Memo, Mail & Me: It's Monday October 30th

And here we are again, arriving at Monday.  Good morning all.

The burning bush is glowing in the season's finale

Most of our chipmunks have received the memo from Mother Nature that these are the last days to gather food stores for the winter.  Chipmunks don't hibernate in the true sense of the word.  What they do is called torpor, which means they slow down in their breathing, heart rate & metabolism but do stay underground in their burrows for the winter, so hence the need to gather enough food to see them through November to March.  This is a photo of Arnold, he lives under this wooden barrel which I use as a compost container.

Our mail box was over flowing this week with very colourful grocery store flyers from 5 of the 7 stores.  Lots of pretty pictures of yummy food.  None of these 7 stores are local to me, I need to drive into the city 20 minutes away.  I use to read all these flyers thoroughly, marking all the deals & then driving from one corner of the city to the other (7 in total) to take advantage of any sale price.  But one day I realized something.  I was not saving anything.  It would add about 45-60 minutes to my shopping routine & my time is valuable; I put lots of extra kilometers on the car because none of these shops were close to each other, which translates into added gas usage.   Now I just choose two stores which are fairly close together & plan my other errands around these locations.  Both are doing comparison matching, which means if I take the flyer to the store that maybe doesn't have the sale on a particular item but one of the other shops does, I just present the flyer/item to the cashier & they then match the price.  What about you, do you have a favourite grocery store? 

Not sure if it's the weather change, but the fur girls are quite busy, running about the house at the oddest of hours.  Plus I swear these cats have mountain goat in them,  we are finding them up on top of the bookcases in the family room & "war room".  There's no fighting taking place in the "war room" it's called this because of all Mr Man's war books, which number over a thousand,  contained in 7 bookcases.
 

Smokey Puss - who loves tissue paper to play in

Sooty Paws, who seems to love trouble

On the me front, last Monday on my way into work, I tripped at the entrance, landing head first on the cement walk way.  I so scared myself that I just lay there to be sure nothing was broken when a lady who was driving by, saw what happened, pulled a U-turn & came to help me up.  I cracked my head pretty hard & had an immediate goose egg, cement burn (scrape) nasty headache &  skinned knees.  It happened so quickly I didn't even have time to put out my hands to brace myself.  I called Mr Man to come & get me to take me to our doctor's to be check out.   I do not (thankfully) have a concussion but head trauma (the swelling) & lateral whiplash, which translate to when I fell I jarred my shoulder & neck.  Now I get to be a patient at the clinic I work at.  Let me tell you, several of them need to take a sensitivity workshop.  The RMT told me "oh well, it could have been worse".  Yes you are right, it could have been, but really you tell patients that are injured & hurting this?  Another staff member said "oh I can't see the goose egg - I guess you're ok now".    On the boss front - I told him as soon as it happened but he has yet to call to see how I'm doing! 

Autumn shows us how lovely it can be to let things go ...

Take Three Thursday - Cones of Pine

In an effort to notice more of the ordinary in my life, I have decided to share what I have noticed this week in Take Three Thursday.   The idea is to take 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? 

Have a peek at what others have found this week:

Maggie at: FarmersWifeDayByDay  

This week as I have wandered about, I noticed that the evergreens, white pines & some maples have been producing an abundance of cones.  Some of the evergreens have so many that from a distance it looks as though the tree is dying.  But it does seem that I was not the only one noticing as there was an article in our local paper about this written by a director of the Arboretum at the University of Guelph.  This abundant production of cones is called Masting.  "trees will try to outsmart the seed predators like squirrels every once in a while producing these huge crops that there's no way the squirrels could possibly eat them all & that way there are going to be some left over to actually sprout & grow. Once sprouted they're pretty delicate & fragile & have to survive being eaten by deer & rabbits". The director went on to say "the abundance of seeds being produced could be intensified by last year's drought & the tree evolutionary survival mode kicked in this year."

brown spots throughout the tree are cones all the way down the tree

Mother Nature you are simply brilliant & amazing even though right now you seem to be having mood swings ... I'll say no more.

Memo, Mail & Me; It's Monday October 23rd

A big wave & greeting of good Monday morning.  How is everyone this morning?  Well & happy, I trust.

A very intense red sky one morning last week.  Red sky in the morning sailors taking warning.

looking from the front door south east

We have been experiencing absolutely delightful weather these last few days & I took Betty The Bike out for one last seasonal ride.  It's a lie - remembering how to ride a bike can be a forgotten skill.  I was quite wobbly & the hand brakes seemed to stick so that I ended up, just dragging my feet to stop.  Plans are that next year I will do more bike riding ...

Nothing on either the mail or memo front, but I do have to report on some finds.  

Found in my shopping cart;  I shouldn't have but oh my goodness these are SOOO tasty.   I'll say no more.

Found this in my Christmas scrapping stash!  No idea how long I have had, but it's a Christmas card making booklet.  I have ideas for this new found gem!  I am still wafting back & forth on what I'll do for my December Daily, but this kit was a great diversion from that decision.

Found in the garden this last of the season rose in bloom.  Ah memories!

In my next photo I am not showing you dirty kitty dishes but what caused shrieking, jumping, heart palpitations at about 4:45am when  it is still very dark outside.   I wandered into the kitchen which is lit with a small night light (for the cats) & what I saw made me jump about a million miles upwards & let out a shriek.  A snake in my kitchen!!!  On went the big overhead lights, while formulating all kinds of plans of what to do next but this is what I found; 

not a snake but a piece of cord that the girls must have found & were playing with & then got bored with & left it just lying there!  Turns out this piece of cord was from a pair of Mr Man's sweat pants that were in the laundry basket upstairs!  Cats!

And speaking of Mr Man - he was busy installing two solar lights on either side of our gate; he had found them on sale a few weeks back but with all his business travel he only just had the time this weekend to install.  Oh yes, he had his first eye injection shot with the new local doctor & he was quite impressed with her technique.  She puts 4 drops of numbing agent into the eye, spacing each one out a minute apart.

Hoping everyone has a wonderful week ahead.  Me, I'll be ploughing through a course required book; Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Wolf.  So far, I am not enjoying but who knows it could just catch me by surprise.
 

 

Take Three Thursday - Creativity

In an effort & sometimes what feels like a struggle, I wanted to be sure that I wasn't missing the little details in my life.  Many of these "little" things have actually made up the big parts of my life.  So with that in mind, I have decided to post three things I noticed in the week & post them here on my blog in Take Three Thursday.  The three things need only be connected by either colour, theme, shape, event, idea; well you get it, how ever they connect for you.  

Please join with me although there is no formal link in, I am happy to add you if you leave me a note in the comments.  What have you noticed in your life this week?

Let's see what others have noticed:

Maggie At Farmers Wife Day By Day

This week, I not only noticed & tried to stop the comparison thief from stealing more of my creative juices,  I created three cards.  

Card creation is a new adventure for me & while I will never be at the professional levels, I am enjoying. 

The cards are a combination of stamping, embossing, paper embellishments, Washi tape & wood bits. The foil doily & glitter paper were really fun to work with.

Memo, Mail & Me: It's Monday Oct 16th

Good Monday morning to all.  

In the mail this week a rather unusual postcard, it was two sided with a joke on the front & address details about the church & on the backside details of all their upcoming events.  It's a strange way for a church to promote itself ... not even a local church.

On the memo front  Mr Man received notification that he can have the eye injections done locally, which means we do not have to do that 2 hour drive in & out of Toronto!  Gratitude!

In the shopping cart this week was my most recent self indulgence purchase, a thank you to myself for all the extra work I've done at the clinic, because you know the boss will never say that!  I bought myself (with a 55% off coupon) a magnetic platform for holding the die cuts on my Big Kick machine - it's a scrapping/card making thing.

Currently I am:

Thinking: in spite of saying no, not again, about a Summer Photo Scavenger Hunt list, I have started to jot down a few ideas!

Reading:  Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng.  Liked & thought it very interesting how meddling & revenge are often entwined together.  It has me thinking about is it ever right to meddle & can revenge actually be a door opening of opportunity for some? 

I just started the author's first book; Everything I Didn't Tell You.  I am liking this one.  You can read out of order, one is not connected to the other.

Watching: lots of the short series, which I rather enjoy that style, all in & with an end in sight.  Those include; The Disappearance; Alias Grace; Poldark (oh yes, yes to Aidan Turner).

Poldark: Source, Internet

Missing: there are so many bloggers that I have read faithfully for years but they have left the blogging platform & it seems for good.   It makes me sad.   

I want to say thank you to all of you that continue posting, I find the sharing of the "little & big"  life details so interesting, especially in a time when there are some world activities trying to divide us.  We are more a like than different & I am glad you share those difference/sameness.  Let's think of blogging as our way of being peace keepers.   

I am missing & in no particular order; Sian; Helena; Susanne;  Miriam; Liz; Abi; Lisa; Brenda; Jen (Alberta) ... Who are you missing in the blogging world?

Source: Internet

Planning:  I'm really on the fence about creating 31 days or even 25 days of December.   I have enough stuff in my stash of Christmas scrapping supplies to probably create 5 separate albums (this hording needs to be addressed in a completely separate post one day).  I am wondering whether I just want to create a few layouts only of the December highlights or layouts about themes of Christmas.  What are you other scrappers doing?  

One of my favourite title pages from DD

"We know what happens to people who stay in the middle of the road. They get run over."   A. Bevan

Take Three Thursday - Nuts

In an effort to notice more of the ordinary in my life, I have decided to share what I have noticed this week in Take Three Thursday.   The idea is to take 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? 

Have a peek at what others have found this week:
Maggie at: FarmersWifeDayByDay  

This week, it's about nuts, walnuts to be specific.

Walnut Nuts On The Tree

I live in an area where there are thousands of walnut trees.  There are other types of nut trees in the area, but not as many as the walnut trees which is a favourite of the squirrels.  We do have chestnut, butternut & acorn nut trees.  Walnut trees can grow up to 60-70 feet (18.2 - 21.3 meters) in height & live for a long time.  The wood of walnut trees is quite valued as it is a hardwood.  From the nuts you can make dark ink. 

Walnut Tree (to the right of the evergreen)

The large green fruit of the walnut is quite hard, we "affectionately" refer to these as green grenades.  The squirrels bury them all over the yard & garden.  Usually when buried in the lawn they don't dig them down very far & you can very easily turn an ankle walking over one of these large nuts.   The green outer covering is quite thick & hard & it's in the burying of them that softens them enough for the squirrels to open & eat the nut inside.  The chipmunks don't eat the walnuts, or at least none that I have ever seen.  I think too big for them.  The roads are a mess of the green fruit dropping on the road & when cars run over them it makes a dark brown blot.  You would think the squirrels would like that but they don't seem to bother with the squished nuts.  The pest of the walnut tree are tent caterpillars which can give a nasty sting.  We don't have any walnut trees on our property.  In early spring when the nut that the squirrel buried & forgot, sprouts I pull them out, the neighbourhood has enough of these trees!

A Crushed Walnut on The Road

 

Memo, Mail & Me: It's Thanksgiving Monday

It's Thanksgiving Monday, which is a (paid) stat holiday for us.

Why Is Thanksgiving always the 2nd Monday of October in Canada?

Mums in my garden

Long before Europeans settled in North American, & Canada was primarily settled by the British & French, festivals of thanks & celebrations of harvest take place as a liturgical festival in October. Churches decorate with cornucopias, pumpkins, corn, wheat sheaves & other harvest bounty.  English & European harvest hymns are sung on the Sunday of Thanksgiving.  The very first Thanksgiving celebrations in North America took place when Martin Frobisher, an explorer from England arrived in what is now know as Newfoundland (Canada) in 1578.

 

My harvest of Beef Steak & Cherry Tomatoes

 

What is a traditional Canadian Thanksgiving dinner?

Neighbours's Thanksgiving Decoration

The featured item is a turkey, along with sage & onion stuffing/dressing , mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce & several root vegetables such as turnip, parsnips & carrots.  Dessert is pumpkin pie.  And remember turkey is the only food you can gobble.

My Thanksgiving table

 

In Canada, while we do have several (North American style) football teams, there isn't a big game played on this weekend, nor do we have specific shopping sales.  There is probably a hockey game Monday night some where. Also on this weekend in Kitchener, Ontario (a city with German roots), Octoberfest begins & there is a huge celebration with parade & the tapping of the beer keg.  Most of the Thanksgiving weekend activities would be Harvest Fairs, going for walks in the woods to admire the turning leaves or for some, families gathering for dinner or working together at the "soup" kitchens.  For some it's scrapping the start of their 31 days of gratitude.

Cut Leaf Staghorn Fern (neighbour's)

Thanksgiving is a word of action ...we need not only say words of gratitude, but live by them ...  Mary-Lou