It’s Been a Good Week

Blueberries on the riverbank testify to the fact that there’s still some Summer feeling left in nature. The wind with a bit of a bite this morning, however, promised that Fall will really start to settle in soon.

Yesterday was a good day (it’s been a good week, really). I received my Kinfolk mag. I opened my door to leave for the day, and, there it was, sitting on my banister, just waiting for me. Because of school assignments, I didn’t get to sit down right away and read it, sadly, but that’s what this evening will be dedicated to.

The assignment that I was working on. Then & Now: compare and contrast between a photograph taken ‘then’ (40+) years ago and a photograph taken ‘now’. Mine’s not quite as zoomed in, but, I do think it gets the point across.

Things I’m Loving:

+ Austen Prose – A Jane Austen blog filled with all sorts of continuations/insights/etc of the books that you all love and adore. Filled with reviews and guest posts, it’s an absolutely wonderful find.

+ Stray Italian Greyhound by Vienna Teng – I’ve basically been listening to this on repeat. Basically.

+ So You Want to Attend a Film Festival? – Another article by moi over at GoodPrattle. Check it out and let me know what you think.

+ Homemade chicken soup – I made a chicken last night for some friends and myself, and today I’ll be making homemade chicken noodle soup for a potluck tomorrow evening for a friend’s birthday party. Homemade food is so wonderful, don’t you think?

Productive Laziness

    We had a last minute Friday get together at my place (it’s where most of these impromptu get togethers are happening these days) and it resulted in a large game of Apples to Apples and boys trying to braid hair.

These days I’ve been nothing but interested in small details. Especially the small details of my house, or rather, the house I get to live in for the next year. As it was a perfect fall day, I sat on my deck with magazines I needed to catch up on and read while I did laundry. Not only that, but I got to finally show off my pretty cowboy shoes I bought in Kentucky.

Today was productive yet I still got to feel deliciously lazy. Laundry and taking care of garbage and editing some assignments, tidying up my room and getting some mail written/packaged up, and now I’m  sitting down with a cup of tea and going to catch up on the shows I’ve missed over the week. Ah, productivity: you are so nice to have around.

Things I’m Loving:

+ Reading – I’ve been on a huge reading kick lately. I finished Jane Eyre last week, I finished The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes last night, and I’ve just started The Great Gatsby. My Chapters Plum reward card has been invaluable.
+ Clair de Lune – Something about candles just screams fall/winter and I’ve stocked up on so many of their candles lately. My favourites are the McIntosh Apple and Lemon & Lavender pillars. They’re just the perfect thing for fall.
+ Loki Twitter – AKA godofbadassery. Okay, if you haven’t seen the new Thor movie or don’t read the comics or don’t know anything about the myths, this probably isn’t quite for you. But those of you who do? Follow him. Stat. The best part? When he and Tom Hiddleston have Twitter conversations with each other. Per.fec.tion. Or as Hiddles says:

+ Daily Pep Talk From a Best Friend – Because, sometimes, we need to be reminded of the things we should never have forgotten to remember in the first place.

+ Farewell To Nova Scotia – I sang this in my last year of high school in the annual music festival (yeah, I took private singing lessons) and I had an incredible urge to hear it again (after it took me half an hour to remember the title/find it) and here’s two fantastic versions: Rising Gael and Gordon Lightfoot. So perfect.

Fall Days, Fall Ways

What happens when you’re broke and have no time in the morning? You make beans on toast. We also have the prettiest, most fall-esque dish towels.

When PhotoJs go out for the day, we take pictures of each other if there’s no one else willing. And the tree was begging to have a picture taken with someone in the sun with the leaves all glowing. So we listened, and we did.  Followed by the river bank, which is absolutely fantastic in the fall, sun on the water.

And then we went to Mr. Zed’s which serves some of the most fantastic sandwiches and fries. Luckily for me, the now-owner, Mr. Zed, was willing to pose for a picture with his sister, who proceeded to pose with a 91-year-old patron. It really is the little things.

Things I’m Loving:

+ NaNoWriMo – I’ve done it four years and completed twice. We’re going for year five here. Let’s see how this works out!

+ Interviews in Spanish – Mesut Özil gave his first interview in Spanish today, even though it was ridiculously short and I kind of had to get my friend to translate it for me, BUT! it’s adorable and his grin at the end? :3

+ Impromptu guests who come over for supper, cider, and conversation.

+ JustWondrful – An adorable blog with a variety of things to keep you interested and entertained. I can definitely see it becoming one of my favourites.

+ Also! You can now go purchase Brian Ferry’s book today! GOGOGO!

So What IS Early?

 You know what time of the day is early? Guess, please. If you’re a college/university student, 10:00 am is early. But what’s really early is 5:00 am. Yeah, now I have your attention.

We met with another photographer of the BloodHorse to watch warm ups/practices for the upcoming Breeder’s Cup next week. And I truly learned what early is. Not only that, but it was cold. And windy. And all my winter clothing is up in Canada.

(My friend Mallory is also not impressed, apparently.)

Things I learned:

– be careful what you photograph: horses are ridiculously sensitive to shutter sounds

– the cold + lenses /=/ happy sounds when shooting

– even though I’m Canadian, I am still sensitive to cold. But I am okay with that.

– horses make the most ridiculous faces. They really, truly do.

– I might actually end up missing said horses when I go home. Tomorrow.

Things I’m Loving:

+ GoodPrattle – Which is a wonderful site that does interviews with actors/musicians/directors/etc and just published an article I wrote on the Toronto International Film Festival.

+ Lawson’s Books – An independent publishing house whose first book is one containing Brian Ferry’s photography. I’m ordering mine as soon as it’s available: November 2nd. You should as well.

+ Cute & friendly Starbucks baristas.

+ Zombie by Jay Brannan

Caution: Stallions Bite

 More horse farms this morning. Which was a bit dreary with the rain coming down on and off, but Kentucky’s so beautiful, even in the rain that I didn’t mind too much. (Minus the parental worries I had for my camera, that is.)

Lane’s End is where the pictures above were taken. Even with the cool and rainy weather we had a large group for the tour (which tested my nerves as people would try to pet the stallions. Seeing someone being bitten before noon was not on my list of things to do.). All of our guides have been amazing and this one was no exception.

Fall does not show up like this in Canada. I mean, it does, but we don’t have the winding roads and the leaves seem to fall off quite quickly and they’re not as bright? I don’t know, but I love it.

Gainesway farm has got to be my favourite farm that we’ve seen, hands down, perfection. All the barns have the peaked roofs, white walls, and the big rolling doors. The mix of brick, stone, metal, wood. The stalls for the horses are amazing. It’s like a fairy tale farm, to be honest. The rain was not a problem here. Mallory and I could have hung around for a lot longer, but we got hungry and came back.

Things I’m Loving:

+ EliseJoy – I love journalling. In high school it was a daily project for me and I loved it. Elise does such a wonderful job of it, I’m more than tempted to pick it back up soon.
+ Keeneland Ties – What do you buy fathers? Ties! I loved them all and then I wished he would wear a bowtie because those? Those are even cooler.
+ Ryu Sha – I cannot shoot sports to save my life. (Maybe I just need more practice…) but this guy? I look through his stuff about once a week, whether it’s been updated or not, and just…bask. His football photographs make me smile ridiculously large smiles. They really do.
+ Chips & Dip – My kryptonite snack at the moment.