Monday, June 21, 2010

MacKay


I'm using this last week before we move to savour our Ottawa neighbourhood of Manor Park/Rockcliffe. Rockcliffe is old money, diplomats, and private schools, while Manor Park is a close-in urban village with mature trees, lots of kids and bicycles, and neighbours who hang out at the fronts of their houses. Our house is in Manor Park, but we are walking distance from Rockcliffe and regularly use its amenities, like its small and beautiful public library and MacKay Lake with its attached "pond". Where else can you swim in a spring-fed lake surrounded by forest in the middle of a city? I realized that I don't have any photos of the pond or lake in summer, but I have a special one taken early last winter on an eerily foggy morning. The shawl, which I call MacKay, is one that I designed for teaching lace to beginners; the repeats are short and easily memorized. The hazy pure alpaca fingering in a misty pink seemed to match the mood at the time.