meanwhile, back in canada...

My day started with a text... 

beauty beyond the blizzard

February 19 gave us a bit more snow. It's not hard to tell that everyone is done with winter.

But since it is still here and steadfast, I will continue (try!) to find the beauty in it. This wasn't hard when I saw the little church-turned-museum in Africville shining through the snow

challenging channeling changing

Being a writer is a bit like being a schizophrenic. There are alway so many voices in your head.

Mine won't shut up. They are in some limbo yard, chattering and running and jumping at the walls to try to climb over and and jump for a chance to live a life on the page. They just want to be heard.

It's easy to see how writers are prone to maladies and madness. 

The solitude from which you feed also feeds from you. 

Nourish and deplete.

These self imposed writer retreats are much that way. 

When I spend a lot of time in the head of my characters it starts to affect my mood. I can become dark if their stories are dark ones. 

This is why it takes me so long to commit to sit. 

I know that once I do, it will spread like an ink drop in a glass of water. That's how I see the darkness enter me- swirling slowly down in a beautifully hypnotic process

But if I don't let it come out through my tapping fingers, the voices won't stop. 

The only way to make them quiet is to tell their stories. It's hard to say if it is an channeling or performing an exorcism. Chapters write themselves in my head, but only seeing the words in physical form will do. 

So that's what I am doing in my little retreat by the ocean in a winter storm- trying to free some souls and quiet some voices.

And walk that thin dark line.

my sweet retreat

storm stayed stay

There is something so lovely about being storm-stayed.

As children we long for storm days (only on school days of course) and even as adults we find ourselves saying that little wish before we go to bed the night before.

It provides that permission we don't often afford ourselves, that allowance to just do nothing. Or at least, not be held to any obligations. An official No Pants Day.  

Since before this day saw light, the Atlantic region has been getting the weather that was promised. A winter storm with icy breath sharing its snow and rain in many different forms. 

We Maritimers take our weather seriously.

The day before a storm always sees line ups at grocery and liquor stores. Many times the storms don't amount to much as the ocean can cause the forecast to change, but no one wants to take the risk of being storm-stayed without the essentials. 

I am cozy.

I'm sitting in a cottage by the ocean watching the storm hit the sea and the sea throw it back. Inside, the smell of the wood fire mixes with the aroma of simmering corn chowder and freshly ground coffee. CBC fills the air with classical music in the day and jazz in the night. 

Not a bad way to spend a stormy weekend. It was my hope to get stranded here, to use this as a writer's retreat. 

Sure I have solitude in my city apartment, but for some reason I feel more like a writer out here. I am definitely more inspired. At home there are always distractions- I should clean this, rearrange that.

But here, inspired by nature's ocean and elements, I find I can get more done.
Don't get me wrong, I love my little desk in the city, overlooking the downtown street, but a change of scenery is always good to reboost the creative process. 

and then I saw this

just a day

So it's Valentine's Day.

This is the day that many singles love to hate,  citing it as a "Hallmark Holiday".
And they're not wrong.
Many a lover has had to face a hard heart if s/he forgot to buy flowers/cards/candy for their amore, just because calendar and commerce dictates it. And let's face it, if you've been blessed to find someone to love, who loves you in return, well then goody for you- every day is Valentine's Day.

Personally, I've never been one for the hype.

But I have discovered a new appreciation of the day.

February 14 is recognized as a day of love. Love is universal. It is not contained to romantic love. Well, yes, I suppose commercially it is. But it shouldn't be. It doesn't have to be.

Love is love. And if we can put a little extra of the good stuff out into the world, then why not celebrate it?

It doesn't have to be directed at a lover. It doesn't have to be delivered to anyone you know.
Give a stranger a valentine just by being nice. Paying for someone's coffee is lovely, but so is helping a person across an icy street. So is a giving a true compliment. Or just making eye contact and smiling.
Every little gesture that makes someone feel good has a beautiful ripple effect. I say this at the risk of sounding like a hippy wearing rose coloured glasses (of which I am neither.. no offence to hippies or anyone who sees the world through a pinkish hue..) But creating the warm and fuzzies on February 14 could radiate into other days on the calendar, other parts of the year. It could spread through your home, your neighbourhood, city, country.
World.

Now I sound like a hippy wearing rose coloured glasses sitting in a field of sunflowers (no offence to hippy's or ombre tints or sunflowers)  But February 14 is a good place to start to give a Valentine to the World.

We can spend the day as if we were in love
And that's not a bad thing.

my valentine to the world would include sprinkles..

craving colour

February 12 started with a beautiful blood orange.

I was so enthralled with the colours when I cut it open, that I brought it outside to the balcony and lay the halves on the snow to take a photograph. The contrast was so striking and beautiful.




Winter is heavy now. I feel it in my body- in the weight of clothing that has to be layered, in the burden of boots; the heat and the cold of indoors and outside.




The snow and ice are certainly beautiful, but I'm craving colour.

I'm drawn to citrus for its vibrancy, as well as its vitamins. That's the vitamin C I need right now.

either way it's six more weeks to spring

February 2 is Imbolc, the Pagan festival that celebrates the coming of Spring. Fires are lit to symbolize the warming of the Earth. That appeals to me, since an icy blizzard is banging on these old windows. So my shot of the day is a tribute to Imbolc. And Marley photobombing the shot reminded me that it is also Groundhog Day.

febuary blew in

February 1 had winds so strong they could blow a wave right off the ocean

I don't care if it hurts to stand here