One Photo 6 Words: Grow - June 3rd

Linking in with Miriam at:  Short Stories

This week's word is Grow

I appear to Grow in height

 

One Year of Blogging

Patio Postcards

 
It has been one year since I wrote & published my first blog post for Patio Postcards. It certainly has moved into more than I first thought. 


Thank you to all of you for your many wonderful, supportive & kind comments.  You have all helped me through some difficult days & continue to encourage me to keep at blogging.

Have I learned anything in the year?  Oh yes, I think the biggest thing I have learned is how kind & welcoming everyone is. I continue to be in awe of how good people are at writing & engaging readers.  I am envious of how good everyone is at photography.

Would I do anything differently?  I think of my current writing style as quite vanilla with the odd streaking of some substance.  I have written & deleted or just kept in draft so many posts, afraid of over sharing & judgement.  I am resolved to move more into "publish" mode.

What will you keep the same?  I personally like a blend of words & photos, so that will not change.  I like a clean crisp font & I strive with ensuring grammar & spelling are correct, so that will not change. 

What is the most fun of blogging?  Connecting with people that are doing different things than me; experiencing challenging life situations; people who's life styles vary from mine; people with varying opinions & experiences.  Some I can share in, some I can only marvel at.  But the strong thread of connection of sameness we share in wanting to experience joy & overcome life's hurdles with grace & yes even humour.

What is the most challenging thing about blogging?  There are so many well written, interesting & fun blogs, which I just do not have the time to read all of them. Those that I visit I do try to leave a comment.  The biggest personal blog writing challenge I have, can be summed up with a quote  "comparison is the thief of joy"  - see note above about so many unpublished posts.

What are you looking forward to in regards to blogging?   I am ready for Rinda's Summer Photography Scavenger Hunt. I want to share my continued life learning in an exciting way on Mondays.  I am keeping an eye out for SNAP collections & I challenge myself with creating a weekly gorgeous photo & 6 marveling words. I want to dabble more with 5 in 5 on the 5th & I certainly want to record what I am happy about.  I am committed to sharing scrapbook pages created with regards to our 2016 Summer Manifesto - Ports of Call. 

Thank you all for being my blogging friends & sticking with reading Patio Postcards.

 PS - my post of 1 photo, 6 words will follow later in the day.

SNAP - Never Drink Alone

Linking in with Helena at:  SNAP   

Helena's idea is that you share a set of between 2 and 4 images that have a visual link such as colour or shape or subject or that form a photo essay (or anything else you care to share as a visual set)


I was lucky enough to be sitting quietly on the patio & enjoyed an evening of birdsong & visitors at the birdbath.  Mr Yellow Finch gave a call & one by one his ladies joined him.  Thankfully I was also prepared by having my cameras with me.

one

two

three

four

Memorandum Monday - May 30th

A wave & greetings to all the Monday Memo writers.  Linking in with Sian at:  From High In The Sky

Thank you to everyone for last week's suggestions of how to deal with gift stuff.  I have not made any decisions as yet.  Brooding, Thinking on what to do.
 

Bleeding Heart

New for 2016 in May - heat warnings & advisories issued as we hit some new records for this time of year.  With humidity we were in the +40 (c) range for most of the weekend.  We do not normally get this heat until July & August.

Another 2016 new is this view, which improves daily -  you will now find me sitting on the patio & enjoying this view most every morning with my tea until the snow flies again.  I am excited to watch the changes develop.

A new term that I have recently encountered is FOMO - have you heard of it?  It is the fear of missing out & is prevalent in our highly social media connectiveness plugged in. Google describes it as, "anxiety that an exciting or interesting event may currently be happening elsewhere, often aroused by posts seen on a social media website". More devices but less real connection is being achieved. The fear that someone else is leading a much more exciting life than you.  There are lots of new suggestions of how to cope with this condition. 

This is new behaviour from Smokey Puss - she is now pulling the blinds back to sit in the window of the family room (tv room),  to watch the garden activity.
 

The mysterious shadow cat

New in my schedule; I have been visiting my tree every few days - at this time of year changes happen quickly.

 

My Tree For The Year

 The new silo or cattle feed corn is growing quickly with the heat & a couple of afternoon rain showers.

Early Morning

Happy Memorial Day to my US of A friends & Happy Bank Holiday to my UK friends.  Cheers to everyone having a delightful week ahead of them.

One Photo, 6 Words: Wide - May 27th

Linking in with short story tellers at:  Miriam's Short Stories

This week's word is Wide.

 

I said, too wide to fit.

This piece of equipment is called a scissor jack.  In March when the tree man quoted, I said this equipment would not fit through our gate, did he measure. No!  When 2 weeks ago he arrived, did he measure? No.  He spent an hour laying compression matts only to find our gate was not wide enough.  He went home without trimming our trees.

SNAP - Stumped

Linking in here: Helena's SNAP  to see what has caught everyone's eye this week.

I spotted on my walks last week at least 3 tree removal companies working in the neighbourhood to remove very old, very large & very rotting trees.  Most were maples that were at least 50-75 years old.  Sad but necessary.  It really changes the views.  On the first stump,  GET is the initials of the company taking down three of the trees, 16 is for 2016. 

This week my SNAP collection has me stumped.

 

Memorandum Monday - May 23rd

A warm Monday morning greeting to all & linking in here:  Sian

Happy Victoria Day Weekend.  For us in Canada, it is a stat (bank) holiday.  The first of our summer season.  Many call this May 2   4 because the start of the summer season means beer & the most popular case size is 24 cans or bottles ...

 
A sense of newest comes in the form of empty space.  I have done some serious clearing out of stuff.  I tackled the bedroom blanket box along with the storage bin under the bed.  I found at least 10 of Sooty's tinfoil balls under there.  My goal is to have no need for under the bed storage boxes.  I also went through the ensuite bathroom drawers & cupboards. So many beautification items had passed expiry dates.  I made a trip on Friday to recycle, charity shops & drugstore (for the expired bathroom items - you cannot put in the garbage).  I also found a place to safely dispose of large batteries.

Next on my schedule was the stuff in the dining room, but did not get too far.  So many wedding gifts that have never nor will ever be used.  I feel a fair amount quite a lot of of guilt not wanting/liking & now I feel ever so ungrateful choosing to give away. The gift guilt was too much so I stopped sorting.  How about you, how do you handle the gifts that you do not like, nor cannot use?  

Ordering the newly development tulip to celebrate in 2017, Canada's 150th anniversary of confederation.  Photo is from the advertisement.

On Sunday we tried saving a baby chipmunk that had become trapped in our garage over night, away from the warmth of the nest. First we warmed him up as he was cold & then we fed him some water to re-hydrated him.Then we read up how to help.  Our handling him was not going to be a problem as it does not bother the Moms.   We placed him by his hidey hole & put some peanuts around him so Mom would come calling, which she did.  The only trouble was that she recognized before we would accept, was that he was not well & would not make it.  She took the peanuts to feed the other baby in the nest, which we could hear & had seen earlier.  It was heart breaking to watch as our little rescue guy, CB,  moved every time he heard the sibling cry.   We buried him in the grass stripe between our garden & the farmer's field.  We both cried at nature's resolve to be cruel & tough. 

Chipmunk Baby

We have spent most of the weekend & will continue on for the rest of the week as we are on vacation, tackling the garden, setting up the patio, filling pots with annuals & vegetables.  

I hope everyone has a chance to enjoy the week ahead.

The Start Of The Potting Up