Big Bellyfish

Happy Fall! I love the fall. I have an irrational love for this season. It's the cool air, it kind of invigorates me. Even though I'm a tad under the weather, I'm happy. It might also have something to do with upcoming births. There is of course our little baby, who is now about 3 pounds (the size of a cabbage) and 15-and-three-quarter inches long, kicking madly, and already has assumed a head-down birth postion. Smart and feisty like Mama.

I should note here that we switched midwives. We just weren't quite connecting with our initial choice. We felt a bit awkward changing over to her partner (like fussy shoppers) but she was really cool about it and said the main thing is that we're comfortable. So, our new midwife is Kelly. The first midwife, Maren, will still attend the birth - which I think most know we hope will be a home-birth. Also in attendance will be our good friends Jason, Jocelyn, and Isabelle, and possibly out-of-towners Aimee (also a mid-wife) and Jeff (my oldest and best friend). It's getting really exciting right about now. I've included some belly pictures and some other recent images.

Then there is the other birth that I'm hoping will happen: the publication of my book. Nothing concrete yet but the exciting thing is that since I won that prize I've had other writers recommend agents, and a local publisher actually asked me to see it (rather than the usual me begging them to look at a chapter). He also invited me to contribute a chapter to an anthology he is putting out next year, an invitation which I gladly accepted. I'm madly editing the book right now, trying to get a better draft to show him.

And also, my brother is home! Not sure for how long, but after 5 yrs in Japan he's nurturing his reverse culture-shock right here in the Halifax Regional Municipality, for a while anyway.

Well, blah blah blah a picture's worth a thousand words, so here is a much more easily absorbed story, in non-chronilogical order:
































Big belly!




















Mika and Sian spent part of their honeymoon here and we had the obligatory Nova Scotian lobsters - they were fantastic!





















The buskers festival was a 5-minute walk from our place, always fun.






















This is the newest Benjamin, Zaila, daughter to cousin Jessie and Bola.






















Cousins abound: Jeremy and Jessie with Zaila (and puppies Maleah and Nate) in the background, Miia with Jessie's eldest, Kiara, in the foreground.
























Big jellyfish!























We took Mika and Sian on a Keith's Brewery tour, which would have made the Nazis jealous for its mastery of propaganda.























The first annual Beaver Bank croquet tourney.























Moon testing out the stroller.























Mika and Moon.



















Newlywed Bliss



















At Duncan's Cove

Benjamin's Fishy Africville Art

Hi folks,

What fun, I made the Books section in the main daily here for winning the prize for my novel. Click here to read that.

I also have an Arts feature in the Coast this week with some of my own photography (which I did not expect them to actually include in the article). Click the pic below for that:

And, click the next picture for my usual sustainability column:

-CB

Popular Diversions

Click the pic for a light piece I did for The Coast's Student Survival Guide.

Humungo News!

An exciting development for me: I won the H.R. (Bill) Percy Novel Prize for my novel (Living in the Dirt/Drive-by Saviours) in the Atlantic Writing Competition! This is hopefully a big step toward finding a publisher.

Check out http://www.writers.ns.ca/pr25Aug08.html for details.

I will receive my prize and do a reading at a Gala Celebration of Writers and Writing Sept 27, 7 pm, at Alderney Landing Theatre in Dartmouth. It's a free event so come on out all you local folks.

-CB

Ontario's Wild Ideas

Click the pic for my latest column.

What is three years?

Some species of snails are found to be sleeping in deserts for three years at a time.

In ancient times, it was customary to have lunar calendars, with 12 and/or 13 months every year. To align the calendar with the seasons, the 13th month was inserted as a "leap month" every three years.

Adult giant pandas are generally solitary, but they do communicate periodically through scent marks, calls, and occasional meetings. Offspring can stay with their mothers up to three years.

And three years today we came together how we knew we would from the start.

Highlights:
- Finishing my degree, working at ANC, working at New Hope
- You finishing your work and getting the programs off the ground
- Your TAC grant
- Leaving TO
- World Tour - Denmark, Sweden, a summer in Finland, Estonia, Russia, Mongolia, China, Japan, UK, Ghana, Togo, France, Spain! What a trip and what an adventure
- You finishing your novel and the *ahem* stuff coming down the pipe (to be disclosed at a later date)
- Moving to Hfx and starting a new home
- Moon! and Bosh going strong
- Your writing gigs extraordinaire and my work that's been so good
- Reconnecting with immediate and extended family
- New friends and still loving old friends (and their growing families too)
- 6 months preggers at 3 year anniversary

And in all seriousness, even with all of these highlights, best of all has been 1,096 days (2008 was a leap year) of Matka Risto Bopper; every single day a gift, a joy, a delight.

- M

Three Years Hence

Dear Miia, three years married today, sorry I didn't get a chance to write a new one just for today, but this one from exactly five years after we met, that most significant of moments, will hopefully make you smile. Happy Anniversary!




In the roughneck tarpits of delusion
as they asked me to prove myself
worthy of some compensation
or sympathy

In the shot-down boredom of empathy
when I realized everything was corrupted
and there was no place safe to stand
or register

As I paid the price for my wager
the cost of my own existence
in this dodge-ball shotgun choice of life
or living

I said your name
I showed my ring
I drew your face
I smiled
I walked home

In the uninsulated time capsule basement
at the moment of no regrets
limbs entwined in the vulnerability of trust
or deception

Naming that naked moment of honest exposure
elucidating the consequences
of each and every opposite action
or reaction

As we laid bare the price of admission
for a forever existence together
and the smiling lips irremovable from our faces
or bodies

I spoke your name
I made a ring
I kissed your face
We smiled
We were home

In the daily face of insanity
departing from reason love and peace
walking into false transactions of cash
or truth

My pen hacks at conmen weavers
atop a chain of fool-hearted power
trying to catch a falling leader
or star

As I fumble for my credentials
letters planted in compressed trees
and they ask me who I am
or why I matter

I say your name
I hold your ring
I see your face
I smile
This is home

My Professional Writer's Profile

Hi folks,

Just a quick note that my professional writer's profile is now live on the Writer's Federation of Nova Scotia website. Click here to take a gander.

-CB

Belly and Travel Pics

Hi folks, we recently returned from our trip to Ontario (and my stopover in Montreal). It was so good seeing everyone. For those we missed, hope to see you next time, or feel free to come visit us on the coast! Here are just a few pics from Mika & Sian's wedding (which was loads of fun and a beautiful union) and some of our visiting, as well as a couple very recent belly shots. We're at 26 weeks now and Baby's close to two pounds now and 14 inches long, about the size of an English hothouse cucumber (apparently). Click here if you want to know more about the baby's development.

Miia's doing fantastic and feeling really energetic, though sliding hard into second base is becoming a bit more difficult for her. And she's peeing a lot.

She's also continuing to do really interesting things at work. Yesterday she gave a presentation on social policy with respect to poverty alleviation to a group of visiting senators, including the legendary Art Eggleton. I'm quite certain she rocked their brains with copious facts, impeccable logic, and heartfelt compassion.

We're getting more and more excited for the newcomer, reading some stuff about birth and parenting and really looking forward to it. We know life will change drastically and we know it will be hard work and exhausting. I find it hard to imagine quite what it will be like, but I know it'll be amazing - the next astounding stop on life's great adventure. It's a rush and a thrill.
-CB











This is Amare, Marlene and Sami's little boy. He lives in Ottawa:





















This is my oldest and best friend Jeff, at the golf course he runs in Montreal. He can now be referred to as 'the godfather':



















This is Radiohead. Jeff and I caught their muddy show in Montreal and had a lot of fun:















This is my friend Jody and her little Fenna, who was born on Nov 20 (which is our 'due' date). They live with Henk in a beautiful home in the Gatineaus, right by the Gatineau River, in which we swam most gloriously off the dock of Canlit hotshot Phil Jenkins:




















This is Miia practicing on Liliana, who is very very new, and hangs out with her parents John and Tasha in Toronto:



















This is Conor on Bathurst. He was somewhat excited to see us:



















This is my beautiful new sister, Sian:



















This is as close as you'll ever come to seeing me in my kilt:



















This is Lily Pilonszala, light of Mike and Pam's lives. She is now talking in sentences:






























Expectant Mother's Parking - progress or a symbol of everything wrong with our culture?

















Mr. and Mrs. Suokonautio:





















Second best MC ever (me being the first best. Oh no I didn't. Oh yes I did!):



















This is Miia rocking out with the best man's wife, our friend Diane, who by the way is a bigtime mover and shaker in Canadian media. Go girl. Everything is better with inflatable oversized microphones:















Scarborough Golf Club is surprisingly regal, quite the classy affair:

Get Your Lawn Off Grass

Here's a little movie that Kevin Moynihan, a local videographer, made for me in my role at EAC. Enjoy!

Dumped On

Click the pic for my latest column in The Coast:

Story of Stuff

Get the whole story here.

Carbon Tax Facts

Click the pic for my latest column.

Ultra Sounds

First off, the Belly is doing well. Little baby is now 11 inches long and almost a pound, apparently the size of a spaghetti squash. Miia is showing more and more, but strangely hasn't gained much weight. It just seems to have shifted around, though some folks still don't notice she's pregnant. Regardless, she looks radiant.

Baby on the other hand is kicking mightily, so hard even I can feel it now, wailing against the placenta, which has settled at the front. The midwife noticed this in our last exam, and our first ultrasound on July 4 confirmed it. We got to see little feet, the spine, every tiny vertebrae, four chambers of the heart – beating away at 148 beats a minute – arms and hands and a beautiful puffy little face. S/he looked relaxed with a hand behind the head, and sucking the other thumb. Spinning all around in there like an astronaut. Most importantly, perfectly healthy.

Unfortunately to get a picture for ourselves we have to spend 200 bucks at a private ultrasound clinic. We’ll get lots of pics when baby gets born. And we’re past halfway there, hard to believe. This baby has already experienced many firsts with Mama, like playing golf and tennis and even a folk festival. The 13th annual Stan Rogers Folk Festival in Canso Nova Scotia!

What an amazing event. We saw Bruce Guthro, Beppe Gambetta, Tanglefoot, Bobby Cameron, Dave Gunning (great songwriter from Pictou NS), the legendary Valdy, and Martin Sexton. Martin Sexton is a phenom, the lovechild of Jack Black and Jack Johnson, with the vocal range of Mariah Carey meets Brad Roberts of the Crash Test Dummies, and the instrumental body of Bobby McFerrin, complete with beatbox, drums, trumpet, and at one point he turned his mouth into a sitar. Oh, and a little old time gospel hour preacher. I'd heard one of his albums and quite liked it, but it was nothing to his live show. He blew us away. Completely. That was the first night.

Then we saw Steve Poltz, David Myles, Stacey Earle & Mark Stuart, Joel Fafard, Little Miss Higgins, Rebkah Higgs, Kyrie Kristmanson (Bjork meets Feist), Graham Isaacson, Ron Hynes, Si Khan (a folk songwriting legend), Chuck Brodsky, Archie Fisher, Steve Wright, Breeze and Wilson, Stan Carew (of CBC east fame), Ryan Leblanc, Andy Irvine, and then...the great Buffy St. Marie! That was a little slice of heaven. She brought the whole audience to tears with this song. The other musicians couldn't even follow that, she had to follow herself with a humerous number.

But there was more: Martyn Joseph (great political Welsh folkie), Kevin Fox, Shanneyganock, a Steve Ray Vaughnesque trio from New Brunsick simply called Matt, Ross & Keith, Irish Mythen (who made me cry again with a song about a man's first night in bed alone after losing his wife after 60 years), Black Umfolosi (from Zimbabwe singing deep-voiced southern African harmonies), Don Rooke, Kraig Kenning (Chicago blues man), Salil Bhatt (an Indian player of the Mohan Veena who is so respected that he travels with his own sidekick who plays drums and applauds and shakes his head in utter wonder at Salil's gifts), Garnet Rogers, Jim Richard (makes Johnny Cash's voice sound like fresh sprung pansies), Rachelle Van Zanten (yet another incredible bluesy, guitar rippin soul sista), Brollachan, and Gordie Sampson. Whew.

Now, in case you have no idea who any of those people are, here are some pictures from Canso - a truly gorgeous part of this country:

Halifax turned Toronto cellist Kevin Fox.
The incomparable Buffy St. Marie
Valdy still won't play you a rock and roll song.
Santa?

Cynical Welshman Martyn Joseph.
Shell of a Canso factory.
Mmmm, Stacey Earle.
Irish Mythen sheds a few tears listening to her hero Andy Irvine sing a song.
Ron Hynes laughs at a Jimmy Flynn joke.

Mama Miia giggles with the luck of a free campsite.
Mohan Veena great Salil Bhatt
Garnet Rogers sings to the stars.
Black Umfolosi come with their own dance moves
Look, it's Jack Black, I mean, Martin Sexton.

A vote for sustainable government

Click the pic for my latest column.

dead end road

Click the pic for the latest in my Chebucto Road widening saga...

Loving Summer

Sunny and warm, summer has blown in with a gentle breeze. The back patio door stays open all day, as do most windows and the fresh air is exquisite. When I wake in the mornings and come upstairs to start the day, the air is already warm. I water the plants in the garden and delight in their growth. I drink my coffee on the back porch and leaving for work on my bike, I leave my sweater behind.

The days linger, long and light. Already there have been a few chances to swim in lakes. If only it could be summer forever.

Things here are good indeed. The baby keeps growing and Chris and I are happy to welcome her/him. Work is strong and good. And friends, family, cats and house are well. All manner of things, then, are well indeed.

Some pictures from our backyard. Much love to all of you! ~Miia

The Belly

The top two photos were about a month ago as she just starting showing a wee bit. The rest are recent and you'll notice two changes: 1) slightly larger belly and 2) a neat little temporary tattoo courtesy of our friend Isabelle, who recently returned from a trip to the Amazon with this cool plant-based tattooing ink.