Not All Done In Just Yet.

I cannot think of where the summer went to.  Here we are on the first day of September and I don't remember August flying by like it did.  Don't even ask about June or July.  Did they even exist this year?  There is a stinky tree at the end of my deck.  In the spring, when it blooms, it smells like cat pee.  I have no idea where this tree came from.  One spring it just bloomed and voila! I have a stinky tree.  It does give nice cover though, so I put up with the spring smell as it only lasts for a few weeks.  Anyway, my point is that this tree is already filled with reddish colored leaves.  Last week, or at least I thought it was last week,  this tree had green leaves.  When on earth did it change colors?  Even the ivy type plant that climbs the back of the deck has some crimson leaves peeking through. Gee whiz! Can we not have summer for a bit longer? I am not ready for fall yet. Even though I  like fall I would like to think that summer will be here a bit longer and that it's not all done in just yet.

September...here and almost gone.

I can't believe that half of September is gone already.
How can that be?
I am not done with summer yet!
It's true!
I haven't had enough time with either Cutie Patootie Neve or Mr. B. Kian.
Where have all the days gone?
I didn't even get around to buying or planting any marigolds or snapdragons in my deck planters this year. It has been way too hot to work outside and besides I have been, as always, too tired once I drag my butt home at the end of the day, to do anything more than make supper and sleep. I was only in the pool 2 or maybe 3 times at the most this summer. It has flown by way too fast!
Sigh.......and now it's done and gone and we have moved into autumn. The good thing is, the cooler weather, the lovely fall colours that have already started in our area and the abundance of root veggies. Can you tell that I love squash? Yummy! So hopefully my lagging energy will return and I can get down to some serious blogging and house cleaning. Both have suffered since the spring. The bad thing is that we are getting closer to the snow season. Well, bad if you don't like winter. I don't mind it so it really isn't so bad for me, but like I said, to those who don't like winter the end of summer must really suck!
I am looking forward to the end of September only because we are going camping up in Algonquin Park for a few days. Ahhhh......nothing but trees with pretty leaves and the odd moose (if we are lucky) and cute little chipmunks running here and there.Reading a good book or two and going biking around the nature trails. Nighttime will bring out the raccoons but we have learned from experience to leave nothing outside. Everything gets packed into the back of the van for the night and that discourages those cute little pests from hanging around our camper for too long. Once year Hubby John had a pack of wolves run by him while he was out in the early wee hours of the morning answering natures call. He said it very unnerving and I don't think he cares to repeat that incident again. There is never a dull moment when we go camping that's for sure! We both enjoy it very much and are looking forward to those few days away. But for now the farthest I am going is to the couch in the family room where I plan to lay down and play with my IPad (A gift from HJ. He won it from Giant Tiger. How cool is that?) while HJ and CP watch a Barbie Princess movie. Geese.....I don't know if I can stand this much excitement, at night, at my age. No wonder I'm tired all the time....LOL!

Family, Friends and Turkeys

This was/is the Canadian Thanksgiving weekend.
A time for families, friends and turkeys.
Hubby John and Cutie Patootie Neve, had spent Friday afternoon making peach and apple pies, and the pies were baking in the oven when I got home from work. So while Neve and I played restaurant, she was the waitress and I was the customer, Papa cleaned up the kitchen. Sounds OK to me......hee..hee...Then there came a phone call from John Vincent informing us that he, Sarah and Neve were taking us out to dinner. It was their treat to honour our 37Th wedding anniversary that we celebrated this past Tuesday. That sounded OK to me too!
We went to a local Chinese food buffet and it was yummy! Afterwards, down to the mall and while we girls shopped the guys were busy getting Hubbie John's new Blackberry on line.... in sync, turned on or whatever it is that they did. Sarah and Neve bought new place mats and I picked up a package of assorted paper. One can never have enough paper. Even though I work at a printers and can get paper whenever I want, I am still a sucker when it comes to pretty paper with prints on it. Sigh.......so many designs and never enough money to buy them all. l love paper... but I digress....so anyway, after the mall outing everyone went home and to bed, well at least I went to bed after falling asleep on the couch for an hour or so. Saturday I was up bright and early and did absolutely nothing until noon at which time I made a macaroni salad for the surprise 60Th birthday party that we were attending that evening. Around two that afternoon Hubby and I got our act together and went out to do a bit of grocery shopping, birthday present shopping with a side trip to A&W as I had a root-beer craving. Man.....was that ever good! That evening we went to the party where the birthday girl, Brenda, was so surprised when she came into the hall that she started crying. Almost all of her family were there (and there are a lot of them). Even her brothers and sisters who live out of province, arranged to fly in for the party. Brenda was speechless.....and that's saying a lot for Brenda! It was a great party! Happy 60Th Brenda!! Sunday, I was up early again, getting ready for Thanksgiving dinner at Jaime and Mike's. John Vincent, Sarah, Neve, my Mom and cousins/dear friends, Wendy & Dave all came along and we had a wonderful dinner of turkey, mashed potatoes,all kinds of veggies and salads and desserts. There were all the trimmings and extras that go with a special holiday meal. Mmmm, mmmm good! It was another wonderful party. Thank you Jaime and Mike! Then holiday Monday arrived and up early again. Hubby John and I closed down the pool and got the yard all ready for the white stuff to come. We have donated pumpkins to Neve's kindergarten class and her day care so we took an hour to wash and dry 60 pumpkins and now they are ready for delivery. It was a labour of love. Eaves were cleaned out and a final cut of the lawn. It was a full day outside and we both enjoyed it very much. Very late this afternoon we took a quick drive up to Listowel, which is about an hours drive from home, so John could check out a job site. When we got back to town we picked up a pizza for supper. Right now I am just finishing up the laundry and my blog and am ready to go watch House and Lie To Me in a few minutes.
So all in all it has been a very full but very fun weekend.
A weekend of family and friends and turkey.

Rules were made to be broken.....sometimes.

I am not a gardener. I love flowers and have lots of them in pots on my deck but when it comes to having flower beds to take care of....no way! They are way too much work and I don't have a green thumb. That's why my garden beds in the yard consists of flowering bushes only. It's really hard to kill bushes. I hack them down every few years and they always come back.....so far anyways.
I do however like to plant flowers in my deck planters and pots. They always look so pretty and bright. Last fall I took my last flowering geranium into the house thinking I would winter it over. I dug dirt out of the back garden mixed in some potting soil and put it along with the plant in one of my favourite pots.
It seems I was wrong to do this. Apparently there are certain steps you need to take if you want to overwinter any outside plant inside, with the hope that it will re-flower the following year. You have to have the right amount of light, coolness and water after you have cut the plant down to a specific size, with so much plant and leaves to be removed and blah...blah...blah.......
Of course with my knowledge of gardening, which would be a big fat zero!, I just stuck the potted plant in the front room and happily watered it during the winter and early spring season.
It died! There was no green left on that little sucker. It's stem was hard as a rock. It had no leaves but it did have wet soil. I think it died sometime in early January but I never got around to getting rid of it. I am a bad gardener. That poor little geranium didn't die from lack of water BUT because I didn't follow the gardening rules.
Oh well.....nothing ventured nothing gained, right?
Ah ha!! Not so!
This past May I finally got around to taking the pot with the dead plant in it and putting it out on the back deck with the thoughts of emptying the whole mess out. I had good intentions but I just never got around to actually doing it. With getting the deck set up for the summer the dead potted plant got moved around a few times. The final resting place for the pot ended up being behind some deck chairs. It wasn't bothering anyone and a green weed starting growing in the pot so I decided to just leave it until I cleaned out all the planters when we closed the back yard down for the winter. At least the weed gave a bit, and I do mean a little bit, of colour to that area of the deck.
Last week I looked out my patio door early one morning. I didn't have my glasses on so things looked a bit fuzzy. I saw a splash of colour and I thought a bathing suit had fallen off and in behind a chair.
Imagine my surprise when I went out to pick up the suit and instead found not one but two red geraniums making a beautiful late summer show.
Huh! So much for following rules.....sometimes they are made to be broken.

Cyberspace Junk Email

Hmmm......it seems that I have been chosen to be the receiver of 30 million British pounds sterling, which is something around 56 million dollar Canadian, give or take a few million. All I have to do is give them all my banking information. Of course this is all top secret and I can absolutely trust them. Don't be silly!!!! Of course it's true!!! Once the transaction is complete I plan on burying the money underneath a maple tree in the back yard. I read in the Internet cyberspace advertisements, that if you bury enough money under the roots of a tree, give a certain someone from that particular cyberspace company,the location of said tree and then not bother that tree for, um, say a hundred years or so, the tree will start growing money. Honest!! It's true!!! The nice lady in the cyberland ad said so. Isn't she nice? Now I just have to email this information along with a blessing to a hundred or so of my email friends so nothing bad will happen to me. IF I don't, I understand that something terrible like foot fungus or worse will grow on me. Can't let that happen can I?
Boy I love how people are so kind as to want to make sure that I am not taken advantage of, cursed or ill treated in any way. How thoughtful! Sigh.......isn't the Internet great?
Oh wow! I have to go..........apparently I can turn a five dollar investment into a job that will earn me five thousand dollars a week....guaranteed. All they want is my firstborn. Sorry John Vincent....I love you but I have to think of the family legacy that I will be able to leave my gandbaby(ies).
Whoopee.......look out cyberspace....here I come!

June

A dear friend of the family, Tanya, went to Russia to teach English for a two year contract. We exchanged going away gifts. I gave her maple syrup, post cards with scenes of our area so she wouldn't forget us and a key chain with mukluks because I couldn't find the real things for her. She gave me a bag of goodies that included a book called The Four Seasons (poems). I think I got the best of this gift exchange. I do so love the written word. I keep the book on my desk and thumb through it often. Poetry, for me anyway, isn't something where you sit down and read the whole book at once. I like to read one poem and then spend a day, week , month or whatever time it takes, savouring what I read. Yummy! Anyway, I came across this poem very late on Friday night, which was June 5Th, after I had already written and posted for the day. How weird is that(note the date in the poem)? I should have posted it that night right away but I was too tired and half falling asleep so I set the book aside for the next day. I also should have posted it Saturday but I had two other things to talk about. But when I sat down this morning I remembered this poem again. I think it was meant for me to write about so I am. Better late than never.
For those of you who think poetry isn't your thing......take a few minutes and read the poem slowly and really listen to what James Schuyler is saying. I think you will hear him describe June almost precisely.
I hope you enjoy all of your June days and the poem too!

I THINK

I will write you a letter, June day.
Dear June Fifth,
Your all in green, so many kinds and all one green,
tree shadows on grass blades and grass blade shadows.
The air fills up with motor mower sound.
The cat walks up the drive a dead baby rabbit in her maw.
The sun is hot, the breeze is cool.
And suddenly in all the green the lilacs bloom,
massive and exquisite in colour and shape and scent.
The roses are more full of buds than ever.
No flowers. But soon.
June day, you have your own perfection:
so green to say goodbye to.
Green, stick around a while.

HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE

Happy Birthday to my Hubby John.

I hope you have a great day. I have no doubt that you will.
Last night while we were asleep, the Easter bunny made her rounds. When the family gets here they will find all kinds of sweet treats to munch on. My cutie-patootie Neve will find a basket filled with some bunnie cookies, children's music CD's, stickers, a princess writing pad and pen, some new Pooh magnets, a packet of dried mango, gummie bears, a candy necklace and a few kinder surprise eggs.
The sun is shinning and the weather is suppose to stay nice for the day. Hubby John and I will move the cars to the end of the lane so cutie-patootie can ride her bike. The chalk is ready for making pictures on the sidewalk. The bucket of bubbles are all ready to go. I am sure that Aunt Jamie and Uncle Mike will take full advantage of their spoiling privileges. Well, grams and papa too! Great grandma will be here and might even blow a few bubbles. Ya never know...especially with my mom...lol!
I think that John Vincent and maybe Hubby John too, at least some of the time, might just keep an eye or two on the TV today. Who will win the Masters? I think maybe there might be a few surprises on that course today. I also think that the Easter bunny will be very far away from all those golf balls flying overhead. Too bad they don't dye the golf balls in different colours for today. That would be a fun thing to see wouldn't it?
Back at our house the eggs are boiled and are waiting for Neve and Papa to colour them. That is one of their jobs today!
Papa's birthday cake is ready and waiting to be decorated. Neve and Aunt Jaime and Sarah will will need to do that job. Chocolate birthday cake will take care of dessert along with Long John's, chocolate brownies, lemon meringue tarts and some chocolate mousse. Something for everyone.
Hubby John will barbecue chicken, pork and steak. There will be a lettuce salad, asparagus, carrots and corn, pyrohys (perogies)with sour cream, Easter bread, schveetly (sp?)(beet & horseradish relish), and roasted potatoes. Jaime is bringing a broccoli salad and Sarah her sweet potatoes. Doesn't it sound so yummy? Oh my goodness, I feel stuffed already!
I hope everyone has a wonderful Easter and that it keeps you hopping at the exact speed you like to move in. So HAPPY EASTER everyone and by the way, the curtains are up and they look great!

Snow

How surprised was I when I looked out the window this morning?

Very!

Sometime during the night snow fell.

Hmmm.........

I am not impressed. I am not ready for snow.

Yes, I have my winter gloves. Yes, I also have a pair of mittens. Yes, I have my new winter boots. Yes, I have a winter coat. Yes, I have a hot-tub wool hat ready to wear when needed. (My head always gets cold when sitting in the hot tub so I wear a wool hat.) Yes, I have ice melt, snow shovels and ice scrappers. Still, I am not ready for snow. I want my summer, which I really didn't have, back. Don't get me wrong. I like snow. I like winter. I'm just not ready for it yet.

BIG SIGH!!!

It makes for a beautiful picture.

There is a house that I drive by each evening on my way home from work that has a huge, pink blossomed, Saucer Magnolia tree in the front yard. The tree stands stately and serene. It encompasses the whole front of the humble abode, a lone sentinel guarding the house. When passing by it's like looking through lace curtains. Every day, even though I have seen this tree the evening before, its' beauty takes me by surprise again and again. What a soothing and restful end to my work day. With each day that passes, the tree's beauty is slowly fading as the blossoms wither away, so today I stopped to snap a picture of it's still magnificent view. What a shock! My serene oasis had been transformed into a construction site with trucks and scaffolding in front of the tree and house. Insert sadness and a sigh here. I wanted to share with you so I searched the Internet for a photo that might show what I've been enjoying. Success! The tree shown above matches. It makes for a beautiful picture don't you agree?

A PRAYER IN SPRING Robert Frost
Oh, give us pleasure in the flowers today;
And give us not to think so far away
As the uncertain harvest; keep us here
All simply in the springing of the year.
Oh, give us pleasure in the orchard white,
Like nothing else by day, like ghosts by night;
And make us happy in the happy bees,
The swarm dilating round the perfect trees.
And make us happy in the darting bird
That suddenly above the bees is heard,
The meteor that thrusts in with needle bill,
And off a blossom in mid air stands still.
For this is love and nothing else is love,
To which it is reserved for God above
To sanctify to what far ends he will,
But which it only needs that we fulfill.

SPRING HAS SPRUNG

I LIKE BIRDS.
I am not a birder. I don't go out into the wilds to watch or count birds
or do whatever it it that a true birdwatcher does.
Birds are pretty. Look at the pictures above.
Look at those colours and the design of the feathers.
They are, you must admit, beautiful.
There is something comforting about the sound of a bird's song.
Birds sound cheerful when they are singing.
Listen closely and you'll hear the birds scold any squirrel that raids the feeders.
They will alert the whole bird population and warn of any cat that is stalking the neighbourhood.
They will get very quite, unseen and unheard when a predatory bird is about.
Listen to them bring in the morning with song and
sing quietly in the evening dusk before nesting for the night.
Every bird has a distinct sound and most people will recognize
the birds call and be able to name the type of bird
before they even see the bird itself.
Birds can perform aeronautical feats.
Watch the birds soar above the earth in flight.
Twisting and turning without effort.
See them fly around in the sky up above, soaring in the air currents,
then come zooming down towards the earth, at a breakneck speed,
only to gently land on and not fall off, a branch that doesn't
look it is strong enough to hold a fly let alone a bird.
Birds are one of God's and natures most amazing creatures.

As a young girl I grew up with Baltimore Orioles
nesting in long swaying nests
that they built in the tall ash trees that stood
on the hill at the back of our house.
There were two trees and every year there was a nest in each tree.
We watched each spring for the bright flash of orange on their breast
that announced their arrival for the season.
Dad always warned us not to play too near the trees
so as not to disturb the Orioles.
He wanted to be sure they kept coming
back year after year and they did for as long as I can remember.

Birds can be very entertaining.
Many times John and I have sat out on our back deck
and have enjoyed the antics of baby Sparrows and Wrens
trying desperately to hang onto the overhead wires while learning
how to keep their balance and eventually fly.
Mom and dad bird were always watching near by,
chirping out encouragement,
scolding when the little ones refused to move,
and, when required, bribing the babies
with a gullet of regurgitated bird yummies.

I have had the opportunity to see a Humming Bird hover,
investigating a banana that my mom had just peeled
and was holding in her hand.
I have seen Humming Birds feeding in the wild on a
long mass of flowered bushes that had been planted like hedges.
There were at least 20 of the Humming Birds feeding,
every once in a while one stopping to give chase to another hummer
that was getting to close to their area of the long feeding line.
I also had the pleasure of seeing a Humming Bird nesting
on the tiniest eggs I have ever seen.
The nest was perched on top of a cactus in the
Cuban resort that we were staying at.
That was really neat to see.

One year, I looked out my patio door and was rewarded
with the sight of a very large Hawk
preening, cleaning and sunning itself
on the wall of our deck.
It stayed for almost an hour and I
used my binoculars to watch it up close.
What a beautiful bird that Hawk was.


My very favourite bird of them all is the Robin.
The sight and/or sound of a Robin always,
without fail, makes me smile.
I always wait each year for my first sighting of a Robin
and I always smile when I see one.
They have such a distinct song.
You can tell by the red colour on their breast
how old or young a Robin is.
The babies with their fat belies and
dark brownish red speckled chests.
The young mothers with a bright red breast
and the older Robins, with faded red breasts.
I like them all....and as I said, Robins are my favourite bird of them all.

One year my sister by marriage, Noreen,
had an Owl take refuge in
the big pine tree at the front of her house.
I am not sure what kind of Owl it was.
It was very small and
yes, it did have big eyes and
constantly moved his head around to
keep watch in the neighbourhood.
That was the first, but hopefuly not the last, time I have seen an Owl in the wild.

I also like the squawky, noisy and
bold as brass, Blue Jay.
These are very smart birds.
They can sit at a feeder and pick out the bits that they like
and then they spit the rest on the ground.
I have watched a Blue Jay trying to crack open a
walnut for it's supper.
The jay had held the nut in it's beak and
hit it again and again against the trunk of a tree
in an unsuccessful attempt to crack the walnut open.
When this failed I watched the jay drop the nut on the ground
and then take a small stone in it's beak and
start dropping the stone over and over down on the nut.
After many drops of the stone the jay would again
beat the nut against the trunk of the tree.
Back to the stone dropping and then back to the tree beating.
Eventually the Blue Jay was successful in getting it's meal.
Blue Jays' will figure out how to get something they want
and are willing to work at it till they get the desired result.
Try throwing a Blue Jay peanut after peanut on the deck
and then putting one peanut under a clear plastic glass
and see what happens.
You can train young Blue Jays' to eat out of your hand
if you have the patience and they will remember you
the next time they see you and will squawk until
you produce something for them to eat.
They are highly intelligent and very curious birds.

So there you go. I like birds of all kinds and I think birds are OK. They are amusing to watch and interesting to read and learn about. People can learn a lot from birds.

Song of Solomon 2:12
Flowers appear on the earth; the season of singing has come,
the cooing of doves is heard in our land.

Most people think of budding trees, crocus's, tulips and daffodils
as the announcement that SPRING HAS SPRUNG.
I do not.
I always know that spring has sprung by the
sound of the Blue Jays' in our neighbourhood.
Now, I know that jays don't migrate south for the winter season.
They can't help it that they hang around the snow belt area when
lots of other birds go south to soak up a few rays each winter.
Blue Jays' are programmed by genetics to know
that they don't have to go south for the winter.
In the neighbourhood that I live in,
I and many of the other and older neighbours,
have filled bird feeders hung out for about seven months of the year.
So there are Blue Jays in our area for most of the year.
However, when the snow flies these beautiful blue birds tend to look
for easier pickings...aka full bird-feeders, in other areas of the city,
that are closer to the bush and wooded areas of the city parks.
I assume that that is where they spend their time during the snow season.
However the Blue Jays' always come back to our neighbourhood for the spring.
I don't know why but they do.
Perhaps the fact the many seniors in the area
and myself as well,
are able to get get through the melting snow
and into their back yards to put up the feeders again
for the spring and summer season.
My theory is that another free meal is always a
welcome feast for the noisy jays and the more feeders
they can get to the better they like it.
I really think this is why the Blue Jays come
back around to our part of the city
the same time year after year after year.

This morning, as I was brushing the
sneaky snow that fell during the night,
off my car, I heard the call of the Blue Jays'.
I smiled when I heard that
old familiar call
and I thought to myself,
"The jays are back".
For me,
SPRING HAS SPRUNG.



check out the following National Geographic Site For Lots of Bird Info and pictures :http://www.nationalgeographic.com/index.html