adaskin's bay paddle

Went for a canoe paddle to Adaskin's Bay yesterday afternoon. Perfect paddling conditions: sunny, cooling breeze, calm waters. A bull moose was grazing in the bay as we arrived. He gave us a suspicious look, then slowly sauntered off into the bush with a "I'm not scared of you, I was just just leaving anyway" attitude. We also spotted a blue heron.

We took out cushions and books, settled in for an hour of drifting in the bay, talking, reading, snoozing (okay, so maybe it was me doing some snoozing), feasting on chilled wine, cheese and crackers, and fruit. A perfect way to spend a lazy late afternoon, really.

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Today's Blatherpics:

Russell, the son of friends of ours whom we visited on the weekend.

poll: photos?

Another short Blathering. Face it...these are likely going to be lean until we get back to Toronto.

Photo-taking has become such an essential part of my day-to-day life, and I enjoy browsing my digital photo archive for Blatherpics and just for the heck of it.

And after having lost several family members and friends over the years, I've also come to value photos for far more than just a fun way to record an event.

But I think I've been spoiled; I've always assumed that most of my friends don't mind having their pictures taken and sometimes posted on my Blatherings, and probably shouldn't have made this assumption.

So a sincere question to all you out there: if you'd rather not have me post photos of you, please do to let me know by private e-mail and I promise to honour this request in the future.

Poll: photos?

Do you mind having your photo taken? Do you loathe it? Do you own a camera? Do you keep your print photos well-organized in albums or in random piles? Do you have any photos in your wallet or purse at this very moment? If so, what are they photos of?

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Today's Blatherpics:

The front door of University College, my college at the University of Toronto.

curiosity

We arrived at the cottage today.

I haven't had much time for writing in the past few days, but hope to do some at the cottage this coming week.

Dead tired right now, short Blathering today, hopefully more tomorrow.

Today's Blatherpic

Scott, Anita, Parki and Jeff at brunch in Curiosity on the weekend.

morning run

Went for a longer run this morning. The advantage of running at 6 am is that there are very few people out, and it's cooler. The disadvantage is that I most of those I did run into seemed to have been up all night and were just coming back from their hours of partying. I didn't pass any other runners for the first hour, and admit I was somewhat nervous running through the still-shadowy Coronation Park. There were a few staggery-types who had obviously spent the night in the park, but they left me alone.

For safety reasons, I decided not to listen to my Rio for the first hour of my run; several women's runner resources have mentioned that 99% of female runners who have been attacked have been wearing headphones, which obviously make them easier to surprise.

It was the first time I had tried running without music. To my surprise, I enjoyed my run just as much, perhaps even more. I could hear the sound of the seagulls, a trawler's motor out on the lake, the rhythm of my feet hitting the pavement, my breathing. I had figured that without the incentive of the music I'd get tired faster, but I was wrong. In fact, I was out for about two hours this morning.

I ran most of the first hour, did a run/walk during the second, and this time made it out to a park past Ontario Place, where the Martin Goodman trail splits into several paths, with one going briefly over a hill. I opted for the hill as my last big push, then turned around and headed home. Stopped for a short break near Ontario Place to watch the lake and eat a Lemon Zest Luna bar for breakfast (I'm hooked on Luna bars these days). Didn't share any with the interested-looking seagulls.

Hope you're all having a good weekend!

poll: favourite smells

Today's pictures are from one of my runs instead. The garbage workers have been legislated back to work (they've been on strike for a while), so looks like the parks are going to get cleaned up. Here's one of the scenes I've been passing during my runs which, as you can imagine, got more and more fragrant with each passing day:





The legislation back to work likely has something to do with the fact that World Youth Day is approaching quickly (see photo at the top of this page). The Pope's coming to Toronto!

I try to plan my run home so that I go through the Toronto Music Garden, which I've mentioned in earlier Blatherings. I love seeing the personality of the garden change over time. The heady aroma of lilac was my most recent favourite; I'm nuts about fresh lilacs. When we lived out in the country, I used to cut a few bunches of lilac from a tall bush beside our house and put them in a vase so I could enjoy the scent all day.

Now I use fragrance to reward myself on the way home from a run. After the lilacs finished blooming in the Toronto Music Garden, it was lavender. Now my favourite scent in the garden comes from these flowers (anyone know their name?):





Some of my other favourite smells:

- baking bread
- chocolate
- playdough
- spices: cinnamon, mint, basil
- freshly cut grass
- lily of the valley, roses, lavender, lilacs
- brewing coffee
- musty book smell in used bookstores or academic libraries
- babies (after they've just been bathed or changed), especially the tops of their heads
- snow. Or rather, the fragrance in the air in the morning after snowfall. I love the chorus from The Lowest of the Low's "Rosy and Grey":

Everything is coming up rosy and grey
The wind is cold but the smell of snow warms me today
And your smile is fine and itís just like mine and it wonít go away
Because everything is rosy and grey

Poll: What are your favourite smells?

Do you have any "weird" favourite fragrances? Did you have any favourite smells back in childhood that you don't like now? I used to actually LIKE the smell of cigarette smoke and gasoline, for example. Now I dislike both. How far will you go to seek out favourite smells? I like the smell of coffee so much that sometimes I will use a hotel room coffeemaker to make a cup of coffee in the morning, even if I don't have plans to drink it.