Photography

Tonight after cutting the lawn I thought I'd go out and take some photos of my flowers; some are in full bloom, some are thinking of blooming and some have come and gone already. This photo is one of my favorite from the bunch I took tonight...

(The quote reads: "The goal is not to change your subjects, 
but for the subject to change the photographer.") 

There's been plenty of times since I've started taking photos

that I've seen things I never noticed before. The quote I added to my flower

picture is so fitting in regards to how I feel about taking pictures as I 

now view so many things in an entirely different light

... so bring it on, I'll take photos til my heart doesn't

dance anymore from the sheer joy of doing so. 

And The Beat Goes On

Well now where was I and what have I been up to? Right, I went to High Prairie and while I was there I went to visit our old farm, this is all that's still standing...

...the old barn and one grainery.  I also stopped off to visit another friend from

days gone by and he has a beautiful spot out of town.

A picture perfect lawn. 

He also has an old Mercury he just bought and he plans to do some work

to it to get it on the road. It's a ragtop and in good shape still. 

Another friend was showing me his prize rack, from a moose this is. The antlers

spread is 61 3/4" (wider than I am tall!); he shot this moose in the fall of '98.

While I was back visiting in my old home town it rained and rained

and rained some more, so no horse back riding for me this trip

out. Naturally the last day I was there is when the sun came

out but it made for a lovely drive back to the farm. 

I spent one evening at the farm then headed back to the city, I took Herb to 

pick up his new/old car, this one I believe is an '82 Camaro.

And the beat goes on... it's back to city life for a bit then I'm going to 

hopefully get back to my old hometown. I WILL get on a horse yet

this summer! The summer has just begun so no worries, there's

plenty of time to work up the courage to do so. ;-) 

Life on the farm is kinda laid back

I've been out at the farm this past while and haven't been posting, less 

the one evening. Generally it takes a long time to upload photos and/or 

I'm wiped by the end of the day. This morning I'll share a few photos I've 

shot over this past few days, some of my personal favorites.

This adorable wee chick had just crawled out of its shell, 

I was rather surprised as it was incubated in the house.

More new critters at the farm; makes me wonder what's going

to happen when these pheasants discover they can fly.

Being on the farm there's always something to keep me busy, 

weeding the flower beds is one of these things. I find the beauty

I see is well worth the time and energy put into gardening.

Just one more flower photo...it's too beautiful not to share. 

Finally our summer has arrived, with the first day of summer comes

the new moon, and what a beautiful sight it was.

As the song goes: "Life on the farm is kinda laid back..." 

kind of but not really; it's a good kind of busy though.

Massive Flooding in Southern Alberta

The largest city in our province is experiencing massive flooding, as are towns surrounding the city. I have NEVER heard of flooding of this magnitude in Alberta. I have a friend who lives in a smaller community outside of Calgary, Alberta and she's been sharing photos of her new home up until they were evacuated; this photo she posted on facebook.

I'm coping and pasting a portion of an article from the National Post, this is dated yesterday:

"Alberta’s largest city was swamped Friday by flood waters that submerged much of the lower bowl of the Saddledome hockey arena, displaced tens of thousands of people and forced the evacuation of the downtown core.

Mounties reported up to four people in flooded areas south of the city may have died.

Communities throughout southern Alberta continued to fight a watery onslaught that began with torrential rains Wednesday night.

From Canmore and Banff in the mountain parks through to Calgary and points east, overflowing rivers continued to wash out roads and bridges, inundate homes and turn streets into dirt-brown tributaries thick with smashed trees and furniture.

About 250 mm of rain had fallen in the flood zone, the Bow River basin, and another 50 mm was expected Friday and 20 mm more on Saturday.

An estimated 75,000 residents in 25 neighborhoods lying along the rivers have been ordered out of their homes. About 1,500 have gone to emergency shelters while the rest have found shelter with family or friends..." 

 

The scene south of the Elbow off Macleod trail and 25 Ave.

  (Jamie Kormarnicki / Postmedia News file)

My prayers and thoughts are with those who are experiencing this devastation and/or the loss of a loved one. Thus far I believe 3 people have died due to this devastating flood. 

Planting

I think I'll go plant me a tree of love, dreams, and aspirations!

On The Road Once Again

...this time to the farm for a while, then I'll be heading further north. The internet is so slow here so I'll post and respond when I'm able to; in other words when I have the patience to sit in front of a computer for a while. This is something which will probably only be if it's raining, or the work is all caught up here.

I enjoyed the drive out to the farm, I love the scenery, the wide open spaces and I'm especially grateful to be seeing sunshine once again.

I love this time of year and having free time to enjoy it!

Happy Birthday Cheryl

My niece who lived with me for just over 5 years turned 18 today; 

18 is adult age in Alberta and when you reach this age

you can vote, get into bars, purchase alcohol, and do all

of the things adults do. My wish for Cheryl is that she 

chooses wisely in life, that she makes good decisions and

doesn't have to learn too much in life the hard way.

I was happy to see Cheryl today, she stopped by for a real

quick visit, about long enough to whizz through, chat real quick,

 and pick up something I made for her... I got dizzy with 
excitement, ohhh to be 18 again! lol 

What's a birthday without birthday cookies? 

This photo is hilarious, a bit blurred but it was such 

a quick buzzing in and out of my house that there 

wasn't even time to get a photo of the finished gift! 

Cheryl my girl, I hope nothing but the 

best for you; that your dreams stay big

and your worries stay small (as the song says). 

I love you sweetheart! 

I Love a Rainy Night

I love to hear the rain falling as I lie in my bed late at night.

 I love  the cool breeze which floats in through my windows and the fresh 

smells which accompany the rain... but does it have to rain every day as well? 

Yup, we've been getting tons of rain, it's relentless! At this rate I'm going to have

to hire a swather to come and cut my grass when it finally dries up. 

This afternoon I went for a drive to visit my sister, and to share a meal; 

it was worth driving home in the rain, the visit was fantastic, the meal
was scrumptious and this was desert...

Sinfully delicious yet fairly low cal, imagine that! 

Now wouldn't you drive in the rain for something 

this good? 

To all of you fathers who celebrate Father's Day, 

wishing you a very Happy and Blessed Day. 

The following photo is of my Dad; I was thinking about him 

tonight and dug out some old photos. My Dad was a farmer

and this was taken after a day of butchering. 

RIP Dad, I miss you more than words can express. 
I love you yesterday, today, as well as tomorrow. 
Happy Father's Day wherever you may be, I hope
we meet again one day.  

Precious

Elyssa came to spend the night with me and we had

us a busy evening, fun but busy! A part of

our evening consisted of making her Daddy

a Fathers Day card. 

The evening passed way too quick, as it does when we have fun.
 To wind down our evening it was movie time and popcorn. This is an
 awesome way for Elyssa to relax and it gave me time to 

clean up the kitchen before tucking her in a wee bit

later than her regular bedtime... but what happens

at Grammy's stays at Grammy's, unless Daddy reads

my blog.  ;-)

I adore my precious granddaughter, she's 

a gift and a blessing and she has a way of 

making my heart dance. Now off to bed with me, 

I'm sure it's going to be an early morning and we're

making blueberry pancakes for breakfast, yummm! 

Oh Me Oh My

I've been slacking, slipping, sliding and not intentionally ignoring my blog, 

it just happens sometimes. I'll blame it on the rain, sounds feasible to me.

Last night I was busy playing with my photos fully intending to post one

here, so much for good intentions, but the good news is today you get

two photos... a bonus day in my sort of twisted thinking! 

Or how about a few photos, just because I can and

like to take photos and play with them? 

This one a friend gave me a rose plant quite some time

ago, I'm pleasantly surprised it's still alive and blossoming.

We've been getting a lot of rain lately, I think that my outdoor

plants are looking for sunshine, that's what they told me this

morning when I went out for a bit of a chat. 

And while I'm on a roll with yellow, here's some beautiful wee yellow flowers

that are a bit shy and won't tell me their names. 

Turning the page... 

Last night this is what distracted me, I hung my award right next to my desk,
(my desk is to the left of this but too messy to expose to the world,
you've all seen enough of my desk by now to know that til I'm 
done being a student I give up and it's just going to stay this way! It is
said that a clean desk is the sign of an empty mind, 
no worries here of an empty mind!) Even though I tried to find hit a stud, 
no such luck and it was an experience to hang this, but as you can see 
I succeeded (even dreamt about a stud, oh never mind... 
see how easily I can become side-tracked!

 But it was an awesome dream!)  
All is well in my world. 

Ooops, we left poor Plubbe-r outside in the rain, 

now we'll have to run Plubbe-r through the 

washing machine next time I do a load of

laundry.... sorry Plubbe-r. Abbie misses you! 

Yup so all is well in my world, the sun is trying to peek

through this beautiful day and this plant told me it welcomes

the warmth of the sunshine. 

Oh me, oh my why do I allow myself to get so distracted and does

it really matter? Only if I allow it to bother me it will so onwards and

upwards, it's off to get this day up and running.

This kind of reminds me of that song:

"Rig a jig jig away we go, away we go, away we go, rig a jig jig

away we go hi ho hi hi hi ho." 

Or something like that, I sort of make

up words as I go sometimes, but life is like that, fake it til you make

it type of a deal, but then I revert to the question what am I trying

to make? I got distracted and forgot what I was making... 

oh me oh my what's a girl to do? :-) I know Google it and insert

the link, that generally works. lol 

Cheers, have a wonderful day and a fantastic weekend! 

Son of a gun we're gonna have big fun on the bayou 

(Love this ladies voice!)

K that's it.

The End... for now. 

Who Walks Who

It was a beautiful evening to take Abbie out for a walk...

We went down to the nearest man made lake and I loved the

reflections; I lingered and stared at the water while Abbie played. 
Whenever I walk with Abbie she wants to play with every

 single person or other dog she sees, sometimes I wonder

who walks who. 

What an Honour

(I interrupt the Cuba posts to bring you 

my latest adventure! :-) )

Today I went to Calgary, my neighboring city, to attend the 

Aboriginal Grad Celebration at the University of Calgary where 

I received my degree from and what a celebration it was! 

I received a sash which was gifted to each Metis student to 

honour our accomplishments. I even did a bit of a jig after

presentation this, or I should say I attempted to.  

There was live music played which I 

enjoyed immensely! 

After the sash presentation and jig there was the

dinner followed by the presentation of 

the Native Centre Awards. 

I was in shock and extremely touched when my name was

called for this award, it was given to one graduate who has

met and overcome many challenges in earning this degree. 

I gave an impromptu speech which came directly from

my heart, I've never been approached and congratulated

and/or hugged from so many people as I was tonight; 

I was truly honored. 

Next came the Grand Entry which all grads were a part of,

then the PowWow began and at 9pm all

Grads were once again led in, this time for the 

"Circle of Honour" Special Gifting Ceremony. 

Once we were all in the circle we were each gifted

an Eagle Feather which has been blessed.

We were then presented with a Pendleton blanket

The energies which floated through the room

were phenomenal, the entire celebration was

fantastic and to be honored with an award...

this is a blessing. I'll be attending one more of these 

celebrations in two years, this will be when I have 

completed the Masters degree. Til then I'll treasure

my gifts and hang my award where I can see it when 

I need inspiration to continue on this journey... the journey

of 1000 essays! 

Vacations

There's no place like home! 

I arrived home at approximately midnight, just in

time to crawl into my nice warm comfortable cozy bed. 

I want to share a few shots some of which I like and don't believe

I've shared in my posts and others which are my favorites. 

I shot this one in Havana when I was ducking

out of the rain waiting for my new found friends

to do their money exchange at a bank. 

This man appears to have no money, 

yet he is rich in character. 

The Havana tour with my new

Canadian friends, yup it was a wee bit wet but isn't

life all about learning how to dance in the rain? 

These next few shots are some of my favorites, I hope

you've all enjoyed visiting Cuba with me! 

"Vacation used to be a luxury, 

but in today's world it has become a necessity."  

~Author Unknown

Cuba Day 7 Keep on the Sunny Side

Today I never left the resort, I spent my day enjoying all the 

resort has to offer and taking photos; a perfect way to spend

my final day in Cuba.

The resort is beautiful, the following shots speak

for themselves...

There are various beach activities; good looking men, 

games, acquasize, beverages, did I mention the 

good looking men? ;-) 

 A pause for the cause; who would have

thought a virgin strawberry daiquiri could ever taste

soooo good? 

Two tosses, highest number wins a bottle

of rum... one game I'm glad I didn't win! 

 If it's solace you're looking for, well

it's not hard to find neither...

A weather appropriate decoration awaiting me in my room. 

Would I return to Cuba? 

In a heartbeat; but next time I'd pick a different time of year

to keep it a bit more on the sunny side. 

The beaches are stunning, the people are wonderful, 

and the service, impeccable. I highly recommend

Cuba, and will rate this vacation a 4.5/5. Not a 5 because

the food left a bit to be desired, other than that I loved

my vacation.