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Nature’s vinyl

Becky — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 19:20:31 +0000

It is pouring here. Was hot and sunny all morning, so this is good for the gardens. I must remember to shut off the irrigation system tonight though. No need to use it for a few days after this downpour I think. The house is really coming together now. And despite how much we are working and not spending time on the house, the pace is satisfying. When I’m home, I’m working on a long list of things I’d like to get done. When I’m working, I’m writing the list. No time wasted And now there is a bit of hail. I missed thunderstorms a whole lot when we lived up North. I think we had one in a year and a half and the lightening and thunder brought me to the window like a child, to watch. I can see what’s happening through a slightly warped pane of glass through one of the original windows in our room. The path of the rain slightly bent as it travels past the melty areas of glass. Someone once told me that glass was a liquid. A highly viscous one. And if left long enough, would thicken at the sill. I guess it takes longer than 114 years to accomplish as my window is, but for it’s structural imperfections, is slim to it’s base. Will continue to monitor and report back.

grace in nature

Becky — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 02:50:29 +0000

Tonight my fingers are sore - despite gardening gloves, I think a few callouses will develop on account of the massive amount of clover growing in my gardens, beside my gardens, on top of my gardens, beside my house, near the garage, and generally, anywhere it can lay a root or two. Lucky for me clover hasn’t developed a sticky root system so shoots slide out pretty easily. This might be because of a massive underground system of engineer-quality rootings with a ‘grow the tail back’ policy so the ‘gecko’ lives but the tail (clover stem) falls prey to enemy (gardener’s) hands. I’m sure they’re already growing back.

These past two weeks, owning a home, I’ve never sweat so much in my life. Gotta do things outside, lots of things and there has been lots of heat. So must sweat. Coming inside to the AC leaves me feeling as though I’ve just dove at 30M in the ocean. Exhausted and salty. To recuperate, tomorrow I plan to have an uptown experience in Dundas. Rise at 9. Latte. Mail letters to friends who sent ‘happy house’ cards. Shopping at ten (there is one store I’ve been wanting to check out)… then promptly lose the ‘lady of leisure’ status and buy mousetraps and a scrub brush at the local CanTire, come home and get to work. Ahhh the domestic life! Despite how sore I am, I like it.

the most obedient kind

Becky — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 22:01:01 +0000

While the husband’s away, the wife will play. Out for a lovely dinner with a girlfriend, WALKED from house to restaurant, ordered a cold glass of rose, some bruschetta and a spinach salad, forgot left over bruschetta on table (I blame rose) and took a lovely walk. It was the first semi-cooler break in the weather in little more than a week. The heat was debilitating. So to be out in flip flops and a summer dress in the cooler evening was a nice break from the ’stand in my underwear in front of a fan and sweat 5lbs off’ routine. There are some lovely spots on our block. This being one. A walk-up entrance to a home from a side street is guarded by a canine statue. Beck poses for my camera. Was using the macro lens to shoot flowers so was unable to get her entire self. But think it was to good effect. Kind of an artsy conclusion to the evening.

a bloomin’ horn

Becky — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 19:47:03 +0000

Am loving the green in my backyard. Seems like everything is in bloom. Robins hopping around the grass, squirrels chirping, bees a’buzzin. And at night, the fireflies are out. I love this place!Today I had a visit from the Dundas ‘Welcome Wagon’. I saw the silver-haired lady at my door with a basket of goodies and was curious. ’I'm from the Welcome Wagon, can I come in?’ First question: what is a welcome wagon? Second question: are all those presents for me? Turns out she’s been doing this for thirty years. Local businesses promote themselves and their services by offering incentives for newcomers to drop by for a visit and pick up a gift so that when it comes time for a dental cleaning/dry-cleaning/massage/hair-do/two-by-four/insurance policy/safety-deposit-box, I’ll know who to call.

And the loot was worth the 15-minute box-cutting break. A tooth brush, four pens, a tool belt, memo pad, white board, box of chocolate covered espresso beans, packet of bath salts, lens cloths, jar lid remover (it’s like they know me), crackers, green grocery bag, carpet cleaner, handy-wipes and a car garbage bag plus more in store when I go to say hello to the vendors. ’No obligation to buy anything dear, these people just want to say hello, give you a little something, and when it comes time for you to need something in town, maybe you’ll think of them. They get discouraged about the program if no one stops in to say hello’.

There were also coupons for curtains, hair-cuts, a free lawn fertilizer treatment, drinking water test (that comes with movie tickets upon scheduling), free admission to the nature conservatory, a pamphlet on the Dundas Museum, dry cleaning discounts, and much more I can’t recall. A little pleasant conversation and she was off. Burden relieved and the faux-flowers pinned to her wicker basket blowing in the breeze. I’m going to put my personally signed letter from the mayor on the fridge and read the Hamilton interior design magazine while I plan for my massage and hair-cut.

Neat-o.

Purple

Becky — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 03:30:12 +0000

lovely

Becky — Sat, 15 May 2010 23:36:09 +0000

a photosynthetic conversation

Becky — Sat, 15 May 2010 02:57:47 +0000

Part of the fun of having a camera (some quality glass doesn’t hurt either) is experiencing the seasons, objects, plants, whatever, on a level I relate to. Seems to me these leaves are having a conversation.

Finally without their fragrant lilly strands, foreground says to background something deeply personal. Background truncates the conversation when she realizes someone (with a camera pinned to her eye) is listening in. Unable to express herself freely, foreground withers under the false conditions that are a glass of water and a 60 watt lightbulb while background lives to wonder if she could have done more to save her…

Tune in next week when foreground finds out background is not only her sister, but also, thanks to a busy honey-bee, a source of fertilization for her offspring.

blooming gorgeous

Becky — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 02:05:55 +0000

If I were a honeybee I’d be all over this fine-looking flower

Day one of bug-streaked windshield today. It’s been a few years since I’ve been here in Ontario to kick the summer off in buggy gut style. I didn’t miss May’s black fly season. Or the horse flies in July. Then again, I distinctly remember flying my bike to work one day on the wings of several thousand gigantic Arctic mosquitoes. It’s impossible to miss bug season no matter where you winter… or summer. In Male, instead of bugs, there were clouds of tiny stinging algae trapped in my wetsuit. If I could, which pest-ridden option would I choose? The latter of course. Any scenario that lands me coated in sea salt, sunning on a dhoni, and headed home for a big lunch is tops; stingy legs or not!

squinty

Becky — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 01:18:43 +0000

This shot reminds me of a wax encaustic piece I did in Inuvik at the Arts Festival in 2008. That’s where an artist has many pots of hot melty wax. Each pot of wax is colored with pigments of the artist’s choice. A brush applies the wax in blobs and strokes to a piece of wood, then a contraption, which was likely parented by a blow torch and a hair dryer, blows hot air over the surface and melts the colors together to net a very impressionist effect. Of course, this photo looks much better than my first attempt at wax encaustics. WAAAY better.

holding my breath

Becky — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 00:10:23 +0000

It was a windy day and I was focusing manually. Best way to ensure in-focus leaf hairs and the least amount of me-induced-movement in a shot is to hold my breath. Seventeen shots of this branch later, I’m slightly blue in the lips and fuzzy in my brain…but not in my photograph!