The Selfie Project – January to March
Here we are: six months mark. It has been a long fun trip this far and now we head out on the next six months. Looking back you can see the weather change, the clothing change, and all the things I do in a day. It actually surprises me how much I get up to. Already I am enjoying my pictures to this point. I just hope I can continue making them interesting.
16 January 2021 – We are keeping the wood burning fireplace in the family room. Heat from wood feels so good and it smells great as well. And if the power is out, we have heat and we can cook. We actually did that once!
20 January 2021 – Since I am doing the chairs Susan felt that I should do the table as well. And, as it turns out, she was right! With the new finish it really shines. We have ended up with a new kitchen table and chairs set.
17 January 2021 – We often walk along the Trans-Canada Trail down to Casiar Street and the 2nd Narrows Bridge. About an 8km round trip walk.
18 January 2021 – To do the table I took the legs off so I could work on them individually.
19 January 2021 – Out for our walk, again. Here I am on the walkway along side Highway 1 as it approaches the Second Narrows (Iron Workers’) Bridge.
22 January 2021 – A little bit of sunshine and I’m in the backyard with my coffee. I never used to miss the sun in winter but since I have been around Susan I have come to love the sun and miss it terribly. I think it is the Italian sun that I miss. Once you have warmed in it you become addicted. It is true!
21 January 2021 – Back to the rain. So me and my coffee are inside just wishing for sunshine.
23 January 2021 – Susan is out for the morning so I am making myself pancakes with bacon. She is always on me about eating healthy so I have to sneak these little snacks in.
24 January 2021 – At last the table and chairs are done. We found a good upholsterer and Susan’s choice of fabric was perfect. It is like having a new set of furniture.
26 January 2021 – Out for a walk with Vi and John around Burnaby Lake. Its a good walk: about 10 K all the way around. Susan (in pink), Vi (in red) and John are in the background.
25 January 2021 – We don’t have room in the house for my camera collection and photo gear so I got myself a self storage locker. It works really well and is close enough to home to be convenient.
27 January 2021 – I often get into these conversations in my head. Sometimes Susan catches me talking to myself totally oblivious to the world around me. I got to wondering how this would look if we could take a picture of the inside of my head. An interesting idea. Maybe like this?
01 February 2021 – Tonight I am making my famous Chili con Carne – tasty and hot!
28 January 2021 – Susan’s garden in winter. But just wait a few months and you won’t be able to see me for beans and tomatoes!
30 January 2021 – time to feed the lawn so it gets a head start in the spring when the sun begins to shine.
29 January 2021 – Susan has a collection of orange glass pieces from the 1930’s and forties. It is really very pretty, especially in the sunlight.
31 January 2021 – Winter rain never seems to stop. I have stuff to do outside when it stops!
02 February 2021 – This is one of Susan’s boxes finished but not weather sealed or lined with plastic. They are solid and I am surprised how heavy they are.
06 February 2021 – These boxes have the oil based weather sealing on them. Now they need to be lined with plastic to keep the soil away from the wood.
05 February 2021 – Working on Susan’s planters. I bought cedar boards and then cut them to what I needed. I got the design by looking at boxes being sold at garden centers. They were good but a bit flimsy and very expensive. I can make better boxes cheaper!
03 February 2021 – Today I went down town to meet a woman I found on Craig’s List and buy a camera from her.
04 February 2021 – Working outside today. I can see the weather slowing getting better and I am so looking forward to summer.
08 February 2021 – When I got my fertilizer spreader out I found that a plastic gear had broken. I think it was just age. But, I was able to fix it.
07 February 2021 – The winter is hard on the grass. The soil under our lawn is very shallow and on top of hard clay. So it needs feeding regularly. I find that if I fertilize and lime it in late winter the grass gets off to a great start and overtakes the moss. We don’t use moss and weed killer because we don’t want to hurt the birds and other wildlife that live on our grass. So just plain fertilizer and lime.
09 February 2021 – Out for a walk with Susan and my EOS 3 film camera.
10 February 2021 – Chilly outside today so we kept the fire going.
11 February 2021 – Cold today! Look at that temperature: Zero degrees C.
12 February 2021 – I told you it was cold!
13 February 2021 – But this is Canada. We don’t let the cold slow us down.
14 February 2021 – A Valentine’s Day portrait of me and my Sweety.
15 February 2021 – This is too close for a selfie.
17 February 2021 – A little bit of sun and a little bit of coffee makes for a perfect start to the day.
16 February 2021 – Everyone should have a pet. They are loyal, comforting, and they give you unconditional love.
18 February 2021 – Bedtime routine is as important as my morning routine.
22 February 2021 – Afternoon naps are good. Naps anytime are good.
20 February 2021 – I love to take pictures with my old cameras and film.
21 February 2021 – Studying a book on old Canon lenses.
19 February 2021 – The boxes are coming along. They will be ready for planting in a few days. They still need to be lined with plastic.
23 February 2021 – And here they are finished with their plastic lining.
25 February 2021 I finsh one project and the next one is waiting. Susan’s garden has a problem with very uneven and broken sidewalks and the dirt in the garden is falling across them. So lets mix some concrete and see what we can do!
26 February 2021 My brithday is tomorrow and Susan made me this beautiful cake. But I can’t have any! Not until my brithday tomorrow.
24 February 2021 Along the edge of the garden I am digging a trench to create a footing for a small wall to hold the soil in. I call it the Great Wall of Susan.
27 February 2021 – My birthday cake Susan made me. This is my official birthday picture for this year.
2 March 2021 – Laying bricks. You can see the footing I poured. It is full of re-bar that Nico brought me. The bricks go on top of it and they will never move!
04 March 2021 – This is the other woman in my life!
28 February 2021 (actually taken on the 27th) – On my birthday I went to Port Coqutlam and had coffee with David and my beautiful grand daughter Cynthia. She is getting so big. The big thing I resent about the Covid virus is that it has robbed me of a year seeing my family!
01 March 2021 – I am cheating a little here. In the afternoon on my birthday Flynn brough my two girls to see me. It was wonderful! They are growing so fast!
03 March 2021 – When I met Susan her front door was dull, painted, a real mess. The door hardware was black. I thought it was old painted cast iron. Cleaning up the door took time but it looks nice now. I was going to throw the hardware away and buy new but for some reason I decided to grind a corner and see what was underneath. Solid brass! Not plated but solid! These are the door handles I almost threw away.
05 March 2021 – Sometimes I look at a picture of me, or look in a mirror, and I see my father. It is a funny feeling but the older I get the more I seem to resemble him.
06 March 2021 – Here I am at Rona buying bricks for the Great Wall of Susan.
07 March 2021 – My poor car is now a brick truck.
08 March 2021 – And now we can put the bricks in the wall.
11 March 2021 – The new boxes are loaded and ready to grow!
09 March 2021 – Of course all of this activity is powered by caffeine.
12 March 2021 – He wants my coffee. Always he is after my coffee. I cannot turn my back on him and his beak is in the cup.
10 March 2021 – Today Caesar came over for lunch so he joined me in today’s photo.
13 March 2021 Spring is coming. The first flowers are up. Wonderful!
14 March 2021 – Reading a bedtime story to “Bunny”.
And that brings us to the end of the fourth section: January 15th thru March 14th. That is eight months of pictures of me. It is tiresome I know but I set myself a challenge and I would hate to give up now. My major problem is finding new ideas for effective photographs. I know many of them have been pedestrian but it is hard to keep being original and interesting with the same old subject all the time.
However, looking back it is surprising to me how much I get to doing over the course of a year. I never really thought about it. I can tell you that this last project, the Great Wall of Susan, has taxed me greatly. It is all I can do to throw around 25 kg bags of cement and hundreds of pounds of bricks. At the end of each day I ache everywhere. Getting old!
The Selfie Project has been broken into Posts covering only two months of the year. Because I began the Project in the middle of July the posts are from the middle of the month to the middle of the month. This post is for 15 January thru 14th of March. You can jump to a different two months using the buttons below.