One Part Inspiration...

 One day, when I was coming out of the grocery store, I saw this guy with his accordion singing to no one in particular. I had to take a picture to send to my son, because one of our favourite movies is "Ishtar" - a movie that not many people have watched and fewer people enjoyed. In it, two of the musicians compose this song: Telling the truth can be dangerous business; / Honest and popular don't go hand in hand. / If you admit that you play the accordion, / No one will hire you in a rock 'n' roll band. / But we can sing out hearts out. / And if we're lucky, then no neighbors complain. / Because life is the way we audition for God; / Let us pray that we all get the job. As a family, we often quote that line " If you admit that you play the accordion, You'll never make it in a rock and roll band"...and then "BUT YOU CAN SINNNNNGGGGGG YOUR Heart out" It is the stuff that family legends are made of.  

I started this post a year ago.   And here we are a few days away from the 'spring ahead' time change. What did I want to say about Time Change a year ago?  I have no idea.  But tonight, I have a few things that occur to me. I look forward to the evening light.  It will be nice to come home in the late afternoon and know that I don't have to scurry inside and cozy down for the night, but can hang out and enjoy the sunset or take a longer walk with the dog. I look forward to stretching out my winter muscles. I look forward to bringing out the BBQ.  And putting away the soup tureen. Here's to burgers and fresh salads! I look forward to leaving the long winter nights behind and getting out into the garden and coaxing the bulbs and blooms into action. I am going to enjoy making an appointment to get my toes done.  Nothing says summer like pretty toes. I also will enjoy taking the flowers from the garden and practicing my floral des...

This is how I amused myself the other day while waiting 1 1/2 hours to get into see the doctor.  I had taken this picture of the rainbow and since I had finished playing all the games on my phone, and had checked my messages a million times to see if there was any news (none), I mucked around with Photo Studio and came up with these couple of pictures.  On the phone, it's hard to see that the pink writing doesn't show up very well.  But it was the better picture of the two that I'd taken while driving home from an errand on a rainy day.  So I didn't want to delete it.    I particularly liked this picture and how it turned out because it looks like it is sitting on the floor.  The words are from a song by John Denver.  I see that I transcribed them incorrectly.  It should be "Some days are stone."  But gold might be better and more optimistic. The last few weeks has dumped a lot of rain on our area.  The mornings are very d...

under our paint job at the front door, my husband painted this tree... what is on the floor under the carpet?  only the contractor knows... a love note left from the contractor to the plumber about placement of the fixtures other directions...what does that arrow mean? vanity and tiling ready to be put in the ensuite... last time you'll see this plywood flooring measurements written down for those who know what it means When we were pulling apart The Pokeaway, we found a lot of hidden stuff.  Most of it was junk.  But every once in a while, there was a message written somewhere that meant something to whoever would find it.  I found that part of our journey endlessly interesting.  It was like a construction geocache.  We have had a few  construction geocaches at The Pokeaway.  I've posted them above. Another geocache I find interesting, is the piece of door trim that documents the heights of the children at certain a...

The beautiful tub that my friend gave me.  I saw one like it at her place and she told me her source and found one for me.  It turns out it has a special meaning to her because it came from her dad's collection.  I planted impatiens exclusively and on purpose in honour of my Mom, who loved impatiens.  An added bonus was that when we were dragging it over to it's new spot (it must have weighed about 90 pounds) I discovered that the little hydrangea which I had despaired would ever come back, showed me it's tenacity and displayed a new sprout.  I cheered it on and clapped loudly so it would be encouraged. The advantage of having a young driver is that you can simultaneously drive (back-seat driver) and take a picture of the plane that is flying so low it looks as if it is coming straight for the window.  If my camera had been more high-tech, I could have got a series of pictures.  It was so impressive to see it flying that low !  Perfect...

When the kids were small(er), I usually declined going to extraciricular professional enrichment activiites - partly because it of the expense, and partly because their schedules were more important to keep than my own opportunities. Now that they are older, I am more free to take advantage of what is offered. So a few weeks ago, I made my way across the bridge to the big city to a ukelele workshop. In case you are wondering how I got such clear pictures of the bridge work in progress, I should say that a three minute trip across the deck took me 45 minutes that day - due to an accident at the north end.  There was nothing I could have done except for enjoy the view and take a couple of pictures to show for it.  The workshop itself was a pile of fun.  There were about 25 of us in the room.  All of us knew something about music.  So in the space of a few minutes we learned enough chords to play "Amazing Grace" ,  "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" ...

This is my latest foray into the world of colour.  The brownish colour is the one my son chose for his room a few years ago when I was painting like a fiend to get us moved into The Pokeaway.  Once he picked the colour, the decision was made to go ahead and paint all the upstairs rooms the same - leaving the upstairs hallway and living room green. When my friends came to visit, I joked that we had dirt and grass as our colours. The problem was that my son ended up not liking the colour. I felt his pain, because I have that experience of committing to a particular colour by buying two cans of paint of the chosen hue, and then hating it as I put it on the walls, but having no money (or energy) to change it up, and then having be resigned to living with it.  My son felt it was oppressive, and it looked 'purple' (which in certain lights, I agreed was true) and so for a year and a half, we've been kicking around various ideas about a new colo...

Someone dropped off a box of chocolates in the staff room this week for Valentine's Day.  Food never lasts very long around there.  So if you want some, you gotta take it while the taking's good.  Of course, with this type of chocolate, there are favourites and there are not-so favourites.  The not-so favourites are left for the people who will sacrifice anything to have some chocolate.  I was lucky.  I was one  of the first people to see the box on the table, so I got my pick first.  It was a carmel one.  Mmm..  Of course I wanted another one, but duty was calling, so off I went. I checked in later and this was what was left of the first layer. None one of my favourites were left.  This put me in a moral dillema.  I was brought up with the philosophy,  that one did not start the next layer until the first layer was done. It wasn't proper chocolate box etiquette. However,  I knew that by the time I...

Their parents were going away to celebrate their anniversary, so we offered to have my sisters-in-law come and join our family for a little while.  It was the perfect opportunity to have a weekend-long sleepover.  We arranged to pick them up after school on Thursday and partied until Sunday night. It was so much fun.  Pizza, movies, books, games, baking - we did it all.  It was a blast. I loved sleepovers when I was younger.  It was an oasis in the midst of the desert of the every day routine.  Going to someone else's house and pretending I belonged to another family was all the fun with  no commitment.  When I was in my mid-teens, I alternated weekends with one of my friends whom I had met at youth.  We had piles of fun sliding down the tiny hill in her backyard during winter, and lying out in the sun in summer. We played games, I played piano and sang for her, and she taught me how to bake croissants (I never have sin...

Ice Rays #1 Ice Rays #2 Turned right side down Turned right side down #2 This is what happens when the power goes off, and cabin fever hits.  It's a little like crossing your eyes and seeing if they stick.  It gives you something to do, but it doesn't mean much.

Yesterday, I went to a friend's house to make Christmas cards. She was well set up for making cards. She had four samples on the wall. She had stamps, glue, and embossing powder. She had punches, scissors and double sided tape. She had all kinds of paper. And the same thing happened to me that occurs whenever I go to do something crafty with a group of other people.  I froze.    I tried to remedy it by choosing one stamp and using it for all my cards. I use the word "all" very loosely. I ended up making only four cards in the space of three hours. Everything I tried, went badly.   My cards looked more like a small child had made them. Still, I had fun. The comraderie of the group, and the laid back atmosphere was more than enough for me to feel like I had a nice afternoon out.  I nodded when the hostess said that the next time, we would make birthday cards, and all occasion cards.  It sounded good.  (It helped that she...

Sometimes, in my group, I do an exercise which I call "Question of the Day".  We go around the group, and everyone answers the same question.  I have found out some very interesting things with this exercise.  First, no one seems to mind answering the question.  Secondly, everyone has a story when the question is asked. After Thanksgiving, I asked what they had enjoyed for their Thanksgiving meal.  The most interesting answer was salmon.  I personally have never had salmon for dinner for Thanksgiving.  The funniest answer was one person who told me that he'd had a turkey dinner with all the trimmings.  I know he likes pumpkin pie, so I asked him if he'd even had pie.  He said he had.  I replied " Oh, you must have been in heaven!"   and he responded " Yeah, that's where I'm from.  I just took the afternoon off".

Today I went and got some bedding plants.  Yay!  Next, I am going to clean up our pots and set the new potting soil in there, and get the plants going.  Any minute, the sun will come out and shine on my plants and they will bloom and cheer me up all summer.  I am having such fun enjoying the fact that I can at last get some flowers where I live, rather than having to enjoy them vicariously at someone else's house.  Once I get them planted, I will post some pictures so you can enjoy them vicariously though.  I'm generous like that.

Driving by this field, reminds me of this old story.  A farmer purchased an old, run-down, abandoned farm with plans to turn it into a thriving enterprise. The fields were grown over with weeds, the farmhouse was falling apart, and the fences were broken down. During his first day of work, the town preacher stops by to bless the man's work, saying, "May you and God work together to make this the farm of your dreams!" A few months later, the preacher stops by again to call on the farmer. Lo and behold, it's a completely different place. The farm house is completely rebuilt and in excellent condition, there is plenty of cattle and other livestock happily munching on feed in well-fenced pens, and the fields are filled with crops planted in neat rows. "Amazing!" the preacher says. "Look what God and you have accomplished together!" "Yes, reverend," says the farmer, "but remember what the farm was like when God ...

Today was the last day of my spring vacation.  I made a little plan.  I had about 12 things on the list.  Now it is the end of the day, and there are still 8 things on my list.  I love days like this,when everything gets put on hold, because there are more interesting things that happen.  Now that I have your attention...Here's some of the things that happened today: I started a new blog on behalf of my husband.  If you would like to check it out, it is at http://integritydesign.wordpress.com/   Keep in mind, it is in the baby stages.  I am not familiar with Wordpress and so it's going to take me time to figure out the nuances.  This is a new venture for me, and one that I am quite excited about.  He wants to get his website up and running, and this blog will be part of what he offers on the website.  We are still deciding about other techno-options.  As I was sitting at the computer, trying to figure out exactly what ...

Certain things have to happen at certain times of the year. That's my husband's way. Otherwise he gets confused. This was the weekend of the lights. He told me to make sure I retrieved the outside lights, so he could put them up. In the meantime, I found a lot of other things which brought me joy and happiness. Like the snowmen. I tried to be careful not to overdo it. But there was so much to choose from and they all looked so happy and content to be brought out of hiding after so many months in storage. I lined up this family on the stairs so they could greet anyone venturing up to check emails, or have a shower, or enjoy the warmth of the electric heat in the bedrooms. And then I put these guys in the kitchen, to help keep watch over the countdown and to keep our food tasty with salt and pepper.... There are only so many places to put things in the house, at the moment, so I had to be a little choosy. So many of the snowmen have been gifts from special people. My second siste...