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Homemade Cherry Liqueur
Every summer, I keep a close eye on my mother’s Nanking cherry trees. When the bright red berries have finally soaked up enough sun, I pick the trees clean and either eat them all or force my mother confect them into Nanking jelly. This year, there weren’t many cherries on offer. The trees had been struggling to grow and when I had picked what was suitable, there was only about a cup of cherries in a bowl. The local magpies nattered at me the whole time, clearly claiming ownership of the tree’s fruits, but I’m a people and I wanted them, even if there were only a few. After listening…
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Wild Horse Warm Springs
It’s a romantic idea: a hot spring, secluded and private in the mountains. There’s no one around, just you and the beautiful mountain views, all yours to take in while you soak in warm water and fresh mountain air. It turns out, such a place exists.
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Defining “Home”
Several weeks ago, I was at a market selling prints of my photographs. I was talking with a woman from another table, and we were happy to find out that we both hailed from Montreal. “We’re practically neighbours!” she exclaimed. She told me she moved to Calgary to be with her children, who had been living here for several years. She’s only been here for two years, herself. And then she asked me, “Does it ever start to feel like home?”
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Traditional Bedouin Medicine
It was early in the morning, the light from the sun was just starting to crest over the hill. I was standing on some burlap bags, which had been carefully placed along the edges of the squares to keep the balks from caving in. Below me, a mix of students and veterans were digging away, hauling guffah1 after guffah out to the sift. Watching others work in the early morning isn’t exactly conducive to staying awake, especially when it comes with a pang of jealousy. I really love to dig and sitting on the sidelines due to a wrist injury doesn’t exactly sit well with me. I’m sure this thought…
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Travelling Light (FINALLY)
Being a photographer has one huge con when it comes to travel: it’s nearly impossible to travel light. Usually when I travel, I’m on a mission. It may be that I’ve been hired to be a dig photographer, or I’m freelancing, or I’m taking photos to sell to fund my subsequent travels. All of these things require that I take a huge chunk of my gear. Camera bodies, extra lenses, various cables, flashes, and miscellany – it all adds up to what I lovingly term a, “buttload.”
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Moving and The “Mass”
The last few weeks have been a whirlwind. The (mis)adventure of moving took place over the course of two weeks. It was unexpected, daunting, and not something I care to repeat any time soon. The idea of packing up all your “worldly” possessions into boxes, bins, and wrapped up in blankets is overwhelming and decidedly confrontational. As you pack, the sheer mass of “things” you own makes itself so abundantly clear. I found myself feeling defensive over what I owned. As my boyfriend hauled things to the car, he didn’t say a word of complaint. I know he wasn’t even judging me, but here I was projecting my own sense…
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Looking for Lille
In my quest to photograph as many ghost towns as I can find, I kept coming across notes about a little gem called Lille, Alberta. Things looked great for Lille when it was first established in 1901. Within a few years, there were about 20 residences on the townsite, along with all the amenities like a hotel, doctor’s office, and a school. The coal mining industry in the area led to the construction of an expansive system of coke ovens, specially made in Belgium. Each brick was stamped with a unique number, shipped, and the ovens were reconstructed brick-by-brick in Lille sometime in 1903-1904.
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Do not praise selfish travelers.
The above screenshot was taken from this article over at Matador Network. The website regularly features travelogues, some international news, and various other travel-related posts. I’ve been following them for a few years now and once in awhile, a post comes up that makes my archaeologist blood boil.
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Thor & Mjolnir
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Petra & Little Petra
It’s probably my last time visiting Petra. It’s not just because this may be the last year we dig at Umayri in Jordan, but also, after three times visiting Petra, I’ve pretty much seen everything I wanted to see. This leads to an interesting dynamic with my SLR. It largely spent the weekend in my backpack. My iPhone was where it was at. I had photographed all these monuments before with various cameras and I have so many photos of Petra.
to see the world in a grain of sand.
