a peek inside the fishbowl

I can’t stay away from the house. I’m like A MOTH TO A FLAME.

Someday there will be a pot of red flowers out there, or something – I’m not sure what – but I will say that I adore the black door. The front of our house faces East, so it will be nice to have a wee bit of sun coming in that side in the morning.

My brain overfloweth.

Right now they’re building a new porch to replace the old one that covered those massive concrete steps. It’s cheaper to “top” them than to pay someone to jackhammer it to bits and cart the pieces away.

This week the crew is laying tile in the family bathroom. It looks AMAZING although I came very close to having a breakdown over a small aspect of it. What else? The hardwood has been delivered, and I’m agonizing over the material for the mudroom floor. (Will vinyl tile look like crap in there? Marmoleum is out.) We picked a lovely travertine but that would require a new sub-floor and we didn’t budget for one. It is hurting my heart, and our bank account. MONEY IS LEAPING OUT OF OUR WALLETS. Gah.

On top of that I am worrying about the driveway, walkway design and landscaping. Sigh. I need ideas – CHEAP IDEAS – but more on that later. I need to sketch it out first.

p.s. I think I need to drink less coffee.

Mark bikes to work along the river, and as he approaches the area by the locks near Parliament Hill he often spotted a very mysterious creature: a black groundhog.

For awhile he thought he was dreaming, or that his coffeeless fatigue-fuelled eyeballs were playing tricks on him. What was this black THING loping across the bit of lawn? Was it really a groundhog, or something else, like a very fat cat or a very odd beaver? Was it really black? If so, why is it black? IS THIS A REBEL GROUNDHOG??!

What tormented him even more was that he was never able to get a clear view. UNTIL NOW.

And so I present to you a rare example of a black groundhog, possibly the only one of its kind in Ottawa. (It’s quite handy there happened to be a brown one on the scene for comparison, don’t you think?) Check it out:

Of course I had to find out why this guy has a black coat. It’s a result of something called melanism. According to Wikipedia, this is “an undue development of dark-colored pigment in the skin or its appendages and is the opposite of albinism.” It’s also the reason we have black squirrels here in Ottawa. Our black squirrels are actually melanistic Eastern Grey Squirrels. Bet you didn’t know that!

In may also interest you to know that the groundhog is also known as a woodchuck. This is something I never understood, mostly because of that old tongue-twister: “How much wood can a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood.” Groundhogs don’t chuck wood! Anyway, you can read more about them at Hinterland Who’s Who. There’s a video too! If you grew up in Canada you will remember that opening music in a split second.

Entries are closed. We have a winner! Woot!

I’ve written about Fishbowl patron 4Cats Arts Studio a few times before. In case you haven’t heard yet, 4Cats is an amazing art studio for children located in Hintonburg. We’ve hosted birthday parties there, participated in some fantastic workshops, and I even attended a very special 40th birthday party there too. It’s a very creative, nurturing, and fun-loving environment.

You might be interested to know that a few of my favourite paintings were created at 4Cats, like this one and this one:

All our creations are prominently displayed in our home. :)

We are big fans of 4Cats, and that’s why I’m very pleased they are hosting this sweet little giveaway. Maybe your child can experience some of the magic too?

To celebrate their first fall artist of the month, 4Cats is giving away a DaVinci Art Kit. In the spirit of DaVinci’s  inventiveness, the Art Kit is a Wooden Automata Model Kit that the winner can use to create a “Snappy Croc” wooden crocodile. Sounds cool eh?

Also included in this giveaway is a DaVinci 4Cats print Artist Book, a $30 gift certificate, and a kid-sized 4Cats shirt (sized small). The gift certificate can be used towards a Fall workshop, art class or birthday party.

Interested? Read on.

• In order for your entry to qualify, you must go to the 4Cats Hintonburg website with your child and check out the list of upcoming workshops together. Use the comments below to tell us which one tweaks his or her interest. It would amuse me greatly if you provided direct quotes. :)
• This giveaway is void in Quebec, sorry.
• If you can’t post your comment for whatever reason you can email it to me for posting at andrea at quietfish dot com. Please note, I cannot be responsible if your entry is misdirected or gets stuck in my Spam folder!
• One entry per person please! We want lots of people to have the opportunity to win.
• More people in Ottawa need to know about the great children’s programs going on here, and I encourage you to tweet or share this information with your friends on Facebook. (You may be interested to know that 4Cats is on Twitter too!)

That’s it! I will be doing a random draw of all qualifying entries on Friday August 31 at noon EST.

Good luck!