A couple of quick studies of a chrysanthemum I filched from the huge plant poking through someone’s fence.

Just cause it’s pretty.

Yesterday, after the ultrasound, between hot lemonade at Jet Fuel and Departures at the Carlton cinema (great movie, BTW; a bit of a tear-jerker, but in a genuine rather than manipulative Hollywood way, and quite moving and charming), I stopped in at Allan Gardens Conservatory to kill a few minutes and enjoy the plant life. I hadn’t been there but once, and that about 15 years ago, and was quite pleasantly surprised by the experience.

It’s in a kind of crappy spot, in the middle of what was a century ago a lovely park in a classy neighbourhood, now frequented by individuals unfettered by the chains of middle class lifestyle conventions. Although it’s got a nice off-leash doggie run too. But the conservatory itself is great, and even though absolutely free and open to the public had only a few people wandering around or sitting chatting, none of them apparently of the above genre.

Here are some of the things I saw (oh, and go easy on the shoddy photography – it was a spontaneous visit with only the cell phone camera so little accounting for things like focus and exposure).

First, there’s an entire wing filled with all kinds of chrysanthemums, and others scattered in other spots too. I don’t care what people say about mums (the basic ones are certainly ubiquitous on porches around here come October); I love them. And they do come in all sorts of lovely forms:

Then there’s the tropical/jungly wing (somewhat cool for the tropics, but pleasant when it’s only 7º C outside). Mmmm… swampy:

I missed getting pictures of the orchids in the epiphyte house, since they were in their own little glass-partitioned room. Don’t want people stealing them, maybe?
Speaking of stealing, I scavenged a couple of fallen leaves from some nifty jade plants in the succulent house, where I also so these beauties:
This agave:
These round cacti which sport a nice combination of fuzzy and spiky:
This wobbly cactus with curious floral (ahem) appendage:
And this is a particularly crappy picture, but I had to share it nonetheless because I was completely charmed by the cactus with polka dots (!!):
I mean really, it’s covered in little round dots of tiny bristles. Like Roy Lichtenstein in the desert.

I’ll definitely try to go back whenever I’m in the area (which of course is practically never) and have a half hour or so free (which is shamefully frequently).

Oh, and since I know you’re wondering; no, we didn’t get a printout from the ultrasound. I mean, they all look the same at this point anyways and I’d rather wait until it’s all pink and touchable to take a gazillion pictures.

Speaking of neglected things, I found these remnants from someone’s magnetic poetry set (the Elizabethan version, I’m thinking) on my brisk constitutional walk this morning (displayed in the order in which I found them):

So I’m thinking, this just seems a little too relevant. Just a tad convenient.
I mean, if not for “bag”, it would just be a couple of my favourite words, with “pedant” thrown in for good measure.
But really, what could this be but a personal message from the deities of something-or-other to a bag-maker?

(Although it’s more likely for the OH than for me, as he’s been slaving over the hot Juki to get the new backpacks ready in time to be taken to Japan by their happy new tester/owners. They’re very nice, but the words “pernicious” and “irksome” are definitely appropriate.)

Just what the message is supposed to be, I don’t know. Perhaps simply an acknowledgement, a shout-out to all the hard work. A big ol’ “YO” from the universe.

Anyway, it’s on the fridge now, where it’ll soon become unseen just like all the other things that are seen too often.

Like this Lego (?) remnant

and this vent-screen

or just plain run over, like this spike

These are things I have seen recently.

Last weekend I went with my mom & sis to visit my grandmother in upper NY state, in a proper little Adirondack town, and we stayed in a proper little Adirondack motel, complete with folksy furniture:

I swear I wanted to take that dresser home. I’m pretty sure it’s the rooster.
Somehow roosters have found their way into my life via the very people on that trip: my grandparents’ dishes were this awesome Metlox Poppytrail Rooster set;

my mom gave me this stately wooden rooster a few years ago (with articulated legs, natch, he sits on my TV);

and my sister gave me this lovely little rooster painting (it guards the vanilla raw sugar in the kitchen) for Christmas last year:

And here we all are out on a little tour through the neighbourhood, sans roosters.

Today was the day.

Today I discovered that I now only own one pair of shorts that actually fit comfortably. The ones with stretch, and a low waist. I guess it’s beginning.

And for everyone else, a picture of some blue street art. Just because.

Or for those who prefer insects (I know you’re there), some sort of ant gathering.

Today, a few random things.
This lovely shot of the calendula at the community garden plot, taken by the OH:

It reminds me of Leni Riefenstahl’s photos of German Olympic athletes…

A ladybug, so cute, how could I not include it? I mean, really, it’s a ladybug.

And this, I don’t even know how to express the retro-nerd hipsterness going on here.

Finally my sunflowers are starting to bloom! I desperately want to cut some for home, but there are only a few really open so far and the bees are enjoying them so much that I just can’t take them away.

On the walk home I started noticing all sorts of white flowers…


There are also a lot of yellow and orange flowers out now (sunflowers and rudbeckia most notably). I suppose there must be some white-loving and yellow/orange-loving pollinators in full swing about now.

Then there’s this guy/gal, waiting on the porch (just above the railing to which I lock my bike) for food to deliver itself:

5 points if you can identify this little lovely’s taxonomy.

In crafty news, I stopped by MacFab yesterday and after dutifully gathering together a bunch of zippers for UTW, was ambushed by a bin full of samples from discontinued decorating fabrics (you know, that gorgeous Amy Butler type stuff). Now surely you know that it’s nearly impossible to pass up the potential of this sort of bin, so naturally I started rifling through it and, while I did manage to exercise some pretty impressive self restraint, I picked out a few great pieces.

The plan is to quarter each piece (they’re about 18″ sq. as is) and make a very simple quilt for the Expected One. I figure there’s a nice mix of high contrast stuff for early visual stimulation, plus some more subtle colours for continued interest well past the B&W stage. (Funny how companies are still making all pastel mobiles – and then plonk the little thing in a room with a white ceiling…) I’ll go to VV to see if I can’t find a decent condition sheet (or other plain fabric) for the edge and backing, and hopefully a thin wool blanket for the innards.

I also visited Romni (as how could I not, being already down on Queen W and a hopeless addict) and foraged in the basement for some sale skeins. I did find a few things, but unfortunately none of them match any of the projects on my developing holiday-knitting list. (And of course visiting the website now I realize that by resisting going there during July I missed their 20% off everything sale… curses!) So into the stash it goes. I really do need to take a list when I go there, or else start planning projects based on what I’ve got in the stash already instead of what makes me go “Oooh!” when I see it online.

But why start being wise now…

I like to wander. I like to walk around my neighbourhood (and others) with my camera in hand, with my view tuned to the small details that normally get skipped over in the interest of crossing the street without being hit by a bus, or pondering other complexities of daily life and how to manouevre through them.

It’s kind of meditative, because while my eyes are searching out interesting compositions, odd juxtapositions of colour or texture or other compelling subjects, my brain just sort of follows along for the ride. The usual background chatter fades away as my attention is taken over by just seeing, and that means that there’s mental space for different questions or insights to pop in, spurred by the things I see.

Recently, there were these:

These roses are all on one plant, I assume the different colours indicate the ages of the blossoms. There’s a particular aspect to ikebana which incorporates the way in which the components age, and these roses made me think of that, and the way things age and how we do (and don’t) pay attention to that process.

This is one of my favourite bits of local… graffiti? street art? I don’t know why it’s there, low on an unobtrusive planter at an unassuming minor intersection, but it makes me imagine hundreds of years ago when this city was wilderness, and black bears would have been a respected part of the natural environment. I love that it’s walking away (towards the nearby Christie Pits Park), and that the footprints are on the sidewalk rather than the vertical surface. But I think I love most of all that it’s placed without context or explanation.

Now, I didn’t say my wanderings resulted in brilliant insights, but these days any thoughts that depart from my daily fretting are welcome.

I really am a forager. I just can’t help peeking at every pile of belongings (not garbage, mind you) placed on the sidewalk, just beyond ownership of the nearest house. It’s a step below yard sales, but even cheaper (i.e. free!) and you just never know when someone has discarded something that is no longer of any use to them, but fits some little gap in one’s own life just so.

For instance: last spring I found a foot stool in the IKEA Poäng style, just a couple of months after I bought my Poäng chair. It needed a new cushion, but I had foam and fabric so voila! new cushion for “new” foot stool:

Then a few months later someone was tossing out some pieces from an Ivar shelving unit. I was seriously in need of something to hide some boxes of event detritus that were befouling my living room, so with the judicious application of some fabric pieces from my stash, I turning the side pieces into a concealing screen (a little funky, yes, but effective). Comme ça:

With summer once again in full swing (despite the lack of hot summery weather), and a moving frenzy coming up soon, there’s lots of stuff up for grabs again. Yesterday I found this little wooden sled:

I know, super cute, right? Now, this may be used to pull around a small child, or groceries in the dead of winter, or it may just end up being something fun to set plants on, but at least it’s not rotting in a landfill.

Today was this plant-watering bulb:

I love those, but would never go out of my way to buy one, having so many more pressing things to spend my scarce income on like, say, rent and food.

Now, it’s not as though I head out purposely to bring home other peoples’ trash (and I’m certainly not going about rooting through anyone’s garbage bins). I mean, I don’t really think of myself as needing more stuff, nor am I trying to deal with the garbage strike by hoarding everyone’s disposed items. It’s just that I can’t help but be curious about what people are getting rid of, and I think I have a pretty good knack for sensing potential in objects that have outlived their usefulness in others’ eyes.

Although apparently any object left on city property (e.g. the sidewalk) becomes city property, so technically I suppose I’m a thief. Though what the city would want with an old Ivar shelving piece I can’t imagine; it’s really meant to apply to people who go around scavenging metal to sell for recycling.

So next time you see the unsold stuff from someone’s yard sale or leftovers from moving day set at the side of the road, have a look! You just might find the very thing you’ve been missing.