Category: Stories

Christmas Traditions

12/19/2017

We have several Christmas traditions we enjoy, but I think my favourite is the Treasure Hunt.

When our children were small, and it came time to prepare or finish preparing the Christmas morning breakfast, it was sometimes hard to pull myself away from their excitement to take care of the breakfast chore.

The Treasure Hunt became the event to give me the opportunity to go to the kitchen and they could wind down from the excitement of opening gifts. It took some pre-planning, but that was part of the fun.

In the early years, the clues were often pictures cut from old catalogues and magazines. A visual clue with the name of the item printed beside it took them to the location of the next clue. Much like some of the pictures used in today’s emojis found in writing text messages. At the end of the hunt, they would find their special gift and breakfast would be ready. To keep it interesting, each child had a different set of clues and each treasure could or would be in a different room. Often as not, it would somehow be sitting in plain sight all the time they were on the hunt.

As they got older the clues I came up with needed to be a bit more imaginative. They soon realized that an odd ‘something’ in their stockings was, in fact, the first clue of the hunt. They learned to take time opening gifts, checking the back of gift tags and listening to the conversations about gifts opened. Completely reading each tag became a must!

When they were old enough to have a driver’s license, the clues got ramped up even further. Sending them off on a tour to find road signs and landmarks with words they needed and sometimes stopping at friends (previously arranged) to gather up more information on their quest to the find the treasure.

As adults, they still expect to have a Treasure Hunt when we are all together for Christmas, and so the tradition continues.

Share your traditions with us. I would love to hear about them.

Ann Edall-Robson
Author, Photographer, Lover of Life
"Capturing moments others may never get to experience."

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Voice and Vision Artisan Anthology

10/31/2017

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Potters, Painters, Writers, Jewelry Makers all brought together to celebrate the arts and create the second Voice and Vision artisan anthology.

At the beginning of the project, we are anonymously paired. The original artist's work is on display and it is the artists who are given the opportunity to choose a blank, sealed envelope with the writer's original written piece. Thus determining which writer will be partnered with which artist.

In May of 2017, the wordsmiths and the visual artists met for the first time. There were fourteen pieces of art on display and fourteen sealed envelopes containing the writer's submissions. Provoke by the talented Alesha Brown had my attention from the onset of entering the room. Luck was definitely on my side when Alesha chose my envelope and I was ecstatic, to say the least!

With only a few short months to complete the response pieces to each of our original submissions, it was time to get to work.

The Voice and Vision 2017 project ended at the Airdrie Public Library with an evening of the artist's work on display and the writers reading their artist-inspired work.

My original written work is called Paint the Pictures. From this story, Alesha created her response piece calleds Heart of a Fisherman.

Paint the Pictures
by Ann Edall-Robson

When it wasn't raining, the vantage point near the picture window let the sun warm his face. It overlooked the bay, where boats of all sizes jostled around orange buoys to their mooring spots.

0700, time for the coast guard to leave the harbour. They’d go east, along the craggy shore. Stirring the seagulls into a white frenzied cloud.

Saturday is the busiest day in the bay. The locals waving hello to neighbours as they maneuver sport boats and dinghies in between cabin cruisers and fishing vessels.

Clang, clang, clang. The harbour bell announces 0800 hours.

He liked to think and talk in nautical terms. It came from years of listening to the old timers down at the coffee shop overlooking the pier. Men who were mostly gone now. Age, the sea, or both had taken them. Memories of their crusty voices, laughingly telling stories linger in his mind.

These days, a new breed of fishermen came to the coffee shop. No one had time to sit, tell stories, or visit. His Dad made him laugh when he said the young crowd weren’t old enough to have any stories of their own, but, if they kept fishing, maybe one day they would.

On Sunday afternoons, the young man still makes the trek down the steep stairs to the coffee shop. Here, he sits at the counter with his Dad, reminiscing while they drink coffee. The stories, the memories and the smell of the sea, all belong to the palette he uses to paint the scenes in his darkening world.

Heart of a Fisherman
By Alesha Brown
Mixed media on canvas.

Provoke is Alesha's original submitted work. My response story to multi-medium work of art is a story called, The Woman You Are.

Provoke
By Alesha Brown
Copper wire, thread, yarn, acrylic on canvas.

The Woman You Are
by Ann Edall-Robson

I have watched over you, my child. Growing from a mere seed of existence to a wobbly toddler playing on the earthy carpeted floor. I have stood guard over you, encouraging your emergence into the world.

A flourish of golden strands flounces in the wind and across your tresses tumbling down your body. Specks of warmth, teasing you awake.

Acceptance and maturity bask in this openness given by all who stand around you. No longer is there a need to keep you ensconced on your journey towards the sun. You have been set free to grow your own path.

This is your day. Lift your face. Feel the warmth. Tiny wooden fingers thaw, wiggling beneath the blue expanse overhead. This is your season to dance in the rays of the sun and under the glow of the moon. Cast your shadow over those who come too near in their quest for shelter. With diligence as your friend, welcome only those into your heart and soul, who are worthy.

Your existence is guided by the deep roots of your inheritance. Generations of strong, healthy life gifted to you. Feel my strength in your core. Let your life explode from the stays that bind your body to become the woman you are meant to be. The woman you are.

This is the second year for this project, and also the second year an artisan anthology has been published. The pages are filled with pictures of original art and writing inspired by these pieces. We have limited copies of the Voice and Vision artisan anthologies are available for sale.

Ann Edall-Robson
Author, Photographer, Lover of Life
"Capturing moments others may never get to experience."

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Christmas Traditions

Voice and Vision Artisan Anthology

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