A Happy Ending in Winnipeg? I think not...

Then came the time to move across the country to settle in a little heritage town near Ottawa. We spent months renovating, cleaning, downsizing and garage selling.


Once arrived, I sat and tried to figure out what to do with myself. Well, I spent numerous hours sleeping, taking my dog for long hikes, visiting friends and discovering what the surrounding area had to offer. What I realized was that this little town of 5000 had everything one needs. It also had a picturesque landscape, mild weather and a location smack dab in the middle of everything. I could visit friends in Ottawa, Montreal, Toronto or make my way to New York at the drop of a hat. I also realized that every small dot on the map within a 200-mile radius was another mid-sized community just like this one. Every community had tons of charm, stone and brick buildings and antique shops. Right up my ally? I think yes.

On a Saturday I stumbled upon an Estate Sale - a place I had only every dreamed of - in my own neighborhood. The house was a 4 storey 100 year old brick home. Once inside, a time warp took place and you were in the dwelling of a 1950s collector.  Apparently the second floor had not been used for some time and was completely packed to the brim only months before. It took the estate sale company 3 months to organize the house into what had now become a museum! I was in heaven. The owner definitely had the same taste as myself in clothing and was my exact size in 1940.  

I bought it all - 3 truckloads of vintage clothing.

Fly Tier…or a Tie Flyer.

This evening a few friends and I sat around a makeshift workbench involved in great productivity. I was making feather jewelry, and the other two were drafting. My friend reminisced about the Fly Tying classes his mother used to enroll him in. He grew up on a famous fly fishing river in Cape Breton and said that some flies can sell for over $50 – If they catch fish – and the most beautiful ones always end up in frames.

The topic sparked the memory of how, when I was a child, my great uncle sent me 3 flies in the mail. I cannot remember the significance of them or the context of why they were sent to me. I did not know how to fly fish and never took up the sport. However, I put them in my jewelry box and there they still sit. I come across them every couple of years and study them. I think of them fondly sitting there in my jewelry box but never have I taken them out of their protective packaging or used them for fly-fishing.

Then I recalled the Fly Tying vice my father gave to me a few years ago. It consisted of a couple of movable magnifying glasses on a cast iron base with two heavy-duty tongs. Still when I received this gift I did not jump into the sport of tying flies. I once used it to look at the symmetrical nature of dragon fly wings but that was as close as I came to tying flies.

Now as I write this, I remember cleaning the cottage of a man who had dedicated an entire area of his cottage to   tying flies.   Whenever I came to cleaning his office I was under strict instructions never to dust or vacuum the over sized pine desk. The surface was littered with minuscule, beautiful particulates.

Sometimes signs are not clear.

It was not until I found the following page, browsing the art of tying flies that I realized where I must evolve my art of working with feathers.

10 Most Beautiful Fishing Flies I Ever Seen

It is all too clear that I must become a Fly Tier…or a Tie Flyer.