Forecast

Forecast, originally uploaded by gawdessness.

There is a winter storm warning for areas not too far from where I live.

I found an echo of that in these intricately cut paper flakes scattered over my friend's coffee table. She had made them with her kids, well they are now all young adults really.

Whenever I am over at her house I am caught by the varying array of relaxed art and I resolve to try and cause a little more of that in my own home.

Canon powershot G5, shutter 1/40, f3.2, focal length 461mm, iso 50.

spring is on the ground

spring is on the ground, originally uploaded by gawdessness.

Even in the house and through closed windows, I could hear birds singing like mad outside.

A definite sign of spring and a great opportunity to finally get some pictures of the feathered fiends.

Grabbing my cameras I headed out to find them - and didn't.

Sure, I could hear them, everywhere - but actually taking pictures of them proved not all that successful.

Instead, I looked down into a huge, still puddle, just as I was about to step in it and pulled back and took a shot of it instead.

Later on I took some of the sunset and some more of bridges but this
ended up being the one I like the best from today.


Canon eos 30d, f5.6, focal length 55mm, 100 iso)

bridgehead

bridgehead, originally uploaded by gawdessness.

On most Wednesday mornings I am lucky enough to see this view at the beginning of my weekly 10k run. (And I see the same view from the other side on my way home.)

Like many prairie folk, I love water and where I live that means river and that means bridges!

(That's right! We got bridges! Bridges! Right here in river city!
See The Music Man 1962 with Robert Preston)

Even better than a river and bridges, are the people I get to run with.
This picture makes me think of them, of how we work out the problems of the world as our feet hit the trails and of how much we laugh.

I am a lucky woman.

And yes, I am feeling better - Thanks for all the good wishes.
I am passing those vibes on to the Dad of one of my running friends.
He is in the hospital, having tests and I am just ever so much hoping for the very best for him.

dr. dachshund

dr. dachshund, originally uploaded by gawdessness.

When I don't feel that good, I still pretty much have to do the things that have to be done and rest a lot in between.

One of our wire haired dachshunds feels it is her personal duty to cuddle with the sick person for the entire day if need be.

It probably confuses her that I sink onto the couch and sleep for an hour or so and then get up, leave the house for a while and then come back and repeat the process.

Tomorrow I hope I feel better.

shutter 1/10, Canon 30d, exp. bias -0.33,18mm focal length, iso 100

rising above

rising above, originally uploaded by gawdessness.

At the park that we go to on Monday afternoons (meeting up with other homeschooly types) - I found an angel among the remains from a snow sculpture competition.

Rising above me and above the damage that had been done to her, by people breaking off pieces and throwing pop on her and by the sun beating down.

(Canon g5, shutter 1/1250, f3.2, exp. bias 0.33, 230mm, iso 50)

apres oscar

apres oscar, originally uploaded by gawdessness.

The golden statuettes have all been handed out, many by golden statuesque women.

(A night of cheese in oh so many ways)

Full gorge ahead and w8 watchers points be damned! Oh and they were.

Take a wheel of brie, cut the top rind off, stick it in an oven proof dish, drizzle with maple syrup and pecan halves and heat until melty. Hack and spoon gooey, sweet, crunchy studded goodness on fresh baguette - eyes will roll back in head and little noises of pleasure will emanate.

Sparkly dress from goodwill, plastic blue prism earrings from the grocery store, gold heels from sale rack at shoe store and nail polish is
"I'm not really a waitress" from OPI.

The guests are gone and my feet are up!

cold light

cold light, originally uploaded by gawdessness.

If we don't put the van in the garage at night right now, we come out to the windows iced up, not just on the outside but on the inside - frozen breath.

Sometimes if we are hurrying or lazy or just don't want to have little ice shavings melting all over the dashboard and ourselves, we don't bother scraping the inside all that carefully.

This picture is what it looks like from the inside, driving into the sun, earlyish on a Saturday morning.


camera Canon Powershot G5, shutter 1/1250th, f7.1,focal length 7.19mm,

What it looks like here

What it looks like here, originally uploaded by gawdessness.

My two younger children and I went and visited a friend on her acreage.

Everything was so visually improbable.

The sky impossibly blue, the pond an opal coloured skating rink dug out of unbelievably deep snow.
Unbelievably it was warm enough to go without a coat for the entire afternoon.

We had an outdoor fire, a hot dog and marshmallow roast. There was skating and sledding and walking through the woods on her ten acres.

My camera was filled with pictures of , cats, dogs, kids, trees, woodpecker excavations, friends, a wild chickadee and even the slightest glimpse of the beginning of pussywillows!

My heart was filled too.

shutter 1/2000, f 4.0, exp.bias -0.3, 28mm

after the red

after the red, originally uploaded by gawdessness.

The other side of the moon eclipse.

It was breath taking and wonderous to behold.

And...frustrating for me to actually figure out how to get the image I want - but I ended up being happy with the process and the varying images.

I spent too much time fruitlessly trying to get flickrtoys to work to make a mosiac of six of the moon shots - and ended up going with my favourite one, very monochromatic seeming after the red stain of earlier.

My other attempts to shoot the moon are here
This monochromatic one is my favourite.

scraping by

scraping by, originally uploaded by gawdessness.

There were three of these on my street and a couple of big dump trucks too.

It is the kind of thing that I imagine people who have grown up in a different climate might find exotic.

Loud and big and yellow and just a little bit thrilling to watch them scrape the packed snow and ice off the road and into so many crumbs.

My oldest daughter said that she really like this shot because of the blur of the tires.

shutter 1/25, f4.0, exp. bias 0.33, 70mm, iso 100

cuppa trickling away

cuppa trickling away, originally uploaded by gawdessness.

There are not many of these paintings left downtown these days.

They were old when I was a kid and that was 25 years ago.
I liked them even then.

This one is for Nabob tea and coffee and is painted on the brick wall of a building that was built in 1911.

Even though they are advertisements, I wish that they could be repainted, fresh and bright, a reminder of our past.

I don't know if that will happen, although I am thinking about checking with the city - until then I am going to try and take pictures of as many of them as possible - in case they are left to flake away.

eos 30d/f5.6/-0.33 exp. bias/260mm/iso 100

caged heart

caged heart, originally uploaded by gawdessness.

There is a skeleton of a building downtown.
It had an elevator with an elaborate ironwork screen that you had to pull across the opening before operating.
There were wood floors and high, high ceilings, clawfoot tubs and built in wooden dressers against magic walls.
Magic, because when you pushed on one side it swivelled around to display a pull down murphy bed.
There was a fire a couple of years ago that destroyed the top floor. Since then it has been sitting, empty and neglected, awaiting something to happen to it.
Scaffolding has been up to protect people who use the sidewalk and art is happening along it.

EOS 30D, shutter 1/25, f4.0,70mm, iso 100

not me

not me, originally uploaded by gawdessness.

yesterday, in the middle of driving around and doing errands, I saw this in a parking lot, pulled in and started takeing pictures.

no one was hurt and there was nothing that I knew to do to help and it was a spectacular show.

shutter 1/20, f32.0, 300mm,iso 100

Love trains

my country, originally uploaded by gawdessness. Please click on to enlarge - blogger crops my photos!

in a very brief moment between dropping the kids off for pottery and going grocery shopping this morning -
I pulled up to the "restricted area" sign near the rail yard, rolled the window down and shot this engine.
A train line ran right behind my Grandmother's house - she who was the refuge of my childhood.
I loved her and I love trains.

shutter 1/200,f9.0, focal length 160mm, iso 100

mitten galaxy

mitten galaxy, originally uploaded by gawdessness.

The snow was the right kind.

I could tell by the way it fell, even through the window.

Tripod, coat, 100mm macro lense - damn, my cable remote shutter release doesn't work on this camera!

Okay, okay...I'll use the timer function -
except that it is so warm out that the tiny stars are starting to melt away before the ten seconds finish.

Argh.

Finally though, with the help of my mitten - I managed to catch a few of the falling stars.

This one was cropped down and I cranked up the contrast a bit.
shutter 1/5, Canon 30d, f9.0, 100mm,

Six Hearts

Same rose. Different exposures.
Happy Valentine's Day.

pompom

pompom, originally uploaded by gawdessness.

This is the one my oldest daughter likes best from my recent efforts.
So here it is for her.

From an arrangement that was sitting on a reception desk in an office I had an appointment in.

Tomorrow I will try and have a heart motif going on.

30d/50mm/shutter 1/80, f1.8, iso 320

after hours

after hours, originally uploaded by gawdessness.

Whew.
This was a hard day for me to pick a picture, none of them seemed to stand out.
Especially not the ones that I thought might be "it".

Going through them again, this is the one that spoke to me.

Reminding me to remember all the work that has to go one behind the scenes and the people that have to do it.

That I shouldn't take for granted a clean building or a happy person - there is always a lot more going on that I can't see.

underpants with glasses

underpants with glasses, originally uploaded by gawdessness.

It is true that new underwear is a big thrill for me.

Here is photographic proof.

Now, don't get me wrong.
It isn't the kind of thing that I do as a "pick me up" or anything. I don't have that kind of relationship with intimate apparel.

Rather, I don't tend to freshen it up often enough.
Once I was folding laundry and was saddened to notice that the waistband seam had finally given way on my "newest" pair that my Mom had bought me four years before when I was 18.

It isn't always that bad but it is one of those things that I don't think much about either.

This time, I had no choice but to deal with it.

My body has changed shape over the last few years and in particular over the last few months and the stuff I had wasn't even functional anymore.

Here is a small glimpse of what was purchased - all on sale!

None of it matches, but it is all comfortable and fits.

I am particularly pleased with the bright yellow happy bunny underpants - they are so dang cheerful.

My kids are horrified.

cprail

cprail, originally uploaded by gawdessness.

A favourite building, old rail station, now a bar.
Right near where three of my kids take pottery class every weekend
Just my luck to catch a bright red engine passing in front of it.

silvery

silvery, originally uploaded by gawdessness.

Seems to be my time for sky shots!
Really cold here when I took this and the sky so blue that you wouldn't know it by looking.

oddity

oddity, originally uploaded by gawdessness.

At the library yesterday, I noticed this little plastic toy critter sitting in the big round window.

A window that you would definitely need at least a 20 foot ladder to reach.

I don't know why it is there or how it got there, only that I had my camera with me and needed a picture to post.

And, I liked the light blue of the sky too.

touched up

touched up, originally uploaded by gawdessness.

Not really.
This one came straight out of the camera.
For some reason though it makes me think of a fresh hairstyle, new from the salon.

Butter is another thing I think of.

Butter and...
curls and waves,
strawberry blondes and dawn,
old fashioned bathing caps,
thick, clotted cream, like you get for cream tea in England...
with strawberry jam smeared on.

and learning about light.
and my children having to learn not to thump when Mom is taking a long exposure doing macro shots!

Talk about a tangent!

(shutter 2, f7.1, exp.bias (I don't really know what this means yet) 1, 100mm, iso 200)

in his eye

in his eye, originally uploaded by gawdessness.
(rebel xti, shutter 1.8, f2.8, 100mm, iso 200 - using the macro was interesting, getting a kid to hold still even more so, the striations around the pupil are really there, not a trick of the light)

This eye took a fair amount of time to turn brown.

Photographing it today, I realized that brown doesn't begin to describe the colour.

My oldest boy turned 17 yesterday.
For the first chunk of his first year, he looked at the world through dark, slate blue eyes.

He is a good kid.
And precious, as they all should be.

frayed

abraded, originally uploaded by gawdessness.

This is one of those days when self portraiture is not so much an exciting adventure of self discovery but one that is mostly just challenging.

My skin is dry and flushed, my brow furrowed with a headeache and just being run down.j

My hair is unkempt.
Odd how it gets that way when you sleep on it and don't shower or really brush it.

Day 4 of a bug that is going through the family and it is my turn.

Although I didn't want too, I did go out this morning to take my youngest to her play therapy appointment.

That is where this was taken, using the timer.

Oh how I wanted to touch this up, erase some of those lines, make it softer with b&w - but that is not the point of this whole exercise.

shutter 1/4,f 5.0,exposure bias 0.33,43mm,iso 200

flower power

flower power, originally uploaded by gawdessness.

(shutter 4, f 13.0,iso 200, exp. ap. priority, 100mm, exp. bias .33)

It is a little odd to find myself with so many pictures of flowers.

When I first started hankering after a macro lens (Canon 100mm), it wasn't flowers that caught my attention, it was bugs.

At -25C there aren't very many of those skittering about. (Thankfully.)

Blossoms however, are only as far away as our nearest grocery store and they are so damn magical through that lens.

My eye is at the veiwfinder, my hand bringing the petals into focus and suddenly I am plunged headlong into the depths of tulips, daisies, carnations, daffodils and ..... roses.

Ah, roses.
In almost any incarnation, I love them so.

At the house we moved from nearly seven years ago, they were the hardest thing for me to leave behind. I had planted so many different kinds of hardy Canadian strain roses.

The couple who had bought the house were not of the same mind.
"Oh, I hate roses!" the woman exclaimed chirpily, "We'll be sure to rip them all up."

Okay.

My husband brought me a bouquet of the mixed colour ones.
"They are kind of cheap looking." He said apologetically as he handed me the brown paper package.

There was lemon yellow, red tipped white, scarlet edged gold, deepest orange and he was right they were just a bit too gaudy to be upscale.

I didn't tell him I almost cried when I saw them all, or how I hugged them to me and BREATHED them in.

To see far too many more pictures of flowers please click on my Flickring Gawdess link on the right side bar.

Gold Stalks

Gold Stalks, originally uploaded by gawdessness.

Tucked in a corner window at the dutch bakery.

I didn't even see them until we were leaving and actually outside and I was looking at ice melting from an overhead ledge.

So I snapped, quickly and didn't think about it much.
Of all the pictures I took yesterday, it ended up being my favourite.

Piece of Me

pom2, originally uploaded by gawdessness.

In keeping with trying to work harder towards examination and acceptance of my outer self I have joined the 52 weeks self portrait group at flickr. (if you want the link please refresh the page - it is sort of like the 365 portrait group, only lower in picture posting frequency)

Yesterday, quite by chance I caught a reflection of my fingers in the view screen of my second camera.
What a great and easy way to do a little self portrait!
Hah.
It took me a half hour to figure out how to actually get a picture of myself - but, but, but...
when I did, I had already learned some things about light, focus and relection.
Now all I need to do is remember it.

Liquid glass and low light experiments

The picture that is my one of the day is this one.
A picture of pitchers, if you will.
It is the one I took a the end of the evening, at the Lebanese restaurant, while waiting for my delicious chicken shwarma. (shutter 1/125, f1.8, 50mm, iso400)


At the very beginning of the being out and about I took this picture of the government building.
This is one of my very, very favourite landmarks, not too far away from the large, iron bridge of yesterday. I stepped out of the passenger side of the Smart car, then leaned my heavily winter coated self on it for stability and tried for this shot. I was astonished and squeaked with joy that it worked out the way it did. (shutter 1/15, f1.8, 50mm,iso 400)



This one, is from the middle, after our appointment and before our dinner, and I was shivering too much to take the clear shot of the silver gray branches against the night sky but I ended up loving the painting with light effect that I think I got. (shutter 1.3, f1.8, 50mm, iso 400)