Perfect Little Details

I mentioned yesterday that I went back to Edmonton for a wedding this past weekend. The wonderful bride is a girl after my own heart. She was my first friend at King's and is one of those people who makes me feel like my strange eccentricities perhaps aren't that strange after all, or at the very least are endearing and lovely. She and I share a perfectionist streak and a penchant for the classic and beautiful. She is one of the few people I know other than myself who doesn't wear sweat pants in public. Ever. And who dresses for every occasion. I love her dearly and knew that her wedding would be a gorgeous affair. And it certainly was. A lot of this was due to the amount of love that was obviously going on in that room: the love of her and her new husband (who are possibly the cutest couple ever) and the love of every guest for the new couple. It was amazing. But beyond that, the details of the wedding were perfect: classic, simple, elegant, and gorgeous. The centrepieces on the reception tables were the embodiment of all these things. Gold frames stacked on top of each other with candle holders, simple white tapers, and little glass containers with strands of pearls cascading out of them arranged on top...they were incredible. I kept staring at it all night. And, get this, each table was named after a classic author (I was sitting at the William Shakespeare table)! Simply gorgeous.

For miles and miles

One of the really awesome things about Alberta is the space. Once you get out of the city there is just an abundance of room and air. I suppose this is true of almost anywhere, as I'm sure my friends from places like Ontario and Saskatchewan will attest, but having grown up in Alberta, I feel like we just have an abundance of this space. You won't run into trees for miles. Or buildings. It's just land and sky. And sometimes I appreciate this. I'm a bit claustrophobic at the best of times, but when I get stressed out I always want nothing more than to stand in the middle of one of these giant fields and scream at the top of my lungs. (And if you just read that and wondered how on earth a slightly claustrophobic girl came to love big cities...don't worry, it is profoundly confusing. I'm often a walking paradox. You get used to it eventually.) Space, room to breathe, is definitely part of iconic Alberta imagery. The fields that stretch for miles and miles are one of the first things I think of when I think about this province.

Looking Forward

Want to know one of the things I am most excited about for when I'm living in Nova Scotia? Four seasons. That's right folks, they have four seasons. Edmonton theoretically has four seasons, but autumn and spring hardly count out here. They last for about a week. And it's really a shame because they are such gorgeous times of year. Okay. They ought to be gorgeous times of year. Spring in Edmonton is mostly associated with brown sandy sludge all over, the emergence of garbage that has been under the snow all winter, and a really annoying pattern of thawing and freezing that means the city basically turns into a giant skating rink. That's unpleasant, but what really bums me out is the fact that we get gipped out of an autumn here. What we do get can be just plain amazing, but it is so short that for someone who is an autumn-lover like me it is rather disappointing. So, I'm super stoked to live in a province with an autumn that people rave about. I'm hoping for days like the one pictured above: soaked in golden sunlight and saturated with rich colours. I know it's only August, but I am already so excited for autumn that I can barely contain myself.

Hold me fast 'cause I'm a hopeless wanderer

Hopeless Wanderer
Mumford and Sons

Hear my voice
I came out of the woods by choice
The shelter also gave us shade
And in the dark I have no name

So leave that click in my head
And I will remember the words that you said
Left a clouded mind and a heavy heart
But I am sure we will see a new start

So when your hope's on fire
But you know your desire
Don't hold a glass over the flame
Don't let your heart grow cold
I will call you by name
I will share your road

Wrestle long with my youth
We try so hard to live in the truth
But do not sell me your respite
When I lose my head I lose my spine

So leave that click in my head
And I must remember the words that you said
You brought me out from the cold
Now how I long, how I long to grow old

So when your hope's on fire
But you know your desire
Don't hold a glass over the flame
Don't let your heart grow cold
I will call you by name
I will share your road

Hold me fast
Hold me fast
'Cause I'm a hopeless wanderer

Hold me fast
Hold me fast
'Cause I'm a hopeless wanderer

And I will learn
I will learn
To love the the skies I wander

I will learn
I will learn
To love the skies I wander
The skies I wander


Thanks to Alaina over at Live Creating Yourself I have discovered that Mumford and Sons has been playing some of the new stuff off of their next album at their live shows. I am now totally obsessed with this song. I love Mumford and Sons and am super stoked for their next album to come out. This song has captivated me. I've probably listened to it a good 20 times in the last 24 hours. And that's with a full workday, time at the gym and a coffee date with a friend in there. This is everything that I love about Mumford and Sons. The instruments, the vocals (oh the vocals! I am literally temporarily paralyzed whenever they break into harmony.), the incredible lyrics. It is so so so good. Seriously. Take a listen. You won't regret it.

The Graduate

I've officially been a graduate for a day now. Weird.

Light's Embrace

I love light. That has been well established on this blog. Sadly, now that the sun has emerged on a more regular basis and the days have gotten longer I have had to hole myself up in windowless rooms to do work. But there was a moment at work today when the golden light of the cusp of sunset came in the window next to my desk and wrapped me in its embrace. And for those precious few moments all the stress and worry drained away.

This picture is from the walk my roommates and I took through the river valley in the fall. It is probably my favourite shot from that evening. The gorgeous golden-hued light just makes this lovely plant all the lovelier.

Magical Evening Sunlight

Longing, lusting, craving, yearning, jonesing, craving...whatever you want to call it, I've got it. If you have been following my tumblr at all you have probably noticed that lately I have been captivated by sunlight. Actually, if you have been following this blog for any length of time you probably know about my obsession with light in all forms. Lately though I've really been craving sunlight. It's actually been rather nice weather-wise the last couple of weeks, but the light in winter just isn't cutting it for me. I need the warm, golden sun of summer and fall. The magical evening sunlight. I miss it. I want it back.

This picture is from back in September and pretty much captures the kind of light I want right now. I suppose I'll have to make do with the pale winter sunlight for now though. Not that it isn't pretty. It's just not what I want.

Connections

I walk into the office for the first time on Monday and she immediately greets me with "Breanna! I missed you!" She says it with genuine feeling, so much so that I almost burst into tears. It has only been two days, a weekend, since we last saw each other, but I had found myself missing her too. To be greeted with a return of this sentiment is almost too much for my already bursting heart to handle. 

For the first time in a long time I feel like I am actually connected to someone. Our friendship is still relatively new, but it has rapidly become my lifeline. A friendship characterized by laughter and tears, ridiculous moments and meaningful conversations. Something I would not give up for anything.

As I sit at my desk listening to her explain how on Sunday night she just wanted me around in some capacity, to be online or to update my blog, a wave of gratefulness washes over my soul. And I realize something, something simple, but deeply meaningful to me: I have made a friend.

Crunchy Autumn Leaves

There is almost nothing that has such a keen sense of fun as a fallen leaf. (Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens, J.M. Barrie)

I dearly love J.M. Barrie's Peter and Wendy (as evidenced by my post about fairies). This semester I am lucky enough to be studying this novel in one of my classes. The copy that I have for the class also has Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens, and naturally I read it as well, not because it was required but because I'm not about to pass up the opportunity to read more of the development of the character of Peter Pan. For those of you who don't know, the character of Peter Pan first made an appearance in Barrie's novel The Little White Bird in 1902. In 1904 the play, Peter Pan, was performed for the first time. In 1906, Barrie took the parts of The Little White Bird that centred on Peter Pan and compiled them into Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens. Then in 1911, he published a novelized version of the play entitled Peter and Wendy. I've seen a stage performance of Peter Pan and have read Peter and Wendy several times now. This semester I read Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens, so now all I have left to hunt down is a copy of The Little White Bird and then my exploration of Peter Pan will be complete. One of the things I find so delightful about Barrie's writing is his turns of phrase. He is a master at evoking child-like delight and wonder and fantasy. I enjoyed this personification of autumn leaves skipping down a park pathway immensely.

This picture is from Sunday afternoon when I wandered around my parents garden for a bit taking fall-like pictures. It was quite delightful. One of my favourite things about autumn is walking through crunchy leaves on a crisp but sunny day. Delightful.

PS - I hope those of you who are in Canada had a delightful Thanksgiving weekend full of turkey, friends, family, and long naps. For those of you who aren't in Canada...I hope you enjoyed your non-holiday Monday.

Fields

As I've been wandering through the blogosphere (did I really just use that word?) this week it is clear that spring has sprung and all over the place people are starting to dream of long walks through grassy fields. The number of pictures around this week that featured fields was pretty incredible. It makes sense though. After all, what makes a person more wisful for warm spring days than images of strolling through or lounging in sunlit fields. Personally I can't really think of anything.

The past couple of years over Easter break I've headed home with one of my roommates. She's from a small town in southern Alberta called Champion and her family owns a bison farm. Now, I'm a city girl, but I enjoy spending time down there. It's just so relaxed and we've been lucky enough to get some absolutely gorgeous weather, blue prairie skies, golden fields stretching into the distance where you can see the Rocky Mountains. Just glorious. I took this picture the first time we went down there. I'm actually pretty impressed because we were sitting in the back of a moving truck at the time and I only had to crop the image slightly. This is what spring looks like in Alberta. At least, this is what spring looks like in Alberta on a nice sunny day. And we have fields to spare.