Spring is slow to come to my part of the world this year. But I’m not complaining as the winter was not as dire as predicted, and there is almost no snow left.
Most of March has been grey and cloudy, with either snow flurries (that disappeared almost as soon as they hit the ground) or cold rain coming down from the skies.
But last Sunday was a gloriously sunny, cloudless – albeit at times bitterly windy – day. Blaze and I had planned to hike Mount Nemo that day so we were happy with the forecast. Mizz J had to write a paper for school so she couldn’t join us, but her boyfriend Kevin asked to come along and we were happy to have his company.
Kevin enjoyed exploring the crevasses along the trail and finding caves.I nervously stepped out on a ledge to take this shot of the jutting cliff edge.Try to imagine how far I am leaning back to try and feel safer taking this shot! I mean, I was watching turkey vultures gliding the air currents BELOW me.Just one of many stunning vistas from Mount NemoJoanne (Blaze) and I, as captured by Kevin. Nope, not a fright wig. Just my hair.Close Up: Did I mention the fierce and bitter wind?This bench on the trail (a big log, actually) provided by the club I belong to.
The Changing Seasons is a monthly challenge hosted by Su Leslie at Zimmerbitch.
Welcome to the beach. Long live Barbados!Gorgeous salt-ravaged wallBeach gate, leading to boardwalkAnother beach gateIsland humour. Even the bus stop signs want to be at the beach!Sea turtle embedded in ceramic wall. By Blakey’s on the BeachCloseup of flower seen on boardwalkLocal lizard. Very shy.Coconut palm closeupPlant life cascading down wallWhat I see on every morning walk. Bajan sunrise Feb 17.Beautiful Bajan sunset last night, as viewed from our balcony.
Sign on the Beach. Appropriate for this post!First night. Checked in, unpacked and made it down to Charlie’s Beach Bar in time to catch the tail end of happy hour.First morning, capturing the rising sun through the palms.Gorgeous flowers. Bougainvillea.Thought this was the quintessential tropical photo. Kept waiting for this guy to move out of the frame. Then realized this local fisherman was actually posing for me. Nice!What can I say? Dedicated AF to meeting my blogging goal for this year. P.S. my friend thinks I’m nuts but she did take my picture, which is what a true friend would do.
Well, I am not entirely sure how it got to be Sunday night already but here I am, needing to make a blog post to keep up with my target of at least 1 post/week!
I might be jumping the gun a tad as it’s not quite the end of the month…but I have some lovely wintery photos burning a hole in my iPhone, so here goes my first attempt at a Changing Seasons post. (Su, I hope I am doing this right!) All of these photos were taken on the Mill Run Trail that starts in the Village:
Closeup of interesting ice forming in the river. Taken on First Day Hike with Mizz J – Jan 1, 2018Speed River Dam Jan 1, 2018Ducks trying to stay warm Jan 1, 2018. This was as close as we could get without alarming them.Pampas Grass against a beautiful winter sky Jan 1, 2018
This weekend I was back down on the Mill Run Trail again, this time with Joanne of My Life Lived Full. This was our second get-together, and my pleasure to host her at my stomping grounds. The weather was a lot milder than on New Year’s Day, and the snow showed it:
Evidence of typical January freeze/thaw Jan 20, 2018
Back indoors, when not binge-watching Grace & Frankie, I was “arting around”:
Sea Turtle painting, almost complete. Not happy with the sky at present. Need to figure out a fix.Blossoms, almost complete
This painting came to life while following instruction from Angela Anderson
I love the way the background came out but I could have done better on the blossoms. I want to fix some stuff and do some glazing, and then it will be done!
I haven’t proceeded any farther with my Queen of Wands idea. I’m trying to figure out the best way to take a small drawing and transfer it to a bigger canvas. I’ve looked up the process of using a grid technique (cheap but looks tiresome) and also have discovered (cue angelic singing): the Artograph. Yep, that’s about 800 dollars worth of awesome technology that I won’t be buying anytime soon. Back to reality I go…
This weekend’s January thaw also meant it was finally a good time to wash Edward II, without risk of his doors freezing shut. If the sun would come out, he’d be all sparkly again. For about 5 minutes. Until covered with wintry road goo once again…
My weekend was jam-packed with fun stuff. How was yours?
I think I may have mentioned on Ye Olde Blogge a time or hundred that every year I struggle with our North American commercialization/celebration of Christmas. It has become much too materialistic and in-your-face for yours truly.
This season has become instead a time of reflection and review and planning for me as the nights get longer and longer. And I love this time of year for that!
TRIGGER WARNING: If someone holding a different opinion than your own could lead to you turning into a Judgey McJudgepants and leaving a nasty comment, please skip over this next section. If you feel you must take a tone with me, your comment may or may not be deleted, depending on how much of a chuckle I get out of it.
Oh sure, I partake in some Christian Christmas rites. It’s part of my upbringing and my history. I put up a tree. I send out cards to friends and family. I re-watch old Christmas movies and sing along to carols. I even do the gift thing, although more and more I am giving gifts that are homemade – gifts of my time and intention. I love to wish people a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year AND I mean it. I do these things because I enjoy them and I like celebrating this season (this month, especially) of long nights and waiting for the sun to return.
I am not a Christian, so there is no religious meaning to my celebration. You won’t find a manger scene at my house. But I will haul out the Seashell Jesus, because I find it amusing. I think I’ll put it next to the picture of Krampus my talented son made for me. For balance. Someday maybe I’ll add a representation of the Flying Spaghetti Monster to the mix, and my triptych of mythical beings will be complete. Ramen!
If you are reading this and a practicing Christian/Jew/Wiccan/Pagan/Hindu/Zoroastrian/Muslim/WhateverReligion, great! You do you. Whatever gives you comfort and meaning is cool with me. Please return the favour.
TRIGGER WARNING OVER.
What I am celebrating at Chez Badass is this: the end of the darkness and the return of the light. Because the longest night – tonight – the winter solstice (the official start of Yule or Yuletide) – is something I can get behind.
I do so love this rock we live on – the natural world – and the turning of the year, and I like to acknowledge this event. And this is the time and the season for me to pause and reflect and set intentions for the next spin around the sun that I am lucky enough to be a part of.
This is nothing new. Humans have been celebrating the solstice since well, we first noticed it was “a thing”. And these Yule celebrations have been co-opted into Christianity and have become integral to the Western celebration called Christmas.
For my particular celebration of the longest night, I will lighting (many, many) candles and finalizing my goals and intentions for the coming year. These include, in no particular order of importance (because they are all important to me):
more artistic activity
more mindfulness
more writing – specifically, more blogging
more reading
less spending – in order to knock down the demand loan on Chez Badass
I’ll be going into each of these goals in detail in upcoming blog posts. Yule see, hehehe!
I will leave you with this thought – at this special time of year why not remember to:
First a PSA: thanks to the power of the Twitterverse and a blogger named Kat of AsKatKnits, I learned that NaBloPoMo is still a thing! Another blogger (Aimie from Blissful Lemon) is hosting it this year. Go Aimie! Link up here, if interested in joining in the challenge (and the fun!).
Here is part 2 of how I made the most of Ontario’s better-late-than-never summer weather :
The Badass Rooftop Garden produced pole beans and cherry tomatoes until an overnight frost hit mid-October.The warm weather meant lots of strolls at all times of day. Here is early evening on October 3.Another shot taken that night.Took a trip up to Mrs. & Mrs. Me Too’s place right after Thanksgiving!There was kayaking, natch.And hiking, natch.And drinking beer on the dock while viewing stunning sunsets, natch.Back in my neck of the woods again. More hiking, this time at Crawford Lake Conservation Area. Nassagaweya Canyon overlook.I’ve been enjoying using a free hiking app downloaded to my phone, called All Trails. It shows you exactly where you are on the trail (blue dot)And even more hiking! This time at Felker’s Falls with a delightful fellow blogger, Joanne from My Life Lived Full. This was a close as I dared get to the edge – my back leg is firmly planted as far behind me as I could extend it.It was great to finally meet the person who inspired me to revive my own Bruce Trail Dream (in progress). We spent so much time hiking and chatting we forgot to get a picture of the both of us…hehehe. Next time!
And now the real fall is finally upon us. Dark mornings and early evenings and damp, cold, windy weather.
Thankfully, I have this to look forward to during these dark days ahead:
Ahhh, a Nespresso latte machiatto. Life’s little morning luxury.
This is going to be a two-parter, because Summer finally came to town in September and hung on through almost all of October.
Afternoon at Little Tract September 13. Blazing hot out.Visiting Alton Mills Arts Centre September 16. Lovely spot and worth the drive!Beaching it at Bayfield September 17. I even swam, twice – to get some relief from the heat!Hiking with Mizz J September 23. Another scorcher of a day.Watching the dancing at Jane Austen’s Country Ball (hosted by the Fashion History Museum) September 23. I felt a little sorry for all the revelers in their hot costumes. Obviously no one thought it would be so hot and humid so late in the season when the event was planned. It did not stop the festivities though!Hiking at Rattlesnake Point September 30. Hasn’t cooled down yet!
I did try to make the most of the great weather while it lasted, and when I wasn’t working.
Tomorrow I will do a photo recap of the glory that was October.
Coming at you from a hotel room in Kelowna, British Columbia on this fine 3rd day of September – which would have been my 7th wedding anniversary. (Or would it? Hmmm…I’d like to think I would not have divorced my mentally ill, betrayer of a husband had he not died from cancer…but who knows what alternate reality I would be living by now had things turned out differently…) Anyhow, I don’t have a whole lot of emotion surrounding this day anymore…and I think that is a good and healthy sign.
August has been a stressful month for me. My sister has been quite ill and in hospital here in Kelowna – hence my presence. Most of the month I was on pins and needles, not knowing when her surgery would finally happen or if she would be healthy enough to even qualify. This, plus lots of goings on at work made the month both drag on and fly by simultaneously, if that makes any sense (and it does to me).
I did manage to get up to see my other sister (Me Too) and her wife at their lovely lakeside home, on the Civic Holiday Long weekend…and stopped in at a National Park (another one crossed off the list) along the drive up there.
At Thousand Islands National Park. Check out how straight my teeth are becoming! #InvisalignloveJust another peaceful misty morning at Me Too’s place.
And I did get to Riverfest Elora 2017. A fantastic festival with such a great vibe – I think this will be an annual event for me. Hopefully next year I can convince someone to join me. I didn’t mind going alone, but naturally it would have been even more enjoyable to have company.
Mother Mother at Riverfest
As I fretted and stressed the month away, I decided to pour my feelings into the paint I was applying on some canvases.
Practically a copy of a painting done by another artist, Elspeth McLean. Don’t all artists start out by copying the greats? 🙂 This is for the sister I am currently visiting. I named it “Feminine Energy”.Another finished piece. No name yet. This is an original.
I did find some time to get on the river.
My happy place!
And then I got word that my sister’s surgery had finally been scheduled and was happening within 48 hours, so it was a mad dash to get plane tickets and book a hotel. I arrived in smoke- and ash-covered Kelowna on Tuesday. This has been the worst season for forest fires in 60 years, I’ve been told.
Daytime skies over Lake OkanaganMy feet (de-Birkenstocked) after a day of trudging back and forth to the hospital.Patio chair after a night of falling ash.
My sister’s surgery was a success and she is steadily improving. And the skies have cleared up too!
That’s much better! Still hazy but at least it’s blue!
I have booked my flight home for this coming Tuesday. Now there is nothing left to do on this Labour Day long weekend but enjoy visiting my sister and eat my fill of Okanagan peaches.
Back in February I committed to another half-marathon race. I started training for the Niagara Falls Women’s Half Marathon (again). Things started out well but I began to struggle as temperatures rose and distances increased. I made the decision early in May that I would not participate, as I couldn’t meet the minimum pace required to finish the course in time.
This was a tough decision to make and initially I felt defeated and like a failure. I have successfully trained for and completed 5 half-marathons and I have never had this problem before.
I had no idea why I wasn’t improving despite adhering to my tried and true schedule of training walks. I wondered if maybe I was developing exercise intolerance due to the daily medication I now have to take (thanks TIAs!) or if work was kicking my ass even more than I suspected. What the hell has changed?
I made an appointment to see my doc for a physical and blood tests were ordered. My clever doc ordered a TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone) test to be done along with the “usual suspects” of blood counts, lipid profiles, blood sugar etc. I downloaded my results on Friday and noticed the TSH levels were reported as abnormally high, meaning my thyroid gland may be under-performing. Hmmmm….this explains a lot of symptoms I am experiencing, not just my poor performance on my walks.
I am making an appointment to discuss this with my doc first thing Monday, to see what the next steps are. I do feel a bit better now about my inability to meet the pace requirements for today’s race. I know I made the right call to pull out, even though a part of me wishes I was on the course with all the other runners and walkers right now.
Anyhow, it does seem that indeed something has changed and I will get that investigated further and addressed. Stay tuned!
In other Badass news, I have experienced a setback with my rooftop garden as well. Thanks, Mother Nature.
Remember this idyllic scene?Immediately after a microburst of high winds and rain.Rebuilt. Badass Rooftop Garden v. 2.0
Looks like this gardening adventure is going to be a “fall down 7 times; get up 8” type scenario. Still up for the challenge!
In Kayaking news, I took my newest acquisition out for its maiden voyage. (I’m stopping now with kayak purchases, I promise!).
Meet Smokey Robinson! Joining Pink Floyd and the Rev. Al Green in my kayak fleet.Life is sweet on the river.
When the weather is bad, I play around with my art supplies. I put together a new storage cabinet yesterday for my ever-expanding collection of pencils, crayons, markers, inks and paints.
Bringing order to – and hiding – chaos. Thank you IKEA.
Here’s a sneak peek at a work in progress.
Acrylic Flower of Life design inspired by “dotillism” artist Elspeth McLean.
Hello, Yellow Lady’s SlippersHello, Dog VioletHello, MayappleHello, last of the TrilliumsHello, ButtercupsHello, TeaselHello, fresh new FernHello, favourite tree trunkHello, CeladineHello, FrogIt’s a great day to be alive, doncha think?
