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I am a married woman with children out of the home now developing my own interests, hobbies making my way through the heat of the experiences and days of my life. (Click on pictures to enlarge.)

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Thursday, July 30, 2009

This and That

I am not going to try to download a picture tonight, just a few words for you is all.
-It is hotter than Hades here. We have broken all time records here the past three days. Today was 37 degrees Celcius, yesterday 38. Our normal for this time of year is about 25 Celcius. The humidity makes it horrible at around 60%. The air feels like a sauna.
-My cat does not know what to do in this weather. He is just exhausted. He lays down on the floor and stretches himself out as long as he can get. He even lets me brush him and that is nuts. He is a crazy psycho cat who scratches you just as soon as he can get close enough.
-How do you cool off?? My hour long one way commute each day in my four window down, 60 miles per hour air conditioned car just does not really do the job. I got stuck in a bit of a traffic jam and just about melted. It worries me how the old people and the sick are handling this weather. And there is no break in it for the next week the weather man says.
-I need a vacation to someplace cool!! Off to my bedroom with its two industrial size fans and a box fan in the window. I can sleep through all that noise!!
Skywatch Friday tomorrow, will post something then!!

Monday, July 27, 2009

To Heck with it Part two!!

Once again I cannot seem to get pictures uploaded to my blog. I tryed three times and once I wiped out my upload when I went to send a comment on another blog I visit. I guess again it was not meant to be.
So I will just give a little update for you all!!
-It is so hot here I don't feel like doing anything but hiding in the house and whimpering. Today was 32 Celcius or in other words, Hot as Hades. We are in the middle of a heatwave right now and they are calling for 36 Celcius tomorrow, a record breaker. I think I might melt away.
-My butt (look down a couple of posts) is hardly hurting at all anymore. Thank goodness that fall did not crack anything important!!
-My daughter Lora is getting her tattoo fixed and added onto right now. I am dying to know what she is having done to it. She and I went a year ago and got tattoos on Mother's Day. She was not happy with hers so today is getting that changed. I hope she likes the results. I am going to promise to barbeque all her favorite things for supper tomorrow night if she comes out here for supper to show me!! I'll take a picture!!
-I'll post it here!!

Friday, July 24, 2009

The Butt of my Own Joke

Yesterday at the Westminster Abbey in Mission, I wandered the beautiful grounds taking pictures for a couple of hours. This gate was open when I arrived and then closed when the path brought me around to where I had started. I thought the path and the gate, even open was beautiful so was excited to take a picture of it in the closed position.
Now I have my camera around my neck and my camera back pack on my back so I figured I was a balanced load. Not so I guess when you walk on a loose gravel road in a downhill slant. And you like the light you see and the way the path ahead of the gate glistens in the sun, maybe instead of checking the footing I was checking out the path ahead instead.
Anyways, suddenly my shoe slid on the gravel, my feet went out from under me and down I went.
No big deal, I'm fairly short so it is not a long way down to ground. Can't get hurt in such a short distance. My concern is not for my welfare at that moment but my camera. Its amazing how fast your mind can process the process of the tumble you are in and choose the best way to protect not your body but the body and parts of your precious camera.
So down I go and my butt is the safest thing to land on and to stay upright in a seated position you throw your arm back behind you to stop the flow of falling in a laydown position. I'm glad my camera made it in one piece and I seemed to as well other than my pride a bit!
So fast forward to today and I go to sit outside on my favorite lawnchair for my morning coffee and I came out of that chair at breakneck speed when my butt hit the chair!! What a pain in the butt.
So It only hurts when I sit down, and I can laugh at that!! Laugh at the butt of my joke!!

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Skywatch Friday

For Skywatch Friday I went to Westminster Abbey high above Mission, B.C. and took a few photos overlooking the town. The above picture overlooks Mission. It was a cloudy hazy day today so the sky looks kind of ominous.
This looks to the west overlooking the Fraser River and out toward Matsqui Prairie and further out to Abbotsford.
This looks at the Fraser River and out to the east towards Chilliwack.
For more pictures of the skies above us all, please visit http://skyley.blogspot.com/


Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Blueberry Pancakes

Don't mean to make you all drool, well actually yes I do but what could be more tantalizing than a plate of fresh blueberry pancakes such as this?? We all have our favorite pancake recipes so I won't bother you by posting my recipe. It's probably the same in a lot of respects as one of yours. And the blueberries are fresh picked at the Blueberry farms here in Abbotsford. That is the one thing that I have here that you can't put in your pancakes.
And of course you have to have butter in large quantities to melt over each pancake. Butter, not margarine. There is no substitute for butter. And Maple Syrup. Real Maple Syrup. Not Aunt Jemima or whatever stuff is cheap at the market.
And you have to have a huge number of pancakes so you can eat until you are stuffed with pancakes. Until you cannot fit one more thin wafer in you. Until you have consumed enough to catapult you into a carb coma for the next couple of days.
So What could be better than Fresh Blueberry Pancakes for breakfast I ask???
Fresh Blueberry Pancakes for supper of course!!! Sometimes the best breakfast you can have is to have breakfast for supper.
So try it sometime, I know you will like it!!



Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Watery Wednesday

A few more pictures to share with you all from Minter Gardens. I heard this wall of water before I found it.
This section is the left handed section of the wall. It continues over the right side for the same amount of space.
It was a very hot day this day and the spray and the flow of the water helped to noticeably cool the air here. I loved the sound of the falling water as well. One would of thought you were in a tropical rainstorm listening to the sound of it.
For more pictures of Watery Wednesday scenes please go to http://waterywednesday.blogspot.com/



Sunday, July 19, 2009

Today's Flowers

Here is a couple more floral scenes from Minter Gardens. These gardens are located on 700 acres in the Fraser Valley by Chilliwack, B.C. A garden bench among the flower beds is a quiet place to contemplate the garden.
Mixed throughout the garden were little patches of flowers that also were studies in photography as well.
Both pictures are straight out of the camera, I have had no time this week to tinker on any in photoshop!!
For more of Today's Flowers, please visit http://flowersfromtoday.blogspot.com/

Saturday, July 18, 2009

Weekend Snapshots


My weekend snapshots come from the Classic Car Show my hubby and I went to last weekend. The show was held at Minter Gardens in Chilliwack, a over 700 acre public garden here that is open year round.

There were three sections in the Gardens that contained the Car show and I took so many pictures that I will be showing them here for a long time to come!!
A lot of the cars had pictorials of the before and after shots. Its hard to believe some of the before shots (Wrecks!) and to see the finished products.
Here is a view of just one of the areas of cars. You can see how many there were just here.

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Skywatch Friday

We went to a Classic Car show this past weekend, and sad to say this is the only picture of the sky I managed to take. What is with that??? For more pictures of skies around the globe, please visit http://skyley.blogspot.com/

Gazpacho Soup

It is extremely hot here in this town, summer has arrived at least for today and I did not want to heat up anything including the barbeque for supper tonight. It seems like lately all we have been eating is kind of on the junk food side and I found myself craving something really nourishing, good for you and cold!!
Gazpacho Soup was the answer!!
For those who have never heard of it, it is a cold soup of chopped up and raw vegetables, spices and herbs. Its very tasty, refreshing and full of good nutrients and best of all it is all low calorie, low fat!!
Gazpacho Soup.
1 large 28 oz. can Diced Tomatoes.
1 15 oz. can Fire Roasted Tomatoes.
1 Cucumber
1 Zucchini
1 Red Pepper
1 Yellow Pepper
2 large Celery sticks
1 head Garlic (or to taste!)
1 Bunch Cilantro
1 lime, juice and zest
1 large Carrot
1 Red Onion
1 Jalepeno Pepper
1 TBSP. Sugar
1 tsp. Salt
1/4 tsp. Pepper
1TBSP.Balsamic vinegar
1 TBSP. Worchestershire sauce.
Grate all the vegetables into finely chopped and put into large bowl. Add the spices (rest of the ingredients) and give it a good stir. At this point, put into the fridge to chill completely.
When chilled you can serve the Gazpacho cold, garnish with sour cream and chives if you like.
It is the perfect soup for a hot summer day!!!

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

To Heck with it......

I came here, started to upload a bunch of pictures from a Classic Car Show we attended this weekend, waited, waited, waited, for the pictures to upload. Waited, waited, waited so thought a half hour later while I was Waiting, waiting, waiting, I would go look at some of the other blogs I check out, so off I went. Well, I just had to pass on a few comments while I was waiting, waiting, waiting and totally commented over my upload page. So the pics I have been waiting, waiting for are gone, gone gone.
So you get to share some whine with me instead, cause I have to put it and me to rest tonight and call it a day. I went to that dentist of mine today and my mouth hurts, hurts hurts from it all, so Goodnight all, and I will post some of those awesome car pictures I took another day!!

Monday, July 13, 2009

Macro Monday

For Macro Monday I have added two pictures I have just entered into a Weekly Photo Contest. The Theme for this week is Items of Disrepair - Cracked, Peeling, Rusting, etc.
This is a close up of a window crack on an old truck parked outside a garage in Hope. The truck has been there forever, I don't know if they had plans to fix it but It is a wreck right now as it stands. I like the looks of the window as it is. It has a story to tell, places its been and what its met up with. Sounds funny I know, but a clear unblemished window is kind of boring. As well, how does the world look if you had to look at it through the cracks.
And aren't we all a little cracked in some way by going through life?? It speaks of the experiences we have had, and how we now come to view the world as we see it because of the cracks we live with. Life changes us, life marks us.

Old rusty chains that pull an anchor up in an old boat located in Steveston Harbour. I liked the colours of the rust, kind of earthy colours of nature.
We all have chains figuratively speaking that bind us as well. Chains that anchor us. Or tether us to our lives. Maybe they imprison us in our fears, our inhibitions, or our nightmares rather than our dreams. Maybe they are heavy on our souls, or as light as filament. Maybe they change too and take on different dimensions based on our experiences.
I took these pictures quite a while ago, so who knew I would get to use them for this purpose!!

Thursday, July 9, 2009

Skywatch Friday

I have to say I do not really work hard at all. The pictures today were taken at Reiffel Bird Sanctuary and I was working while I was taking them. Not many jobs really afford you the opportunity to go to beautiful places and spend the day strolling through many different, varied and wonderful scenery. And take pictures while you are at it!! This is the first nice day we have enjoyed in a week, the sky was partly cloudy and the temp was in the low twenties Celcius. My two other co-workers and our three clients spent the afternoon here, enjoyed lunch outside and got a bit of exercise to boot.
This view is the river leading down to the ocean.

This duck was very photogenic and not at all afraid of the camera. He would only present this side though to the camera and after a bit we finally did catch a glimpse of his other side to discover one of his eyes missing. The cruelty of nature.
For more pictures of Skies around the globe please visit http://skyley.blogspot.com/


Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Watery Wednesday

For this weeks Watery Wednesday I take you to a lovely Japanese garden located in Vancouver on the University of British Columbia endowment lands called Notombi Gardens. It is a little oasis in the middle of the University grounds. It is a very spiritual zen like place to relax in, meditate in and just soak up some peace and relaxation.
It was a beautiful sunny day in the Gardens and one would never know that just outside the fence it was crazy with people participating in the yearly graduation ceremonies. We really enjoyed our little respite from the masses!


For more Watery Wednesday posts please visit http://waterywednesday.blogspot.com/

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Jud Strunk - Daisy A Day

Here is the video for Daisy A Day. Hope you enjoy it!!

I'll Give You A Daisy A Day.

I was visiting a few blogs that I follow tonight and went over to Country Kate's blog at http://chroniclesofacountrygirl.blogspot.com/ and she posted a couple of pictures of daisies and it reminded me suddenly of one of my favorite songs. I posted a few pictures of daisies as well on Macro Monday but it was not until I visited her blog that this song popped into my head.

I'll Give You a Daisy A Day

He remembers the first time he met her
He remembers the first thing she said
He remembers the first time he held her
And the night that she came to his bed

He remembers her sweet way of singin'
Honey has somethin' gone wrong
He remembers the fun and the teasin'
And the reason he wrote her this song

I'll give you a daisy a day dear
I'll give you a daisy a day
I'll love you until the rivers run still
And the four winds we know blow away

They would walk down the street in the evenin'
And for years I would see them go by
And their love that was more than the clothes that they wore
Could be seen in the gleam of their eye

As a kid they would take me for candy
And I loved to go taggin' along
We'd hold hands while we walked to the corner
And the old man would sing her his song

I'll give you a daisy a day dear
I'll give you a daisy a day
I'll love you until the rivers run still
And the four winds we know blow away

Now he walks down the street in the evenin'
And he stops by the old candy store
And I somehow believe he's believin'
He's holdin' her hand like before

For he feels all her love walkin' with him
And he smiles at the things she might say
Then the old man walks up to the hilltop
And gives her a daisy a day

I'll give you a daisy a day dear
I'll give you a daisy a day
I'll love you until the rivers run still
And the four winds we know blow away

Does any one remember this song? My lyrics page says that Jud Strunk was the singer and I remember his version of the song well. But I have to say my all time favorite version is every now and then when I am least expecting it, maybe when for whatever reason I need a lift, or I need a hug, my Hubby will get out his guitar and sing this just for me. It never fails to put a smile back on my face, a warm glow in my heart and lift the blues I was feeling moments before.

Does anyone else have a special song that speaks just to them???

Monday, July 6, 2009

Macro Monday

I happened to catch this little bug on one of my daisies.
Went in for a closer look and he was not even upset at the big camera and human coming in for a close-up!!

He stood up on a petal and took a good look at me as well!!

Saturday, July 4, 2009

Weekend Snapshots

The town I live in held its annual Berry Beat Festival today. Actually all this weekend. In this town alone berry harvesting accounts for 25% of our annual income from agriculture. There are at least 5000 acres of berries planted here.
These are just a couple of snapshots I took today, just straight out of the camera photos. The ladies of the Red Hat Society were all present today, very colourful and festive in thier purple dresses and red hats. It reminds me of the poem I read a long time ago, When I Grow Old I Shall Wear Purple.

Here is one of the hats, festively done up with heart shaped Strawberries.

When I am Old
I will wear Purple!
When I am an old woman,
I shall wear purple - -
With a red hat which doesn't go,
and doesn't suit me.
And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves and satin sandles,
And say we've no money for butter.
I shall sit down on the pavement when I'm tired
and gobble up samples in shops
and press alarm bells
and run with my stick along public railings,
and make up for the sobriety of my youth.
I shall go out in my slippers in the rain
and pick flowers in other people's gardens
and learn to spit!
You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat
and eat three pounds of sausages at a go,
or only bread and pickles for a week,
and hoard pens and pencils
and beermats and things in boxes.
But now we must have clothes that keep us dry,
and pay our rent
and not swear in the street,
and set a good example for the children.
We must have friends to dinner
and read the papers.
But maybe I ought to practice a little now?
So people who know me
are not too shocked and surprised
when suddenly I am old,
And start to wear purple!
--Jenny Joseph
I have always loved this poem, I think because it was a favorite of my Mom's and she has been gone now for many years. It reminds me a bit about her and I feel a twinge of missing her when I think of it. So here it is for you all to read and contemplate.
For more Weekend Snapshots please visit http://slack-jawed.com/
Weekend Snapshots will be hosted at the above address for the time being.



Friday, July 3, 2009

Skywatch Friday

For Skywatch Friday I have chosen a set of pictures I took last weekend of a scene I see each day on my way too and from work. I have always wanted to stop and take some photos and this day I got the chance. This is a distance shot. I love the golden grasses here.
A little bit closer. The animals are llamas. This actually is a Llama farm.

And the barn up closer.
I still want to take some very early morning shots of this place when the wisps of fog are lying over the land.
For more Skywatch Friday pictures please visit http://skyley.blogspot.com/