Little Free Library Divinations

In September 2023, Rob gifted me a Little Library for my birthday and it's been a source of joy and entertainment ever since.

I'm inspired by this post on the Marginalia about Little Free Library Divinations. 

One day during a challenging season of being, longing for something that would turn my spiraling mind outward, knowing that a daily creative practice has always been my best medicine and that constraint is the mightiest catalyst of creativity, I decided to try applying my bird divination process to the Little Free Library, trusting the lovely way our imagination has of surprising us and, in doing so, reminding us that even in the bleakest moments it is worth turning the page of experience because the imagination of life is always greater than that of the living.

Every day for thirty days, I took a random book from the Little Free Library, opened to a random page, and worked with the text on it, making no aesthetic judgments about the literary value of the books — self-help, airport romance novels, finance textbooks, breastfeeding guides, Lemony Snicket, Tolstoy, Ayn Rand, Harry Potter, and the Bible were all raw material on equal par.

As every creative person knows, and as Lewis Carroll so perfectly articulated in his advice on working through difficulty in math and in life, our most original and unexpected ideas arrive not when we strain the mind at the problem, but when we relax it and shift the beam of attention to something else entirely; it is then that the unconscious shines its sidewise gleam on an unexpected solution no deliberate effort could have produced.

After reading over the page, I would take a long walk to let the words float in my mind as I knelt to look at small things — pebbles, petals, leaves, feathers, and a whole lot of that great teacher in resilience, lichen — picking one thing up to take home. The words invariably arranged themselves unconsciously into the day’s… divination? koan? poem?… that always surprised me, always revealed what I myself needed to hear that some part of me already knew.

Upon returning home, I would place the found object under my microscope and take a photograph — cellular and planetary at the same time, itself an invitation to a shift in perspective — then begin laying out the text over the image.

An AI search of opening lines shows Maria Popova has borrowed the phrase
"To reach the infinite in you / awaken from your dreams of perfection" 

Song lyrics from the track "Awaken from Your Dreams" by the Canadian band Slocan Ramblers. The lyrics appear in the chorus of the song, which can be found on their 2019 album Ups and Downs. You can listen to the song or find official lyrics through music streaming services or explore their music on the Slocan Ramblers website. Turns out this is a Toronto-based bluegrass band. I love that!!

Also lines from a song titled "Wake Up" by Coeur De Pirate (Béatrice Martin), which was released in 2021 as part of the album "Perséides" [1, 2, 3]. Found the song, but the lyric phrase was not contained within when played.

When I dive deeper and try to find the songs on Spotify, can't do it! But I do like the artists this trail send me.

Moss gardening

I have long been fascinated by mosses and adored them on our visits to Japanese gardens. Planting my clover patch this past summer was an attempt to capture that feeling. 

Now I'm looking into how mosses could occupy more space in my backyard garden. Maybe I'll start with a small patch by the bonsai, maybe a container that comes inside for the winter.

Annie Martin's book Magical World of Moss Gardening is filled with inspiration and great advice on how to get started, and Joe Gardener offers a podcast with her as a guest. 

There is also the book Gathering Moss: a natural and cultural history of mosses by Robin Wall Kimmerer. A great interview with the author about her book on these green beings.5x15 stories.

Mosses are still active under the snow and can keep photosynthesizing through the winter. They were one of the first plant forms on earth. They are miniature forests and undulating coral wreaths.

Rose Moss

I am looking for moss bryophytes native to Ontario and will start in the spring by identifying mosses already present in my own backyard. I've been coaxing them along between the river stone cracks and will move other existing colonies from perimeter and fringe areas to a focal point or two.

I came across some great sites to help with identifying: Mosses of Ontario · iNaturalist Canada as well as Mosses Ontario Field Naturalists. Rose Moss/Rhodobryum Ontariense is native to Ontario and might be lurking somewhere. If not, I may be able to source at the local Moss factory.

So much to explore in this topic!

Indoor moss gardens

Moss Art walls 

Long Night Moon - December 2025

Alex and I were exchanging photos of the full moon poking above our rooftops early in the evening on December 4. Our houses are three kilometers away from each other but the moon made me feel we were standing right next to each other.

A few days later this lovely Christmas card featuring the Long Night Moon arrived in the mail. Thanks Caroline! 

I love that she and Dennis have taken up watercolours. A recent visit to their atelier show other works in progress. 

2025 Theatre

Enjoyed a lot of theatre this year, the majority at Crow's. I can't say I always love the plays, but I do appreciate the calibre of the productions and taking creative risks with difficult subjects. I'll likely renew my subscription for the coming season.

My favourite director this year was Robert Lepage. The Far Side of the Moon (Can Stage) and Macbeth (Stratford) were both so incredibly staged. Set design is always one of my favourite elements, and his designs expand my perspective and feel like they are taking me to new dimensions.

More notes later....

2025

• Wights (Jan / Crow's) World Premiere
• I sat through Wights righteousness and relentless diatribes hoping things would improve. Most reviewers seemed to agree there was too much shouting and too much going on.
• 15 Dogs (Feb / Mirvish /CAA Theatre)
• I read the novel and was curious to see how the cast would pull off their canine characters. Well played. 
  
• Trident Moon (March / Crow's)
• Provocative staging of an imagined scenario taking place during Partition; it made me curious to learn more about the history of 1947.
• Did they try to save money by not using microphones and shouting a lot? I actually missed quite a bit of the dialogue as actors stepped on each others lines and some were so heavily accented. Surtitles would help.
• You Can't Take it With You (April / Scarborough Players)
• Love the dedication of amateur theatre.
• Flex (April / Crow's)
• My favourite of Crow's season so far was Flex; I was disappointed to see the theatre so empty.
• Team dynamics and a look at the added pressures of women in sport - perfectly illustrated when a player becomes pregnant.
• I wasn't sure what to expect, with basketball being played and the audience watching in the stands. Fantastic! Whether the basketball is sunk or not at the end dictates the ending, a nice twist.
• Comfort Food (June / Crow's)
• Some inter-generational conflicts around the ethics of food really became a metaphor of the relationship challenges between a single mother and her teenage son. Fresh bread gets baked during the performance, filling the theatre with a comforting aroma. At the end of the play, audience members get offered a slice of the bread, which wa a nice touch. If only there had been a stronger resolution between the two characters.
• Dangerous Liaisons (September / Stratford)
• Macbeth (September / Stratford)
• Octet (October / Crow's)
• The Veil (October / Crow's)
• Far Side of the Moon (November / Crow's)
• Christmas Market (December / Crow's)

Epi - Tucci

My turn to host and the theme was Stanley Tucci Italian. I was reading What I Ate in One Year for inspiration, following him on Facebook, watching  Tuscany Trek and taking lessons on making Capanata from Tucci and his mom. Fan girl.

We made a trip to St. Lawrence Market for some of the ingredients the day before, and while there we picked up some fruit, cheeses, salumi & fresh pasta. That night Laura, Peter, Rob and I went over to Kaarina's and Mike's to watch Tucci's Big Night and enjoyed a simple meal of olives, prosciutto and focaccia, fresh fusilli with red sauce, and a cheese course of creamy gorgonzola with grapes. A suitable preludio! 

Our own Big Night came the next evening, and what a menu!

MENU

aperativo

pairing: Tucci Negroni  

Kaarina - olives marinated with garlic and lemon

Diane - salumi (salami, prosciutto, bresaola)

antipasto

pairing: Emilia Lambrusco

Laura, Ligurian Focaccia

Diane, Sicilian Eggplant Caponata

primo piatto

pairing: Il Poggio, Del Sannio DOP

Kaarina - Spaghetti alla Nerano from the Amalfi coast

secondo

pairing: Fontanafredda, Gavi DOC OR Chianti Classico

Diane - Milanese Cotoletto 

contorno (served alongside secondo)

Kaarina - greens with olive oil and vinegar

Formaggio e Frutta

pairing: any wine as above

Taleggio DOP, Gorgonzola Dolce DOP (Mauri), Moliterno al Tartufo, Perlagrigrigia Truffle

figs (fresh, dried, and jam) & fresh pear

dolce

Laura - Cannoli

digestivo

We had a selection of several amaro on the table. 

Favourites were the Aranciu, Siciliano, and Pugliaese; we generally agreed that the Cynar & Fernet-Branca tasted best when mixed in specialty cocktails (like the Toronto or Cynar Negroni)

Laura had originally made Delizia Limon for the dolce, but we were having none of that! We'd had to postpone our get-together due to some sniffles. The dolce was fairly complicated to re-do, and "just not worth the effort." As a result Laura would be making some cannoli pastry from scratch. Also as a result, Kaarina's olives had been marinated for a month, and my caponata had been prepared and frozen. The day of the Epi meal we prepped ahead by making the cannoli filling, the zucchini shallow fried in oil, and the meat seasoned. 

I called 5 different butchers to find the right cut of bone-in milk-fed veal, and it was only when I spoke to the Italian butcher at McEwans that I managed to find the right cut (Grazie Franco!). When it came to frying the Milanese Cotoletto, Laura gave me a hand as I didn't want to over or undercook the meat - the signal is not only the right browning, but a gentle press with the thumb as you would with steak (this is still beef, after all).

Take-aways from this meal: I was a bit surprised there was no garlic in the food we prepared that night. Not the salad, the pasta, or the cotoletto. It's a common misconception that Italians always cook with garlic. 

The scratch cannoli pastry took the dolce to the next level, and grating with fresh chocolate and pistachios enhanced it even more.

I would definitely make the capanata, focaccia, pasta and cotoletto again! Olives are delicious when marinated for two weeks. I could have gotten away with just one or two cheeses, but couldn't resist increasing the formaggio options.

Ciao Bella!