Just trying to blend in.
Category: iPHONEOGRAPHY
The world according to iPhone
LONGING
When north, south, east and west conspire in the reminder that beauty in nature is timeless.NOT ONLY YOU
Everyone else is making so much noise our own fake news is lost in the shuffle.
PICKING PIXELS
Some days it’s just jumping through hoops and rearranging blocks.
SWEET SALTY CREAMY SAVOURY GOODNESS
Some days you just don’t want to sit down to a large plate of anything – out with Miss Z on a sunny afternoon we opted for a little bit of everything: fresh guacamole with house nachos, sweet potato fries with coriander and chipotle mayo, a double fudge brownie with vanilla ice cream and, of course, a refreshing cocktail – a tall glass of Mezcal with lime and muddled strawberries. Yum.
CHASING CONCRETE
Making simple a mandate but forgetting that eventually someone is going to have to change bulbs 35 feet up…
VERY BERRY TART
A spur-of-the-moment chocolate almond garden berry tart – because pie is good anytime. What is your favourite pie?
FLOW
When all the world is free for the creating with the swipe of a finger.
EVERYTHING IN ITS PLACE
It’s not always as simple as it seems.
LOOKING FOR JULY
The Farmer’s Almanac weather forecast for July in my region reads much like my biorhythm looks, all ups and downs, intense highs punctuated by icy lows, and long, lingering periods where much reaches some sort of tepid plateau. Here’s wishing for more temperate climes.
CALL ME WHEN YOU HAVE A MINUTE
Someone’s been busy.
STEPPING UP
That teetering point between getting something concrete accomplished and actually moving forward.
AWOKEN BY THE SMELL OF RAIN
Being a heavy sleeper has its advantages when the Professor and our pup get up pre-dawn for their daily constitutional but lately it has been the sound of thunder and sudden torrential downpours rather than any absence of warm bodies in bed that have signalled to my unconsciousness that another day has begun. This unusually cool spell has meant we have been lucky enough to be able to open the windows at night and this morning’s reveille of raindrops was a sweetly clean yet heady fragrance reminiscent of simpler times.
WHEN IN DOUBT, BAKE BREAD
More grey skies and cold winds wreaking havoc with my sad garden and cloudy mood. Best to limit indoor activities that lift our spirits and remind us that it is the simpler things in life that sustain us.
Urban Autumn
I am ready
to say goodbye
to fall finery
and let the frost
of winter
kiss the dead and decaying
goodnight
SoMe Sky
I’ve run across alot of people recently who are just worn down, exhausted and overwhelmed by information and social media. Is disconnection and a realignment of hands-on priorities the solution or just a few days in a warm climate dipping our toes in the surf? A change is as good as a rest…
Help Yourself
Experimenting with a cauliflower crust yielded some tasty results. What is your favourite pizza?
Think on your Feet
In these days where much seems orchestrated, improvisation should be a welcomed part of our required skill set.
Gimme Shelter
Hope the roof on this baby wasn’t built by the same contractor who installed the one on the Olympic Stadium 
I really wish local government would get with the program and accept that not all tourists to our fair city are francophone: Such a great PS installation should at least be bilingual and then everyone could go home and say they saw the world’s largest 
and not wonder what that was all about.
Vic Modus Operandi
He treated her like vinyl
fell in love at first sight
with the bold colour
and sleek lines
hot and cold
against
the story of his skin
then left
no motive
roadside
Road Trip
‘Tis the season to wax nostalgic – this one is dedicated to my maternal grandparents and their annual journey across the Painted Desert during a time when not many thought doing such things prudent.
Life imitates Art imitates Art imitates Life
I’m always fascinated by the elements that make up some of the larger murals splashed around Montreal. In this three-story high piece, there’s a very literate and informed conversation going on between artist and viewer but I’m not actually sure how many people are picking up the thread, how many passers-by are aware of the references (age, interest and culture probably being a deciding factor) and how such iconic images are woven together in a greater commentary.
Walk on by or stop and think about it for awhile.
The same but different
Take joy in diversity : Recognize similitude : Create harmony
Millefiori Cobalto
There is a part of my brain where all the blue is stored; I like to think that it makes itself useful once in a while…
Now and Always
Strive for Liberty, practice Equality, extend Fraternity.
Our prayers go out to all those who suffer – everywhere.
Carrying on a fine Tradition
On a recent arrival home from some time away, one of the first things I noticed was an arrangement of decorative seasonal gourds on the dining room table. Miss Z was following in my footsteps, discovering the joys of the local market and had brought home a colourful harvest for the family to share. Each one is unique and riotous in its markings, much like our tribe, and worthy of joining the painterly edits that I have been amassing over the last few years.
This particular edit brought to mind a post about the etiquette of food photography where the ongoing conversations in the comments had led to much reflection on how I wound up with so many shots of ordinary fruit and veg in my own archives.
Twenty odd years ago as my son and I were zooming up a street, I saw a kid outside of his garage selling large canvases of close-ups of the most magnificent mangoes and plums, odd veg and seafood in the most brilliant colours and rendered in an energetic impressionist style. It was just that flash of something extraordinary that made me pull up the car and go and have a look – I should have bought them right then and there, but could ill afford it and so I went to visit his other works in a few cafes and a gallery, later looked for his stuff online, googled them years after and always regretted not having deprived myself of something else to have been able to look upon that luscious fruit every day.
It marked me in much the same way that Wayne Thiebaud had an influence on how I see the ordinary. It is that driving need to tell the story of the very basic stuff of life, the things that go unnoticed, the colours and shapes we ignore in the busyness of it all – that is what keeps me taking food photos. Photography is all about the way we transform what we see so that we can give others a glimpse and get them thinking, remembering, wondering, engaging and even taking part in keeping the creative process dynamic.
So yes, I do take pictures of my food: I can revel in them at will, remember exactly what I was thinking or doing, ascribe circumstance or tradition, have them stand out as markers in that timeline of life. They are mine… and now they are yours.
Two Cents Tuesday Challenge: Improvise
Don’t judge a book by its cover
Someone on another social media site recently said that when they were in their teens being twenty-something meant joining the ranks of adulthood (choke) but now that they were in their 20s it was pretty much alot of flailing about looking for food. I’m not actually sure that ever changes – the arm-spinning, whirlwind chaos of being, I mean. It seems that no matter how much knowledge we amass, how much life experience, on-the-job-training, travel and leisure put it in the scrapbook, document that memory stuff we cram into our brains, we are just basically winging it.
Are we that far removed from our dawn-of-time ancestors? Not really. Some of our best solutions come when we have to think fast, on the run, now or never: not so different from figuring out which end of the mastodon is going to be the least dangerous when your spear is broken and Erg has run for the hills with a panic attack.
Life can often be one big improv scene and the things it throws at us aren’t always solved with tried and true remedies or by the book formulas. Take a chance. Play. Listen. Learn by doing something new.
The Two Cents Tuesday Challenge suspects that everyone can and does. “How do you jump to it?” – jerry-rig, duct-tape big, blurt out or ponder, ignite or ignore. Feel free to put your two cents about how you Improvise in the comments…
We would love to see your vision.
For all those who are new readers to Across the Bored, here are some guidelines for the challenge: HOW DOES THIS WORK?
- I will post some commentary on a random topic that pops into my head (such as the above) and then ask you to respond on the same.
- Your point of view on the current week’s challenge can take any form: a quote, a motto or saying, an essay, poem or opinion of yours or attributed to someone else, a piece of music, a song, a video, a work of art, photograph, graffiti, drawing or scribble – but it has to be about the topic!
- Please, don’t just link to an old post… challenge yourself.
- ENJOY, have FUN and TELL your friends and fellow bloggers.
SO – Create your Two Cents Tuesday Challenge post
- Then add a link to your blog in my comment box.
- To make it easy for others to check out your post, title your blog post “Two Cents Tuesday Challenge” and add the same as a tag.
- If you would like your reader to see what others are presenting for the same challenge, add a link to the “Two Cents Tuesday” challenge on your own blog.
- Feel free to pick up your badge on the Two Cents Tuesday Challenge page
- Remember to Follow My Blog to get your weekly (hopefully) reminders.
Sunrise Sunset
Glorious is the creator that had the foresight to give us opposable thumbs and the desire to create for ourselves. It’s been awhile since I have posted a mandala, they only come when they want to.
Out of the Earth comes my Pleasure
An acquaintance has a keen eye for produce (among other things) and has been kind enough to encourage my painterly treatment of his photographs. What thrills me the most is that we seem to see the natural in much the same way. This bounty of turnips could not be any more glorious for their story of early mornings, simpler times, hands pulling the harvest from the dark fragrant soil to send to market. When the divine took a brush to this humble vegetable, it was for us to look upon such things with renewed wonder and breathe in with gratitude the overlooked beauty that surrounds us.
Going Nuts
Walking a lovely tree-lined avenue can be a dangerous proposition these days. The squirrels have no appetite for these thorny projectiles and perch high in the branches laughing while pedestrians jump at narrow misses. The ravens, however, are thrilled and gather to pick through the debris for choice bits: those they cannot crack in their bills are dropped from a height to shatter against the sidewalks. I suspect they choose their moments.
ACROSS THE BORED 