John

Growing up with an artist as a father has a few advantages. For one, my childhood included quite a bit of traveling in our hippie van across the continent to see art and experience life. More on that later, but another great advantage of having artistic parents, is growing up around their very talented friends. My dads closest friend John Blair is not only the kindest and most hilarious man I know, but also one of the most talented jewellery designers. Growing up (and still to this day, since I am a very spoiled special only child) my dad made sure to always do artist trades with John to score my mom and I some of the most beautiful jewellery around.

John finally has a website and I wanted to share with you some of my favourite pieces from the site on here, but you can check out the rest at www.johnblairdesign.com.

This July I was also lucky enough to receive a very special ring, from a pretty great guy, to add to my collection. (p.s. I am engaged!)

 

All photos are from johnblairdesign.com and either taken by John Dean or Ric Kokotovich. 

You can purchase John's work at Rubaiyat in Calgary & Michael Dean in Granvile Island.

My Parents Backyard

My parents garden has always been their pride and joy. As soon as spring gets near that is where you will find them both working their asses off day after day, planting new flowers, pulling out weeds or making new rock pathways. When my parents return from the island every summer, they don't even set foot in the house before they have checked out what has changed over the summer - what has grown and what has died.

After twenty seven years of living in our house, I can safely say that this garden is something pretty special. I have many great memories in this backyard with my family and definitely a few great parties have been had there with my friends. You can't help but be in a great mood as you sit on their deck drinking a beer, or reading your book.

her favourite place, doing her favourite thing.

Real Canadian Meat

cows, beautiful cows - July 2012

My parents stumbled upon Canadian Rocky Mountain Ranch on one of their many Sunday drives out in the country. The Ranch is home to some of the finest Bison and Elk that are key elements to "Rocky Mountain cuisine", which was created in the restaurants founded by the O'Connor family.

Mom couldn't wait to show Roger what some of our wildlife look like, and what a Canadian calls a "Buffalo" when we arrived. The term Buffalo is actually a misnomer as Bison aren't even related to a true Buffalo. Silly North American settlers.... Speaking of animal misnomers, we also call a Pronghorn Antelope an Antelope, and it is also not related to the Antelope family. Double silly....

Back to CRMR! We ended up heading there on the way back from a beautiful walk down by the Elbow River at Paddy Flats. The very knowledgeable manager gave us a quick little history lesson on Bison and game farming, and then let us take a walk around to check out the animals. Bison, Elk and Cows.. oh my! It was a truly Canadian experience for Roger. We bought some Bison steaks and my dad cooked them up for dinner. The steaks were absolutely delicious, and I am not much of a red meat eater.

From what I understand on their website they provide game meat to three Canadian Rocky Mountain Resort lodges, as well as Cilantro, Divino and The Ranche in Calgary. If you want some delicious, natural, humane and sustainably produced meat, or if you just want to see some beautiful animals - go check them out.

Bison - July 2012

My Family at Canadian Rocky Mountain Ranch - July 2012