Wednesday, July 31, 2024

A spider builds a web in the bog

Home for one
London, ON
June 2024
This photo originally shared on Instagram


Spiders only look frightening.

When they aren’t busy going after all the other bugs that creep us out, they’re building homes for themselves that are little short of engineering wonders.

We misunderstand these wonders of nature because their aesthetic convinces us so. Yet looks aren’t everything.

If only we took the time to understand the backstory of these enigmatic creatures.

If only we applied the same logic to people, too.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #nature #naturephotography #stilllife #spider #web #siftonbog #nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography #photography


Tuesday, July 30, 2024

The Umbrella Academy goes to the beach

Stripes overhead
Port Stanley, ON
June 2024
This photo originally shared on Instagram


Tonight, on a very special episode of The (Beach) Umbrella Academy, Sir Reginald settles on a striped motif for the family’s trip to the shore.

#portstanley #beach #ldnont #ontario #canada #greatlake #erie #green #striped #umbrella #sky #water #nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography #photography


Monday, July 29, 2024

Wild grasses amid the traffic

Feel the wind
London, ON
May 2024
This photo originally shared on Instagram


The simple things are often the ones that intrigue us the most.

Like this stretch of overgrown grass blowing in the wind beside a four-lane arterial road, surrounded by one big box retail store after another, stitched together by endless parking lots.

I stare at the out-of-place greenery for a few minutes as it swishes one way, then another, under the late afternoon gusts. There isn’t much to the scene, yet I still can’t look away.

I don’t quite know why this weedy stretch of low-rent greenery can’t or won’t - or maybe it’s both - release its hold on me, but as my smartwatch beeps me out of my reverie and reminds me it’s time to head back to reality, I accept that it’s a question that doesn’t need to be answered. A little bit of mystery is entirely called for.

So I shoot a single frame and pack the camera away, my digital reminder to appreciate the simple moments safely stored on its memory card.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #hydepark #green #grass #road #texture #nature #naturephotography #landscape #landscapephotography #nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography #photography

Related:
Leave the grass alone, January 2024
Bent but not broken, October 2023

Sunday, July 28, 2024

Dark clouds, bright colours

Dichotomy above
London, ON
June 2024
This photo originally shared on Instagram


Dark clouds can foreshadow frightening times ahead.

Or do they?

Perhaps if we choose to look more closely we’ll spot the tiny flecks of reflected light in between the shadows.

Perhaps if we pull our heads out of the clouds and apply the same logic in the day-to-day, we’ll learn to look for the light first.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #sunset #cloudspotting #weather #wx #onstorm #twilight #gameoftones #optimist #park #nature #naturephotography #landscape #landscapephotography #nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography #photography


Saturday, July 27, 2024

At the edge of an inland sea

Where waves die in the sand
Old Woman Bay, Lake Superior Provincial Park, ON
June 2023
This photo originally shared on Instagram


Right on the edge of a lake so large it’s often called an inland sea, endless waves roll up on a huge stretch of flat sand.

A curious mixture of lives seem to intersect in this transitional zone shaped by wind, water, and time. The only constant here is motion.

We stand amid the brisk late afternoon breeze in this place that is felt as much as it is seen. We’d rather stay here for hours, but the journey is long and time is short.

It’s time to get back on the road. The waves will continue to shape the resonant sands in our absence.

#oldwomanbay #algoma #throwback #lake #superior #ontario #canada #roadtrip #travel #abstract #nature #naturephotography #landscape #landscapephotography #beach #nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography #photography

Related:
Back to the bay, June 2022

Friday, July 26, 2024

Red flowers in the checkout aisle

Pleasant surprise
London, ON
July 2024
This photo originally shared on Instagram


Flowers in a checkout aisle serve as a gentle reminder to slow life down and appreciate the little things that present themselves to us in the quietest of ways.

I’d hate to think what we’d miss if we just walked on by.

I’d hate to miss an opportunity to make complete strangers furrow their brows at the sight of a grown man going into photo-sesh mode as he waits for the cashier to finish up with the customer ahead of him.

Life is short. Take the shot. Wherever and whenever the inspiration presents itself.

That is alll.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #farmboy #grocery #store #red #flowers #shopping #retail #stilllife #apple #iphone #shotoniphone #photography

Related:
After the rain, May 2018
When sunflowers bloom, October 2012

Thursday, July 25, 2024

Walmart messes up the math

Is it just me?
London, ON
July 2024
This photo originally shared on Instagram


We always find the most incredible deals at #Walmart.

Said no one ever.

(Seriously, as if we needed another reason to hate them.)

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #hydepark #grocery #store #signs #shopping #retail #apple #iphone #shotoniphone #photography

Related:
When neon goes dark, February 2024
Arrows everywhere, January 2023

Never leave your wingman

Together
London, ON
May 2024
This photo originally shared on Instagram


I am not leaving my wingman or wingwoman.

It made sense for Tom Cruise’s Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, it makes sense for these gulls reaching for the horizon, and it makes sense for all of us no matter what we may be up to.

Flying together means more ways to block the wind and make the journey easier, more heads to put together when storms threaten, more eyes to scan the sky and identify risks.

It also means there’s always at least one someone nearby to laugh at anything you say. And, yes, I’d like to believe that birds are capable of humour.

We all are. In the sky, on the ground, anywhere.

Fly safe, friends.

#ldnont #ontario #canada #bird #gulls #flight #optimistpark #nature #naturephotography #landscape #landscapephotography #nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography #photography


Wednesday, July 24, 2024

Guardians of the farm

The things we see when we slow down
Denfield, ON
July 2024
This photo originally shared on Instagram


Protectors of the crop.

Protectors of us all.

#ldnont #london #denfield #ontario #canada #cycling #justride #nature #naturephotography #landscape #landscapephotography #trees #farming #thankafarmer #apple #iphone #shotoniphone #photography

Related:
Random straw poll, August 2023

Tuesday, July 23, 2024

Joyous zucchinis

Not-so-random pile of green
London, ON
July 2024
This photo originally shared on Instagram


Nature did this.

Pretty awesome, isn’t it?

It may seem odd that in the middle of a world wracked by challenging headlines, unchecked hatred, and rampant inequity I’d stop what I’m doing to stare at a zucchini pile in a local grocery store.

But hear me out. By virtually everyone’s definition, still-life vegetables are indeed admittedly trivial things to focus on, and relative to the worries of the day don’t seem worthy of much attention.

Yet it is their trivial nature that, frankly, makes them worthy. In the middle of a veritable storm of planetary chaos, some rather fetching veggies sit quietly waiting for someone to buy them and take them home.

They represent something of an oasis from the insanity as they offer up quiet moments of reflection and wonder before we rejoin the busyness that is daily life.

That’s what they are: quiet wonder. And whether we stop in to hang out with certain veggies, or fruits, or people, or places, or whatever, they serve as gentle reminders that they’re hardly worthy of our outright dismissal.

So, then, not trivial at all.

Vital, even, given all that surrounds us.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #farmboy #grocery #store #fruit #fruitography #vegetables #green #zucchini #apple #shopping #retail #stilllife #apple #iphone #shotoniphone #photography

Related:
Apple down! May 2024
Green pepper musings, January 2024
Cabbagetown, May 2021

Monday, July 22, 2024

The clouds on the other side of the sky

Dark and light
London, ON
July 2024
This photo originally shared on Instagram


This is what happens when you go looking for a sunset, but instead find inspiration on the other side of the cloud-filled sky.

It’s a photographic lesson, to leave the blinders off so you’re open to other possibilities.

But it’s a life lesson, too, and one that doesn’t require glass to fully appreciate.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #sunset #cloudspotting #weather #wx #onstorm #twilight #gameoftones #optimist #park #nature #naturephotography #landscape #landscapephotography #nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography #photography

Related:
Looking back through the clouds, January 2024
Beauty from fear, July 2013
Storm's coming, July 2013

Sunday, July 21, 2024

Grey steel under grey skies

High tension
Dollard-des-Ormeaux, QC
October 2022
This photo originally shared on Instagram


On a grey autumn day so cold I can feel the wind slipping through the zipper of my jacket, I stand beneath a massive high-tension power line and listen to its soundtrack of ominous crackling and near-melodic thrums of air rushing through exposed steel.

This isn’t quite a sightseer’s paradise, but we don’t always get to choose times and locations, so we make do with what’s been presented to us.

#ddo #dollard #montreal #quebec #canada #throwback #tower #hydro #electric #power #perspective #design #lines #engineering #canon #canonphotography #canon_photography #monochrome #photography

Saturday, July 20, 2024

Cracking under the sun

Burned rubber
London, ON
July 2024
This photo originally shared on Instagram


Don’t tread on me?

Someone failed to get the message.

I’m glad they followed their own path.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #hydepark #seagull #road #texture #stilllife #abstract #stilllife #photography #nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography #photography

Related:
After the fall, January 2015
Shattered dreams, December 2011
Shattered ground, November 2010
Pain in the asphalt, November 2008
The endless road, August 2004

Friday, July 19, 2024

Finding refuge during a global tech meltdown

It depends where you focus...
London, ON
July 2024
This photo originally shared on Instagram


It isn’t every day you wake up to a global technology outage that’s affecting everything from banks to government agencies to airlines.

While the massive event - touched off by a bad software update from CrowdStrike that caused machines running Microsoft Windows to crash - isn’t, thankfully, a cyberattack, the impact is nevertheless significant. Travellers are lined up at airports and border crossings, paycheques aren’t being paid, and hospital patients aren’t being treated. If that website or app you signed into this morning isn’t working, this is why.

It kind of reminds me of this scene I captured the other day at a dreary intersection in a dreary corner of town. Cracked, ground down, run over, depressing.

Yet I keep coming back to it. Why is that?

I guess it’s because the world is a challenging place, and a few minutes with a camera, where I do nothing more than play with light and visions and settings, is often all I need to cope with the craziness.

Every moment has a backstory. This is mine.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #hydepark #retail #shopping #parkinglot #yellow #texture #stilllife #abstract #stilllife #photography #nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography #photography

Related:
Kiss my asphalt, March 2019

Thursday, July 18, 2024

One cloudy Viper

The things we see in the sky
London, ON
May 2024
This photo originally shared on Instagram


On a stormy night in southern Ontario, I spot a cloud formation that, to me, anyway, looks suspiciously like an F-16 just after takeoff.

I’m standing alone in an elementary school parking lot, so it’s not as if I can ask anyone if they can see it, too.

But the longer I stare at it, the more I appreciate that it doesn’t matter whether or not someone may or may not see a fighter jet in the clouds.

What matters is that they look to the skies in the first place.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #sunset #cloudspotting #weather #wx #optimistpark #nature #naturephotography #landscape #landscapephotography #nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography #photography

Related:
Head in the clouds, October 2022

Wednesday, July 17, 2024

Echoes of an ancient downtown storefront

Behind the curvy glass
St. Marys, ON
July 2024
This photo originally shared on Instagram


Once upon a time, a jeweller did business in an architectural gem on a downtown street of this Hallmark-esque small town, its ornate display windows filled with not only beautiful goods, but aspiration and dreams for those who stood on the outside looking in.

The jeweller is long gone, the building and its front display now empty. But one look through the green-glazed windows reveals the almost tangible echoes of what once was.

As convenient as buying from a smartphone has become, it will never feel the same as this - assuming it can ever feel anything at all, Apps can’t cast historic shadows on historic streetscapes, or prompt poignant reflection in those who happen to linger just outside the dirty panes of glass.

Indeed, I doubt tomorrow’s storytellers will look back with the same sense of reverence and loss when e-commerce, too, is eclipsed by something supposedly better.

These window displays told stories. And we lost a piece of ourselves when they were emptied for the last time.

#stmarys #ontario #canada #apple #iphone #shotoniphone #abstract #downtown #retail #history #anstett #glass #mirror #geometry #selfie #stilllife #photography

Related:
Deli meat under glass, January 2024
Literary, November 2008

Tuesday, July 16, 2024

Riding into the corn

Field of cycling dreams
Denfield, ON
July 2024
This photo originally shared on Instagram


How tall does the corn need to be before it’s ready for harvest?

I’m no corn expert, but I’m going to guess three bicycles.

#ldnont #london #denfield #ontario #canada #cycling #cyclist #cycle #orange #bicycle #bike #cyclinglife #bikelife #instabike #apple #iphone #shotoniphone #photography

Related:

Monday, July 15, 2024

Dodging thunderstorms in farm country

Hay you
Arva, ON
July 2024
This photo originally shared on Instagram


Scene from a bike ride:

I’m spinning through farmland northwest of London, flying past fields of tall corn and soybeans - and wheat blowing in the wind like a perfect weathervane.

It’s a brilliantly sunny, blisteringly hot early morning, the heat shimmering off the country road asphalt like a mirage in a movie. I’ve got two water bottles on the frame, and I’ve already started working on the second one long before my expected turnaround point.

I’m feeling good, though, so I push deeper into the countryside. I can probably refill on the return leg, back at that Tim Hortons I passed in the last town before civilization faded from my rear-view mirror.

Suddenly I catch sight of it, a puffy wall cloud low on the horizon to the west. I keep riding, but make a mental note to keep track of it.

It doesn’t take long to realize what I thought was a rain-free ride is about to get wild as a thunderstorm cell boils closer and closer.

Uh oh.

I hit the turnaround point, then crank my way toward home, frantically doing the time/speed/distance math in my head and plotting routes home that’ll put me near potential safe shelter if I can’t make it all the way.

As the sky turns angry to my right, I can feel the air turn cold as I shift up and mash the pedals. As the strengthening crosswind shoves the bike to the left, I tighten my grip on the dancing handlebars, the thrum of the road strengthening as I accelerate.

I realize I’m not making it home, but thankfully Ilderton looms ahead like a friendly beacon.

I feel the first drop as I pull into the Tim’s and tuck the bike under an awning. The storm turns the roads into rivers, and later we learn it spawned a tornado a couple of towns over.

There’s another cyclist there seeking shelter, and soon enough a third rider rolls in, soaked to the bone.

Lots of friendly banter ensues while we wait it out over tea and muffins. They may be total strangers, but the bikes connect us - no matter where our paths may cross. Definitely a cyclist thing, and it’s one of the many things I love about this crazy sport.

Soon enough, the storm passes, the roads begin to dry off, and I get back on and head for home. Carefully.

It turned out to be nothing like the journey I originally planned. But I’m guessing that’s just as true in cycling as it is in life.

#ldnont #london #denfield #ontario #canada #sky #clouds #cloudspotting #weather #wx #onstorm #nature #naturephotography #landscape #landscapephotography #ninemile #apple #iphone #shotoniphone #photography



Sunday, July 14, 2024

Where the lawn and the sun play together

Edgy
London, ON
July 2024
This photo originally shared on Instagram


At 8:24 on a Saturday morning, our dog stops to sniff the grass under the sun. Because I happen to be holding the other end of her leash, I stop, too.

As I watch her superpowered nose do its thing, I catch sight of the long shadows being cast by the overgrown lawn onto the concrete sidewalk. It’s a tiny detail I probably would have missed out on had I not sauntered by with an overly curious Schnauzer.

That chance thing again.

I quietly compose the scene with my smartphone as she just as quietly does her thing. It’s a wordless dance of ours, something we’ve slowly evolved in the seven years since she found us.

I see a lot of things when we’re out here, all because she always seems to point us both in the right direction. She’s got quite the vision, this little one, and I’m certain tomorrow’s walk will serve up its own eye-opening moments.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #sidewalk #shadow #roadside #grass #concrete #stilllife #apple #iphone #shotoniphone #photography

Related:
Shadows on brick, October 2022

Saturday, July 13, 2024

Gender reveal party gone bad?

Road hazard
London, ON
July 2024
This photo originally shared on Instagram


Calli the Wonderschnauzer and I come across all sorts of weird sights during our meandering walks through the neighbourhood. But this one feels even weirder than most.

I’m guessing this may have been a gender reveal party gone bad, but it’s still early yet and I haven’t had my tea.

What do you think?

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #sidewalk #roadside #stilllife #balloons #apple #iphone #shotoniphone #photography

Related:

Friday, July 12, 2024

Bird, air, water

Incoming
Port Stanley, ON
July 2024
This photo originally shared on Instagram


I’ll apologize in advance, as I’m about to get slightly photo-nerdy. But please trust me when I say there’s a valid reason.

Here’s the deal: When I shoot bird photos, I often like to use my long-ish lens to cover the distance. I have another lens, a mid-range zoom, for everyday, general-purpose pics. And for reasons that elude me, I decided to stick with the shorter glass before we headed for the beach.

Now, beaches being what they are, I try to avoid changing lenses while we’re there. I don’t want to gunk my camera up, and I figure if I end up with the “wrong” lens for a given scenario, I’ll just have to suck it up and figure out a way to shoot something fun with what I’ve got.

Which is my long-winded way of explaining how I ended up with the wrong lens that day, without enough reach to really bring the birds in close.

So I stood with my feet in the wet sand, the waves lapping over my ankles, and thought about it. And the more I thought, the more I realized how wrong I had been.

The more I shot with the so-called “wrong” lens, the more I realized how much I had been missing. Instead of zooming in so close that I could see their freaking eyes, I had the freedom to explore out to the horizon line and everything in between.

In doing so, I saw things through the lens that I had never seen before. It felt…different. And good.

Eventually I came across this gull who seemed intent on beaning me with her beak. She eventually turned away to scream at some of her flock mates, but not before I snagged this image, easily my favourite of the day.

I learned a lot from this seemingly trivial experience. About forcing yourself to see the world through a different lens. And pushing through any doubts you might have when you’re a little outside your comfort zone.

Because whether we’re talking about photography or anything else, we all carry different tools at different moments, and it’s up to us to give them all - even the underused ones - a little more exercise.

We just might learn something in the process.

#portstanley #beach #ldnont #ontario #canada #great #lake #erie #bird #gull #seagull #flight #nature #naturephotography #landscape #landscapephotography #nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography #photography


Thursday, July 11, 2024

Rainy recycling day

Water, water everywhere
London, ON
July 2024
This photo originally shared on Instagram


When the remnants of a hurricane wander across the continent and leave epic rains and floods in their wake, it feels like the right thing to do to remember it in pixels.

Fortunately it’s recycling day, and our green bin has been cold soaking in the driving rain for hours by the time the (miserably wet) dog and I return from our walk.

She patiently stands off to the side while I quickly grab a few frames. Soon enough, we head in so I can dry her off and give her a well-earned treat for enduring her first named storm.

This photography thing isn’t so much about the images themselves as it is about the moments we don’t want to forget.

I’ll remember this one.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #green #water #droplet #weather #wx #hurricaneberyl #abstract #stilllife #apple #iphone #shotoniphone #photography

Related:
A single drop, May 2020
Blink and you'll miss it, September 2015
After the rain falls, January 2010

Wednesday, July 10, 2024

Fresh crayons, for all of us

Colour outside the lines
London, ON
April 2024
This photo originally shared on Instagram


When we were kids, if we were lucky we’d get to go to restaurants. If we were really lucky, the tables would be covered with paper, and crayons would magically appear as soon as we sat down. Somewhat unbelievably, we’d be encouraged to scribble on the furniture.

So imagine my pleasant surprise when I walked into a local eatery one recent night and came across this colourful scene.

To the best of my knowledge, I’m no longer a kid (we’ll reserve the “acts like one” discussion for another time), but something about these crayons on this particular restaurant table spoke to me. Because at any age, I’d like to think we’re all creative creatures in one way or another. I’d also like to think that idle doodling is more important to our development as human beings than we’d been led to believe.

I often think about the no-scribbling-on-the-furniture rules many of us grew up with, and the impact that rules like this might have had on our creativity.

Of course, no one wanted walls covered with crayon - there’s a time and a place for everything, and Mom and Dad’s rules ensured we knew how to pick our spots. But in this restaurant, on this night, I could hear a faint childhood whisper in my ear, encouraging me to pick up the crayons and have a little fun.

The paper-covered table in a restaurant is a safe space, a place where anyone of any age can doodle to their heart’s content before the poutine or chicken nuggets make their way over from the kitchen. The results may not be remotely worth saving, but simply having that space at all is a crucial reminder of the power of random expression.

Turns out Mom and Dad were right all along.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #jackastors #restaurant #stilllife #apple #iphone #shotoniphone #photography

Related:
Scene from a diner, March 2018

Tuesday, July 09, 2024

Ready for takeoff

Singularly
Port Stanley, ON
July 2024
This photo originally shared on Instagram


There’s a moment at the start of every long journey where everything is loaded up, the arrangements have been made, and all that’s left is to take that first step into the unknown road.

Many of us have our own pre-travel rituals, tiny little habits we’ve evolved over the years - or maybe even the generations. Some of us are impatient to get going. Others may be more hesitant.

Count me among the latter group. As much as I enjoy a good road trip with my favourite peeps, I can’t stop thinking about that fleeting moment before home begins to recede into the rearview, and what it feels like to pause it all before time turns into distance.

Every tangent - in travel and in life - deserves reflection. That last moment before departure? Especially so.

Apparently I’m not the only one who feels this way, as this single gull way out on the water seems to be taking her time, too. I have no way of knowing what’s going through her mind as she leaves the waves behind and begins her climb into the sky.

But I imagine whether we’re birds or humans or whatever else, we all share the ability to appreciate where we are, where we’re headed, and how it feels to write our own journey’s story.

Fly safely, sweet bird.

#portstanley #beach #ldnont #ontario #canada #great #lake #erie #bird #gull #seagull #flight #nature #naturephotography #landscape #landscapephotography #nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography #photography

Related:
Headed out to sea, January 2018

Monday, July 08, 2024

Purple and salmon sky

Just wait a little bit longer
London, ON
May 2024
This photo originally shared on Instagram


Wait long enough after sunset - 11 minutes, in this case - and Mother Nature hauls out an entirely new box of crayons and splays them randomly across the still vibrant sky.

It’s a critical lesson in patience, a subtle reminder that things aren’t over until long after we might have still thought.

Sky, life, it’s all the same, isn’t it?

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #purple #salmon #sunset #cloudspotting #weather #wx #silhouette #optimistpark #nature #naturephotography #landscape #landscapephotography #nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography #photography


Sunday, July 07, 2024

Seagulls get the munchies

Flying under the radar
Port Stanley, ON
July 2024
This photo originally shared on Instagram


So apparently seagulls like Doritos. Who knew?

#portstanley #beach #ldnont #ontario #canada #great #lake #erie #bird #gulls #flight #nature #naturephotography #landscape #landscapephotography #nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography #photography

Related:
Beach bird brain, August 2022
Dirty bird, April 2019

Saturday, July 06, 2024

Where we dig our feet into the sand

Limitless
Port Stanley, ON
July 2024
This photo originally shared on Instagram


When pondering all that’s preceded this moment and all that might yet be, there are worse places to be than here.

Where do you go to reflect?

#portstanley #beach #ldnont #ontario #canada #greatlake #erie #grey #sky #water #waves #horizon #cloudspotting #naturephotography #landscapephotography #nikon #apple #iphone #shotoniphone #photography

Related:
Water in many forms, December 2020
A ship on the horizon, December 2020

Friday, July 05, 2024

32 years...

Bashert
Laval, QC
July 5, 1992
This photo originally shared on Instagram


32 years ago today, a beautiful woman took a leap of faith with a barely-out-of-his-childhood doofus.

I know anniversaries are good days for reflecting, for being thankful, for taking stock of the journey so far, for hoping for more of the journey ahead.

But I’ll be frank: I reflect every day. On her, on us, on how I’m still bewildered at my good fortune. At some point during any given day, I’ll just stop and ponder how we got here.

I take none of this, of us, for granted. Because I know how precious it all is, how nothing is ever guaranteed. How time is finite. How it feels like both forever and a blink. Together.

They say you should marry your best friend. And while all these years later I still struggle with who, precisely, “they” are, I can’t argue with that logic. We started out by sitting on her front porch, or on the phone, or under the nearest tree, or wherever we could find the space. And we’d talk. About anything and everything. Or about nothing at all. Until all hours of the night.

We still do. The stories have evolved - now including kids and grandkids who we couldn’t have even begun to imagine when we stood, kids ourselves, under the chuppah - but they flow just as easily, her voice dancing with mine as if we’ve been doing this forever.

Whatever I’m cooking up in my tumultuous brain, she’s the one I want to share it with first. She’s my muse, my editor, my litmus tester, my shadow, my mirror, my wingwoman, my all.

She was fearless then, leaping into a life with me that neither of us had even begun to author. And she’s fearless now, continuously laying down the roadmap for us to follow, always setting the tone for who we are and how we move through the days and years.

I look at photos from on and around that incredible day and I cherish all we’ve experienced together in the days since. At the same time I ache for who we’ve lost since then, for the stories that had to end before we wanted them to.

Then I remind myself that this is how this life thing works. Change is inevitable, and the lucky ones get to ride all that change - and opportunity, and joy, and success, and grief, and hellos, and goodbyes - with someone who gets them. Who speaks in words and silence.

She is the love of my life. I’ll never feel worthy of being so ridiculously lucky to have crossed her path and captured her orbit, but I’ll be forever thankful.

Because of her, I focus that much more on squeezing tiny joys out of tiny moments. Not everyone gets that, but she does. Implicitly. And I wouldn’t be who I am if she hadn’t said yes, hadn’t put on a dress, hadn’t agreed to leap into the unknown.

If I could go back in time, I’d change nothing. I’d grab her hand and jump as hard and as far and as fearlessly as we did then. As we’ve done every day since: together.

It’s one of the many things she’s taught me along the way. And one of the countless reasons I love her more with each passing day.

Happy anniversary, my love.

#montreal #ldnont #july5 #blink #LiveLaughLevy #family #everything

Related:
31 years of us, July 2023
30 years... July 2022
29 years... July 2021
28 years... July 2020
27 years... July 2019
23 years on, July 2015
22 years... July 2014
21 years on... July 2013
20 years on... July 2012
Sweet 16, July 2008
How many years? July 2007

Thursday, July 04, 2024

Follow the path over the river

Safe passage
London, ON
June 2024
This photo originally shared on Instagram


We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #thames #river #tvp #springbank #bridge #green #perspective #landscape #landscapephotography #nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography #photography

Related:
A bridge (not) too far, December 2021
Sun-striped bridge, October 2021