Wilderness Wednesday: Funny Face

Tags

Fall, flowers, garden, nature, photography, sunflowers, Wilderness Wednesday, yellow

When the road I walk seems all up hill and the colors in my rainbow turn blue
You kiss the tears away, You smile at me and say ‘Funny face, funny face, I love you!’

Donna Fargo, Funny Face

Happy Wednesday!

Dear Quarantine Diary – Week #41

Tags

covid-19 diary, covid-19 humour, dear diary, family, humour, nature, photography, thanksgiving, trees

Dear Diary – It’s Day 6 of turkey leftovers, and while I’m enjoying being lazy pulling out a nightly leftover buffet and telling the guys to “heat what you want”, I’m pretty sure their enthusiasm for turkey is waning. I’m sure they’ll perk up when I tell them there’s more…in the freezer!

This year only Little Guy and I made the trip to my folks, but I shopped ahead to leave a turkey and all the trimmings for Hubby to cook on the weekend. I even baked him a spice cake. From a mix and a can. This “Martha Stewart” needed to save her energy for the holiday traffic, and we encountered some.

But like every good baker, I had to taste-test it. Now Little Guy thinks it’s amusing to move or hide my food when I’m not looking. It’s frustrating because I can’t always remember if I finished what I was eating, or I dropped it, and I’m worried that I’m going to find perfectly good chocolate melted into the couch. I worry more about the chocolate than our burlap sack couch.

Thursday night, he made a serious error in judgement. He left his piece of cake on the coffee table and wandered into the kitchen. I grabbed his plate and tried shoving the whole thing under the coffee table, but the cake was too tall. Don’t worry…I cleaned the icing with my sock. So I tucked the plate on the shelf underneath the coffee table, and crossed my feet in front of it.

Little Guy came back, paused, looked around a bit, and finally reached for Hubby’s plate. Without moving my eyes from the tv, I said, “ that’s dad’s cake”. So he returns to the kitchen and I hear intermittent movement and pausing before he strolls back to the living room, looks at table, and goes back to the kitchen. I’m trying so hard to pretend I’m watching tv and not smirk. I hear more movement and pauses, cupboard doors, even drawers, opening and closing, followed by the fridge door opening and closing, twice!! Hubby was struggling not to giggle but a snicker leaked out and that tipped him off. It was probably the best 5 minutes of the year!

The next night, we split town as soon as school was over. Traffic was heavy but moving. I took a rest stop and filled up with gas before waiting in the drive-thu for 30 minutes for 2 boxes of french fries. The fast food restaurant was severly understaffed, and the wait inside would have been longer.

While most of the birds who frequented my parents’ diner have flown the coop, Hoover the chipmunk is still around and still living up to his name. Not only is he covering every square inch for every crumb, but his tail stands straight up like the handle of upright vacuum (except in every photo I took), and, like a water divining stick, it never ceases twitching.

He’s putting on a little pre-winter, post-covid weight

Dad mowed the lawn Saturday afternoon, and very carefully mowed around giant mushrooms growing in the yard so I could take some pics. I went out the next morning, but the grass clippings had dried on the white tops. These things seriously looked like flattened coconuts!

This kind won’t take you to Wonderland!

We had our turkey dinner Saturday evening. I don’t know if it was a boy or a girl; apparently we sacrifice both. Dessert, of course, included 2 kinds of pie for dessert: pumpkin and green tomato. A slice of each, please; I must follow tradition!

I was still blissfully snoozing in bed Sunday morning when my dad brought me my phone. He said it was chiming. It turns out it wasn’t my phone but an alarm on my iPad. Which the settings said was turned off. I had set it for Saturday morning so I could go grocery shopping (yes, on my holiday), but it had failed to go off. That was my fault – I set it for 9 p.m.

It was a good weekend, filled with good food, a few games, and a lot of doing nothing! But all good things must come to an end, and we hit the road again Monday morning. We were only 20 minutes into our two and a half hour journey when traffic started to slow. By 40 minutes, we were parked and not thinking happy thoughts, when a fire truck screamed by us on the shoulder. We had just passed an exit, which was lined up all the way to the highway. Now we knew why. We crawled along patiently for another thirty minutes, trying not to think about peeing, and seeing no sign of an accident or an exit. Normally, we would have passed the next exit in 5 minutes. Then, as if someone flipped a switch, we were cruising over 100 km/hr again. It slowed in places again but never that bad. I had a guy in a truck pulling a trailer cut me off, twice. Just so I didn’t feel bad, I saw him cut other people off too. He never shoulder-checked!

Hubby is on vacation this week, which makes little difference to me. He occupies the same space whether he’s at work or not! We got a text last night from his brother saying that his father would be at our house around noon. He had asked Hubby to go with him to a neighbouring city to pick up a tool and I hope the 6 hour drive is worth it! While they’re out, I’m going to sneak in some video games. I hope it’s worth it!

We missed Big Guy, who was serving in his church on Sunday. I’m proud of him, but also warning him. He needs to book off Christmas! He’s promised to visit soon.

Big Guy recently sent me some photos from his work site… Most people laugh when I say he climbs trees for a living, but his kind of work makes me both proud of him and terrified for him.

It’s not just the height…it’s the hydro lines. And the sharp power tools. I’ve watched CSI. I know what a chainsaw can do! At times, it’s the height, the tools AND the hydro lines during a heat wave, a tornado, or an ice storm. He may be a grown, skilled worker, but he’s also my baby…with ADD, hanging from a rotting tree branch. I love him.

“Ok, now just pull back and let’s see if I can slingshot over to catch that Ol’ Roadrunner”

CMMC: Orange or Light Green

Tags

cmmc, Fall, flowers, garden, nature, Photo Challenge, photography

October is the opal month of the year. It is the month of glory, the month of ripeness.
It is the picture-month.

Henry Ward Beecher

Auntie M shared these pretty ornamental plants from her garden. These fast-growing perennials are called Japanese lanterns, Chinese lanterns, winter cherries, bladder cherries, or strawberry groundcherries.

The large, bright orange pods contain the fruits or seeds. They have a white flowers in July, which turn into green pods in August. By September, the pods transform into orange, which can become very deep over the winter. By Spring, the papery pods will break down, releasing their seeds for the new crop.

Oops…we’ve got company!

They can be invasive because they are very hardy and spread quickly, so while they provide excellent ground cover in a garden and colour in the Fall, they will need a firm hand.

These pods can be dried indoors and will provide colour and texture in arrangements for many months.

I’m so glad we live in a world with Octobers.

Lucy Maud Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables

This is my post for Cee Neuner’s Midweek Madness Challenge: Orange!

Happy Thanksgiving

Tags

Fall, family, food, gratitude, nature, photography, tea, thanksgiving

Sending you warmest wishes from our home to your home…

…and from our heart to your heart.

May your Thanksgiving be a beautiful reminder of all the blessings you possess.

Happy Thanksgiving!

CMMC: Autumn

Tags

cmmc, Fall, family, nature, Photo Challenge, photography, River scenes, Wilderness Wednesday

Since it’s the last Wednesday of the month, Cee Nuener’s Mid-Week Challenge asked for photos related to Spring or Fall, and in an effort to fall in love with Fall as summer wanes, I decided it would be fun to revisit it, from 10 years ago. I was just beginning to learn more about photography than taking family photos. That Thanksgiving weekend, I spent a lovely, sunny afternoon with my Dad and kids.

First we went to the park to see how low the Falls had dropped.

It was so low, we could walk on the riverbed.

Then we went to woods to just wander around.

We stopped by the river north of town and found this fellow enjoying the sunshine too.

That same weekend, I went for a walk down the road with my Mom, to burn off some of that green tomato pie.

Here’s to the twilight, Here’s to the memories
These are my souvenirs, a mental picture of everything…
Here’s to your bright eyes shining like fireflies
These are my souvenirs, a memory for a lifetime.

Switchfoot, Souvenirs

Happy Wednesday!

CB&W: Weather

Tags

black and white photography, CB&W, clouds, ice storm, nature, Photo Challenge, photography, rainy days, storms, Wilderness Wednesday

When the weather is hot, keep a cool mind. When the weather is cold, keep a warm heart.

Ajahn Brahm

Spring

Summer

Fall:

Winter:

Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass but learning to dance in the rain.

Happy Wednesday!

This is my post for Cee Neuner’s Black & White Challenge: Weather.

His Name is Earl

Tags

dragonfly, humour, nature, nature photography, photography, summer, Wilderness Wednesday

His name is Earl.

He decided to hang around poolside when Big Guy and I went for his final swim. After posing for pics, we left him alone for a nap.

About 20 minutes later, I noticed Earl fighting for his life in the water. I grabbed the skimmer, fished him out and put him in the sun to dry off.

I’m not sure, but as we dried off and wished him farewell, I think Earl winked.

“You don’t have to be my friend. I’ll train you.”

-Unknown

CMMC: Daisy, Daisy

Tags

flowers, garden, nature, photography

Daisies are like sunshine to the ground.

Drew Barrymore

Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer do
I’m half crazy all for the love of you

Daisy Bell, Nat King Cole

This is my post for Cee Neuner’s Midweek Madness Challenge: September Close-Up

Happy Wednesday!

Wilderness Wednesday: Rose of Sharon

Tags

bees, flowers, garden, nature, photography, Wilderness Wednesday

From sunrise to sunset, my rose of sharon trees are buzzing with activity – honey bees, bumblebees, wasps…and an occasional humming bird. They are all enjoying the glorious sun while it lasts, and preparing for winter’s deep slumber.

Let us not go hurrying about and collecting honey, bee-like buzzing here and there for a knowledge of what is not to be arrived at, but let us open our leaves like a flower, and be passive and receptive, budding patiently under the eye of Apollo, and taking hints from every noble insect that favours us with a visit –
sap will be given us for meat and dew for drink.

John Keats

Happy Wednesday!

Just Breathe

Tags

food, nature, photography, tea, tea addict, tea cups, tea lover, tea photography, tea time

That soothing sensation of serenity when you’re on vacation, particularly in the Great Outdoors, is irreplaceable. But even if you can’t get here, thanks to Covid, there’s still a way to capture (or recapture) that sense of peace…

Studies have shown that just by looking at photos of nature for as little as five minutes can have a similar calming effect on the brain. How? The images engage the part of the central nervous system that helps us relax, and therefore help to calm our anxiety and fear. Especially photos with just a little green in it!

Another study encouraged people to take photos of either themselves, things that made them happy, or things to share because they know it would make others happy.

Those who took selfies found themselves more comfortable in the their own skin, and therefore, more confident.

Those taking photos of things that make them happy reported an increased sense of appreciation and joy in the day-to-day.

And finally, those who snapped and shared photos with others in mind reported less stress and an increased sense of connection in these relationships.

So take some time this week to look at photos of the people or things that make you happy, share an image or two, or take your camera for a walk in your home or your neighbourhood. Engage your senses. Appreciate your blessings.

Breathe!

Happy Monday!