Thursday, June 9, 2011

Strong women

I was on the street near work waiting for the streetcar watching a group that came out of a restaurant nearby.  They were in good spirits, all dressed up and appeared to have been celebrating, perhaps the graduation of one of the young women with them.  They appeared to be African or African Canadian; the men were in dark business suits, the young women typical twenty somethings in black, dark blue and grey short dresses. 

But the 'mothers' were definitely not in regular downtown fashion!! These two women just fascinated me.  I wished I had a camera and enough nerve to tell them how strong and beautiful they looked and ask for a photo.  One wore a bright pink outfit - top and long skirt, the other was in a strong blue print dress, also to the ground.  The dresses showed off their figures without being vulgar.  They had the ample figures that african women aspire to - not at all obese, and they had a strong presence, a regal appearance. And they both had the most amazing head wear, bright folded fabric wrapped around their heads, standing up in folds like an uneven fan.  The colour and pattern didn't match their dresses, but it was loud and colourful and went with the effect.

I found this video that has the idea of these head wraps, called gele, although the ones I saw were not as piled high and had more refinement in the folds.  Day wear perhaps instead of wedding wear.


These women didn't worry about gaining a few pounds, or going with dark colours over a certain age to blend in or look slim.   It was wonderful to see.

Saturday, June 4, 2011

jeans


Twelve pairs of jeans.  This picture was taken a while ago and I am happy to report that I don't have this many right now.  You will notice that most of these are not skinny.  I only have two pairs of skinny jeans, a dark wash and a green/grey pair.  

I almost bought another skinny pair yesterday.  My friend in the business says that skinny is on the way out - by next spring it will be wider leg jeans again.   So I don't need to buy more now, I'm already too late!

I remember a time in my twenties when I'd buy a pair of jeans, carefully allowing for the shrinkage factor, and wear them until they almost fell apart.  Now I need a different pair of jeans for every occasion!

Thursday, June 2, 2011

in the garden

My allium is blooming, I wanted to get a picture and I almost missed them. 
You can see the seeds starting in the centre of the florets.

They started from one that was in the soil around a rose bush I was given. 
The rose sadly died, but these are doing well and increasing.


My geraniums are starting to flower too.

And we have Millie enjoying the sun in the cat run.