Tangents

At YVR, my husband queued up for coffee and I headed to the washroom. I told him, "Meet you by the moose."

When I found him again, he said, "You realize that at this airport, 'Meet me by the moose' is not exactly specific enough?" But he'd known which moose I meant:



(He also asked, "Why is the moose the only one anthropomorphized?")

It was fun sitting by the fountain. Behind us, people studied it at length:



In front of us, various passersby petted the moose, the wolf, and the bear, and sometimes stopped for pictures. An older woman posed by the wolf, and then her partner slung an arm around the moose. A little girl snuggled herself into the bear as if he were a tree-cave, ready to shield her from the rain. (I didn't get that on camera, but here's a shot of the bear by himself.)



This entry was originally posted at http://zirconium.dreamwidth.org/67057.html.

The BYM and I walked around a fair bit of downtown Vancouver yesterday. Our stops included:

JJ Bean: terrific chocolate croissants; a Happy Planet "Extreme Planet" juice -- I find the smiley face on the cap somewhat unnerving, but the beverage itself was fine, and it's kind of cool seeing bilingual labels everywhere); Sunday tabloids spread across the front bar; fun people-watching/story-concocting (the range included a couple of exceptionally tall, nerdish chaps; a middle-aged Asian social worker; fashionable executives (the latter African Canadian); hipsters; painters; a meter man; lots of students; an older man in shapeless shorts that were probably older than anyone currently playing for the Grizzlies; a young woman stalking by with a quart of milk; and at least two poodles with vests)

the Moon Festival at the Sun Yat-sen Garden. It was a low-key affair. I especially enjoyed the koi feeding, which involved a large gong and included a huge, orange 47-year-old fish named Madonna.

noshing and sipping at New Town (fried radish cake, oh YES), Bambo's, The Shop Vancouver, and Marutama

glimpses from the March for Reconciliation: a hip-hop choir; feathered cloaks and chaps; an orca mask; a sea of umbrellas

poking around The Paper Hound, a bookshop on Pender. Here's my sweetie in front of the science shelves:



( more snapshots behind the cut )

This entry was originally posted at http://zirconium.dreamwidth.org/66029.html.

I just transcribed some of the 26 notes to myself I recorded while driving from Virginia to Georgia. One was a riffs on boots and roots, thanks in part to a container at the Chesapeake Arboretum:



( Read more... )

This entry was originally posted at http://zirconium.dreamwidth.org/57183.html.

Andrew Johnson National Cemetery, August 2012

holiday
space to spare time
for stories
from the shadows

This entry was originally posted at http://zirconium.dreamwidth.org/52236.html.

I had a fine view at Bewley's of both my companion and some of the art on the wall...

( more photos under the cut )



"Love locks" on the Ha'penny Bridge

This entry was originally posted at http://zirconium.dreamwidth.org/45492.html.

Athens, October 2011

The advent of fall has made me nostalgic for walks in and around markets where the people around me are speaking Greek or French, and where I feel triumphant at deciphering simple labels.



There's plenty to do, here at home. Thanksgiving will be here within the blink of an eye. There are plenty of markets and shops within a few miles of my house that I have yet to become acquainted with.



I'm greedy. I want to linger among my souvenirs of the past and steep fully in the present and get on with acquiring and sharpening the skills my future self needs in her toolbox.



And this is what the past and present tell me about the future: you will keep losing parts of yourself, and you will keep building on what remains.

This entry was originally posted at http://zirconium.dreamwidth.org/27687.html.

There be so many roses to see in Nashville right now. I've glimpsed people photographing themselves with the gigantic roses in front of the Frist Center. ( more roses behind the cut )

This entry was originally posted at http://zirconium.dreamwidth.org/17106.html.