Just Relax

chamomile (noun)
an aromatic European plant of the daisy family, with white and yellow daisy-like flowers

Okay, so these aren't chamomile flowers (obviously since they don't look like daisies), but they reminded me of the dried chamomile flowers used for tea, only these are bigger. Traditionally, chamomile tea is considered calming and soothing. It's good to drink just before bed because it relaxes you and allows you to fall asleep faster. One of my favourite teas right now is called Dulce & Banana and it's a chamomile based tea with caramelized bananas in it. It's probably a good thing that I like it because calming and relaxing effects are something I need by the the bucketful during the school year.

This is another picture from Saturday's jaunt in the park. I love taking pictures while wandering around outside because it forces me to look at things differently. In particular, I notice the small things, the things that would just get lost in the big picture if I wasn't consciously seeking them out. Walking through nature with my camera in hand is actually a very therapeutic and relaxing experience for me. Almost as good as drinking a mug of chamomile tea.

An Elevator Kind of Day

Today was an elevator kind of day. What does that mean you ask? Well, I will try to attempt to explain. One thing you need to know about me for all of this to make sense is that I generally dislike elevators. I avoid them unless necessary (like when I lived on the 17th floor of a building or when I'm carrying heavy things). But all day I just wanted to take the elevator. Several times I was carrying heavy loads (groceries or ridiculous numbers of books), but the rest of the time I was just tired and didn't have the energy to climb the stairs to 5th floor. This is more than just physical tiredness too, it was a true mental exhaustion.  woke up at 5:30 this morning, so I have been rather exhausted all day. Classes did not go well today. Every little thing that could go wrong seemed to go wrong all day. I have an assignment due tomorrow that I am currently supposed to be working on (I'm just taking a break to post this). In a lovely example of pathetic fallacy it started raining in the wee hours of the morning and continued until mid-afternoon. It was that perfect melancholy kind of rain. So, all in all, it was an elevator kind of day. That might not make sense to anyone but me, but I'm kind of okay with that because the perfection of that statement to capture my day impresses me.

I just took this photo 10 minutes ago in the lobby. Oh the wonderful elevator call button.

Ten Things...Soaked in a golden light

I was in the middle of posting this last night when suddenly my computer decided that there were no wireless networks in range (despite the fact that there were definitely multiple options available). Now the relationship between my computer and the internet has been tenuous at best lately, but normally they get over whatever tiff they are having fairly quickly. Not last night though. No, no. For hours my little laptop persisted in the belief that there was no internet for it to connect to. Eventually I just gave up, went to bed, and decided that no one would die if I posted this week's Ten Things on a Monday.

One of the most delightful things about the weather we have been having lately is the light. Sunset drenches the world in liquid gold and I simply can't help smiling. Light fascinates me. I've talked about that a few times on this blog. It is one of my great frustrations with taking a photo when I can't capture the light. There is something mysterious and magical about light. So, here are ten posts dedicated to sunlight.

1. Brilliant
2. Sunsets
3. Gorgeous
4. Sunset on the Harbour
5. Daydreams of Sunshine
6. Inspiration in Black and White
7. This is Calm
8. Sunshine on the water looks so lovely
9. Picture Perfect Ending
10. The Road Less Traveled By

Welocme Old Friend

I can't remember a time when autumn was not my favourite season. Maybe when I was a kid and kind of thought summer and winter were the only seasons (we have really short springs and autumns here, they are easy to miss). Fall officially began this week, which makes me super happy. The weather also turned from rainy and cold to sunny and warm. I think we have a bit of an indian summer right now, which is super exciting because for a while it looked like we wouldn't get one. It was gorgeously warm today so a couple of my roomies and I took advantage of the weather and went down to Goldbar/Rundell Park to wander amongst the fall foliage of the river valley. It was the perfect time of day for pictures since the sun was just starting to set and casting a beautiful golden hue on all of the beautiful fall colours. This is a picture of one of the birch trees we passed whose leaves have all turned yellow. My one roommate loves birch trees and her face just lit up when we passed this one. It was really a perfect way to spend an hour of the day.

I've got sunshine on a cloudy day

Or at least I have a sunflower. The sun finally came out in full force today. Even though it was still a bit chilly out, it was a welcome respite from the relentless rain. And it is supposed to be warm and sunny and indian summer-like for the next while. Yay! This picture is appropriate for today for more than just that. Yesterday was rough. Today was also a rather unpleasant day, so by the time I got to work I was grouchy and was worried that work would just make it worse. Instead it actually brightened my day. Now if I have told you work stories or you have worked where I work (not that a lot of my work colleagues read this...or any of them) then you know that this is something akin to a miracle. Normally the office is not the most uplifting of places; it tends to be rather stressful, especially on Thursday nights when I don't start work until 6.30 (3 hours later than a typical weekday shift). Maybe it was just the combination of people who were working tonight, but somehow it wasn't as insane as a typical Thursday and I actually had some fun joking around with some of the guys. So nice after two days of grossness. So there you have it, literal and metaphorical sunshine today.

This is yet another picture from Lacombe (I took a lot). The sunflowers in this garder were ridiculously tall and huge. I have never seen sunflowers like that before. They were really pretty though, with their bright yellow petals standing out against the grey sky. Love it!

This picture makes me smile when I'm having a bad day

So, I am currently working on an assignment that is due tomorrow afternoon. In theory it should be a quick sit down and type it up in a couple hours kind of thing since it is only supposed to be four pages long, but for some reason I am having incredible levels of difficulty organizing my thoughts. This means that instead of simply sitting down and cranking it out, I've been staring at the screen, typing one sentence at a time and trying desperately to make things coherent and connected. As the night wears on I am getting more and more frustrated by this. However, I am sitting at my desk and next to me is a bunch of hydrangeas that I bought myself on Monday. I can never decide if it is odd to by yourself flowers, but I do it fairly frequently. I adore hydrangeas so much and every time I look at them they make me smile. This is probably the only thing saving my sanity at this moment. I thought I would share a picture of them with you. Hopefully they can brighten your day a bit too. I realized after I uploaded this picture that it is composed in a very similar manner to yesterday's. Oh well. I really do love this particular composition. I also really like how the light is in this photo. It was rainy the day that I took this picture so the light is soft and diffused as it comes in the window. There is something romantic, wistful and dreamy about this image. It makes me smile.

In case you are wondering, the title of this post comes from the song "This Picture" by a local Edmonton singer/songwriter, Jesse Crowley. I saw him perform live several years ago and to be honest I don't know what he has been up to recently. I bought a cd of rough cuts of some of his songs when I saw him perform and it is one of those albums that I kind of forgot about for a while. I rediscovered it last week though and have rapidly fallen in love with it again. I am definitely a fan of his stuff.

An Apple A Day Keeps The Doctor Away

Everyone around me is getting sick. Well, okay, that is a bit of an overstatement, but it certainly seems as if an unusually large number of people are ill at the moment. Since I have next to no immune system (if someone I spend time with gets sick I am almost guaranteed to get whatever they have) this concerns me. I've already been sick once this semester so I have no real desire to get another cold. Maybe I'll be lucky and whatever is going around right now is what I already had.

I'm allergic to apples though, so this particular adage doesn't really help me out too much. But it does make for a decent blog post. I took this picture in Lacombe and am rather fond of it. I enjoy playing around with different ways of framing things, and find that I am a particular fan of having the focus of a picture off to the side or in a corner. That's definitely one of the reasons that I like this picture. I also like that it is a slightly different subject than I typically photograph. Any time I take a lot of pictures you can almost guarantee that most of them will be of flowers, and although this isn't the biggest departure from that (still being a plant and in a garden and all) I like having some different things to photograph.