Photographers at play

Do you know Kym? She’s one of those warm, energetic people that you feel you’ve known your whole life within 10 seconds of meeting her, the kind of fascinating person you want to sit and chat with for hours about everything, because the conversation jumps crazily from topic to topic with a happy randomness of intersecting experience.

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She’s also the author of Relishing.ca, and for the last year or so she’s been working on a 100 Strangers project with a lot more vigour and enthusiasm than I was pursing mine! (She’s done 67, I’ve done 6. She meets people, gets to know them, and tells a full story in words and pictures for each person she meets where I chat, snap a picture or two, and am done.) In her own words, ‘It’s about style, but not just style. It’s also about telling the story of Ottawa’s people right off the streets of Ottawa herself. This town is more than meets the eye. Over the next several months I want to meet, talk to, and photograph 100 strangers. Pictures will tell one story. People will inspire the other.’

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Can you see why I wanted to be a part of her project? So when Kym asked on Twitter if anyone was interested in playing along, I finally found the courage I’d been seeking for months as I’ve been following Kym’s project and said, “Pick me!”

And then Justin butted in. Do you know Justin?

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Justin is a very clever and talented wedding and portrait photographer, but I’d never admit that out loud cuz he’s also a bit of a pest in a little brother sort of way. He’s the antithesis of me as far as photographic style is concerned — he’s methodical where I’m random, strobist to my love of natural light, and sets shots up rather than shooting what he comes across.

When I said, “Pick me!” to Kym on Twitter, Justin piped up and said, “No, pick ME!” in typically annoying Justin fashion. Things denigrated into poking, hair pulling and tit punching, in a twittery kind of way, and there was talk of a cage match. In the end, we decided a big photographic playdate would be in order.

Do you know Younes?

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Younes is a friend of Kym and Justin, and one of Ottawa’s most respected photographers. I can’t quite tell you how Younes ended up playing with us that night, except I think Justin roped him in so he’d have a ride. And Younes brought Amanda, who was smart enough to stay on the fringes of our little photo bacchanalia in the Arbouretum on a gorgeous spring evening.

The official purpose of our gathering was for Kym and me to meet, so I could participate in Kym’s 100 strangers project, but really, it’s just a lot of fun to get together with people who are as obsessed with your hobby as you are. And as the newest kid on the photographic block, I learned SO much even as we did nothing but bounce around and play like kids in the park. Kids with thousands of dollars worth of photographic equipment, that is.

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(Yeah, I’m pretty sure Justin is shooting Younes’ butt. I didn’t ask.)

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This next one is not my picture, it’s one of Kym’s, but I love it so much I wanted to add it to my post. It’s fascinating to me how different the look and feel of each person’s photographs are. That’s me on the far left, just a second or two before or after I shot the first picture of Justin I posted above.

The Ottawa Arboretum

You can see Kym’s full set on Flickr, and I’ll link up with her 100 strangers post when she posts it.

This next one is one of Justin’s. All of that lighting kit is his — intimidating as hell and a bitch to carry, but I have to tell you, after working playing with Justin and Kym, I’m really going to have to re-think my reluctance to use my flash. Clearly, I am missing out!

Kind of a Big Deal

There’s some more great stuff, including some incredible portraits of Kym, on Justin’s blog. I have to say, I think that their pictures are on the whole better than mine — I still have a lot to learn — but I think I also had the most fun, so I’m okay with that. 🙂

And, if you STILL want more, you can see a few more of mine on Flickr.

Thanks Kym, for being the inspiration for this fun night out in the park. I hope we’re not strangers anymore!

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Project 365: Anticipating summer and sunshine

This was, even by my usual standards, an insanely busy week. It was the kind of week where a saner person might actually put down the camera and say, “Heck, let’s pass on the photos for this week, there’s just too much else going on.” Instead, I continued to snap madly, and just let them pile up on my hard drive, but still managed to pick out a favourite for each day.

The week started out with a bit of an “oops”. I forgot to dial down the ISO when I was shooting this one of Lucas and Beloved, but I worked it until I had recovered it a bit and noticed it had a bit of a vintage vibe, so I played that up.

135:365 Up Daddy!

More cuteness for the sake of cuteness. Forgive me.

139:365 Lucas on the play structure

Lucky for me, the only thing in more abundance than cuteness was nature’s glory, finally blooming after a long, drippy spring. I took these ones with one of those screw-on macro filters. They’re only about $20 for a set of four on eBay, great fun if you want to dabble in macro photography and get a little closer to your subject. These have very little post-processing, aside from creating the diptych in Photoshop.

136:365 Tulip macro dippy

And the same tulips straight on the next day. (You can tell they were taken on different days, because an overcast day makes the colours more even and more saturated like the first shot, whereas the second one is very constrasty with the back-lighting.)

138:365 Tulip trio

Who knew spring had so much fiery orange? It’s ordinarily a colour I associate with autumn, but there’s a lot of it going on in my yard right now. These are the baby leaves on our red maple, just waking up for the season. (Apparently I’ve also got a backlighting theme going on this week!)

141:365 Wake up, little leaves!

This is Kym. I’ll tell you more about her in an upcoming post!

137:365 Relishing

I was really pleased with most – heck, ALL of my pictures this week, but the sentimental favourite gets the last-but-not-least spot. We won a family pass to one of those parking-lot mini-fairs in Barrhaven, thanks to the fine folks at OttawaStart.com, and we enjoyed ourselves quite a bit!

Funfair collage

This one turned out EXACTLY like I’d hoped it would. To replicate this, you’ll need to set your shutter speed to something slow like 1/30 of a second or slower (or if you’re shooting in aperture priority, make your aperture very small. The macro setting on your point-and-shoot might work, too.) I waited until the sun was indirectly falling on him and the most colourful section of the background was behind him, and since we were moving at the same speed relative to each other, the background came out blurred. It’s called panning.

140:365 On the carousel

He may be growing up way too quickly, but he’s not so big he can’t still enjoy the carousel. 🙂

This explains *everything*! I’m an ENFP.

I‘ve spent the last two days in a leadership training course for work, and the main focus of the course was determining your Myers-Briggs personality type and then learning how to take the various personality types into account when developing your leadership style.

I’ve never taken an MBTI assessment before, but I’ve always been curious about them. The idea is based on Jungian theory on cognitive function that attempts to explain how people perceive the world and make decisions. There are 16 basic personality types based on four “dichotomies” and where you fall on the spectrum of each of these pairs: Introversion vs extraversion; sensing vs intuition; thinking vs feeling and judgement vs perception. You can read more about this on the Myers-Briggs Foundation website if you’re curious — it’s fascinating stuff!

When we were doing some exercises ahead of actually taking the personality assessment, I had a very hard time deciding where I sat on most of the dichotomies. I’m the most introverted extravert you’ll ever meet, and rated myself as more introverted. The only dichotomy on which I clearly fell to one side or the other was on the thinking versus feeling spectrum — “When making decisions, do you prefer to first look at logic and consistency or first look at the people and special circumstances?” Um, logic? In decision making? What a concept!

Even after I got my personality type through taking the test, I was waffling. It said I was an ENFP, which means my tendencies are toward extraversion, intuition, feeling and perception: “Warmly enthusiastic and imaginative. See life as full of possibilities. Make connections between events and information very quickly, and confidently proceed based on the patterns they see. Want a lot of affirmation from others, and readily give appreciation and support. Spontaneous and flexible, often rely on their ability to improvise and their verbal fluency.” Okay, so that pretty much sounds accurate, but I still kept flipping through the descriptions, wondering if maybe there was another one that was even more accurate, until I came across one line in the ENFP description that made me laugh: “ENFPs are reluctant to make decisions and commitments and can often appear flighty to others.” Ha! And once I started really reading the description, I couldn’t get over how clearly it described me.

Here’s a couple of the snippets from one site’s description of the ENFP type that made me blush in recognition:

ENFPs are warm, enthusiastic people, typically very bright and full of potential. They live in the world of possibilities, and can become very passionate and excited about things. Their enthusiasm lends them the ability to inspire and motivate others, more so than we see in other types. They can talk their way in or out of anything. They love life, seeing it as a special gift, and strive to make the most out of it.

Most ENFPs have great people skills. They are genuinely warm and interested in people, and place great importance on their inter-personal relationships. ENFPs almost always have a strong need to be liked. Sometimes, especially at a younger age, an ENFP will tend to be “gushy” and insincere, and generally “overdo” in an effort to win acceptance. However, once an ENFP has learned to balance their need to be true to themselves with their need for acceptance, they excel at bringing out the best in others, and are typically well-liked.

Because ENFPs live in the world of exciting possibilities, the details of everyday life are seen as trivial drudgery. They place no importance on detailed, maintenance-type tasks, and will frequently remain oblivous to these types of concerns. When they do have to perform these tasks, they do not enjoy themselves. This is a challenging area of life for most ENFPs, and can be frustrating for ENFP’s family members. (Bwhahaha, remember what I said about housework? OMG, this explains SO much!!)

The gift of gab which they are blessed with makes it naturally easy for them to get what they want. Most ENFPs will not abuse their abilities, because that would not jive with their value systems.

Having an ENFP parent can be a fun-filled experience, but may be stressful at times for children with strong Sensing or Judging tendancies. Such children may see the ENFP parent as inconsistent and difficult to understand, as the children are pulled along in the whirlwind life of the ENFP. Sometimes the ENFP will want to be their child’s best friend, and at other times they will play the parental authoritarian. But ENFPs are always consistent in their value systems, which they will impress on their children above all else, along with a basic joy of living.

ENFPs are basically happy people. They may become unhappy when they are confined to strict schedules or mundane tasks. Consequently, ENFPs work best in situations where they have a lot of flexibility, and where they can work with people and ideas. Many go into business for themselves. They have the ability to be quite productive with little supervision, as long as they are excited about what they’re doing.

Because they are so alert and sensitive, constantly scanning their environments, ENFPs often suffer from muscle tension. They have a strong need to be independent, and resist being controlled or labelled. They need to maintain control over themselves, but they do not believe in controlling others. Their dislike of dependence and suppression extends to others as well as to themselves.

Are you reading this Mom? Are you howling with laughter? So that was interesting, but what absolutely blew me away was another worksheet that listed some of the challenges that an ENFP leader might face in the workplace. I absolutely need to photocopy this for every person in my team, including my boss, and tape it up on my wall and maybe cut and paste it into my next performance evaluation!!

ENFP leaders tend to face the following challenges:

– may not complete what gets started
– has high need for external affirmation
– resists the need to ground their vision in past and present data, and struggle to describe their vision in tangible, specific terms.
– become discouraged by others’ critiques of their vision, even if they are generally supportive
– hesitates to give critical feedback, being reluctant to risk hurting others
– lose credibility with people who expect leaders to provide them with a structure to follow (e.g. roles, clear boundaries, detailed plans)
– leaves responsibility for implementation to others and neglect to follow up, sometimes setting a poor example of being accountable for results (eek! So scary, so true!)
– becomes immobilized by the sheer volume of details that must be handled and lose enthusiasm for an idea

I found this on another website, and again, am blushing in recognition:

For some ENFPs, relationships can be seriously tested by their short attention spans and emotional needs. They are easily intrigued and distracted by new friends and acquaintances, forgetting their older and more familiar emotional ties for long stretches at a time. And the less mature ENFP may need to feel they’re the constant center of attention, to confirm their image of themselves as a wonderful and fascinating person. (You DO find me wonderful and fascinating, right? RIGHT?)

In the workplace, ENFPs are pleasant and friendly, and interact in a positive and creative manner with both their co-workers and the public. ENFPs are also a major asset in brainstorming sessions; follow-through on projects can be a problem, however. ENFPs do get distracted, especially if another interesting issue comes along. They also tend towards procrastination, and dislike performing small, uninteresting tasks. ENFPs are most productive when working in a group with a few Js to handle the details and the deadlines. (Bwhahaha, details? Deadlines? Pffffffft.)

And finally, from another course handout, “nearly all of the problematic characteristics can be attributed to […]the common ENFP problem of wanting to understand and experience everything at all costs.” (Really, this is so elemental to my personality, and I have never realized it until now.) “The main driver to the ENFP personality is Extraverted Intuition, whose purpose is to understand the world as one Big Picture, seeking connections and meaning in everything. If their ability to seek understanding is threatened, the ENFP shuts out the threatening force.” (What’s that, you disagree? Lalala, I can’t hear you!)

I am utterly gobsmacked over this amazing new insight to my own motivations and perceptions. So of course, now I want to know the personality types of Beloved, of the boys, of my family and friends. I know it’s neither a justification for behaviour nor a prescription, but having this insight explains SO MUCH of my own behaviour and some of the chronic problems I’ve had with procrastination, clutter, and my voracious appetite for external validation. It’s not my fault, it’s my personality type!! 😉 It was funny listening to the instructor, who also happened to be an ENFP, list some of the strengths and weaknesses of this particular personality type: warm and insightful, but easily distracted; with no realistic grasp of deadlines, and much better at instigating projects than following through on them.

If you’d like to take the test and determine your own personality type, there’s an online test here. I want to go back to the office and have my whole team take this test!! I’m dying to compare notes — anybody else been through a revelation like this? Did it knock you on your ass as much as this has done for me?

Project 365: Sunshine, rain and dewdrops – a drippy kind of spring

we are at the end of the first week of May, and the leaves are still not quite unfurled from the trees. It’s the first week of the Tulip Festival here in Ottawa, but there are hardly any tulips in bloom. It’s definitely been a wet, cold spring here.

A lot of the week looked kind of like this. This is the red maple in our yard during one of the seemingly endless showers last week, just thinking about sending out some leaves.

131:365 Drippy

And this guy is either a really red crocus (based on his size) or a really tiny and early tulip. He’s another gift from the garden.

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Okay, so it didn’t rain the *whole* week. I shot these daffs near Watson’s Mill, and was delighted to catch that crazy triangle of flare. Erm, I mean, I totally planned that effect, right from the start. (!)

130:365 Daffy

You know what I don’t think I’ve ever shot in the thousands of pictures I’ve taken over the last few years? A shadow portrait. This is me and the boys, out for a post-dinner walk.

128:365 Shadow selves

Speaking of boys, you didn’t think I could go a whole week without pointing my big black monocle at them, did you? I love this one because I caught a *genuine* smile instead of a “humouring mom so she’ll leave me be” kind of smile. 🙂 I shifted myself up and down as I was composing this to make that shadow area end more or less at his shoulders, so the dark area would frame his head and accentuate the rim lighting that’s highlighting his hair. (I don’t know why crazy hair seems to run in our family!)

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This wasn’t even supposed to be a 365 picture. I’m helping a friend by creating a website for her cooperative child care centre, and we needed an image for a banner. In the end, I didn’t even use this, but I loved the fact that when I went to the crayon bin I found all these nekkid ones — Lucas has been busy at work peeling the wrappers off them.

132:365 Nekkid crayons

I was inspired to take this picture by one of my favourite photography blogs, MCP Actions. Jodie has great tips, tutorials and actions for photoshop and photoshop elements, and has been encouraging her readers to join her with a photo-a-week “Project 52” with a weekly theme. Last week’s theme was “first thing in the morning” and I thought this picture was perfect for the theme.

I looked out the window early Sunday morning and saw the lawn twinkling with a heavy dew, so I grabbed my camera and ran out in my bare feet and jammies to capture this. I opened up my aperture as wide as it would go and held my camera right above the grass. Those round circles you see are the out-of-focus points of sunlight in the dew drops, called bokeh. It only took two or three shots, and I knew as soon as I saw the viewfinder that this was a keeper.

129:365 Dewy [Explored]

Turns out a few other people liked it, too! Not only did MCP actions feature it as one of their photos of the week, but it’s been bouncing around in Flickr’s Explore all week, and is my most “favourited” picture ever. (It kinda makes me laugh, because I still think the photo of Lucas jumping in the puddle is a WAY better picture, and although it had even more comments and faves to start, it never made it to Explore.)

If you want to take a shot like this, all you need is a dewy patch of lawn and an early-morning sun. Set your camera to macro (the little flower) if it’s a point-and-shoot, or to your widest aperture (smallest f-stop) if it’s a dSLR. Make sure you are facing right into the sun so you get the maximum twinkle, and focus on a spot about 1/3 of the way into the frame.

And this week also happened to contain the end of April, so here’s my monthly mosaic of all the pictures I shot in April. (A few of you have asked how I make these. There’s a mosaic-maker at www.bighugelabs.com, and a handful of other fun things you can do with pictures, too!)

April mosaic

Despite being a long, slow and decidedly wet month, it’s kinda pretty in retrospect, isn’t it? Here’s to a warmer, dryer and equally lovely May!

Fisher-Price and the power of play

After three kids of experience, I must admit that I have become very discerning about the toys I pick for my kids. Not only am I getting pretty good at picking age- and personality-appropriate toys, I am realizing that there are certain types of toys and features of toys that I’m drawn to again and again. I like:

  • toys that encourage creative play
  • toys that encourage sustained play
  • toys that encourage active play (for burning energy)
  • toys that encourage quiet play (for mommy’s sanity)
  • toys that are interchangeable with other toys

I’ve also become rather persnickety about toys I don’t like. I don’t like:

  • toys that don’t have an off switch for their electronic noises
  • toys that do all the work, leaving the child nothing to do but turn it on and watch it
  • toys that require you to buy endless additional pieces and add-ons

Play is how kids make sense of the world, especially in the toddler and preschool age. Lucas is at such a fun age now, where I can see his awareness of the world around him being reflected in how he plays with his toys. Scenes from our day often get re-enacted as he makes dinner with a toy kitchen set, or convenes a daycare centre with his stuffed animals. And of course, there are photographs to be taken and phone calls to Granny to be made!

99:365 Cameraphone TTV

Speaking of play and Fisher-Price, how cool is this? To go with the launch of the new Fisher-Price Canada website, they’ve launched a new set of TV commercials, and the commercial features the group photograph of all the Fisher-Price blogger moms. Here’s the 20 second spot that’s currently running on Treehouse TV.

Fun eh? Lucas and I are kinda, sorta TV stars now!

And speaking of the new Fisher-Price website, have you checked it out yet? There’s a contest where you can register to win a $200 toy package and a $200 spa package.

So tell me, what features do you look for when you evaluate a toy? What do you love? What makes you crazy?

Disclosure: I’m part of the Fisher-Price Play Panel and I receive special perks as part of my affiliation with this group. The opinions on this blog are my own.

Talk to me about kid bedtimes

Anybody want to compare notes on kid bedtimes? I’m starting to get the “Awwww, we have the earliest bedtimes in our whole class” whine from my big boys, and I thought I could thwart the complaint with a little ammunition from the bloggy peeps. “Sorry boys, the interwebs say that 6:30 is an entirely appropriate bedtime, and you know that everything on the Internet is true.”

Okay, so I don’t really put them to bed at 6:30, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they do have an earlier bedtime than a lot of their classmates. Right now, the call for jammies and teeth-brushing usually goes out between 7:15 and 7:30 pm, and it takes about 20 minutes from that to get everyone under the covers.

Beloved and I take a divide-and-conquer approach — one of us shepherds the big boys while the other puts Lucas down. Bedtime stories for Lucas (age 3) usually takes another 15 minutes, so he’s lights-out at around 8 pm every night. It usually takes a little bit longer to read to the big boys (ages 7 and 9) especially if we’re reading from one book for each of them. Most nights, it’s a single book for both. (Pending blog post: book club for boys. Stay tuned for that one later this week!)

Regardless, they’re usually lights-out around 8:15 or so, and they chat and giggle for another 15 to 45 minutes, depending on the day. Simon usually conks out first (he’s like his mother that way) and I often find Tristan reading to himself by the light of his nightlight after 9 pm.

Sleeping babes

(This picture is from the archives, circa 2005. Oh how I miss the afternoon car naps!)

The routine seems pretty reasonable to me, but their bedtimes haven’t changed in years and they’re getting to the point now where they think they should be able to stay up later. And of course, the nine-year-old thinks he deserves a later bedtime than the three-year-old — and I can’t say that I blame him. But honestly, I simply can’t imagine letting them stay up any later at this point. I get up most days between 5:30 and 6:00 am, and I am done for the day sometime in the middle of the afternoon. It’s only thanks to a continuous flow of coffee that I manage to stay vertical until 9:30 pm or so, and I simply can’t end the day without reading for another 30 minutes in bed.

If we let the boys stay up any later, Beloved and I would never have any quiet time together. And really, do we need the nine-year-old watching Glee or Survivor with us? Even the Amazing Race is a little, um, racy some weeks, and I think the Big Bang Theory is still a little beyond their comprehension. I don’t watch a huge amount of TV anymore, but I do value the nightly hour or so Beloved and I watch together.

And yet, I can’t keep putting them down for 8 pm forever. The weather may not be signalling that summer is nigh, but the days are unquestionably getting longer, and nobody likes to go to bed when it’s daylight out. And of course, there is a time in the not-too-distant future when they’ll be keeping their teenaged selves up until midnight, hours after I’ve crawled into my own bed. At least Beloved is a night owl, so someone will be able to keep an eye on them if we ever do let them stay up.

So let’s compare notes. Am I really a bedtime ogre, or does this schedule roughly match yours? Do you have summer versus winter bedtime rules, or weekend versus school night, or are you as resistant to change in the routine as I am? Speak up, bloggy peeps, and save my kids from yet another potential humiliation from their peers!

A Mother’s Day giveaway from Mark’s!

Remember last autumn when my new BFFs over at Mark’s offered me (and a bunch of my bloggy friends) a fun makeover to showcase their own brand makeover?

Lookit me, I'm a fashion model! (1 of 3)

All winter long, this was my go-to, no-fail favourite outfit. I love the pants, I love the top and I love that leather jacket madly and deeply. And the boots? This is the first spring ever that I was regretful to think that I’d have to put a pair of boots away for the season.

Ahem, so anyway, this is not just me waxing nostalgic about some very excellent clothes. Mark’s is continuing its makeover theme this spring, and has just launched a fun new contest called Mark’s reStyle:

Last year, Mark’s smartened up many of its stores nationwide and to introduce the refreshed brand to consumers, we held Mark’s Over events in several cities nationwide.

To experience Mark’s as the place for innovative and fashionable men’s and women’s casual apparel and footwear, media and bloggers were treated to a total makeover – including hair, makeup, Mark’s styling and professional photography. The event demonstrated that the new stores better represent what Mark’s has become to Canadians – the place for innovative and fashionable men’s and women’s casual apparel and footwear.

For the Spring reStyle contest, we’re asking men and women from across the country to share their need for a fashion refresh or upgrade.

And check out the amazing prize packages! The two finalists will be able to choose from:

  • the “night life” package: a $1000 Mark’s shopping spree, a $3000 all-expenses paid trip for two people to Montreal including tickets to one of the summer’s hottest concerts, $1000 in spending cash and a $500 iPad 2 to capture the experience.
  • the “beach life” package: a $1000 Mark’s shopping spree, a seven day trip for two to a sun destination of your choice, and $1000 spending cash.
  • the “home life” package: a $1000 Mark’s shopping spree, a $3000 Backyard upgrade package, a $1000 BBQ and $500 patio furniture.

So head on over to Mark’s reStyle facebook page to read more about the contest. But wait! Don’t go just yet, because I haven’t told you about MY giveaway yet.

One lucky person will win a $50 Mark’s gift card right here! If you’d like to win, here are the details:

  1. You must be a Canadian resident to enter.
  2. To enter the draw, visit Mark’s LookBook site and then leave a comment below telling me which of the 19 looks you like. Or, visit Mark’s site and leave a comment telling me which product caught your fancy.
  3. The giveaway ends Friday May 6, 2011 at noon EDT. One winner will be chosen from all entries using random.org.
  4. One entry per person.
  5. The winner will be announced the afternoon of May 6.

Don’t forget to check out Mark’s reStyle contest facebook page, and pssst: Thursday May 5, 2011 is Ladies’ Night at Marks. Save 20% in store from 5 pm to close!

Fun, eh? Thanks to Mark’s for a fun giveaway!!

Edited to add: Yay!! Congratulations to Ann B of Create a Buzz! Looks like your disappearing comment turned out to be lucky after all! 😉

Thanks for playing, all!

Project 365: Beginnings and Endings

Oh my goodness, was Easter really only last weekend? Surely we’ve lived three lifetimes since then. Some weeks are just like that, aren’t they?

I can hardly believe that our Good Friday wander around Manotick was a scant seven days ago. It was cool but bright, and we enjoyed wandering around the Mill and inspecting the dam in the midmorning sun.

120:365 Bench

And it really seems like a lifetime ago we were colouring these eggs (although it did seem that the egg salad sandwiches for lunch might never end!) It was only after I was playing with this one in Lightroom that I realized that I had handed Lucas the little tablets of egg dye in random order and he had dropped them into the cups in an equally random order — and yet he managed to put them in the perfect ROYGBIV order of the spectrum. He’s an artiste savant! 😉 I was actually aiming to have the boys a little less in focus than this, but oh well.

121:365 Colouring Easter eggs

Not the shot of the day, but I rather liked this one of the tools of their trade, so I’ll slip it in here, too.

121b:365 Easter eggs

Am I taking advantage of your polite attention if I slip in just one more? Easter is so photogenic, and so much more transient than Christmas!

121c:365 Simon colouring

This is Bubba, my recently adopted fur-brother, trying to eat Papa Lou’s face for Easter dinner.

122:365 Doggy love

As if that weren’t already an incredibly photo-rich long weekend, it was Monday when lovely Baby H allowed me to point my camera in his direction. (There’s more from that shoot here.)

123:365 Toes!

There are some subjects I seem to be drawn to over and over again. Kids with books is one of them. Lucas is another one. 😉

124:365 Reading

(You know, the whole reason I launched my own photography business is because my kids were getting so sick of me pointing my camera at them. I simply need more kids to photograph!!)

And then, on a much more sombre note, we have the results of that incredible wind storm last week. Turns out it will cost us close to $1000 to have our lovely old poplar cut up, a few hundred less if we dispose of the wood ourselves. Anyone want some free firewood? Pull up a trailer and haul away what you can! (No seriously, if you want some, I’ll hold it for you — just let me know before Tuesday.)

126:365 Goodbye tree

There’s more pictures from the wind storm on this post, if you haven’t seen it yet. Worth a click to see where the crown of the tree ended up. The good news is, I now know the species of the rest of the trees on the property. We have a handful of Manitoba maples and two silver maples and a sugar maple and a red maple. (It’s a very Canadian yard!) We have two towering Eastern white pines and an equally-towering ash. And an ex-Poplar. Sigh.

I mentioned the untimely demise of my favourite Manotick landmark in my earlier post, too, and included a picture I’d taken with my iPhone to replicate more or less the original picture I’d taken of it. I wanted to take one with my camera, too, as a proper sort of commemoration. I don’t know why I am so drawn to this silo, but I am. Erm, I was.

127:365 Goodbye old silo

I’ll be the first to admit, I really like my pictures. I think most of them are pretty good, at least the ones worth posting here. But every now and then, I really nail one. This is one of those times, and possibly one of my favourite photographs ever.

125:365 Puddle jumper

Isn’t that fun? The rubber boots, the rain coat, his relentless hair, and the reflection. It makes me smile every single time I look at it. No doubt, it was a very long week — but a lovely one, too.

In which she discusses windstorms with the Universe

It went something like this:

*ring ring*

Hello?

Hey, Universe. It’s DaniGirl.

DaniGirl! Always a pleasure to hear from you. How are you enjoying your first spring in the new house?

Oh, it’s been gorgeous. There’s daffodils and crocuses, the boys love playing in the yard, and the porch is beyond awesome.

I’m so happy to hear that. I heard you dodged a bullet on that summer water ban issue, too.

Did we ever! As a matter of fact, that’s why I’m calling.

Oh really? Why is that?

Well, I know you have a bit of an, um, odd sense of humour, and I was wondering if maybe you heard me talking about how happy I was to be living out here in Manotick on well water for most of yesterday and today.

Well, yes, I may have heard you. Why do you ask?

Yeah, it’s about that insane windstorm yesterday. The wind was gusting up to 100 km/h here for a couple of hours. Did you know that once they get up to 120 km/h they’re hurricane force winds? It was quite brutal.

There was a lot of damage all around Ottawa, wasn’t there? Don’t tell me your house was damaged?

No, not really. There’s this chimney cap that blew off, and I’m a little worried about that. I’m afraid that if it rains, we’ll get moisture in the walls. And you know, it was just yesterday that we finally laid the carpet in Tristan’s room following the whole mould debacle. Did I even tell you about the leak in the opposite side of the house we had during that big spring melt back in March? So yeah, I’m a little twitchy about potential moisture issues.

I can’t say I blame you. So what are you doing?

Oh, a guy is coming by today to look at it, so I think we’re okay. The big damage, though, was the tree.

The tree?

Yeah, one of the giant old beauties in the back yard. It tipped clean over. It must have been at least 40 years old, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it were 50 or 75 feet tall. This is what it looks like now.

20110429-052411.jpg

Wow, DaniGirl, the poor old tree. It didn’t fall on the house did it?

Nope. If it had fallen in the exact opposite direction, it would have crashed through Lucas’s bedroom. If it had fallen 90 degrees to the right, it would have taken out our play structure. But, at first glance, I was pretty relieved to see it only took out some cedar hedges — and it may have landed on my back neighbour’s garden.

Oy, that’s a hell of a way to introduce yourself to the neighbours!

Isn’t it? And that’s exactly what I did, with three boys in tow because Beloved was blissfully oblivious to all the damage at an event for his work. We walked around and I was going to knock on the door when I took a peek in the yard to see how the tree looked from their side. I noticed that it actually cut across the bottom corner of their yard and looked like the top might be resting in their next-door neighbour’s yard.

Pretty tall tree, eh?

No kidding. So I went next door, and my jaw dropped open. This is what I saw.

Holy crap, DaniGirl!

Yeah, that’s what I said. And they weren’t even home so I had to leave a note in their mailbox. What a mess!

I heard there were a lot of trees down in Manotick.

It’s just crazy. Two houses down from all this, a humongous Blue Spruce tipped over and took out the hydro line for the whole street. One block over, another tree fell on someone’s minivan. And there’s a little pocket park with a wooded area just around the corner, it looks like carnage in there, I’m sure more than a half-dozen trees down. And this — remember this gorgeous old silo that’s entranced me since we moved to Manotick?

18:365 Old Barn

This comment was posted on one of my other pictures of it:

Dani, I live just across the street from the Silo, It has fallen down in the last hour, due to the wind storm. 3:30 April 28th.

And this is what it looks like today.

Oh, that’s a shame, I’m sorry to see that. It was a brutal storm. In the end, you were pretty lucky.

Yeah, I did want to say thank you for that. I’m heartbroken to lose that beautiful tree — it was supposed to be my clothesline tree! — and it will be a bit of trouble to get everything back to normal again, but oh my god, it could have been so much worse.

Nobody was hurt, at least.

Exactly. Nobody was hurt, and if there’s nothing more than a dribbling of rain today, we’ll be okay with the naked chimney. I wanted to mention, though, I did notice that every time you wreak some minor disaster on the house, you make sure to wreak much larger disasters out there in the world. Like the day in March when we had the water leaking in the basement was the same day the tsunami happened in Japan, and all Beloved and I could say to each other was “A little water in the basement is nothing compared to that.” And today, thinking about what could have happened — oh my god, can you imagine if that treehouse had blown away? Tristan would have packed his bags and moved back to Barrhaven!

Heh, yes, I did step in and give it a little bit of a buffer from the worst of it. I figured poor Tristan has been through enough, losing the room of his own that was promised to him for the last six months.

Yes, well, thanks for that, Universe. But I gotta ask, are you on the city’s payroll or what?

Pardon me?

Yeah, I was thinking, it’s mighty darn convenient that this unprecedented wind storm blew through and got everybody’s attention diverted from the Barrhaven/Manotick/Riverside South summer water ban in a big hurry. You have anything to do with that, maybe?

I’ll never tell, DaniGirl.

Yeah, fair enough. Okay, well, thanks again for watching out for the treehouse, and the house. Um, not necessarily in that order.

My pleasure, DaniGirl. Take care.

In which being off the city water system suddenly became a very good thing

Wow, I’m still in shock over the news today of a summer-long outdoor water ban for Barrhaven, Riverside South and Manotick. According to the news so far, the ban will prohibit not just lawn-watering and car-washing, but sprinklers and kiddie pools, too.

OTTAWA — The City of Ottawa is immediately banning on all outdoor water use in Barrhaven, Riverside South and Manotick, which is expected to last until as late as mid-August.

That means almost 27,000 homes in these south-city communities will be prohibited from watering their gardens, filling splash pads or pools, car washing or even running a sprinkler.

Nancy Schepers, a deputy city manager, told council Wednesday morning the ban is necessary as the city replaces the Woodroffe water main, which experienced its second break in January. There is a backup water main system that can deliver enough water for drinking and other normal indoor uses, but “it does not have the capacity to meet spring and summer demand.”

The ban is in place, said Schepers, to safeguard the quality and quantity of drinking water.

It was about the third time I re-read the article with exponentially-increasing dread and outrage that I realized — hey, wait a minute, we’re not on city water. So while I’m relieved that we’ll be able to run the sprinkler and fill a kiddie pool, I’m still disappointed that our favourite splash pad will be out of commission for most of the year and I simply can’t imagine not being able to even water the flowers for a whole summer. Wow.

And suddenly living on a well and septic system doesn’t seem as intimidating and fraught with peril as it did last fall. It’s nice not having the $60 water bill every month, and the quality of our water is amazing now that we’ve upgraded the pump, water softener and filters.

I’m still ambivalent about the septic part, though. Now that the snow is melted, I’m making an effort to pace the lawn around the septic bed once a week or so to make sure the ground hasn’t gone spongy on me. One of these days I may even stop flinching every single time I flush the toilet, so deep run my fears of a sudden catastrophic failure of our septic system.

Anyone from Barrhaven up for a weekend car-washing party at my house this summer? 😉