Thursday, November 02, 2006

Unexpected Side Effects

Ya gotta love leopard print.

I love it when you come home from an outing and discover a bit of pepper or basil wedged in between your front teeth from the lunch you ate before you left the house.

Today I went downtown to resume the photo shoot I started the other day and to buy my favourite cookies. As I walked under the train tracks, I kept hearing something that sounded like the Muslim call to prayer I heard in Cape Town. I really only consciously heard it once in Cape Town, our last morning there, when we had to get up at some ungodly hour (pun intended) to catch a bus out of town. The song was haunting and ethereal, especially at that hour just before dawn, and it was beautiful.

The sound I heard today was buried under a million other sounds of afternoon bustle, just out of aural reach, even in such a quiet town as Guelph. Three times an ambulance wailed by, all while Swee'pea was asleep or nearly asleep. Luckily it didn't seem to bother him or I would have shaken my fist at the driver and glared at the sky (even though I know the ambulance helps people in need). I still don't know what the sound was, or even if it was really a sound. Maybe it was just the wind catching somewhere? Cars driving under the train tracks? Construction? Or maybe it was just the wind blowing in my ears. I'll never know. But I'm glad I heard it and remembered that early early morning on our last day in Cape Town, when Sugar Daddy and I enjoyed a silent, contemplative smoke in the dark living room before saying goodbye, and listened to the chanting call to prayer travelling on the wind like a magic carpet.

The other day when I walked downtown on my way to the graffiti, church bells were chiming. It was around 3 in the afternoon, and it occurred to me that it was pretty much the exact hour my Grandma Ruth died, exactly a year to the day before. It was nice to hear the bells and to take a silent moment while I walked to remember her again.

I'm experiencing some side effects from NoBloPoMo.
  1. I have several draft posts in blogger that normally I probably would have just published, but because of NoBloPoMo, I'm saving for the day I don't have anything to say.
  2. A Crisis of Confidence: several bloggers, both those participating in NoBloPoMo and those who have chosen not to, have talked about the risk of boring their readers senseless with lame mundane daily details like what they had for lunch. But this is totally what my blog is all about. So now I'm wondering if maybe I should be a bit more selective about what I blog about. But not right now... maybe later.

I think it may be time to put our patio furniture away for the winter.

I love this photo. Because the hole in the canoe looks deliberate and manmade, because the colour of the garage is so whimsical and because there's a gorgeous old door that I only noticed after I had pressed the shutter.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

That is a gorgeous picture. All of the colors and textures juxtaposed together. (actually, I was referring to the canoe pic, but I think the comment would apply to the leopard stroller one as well...)

I'm a little concerned that I might run out of steam on NaBloPoMo about halfway through the month, but I'm determined to see it through. I may bore a reader or two, but I hope it will actually help me to do a little better about writing on demand (something I've struggled with but would need to get over if I ever want to do more writing for a living.)

cinnamon gurl said...

Ooh, I forgot to mention some of the messages I saw on the wall of graffiti:

Represent in Ireland.
Legalize Pot.
Boycott Israel.

oh crap... there was something else, but I've forgotten.

11111111 said...

I like the canoe photo. I would hang a print of it on a wall in my cottage.

And, I have the exact same patio set on my third-floor deck.

Mad said...

OK, I will listen to you blog about your lunch ONLY if you also tell me exactly what got stuck in your teeth.

CG, the blog is about you and for you not anyone else. Keep writing and your readers will come or not. They aren't what's important here. An exercise that lets you write once a day for a month is a good exercise no matter what the outcome.

Girlplustwo said...

great pics. great background on the leopard too. remember, i'll be here cheering you on as you post away.

Em said...

I love the leopard prints... perfect.

Beck said...

I've always been an every day poster, largely because I'm a blatherskite. If you're feeling burnt out by the pace, try writing short entries - it really helps me!

When we had The Girl, we lived between a fire station, hospital and police station. We just stopped hearing the sirens after a while.

DaniGirl said...

Hey Cinnamon Gurl, nice to 'meet' you! I'm playing along in NaBloPoMo, too, and know what you mean about saving stuff up for a dry day. I'm also filing away links and ideas, just in case.

I like your blog - I'll be back soon!

cinnamon gurl said...

Thanks all for the kind words about my photos.

denguy: Canadian Tire special, eh? And I'd let you have a print but it's only a 3 megapixel camera so I think an englargement would look like crap.

Mad: Yes, ma'am... thanks for the reminder and support.

danigirl: thanks for stopping by. I feel a bit like a celebrity stopped by, and on laundry day or something...

Her Bad Mother said...

Our canoe looks sorta like that, sans hole. But I probably couldn't manage such a pretty pic of it.

suze said...

I love the canoe photo. What an excellent eye you have! (found you from dani's blog...)

Unknown said...

I like the graffiti shots too. Once, I had the perfect one when my dog was taking a dump right in front of a stencil that said "Carpe Diem".

As for the whole NaBloPoMoshmoopydoopybloobloo shebang -- I say (without being asked even, because I'm like that) maybe just write and publish as you normally would. Don't save anything. Empty your reserves, and then see what's there the next day. Even if it's one word, one link, one line - just do it because it's in you every day and has to come out, not because it's a marathon and you need to pace yourself to make it through.

Giving yourself permission to write a little every day, and to write badly if you have to, is what's going to make the bigger difference in your writing life in the long run. Write me again, and I'll refer you to where I heard that, okay? It's a good source.

I like how much detail you put into your posts. I can see beyond the borders of your story because of it.

m.j.stubbs said...

hey...sell me that canoe....

cinnamon gurl said...

Sorry, MJ, it's not mine to sell. I just saw it, walking by...

Hi Marla, thanks for the advice. I'm gonna take it and publish the drafts this weekend.