road…

22 Thursday Sep 2016

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tonight I saw a commercial on tv that had the Willie Nelson song On the Road Again in it… it was about a particular brand of car, although I can’t remember which one…

brought back so many memories… really old ones, lol…

George had made a cassette tape (see how long ago!) that we would put on every time we left on vacation…

the first song was On the Road Again… and when we got into the car and it started playing it was the sign that we were on holidays…

I don’t remember any of the other songs, just that both of us enjoyed them… eventually I think the girls even liked the tape…

keeping me steady as I stepped into Goose Spit…


I also remember hearing this song as part of his memorial service… my nephew put together a video using pictures that the girls chose from our many photo albums… this song was one of the two that he used…

supporting me, as always, as I rested on the bench…

this is one of my favourite photos… it was at our younger daughter’s wedding and I was recovering after a six week hospital stay and six weeks at home… 

I continue on the road, but now it is a solo journey… pretty sure he’s proud of me and my big girl pants…

orchids…

21 Wednesday Sep 2016

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this morning before I left home I took some pictures of the October orchid… the one I got from IKEA last October… which has been blooming since I brought it home… except for a few weeks… it has been amazing… 

it almost looked artificial as the blooms stayed perfect for months at a time… when it finally dropped the last blossom, a new branch emerged and these blossoms have been open for months as well…

my beloved brought me orchids on a fairly regular basis… some for home and some for my work space as well…

he also picked them up for some of my colleagues…

one of my colleagues is away this week and I am orchid-sitting… can’t remember if this is one that he picked up for her… anyway it has seven blossoms on it…

have made sure the light is on in the office and the blinds open… even put the heater on for a while…

it has been so long since it bloomed that we can’t remember what colour it is going to be…

very exciting, although I do hope it waits until her return before opening…

Roma…

20 Tuesday Sep 2016

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my daughter brought me Roma tomatoes from her garden on Sunday and I finally put them on a plate and took some to work to share while they are at their best…

had a few with my lunch… they went well with the zuchinni basil soup… 

my colleagues enjoyed them too…  

sliced some on the mandolin – without cutting any of my appendages – and added them to the pita pizza for my supper…

included the last of my basil, some pistachios, and Brie cheese… and a few radishes on the side to get my veggie quotient… delicious…

have to remember not to eat too many tomatoes… although they are delicious, they are also filled with sugar…

the mandevilla still seems very happy… can’t even count the blooms…

sundogs…

19 Monday Sep 2016

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spent some time recently considering what makes things special…

an event, a workplace, a person, a view…

and how do we make them special… 

is it being in the right place at the right time… is it an aura they produce… is it just being open to hear/see/feel…

last night I noticed a sundog in the sky which is very odd at this time of the year… usually they are visible when it is very cold, but after a little research I discovered this:

Sundogs can and do occur worldwide and during all seasons, but they are most common during winter months when the sun is low in the sky and ice crystals are more common. All that’s needed for a sun dog to form are cirrus or cirrostratus clouds. Only these clouds are cold enough to be made of the plate-shaped ice crystals we mentioned above. The sun dog occurs when sunlight is refracted off of these crystals…

it is just over the tree canopy to the left of the sun in this picture… 

what made me look out the window at just that moment… and actually see the tiny version of a rainbow…

chance?

dropping…

18 Sunday Sep 2016

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had some fun with my camera first thing this morning as I took pictures of the flowers in the house…

we will see if they end up dropping the rest of the blossoms or whether they will happily open…

beautiful hibiscus flower…

mandevilla blooms in the hanging basket which I set into the gardenia plant… hope they all make it through the winter…

grocery shopped at Safeway, dropped off the bags, and then went to Costco with my kids…

always find a few things there that I really need… today it was a cute Tommy Hilfiger sweater and some fancy olive oils…

great to have supper together again… and both my son-in-law and grandson did a few jobs around the house for me…

now I am curled up on my bed watching the Emmys and catching the odd Pokemon…

lazy…

17 Saturday Sep 2016

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I’ve been using Saturday as my lazy day… 

trying to make time on Fridays to have a meal or visit with friends and book any appointments I may need, so relaxing on Saturday makes sense… 

soccer is over so the kids will be coming again for dinner on Sundays… I try to do grocery shopping and a few chores around the house that day as well…

today I barely got off my butt… it was beautiful outside but couldn’t even get up the energy to go out to sit for a while…

eventually I went out and brought in the six plants that need to overwinter in the house… 

not sure how I feel about the ones I’ve put in front of the living room window… could be blocking the view too much…

think these might be okay, although I may move the one in the dining room…

will see how it goes…

did have some fun with my lunch… read that today was guacamole day so decided to have it as part of my meal…

used roast beef slices as the bread and made a sandwich with guacamole, lettuce and tomatoes… tasty, lol…

even managed to fit in some chips…

rather fun…

drops…

16 Friday Sep 2016

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spent the morning wandering through the Park…

most everything was damp and there were lots of drops on the flowers…

this branch was so pretty with the raindrops…

purple water lily in the lily pond…

dahlias are so beautiful… even if they are not purple…

these are so delicate and airy… and the water drops look great…

not sure what kind of duck this is but it was kind enough to stand still so I could get a good shot…

once I got home I had some lunch and a nap… and headed down to the U of W to watch my grandso play volleyball… it was great fun and they played really well…

got this great shot of some of the action… then we blasted to their house, grabbed jackets, picked up supper and headed to his final soccer game of the year… at the end of the that game, one of his buddies poured water on him so he was rather damp on the ride…

back to the volleyball tournament where he played one last game… 

I think he will sleep well tonight… me too, lol…

view…

15 Thursday Sep 2016

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been thinking about different points of view… and how important it is to be open to looking at things from another perspective…

had a few opportunities lately to think about, and look at, things from another angle… it is good to be reminded that there are many ways to see things…

sometimes I can get stuck on one idea, and not be able to see some of the other ways of looking at it…

at lunch today was looking at the steeple from a different view…

same steeple, but different…

a great reminder not to expect others to be a certain way…

nice view…

happy…

14 Wednesday Sep 2016

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took a few photos over the weekend that made me happy, so decided to share them with you…

Bob and Tom who took us on a wagon ride at the Zoo… they are so cute…

a beautiful butterfly posing in the Shirley Richardson Butterfly Garden…

a jet flying over the soccer fields on its way in to land…

sun and shadows on a wonderful walk through Bruce Park, while I was getting poke balls at PokeStops…

a pile of flower petals in the English Garden…

a stunning purple water lily in the lily pond at the Leo Mol Garden…

finally the view out the window this morning…

sunshine is one of the things that always makes me happy…

squirrels…

13 Tuesday Sep 2016

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a few days ago I noticed that the impatiens plants have been decimated in the garden… all that is left are the stems… not a leaf or a flower in sight… at first I thought it was the bunnies…

then I noticed that the hibiscus had broken branches…

yesterday while I was making supper in the kitchen a squirrel jumped onto the rail right beside the patio door…

they have broken branches on one of the cedar trees by the bird feeder, which they think is their personal food container…

I had wondered how the birds were emptying the feeders and then noticed this… they are jumping up from the ground… yikes…


they are everywhere…