Summer Colours

"The whole world, as we experience it visually, comes to us through the mystic realm of color." ~ Hans Hofmann



Bright and beautiful in her summer pastels, Lily's visits always makes my day.




A summer sun shower produced this lovely rainbow.




On one of my walks around the pond, I found this happy little mess of colour just lying in the grass, waiting to be photographed.




A few weeks ago, my sister, two cousins and I had lunch together. We shared a chocolate fondu for dessert.




At Frank's place, he found this spider web which was glistening in the late afternoon sun.




So was this one. I love the colours.




On our way to the cottage, this truck was promoting a sixties music radio station. It brought me back to 1967.




This colourful little guy accompanies us everywhere we go. He sits on the dashboard of Frank's car.




Up at the cottage, one of Frank's many boxes of colourful goodies meant to entice a fish.




After a long day of fishing, the colours of the sky bid us goodnight.

Checkin' It Out and Posts of the Week

Skittles is curious and hungry for something new. That something is a piece of barbecued chicken on the end of Alex's fork. If you have an appetite for some great blog posts, be sure to check out the Posts of the Week below.



The icon to the left here is yours for the taking if your blog post has been named as a Post of the Week - either as top post or as a runner up, today or in past weeks. I've decided to start mixing up the colours each week. Take whichever one appeals to you. You'll find others in past posts.

This week's top post goes to:

I Wear His Watch...
by Wendy
at Changes With Seasons

Other wonderful posts in no particular order are:

Shakespeare, Einstein and Me
by Don
at Ffocuss

We Are Total Goofs
by Beth
at Be Yourself

Granddaddy's Hands
by Brian
at WaystationOne

Share and Share Alike
by Debbie
at Suburb Sanity

Storm Warning
by DS
at Third-Storey Window

The Big 21
by TechnoBabe
at TechnoBabe's Adventures

The Spirit of Pink
by Stacey Dawn
at Stacey Dawn Images

Hurry Up, Mommy
by MPM
at Mental P Mama

Noctilucent Clouds
by Zuzana
at Life Through Reflections

Please drop by their blogs for a visit and leave a kind comment if you have the time. Also, please feel free to add your own choices (for any blog except this one) for a specific blog post in the comments section below, where others can see them.

Thank you.

Sunsets Unlimited

"Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky." ~Rabindranath Tagore




"It is almost impossible to watch a sunset and not dream." ~Bern Williams




"We sleep, but the loom of life never stops and the pattern which was weaving when the sun went down is weaving when it comes up to-morrow." ~Henry Ward Beecher




"May I never miss a sunset or rainbow because I am looking down." ~Sara June Parker




"At sunset, Nature is painting for us... day after day... pictures of infinite beauty."
~John Ruskiin




"Softly the evening came. The sun from the western horizon Like a magician extended his golden want o'er the landscape; Trinkling vapors arose; and sky and water and forest Seemed all on fire at the touch, and melted and mingled together." ~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow




"'Tis the sunset of life gives me mystical lore, and coming events cast their shadows before." ~ Thomas Campbell




"One of the most satisfying experiences I know is fully to appreciate an individual in the same way I appreciate a sunset. When I look at a sunset...I don't find myself saying, 'Soften the orange a little more on the right hand corner, and put a bit more purple along the base, and use a little more pink in the cloud color...' I don't try to control a sunset. I watch it with awe as it unfolds." ~ Carl R. Rogers




"Give me the splendid silent sun at sunset." ~ Walt Whitman




"The sunset caught me, turned the brush to copper, set the clouds to one great roof of flame above the earth." ~ Angela Sanbrano

Dog Days of Summer

Our visits to the cottage are an animal lovers dream. Not only are we surrounded with the wonderful wildlife - herons, owls, eagles, loons, hummingbirds, chipmunks, red squirrels, etc. We also enjoy the company of raccoons as seen in Sunday's post and some wonderful canine critters - good company for Benny.



On our first trip up this year, beautiful Una was there. She's a gentle, placid Great Bernese who belongs to Frank's sister, Lisa.




Sporting a brand new summer haircut is Theresa's handsome sheepdog, Duncan. He didn't drink too much of that beer.




Benny loves him.




Theresa's sons and their girlfriends joined us for part of our visit. Each of them brought their dogs. This is Darwin, a Bull Terrier and Australian Shepherd mix. He's the only dog I've ever met that could match, no, exceed Benny's energy level. He's also longer legged than Benny so he could really run circles around him.




Of course this means that Darwin needs to recharge, and what better place than the hammock?




Benny loves him too.




This lovely Golden Retriever is Weston.




And true to his breed, he does love to retrieve.




In fact, three of the dogs had a bit of a competition happening at one point. All of the dogs seem to love it up at the cottage.




Who wouldn't?

Posts of the Week - Supersized!

We're headed back to the cottage for about a week which means that next weeks POTW might suffer once again. Luckily, this week's edition is supersized with more links than usual. I have a two more posts set to go for Thursday and Sunday. I should be back shortly after that, so I'll catch up with comments and your blogs at that time.

The icon to the left here is yours for the taking if your blog post has been named as a Post of the Week - either as top post or as a runner up, today or in past weeks. I've decided to start mixing up the colours each week. Take whichever one appeals to you.

This week's top post is a tie and it goes to:

The Tale of Two Teachers
by Lime
at House of Lime

and

Low Sodium Diet
by Slamdunk
at Slam Dunks

Other wonderful posts in no particular order are:

A Team Effort
by DK
at The Randomness in My Mind

The Art of Appreciation
by Andrea
at Finding Sirius

Multiple Choices
by Friko
at Friko's Musings

Jiminy Cricket
by Jillsy
at Jillsy Girl

He's Not an Octopus but...
by Terrie
at Kappa No He

First the Sound. Then the Fury
by Alane
at Land of Shimp

War With the Cardinal, Himself
by Tabor
at One Day at a Time

Prelude
by Shrinky
at Shrink Wrapped Scream

Here, Now: I Love You
by Sandy
at Writing in Faith

What Would Summber Be Without...
by Pauline
at Writing Down the Words

Sleight of Shell
by Clowncar
at The Oort Cloud

Flash Mob
by Shammickite
at Rook's Nest

Cup of Wealth
by Cloudia
at Comfort Spiral

The Aging Family Tree
by KCINNOVA
at Kcinnova's World

Friends
by Izzy
at Stone Spirit

Readers' Choice:

Recommended by: Suldog

"Jack And The Beanstalk" series
by Michelle
at The Surly Writer.
Subsequent parts can be found by clicking on "newer post."

~~~

Recommended by: Joanna

Inspiration by Matty
at Matty Thoughts

Please drop by their blogs for a visit and leave a kind comment if you have the time. Also, please feel free to add your own choices (for any blog except this one) for a specific blog post in the comments section below, where others can see them.

Thank you.

The Blogging Bandit

Note: Scheduling boo boo. The Posts of the Week published early in error. It'll be back on Wednesday, as it should be.

Excuse me. May I have your attention for a moment, please?

My name is Bayley and I'd like to invite you to a day in the life of my adopted sister Bubbles and me. We were each rescued separately, about a month apart from one another and we're being raised by Frank's sister Theresa, much like Sugar and Spike last year.


Bubbles is a bit shyer than I am. That's probably because she's older and wiser to the ways of the world...




... and Jack Russell Terriers.




It's been hot here in southern Ontario, so we've both been doing a lot of napping. Bubbles prefers to sleep on the shelf of the barbecue...




... or on its discarded cover.




I'd rather just chill in one of the Muskoka/Adirondak chairs...




... or get swayed to sleep on the hammock. Ahh cottage life.




When we're not sleepy, we're very curious. I like to play with shoes...




... and bottle caps.




Bubbles is a little more adventurous. She's thinking about trying those flippers on for size. They didn't fit.




That's not really mustard in that bottle. It's rum. No, I'm kidding of course. It's filled with water in case of barbecue flare-ups. Bubs likes to gnaw on it. Thinking about barbecues makes me hungry.




I LOVE bananas.




A lot!




And watermelon sure is refreshing on a hot day like today.




I recently discovered that leftover pancakes make a great bedtime snack.




That colourful sunset tells me that it's time for bed. Thanks for spending the day with us. And if you decide to come back for another visit, please bring bananas!

Heat Wave

This past week was the warmest I've ever spent at the cottage. Window, ceiling and floor fans helped to keep us a bit cooler at night and blissfully comfortable lake water welcomed our overheated bodies during the day. Everybody found a way to keep cool.



Benny figured out that the big, blue thing stayed afloat even when he was on top of it. He spent far too much time surfing the lake and trying to drink it dry.




Eventually, he figured out how to get onto it all by himself. Just like a child, he had to be watched at all times. He ended up drinking ridiculous amounts of lake water (every splash, every wave, every time his face met the water) and made himself very sick on the last day of our stay.




After a few hours of shivering, whimpering, sleeping, vomiting and peeing a few gallons of lake water, he began to improve. Here he is in recovery mode - feeling much better. He was back to himself before too long - and drinking more water. Crazy little dog.




This little cutie feasted on watermelon which Benny stole from the raccoon kits. The critters here believe in sharing.




There's nothing like an inexpensive pair of flip-flops to invite the breeze to keep your feet cool.




Even the clothespins seemed to be enjoying the gentle winds off of the lake.




Frank and I went fishing for walleye. I got lucky on this particular day.




Three times. Walleye is delicious!




Earlier in the day, Frank's sister Theresa settled into the hammock to read. At sunset, her book and sunglasses still remained.




In a few days, I'll let you know what's cookin' with Bubbles and Bayley.