Tulips and Guns

After taking pictures of the red dresses, I glanced across the street toward the Cenotaph where orange tulips lined the pathway toward the monument. Orange tulips. the Cenotaph, and guns seemed like an unlikely mix, so I wandered over and took a few phone photos.

I didn't know if the orange tulips represented something specific in this military and memorial context. I don't think they do, for all I could find was this.

Orange tulips generally symbolize enthusiasm, passion, and desire, conveying a message of energy and excitement. They are often given to express admiration or celebrate achievements. Unlike red tulips which represent romantic love, orange tulips offer a more vibrant and playful sentiment. They can also signify understanding and appreciation between individuals, according to Petal Talk - 1800 Flowers. (Google AI Overview)

 

Red Dress Project

It was another Meh Day, weatherwise at least, but we did our walky regardless, and it wasn't too meh. This time, we headed downtown because I wanted to see if there were red dresses hanging outside of Zion Memorial church. Although I had just heard of the installation yesterday morning, May 8th, I later learned that the official Red Dress Day had occurred on the 5th, as it does on every year although this is new to me.

The national day of awareness and remembrance, known as Red Dress Day, was inspired by Métis artist Jaime Black after she created the REDress project — an art installation of red dresses hanging in public spaces that serve as a visual reminder of the Indigenous women and girls who are no longer with us.

There were various windblown displays on the lawn; Sue captured some of them while I stood there, hands in pockets. I knew that she would cover the subject thoroughly and that there was, therefore, no need for me to duplicate her effort.

This is the same socially conscious church that serves a free, hot lunch weekly. Good for them.

MEH

I haven't posted for two days and for three out of the last four. I am just having a bit of a MEH time of it.

Photographically, I came across a little clump of grape hyacinths. I would have been willing to hit the ground for a macro, but the day was windy, and the next and the next. When it wasn't windy (well it always was) it was raining. MEH.

I did something to my left wrist and something also to my right knee. The pains came after just a little bit of light garden work, so brief and light that I don't know if that was the cause or not. Unfortunately, they both feel like pains that I will carry for the duration, until the end of my MEH time.

It hasn't helped that I've been going through one of my rough patches of sleep. I mean it's never very good, but sometimes it's less gooder than other times. Sleepwatch accused me of getting only 3.5 hours the other night, but I do think it missed an hour, but 4.5 hours still classifies as MEH in my MEH opinion.

Although I often don't always love the thought of going on our daily walks, the weather has resulted in them being very hit and miss. I think the lack of exercise increases my MEH level. It's odd how in some ways, Sue and I are more consistent about walking in winter. We know it will be cold in winter, but we don our warm coats and out we go. Rain and/or gale-force winds in this season, keeps us in our MEH home more now than in winter.

Even a trip to the garden centre didn't inspire me when I accompanied Sue on her daily prompt. However, I did click a bit, rather unenthusiastically I hasten to add. I was thinking that I might be able to blend multiple exposures into one interesting image. I went through the process and hated the very MEH results so much that I won't even show them to dear readers today, and you know that I have shown you some pretty MEH stuff on this MEH blog.

Just because I was there, I will post this quick grab of a calla lily. I didn't check the label, but I think that's what it is. It's orange, and it's okay, but only just okay, barely raising above MEH level.

But . . .

We did get out for our annual pre-mother's-day Mother's Day breakfast. That did unMEHticize my spirits a little. For once, I chose something other than my big scramble of ingredients. I ordered the Billy Goat: a poached egg with hollandaise along with fried tomato, crispy bacon, goat cheese, and green onions.  I'll have you know that I was a relatively good boy, and only ordered the one-egg version. It was good enough that I would consider ordering this dish again if I decided to forego my more habitual Chef's Bowl. It will be a tossup.

Having my lovely wife beaming back at me, as she always always does, was and is a very good thing. I don't even have to take her out for breakfast to get multiple daily smiles. They are definitely NOT MEH.

So, perhaps, my MEH interlude is coming to a close despite getting soaked in a downpour upon exiting the restaurant, which when thinking of my soaked clothes, causes me to remember that I wore short-sleeves for the first time since probably October, so that it also a non-MEH plus. Quite by chance, the shirt happened to be a nice non-MEH Canadian red and white. It's not meant to be a pro-Canada shirt, it just happens to be those colours, and in these political days, it seems like a particularly good time to wear them. 

Miscellaneous Walks and Photos

Sue required a sunset photo, so off we went to Riverside Park. The trouble is that you can't order a sunset on demand, but you do what you can.

I did take my camera, but there wasn't much going on and I couldn't find a composition that I wanted to shoot. I walked about and sat about and contemplated views, but there wasn't anything happening.

We meandered to the east end of the park by the boat launch where I photographed the tree that you have seen more than once recently. It will sorta do in a pinch.

However, as Sue was walking through the park, she did capture a canoeist along with a sun flare: some like flares and some don't.

On another walk along another boardwalk and another swamp, one that we don't get to very often, we came across a couple looking at a painted turtle. It was much smaller that the recent snappers but also prettier.

Then, on another walk in the park on a very nice day, we sat on a bench, and Sue was able to zoom in on a redwing blackbird. Cool.

From the same sunny bench, we saw a canoe paddle along the far bank. As you can see, the light was rather pleasant.

Caturday 83: Under the Placemet

When I came across this photo, buried in my Blogger queue of possible photos, I had to check to see if I might have posted it already.

I hadn't. This is the impish Dusty from 1972 or 73.

Flush of Green

After some walking and some shopping, we ended up at Tims Drive Through for what amounts to our semi-monthly treat of coffee and turkey-bacon-club sandwiches. As is our custom, we then drove to the park, or at least to the parking lot by the boat launch that is by the park, to enjoy our comestibles.

To our delight was saw that the first flush or blush of green was upon us.

I made the supreme sacrifice of exiting the car to get a phone pic of that tree. You know the one.

I swung around the right to shoot the trees on the edge of the park. While most of those trees, like those off to the right in the photo ↓ are biding their time, the trees in the foreground are eager to get on with it.

When we pulled back into our own driveway, we noticed that our two daffodils were fully open. It was windy, so neither of us have taken a picture yet, but they are a bit of a puzzle because the bulbs that we planted many years ago didn't survive, and we have not had daffs ever since then. Somehow or other, however, we now have two of them. They look a little lost since they are not close together, but I like their sunny look and that they just popped up as if out of nowhere to do what they do  

Walking like an Eagle

Sneaky Sue snapped a picture of me on our daily walk.

Winds were gale force again, so we headed to the somewhat protected trail once more. 

I did stick my polarizer filter on my lens, hoping that if we saw the turtle again I'd get a better photo. It turns out that I didn't get a better photo. The turtle that I displayed yesterday was elsewhere; the other one that I didn't post then was still lurking about but, once again, mostly underwater. I snapped a shot hopefully, but the the light was not as good as on the previous day, regardless of polarizers and big cameras.

There were bits of red vegetation floating nearby (you can see some by the turtle, above): discarded seed pods or some such. I thought they might do for a photo, but they didn't, so on the computer I applied a radial filter as an experiment.

Since that experiment amounted to nothing, let us just move on.

At one spot, just before we turn off the trail into the park, a forsythia (I think it is) bush had burst forth on the edge of an abutting backyard. What a treat to see such bright, vibrant colour when other colour is just barely beginning!

Finally. we sat on the bench that overlooks the river and took selfies for Sue’s meme, one take with the park in the background and one with us turned about and showing the river in the background. I think I like the river image better. The angle and composition are a little different than the more typical head-on-centred selfies.

 with the park behind

 turned around with the river now in the background

As you can see, I was wearing my warm jacket, but I could have made do with a lighter one because the temperature rose into the 20s/70s. Of course, it dropped to freezing overnight in this ever-changing spring weather that also featured some very heavy winds and downpours.