It's been a while since my last post and I deeply apologize. I am not a dedicated blogger and my hat goes off to those who are. Summer seems especially hard for me. We have had a constant parade of visitors, which I might add, I have loved. Unfortunately, it really didn't give me much time to find my subjects to photograph and then post. So today my rant might be a little shorter than most of my other posts. Recently we had my sister in law Anne come to visit for a few days. I love having her here. She is certainly a hosts dream visitor. Does her own thing, doesn't expect anything from you and cleans up after herself. I often tell my guests to help themselves to whatever they might like in the way of food, drink or towels etc. I know it's hard when you visit someone to take advantage of that offer but Anne is great. Makes her own breakfast and looks after herself. Hank always tells me I am a bad host. That may well be a true statement as I like it when people look after themselves. My fridge is your fridge philosophy. So that being said, I'm a happy camper when Anne visits. Anne also brought us a gift when she came here this time. The picture above is the gift from her and Ron. He is apparently making them and so we sort of all got one. We love anything for the garden and I really like that it is ocean related. I always wanted to live closer to the ocean but I don't see that in my future. If I can't go to the ocean then I'm happy when I get something from the ocean brought to me. It's a nice addition to the garden and it's new. That is suppose to be my subject for today. Something new in this house is a relatively easy subject but I had to think of something that was new and interesting. Ta-da......I found it. Well my subject for tomorrow or whenever I get back here is "Technology" . That should prove interesting and a little daunting. Have to think about that for a while.
So good bye for today and thank you for bearing with me in my hit or miss blogging.

I know, I know, it's been a month since my last post. I know what they mean when they say life gets in the way. My life has been a flurry of stuff. Not really important stuff, just everyday stuff. Stampede got in the way first, then a steady stream of guests, Monica and Jack had visit and then the Garden's West interview. Everyday I kept thinking how I should just get my picture and blog. Tonight I got my picture. Someone I love......well that's a no brainer. Put a beer in his hand and he's a cheshire cat, smiling from ear to ear.  We had a wonderful supper on our new deck. Hank finished it last week and I mentioned that I wanted to put curtains up. He wasn't a fan of the idea so it was a hard sell. I've never steered him wrong yet have I? He just said if it didn't look good he would take them down. It looked great. Gave the patio a feeling of being an extension of the kitchen. I think the funnest part was that I actually had to sew. Sewing and I don't exactly see eye to eye. If the enemy ever wanted state secrets from me, they would only have to threaten me with having to sew something. It really is torture. It's not like I haven't tried to be a sewer. (That's pronounced sower, not suer) I took home ec in school and failed sewing. I didn't give up. The next year I took a course called "Home and Child Care" There was no word that even resembled "sew" or " sewing", in the title. I figured I could ace it. NOT. They insisted we sew a baby ensemble. Yep, you guessed it. I failed. Still not a quitter I decided to accompany a friend to a night class on sewing. I thought, I'm older, more stable, married with children, I can do this. Nope. I failed. So I never looked at another sewing machine until I needed one for general mending. Even that was not something I looked forward to. I stored the machine in the basement and haven't really had it out for years. I would rather sew something by hand that lug that thing out and fight with the thread and tension. So, as I looked at the curtains for the outside patio, I noticed they were about 18 inches too long. I got out the needle and thread and began to figure out how I would proceed when Hank suggested I bring out the machine. I relented. The seams are a little crooked but at least it only took me an hour to cut off three curtains and sew the bottoms. Made three tie backs with the material I cut off. Hank was impressed. I did look like I knew what I was doing I have to admit. So he carted the machine back to the storage room and I'm wondering what I might sew next. If I can get on a roll again with the blog, tomorrow's subject is "a childhood memory". Until tomorrow. Ciao.

Two days of sunshine and I'm in heaven.  Sunshine is always great, but when you live on the west coast of British Columbia, you forget all the horrible days of rain and clouds that came before it. You only remember the sunshine, mountains and lush green vegetation that the rains have left. It's so gorgeous outside that I'm hoping we will dine out there today. Yesterday was a bit chilly so we ate inside with the family. I made chicken noodle soup for supper tonight , something that I'm hoping everyone will enjoy. We also have watermelon so that's an added bonus. It's almost a Mennonite supper. I wanted to make something that I thought Bill and Mary might enjoy. I didn't bake bread or make my own noodles though. I guess we will have to rough it. I could smell the aroma of the soup right through the house and now that I have put the pot in the fridge, I can still smell it. Chicken noodle soup isn't the same without star anise. That's what makes it smell and taste so yummy. So my subject for today was 'a bad habit'. It didn't say it had to be my bad habit, but after two days of thinking about it, I decided it was coffee and cookies in the mid afternoon. As I mentioned before, I don't have a lot of bad habits. If  I would have done this blog in my early years, I would have had a plethora of things I could write about. Age has put a damper on those things. Maybe not so much age as a complete loss of interest. Getting drunk was the highlight of my week, now all I think about when I drink is the headache I will inevitably get. So food, mostly junk food, is my bad habit. The computer is probably a close second but let's face it, computer pictures don't really make you want to ohhh and awwww. I did think of taking a picture of somebody else's bad habit, but I couldn't find anyone that would cooperate. Tomorrow's picture should be easy peasy. It's "someone you love". I thought about the cat, but her and I aren't always on speaking terms. The real love of my life is Hank. Don't get me wrong, it's not all bliss, but he's had my heart for 46 years. I guess he will probably be my subject for tomorrow. So enjoy the yellow orb in the sky before it disappears. I'll try to blog again tomorrow.

Well, I'm back. Posting yesterday was a lost cause. We had no fruit in the house except bananas and few grapes. Not very interesting as far as subjects go for pictures. If the bananas could have juggled the grapes.....then we would have been good to go. So today we went shopping for fruit at our local fruits and veg store, Kokopelli. I love that name. It makes me want to say it again. Kokopelli. They have really nice fresh produce and I believe in shopping local if it's possible. I want them to stay, so they have our support even if sometimes they are a little more expensive. By the time we get in the car and drive to a big box store for produce, we might as well save the gas and shop at Kokopelli. :) So I walked in the store with my camera, which isn't a camera that you could hide easily, and started to take pictures of their fruit. I'm not sure if they were puzzled as to why I would do that or if they thought I was from the local paper and doing some sort of ad campaign. Either way, I clicked while Hank shopped. We are getting company tonight so wanted to get back home to have a nap (seems to be a daily thing now) before starting supper. I guess scrapbooking tonight is out of the question. A nice visit with Hank's big sister and her husband  is way more important. We only get to see them once every two or three years so we have to make the best of playing catch up when we do see them. So my subject "fruit" finally made it to my blog. Tomorrow my subject is 'a bad habit'. Geeeez, that is going to be interesting. I think bad is relative. It's all in the eyes of the beholder. What would one term bad?? I don't bite my nails, I hardly ever drink and I don't smoke. Anything else would be a restricted subject. This is a family blog. Guess I will have a whole day to think about it. I'm hoping for sun tomorrow. Maybe doing a sun dance could be a bad habit. We will have to see. Tata for now.

Just when I thought the weather couldn't get any worse.....today happened. Miserable, wet, cloudy day. I was really hoping for some sun for Canada's birthday weekend. Yes, I thought that if everyone else can have more than one day for a birthday, we should at least give our country a weekend. It might clear up tomorrow, but right now it's looking very iffy. I hauled all my stuff out of the attic just to see if I could get rid of things that have been up there for years. I knew I had totes, but I was thinking maybe 3 or 4. Nope, I was wrong. Eight totes later I began to wonder what the heck could be in them. The majority of them , baby things. So today I started to sort and wash and bag. I also managed to do more scrap book pages. I was feeling really good about getting something done today when all I wanted to do was crawl back into bed and read and sleep. Even just saying the word sleep makes me tired. So it was getting late and I still didn't see a break in the clouds and I had a picture to take from a low angle. I tried the chandelier but it just didn't look good. So off I went outside, and I am sure a dog or a cat hit me on the head, looking for a suitable subject. This tree was the only thing available without putting on my scuba gear and venturing further afield. It's alright, but not exactly something to oooooh and ahhhh about. So here is the wet tree in all it's glory. Tomorrow my subject is "fruit". I'm going to go bananas on that. Orange you glad you read my blog? Have a grape night. Toodles for now.

Today was my birthday. Sixty five and looking for seniors rates where ever they may exist. Hank and I made a day of it. We had a little bit of stuff to do downtown so after that we went for breakfast at Cookies. It was already lunch but they serve all day brekky and I had been craving pancakes all week. The place was hopping and we had ourselves a bit of a wait. Then we went to visit his mom where we had a nice, albeit short, visit.  A little trolling in a few thrift stores and then home. Tonight we went to see "The Most Exotic Marigold Hotel" in the cheap theater. Now I know why I don't want to go there to see movies.  Considering the place really isn't that old, it really looks like it needs a complete redo. We sat in the last row, thinking we could move if we had to. The place almost filled. Only 3 people under the age of 50 and I'm sure most were over the age of 60. No place for your drinks and the seats really do need recovering. Paint off the walls and cement floors. The last row was lower than the row ahead of us. I have no idea how they managed that.  I did love the movie. My date even sprang for popcorn and pop. He's such a sweetie. A movie just isn't the same without the staples of the convection counter. A chocolate bar would have been nice but I had to settle for a chocolate covered energy bar that he brought from home. He took it out of his pocket of his shirt and the chocolate had melted all over. Oh well, beggars can't be choosers. I took a picture of Peeka, our Himalayan cat.It was suppose to be taken 'from a high angle'  and she really didn't want to cooperate. I did the best I could to get her to look up. She has the most beautiful blue eyes. Tomorrow my subject is 'from a low angle'.  So remember, "Everything will be all right in the end... if it's not all right then it's not the end." Until tomorrow.

Oh my, today started out fantastic. My sister was going to take me shopping in Abbotsford and then lunch for my birthday. The birthday isn't until tomorrow but she could only go today so that's what we did. I didn't want a fuss and when she phoned earlier in the week to ask what plans I had for my 65th, I told her nothing. Celebrating birthday's in this house has never been a big deal. I figured that I was going to be getting a nice cheque from the government every month, that was all the birthday gifts I needed. She insisted, so thus our sojourn into Abby for some serious shopping. I'm working on my cruise pictures and needed to cut some dies out and to pick up a couple of glue dispensers so it was all good. When she arrived in the morning, I was already out in the driveway and ready to go. She wanted me to come inside for a second and handed me a plastic bag. It was full of fun. Yes, a bag full of fun. Who gets that on their birthday?? I almost wanted to stay home and play. I really wanted to post the layout I did today and the beautiful stand she gave me to hang my layouts on. There was bling, paper, embellishments and so much more. Just a bag full of fun. I'm so lucky to have a great sister like that. We had a fantastic day today. Lunch at Red Robin in Abby and we even managed to do a few thrift stores. What more could I ask for? This was a real birthday celebration. So I did mention that my picture for today had to be green. This was the picture I'm using. I have to be honest, I didn't take this today. It's been so rainy and overcast that I really couldn't find anything else to take a picture of. Tomorrow my picture is 'from a high angle'. I guess we will see what I can come up with. It would be great if there was sunshine tomorrow for my birthday and my picture. Lots of love to everyone. Have a great night.

So today I thought I would get at least one awesome cloud shot. There were no awesome clouds in the sky. Didn't they know that I needed a really great picture of clouds today? So this is what I got. Just clouds. I had a wonderful visit with relatives as we all sat outside on our sundeck and soaked up some rays. A quick bite of watermelon, sausage and crackers and of course, real perked coffee. Then we strolled over to the Eco Market and manhandled the wares. There was a lady there that had a very interesting rug thing. We asked what it was made of and she said dog hair. Ewwww. My hand quickly fell away. She showed us how she makes the fiber from the big plastic bag of dog hair that lay on her lap. Interesting.... yes. Something I wanted to do....no. I have a cat that could supply her with hair for the rest of her life just from one brushing. I did hint at it but she wasn't picking up what I was laying down. No cat hair. The hair she was weaving was from a golden retriever. I was wondering if he had bald spots where she had removed the hair. I think it would be very uncomfortable having her visit if you had a dog. She would be mentally measuring up your dog in yards of hair. We went to another stall that had jewelry. Apparently everything at the Eco Market has to be home made or at least eco friendly. When my sister in law noticed that one of the necklaces looked almost identical to one she bought at the dollar store, I moved on. The Market seemed to be a lot more interesting today than the other weeks I have gone. Maybe the sunshine helped. They did have some very nice herb tea there. It was kind of helpful that I left my purse at home. No money, no buyee. It kind of made me chuckle when my sister in law told one of  the stalls she didn't have her purse with her and her husband, trying to be helpful, mentioned that it might be in the car. haha She quickly whispered to him she didn't want to buy anything. I thought it was really nice of him. My husband wouldn't have offered any info on my purse if I had my eye on something. So I'm off to bed now. It's been a long day. My picture for tomorrow is suppose to be "something green". Sounds a little mysterious, say what? Night.

Well, my photo for today was suppose to be "What I wore today." Not a great subject. I wasn't going anywhere so of course my choice of clothing was subdued to say the least. I could have just waited until tomorrow when I might be going somewhere, but that's cheating. We did go out, but just to Wal-Mart. I was dressed well for shopping there. I think I might have even been overdressed. I don't know when our Wal-Mart became one of those stores that people send you pictures about.You know the ones....People of Wal-Mart. I love getting those emails. It makes me feel so well dressed when I see what they are wearing. I made a mental note that most of those stores are in the south of the United States.  I noticed  just after it opened that the dress code had gone sideways. I didn't recognize one single person in there and I was beginning to think they were importing customers from somewhere else. Maybe the deep south.  I'm really not a fan of their new store and it's location anyway. It's just that little bit too far to go if I need something. Even if I do venture out there, they never have what I'm looking for. My blog is short today. Sometimes that's a good thing. I do tend to go on and on sometimes. My emails are the same. A short note turns out to be a novel. Tomorrow my picture is suppose to be "Clouds". Well there certainly is no shortage of them lately. Here's hoping tomorrow dawns with just a hint of clouds.

I did love waking up to sunshine today. Sun in the morning is a great motivator. I actually don't want to stay in bed and waste a day of beauty. It was such a lazy day today, well for me anyway. Hank worked like crazy on the gardens. A month or so ago our cell plan finished so we had to decide what we would do next. We are trying to cut back on our expenses since Hank retired so keeping two phones seemed a little extravagant. We decided to go and talk to Virgin Mobile after my sister had switched and loved them. As we approached the booth, low and behold, there she was. We talked for a while to the customer service rep, asked every question I could think of, and thought I had covered all my bases. The bottom line....they could switch us to Virgin, keep our home phone number, give us an excellent plan and two new phones. I keep going over it in my head, all the questions I asked of the rep and my sister. How did I miss some very important information that I needed? So we got two phones, cancelled our home line and went on our merry way. The first problem is that we are a business and get calls all times of the day. I had my top ten that were free calls anywhere in Canada, but what about all the other calls. My 200 extra minutes and free after 5:00 pm and weekends wasn't a big help. I was getting calls and my free minutes were dwindling. That was the first of my problems. Then I started getting calls from overseas. Inquiries. I panicked and had to ask about international calls. Apparently free if incoming. Whew. Today was the topper. I had to process something and send a fax for the okay. Fax????? What fax? Cell phones don't have faxes. Our fax machine is gathering dust as we speak. It's buried in some dark recess of the storage room. So off I went to Staples. Charged me $1.66 for the fax. Not bad considering how much we are saving each month on the phones. I must say, Virgin has been excellent. No, I don't work for them. I have a feeling that working for them isn't as much fun as being their customer. I have never seen a company so good at customer service. I went back to the Virgin kiosk so often, asking questions about using the phone, the girl there invited me to come to Las Vegas with a group of them. My picture today is a momma duck and all her ducklings that have taken a liking to our new bird food. Cute as can be they make the rounds in the yard to all the feeders then trot off the property to who knows where. Take care out there and maybe tomorrow I will think of something to blog about.

Today was an awesome day. The weather started out not really great, but right now the sun is shining and it's actually warm outside. We went to mom's to meet up with family and then we were all going to go out for Chinese food. The problem lay in finding a good place to eat. Sometimes you just have to be thankful for IPhones. After much deliberation we settled on Canton Gardens. My experience there last time didn't do anything to endear me to that particular restaurant but we were really struggling with where to park ourselves for lunch. We did think of the one  called K and Y chinese restaurant. There was something about the name that put me off. I really think that name is a marketing nightmare but they have been there for a while so business must be booming. People I talk to say the same as me. K and Y??? Really??? They had 26 letters in the alphabet to choose from, why did they pick those two? Do you think they have been around longer than the jelly? Maybe it was there name first? It makes me go hmmmmm. The bottom line is, I won't eat there until they change their name. It makes me think they don't know how to make good choices. Not good in the food business. So we all had an excellent meal at Canton and then retreated to our garden to sit outside and enjoy the sun, company and some awesome perked coffee. The coffee afforded us a topic of conversation for at least 20 minutes. It's really surprising how many people take their coffee choices very seriously. I was never a coffee connoisseur. I don't really like it. I find it's just a social thing. Everyone says they will ,"Pop over for a coffee." They never say they "Will pop over for a water, pop, juice or even tea." Yes, they do say, "Put the kettle on." Then you know that they are coming for tea. Enough about libations. I have been working on some of my pictures that we took while on our cruise. It's slow going as I'm just not feeling the scrapbooking urge. So this one took me three days. Not great but at least it's done. Every now and then I think I might post a few pages. Today's post is about our venture to Rhythms of the Night. Sigh....wish I was back there. Toodles for now. Hopefully I will post again tomorrow.

So today it dawned dark and dreary and I was fully expecting rain all day. It was the day for our Rotary Garden Tour so it was a bit disappointing that the sun wasn't shining. We got up and made ourselves a pic-a-nic lunch of liner sausage on buns and some fruit and a thermos of coffee. We saw the most beautiful gardens. I can't tell you how it made us feel about our garden when we saw these gardens with thousands of dollars spent on the them . No junk in these gardens. Not one birdhouse with a roof that is rotten, or even a garden ornament with rust on it or the paint all peeling. Do these people have no imagination? We took some notes of plants that we thought we might like in our garden and rambled on to garden after garden. Almost all of them had water features of some sort. I told Hank I felt very inadequate in the water feature department. I need something bigger and better. It's not gonna happen but I had to voice what I thought would make our garden even more outstanding. By early afternoon the sun had made an appearance, and so we decided to take in Minter Gardens, as it was included with the ticket. I was really disappointed. Even though we just meandered through Minter's, we were out within an hour. It just didn't thrill me like it used to. Hardly any color and the same plants over and over. There was hardly anyone there. Maybe just over a dozen cars in the parking lot. The price at the window said $25.00 per person and , to me, it just isn't worth that. By the time we got home and settled in, a storm had come up. The wind was blowing and the rain was coming down in torrents. Some thunder and lightning and then that dead calm like nothing had happened. We lost power and as we looked out the window in the back, we noticed that the wind had ripped our gazebo to shreds. The frame was all bent and the top is not fixable. We put it back up the best we could and now we will have to shop for another top. While on our tour today we did stop at a garage sale. Bought a little table and chairs for the Magnolia Room. The other one we had in there was always too big. I think we are the only ones that go on a garden tour and stop at garage sales. haha So we saw some awesome gardens today that had trains running right around them. This one was the one that inspired me. The garden itself wasn't great, but the layout for the trains that were running, was over the top. I could have watched it for a lot longer and I really wanted to stay and play.

The garden

Today we had sunshine. It has been way too long since we experienced the warmth and light of that wonderful orange ball in the sky. It felt good to go out and work a little in the garden. I don't spend a lot of time out there anymore. It saves a whole bushel of arguments. I go out with good intentions. I think to myself, "Self, enjoy the garden and appreciate every  inch of it." Then I go outside and I see a chipped ornament, an ugly sculpture, a birdhouse that has half the roof rotting or flowers missing that were there only last year. I usually can't keep it to myself. I'm not known for  holding my tongue. So, by mutual agreement, I don't go around the garden when Hank is out there. It just doesn't work. We have managed to stay together for forty five years and I'm not about to let a chipped ornament put a dent in that. I do, however, wait for him to be somewhere else, then I go out and remove the object that I object to, and toss it in the garbage. He never notices. I do make sure I bury it under other garbage as he is the one that would find it if I didn't. He does spend hours out there and with the people from Garden's West coming in a few weeks, he's exhausted. I look at it as just doing my part to help him. Don't get me wrong, our garden is gorgeous and I would miss it dearly if I had to move. This weekend we are going on the Rotary Garden Tour and the $20.00 admission also allows us entrance into Minter Gardens on the Sunday. I'm really looking forward to it even if it rains. The tickets were free for us. The Rotary Club brought them round as a thank you for participating last year in the tour. Maybe we will have a cup of tea and a bite to eat there if the weather cooperates. Well, gotta dash. I should go out and take my picture before it's too dark. My picture for today is my delphiniums. I love them but they aren't spreading the way I had hoped. They give such height and texture to the garden that I was hoping they would double by now.  Remember to stop and smell the flowers.

This is "Pesky" the squirrel. He's decided that our birdseed should  be a staple in his diet. I don't know, maybe he needs the fiber. It's like having a kid still at home. He really doesn't do anything to earn his keep, costs a fortune to feed,  but you forget all that 'cause he's just too flippin' cute. . He goes in our bird feeder in the front planter, the one right by our huge picture window. The cat is on this side of the glass and going insane trying to get to Pesky. He just stares her down. Sometimes the cat is actually trying to climb up the window. Pesky seems quite content to tempt fate.
So today was "Trolling Tuesday". Yes, we did all the thrift stores and picked up a few things. I think the funniest part of my day was in one thrift store, where I was looking through some quilts and comforters,  (nothing I wanted,  just browsing.) and  a lady comes up beside me and says, " I had a quilt exactly like that. I really liked it but I donated it anyway." I said jokingly, " Maybe it's yours." She looked at the quilt and turned to me and said,  "Nope, I donated to someone else." We both went out separate ways with me thinking it was funny how she gravitated to it for a second time. I guess sometimes we like things so much we would buy them not only once, but given the chance, again and again. I know this first hand. I have bought doubles of stuff in scrap booking so often that I now put everything I buy in a book that I carry everywhere with me when I think I might venture into a scrap book store. I digress from my story. As I meandered around, I met up with the same lady looking at some canisters. She seemed almost sad as she turned to me and said, " It is my stuff, I recognize these canisters.  I broke one so donated the other three. I really liked them." I went over as she walked away and gave them the once over. They were nice. Her parting shot was, " A truck took my stuff away and it must have come to this store. I wonder if I should buy them back?  I should never have come in here. "
I felt the same. I should never have gone in there. We had a credit from a purchase that we had to return because it didn't work. I bought another lamp base. I guess my quest for next week will be to find a light fixture for the top. So I bid you goodbye until I have another story to share, and a picture. Lots of company next week so it might be a while.

Spring has sprung

I haven't posted anything for a very long time so I thought maybe it's time to add a few pictures and some ramblings. I think spring does that to me. I find it is one of the prettiest times of the year. It gives me such great expectations for the rest of the year. Everything is new. All the leaves are popping out on the trees and the blooms on the flowers and shrubs don't look as lovely at any other time of the year. Such hope springs from spring. I just feel rejuvenated. Of course it brings with it the urge to get out in the garden and plant, weed , prune and wait. Yes, wait. Wait for the flowers, wait for the warmth, wait for us to appreciate the beauty all around us. We might get featured in a magazine this year, Gardens West. When I say we, I mean the garden and the flowers and the kitsch. You know.....all the stuff you put out in the garden to enhance the yard and as people walk around they notice odd but interesting pieces, usually transformed somehow, from garbage to glorious or maybe just unique. We have a garden full of 'kitsch'.  Since my husband retired in December, it has given us ample time to go every Tuesday and troll the thrift stores for the unusual and interesting.  I bought an old lamp base, large, but not chipped and in very good condition. I think I paid about $4.00 for it. Then I found an old glass ceiling light cover and had hubby screw it all together to make my lovely plant stand for my new patio. I think I would like more of them but in varying heights. It not only gives my patio color and interest, it was reasonably cheap to make. I have so many other things I could be working on but the sunshine awaits and a nice cup of coffee out there sounds too enticing to stay indoors and work. So until my next post, I bid you farewell and hope you too are enjoying a day in the sun.