Making A List & Checking It Twice For A Photo Hunt!

In the northern hemisphere, summer officially begins June 21st so that means in the southern hemisphere winter begins on the same day. 

My blogging friend, Lady Ella at:  Flowers-of-Progress & I were discussing how we miss the list for a photo hunt.  With full understanding that many lives are extremely busy right now, we took the idea & came up with a list of ideas that we want to share for a seasonal photo hunt.  Everyone is welcomed to join in for all the items, a few of the items or just to be a viewer.

We have created a list of 25 items for you to find and photograph between June 1st & September 30th, 2017. 

The list is intended to have some easy finds along with some  challenging ones so it encourages you to go on a few outings & notice things around you. A few of the items are totally up to how you want to interpret the item.

There is no formal link in,  just a list to print off & keep close by on all your outings & excursions over the next 4 months.  If you have a blog, we hope you share your finds on these three dates; June 29th, August 2nd & the roundup on September 30th or share when ever the mood takes you.  No rules, although we do hope you aren't using any photos  taken before June 1st.  Let the fun of a photo challenge begin!


The List:

1.       Something fuzzy

2.       Bubbles

3.       A web

4.       A zig zag

5.       A seasonal relaxing space/item

6.       A pipe

7.       The inside of something

8.       Rust or something derelict

9.       A kite or balloon

10.   Something Yellow

11.   A toy only found out during June to September

12.   A wedding

13.   A dome

14.   Someone fishing

15.   Something crafted from wood

16.   A baby (human or animal)

17.   Circles or crosses in architecture

18.   A fan

19.   Feet of man or beast

20.   Something found under ground

21.  A plaque

22.  A dial

23.  Something powered by wind

24.  Seasonal food or drink

25.  A hat

Memo, Mail & Me: It's Monday May 29th

 Monday, a favourite day of the week & today is one of my sisters birthday ... there will be cake at tomorrow's celebrations.

A big wave to all the Monday memo writers & a hello & thanks to our hostess, Sian at :From High In The Sky

On the Memo writing this week, I found myself making many lists.  Some lists I made with a blogging friend for summer plans, which is always fun.  Some lists were with regards to what I needed to get done in the garden & in the house.  While both of these home keeping lists have very important items on them, the list of gardening jobs won out.  The last week has been very wet & chilly but thankfully the weekend shifted into some sunnier moments.  First on the gardening list, planting up of pots & planters.  I promised myself this year I would reduce the number of pots of annual flowers & so as not to tempt myself, I gave away a lot of the pots filled with divides from my garden to the church Bake Book & Plant sale & thank you very much sales were just over $1,500.00!

In spite of my very best efforts I still have about 6 half barrel planters & about 15 other pots! Two of the 1/2 barrel planters have a tomato plant in each one; one Beef Steak & one Cherry.  Having the  smaller pots does make everything look so pretty & come mid August when most of the perennials are done, the pots of annual fill in & keep the garden looking lush.  But right now the spring perennials are putting on such a wonderful show & oh the scent from the (invasive) lily of the valley& the neighbours lilac, is divine.

On the Mail front there wasn't a lot going on.  Just junk mail that goes into the recycle bin straight away.  Such a waste of paper!

On the Me front, Mr Man & I had the last week off to take care of some things around the house inside & outside (hence the need for lists).  Mr Man was on the roof clearing out the eaves-troughs & noticed that our roof shingles look a little worse for wear ... maybe I should have hung on to those flyers for roofers.  Now to decide steel roof or roof shingles.

"The time has come said the Walrus to the carpenter, to talk of many things ..." Lewis Carroll Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There, 1872

And yes there will be more to talk about later in the week ... happy week ahead everyone.

Take Three Thursday: Lock or Lack?

If an effort to notice more in my life, I have decided to share what I have noticed this week in Take Three Thursday.  The idea is to take 3 photos that are linked some how; by theme, by colour, by date, by moment,  by points of view. There is no formal link in but please feel free to join in.  What have you noticed this week?

See what these friends have noticed this week:
Maggie: Farmers Wife Day By Day
Eileen: In My Playroom

This week all the lilacs are in full blooming glory.  Such a heady scent with these flowers.  Lilacs seem to be a staple planting for all the local old farm steads & many have gone rather wild & form huge groves.  It seems as long as no one cuts the flowers, the bush is covered from ground to sky in flowers.  There seems to be three prominent colours; purple, mauve & white.  One of our down the road neighbours has a row of white lilacs which is quite stunning.   When the next door neighbours cut down all their lilac shrubs I noticed a few suckers sprouting up on my side of the fence.  I debate whether to keep or not.  They can grow to be quite large.   And while we are talking lilacs, do you say lilac which sounds like li lock or lilac which sounds like  li lack?

Purple

White

Mauve

Where there were Grandmothers, there was always lilacs ... Laura Mill

Memo, Mail & Me: It's Monday May 22nd

Queen Victoria - source

Greetings on this fine Victoria Day holiday Monday.  Linking it with our fair hostess, Sian at:  From High In The Sky

On the Memo portion of this post, it reads; "dear creature digging holes in my garden, please stop now!" 

Hole 1, under the big boulder rock

Hole 2, in the middle of a flower bed

Finally I have something worth while to report on the Mail section.  I have received a package from Creative Memories - share it, remember it, cherish it ....

fur girls inspect the package

 What I received are the new rectangle & square shapes, which is part of their custom cutting systems, along with 3 new cutting blades, one in each size.  I like that I will now be able to easily make mattes for my photos.  This is happy mail:

 

 The Me part of this post is that on Thursday night I was sitting alone watching TV, mindless TV  I admit to, it was The Big Bang Theory, when I felt a sudden eye pain (left) & my vision go blurry very quickly!  My immediate panic thought was "OH NO, I've got what Mr Man had/has ..."  When I put my hand to my face/eye I felt the lenses fall out of my new, less than 4 weeks old,  glasses, which explained the vision blur. I pulled my glasses off & saw that there was a wire sticking out - ok that explains the pain but not the what.  Anyway turns out the wire under the lenses is what holds the bottom of the lenses to the frame.  It was fixed without much to do, but now I am afraid of those glasses & have gone back to wearing my old pair. The bruise in the corner of my eye/nose is healing quite quickly & yes very lucky that the wire didn't poke into my eye.

That's The Broken Wire StickingUp

"May the world be kind to you,& may your own thoughts be gentle upon yourself."
- Jonathan

Take Three Thursday - Wounds of Old

If an effort to notice more in my life, I have decided to share what I have noticed this week in Take Three Thursday.  The idea is to take 3 photos that are linked some how; by theme, by colour, by date, by moment,  by points of view. There is no formal link in but please feel free to join in.  What have you noticed this week?

 See what some others have noticed this week:
Maggie at:  Farmers Wife Day By Day.   
Helena at: Helenascreativemaven
Eileen at: In My Playroom
Karen at: Random Reflections

This week my wandering about the garden I was looking up a lot.  Looking up for that woodpecker, where is he?  Looking up at the noisy agitated squirrel fighting with the crows, I think the crows took the peanuts that Charlie was carrying.  Looking up at my trees & I noticed the healing of old wounds.  Several winters ago, just 3 days before Christmas, (4 years this December coming), we had a major icy storm that not only took out the power for several days & for others for several weeks.  But the ice was several inches thick on everything & the weight of the ice snapped & broke many branches.  Every time I look at the wounds of our trees I marvel at how hardy they have been & quickly recovered & continue to grow & provide us with lots of summer shade & home for squirrels & birds.  Thank you Mother Nature ...

The Rock Maple's wound

Money Penny's wound

Mikey's wound

Advice from a tree; stand tall & proud; ground yourself with the earth; be content with your natural beauty; go out on a limb; drink plenty of water; enjoy your roots; enjoy the view.  I. Shamir


 

Memo, Mail & Me: It's Monday May 15th

Hello, it's Monday & we meet again.  Linking in with our hostess, Sian at:  From High In The Sky

 
Memo sent out by the owners of the farm where I ride, they have decided to sell the farm.  Their daughter & son with their respective spouses, moved out to BC a couple years ago & since the birth of their first grandchildren, they thought since the market is as hot as it is, it's as good a time to move out west.  I am so sadden by this news because it means that all the horses & owners will be dispersed to different barns, unless the new owners decide to keep the farm as a boarding facility. Most of the boarders will not wait around for that to be decided, so the great exit will begin.   I will probably loose touch with many of them.  I am so grateful that I  have been provided with the opportunity to ride their horses, share in their wisdom of both horse & life.  Some have become just a little more than horse buddies.  I don't like change.

Mail, again not a lot of interesting reading being sent in, but I have done some sending out of happy mail; one of our physio therapists & his wife had a baby girl on the weekend, so a card was passed around & mailed out, plus he'll be off for a few days.  There are quite a few May birthdays that need marking with a card, fingers crossed they all arrive in time.

The me part of this post is feeling quite happy that we got the patio power washed & set up with the chairs, table & umbrella.  My big patio pots are still empty but with next weekend being a long weekend, Monday is the holiday to celebrate Victoria Day, I am hoping that I'll be able to get everything planted up - provided the weather co-operates!  I have my garden centre list all ready.  Soon I will be having my morning tea on the patio again - ah bliss.

Each sunrise gives hope to your dreams and light to your plans.-William Ngwako Maphoto

Take Three Thursday - Invaders

If an effort to notice more in my life, I have decided to share what I have noticed this week in Take Three Thursday.  The idea is to take 3 photos that are linked some how; by theme, by colour, by date, by moment,  by points of view. There is no formal link in but please feel free to join in.  What have you noticed this week?

See what some others have noticed this week:

Maggie: Farmers Wife Day By Day
Linda: LindasPhotoBlog

This week what I noticed when I was weeding in the garden is the invasion of violets - they are everywhere!  In the garden where they are crowding out other on purposed planted plants, they are in the lawn, making Mr Man a little ticked (I'll say no more about that).

While I think the flowers are really delicate & pretty, their roots are very deep & so to remove you have to really dig down & gently pull so you get all the root, otherwise you just get the plant growing again.  I know who gave me the original Mother plant & really she was an experienced gardener giving to a novice,me,  she should have told me how invasion these little darlings are.

Violets growing in the garden

Violets growing in the lawn

Violets growing in amongst the Solomon Seal

"Forgiveness is the fragrance the Violet sheds on the heel that crushed it".  Mark Twain


 

Memo, Mail & Me: It's Monday May 8th

It's Monday & we meet again. A wave to all & linking in with our hostess, Sian at:  From High In The Sky

What's new?  Saturday was National Scrapbooking Day & I made use of the day with a full on, everything out & unless there is bleeding or a fire, don't disturb me kind of scrapping fest at home.  I made breakfast but after that everyone was on their own for food & entertainment.  
  For one of my spring layouts, I  copied scrap lifted a layout featured in the Scrapbook & Cards Today magazine; The Magic of Christmas by Virginia Nebel. I have tried several ways to link in that page but I get error messages.   I made my page titled,  The Miracle of Spring.  In total I created 14 pages for my garden album & got caught up on my day to day album (Project Life pocket pages).

No mail this week but what I had in the shopping cart was the start of some of my purchased pots for the patio.  Still too cold to put them outside.  We had a frost warning for Sunday night, so these beautiful pink & delicate lovelies will spend their nights in the garage.

SO much rain lately, all of our rain barrels are full & overflowing.  I have often wished we could install an underground cistern system to collect all the rainwater because I just know come August, it will be hot & dry & the barrels will be empty.

On Friday when I was running some errands I noticed two Canadian geese in the grassy area between parking lots & they had a brood of yellow fluff babies.  Dad was rounding up the wandering babies so that Mom could cover them up from the pounding rain.  Dad was very aggressive so I was not able to get too close.  

A thought as we start this week;  Plant your own garden instead of waiting for someone to bring you flowers.

Five in Five On The 5th - May 2017

Linking in with Sandie & the other Fivers at : Itchifingers  The idea is to take five photos in five minutes on the 5th of the month. 

Spring's April Showers have moved in with May; 55mm of rain this week so far  & it's still raining with a forecast of more rain into Saturday with rain & snow on Sunday.  I am making friends with a man named Noah.

Signs of Spring in my garden is my theme for this month's Five in Five on the 5th:

Photo 1 = the frost burn on the early bloomers (these are allium). This plant is always the first to sprout but always suffers with frost burn on the leaves because we always get a late April/May frost. But no matter the flowers are unaffected & are a gorgeous purple.

Photo 2 = the curls on the ferns, which we call fiddleheads.  Fiddleheads are a delicious spring treat.  I don't have enough ferns growing in my garden to cut the tight curls to eat so I buy our fiddleheads at the local farm shop.  Yummy with a little butter.

Photo 3 = one of the maple trees flowers.  We hope for few of these because the more flowers, the more seed pods which are SO difficult to get rid of & they clog the eaves-trough on the house.

Photo 4 = the hosta soldiers.  At least that's what the beginnings of the hosta look like to me.  Spikey little warriors all standing individually at attention & ready to take on all comers.  Ok Mrs Bunny try & nibble me ...

Photo 5 =  mud splatters on my nearly white daffodil.  It seems this lovely flower can't go a few hours without a mess on her Sunday best ... but still beautiful & of course she can't help all the mud surrounding her - so much rain!

 

Take Three Thursday - May 4th

May The Fourth be with you.

If an effort to notice more in my life, I have decided to share what I have noticed this week in Take Three Thursday.  The idea is to take 3 photos that are linked some how; by theme, by colour, by date, by moment,  by points of view. There is no formal link in but please feel free to join in.  What have you noticed this week?

 See what some others have noticed this week:
Maggie at:  Farmers Wife Day By Day.    
Helena at: Helenascreativemaven
Eileen at: In My Playroom 

This week my noticing is from last week, when we were touring buildings in the Open Door program.  The first photo is of the big Anglican church in Guelph.  One thing I really like about this church is that the high alter coloured window faces east to the Holy Land. This church's only true stained glass window faces west. The second photo is of the really big Roman Catholic church in Guelph. It has just undergone a huge renovation which cost millions. It is so beautiful inside & out.  My third photo is of our own little village Anglican church, which was built in 1853 & had an addition added in 2000.  It's original high alter stained glass window also faces east.  I find it most interesting that in a vast majority of Anglican churches, the interior is so very similar, which makes it feel like coming home no matter the actual location.  

St George's Anglican

Church of Our Immaculate Lady Roman Catholic

St John's Anglican

All of the churches are locked up tight when not in active use, which I think is very sad but understandable.  A senior lady of the church, told me she remembers a time when churches were open 24/7 so that people had a place of quiet, a place for prayer, reflection & counsel & that the minister was there at the church everyday.  I am not saying that a church is the only place you can find quiet for reflection & prayer. So many churches worry about being vandalized, being sued & they are worried about their very continuation as the funds aren't there to support the building & running costs. Many of the ministers & priests have other outside jobs & or provide services to other churches.  Our minister is shared with a church in Hamilton (about an hour away).

Memo, Mail & Me: It's Monday May 1st

A big Monday May Day wave to all & linking in with our hostess, Sian at:  From High In The Sky

Oh Monday, you & your six sisters are some of the best company I will keep all week.

Meeting this new character over the weekend ... a groundhog.  Wikipedia says about groundhogs; they prefer open country & the edges of woodland, & is rarely far from a burrow entrance.  This chubby little guy, of a dozen we saw,  lives on the grassy knoll (not THE grassy knoll) beside one of the many paved parking lots on campus.  Students often feed campus groundhogs their apple cores from lunch. Quite adaptable is the groundhog.

Ground Hog (George Henry) living near west campus parking lot

Spring's arrived in this part of the world is quite chilly & wet.  
  

Tulips in garden beside the patio

There are two types of bunnies, one is the yummy kind that we eat at Easter;  one that is fluffy & cute but eating down some of my plants.  The adorable fluffy kind has destroyed my Hellebore that Mr Man bought me last year.  It was coming in quite nicely, but then Mrs Hare found & enjoyed.  Bad bunny!    

Edible

 

Eating

 




















In the mail this week there is evidence that most businesses are ramping up to July 1st, so nearly everything is themed in red & white with the maple leaf .  Don't get me wrong, I enjoy it, you all know me to be a very proud Canadian.   This week's mail included  the Canadian Tire's spring catalogue.  Not that anyone other than my fellow Canadians will know their spokes person, Gary; he is the funniest man - they chose well when they hired him.  I have never known how to describe a typical Canadian, but Gary I think in a comic way, sums it up. And no we don't all say eh ...

Canadian Tire spring catalogue

Gary - Canadian Tire's spokesperson (source)

Tim Horton's special up - Timmies is a national treasure (source)

Work Memo;  my job, has been consuming & eating into a lot of my time again.  Unfortunately one of the two persons we hired a month ago was not working out, so we had to let her go.  It is such a difficult decision to make regardless of the justification - this is someone's life, someone's paycheque.  The new person starts today. The photo below I believe says more than words could describe how it affects me.

 Ode to  May ... welcome, please be good.