Yes, the only Mom on the corner wearing mink

I have a mink coat. This is exactly what it looks like:

It's a gorgeous coat. My late mother-in-law gave it to me several years ago. She had stopped wearing it and felt it was a waste to keep it hanging in her closet all winter and placed in cold storage all summer. It's soft and luxurious and without any doubt, the warmest garment I have ever been lucky enough to put on.

I wore it occasionally, mostly if I were out in the evening to the theatre or the symphony. I thought the crowd there would be accepting of my sartorial choice. If they weren't wearing their own fur, I assumed they'd be a little envious of mine.

I also wore it on the coldest days of winter when I had to go up the street and stand on the corner waiting for the school bus when William was a little guy. It was freezing cold out there and I was the only Mom on the corner wearing mink. It made the wait bearable though.

I haven't worn the coat for quite a long time. I love it but I realize now that I always felt a little self-conscious when I was wearing it. I assumed people were looking at me – I honestly don't know if they really were – and I found that idea kind of uncomfortable.

I also felt guilty. I am completely opposed to killing animals for their fur and I wondered if I should wear a little sign to that effect – or maybe print small pamphlets to hand out while I was wearing it. I wanted to explain that I would never have bought it myself and I don't in any way encourage or condone the fur industry but it already existed and it had been given to me.

I considered lying to people and telling them it was faux-fur. "They're doing a wonderful job these days of making it look like real fur," I would say.

If the truth be known, I also always feared that someone might, against all likelihood, throw red paint at me. I wasn't thinking of the coat being ruined. I was thinking of the aggression and how upsetting it would be. I didn't like the idea of drawing attention to myself in a negative way and perhaps having to deal with the consequences.

So I gradually – not consciously – stopped wearing the coat. I still have it. I still remember how sumptuous it felt to snuggle into it.

I'm talking myself into getting it out and wearing it on very select occasions.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Hallowe'en: The Preview

These pictures are from last year, 2014. Every year is different so we'll see how this year measures up.

Not every year has five jack-o'-lanterns but the official carver-in-residence (Dan) must have been feeling particularly creative and ambitious last year. This is what the jacks looked like in the daylight:

William was not a conventionally artistically-inclined kid in school. His drawings (usually in pencil) were often detailed and enigmatic, with levels of great complexity and many incomprehensible things happening. The teachers never appreciated his drawings – there were no nice colours on them – but I used to at least try to figure them out.

If, however, the teacher gave him a piece of orange construction paper and told him to cut it into a circle and put a face on it, he was quite capable and co-operative. His pumpkins with faces are part of our Hallowe'en decor to this day. You can see them on the front door. It's not so easy to see the smiling witch but she's there. She's attached to those orange hands.

Speaking of smiling witches. . . I wear this hat in solidarity with witches, of course.

I don't really like Hallowe'en but I do it anyway. My late mother used to recall that I didn't like Hallowe'en as a small child either. She said I always objected to being made to get dressed in a costume. She said I gave her the impression that I felt it was unseemly to go to other people's houses, asking for candy. Years later, when I told this to a friend, he said, "I don't think I've ever known a five-year-old curmudgeon."

Who knows? Maybe I'd miss it if it weren't here.

This is what the jacks looked like after dark. They're real works of art, aren't they?

Dressing up, dressing down

We went to a concert this week to celebrate the 150th birthday of Sibelius with Symphony Nova Scotia and guest violinist, Giora Schmidt. It was our third time seeing/hearing Giora and I've informed Symphony NS that we will happily attend every time he comes back to play here.

When we saw him last time, even the sophisticated Halifax audience burst into applause after the first movement of the concerto he was playing and he laughed because it was so spontaneous that the audience clearly couldn't help itself. It happened again this time – applause mid-concerto but no harm done. He's so cheerful and pleasant that it only adds to his performance.

He's a showman too, of course – which is probably partially responsible for the audience reaction – but he's fun. He's the son of two Israeli musicians, was raised in the US and has been playing violin since he was four.

If Ashley is the genius of the fiddle, Giora is the genius of the violin.

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We had a conversation at the concert about the way people dress. It used to be that people would dress up somewhat for a concert but over the years, we've noticed that changing. More people than not nowadays, just wear whatever they had on during the day. In one way, that's rather nice. It's as if they feel comfortable and at home and they dress the same way they would if they were going out to pick up groceries.

Not me though. I'm one of the one who dresses up a bit. I say to myself, "It's the Symphony, for God's sake!" So although I can appreciate the people who take it casually, I like to treat it as if it's special. I dress up a bit for the theatre too. Not for movies, but for live theatre.

It's interesting, I noticed at the theatre that, besides me, the women who were dressed up, were young women – women in their 20s. Giora attracts a young audience and maybe they don't have the same sense of familiarity with their surroundings as their older audience-mates and maybe they think it's proper to dress up. It could also be as simple as the fact that there aren't that many places where people dress up nowadays so it gives them a chance to wear their pretty clothes.

I have some pretty clothes. I saw an article in a magazine not too long ago (yes, at my hair salon) that asked the question: Do you dress appropriately for your age? I didn't read the article but I'm guessing they didn't offer the option, "I have no idea," as an answer. I'll tell you this though: I don't wear old-lady clothes.

But who decides if they're appropriate?

I have a lot of clothes that glitter and sparkle. I have both of these and several in different colours:

I wear them under pretty jackets. This is the sort of thing I would wear:

I have all these – and probably more:

I have nice white blouses – some a little dressier than others:

I usually wear black trousers.

In winter, I wear much the same styles but turtle-neck instead of tank top and maybe a sweater instead of a blouse. The basic style remains the same though.

I have nice jewellery. There are days when I decide I'd like to wear a certain pair of earrings and I build my day's wardrobe around them. It makes getting dressed so easy! I'll come back some day and tell you about my jewellery.