Sunny Saturday

Yesterday I had fun taking pictures at a lagoon, while my Daughter was at a birthday party. There were some little birds that I wanted to take pictures of, unfortunately they weren't co-operative! They sure were noisy little things.
Anyways, the view was lovely.

There were a few lonely flowers, and one lone apple tree. I love coming across fruit trees like this! Probably sown by some tossed core...


I found a tree, (not sure what kind) that was swarming with bee's. Unfortunately, what ever was attracting the bee's was also attracting yellow jackets. I flirted with getting stung to get a few pictures. I am allergic so I try to minimize my chances of getting stung. But this was just too good of an oppotunity to pass up. The sun was filtering onto the bee's and they were enjoying drinking what was on these flowers.

I had a rather disappointing moment today, I got one of the lenses delivered that I had won on ebay. Well there was a miscommunication somewhere, because it wont fit my camera :( I will go back and check the auction and see what happened, but I am pretty sure I can't return it. I will have to sell it here. Ugh. That really bummed me out.

But on a better note, when my mail arrived it came with a letter from Verona Italy. A nice letter from a friend telling me about the birth of her son Lucas. So everyday has a silver lining.

What a weekend!

What a weekend! My oldest went to Brownie camp on Friday night, after school and the schools fun fair. She was at camp for two nights and had a great time. The house sure was quiet without her. I had the opportunity to take some pictures on Saturday at the rail yards of a beautiful girl named Hannah. She was so much fun to take pictures of. Here are a few of them,

Of course I had to get a few random picture in,

Then after picking my daughter up on Sunday we stopped at the lagoon to feed the geese. Well these geese and ducks were not afraid of anyone with food! I had a hard time taking any pictures because they were right in the camera, literally. I did manage to get a few. This one I liked because you can see Kristin and my reflection in its eye :)

This beautiful swan was making his presence know to all the others, puffing up and pushing his way around.

I know there are lots of people who think that seagulls are a nuisance. I like them. I couldn't imagine going to the water and not having them. Think how it empty it would seem without seeing their antics and calls while at the ocean...

The day was overcast and a rainy at times, but nothing that a few boaters would worry about.

Then as we were driving from the water, home.. we came across these sweeties. The pictures are not good because I took them from the car. But what doll's. It sure made Kristin's day.

Look what I got!

I won these two lenses on ebay today. I am excited to get them and try them out, now that I have my camera back! The first one is Pentax super Takumar 28mm F3.5 and the second one is a Pentax 18-55m.
Comments welcome Clane! :)

I have mentioned in other posts about the water view we have. We are not water front (I wish!) but we are only a stones throw from it. Tonight I saw the biggest moon rising. I headed to the end of our road, where there is a sitting area and a small boat launch. Of course by the time I got down there the moon was behind some clouds. I still took a few pictures and thought I would post them. I love being close to the water. The picture below, you can see part of the large park that is just a road over from us. Long ago the part that you see, had a bathing house and a tea house. There are still people who look for items from those days, coins and jewellery I imagine. Around the corner to the right of the picture is an inlet that is now part of a estuary. A couple years ago the city connected it too a stream and planted sedge grass to attract fowl. We do see some very unique birds around here.

I am Thankful

This weekend was Thanksgiving here in Canada. I really like the idea of taking time to think about what we are thankful for. I try hard to always, let the people in my life know how much they mean to me. But we need to be reminded sometimes. I have many, many, things to be thankful for. All the usual, family and health etc. But I want to let the people I have met online know how thankful I am for them. We meet people online and they become friends. Frankly I may "see" some of you more often than I do my "real world" friends. You become part of my day and part of my life. I enjoy reading yours blogs and getting a small glimpse into your world and in essence, being a small part in your life.

I went thrift store shopping on Saturday. This is certainly one of my favourite past times! I love finding deals. I am usually only looking for clothes for my kids. Frankly, I think I will be shot if I bring anything else into the house before our renovation is finished. However, I did manage to sneak a couple little things into the house without them being noticed. Then being the person that I am I told John about them anyway! I can't be sneaky about anything, so I don't know why I even try. I had seen a lovely idea on a wonderful blog (myromantichome.blogspot.com). It involved using a candle stick, glass plate and a cheese dome. I thought the idea was lovely and imagined my vintage Christmas ornaments under the glass.... So I kept this in mind while I was out. I was able to get a very nice crystal bowl from France and a crystal candle stick from Austria for $1 each. So I made a stemmed bowl instead.
I also found a really nice hurricane lamp with a ceramic base, it has rosebuds on it. I have a couple hurricane lamps and love them. I have been searching for some old Pyrex bowls with the Amish design on the sides. I haven't seen any for a long time, of course, since I started looking :)

Our Adopted Cat

This morning Meep Meep came scratching on the door, as usual. I love this cat so much. He lives up the road and around the corner and I know his name because it is on his name tag. I have met his owner, because he was lost once and I phoned the number off the posted on the telephone pole. He is huge, he obviously likes his food. When you pick him up you can give him a hug he's so big. He hangs out at our place all day, mostly in the back yard. When he gets lonely he scratches on door or the window. He walks in like he owns the place. Frankly I am not sure when he does go home because, pretty much any time, day or night that I go outside he is there. We don't feed him, because of course then he would never leave. I would be completely willing to have him, but I figure if I love him this much, he must be loved a lot by his owner. His owner is young and I think between her work and life, she is busy and he is not getting all the attention he wants. My oldest daughter plays with him and drags sticks around for him to chase. My twins think that "Meep Meep" means "Cat". "Meep Meep" of course is the sound that the road runner makes :) I don't mind being his adopted family. He chose us and we like having him around

My Pentax Dilemma

So, I got my first DSLR in June a Pentax K10D. I was really excited about this purchase and a little intimidated too! I have a Pentax SLR and some lenses and filters for it and have enjoyed using. I had found Pentax to be good to deal with when problems arose so I was fairly confident in this purchase. I didn't have a lot of time to play around and get used to the camera at first, my twins 2nd Birthday came along and a party needed to be planned etc. And being summer, I was taking more pictures outside than in, so I did not notice right away that the flash was not firing. When it didn't I figured it was not needed. By the time I did notice it was getting close to a month owning the camera. I went onto a K10D forum and asked a few questions, still figuring I was doing something wrong. The people on there told me it sounded like it was the camera! So I took it right in to the place I bought it (London Drugs) and they checked it out and said it was definetly the camera, not anything I was doing. Unfortunately I did not save the box the camera came in! Grrr, otherwise they would of tried replacing it. Actually they did look into this but weren't able to find one as this model is discontinued. So off to Pentax the camera went. I really fully expected the camera to be replaced. After all it was new and did not work when I bought it. Our holidays came and went and I didn't have my camera, 6 weeks came and went and still no camera and no word from Pentax except to say they had received it. Now we are at almost 7 weeks and I am getting ticked. So this morning I go into London Drugs when they open and while I was there a call was put in too Pentax, apparently the camera has been fixed and is on enroute to me. The part that I disliked about this was *FIXED*. Who wants to have spent this kind of money on a fixed camera! London Drugs says they want to make it right with me. I am not sure what they can do at this point. I have to say that London Drugs is one of the best places to buy your electronics from. I have had them stand behind me and help me out more than once with products.
So I am not sure what the outcome of this is going to be. I know I am very disapointed and some thing that was so exciting for me has become a huge hassle. I am very disapointed in Pentax for this.... I do like the camera though :(

Cauliflower

I got quite a good deal on cauliflower, the other day. $1.68 a head. I eat a fair amount of cauliflower, because it is one of the lower carb veggies, and I am on a low carb diet. There are times when I got to the grocery store and there isn't any cauliflower or it is small and not worth the price.

It is very easy to get ready for the freezer. You blanch it for 3 minutes in boiling water and then plunge it into a cold water bath to stop the cooking process. Then you bag it in some good freezer bags. I use a straw to get as much air as I can out of the bag.

Skin Care

I know when I am in the skin care section of the drug stores, it is somewhat intimidating looking at all the products. I then see the prices, and I am even more leery to spend money on something I am not sure of. I am always happy to hear some reviews on products, from real people.
I want to tell about a product that I have tried recently and that I am really impressed with. The company is called La Roche Posay. I was introduced to their skin care line at the cosmetic counter and London Drugs. The cosmetician gave me a couple samples and I have been hooked ever since. I have combination skin, so it has always been difficult for me to find something that moisturizes but, that doesn't leave my skin feeling greasy.
The effaclar face wash is amazing, you only need a tiny bit (the size of a pea) to wash your face. It leaves your skin feeling clean without being stripped and dry. The Mela-D anti dark spot cream, works very quickly to reduce the signs of age spots and freckles. Active eye C only takes a tiny bit. I usually put this on before bed. The Redermic daily anti wrinkle fill in cream goes on without any grease. You can easily put your makeup on right away over top of it. I have found these products to be fairly priced and considering they work so well, they are definitely worth the money. I encourage anyone to check them out and ask for a few samples to try them for yourself.

A week of uniforms

This past week was monumental for my oldest daughter. She earned her vest at Awana and she started Brownies. It is so cute to see he all dressed up in the uniforms. I have to admit though that I really liked the Brownie dress that I wore, over this uniform she has! Here she is last two years ago, when she joined. First one, she is pledging and then she is getting her pin and scarf.

Battle of the fleas

We have two cats, Angel and Spook. Sorry for the horrible pictures! I dont have many pictures of them on my computer. They are indoor cats, but this year, somehow they have got fleas. Now in all the searches I have done online, it says this is very easy to happen. Thankfully we have NOT had it happen in the past years. Neverless we are now having to deal with this issue. We did, I am ashamed to say try the Control brand of drops on them. I have since read that it is not very effective and pretty harmful. I have been combing the cats daily, that alone has seem to have done a lot. I had read that bathing them with a mild detergent, and letting them sit for a few mintues before rinsing them kills a lot of the fleas. We have an area in our basement that is in the reno stage that the cats "hang" out in, and we know it must have a fair amount down there! Eeek. Strangely enough, I have always been one that would get eatten alive if there were fleas around, and I am getting no bites now. So we will be looking into a flea bomb, or other alternative this weekend. I have certainly had my fill on flea information, doing these searches. Yuck they are ugly creatures and darn adaptable too. I learned that

• they can stay in the pupal stage from 5 days to 5 weeks, in the absence of a host.


• the adults emerge when vibrations let them know a host is near.


• a sand flea is just a common flea, breeding outdoors.


• the entire life cycle of flea can require two weeks, to two years!


• they can jump 7-8 inches vertically and 14-16 inches horizontally


• there are over 2000 species in the world

apparently while they like dry areas outside and will keep in the shaded area, a good rainfall will kill off a lot of larva. I am planning to purchase some Nematodes for next year. They eat the larva in the grass, among many other great benefits to the yard.

So I have a battle ahead and just thinking about it makes me want to scratch!!!!!!!!!

Spicing things up a bit

To add some spice to my day, I decided to make some salsa. I made a tomato, red/green pepper, corn and garlic salsa... extra spicy.

Turkey Vultures

I have a over sized couch in front of my living room window. Its deep and comfy, dark brown corduroy and I enjoy sitting with my back up against the arm of the couch, with my legs up. In this position I can look at the water. It is lovely having a water view even if it is somewhat, between rooftops. The water is a gorge, so while it is tidal, it is calmer than crashing waves (which I would love equally). It is so alive, there is always something going on. There is the rowing club on the other side, I look almost directly at it. A number of Dragon boat groups practice out of there. We get some seals and otters, especially when the herring come in to lay their eggs. There is a large park to one side of us and between the water and the park we see a lot of different birds. One bird we see quite regularly here is the turkey vulture. The picture that comes to mind when you say vulture, is usually not a pleasant one. But they are very graceful fliers. They are not strong flyer's apparently and we, more often than not, see them coasting in the air currants. Today I was surprised to see a huge number of them together. I did a bit of a search and they are migrating right now and their groups can reach 100's. Well I didn't see quite that many I did manage to get a couple pictures of the circling.
The pictures open up to full size if you click on them.

Call me Martha

I am starting to feel all domestic, or domesticated (hmm? lol) I did more canning today. I canned 11 jars of pears. It felt like an accomplishment and that seems pathetic! I may actually buy some more pears tomorrow and do a few more jars. My kids love canned pears and the price of the ones in the stores is horrible. The large noname can is 1.97 and it has two pears in it. That's crazy. Anyway, I will see how energetic I am and what kind of mood Hanna and Leah are in tomorrow.
So as I was pealing pear after pear, I couldn't help but think about the people in the past that had to can things. This was not a choice, there were no stores open til midnight for shopping convenience and probably not a lot or money to shop with anyway. We always like to think we have come so far, but really have we? Seems like we are always busy with a lot of things, that dont really matter...

Flax Meal

This morning seemed like a good time to grind my flax seeds. I had bought a huge bag of organic bulk seeds at Super Store for about $5. I always keep my seeds, and when ground, the meal in the freezer because flax will go rancid if left out.
So I got out the coffee grinder and ground away. It takes so little time to do it. Maybe 5 seconds for each batch in the grinder.

I am trying to get back to my low carb lifestyle and I use the ground flax for muffins. I find them wonderful for breakfast.
1/2 C butter
4 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 c of heavy cream
3 tbsp of veg oil
Mix together the above ingredients

1/2 c splenda
1 c of flax meal
1 1/2 c of protein powder
1 tsp of b.powder
1/2 c of coconut

Mix together the dry ingredients and then add the wet ingredients and mix well. Bake for 15 min at 350.
A friend and I have tweaked this recipe until it is the way we like. I sometimes add some almonds to this and also some Epicure pumpkin pie spice.

With a cough cough here and a sniff sniff there

Well the weekend is drawing to a close and I am feeling a tad better. The overwhelming desire to stick my head under the pillow and the blanket up over that is easing. I still don't feel that great but I am hoping I got enough rest today that I will be able to function this week. If not I guess I will just do the best I can.
The weather was mild this weekend but has the very destinct smell and feel of fall. I love that. It is invigorating and comforting. Something about the smell of wood smoke and ripening leaves, damp soil and the hint of rain. I guess part of it is about having a change too. I enjoy summer, but we are always so busy from morning to night, fall is about time slowing down.

Just another day

Today was a whirl wind of activity. I drove Kristin to her friend to school this morning. We car pool with this friends Mom as the school is a 20 minute drive away. So getting the girls up and ready in the morning is not one of my favourite things, perhaps its because I am not much of a morning person myself! My kids seem to take after me, lol. They need a little(okay a lot) encouragement to get moving. Hanna and Leah always greet me with wonderful moods and that lasts a short while, until the get frustrated over something. Kristin hates getting up and needs her time to wake up fully before she is her genial self. I have learned to leave her be, as much as I can.
So after the trip to school we needed to stop at the grocery store and get some milk. I use these trip as an opportunity to point out to Hanna and Leah colours and shapes. I ask them "what do you see?" and they come up with some great things, in toddlerease that is.
So after we got home and had lunch and playtime, it was nap time. Ahh some days (okay most day!) It is my most looked forward to time of day. I actually get to accomplish something, or sit down and read something etc. But today because I was not feeling well, and because the girls have not been feeling well or sleeping well, I was really tired. I decided to have a nap when they did.
I was to watch two other children this evening from suppertime till 8:30, so I needed some energy. I will have them again for 6 or 7 hours tomorrow.
I sure hope I get some sleep tonight....

Day flying by

Today, after taking my daughter to school I ran a few errands. When I got home I used up the last of my blackberries from yesterday and made some more jam. I made blackberry/pineapple this time. It was a concoction I came up with yesterday. The little taste I had after it was finished cooking was delicious. Such a brilliant colour too. The yellow from the pineapple deepened the blackberry red and made it rich and yummy looking. Hmm, wonder how long those three jars will last :)
I had just got the girls to sleep when I heard a roaring in the sky. I just had the chance to grab my point and shoot and step out the door. Right over top of me, and I do mean RIGHT OVER TOP! Was the Snowbirds. I had only a split second to hit the button and get this picture.

We have been dazzled with their performances a few times but I had never seen them fly this low. I don't know what was going on today that had them in town. Other times we have been able to see them it was because of the Queen visitin, or a Canada day celebration.

* I found out that the Snowbirds are performing this Sunday.

Fruits of my labour

So yesterday I had an opportunity (thanks to my Mom, who watched the girls!) to go blackberry picking. I was able to get a bucketfull, which was more than I thought I would. This year hasn't been the best for blackberries around here. While picking I saw the biggest spider. I included a pic of it, none of the pics are very good. All were taken with my blackberry phone and it was windy. But because he was SO big, (and that is not an optical illusion, He really was that size in comparison to my hand)I had to include him. I am not terribly afraid of spiders, but that guy commanded some respect. I was a little less eager to stick my hands where I couldn't see after seeing him and the few relative that were around.
Now, I am trying to live a low carb lifestyle, so jam is not in the picture for me. However Kristin, loves jam so I have an excuse to make it. I have very fond memories of picking blackberries with my Grandma. We would walk up the road they lived on, past a lake and pick bucketfulls. Then we would head home and I would smell that sweet blackberry smell all through the house as she was cooking it. She made the best jam (and pretty much everything else!) and it tasted even better on her homemade buns. So it gives me warm fuzzy feelings to make it too.
This morning I got busy and made the berries into jam. I was going to can pears today too, but I am not sure if that is going to happen. I was up at the wee small hours with Hanna, so my energy level is dragging.
I drove my Mom to the bus yesterday evening and then took the girls to get an icecream cone. Beacon Drive in, it is the BEST icecream. We pulled over and watched a cruise ship leave port while they ate. Again the pics are off my phone, so they are not the best. But where else but Victoria can you see a sunset like that, a cruise ship leaving and a helicopter all in one pic lol.