The current challenge over at SPC asks which of the four elements you most identify with: earth, water, fire, or air.

I identify with air. It is my favourite. To me, air means space and life in your lungs. Air gives you room to run and something to breathe. Few things stir me more than a big, gust of it flying at my face (preferably a bit cold and smelling like October).

I’m quite in love with it, really.

What’s your element?

Adam said that because it was late, we should take a shorter bike ride. Just to the Terrace. That really isn’t much of a bike ride, but it sounded nice. We went.

Then I started to hear music.

“It’s the 10-year anniversary. There’s an orchestra, food, drinks…and I think fireworks.”

“FIREWORKS?!”

“Yeah. I wanted to surprise you. Try to make up for the Fourth of July.”

I don’t think I can say much about that bit of time on the Terrace. It was a night you breathe, and I breathed it slowly and deeply. There was an orchestra, the glowing city, a lake dappled with the lights of boats, fireworks that popped so big I hid behind Adam’s arm, fireworks that bloomed softly and covered the sky in gold, the smoke that blew away in clouds, bits of burning ash that speckled the sky like fairies.

last night was so beautiful and so big.
*wedding page update

Me sitting at my desk on my laptop: Adam, do you think people are more shaped by what they hear and see, or do you think the things they hear and see are more shaped by who they are?

Adam sitting on my bed on his laptop: I think the things people hear and see are more shaped by who they are.

I grin, because I like this answer best.

Me: So, you don’t think I’m a cheeseball because I watched too many cheeseball things growing up? You think I like cheeseball things because I was just made a cheeseball?

Adam: Yes, dear. I think you were born a cheeseball, and that’s why you like cheeseball things.

We both grinned, then.

I think this question now and again, not the cheeseball one, but the more general one I asked Adam first. I thought it this particular day, because I was walking home from work and found myself humming (out loud, mind you) “Kindle my Heart” from A Little Princess. And I found myself thinking that it is kind of funny that I’m still infatuated by the same things I was when I was a little girl. I still love A Little Princess (the book and movie). Adam was kind enough to humour me by watching clips of it off You Tube after the cheeseball conversation.

I’m reading The Secret Garden right now. Again. I still love that story very much, and am still quite crazy about Dickon.

I still want to be Pippi Longstockings.

After some serious tomboy years, I find myself once again enjoying dresses and lipstick. I like roses very much, again. I still scrape myself up and stain my shirts and fingers with black raspberries when I visit my family in July. I still love poems and am still frequently scribbling them in my notebooks. I still could look at maps for hours and think about the places in them. I am still always making a mess. I still love “searching for adventures,” “making new friends,” and “playing imagination.”

When I was watching Ella and Rowan on Monday, I was wondering if they would be quite a lot like they are now when they are older. Will Ella always be quite good at knowing what she wants and needs? Will she always love playing games and making small, beautiful things? Will she always be a bit competitive when she plays Trouble? Will she always love making people smile so much? Will Rowan always find his own little way to do things? Will he always be so very independent? So stubborn? Will he always be so affectionate to the few who steal his heart? Will Rowan always have a place for the sweet, “coot” creatures he likes so much? Will he always want to be a knight or a pirate?

Do you think people are more shaped by what they hear and see, or do you think the things they hear and see are more shaped by who they are? Are you much like you were when you were young? Are your kids? Do little boys stop wanting to be pirates?

I don’t have many new red shots. Red is one of my favorite colours, but, after some Flickr observation, it seems that I take most of my photos of it in the wintertime (summer, I take photos of my other favorite colour, green). So here is a big, bright bunch of old red photos, mostly taken in the winter.

There’s an update on the wedding page. Check it out.

I know, I know. I swore I would be better and then I missed blue Tuesday. But today is a new day and the colour is wonderful green. I have more green photos here.