Art break

While it's difficult for me to sit down and write a short piece or work on a long piece, I still feel the need to be creative. There's a group of knitters at work who have welcomed me into their circle even though I don't knit. Instead (in honor of my grand mother) I'm painting. It's relxing and I love seeing the colors develop. I've got a book on 50 small paintings and I'm on #3.

Writing my family history is coming along slowly. It's so easy to get sidetracked on research tangents. I'm looking forward to writing the chapter for my 5th great-grandfather. Miles Knowlton was born in 1809 in Stukely, Quebec. He was a master carpenter and worked with his father, Levi, to build the orange-bricked inn that still stands on the corner of Coolidge and du Lac. Miles was also invested in numerous properties in in the township to the north of Potton, then called Bolton (today it's known as Austin). As was common for prominent men of the time, Miles was a member of the local militia and rose to the rank of captain. In 1850, we was struck with a severe case of 'sore eyes' to the point of lossing his sight. He put his land holdings and the farm into a creditors trust and resigned from his post. Within a year of doing so, he had repaid his debts and was recovered enough to restore his control over his lands. His life seems to be a continuous story of success and set backs that saw him invest in a hotel only to have his business partner disappear. Failure to repay a mortgage resulted in the loss of nearly half the farm lands. He died in 1882 from injuries he sustained in a barn fire while trying to rescue his horse.