Day 53. Sign

Been waiting for an excuse to take a picture of this wabi-sabi garage.

I find it beautiful in its state of peeling-paint decay.

Beautiful in that any second 1904 when it was built might be revealed.

And then these signs jolt me back into the twenty first century (or late twentieth anyway.)

Day 52. Lines

Thank you, nature, for inspiration.

Three that I saw on cool, but incredibly bright late Sunday morning.

Day 51. Gigantic

These trees were practically here before the wind and the sun, I bet.

They live along the river, growing slowly and steadily, and the changes they've seen in their gigantic lifetimes must be gigantic too.

The trees seemed okay with my feet against them to demonstrate how big they are in contrast with a person.

Day 50. Little

Despite the gigantic-ness of the world around it, I notice this little, teeny-tiny nest often as I walk past it.

It's about 4 and half centimetres big.

My hand is there for reference. I don't touch nests. I fear it will ruin it for the bird, my stink on it, and that he'll be homeless.

I wondered, as usual, what kind of bird is so little as to live in this tiny nest? And does he/she live alone? Is this some sort of a bird bachelor pad? The quiet abode of a bird ascetic? A lone wolf (-bird?)

Day 49. Ritual

If there's something that makes my world go 'round a little more smoothly and nourishingly, it's having some ritual in it. I am care-ful with my days and try to infuse them with ritual rather than habit. For me, that's the difference between stagnation and livelihood.

Sometimes I forget about ritual, but then my spirit cries out, or worse yet, becomes very, very quiet. It's apparent very quickly when I've forgotten it.

Structure is cool too. The structure is for my brain and body, ritual is food for the spirit.

• Open eyes, step down some stairs, turn on the kettle, warm glass of water, grind some seeds.
• Inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale, savasana.
• Coat+boots. Leash. Excited dog. Adventure along river, trudge through snow, under sky, smelling things. Home, tired, sleep in pile.
• Walk down the back lane, walk up stairs-one breath per step, unlock yoga room, light a candle, humbly bow to the Buddha's equanimity, and jai to Ganesh.
• Replace clothing with more comfortable clothing. Brush teeth. Floss teeth. Brush dog's teeth (for real.) Open bed with a sweep of covers. Get in. Feel sheets warm around me. Turn off light. Goodnight moon. Sleep.

Day 48. Elegant

You know what I find elegant?

Pianos and also the playing of pianos.

The sound that lingers gracefully, long after the key is struck. The attire: bringing to my mind long, luxurious red dresses, a classy tuxedo, a top hat perhaps. (My friend Sarah plays the piano and she looks great in red. The hands: Long and narrow fingers, hands cupped as though they were elegantly holding warm water, upside down. The instrument: Rich materials; Shiny black or soft, carved wood. Silky smooth keys. Strings hidden mysteriously underneath the thing.

You know what's not so elegant? The organ. That's what I played:)

This backyard piano, despite the satellite dish, the greying stucko, and its location of a crummy back lane still manages to maintain its elegance, don't you think?

Day 47. Creepy

Creepiest building in the city, perhaps... at Vaughan and York: the old jail.

Even at high noon and the most sparkly part of the day, this building still makes me shiver a bit.

We explored it at nighttime, and thank goodness, from the outside only! on a ghost tour i got to go on awhile ago. The ghost tour lady suggested that any orbs or discolouration in the picture are especially creepy.

Other things I find creepy:

• Pieces of clothing left haphazardly on the ground without an owner
• Dim stairwells
• The sound of metal clanking
• Cryptic messages on buildings (or anywhere)
• Grey areas (literal and figurative)

Day 46. Comfort

You know what our fabulous city did?

They built the longest naturally freezing skating path in the world!

As in Guinness Book of World Records long!

And then, the project gave $9000 to several teams to build a bunch of little warming huts which they then placed along the river path so skaters/walkers could find some sweet comfort from the cold.

To top it off, they called the warming huts 'love shacks.'

This set of love shacks is called the jellyfish.

Day 45. Old

I like this old building down the street. So does everyone else. It's really cool: brick and a-frame, but like a really wide and lazy a.

There have been renovations happening over the past year or so, but it remains old and crumbly and completely beautiful.

Day 44. Self

Self + teapot.

Inside the teapot was a delicious blend of ginger and licorice tea. It kept me company from the time I woke up (preposterously early at 4:18 am!) 'til the rest of the world began to move and stir and stretch its arms out.

Day 43. Meal

Can you believe that these colours belong to nature?

Like that they just grow like that?!!

Day 42. Blue

I have lived in the cool embrace of the mountains.

I have spent time being nourished and hydrated near the ocean's edge.

Despite the beauty there, my deep longing for the prairie sky never lessened.

Each day I enjoy the expansive feeling of our big, open sky and I feel the equal and opposite sturdy, you-can't-fall-very-far-in-the-prairies-ground underfoot.

There is nothing that looks more like home to me than a big, blue prairie sky.

Day 41. Machine

This machine could be found in the middle of an ode-to-konrad-birthday date yesterday.

It was in the Current Lounge at the Inn at the Forks (which is a delightful place to spend the eve of one's birthday... K's not mine.)

Before the machine came pedicures, cushy robes, jasmine green tea, the brightest & most crisp day, all within the stolen time hours of an afternoon off.

After this picture, martinis, and then sushi followed by a sweet, deep sleep that would end in more stolen time: a Saturday morning off!

The only thing that could have polished the morning off perfectly would have been to have this little machine at home, wafting espresso fragrance all over the place.

Day 40. Holy

Infrequently enough to amaze me each time, I leave work in the evening and turn the corner to the dazzling sight of the church behind my work all lit up from the inside.

A dark back lane + the sound of the monotonous traffic of Osborne Street + a sacred place full of light = beautiful. It seems contradictory, and I have a hard time wrapping my mind around it all at once, but I guess the mind doesn't need to get what's holy and sacred.

Day 39. Industrial

I had to look this word up to see what counted.

You know what 'industry' means?

I guess among other things:

1. Skill or cleverness

2. Earnest, steady effort; constant diligence in or application to work

3. Systematic work; habitual employment

I figured these guys were all of those.

Clever, clever guys, these ones... banding together in revolution (industrial?) around that big white thing.

Earnest and steady... No one is steadier.

Habitual? These guys never miss a day. Slow and steady.

I wonder what's in that big white thing?

Day 38. Angles

Bonnie read this as 'angels' and I like angels at least as much as 'angles', so I'm with her on this one.

Here is a picture of a one-winged angel that sits on my front porch.

She used to have two wings, both made out of repossessed metal, just like the rest of her.

One day, one of the wings fell off with a heavy clank.

On the same day, another angel in my house threw itself off my bedside table, losing one of its wings in the process.

On the same day, an angel my mom had broke a wing too. She glued it back together and at first denied that it had happened.

I'm sure that a triplet of broken angel wings is a sign of some kind. I took it as a gentle hello (because besides the metal one, wings fall so softly), but I'm sure if I was smarter I would have translated it better.

I like this one with one wing.

Like she has temporarily fallen to the earth.

Just like we have.

Day 37. Alone

You know those places where there are people around, but you feel alone, like in the good way?

The bus is like that for me.

I love taking the bus.

It kind of makes me feel like I live in the big city and also like I'm anonymous which I mostly don't want, but it's a nice change.

All these people being alone yet

surrounded by people.

I hope that they are not lonely.

Day 36. Animal

Who knew this character would show up at four year-old niece's birthday party?

Dragons don't like having their picture taken I guess.

Day 35. Play

Just so you know, it takes a lot of restraint to not just post a picture of the orange dog on here

everyday. Not because I like her so much (I do though!), but because we walk together a lot.

Today I couldn't resist. This is a game we play: She acts like a goalie and we use a chunk of snow-ice for the puck. When she catches it, she throws herself down in a dramatic display of victory and rubs her whole body on the ice chunk.

It's weird and fun. And it seems a bit wired into her to play. She's a nice companion.

Day 34. Broken

I decided to take a picture of the first broken thing I saw.

The first broken thing I saw was a wing that had once belonged to a bird.

I photographed it lying lifelessly in the snow, but then felt like a weirdo and morbid like, so I deleted the photo.

The wing was polka-dotted, black and white, and I wondered where the rest of the bird was.

The beautiful peacock-coloured ornament was a gift from a generous and sweet soul for Christmas and I couldn't bear to put it away with the rest of the Christmas decorations (because of it's beauty) so I hung it in my dining room. When I got home the same day as the bird wing incident, it was broken too; the ball had fallen away from its hanger.

Cool that some things are fixable.

Day 33. Gift

The world got a new person! His name is Finn, he's nine days old, and he's incredibly sweet. In celebration of his brand new existence, I enjoyed an afternoon of making him this baby blanket with a gazillion owls on it.

Aren't these flannel owls the cutest guys in the world?

I am partial to the nerdy one with the tie.

Day 32. Water

Or at least one of water's incarnations.

Walking the river path is a precious treat; temporary, fleeting, beautiful.

Water is so quick to take on one of her other forms... who knows when this shift will happen. Yesterday someone told me eight weeks, tops.

But just for now, in stolen time, these frozen waves take my breath away.

Day 31. Texture

In an ultra slow, reflective practice today, I settle into a spot at the Buddha's feet, which I didn't notice right away. I knew it was texture day so I checked out the surfaces around me: the texture of the mat against my feet and hands, the texture of the wood ground, the texture of the feeling in the room (soft), and then my gaze settled on the sweet feet of Buddha, which is a nice place for a gaze.

30 days more

Here is why I like to take a photo each day:

• Satisfaction of (seeming) insatiable seeking tendency that we animals have wired into us.
• It's a nice thing to do at your typically lullish and low-energy times of the day (ie: 3:30pm for me.)
• It lets you play with creativity in a small, sweet way.
• You get to document life in a simple and concentrated rich way that I love.
• It gives you an excuse and a nudge to explore new places.
• It creates a natural pause in your day that is good for the soul.
• Lots of other things too.

And so, for our little moments of creativity, documentation, natural pause, play, and exploration, 30 more!

Day 1. Texture

Day 2. Water
Day 3. Gift
Day 4. Broken
Day 5. Play
Day 6. Animal
Day 7. Alone
Day 8. Angles
Day 9. Industrial
Day 10. Holy
Day 11. Machine
Day 12. Blue
Day 13. Meal
Day 14. Self
Day 15. Old
Day 16. Comfort
Day 17. Creepy
Day 18. Elegant
Day 19. Ritual
Day 20. Little
Day 21. Gigantic
Day 22. Lines
Day 23. Sign
Day 24. Motion
Day 25. Grey
Day 26. Treat
Day 27. Shiny
Day 28. Light/Dark
Day 29. Wilderness
Day 30. Time

Day 30. Self + ten things

Or more than 10, as it happens. I wasn’t paying attention

Also, I'm missing two of the days that stumped me a bit. I'll use the next couple of days to finish those. And to make a new list and start another 30 days or something.

• Thing 1. Going with the flow is cool, but it better not mess with my morning ritual.
• Thing 2. In honour of my old favourite colour, violet/lavender, I just bought a light purple dress. It’s really cute.
• Thing 3. My favourite realization is that imprisonment and commitment are the same thing, but from different perspectives. Since then, I’ve never felt stuck or imprisoned by anything.
• Thing 4. My ideal work has all of these: Challenge, community, creativity, freedom. There used to be another one, but I can’t remember it. I have all of these in my work now.
• Thing 5. I bite my nails. I know: Ew. I think it’s the grossest thing, but I’ve never not done it in my memory.
• Thing 6. I like to take pictures. Every day. I don’t crave to be a better picture-taker.
• Thing 7. I slightly envy people who have a group of friends that they’ve had since they were six.
• Thing 8. I am so thankful for the colourful, vibrant people in my life. They are the coolest and make me not mind not having a cohesive family of friends since I was six.
• Thing 9. I grew up in the suburbs, but I still feel like I came from the ‘hood. My mom does that too.
• Thing 10. I’m pretty sure that I have an addictive streak. For this reason and many others, I’m very happy I’ve never done heroine.
• Thing 11. I used to be convinced that my sister and I grew in the same womb at the same time and that my parents pretended we weren’t twins so that we could more easily cultivate our own personalities. My sister thought so too, but we also thought that we were probably abducted by aliens when there was an eighties craze about extra-terrestrials. I’m still not sure either way.
• Thing 12. This photo challenge has been a good project each day. It was a wonderful focusing for my mind and my heart. I think I’ll do it again.
• Thing 13. I really, really love an ice-cold dry gin (Bombay) martini, with olives or a twist, depending on the day.
• Thing 14. Looks like I’ve begun to collect frogs. (Against my better judgment.) (And not on purpose.) (Just that frogs apparently look really cute in statue form and doing yoga postures.) (And generous people have given me now three.)
• Thing 15. What are you supposed to do with your face in a self-portrait anyway? I didn’t know so took this photo, urgently, with my mittens off for a split second on the coldest day ever. It’s a reflection in one of those super shiny buildings downtown. I love downtown.