Chihuly Gardens…

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recently my daughter made a day trip to Montreal to see Dale Chihuly’s art installations at the Museum of Fine Arts in Montreal, the first major Canadian museum show of his work…

she enjoyed the trip and the amazing art… she had introduced me to his work years ago, and I have read books and watched a number of TV shows about him and the amazing installations he has produced over the years… so, it was a must for us to see some of his work when we had the opportunity…

made me look back at the pictures we took when we went to Chihuly Garden and Glass in Seattle following our cruise to Alaska… seeing it in person made all the previous things I’d seen and read about pale by comparison…

my favourite piece of all the ones in the exhibition...

my favourite piece of all the ones in the exhibition…

we spent an entire morning wandering around the space… must give kudos to Ron, who wasn’t nearly as taken by it all as we were, but he patiently followed us as we went back and forth throughout the space, lol… we were so awed by the beauty and magnitude of the work he and his many colleagues put into the installations…

one small area of the garden...

one small area of the garden…

it was a beautiful day and we spent as much time in the garden as we did in the building…

Dale Chihuly taken by me...

Dale Chihuly taken by me…

the most exciting thing was that we got to meet him, get our pictures taken with him and talk a bit about his work… he was in town for a surprise birthday visit to one of his collectors and stopped by to speak with some school kids who were taking a tour…

he answered questions and then agreed to having his photo taken with individuals and chat with them… we were ecstatic to have the opportunity to see and speak with him in person… felt like meeting a rock star

Cyndi and I with Dale Chihuly taken by one of their photographers...

Cyndi and I with Dale Chihuly taken by one of their photographers…

one of the great things they do is have photographers walking around the building and garden who take your picture and give you a little card… you take the card to a machine, enter your email address and the picture goes directly to you… and it is all free… this was particularly wonderful as we had paid dearly for any photos taken on the ship, lol…

Seattle Space Needle through one of the installations...

Seattle Space Needle through one of the installations… this picture gives you a sense of the magnitude of the installations…

if you are in Seattle, make the time to visit Chihuly Garden and Glass… it is located at the base of the Space Needle and will absolutely blow your mind…

massage…

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was talking with someone about Reiki and it brought to mind massage…

George was great at giving massages… he got as much enjoyment out of giving someone a neck rub, back rub or complete massage as the person receiving it… he was gentle but was able to melt away all the knots that were hiding…

he didn’t have any formal training, although he took a few short courses and read a lot on the subject…

for a while he was considering taking one of the few programs that were available at the time but the cost was prohibitive in those days…

it was a gift and he was always happy to share… still have the massage table he used… guess I should get rid of that…

we also talked about people who do healing touch and what a gift that is… again, it feels like one of those things where someone has a gift and then it is enhanced by training… one of my friends has saved me a couple of times from debilitating migraines…

April 2011 fun in the hot tub...

April 2011 fun in the hot tub…

tonight, as I was sitting in the hot tub, I was thinking about what fun it was when we would go in together… another person always adds to the water level and it was a game to be the first one in and then have the water rise when the other climbed in… we did some of our best talking in the dark while we sat enjoying the steamy water… of course I don’t have any pictures of the two of us in the hot tub, lol…

I miss that..

 

ReImagining…

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had a great evening… dinner with my ReImagining friends… chicken souvlaki from Homer’s, which was particularly delicious tonight…

then, a great discussion about how we can get stuck in any one of seven stages throughout our lives and that the right stage for me might not be the right stage for you…

that brought the conversation around to the fact that twenty years ago (to the day) we travelled to Minneapolis for the first ReImagining Conference… it was an amazing gathering of 2200 people with presentations by theologians from around the world…

we were a small group tonight but enjoyed the conversation and how we have changed and grown over the last twenty years… before we went (about 20 of us, if I remember correctly), we spent many weeks reviewing videos by those who would be presenting at the event… it was something that none of us will ever forget…

then I got dropped off at the office to pick up my car and got stuck in the Jets traffic as the game just finished a few moments before I got into the car… thought I was being very clever to get a ride from work and only have to drive from downtown to home… too funny… took well over half an hour to make a trip that should take 15 minutes tops…

as we were sitting in the car on our friend’s street we noticed snowflakes… just a few, and the sky was quite overcast… made me think of the lovely sky yesterday morning when I first got up…

lovely patterns in the sky yesterday morning...

lovely patterns in the sky yesterday morning…

raking…

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this afternoon Jeff, the boys, and I cleaned up the back yard…

although it had been raked a while ago, there were tons of leaves… we don’t actually have any trees that drop leaves in the yard, but the neighbourhood elms do love to share their bounty with us at the end of the season…

jumping in the "bed"...

jumping in the “bed”…

the little boys mainly helped by jumping into the pile of leaves… I was amazed at how patient their daddy was as they leaped and tossed and cavorted among the raked leaves… then, of course, they had to be raked up again…

daddy trying to uncover faces...

daddy trying to uncover faces…

while they worked on that, I dumped out pots, dug up dahlias and bundled pots into the shed… planters went under the deck and the umbrella was put away to wait for the spring…

one left... had to move fast to get pictures...

one left… had to move fast to get pictures…

Jeff spent a fair bit of time working on the pond… getting leaves out of it with the net and then vacuuming around the edges to clean it up… he tried to find a way to remove the pump completely, but the cord is stuck under some rocks and we didn’t want to disturb them…

trying to get the pump cord loose...

trying to get the pump cord loose…

the yard looks great, all ready for the cold weather and snow that will be coming… today it was 10 Celsius as we were working, which was pretty warm… usually we have snow on Halloween so we are doing very well…

somewhere I have a great picture of George and Kyler raking leaves in the front yard… couldn’t find it tonight, though…

after all that hard work we had a lovely dinner together…

procrastinating…

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was talking with someone recently about procrastinating…

I need to follow up on two items that have to do with George’s death and I am having a very difficult time making the calls…

files to deal with...

files to deal with…

of course, both of them need to happen in the daytime as the places are closed by the time I get home at night, and neither is open on the weekend…

so I have to find an appropriate time that I can make the calls and also a time that I am ready to deal with them…

haven’t been able to find that place just yet, but I have to get on both of these items…

well, now I’ve pulled out the files… one step closer, lol…

views…

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so today is my 351st blog…

my stats tell me that people from 47 countries have read at least one of them…

quite amazing when you think about it… of course, most people are from Canada but it is still kind of cool that someone across the world is having a peek at something I have posted…

have just over 3300 views, and am still enjoying writing each night, although some nights are much more interesting than others…

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happy halloween…

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had a lovely evening…

got a call as I was driving home from work and met Crystal and Kyler at the Subway just up the street from home… got subs for everyone, which was rather sad for the people in line behind us, cause everyone likes their sub a little different and there was only one person working…

got home and had a great dinner with Spiderman flashing in and out of the room… everyone ate their dinner, they all love subs…

then we got down to the serious business of getting our costumes on and posing for our annual Halloween photos… each boy gets a photo with Grandma on their own and then there is the group shot, lol… sometimes it takes quite a while to get them all done, but we did very well tonight…

most everyone cooperated and we got a few great shots…

one of the group shots...

one of the group shots…

then, like a flash, they were off to collect goodies…

I played on the computer between the groups of kids who stopped by our house… in the end there were 23… this year they got glow sticks and I must say that nearly everyone was excited to get them…

although now there is no candy in the house for me to snack on, sigh…

carving two…

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well, I put on those big girl pants and carved my pumpkin, all by myself…

it was still a bit messy, but no pumpkin guts landed on the floor…

had just finished when my son-in-law texted a picture of their finished pumpkins…

felt like we were working together, even if it was across town, lol…

my pumpkin is filled with little pumpkin lights… looking forward to setting it up tomorrow night for the trick or treaters…

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carving…

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tomorrow I plan to carve the pumpkin that we got last week when we went to the pumpkin patch…

usually the kids would be over and we would carve them together… this has been a tradition since the 13 year old was a little tyke, even though he doesn’t always get to participate… Grandpa loved to carve the pumpkins and each year they got more and more intricate…

ready for action...

ready for action…

pumpkin carving was serious business and the table would be covered with a plastic tablecloth and a bowl set out for the seeds and another for the guts…

tracing the pattern with care in just the right spot...

tracing the pattern with care in just the right spot…

then there would be the decision making about which pattern to follow for each pumpkin, unless someone decided to go free form…

one down... still a couple to go...

one half done… still a couple to go…

everyone would participate… until they got bored, and then Grandpa would finish off the job… he liked that because then he could do exactly what he wanted, lol…

Grandpa finishing up when others lost interest...

Grandpa finishing up when others lost interest…

great excitement would take place when a candle went in and the lights went out

pretty cool pumpkin...

pretty cool pumpkin…

this year I will be carving my pumpkins on my own… our thirteen year old has a project due on Friday and tomorrow night is set aside for he and a classmate to get that done…

tonight’s pictures are from the last pumpkin carving we did with Grandpa, two years ago…

I am so thankful for all of the pictures I have taken over the years… it was great fun to go through and pick a few…

taking time…

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on my way out this morning I spotted a beautiful moon in the lovely blue sky…

moon this morning...

moon this morning…

stopped to enjoy it and took a picture, even though I was running a bit behind… been trying to remind myself to enjoy the moment, whatever it may be…

tonight, when I got home I had a little nap as my head had been aching since mid-afternoon and I was hoping that might fix it… didn’t work, but when I got up I made myself a lovely omelet (a la Dobby) which I enjoyed very much…

lovely omelet with mushrooms, green onions, my tomatoes, and cilantro...

lovely omelet with mushrooms, green onions, my tomatoes, and cilantro…

then I rested and watched a bit of tv while waiting for my BS buddies to arrive… four of us had a great time tonight… one of us was home sick with the flu…

tonight I will spend a bit of time thinking and sending healing vibes to many who I know who are currently experiencing personal difficulties…

am thinking that the headache might be a remnant of the flu shot I had on Saturday…

so it is to bed I head…