Me On A Monday - May 31st

 

Good Bye May 2021, thank you for all your gifts & yes, even your challenges.

This Makes Me Happy:  I don't often get happy mail but these two pieces came in the same week & made me very happy.  Thank you Ruth & thank you Catherine.

That Challenged Me:  snow on Friday May 28th - Mother Nature was playing silly beggars for sure.  I had to zoom about bringing in pots of annuals and/or covering pots of annuals.  The temperatures dipped to 0 in our area for several hours before rising again to +4.

This Makes Me Happy:  An idea that I saw on Amanda's blog: Lockdown.  She is a very talented scrapbooker.  I don't know where she got the cutfile for this title but I have C.A.S.E. as best I could.  (CASE = copy and share everything).  She also has another layout I am going to  C.A.S.E. Census-2021.  In Canada we also had to do the 5 year Census, thankfully we got the short version, making me happy. Where as my friend S got the long version, she was not happy. This is my version of Amanda's padlock layout, to which I need to add home photos.  I think I may add the word at the bottom of Again.

This Makes Me Very Happy:  my solar powered fountain for the birdbath, although the chipmunks seem to enjoy more than the birds.

This Also Makes Me Very Happy:  my tree peony, has three magnificent blooms this year & because of the chilly weather, the blooms are lasting much longer than normal.  Double happiness.

This Makes Me Extremely Happy:  our provincial Premiere, Doug Ford, has announced that all Ontario adults will be eligible to have their 2nd COVID vaccine jab sooner than later, everyone by end of August.  He's calling it the Two Dose Summer .

Wisdom

 

"Life's tempo is set to the beat of an ever changing rhythm.

To enjoy the moment is to love the dance."

                    ... Becky Bro

which pairs nicely with ...

"We can't always choose the music life plays for us, but we can choose how we dance to it." 

                         ... Unknown

Wisdom Wednesday will be taking a break in June.  Time to recharge the wisdom well. 

               

Me On A Monday - Elsewhere

 

Good Morning.  I'm glad to see that many of you are going to be joining in for the 2021 SPSH.  

Yesterday I was a guest, Me On A Monday, blogger, discussing Victoria Day celebrations, over at Melissa's Blog: Daily Life-Bits & Pieces

Melissa has been celebrating the merry month of May with a daily post about national celebrations for each day.  Who knew that there was a National Chocolate Cake Day to celebrate!?!  

I cannot wait to see what other celebrations May finishes up with.

Me On A Monday - The SPSH List

 

There's no way better to celebrate Victoria Day long weekend; Ontario's kick off to summer than to welcome you to the 2021 Summer Photo Scavenger Hunt (SPSH) - the  easing, but not gone  pandemic restrictions edition.  

Keeping in mind that some of us may still be in a form of lockdown, or that some of us could be returning to lockdown or some of us are free to roam about.  There are some searches for at home, close to home or away from home.  I hope some items encourage you to think creatively & some that may require an open eye to find.   Find some, find all, hope you join in for the fun of the search.

Only two simple rules;  please use photos taken between June 1st & September 30th of 2021 & that you or a loved one have taken the photo, other than that, it's meant for fun.

As with previous years, if you would like to be connected with others participating, please leave me a comment & on the link in days, I'll post that connection list.  

And thank you to to Eileen & Lady Ella for some of the suggestions.

First check in/link up will be Wednesday June 30th.

2021 SPSH  List

 

1. A Breakfast of Champions
2. Favourite Time of Day
3. Something To Represent Home But Not The Building
4. Head In The Clouds; shapes or interesting patterns
5. The Art Of The Fold
6. Something That Makes You Laugh or Happy
7. What's In Bloom
8. Window Views
9. Something Older Than You
10. The Delivery Van/Truck Making The Deliveries
11. The Shape of Round/Circular
12. Something That Is Cause For Celebration
13. Your Marie Kondo Moment – Or Not
14. Inside Your Fridge Or Cupboard
15. Your Best Doodle Art (not public graffiti)
16. A Guilty Pleasure; Something That Recharges You
17. An Exit
18. Upside Down, Right Side Up
19. Steps, But Who's Counting
20. Decades Of Sharing; find something in your home that is from the 70's or80's or 90's or 00's

ALTERNATES

A: show off your  COVID safety; masks, cleaning, or other related supplies

B: a local landmark

C: the most beautiful landscape photo of the season

Wisdom

 

"The moment you doubt whether you can fly, you cease forever to be able to do it."

                        ... Peter Pan

 

which pairs rather well with:

"Fear seeks for safety, so closes all doors.  Trust stretches her wings & flies free."

                    ... Patrick Mundus

Me On A Monday - May 17th

 

Happy to report that neither Mr Man or I had anything other than a sore arm with our first jab of the COVID-19 vaccine. 

I find it interesting that when someone asks whether you have had the vaccine  jab/shot, it's just assumed it's the COVID-19 vaccine.

And while we are on the topic of COVID-19, Ontario extended the current lockdown to June 2nd.  Can you hear the uproar!

So to more pleasant topics ...

Currently Reading: Chatter. IMO, the author interviewed  so much more interesting than the reading/writing of his book.   Waiting to begin, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontent & The Museum of Desire.

Currently Chuffed As Little Mint Balls: the late blooming tulips seem to be off the squirrel menu!

Currently Fed Up: with the ginger & the whinger. I wish they/he would just shut up. 

Currently Happy:  this sight, made Mr Man very happy.  It's the street sweeper making their one & only trip around the neighbourhood to clean up the winter's sand/salt laid down on icy roads.

Currently Thrilled: at the sight of the Crab Trees blossoming on one of the university's roads. It seems locally, the Crabs are having a fabulous spring.  Thank you Mother Nature.

And I will leave you with this thought from my current state of mind  .... "3 out of 4 voices in my head want to sleep... the 4th is asking if penguins have knees."

Wisdom

This popped up on my F/B feed from Sacred Dreams.  Not sure if this is really wisdom, but I like it & it has me thinking, which is always a good thing.  What about you? Agree, disagree?

CHEMISTRY OR ALCHEMY?

 

They asked the Master what was the difference between chemistry and alchemy in partner relationships and I answer these beautiful and wise words:

People looking for ′′ Chemistry ′′ are love scientists, i.e. they are used to action and reaction.

People who encounter ′′ Alchemy ′′ are artists of love, constantly create new ways to love.

Chemicals love out of necessity.

Alchemists by choice.

Chemistry dies eventually,

Alchemy is born through time...

Chemistry loves packaging.

Alchemy enjoys the content.

Chemistry happens.

Alchemy is built.

Everyone looking for Chemistry, only some find Alchemy.

Chemistry attracts and distracts macho and feminists.

Alchemy integrates the male and female principle, which is why it transforms into a relationship of free individuals and with their own wings, and not an attraction that is subject to the whims of the ego.

In conclusion, the Master said looking at his students:

Alchemy gathers what chemistry separates.

Alchemy is real marriage, chemistry the divorce we see every day in most couples.

Let's start building conscious relationships, because chemistry will always make us age the body,

while alchemy will always caress us from within.~~

Me On A Monday - May 10th

Good Morning.  Another day, another week in lock down & there's talk of extending beyond May 20th!👎

Last Wednesday & Thursday we had the arbour guys, aka, Tree Monkeys,  here taking down two maple trees in our yard.  It was a very tough & expensive decision to make, but both the trees were rotting from the inside out.  The Norway Maple, growing in the back garden, had rot starting abut 5 feet up - where one of the branches had been ripped off during that horrible ice storm a few Decembers ago.  We had tried to stem the rot but alas, could not.  The Silver Maple on the side of the house was another one that had not truly recovered from ice damage.  They said if we had waited another 3-5 years, the trees would have been too dangerous to climb & we were looking at triple the cost to bring a crane in to take the trees down.

On the Wednesday morning, I went out to say good bye to both these trees, thank them both for years of shade, air cleaning & providing homes & playgrounds for some of the beasts in the yard.  There were tears on my part.  😢

 

The only thing left is for the tree guys to come back to grind the stump. 

The Norway Maple

 

 

 

The Silver Maple

Trees - the lungs of the earth.

Wisdom

 

Wisdom today is of the personal nature.  Wisdom to know that putting yourself on every possible list, even the last minute list, was a good idea. Wisdom knowing when to pick up the phone when it rings (normally I let go to voice mail). Wisdom to know to say yes.

A picture is worth a thousand words & in this case it's also worth a thousand gratitudes.  I made this purchase of a pre-made scrap page title, to go with a special moment ...

YES, we both have had our first jab of the COVID vaccine.  Pfizer for the win.

Me On A Monday - May 3rd

 Good Morning Everyone.  Over the weekend we said goodbye to April & hello to May.  If ever there was a month full of promise ...  ...this is a forsythia hedge that we drive pass on our way to picking up groceries.  This year every bush was in glorious bloom.  I took the photo as we were driving, it's a busy highway & not easy to stop along.

Current Fun: on Saturday the 1st, it was NSD, aka National Scrapbook Day.  This year because of COVD, many business & scrapping greats, decided that is should be the entire weekend. There were lots of online scrap meets.  I had no problem devoting time each day from Friday to Sunday, to my favourite hobby.  I had a lovely day catching up on some page layouts that have been languishing in my PHD box, (Projects Half Done) along with some card finishing.  Late Saturday afternoon, I spent over an hour searching for a very specific die, which it turns out was in its own packaging as it should be & not part of the package I was waving frantically with the cries of "where is it". Turns out the dies packages have similar shaped dies & I had confused which was in which package.  But thankfully it was not wasted time, I discovered I do have a specific embossing folder that I was going to order with the weekend specials. Phew saved money, found die ... talk about a good outcome.  

This page is about my enjoyment of reading.  The chair is actually a purchased greeting card & it's a flocked texture.  I left it as a card, whited out the greeting inside where I will write the titles of my favourite books.

Currently Thankful:  my upline Stampin Up demonstrator dropped off a goodie bag of Stampin Up treats on Saturday morning.  

Currently Working On : the 2021 Summer Photo Scavenger Hunt List, aka SPSH.  I will be posting the list on Monday May 24th.  Like last year, the list will reflect the challenges of COVID restrictions, such as gatherings, travel bans & the possibility of some of us still living a lockdown life.  The search will begin Tuesday June 1st & run until Thursday September 30th.  There's not a lot of rules; photos need to be taken within the time frame of the search. It should be your own work or a loved one's work.  But the most important thing is to have fun with it.  There are some challenging items to find, some really easy ones to find & things in between. Lots of room for creative thinking/interpreting ...

Currently Annoyed: more of my pink tulips had their flower heads snapped off.   The tulips would have been quite pretty.

Currently Watching: finished the first season of Line of Duty, which we enjoyed right up to the unsatisfying ending - Mr Man is still annoyed by it.  I have series two on request from the library.  Thank you to many of my blog friends for recommending, I was hesitate to watch for so long because I had it confused with Call of Duty which is quite violent.  Also just finished the first season of The Ambassador, which is quite light & it's another one on request for season two.

Currently Reading: mostly re-reading as there are long gaps in my library requests.  Some of the wait time is due to lockdown restrictions, plus it's still too cold & wet to be outside in the garden, which means everyone is reading.  One current book that I did pick up is "Relax, Damit"  not a fan of the writing style.

 

Currently Counting Down: the days until our current lockdown restrictions lift.  There's been so many changes I am really not 100% sure, but I think it's Thursday May 20th at 12:01am.  Of course it could change as our hospital ICUs are still overwhelmed with admissions.  The B.1.1.7 variant is really quite aggressive & so easily spread. So I cannot see much of a return to familiar any time soon.  Last week our region was celebrating that we had 4 days in a row with no new cases.  It did not hold. 

So here's to a relaxing week & I hope that everyone gets an opportunity to spend some time lost in a favourite book or hobby.