esthero

My grandma's heart is healing (yay, grandma). Mine is overflowing.

This week's events came out of nowhere. It started out as just a trip to my hometown, but somehow grew into an experience containing every kind of openings and closures and peeks and questions provoked. It was past fused with future, and I'm not just being artsy.

Teen dreams and preened appearances. The ache of self-doubt, the uncertaintly of comparison, and the triumph of momentary superiority. These things don't last for all of us, but it's easy to remember them when they had a strong hold. Don't give up, littler girls.

The importance of family, despite all their idiosyncracies...who will love you when you need love the most?

Memory: the wonder when it colours the mind, the pain of losing grip on time and space.

Love found, consolidated, promised, forbidden. Man, it can be romantic and heartbreaking.

***
I was in back in town this week, to see people I've gone way too long without seeing. Coffees, dinners, drinks, breakfasts, walks. I love to listen, and it feels good to go 'home'.

Went to the Goddess festival with Amy and Jennie, to see a generous handful of Canadian artists. Had an unbelievable stroke of luck and won a f'n amazing guitar. The festival promoter, sue, told me that she believed fate had handed me a pretty strong sign that I better be a musician. I don't take these things lightly, so you will find me in my room every day, getting baby steps closer to rock and roll. That's the plan folks, academics and music.

As a first step, one of my favourite friends is getting married in February and I get to sing at her wedding. I'm no competition for the pipes in Luhrmann's Romeo and Juliet, but I'll work on it.


near casa loma


at dev's swank new place on queen

Roz was nice enough to post for a wee photoshoot for me. Here are a few

irish lilt and longing

"Ireland...an emerald set in the ring of the sea!"
-John Philpot Curren




visiting Kate in Dublin


our first sips of Guinness at McGruder's, said to be the best and freshest Guinness one can taste save for visiting the actual storehouse


fishing boats in the village of Howth, just northeast of Dublin


Irish dancers and how they leap!


brian loves this song


poetic graffitti

"If you ever go across the sea to Ireland, then maybe at the closing of your day, you will sit and watch the moon rise over Claddagh, and watch the sun go down on Galway bay"
- as Bing Crosby sang it in Galway Bay









"When you live in a wild, luminous landscape like the Burren, that landscape itself becomes an inner companion. I can remember very clearly my first moments, as a child, of recognition of the mystical wildness of this place, the strangeness of it. When the light was there the stone was white, and you could almost understand that it had been all under the sea at one stage. Then, when a shower came, the whole landscape blackened completely."
- Irish scholar John O'Donohue on The Burren






alien terrain


the cliffs of moher

Apologies for the delay between photo posts. I want to get these all up as quickly as possible, but moving is a time-consuming process, as I'm sure many of you know all too well. All our stuff is moved into the montreal apartment, but I'm back for 2 weeks until school starts (nervous butterflies).

next up...paris

The Scottish highlands

According to Gary, Ed, and Dave, our Scottish advisors we met at a local pub, these were the cities to visit to see the best of the Scottish highlands, and Scottish history. We were certainly not disappointed.

St. Andrew's

kids enjoying the seaside


lobster traps


part of the old wall that surrounds the city


seagull colony in the rocks


old cathedral remains


The old course, where golf began

Inverness

dusk on the river ness


poppy field, close to dolphin-watching point, where we heard one dolphin, but never saw any


Brian swimming in loch ness


realizing the water is ice cold


inverness after sunset


?

Fort William



castle ruins on our 2 hour, rain-soaked trek


bright sun, black sky


high waters


the hogwarts express


highland mist

Stirling

view from the top of the William Wallace monument


brian with fight-the-wind face


ancient cemetary


highland dancers

Edinburgh

"Maybe it's the constant fog in Scotland that gives it the mystical feel it has. The fog makes it beautiful, but it can also get to you after a while. For some reason though, I feel like if magic were to exist, it would be here"
-Rozlyn Burns


someone was passionate enough about the city to celebrate it this year, but not passionate enough to learn to spell it correctly


on the way up to Arthur's seat, a rocky hillside climb on the east end of the city




the city shows its age from above


secret garden


this is not photoshopped


edinburgh castle looming over princes street gardens


the scot monument


procession from holyrood palace following the queen's welcome


cathedral spires in the fog


our accomodation


haunted and haunting edinburgh