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 \ A visit to Niagara Falls is always exciting. No matter what the season, the splendor of this great cascade of water remains. I took all the images for this collage yesterday morning. The leaves have changed colour and some have fallen. This is why this season is called Fall. Niagara is beautiful this time of year. As with the seasons that change year after year, we too have our seasons of life. Being so close to Nature as I was yesterday, brought home to me with poignancy, that I too am in the Autumn of my life. After years of struggle with this stage of the journey, I am beginning to grow into it. It’s beginning to feel more comfortable now. ...

 \ Today is an Anniversary of the heart. It is the day on which my father transitioned from this Earth. This collage is in memory of him. I took all the images at different times and in my remembering of him, I put them together. The best tribute I could pay to the father, who despite all his human faults and failings, raised me, is to share a poem he wrote. It really tells me that he knew that he was part of something bigger than just the family he raised and this makes me feel good. Hope you enjoy! ...

It’s a good thing that we all have some whimsical moments and moods. Playfulness and fanciful feelings bring light-heartedness. As you can see from the image of Cali sticking her tongue out - even animals have their own whimsy. Doesn’t she look cute? This collage was done in one of my whimsical moods. I used many images of my pet and added these beautiful embellishments that I photographed in a shoe and accessory store. Everything in this store was suitable for wearing to a wedding or other such special occasion. We had visitors over the summer and this store was one we wandered into during their visit. The caption “I love my Cat” is either from a journal cover or a book cover that I photographed some time ago in my local bookstore. I wasn’t sure how I would use it when I took it but I like how it looks here. ...

Birthday Celebrations\ “Because time itself is like a spiral, something special happens on your birthday each year: The same energy that God invested in you at birth is present once again.” ~Menachem M Schneerson All the images in this collage were taken a few days ago at a memorable Birth Day celebration for someone special. As you can see, this was a lovely place for the occasion and we had a fabulous buffet meal. We enjoyed each other’s company and were overjoyed that we could share in the time we spent together and in the making of good memories. ...

Lake Louise - Canada\ Travel books, magazines, brochures, and the like, are always depicting the best places one should visit. The latest I saw was called “Ten Places to Visit before you Die.” I haven’t taken a look at it yet. One visit I’m glad that I made was to Lake Louise in Alberta, Canada. It is located in Banff National Park which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is a glacial lake.with an altitude of 5052 ft. ...

\ Today, September 22nd, is the first day of Fall. This Summer has gone by very quickly. Before going completely into Fall mode, I wanted to create a collage to celebrate the season just passed. I took all the photos in this collage. The image in the top left hand corner is a piece that I created myself and called “Summer Garden” over twelve years ago. The materials that were used include ceramic tiles, stained glass, pebbles, stones, jewelry, and paint. I was just beginning to want to express myself “artistically.” It is in my home and I enjoy looking at it very much. I never knew when I created it that I would one day use it in a collage. ...

\ All the images in this collage are from dinner plates and were taken because I found the colours and the motifs to be beautiful. I didn’t know how I would use them when I took them but I’m pleased with the results of this collage. At a certain stage of life, we are all collectors. In the old days, most newly-weds received gifts of dinnerware to “start” them off. I myself have some nice Royal Albert bone china and have added several pieces over the years. Like many other people I know, these items sit in a nice china cabinet and are used only on special occasions, if at all. “We often call our fine dinnerware “China”, and there is a very logical reason for this. Dinnerware is more often than not made out of porcelain, and porcelain was invented by the Chinese over 1000 years. Although the emperors of the Song Dynasty get most of the credit for this invention, it was more likely invented during the Tang Dynasty. Half way through the Song Dynasty, about 1100 AD, this fine art had spread throughout the East. By 1400 it had worked its way to Europe.” I read somewhere that bone china, as in the pieces I have, is made by combining clay and china stone and adding calcified bone. It is a type of porcelain. ...

 You never know what you will see on the sidewalk before garbage day. Sitting on my porch late one evening, I noticed that my neighbour on the opposite side had put out a mirror. There are huge trees around, and as I sat there sipping my tea, it was the reflection of the branches in the mirror that caught my eye. The images you see here came out of that photo-shoot. ...

 \ I know a number of people who are now celebrating Rosh HaShanah which is the Jewish New Year. This collage is one big greeting card to all of them. The images here were taken at a local bookstore and are actually from greeting cards used at this time of year for this celebration. I took these photos yesterday. L’shana Tova means “for a good year.” Many people just say Shana Tova. ...

\ Flower-arranging is one of my hobbies. It gives me great delight to choose flowers at the florist’s and to pick flowers from the garden to create an arrangement. Some arrangements I’ve made are small and some have been larger. I’ve made arrangements to give as Birthday presents, Christmas presents, and lots of “thank you’s.” Working with flowers gives me a wonderful feeling. The images in this collage are of a smaller arrangement I did to take to a Memorial Service three weeks ago. I took the photos at home. The eyes in this collage are those of a baby boy nine months old and the caption in the collage was photographed from the cover of a journal in my local bookstore. These three elements just seemed to come together - beautiful flowers, beautiful eyes, and the caption “Beauty for your eyes to see.” ...