once more with feeling

Best part of the whole weekend

One more ocean swim.

It might be the last one of the season so it is fitting that it is on Thanksgiving.

Thanks Ocean, you've been amazing, as always.

mermaid's melancholy

I wish I could explain it.
Obsession. Addiction.
That's probably how others see it.

I wish I could explain how it makes me feel.
How fundamental it is to my well-being.
To my being well.

It has been said that there are those who are born with the salt water in their veins and it circulates in a briny course that pumps straight to the heart.
Without it they would die.

I believe this to be true.

When I was a child, nothing calmed me like the ocean. As an adult it is the same.

To take that first plunge, to feel the water surround and support every part of me, it is like exhaling after holding your breath for a very long time.

I am weightless. I belong to something.

So it is hard at this time of year, knowing each swim, each visit to the beach could be my last for the season.  It makes me edgy, uneasy. I am in denial. Panic rises like the tide.

But not today. Today there is reprieve. The air has cooled but the water is still warm (ish).


Today I can swim.

summer lovin'

Life has handed me a glorious opportunity this year.
I have been able to take the summer off.

There were a couple of days here and there to which I had committed but for the most part, me and the Summer were gonna make out in the tall grass. We were gonna frolic in the sand, exchange salty kisses in the ocean.

Winter was like a bad long-term relationship and once we finally broke up, I flirted with Spring, but really, Spring is just a fling... but Summer.. oh we had something special.
We had plans.

It couldn't have been simpler . There were only 2 things on the list:

1. Swim

2. Write


I swam

1 out of 2 ain't bad.


Sorry, Unfinished Novel, perhaps you and I will snuggle when it gets a bit cooler.  But Summer and I still have a lot of hot dates.

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

what a difference a day makes

January 18 falls into the" what a difference a day makes" category. 

Yesterday's frigid, unbelievably cold (and painful!) temperature was replaced by a day dressed as Spring. 
It won't be long now before we can return to the ocean...

nothing can keep us apart

not so bleak mid-winter

Oh how I miss you.

just a few more months and we'll be together again

so long sunday

January 11 was a beautiful day spent out of the city, returning in time to catch the sun setting over the harbour

panoramic of Halifax Harbour taken from Dartmouth

raison d'etre

January 7 - I pass this sign almost daily downtown and am reminded that there is a reason I am here... not in the metaphysical sense, but geographically speaking (which could be argued to be the same thing)

always take the plunge

Yesterday I sat on the shore and watched a woman standing in the water.

I had already been in. It was great.
But taking the plunge is always the hardest part.

As a frequent swimmer in the North Atlantic,  I prefer to dive right in, instead of standing and shivering. But as I sat drying off on the beach, I watched the woman stand and shiver, and I wanted to yell "Go ahead, it will be great once you're in"

I was reminded of a quote by Goethe
"Plunge boldly into the thick of life, and seize it where you will, it is always interesting. "
and suddenly this woman became a metaphor for Capital L Life.

But I didn't shout out.
Instead, I took her picture

falling into fall

Fall is almost in the air.
It is barely a whisper in the window,
but it is there, with a light breath

It is that beautiful in-between season, in between times;
like the end of night and the beginning of day,
sun and moon both sharing the sky,
waking and retiring
smiling good morning
blinking good night

I took this shot on Thanksgiving weekend 2011 at Conrad Beach, Nova Scotia

It is the air  that whispers in my window in the morning,
in between wake and sleep,
exhaling that memory of time to get up for school

It is not yet Fall, yet barely still summer.
And it is both seasons at once.

Not quite that crisp definite autumn with sweaters and pumpkin spice latte's..
nor that hot lazy summer with sundresses and big hats.

But the air has cooled and the ocean has warmed, and pumpkins have begun to appear in markets, tumbling orange

It breathes a reminder to squeeze every last drop out of summer