Sempervivum

Flickr provides a cool geotagging function that allows you to plot each image precisely on a map. I have been slowly charting most of the 1,500 images I've uploaded to the site in the past three years. Unfortunately the public view only reveals the locations of 25 images at a time, but in edit mode I can see them all. This reveals an interesting pattern, especially around Kingsmill Avenue and Eramosa River Park. Large collections show up around favourite spots, like a little garden in the boulevard down the block. It features creeping thymes and Sempervivums. I like the way morning light falls across their delicate and contrasting foliage.

S. arachnoideum is blooming just now, same time as other years. The flowers are complete, containing both sexual organs: carpels and stamens. Comparing photos, I observe how these parts appear to fold out of the centre.

I finished unpacking and sorting the mess in the office over the weekend, and spent more than an hour yesterday morning vacuuming filthy corners I haven't reached for years. It becomes a functional and beautiful work space again. I started drawing for the first time in almost two years, taking inspiration from the Sempervivum, which means ever-living.

I've never seen mosquitoes so bad along the Eramosa River, but then I've never been in the habit of walking at 7 a.m. before. This morning a breeze made it possible to stop and stand quietly by the pond for a few moments, but back in the woods there's a cloud. Yesterday I didn't go to the river at all, but found a hole in the fence into an abandoned industrial compound nearby. I've always wondered about that place, now I can begin to document it in photographs.