Things are looking up

When I was in school, I had an art teacher remind me that sometimes, the trick to finding out how something was interesting was to change your perspective. “Look around” she said. “Squat down. Lie on the floor. Look up. Find another way to look at things.”  While I hardly need a way to make this trip interesting for me, I was thinking yesterday about a way to make it interesting for you, and I remembered the advice.  I was walking down the street here, and stopped to consider what was under my feet.  Two seconds later it was something else, then something else… Mum and I started looking at the gound – plants, tiles… interesting things that were right under our feet. It became a little game. An art project of a sort.  Here then (instead of a shot of a beach that looks just like a beach) is what we walked on yesterday.

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Today’s Spanish words? Pies (that’s feet, and you say it pee-es, not like the apple kind) and el suelo. That’s the ground. (I didn’t find out what floor was. I’m sort of hoping it’s the same.)

87 thoughts on “Things are looking up

    • I thought “piso” meant “floor” as in “the second floor,” and “suelo” meant “floor, ground,” i.e., what you walk on.

    • I will always remember piso for floor and not because of Spanish class! We had a janitor at university who would always shout at us “No pone su basura en el piso, cabron!” or, “Don’t put your trash on the floor, a-hole.” (Rough translation- of what he said and what it means.)

  1. Toes look really good to lots of people in the middle of winter!! In California, we are beginning to wear flip-flops and watch the fruit trees bloom.

  2. Can’t wait to pull the Birks back out here. Lovely to see toes enjoying warmth and sunshine. Great idea, to change one’s perspective. Here, my toes are hidden under blankets, in a house that’s trying to stay warm with minus thirty (or lower) windchills. Thank goodness for wool socks (and thank you for the pattern).

  3. A better title for today would have been “things are looking down”! What a clever perspective. Thank you- I shall try to spend the rest of my day looking at things differently.

  4. I have a photo album on Facebook called, ‘Where My Feet Are Right Now’. I have photos of my feet at the beach, a friends house, Woodstock, my LYS…it’s fun.

  5. I love the pictures! When I lie on my back on my living room floor to look out of the window, all I see is tree branches and blue sky. I can pretend that there is not a foot of snow outside on my front lawn and that it is -2 (F). I cannot pretend that I am on a warm beach but I am glad that you (or anyone) actually is.

  6. When I was little, my dad taught me this. We’d get down on the ground and poke around in the grass to find all the things you can’t see until you get your nose down there! I still look at the world from all kinds of angles. It’s a pretty interesting place we inhabit!

  7. Missed you by two weeks this year…….!!!
    Had a great time. It was a ‘bit’ cooler for us too, in the morning, which just meant it was perfect during the ‘heat’ of the day!
    Enjoy PM!

  8. Brutal wind here with a wind chill of well below zero, Farenheit. I am trying really, really hard to not think unpleasant and envious thoughts right now.
    I’ll just work on Rockefeller – so freaking beautiful I can’t stand it.

    • They do make closed Birk shoes! Of course, your appearance will be something like how a hobbit would look if hobbits wore shoes. I don’t consider this a big deterrent for most of us Birk fans.

  9. I am a photographer and taught for many years. My advice to my students was look up, look down, to the left and to the right and if you still can’t find a photograph turn around!
    There is always something. Great message to share.

  10. The pink flowers in the 3rd picture look like Bougainvillea.
    The cactus is an Opuntia, the red looks sorta like a Daphne, but what are those really interesting big pods, I wonder?
    Oh, to be wearing sandals and looking at plants outside…-5F here…

  11. You have the healthiest looking feet! Most of us females end up with misshapen toes and feet from years of trying to squeeze them into poorly shaped shoes. Your feet still look great — must be due to the Birkenstocks!

  12. What a great idea! Especially for those of us that don’t see our bootless sockless pies until May in the Arctic.
    Thank you for letting us tag along vicariously on your vacation.

  13. I like seeing things from a different perspective. When in New York City a few years ago, my group had to catch a subway from a station under the Chrysler Building. Everyone’s seen the outside already; so I took a couple quick snaps of the paintings on the Lobby ceiling. They’re a tribute to American Labor and very interesting!

  14. Love the photos, love the Birks. I have a pair just like them, and wear them with wild socks when it’s too chilly for bare feet. Wouldn’t work outdoors in snow country, though.

  15. And now I have the Zac Brown Band song “Toes” running in my head….”I’ve got my toes in the water, toes in the sand….”

    That beautiful cactus looks like a Mexican fairy ballerina!

  16. Your pictures remind me of one my friend took looking straight down from the Eiffel Tower. I had never thought to do that when I was there and it was quite an interesting picture. Glad you and your mum are having fun. Thanks for the Spanish lessons.

  17. very entertaining Stephanie and Mom
    great pictures
    I love the way the turquoise in the stone is the same as the turquoise in the skirt!

    more please, it is so freaking bitter cold here I can only feel warmth through the computer screen

  18. I love that cactus. Looks like a mom running or leaping and holding her baby, who is waving. They have matching pink hats and the baby is wearing a pink dress. Such a mom thing to be running late. I know… I’m weird, but really look at it, do you see it too?

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  20. While in college I studied for a semester in Puebla, which is southwest of Mexico City. I lived in a suite with seven other women, all of them Spanish speakers. Several days after I arrived, one of them asked me if I liked pay (pronounced like ‘eye’ with a ‘p’ in front). I wasn’t familiar with the word, and couldn’t find it in my dictionary, so I asked them to describe it. After much discussion, they provided an example – “pay de manzana,” or apple….pie.

    • I was in a restaurant in Guadalajara once and on the dessert menu they listed:
      apple pie de manzana
      apple pie de limon
      apple pie de fresa
      etc, etc. I think they’d gotten their translations a bit mangled. >:-)

  21. These include catchin the ferry to Moreton Island, which has beaches, surfing,
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  22. Love, love, love this idea and the way it turned out. Including y’all’s feet was a brilliant idea; obvious to some perhaps, but I’d probably have just taken pictures of the things. The feet? Perfect. Thank you.

  23. Thee light makes it look so warm there. I know I shouldn’t complain when I don’t have as much cold or snow as others, but it didn’t help when my local gas utility asked everyone to turn down the heat 10 degrees in the house or business. Your pictures make me feel warm while I’m under all the thick comforters.

  24. Seriously, your obsession with your feet is why I had to unfollow you on Instagram. Not everyone finds your toes so fascinating. Knitting, yes, toes, notsomuch.

    Blessings.

  25. I am struck by how the colors of your clothing match the colors of what you are photographing! Amazing. So just how long did it take to do that photo shoot with all the clothing changes…..? 😉

  26. Love the photos! There’s an art exhibit by Kim Uhlik near us that is photographs of the ground as an art canvas full of interesting artifacts & compositions. Very cool!

  27. Since we have the same sandals I’m imaging your feet are my feet and I am really in Mexico and not freezing Tiny. Enjoy the warm salty air! Maybe bring some back to Ontario?

  28. You should try something fun: let your mom paint your toenails (or head to the nearest salon & get a pedicure). Looking down for things that match the color reminds you to look down more frequently. The more adventurous the color, the more you see that you would normally just pass over.

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