Friday Photo Shootout - Reflections

It's been a long, long time -- but I wandered onto the Friday Photo Shootout site this morning, just in time to take part in today's shootout -- and as it happens, it's raining here today, so my world is full of reflections.

I decided to head out in search of unusual reflections -- and promptly changed my mind because, well, it was (and is) raining.

So I lay down on the carpet and took this photo of me and my camera reflected in my faux fireplace. Shades of Dante.Hmmm. Back to the drawing board.

Later in the day, I really did have to go out, rain or no rain, to pick up the ingredients for dinner. On the way, I stopped to photograph these --  grapevines and assorted other greenery reflected in the  Turtle's window --

and this, the last rose of summer nodding good-bye to a reflected tree. At that point I decided that the warmth of home sounded really good, so I abandoned all attempts at photography and scuttled back to my den.

And speaking of reflections, I've recently given some thought to the fact that my faithful little netbook might not last forever, and all those pieces of fiction and poetry hiding in its files could end up at the recycling depot, lost to me forever. The sensible thing would be to dig them out, one by one, finish them, and send them somewhere --

But for me, writing is like knitting. I have knitting projects stashed all over the house in various stages of completion. The sensible thing to do would be to finish all those projects before I start a new one, but every time I see a particularly lovely skein of wool, my mind leaps to a new pair of socks, a new sweater, a shawl -- and off I go.

It seems I am addicted to yarn. And words. I am addicted to words. I love to watch them form on the page. Finishing a project isn't as important to me (barring a deadline) as the process itself. I could make all sorts of resolutions about finishing one thing before I start another, but I'm a pretty old dog now, and stuck in my ways, so maybe I'd better invest in  (1) more plastic tubs to hold knitting projects and (2) a whole handful of memory sticks.

Friday Photo Shootout - Fences

This week's prompt is brought to you by me. For more Friday Photo Shootout posts, click on the camera over on the sidebar.

This is what I wrote over at FPS to introduce the topic of fences:

"All over my town there are fences - tall ones and short ones, old and new, elegant and shabby. They all have something to say - like "Keep out," "Be careful!" (like this one) or "Stay right where you are," "I'm utterly exhausted" or "Look at me. Aren't I splendid?" Some have gates; others simply define a space or support a heavy vine. What kinds of fences are there in your town? Do they really make good neighbours? Or do they just isolate us? "

So when I went out looking at fences, I tried to bear those questions in mind. I found  some very chatty fences, indeed. Nanaimo seems to attract them.

This fence winked at me and said "I've got a secret." In my travels, I was surprised at how few such fences I saw.

Much more common were fences like this one on the left, which yawned, scratched itself, and inquired, "Are you as bored as I am?"

Not far from the secretive fence was another that intrigued me. I kept hearing a small voice say "Help!" and when I followed the voice, I found this a poor, overburdened metal fence peeking out from behind some very pushy plants. There wasn't anything I could do for the poor fence except take its photo and try to publicize its plight.

I was still wondering about the real purpose of all this fencing when I came across this example, which is more of a psychological barrier than a physical one. It appears to be reminding drivers that the parking lot really doesn't go on forever, but it's doing so in the most subtle manner. Just in case, though, it changed its approach at one point and started saying "Harrumph!" in case drivers didn't get the rocky hint.

One kind of fence that appears frequently in Nanaimo is what I call the Chia Fence. Like all things chia, it requires a lot of TLC in order to look its best., and it does tend to be rather a bully (see the "Help!" fence above.)

This next fence made me sad. It just stood there, weakly, moaning "I'm so confused!"

Yesterday, I went to Qualicum with Jane, to raid the consignment store. While we were there, I saw one fence that I simply had to include in this collection, because it was too good to resist. I don't know whether it had anything to say or not. If so, I couldn't hear it over all the caterwauling.


As to the last question I posed - do good fences really make good neighbours, or do they simply isolate us?  Generally, I think they tend to isolate us, create artificial barriers to symbolize the emotional and psychological isolation we feel and, for whatever reason, want to protect. I am not prepared to say that we should take down all the fences, but I would like to see some of them, the really tall ones, replaced by fences over which we could see - peek, if you will - at our neighbours, and they could peek back. Maybe that would help us to understand each other.

I just came across this YouTube video that seemed to fit the theme. It may be naive, but it's something to be hoped for - that someday we may not need all these fences.

Friday Photo Shootout - Under Construction

Thanks to Gordon for this week's prompt. For more FPS posts, click on the big black camera on my sidebar.

Under construction in these photos:

1. People

2. Imaginary architecture

3. Family memories

We spent a belated Christmas in Vancouver, mostly with the grandbabies. We carried our gifts along - not too many, as the young family is in danger of outgrowing its very tall house just because of the number of toys they have. We bought books for the children - Tin Tin books from my husband, Fancy Nancy and Green Eggs and Ham from me. I suffer from an irrational fear that our grandchildren will grow up to have USB ports surgically implanted (in their jaws, maybe?) and never know the pleasure of holding a real book. I was pleased to see their mom reading to them -- and to see that the books we brought along weren't the only ones they owned. (I knew that. Really I did. It's just that  electronic toys and learning tools are ubiquitous now. It's not that I feared their parents wouldn't provide books, but I was afraid that books might not be able to compete with the flashy new technology for the children's attention. Never fear. Books still work their magic.)

But the #1 hit present of the season was this one:

It consists of a bench in which there are eight holes and eight brightly coloured pegs that fit into the holes - and there is a mallet.  In a fit of gender bias, I bought Jasper a hard hat and the workbench - which, by the way, became known immediately as Bang-Bang. What happened was that Jasper played with it, Jasmine set aside her princess dress-up stuff to play with it, their mother and father and uncle played with it...Well, you get the picture. Everybody loved playing with the Bang-Bang.

The adults also had a wonderful time watching the children play Bang-Bang and seeing (particularly little Jasper's) eye-hand co-ordination improving as we watched.  Of course, for all the banging, no actual structure got built, but in the imagination of the children, it seemed whole cities grew right there on the playroom floor.

Mostly, though, what was built was one of those memories that make parents and grandparents go all soft around the eyes, the kind that will be revisited again and again over the years.

Friday Photo Shootout - Weather

I went to the Friday Photo Shootout site to make an announcement. I wanted to confess/complain that when I was taking photos at the Christmas party the other night, my camera started making a strange sound. Let's see. It was something like this:  "Erk. Erk. Erk. Erk. Erk."  Whenever I turned the camera on or off, that's what it would say. My friend Jane, who was also at the party, suggested that perhaps I should stop turning the camera on and off, because I might be exacerbating the problem by doing so, That made sense. I turned the camera off, and I haven't turned it on since. The problem seems to involve the mechanism for poking the lens unit out of the front of the camera. I guess this is when I say"Drat! I did not buy the extended warranty."

So the upshot of this is that I don't have a camera anymore, at least not for the moment. That makes posting to FFS more than a little problematic.

Then I noticed that I did in fact have a weather-related photo in my archives. Ta-da! The weather that I photographed is not the weather we have today, but it is weather. Rainy weather, to be exact - the kind of weather we expect to have here on Vancouver Island in the winter. What we actually have is freezing weather. I would like the rain back, please. And the warmth to go with it.

Anyway, it was a stroke of good luck to find a weather-related photo, but unless it happens that the FFS topics for the next few weeks happen to fit the contents of my archive, I shall be Photoless in Blogland. I shall try to either repair or replace my camera before I head to Hawaii in mid-January, because I have a feeling I'm going to want to take a picture or two when I'm there. ;>)

To see more Friday Photo Shootout posts, please click on the big black camera on my sidebar.

Friday Photo Shootout, with 59 minutes to go.

The photo on the left shows the  Rocksalt Anthology group, who read their poems at the Poetry Gabriola Festival last week. I borrowed (?) the picture from Facebook, where Kim Goldberg (that's she at the front of the photo) had posted it. Such happy faces. This week's topic, Faces and Smiles, was suggested by Sarah.  For more Friday Photo Shootout posts, just click on the big camera in my sidebar.

And the 59 minutes? That's how long I have to wait before my ferry leaves. I came went to Vancouver today - on the 8:30 a.m. ferry) to visit my son, this being his day off, but I wanted to get back to Nanaimo in time to do WordStorm (remember WordStorm?) We decided I would have to catch the 3 pm ferry, which would get into Nanaimo at 4:35, lots of time to go home and have supper and then go to WordStorm for 6:30. However, by time I came by ferry to Horseshoe Bay, caught the bus downtown, and then caught another bus to where my son lives, we only had an hour and a half to spend together before I had to do the route in reverse. I could live with that. We went  to a Thai restaurant for lunch and spent an hour catching up on each other's lives, but then it turned out that the bus going back downtown was re-routed due to construction, so I got to the connecting bus stop three minutes too late to make my 2:07 connection to Horseshoe Bay. The next bus (the 2:20) was five minutes late, and in the end I got to the ferry terminal at precisely 3:00 p.m., ten minutes too late to catch the ferry (they cut off ticket sales 10 minutes before sailing.) So here I sit, enjoying an Americano at the Blenz coffee shop, watching for my 5 o'clock ferry to come in, reading Margaret Atwood, trying not to be too annoyed about being here when I could just as easily have hung around with my son for a couple of hours more. Okay, an hour more.

I sent a Facebook message to David Fraser, my connection at WordStorm, explaining my situation and asking whether, if I don't get to the theatre until 7 o'clock, I might still take part in the open mic (which doesn't actually start until then). Then I scrolled down a little on his page and saw that on the 22nd, he was sending messages from Mazatlan. Hmmmm. So I sent a p.s. that read "Never Mind." If he has returned to Nanaimo, I hope he'll find my message before he goes to WordStorm. If not, I'll just have to take my chances. I do have the poem in my bag, so I can have Robin pick me up at the ferry and drop me off at the theatre without going home first.

All this is to let those of you who don't live on islands know that once in a while, the situation is less than idyllic. ;>) - especially if you don't organize very well.


Oh, and this means I'll be having ferry food for dinner, folks. Pray for me.

Later:  Well, the boat ran half an hour late, so I didn't get to read my poem, but I did tell my sad story to the emcee, who suggested that I get on the list for January, as there will be no WordStorm in December. I told her I would be in Hawaii in January, so we settled on February. Then I sat down and listened to the poets and musicians  - first, the open mic folks, and then the three featured performers. They were all very good, all very different. Speaking of faces and smiles -This is Dinah D,the last of the featured performers, who made me laugh so hard that my stomach hurt. She lives on Gabriola Island. I think I have to move to Gabriola.

Day 19, AND Friday Photo Shootout - The Double Whammy

By a stroke of good fortune, this week's theme at the Shootout is "My Town's Premier Attraction" - The theme was assigned by Kent. (Thank you, Kent. You are a lifesaver.) As it happens, I do have some photos of Nanaimo's premier attraction, which is our beautiful harbour. Thus, without actually taking - or having - the time to go out and shoot a photograph, I can contribute one (several, actually)  to the shootout, thus retaining my membership in the gang. At least, I hope so.

This is a photo of the harbour as seen from the dock where our float planes load and unload. There are two airlines operating out of downtown Nanaimo, so watching the planes come and go is a popular pastime. 

There are usually some people standing along the railings, watching the planes, but the day that the Snowbirds, the Canadian Forces Demonstration Team, came to town, our gangly, overgrown adolescent of a city turned into a small town again, just for the day, as hundreds of people lined the docks, oohing and aahing and shooting pictures. I had a great time, and it looked as if everyone else did, too.

I did take pictures of the Snowbirds, but I kept being distracted by the play of light on the water, so my camera ended up filled with shots like this one.  In fact, even when there is no special occasion, I find it impossible to walk along the waterfront without stopping to take photos. I always seem to find something interesting to look at. Sometimes it is something new, but not always. I love it when something familiar, seen in a different light, becomes newly fascinating.

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I have been playing hooky from Friday Photo Shootout and from Theme Thursday, as well, devoting my time to NaNoWriMo and neglecting some of my favourite theme posts - neglecting, as well, my visits to bloggy friends. As NaNoWriMo winds down, I look forward to returning to my familiar haunts.

Not that the project is finished.  I still have over 12,000 words to write, but the task does not seem nearly so daunting now as it did at the beginning of the month. I hope to finish my 50,000 words by next week at this time.

Now, my next confession - and my last for the evening, I promise. Remember that I said I was going to be very brave and read my poem at WordStorm tonight?  Well, this is what happened. I was held over at work, so I didn't even get home until 6:10 p.m., and WordStorm starts at 6:30.  I threw a Weight Watchers dinner into the microwave, printed a copy of my poem (the original, by the way), ate my dinner, brushed my teeth, and rushed back out into the storm - the rainstorm, I mean. It was ugly out there.  I drove to the theatre where WordStorm is held, parked the car - which was easier than I expected. I was able to park only a few feet from the door - locked it, and walked over to the theatre door, which was locked. Oh, dear. I rang the bell. Nobody answered. I walked down the street a bit, to make sure I hadn't gone to the wrong door. No, it was the right place. I knocked on the door. Nobody answered.

This is what I thought:  Hey, I'm only five minutes late. Surely they haven't locked the door on purpose. The readings don't actually start until seven, and people are always wandering in, even after they start. This must be a mistake. Someone must have locked the door by mistake, and nobody has figured it out yet.  Phew. I'm glad I figured it out. I'll go home and find a phone number to call, and I'll explain what has happened, and then I'll come back and somebody will let me in.

So I came home. I turned my computer on and found the website where WordStorm events are announced.  Look!  See? WordStorm is now held on the fourth Thursday of the month - the WHAT? The fourth Thursday of the month. That's next Thursday. A few hours ago, I would have sworn that WordStorm was held on the third Thursday of the month. Obviously, I would have been wrong. I was wrong. I was all dressed up, with no place to go.

(This is the end of the confession.)

If my time were my own, and not given over to the whim of my muses, I would take advantage of my dressed-uppedness by heading straight to TFE's poteen party, but I have some writing to do, so I've changed into my official Writing Pajamas, and I am even now thinking of donning my Hat for Conjuring Stories and my sandara goddess of the written word wig. Yes, that's what I'll do. Good night, bloggy friends.

p.s.  Oops! I forgot to say - If you click on the big black camera over there on the sidebar, you will be magically transported to the Friday Photo Shootout site, from which you can reach all the other Shootout blogs.

p.p.s. It's 12:41 a.m. now. I started to write, and I sort of got carried away. 2,626 words tonight, 40,001 to date. 9,999 to go. Hot damn!

Friday Photo Shootout -- Park Landscapes

We have been under water for several days, but for a while this afternoon, the sun came out, and I took the opportunity to snap a few photos in Bowen Park, which is right in downtown Nanaimo.  As you can see, Bowen Park is well-treed, but it also has many other attractions. At one end of the park there is a soccer field. At the other end is the Curling Club. Within the park there are tennis courts,

an outdoor swimming pool,

children's playground equipment, and a lovely bowling green, where white-clad bowlers may be seen cavorting on summer days.

There is a very popular seniors' recreation centre next to the bowling green.

Farther inside the park, there used to be a group of totem poles. I tried to find them today, but they had disappeared. It turns out that they were rotting and considered a safety hazard, so they have been removed. Timing is everything. I wish I had taken photos of them before they were pulled down.


There is still the duck pond, though, near where the totem poles were, and now there appears to be a fountain that I don't remember.

I don't remember this bridge, either. I suspect it's been a long time since I took a walk in Bowen  Park. Thanks to JarieLyn for this assignment. For more Friday Photo Shootout posts, just click on the camera in my sidebar.

Friday Photo Shootout - Classics of Childhood

I've been thinking a lot today about this assignment. I do have a photo for you -- that's my granddaughter getting ready to follow her brother down the slide at Maffeo Sutton Park. The slide, the jungle gym, the swings, the carousel -- all the elements of a child's playground are classics -- even the modern, fancified, brightly-coloured fancies that I see in modern playgrounds.  As a child,

I loved all the playground equipment, but for me the highlight of the playground was the swing. I would swing and sing, swing and sing.

There was another classic of my childhood that I simply must mention. I don't have any photographs from those days, but I found this clip at You Tube. By the way, I should issue a warning. This episode contains a clown! Viewer discretion is advised.

Friday Photo Shootout - Sunrises and Sunsets

Easier said than done. I went out with good intentions yesterday morning, prepared to photograph one of our lovely island sunrises. It was dark outside, and there was a crescent moon. Time passed. I waited. Eventually, I found that I could see the world around me. That was it. It was daytime. Somehow, we went from night to day without passing through sunrise along the way. The problem is, the monsoon is upon us. If it isn't raining, it's just stopped raining, or else it is about to rain. The sun, for all its power, cannot compete with the mist. I wondered whether things might improve in time for sunset, but I didn't have much hope - so instead, I went on a hunting expedition in my holiday photos, and sure enough, I found a sunset that I photographed at one of my homes away from home. This shot is from beautiful Zihuantanejo in Guerrero, Mexico. If you click on the Wiki article, you'll see that they have posted a sunset shot too, but I like mine better. ;>)


For more Friday Photo Shootout posts, just click on the big camera on my sidebar. I'm sure the sun rose somewhere - just not here.

Friday Photo Shootout - Silhouette

When I first moved to Nanaimo, we had a mayor by the name of Frank Ney. Frank was quite a character.Among other things, he was the man who organized the first Great Bathtub Race. He was a controversial man. I didn't agree with his politics, but I remember him fondly as Black Frank, our Pirate Mayor. Recently, the city erected a statue of Frank Ney, dressed in his pirate costume, in Maffeo Sutton Park.

A couple of weeks ago, our grandchildren were here for a visit. On our way out to dinner, we stopped in Maffeo Sutton Park to play, and I took lots of pictures - including this photo of Frank Ney's statue.

Don't I live in an interesting town?

Friday Photo Shootout - all about a building



Well, several buildings. When I visited my sister Gracie in Casper, Wyoming this summer, we visited a few of the local places of interest. The first was Fort Caspar (or Fort Casper, depending on who's writing). The 19th century fort has been preserved as a museum. The display consists of log buildings - barracks, mostly -







and the stables,



as well as a group of tepees



and a section of bridge.













Oh - and there was a covered wagon.







Altogether, the folks who look after the museum have made Fort Caspar look like rather a cozy place, but I suspect that the men who lived there didn't find it so. I meant to post these photos way back in July, when the visit was fresh in my mind, but time flew, and I missed my cue, so I'm glad that this subject came up at Friday Photo Shootout. This week's topic was assigned by the Town Blogger Team. You will find more photo shoots right here.

Friday Photo Shootout - My Favourite Place to Walk

You know where that is, don't you? It's on the Parkway Walkway. It must be my favourite, because I just keep going back there, although there is no shortage of places to walk in and near Nanaimo. This post is a nostalgic look back at this season's scenery.

First of all, I love the seasonal display of flowers on the walkway - and the fact that I don't have to look after them. Like Topsy, they just grow.

I took this first photo on May 18 of this year.




By June 3, the scenery had changed. It was brilliant.



And by August 4, the landscape had begun to dry out.



Nonetheless, the pathway still had its attractions, both visual





and culinary.



I know that the time is coming when the walkway will be wet and chilly and perhaps even icy (though I sincerely hope to be walking somewhere else, if and when that happens). But I also know that when Spring comes around again, the beauty of the walkway will be there to enjoy again, and I'm very glad of that.

Thanks to Cindy for this week's assignment. For more Friday Photo Shootout posts, just click on the big camera on my sidebar.

Friday Photo Shootout - Domesticated

Or not. I went out this morning to take my super-duper knock-it-out-of-the-park photo, the one I'd been looking forward to. I drove over to the Parkway walkway and walked up to the farm where the alpacas live. What better than a photo of alpacas? How domesticated can you get?

Ah, the best laid plans of mice and men and me. No alpacas to be seen, anywhere. Okay. I would just take photos of some of the rabbits that live nearby, the ones who used to be domesticated (or whose not-too-remote ancestors used to be domesticated) but who now live in a semi-wild state along the walkway. Semi-wild is like semi-domesticated, right?

No rabbits. Not one. The place is positively teeming with them, but they were all hiding in their burrows, snickering and shushing one another and saying "Don't make a sound, Flopsy!" and snickering some more.

Fine. If that's the way they're going to be. I had a look in my camera to see whether I had any suitable photos already, but the only animal on the chip was this one.

Definitely not domesticated.

I packed the camera along for the day, figuring that somewhere along the line, surely, I would come across a domesticated animal. And in the middle of the afternoon, I did. I met Annie.



Isn't she pretty? Annie is eleven years old, and she lives somewhere in the north end of Nanaimo - or so I assume, as that's where I met her. She was enjoying a personal stop outside the mall. Her man told me that he and his wife adopted Annie four years ago. When she first arrived, apparently she said something like "All your furnitures are belong to me!" and wouldn't listen to reason, but now, after a great deal of retraining, she is quite domesticated, and her people have their furniture back. Annie is a Border Collie/Shepherd cross, so she has a lot of intelligence going for her. When I told her people that I wanted to photograph Annie for my blog, they asked how they could find the photo online, so I gave them my card. I hope they find their way to The Turtle. They - and Annie, of course, made my day. As such, I'll end with a song in Annie's honour.



For more Friday Photo Shootout posts, just click on the big camera on my sidebar.