Out For A Walk

I only went out for a walk, and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in. ~ John Muir

It's time for another walk around town. Put on your comfy shoes and catch up, will ya?

There is no blue like the blue cup the tall delphinium holds up. ~ Louise Driscoll

The delphinium, also known as larkspur is a beautiful flower, particularly when it soaks up the rays of late-day sunshine. There are still quite a few buds left to open.

When it comes to large boats, I have a yacht to learn. ~ Ken Poirot

My walks almost always take me to Little Lake. It draws many others by foot, by wheel and by water.

To live in hearts we leave behind is not to die. ~ Thomas Campbell

This touching little memorial on a tree stump had been by the water's edge for quite some time. I assume that there had been a flower in the earth, and that perhaps the candle had been lit a time or two. It was allowed to remain for at least a month before it suddenly disappeared. Rest in peace, Denvar.

I don't have ugly ducklings turning into swans in my stories. I have ugly ducklings turn into confident ducks. ~ Maeve Binchy

This mama Mallard and her triplets were out for a stroll by the water. I notice that the water fowl are not overly fearful of people around here. I was only a few steps away.

Don't take me under your wing and tell me that scent is duck sauce ~ Josh Stern

I love how the little guy in front is checking out the height of the drop down into the water. Eventually, they all did make the jump but it was getting darker by then and the photos didn't turn out very well.

Duck love is recognizable in any language. ~ Edmond Manning

For now, they all decided to settle in for a while with their mama.

A girl's first true love is her father. ~ Marisol Santiago

This little sweetie pie and her dad were enjoying a nice little tête-à-tête over something. She had such an intent look in her eye...

A man's daughter is his heart. Just with feet, walking out in the world. ~ Mat Johnson

Until she noticed me taking their photo. Then it became quite the speculative look. As you can now see, it was a pair of mallards which had held her interest.

Stay, little cheerful Robin! stay,

And at my easement sing,

Though it should prove a farewell lay

And this our parting spring. . . . .

Then, little Bird, this boon confer,

Come, and my requiem sing,

Nor fail to be the harbinger

Of everlasting spring.

~ William Wordsworth

This was one of the first warm days in May and the robin had been happily splashing in the lake until I came along, at which time she stood stock still. Nothing to see here.

Now, finally, this House gets to see a 'bromance' close up. Thanks for making that possible. Although I still think 'dudeplomacy' is more accurate, but I'll get over it." - Justin Trudeau as he introduced Barack Obama in the House of Commons.

I saw this around the time that the presidents of Mexico and the U.S. were visiting Canada for the North American Leaders' Summit. This trio somehow reminded me of the three amigos - blue for the U.S., red for Canada and green for Mexico.

Come, pensive nun, devout and pure, sober steadfast, and demure, all in a robe of darkest grain, flowing with majestic train. ~ John Milton

There's a lovely church just a short walk from my place and on this evening, I snapped this photo of a nun just ending a stroll of her own.

'O Tiger-lily,' said Alice, addressing herself to one that was waving gracefully about in the wind,

'I wish you could talk!'

'We can talk,' said the Tiger-lily: 'when there's anybody worth talking to.

~ Lewis Carroll

Glowing in the setting sun, this lovely tiger lily cleared its graceful throat and spoke to me. I was happy to listen.

Thanks for joining me on the walk. Time to relax with a glass of wine or an ice cold beer. Of course, if it's morning when you're reading this, there's a pot of coffee in the kitchen. Help yourself!

More photos as soon as they're ready.

Beautiful Reserve

I've been mostly absent from the blogging scene these past several weeks. It sure takes a lot of blood, sweat and tears to ready a home for sale. I've collected a lot of "stuff" in twenty-nine years and the house has needed a lot of work to get it up to snuff. But I'm just about there. I think it will be on the market before this week is over. And then it's a waiting game to see when it will sell.

I'm not looking forward to the constant care to keep it looking pristine, and then disappearing on short notice while the home is being shown. But that's all part of the game and it must be endured if I ever want to haul my behind up to our new place. And I most definitely do.

I've not had time to take many photos lately and even less time to put a blog post together but I did set a few up in advance a long while back. The following images are from late spring and early summer. I'm sure most of us would enjoy receiving flowers at this time of the year. These are my gift to you.

One of the most attractive things about the flowers is their beautiful reserve.

~ Henry David Thoreau

By plucking her petals, you do not gather the beauty of the flower.
~ Rabindranath Tagore





The smallest flower is a thought, a life answering to some feature of the Great Whole, of whom they have a persistent intuition.
~ Honore de Balzac





Summer set lip to earth's bosom bare,
And left the flushed print in a poppy there.
~ Francis Thompson





If you've never been thrilled to the very edges of your soul by a flower in spring bloom, maybe your soul has never been in bloom. ~Terri Guillemets






Happiness held is the seed; Happiness shared is the flower.
~ John Harrigan





Every flower is a soul blossoming in nature.
~ Gerard De Nerval




Loveliest of lovely things are they on earth that soonest pass away. The rose that lives its little hour is prized beyond the sculptured flower.
~William C. Bryant





The flower is the poetry of reproduction. It is an example of the eternal seductiveness of life.
~ Jean Giraudoux

More photos coming up... sometime.

Snow in Summer and Other Simple Joys

Frank and I have been up at our new place for the past couple of days. There's so much to learn about our home, our surroundings, the wildlife and our own everyday life. I'm not here full time yet as I still have to return to the city to continue readying my house for sale.

In the short time that we've been here, we were greeted by a great blue heron upon our arrival, have watched an osprey fly by with a fresh catch, were serenaded by a family of loons (I can hear their haunting call right now as I type) and have had countless close encounters with hummingbirds and chickadees.

Yesterday morning, I watched the sun rise over the forested hill across the bay. It was beautiful sky and of course, I took photos so that I could share it with you, but Frank's laptop is being fussy about communicating with my camera and so they will have to wait until after my two week stay here is over, and I head back to the city to continue prepping for the real move. In the meantime, I'll offer some photos which I took around Frank's previous place a few weeks ago.

On this warm, summer day, it snowed in southern Ontario...


There's something especially nice about a sunny day after the rain. Perhaps it's partly because the many puddles duplicate the beautiful surrounding, providing us with even more of Mother Nature's finest.






They say that the early bird catches the worm. I think this female red winged blackbird would have to agree.






I suppose there were some worms involved in this boy's day also.






Seeing that he had competition, the Great Blue decided to fish elsewhere.






The daisies stood all fresh and crisp to welcome the day.






And tiger lilies seemed to open and soak up the warmth of the sun.







This dragonfly had seen better days but he seemed to know when to stop, rest and have a sun bath.






These clouds looked rather innocuous.






And yet it snowed for days - at least a week.





Cottonwood seeds. They're in the forecast every year.

I hope you enjoyed my snowy summer day. More photos coming up soon.

Sing a Rainbow

Red and yellow and pink and green, purple and orange and blue,

I can sing a rainbow, sing a rainbow, sing a rainbow too.

Listen with your ears, listen with your eyes, and sing everything you see,

Now you can sing a rainbow, sing a rainbow, sing along with me.

~ Arthur Hamilton

Red




and yellow




and pink




and green,




purple




and orange




and blue,




I can sing a rainbow,
sing a rainbow,
sing a rainbow too.




Listen with your ears,




listen with your eyes,




and sing everything you see,




Now you can sing a rainbow,
sing a rainbow,
sing along with me.

Days of Halloween Passed

When I was a kid, Halloween night seemed to last forever. I remember the paths we'd take, up and down neighbourhood avenues and along a particular stretch of a main street, where some stores shelled out all-day suckers and bags of chips to the princesses, ghosts, witches and skeletons which paraded through their shops. We'd dart back and forth across otherwise empty streets to the houses where pumpkins glowed on their front porches.

People were generous, which was a good thing because we kids were greedy, rushing home to empty our heavy, near-full bags to discover that its enormous weight was due to at least a dozen apples. We didn't worry much back then, about finding sinister items in our treats. The only nutcases to be found were those which encased handfuls of loose peanuts. Candy bars were a rare and most welcomed coup. We'd sort the mound of goodies into a few piles - apples, peanuts, molasses candy kisses, chocolate treats and lolli-pops. And gum, which was usually boxed in mini-packets of two Chicklets each. Of course we also always carried around UNICEF boxes, which were usually filled to capacity, and turned in at school the next day.

I think Halloween was my Dad's favourite holiday to capture on film. He used to have a movie camera, and I can remember seeing endless, silent footage of children arriving at our door, holding out bags and waddling off in their over-sized costumes, to ring the next doorbell. Mom also got into the act. As the camera turned in toward our own living room, there was Mom, all dressed up as a hobo in Dad's plaid shirt, baggy pants and a floppy hat. Her ensemble complete with the black paper which came inside boxes of chocolates, secured around her front teeth to create the illusion that she'd been gummin' it for years. She didn't need to be reminded to show off her toothless grin that night. She cracked her own self up, and her smile was ever-present.

A decade later, I can remember my parents hosting a costume party for adults only. My sister and I were too young to be a part of the fun, but old enough to understand why we were excluded. We didn't hang around that night, but we did see the photographs sometime later. Mom decided that she'd be some sort of plumber-toilet hybrid that year. Her costume consisted of an apron, rubber gloves, boots and a plunger. Around her neck sat an actual (unused) opened toilet seat, and a roll of toilet paper perched on top of her head. Dad regressed into infancy, and wore a nightgown and baby bonnet with matching booties. In his mouth was a giant, boob-shaped pacifier. He might not have done much talking that night.

Once I started partying on my own, I hosted a "fictional character" theme costume party, one Halloween. My friend Carol Anne and I worked hard at designing and creating our costumes. My boyfriend and I dressed up as Peter Pan and Tinkerbell respectively, only briefly considering reversing the roles. I used wires, plastic wrap and glitter to make my wings, and aluminum foil was used to wrap up a star-tipped wand. I ended up spreading so much fairy dust glitter around, that I continued to vacuum it from my small apartment for months, perhaps years later. Somewhere I have photos, but I'm sober, and I'm not going to post them.

The best costume, by far, was Carol Anne's "Cat in the Hat" of Dr. Seuss fame. Like I said, we worked long and hard at creating them and just minutes before the party began, I helped her with the finishing touches. The body portion of her costume consisted of all black - leggings and a turtle-neck jersey. A leotard, complete with wiry tail was worn over the first two items, and a hood with ears for the cat's head was tucked inside her collar. Before topping that headpiece off with the famous red and white striped hat, we needed to secure the hood by sewing it into the turtleneck jersey, creating the illusion of an all-in-one piece. Black make-up gave her some cat's eyes, a black nose and whiskers. Once she added the hat, Carol Anne looked great, and quite proud of herself, she happily poured a drink and went about enjoying the party.

Everyone arrived in some amazing costumes, but there was no doubt that The Cat in the Hat was the hit of the party. Carol Anne struck up a conversation with an old friend and she poured herself another drink while he admired her costume. He asked her about how she put it together. Proud of her handiwork, and of our brilliant idea to secure the costume by sewing her into it, she went into detail describing the process. He smiled. Then he laughed. Then he just looked at her and laughed some more. Finally he asked her "How are you supposed to go pee if you're sewn into that thing?"

Carol Anne stood there, quietly blinking. She may have uttered a mild expletive as she put her drink down. She never poured another one for the rest of the night and we both learned something about the value of Velcro.

Fast-forward to today. My kids are now adults - long past the age for trick-or-treat. My older son has a house of his own and will be "shelling out" this year for the first time under his own roof. Their years of running around the streets in costume with a UNICEF box seem to have lasted such a short time. The excitement they felt when getting ready to charge the neighbourhood was contagious. I couldn't help but feel transformed back to my own youth alongside them. I hope that when they think back to those years, they will remember the magic of those special nights, and feel the joy in discovering them all over again with their own children.

What were some of your own, or your kids' favourite Halloween costumes? Here are a few photos of my kidlets in costume from various days of Halloween past (and a couple of images of how they appear today). Please excuse the poor quality of the photos. They were scanned and enlarged considerably.




From a very young age, Jeffrey knew what he wanted and often figured out a way to achieve it. When he was three, his wish to dress up as an all-season tree had me 'stumped'. I scanned images of autumn leaves, winter snowflakes, spring flowers and summer apples, and used markers to give them colour. This was back in 1990 and I didn't have a colour printer yet. I cut the shapes out and glued them to a piece of green material. A trip to the craft store provided me with the birds and nest that we perched atop his head. Velcro might have been involved.




Here's Jeffrey all set to put out fires in neighbourhood Jack-O'-Lanterns. By the time he was in Junior Kindergarten, he was fascinated with the idea of becoming a fire fighter - and a doctor, and a garbage collector, and a scientist, and ...




As it turned out, he now dresses like this, an Officer in the Canadian Armed Forces. This photo was taken when I visited his home (about 5 hours from my own) in early September. He's on course for Air Traffic and Air Weapons Control.




Aladdin was very popular when Jeffrey was 6. His birthday was the previous April and he wanted an Aladdin theme party, hence the birthday banner behind him. Six months later he wanted to dress up as his favourite character and hit the streets with his sidekick...




At age 3, Alex was now old enough to join his brother. He was less opinionated than Jeffrey and allowed us to dress him as Abu, the primate that accompanies Aladdin. It quite suited his little monkyish character.





On to scarier costumes. I'm surprised my kids sat still for the make-up jobs that were inflicted upon them over the years, but they happily endured it twice a day - for the school parade and at night. Here's Jeffrey being a not-so-scary vampire.





Alex waddled through the streets dressed as a dinosaur. At 4, he was less inclined to sit still for a full make-up job....





But at aged 5, he showed tremendous patience. Alex loved being a tiger so much that we painted him up the same way for the following Halloween.





He has since abandoned the tiger look and grown his own very impressive lion-like mane. This was taken a few months ago. That guitar seems to be a regular part of his dress code too.

I hope you enjoyed these costume photo from when my kids were little.

Happy Halloween everyone!

This was mostly a repost from a couple of years back. Only the photos and descriptions of my adult sons are recent. Thanks for reading.