trip of the dreams!

Posted on November 9, 2015November 9, 2015 by trish

I’ve been looking forward to visiting the Joggins Fossil Cliffs for months. I had so wanted to become a paleontologist when I was a child, so going to a fossil site was a trip of the dreams! I studied tide time charts and planned our drive so we would arrive at low tide; I looked at other travellers’ photos and comments; I checked and re-checked weather forecast and prayed for rain to hold off on the day we planned to visit…

– and suddenly we were here!

The cliffs are situated along the Bay of Fundy,Â which has the highest tides in the world. It holds rocks and fossils from the “Coal Age”, aboutÂ 300 million years ago.

This, where I was standing, is the OCEAN FLOORÂ (could hardly contain my excitement!!) and will be submerged in up to 13 metres of water in a matter of hours.

(as you might notice, some pictures were taken with film with the Diana, and some where taken on my phone).

We joined a walking tour, in which the friendly tour guide pointed out different fossils that could be found at the cliffs. Like this fossil of a tree trunk.

These were trackways of Arty the arthropleura — a giant insect about 1–8 feet long. The tour guide showed a scaled down replica of Arty.

Fossil of a trilobite.

Fossil of tree roots.

Look atÂ the beautiful layers of rocks on the cliffs!

The tides coming in…

It was majestic.

We were hoping to visit the Fundy Geological Museum inÂ ParrsboroÂ afterwards, but we spent a bit too much time at the cliffs, and by the time we got to Parrsboro the museum was closed. So instead we spent some time at the wharf looking at the sunset sparkles on the water.

east coast yarn adventures!

Posted on October 25, 2015 by trish

Mike and I were travelling in Nova Scotia over the past week :D We had a magical time driving through the mountains, marveling at the sea and chatting with very friendly locals. I will share more pictures about our trip in other posts. But first, yarn! We first stopped in Halifax (where I was actually attending a conference before we rode off to the sunset and the sea and fun times), and not far from where we were staying is The Loop!

There’s been some construction going on in front of the shop, so guess what? The scaffolding gets some new sweaters! :D

I bought a skein of locally made woolÂ there, by East Anchor Yarns, in lovely shades of blue/green and pale yellow. (The friendly shopkeeper let me know that the other skeins with shades of pink were dyed with newspaper! Who knew black ink will turn yarn pink? She also helped me with winding the skein into a ball so I can start using it right away :D)

And so during lunch time at the conference and on the way to Cape Breton Island I was finger-knitting :)

Can’t show you what I was making yet, because it’s a gift. I thought it would make a pretty special souvenir to buy some local yarn and make something during the trip! I might even write a pattern for this project, it’s super fun for travelling :D

I could have brought the project I was working on at home, but because I mostly knit with straight, long (and metal!) needles, I was doubtful about bringing them on the plane. So I figure I’d finger-knit!

We were staying in Baddeck while visitingÂ Cape Breton. I didn’t know that the village has a yarn store until we spotted the bright pink sign on the way there. Baadeck Yarns! This is the best surprise ever! :D

It has soooo much yarn… (sorry about the blurry picture, my hands were obviously shaking with excitement)

The shopkeeper is so very friendly! She showed me the beautiful crocheted cardigan she just finished, we exchanged experiences with various knitting stitches, then she chatted with Mike while I went around the store to touch everything. This is me being ridiculously happy being in this store.

I seriously had a super hard time walking out the door, with the kind shopkeeper and all the yarns… but eventually I did. And hope to return one day. On the plane home I was knitting with a ball of yarn that I bought there.

This is all the yarn I gathered from the trip :D (the Sirdar Kiko has already been knitted up)

I bought the skein with green/purple/brown shades at the Seaport Farmers’ MarketÂ from Lismore Sheep Farm, when we drove back from Cape Breton to Halifax to catch our flight. After going to Baadeck Yarns I wasn’t going to buy more yarn, because we tried to travel light and only brought one suitcase and a couple of carry-on bags. But it was really affordable and it has beautiful shades of colours I like, so I couldn’t resist! I wasn’t going to get so much of the brown/tan yarn neither, but the shopkeeper at Baadeck gave me a really good deal because she was cleaning out the shelf… Anyway, good thing yarn can squeeze into small spaces, everything fit in our suitcase in the end :D

Stay tuned for more photos and stories from our trip! :D Hope everyone has a good start to the week!

alpaca farm day and surprise visit with Maud

Posted on October 7, 2015 by trish

Oh my, it’s been a while since I’ve written! I’ve been busy preparing for an upcoming trip to the east coast (exciting!), and kept delaying writing about our much-anticipated trip to an alpaca farmÂ on one of the National Alpaca Farm Days. But finally! Here are some photos of these friendly animals! :D

Aren’t they just so fluffy-looking and beautiful? And it was an absolutely gorgeous day.

Most of the alpacas seem too busy eating to be paying us much notice, some would warily glance at us and then trot away, but one or two came up and looked at us for a while :)

And this friendly one let Mike pet her :D (and this picture and the next were taken by the Diana, my film camera)

They’re such a gentle and peaceful group!

The guard dogs were also very affectionate. They would growl a bit when they sense people approaching, but then quickly jumped up to the fence to be petted.

Then on the highway my sister spotted sings to the house of L. M. Montgomery, so we made an impromptu trip to the house, and we caught the last weekly tour of the season! What luck!

We got a very thorough interpretive tour by a very knowledgeable and friendly guide. I highly recommend it if you’re ever in Uxbridge, Ontario. The tours are still offered by appointment, and there are scheduled events leading up to Christmas :D

This is a favourite room of the author (affectionately referred to as Maud by the tour guide). I was drawn to the couch by the window when I first walked in, and I thought if I were looking to sit and relax and knit/crochet in this room this would be my favourite spot. And then the guide let us know that the couch was where Maud sat to write her books every morning. Kindred spirits, eh? :)

I actually did not know that the author wrote 11 of her 22 novels in Ontario. In fact, I didn’t even know that she lived in Ontario. I only ever knew about her famous homestead on Prince Edward Island. I also never read any of her books, and only knew about her and her characters because my sister is a long-time fan. So now I’ve addedÂ Emily of New MoonÂ to my reading list — reportedly her best work!

Hope everyone’s having a good week! I’m hoping to post more summer photos from the Diana and another craft project before I’m off to another trip next week :D Stay tuned!

end of summer in black & white

Posted on September 8, 2015 by trish

Not that I feel particularly sad about the end of summer. I’ve had lots of fun this summer, but I’m sure there will be good times in the fall and winter too. There’s just something timeless about black and white photographs, capturing those everyday moments that are cherished.

We visit theÂ Distillery DistrictÂ at least once every summer. Took this picture while marveling at the gas lamps lit up at dusk.

We got to enjoy some craft beer and lengthy conversations at theÂ Indie Ale HouseÂ with our good friends, whose children were camping out at their grandparents’ for the week. I think this was the first time we got to do this in 10 years :P I’m by no means a connoisseur of beer, I mostly order based on the names of the beer (I’m a sucker for interesting/pretty product names, I think I’ve mentioned this before…). So here I was having a “Rabbit of Caerbannog”, which I later found out was “an immensely cute but bloodthirsty rabbit-like monster found in Monty Python and the Holy Grail,” according to Villians Wikia.

A majestic shark atÂ the aquarium.Â I’m quite proud of this one.

Not that the summer would stop me from crocheting or knitting, but I’m excited about making cozier things when the weather is cooler, and my holiday crafting list, the plushy scarves and mittens I’m going to make new wool, and this! I’m experimenting with making a pattern and can’t wait to find out whether it will work out, and I will surely share with you if it does!

And last but not least, I present to you — jellyfish magic at the aquarium.

The jellyfish were lit up with kind of a strange pink light (I guess otherwise they’d be difficult to see since they’re translucent), which my phone camera couldn’t capture very well, so I figure I’d just put a black and white filter on it in Instagram. I think it kind of creates a feeling of being in the deep, dark sea. And it’s just so elegant the way jellyfish move in water.

Cheers to a fabulous summer, and many more summers to come!

yarn-filled day of fun!

Posted on August 24, 2015 by trish

At the TTC KnitalongÂ –Â an annual charity event in which groups of crafters spend a Saturday travelling (and knitting/crocheting) on public transit to visit multiple yarn shops across the city.

Proceeds of the event go to a local women-centered agency, participants get to hang out with fellow crafters and meet new people, yarn shops get lots of visitors and love — everybody wins! Whoever invented this is a genius. It is in its 10th year and this year’s got the biggest turn out yet! The only disappointment is that I didn’t know about this in previous years… will definitely join again next year.

And now, some pictures from my day :D

My group started at Wool-GatheringÂ in the west end. It has on display this beautiful rug, which makes me want to learn rug hooking one day.

I also love these small rugs with vibrant, abstract designs.

Our next stop was Passionknit. Look at these delicious colours! More excited than a kid in a candy shop :D

I spotted this photo of me on instagram, knitting along on the subway, and chatting with our awesome team captain :D (if you’re wondering, I’m making a keyhole scarf in fisherman rib)

In the meanwhile, our other team captain completed a snowflake on the subway while standingÂ the entire time!

Then we hopped on the approaching train above and madeÂ our way to a sun-filledÂ Lettuce Knit in Kensington Market. These friendly ones are enjoying the sunny spots and relaxing by the knitting pile…

Also hanging out in the sun…

This was when I remembered what my mom used to always say to me when I was a kid and we were at the store and I wanted to bring home all the plush animals. “You can give it a hug and put it back.“Â Such dreamy colours…

We spent some time on the patio outside. Spotted these cheerful yarn-wrapped branches. My phone camera does not do the colours and sunshine justice.

And this beautiful yarn-bombed bike!

More knitting on the streetcar…

… and arriving at our final shop, The Knit Cafe :D I’ve always been a big fan of the shop and its fabulous window displays.

People chatting about patterns, marveling at the wool, the warm afternoon sun pouring in, the ball-winder busy spinning… the happiest place :)

And look who I ran into :D

Found the secret knitting garden.

Here we are at our final stop, the Firkin for drinks, food, and more knitting.

I didn’t buy a whole lot that day, wasn’t at all prepared with shopping list or even project list, and feeling slightly overwhelmed most of the time (not a bad thing though), mainly because I didn’t know what to expect. But I did get a skein of hand-dyed wool from Wool-Gathering (far left), because the colours remind me of sunsets, and a giant skein of Cascade Ecological wool (centre), because I love the colour and it was the last skein on the shelf (I already have an idea of a sweater for it, but have to finish my holiday crafting first). ALSO! I won a draw at Lettuce Knit, which generously donated 4 skeins of wool the colour of strawberry ice cream :D I was rather surprised, because I don’t ever win anything.

This means I definitely have to join the knitalong again next year :D

I actually don’t knit or crochet on public transit very often, because sometimes I get motion sickness from it, especially on the bus. But after the knitalong I think I will start bringing my knitting to work, so I can at least knit after work on the subway (there is no hope of getting a seat in the morning, and I haven’t developed the skill to knit/crochet while standing yet :P). It’s actually quite calming, and I think it will do me more good in terms of de-stressing than playing Angry Birds.

Hope everyone has a wonderful week! :D

in the shadow of Mt. Vesuvius

Posted on August 5, 2015 by trish

It’s become a bit of a summer tradition now, my sister and I going to the ROMÂ :)

This year the feature exhibit is Pompeii. I loved learning about Pompeii when I was a kid! :D (and had dreams about becoming an archaeologist or a paleontologist, and once in a while I wonder about what my life would be like now if I had followed my dreams… anyway, I digress)

Usually when I hear about PompeiiÂ the images of the body casts come to mind. And there were casts of the body casts in the exhibit too. But I found myself more attracted to marvelous mosaics, made of tiny, probably 1mm x 1mm pieces of clay. I’m quite surprised by how well these were preserved, despite the fire and the heat of the volcano eruption.

I imagine the artisan’s hand, placing these clay chips one by one carefully onto wet grout, tracing the lines on the face, the subtle tonal variations of the skin.

And this is my favourite in the exhibit, the spectacular sea life mosaic.

The phone photo really doesn’t do it justice. It is quite large in person. Looks like the octopus is battling a lobster-like creature. Here’s a close up of the octopus, made of many tiny tiles.

This must have taken a long, long time to make. I imagine theÂ artisan(s) taking a step back after the last tile was put into place, and feeling incredible joy and satisfactionÂ when they saw what they have created.

I was also surprised by the survival of the many frescoes, like this one, of seafood.

Intrigued by the sculpture’sÂ very intricate hairstyle.

Figs and breadÂ carbonized in the eruption.

There was also a video projection showing the eruption, with this wide-eyed statue in front of it. Looked to me like it was frozen in terror.

Mike went on this trip with my sister and me, and he hadn’t been to other parts of the museum for a while, so we also toured the dinosaur galleries and the biodiversity gallery. There was an exhibit of the new dinosaur discovery! And! This is a 3‑D printed model!

Wendiceratops pinhornensis, named after the Canadian fossil hunter, Wendy Sloboda, who discovered it in Alberta, Canada :)

In the biodiversity gallery I was hoping to find a display of fungi. I’ve been to this part of the museum many times, but I thought maybe I’ve always missed it. Finally I found it, replicas in the Boreal Forest section, I think, as well as a drawer of dried mushrooms that were difficult to tell what they actually looked like before they were picked. I was a bit disappointed that there wasn’t a larger display of more species of fungi and mushrooms, but this is still nice :)

So that was the end of our adventure to the ROM. I hope you will get a chance to visit if you’re ever in the neighbourhood! :D I’m looking forward to finding out what next summer’s feature exhibition will be! Maybe it will be on the diversity of mushrooms and fungi! :D One can always dream… (I once saw a course at a local university titled “Mushrooms: Lords of the Dark Earth”. I so wanted to take the course but it wasn’t being offered anymore… anyway.)

Hope everyone is having a good week!

lately

Posted on July 9, 2015July 9, 2015 by trish

Made a necklace for the shop this week. Probably the most elaborate jewelry piece I’ve made so far. Quite proud of it :D

The feather was made with shrink plastic. I might make more of these, maybe with different colour chevron stripes!

And then I made this.

The stones were gifts from a friend so this is definitely not going to the shop. But this was the first time I tried making this style of necklace and I think it worked out well, so I might make more of this too if I can find similar drilled stone chips (not sure if that’s what they’re called :S).

Also want to mention that last weekend we went to a new retro malt shop downtown! :D

Bean and Baker! We had a vanilla malt shake, which was dreamy. They also have pies of both sweet and savory varieties, and handcrafted sodas!

I highly recommend a visit if you’re in the neighbourhood!

This is not lately, we went there back in May, but haven’t had a chance to post these photos.

During Doors Open Toronto we went to the Gibraltar Point LighthouseÂ on the Toronto Islands, which is the oldest lighthouse of the Great Lakes! (Also supposedly haunted :S) I followed the Roundograph tutorial by Photojojo to mimic photos taken by the Kodak No. 1 in the 1890s.

Here’s one with a different filter, which I also like very much.

I also took the Diana to the lighthouse. Here is the ladder leading to the top of the lighthouse. It’s my favourite picture of the batch.

And we reached the light of the lighthouse! :D

Me at the foot of the lighthouse.

And on the ferry between the island and the city.

Happy Friday everyone! :D

montreal, take two

Posted on May 29, 2015May 29, 2015 by trish

Photos I took in Montreal with the Diana are finally developed :D Here are some of my favourites.

Double exposures sometimes make really fun collages :D Couldn’t quite remember what I took pictures of when I first looked at this… It was from the Biodome, an image of anemone in an open pool, overlapped with an image of Mike in front of tropical plants.

Beautiful streets of Old Montreal on a beautiful day :D We were blessed with really nice weather.

Not sure what my camera did with this image. Somehow most of the colours are stripped away, making the picture look like a horror novel cover :S The actual scene was quite cheerful with these colourful houses! The house between the red and the purple is supposed to be blue.

Chinatown. I really like the depth of field in this one.

I find the Montreal Chinatown a lot cleaner and more picturesque than the one in Toronto.

Inside the Biosphere, which is located on Saint Helen’s Island.

We took a long walk on a tree-lined path on the island along the river.

St. Catherine Street closed off for pedestrians in the summer, with brilliant art installations :D

This one is titled “D pour Democratie”.

We squeezed in a visit to the central library right before catching our train home. The library is accessible through a metro station. I like the solemnness of this photo.

We had leftover film after our trip, so we took our cameras to a couple of historic sites during Doors Open Toronto last weekend. More photos to come!

Hope everyone has a good weekend! :D

montreal, take one

Posted on May 25, 2015 by trish

We visited MontrÃ©al over Victoria Day weekend :D We only brought our phones and film cameras. The majority of pictures are taken on film, and they are being developed as I type! Can’t wait to see them :D But in the meanwhile, here are some highlights from our phones :D

On the first day we went toÂ BiodÃ´me. There were many different creatures to marvel at, but I was most attracted to these sea urchins and anemones. They’re like pompoms :)

In the afternoon we visitedÂ CafÃ© des Chats, or Cat Cafe, and sat for a while with this fluffy friend while drinking tea and people-watching. We found this cafe by accident; it was across the street from our hotel. Mike and I had some interesting imaginary conversations about how the cats were interviewed to work in the cafe.

“Do you like being petted?”

“Yes.”

“Do you like tea?”

“Um, I don’t mind it. Will there be tuna?”

“Um, yes. That would be part of the benefit package.”

“Okay. What is your policy on nap times?”

I’m sure the cafe has a very flexible nap time policy, as most of the cats (I counted 5, others were probably napping elsewhere) we saw were napping. But the ones who were awake seemed to enjoy being petted.

And guess what we found?! A shop devoted to mycology!! :D We also stumbled upon it by accident while finding our way to MEC. Being like a kid in a candy store is an understatement. It has everything — dried mushrooms, mushroom earrings and necklaces, mushroom books, mushroom posters, mushroom condiments, mushroom foraging tools, mushroom growing kits, even mushroom tea! (which has to be simmered for 2 hours — we didn’t buy any, but I’m really curious about how it would taste — maybe more like broth than tea?) I didn’t want to leave, but it was getting awkward how long we were dawdling there in that little shop, so we had to leave :( But I did bring home awesome souvenirs! :DÂ More on that in a minute…

And then! We came across this wonderful cafe called Le K at Square Saint-Louis,Â which is a lovely park next to our hotel. The cafe operates out of what might have been a storage building for gardening tools and such for the park (?) (Mike said it looks like a mausoleum, but I don’t think that’s what it is). It features large mugs of tea, adorable patio tables and chairs underneath the trees, mason jars of blooming plants, a book cart, a tricycle, and really friendly owners (who offered to take pictures of us together after seeing Mike taking this picture of me :D). Highly recommend a visit if you’re in the neighbourhood :D

And in the last night we were in the city we visited 1.26 by Janet EchelmanÂ at Les Jardins Gamelin.Â It was magnificent. And feels a bit surreal standing underneath it.

As planned we visited more well-known places like the Biosphere, the Museum of Archaeology and History, the Old Port, Chinatown, and St-Viateur Bagel, and (hopefully!) we have good pictures of these on film, but it seems like we had the most fun stumbling across awesome places outside of our plan. And one would probably say that we did a good job finding our hotel with all these fun places around! It’s this hotel if you’re wondering, very friendly, modest size, continental breakfast (which saves quite a bit of money for museum visits!), no complaints :)

And oh! Souvenirs! This one we bought at the most wonderful outdoor market outside Mont Royal station. We carefully packed it so I could carry it in my bag on our journey home (we took the train).

And this fromÂ Mycoboutique! :D

We’re now proud owners of the common fungi poster!! :D

More pictures to come soon! Have a good week, everyone!

diana spring roll

Posted on May 14, 2015May 14, 2015 by trish

Finally got back the photos taken on the Diana :D These were taken on 200 ISO film, which was cross-processed.

For the cherry blossoms this year I mostly took pictures on the Diana, and a couple on my phone, because I find that in previous years I was taking so many pictures that I forget to enjoy the cherry trees themselves. The one above is my favourite of the cherry blossom photos on film.

This year the cherry trees bloomed during the week, so we had to visit them after work, and it was about 7pm when we got to High Park, the sun was setting, the petals were glowing, it was quite glorious.

Here is the park at dusk, with golden rays of light from the setting sun shining through the branches.

These ones were taken with my phone.

They just make me so happy :)

Earlier in the month we visited the Children’s Animal Farm in Sarnia, Ontario. This photo is my absolute favourite of the roll.

The way the branches are positioned in the goose, the grey-blue tone, the composition — I’m just really happy with the way it turned out.

And here is my favourite smiling animal :D

I think I might print this and put this up in my cubicle at the office :D

And here are some very picturesque views of the farm.

Then one weekend we took a stroll down Queen Street West and ended up in Trinity Bellwoods Park. We got some white squirrel ice cream (white chocolate, craisins and pecans) from the White Squirrel Coffee shop and waited for the resident white squirrel. No luck so far, will try again next time.