Niagara Falls, ON as seen from the Niagara Parkway

The calm before the aerialist storm.

Okay, not exactly. I shot this nearly a year ago - long before a two inch thick cable became stretched across the brink of the falls excitedly awaiting its 30-40 minutes of fame. That's how long they say it will take Nik Wallenda to walk across it tomorrow night and make history.

I was so sure I would be in attendance, watching the performance live! I don't have a problem with stunt revival at this natural wonder nor do I think the artistry and thrill of his endeavour will be reduced with the addition of a tether. Wallenda is still an expert funambulist perceived to possess nerves of steel but who probably approaches walking a tightrope with the same comfort as we do when walking along the sidewalk. And if I lived close enough, I would walk there just to be a part of the crowd and feel the exhilaration firsthand.

I revel in this stuff... the escape from the routine... the diversion... I love the flurry of excitement on New Year's Eve when people are getting off work early and running around getting last minute lemons and crispbread and ice for their celebratory parties or picking up cases of Steam Whistle to bring to their friends' parties. I relish the patriotism and camaraderie and collective television focus that accompanies the Olympics. Basically anything that enlivens the atmosphere and sprinkles a little cayenne pepper atop everyday activities and a predictable landscape is fantastic in my books. I can feel the buzz even from where I'm sitting.

I live about a half an hour away from the location of this photo - driving time that would be exponentially increased amidst tomorrow's traffic - and yet I would love to have gone. It seems kind of shame to watch it on television like all those who are too far away to realistically drive there. But then I remind myself that not everyone who lives in Vancouver watched the Olympics in person!

I'll relax at home knowing my vehicle is parked in an exclusive (and free) parking spot in my own driveway and enjoy the comprehensive coverage offered online by the local newspaper complete with background information and interviews and overviews. I'll watch it with warm familiarity of the exact spot where Nik Wallenda will emerge from the illuminated mist and claim his glory. I revel in this stuff.

Conception Bay South, Newfoundland

This is what does it for me.

Yes, I do fall under the spell of the precipitous boundaries of the coastal cliffs, with all of its charismatic and raw beauty, its unapologetic roughness, and its savoury, sprawling vistas. I revel in its gritty soundtrack of the screeches of gulls and the zigzagging of fiddle bows. I love to sink into my Dad's comfy chair as I feel the weight of everyday responsibilities and considerations lifted from my weary shoulders. Newfoundland provides the refuge that I need, in many immeasurable ways.  

But beaches such as this one at Foxtrap in Conception Bay South is what tugs at my heart and makes me long to go back. I love to stand on this rippled expanse of land, pleasantly populated with impossibly smooth rocks that are rendered even more charming from being repetitively varnished by the ocean's touch. When I look at any photograph that I've taken while there, I can smell the briny air - comprised of the salt spray from the Atlantic, the aroma of ocean castoffs baking on the rocks, and the richness of seaweed and other marine vegetation being basted by the water.

My favourite kind of beach rock is one such as what you see in the exact middle of the photo below, the ones that appear greenish with alternating rings of grey.

I think every time I am there, I swipe a few rocks to add to my landlocked existence. I am amazed at how they always seem to retain the smell of their salt water home, no matter how many times I slide them around in my palm. And sometimes I run one under some water to replicate that shine... just for old time's sake.

On Self-Expression...


I have obtained the opportunity to post my opinion in a vehicle that extends beyond this blog!

I recently became a member of the Welland Tribune's Community Editorial Board!

Check out my thoughts regarding the heated Catholic uniform debate

that's currently smouldering in the Niagara Region!


Click here to read it!

Thanks to those of you who
keep reading me :)

Image captured during a lazy afternoon off exploring downtown St. Catharines, ON

My Insatiable Pursuit of Interesting Buildings

Gooderham Building - Toronto

This gorgeous roseate facade I shot at dusk's infancy is of the Gooderham Building (also known as the Flatiron) on Wellington Street. It is actually surrounded by a multi-faceted intersection with an awning of streetcar wires and a clear view of St Lawrence Market. As I stood across from its apex, drinking in the view that I had been wanting to see for a long time,  I tried to imagine how it looked back in the 1890's when it was built. There just seemed to be so much activity taking place just steps away from its walls! The interesting thing about the view was the dense fog that swallowed up the towering office buildings behind it... I didn't even realise they were there until I saw someone else's photograph of it the following day. So although I didn't appreciate it fully until later on, it certainly was a nice way to study this glorious building for the first time.

It was a dynamic Saturday night in the Financial District, St. Patrick's Day to be exact. There were young, vibrant partygoers zigzagging all over the place displaying a handsome collection of Irish paraphenalia. But I was elated to be toting nothing more than my camera... my eyes crawling around the gently stippled walls of this historic structure and appreciating all of its intricacies. Everything appeared so clean and smooth and there were only subtle differences in the colours. I love the glow from in its basement and from the streetlights. It was a great place to be on an abnormally warm March evening with the wisps of fog in the air and the flurry of excitement from the passersby. A great evening to be meandering about with camera in tow.

A starfish hanging on a lobster trap on the beach at Chapel's Cove, NL

Sometimes I think I'm hanging on to my sanity with every ounce of strength in my grip!! Those are days when I'm late for work again, I succumbed to the call of birthday treats at the kitchenette, and I have no idea what I'm going to make for supper. But at the end of the day, I am content and tranquil... I focus on the way I spent the time to calm down my nervous child instead of rushing out the door, I only had one chocolate pecan square when years ago I would have polished off five, and I managed to put together a spaghettini dish that everybody enjoyed together at the table amidst hearty laughter and spirited discussion.



I have a tendancy to store only good memories in my cranial filing cabinet - which almost certainly do exist in every interaction and every situation, as long as you allow yourself to see them. And when an open slate day could potentially be long, stressful, and dissatisfying, I still strive to make it good in spite of itself. And when I'm in that frame of mind, it almost always happens. Then I realise there were more good hours than taxing hours, and I was in the moment instead of longing for something else. I feel like I'm just hanging out, letting time just tick along on its merry way, and feeling the pressures from the week just drain off, because on a long weekend such as this, I have nowhere else to be, and no fixed agenda, and my to do list was rubbed off the whiteboard. (literally... my six year old did that!) It's all good.

About milestone birthdays and bizarre weather conditions.

I embrace birthdays the way I embrace winter: enthusiastically and unapologetically. I have come to terms with the fact that winter is but a memory... a memory from this time last year!!! This has been one strange weather phenomenon. Most people have been embracing it, but I can't help but think about how it's going to shift everything a little sideways!! (and no, I'm not just sulking because I didn't get snow for my birthday!) I see hearty tulip leaves striving for the sky on cue because that's what they do when they feel such warmth in the soil. But is it not a gross miscue? And what about our own ebbs and flows? So much of our schedules are governed by the seasons... as I was surveying my yard to see what else was awakening, my mind started to float towards end of school activities and then I reminded myself 'whoa... that's three months away yet!!' It's like anything else that happens in the universe - we have to just adjust to it - but it sure is the warmest birthday I've ever experienced, and that's even since leaving the land of the snow!

And speaking of birthdays, this one's mine. I emerged into this fabulously complex and wondrous world forty years ago today and I am blissfully comfortable with taking the elevator up to the next decade. I am content with the knowledge that I become stronger and more adventurous with every year of experience that I've amassed and I insist that this just doesn't happen if you're longingly stuck in decade number two! 

At the very least, one's birthday is an easy way to gather together some of those beautiful people you adore the most in the world and proceed to paint an already colourful town red. Because, you know, red's a great colour!!

So on that note, I leave you with some of my favourite images along with some of my thoughts on enjoying life:

Wine barrel at Inniskillin Estate Winery, Niagara-on-the-Lake

See things in a new way.

Steam Whistle Brewing at the Roundhouse - Toronto

Give in to your cravings.

Gooderham Building - Toronto

Seize every opportunity to cross things off your list.

Avalon Drive from Cabot Crescent - Labrador City, NL

Revel in where you came from.

Icewine Festival - Niagara-on-the-Lake old town

Become a tourist in your own backyard.

Child number two! Signal Hill, NL June 2009

Take time to inspect the dandelions.

Child number one! Heartland Forest - Niagara Falls, ON May 2011

Delight in nature's little miracles.

The Godiva store in Times Square NYC 2010

Indulge in all the deliciously good things in life!

Cheers!

~ Christine Mastroianni

Hotel Verite on East 19th Street

as it was in April of 2011

http://www.veritehotel.com/guest_service

It was approaching the lunch hour when Otis Pretorious and his tidy tweed overnight bag arrived at Hotel Verite, his adopted home for the next two nights. He smiled as he looked up at the sheer curtains blushing behind their creamy white frames, and surreptitiously pulled his reservation documentation out of his pocket. Even though he had been generously employed for the better part of a year, his new job was still new to him, and he approached the assumed perk of business travel with all the enthusiasm and gusto of a child being set free on the upper level of FAO Schwarz. He always felt as though he were getting away with something - as if he stealthily figured out a way to go to work from an immaculately decorated and maintained room that required no effort on his part.

Whenever he travelled, Otis always elected to spend the night enjoying the intimacy of a local gem in a charismatic district far removed from the predictable, intoxicating drama and attention seeking screens of Times Square. Don't get him wrong, he has never shied away from 42nd Street indulgence or exploration, but he revelled in stealing away to something unexpected each time he visited the city.

He always strove to engage in a visit or two while in town, with his twin sister or his college buddies. He was endlessly perplexed by the grumblings of his friends who resented having to board yet another jet to perform the latest financial rescue efforts or marketing wizardries that, they argue, could be just as effectively orchestrated from their comfortable office chair where they could multitask in peace. Otis was the type who thrived on travel of any kind, even to a city in which he had lived for many years, and even if it was for reasons of a corporate nature. He figured he had to get up and go to work on any given day regardless... why not embrace the opportunity to do it in a novel, vibrant environment. Perhaps it was because he was still lusciously green in the capricious world of employment at the executive level, but he just loved being asked to board a jet as part of his job.

As he inhaled deeply looking up at the carnation-hued curtains, another employee caught his eye. And so on this day he also resolved to never again complain about a less than attractive assignment he might be given, considering the tasks that some people have to undertake in a day. He shivered at the precarious position of the man in the blue shirt and pants, and proceeded towards the hotel lobby.