Who’s counting?
We’re having fun and really, enjoying ourselves.
Indeed, considering the flooding problems some of you face south of the 49th, I’ve come to appreciate our snow, and the never-ending winter.
Here, makes me think of a Bruegel painting of winter scene, except replace the people with ducks and geese:
Until then, we persevere.
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Extreme cold warnings greeted the New Year in Toronto. A record low temperature was recorded on January 5, a frigid -23C (that’s -9.4F). I’m happy to say that I was there to experience such a newsworthy occasion during my stay over the Christmas and New Year holidays.
Here are photos I took on that very day, January 5, 2018, witnessing an awesome sunrise over Lake Ontario. Wintry but not bleak:
Inside it’s always warm. And on a cold day, looking out the window can be a meditative respite:
Artist and writer William Kurelek (1927-1977) knew how to find pleasure in the cold. Why of course, he was born in Alberta, and spent his childhood years on the prairies:
As well, Shelley’s positivism is always a boost for me. No need to wait for the groundhog. “O Wind, If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?”
No matter what the weather, it can still be it a worthwhile year.
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The following is a list of books, movies, and events that stirred up the most ripples for me in 2017. Note that the books and movies are not necessarily releases from 2017 but just what I’ve had the privilege to encounter this year. If you don’t see your book here, it could be that it’s on my TBR list for the coming year. If you don’t see your fave movie here, it could be that I haven’t watched it or that I have but, indeed, it’s not here. Click on the links to read my reviews.
MOVIES
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri directed by Martin McDonagh
Certain Women directed by Kelly Reichardt
The Big Sick directed by Michael Showalter
Stefan Zweig: Farewell to Europe directed by Maria Schrader
Wind River directed by Taylor Sheridan
Things to Come directed by Mia Hansen-Løve
Silence directed by Martin Scorsese
The Rider directed by Chloé Zhao (55th NYFF)
The Road to Mandalay directed by Midi Z (NYAFF)
Calvary directed by John Michael McDonagh
BOOKS
At the Existential Cafe: Freedom, Being, and Apricot Cocktails by Sarah Bakewell
Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
Wildlife by Richard Ford
The Noise of Time by Julian Barnes
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
EVENTS
Visit to MoMA Click on the link to my post.
NYFF at Film Society of Lincoln Center: In September I had the chance to attend press screenings of the 55th New York Film Festival. CLICK HERE for all my reviews on AAPress.
Other than hanging out at the Film Society of Lincoln Centre for the screenings, I’d experienced NYC on the bus, in the subway, and simply on foot, some days close to 20,000 steps, making my NYC trip extra rewarding. Here are some pics of the memorable experience.
Lincoln Center:
Film Society of Lincoln Center where the screenings took place:
The Juilliard School:
Central Park:
One World Trade Center:
Strand Bookstore:
Brooklyn Bridge:
Where I found the best lobster roll I’d ever tasted, at the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge:
And that’s a wrap.
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And to all, a wonderful 2018 for books, films, and rewarding encounters!
Two years ago around this time, I drove across four New England states searching for fall foliage. Red was the colour I was looking for. It may surprise you, we don’t have red here in Alberta, no real Maples here. We might have some red from certain trees or shrubs, but not on a large scale as in Eastern Canada.
But what we have is gold, different shades of gold. Red can make the landscape more adorable, but gold is purity. Here’s the scenery in the past two days by the Bow River in my usual birding sites:
The scenes of a golden fall near the Pond, where layers of autumn foliage and evergreens make up the ripples of a boreal forest:
Even the path under my feet is golden:
I know, nothing gold can stay. Even as I type, a Winter Storm Warning is in effect. We’ll have snow overnight, and “Hazardous winter conditions are expected”. So when this post is up on Monday, all the gold will likely be white, which makes these photos all the more precious. They could be the last of the fall memories of 2017.
But then again, if we can have winter in the fall, we can have summer in December. At least, that’s what I’m dreaming of…
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Related Posts on Ripple:
My New England Road Trip Starts Here
It has been noted that the drive from Lake Louise in Banff National Park up the Icefields Parkway north to Jasper National Park is the most beautiful drive in the world. I spend a couple of our remaining summer days driving that scenic route and immerse in the other-worldly environs of pristine Jasper National Park.
The cold rain and wet snow in sections of the road remind me that, yes, autumn is at hand. But once I reach the boundary of Jasper National Park, I throw away any seasonal distinction. Wether it’s summer or autumn is immaterial. What’s captivating is the present. Here are some glorious sights of Jasper National Park.
The mysterious, clouds shrouded Medicine Lake in the morning light:
Hurricanes hit Texas and Florida, here we’ve been affected by the wild fires from B.C. all summer. At the shore of Medicine Lake I feel the effects:
But the natural beauty remains. The charred remnants of trees along the edge of the lake would become rich organic matter spurring new growths.
A short 30 mins. drive from Medicine Lake is the picturesque Maligne Lake, serene and reflective:
For those who must do something to seize the moment, there are canoes for rent and scenic cruises:
Before reaching the townsite of Jasper, the 93 Icefields Parkway leads to Athabasca Falls, where one can witness the power of Nature in an aesthetic mode. Who had turned the mighty torrents into Nature’s sculptors, carving quartzite and limestones into magnificent art installations?
In the Jasper townsite, even the man-made locomotive matches the scenery in the evening light. Like a watercourse streaming through the landscape, The Rocky Mountaineer passenger train passes through Vancouver and across the Rocky Mountains into Alberta’s Banff and Jasper National Parks.
Even a cargo CN train exudes poetry. I credit it to the spirit of the environs:
Just like the animals preparing for winter, I’m gathering visual memories to feed the cold months ahead.
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Other Travel Posts on Ripple Effects:
Establishing Shot: A Visit to Toronto
Our summer is short. After a few weeks of record high temperatures, as August arrives, I can feel the cooler air creeping in.
At the Pond, August brings a harvest of berries and edible delights for the birds:
Here are some of the guests relishing Nature’s feast.
Forget about worms, these succulent fruits are tastier. The young Robin learns fast:
The American Goldfinch, bending over forward:
The Cedar Waxwing knows her etiquettes, always graceful and poised:
Among them all, I must say my favourite is the Yellow Warbler. They are not fond of berries, but there are lots to eat around here. I’m most grateful for their taste. Here’s why: Mosquitoes eat me; warblers eat mosquitoes. Simple as that.
What more, it’s no simple feat to sing with a mosquito in your mouth:
In a few weeks, the Warblers will be gone, and I’ll be capturing scenes of Autumn. Yes, that soon. But for now, I’ll feast on summer sights. So, eat to your heart’s content, my Warbler friend.
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It has been three weeks since I last posted about a first sign of spring: Grizzly bear coming out of hibernation. Now, spring is in full force. Another sure sign in my neck of the woods is Great Horned Owlets out to enjoy the sunshine.
First, let me play a little ‘Where’s Waldo’ with you. Can you find the owls in this photo? How many do you see?
The obvious ones are on the top branch, mom on the right with her baby, and in the lower, closer to the trunk, another owlet.
Some are just born to be more independent. Take a closer look at this cool, furry owl baby perching on her own branch. Seeing me eagerly snapping her photo, she sits still for me, giving me a big smile even:
She reminds me of those Ukrainian dolls.
But don’t think she’s all innocent and vulnerable, look at her claws:
And to the mother and the other baby in the upper branch, again, they know how to please us nature paparazzi, just by being themselves:
And here, a little action for us, Mom preening her baby. The term of endearment is instinct:
I can hear the baby say: “Thanks Mom. Happy Mother’s Day!”
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You may have roses in your garden but we still have the remnant of winter. And in Lake Louise, about 58 km (36 mi) from Banff National Park, it is still winter in full swing. This photo was taken just a few days ago:
People were walking out into the frozen lake, with the glacier in the backdrop.
A snowy but cheery welcome:
40 mins. drive south to Banff, it’s much warmer, and spring has arrived. The best sign is when you see a grizzly bear coming out of hibernation. See her?
When I first spotted the bear, I was going to quietly walk away until I was told a group of people were already there, well protected and with a park ranger interpreting her every move. So I gladly joined them:
The ranger told us that was a five year-old she bear, officially known as Bear #148, just out of hibernation a week ago. Later I found she had been in the news for trailing a woman walking her dog a bit too close for comfort.
Here she is, still in good shape after a long hibernation:
I slipped away quietly when she got just a bit too close. What’s the first thing you’d wish for after a long, deep sleep? A hearty breakfast of course.
What an exciting herald of spring.
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Spoiler Alert: This post contains a major spoiler of a current movie with a similar name.
***
If you’d known the future, would you change anything?
In the movie Arrival, what’s most moving for me is at the end, when we realize, ah-ha! Dr. Louise Banks has seen it beforehand—knowing full well that years later, her husband Ian will leave her, and her dear daughter Hannah will die of illness at a young age—she still chooses to embark on this journey of love and motherhood, a small idea to illustrate a bit of the Ultimate Arrival.
In the words of the story writer Ted Chiang:
“From the beginning I knew my destination, and I chose my route accordingly.”
And here’s another life…
If you’d known that you’d be born in a smelly horse stable, had to flee from a death threat on your life while still an infant, and later, you’d be misunderstood, criticized, rejected, plotted against, deserted and denied by your intimate friends, betrayed, beaten, spat upon, taunted, and finally hung on the cross with just three nails holding you up until death of asphyxiation, and that’s after living a short life of only 33 years, would you rather not be born?
Yet, He chose to arrive.
***
The Risk of Birth, Christmas, 1973
This is no time for a child to be born,
With the earth betrayed by war & hate
And a comet slashing the sky to warn
That time runs out & the sun burns late.
That was no time for a child to be born,
In a land in the crushing grip of Rome;
Honour & truth were trampled by scorn–
Yet here did the Saviour make his home.
When is the time for love to be born?
The inn is full on the planet earth,
And by a comet the sky is torn–
Yet Love still takes the risk of birth.
— Madeleine L’Engle
***
Other Related Posts:
After I came back from London in mid October, the Pond already looked deserted. Suddenly in the last few days my Air (Avian) B&B was buzzing with activities again. The Pond had become the meeting place of waterfowls making their last stop before heading south.
Here are some of them on a sunny, cheery afternoon. So glad to see signs of life before the big chill. Forecast for next week’s lowest temperature: -24C (-11F).
Pardon me for not showing my regulars the Mallards, but it’s the infrequent guests that I treasure more; although still ‘common’, there are just less of them than Mallards. Here are the Buffleheads. Like they’re right out of a Monet painting. No colour alteration here:
My favourite has to be Mrs. Merganser. No matter what time of day, she looks like Lucille Ball just out of bed. Her uncombed, red hair stands out particularly:
Up in the sky, more Canada Geese getting ready to land on the Pond, joining the late Autumn sendoff party:
Less convivial on land, I’m afraid. Why, it’s all brown and barren. The white-tailed deer filling up in the evening sun. Yes, it looks desolate. Dry shrubs are all that’s left for food.
And -20’s C. next week? Good time to tackle the piles of books on my bedside table.
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Saturday Snapshot is hosted by West Metro Mommy Reads. CLICK HERE to see what others have posted.
FRIDAY OCT. 7
For the last day in London, we wanted to grab the chance to go see places we hadn’t been to before. Our plan for the day: first to Abbey Road, then Notting Hill.
This is probably the most famous zebra crossing in the world. And that of course is the location where The Beatles’ Abbey Road album cover was taken. Tourists would gather right at the crossing, stopping cars frequently.:
… and actually pose crossing it, making numerous takes, cause it’s just hard to find no cars coming, then snapping the right pics at the right time in the right pose:
The other side of the zebra crossing is the famous Abbey Road Studios where The Beatles recorded their albums:
We couldn’t go into the studios, but there was a gift shop adjacent where signs were posted to chronicle the historical significance of the Abbey Road Studios. Sir Edward Elgar opened the Studios in 1931. In 1939, King George VI recorded his now famous “King’s Speech to His Peoples”. Seventy-one years later in 2010…
“Oscar-winning ‘The King’s Speech‘ score recorded. Actor Colin Firth’s speech is re-recorded with the microphone made by EMI for King George VI.”
Looks like we’d come to something truly historic.
**
After Abbey Road, we headed to Notting Hill. I like the movie Notting Hill (1999), have seen it several times especially now it’s on Netflix, but have never been to that part of London. I’d done some Googling before I left home. Notting Hill is the actual movie location, and the famous 2-mile long Portobello Road Market there is one of the best street markets in London. And it’s open on Fridays and Saturdays only.
It was an overcast and chilly Friday morning, the clouds hung heavy, but that didn’t dampen our spirits. We took the Tube from Abbey Road Studios and got off at Notting Hill Gate Station.
In the movie, Portobello Road is where William Thacker (Hugh Grant) has his Travel Book Shop. He walks past the stalls in the Market to get to his shop.
So here it is. Portobello Road, a colourful street lined with antique and curio shops, and on Fridays and Saturdays, open stalls selling all sorts of interesting items, a bazaar like a movie set.
Here’s William’s Travel Book Shop location, now a gift shop. In the movie, that is where William meets American film star Anna Scott (Julia Roberts) the first time. William is totally oblivious to who she is, while a shoplifter recognizes her and has the gut to come right up to ask for her autograph. That’s William’s intro to movie culture. Here’s the location:
Afterwards, William buys orange juice across the street and bumps into Anna again, spilling juice on her dress. Thus, leading her to his house with the blue door nearby to clean up.
The tipping point of the movie happens on both sides of that blue door. Apparently tipped off by William’s hairy roommate Spike (Rhys Ifans), a large crowd of paparazzi wait outside that blue door the morning after Anna stays over, ready to snap anything of the star. Unfortunately it’s William who opens the door in his T-shirt and boxer, and after, Anna in her sleep wear, and last but not least, Spike opens again in his brief only.
Well, here it is, that house with the blue door, 280 Westbourne Park Road:
And of course, the first movie I saw after I’d come home was Notting Hill, again.
That’s a wrap of my five-day London experience, my Thelma and Louise escapade for 2016 with my cousin. Obviously, no… we didn’t drive off a cliff.
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This is a Saturday Snapshot post. Saturday Snapshot is hosted by West Metro Mommy Reads. CLICK HERE to see what others have posted.
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Here’s a recap of my Five Days in London:
THURSDAY, OCT. 6
Well you win some and you lose some. Having tasted the delicious treat that’s the Georgia O’Keeffe at Tate Modern, I came to British Library the next day to find they’ve just finished with a major Shakespeare exhibition there marking the 400th anniversary of the Bard’s death.
The British Library is another must see for me, having ‘discovered’ it the last time I was in London a few years ago. In their Gallery is their permanent collections of iconic papers and manuscripts that define the history of civilization, like the Gutenberg Bible, The Magna Carta, handwritten score of Handel’s Messiah, Middle Eastern and Asian manuscripts and sacred scripts, Leonardo da Vinci’s notebook, handwritten lyrics by the Beatles with comic drawings on the side… just to name a few of the 200 items on display, free to the public.
Enough of words. Here are some pics of British Library:
Storeys of rare books:
Looking down to the main area:
Art works are everywhere. I like this piece by British artist Patrick Hughes, entitled “Paradoxymoron”. His signature style is the changing perspective for the viewer. A ‘normal’ painting from the front:
The painting gradually shifting to 3D as the viewer moves to the side:
Finally, from the side, a complete 3D version:
Here’s from the other side:
And how did we get to British Library? We took the Tube from Victoria Station to the St. Pancras Station. You’ve seen the magnificent make-over of King’s Cross Station from my last post, here’s another superb alchemy of the old and the new. St. Pancras Station is an international transportation hub for trains. The scale is massive and the architecture style, Gothic Revival.
I’m most impressed by the interior, the public art and the huge bronze sculpture by Paul Day (2007). Here are some pics:
Amazed by how detailed this huge sculpture is. Look at the folds of the clothing:
Here are some of the vignettes circling below the tall sculpture. Whimsical perspectives:
Saying goodbye to soldiers going to war:
… and the modern goodbye. I like this one the best:
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Ripple Effects 