Tropical Storm Beryl

A shot of Tropical Storm Beryl (which for some reason, some people on the news pronounce as "Burl", rather than "BEAR-yl" - kinda amusing, it's just an accent I guess). :) Not that we'd know anything about accents out here in Nova Scotia... :D

Hopefully the garden will fare well, the winds are pretty gusty out there! And hope we don't lose power! Or worse yet, Internet access!

Glove-stealing NYC Kitty

This is a cute story I came across today - this kitty in New York, instead of bringing home kills as so many outdoor cats do, brings home neighbour's gardening gloves that have been left outside. The cat's owners have a huge collection that they hang outside their house, encouraging people to take back their gloves if they see them there. :D

Read the full story here.

BeanDreams, BlossomDreams

The garden's coming along really well!

The tomato plants are thriving nicely, but I'm sure they, like everything else, would benefit from some sunshine - it's been unusually overcast here in Nova Scotia this summer, we've hardly had any sun at all. But the plants are still doing okay. As you can see in this photo, the blossoms are getting ready to open (and some have already)!

The bean plants are doing well too, with lots of blossoms already - and there's plenty more summer left for them to expand and grow even more!

This huge plant is the couple of potatoes I planted, from ones that had sprouted in the bag - they're doing amazingly well! I'm sure I've got tons of potatoes growing under there!

And this, this is my one precious lettuce. For some weird reason, I CANNOT get the lettuce to grow - this little guy is the only one out of 3 (THREE) separate plantings to come to fruition! And even then, he got completely eaten down by slugs and had to start all over again. Poor little guy, he's such a trooper!

And check out the Empress of India nasturtiums! Wow! Gorgeous dark foliage, and beautiful orange/red blossoms - a fantastic addition to this year's garden!

And here's the lovely "regular" nasturtiums, a lovely orange with its typical lighter green foliage - all nicely offset with those really pretty red petunias I got from the garden centre a month or so ago.

So, everything's been growing well! :D Yay!

Squirrel squared

Honestly, this really does reach the top of the cute-o-meter!

New Design, a la Warhol

I've released a new design from my gift shop! A single pysanka - in the style of famed art icon Andy Warhol's Marilyn Monroe piece - replicated several times, & hand-colored in his wild style with bold colors. Super fun and eye catching! You can get this wild design on a large selection of tees, totebags, greeting cards and more, check it out!

What a change!

Thought I'd show you the difference that 6 months can make in a place. :D This first pic is taken out in the backwoods past our property, during our unusually mild January this past year (an old abandoned picnic table helps with the scale):


And today, I took this pic of the same area (you can barely make out the picnic table) - the amount of growth is amazing, isn't it? You'd never believe it was the same place. Mother Nature really is incredible! We're so blessed to live here and be able to see this sort of thing "up close and personal". :)

BBQ Bliss

I know -- propane BBQs won't ever really compete with the flavour of food BBQ'd over a charcoal grill, but boy it sure is more convenient! Just take off the cover, light it and away you go! And it is almost as good... :)

Late this afternoon, we had marinated steaks, mushroom & onions (the perfect steak side-dish), corn, and baked potatoes, all done on the grill so we didn't have to heat up the house by turning on the oven. Very nice! The potatoes were pre-cooked in the microwave for about 8 minutes on high (pierce first!!), then put on the grill while everything else cooks. The corn was purchased frozen - sealed tightly in tinfoil (aluminum foil) with a teaspoon of water and a pat of butter - put it on the grill for the last 5 - 10 minutes of grilling (careful when you open it though, there'll be a lot of HOT steam!). The mushrooms and onions are fried in a tinfoil pie plate with a little butter & canola oil (be sure to use some oil to counteract butter's tendency to burn); stir occasionally. Start them a few minutes before the steaks and they'll finish cooking at the same time. We marinated the steaks for several hours beforehand to impart an extra flavour into the meat, and to tenderize it. Worcestershire sauce makes a great marinade, if you don't have any packaged stuff. Sprinkle the steak with some steak spice too (I bounce around between several brands, featuring everything from garlic and peppercorns, to caraway seeds and paprika - it's all up to personal taste, try several brands till you find one you love), and you've got a great flavoured steak!

Here's a few of my BBQing tips:

1. Don't cross-contaminate plates and utensils - items that touched the meat or fish when raw should not be used to serve or carry cooked meat or fish (if you don't, you might get food poisoning, and no one wants to end a nice summer BBQ that way).

2. Keep your cold foods (like potato or pasta salad) cold - if you'll be eating outside, set up a thermos cooler with ice, and set your salads in it (again, helps prevent food poisoning).

3. Steak is a meat that needs to be baby-sat when it's on the grill. Put the BBQ on high for the first 5 minutes or so, and sear both sides of the steak to keep in all the juices. Then, turn the heat down low, and turn frequently - this will ensure even cooking throughout the meat, and prevent burning. Trust me, it's worth the extra effort!

4. If you use BBQ sauce that has sugar in it (and most do, around here in Nova Scotia), don't brush it on until the last 5 minutes or so. Sugar burns, and if you put it on too early, you'll end up with burned meat (or fish, veggies, etc.). A little burned taste is good, but too much is yucky).

5. If you give a steak bone to your dog, be sure they chew it under supervision. The bones can splinter and cause internal damage, or be a choking hazard - but dogs really love them, so if you decide you can't ignore their little puppy-dog-beggin' eyes, just keep a watch over them while they enjoy their treat.

As you can see, Casey really enjoyed hers:

Have fun with your summer BBQ!

Storm Front

Today it was sunny, hot and windy - but storm clouds have come in, and there was little rumble of thunder a moment ago...great clouds in the sky tonight...pity the camera can't really capture the depths of the clouds, but you get the idea. :D

Lilies in Bloom

The tiger lilies are in bloom - a lovely summer display of orange popping up here and there all over the property. :)

Doraku - traditional Japanese dinner

Update March 2012: The Doraku has changed names! Its now the Suzuki Restaurant. Hope to get back there sometime soon and see how the new compares to the old! :)

On Tuesday night we ate at Doraku - Dave wanted to eat at a traditional Japanese restaurant for his birthday. There are several to choose from in Halifax, but we settled on this one, partly because it had its menu online, so we could figure out ahead of time the types of things we wanted to eat. :)

Our waitress was terrifically helpful and friendly, very easy to talk to. We were blunt: we had no experience, and needed help! :) She said most of the things I had picked (online) were things she would recommend trying (yay! I did good!), and recommended a few others. We ate a LOT. LOT. LOT. But you know what? We were full, but we didn't feel logey (you know, that feeling after you've had a big steak dinner where you don't feel like you can move, and just want to go take a nap?). But here, we were full, but could still move comfortably! It was an interesting sensation, to be sure. We sat in the traditional room, a nice quiet place where the floor just under the table was recessed, so you could sit western-style (or kneel if you chose to, but my knees have never been great, and are especially so since my knee injury last year, so no kneeling for me). :) The waitress still had to kneel to serve you, because the table is on her floor level.

Everything's brought as it's prepared, so you have lots of little dishes on the table, and can pick away, a little of this, a little of that. Fun!

Imported Beer - Sapporo
Solid beer, made a nice compliment to the meal. Sake isn't generally served with sushi, so I understand, because it's a rice based alcohol, and sushi has rice in it - ergo, it's not a good compliment.

Miso Soup - Soya bean soup
Delicate, reminiscent of a mild chicken soup - threads of seaweed and some melt-in-your-mouth tofu were nice additions.

Sashimi Appetizer 3 Kinds - Tuna, Salmon, Octopus
Super-fresh, no worries about food poisoning here. The octopus was really interesting, I saw that the piece Dave took had part of a tentacle sucker on it...hee hee hee, I didn't tell him what that particular one was, until after he ate it. :) It was very chewy, not bad at all - glad I tried them all! I can't say I'd be jonesing for more, but it is certainly worth trying. So elegantly presented as well: lovely shreds of daikon radish, and thin slices of cucumber accompanied it, along with a dab of wasabi. The wasabi was incredibly hot, but only for a very short time, and when it disappeared, it disappeared completely (unlike when you eat hot peppers, for example). Very pleasant!

Tempura Deep fried 2pcs shrimp, sweet potato, zucchini, green pepper
Perfect tempura. Ideal tempura is really an art, having to consist of an ice cold batter, making a super-delicate lightly browned crust around the food when deep-fried. And it was perfect - the shrimp was my favorite, frankly I could have eaten more and more tempura shrimp all night! :D

Yakitori Chicken
Two grilled chicken skewers with yakitori sauce - very nice, basted in a tasty, thick sauce.


Pork Gyoza Pan fried pork dumpling (6pcs)
These were really good! They looked like little mini-perogies, and were DELICIOUS!

Overall, I'm sure I used too much dipping sauce/Japanese Soya sauce on all my foods (I understand that's something westerners do often), but I'm a big "sauce" girl myself - I can't help myself. :) And the Japanese Soya Sauce that they offered in the restaurant was REALLY awesome! It was hot and spicy - like regular Soya sauce, but with a great kick! Yum! They also gave us some extra wasabi and something else that escapes me right now, to put into it, to make it even better. Good good good!

Doraku roll (4pcs)
This is a BIG freakin' sushi roll! Like the sashimi, it was good (and great care was taken in it's preparation), but I don't think I'll be a person who seeks out sushi. They do prepare a great deal of sushi at this restaurant, and even offer you pencils and a separate order form just for sushi when you get your menu. Just check off the ones you want and send it off with the waitress. Very nice!

Harumaki Rice noodle, veggie spring roll (2pcs)
Mmmmm...very tasty! Filled with vermicelli rice noodles, and a little shredded carrot. Nicely browned, crispy coating.

Tonkatsu - Deep fried breaded pork, tonkatsu sauce
Nice thick sauce, Dave enjoyed it, but I preferred the spicy soya sauce. Since it comes breaded, you can dip it in whatever sauce you like.

As I said, the waitress was super-friendly and helpful, and what's also nice is your final receipt after you pay your bill is itemized, so you have a record to take home of what you ordered. Definitely worth a visit if you're in Halifax - Doraku is conveniently located on Dresden Row, just off Spring Garden in the downtown. It's the one with the adorable Maneki Neko on the sign.

Want to learn more about sushi? Learn from the Sushi Otaku! ;)

ADDENDUM July 2010: Directions for Doraku on Google Maps.

Which is cuter??

#1. The House Squirrel. Pretty darn ADORABLE, peeking out of the birdhouse like that. Of course, as Dave said on the occasion, "with a squirrel inside, it's ceased to be a house, it's now a home". :D heh heh



2. A mother Song Sparrow feeding her baby at our feeder. The taller, thinner bird is the mommy, and the really big bird is the baby, if you can believe it (must be a male). He was "PEEEP PEEEP"-ing so loudly we could hear it with the window closed, and Dave said, "Look, she's feeding him!" He would sit there and cry and flap his wings, and she would pick up a seed and give it to him. He's old enough to follow his mom around, but he still hasn't figured out that he can feed himself. But all babies have to be weaned at some point, and I'm sure he'll get the hang of it soon. It's SO SWEET!

So, I really can't say which is cuter! :)

Potted Squirrel

Dave's mom just came downstairs and said the squirrel was looking really cute eating some dropped seeds out of one of my flowerpots, so I went upstairs and got a couple of pics. It is really cute, and I got a second pic of a bluejay in the feeder at the same time, to boot! :)

Potted squirrel, anyone?

Juvenile Goldfinch?

I looked out at the birdfeeder this afternoon, and saw a new bird traveling with the flock of American Goldfinches we regularly see out there. Usually it's been one male with several females, but today there was a second male! He was much paler than the regular male, but still had the male markings: see above, with the new male on the left, the regular male in the middle, and a female on the right (sitting on the railing). Is he a baby (juvenile) goldfinch? I think so! They must be taking him around, teaching him the ropes of how to eat at a birdfeeder, among other survival skills.

The other day I saw a baby grackle at the feeder (grackles are big brown birds with dark blue heads, about the size of a blue jay). He had his flight feathers, but the rest of his body was still covered with soft brown down - he had already reached full size though, it was funny to see a baby that BIG! :)

Ah, little animal babies in summertime - is there anything more adorable? :D

New pysanky-related design @ the gift shop!

Just released this one a few minutes ago - it's a whimsical sort of design featuring some of the most commonly used pysanka symbols, and what they mean. Included are wishes for health, prosperity, stamina, and more!

Check it out!

Happy Canada Day!!

Happy Canada Day!!

To all Canadians, both at home and away: enjoy celebrating all things Canadian!

To the rest of the world: you're welcome to join in, of course! We'd be happy to have you! :D

Petunias...

Thought I'd show a pic of the pretty petunias in the garden today - found some in the garden centre with a lovely shade of red that will go well with the poppies and nasturtiums I've planted from seed in the containers out front. These petunias are great at spreading out, and will make a great display in the coming months. :D

Bunnies on our walk!

Just went out to check the mail (I'm eagerly awaiting the last of Dave's birthday presents to arrive), and after that, took Casey out for a quick spin. We were down the street, and suddenly, I saw her start to run across the road, chasing after what I thought at first was a squirrel, but on second look, as I was yelling at her to stop, I saw it was a cute, long-legged skinny little bunny!! It started to run towards me to get away from my goofy dog, but saw me and thought better of it, heading instead towards the woods. Casey finally listened to me and stopped chasing it at the point where it went in the woods, and she stood there for some time smelling the grass. She doesn't want to hurt the bunnies, she wants to herd them - at night, she loves to play with tennis balls, but is only really happy when they're all herded together, when all her little babies are together in one place. Her herding instinct is SO strong, and if something runs or flys, she wants to get it slow down, stop and go to where the others are collected. She's so gentle, I have no fear of her hurting the little guys at all. In any case, she got really interested in the roadside where the bunny had come from, and while she was distracted there, ANOTHER skinny little bunny hopped across the driveway, looking at me - but not scared, just slowly hopping across - heading in the direction his little friend had gone a moment before. I wanted to squeal with glee, but kept my mouth shut so Casey wouldn't notice him and scare him. After he had gone into the woods, Casey and I continued on our way, with her none the wiser that she could have had TWO little bunny babies to herd and keep together. Silly puppy.

Ann & Dave's big trip to THE CITY (or: mini-walking tour of Halifax)

Dave and I thought when we moved to the country that we'd probably get back to the city quite regularly, but as its turned out, we only go in about once every 6 months or so. So, it's a big deal when we do leave the country and head to the city. Today we thought we'd hit a few used book stores and wander around a bit. :)


This is me on the ferry, just before we leave the Dartmouth shore. You can see the MacDonald bridge in the background, one of the two bridges that span the Halifax Harbour.


This is a shot of the Dartmouth Ferry Terminal. The building complex houses the ferry terminal, bus terminal (you can use transfers to go from a bus to a ferry without paying an extra fare, they're all part of Metro Transit), the largest public library in Dartmouth, restaurants, convention centre & art gallery, Saturday Farmer's Market, and a theatre company.


Here's a better shot of the MacDonald bridge, and you can see the second, MacKay, bridge in the background. Can you tell that our province really WAS settled by a large proportion of Scots? :) Nova Scotia is New Scotland, after all... And note the notice on the ferry, to warn people that you might hear a foghorn in fog - it might be suprising if you hadn't heard one before!


Here's some shots of the Halifax Waterfront, as we go by on the ferry. The two blue buildings out on the water to the right are the Purdy's Wharf towers, full of businesses/offices.



Here's the ferry we traveled on, waiting to take more people back across the harbour. It's a great ride, especially in the summer time, on top - smooth ride, only takes about 10 minutes, and great views of the harbour with a nice ocean breeze.


Here's a shot from the corner of Barrington Street and Spring Garden Road, looking down Barrington street. There's a modern building on the left (an apartment building, with art supply and book store on street level), but further down you can see some of our more historical buildings mixed in (keep in mind, of course, that Halifax was flattened in 1917 by the largest non-nuclear explosion the world had seen, so many of our really historic buildings were destroyed).


This is the beautiful St. Mary's Basilica (Roman Catholic), adjacent to the apartment buildings in the picture above, on Spring Garden Road. Great stained glass, great architecture. They have a really nice Sunday Morning service at 11 am, if you're interested; the choir is lovely.


Across the street from the church is the Old Halifax Burying Ground (originally associated with St. Paul's Anglican Church (the oldest Protestant place of worship in Canada), up the road on Barrington Street, but eventually came to house the all deceased from the local Halifax area. No fresh burials in over 100 years, so the people buried there are Haligonians from the 17 and 1800s. Mike Campbell (another Scottish name!) :) has a great picture tour of Halifax, and more information on the Burying Ground here.


This is a shot of Spring Garden Road. If you look carefully, you can see the bottom of the Basilica far up the road. But you can also see a van-type vehicle parked on the side of the road, in the left of the picture. That is Bud the Spud (named for the famous song by Stompin' Tom), and they have sold french fries there since the 1970s. They are very much an institution in Halifax, there's always long lines there in the summer time. If you look during the winter (you can't see it in the summer because, of course, he's parked there), you can see that there is a special parking zone painted & labeled on the street for him. :D

In between taking the pics, we hit a few used bookstores, and we got some great summer reading material. All of these are on Barrington Street in downtown Halifax.

- John W. Doull, Bookseller - A massive bookstore, piled to the rafters (literally!) with books of every kind, including lots of rare ones (but I find it's so warm inside that it's hard for me to stay as long as I'd like). :)
- United Book Exchange - Air conditioned, which we greatly appreciated. :) Has a good selection, from romance to mystery & horror, and popular fiction.
- Dust Jacket Books & Treasures - My favorite. Huge selection, easy to browse, has everything from current titles to hard-to-find items.

Here's a great list of all the used bookstores in Nova Scotia, if you want more: http://nsgna.ednet.ns.ca/nbst.html

Raindrops and flowers

Had a nice, but rather short walk with Casey today - she doesn't like to go very far in the rain. :) Got a few pics off - glad we went when we did, because later, when Dave and I were in the kitchen, we both looked up and said, why is it so dark all of a sudden? It was like midday had turned to evening - then the skies opened up and it POURED!! We would have hated to be caught outside in that! :D

These are my favorite early summer flowers - they grow wild in this area, and are similar to forget-me-nots. They start out as pinkish-purple buds, as you can see at the top of the photo, and when they first open they remain that colour. The longer they're open, the more blue they turn, until they're this lovely sky blue colour that you see here. They're very tiny flowers, only about 1 cm wide.

Here, a cheerful summertime daisy soaks up the rain gratefully. Plants always look so refreshed after a rain.

These are the lovely wild iris that grow in the swampy regions in my neighbourhood (as shown before here). This shot shows how very wet the conditions are that they thrive in - they do like to grow directly in the water, it makes for a lovely display this time of year. Of course, when one hears the word "swamp", it tends to conjure up images of a dull, dark and creepy place, but actually it has a remarkable beauty all its own. Including, of course, lovely flowers like these that can't grow anywhere else. :)

BUNNY!!!!!!!!!!!!!

BUNNY!!! I'm SOOOO excited!! Dave saw him/her in the backyard, and I was able to get this somewhat blurry shot of it out in the grass, chewing on some grass'n'greens. Isn't he/she cute????!!! Little brown bunny, hoppin' along. Adorable!

Lovely early summer blooms!

Some pretty plants blooming here in the early summer of Nova Scotia!


These are some gorgeous wild iris flowers that grow in the swampland in this area - they must need extremely wet soil to grow in, I've only ever seen them growing in the water or right on the edge of it.




Pretty, bright and cheerful, daisies are always such a welcome site on the roadside and in fields in June.




These are some trillium that Dave's Mom is growing in the garden - the bees seem to like it! :)

Love borscht? And puns? This design is for you!

Is it punny? You bet! Check out my latest design from Ann's Ukrainian Gifts featuring my favorite soup, borscht! It's the soup that can't be beet! Or is it beat? *groan* heh heh heh...If you love this traditional Ukrainian beet, carrot, potato and beef soup as much as I do, then this design is for you!

Want to make your own borscht at home? I have our family's recipe here.

Baby Chicks!

Dave's mom and her man-friend got their new baby chicks today--they're only a day old!! They are SOOOO cute! They're so small, you can feel their heart beating and their little lungs filling with air in the palm of your hand. The first pic shows them all in their little transportation box - notice how even in that short time that the box was open, they all went for the warmth of the sun. The second and third pics show one of the chicks in Dave's hand. His hands were nice and warm, and it started to put the little girl to sleep! :D

World Cup 2006

Ahhh...it's such a relief to have something on tv ALL the time! I like to leave the tv on in the background when I work at the computer, etc, and I enjoyed the World Cup a lot four years ago - not just as background noise, but also because I actually learned a little about the game! But while I didn't watch much more soccer/football since then, I am glad to see the World Cup back again. Sports are always more enjoyable when you're watching the best in the world compete. :)

I loved the Trinidad and Tobago tie with Sweden - I never thought I'd be so excited about a tie before! I got a little weepy over it, really - T & T wanted it SO badly for their little country, and because of the tie, got their first ever World Cup point! Considering it was supposed to be a blowout for Sweden, a tie was a huge achievement they should really be proud of!

And I was SO touched by the gorgeous gift that Iran gave to Mexico before their match (it seems its customary to exchange a small gift between teams - but this was no small gift!) If you haven't seen it yet, check it out for sure! A gorgeous, hand made (I assume) miniature Persian rug (they did invent the Persian rug, after all) ;) with the flags of Iran and Mexico embroidered on it. What a beautiful gift! I hope the other teams that go against Iran noticed it, because they might have to upgrade the gift they planned on giving! :)

So, I will continue to enjoy watching the Cup for the next several weeks...and of course, as a good Canadian, will also be watching the rest of our "Cup" games - the Stanley Cup in hockey! :)

BeanDreams: Beans are up!

The beans have arrived!!! I check the garden every day, and this morning, I finally saw the beans peeking up! Yay! So everything is looking good - the tomatoes that Dave's mom bought for me have all transplanted well (and I think some of my stunted home-grown ones might be still able to be salvaged), and my sage is big enough that I could use some on the roast chicken I made for my grandmother the other day. The weeds, though...man! There's a LOT of them. I weed a little every day, but there's always more - part of the joy of gardening. :) So the only thing that hasn't really taken off is the thing that should have done the best with these coolish temperatures: the lettuce! I'll have to reseed and see what happens - I'm not weeding in that area just in case I'm not recognizing the lettuce - when everything gets bigger I should be able to tell. :)

A visit from Nan

Had a nice visit from my Nan (grandma) today - she's 89 years old (89!!!), visiting from Ontario. We have very few visitors here at the house, so this was a big occasion, involving lots of cleaning, vacuuming, straightening (thanks to Dave for all his hard work on that!), and a big dinner! I made a roast chicken, and got to use some of the sage from the garden on it (yum!), stuffing (also called dressing), mashed potatoes and corn (which I understand Nan really enjoys), with gravy. We went through Nan's collection of old photographs, which was a lot of fun - most of them I hadn't seen before.

But a note to people out there: Label your pictures. Even a little note, and the date. Because you think you're always going to remember what you're taking a picture of, and what year it is, but there may be a time when you don't any longer. And those around you now weren't there then, so they can't help you remember. I've seen this a few times, that often the memory of things that were important enough to take a picture of are lost, because there's no notation to tell others what it was about. Fortunately many of Nan's pics were labeled, but some interesting ones weren't, and I would have liked to know more about them. I guess that's why people do scrapbooking so much these days. I know my Dad has a COMPLETE record of my life (I'm an only child so I think it was extra important to him), and he noted and dated EVERY photo. I try to do the same, but I'm not as fastidious as him. :)

But all in all, we had a fun time - even the dogs behaved themselves (well, mostly...Casey kept getting up on the couch and giving Nan kisses. Silly puppy). :D

New design at the gift shop!

I just released this fun new design in my giftshop, an alternate form of 'I love pysanky'. I love how it turned out, it's really cute! :) As with all my other designs, it's available on tshirts, mugs, hanging art tiles (a really sweet way to brighten up a kitchen, or your desk area), mousepads, posters, stickers, totebags, and much more! Check it out!

The shop has moved!

I've done the migration of the shop from shop.annmorash.com to shop.learnpysanky.com. Same great shop, same great products, but a new url! So, update your bookmarks! :)

And we thought WE had blossoms...

WOW! Just got back from visiting Dave's mom's manfriend (the guy's in his 70s, I just can't call him a boyfriend) :). Dave's mom had said that his apple tree had bloomed more profusely than it had in recent memory, so we should all head on down to take some pics. It's too bad it was rainy at the time, but I still got some great shots. It was incredible, the tree was just saturated with blooms, just incredible!

It's just about the end of the time for them though, spring is past its prime, as it starts to give way to the lazy days of summer. Well, it will give way, after the rain... :D (Its been raining for over a week, with another week forecast to come...*sigh*)

Take a moment to remember special FX pioneer

If you love movies, or even like them, take a moment to remember Arthur Widmer, who passed away today (aged 92!). This is the guy who created the "blue screen" effect, which was a huge leap in special effects. Now people could appear in virtually any surroundings, while filming safely and comfortably in the studio. It let filmmakers do things that were really impossible to do before, and let their imaginations soar. So thank you, Mr. Widmer, your contribution to FX brought tonnes of enjoyment to so many!

Read his story on the BBC here.