The sun has been out for a week, and I’ve been waking up with it, getting up early, leaving early, coming home early, going to bed early. I feel whole and full in this season, and gladly let go of the gloomy days of the long rainy season.

Within the space of two or three weeks, what were bare branches are now full and lush, like they’ve always been that way. I can’t get over the sudden change in everything…a little columbine plant that was nothing but a cube of dirt with dead leaves suddenly was green and had already had flowers without my noticing. Birds I’d never seen before filling a tree behind our house, all yellow and red. Flowering bushes leaving fragrant trails on the breeze.

And that is why I haven’t been posting, or making art, or thinking about ancestors’ faint dotted lines. My creativity and introspection seem to be linked with the weather and heightened by the longing for the changing of the seasons.

 

Evening with my little cyclists

What a beautiful place for our kids to learn to ride their bikes!

What an incredible evening, after a long work week, to just spontaneously go to the park. My daughter had called me earlier to say she had learned to ride her bike this afternoon without training wheels. She just had to show me. Our own driveway is pretty steep and tiny, so we headed to the nearest park that has an expansive mountain view and a large paved oval. You can see a tiny speck of my son in the photo above, riding his tricycle. So my husband pushed her around the track a few times, letting go for a few seconds at a time. They were up to about 6 seconds, and the next time, suddenly they were counting to 22. The next thing we knew, she was riding around and around the court.

What a milestone...starting to let go.

Meanwhile my son was engaged with his sticks, deposited across the track in a pile, and with a hawk that flew off the gazebo. With his climbing, and his flowers, and his shadow that for some reason “is so big, even though I’m not that big.”

My son and I, the shadows edition.

And I think about how much they both mean to me, and how blessed I am to be their mother.

Gentle the Rain

Beautiful song for a rainy April day.

Suddenly the bare branches outside my office window are bursting with green crepe paper leaves, springing down under the weight of a black squirrel leaping off the fort’s wall and down the limb, startling me from the daze of rainy midday. At home, the woods behind our house approaches, the trees full and verdant in their new leaves and blossoms. The robins hop and watch us, and we watch them, and feel thankful for the trees and the quiet.

Black dress

Receipt for a black dress, 1957

This spring, death has felt close. Today, my aunt was buried in Ontario. Rest in peace, Aunt Frances.

I found this receipt from 1957 for a black dress, and I wondered about the story behind it. I knew my Great Grandfather died in 1957, so I imagined this being the last minute purchase of a black dress for the funeral. Tonight I pulled out Great Grandma’s journal from that time, and learned that his death was actually in May. Here is her entry:

May 7, 1957

Clarence [her husband], Donald [her son, my Grandpa] and Danny [my uncle] drove down to Tryconnel after school to see a calf and on road home, Dad [her husband, Clarence] had a heart attack and died in car. Donald, Helene and I went to funeral home later to make arrangements for funeral.

It is always interesting to try to read between the lines, since the entries are so matter of fact. About a year before Great Grandfather’s death, my own father had a brush with death, and lived. Here is the journal entry from that day, written by his Grandma:

April 30, 1956

Allan was knocked off his bicycle at 12:10 to-day and very seriously injured. Monica [my grandma, Dad's mom] went to hospital in the ambulance with him and Donald [Dad's dad] went later. Jeanette and Danny [dad's siblings] were here. I had 21 telephone calls. I canned 4 pints of pineapple.

Great Grandfather Clarence Duck, his brother Harvey, and Harvey's son Billy
circa 1920s

Inspired by…old postcards

A postcard my Great Grandmother Mary Kimmerly (later Duck) received in 1908.

This winter I’ve been increasingly interested in researching my family tree…I so much enjoy looking at old things, I sometimes shuffle through my old photos and postcards to OCD proportions.

I revisited a couple paintings I had left off in January. It is a pair of 16×20 canvases showing rural scenes. I had done photocopy transfers onto each of them of windmills; one of the old windmills that were used in the 1800s (one still stood on our farm when I was a child). The other has three of the new windmills that dominate the landscape now in Southwestern Ontario. I was stuck on where to go next until I came across this postcard. It has two windmills pictured in it, and while the postcard was printed in Germany, the text on the back relates to the theme of the paintings, because it was written and sent to Great Grandma in our farming village (Morpeth, Ontario).

Postcard to my Great Grandma, sent in 1908.

I find it so interesting how this piano teacher would write a postcard to a student to give her a message – imagine the postal service being that reliable that you could communicate on such short notice with it.

So I made a copy and am collaging it in to both pieces to tie them together.

While I am on the topic of postcards, here is another one from 1879 to my Great Great Great Grandfather’s brother, Isaac Duck. I am not sure what year they came to Canada, but I think that Isaac was on the 1861 census of Canada. I am having trouble finding any information on his brother, Henry, who was my Great, Great, Great Grandfather.

Postcard sent from Chatham, ON in 1879 to my ancestor's brother, Isaac Duck.

Seems to be some kind of bill sent by postcard in 1879 from Chatham to Morpeth.

Finishing touches

Waterfall, 2012. Mixed media on canvas, 30" x 48". Nancy Duck Hildebrand.

I added some of my finishing touches now – such as scribbling on the surface with oil pastels to add more texture, distress, and highlights. And the finishing coat of acrylic varnish. Also added more detail to the trees and sky. I feel like it is finished now!

Waterfall painting

Waterfall - mixed media on canvas 30 x 48
Nancy Duck Hildebrand, 2010-12

I started this painting two years ago, soon after we moved to our new home, so that the kids would have something uplifting to look at as they climbed the stairs to bed each night. Our family enjoys hiking, so I thought that would be a good fit. I painted the kids into a treehouse in the picture, but then left it virtually untouched for about a year and a half.

Last weekend I hoped to start a new painting but was struck with painters’ block, and couldn’t work on anything. I started on fixing this last night and I’m almost happy with it. The top right needs a little more work and then some finishing touches.

Perhaps inspired by working on this, we went to Cascade Falls today as a family, and found that it was closed for the season. We walked down to the stream anyway where the kids enjoyed throwing stones into the water. We value getting out into nature and finding rest and restoration there.

Detail of rocks, made with silver dollar plants that I collaged in to add texture. I always like to put some plant matter into my paintings.

Looking up at the painting, as we do when we walk past it. It is one of the biggest paintings I've done, at 48x30.