The Book Thief

If you haven't already seen this movie, run, don't walk to the nearest movie theatre - it's wonderful!

Farewell to a Hero

Powerful lessons 

learned from this man who set an

example for all.

Rest in peace, Nelson Mandela.

1918 - 2013

Haiku My Heart
hosted by recuerda mi corazon

A Day To Pretend

It was such a lovely, mild day today when I went out for lunch, I had to take a picture. I was walking to my car and turned around just in time to catch this image of the sun peeking out behind the clouds over my office building. 

Now, whenever I look at this photo over the next few months, I will be reminded of this mild day in early December when the temperature was 15 degrees Celsius and we could pretend winter wasn't just around the corner for just one more day. 

Swimming as Meditation

I took myself for a swim after work tonight.  It was the second time in about 10 days that I have been in the pool in our building for several months.  The pool had been closed for a good part of the spring while various repairs were being made (none of which I could identify tonight) and then it was summer, when the kids are out of school and can be found in the water at any time of the day or early evening.  Even though a refreshing swim would be lovely on a hot summer's evening, I tend to avoid the pool during that season.

You see, I prefer to have the pool all to myself if possible.

I like it best when it's just me and the quiet sound of the water lapping against the edge of the pool. Surprisingly enough, it's not that hard to arrange.  It's not guaranteed that my after work, early evening swims will be solo but when it does happen, it's bliss.

Last week, I had the pool to myself for the first ten minutes and then two women arrived and proceeded to have a very chatty swim, with more talk than movement.  That's the kind of thing that I find annoying.  I also don't like sharing the pool with anyone who is doing vigorous laps, the kind that kick up big waves in our small chunk of water.  Swimming with kids, whether or not they are there with their parents, nooooo thank you!

When it's just me, and all is calm and quiet, it's almost like meditation to me.  I can move as slow or as quickly as I'd like.  I can swim laps or tread water. I can do stretches and walk or run back and forth from side to side to kick up the aerobic factor.  I can exercise my body and soothe my mind after a busy and/or stressful day.  I can soak up the warm water until the tips of my fingers get all wrinkly.  I can imagine myself floating under a sunny or starry sky.  I can pretend I'm at the lake or swimming in the pool in the backyard of my imaginary dream home (one I'd like decorated by my friend, Jeanne Oliver - check out how she has her place done up for Christmas here. I love it!)

William Wilson wrote in the 1883 book, "The Swimming Instructor": "The experienced swimmer, when in the water, may be classed among the happiest of mortals in the happiest of moods, and in the most complete enjoyment of the happiest of exercises."  When I am enjoying the pleasure of swimming alone, I have no trouble believing this to be absolutely true.

Graffiti in Paris

My friend Kate McKinnon just got home from spending several weeks in Barcelona. While she was there, she posted several pictures of the street art and graffiti she found there.  You can view her album by clicking here.  The majority of the images she posted are absolutely amazing, and made me think of the graffiti I saw in Paris, some of which doesn't even begin to compare, like this very primitive, simplistic one:

Most involved more skill and talent.  Some were what I would call "cartoon graffiti":

Others appealed to me because they looked like something I could sketch, like these:

The graffiti wasn't always to be found on walls, a number of Parisian trucks seemed to have been decorated by very talented painters:

I enjoyed these ones made by the artist known as "Miss Tic":

You can see more examples of her art here.

These were some of my favourites:

I enjoyed discovering these various images out and about in Paris.  The best part was the way you would just come around a corner or look up and the image would just be there in front of you, unexpectedly, delightfully, in a variety of styles, some colourful, some black and white, all intriguing.

Something's Happening

Things have started happening on the green space in front of the apartment building where I live.  The sign announcing the arrival of future townhomes has been in place for some time now

and they've started building a very large hole on the property next door but until last week, when they started to build boxes around the existing trees, it looked like work on this side of the street might not happen until next year.

That all changed this past Saturday morning, when I could hear some banging and clattering going on just after 8 a.m.  Looked out and saw these vehicles parked on the street.

They removed a tree to make room for the vehicles to drive back and forth to the edge of the road.

A little later, a red box appeared

and they started unloading large cement pipes.

Then a metal orange box was placed beside the red one.

By 10:30 a.m., all activity had stopped and everyone had left.  Nothing more happened until after 2 p.m., when more pipes were delivered and unloaded.  Another large Tonka truck had also appeared.

Here's the butt shot!

I didn't think anything more happened after that but yesterday,  I noticed a tiered structure had been set up on the right hand side.

They were at it again first thing this morning, just after 6 a.m., while it was still dark!  By the time it got light enough for me to see what was going on, truck loads of dirt had just been delivered and were being spread around.

The green plastic pipes were new too.

Of course, I had to go in to work today so I wasn't able to keep track of what went on today and now I have to wait until it's light tomorrow morning to see what's new!

In Search of Colour

I've been flipping through the delicious pages of this book by Nichole Robertson:

which inspired me to take myself out for a walk this afternoon looking for colour, seeing as it was such a grey day otherwise. I found plenty.

A red plastic party cup, just outside the front door of my building (the same sort of cup into which they will pour your margarita in San Miguel de Allende, if you wanted to take it for a walk, say, from one bar to the next.  Or so Jeanne discovered.  "There are no rules in Mexico!")

These orange markings on the sidewalk (perhaps directly me to buy a lottery ticket for $5 million?)

were positioned very near to these orange constructions cones lined up on my street (I'm worried about what they are going to be used for and when!)

This snazzy yellow sportscar, which is probably about to be tucked away in that garage for the winter:

A splash of turquoise paint on this water pipe cap:

and a paler turquoise on these discarded cupboards/bookshelves:

Green was part of this strange still life on the bench in the bus shelter, made up of a dirty cleaning rag, a wand from a lip gloss and a whole bunch of empty Freezie wrappers.  What kind of weird collection of stuff is that??

Fluffy grey squirrels were the only other living things I saw on my walk today (I'm guessing the damp weather was keeping most of the humans indoors) but I did see one or two black squirrels as well, all of whom were busy collecting food - although this one appeared to be checking out the Christmas light installation.

White paint left a funky design on this lamppost:

And last but not least, these brown and white snowballs from earlier this week, left behind in a schoolyard when the snow melted.

Okay, I admit it wasn't as exciting as looking for colourful items on the streets of Paris but on the plus side, it felt more like early spring today, and that's a good thing for the first of December!