Wonders Brought to Life

Posted on 21 October 2023 by Isabel Gibson

Imagination is joyous. Free and free-ing. Oh, and bloody hard work.

I’m spatially challenged: Seeing what is no longer there is beyond me, for the most part. But that’s OK: There’s an app for that, at least for selected “ancient sites and wonders”. There won’t be a skill-testing question, but I encourage you to click on the twxxt and then we can meet–as the TV interviewers say–on the other side.

https://twitter.com/Culture_Crit/status/1715342690496266732

I can’t pick a favourite: I think it’s a tie between the Colossus of Rhodes and the hanging gardens of Babylon. Why hasn’t someone recreated those? But they’re all amazing, yes?

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Posted in Appreciating Deeply, Photos of Built Stuff, Thinking Broadly, Through History | Tagged , , | 10 Comments

Faces, Faces . . .

Posted on 21 October 2023 by Isabel Gibson

Step back slowly. Very slowly.

And since we’re here, and to end on a happier note, here’s a less-menacing one from pepper on a scallop.

Posted in Laughing Frequently, Wired | Tagged | 4 Comments

The World This Week

Posted on 13 October 2023 by Isabel Gibson

Indescribable beauty? Unutterable cruelty? Yup, that’s the world we live in.

I don’t have any wise words about the cruelty, but I do have some photos of the beauty. That’s what I’m hanging onto this week. That, and the people I love.

 

 

 

 

Posted in Feeling Clearly, Photos of Flora | Tagged , | 14 Comments

Dentists, Cranes, and Optics

Posted on 13 October 2023 by Isabel Gibson

I won’t say that getting me to venture into the Centre of this Ville is like pulling teeth, but it’s true that one of my primary reasons for heading that way is dental appointments. By contrast, visitors from out-of-town have no bad feelings about our down-town, unencumbered as they are by repetitive-strain injuries from parking, avoiding street protests or street people, or navigating narrow-to-start streets made even more narrow by blocking off space for bicycle traffic.

Houseguests over the Canadian Thanksgiving weekend decided that the ideal place for brunch would be a classic deli/diner in the heart of the Byward Market–and it’s hard to argue the point–and so I found myself down-town on a cold and grey Ottawa Sunday. And thus it was that I was reminded that nothing is all good or all bad. Down-town may have its down-sides, but it also has great reflections.

I’ve never figured out why straight-on reflections of indubitably straight buildings end up all wavy-like, but they do. I’d like to say that it’s because I haven’t tried to understand; I suspect the lack of attempt is not the lack that is the problem.

 

 

Posted in Appreciating Deeply, Photos of Built Stuff | Tagged , | 14 Comments

For the Glory of the Skies

Posted on 05 October 2023 by Isabel Gibson

Thanksgiving is one of those holidays where Canadians and Americans diverge. That’s a good thing in my mind. We can do more than one Thanksgiving a year: The world is not suffering from an excess of gratitude.

I get a kick out of American commentary on Canadian Thanksgiving. It seems that they’re less surprised about it being in a different month (The Great White North, don’t you know?) than about it being on a different day of the week.

Monday?
What’s with that?

I get it: we all have our own traditions. Mine excludes sweet-potato-&-marshmallow casserole (pie?), but includes something on the blog to note the occasion (For, For Again).

This year, I decided to do something sparked by a recent sunset cruise. This week, I learned that my video-editing software has built-in slideshow applications. Being a little pushed for time, I decided to give it a try. Here’s the result. Happy Thanksgiving.

Posted in Appreciating Deeply, Nature Videos, Through the Calendar | Tagged , , | 10 Comments

Seemingly, Eventually

Posted on 05 October 2023 by Isabel Gibson

Hanging around in the nondescript not to say ugly parking lot of a small medical building in Ottawa’s west end–not to be confused with London’s West End (which seems to be as ill-defined as it is famous) nor even with any of these other 75 West Ends (including West End, Saskatchewan [a seemingly ill-named “resort village” with a 2016 population of 37] and this person [who seems to have, not an ill, but at least an odd nickname])–anyway, as I say, hanging around in an ugly (we might just as well say it, no?) parking lot, I wonder bitterly why building owners don’t expend more (i.e. any) money improving the area surrounding their building. I’m not expecting beauty, exactly, but a little less ugly here and there would be welcome.

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Posted in Appreciating Deeply, Laughing Frequently, Photos of Built Stuff, Photos of Flora | Tagged , , | 10 Comments

OK, Buttercup: You’re Up

Posted on 27 September 2023 by Isabel Gibson

A flat 9×12 white-plastic envelope sat on my desk for a while this week: I assumed it was one of my magazines that comes packaged that way. Meanwhile, from time to time, I wondered where my latest yarn shipment was. I got the shipment notice about 10 days ago, and it was only coming from St. John’s. Odd.

Today I picked up said envelope and was surprised at its heft and hardness: This was no floppy magazine. Odd again. I struggled a bit to extricate an inner sleeve of plastic, to be greeted by my yarn. Sort of. It looked–I dunno–odd.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The oddness was more evident from the side.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Posted in New Perspectives, Thinking Broadly | Tagged , | 14 Comments

Cheese-slice Face #2

Posted on 27 September 2023 by Isabel Gibson

I’ve had a cheese-slice face before: a full-on portrait, not a profile.

This was a chance encounter of two neighbours, one of whom was just a hair more animated than the other.

Posted in Laughing Frequently, Photos of Faces | Tagged , | 6 Comments

The Night Lengthens . . .

Posted on 23 September 2023 by Isabel Gibson

 . . . and the day wanes.

I was this many years old when I noticed that the vernal and autumnal equinoxes don’t land on the same-numbered day. I had them both in my head as the 21st (of March and September, respectively), but it is not so.

Perhaps I was confused by the solstices both being on the 21st of their respective months? Nope. The summer solstice is June 21; the winter solstice is December 22. I just don’t pay attention. (If you would like to know more, here’s an excellent resource, complete with quiz. I’ll post your scores if you send them to me.)

Sidebar: The 2024 vernal equinox will be on March 19 (not like, oh I don’t know, March 21). Quick Google answers to the question of why the date varies talk about the discrepancy between the sidereal and calendar years. Thus, they announce definitively, the equinox gets 6 hours later year to year. Unless there’s an intervening Leap Year, I guess, which throws it all off-kilter. Maybe? In any event, on we go, trusting that the equinox calculators and the solar system itself know what they’re doing.

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Posted in Appreciating Deeply, Mortality, Through the Calendar, You are Here | Tagged , | 10 Comments