The Voldemort Tree

This tree grows in front of my house, next to the carport. It's the first thing people see when they arrive at the house.



Notice anything odd about it? I call it the Voldermort tree because it has another being growing out the back of it's head. For years it was just a normal Alberta pine, but about a year ago I noticed that some of the branches had mutated. It took me awhile to realize that it was a whole other tree growing out the top of the alberta pine. (I looked under it's skirt :o The trunk goes all the way to the ground.) How it got there I don't know. I couldn't believe a fir had been able to survive long enough without light, growing inside the thick foliage of the original tree, to finally break through the top. I know I need to do something about it, and the longer I leave it the worse it will be for the two trees. I don't think both can survive, and I don't really like either of my options. I can cut down the alberta pine and leave the bare trunk of the new pine with it's weird spray of branches at the top, or I can cut down the interloper and leave a huge hole in the side of the alberta. Firstly, I don't kill things. I don't kill mosquitoes or houseflies or spiders. I take them outside. If I kill something there has to be a good reason, so I don't like the idea of sawing off a healthy tree for the sake of aesthetics. Secodly, it seems as though one would want to reward such perserverance. It seems a shame to kill something that has fought so hard to live. Which is why now instead of a few mutant looking branches, I have an entire extra tree. Sigh.

The Haze Continues

I know. I need to stop. I'm going to get in an accident.

But I like them.


















Ok, now we're just getting silly.

Haze

I did something uncharacteristically unsafe today - as I drove home from work I held my camera outside the window and snapped photos all the way home. I should mention that most of this drive is conducted at 60 mph on the highway. I sadly fear I will continue this unsafe practice, because I love how they turned out. I think they're fascinating.

I love the colors and the impressionistic quality.

I'm sure I'm not the first one to do this, nor will I be the last, but it's new to me, so I'm still charmed.

This was what I was originally trying to take photos of, but they all came out blurry, even with the car stopped and my camera propped against the door frame, so I gave up and embraced the blur. But the sunset was fantastic. Yay field burning.

Milan

I liked Milan. It seemed more relaxed than the other cities we visited. Perhaps because it is somewhat off the beaten tourist path, there seemed to be more breathing room there.





The Duomo in Milan - this building took my breath away. The photos don't do it justice. It's huge!!! and fantastically beautiful. I loved the inside of Notre Dame, but the outside of this building has Notre Dame beat hands down.


The door. Looks like the baroque fairy threw up on it, eh? The entire ouside of the building is COVERED. The detail is unbelievable.


The only decent interior shot I got of the duomo. There are these awful naked bulbs all over the ceiling that make interior shooting with a puny camera like mine pointless.


The roof :)

My favorite gargoyle. Isn't he cute?

My mother hates this photo. I like it :D Dunno why.

Tomorrow - Venice.

Paris

In late June I took a long anticipated holiday. I mean LONG anticipated, like since birth. I've wanted to see more of Europe since I knew what Europe was, so it was a dream come true, and the fact that I got to share it with my very mellow, perfect travelling companion friend Gail made it that much more fabulous. The only fly in the ointment was that it wasn't a year long holiday, but rather 10 short days. We went to Paris, and then Gail showed me around northern Italy, where she was living at the time.

I'd like to post some photos, but I don't want to dump 200 images on you all at one whack, and I can't figure out how to make a photo album link on the sidebar, so I think I'll maybe go by cities. Brace yourself for a snoozefest of someone else's holiday photos ;) Let's start with...

PARIS

La Tour Eiffel - she is just as impressive in person as she is in photos. Elegant and gorgeous. We were so happy to go to the top, and we only had to wait 3 hours in line to get there!

I was obsessed with these arches. I took fifty billion photos of them. I heart them.

The gates at Versailles - as close as we got. The line was obscenely long and it was about a billion degrees outside. I was disappointed to miss renting a golf cart to speed around the grounds, but we did have lunch in the village with the world's snootiest waiter, which amused us greatly. My mum said this looked like the gates of Heaven :)

The Musee d'Orsay - so much cooler than the Louvre. I LOVED it here. Must return someday.

Notre Dame - Quasimodo needs new digs because I want to move in here.

I was surprised by how much color there was inside Notre Dame. I had expected the color scheme to me more like...

this.

Love the arches, love the candles, love the columns. Sigh. Wonder what the rent would be... probably costs a fortune to heat.

Tune in tomorrow for the continuing saga.

Homesick

Today I am desperately homesick for New Zealand. I miss my life there, my friends, my seminary students, my ward. I miss the sense of accomplishment and purpose being a student brought to my life. I miss being in daily association with people who I knew loved me, who were true friends to me even though we are not related. Although I am much closer to my family here, which I enjoy and appreciate, I am lonely. I miss my dear friends. And the real tragedy is that I am homesick for a life that no longer exists. I can't return there and step back into things as they were. People have moved on. I've finished my degree. My students are grown. So I need to quit whining and find joy where I am. My advice to you, boys and girls, is: Don't travel. Never leave home. Befriend only those whose roots are planted in the same soil as yours. Otherwise you will end up like me, with pieces of your heart in the four corners of the Earth. You'll never feel truly and completely at home. Someone's absence will always pain you. Once you leave home, you'll never be content again.

Go Beavs

Beautiful weather to lose by :) OSU lost their first home football game since 1996 today to Cincinnati. I only care inasmuch as it affects my work, which is a lot. It never ceases to amaze me the idiotic behavior I witness during home football games - the total lack of self preservation instinct in relation to vehicles, the total disregard for the law, the apathy of our law enforcement agents regarding public drunkenness, etc. Good clean fun my heiny. Pardon me, but what a waste of resources. Now if it were rugby...