Life in progress


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Experimenting

Playing around with my camera while I was waiting for Alex’s bus to arrive, I found a few interesting things:

feather

A feather trapped in the branches of my hedge.

skeleton leaves

Leaves glued to the ice, so transparent that their skeletons are showing.

winter

I liked the way the lens focused on the twigs, rendering the house in the background an afterthought.

Now that I have a memory card for the camera I bought before Christmas, I’ll start taking it out more often. My phone takes decent pictures, but it can’t beat 16.1 megapixels. I just have to learn how to use it to its full advantage.


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Adventures on My Paper Route – Strange Formations and a Pretty Bird

Brave, hardy birds, cardinals are. Today was cold and crisp – a pleasant 9 degrees C, (16 degrees F). I heard him singing first – they have a very distinctive song.

cardinal2

But the thing which has puzzled me for the past few weeks is this odd way the icicles have been forming… or leaning after they’ve formed. It seems they only do this if they begin above a window, so the only reason I can fathom is it has something to do with the heat from inside.

lean2

lean

The first is an east-facing wall, and the second is a north-facing wall, so the sun has nothing to do with it.

Any ideas?


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The Scorecard on my Life for the Past Week

Snow – 1, BBQ – 0

Family members alive – 5, Novels edited – 0

Hairs left attached to my scalp – 100,000, Hairs in my shower drain – 99,999

Hours of sleep – 35, Brain cells remaining – 2

Icicles – 100, Buckets full of water inside the house from ice melting on the roof 20

Bottles of wine consumed – 3, Contentedness quotient – 3

Blog posts conceptualized – 21, Blog posts posted – 7

Hours worked – 133, Earnings – 0

Family members alive – 5, Laughs – countless

In all I’d say I’m doing okay.


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The Ever-Changing Scenery

One thing I can say for Canada is it never gets boring.

This picture was taken May 28th, 2013:

DSC00233

 

and this one, of the exact same spot was taken this morning February 6th, 2014:

sssnow

If you look closely, you’ll see the railings on my next door neighbour’s front steps, on the left of both pictures.

I can’t stress enough how much I’m looking forward to May.


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Guess what? More snow!

I’m really amazed at how these turned out. The colour seems to depend on how much light is in the frame when I take the shot. Taken with my LG Smart Phone, through the window; these are basically pictures of where I was standing when I took the photo the other night of the icicles on my house. Taken tonight:

CAM00178 CAM00179 CAM00181


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JusJoJan 27 – Another Damned Snow Day

Why is Mickey Mouse Clubhouse playing on my television screen?

Because it’s a snow day.

Why is it a snow day?

Because the plows haven’t been out yet, so the buses aren’t running.

Why haven’t the plows been out? This is Canada!! We get snow!!!

Purportedly, the town I’m in hasn’t seen a real winter in five years. I haven’t been here that long, but I can say that out of three green Christmases I’ve experienced in my lifetime, two have been here in the last four years. So, okay. I get it. They probably didn’t budget for a real winter here this year.

But come on! The equipment is there – I’ve seen it. It came by yesterday. The staff has been hired … look out the window, city snow removal people! There are kids who really REALLY want to go to school! I can tell by the completely-absorbed-in-tv-and-computer-look on my little darling’s face that he can’t wait…

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1. It’s never too late to join in, since the “Jot it” part of JusJoJan means that anything you jot down, anywhere (it doesn’t have to be a post) counts as a “Jot.” If it makes it to WordPress that day, great! If it waits a week to get from the sticky note to your screen, no problem!
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For the Love of Photography

I love photography. Good photography. I wish I had the talent I see in so many others.

But I’ve been told by one of the best I know that it’s okay to post my amateur attempts, so here is mine for today.

dusk

Alex and I were out shoveling at dusk tonight when I took this picture of my house. There’s just something about the quiet of this particular time of day, when it’s snowing softly as it was. There was very little wind and the air, though cold, was pleasant. Snow insulates: noise is muffled, and the blue of the sky reflects off the snow and creates a feeling of enclosure, as though the sky is resting upon the shoulders of the world.


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JusJoJan 25 – Can you see it?

Face in Snow

Face in Snow

Can you see the face on the wall? He’s wearing a scarf and a hat.

I’m getting tired of talking about this white stuff, but I did want to share what I saw out my back door this morning.

It’s knee-deep in spots on my paper route.

That’s my jot for now.

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Post on your site, and join Just Jot it January. The rules are easy!

1. It’s never too late to join in, since the “Jot it” part of JusJoJan means that anything you jot down, anywhere (it doesn’t have to be a post) counts as a “Jot.” If it makes it to WordPress that day, great! If it waits a week to get from the sticky note to your screen, no problem!
2. If you write a JusJoJan post on your blog, you can ping it back to the above link to make sure everyone participating knows where to find it.
3. Write anything!
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JusJoJan 19 – All That Warm Technology

In the warmth of my living room, watching through the window as the snow flakes drift into fifties-style wannabe hairdos and watching my son play Wii Fit in his underwear, I realize how good I actually have it. Modern conveniences have given us such luxury. I mean, what if I was sitting, on a rock, in a cave right now (on my laptop of course, with full internet capabilities) worrying about whether or not I could scrounge up enough wood for the fire, wondering how far I’d have to walk because I’ve depleted the local fauna. I’d really be bitching to you over the web, wouldn’t I?

But no. I’m sitting in a warm living room, on a couch, with a kid giggling his head off every time his character jumps off the side of a floating platform to its flailing demise. Nothing bothers this kid of mine. He’ll play happily, as active as ever, while a machine pumps formula directly into his stomach as though this were the most natural thing in the world. I wonder if he’d still think so if we were sitting in a cave, watching the snow fall. Of course the machine would still be around. If I can have internet, he can have his feeding pump, right? And the manufactured formula that keeps him alive with all its non-yummy nutrients that don’t bother him in the slightest because he never tastes them.

All we’d be missing is the warmth. And the Wii.

Modern technology, I tell you. We could live without it.

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 Post on your site, and join Just Jot it January. The rules are easy!

1. It’s never too late to join in, since the “Jot it” part of JusJoJan means that anything you jot down, anywhere (it doesn’t have to be a post) counts as a “Jot.” If it makes it to WordPress that day, great! If it waits a week to get from the sticky note to your screen, no problem!
2. If you write a JusJoJan post on your blog, you can ping it back to the above link to make sure everyone participating knows where to find it.
3. Write anything!
4. Have fun!


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There Are Days

stroll

There are days when I wish I could just run away – escape even for an hour. To drink a cup of coffee without being interrupted, or to close my eyes and hear nothing but the snow falling.