The second sure sign of spring today

One: my tulips emerged from the earth in my absence. Two: Opening Day.

My 6th layover in Pearson in 2 months

Delirious with fatigue and the knowledge that I've spent almost 16 hours in this airport in the past 2 months, I began my own version of The Lady of Shalott where the protagonist's curse is being stuck in Pearson for the rest of her life: "And there she waits by night and day/ an endless terminal with colours gray..."

View From the Train With Bells

Through the window on the train home from a gathering in Toronto to celebrate the birthday of my wonderful uncle D. That morning I was privileged to attend the morning service at the Cathedral Church of St. James with him and his beautiful wife C. (who sings in the choir and also the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir) and then to watch as they joined the Cathedral Guild of Change Ringers in the tower. They give tours of the tower, if you ever get the chance. I didn't want to break the mood by taking pictures.

Today at the Cafe

Sometimes it's good to look down as well as up

An elegant personhole cover in downtown Calgary

Sky lll

Not a photo taken today but a photo for today.

Three people loved; two people missed

Handle With Care Books Do Not Drop

The raw material. I wonder what's inside that OUP box?

Pearson, again

My 5th visit to Pearson in less than 2 months. This one was more enjoyable for the presence of an adorable baby mouse who ran up and down the waiting areas. It was like watching the wave as people leapt up and said "eeeeeeee!!"

I have really great friends: exhibit A

After a long-ish, sad-ish day, I arrived home to find these two beautiful, freshly baked homemade buns from B and L tucked into our mailbox. Thank you!!

Home

A little birdhouse that is slowly evolving into something the sparrows themselves might have made.

Walk along the river on a finally second sunny day in a row

Is it the ice that makes the river so reflective? For the record, opening day for the Tigers is exactly a week today. I think the Boys of Summer are going to need a Coat of Winter.

Walk in the park on a finally sunny day...

Sculpture on the Lawn

I like the way this sculpture sits in someone's front lawn as if it just fell out of the sky. I'd like it to be of Athena but I may be wrong, Hera maybe? Isn't it strange that we reproduce the ruins and not the whole? That's probably Walter Benjamin territory.

Probably Not For Sale

Auggie's Photo Collection

'The Earth revolves around the Sun, and every day the light from the Sun hits the Earth at a different angle.' *

Spring, where are you: Part II

I can almost smell the mint in the mojitos, can't you? 

Pensive about pens

Apparently, I spent almost all of yesterday talking about pens. And, apparently, I like talking about them more than most people like listening to people talking about pens.  But, it all started when we got our mail and I had been sent a catalogue from here. I read it in the car until I was thoroughly car sick.  Yesterday I realized it had been months if not years since I had cleaned my fountain pens and so I set out to give them all a good clean and here they all are. In the middle is my beloved Elysee that I'd, umm, borrowed from my dad almost 20 years ago (oops, sorry Dad); this was my first encounter with a truly lovely pen and nothing else compares to it. Above it is the Stypen I got in Boston (at the above mentioned shop) and it's great for everyday writing like grocery lists etc. More recently I went looking for a fountain pen to keep at work. This Lamy came highly recommended and it writes like a pen worth 4 times as much as I paid for it.

Melting Ice

This is actually a yesterday photo and it's frozen again but it may be a today photo again in a few days.

Spring, where have you gone?

Today was actually quite lovely: bright blue skies and a crisp springy cold. The river is full of blocks of ice and also pretty blue. While down there today I was thinking of two things: there's another winter weather advisory for tomorrow and opening day for the Tigers is a mere 12 days away.

High five

Sky II

In honour of Heidi's brief visit the clouds opened and the sun shone down.

Thinking back to my medieval lit survey with a bit of irony

It's grey again today and, if you ask me, it's time for sunshine and flowers.  This gorgeous New Yorker cover seems to agree. Today, for some reason, I've been thinking back to my medieval literature class where we all learned to sing "Sumer is icumen in." Perhaps because sumer hardly seems to be icumen in, I've been quietly humming the song to myself today. It was so much fun, I thought you too should sing along. Click here for the merry tune and here for the lyrics in Middle English. Get a bunch of friends and sing it as a round. Depending on how this week shakes out, you might want to use Ezra Pound's lyrics.

Sky 1

Sleepy Kitties

Late Night Construction Site

Out for a late night walk last night past the renovations of a nearby school that have temporarily taken on a great Blade Runner aesthetic

Aero-aesthetics

I have spent a lot of time in airports in the past 2 and a half months and I have spent some of this time wondering why they must be so uninspiring and stress-inducing in their aesthetic.  Today, however, I am heartened.  Here is a new airport (opened officially today in fact) which is open, spacious, and bright. I was particularly pleased to find sufficient personal space built into seating so that one loses that sardine feel so common in airports.  
And then, this is from the plane I just arrived in moments ago.  Rather than the usual "behind the iron curtain" aesthetic, this one had gently coloured lights that gradually turned from light to intense, from pink to purple to blue to green and then back again. Exhausted, sick and still 4 hours from home, this Hello Kitty pink phase made everything seem a little more manageable for this little traveller.  Thank you to the aero-aesthete who designed this.

Interesting Roof

The roof of this old house has a really satisfying interestingness about it.

Snow from above

More snow falls in Ottawa this morning. And it's very pretty. At least I think so. Maybe because I don't have to shovel it. But I like walking in it. These are short sentences. Very short. Will stop. Now.

Stapler

They just don't make staplers like this anymore.

Tim Tams

Last night, M and D initiated me into the world of Tim Tam cookies.  Prior to last night I knew not of their existence nor of the legendary Tim Tam Slam or Tim Tam Straw.   You know you have great friends when they send you off into the world with a couple of  "emergency" cookies to protect you from evil and/ or ennui.  Bless them.  Here is photo evidence for M and D than I have not encountered evil or ennui today.  But I feel a little safer knowing I have them just in case.  

Signs of Spring?

Famous Five

Ottawa received over 80 cms of snow in the past five days and I was passing banks that were several feet taller than me. If you were Heidi height and standing on Wellington, this is what you'd see. But the snow was pristine and the sky was bright and blue and I had one of the nicest walks.

This is one of my regular stops on my Ottawa constitutional. In an exam, one of my students once referred these women as the Fab Five instead of the Famous Five. I think she was onto something. Today was the first time in all my visits that I was the only visitor at the monument and I was glad to have them to myself for a few minutes and re-energize my inner-Albertan. As it happens, last night I was dusting my home office and noticed the quotation from Nellie McClung that I'd taped over my computer years ago: "Never retreat, never explain, never apologize--get the thing done and let them howl."

Birds & Library

Sculpture in the D.B. Weldon Library.

Candle

A little candle lit in celebration of news that J and H's baby is on the way...

PS: welcome wee Vernon!

Winter Storm Watch

A beautiful, fierce day.

A different kind of cultural event during a winter snow advisory

It started innocently enough as I wiped up some spilled milk in the fridge this morning. Three and a half hours later, I think I have the cleanest, most organized fridge in the hemisphere. This blizzard is making me into a cleaning fiend.

My afternoon

A book for work, a coffee, a cookie, a sandwich and my groovy new Lamy fountain pen.

Waiting for Spring

15 cms of snow

 I love the colour combination of the snow and our street lights. It makes me feel like I'm in a vintage movie or sepia photograph.

Home

This wall of ivy is home to lots of sparrows and a family of squirrels.

Free doughnut.

Long meeting.  Doughnut waiting.  Heidi happy.  Paul covetous, perhaps.

Book Truck Jam

The book trucks jostle for position at the beginning of a new library day.

Spring rains today; Winter Storm Watch tonight

I can't begin to describe the joy these bulbs have brought.

Movie Theatre

We went to see Diva today at the DFT. One of my top five favourite movies, it, to my mind, certainly stands the test of time. Seeing it today was like spending a few hours with a much loved friend. Being in this theatre makes almost any film (there is one notable exception) a wonderful experience and it would take a lot more than my pre-movie snaps to capture the elegance of this lovely place. The colour, in particular, doesn't come through. It's a rich, warm dark royal blue. It's made even more beautiful with the gold and silver detail.

In the Window

A mini-drama is playing out in this antiques shop, where you can pick up those Abraham Lincoln book-ends for $48.

Lily in sunshine

This morning sun poured into our house: it was probably brighter than usual because of the 10 cms of new snow we have. The cats seem to like the return of their sunbeams. Here is Lily sitting in the sunny window this morning. You can't see Gracie batting at Lily's tail below but you can almost detect Lily's furrowed brow.