another balcone calgario ~

revisiting cleome serrulata ~

I think I may have finally been able to identify this plant as: 
"Cleome serrulata (Rocky Mountain beeweed, Rocky Mountain bee-plant, spider-flower, stinking-clover, Navajo spinach.) It has been used in the southwestern U.S. as a food, medicine, or dye since prehistoric times and is one of very few wild foods still in use. As food, its seeds can been eaten raw or cooked, or dried and ground into meal for use as a mush. The leaves, flowers and shoots can be cooked and eaten as a cooked vegetable or added to cornmeal porridge. As medicine, an infusion of the plant is used to treat stomach troubles and fevers, and poultices made from it can be used on the eyes. As a dye, the plant can be boiled down until it is reduced to a thick, black syrup; this was used as a binder in pigments for painting pottery.The plant is called waa’ in the Navajo language. Its scientific description was based on specimens collected on the Lewis and Clark Expedition. "

source: wikipedia

wild bergamont ~

fighting with our own phenomena ~

We cannot say that the phenomenal world we are living in—the traffic jams and the pollution and the inflation—is bad and devilish. We cannot condemn the world by putting it into those kinds of conceptual packages. That approach does not work, because it means that we are fighting with our own phenomena. Phenomena are ours: it is our country, our air, our earth, our food, our water, our electricity, our policemen. We are speaking of an organic reality.

Chogyam Trungpa - Journey Without Goal: The Tantric Wisdom of the Buddha

thank god for small mercies ~

balcone calgario ~

ode to joy ~

On the 130th anniversary of the founding of Banco Sabadell we wanted to pay homage to our city by means of the campaign "Som Sabadell" (We are Sabadell) . This is the flashmob that we arranged as a final culmination with the participation of 100 people from the Vallès Symphony Orchestra, the Lieder, Amics de l'Òpera and Coral Belles Arts choirs.

calgary morning ~

a walk in the park ~

If anyone happens to know the identity of the flower in the last photo can you leave a comment and let me know? Many thanks...

a curious young magpie on the balcony ~

play time northern manitoba style ***

once upon a time ~

a willingness to be alive ~

Patience is not learned in safety. It is not learned when everything is harmonious and going well. When everything is smooth sailing, who needs patience? If you stay in your room with the door locked and the curtains drawn, everything may seem harmonious, but the minute anything doesn’t go your way, you blow up. There is no cultivation of patience when your pattern is to just try to seek harmony and smooth everything out. Patience implies willingness to be alive rather than trying to seek harmony.

Pema Chodron ~ excerpted from The Pocket Pema Chodron

go gently today ~