want to spring ahead but keep falling back

This is the winter that doesn't end.

Today is the first day of Spring, and yet here in Halifax we are still digging out from a series of colossal snow storms. We are now called Snova Scotia.

It's interesting to see the effect that winter has on the psyche- the psyche of people and of place.
It is apparent in how people act, speak, move.

this bus stop ad doubles as instructions.. climb the other side? YOU climb the other side- I'm done

you don't say

The heavy snowfall and bad weather take tolls on our moods as well. Personally, I have noticed a sadness, a discontent, a crankiness and a fatigue that I know is climate induced. We live part of the year in winter, so I try to embrace it as much as I can. Photography helps see the beauty in it. But even that can only go so far

yes, yes, it is pretty..

Now I am tired.

I am tired of boots and coats and layers of clothing. I am weary of feeling weighted down in body, mind and spirit. The urge to hibernate, to stay in bed or in the house is so strong. But that only breeds more sadness. Even I know that too much time spent in my own head is not good. Even my solitary nature  says ENOUGH.


I want to feel grass. I want to wear sandals and feel the air on my feet, to see my pink painted toenails peeking up at me. I long to hear sounds that are not the sliding of car tires spinning in snow and on ice. Or the scraping of the snow plow shovels hitting pavement. I long to feel light, not claustrophobic to the point of panic.

yes, yes, it can be inspiring..

In two weeks time I will take a trip. This is not to a tropical place, but a more moderate one.
Washington DC will be treated to nearly 4000 cherry trees in blossom, and I'm going to be there. I'm going to feel warm spring and smell fragrant air and leave my coat and boots and baggage behind.







But for the next two weeks I will try to breathe and think warm thoughts and hope it is enough to melt the snow.

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

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. 

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.

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

keep your brass monkeys in today

January 17 was beautiful, crisp, and so cold that my phone showed me a thermometer and refused to budge until it was warmer. 
But the sunset seem to paint the trees in the south end and as far as winter days go, this was a pretty lovely one

new coat of paint

January 8 and in an attempt to not be a winter hermit, some friends and I hit the lanes.
What we lacked in scores, we scored in laughs
Bowling alleys make think of Tom Waits.
A Tom Waits lyric, to be exact.

                                    Let's put a new coat of paint on this lonesome old town
                                   Set 'em up, we'll be knockin' em down.
                                   You wear a dress, baby, and I'll wear a tie.
                                   We'll laugh at that old bloodshot moon in that burgundy sky

bowled over by fun

you're always so inviting

January 3rd was a beautiful though cold day and the evening was perfect for a stroll before the storm. 

There are so many sweet and quaint sights in my neighborhood and this is one I walk by nearly every day. Although I've shot it several times, in different seasons, I always find it quite inviting

Sofa King Cold

It is cold.
Sofa King cold. 

Bone-chilling, face-numbing, hate yourself for not wearing tights, cold.

There are varying stories on the degree of cold, as it fluctuates depending on who relays whom on which weather channel. But the general consensus lies frozen in ice somewhere between -25 and -28 with the windchill.
I don't really care about the specifics, it is beyond the point of making a difference. Whatever the number, it hurts.

My plan for today was to roam about and grab some photo's, but that was not going to happen. Instead I took a picture of my two cats as they went crazy over birds landing on the balcony to pick at open compost bin.