My Great Escapes

This is one of my favourite photos I took in Stanley Park, Vancouver a couple autumns ago. Tri-coloured trees-gotta love it! AUTUMN IS HERE!!

I am playing hookie today after working really hard all week. Sometimes I just need to give my creative brain a break. I was thinking about the ways I recharge my batteries. Today it entailed a trip to the mall werein I bought the new Indigo Girls CD "Despite Our Differences". I came home, popped it into the computer (so I could transfer it over to my Ipod) and curled up with a chai latte and a zine that came in the mail this morning.

Sometimes I recharge by going to the movies. I love sitting in a dark theatre with a big bucket of popcorn and getting lost in a story for a couple of hours. I find that really relaxing, even if it's a horror movie. There's always been something magical and comforting about going to the movies. What's really great is my son loves to go as much as I do and we tend to see alot of horror movies together. Talk about mother-son bonding. LOL!

Another great escape is reading. There's nothing I love better then climbing into bed with a cup of tea and a good book. It's the perfect way to end a long day and unwind before turning the lights out. When I was a kid, I think being able to escape into books probably saved me. I used to take the bus downtown as often as I could and spend hours in the library with stacks and stacks of books, thumbing through and finding the best ones to haul home with me. The library was a safe place and books were my refuge. In hindsight, I know I read strange things for a kid. The beautiful thing about the library was that nothing I wanted to know about was off limits. I read poetry by Maya Angelou. I read just about every book they had about the halocaust. I read Lucy Maude Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables Series. I read Judy Blume. I read travel books about places I want to go. I think books are probably my first and greatest love.

My final favourite way to refresh my spirit is to go to Stanley Park. It's a huge forest in the heart of Vancouver. I love walking the sea wall, smelling the briney ocean, watching the people and feeling the wind on my face. It's truely the jewel of the city. I have loved that park with all my heart since I was a little girl. The trees are so tall and everything is so green. It's a wonderful place to take photographs and get some fresh air. It's especially beautiful in the fall because there are these huge deep piles of gloriously coloured leaves to kick up and crunch underfoot as you walk and you can feed the squirrils peanuts. In fact, I think that's where I am going to go this weekend! Me, my guys and our cameras. Stanley Park, out for lunch and then over to Denman for gelato at Mondo Gelato for dessert. Now that's the way to spend the weekend!

How about you? What helps you recharge? Do tell!