Sharon's Week 20: Dear Mrs. Speranzini

I am visiting my awesome friend Donna in Grimsby, Ontario, a town an hour outside of Niagara Falls.  We have been driving around this beautiful area taking photographs in some fairly chilly weather.  Today we are inside, watching Pride and Prejudice and editing photos while the rain falls outside.  We may or may not get out for more photography today.  I was thinking yesterday, after heading out at 5:00 am and wandering with our cameras until 2:00 pm (a full work day, if you don't want to do the math yourself), that I would never get anything done if I lived around here.  First, because I think it might be fairly easy to persuade Donna to join me on long photographic outings and second because it could take years and years to fully explore the farms and vineyards and orchards and different landscapes around here.

About my title, it comes from something we used to say all the time when we were housemates in University.  I don't remember the exact details but it had to do with Donna being maybe clumsy or prone to accidents or maybe having a tendency to perform hazardous adventurous acts.  Whatever the reason, we were always penning possible letters to her mom to explain how she met her demise...Dear Mrs. Speranzini...

All of the photos this week were all taken in this area during our our explorations over the past two days.  Here they are...

music

I have to credit Donna for the idea for this photo.  I am quite literal in my thinking most of the time.  Donna is very creative in so many ways (her mom has a PhD in creativity so I think the apple doesn't fall far from the tree).  As we were driving around and I was complaining about my lack of ideas for "music" Donna  mentioned a few really creative ones while I talked about instruments and notes and someone playing music.  After reviewing my photos and not having found such literal items, I thought about how I could apply something a little less concrete to a photo I liked.  This grackle was fishing beside us as we sat enjoying the early morning light.  At home, we have grackles nesting in our soffit (yes, I know I need to get that taken care of) and Levi and I hear their music whenever we come in or go out of the house.

leading lines

As we drove around, we were looking for orchards or vineyards whose lines lead to the distant skyline of Toronto.  I wasn't able to get exactly what I wanted although I did get a few I liked.  I am going with this photo though because I love the lines in it.  These crazy lines from the stairs are leading to the gazebo and clump of trees.  This was at Charles Daley Park in Lincoln.

pastel

I'm not sure that these are pastel colours exactly and I considered desaturating a bit but I decided not to.  A lilac in my mind, will always be pastel coloured.

N

Some beautiful forest at Beamer Memorial Conservation Area.

hooded

Again with the literal interpretation, here is Donna yesterday morning during the chilly sunrise.  Turn around, Donna, the sunrise is behind you.

baby animal

Donna took me to her friend's dairy farm and we photographed baby cows but I am going to let her show you one of them.  I will show you the baby ducks...there are 11 of them I think.

wild card

Like many weeks, I cannot decide on one so here is a selection...

First we have sunrise yesterday.

A flower at the greenhouse that Donna's in-laws own.  We went there for photographs on the busiest day of the year...we didn't stay long.

A redbud tree in Niagara on the Lake.

This blue jay landed on the apple tree we were admiring.

It was really windy and hard to photograph the lilacs.  They were at the Centennial Lilac Garden near Niagara Falls.

Here is one of the vineyard lines leading sort of towards the Toronto skyline photos.  You have to squint very hard to see the buildings.

Here's one of my calf photos.

And finally, a cute little patio in Jordan.  The wisteria was so beautiful.

That's it.  Have a happy Victoria Day.

And now we are watching The Martian.