Footnotes to a Conversation, June 21, 2021
“If you want to succeed, double your failure rate.” – Thomas Watson
Local News
Our Farm expects to be on Broadway selling gorgeous organic vegetables every Saturday morning from July 3 to October 2.
Trent Loewen at Scratch Provisions is open on Fridays and Saturdays to sell his pies. While you’re there, you can also pick up pasta from the Prairie Pasta Lady (also available at the Saskatoon Farmers’ Market), elegant desserts from the Vanilla Pastry Company, and Saskatoon Spruce cheese.
The Art of Flowers
“It is the artist’s business to create sunshine when the sun fails.” – Romain Roland
Claire Basler is an artist living in a French château, and she has filled its room with murals of flowers. How could one fail to sleep well in a room full of flowers dancing in the breeze! Do take a look at the work she’s highlighted on her website. [via My French Country Home magazine]
I always enjoy the Dutch still lifes of huge bouquets of flowers as they’re so detailed and there is always more to see. That’s especially true after watching this 10-minute video where a potter, an ornithologist, a scribe, and a florist discuss a painting. [National Gallery]
Island Life
Ice cream trucks are making a comeback in Victoria. Happy childhood memories brought back to life! [Capital Daily]
We had summer holidays on Vancouver Island almost every year when I was a child, and I can remember it felt very British. Understandable as there were so many British ex-pats living there, but what I didn’t realize was that many of them worked hard to maintain a British accent through several generations. [Capital Daily]
This week’s photographs were taken at Government House Gardens, Victoria.
Green Wine
Shipping glass bottles around the world is the wine industry’s largest source of greenhouse gas emissions. Some companies are experimenting with a different approach. One company shipped a 24,000 litre plastic container of Sicilian pinot grigio to New Jersey where it will be offloaded into kegs, cans, and bottles. But not just any bottles – they’ll be returnable and reusable. [New York Times]
Footnotes to a Conversation is a weekly Monday feature covering an assortment of topics that I’ve come across in the preceding week – books, art, travel, food, and whatever else strikes my fancy.
If you share my love of nature, I suggest you also read EcoFriendly Sask that I publish in collaboration with my brother, Andrew. Check out EcoFriendly Sask’s Nature Companion, a free nature app for Canada’s four western provinces (downloadable directly from the website).