A Kind of Enchantment

Study lends a kind of enchantment to all our surroundings. ~ Honore de Balzac

It's time for another wander through my area. Come on along, willya?

Don't wait to make your son a great man - make him a great boy. ~ Unknown

I saw these three on the sidewalk just outside my building. Dad, kidlet and pooch enjoying a warm autumn day.

Always find a time to sit on a humid autumn bench to feed the poor birds or to think the dying leaves! ~ Mehmet Murat ildan

Let's head south to the river. It's called the Otonabee and it's part of the Trent-Severn Waterway. It started off in the north end of the town of Lakefield and from this point, it flows through Peterborough into nearby Little Lake and on to Rice Lake. This bench makes for a peaceful place to sit and think.

Anybody who doesn't know what soap tastes like never washed a dog. ~ Franklin P. Jones

It was the perfect day and place to give a dog a bath.

When patterns are broken, new worlds emerge. ~ Tuli Kupferberg

Speaking of dogs, I saw this one when I looked down at the uneven sidewalk.

Imagination is the eye of the soul. ~ Joseph Joubert

And not too far away, a bunny. Gotta love pareidollia. Does anyone else see these two critters?



 

Some of us are like wheelbarrows - only useful when pushed, and very easily upset. ~ Jack Herbert

Before we continue along, this is a bit of a throwback image - taken where I lived previously. The wheelbarrow is leaning up against the shed.

The library is inhabited by spirits that come out of the pages at night. ~ Isabel Allende

Moving along, this mini library is on a street in front of a house near my place. The sign says "Borrow a book or magazine or CD. Return it later or bring another in exchange - or not." I love this idea. I've stopped by a couple of times now - twice to "borrow" a book and on one of those occasions I've also added to the collection. On this particular visit, I noticed that the books in the back were in a messy jumble, so I straightened them up, added a book and left with Texico. I've not read it yet. Kim Zippel is a ward councillor for Peterborough.

You can have a wonky nose and a crooked mouth and a double chin and stick-out teeth, but if you have good thoughts it will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely. ~ Roald Dahl

Folks were getting started at decorating for Halloween.

A grandmother pretends she doesn't know who you are on Halloween. ~ Erma Bombeck

A matching set on one lawn. I think this was supposed to be Curious George.

Blue thou art, intensely blue; Flower, whence came thy dazzling hue ~ James Montgomery

I have always had a soft spot for wild chicory. I'm glad to see it growing rather profusely around here.

The flowers were the color of sunset. And not the yellowish tinge of a lazy sun either, but the intense orange of a sun refusing to set on anyone else's terms. ~ Dolen Perkins-Valdez

A similar sort of flower - only in orange. I think it's Orange Hawkweed.

While the rest of the species is descended from apes, redheads are descended from cats. ~ Mark Twain

And speaking of orange, this little ginger-locked, ice cream-loving cutie is my neighbour. This photo was snapped last month after the Pride Parade.

A girl phoned me and said, "Come on over. There's nobody home." I went over. Nobody was home! ~ Rodney Dangerfield

Another welcoming neighbourhood porch.

Above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you.

Because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. ~ Roald Dahl

And one last throwback to the last place. Sunrise spilling out onto the lake while a heron lands on a floating dock.

Thanks for joining me.

Dreamful Autumn

Pale amber sunlight falls across

The reddening October trees....

Are we not better and at home

In dreamful Autumn, we who deem

No harvest joy is worth a dream?

A little while and night shall come,

A little while, then, let us dream...

~Ernest Dowson

A few days ago, a friend asked me if I wanted to join her for a drive out to nearby Warsaw, Ontario for the opportunity to snap some autumn photos. Well you know me - I didn't need my arm twisted. I charged up my battery and off we headed to the countryside.

Take heart and dive into the quiet maturity of autumn. ~ Kristian Goldmund Aumann

It wasn't the town itself which drew us so much as the drive there.

The leaves fall, the wind blows, and the farm country slowly changes from the summer cottons into its winter wools. ~ Henry Beston

The day had started off sunny but by the time we left, it was mostly cloudy - making the fleeting appearances of sunshine all the more treasured.

I am struck by the simplicity of light in the atmosphere in the autumn, as if the earth absorbed none, and out of this profusion of dazzling light came the autumnal tints. ~ Henry David Thoreau

Barns tend to look beautiful no matter the season - but especially so in autumn.

It was a beautiful bright autumn day, with air like cider and a sky so blue you could drown in it. ~ Diana Gabaldon

This road kept getting narrower and narrower until we reached a point where we realized that the only way out was to back up.

Love the trees until their leaves fall off, then encourage them to try again next year. ~ Chad Sugg

Even the already-bare trees looked beautiful.

Let us not forget that the cultivation of the earth is the most important labor of man. When tillage begins, other arts will follow. The farmers, therefore, are the founders of civilization. ~ Daniel Webster

Traffic jam - country style.

Autumn that year painted the countryside in vivid shades of scarlet, saffron and russet, and the days were clear and crisp under harvest skies. ~ Sharon Kay Penman

A cozy-looking scene.

Autumn carries more gold in its pocket than all the other seasons. ~ Jim Bishop

There certainly was a wealth of gold.

I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers. ~ L.M. Montgomery

We kept pulling over to the side of the road whenever one of these visual treasures dazzled our eyes.

Autumn burned brightly, a running flame through the mountains, a torch flung to the trees. ~ Faith Baldwin

We first stopped here when the sun was hiding and it was rather anti-climatic. As we were about to get back into the car, the sun teased us by filtering its light through the hazy clouds giving us this colourful treat.

The fallen leaves in the forest seemed to make even the ground glow and burn with light. ~ Malcolm Lowry

This scene seemed to radiate its own heat - almost.

It's a beautiful fall day. Gentle wind teases stubborn autumn leaves. Some defy the gentle wind and sway. A taunting dance. Come with me and look at the magnificence of the last dance. ~ Fidelis O. Mkparu

One tree bearing every autumn colour you could imagine.

There is something incredibly nostalgic and significant about the annual cascade of autumn leaves. ~ Joe L. Wheeler

A lovely wall of orange.

Horses make a landscape look beautiful. ~ Alice Walker

These beauties were out enjoying the autumn sunshine.

The essential joy of being with horses is that it brings us in contact with the rare elements of grace, beauty, spirit and freedom. ~ Sharon Ralls Lemon

The young one was curious about the stranger talking to them and clicking photos.

A horse loves freedom, and the weariest old work horse will roll on the ground or break into a lumbering gallop when he is turned loose into the open. ~ Gerald Raftery

Somebody must have rung the dinner bell.

Now Autumn's fire burns slowly along the woods. And day by day the dead leaves fall and melt. ~ William Allingham

A welcoming entrance way into the field.

Take this drink as a token of my disrepute and spin that hay tonight and tomorrow it will be shining golden bright in whatever heavy delirious weave you wish to make. ~ Initially NO

Hay, we're all done here.

It's been trickier for me to get around to visiting your blogs as often as I used to but I do hope to stop by to catch up shortly. Until then, thanks for joining me through the southern Ontario countryside.

A Walk Around the Lake

Perhaps the truth depends on a walk around the lake.

~ Wallace Stevens

Step slightly back in time as we take another walk along the shoreline of Peterborough's Little Lake. These pics were actually snapped during the latter part of the summer but I know you folks have never balked at photographic time travel before, so please join me.

When a stone is dropped into a pond, the water continues quivering even after the stone has sunk to the bottom. ~ Arthur Golden

This is called The Launch Pad. Peterborough is full of whimsical, creative artists and these slingshot-styled resting spots are proof of that.

My Mom said she learned how to swim when someone took her out in the lake and threw her off the boat. I said, 'Mom, they weren't trying to teach you how to swim. ~ Paula Poundstone

How handy to live right across the road from the public dock.

It was one of those places where mist lingers well into the day and the dawn chorus starts early. 

~ Fennel Hudson

Water birds of all kinds are not too shy in the presence of people - even those of us who are toting a camera.

Looking out over the lake, I felt enveloped in the most peaceful, loving utopia. ~ Laurie Kahn

This girl sat for quite a while - probably listening to music, texting occasionally - but mostly enjoying her surroundings.

A lake is the landscape's most beautiful and expressive feature. It is earth's eye; looking into which the beholder measures the depth of his own nature. ~ Henry David Thoreau

And then I happened upon these guys. There are two dogs and they show up on the pier with their people most pleasant evenings, anxious to fetch the tennis balls from the lake.

If there is magic on this planet, it is contained in water. ~ Loren Eiseley

On this day, the daughter had just tossed the ball for her canine friend.

Man is troubled by what might be called the Dog Wish, a strange and involved compulsion to be as happy and carefree as a dog. ~ James Thurber

And nothing could hold this baby back.

Water is sufficient...the spirit moves over water. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

Dad was gearing up to throw this one out for the other pooch. Gotta love the look of anticipation.

He had as much fun in the water as any person I have known. You didn't have to throw a stick in the water to get him to go in. Of course, he would bring back a stick to you if you did throw one in. He would even have brought back a piano if you had thrown one in. ~ James Thurber

You'd think he'd have been launched from one of those slingshots.

Moody and withdrawn, the lake unites a haunting loveliness to a raw desolateness. ~ Dale Morgan

While waiting for the pooches to return, I noticed some charcoal art on the cement.

Take the broken pieces of your life, bake a master cake out of it. Don't stand still like a lake; keep flowing like a stream! ~ Israelmore Ayivor

Each of them after their own tennis ball, though sometimes the stronger swimmer would steal his buddy's ball and make him swim back without it.

The water doesn't know how old you are. ~ Dara Torres

At a different dock, kids were having fun jumping off into the water.

A lake carries you into recesses of feeling otherwise impenetrable. ~ William Wordsworth

And speaking of lakes, this photo was taken a couple of days before moving from my previous dwelling - the final sunrise that I witnessed while living there.


I have many more photos from that time. I continued to snap some even though I stopped blogging in March for a few months. Eventually I'll sprinkle them in among my future posts.

Well here's one more..



Today's blog post was brought to you by the letter R.

Honor the river, stream, lake, or well that makes possible your life, your town, or your city.

~ Gail Thomas

* - * - * - * - * - * - * - * - * - * - * - * - * - * - * - *

Happy Thanksgiving to my co-Canucks!

Who You Are

"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." ~Dr. Seuss

A couple weekends ago, my neighbour, her young son and I headed into town to watch the Peterborough Pride Parade. I expected it to be colourful, upbeat and fun and I wasn't disappointed.

Openness may not completely disarm prejudice, but it's a good place to start. ~ Jason Collins

This was the start of the parade which probably lasted about a half hour. Gotta love the play on words with the GayPole.

If you removed all of the homosexuals and homosexual influence from what is generally regarded as American culture, you would pretty much be left with "Let's Make a Deal." ~ Fran Lebowitz

This local businessman was feeling the love.

Gay teenagers are four times as likely to attempt suicide as straight ones. I wish they knew that there's nothing wrong with them; that they are just a different shade of normal. ~ Jodi Picoult

It was well attended by community kids..

There is nothing wrong with going to bed with someone of your own sex. People should be very free with sex, but they should draw the line at goats. ~ Elton John

... even kids of the four-legged variety.

It always seemed to me a bit pointless to disapprove of homosexuality. It's like disapproving of rain. 

~ Francis Maude

I was quite impressed and pleased with the huge show of support from local churches.

At some point in our lifetime, gay marriage won't be an issue, and everyone who stood against this civil right will look as outdated as George Wallace standing on the school steps keeping James Hood from entering the University of Alabama because he was black.

~ George Clooney

Each carrying their messages of love and acceptance.

It is time for parents to teach young people early on that in diversity there is beauty and there is strength. ~ Maya Angelou

There was also the school board staff and students sporting t-shirts which said "Respect Accept Include."

Ethnic diversity adds richness to a society. ~ Gary Locke

Also supportive were various government branches.

If a bullet should enter my brain, let that bullet destroy every closet door. ~ Harvey Milk

Our much-respected first responders such as the Peterborough Police...

I believe gender is a spectrum, and I fall somewhere between Channing Tatum and Winnie the Pooh. ~ Stephen Colbert

... prideful Paramedics..

When I was in the military, they gave me a medal for killing two men and a discharge for loving one. ~ Leonard Matlovich

... and our always-ready Infantry Reserves.

Don't quit. Never give up trying to build the world you can see, even if others can't see it. Listen to your drum and your drum only. It's the one that makes the sweetest sound. ~ Simon Sinek

Amnesty International followed close behind.

Let's make a law that gay people can have birthdays, but straight people get more cake--you know, to send the right message to kids.

~ Bill Maher

Everywhere I looked I saw youthful faces...

I was raised around heterosexuals, as all heterosexuals are, that's where us gay people come from... you heterosexuals. ~ Ellen DeGeneres

.. and youthful hearts.

I had a hell of a time convincing people I was gay - which was so annoying! ~ Portia de Rossi

There were high-flying butterflies...

Mothers, tell your children: be quick, you must be strong. Life is full of wonder, love is never wrong. Remember how they taught you, how much of it was fear. Refuse to hand it down - the legacy stops here. ~ Melissa Etheridge

.. and those who stayed closer to earth.

I once had a large gay following, but I ducked into an alleyway and lost him. ~ Emo Philips

I'm not so sure this little guy was aware of his flamboyant appearance..

We had gay burglars the other night. They broke in and rearranged the furniture. ~ Robin Williams

... but this guy surely was.

Why is it that, as a culture, we are more comfortable seeing two men holding guns than holding hands? ~ Ernest Gaines

Lots of fun and smiles all around.

The important thing is not the object of love, but the emotion itself. ~ Gore Vidal

The parade ended at a nearby park where folks mingled and muddled through the crowds.

Here is a little tip for all of you. Don't come out to your father in a moving vehicle. ~ Kate Clinton

Thanks for coming along!