Watery Wednesday

A quiet pool to sit next to and reflect on your day. I love the reflections here.

A waterfall really made of a whole bunch of cohesively held together water drops!

And another shot of the small waterfall, just before it hits the bottom....

For more photos of Watery Wednesday, please go and visit http://waterywednesday.blogspot.com/

Macro Monday

I've been working on some dewdrops lately, trying to get the drops clear.

I have a ways to go. I need more practise!!

These are tulip leaves after a rain shower.

And a tulip bulb as well for you....

For more photos of Macro Monday, please go and visit http://lisaschaos.com/

Today's Flowers

A few flowers from our outing yesterday to White Rock, B.C.

There were lots of curb-side flower beds with spring flowers in each. Daffodils are all over right now, with tulips starting to make their appearance in flower beds.

A tulip for you. As well as the curb-side flower beds there were lots of container gardens up and down the street as well.

You can smell the sweet scent of Hyacinth's before you see them. Purple pansies as well.

I am not sure what this particular flower is, its petals were a bit waxy feeling and thicker giving them a feeling of substance. They almost looked like leaves rather than flowers.
For more pictures of Today's Flowers please visit http://flowersfromtoday.blogspot.com/

Monochrome Weekend

It was a beautiful day today, a perfect day to go to the beach and spend the day. Also a day to try some more black/white photos.

So, a couple of pictures for you of things you would see at the beach!!!

Lots of seagulls at the beach. It's a lot of fun to feed seagulls some of the french fries from your fish and chips on the beach!
Click on the pictures to see the full photo!
To view more photos for Monochrome Weekend, please go to visit http://monochromeweekendtheme.blogspot.com/

Our Hidden Selves

I've been thinking this week on what makes up the people we have become. Pretty deep subject I know, but I have been pretty sick with a nasty infection and an accompanying dose of Vertigo. My world has literally been spinning. I am usually a very healthy person and this infection had me down within a day, it hit so hard. What else hit hard is how I possibly got this infection. And that is what leads me to wonder how we become the people we become.
I am one that sees the good. I understand we all have a bit of bad in us, we have to I think to be able then to know the good. Its a balance.

The blooms of the tree are still beautiful even with the browns of beginning decay showing.

My illness started right after we had to tell the teenager we had allowed to live in our home that he had to leave. The conditions of his being allowed to stay here had all been broken, and the aggression he had became more pronounced as the day got closer to us having to send him out. On his last day, as he was removing his stuff from the room we let him use, I believe his parting act was on my toothbrush. I don't know where he went with it, but when I used it the illness came on.
We tryed to help him, giving him a place to live, and even despite all he was doing or not doing I still tryed to see that good he could of had. I didn't see the brown decay.

I think we are all hard wired to become the people we become at an early age. It can become the wings we fly with, or the chains that bind us. I don't believe we can not change, just that maybe we don't want to even when its apparent that its not working for us anymore. Change can be hard, scary to go through, and if even one thing of our current situation is working for us, then the change is not happening. It's our pay value for our behaviours.
So I will still try and see the good in people, but I am also going to try and become aware as well of the brown edges. My brown edges, because really, I am the only person I can change.

Skywatch Friday

Last weekend at Pitt Polder Lake the sun was on its way down. I took this picture of the sky in colour but thought as well that the sky would look kind of awesome as well in Black and White.

I have been playing with the black and white feature of my camera lately, and trying all sorts of pictures with it. I think it makes the sky a bit more moodier and stormy.
To see more of Skywatch Friday photos, please visit http://skyley.blogspot.com/

Watery Wednesday

We spent Saturday last weekend out at Pitt Polder Lake, just west of Maple Ridge, B.C. Every now and then I like playing with angles when I take a picture so here are a couple of pictures from a different perspective.

And another angle!!

For more Watery Wednesday shots, go to see http://waterywednesday.blogspot.com/

Monochrome Weekend

This weekend we went out to Pitt Polder Lake just outside of Maple Ridge, B.C. It was overcast and a bit cool, kind of a day to get some gloomy pictures. I am not sure about the Black/White feature yet of my camera. I need more practise for sure.

An old fallen log on the river edge.
For more images of Monochrome Weekend, please go and visit http://www.aileni.net/index.html

Friday's Favorite Five

Grateful for a lot today, and also quite a bit sad.
1) Right now I am grateful for Advil and the Ice Pack on my back. Must of overdone it this week at work with outings. We did a lot of outings and not a heck of a lot of work.
2) Steak, Scallops Bites wrapped in bacon and grilled. Then dip it in a combination of Ranch Dressing and Chipotle sauce. Little skewers of yumminess!! We tryed this at Sammy J. Pepper's restaurant and have reproduced it at home now. It is delicious and a little bit addicting.
3) A beautiful sunny day, a walk along the ocean. Huge pink starfish with 20 legs, tons of crabs walking in shallow tides, lots of tidal pools, seagulls, herons fishing, white sailboats and bright kites, fresh fish and chips eaten on a picnic table by the ocean. Sounds like a wonderful day and it was! It was my day today.
4) My cat Speed, who knows I am feeling a bit sad and is snugged right up to me on the couch as I type this. He can always sense when my world is a bit tilted.
5) One of my clients is in hospital, just taken off support.They do not feel she will make it through the night. She is in good loving hands who are caring for her through this transition. I have known her for the 22 years that I have worked for this company. She lived in two of the homes I worked in and cared for her for over half of these 22 years on a day to day basis. My sadness is just mine, I know she will not suffer anymore, a better place is waiting for her. And I am very grateful for that.

For more of Friday's Favorite Five please go and visit  http://susannesspace.blogspot.com/

Watery Wednesday

I have been playing with my Shutter Speed lately as well as the Black/White feature of my camera so water drops are good to practise on!

I found a small water feature in a little Zen Garden in Hope, B.C.  and this is a bit of a close up from that.

I had to climb over rocks and behind the water feature, around trees and brush to get this close and to the side of it.
For more pictures of Watery Wednesday, please visit http://waterywednesday.blogspot.com/

Today's Flowers

For Today's Flowers, I have pictures of one of the surest signs of spring we all wait to see!! Cherry blosssoms and plum blossoms! We have actually had them blooming here quite early this year. Its been a very mild winter and some trees have been blooming since the end of January.

This was a blue sky day, but with these high pressure system days come the wind as well, so getting these pictures clear without blur was a challenge!

These little tufts of blossoms were growing right on the large branches.

I am so short it is hard to take close-ups even with my macro and I was hand holding the camera in the wind so I was lucky to get these!!

Camelia tree blossoms.

Blossoms come in white as well!!

Click on any picture to enlarge them to get the full meal deal!!
For more pictures of Today's Flowers, please go and visit http://flowersfromtoday.blogspot.com/

Monochrome Weekend

This is my first entry for Monochrome Weekend. I have just recently discovered the Black and White setting on my camera and have been experimenting with it. Until then I just converted colour pictures to Monochrome in Photoshop.

A quiet place to sit and rest.

For more pictures of Monochrome Wednesday, please visit http://monochromeweekendtheme.blogspot.com/

Pumpkin Pancakes

One of my favorite foods to eat occasionally for breakfast is pancakes. I am not sure if its the pancakes or all the syrup I get to drown my pancakes in that I like the most and it is a food I would eat more of if it weren't for the fact that flour does not agree with me, or the syrup sticks to me if you know what I mean!!
So when I do make pancakes it is usually for a once in a blue moon treat and I like to make it different and therefore more memorable each time. Rather than just plain pancakes I like to jazz it up with different things to take it up a notch.
So this recipe above cantains Pumpkin and all the spices you would add to say, Pumpkin Pie!!

Pumpkin Pancakes

2 cups flour

3 TBSP. Brown sugar

2 tsp. Baking Powder

1 tsp. Baking Soda

1 tsp. Allspice

1 tsp. Cinnamon

1/2 tsp. Ginger

1/2 tsp. Salt

1 1/2 Cups Milk

1 Cup Pumpkin Puree

1 Egg

2 TBSP. Oil

2 TBSP. Vinegar.

Combine all dry ingredients in one bowl. Combine all wet ingredients in another bowl.  Mix wet ingredients thouroughly and dump over top of dry ingredients. Mix the wet and dry ingredients together until no lumps are left. Cook your pancakes on a griddle at approx. 350 degrees. Serve with butter and lots of Maple Syrup.

These pancakes are really good too with a couple of slices of Maple Smoked Bacon.

Just saying!!!

Macro Monday

A few pictures of silver work for Macro Monday!

These were taken at a local Antique Store we visited a couple of weekends ago.

The intricate silver work displayed here was located on the outside edges of silver plates.

Just needs a bit of polishing!!

Carvings of children and birds as well.

Some decoration on the side of a lamp base.

For more pictures of Macro Monday, please go to http://lisaschaos.com/

Straight Out Of The Camera Sunday

Yesterday was a warm sunny day here on the Mainland, a day just made to go the beach. But this kind of sunny day makes it hard to take pictures in so it was a bit of a challenge to get some photos in the harsh light of the midday sun. I also was trying out the Black and White on my camera, something I have not used before. So here are a few shots from the day yesterday.

These were taken at Mud Bay Park, a wildlife santuary situated right along the ocean. The tide is way out and the flats are just one big pile of mud!!

I have taken colour photos and converted them to black and white in Photoshop before but never used the black and white feature of my Nikon. Another view of the mud flats.

This is a wildlife sanctuary but the only wildlife we saw this day was our foster child!! He insisted on walking out to the edges of the mudflats to see if he would sink!!

I thought I would add a colour picture of the same view as the picture above. See how the sky is really washed out because of the intense mid-day sun.

And finally, a view from across the water to Mt. Baker in Washington. On clear sunny days such as today, the mountain is splendid to see!!
For more of Straight out of the Camera shots, please go and visit http://www.murrieta365.com/