Widow's Endorphins: Cuddling Up With Cannabis this Christmas

Widow's Endorphins: Cuddling Up With Cannabis this Christmas: Canadians spent nearly one billion dollars on non-medicinal marijuana since it was legalized in April of this year.  Statistics Canada...

Cuddling Up With Cannabis this Christmas

Canadians spent nearly one billion dollars on non-medicinal marijuana since it was legalized in April of this year.  Statistics Canada released figures this week, showing those who live in Santa's homeland spent $907.8 million on legal cannabis.

You don't have to smoke it, to enjoy it...

This Christmas, cuddle up with cannabis leaf inspired peignoirs, in oh-so-soft peachskin jersey fabric.  I photographed marijuana plants which were thriving in Woodstock, Ontario's August heat.  Talented "elves" in Montreal print, and sew up my designs.

Peignoirs are no longer worn only in the bedroom,  They're streetwear now!  They're smokin' hot, when paired with jeans or leggings and a tank top or t-shirt.  I have travelled back and forth, across the country with them, and even if I look slightly bedraggled, they arrive wrinkle free.  They're easy care, too!  Just machine wash in cold water.

Tamu and Zia, the Stolbie Sisters, the Vancouver-based trailblazing cannabis industry entrepreneurs, I call my cousins, sell my canna creations on-line.  Grow your own "weed wardrobe".  For every item sold, my design collaborators also plant a tree in BC!  Oh, Christmas tree!

Here's the link to their on-line shop:  StolbieBrand.com


Canna Leaf photograph copyright of:  Ruth Adams, Widow's Endorphins Photographic Images Inc.

Widow's Endorphins: Moving Heaven and Earth

Widow's Endorphins: Moving Heaven and Earth: It's heaven on earth...and I moved heaven and earth to get here!  After nearly three decades of living in Eastern Canada, I arri...

Moving Heaven and Earth

It's heaven on earth...and I moved heaven and earth to get here!  After nearly three decades of living in Eastern Canada, I arrived in my hometown of Vancouver on a rainy Sunday morning.  The city is beautiful in the rain, and spectacular when the clouds lift, to reveal the majestic mountains.  I cry tears of joy every day, just taking in the splendor of this city by the sea.  I am blessed!

Nearly thirty years of yearning to be back on the Westcoast, did not get me here.  I've learned from very caring friends, that yearning and desire won't move heaven and earth the way declared intention and action will.  It's not enough to talk about it, you need to do something about it, and set a "by when" date.  

I left most of the furniture back in Toronto, bringing only those things which meant the most to me. Unpacking the Remington bronze statues, Indigenous art, my small collection of Madonnas, a silver tea set, and two sets of china, was exciting and nerve wracking.  I worried about breakage.  The contents of one box - a crystal water pitcher, my favourite handpainted blue serving bowl, a teacup and a saucer were completely destroyed.  While I was heartsick, they were things, not people.  Things can be replaced.  

Many of my friends have wished me well in this new chapter in my life.  I had a realization that, my return to Vancouver is more than a new chapter in my life, it is a new book - a sequel to all that has come before - and I am writing it! 

Photographs Copyright of:  Ruth Adams, Widow's Endorphins Photographic Images Incorporated.

Widow's Endorphins: Lassie, Come Home

Widow's Endorphins: Lassie, Come Home: I took myself for a long walk around the old neighbourhood...a farewell tour.  I'm moving next month.  After nearly a quarter cen...

Lassie, Come Home

I took myself for a long walk around the old neighbourhood...a farewell tour.  I'm moving next month.  After nearly a quarter century in Toronto, I am moving back home, to Vancouver!  Of course, Toronto has never looked more beautiful than it did on this magnificent Autumn day. 

I stopped outside a church on Yonge Street, and photographed the beautiful, delicate colours of the garden.  Pink and mauve are not thought to be Autumn colours...and yet, here they are in all their glory...

The Chrysanthemums weren't the only colourful Fall plants in the garden.  Ornamental Cabbage and Kale were also putting on a show.  They look similar, however, the floral cabbage has smooth leaves, while the kale has frilly leaves (now you know).  

They look good enough to eat.  Just don't.  They're disappointingly bitter.  It's better to buy or grow the edible varieties of cabbage and kale, and leave the ornamental ones as a feast for the eyes.

Lavender is still growing in the late October garden.  It looks amazing standing tall alongside a blazing red shrub.  The shrub is called, Burning Bush.  The gardener who planted it in front of the church, must have had a chuckle.

On my way back, I passed a beautiful Sheltie, quietly waiting outside a grocery store near the busy intersection of Yonge and St. Clair.  I stopped in mid step, turned, and walked back to ask the woman holding his leash, if I could photograph him.

You can do that in Toronto...approach a stranger to ask a question, or in my case, a favour.  Toronto may be bitterly cold, but the people of this city are warm and friendly.  I'll miss them.

The call to Vancouver is strong...it's saying, "Lassie, come home!"

 

Alas, Lassie was a Collie, not a Sheltie.  This beautiful dog is smaller than a Collie, standing about 14 to 16 inches from shoulder to ground, and is, according to a friend who used to raise and show them, a fine Sheltie.  Collies are much bigger.  I took a little poetic license!  Even more so, when you consider that I am the lass, in Lassie come home!  

Photographs Copyright of:  Ruth Adams, Widow's Endorphins Photographic Images Inc.

Widow's Endorphins: Giving Thanks for Friends and Family

Widow's Endorphins: Giving Thanks for Friends and Family: I can still see the sunlight pouring into the large hospice room at Toronto's Princess Margaret Hospital, and hear the music of Q...

Giving Thanks for Friends and Family

I can still see the sunlight pouring into the large hospice room at Toronto's Princess Margaret Hospital, and hear the music of Quebec icon Felix Leclerc playing softly.  Five years ago today, I was alone in that room, as my husband quietly drew his last breath.  

In the days, weeks, months and years which have followed, I have never been alone.  I have been blessed with loving, kind and thoughtful friends and family members - old and new - who, no matter where in the world they live, are there for me, offering their guidance, encouragement, support, hugs and humour!   

It is the beginning of Canadian Thanksgiving weekend, and I am deeply grateful for the people in my life.  Each of you, in your own special way, makes a difference in my life.  I love you all. 

Photographs Copyright of:  Ruth Adams, Widow's Endorphins Photographic Images Incorporated. 

Widow's Endorphins: Dried Up and Refreshed

Widow's Endorphins: Dried Up and Refreshed: True confession:  I have bags of this stuff.  Dried rose petals.  Decades of decayed roses.  Take a good, long look because they&#...

Dried Up and Refreshed

True confession:  I have bags of this stuff.  Dried rose petals.  Decades of decayed roses.  Take a good, long look because they're going into the garbage.   My sentimentality regained it's sanity, when I realized that I no longer remembered which dried rose petals came from which bouquet, or why I'd preserved them in the first place.  Which birthday was this from?  Who gave me these?  Was this from Christmas, or Valentine's Day?  Did I grow this rose on my balcony? 

Their colours have faded over time, and my sentimental petals have lost their scent.  Their time is up.  It's not as if they haven't been useful.  I've scattered the petals across dining tables, sprinkled them with essential oils, and even used them in photo shoots -  quelle surprise! 

 

While scattered rose petals herald the arrival of a bride down the aisle, these dried petals will be unceremoniously dumped into the disposal bin of my building.  I feel no remorse.

It is the memories of happy times, not the keepsakes which are important.  I am keeping that in mind, as I declutter my home.  Change is coming, and I am embracing change! 

Photographs Copyright of:  Ruth Adams, Widow's Endorphins Photographic Images Incorporated.

Widow's Endorphins: I Heard It Through the Grapevine

Widow's Endorphins: I Heard It Through the Grapevine: I heard it through the grapevine that 5.13 Billion people have mobile devices.  That's more than 66% of the world's populati...

I Heard It Through the Grapevine

I heard it through the grapevine that 5.13 Billion people have mobile devices.  That's more than 66% of the world's population!  The numbers come from the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSMA), and they should know, because they represent mobile network operators around the world.  

Most of us can't part with our mobile phones.  We grip them tightly, like we're carrying our brains in our hands.  Then, we stumble, and the phone does Cirque du Soleil style somersaults through the air, before crashing to the ground.  Dropping a phone could result in anything from loss of the mute button, to poor quality reception for the rest of the phone's life.  I've been having fun this week, designing mobile phone "crash helmets" to protect the brains of your constant companion.  

 I Heard it Through the Grapevine, is the perfect name for the phone cover above.  The grape leaves, and tiny blue Champagne grapes were growing along a rain-dampened fence, not far from my Toronto home.  Every colourful, and beautifully patterned grape leaf is unique!  

Hope the phone cover helps your phone last even a tenth as long as Marvin Gaye's Motown classic.  It was recorded in the Winter of '67, and released in '68 - which is over half a century ago.  Never get tired of it!  

I love the image of the metal ivy vines intertwined with the sturdy living wisteria vines, their weathered branches becoming one with the manmade structure.  As a phone cover, Interwoven speaks to our interwoven relationships, whether in our contact lists, or on Facebook - where many of us discover how many of our friends already know one another. 

The image also reminds me of family trees, and the bringing together of two very different families, to form one.  The most tight knit families I know of, call one another every day.  Every.  Single.  Day.  When was the last time you called your Mum, or Mother-in-Law, to in the words of Stevie Wonder, say, I Just Called to Say I Love You? 

Don't forget that other leaf...cannabis leaves are often overlooked in the world of fashion.  I love their graphic, elongated lines.  I've had fun altering their colours on the computer, such as this in image, Tropi-Canna Mint and Plum...

Maybe it's the British Columbian in me - I just love totem poles and telephone poles!  They are as much a part of the BC landscape as the mountains and sea.  When I returned to the Westcoast last July, after nearly three decades in Eastern Canada, the iconic telephone poles were still standing along older neighbourhood streets, and back alleys, and hugging the blackberry brambles of country roads and ditches.  ELO's Telephone Line, gets me every time, and I'm listening to it, as I type.  

Totem poles are found in public gathering places throughout BC.  Waiting for an early morning sailing to Nanaimo's Departure Bay, on Vancouver Island, I photographed a small portion of the late Tony Hunt's Kwakiutl Bear Pole, guarding the BC Ferry Terminal, at Horseshoe Bay, in West Vancouver.  The tall, weather-worn totem was carved from Western Red Cedar, and was one of 19 totems commissioned for the BC Centennial in 1966.  Not having had my first cup of coffee, it was as if I was looking in the mirror.     

Nothing takes the industrial edge off tech devices, like cover images of pink ruffled cherry blossoms and peonies.  There's something eternally sunny about these flowers, which brighten up rainy, or snow drift days.  In order of appearance:  Japanese Cherry Blossoms Blue Sky,  Cherry Blossom Branches, Wedding White Cherry Blossoms, and Cherry Blossom Impressions. 

Peonies are one of my favourite flowers to photograph.  They're fullsome blossoms with layers of ruffled petals, casting shadows throughout.  There's so much movement in the light and shadow!  These peony phone covers speak softly of everlasting beauty, romance and drama...maybe they scream just a little...Blondie's Call Me, meets the Big Bopper's Chantilly Lace!  In order of appearance:  Honey Peonies, Peony Drama, and Peonies and Ice Cream.

Being a floral photographer in Toronto has its disadvantages...nothing grows during the months of snow and ice.  It's never stopped me from taking pictures of flowers!  Supermarket flowers have been a source of beauty and inspiration during the dark days of October, November, December, January, February, March, April...and let's face it, even May.  These double carnations were in a plastic bucket at the grocery store, just begging to be "discovered" like a Hollywood starlet.  This phone cover is called, wait for it...Pale Pink Carnations! I tell it like it is.  No excuse not to remember that name.

Jeans and a t-shirt today?  Slip Jeans over your phone for a matching look!  I've always loved the look of faded blue jeans.  They're timeless.  These were photographed in a rural flea market, here in Ontario, and could travel around the world.  Jeans are universal.  The phone covers are slim fit too!

The phone covers are available in more than a dozen styles which cover the shape and layout of iphones and Samsung phones.  They're made of durable Lexan plastic, with embedded print, UV and scratch resistant finish.

To paraphrase Operator, the 1975 hit by the Manhattan Transfer:  Operator...information...how do you order these phone covers?   Just one ringy dingy...  http://bit.do/phonecovers

Widow's Endorphins: Snapdragons

Widow's Endorphins: Snapdragons:   I've loved snapdragons ever since I was a little girl exploring my backyard garden.  These colourful end of Summer flowers are m...

Snapdragons

 

I've loved snapdragons ever since I was a little girl exploring my backyard garden.  These colourful end of Summer flowers are made for children's imaginations and games.  Do you remember pinching the sides of the base of a flower, so that it's mouth would open like a fire breathing dragon?  If you were lucky, you could get a dozen good roars out of single blossom, before it turned limp, and withered in your fingers.  Dragon slayers!

Even big kids love 'em.  When I showed my Brazilian friends why the flowers are called snapdragons, their looks of astonished joy were priceless.  For the next few minutes, these grown men became little boys again.  Priceless! 

The botanical name for snapdragon is Antirrhinum, from the Greek, "anti" for like, and "rhin" for nose.  In other words, they look snout like.  They are believed to have originated in Italy and Spain, and have spread to North Africa, Europe and North America. 

Spread they do...they are a self seeding plant.  Leave them alone in the garden, and they'll come back year after year.  They may not come back in the same original colour.  Many snapdragons are hybrids, and their seeds take on the traits of both "parents".  If you have a red snapdragon, and a white snapdragon, their "offspring" may be pink the following year.  Snapdragons come in every colour, except pure blue. Real dragons come in blue!

    

  

Photographs Copyright of:  Ruth Adams, Widow's Endorphins Photographic Images Incorporated.

Widow's Endorphins: Life Extension 101

Widow's Endorphins: Life Extension 101: I cycled 10 miles in 27 minutes yesterday!  A year ago, I could barely do half that.  I walked into our communal gym, and climbed on...

Life Extension 101

I cycled 10 miles in 27 minutes yesterday!  A year ago, I could barely do half that.  I walked into our communal gym, and climbed onto a stationary bike, pedalling to nowhere, slowly.  I've lost a lot of inhibitions about exercising in public, lost a little weight, and gained a whole lot of energy! 

One of my highschool friends asked if I was training for a marathon, and I said, "yes, the next 40 years of my life!"  I want to live to be over one hundred!  Exercise, a healthy diet, creative expression, being surrounded with great people, and being at peace, are my prescriptions for a long, and authentically happy life. 

I treasure this charming serving bowl, for the happy little bluebirds, cherry blossoms and indigo blue border...Disney in Provence.  More than one guest this Summer, has enjoyed lemon yogurt, with fresh strawberries, raspberries or blueberries served from this cheery bowl.

The deep bowl was handpainted by a Toronto woman when she was in her eighties.  In her lovely handwriting, she signed the year, and her name on the back: Rachel Aronov, 2000.  I would like to think she continued her art for many more years.  The joy she received in painting, would surely have added years to her life.  

Excercise is great...and for me, creative expression is essential.  I often say I would have gone mad without photography, and all my other art projects.  I am not alone.  So many of my friends have found the peace and joy, and energy that comes with creative expression.   Through photography, painting, drawing, carving, making jewelry, singing, playing guitar, playing piano, dancing, writing, cooking, baking, and gardening - my friends and I have found the fountain of youth!  

Photographs Copyright of:  Ruth Adams, Widows Endorphins Photographic Images Incorporated.

Widow's Endorphins: Dahlias

Widow's Endorphins: Dahlias: Dahlias.  You can't say their name without saying, "ah".  Their abundance of petals, circling symetrically around a sunn...

Dahlias

Dahlias.  You can't say their name without saying, "ah".  Their abundance of petals, circling symetrically around a sunny centre, may draw you inward, and, like the mandalas of India, encourage meditation, and thoughts of yoga.  Dahlias, however, are from the New World.  Early in the16th Century, Spanish Conquistadors "discovered" them in Mexico, and brought them back to Spain.

The dahlia is Mexico's national flower.  Painter Frida Kahlo, the daughter of a gentle, German photographer and a Mexican mother is an iconic modern figure, with black braided hair, often decorated with dahlias.  She once said, "I paint flowers so that they will not die", and dahlias are in many of her self portraits and still life paintings.     

Dahlias are part of the Asteraceae family of flowers which includes sunflowers, chrysanthemums, zinnias, and daisies.  Think of the word, astral.  These flowers have a starlike appearance, with rays extending in all directions.  Hardy, and gorgeous, they are stars of the garden.  There are more than 40 varieties of dahlias, ranging in width from two inches, to dinner plate size.  The colours range from cream, to yellow, pale pink, lavender, and fiery salsa red.  Dahlias radiate energy! 

These long lasting flowers are lovely in any arrangement, and work especially well with snapdragons, lilies, and deliphiniums, which bloom at the same time of the year.  Dahlias are showy, and dramatic, although they can be old fashioned and demure, depending on the softness of the colour.  To paraphrase Frida Kahlo, bring dahlias into your home, and make the Summer last longer.     

Portrait of Frida Kahlo Fiery Dahlia of Mexico, by Oksana Gruszka Sanaj
Photographs Copyright of:  Ruth Adams, Widow's Endorphins Photographic Images Incorporated.