So … literally what came to my head when I uploaded these pictures. To go with the vibe, I then turned them into black and white and I truly love their outcome!
Let me know below what you think the meaning behind that poem is!
Do you guys even remember me? Remember who I am or my purpose being here? Well if you don’t it is okay, because a lot has changed since I have posted last.
I have been meaning to write this post for a while. I have no clue where to begin. Life happens. Shit changes. We move on.
That pretty much sums up my 2019 so far.
Life update: I am still doing my same job, environmental consultant, just with a different company. I have moved a few times to different apartments, but I am still technically in the Ottawa area. I have fallen out of relationships, gone through some pretty crazy ones, and have began new ones with new people. One thing I have learned is to not let anyone stunt your growth as a person; same goes for aspirations. I have learned to surround myself with people that will lift me up rather than drag me down and tie up my wings. (FYI if you ever want to fly, you need those wings to spread)
I am still young I know, however I am gradually getting older (this is a fact that most of us like to ignore). Still being in the faze of my life that I am (aka not knowing what the heck I am doing) its slightly scary. Although, I have realized that it does not need to be as scary as it seems when you learn to care less about other peoples judgement. I am just doing my own thing, getting by in life while I try to figure out my end goals.
Now I have yet to come to a conclusion yet about what those end goals are, but I am attempting to piece together little goals regarding the bigger final picture. Maybe one day I will figure all these pieces out and share my strategy with you. Until then though, I will keep writing aimless blogs about my life and weird adventures I go on.
Oh and on another note, you will all be very excited about this – or at least should be, I am now a mother! I know I know you probably were not expecting this, but I am the proud mother of a puppy. She is one of the best decisions I have ever made in life. I am not going to give too much away about her right now because that will be the next post, so you will have to stay tuned!
That is all the word vomit I have for you at the moment. Please leave comments below letting me know how you guys have been. I want to know what is new with you and if anything exciting has happened!
Well, October felt like it came and left in a flash. I actually cannot believe we are already nearing the end of 2018. It feels like just yesterday I was posting my 2018 new years resolutions haha definitely wasn’t yesterday!
October was not nearly as exciting for me as September was. No big events happened and I didn’t try anything too new. School has been getting busier and the assignments are taking longer to complete. A new class actually just started this past week, so that adds even more work to my load (don’t worry it was not a surprise haha we all knew it started half way through the semester). This new class sounds like it could be interesting though, it is based around entrepreneurship, which is something I have always toyed with the idea of. The teacher is a very motivational speaker too – I will keep you updated on whether it turns out to be good or not!
Throughout this semester so far I have realized a few things about myself though. I am not an extremely terrible drawer, just mediocre at best haha and I do not enjoy it what so ever. I would rather be doing data entry then drawing and shading – but you know, now I know! You live and you learn. I have found some of my strengths and also been tested with other areas too.
October brought great fall activities that I haven’t been able to enjoy before though. We had beautiful weather for quite a bit of it and then we crept into the cool and crisp fall weather, which I love. It has rained a lot recently, but we also did get our first snowfall (which is now melted). I did many fall activities and I have realized that visiting a haunted house where the lines are massive is not my idea of a super enjoyable night haha although I am extremely happy we went because it brought me back to the good ol’ days of dating. I felt like we were back in high school – and the hot chocolate at the end to warm me up was the cherry on top of the cake. In October I made my own pumpkin seeds for the first time though and I must say it was quite exciting and delicious!
Anyways to conclude my thoughts, October is over and now we are in November. Not sure how exciting it will be, but I did get my first Christmas ornament of the season today at Costco so that is pretty sweet if I do say so myself.
How was your October? What was your highlight of the month – mine was taking pictures of the pretty fall leaves before they fell onto the ground where they are now!
If you didn’t know I had a facebook page where I share pictures and links to my blog anytime I a new post goes up! You can click the link to like and follow the page if you want! 🙂 https://www.facebook.com/phoenixraayphotography/
You can also follow this blog by going to the home page and clicking the 3 dots in the top corner and hitting follow!
Here is my picture of the week!
So this weeks picture is not one I have recently taken. It is actually from last fall when in lived in Calgary, AB! I have been very busy lately and haven’t had much time to get out to take new pictures; also, the pretty leaves of fall are almost all gone! The prime fall time leaf pictures have left and now it all just looks barren. Its getting me excited for frost pictures and then snow!
I hope you enjoy this flash back to Calgary and its beautiful fall season. I miss the views you could see of the city!
Is fall almost over where you live or are the beautiful colourful leaves still out?
If you didn’t know I had a facebook page where I share pictures and links to my blog anytime I a new post goes up! You can click the link to like and follow the page if you want! 🙂 https://www.facebook.com/phoenixraayphotography/
You can also follow this blog by going to the home page and clicking the 3 dots in the top corner and hitting follow!
Todays post is mostly based around the pictures you’ll see! Fall is quickly coming to an end here in Canada so I have been snooping around everywhere in Ottawa to try and find the best fall pictures.
Ontario has beautiful fall colours:
* Red
*Orange
*Yellow
The places I have found to be stunning my first autumn in Ottawa, ON are:
*Major’s Hill Park
*Hog’s Back Park
*Mer Bleue Conservation Area
Out of those three I feel like Hog’s Back has been my favourite. I think I have gone back three times just to play around with my camera settings – its so relaxing to me. I completely lose track of time.
Two things I love are being submerged in nature and taking pictures. I find fall weather is the perfect time to do these two things. Its not too hot or cold yet and the colours are so vibrant. Like yes don’t get me wrong I love the vibrant greens in the summer, but there is just something about the beautiful fall colours that grabs my attention.
I kind of blame my mom for my love of fall colours. She always talks about mustard yellow and burgundy, which are now probably two of my favourite colours to find in nature as well as wear! haha But one of my favourite colours that will never change is a beautiful teal blue 🙂
Anyways, enough talk about colours haha just enjoy the pictures!
The leaves are quickly falling off the trees here. Soon we will be left with large brown twigs until the beautiful blanket of snow covers everything. I wish fall lasted longer – always have. However, we hit our first morning of below zero weather today and I would be lying if I said it didn’t get me thinking about Christmas already! I know I know, too soon!!
Do you have vibrant fall colours where you live? Let me know in the comments below! 🙂
Do your social media pages portray your real life … because I know mine sure don’t.
Everything looks perfect from the outsiders perspective, which can be harmful especially to the younger generation being raised in this social media craze. Now by no means am I saying that I am old, but I did grow up without a cell phone and I was only allowed to use our large desktop computer for my Garfield typing game – oh and thanks to that game and my mom I can type pretty darn good.
I feel like not enough people, including myself, share what is really going on in their lives. We don’t need to share it all, but I feel like we should be able to post some of the harder times and difficult things we overcome without feeling like we are going to be judged by everyone saying that we are just “seeking attention”.
This post came to my mind as I was scrolling through the photos of my best friends wedding that took place this past weekend. In all of the pictures I look relatively happy – even the ones of me with tears in my eyes are happy tears and you can tell that just from the picture. However, a picture I do not have is one of my having an anxiety attack in front of everyone before giving my speech.
Being in the bridal party, you normally sit in a long table at the front of everyone else for dinner. In our case we were actually elevated on a stage, which was decorated beautifully. As soon as I sat down I could not eat. I kept trying too because I did not want to be rude, but I had to stop because if I took one more bite I would throw up. Literally blow salmon chunks on the bride … yup.
I could not control myself and I began bawling with massive tear drops – I kid you not they were the size of large rain drops falling from my eyes. I could not hear anything my best friend was saying to me, nor the bridesmaid to my other side. Life was a blur in that moment and all I could think about was trying to breath. I remember saying to my best friend “Do not follow me to the bathroom, I don’t want to puke on your pretty dress”. I have no clue who was looking at me or what they were thinking. I felt as if I had blacked out; I am surprised I made it down the stairs.
Once I got to the bathroom it took me a while to collect myself – well at least I think it did I can’t remember. When I came out my boyfriend was there because he has seen my anxiety attack face before and knew what was happening. I felt so stupid at the time because I literally could not do anything to stop it and it was all because of a speech I had to say. Not even that I had to say it because she told me I didn’t have to, but I wanted too.
Even afterwards as I was saying the speech tears were welling up in my eyes and my throat was catching. Did everyone there know I was coming down from an attack? No. Is it something I shared with everyone? No.
Why? Because I felt embarrassed.
We should not have to feel embarrassed about things we go through no matter how stupid they may seem to someone who doesn’t understand them. I feel like if we share more about our struggles we can help spread awareness about what someone may be going through and not be so quick to judge.
Anyways, the point of this little post was to say don’t believe everything that you see. If you look at my social media pages I look happy, but behind some smiles there is another side that the viewer does not see. I am sure there are some exceptions, however I feel like most peoples social media is a highlight reel.
Well, these are my late night thoughts for you all today. I should be in bed right now, but I couldn’t help but write. I hope this post enlightened you about the struggles of some and hopefully you can feel like you know more about me. I love connecting with my little family on here. This is not a pity post by any means, just something that has been on my mind for a while that I felt like is very necessary to share in this ever technology consuming world we now live in ❤
September was a crazy month for me! It began in Massey, Ontario while I was on vacation visiting family. Probably one of the best ways for a month to start! haha Relaxing before the craziness that September was.
As you may or may not know, I went back to school this fall. I registered in a completely different program than I am use to taking. It was, and still is, a scary thing to do but I have survived so far! Science is what I am used too, I have a degree in Environmental Science and what I am taking now is a Design Studies Certificate, which is an Arts program! From my experience so far, I am not sure if it is so much that the art world is extremely different from science or if its College that is so different from University. I think I will have a future post on my views of College vs University. I feel like everyone should understand this difference and the benefits of each before choosing where to attend!
So with being back at school after a year off and still working a part time job with doing homework as well, you can say I am as busy as a bee! Its a lot of work but I am actually loving it. I have always loved the world of design and this design studies certificate is really opening my eyes to all the possibilities that are out there for possible future careers. A lot of people think wow why would you ever take this schooling when you already have a science degree? My answer: because you need a well rounded perspective in life to succeed. Having the knowledge in science, but also being able to understand the creative process is something I wish everyone had the chance to learn.
Anyways, enough with the rant. I also began trying new gym classes in September. I went to my first ever pilates class – me and a bunch of older people. To be honest I thought there would be more people my age there! haha Even the beginner pilates class was decently challenging. I also continued to do my hot yoga practices – something I need to put more time into it is just hard with a busy schedule to fit a gym class in at a certain time, but that is no excuse!
The last thing in September that made my month oh so busy was my best friends wedding! I was her maid of honour and man was it a busy time – I couldn’t even imagine how busy she was. Even though weddings take up a lot of time, are expensive, and stressful – I would not have changed anything. The bride was stunning on her special day and her husband was a mazing at the ceremony. I wish them all the best! Now they are in Vegas! Can you say jealous? haha
The beautiful bride and her amazing husband!
The bridesmaids -such a great group of gals!
My dad who was the behind the scenes photographer with his iphone! haha He did a pretty good job!
The beautiful bride seconds before she walked down the isle!
The beautiful bride and I after I bawled my eyes out after saying my maid of honour speech!
Not to worry folks – these are already posted all over social media haha I cannot wait to see the professional ones! We were outside in 0 degrees Celcius for hours taking pictures in these dresses and open toe shoes!
So Alberta has already gotten snow a few times however nothing has really stuck on the ground. To be honest I am happy that we haven’t gotten any in Ontario yet! I am ready for fall, but not snow!
Ill update you guys again on how my October month goes if you’d like. I know school is getting busier – the projects are larger and more time consuming every week and now we have extra events to go to as well as a field trip to a museum in Montreal! I also have so many fall activities I want to do too! There is never enough time.
How was your September month? Did you have any big events that happened? Let me know in the comments below 🙂
If you didn’t know I had a facebook page where I share pictures and links to my blog anytime I a new post goes up! You can click the link to like and follow the page if you want! 🙂 https://www.facebook.com/phoenixraayphotography/
You can also follow this blog by going to the home page and clicking the 3 dots in the top corner and hitting follow!
Here is my picture of the week!
If you have been following me for a bit now you know I recently moved to Ottawa! This was one of the views I have seen parliament from when I got lost trying to find a walking trail. Have you ever seen the parliament buildings in Ottawa, ON?
Todays post was inspired by pictures I took at the mer Bleue Bog (click here to see the post). This blog is a place where I mostly share pictures and stories to go along with it, but sometimes I have to throw a few thoughts and more educational posts out there.
“Hanging on by a thread”
Bees are amazing. We need them to survive. Have you ever thought about that? Without bees we would be non-existent. Yet, still people think that with all of our fancy technology we are untouchable – wrong.
Bees are the #1 most important pollinator we have on this planet. Honey bees to be exact. One third of your daily food consumed (if you eat fresh produce … which I hope you do) is pollinated! Now I am not trying to say that only bees do this work because there are others like birds, bats, butterflies, etc. but they are #1.
“The gold metal goes to the bees!”
Honey bees don’t only play a roll in pollinating our food, but also the food for cattle, as well as items such as cotton! They have an amazing work ethic and we could actually learn a lesson or two from them!
They give us amazing natural beauty and feed us, however we are still damaging their environment day in and day out. Not even thinking twice that if we cause too much damage, we can say good bye to them – our main source of pollination.
Over the past 50 years, the bee population has been declining because we are ruining their ecosystem, which is their only way to eat. Surprise – they don’t do this pollination work just for us. However, the human population keeps growing and consuming more therefore we have more crops that need pollination. Funny how that works eh?
Another thing to consider is that there are so many pesticides used now, all of these bees are carrying contaminated pollen. These poor bees are intaking pesticides with their food, which is very sad and hopefully pulls at your heart strings a bit. But oh wait? What does that mean for us? If the pollen they are carrying is contaminated with pesticides guess what the food you’re eating is contaminated with? I will let you figure it out.
For decades and decades now we have known that all these harsh chemicals we have introduced and use in our daily life is harming the environment, yet most people do not think twice about it. Now we 100% know that these chemicals are in our food as well and most people still don’t blink an eye. Insecticides used on crops that these bees go to for food pollute their little bodies and cause premature death. Do you want to eat high doses of neurotoxins? Probably not and neither do the bees.
So, what can you as an individual do to help?
Plant bee friendly flowers and keep them clean! This is an easy and safe way for our bee friends to get the food they need without the chemicals. If you volunteer at a local community garden bed, see if they will let you plant some of these flowers and not spray them with pesticides.
It may seem like something small, because it is, but if everyone would plant some of these in their yard or in a pot on your porch it will make a difference. Keeping them free of pesticides is a huge factor as well. If you are feeling a bit frisky too, try to not use any chemicals on your yards at all! Let me know how it goes!
I know this was a pretty long winded rant about how important bees are and kind of hinting at the stupidity of humans, but if you enjoyed it please give it a like and a share. We need to raise awareness about issues such as our cute bee friends. Leave me a comment too letting me know if you plant flowers already or if you think you will give it a try when summer rolls around again! Thanks for listening 🙂
