In an Ordinary Place

To me, photography is an art of observation. It's about finding something interesting in an ordinary place... I've found it has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them. ~ Elliot Erwitt

Once again, I have an odd collection of items kind of left over on my drive. Some of them are food related (yeah, food leftovers!) and others are just oddities that caught my attention for one reason or another.

Let's start with food - in case you're hungry and are trying to decide what to eat.


This is one of those one minute video recipes you find in Facebook from time to time. When I happen upon one, I usually watch it, think that it sounds good and then promptly forget about it. In this case, I decided to save the page and cook it up. I might have altered the recipe to suit what I had - I definitely left out the cilantro because I'm one of that small percentage of the population who has an aversion to it - that stuff tastes like burnt plastic to me. I kept the avocado out of the cooking process so it would be less mushy. I just added it on top in the end, ground some pepper over it and sprinkled it with fresh lime. Delicious!





More food in the form of fresh eggs from Carol Anne and Michael's chickens which reside in their back yard. I keep all my suitable fresh food scraps for them and in return, I'll get occasional egg offerings.






And they're pretty yummy!






This was a recipe I once got from my favourite namesake over at Crazy as a Loom. Essentially, they're scrambled eggs baked in muffin cups. I have no idea what I've done with that recipe but there are plenty of options available online. They took a little more time and care than standard scrambled eggs do, but they worked out well and were fun to have for company.






Let's have a bit of fun. No scrolling any further now - what do you think this is?






Did you guess? This concludes our breakfast theme for today. Grab that cup of hot coffee and enjoy the rest of the post.






This was a fun little shop in the small town of Maynooth, just north of where I had been living for a couple of years.





I was on a small lakefront beach, south of Bancroft when this Hercules jet made one of its semi-regular, fairly low, thundering flyovers in the summer of 2015.






This is a cell phone capture. I was waiting in my doctor's office a couple of years ago when I noticed these two unrelated information flyers clipped to the wall. I was certain that someone with a sense of humour had placed them together like that intentionally but when I pointed it out to the nurse practitioner, she assured me that she had hung them herself and had never noticed how one seemed to reach into the other. Gotta love the unintentional but amusing placement.


Because of the kind of business he's in, my younger son, Alex meets a lot of performers and he very rarely gets starstruck. He has taken meeting some very big musical names in stride. This past July 1, he excitedly texted me from a Canada Day show he was doing with "I just got Fred Penner's AUTOGRAPH!!" For non-Canadians, the only American children's entertainer to whom I could possible compare Fred Penner is another Fred - Mr. Rogers. They have similar philosophies and concern for kids' self-esteem. Plus, he's a singer and songwriter, actor and author. His CBC morning television show through the 1990s, Fred Penner's Place was must-see TV for my boys. And their dad and I made sure that his music was often played in the car during road trips - even after the kids had nodded off to sleep. Anyway, it was no surprise to me that the wonderful Fred Penner had made such a deep and long-lasting impression on my unflappable, heavy metal-loving son. And my other boy was also pleased and impressed that Alex got to meet him. I can't blame them one bit.

 Anyway, this is where Alex happened to collect his autograph - on the back of his cell phone's Otter Box which he now leaves at home so he won't compromise the signature. Never mind that his phone is now vulnerable - the autograph is safe!






A few years ago, I uploaded a couple of photos of my cats to order my own cosmetic bag design. I use it all the time. This is my dear, departed Skitty on the front and there's an image of Zephyr on the other side. On this day, I had briefly taken off my glasses for some reason and laid them to rest on the zippered bag. It was only when I looked down to reclaim them that I noticed that it appeared as if Skitty boy was wearing them. He was always a very amusing cat and even though he's gone, he still manages to make me laugh. I deeply miss that sweet boy.






I'll close with a photo I took with my phone one day a year ago, when walking around Little Lake with Carol Anne. It was one of those rare times that I didn't have my camera but my phone still came through for me.

Happy New Year to everyone. I hope that 2017 is a great year for one and all!