Summer Afternoon

Summer afternoon-summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language. ~Henry James

These photos from my two weeks up at our new home, early in August.

There are quite a few perennials growing around the place. This black-eyed Susan made a point of catching my own eye.





To the left of the dock, some of our neighbours boats had Frank yearning for one of his own. He was still doing his homework on which one to buy, at that time but has since made the purchase.





I found this butterfly in a puddle in the paddleboat. I thought it was dead, but when I lifted it out of the water, it clung to my finger, so I placed it on a leaf to either recover or live its life out in a more natural setting. It hadn't moved by the next morning. I suspect its end was near - those wings won't carry it far.





This appears to be a young Hairy Woodpecker inspecting the nearby tree for bugs. In the weeks following, a very vocal Hairy (we call her Hairiette) has visited the feeder daily.





A summer sun shower is always a treat, and so is the rainbow that you're sure to find if you look in the sky opposite the sun.





A refreshing salad to serve up with dinner, loaded with blueberries and raspberries.





If that wasn't enough fruit for you, please help yourself to a banana. You might want to pass on the lemon.





As the sun sets, puffy clouds of cotton candy dot the horizon. There isn't much nicer than a mostly-sunny August day.

More photos coming up soon.

Beneath Your Hat and Posts of the Week.

And all your future lies beneath your hat.
~ John Oldham






"It doesn't matter whether or not you have a head, you must wear the right sort of hat" ~ Kazantzakis

There were a lot of hat-wearers in the crowd at the South Side Shuffle - a blues and jazz festival which is held every year in Mississauga. Members of the band D'mar and Gill were also sporting head-toppers and so was the "dawg" logo.






The whole shadow of Man is only as big as his hat.
~ Elizabeth Bishop







Shabby gentility has nothing so characteristic as its hat.
~ Oliver Wendell Holmes
This lady seemed to enjoy steppin' out in her turquoise hat.





A hat should be taken off when you greet a lady and left off for the rest of your life. Nothing looks more stupid than a hat.
~ P. J. O'Rourke





We may say that many, if not all, of the personality traits which we have called masculine or feminine are as lightly linked to sex as are the clothing, the manners, and the form of headdress that a society at a given period assigns to either sex. ~ Margaret Mead

Time for a tip of my virtual hat with the POTWs.

And now, without further delay, here are the Posts of the Week. The icon below is yours for the taking if if your blog post is named as a POTW.

***

HEROES

Hero
by Rae
at Grams Cracker Crumbs

Hero Cat
by Jim
at Suldog


PHINE PHOTOGRAPHY

Puffin (and Blowing)
by Bob
at Birds and Nature in the Forest of Dean

Morning in the West Country
by Leah
at The Goat's Lunch Pail

Early Morning Cottage Photos
by Anvilcloud
at The AC is on

Fearless (This blog auto-plays music.. adjust speakers accordingly)
by Lisa
at Red Willow

The Deep Green Sea
by Kerry
at Ed and Reub

Milford Sound, New Zealand
by Karen
at What Karen Sees

Watery Depths of Granville Island
by Lynne
Glimpses

***

A GOOD READ

Lifetime Friend
by Cloudia
at Comfort Spiral

Transformation
by DS
at Third-Storey Window

An Open Letter to a Rapist
by Dhara
at My Cactus Dress

A Home for the Swifts
by Stephen
at The Chubby Chatterbox

***

YOU'LL LAUGH

Wrong Number....Again
by Chicken
at The Chicken's Consigliere

***

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

For Kate

For Kate.



Thank you for this lovely idea, Karen.

Beautifully Blue

Aside from a couple of days here and there, I've not spent much time blog visiting. It's been about ten days since I've spent any time up at our new place as I'm still focused on getting the old place ready for sale. We came close last week. The house hasn't been listed yet but my agent had someone in mind whom she thought might be interested. There was a conditional offer which was accepted but he backed out in the end. Back to the drawing board. 

Except for this preamble, this post was prepared a while back. I hope you enjoy.

Oh! `darkly, deeply, beautifully blue', / As someone somewhere sings about the sky.

~ Lord Byron

A lone blueberry, sitting atop our deck rail, waiting for someone to come along and claim it.





And this sweet chickadee obliged. But that berry is far too big to fit in its little mouth.






Clever wee thing.






Frank happened to notice our pal, the Great Blue heron resting on the neighbours' raft. He looked this-a-way.






And that-a-way.






And then flew off to share his magnificence with nearby kayakers.






A young Blue jay waits patiently for mama to return with a morsel of food.






Do you think mama will share her bounty?






I can't complete a blue post without showing you the lovely blue skies, late in the day, over Blueberry Island.

More photos coming up soon.

Pure Randomness

So much of life, it seems to me, is determined by pure randomness.

Sidney Poitier 

Just as the title suggests, I have a few random photos for you from late spring and early summer, which don't really fit with any other collection of photos, so I'm sticking them here.


The northern shore of Lake Ontario is only about fifteen minutes from my place in Mississauga. Frank and I headed that way one day, in early summer. After lunch, Frank sat by the water while I went for a walk. I took a few distant photos of this family. A mother walks her restless child over to other family members. The woman on the rock appears to be in deep thought while another one prepares lunch. It's the lovely turquoise and orange colours and serene atmosphere that drew me in.






Mama settles her baby as a couple of gulls watch on.






While we're people watching, this man was hoping to find the radio he had just dropped while fishing by this dock near my home. It was unlikely that he found it - at least not in working order.






Someone must have stepped in it one time too many. This was a outside a low rise apartment building. The yard space is not enclosed and leads right into the park.






Most of its leaves are their usual green but a couple of the branches of the serviceberry bush turn scarlet very early on in the growing season. This photo was taken in May. The tree had produced blossoms but not the berries by this time. It produces just one sprig of red leaves like this every spring. I know not why.






Until this spring, I never noticed how very pink the young shoots of the fuzzy sumacs are. I shot this at a fast shutter speed so the colours appear a bit more intense than in reality but not by much.







This poor tree. A couple of years ago, its branches were removed and the bark marked with a florescent orange X, as an alert for its eventual removal. It wasn't removed. Instead it gave off the slightest growth by the end of that summer. Last year, it had a slightly larger selection of leaves and it still escaped the buzz saw. This year, its leaves filled out more and we were beginning to believe that it was bringing itself back to the land of the living.

We've had a lot of rain and strong wind recently. On one such day, my neighbour Caroline and I went out for a walk shortly after a storm. We discussed this tree and how it seemed to have such a will to keep on living, and how we hoped it wouldn't be cut down. We were still talking about it when we reached that point in the path where we encountered it. We both fell silent. All that new growth which you see above, was lying on the ground beside the tree. It had all extended from a single branch which was narrower than my wrist. Its growing weight combined with the turbulent weather was too much for that branch to bear. I still hope they don't cut the tree down.






Getting up close and personal with an iris leaf after a rainfall.






I'll leave you with this image of the highway just before where we turn off to drive the last ten minutes to our new home. Eventually, I'll be sharing more photos from there. I just need to move in for good, first. ;)

More photos coming up in a few days.

Angry Skies

Rainbows apologize for angry skies.  ~Sylvia Voirol

It was a hazy, hot and humid July afternoon. We were sitting outside on the front step (back at Frank's old place) watching the clouds gather in the sky. Weather was coming.



The sky was spotty - grey in most parts but here and there, the sun shone through, spilling across the field.






Directly above us, angry clouds were slowly churning. It wouldn't be long.






The clear spots became fewer and farther between and the hues became subtle. You might think that I desaturated this photo but the day had taken on its own black and white effect.






It thundered, lightninged and poured profusely. Benny wisely decided to come in out of the rain (where he had been squinting madly to avoid getting water in his eyes) and watch from the sheltered overhang. (Gayle, you recently asked about Benny. How could I not oblige you with a photo?)






Once it was over, the sun warmed the skies with lovely rays of light.






Moistened trees glistened in the sunlight.






And all was well in that magical space between rain and sun.

This was another scheduled post so that you know I haven't forgotten you. I'm just keeping busy while setting up one house while trying to sell the other. More coming up in a few days.