Walking Where Once I Ran... but at least I can walk

Coat: vintage; Shirt and jeans: Reitmans; Boots: thrift; Glasses: Polo Ralph Lauren

I didn't plan to take any photos for Sublime Mercies on this trip to the park. I hadn't dressed up at all and didn't think my outfit was even a little bit photo-worthy. But Beau said I simply had to do a post on one his favourite looks for me: Everyday Charlotte.

Now I'm kind of glad he insisted, not because I like my outfit (I don't), but because of the topic it inspired.

This park is quite near my home. Before my back injury, I used to jog to it, jog around it several times, jog from it to my local gym, work out, and jog home. On my "non-exercise" days, I would sometimes walk to it, walk around it, and walk home.

I thought of it as my park.

Now, I'm lucky to get a ride there and not be in too much pain after walking around it once. In theory, I can walk to it and around it from my home. I know this because I did it once last year but mostly that ability is a mere theory.

So going here is a bittersweet experience now. I still love the park in every season, but it is flush with memories of my days as an extremely fit, able-bodied, pain-free person. It is flush with the memories of the joy exercise brought me. I loved being fit. I did not take it for granted.

But it was a beautiful spring day and, bittersweet or not, I wanted to go to my park.

Even Houdini, the lazy local cat took the time to walk down his stairs to come say hello as we left my place.

That had to be a good sign, right?

These are the kinds of views that make my city so spectacular. This park is not in a wealthy or remote part of town. It's smack in the middle of what, for many years, was one of the poorest parts of the city. The beauty here is not restricted to those with money.

On my jogs, I used to pause right here at this spot as the trees beautifully frame the mountains. It seems art directed. I expect that the city's landscapers kind of do art direct this view. 

It hurts, though, to be reminded of what my body once could do, and the vastly different circumstances under which I used to look at this view.

Still, when I see a photo like this one of me walking, I am thrilled to see how far I've come. I look like I'm completely able-bodied here! 

I remember a friend bringing me here in the first year of my injury and, even with a cane, I could barely make it from the car to a bench.

I have come a long way. I wonder how much further I'll go.
  

And I'm trying my best to appreciate the beauty of my world even as I'm in pain. There is the bitter side, yes, and I'd be a fool to deny it, but there's the sweet side too. 

I mean, look at this tableau, with this root, sticking out of the ground like the Ogopogo. Whenever I look at this marshy part of the park, I imagine this is what it looks like in spots down south in the States. There are even red-winged blackbirds here!

I have every inch of the park memorized from my old jogging days. I know exactly where the muddy patches begin and end and how to circumvent them. Still, I wore my real muddy weather boots, synthetic and cheap, so I wouldn't have to worry about sullying them in the muck.

That's me walking again. It's a lovely site. It took me nine months to be able to walk a block (with my cane) so, yeah, it's pretty great to see myself really walking. I know I'll never be a jogger again. I've accepted that, but I have to walk. I just have to! And I can -- some.
 

Once upon a time this was an old mining quarry. When it was no longer used, some bright chap or chappette thought to fill it with water and turn it into a little lake. That's a model sail boat, not a real one, just to give you some perspective.

Occasionally it freezes over in the winter and city workers come and chop holes in the ice for the over wintering ducks. We have a lot of over wintering birds here. It's just not cold enough for them to bother migrating.

Hat: Jaxon; Shoes: Ecco; Glasses: Geek Eyewear; Jeans and sweater: thrift. Yes, Beau is thinking of expanding his wardrobe, but this single father of two is still getting used to spending money on himself.

Let's be honest, some things are actually better since my injury. I met Beau after I became crippled and I still can't get over how lucky I am that he found me. 

Would I rather be pain free and have Beau? Obviously. But that doesn't stop me from being grateful that I have him.
 

This park is dog heaven. One whole side of the lake is set aside as an off-leash zone. One kind of expects to come home with muddy paw or nose prints somewhere on one's person when one goes here.

Check out the poodle's inside out ear, and the happy greying dog, not really exercising, but remembering exercise -- kind of like me!

For many blocks around the park, you can see dogs straining on their leashes as they realize where they're going. And, for many of those same blocks, you can see exhausted, wet dogs heading home, happy and ready for a nap.

I really can't speak highly enough of the city's landscapers. They manage to make things look wild and random when, in fact, they are anything but. Canada in general has far more parks than I found when living in the States but my city is especially famous for its natural beauty. 

I didn't really know I was a nature girl until I lived in Queens and found myself starving for the site of a blade of grass or a tree. The local schoolyard was paved! Paved! Who does that?

Am I the only one who finds this tree a little... suggestive?

So naturally I had to pose with it.

Tee hee. Blush.

Beau had to pose with an equally suggestive tree. I shall let these juxtaposed images speak for themselves. 

Beau loves my glasses and wishes I'd wear them more. He says they're sexy. Since I wanted to really see the views, he got his wish. "Everyday Charlotte" indeed.
 

I used to call this spot The Cathedral because it is surrounded by trees that tilt inward, giving it a cathedral-like feel. Again, some little city elf has planted flowers in unexpected places.

Just what is the name of this bug? Do you know? Nature is fascinating.

If you know how to look, there is sublime beauty everywhere, from the micro...

... to the macro...

... to Beau ...

White gold and diamond ring: Birks; Coloured ring: who knows?

...who holds my hand when I'm in pain and when I'm well...

... and when the view is so spectacular, it takes our breath away.

Haida Jewelry: one artist, one piece, a whole lot of meaning

On a recent trip to my closest local cafe (the one I go to when my back hurts the most but I just have to get out of the house), I noticed this fellow and his friend heading in the same direction. My first impression of him was that he is one of the biggest people I've even seen. He towers well over six feet and is just massive -- not fat, just huge. With his blue-black long hair, the teeth (I think they're teeth) as earrings, and strong profile, juxtaposed with his young-looking face create a very riveting presence.

Add to this the fact that his coffee companion was a tiny woman with a very new baby and they created a really interesting human tableau.

Given my ongoing passion for jewelry, it didn't take me long to notice the great pendant around his neck. I think you'd have to be brain dead and willfully blind to live in this part of the world and not notice and appreciate the rich tradition of Aboriginal art here. This pendant is unmistakably of this tradition and really beautiful.

It's not in my nature to be very shy (though I'm actually an introvert), and I eventually asked him if I could take a closer look at his necklace. He said yes. I asked if it is, as I guessed, gold, silver, and abalone, and he said yes, and began turning it over and saying things like, "I just took an abalone disc and..." I realized that he had made his pendant himself.

Now I just had to put him in my blog. He consented, with a little reluctance which I'll get to in a moment. He introduced himself as Ernest Swanson of the Haida nation.

He explained that the pendant represents both the Chinook salmon and the Chinook language. The life cycle of the salmon here on the west coast is famous, mysterious, and symbolically powerful. Salmon return from the ocean to spawn in the very river bed in which they came to life. It is an incredibly difficult journey for them as they swim upstream, against the flow of the water. They arrive exhausted and near death. They spawn, and then they die.

For many here, this migratory spawning has become a symbol of the never-ending cycle of life. For the Haida, salmon also represent the belief in reincarnation, the return of ancestors' spirits in the young new lives of their own people.

In the above video, you can see the fish swimming up a waterfall!

Of course, the salmon are also an amazing source of abundant nutrition for humans and animals alike.

 

Chinook is also the name of an Aboriginal people here. Many are not aware that there were many Aboriginal nations here long before white people arrived. I wrote about that in my post about Idle No More.

These nations traded with each other up and down the coast and into the interior. That trade expanded still further in the 19th century when European trade with the First Nations in the area increased. Because the various traders spoke so many languages, they needed a way to communicate with each other so they used a pidgin jargon largely derived from the Chinook language.

Ernest says his pendant, then, also represents unity amongst all the peoples of of the west coast... including me, I guess! I like that. I'm completely besotted with my chosen land here.

As much as he had to say about his pendant, he was surprised that I found it so beautiful and was a bit reluctant to let me showcase it in my blog. He said it was really a very simple pendant and that he does much more complex work, seldom bothers doing commissions anymore, and really doesn't need whatever publicity my little post might create.

I think this gorgeous piece is called Bear, by Ernest Swanson.

He wasn't kidding! I looked up more of work and it is stunning and way the hell out of my price range.

All of it draws on traditional Haida beliefs which are strongly based in a story-telling tradition.

Raven and First Man, by Ernest Swanson

I love the three dimensional effect of this piece.

Raven and First Man, by Ernest Swanson

I don't know a lot about Haida stories but the name Raven and First Man clearly indicates that this pendant is about the inception of humanity.

Raven Finding First Man, by Ernest Swanson

The same is true of this piece.

Octopus, by Ernest Swanson

The only other time I've seen jewelry that is regularly "fancy" on both sides is in Indian art (from India). I really like that. When I designed a pendant for myself once, the jeweler said he'd never before had someone ask that both the front and the back be designed.

Eagle with Salmon, by Ernest Swanson

It's wonderful to show off your jewelry to the world.

Eagle with Salmon, by Earnest Swanson

But it's also wonderful to have a sort of secret beauty against the warmth of your chest, especially if that beauty is symbolically and spiritually powerful.

It may be that part of my own love of the west coast traditions in Aboriginal art stems not just from its beauty but from the fact that it all means something too. Beauty itself as a sort of language, derived from nature and the spirit world... That's... just... awesome! Or, to use the parlance of my own blog: It's sublime.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Ask people about their jewerly. You never know what you'll learn.

If you like Ernest's work, much of it can be bought through the Lattimer Gallery.  

Charlotte Issyvoo Rocks the Schoolmarm Shoes

Shoes: Ingledew's; Tights: Reitmans; Skirt: Jella

I used to wear high heels -- a lot. Then my back gave out so severely, I'm now functionally disabled (though very slowly improving over the years) and I can't wear heels anymore. I hate that. 

I'm trying very hard to expand my fashion imagination to include flat footwear. I'm trying to think of flat footwear as fabulous. It's not always easy. But with these Italian shoes, it's not that difficult either.

This post and this outfit are all about the shoes. 
 

Jacket: Zoompy; Shirt: Reitmans; Clutch and earrings: vintage

I thought this outfit was all about the pleated skirt, but I was wrong.

It's all about the shoes. I just couldn't keep my eyes off them! I kept calling attention to them like a little girl with new... well, new shoes -- though, as a little girl, I always insisted on buckled mary-janes and eschewed lace-ups as too ordinary for extraordinary me.

Flat, lace-up shoes with a dress or skirt is a look straight from the 1930s. My grandmother, who was very tall and was married in 1936, thought herself quite classy in such an outfit right up until her death in 2000. She was right. 

Today, somehow, such a look has a bit of a schoolmarm quality to it, which works well, considering the fact that I teach college English. I am a schoolmarm and I often quite like a prim look. Beau thought a pose in front of a school would be just the thing. 

Hair clips: Stylize

The bun just goes with the look. I guess I should have worn my glasses too, eh? (Yes, I am Canadian and yes, I know how to wield an "eh" correctly.)

Bracelet: thrift; Belt: Kara Girl

I doubt, though, that the classic schoolmarm has... um... chests like this, or, if she does, she hides them well. Indeed, I do too when I'm teaching. All hail the demure little cardigan, hiding magnitudes beneath its fluffy innocence!

I'm not used to having a chest so please excuse me if I goggle at it from time to time. I was pretty flat-chested until my back got bad; I had to give up jogging so I gained weight and, what do you know, I grew a bosom! I'm rather enjoying having a bosom, I must admit.

I realize I lied when I said in a previous post that a little ruffle at the bottom of a blouse is the closest I'll ever get to a peplum. I already had this little oatmeal jacket stashed away, waiting for an occasion.

And this really is a peplum. There's no getting away from that fact. I'm still not sure if it works but the jacket matched my new shoes so well, that I really had no choice but let the shoes dictate my choice of jacket. I had no choice, I tell you!

Left gold and diamond ring: Birks; Right gold and diamond ring: Effy

Of course, the other big news is my new wave ring. I felt positively decadent wearing both of these rings at once and I think they look rather well against this red.

If you read the fashion magazines at all, you know that this orange tinged, tomato red has been all the rage for a while now, especially when combined with chunky, yellow gold pieces. This is why I seldom throw out my accessories; they always come back round again if I wait long enough. I dug up this old envelop clutch and these earrings and, presto, I'm a modern gal!

Originally, though, I got the earrings because they look like they're from the 40s (though I suspect they're actually from the 80s, which were strongly influenced by the 40s). They match the clutch perfectly and the little gold swirls go well with the new ring.

 

And anyone who knows me at all knows I'm all about the bling... or are the kids these days calling it "flash"? Luckily for me, I'm not a kid so I can call it whatever I want.

I do believe the whole ensemble worked. Finding this tomato red dumpster as a backdrop was just good luck. Beau and I both zeroed in on it as soon as we saw it.

But, really, this outfit was about the shoes. I mean, come on, just look at them! Crip fashion sometimes can rule.