her lunch break, then went on a walk along the Garonne river and through the town. Tonight Clara has fallen asleep very early. Tomorrow is a train day to St. Jean Pied de Port near the French-Spanish border and hopefully we’ll be up for the adventure of climbing the Pyrenees the next day. We are both tired but also itching to be walking the chemin again. It gives focus.