Nova Scotia Surf Trip and Acorn Photos

Two weeks ago Walter and some friends made a trip out to Lawrencetown, Nova Scotia hoping that the predicted swell would hit in the 40 hour window they had out there (I think it was like a 22 hr drive each way and then they had about a day and a half on the beach before turning back). Luckily it all came together and they were able to get some good waves. Adam Cornick from Acorn Photography took some really beautiful pictures of Walter one day at sunset and wrote a great article on his blog. Check it out: So now Walter has surfed Canada's east coast (Nova Scotia), west (Tofino), the Saint Lawrence River in Montreal and Lakes Ontario and Erie. I've done the same except not the east coast. Right now I really want to get out to Newfoundland. Check out Adam's Photograph Blog and read his post on surfing in Nova Scotia...

Beach

From my Beach Board on Pinterest


That second picture is from the Hartwood Restaurant in Tulum.

The Encampment vs. The Bachelor

I just found out I have been chosen to work as Creative Collaborator for The Encampment, an instillation that will be part of the Luminato Festival this Summer.



Fort York during The Encampment. Digital rendering by Thom Sokoloski


The artists behind The Encampment have already done encampment installations in New York, Ottawa, and earlier in Toronto. The premise is that you choose an individual who was in some way involved with The War of 1812, (there is a story bank online from which creative collaborators can choose individual stories) research them, and create an instillation based on this person. Each instillation is made inside of an old-fashioned style camp/military tent, which will be pitched on the grounds of Fort York for the duration of Luminato. There will be 200 tents in total, and the project will be open every evening for the duration of the festival.

Photo by Ryan Mallard - Confinement of the Intellect.

I'm very excited about this...as soon as I heard about it I knew it was something I wanted to be apart of.

It was one of those situations where you think "This activity is exactly suited to my interests. It MUST have been created JUST for me. I must get chosen or I will die."

(Which is funny because that seems to be the premise for every season of 'The Bachelor'- 30 girls who feel that some man who has been haphazardly chosen and shoved in front of the camera is the PERFECT and ONLY man for each of them. Have they never even had one girl who comes on and says "Yeah, he's kind of cute, it was really unique how his interests were working out and prime time TV, we had a nice dinner, but I don't really think we're a good match?").

Anyways - 30 girls in madly in love with one random dude? Strange and terrifying, and consider me skeptical.

More than 200 individuals who are interested in creating an art instillation in an old-timey tent based on a historic person from the war of 1812? Now THIS I can believe, and yes, I am worried about the competition!

Anyways I am very excited about it. There are six weeks of workshops which start soon. I will keep you updated.

Annie Oakley

Annie Oakley is a women I became interested in recently. Looking over pictures of her and reading about her life, she instantly reminded me of a friend. Something about both her spirit and her physical presence.

I wanted to start making posts about individuals and images that I've collected, mostly in my mind but some on my hard drive, so this is the first.

Though she is known as Annie Oakley, the famous sharpshooter and exhibition shooter was born Phoebe Ann Moses in 1860, in a log cabin on the rural western border of Ohio.

After the death of her father at age six, followed shortly by her mother re-marring and then becoming widowed for a second time , Annie's family (now consisting of nine children and her mother) soon found itself in a dire situation. In 1870 Annie and her sister were admitted to the Drake County Infirmary, also called the "poor farm", when the family could no longer financially support them.

Annie was "let out" to a local family by the poor farm, where she suffered mental and physical abuse before running away and returning home two years later. At that time her mother had married for a third time. The family remained impoverished, and Annie began hunting and trapping (which she had done since a young age), selling the game she caught in town to hotels and restaurants. In this way she was able to support her mother and siblings, and at the age of 15 she had raised enough to pay off the mortgage owing on the family farm.

Of this event she says "Oh, how my heart leaped with joy as I handed the money to mother and told her that I had saved enough to pay it off!"

Annie was such an accomplished hunter that at age 15 she entered a sharpshooting competition against Francis Butler, a travelling marksman. Butler had bet $50 (around $2,000 today) that he could beat any competitor. Surely he wasn't expecting a 15 year old girl as a competitor, and Annie quickly beat him, hitting 25 out of 25 shots in a row (Butler missed on his 25th shot).

This was the beginning of Annie Oakley. Annie became renouned for her sharpshooting abilities, and drew a crowd wherever she performed. One of her most famous tricks was to split a playing card, edge-on, repeatedly, and then put subsequent holes in it, all before it fell to the ground, shooting from a distance of 90 feet.
Later, Annie married Francis Butler, and together they toured with Buffalo Bill's Wild West show. During this period the Lakota Holy Man and Chief Sitting Bull also toured with the show, and they struck up a friendship. It is reported that Sitting Bull adopted Annie, in part to symbolically replace a daughter who had died. Sitting Bull gave Annie the nickname "Little Sure Shot", which she used throughout her career and became part of the identity she created for herself as a women of the wild west.

A rare picture of Annie without her gun.

In the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame in Texas, Annie is quoted as saying:

"Aim at the high mark and you will hit it. No, not the first time, not the second time and maybe not the third. But keep on aiming and keep on shooting for only practice will make you perfect. Finally you'll hit the bull's-eye of success."


Annie performed throughout her life, along with advocating for women's causes and philanthropy work. She continued to set sharpshooting records up until her death in 1926, from natural causes.

Annie in 1922

Girl you know you got to watch your health...

Couple things....

After a year of waiting I finally (finally!) got my hair wrap done last Sunday. Stay tuned for a more detailed shot. Reviews have been mixed.

A friend sent me an ecopy of this book and I am laughing through the whole thing. I always loved checking out her old blog Stuff I've Bought That I Love

You might consider this book a deeper, more introspective version of the blog.




Sold out show in Toronto tonight....maybe next time.


Yay Toby!

First weekend in March...

Saturday lunch was a delicious panini at Pamenar (a favorite after some celebrity spotting and, even better, evesdropping earlier this year).

After surviving tha strong wind storm Friday night (did it wake you up too?), Saturday I met a friend for a delicious panini at Pamenar (a favorite after some celebrity spotting and, even better, evesdropping earlier this year).

Late afernoon Walter and I made our way over to Scarborough for some surfing. I feel a little bad as now Walter is the one without a wet suit (a friend had kindly lent him one in the fall), but it was nice to have a photographer for once.

By the time we got there and hiked over to the cove it was after four and the waves were really dying down (from what I hear). I like the Blair Witch-esque quality of this one:

Funny that after taking the pictures Walter looked at the camera screen and commented that the wetsuit really made my face look different. At that point I was freezing and exhausted and the comment didn't mean much, but now looking back I'm glad to know that a wetsuit isn't generally considered to be the epitome of flattering face wear....

Hope your weekend was great...

A few things I'm interested in right now....

I was lucky enough to see this book on the "Best Bets' shelf at my local library after reading a few pages about six months ago that I couldn't forget.

Little Bee is the story of a young Nigerian girl who becomes a refugee in England after fleeing war in her homeland. While I'm not sure the novel 'Little Bee' is so breathtaking, I think the character of Little Bee is. Since the only way you can meet the character of Little Bee is by reading the novel, I suggest you do just that.

Quite delicious 'ice cream' that a friend introduced me to on Friday, Coconut Bliss is actually pure coconut milk, vanilla, agave, and shredded coconut.

Funny thing about the timing of this frozen dessert is that someone mentioned to me at work the day before that he had gone home and eaten a can of coconut milk for dinner as he had nothing else in the house. Of course we had a good time laughing at his expense over this (he actually ate the entire can with a spoon). Fast forward one day and I'm enjoying this fancy frozen dessert which is essentially a can of frozen coconut milk.


A picture of Walter hurtling over a mangrove swamp in Guatemala last year. We were on a sort of dugout canoe propelled by an outbound motor over this muddy water and through different twisting channels create by the mangrove. At one point we passed a break in the mangrove roots where on tiny silty island the bloated body of some animal or another was being feasted upon by a dozen or so birds. I think we were as shocked by what we saw as they were by us - they all stopped their picking and pecking to turn and watch us pass before resuming their unidentified meal.

Phrases I hope to continue to use in this blog; local library, hurtling, coconut bliss