Belle Vie / 21: The Grotto & Cyprus Lake

September 17, 2014November 11, 2014Leave a comment

1-8. Ryan really loved The Grotto. He must have spent over an hour jumping off rocks and cliffs and swimming in the freezing cold water. As mentioned before, I’m not absolutely in love with swimming in lakes etc. It makes me uneasy to not know what’s beneath my feet. I was quite happy to watch Ryan have a great time and snap photos in between scaling the rocky walls and dipping my feet in the, let me repeat, freezing cold water.
9-12. Ryan and I did a 5 km hike along the Cyprus Lake trail on our third day camping. He started to freak me out once we got deep into the forest, telling me stories about him or friends coming across rattle snakes and black bears, oh my! (Wizard of Oz anyone?!) But all was well. Not a sighting of either, which to be honest, sort of made me sad. Both freak me out, but would have been cool to see them in the flesh, at a safe distance.

*photos of me by Ryan. And that’s it for my camping trip photos.

Belle Vie / 20: Bruce Peninsula National Park

September 11, 2014November 11, 2014Leave a comment

1-2. Ryan found the perfect walking stick while we were driving into the campsite. By the end of the trip he had carved the whole thing down to be as smooth as a baby’s bottom.
3. Ryan helping out a boy trying to climb onto the rock.
4. While Ryan was jumping off cliffs and swimming, I took pictures of him and stood with just my feet in the water. It was freezing! No thanks.
5. Water for days and days and days.
6. Sitting on top of the cliffs at The Grotto. It may look like I was pondering the universe, but I was probably mad at Ryan because he wouldn’t stop trying to put his dirty, wet underwear in my backpack!
7. Ryan copying my very unimpressed face. We have pretty much no pictures together, and when we do, they look like this.
8. Ryan and I did a little photoshoot with my Pentax when we found a secluded area during our hike. Smart Ryan decided to also snap a few shots with my DSLR so we could see some of the images right away.
9. I was having the hardest time really capturing how lovely this toadstool was. The orange was so vibrant I saw it from a mile away…this is the best one I could get, and still doesn’t do it justice.
10. Hanging out on the beach after our 2.5hr hike around the Cyprus Lake trail. Yes, those are my resting feet…they always look pointed.
11. More beach hangs.
12. Ryan noticed a tree that was totally dead and ready to come down right in our campsite – giving it a little poke.
13. Mountain man.

Boy Scouts

September 9, 2014November 11, 2014Leave a comment

Finally sharing just a few images from our hike on our second day in Bruce Peninsula National Park. Since I had been here last Summer I knew I had to show Ryan all the amazing parts of the park. Number one on the list, The Grotto. Last summer we went during black fly season, so The Grotto was unbearable, but in late August, not a black fly to be found. This is a good thing because, well, no nasty black fly bites, but not so good because ALOT of people were around. I’ll talk more about The Grotto in another post though. All these images are from our hike up to it. If you have been following this blog for awhile, then you know how much I love hiking. Next to dancing, it is my happy place. That may sound odd, cause well, it’s just walking. But to me it’s far more than that. The harder the walk, the better. If I have to climb things, and figure out how to maneuver my body around obstacles and if there is an element of danger, well, that’s my jam. I have sort of talked before about having complete trust in my body and mind, and they often feel totally at one with eachother. And like I said in that post, I believe dancing has made me feel totally at ease with my body and it’s abilities. I just trust it, wholly. So, hiking till I die (hopefully not literally). And of course, I couldn’t leave home without my very Boy Scout-esque hiking uniform. It may make me nerdy to dress like this, and I do get the odd look here and there, but generally I am met with “oh, you look so cute!” and “i like your outfit.”. But if I had ever spent a minute of my life caring about what other people thought of me, well I would not dress or look or be the person I am today. Just bee yourself! (Aladdin, anyone?!)

*photos by Ryan

Button-up, shorts, boots, belt: thrifted
Bow tie: handmade
Backpack: TNA

Belle Vie / 19: Bruce Peninsula National Park

September 3, 2014November 11, 2014Leave a comment

1. As I mentioned, I went camping in Bruce Peninsula National Park last week. We stopped at Canadian Tire on the way up to grab some things and saw this sweet van. Old Yeller!
2. We brought an abundance of grapefruits to make juice and tasty bourbon drinks. We camp classy.
3. We might have finished this entire bottle of bourbon over the week…
4. Put up a hammock but something was weird about it. You’d sit in it and it would just sink on one side. We are not good at hammocks, apparently.
5. Thank god we brought an axe and hatchet with us to make kindling. Last time I went camping we forgot that, and it was a pain in the ass, let me tell you.
6. Ryan makes a good fire.
7. Ummm, ya Ryan brought a lot of cardboard shit to burn…including two Pizza Pizza boxes…
8. Receipts as well? Don’t ask, Ryan is weird.
9. But a good fire, none the less.
10. Proof that I can smile.
11. Ryan wanted to see if he could jump over our tent. I knew this would go down in one of two ways. One, he would make it over easily. Two, he would crush our tent right after we put it up. He made it over and was like really, really pleased with himself.
12. Lying in the hammock, looking up at the trees.
13. The road driving up to the park. There is something so calming about an open, quiet road. A rarity when you live in the city.
14. We stopped by the store on the second day to pick up some more ice for our cooler. This place had showers because there are none in the campgrounds. We didn’t shower, which I never do when I’m camping. teehee!

*I’ve got so much more to share with you. These were only from the first day and the next morning.

Carousel Antiques

July 31, 2014November 11, 2014Leave a comment

Even after several decades of marriage, my parents still learn new things about eachother. One thing they sort-of recently came to realize is that they both have a great deal of interest in antiques. Antiquing has become a regular thing for them, and it’s lovely to see them really share something together. I am the only one of their children that shows even a mild interest in this hobby of theirs, (maybe more than mild, almost everything I wear on my body is old, and my home is decorated like a grandmother’s) so while I was in Ottawa they brought me to an adorable antique shop located in the village of Franktown, in a historic building from 1832. Carousel Antiques was an endless cavern of exploration for me. To be honest, I don’t normally buy much when I go to antique shops. I get overwhelmed at how much i could buy, and instead buy almost nothing (unless its the best ever) and just take pictures of these delightfully cluttered spaces. It’s near impossible to get a bad picture when you photograph spaces like this. Carousel was filled with gorgeous wooden furniture in almost perfect condition, vintage clothing (!!!), kitchen and housewares that date from the 30s-50s, collectibles and more. My absolute favourite room was the one holding all the kitchenwares. They have mono-chromatically colour coordinated each corner of the room, which was so aesthetically pleasing to me (if you are looking for a specific colour of something, this makes it very easy). The red and yellow corners were the most prominent – we’re talking Christmas explosion and bursting sunshine madness. Unfortunately I did not find any pastel pink dishes that I so desperately wanted to find. Had they had a pink corner of the room, well I’d probably still be there, living in it. I did however come away with an amazing 1950’s beaded cardigan in pristine condition (im scared to wear it) and an adorable yellow floral apron to make myself look cute while baking.