Tag Archives: climate

What Water Does

19 April 2013

75 Comments

“If there is magic on this planet, it is contained in water.”
― Loren Eiseley

MosaicSeedhead_LollipopAbove and below: Seedheads covered in ice from freezing rain – the patterns develop as the ice starts to melt away and break up into smaller pieces.

MosaicSeedhead_MeltingFormations
WaterDrop

FrostFeathersFrost flowers develop when it is very cold and the air is quite moist. The ones pictured here formed on thin ice at the edge of the river near open water, on a night when the temperature dipped to -25C.
FrostFlowersMidWinter
FrostLeafAbove: A tiny branch with phantom ‘leaves’ on a cold winter morning.
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Below: A small frost formation on a window. WindowFrostFormations2
ColdBlue8

CandleIce4The Ottawa River shifting through the seasons.
TemporaryInstallation1TemporaryInstallation2
Compositionsinfog3

Rapids1I sometimes find it difficult to shift my visual thinking/creativity away from the winter landscape in the spring. For me it holds a bit of magic like no other season. The key to these transformations is water. From raindrops to snowflakes, to ice and frost, is there anything with more imagination than water?

The landscape is mostly shades of brown now with small bits of green trying to emerge through the damp earth. The river has lost its ice. Most of the photographs here have been posted on these pages before, some even from the previous winter, so I guess this is a bit of a recap (or an ice cap), but together they attempt to illustrate, and to let go of, the season that has just passed.

Also, on Monday April 22nd it will be Earth Day! In 2013 the focus is on climate change and how it is impacting people, creatures and environments the world over. You can learn more (and participate) by going to the Earth Day website. It is our collective voices and actions that make changes.

What are your plans for Earth Day?

SeedheadandDewdrop

GrassandDewdrops

© Karen McRae, 2013

World Water Day

22 March 2013

34 Comments

ADropontheEarth3Today is World Water Day.

“World Water Day is held annually on 22 March as a means of focusing attention on the importance of freshwater and advocating for the sustainable management of freshwater resources.” This quote is from the UNESCO website.

If you have had a chance to see much of this blog you would notice that is 93 percent water and 7 percent dehydrated (I haven’t actually done the math for this but you get the idea).
I suppose it is redundant to say that water is fundamental to existence but… But it is. And there are a thousand reasons why I think about this.

We are all integrally connected – to the earth – to water.

2013 is the International Year of Water Cooperation.

Cooperation. There is always room for more of that, isn’t there? In the spirit of cooperation and World Water Day I’d like to share what I think is an inspiring, alarming and important book – about water. About us.

Ocean of Life by Callum Roberts. If you get a chance to read this, please let me know.

Because this little drop of freshwater here; it might fall into the little creek at my feet, meander out to one river and then to a bigger river, and find its way to the sea. It might end up at your feet.

© Karen McRae, 2013

Gesture

6 September 2012

55 Comments

I love the sound of it, yes. But also what it infers. Gesture. My impression of this word itself, a movement in my mind.
If you look up the meaning, you might turn a page; a thin paper between your fingers and thumb. A whisper as the page rustles from your movement. A small intake of air as you recall the smell of this book that has been on a shelf close to you  for as long as you can remember. You might find that you have stretched this word; made it bigger, filled it with as much meaning as you could get into it. Or, maybe this small word really is that big.

The fleeting gentle moments are the ones that stick in my mind. There is a purity in these moments. The smallest of movements.  Communication. A demonstration of respect.  Intention. Or without intention even.

Perception.

A time-worn beauty in the curved, slouched back of the man waiting to cross the street. A slight shifting in anticipation. One shoulder leaning into a movement that hasn’t quite begun.

The weight in the feet of the crows as they lift off from the side of the road. Draping feet. Briefly left behind. Suspended.

Voices. Blended voices in harmony. Entering the body and filling you for a moment. From one body into another. Pitch perfect. Grace.

An arm held out. Outstretched, the palm open. Fingers slightly bent. Just barely touching a pane of glass.  Hovering. Just barely.

The wind sweeping across the fields. Flattening the grasses. Raising them up. The wind not making up its mind. Shifting the sands. Always shifting.

Fleeting poses. Your arm moving in its own quick gesture to find the lines. To find the light, the dark. A gesture to capture a gesture. Making marks.

These small things, I find they are not small. The people, the landscape they are in, these things are not small.

A single gesture can ripple through them.

© Karen McRae, 2012

Even the River is Thirsty

13 July 2012

62 Comments

Days and days of radiant sun and what seems like weeks of no rain. The grass is brown and crunchy underfoot. Dormant. A wilting heat that makes everything close up on itself. Even the river is thirsty and shrinking away from the shoreline. I am not the only one wandering in the shallow waters.
A mussel roadway is a slow and lovely, meandering build.







A thick scattering of snails and mussel trails in the evening light.


All images © Karen McRae. 2012