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.

Day 29. Smile

Relentless winter;

Cold, bare, rough-edged, and icy

But the sun smiled.

Day 28. Purple

Purple was hard! Everything is black and white right now, which is kind of beautiful, but there was no purple to be found. I sought high and low for two full days.

Then last night I walked the cold, white river to the Forks.

And just when I had begun to give up on purple, I rounded the corner as the Red merged into the Assiniboine.

Purple was bathing all the ice and snow at the Forks, and everything had a violet hue.

The most concentrated of all the purples was right here: A purple light, bright as a potion, shining on this giant ice sculpture.

It was cold, and my camera was frozen so I had to use the camera on my phone.

Day 27. Breakfast

It may seem boring, ritualistic, unsatisfying, but this is my breakfast every day, forever.

Ground flaxseeds, sometimes pumpkin seeds, cinnamon, cardomom, hemp or almond milk, sometimes hemp protein with some stevia... all mixed in to a delicious 'cereal' and then eaten in the slow rhythm of the early morning.

Wake, climb down stairs, boil water, grind seeds...

Ritual makes my world go 'round.

Day 26. Magic

Magical/mystical day in the neighbourhood. Crystals on everything. A total wonderland.

magic up close

magic from afar

Orange dog in magic

Day 25. Yellow

When I saw that the topic today was 'yellow' I was so excited!

I instantly knew I wanted to take a picture of this big, old yellow home.

My friend Pam calls this colour buttercream makes it sound delicious.

It's the same colour I wanted to paint my house, but apparently it didn't fly around here and my second favourite choice won out (which was pale sage green, if you're wondering.)

I walk past this house as often as I can though, to soak in the buttercreaminess of it. And also to hang out in little, round Fisher Park right across the street from it.

Day 24. Food

Made today:

Pizza sauce with fresh herbs.

Wheat-free, egg-free, yeast-free pizza to put it on.

Day 23. Golden

Rush hour morning traffic, heading into downtown on a grey mid-winter Winnipeg monday is about the worst place in the world to look for golden.

I walked through the grey and white along the river this morning, in hopes of a warm golden sunrise, but it hid out behind the clouds. So I went up to the forks and then thought to come up onto the road for the way back, to walk errands and see what goes on there at that time of the day.

Grumpy faces were what was going on. Many of them, in cars, scowling, long faces.

It wasn't til Osborne that people started to look a little happier, smiling a bit, almost.

And funny; it wasn't 'til I got home that I found any actual golden.

Day 22. A favourite place I hadn't been to yet

This is the downtown of my city. But that's not the place I haven't been to. I've been there lots, and despite its sometimes stagnation and sometimes lack of character and sometimes excess of character, it's one of my favourite places.

My other favourite place, the one i haven't been to yet, is the moon.

Day 21. A journey

Just so you know, I realize it's a bit morbid to hang around in graveyards, but St.Mary's cemetery is one of the most beautiful places I know. I love it there.

Maybe because it's the final physical place for all these guys as they journey off to bigger things?

I love the feeling of the deep heavy earth, the stone graves as they contrast with the airiness and ether of the afterlife.

Day 20. Job

Day 19. Friends

Blurry picture due to wiggliness and manifested joy of depicted friendship.

Day 18. Bedtime

You know when people say they couldn't fall asleep because they had something on their mind? I don't say that. I always fall asleep. It's a true sanctuary and I love bedtime and its warm glow dimming to dark.

Day 17. Outside

Ferocious outside.

But beautiful too.

There is so much that we have tamed in this world, it's nice that in the midst of it is the wild, unchanged, unpredictable.