Sinking Venice

Sweet Light in Venice
We were on our way to dinner and I caught a glimpse of these shadows and reflections while strolling across one of the hundreds of bridges that crisscross the canals of Venice. I wish I had taken just a little longer at this spot to zoom in and focus on something more specific but the my friends were famishly forging onward and I didn't want to get lost. This canal is in the university district of Venice where there are few tourists, no tacky masquerade masks, just friendly locals walking their dogs and sipping cappuccinos.

I'm experimenting with different simple ways of recording audio so the description below is really just test of the podbean functions.



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Venice Is Sinking 2.egg on Aviary.

Paris

This is where I was a year ago!

Who Needs The Corner Office?

This is one of the last pictures I took in Venice and explains one of the many reasons why I dropped this blog for awhile. I fulfilled a lifelong dream to visit Italy. Not only did I explore the galleries and churches of this elegant country but I sauntered through endless forgotten streets and crevices of everyday life.

Discoveries...Confessions...Reflections

Funny enough, I have spent more time in front of my computer in the last couple of months than I have in my whole life so when the 'work' is done for the day I haven't been too motivated to post to my blog or website or twitter. Consequently, I dropped off the cliff of social cyberspace. I'm even writing more than I ever have too but I prefer picking up a pen to reflect, compose and carve some understandings and perceptions.

It's been of season of spectacular discomfort...

I took the photo above a couple of weeks ago while meandering through Cowichan Bay. It's one my favourite spots to spend a morning.

Light Extravaganza

The true harvest of my life is intangible
A little star dust caught
A portion of the rainbow I have clutched
Henry David Thoreauu

On day I woke up to this amazing performance. It was a sensational rainbow. I hadn't seen one like this for many years. It completely enveloped the sky.

Peace

We hear the beating of wings over Bethlehem and a light that is not of the sun or of the stars shines in the midnight sky. Let the beauty of the story take away all narrowness, all thought of formal creeds.

Maud van Buren, 1938

Frozen Flow

All photographs testify to time's relentless melt.
Susan Sontag

I took this photo this morning just outside my front door. The howling bitter winds have created icy scapes.

Artists Who Should Not Release Christmas Albums

http://www.funnyalbumcovers.com

Here is my list of suspects who should steer clear of Christmas tunes:

Leonard Cohen
With the exception of "Blue Christmas" I suspect sales would plummet to depths unknown if Leonard was suddenly overhead trying to convince shoppers to have a "Holly Jolly Christmas".

Alanis Morissette
I cannot imagine Alanis singing "Silver Bells" although I would like to hear her rendition of "Jagged Little Star".

John Coltrane
Who knows maybe "A Love Supreme" is a Christmas album and no one has figured this out.

Cher
Now Sonny and Cher could have safely released a Christmas Album but definitely not Cher as a solo artist. I also do not want to imagine the frightening alterations Cher would make to an elf costume.

There's a start. Am I missing anyone?

Just Another Glorious West Coast Day

“What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night. It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime. It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset.”

Crowfoot Quote- Great Siksika Leader

December dawned into a spectacular day. I took this photo while walking my dog around the neighborhood just over an hour ago. The sun provided the encore to a tranquil landscape of simple stillness. I celebrate the season of Advent over the next few weeks- the season of waiting...it seems like nature too is in a season of waiting. Unlike the human experience the season of waiting in nature seems to be elegantly restorative.

Feeling Small In My XXL Jacket

Great Wall at Simatai from Kathreen on Vimeo.

Three years ago today I was sitting on the crumbling ledge of The Great Wall. While sitting there gazing over the mountains I first realized just how small I am and how vast this world is. This was an ironic understanding because just the day before I purchased a men's XXL jacket for myself in a Beijing market. I created quite a spectacle because the shop clerks apparently had never seen a woman such as I trying on men's clothing and quickly retrieved their cellphones to take a picture of me in this men's XXL jacket! Augh! I still have the jacket even though the zipper broke a few days after I bought it.

The day I climbed The Great Wall was one of the best days in my life. Whenever my world begins to crowd in and stifle my perspective I remember the afternoon I sat on this ridge and gratefully take a breath.

Best Place To Wander

On this day three years ago I spent six hours wandering through The Forbidden City in Beijing, China. Ten years earlier I saw a National Geographic article on this alluring place and I dreamed of one day visiting this amazing setting. It is said that if you slept one night in each room of the Forbidden City it would take twenty-seven years to sleep in every room. This is one of the last rooms I found near the end of the day. I was all by myself as I watched the wind pick up the leaves and throw them across the courtyard. One of the few places in China where time has stood still.

Quirky Favourite Places

This is one of my favourite quirky spots in London, England. The top floor of Victoria Station- sitting at a Wetherspoon's drinking a cider- watching the intersection of the world dash by. One of my dearest memories I recall was one afternoon we were lazily gazing at the stream of humanity pouring by when a special BBC announcement appeared on a big screen above the escalators. The announcement read, "Briton, Norman Kember and Two Fellow Canadian Hostages Freed in Iraq -James Loney and Harmeet Singh Sooden". When we saw these names appear on the screen we jumped up and shouted a spontaneous cheer, embraced one another and wept. Somehow it felt that much more poignant that we heard this news outside our country.Maybe because we feel just a little more vulnerable than we care to admit when we travel abroad. Maybe because so many predicted the slim odds of finding these men alive. An unexpected joy in an unexpected place.

4 Minute Escape To Paris

Here's a glimpse of my trip.

Paris from Kathreen on Vimeo.

Red Rush

This is a photo of my neighbor's red maple. The colours are stunning at this time of year.

A Giggle From Paris

"If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a movable feast."
Ernest Hemingway

This was the sight I took in last week while sipping cafe creme at Paul Bakery on Rue St. Michel in Paris. How did this happen? My girlfriend called me fourteen days ago and casually asked, "Do you want to go to Paris?" Faster than one can inhale a pain aux raisin I booked a flight and found a flat in Montmartre. We walked, ate, drank, shot and simply lived a spectacular week. Here's a glimpse.



Not all bikes are in such a sorry state. The Velib system allows you to rent a bike for 1 Euro a day and cycle all through Paris provided you return the rental within 30 minutes to a Velib station. What a remarkable way to see Paris! Nothing compares to cycling the immense courtyard of the Louvre and exploring its empty corners abandoned by weary pedestrians.





then joining the deranged traffic around the Concord roundabout (sans bike helmet augh!)

and cycling through the changing colours of the Champs D'lysses.


Three months ago I was incessantly watching Jason Mraz videos particularly his Live High video from Paris. I never expected to be walking /cycling those same streets before the year was finished. This shows me once again that I need to set my sights higher. Dream with more boldness.

Bringing Stone To Life

I took this photo while touring the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art last Spring and recently had it printed on a 24x36 canvas as a giclée print. If I had to choose one of the highlights of this extraordinary museum it would be this room in which the entire exhibit has been reconstructed as an Italian Villa. The suspended fervency of this couple's embrace seemed so real I couldn't move from their gaze for a long time.
I picked up the giclee print on Friday and when it was unwrapped for me to examine I had a difficult time restraining my tears. The canvas took me back to that room, that moment, and the sense of overwhelming reverence that someone could create life from stone.

Confessions of A Reluctant Blogger

From Gotomobile's Photostream

It's been a year since I've been blogging and I've made a few discoveries.
1. I love reading other blogs and sometimes making a comment or two rather than posting to my own blog. This also reflects my conversation style. I am more comfortable listening rather than sharing my experience depending on the person or the group.
2. I sometimes feel a discomfort with posting comments on other blogs because I wonder if the intent will somehow be misinterpreted.
3. The blogs that are engaging belong to authors who take risks with communicating their perceptions. Those who toss about notions that challenge social conventions normally not challenged in public discourse are intriguing not so much for what they present but the reactions that they invite.
4. Blogging appears to be an effective reflective tool but this arena is too public for me.
5.The relationships developed online don't seem comfortable to me. I think this because without the visual verification I really don't know who I'm interacting with. It feels more like a role play. But then isn't every interaction a type of role play?

So what advice do you have for this reluctant blogger who has more insecurities than she cares to admit about this process and this venue?

New Toy

Ta daa! A new hot pink racquet! I spent a much longer period of time searching for and trying out different tennis racquets than I did purchasing my last vehicle and or my home. Oddly enough I'm even more excited about this purchase than a car or a house. What is that? I guess I consider a car just another utilitarian object. I've had my share of 'clunkers' so I am grateful to own a reliable vehicle but I don't have a lot of personal investment in my car. Sometimes I feel more owned by my house and all the responsibility and provisions it requires rather than owning and thriving in this space.

The racquet represents freedom. The chance to discover something about an experience that presents a new reference point each time I hit (or mishit) the ball. It also illustrates the chance to recognize the athlete in me which has never really been a part of my projected identity. The racquet also represents a very rewarding way to get to know people. I find it very interesting how rapport is developed across the net with one's opponent. Over the course of several weeks our personal narrative is revealed in brief remarks or unexpected reactions. I won't be reenacting the Castaway plot and formally name my racquet just yet. I just look forward to the joy of understanding more about the game and about others.

Nod To Fall

"Winter is an etching, spring a watercolor, summer an oil painting
and autumn a mosaic of them all."
- Stanley Horowitz

The struggle for survival is waging war in my garden. Acorns are plummeting to the ground like a malfunctioning popcorn machine and the remaining buds are straining to bloom against the withering vines. I already miss summer and the scent of its heat.

My Apologies To All Arachnopobes

“The means to gain happiness is to throw out from oneself like a spider in all directions an adhesive web of love, and to catch in it all that comes”. Tolstoy

There are so many spiders in my backyard.If you crouch down low enough you can see a maze of webs so intricate and yet so precariously anchored. This is best seen in the last photo - the largest web I spotted was secured by single gauzy thread latched to a fading lavender pod.