I See

During my walks I see subtle signs of spring:

A crow on the lamp post...

bikes parked on the street...

tulips showing their leaves...

pine cones saved by a forgetful squirrel.

On My Way

or not?

Photography - no picture

As I was cleaning out my vacuum cleaner, I heard a noise near the window. I saw nothing, but heard more fluttering a few seconds later. Looked once more, discovered a lovely, most likely female, little cardinal with bright red beak trying to hold onto the screen on my window, then returning to the Juniper in front.

Needless to say, I ran for my camera, in PJs and very softly went outside. However, before my eyes could focus on the little bird, she was gone...

Garry Conway, who does some wonderful wildlife photos, said,

"I often feel that it is the animal that decides whether or not it will permit me to take the photograph. On the occasions when this happens I feel privileged to be given such an opportunity. "

 I understand.


I must include the link.

Attempted Nature Appreciation

Picnic, anyone?

Why I Love This

Maybe this year's colours are navy and grey. Maybe they are black and brown.
It does not matter at Attic 24.
It's wonderful, bright colours, season after season, year after year.

There is quite a following for her on Ravelry - almost like "Lucy-groupies":).
You can copy her colours, style but you need to make it your own.

We need to do our own palette.
Perhaps,  in earth tones or rainbow colours.

Downtown Toronto

Hard To Believe

that I never read anything from Vonnegut all those years when I was reading non-stop...
I'm so glad I found him at last.

"Human beings were so prolific back then that conventional explosions like that had few if any long-term biological consequences. Even at the end of protracted wars, there still seemed to be plenty of people around. Babies were always so plentiful that serious efforts to reduce the population by means of violence were doomed to failure. They no more left permanent injuries, except for the nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, than did the Bahia de Darwin as it slit and roiled the trackless sea."
(Galapagos, p.254)

Somehow, I see a parallel between him and Maya Angelou... I really need to read some more and think what exactly that may be...

And, I will not comment on the weather - let the photo speak for itself:

More Clouds

But no snow so far -

The objective here was to test my little point and shoot camera  - not a weather report :)
I'm still figuring out little things on it - like the above example, how to shoot clouds with good definition...
This was taken at 6 p.m.  - a sure sign that our days are getting longer.

Angry Clouds

Apparently, spring might be delayed a bit...

A Sign of Spring

I Forgot

to mention:
I really like teddy bears.

A Phenomenal Poem

I stumbled upon a gem tonight. So beautiful...  it has plenty to say, a lovely flow...
I have so much to learn about...

Editing a day later -
still under the spell of that poem...
I can actually "hear" a confident, quiet female voice reciting it...

Editing a few days later - as I found that confident voice:)

Irreverent Humanist

That is the phrase that keeps going around and around in my head while reading Vonnegut...
His writing is brilliant, dark, funny (not always), occasionally annoying, always original and unique, never can be ignored.

How typical of him is this speech...

(Too bad they did not get the dog's picture right... a Puli is not like any other dog...)

Two quotes from Galapagos:

" Colds and babies were both caused by germs which loved nothing so much as mucuous membrane."



"... I have yet to see an octopus, or any sot of animal, for that matter, which wasn't extremely content to pass its time on earth as a food gatherer, to shun the experiments with unlimited greed and ambition performed by humankind."

This Morning

As I woke up and looked outside my window this morning, I saw a lovely, colourful sunrise.
(My window faces East).
I ran downstairs, grabbed my camera, opened the back door and took some photos still in my PJs, all happy that our neighbours were away on March Break...

... and, at this point the poem,  Why I Wake Early made  perfect sense:)

"dear star, that just happens

to be where you are in the universe

to keep us from ever-darkness,"

Drops

My Neglected Blog

I've been busy setting up my new training schedule, trying to adjust to the longer days (my pleasure:)) etc.
Suddenly, I realized I have not updated in 4 days...

Let me make up for it:

I have wanted to take a picture of these trees for a long time now.

They are planted along the side of the Toronto Centre For The Arts

Just had to test the panorama function:

Mel Lastman Square

It will look better in the spring:)

And, last but not least:

some colour-

This is a plant that keeps growing and blooming... it does well with a little neglect...

The Birds Are Back !

It may not be the best picture but I got quite excited when I heard the geese while I was taking pictures of the sunset:

There were some neat clouds tonight:

Oops

Keeping Up

Ever since I was a child, I always loved pigeons. My photography teacher referred to them as "flying rats" :).

The Tree - Nature Appreciation In The City.

I noticed this tree during a trip downtown. Ever since then, every time I passed it, I had a strong desire to take pictures of it. Today, while I was getting myself ready for a trip downtown I packed my camera in my backpack and made a mental note to stop and take those pictures.

Here it is in its full glory:)

I do not know what kind of tree it is but it is beautiful with its twisted limbs. 

I can't wait to get more photos in the spring.

Delicious Simplicity

I found a recipe online the other day, with turnips, leeks, whipping cream and sour cream. I  may have mentioned that leeks are my favourites  - they make everything taste better. Turnips... I never knew what to do with them. Somehow,  a gratin type of dish appealed to me. Whipping cream AND sour cream? Not so much.  I thought some more about it - bought some turnips and leeks today then came up with my own:

Potatoes, Turnips and Leek Gratin
(4 servings)

3 med. potatoes, peeled and sliced
3 turnips peeled and sliced
2 leeks (white part only), sliced
1 TBS olive oil
1 cup Evaporated Milk (2%)
1/2 - 3/4 c  grated Gruyere (or other cheese)
Salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 375 F.

Saute leeks in olive oil, until soft. Add potatoes and turnips to pan, sprinkle with salt and pepper  and continue for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Grease a Gratin dish, add the vegetables. Pour the Evaporated Milk over them.  Bake for 30 minutes, sprinkle with cheese and continue baking until golden around the edges.
It's so good that nobody even asked about the turnips:)

(In the end, my recipe had nothing to do with the original other than the fact that both had leeks and turnips)

Something To Think About

I am posting the link to a New York Times article in order to remind myself to give some thought to this.
Self-compassion vs self-indulgence...
Hmmm...  I never considered self-compassion as a word.

The Photo That Did Not Happen

A pudgy squirrel climbed on the wall the other day. I stood there admiring his agility, balance. He ran down the framework of the solarium, found a walnut in the eavestrough and proceeded up the wall to a second floor bedroom window. I figured that this was my opportunity to grab my camera for some interesting shots.  I hurried up to the dining room where it's stationed on the tripod, ready for just such opportunities. I grabbed it, turned it on and while walking started adjusting the settings.
I looked up to locate the squirrel, all was well, he was still eating. Excited, that I made it back in time, I pointed the camera and attempted to take pictures...
Darkness... I didn't get it. Tried adjusting shutter speed,  no luck.  Aperture ... still the same. In the meanwhile, my pudgy friend, oblivious to my problems, decided to move on, walnut and all...
He proceeded down the wall to about eight feet above the ground, lost his footing and went 'plop'. I stood there terrified, certain that the fall would be quite serious. However, little guy got up, climbed up the fence, shook himself off and disappeared in the backyard...
Relieved, I looked at my camera, trying to figure out what went wrong. The explanation was right there on my lens... in the form of the lens cap.

Short Stories

Not my favourite genre - which also means that I have not read that many of them in the past...
Why did I choose novels over short stories? It seemed like that by the time I got into the rhythm, the language of a short story it would come to an end. A novel kept me busy much longer.
So, here I go, making up for lost time.
A short story has advantages. I can sit down with a cup of tea, put my feet up and have a Short Story Break!

(I set up a list for  the short stories I read, on the bottom of the page.)

It's March

Incredible.
The first two months went really fast.
This morning, as I opened the door to let the dog out, I could hear robins. I love their sounds...
March...  it means spring or almost spring.
It means in  just 3 months the Farmers' Market will open up. It means the days ARE noticeably getting longer... It's now almost 5:30 and the sun is shining!

What is even more incredible: I'm still posting fairly regularly. Who would have thought?

Colourful Sunset

We've had some interesting weather:
Lots and lots of rain yesterday, followed by a pretty snowfall overnight - then some wind in the afternoon.
It looks like we need to wait a bit longer for spring...

And Then This

The day after that gorgeous snow cover I woke up to this...
Not so pretty, is it?