Canada!

Have you heard of Value Village, the Canadian chain of thrift stores? Nothing like it exists in the New York area (that I can find). Organized, huge, and cheap! Even though we were only in Toronto for ten hours this weekend, we spent two hours at VV.

Check out my treasures!

Hand-embroidered white cotton napkins:





Linen napkins with maroon stripe:



Yaller stripe napkins:



Seersucker tablecloth!



Pierre Cardin placemats!





Whoa!

Some wool yarn:



(For a minute I was actually like, "Hey, cool! Yarn from emu wool!" Errrr. . .)

Vintage wrapping paper (my weakness):



And . . . one of these tube knitting dealios (which I had totally been wanting!):



Sigh. So so so happy.

It ain't for nuthin' that Canada's my home and native land.

Canada long weekend!

Bye everyone!

Found on trash night!

In my neighborhood, by visiting Canadians:

Awesome old-school awning-striped canvas-n-wood hammock!



Totally worth hauling home just for the fabric!

And . . .



A light box!

You dudes got so lucky!

Turkey in the straw, ha ha ha

Pillow in the tree, hee hee hee?

Whoa!

Shake-up in the ice cream world.



Dang!!!!!

Salad bar fridge update!

Sold! (Or no longer for sale.)

Sutton Street graffiti cleanup

Geometric.



When they chose the color at the paint store, did they think it matched the blue on the wall?

Next time bring a paint chip!

The French

They are not like you and me.



Somehow brushing their teeth involves email?

McCarron Park mushrooms

Icky on several levels.

Kitty hobo friend!

Haunting the concrete jungle.



Eating lunch from a billy can.



Missing part of an ear. Wearing dirty socks.



Sponge bath.

Then—moving on. Meow, bye!

The most beautiful breakfast ever photographed?

And with friends, to boot!



On a related note, I would like to mention that I love grits! But do you understand the enigma they presented to a girl growing up in Atlantic Canada? They came up now and again in books I was reading, and I imagined them as something sort of "gritty," dry and fried. The truth came as a pleasant surprise!

Note the godly light illuminating them, above. God loves grits too!

Inexplicable

It seems that when I wasn't paying attention, something took a big bite out of my shoe.





LIFE IS SO FULL OF MYSTERIES!

Graham Ave. emergency phone—repaired!

Let's start at the bottom, shall we?



Up.



Muchos duct tape.



And . . . more duct tape.



Made it to the phone line!

Yay, municipal infrastructure!

Williamsburg weirdness

Why bother with spray paint when you can just screw the stencil into a tree?



Also: projectile dog defecation!

Salad bar fridge 4 sale:



I guess the mini-tellers inside the ATM kept their lunches in it?

Hmm.

Found!

A shirt for Greg, stuck on the fence across the street.



Fifty-fifty odds he likes it, I'd say.

UPDATE: It's too big, anyway. Stuck it back on the fence.

New ring!

I am psyched because I never buy jewelry for myself!

I like.

New York

Hole in ground.



Put garbage innit!



It seems to be instinctive around here.

New scarf!

Bought today at a store on North 6th Street in Williamsburg.



The most wonderful crisp cotton.

Constant companion

You are lost.



I have accepted it.

Good-bye, Ubiquitous Scarf!

Summer memories

Greg and yours truly, at Knapp Lake last summer.

One month until we are there again.

EEEeeeeeeeeeeeeEEeeeee-e-e-e-e-eeee!

This man is living my dream.

(Thanks Ron!)

Exciting!

Yes!



I no longer need to select my own assortment of binder clips.

You got yer small, yer medium, and yer large, in one convenient package.



Time saving.

Trash pile mystery

Everyone knows that that's the best kind of mystery.

Look—the tenth-floor trash pile, at work (yes, we recycle):



The mystery:



Huh?

WHAT is this for? Someone went to a lot of trouble with this, measuring, then cutting the holes exactly the same size (it seems?), then numbering them, first by twos, then by ones.



And who is this mysterious Edoardo Laudi?

I suspect this has something to do with art conservation . . . but what??!

Huh

Welcome to my blog, peoples of the world.



This shows the origins of my last 500 visitors.

Hmm. I see I need to improve my outreach in Eurasia, Africa, and the polar continents.

Northern habitat

You may recall our trip south to visit the Sciuridae of Mexico (so called because they are always sciurrying around everywhere).

Today we will meet their cousins in Ontario cottage country.



Note: Small. Cute. White bellies.



Habitat very rich in food.



My correspondent Adrienne tells me the bark on this tree, in the background (above), has been "softened" by years of little claws scampering up and down it.



Hiding loot in tree stump.

In the stump, buried peanuts, shelled and unshelled:



Fascinating!

Thanks Adrienne!!

Found!

Took these from a trash can to stake my tomatoes.



Am I a weirdo?

Alice Neel

There are many things to like about her work, but today I was really digging her attention to clothing.

Look at this:









You can tell exactly what those clothes are like.

Air-mail Writing Tablet

Update!

Here are the first four pages:









He's a good artist is Greg.