a peek inside the fishbowl

How do you show someone you love them, honour them, respect them? You can definitely buy a gift, a bouquet of flowers, a box of chocolates, or send a card. Teachers get mugs, retirees get a cake, graduates get a laptop. These are great – and HELLO – who wouldn’t like cake! Certainly, gifts have their place, but telling someone you care might be the best gift there is.

Enter, scapes.

I was contacted by the folks from scapes* awhile back and I was intrigued. I’m always on the lookout for cool stuff I can use/recommend and I really liked this idea and wanted to share it here.

At its core, scapes is a web-based service that gives users a very easy way to create and collaborate on a word cloud. If you’re unfamiliar with the term, a word cloud is essentially an image composed of multiple words. The size of each word indicates its frequency or importance, and you can see, at a glance, what the most important words are.

Here’s an example of one that was created for a local school volunteer:

So in this case, you can see that more people chose the words “caring” and “awesome” and “helpful.” Which is what ultimately describes her best!

You can make a scape…

• for a milestone birthday – or any birthday!
• as a gift for a co-worker who is departing or retiring.
• as a wedding, anniversary or engagement gift.
• for graduation: elementary, high school, university.
• to acknowledge a special volunteer, nurse, teacher, caregiver … someone who’s made an impact.
• to a frequent traveller (name all the countries!), a chef (titles of her best recipes!), a gardener (his favourite flowers!)
• for Father’s or Mother’s Day. Wouldn’t it be hilarious to get the kids to describe daddy in their own terms? Ha.
• as a memorial or memento of a loved one who has passed.
• … or just because.

Really, the possibilities are endless.

The process is very very simple. You open an account (it’s free!) and you start a project. Collaborators can be added at the click of a button (these are all the people who will be contributing to your masterpiece). Then you go to town! There is a list of suggested words you can use but the fun really begins when people add their own personal words and phrases (like “GRILLED CHEESE!!” in the example above)! The awesome part, really, is the ability to have multiple people (friends, family, loved ones, coworkers) contributing to the scape and sharing their unique perspective on the person that is being celebrated. As a bonus, it takes a bit of the pressure off the organizer when more people are involved in the creation.

When you’re done, you can download a high-resolution file of your scape to share or create something else from it: a print, t-shirts (this would be hilarious for a bachelor party!), cards, invitations… really, anything! Many of these kinds of items can be printed locally or with an online service such as Zazzle. I really recommend you check out the scapes Pinterest board for some very creative – and easy! – ideas.

I’m in the middle of creating a scape about someone but I’m not ready to reveal it yet. (I’ll post it once it’s complete so you can see who it was for and how it turned out!) I will say, it’s been surprisingly fun watching it evolve as I invite more people and see everyone adding their words and favourite memories. I can’t wait to share it!

Check out the website to start your own scape. It’s free! In the meantime, tell me, who would you make a scape for? I’d love to hear your ideas!

* I was compensated for this post but my opinions and experience with scapes is my own. Confession: I am secretly hoping someone makes one of these for me. :)

So, let’s talk about Canada Day. Did yours get rained out, or did you persevere? Ours was a mix of the two.

Our youngest daughter went downtown with a friend: stayed for dinner, got soaked (twice), got lost (once) and caught the fireworks. The three remaining family members decided to do something completely different. We took a drive out to Pinhey’s Point. Have you ever been? This was something I’ve wanted to do for YEARS. It was high time to go check it out.

Sidebar: a good philosophy to have while exploring new places is to go in with zero expectations, knowing you can always turn around and leave. I find it really takes the pressure off, know what I mean? And with that, we got into the car, set our GPS, and went on our way.

I was not disappointed. Pinhey’s Point has a long and storied history, and it’s the kind of local lore that I really enjoy. To summarize: in 1820, Hamnett Kirkes Pinhey built up a significant estate on the banks of the Ottawa River that was granted to him for his service in the Napoleonic Wars. Today it is known as Pinhey’s Point Historic Site, but then it was known to the Pinhey family as Horaceville. (It was named after his eldest son.) The site now includes 88 acres of natural heritage space, the manor house, and several ruins. The last resident, a descendant of the original Pinhey, lived there until her death in 1971. (You can read more about it on the City of Ottawa website.)

It’s a fascinating look at how people used to live. This is a map of the grounds. It’ll give you a good idea of what’s on the site (click on the image to enlarge in a new window):

And here are some views outside the estate:

What would it have been like to live here 200 years ago? This place makes that a bit easier to imagine.

Here’s looking out from inside the main house. It’s a room with a view:

Pinhey’s Point is a real slice of history. Check out this bathtub:

… and this very early indoor privy. (!)

It’s a box! With hinges! :) I did lift the lid to see what was in there. (A risk, I know.) It’s essentially a hole with a lid. The, er, waste material goes down a pipe into the cellar. A helpful note explained this pipe was known to freeze in the winter.

The area is perfect for picnicking. There’s a big field, a few outdoor grills (the B.Y.O. charcoal kind), a playground for kids, and some extra W.C’s. The actual Point at Pinhey’s Point is off limits to visitors because it’s an ecologically sensitive area. You can, however, go down to the water, watch the boats and skip some stones, which is what we did:

The drive itself was quite pretty too. We spotted an osprey nest and turkey vultures amid the rolling farmland.

On the way home we stopped at The Marshes for drinks and a snack. Did you know you can eat in the restaurant, even if you don’t golf and aren’t a member? We’ve had some great meals here and the patio is very pretty. A storm blew through while we were enjoying our nachos:

Anyway, there’s actually a lot more to the Pinhey’s Point than I’ve described here today: historical photos, period furnishing, family history, activities for kids etc. It was all very interesting and made for a great little day trip.

Seeing how people lived in very early Canada – before it was even called Canada – was a pretty good way to spend Canada Day. (Not to mention, topping it off with a Canadian brew.) I’m glad we went.

p.s. You can read more about Pinhey’s Point at the Pinhey’s Point Foundation website. 

Now you can see everything Google knows about you and delete embarrassing stuff: https://t.co/MP0v2sRd3q pic.twitter.com/Rc56qQ8Vtq

— Slate (@Slate) July 2, 2016

• Bros Before Homes, newrepublic.com
• Facebook changes mean you’ll see even more friends’ posts, usatoday.com
• The Power of Casual Gratitude, theatlantic.com
• How To Manage Screen Time In The Summer, cbc.ca
• NCC offers first public glimpse of plans for renovated Government Conference Centre, ottawacitizen.com

On the nightstand: The Widow