Huff puff.

A food collage for thought. I made this the other day while Leo napped the afternoon away. The Jamie Oliver food magazine is bananas good. Today, Saturday was so pleasant. I ate two bagels (both sesame, one hot fresh from the oven and one with cream cheese, pickles and pepper that I am eating as I write), managed to begin the day with oatmeal and coffee (what a novelty after days of being sans maker thanks to me smashing the old Bodum, dummy), and in all of the hours in between managed to shoot a bunch of photos of the neighborhood. Lots of flowers (Autumn's last), lots of darkened doorways and staircases to nowhere, signage, tops of things. Then an older woman sitting on a bench caught my eye. I didn't have my camera in my hands a la moment (damn!) because I had just bought a bunch of new books off a woman for three dollars in front of the FIRST bagel shop, St. Viateur Bagels (my favorite) and thus my hands were tied. I don't know why but my body huffed down beside her and thus began my very first French conversation while living in Montreal. It was broken and embarrassing, but I kept thinking about those black rectangle eyebrows stamped above her eyes and didn't feel insecure about my lack of vocabulary. I asked her if I could take her picture en Francais (shoddily) and she said "non" quietly. D'accord. We sat on the bench quietly and then she said that the weather was beautiful en Francais. I agreed and eventually got up and left. A while later I ran into Laura while walking down Fairmont (how lucky!) and I took her bike portrait and we walked back in the direction of old eyebrows to Loco's house. On my way home from Loco's house, I asked Old Eyebrows one more time if I could take her portrait. She said in English "I am not beautiful" and I said "Oui. C'est vrai; tu es belle" and she just gave me her face. Tilted up and open, those eyebrows standing proud on her face. And I just took it. Just like that. And if I didn't get it, shoot me.

Swans yesterday.
Old Eyebrows today.
Who knows what tomorrow.

Below is a picture I took of my sister in the weeks between coming home from the bush and the days before her wedding with that old Voigtländer Bessa and an external trigger. Blurry, but a sweet faded memory of lunch with my mum and sister. Dollar drinks. Miss you guys. I only saw later on that it was a double exposure (I think) and noticed my ma's head on Erin's shoulder.


Here are some things I have been working on lately in my drawing book even though I can hardly stand drawing on paper that is bound. Hand me scraps, always. Majority of these are done with a quill and ink as I have been practicing to steady my hand and loosen my hold on writing utensils. My penmanship is tense (everything is tense), and I am trying to loosen it up a bit to become less sloppy (thanks for holding me accountable Milky. [His penmanship is killer]). So, new stuff. I am really into houses, old country homesteads build bravely in the middle of nowhere and left for dead. I want a house like that someday.

Someday. For now, as the last drawing says, I am in the zrob to w tej chwili, which is Polish for Here and Now. Au revoir.