Exploring the beauty of Vancouver Island with these two rascals.
I’m on Vancouver Island at the moment, visiting with Mizz J and her man, who moved here last September.
So, instead of just more of December (colder and with more snow and ice), I thought it would be nice to show what a west coast January looks like.
Well, it’s kinda GREEN. Here’s some shots of Cathedral Grove, which we visited on Saturday.
On the short trail around Cathedral GroveNothing to see here. Just another damn tree hugger. Just kidding. K volunteered to be used for size reference. He’s over 6 feet tall.Crystal clear mountain-stream fed waters
After Cathedral Grove, we went to Englishman River Falls.
Lower FallsUpper Falls. Once again, K volunteered to stand near for size reference. Better him than me!The lushness of green growth on the Island
Yesterday we went to the Medicine Bowls, near Courtenay.
Water rushing down the road to the BowlsCan confirm. The rocks were super slippery. I was pretty uncomfortable since I couldn’t trust my footing. It was slow and careful going.Upper Bowls areaLower bowl. Apparently people swim (and some die!) here in warmer weather.
When the sun went down, it was time to meet up with K’s mom and stepdad at Royston Towne Pub (“The Roy”), where they were hosting open mic night.
K’s mom and stepdad. Wonderful musicians. So talented.Unleashing the Kraken and getting in shape for all the rum punches to come in Barbados. 😉The best reason to be on Vancouver Island in January or any time.
The Changing Seasons is a monthly photo challenge, hosted by Su Leslie at Zimmerbitch. Go check her beautiful blog out!
Hoo boy, it IS mostly dark these December days so I’ve been taking advantage of what daylight there is by hauling my sorry butt outdoors whenever I can.
Sun peeking over a riverfront building in ye olde Village on the River.Sun and shadow painting the path.
I’ve been noticing seed heads and pods and all manner of lovely wintery things on my walks.
Bullrushes caught my eye.And this: Blown milkweed pods at side of railroad tracks.
When it gets dark, it’s time to head home and throw on as much light as possible.
Let there be lights!!! Welcoming Yule…
Also: when it gets dark, it’s time to celebrate and visit with friends.
At my friend Mizzus J’s (far right) retirement gala party. Interesting story – Mizzus J and I met at work at a lab many years ago. Mizzus K (middle) and I met at work (another job, another lab) years later. Mizzus J and Mizzus K met for the first time at late hubby JD’s 50th birthday party and hit it off, resulting in Mizzus K working for Mizzus J (who now owned her own lab). Now Mizzus J has retired and Mizzus K has accepted the position of President. I feel proud and happy to have been a part of this!Visiting JD’s best man and his wife, who have become “lifers” in the Friends Department. Clearly my selfie game is not strong. Yes, M has been queried about playing Santa and is considering making it a post-retirement hobby, visiting nursing homes and such. And Mrs. M is not averse to becoming Mrs. Claus, and making it a duo.
I am not a night creature, anymore though. It’s damn hard for me to leave the house once the sun goes down, in the winter months. My natural inclination is to slip into jammies and wind down my day as soon as it gets dark. Like 5 pm. Seriously.
So no surprise here: I am ecstatic to welcome back the return of longer days and shorter nights, for my personal productivity if nothing else!
Getting too old for all these late winter nights. My eye makeup went the distance, even if I pooped out after several hours of dancing and celebrating.
The Changing Seasons is a monthly blog challenge hosted by Su Leslie, at Zimmerbitch. Check out her blog, to see how it’s done!
Wishing you all a happy New Year and a fantastic 2019!
But the wind and rain soon stripped the trees and I struggled to find whatever colour was left:
Berries in the gloom
And then it wasn’t long before this happened:
Winter wonderland drive to work, November 13
And I did manage to capture one spectacular sunset:
November 14 Red and Navy sunset
But the snow didn’t last, and we were back to dull skies, clouds and rain and a dearth of colour:
Mill Run Trail, November 25
Clearly I wasn’t the only one that felt November needed some brightening up:
Well, this is one use for a poppy after Remembrance Day I suppose…
I noticed many things on the trail that I just walk on by, when the foliage is rich and lush:
I walk by this all the time, but this time I really noticed this stump and the stump behind it.The shapes of these oak leaves caught my eye as well.The beauty of a feathery pampas grass head…This scene, although kind of desolate, speaks to me.I don’t know what these are, but I do like the look of them…also that they provide some welcome colour!
And while I was noticing all these beautiful and delightful things, I felt like something was noticing me as well:
Eeeek! The trees have eyes!
I went to the Orthodontist’s office on November 26. Soon I won’t need to visit them anymore as I am almost at the end of my Invisalign treatment (yay!). This time, it was full-on Christmas decor:
A tree dedicated to the Toronto Maple Leafs hockey team, of course! (For the hockey-mad clientele.)A corner dedicated to the Nutcracker Ballet, with Nutcracker and Mouse King (For the rest of us?).A view of the main treatment area.
These were some of my impressions of this overall mostly dreary November.
Hope yours was more colourful!
The Changing Seasons is a monthly photo challenge that anyone can join. Please visit Su Leslie at Zimmerbitch, for more information, and to see what others are posting.
It’s been hard for me to blog this Fall. October is the month you realize there are not many days left you can head out with bare hands and a bare head. So that puts some urgency into my outdoor activities and causes me angst when I’m stuck indoors (looking at you, work!) on a beautiful day.
Luckily there have been some stellar weekends (although this cold, blustery, rainy one is not one of them) and I was out on the trails with my trusty iPhone camera in hand:
Fiery Foliage peeking through the treesWho says you can’t wear purple and orange together? Not Mother Nature, that’s for sure.
I don’t know if this was an exceptional year for fungus or not, but for some reason I noticed fabulous fungi everywhere I looked, this fall.
Brilliant Bracket FungusAptly-named Turkey Tail FungusI don’t know what this is (and neither does iNaturalist for sure, apparently). Way too many suggestions and none looked quite like this.I’m lichen this Wrinkled Crust lichen 🙂This one is called Bears Head Tooth. And it’s edible, though I didn’t try it. One of my fellow walkers did, and I see he is still posting on Facebook so that means he survived. 😉
As it’s almost Halloween, I thought I’d share some of the wild decor I saw at my latest visit to my orthodontist.
When one looks up…Where you end up when you don’t floss, I guess.
The Changing Seasons is a monthly photo challenge hosted by Su Leslie, of Zimmerbitch. Please stop by her blog to see the Changing Season, down under in New Zealand.
September started out still blazing hot but now the weather is reasonable again, and perfect for heading to the woods.
Head to the woods I did, with a local group that took me to a brand new area, right off the trail I usually walk. I’d known of this side trail for years of course, but because it looked overgrown and in denser brush I was leery of going too far in by myself. When the group advertised a guided walk into this area I jumped at the opportunity.
We followed Chilligo Creek for most of the walk.Heading to a crossing point at the creek.One of our group refers to this oak as “The Mother Tree” 🙂The forest floor is full of fungus-y finds like this one.Fall is the time when the wild asters are the most beautiful.Another purple fall flower. According to iNaturalist, it is a knapweed.Beautiful bright red foliage of the Virginia Creeper spotted in the meadow.View of Chilligo Creek as it come out from under the highway. Taken from the side of the road, above.My pants were covered in “travellers” at the hike’s end. Another sign of the fall!Heading back from the walk, I took a moment to appreciate the beauty of the plantings downtown. They are putting on a show as well, as we cruise into fall. Hydrangeas are changing from white to pink and bronze.A few steps further, I took in the riot of chrysanthemums planted to celebrate fall in our downtown.Home again. Sipping wine and picking seeds outta my pants…a perfect end to a perfect walk in the woods.
Sublime. I don’t know what I’d do if I didn’t have wild areas close at hand, with which to restore my soul.
This has been a Changing Seasons Post. The Changing Seasons is a monthly photo challenge, hosted by Su Leslie of Zimmerbitch.
Well, wouldn’t you know it – the weather got better, so I got outside to walk, and painting progress has slowed considerably. Also due to the other interruptions in this thing called life.
Better weather means after-work walks to enjoy the sunset on the Mill Pond!
But here is what happened to the painting since the last time I blogged.
Drawing traced onto canvas.Painted outline in burnt umber and erased graphite marks.Starting to fill in colour. Loooong way to go yet.
I’m not expecting to get much done this week. Today I am flying to the US for a work conference.
Yesterday I spent the afternoon with Joanne, at the Fashion History Museum’s Tango Tea. She’ll be writing about it soon. You should go check out her blog!
At the Tango Tea. This event was so much fun!
Unfortunately I got some bad news while at the Tea. My late father-in-law’s girlfriend (who is 92 and much loved by me and everyone who knows her) is in hospital, suffering from a bleed into her brain with no hope of recovery. We were planning on going out for dinner when I returned from my work trip. I rushed from the Tea to the hospital and met with her family and offered what comfort I could. I also spoke with B, but she was unresponsive. They say hearing is the last sense to go, so hopefully she heard that I was there and that I love her.
July started off with a bang. Canada Day (July 1) is also my daughter’s (Mizz J) birthday. I made a fabulous trifle, using local berries and sherry, and of course plenty of local, growth-hormone free, high quality dairy.
Uh-oh, here comes a rant:
Fuck you Trump. I support Canadian Dairy and Canadian Dairy supports me, literally. It’s my day job, to work for a company that supports this industry, which I love. So yeah, fuck you, Trump. As a dairy insider, I can tell you your milk is not up to Canadian quality standards. Most of it would not be allowed in this country even if the borders were wide open. And you can thank the Canadian supply management system for making sure Canadians get the highest quality milk for their money. Rant over. (Aren’t you relieved?)
Strawberry Trifle. It was delicious. Note to self: next time don’t be afraid to add more sherry. Yes, that’s real whipped cream on top, people. Thank goddess for my Kitchen Aid mixer. The berries are spectacular this year.
I got out for a Beach Day this month. To my usual haunt: Bayfield.
I usually park at the Marina but this year I went to Pioneer Park instead and took the stairs down to the Lake Huron shore.
There was plenty of beauty to see at home, as well.
Day Lilies in bloom down at the Mill Pond.I usually can’t get even this close to these wary birds. But this one was intent on fishing so wasn’t focusing on me in the kayak so much.Could be the same heron. Dunno. There are quite a few of them on the Mill Pond.There are a few swans as well, peacefully cohabiting with the herons, ducks, geese, and egrets on the Mill Pond.I love capturing the reflections on the Mill Pond throughout the day, and especially the approaching evening.The end of another beautiful July day on the Mill Pond. Taken from the village dock. Which shall forever more be known as The Sex Dock. I was trying to show it off to a visitor and we happened upon a couple banging away under a blanket…ON THE DOCK…IN EARLY EVENING AKA BROAD DAYLIGHT. Needless to say, we turned around immediately and left visiting the dock for another day. #VillageLifeA lovely weekend breakfast including the bountiful berries of July. The berries are spectacular this year, did I mention that? Banana oatmeal pancakes, Greek Yogurt, black caps, raspberries, maple syrup and back bacon. Nespresso latte macchiato – forget which flavour but probably Roma.
And finally, I haven’t mentioned this on the blog yet I don’t think, but I did purchase a new car. On May 25th I picked up a new plug-in hybrid vehicle, a Prius Prime. Forever to be known as Edward the Third, for being my third white Prius that sparkles in the sunlight. I got a full tank of gas with the car. Today, July 25th, I decided it was time to put more gas in since I am anticipating some long drives coming up over the next few days. I still had a little less than a quarter of the original tank left. Behold my dashboard, prior to today’s fill-up:
That’s right – 3043 km driven and I still have a bit of gas left. Today was my first ever fill-up of the car I picked up on May 25!
I’m very pleased with my new car. The range of electric driving for me is around 56 km. I was told the car had a range of 40 km, however the car learns how you drive trains you how to drive more efficiently and rewards you with more range. It takes into account the amount of energy you save with regenerative braking and also coasting and using the engine brake to slow down. So I’ve “earned” a range of 56 km by giving up my lead foot. 😉
Which means during the week I drive solely on electric power on any given day. I only seem to dip into gas power on weekends, when I take longer drives for Beach Days and such.
Uh-oh, I’m feeling ranty again…
I was planning on trading in Edward II later on this year, but decided to take advantage of the government incentive to buy a plug-in hybrid. And I’m glad I did when I did because the provincial government has changed hands and now this rebate has been terminated.
Ironically, the party now in power campaigned that they are for the little guy, yet they take away a rebate that could actually benefit the common person. They’ve told their base that electric cars are only for the elite and cost $$$$. Which is blatantly untrue. Clearly they are taking a page from the Trump playbook and the sheeple believe their gaslighting, as I’ve seen on Twitter.
Follow the money, people. Follow the money, to learn the truth.
It’s been 2 months of daily driving and all I’ve spent on gas is $32. Only just today. Just sayin’…
Today is stinking hot but at least it’s not raining. Most of June consisted of rainy weekends, like this one:
Polebean Buddha stoically endures all the weathers.
Rainy weekends are good for the gardens but piss off those of us still working Monday-Friday.
2018 Polebean crop finally takes off.
After a slow start (completely the fault of the gardener), the 2018 Badass Rooftop Garden polebean crop is finally making progress.
Flowering! Can taste the beans already. Mmmmm.
Earlier in the month, I took part in the annual 4 Day-Evening walk at the Dundas Valley Conservation Area. This was held during the week, so no rain, natch. I also wrote about it here.
Blowing the horn to signal the start of the walk each of the 4 evenings.
This is an event brought over from the Netherlands, by Dutch-Canadians, and a whole lot of fun.
The Bruce Trail runs through the conservation area.A doe, just off the trail.
When the rain stopped on the weekends (usually late in the day), I was able to walk around my own stomping grounds as well.
Post-rain view across the Mill PondDuck family enjoying the Mill PondAll the rain made the growth on the trail extra-lush.And it brought out this little slug. I usually don’t see these on the trail.First time noticing a Michigan Lily on the trail.Below the dam. The sun did eventually come out during my weekend walks, but usually quite late in the evening.
On the concert front, I was treated to Mother Mother and Little Destroyer on June 25th, as a Mother’s Day present from Mizz J.
Little Destroyer. Yes, those are eyes on her bra top. Hey, my eyes are up….uh…never mind. I enjoyed this band.3rd time seeing Mother Mother. Will try to see them every time they are in the area. So much talent.
One benefit of all the rain: I was indoors more than usual and was able to work on a painting (not finished as yet).
No title yet. Inspired by the number of months in a 90 year life span.I dotted all the months I have been alive (so far) with pearlescent white paint.
Another benefit of all this rain, I think: has anybody else noticed the Ontario strawberries are exceptional this year?
And also very photogenic!
Have a wonderful July and a wonderful Canada Day tomorrow (and a fabulous 4th of July to my US neighbours!).
The Changing Seasons is a monthly photo challenge hosted by Su Leslie, of Zimmerbitch.
Today is super hot. Since I was sick earlier this spring (here and here), I haven’t been able to get out on the kayak so I just had to get on the river today. Had to.
Today’s weather
I opened my eyes, rolled out of bed, filled a Contigo cup with Earl Grey, got dressed and was pulling Smokey Robinson out of the shed in about 15 minutes flat. On the river by 7 am. While it was still relatively cool out.
Tiny island on the Mill Pond. Love the early morning stillness on the river.
I got as far as here, going against the current (slight, but still there):
Black Bridge Road. About 2 km from where I began.
Then I turned around and kicked off my sandals and relaxed, to sip my tea and let the current slowly, peacefully, take me back home.
This is the best way to spend a Sunday morning, without leaving town, that I know of.
I made a short video of my drift, so you could hear the riot of birdsong that was the soundtrack to my morning. But WordPress says it is too big of a media file to upload, so please check out my Facebook or Instagram (right hand side of ye olde blogge) if you want to view it. And turn the sound up please!
While I drifted, I kept thinking about a website I was directed to, in one of Alastair Humphrey‘s newsletters. I highly recommend you subscribe. His newsletters are full of interesting tidbits and links related to adventuring. After all, this life is our biggest adventure, isn’t it? And I am a huge fan of his coining of the term “micro-adventures”. I try to have micro-adventures whenever I can, for now…mega-adventures to come once I have more free time!
In one of his recent newsletters, Alastair shared this link – Your Life in Weeks – which he calls a terrifying firework up the bum to get on in life. So of course I had to click on it. Go ahead and check it out, I’ll wait.
It can be sobering to count out the weeks or months to a 90 year life span. And more sobering to realize that there is no guarantee one will even make it to then. But, I also think it is a great and necessary reminder that life is quite finite, and every week or month (or day or hour for that matter) that passes brings us closer to the end. It helps to remember this for better decision-making, I firmly believe.
And far from feeling morbid, it makes me feel so damn grateful instead – to be able to savour these happy moments like this morning on the river. I doubt I’ll be hauling a kayak down to the river when I’m 90. More likely my kids will be saying something like “Mom would have been 90 this year.” (I know my genetics ain’t the greatest…just sayin’).
I am so inspired by this graphic of a lifespan in weeks, I am going to translate this idea into a painting. But I will go by months (moons) instead. Something to hang up to remind me not to waste time or my precious life.
Do you find it comforting or terrifying to look at your life in this way?
