BONEY M

Missing her so much today.

INUIT DOLLS

From a lovely book by Eva Strickler and Anaoyok Allokee.

The below image is from the Canadian Museum of Civilisation. A perfect sealskin and cotton doll made in 1914 in Labrador. She's a true reflection in miniature of the dress of those living in the district from which she came. It's her represented height that strikes me most.

Mt. Lorne

As in Lorne Green
&
Chera and Candice and the dogggs. A beautiful afternoon of hiking on Sunday.

ALICE is 11 days old

ALICE DOTTIE PIE

Dinner Without Julie

re:

Dinner With Julie:
- - - Lawry's Seasoned Salt ?????????

wtf?

and
beef on a bun? sloppy joes?

Apologies, and I take back my recommendation.

THE HOME of MARTHA LOUISE BLACK

3rd floor servants' quarters.
Swallows painted on the wall in her large 2nd floor work room,
where she started many a seedling.

Mosquito Bite Me Not.
The main hall.
The ceiling in George Black's study.
Servants' bath on the 3rd floor.

The dining room, its windows covered with beautiful hand-dyed
and block-printed linen drapes.
A globe light fixture in the stairwell.


Parquet flooring and avocado velvet drapery in the drawing room .
A grape cushion with hand-tatting on the chesterfield in the living room.

While in Dawson last weekend I had the pleasure of being led through two of my dear Janice Cliff's Parks Canada tours: Dawson proper and the Commissioner's residence on front street. DELIGHTFUL. Janice's manner is so engaging. She's a wealth of knowledge. Loved every minute of it, especially the ends - poking through the secret parts.

The Commissioner's Residence was the home of Chatelaine Martha Black and her Commissioner husband George Black from 1912 - 1916. Martha was one those extra-ordinary women drawn to abandon her existence of wealth and comfort in Chicago for the Klondike. She fell in great love with this place, created a long, remarkable life here and died here at the age of 91.

In the late 1800's, after refusing to join her then husband William Purdy in the Sandwich Islands, Martha came up North with her brother, crossed the Chilkoot Trail on foot (with the sole knowledge she was with child) and arrived in Dawson to give birth to her third son, alone in a cabin in January 1899.

An artistic botanist, war worker, politician, lecturer, correspondent, writer, wife and mother, Martha was an elegant, tough, and ethical lady respected at all levels of Dawson society. In 1935, at the age of 70, she was the second woman (to Agnes Campbell McPhail) elected to the House of Commons, replacing her ill husband as representative of the Yukon. Among the issues she pursued where public health, pensions for the blind and nature conservation.

The house was totaled by fire and flood in the 1900's and has since been partially restored by Parks according to photographs. The Sisters of St. Anne occupied the building during the 1940's and 50's as residents and keepers of a senior citizen's home. The main floor is fully restored to 1916 as Martha and George would have known it. The 2nd floor is mainly empty of furnishings but bears the wallpaper and floral linoleum of the Sister's time, their iron beds and washstands. The bathrooms on the 3rd floor are stunning with their clawfoot tubs and honeycomb tile and the exquisite light from little windows.

The house holds a strong sense of Martha: a lady of compassion and attentiveness to detail, who painted lovely swallows and always smiled in photographs.

Flourescent Ribbon and Metallic Tissue

And pink zippers.
And garden hose on the lawn.




Drawings are coming.

July in the Yukon = October

it's so chilly.

Fall is far and away my favorite season, but I love fall (more) when it follows summer rather than replaces it.

so! fall food: tonight I made a red wine stew, buttermilk biscuits and a green salad.

ALICE

She's a week old today! & will come to live with me in September.

Mum, Lollie, and the full litter of four pups: 3 males and little Alice the peach pie.
And Dad, Toblerone, with a dirty Santa last Christmas.

ALICE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WEDNESDAY

Mending pants - a new red button

Walking with Maya - the sage and fox tails are particularly beautiful right now.
This view from the cliffs of a dump of cars below the horizon line is one of my favorites. It characterises Whitehorse for me.

Bee Keeping

Images from a poster (circa 1952) pinned to the wall at the Wild Things Honey shop, on the Klondike Highway.
I bought two jars of creamed fireweed, and one's for you, Kendra.

Postcards and Photographs

A few items from a new collection I'm working on.

The City of Dawson

Mud and tonnes of it: Total shit show.
and
The ladies I love.

Identifying Wildflowers

Chera and I have been walking with the dogs near her house, marveling at the flowers.

From top:
Bunchberry
Sage
Spreading Dogbane (pink)
Smooth Fleabane (pale purple)
Bunchberry (white)
Sage
Three Toothed Saxifrage (whitish-pink w/ teeny speckles)

Baby Scheepjes

A Book of knitting patterns for babies, thrifted at the Whitehorse Sally Ann.

When I picked this up in the store and leafed through it I caught myself with my mouth wide open, then started looking around my immediate vicinity for a staff member, like you've gotta be kidding me - has anyone SEEN THIS??????

Hello, grown men,
Hello, tragic ones, bawling your little eyes out.
And Hello, adorable Little Miss in your twin set (plastic tennis racket conveniently tossed aside)
and
Sweet yin-yang pair in your blue and white britches and tank tops.