Neither housework nor homework

Yesterday I fell in love with a flamenco dancer. Ok, I fell in love with five of them. Ok, ok. I fell in love with their shoes. 

This festival is going on right now and since I work right next to where it was set up on St Catharines, I spent my lunch hour eating spinach empanada and quivering. I am pretty sure that it was this group I saw perform, and the singer was fantastic, but it was the dancers and their purple (five shades of red, plum, eggplant, mauve and lilac) dance shoes. Mary Janes with heels. They were all in rippling black skirts. They used their hands like folding fans. They twirled and scowled and stamped their perfect shoes.  

 los zapatos morados perfectos están aquí

*   *   *

Shuffle shuffle shuffle. 

It's Saturday. My place is a mess. These two facts are not really related. My place is always a mess. But as it is Saturday I am not running (late) to work, so I am forced to sit in the mess.

Shuffle. 

I've got stuff to do. Homework: book(s) to review, papers to read, a quiz to write, notes to make. 

Yawn. Shuffle. Shuffle.

*    *    *

Breakfast smoothie: 

1 frozen banana

1 cup frozen mixed berries

1/4 cup plain yogurt

1 tsp ground flax seeds

1 tsp psyllium husks

dash of cinnamon

drizzle of agave nectar

A splash of almond milk

1 straw

*    *    *

Cleaning is out of the question.

Instead, my camera. What are the things in my apartment that do not make me feel tired?

The Redpath

I recently discovered the Redpath Museum, by way of a wonderful octogenarian who volunteers at the library where I work and who also volunteers at the museum. I don't know why it never occurred to me to ferret out a natural history museum here, when they are always huge favourites of mine, but then again I am part hermit.

A couple of weekends ago I finally had a chance to visit and I loved it. So much to see and soak up, I really just did a survey for future visits. As far as museums go, the Redpath isn't huge (although the collection is still impressive), and we managed to see it in under three hours, although we did not read all of the accompanying signs... or very many of them at all actually, so busy just admiring the artifacts. Anyway, as it was snowing on that Sunday (Snowing. In May. I'll just let that sink in.) going to a museum was a perfect afternoon outing.  

The building itself is worth the visit, honestly. The front part is behind scaffolding at the moment, but once you are inside, you are wrapped up in the 19th century. Perfect creaky wooden floors, molding on the walls and ceilings... the carved posts, the railings, the display cases, the old wobbly imperfect glass. Gorgeous!

You may not even notice the backdrop though, the collection is pretty captivating. 

The foyer has a perfect undersea diorama, with sea snails, cephalopods and cridnoids. It is showing the Ordovician period, waaaaay back when Montreal was submerged and tropical (which was nearly half a billion years ago).

Other foyer highlights included a giant clam (GIANT), a giant crab (even GIANTER) and a small case for their "Montreal: Ville de Verre" exhibit, which was a few (really neat) specimens made of glass. 

The first floor also has a "Back to the Sea" hallway (it truly is a little hallway) with a little mix of old and new.That's a juvenile mink whale skeleton hanging from the ceiling, and the skeletons of a leather back turtle and a seal on the wall. That giant thing that looks like part of a ship is actually part of a whale skull (I forget which kind). On the wall opposite was an icthyosaur fossil.  

Next you go up to the second floor, which is a treasury of shells and minerals, displayed in glass & wood cases, in a beautiful, bright room.

Which is lovely, but hard to concentrate on, because you keep seeing glimpses of this guy through the doorway, into the next room: 

That room is Dawson Gallery, and it is the money room. It's got all the dinosaurs and a lot of stuffed/taxidermy-ed specimens and a guy called Bruno giving impromptu tours.

One of my favourite things was this Irish Elk skull (not Irish, or an elk, really... taxonomists are so zany) but it is a bit hard to make them out in the photo. Also very cool: suspended from the (high! blue! Versaille-ish!) ceiling was an origami pteranodon. 

Next you go up a flight of stairs, passing an unlikely trio: 

(I totally need to tell you that I knew what kind of gorilla that was from across the room. 

Me: "Hmmm. That looks like a mountain gorilla. A young silverback I would guess."

Adrien: "Right, whatever. It's a gorilla. Look over here at this cool thing!"

Me: "No, it's not a lowland gorilla, they're more gracile and the hair is shorter. It's definitely Gorilla beringei beringei."

Adrien: "Hey, I think there's something neat over there..."

Me: (checking little card) "I knew it! An adolescent male mountain gorilla!"

Adrien: *rolls eyes*

I haven't been in university for thousands of years for nothing!)

Finally you go up to the top floor, the mezzanine or balcony, which houses their ethnology collection. Again, it was small, but really neat. They had real mummies, ancient Grecian coins, a Buddha statue, Samurai armour, musical instruments from Africa and a few other treasures. 

I am definitely going to have to go back. It makes me wish I had paid more attention to the Royal British Columbia Museum in Victoria, which we used to go to for class field trips all the time but which I didn't appreciate nearly as much then as I would now. I do remember learning about bioluminescence there though... I guess something sunk in. I'm obviously going to have to go back there too.

* The first image, of the outside of the museum, is from wikipedia, the rest are all from the McGill/Redpath website and are credited to Virginie Millien, Torsten Bernhardt, K. Dobbin.

Starlings, songs and a lovely Smithers-ite

I'm cleaning out my closet today. I'm such a packrat.

There are things in there that I haven't worn in like... eight years. And I've only lived in this apartment for five.

Gah! The dust! Allergies suck.

Ok, so onto something interesting.

Photo credit: Tam Stuart

European Starlings. So pretty. I've noticed them around every spring/summer and have always thought them to be neat birds. Shiny black, sprinkled with polka dots, a purplish sheen... lovely. I'm not a birder, or at least I never used to be, but I feel a creeping birding tendency coming on. I think it is a hobby that I may acquire soon. I guess I need a birding guide and binoculars. For some reason I associate this with elderly people, but really, that should make me feel quite at home (I am a 33 year old elderly person).

Last weekend though, I visited a local natural history museum, and I discovered that they are the zebra muscles of the bird world.  Apprently all the North American European Starlings are descendents of a group of 100 or so that were released in 1890 in Central Park by a poetic (but misguided) soul who wanted to bring every bird mentioned by Shakespeare to the New World (I read this both on wikipedia, and [minus the Shakespeare part] at the museum).

So... they are pretty but they are pests.

In unrelated news, have you heard of YouTube Disco? What a smart idea! It's a bit like global network of dreams (gnod) but instead of just suggesting new music for you to check out on your own time, it helpfully creates a playlist for you to listen to and discover. The way it works is that you put in a band/muscician  you like and then hit Disco! and voilà. It plays a mix of the band you chose and other stuff that is similar. Neato mosquito. 

And finally, guess what I'm up to lately? Reading! Nice, hun? I'm taking a summer class to inch ever closer to getting my library technician diploma and it happens to be a Libraries for Young Adults type class, and we have to read a book a week and review it. Eeep. I am a bookworm, it's true, but I am also a pretty slow reader. I may try to do some of this reading via audiobook. Anyway, even though it's daunting, it is also exciting! Usually when I'm taking classes I have to sneak fiction in on the sly, guiltily. Now I can lounge around reading great YA literature and still totally be doing homework. So awesome. 

The first book I read is Alice, I Think by Susan Juby. 

(Check out how cute her website is, speaking of birders:) 

It's a great book! Not only is it clever, quirky and quite funny, it's also Canadian. It's set in Smithers, BC and is a diary-style account of 15 year old Alice who is headed to high school after a lifetime of home schooling. She's wonderfully odd and antisocial and fun to read. Especially funny are the adults of her world, as seen by her. Her hipie parents and their tragic friends, her teachers, counselors, and her boss are all hilarious. Or rather, the way she talks about them is hilarious.

Ok, I'm headed back to the closet, and then I need to get oustide to enjoy all 22 degrees of this lovely afternoon.

Window shopping

Imagine if etsy were an actual, physical marketplace... imagine the booths and little shops people would have. It would be the loveliest labyrinth ever. 

Labyrinth!

Lucky for us, it is online so anyone can visit, anytime. And visit I do. Often. 
 
In fact, that's what mom and I did for Mother's Day! Ok, Mother's Day Eve (poor mom... she worked on MD). Don't worry, I sent the requisite chocolate but as we are thousands of kilometers apart a little etsy window-shopping over the phone was nearly as good as getting together for coffee and cupcakes. 


By the end of the day we had seen many, many treasures and my list of favourite items grew by several sizes. 

In the spirit of daydream shopping, here are a few of my faves:

(Click to see all the lovely details)

Stores shown in mosaic

(all photos are from the shops)

Top row:

Raincloud necklace by lulubug jewelry

Giant Squid by Dan Bob Thompson

Foxes by Kristiana Parn/krisblues

Acorn earrings by Karmelidesigns

Second row:

Patterned Bird pin by Yael Fran 

Winter Observer cut paper by Rural Pearl

Pearl ring by Lucky Duct

Balalaika by The Hermitage

Third row:

Worlds Away terrarium kit by Augury

Feeding Birds by Matte Stephens

Mermaids by Stasia Burrington

Plan B painted moleskin by goshdarnknit (holy cute name!)

Fourth row:

"My Captain... we've reached the end of the world" by Hide n Seek

Birdalope by Geninne

Stick Hair original drawing also by Stasia Burrington (the original is no longer for sale - because I bought it! I couldn't resist, and can't wait til it gets here)

Swallow Twigs handmade necklace also by Karmelidesigns

Fifth row:

Royal Purple (!) Art Nouveau scarf by The Creative Caravan

Wise as an Owl ring by Sora Designs (he's already gone, not to me sadly, but isn't he cool?)

The Flight of Emphrey by Mademoiselle G

The Barnacle Whale by Native Vermont Studio

Bottom row:

Owl sweater clip by Owl Child

Ça va? cards by Two Guitars

OctoOwl tote bag by Deadworry

The Red Piano by The Black Apple

PS ~ A while ago my brother pointed me to Regretsy, which is really funny and pretty disturbing.