Snow cave

I have been wanting to make one of these for years! And here it is. Our 'ancien temps' theme seems to extend to playing in the snow. I doubt the ladies at Downton did this but they might have in Laura Wilder's world of the 1850's as they might in Montreal of the 2015's.

No snow drops here!

This is by way of reassuring Doco... There are definitely no signs of snow-drops here. Since a christmas that couldn't decide if it was thawing of freezing and ended up being mostly ice, we have had quite consistently below-10 with some below-20. Lots of snow - plenty of winter! We begin to dream of spring!!

La Fête de L'ancien Temps

For Lily's 11th birthday she chose to invite her two bet friends (Annaelle and Marylou) over for a week-end of 'ancien temps'. A great deal of planning has gone in to figuring out whether it would be more fun to be servants or Ladies or both. In the end it was decided that Alice would be the servant (along with Mummy and daddy) and that Lily and her friends would be princess and duchesses respectively. It was never clearly determined which country we were in nor quite which era but we have the England of Downton Abby as a reference.

Maid Alice awaits the arrival of our guests - Duchesses Annaelle de Gilford, et Marylou de Marquette.

Princesse Lily de Fabre attends aussi!

The damsels had to put on their outer attire to head off to catch the train (metro) en route for Old Montréal at -12.

Awaiting our carriage!

This is Anastasia and her driver who showed us around Old Montreal. Such a nice way to move around though we could have used another blanket or two!

Back home for dinner. Maid Alice (after being a great help in getting the table ready) disappeared and a new guest arrived - a distant cousin of Princess Lily.

Roast beef and yorkshire pudding!

After supper - the bal.

Only one prince.

Quite a bevy of ladies

Arrivederci Bassano

Two sides of the gates to the city

When I was taking this picture a man stopped to tell me that it was nicer from the other side... I think he found it strange to see me photographing it's 'backside'. 

Our breakfast spot at alnumero 14

Fresh snow on the mountains... time to go!

More on the Garage Nardini

A final bit of sunlight before heading into the chilly studio.

Obviously someone else has been having trouble with the lock! 

The Italians seem often to do without seats!

The front gates to the garage area - feels a bit as if we are in a world separate from the one on the other side.

Breathtaking Venicia!

It is hard to describe this city in words and harder still to capture it in a camera. Here are a few attempts. 

On the Grande Canal

Happy tourists!

Venice in motion

More Venice

The Grand Canal and gondolas 

The grande canal seen from the Ponte Rialto

just another back lane!

Pin-up priests!

Cement 'truck'

Two happy wanderers

Palais des Doges. In the distance, the grande canal with the winged lion who is the symbol of venice at the top of the pillar. In the fore ground the platform that is used for getting around when the water rises to cover the square S. Marco. No water when we were there but the ground was wet as if there had been water earlier in the day. Prepared visitors bring their gum boots.

Night falling on the canal grande as seem from the Vaporetto (the Venetian boat/bus)

Some ornate 3d puzzles. Colin, I though of you when seeing those trees.

More Food

Some memorable moments with food and friends! My camera does not do very well with poor light and small spaces but it gives you an idea!

Pizza on stone bench.

Ester with Gnocchi which simply melt in your mouth

Osso Buco with potato mouse

Caro with... ?

A shared dessert - chocolate mouse with amaretto gelato and carrot flakes - the little white tube is carrot jelly!

The menu said that this was lumpfish with ink (squid?). The waiter assured me that it was a Venitian specialty.

Shareing

Part of the deal when one is invited to do a residency is to give a workshop and to present the work in progress to the community, these events are called shareings (a name and idea that I much like). For our sharing we had 40 min of a first draught of a piece (not bad for only a few weeks of work). We tried for the first time to dance the piece with down feathers on the floor - it was very beautiful but very hard to breath! Both Ester and I had serious bouts of coughing but we did manage to make it through!  

Two downy dancers

Two cleaner-uppers