I recently came across this picture I took in 2011 from the millennium bridge in London looking towards St. Paul’s Cathedral. It immediately brought me back to that morning and that miserable week. It was August 20th, the day after my Dad had died thousands of miles away, in Vancouver, Canada. My Dad got...
Author: Vivian Lee (Vivian Lee)
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Confessions of a lazy gardener
This started out as a gardening blog many years ago, back when Apple had a platform for creating blogs. It was super simple and I loved it, but eventually they stopped supporting it altogether so I had to find another way to continue my blog, so I got a WordPress account and after much trial...
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Snapshots
On my daily walks I find it comforting to move through the world as part of that demimonde of people who are free for some reason at 10 a.m. on a Thursday. These people are walking dogs, drinking coffee outside coffee shops, chatting on park benches with friends, power-walking (while no doubt listening to NPR...
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Waking up, A la Proust
I’m finding Proust fascinating, but I can only read about 10-20 pages at a time before my brain gets tired. I’m really enjoying the little ritual I started of reading Swann’s Way in the mornings with my coffee. I have my phone’s dictionary open plus a notebook at my side to jot down notes,...
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Penguono—Complete!
I’m almost at the finish line of my Penguono sweater by Stephen West. It’s been quite an adventure and I’m happy with it. I don’t think this pattern would suit everyone, with its crazy colours, but it was a very enjoyable project. I was happy I was making a dent (albeit a small one) in...
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Marcel’s Way
“…our social personality is a creation of the thoughts of other people.” Discuss. I’ve been delving into Swann’s Way, the first book of In Search of Lost Time, by Marcel Proust and I read that phrase on page 23. It made me pause, partly because I’ve definitely heard it quoted before, but also because it...
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Getting back to reading
I’ve been thinking a lot about getting back into reading, for real. See, here’s the thing. I adored reading as a child and adolescent; it was a wonderful escape, worlds to explore without leaving my couch, and it was the best therapy. However, now that there’s the easy internet, I tend to spend my “waste”...
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Mourning Roe v Wade
It’s one of those hot summer days that discourages a person from doing outside activities. It’s not blistering on the scale of the heat wave currently going on in Europe, but it’s still a bit hot and I don’t tolerate heat well. Still, I went for a walk and did some gardening. I then spent...
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Knitting down the Stash
I’ve been worried, on a subtle level, about working down my stash of yarn lately. Partly this is the result of aging and thinking, will I have enough time to use all this in my lifetime? The only way to reassure myself that it hasn’t gotten WAY out of control, is to choose projects that...
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Too much time to ponder
Since retiring last August, I’ve had a lot more time to think, and what I end up thinking a lot about is death. If this hits too close to home, or you’re not in the mood to hear about this subject, please feel free to move on. I will try not to make this an...