Fall still a few weeks away, and yet I am already seeing life though orange-coloured glasses. I visited Kingston this weekend with my aunt- a lovely place with an even lovelier travel companion. Wolfe Island left me with the romantic notion of moving to a small island community, exactly how I felt when we left Galiano Island in B.C.
What is inspiring you to soak in these last days of summer?
I feel like I have been off the grid here for awhile. The truth is that the last couple of weeks have been a whirlwind of activities with family who are visiting from out of town. It seems like everyone came at the same time! We have had a lot of fun, checking out local tourist spots that I forget about because I live here, and just generally hanging out and catching up. We also visited some of my husband’s family, who live on a farm. They sent us home with loads of fresh vegetables- squash, beets, kale, onions, and beans (which Charlie loves).
Other than that, we’ve been enjoying the last few days of summer, which are cooling down nicely. Open windows at night and finally, fresh air- so refreshing. My birthday is also coming up soon (a big one for me) so stay tuned for a discount in the shop!
I made this treasury using my absolute favourite colour combination for late summer.
All photographs by members of FPOE.
'Amber + Violet = August' by ThePaperButterfly
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We finally visited the van Gogh exhibit at the National Gallery of Canada. His work is so familiar to us, yet most of the pieces were ones I had never seen before. The collection branched off into other rooms featuring the works of other artists (painters, photographers and printmakers) who influenced his style of painting. It was well worth the visit.
Of course, photography is not allowed inside the gallery, but there is always something to be seen outside:
Posters of Current Exhibitions
Spider “Maman” by Louise Bourgeois
”Running Horses” by Joe Fafard
A female Wood Duck and her little duckling approached us at the Arboretum the other day. They inched closer and closer as I made sweet noises to entice them. Once they realized I hadn’t brought any treats for them, the jig was up. Move along.
Have you ever felt that you didn’t know what you were looking for, until you found it?
On one of our cottage wanderings last month, we came across this little creek. It was only about four feet wide and six inches deep, and with low-hanging tree boughs, it felt even smaller. We followed it deeper into the woods, either using its large, mossy rocks as stepping stones, or along its edge, through crackling tangles of branches and spider webs.
When I saw the flutter of exotic dragonflies, I knew we had arrived.
We will definitely return to this shaded woodland oasis, and next time I will bring my longer lens, as they were very timid insects, and seemed to disappear when I got too close. Until then, watch this video and you will see what I mean about their butterfly-like flutter.
