dearest readers,

(the few of you that you are),

how do you do?

i do hope this finds you well.


it is with some wistfulness (but some excitement) that i bring forth to you the news that i shall be taking a break from my somewhat regular maintenance of my little blog here, for an undetermined amount of time.

i may return when my adventures in france commence, i may not.


it is time to live a little!

it is time to take photographs with film cameras!

it is time for a blog-free life!

my thoughts, really, are as much worth sharing as yours.


of course, and notwithstanding, i remain in contact with those who generally read this anyway.


dear readers, i bid you all a lovely summer, full of joy, full of mystery, and, most importantly, full of adventure.


until next time,

yuan

trout river (almost)

I recently discovered that my camera can take time-lapse videos.

Rodney and I got into Newfoundland on Monday night, and on Tuesday morning we left for Deer Lake to see our great Uncle Bram. We took a 9 hour bus there and back. Uncle Bram and his comrade, Lloyd, took us to Trout River, which is where Uncle Bram grew up in the 20s and 30s before heading off to the war. We are related to lots of folks there. Us Barnes' even have our own store.


He told us what it was like to grow up then, with every member of the family helping to survive and live, to help have the next meal on the table. He is 90 years old.

We were there for a day and took the bus back on Thursday.


By the end of this trip Rodney and I will have traveled about 7000 kilometres.

trout river (almost) from yuan.

time-lapse. ocean.

(A Short Reprise For Mary Todd, Who Went Insane, But For Very Good Reasons - Sufjan Stevens)

rhymes with understand

Newfoundland.

on top of Signal Hill, St. John's

There's so much space here to think it's almost as if there's not enough busy-ness and things going on to keep me all together. One thing that strikes me about the folks here is it seems like they actually care, about me, about you, about whoever. It's nice to be called m'dear and m'love by complete strangers.


I was having a bath today in my lovely Aunt and Uncle's newly renovated bathroom and I thought to myself, wow this is how people used to bathe themselves for a long time, until now! With large puddles of water, and a washcloth. So antiquated, or something. It made me think about how we take showers, and I guess that's cool, because our technology has allowed us to clean ourselves pretty easily and efficiently, standing up and water running down over us and everything.

But what's the point? I mean, I love showers, but I've been relishing the beauty of baths. I was thinking about how we've come up with ways to speed everything up. We've come up with things like showers to have more leisure time, but when we're done showering, what do we end up doing? (... probably just ending up in front of a screen or something like that.)


Anyway, needless to say, I am looking forward one day to owning my own place, maybe, years down the road, and having a great big bathtub with nice bubble baths and nice-smelling candles. And I'll run the water, and lie in the tub. And there'll be so much space, and I'll get used to it, and then, not being so together and efficient all the time, won't be so bad after all.

One of the only places in the world where you can see the earth's mantle, my uncle tells me.

oh, the scenery.

change.

I love it.

I am living in a new house with new people and it's a new season of life.

As I was setting up the kitchen and moving stuff around I told Mike, "it's like I'm playing house, except I'm really living it."




and now, off to Newfoundland I go.....