Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Summer Afternoon

Summer afternoon-summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language. ~Henry James


These photos from my two weeks up at our new home, early in August.
hazy susan
There are quite a few perennials growing around the place. This black-eyed Susan made a point of catching my own eye.




neighbouring boats
To the left of the dock, some of our neighbours boats had Frank yearning for one of his own. He was still doing his homework on which one to buy, at that time but has since made the purchase.




recovering butterfly
I found this butterfly in a puddle in the paddleboat. I thought it was dead, but when I lifted it out of the water, it clung to my finger, so I placed it on a leaf to either recover or live its life out in a more natural setting. It hadn't moved by the next morning. I suspect its end was near - those wings won't carry it far.




young hairy woodpecker2
This appears to be a young Hairy Woodpecker inspecting the nearby tree for bugs. In the weeks following, a very vocal Hairy (we call her Hairiette) has visited the feeder daily.




rainbow through window
A summer sun shower is always a treat, and so is the rainbow that you're sure to find if you look in the sky opposite the sun.




salad
A refreshing salad to serve up with dinner, loaded with blueberries and raspberries.




fruit bowl
If that wasn't enough fruit for you, please help yourself to a banana. You might want to pass on the lemon.




sunsetting
As the sun sets, puffy clouds of cotton candy dot the horizon. There isn't much nicer than a mostly-sunny August day.

More photos coming up soon.

Thursday, September 19, 2013

Beneath Your Hat and Posts of the Week.


chapeaus
And all your future lies beneath your hat.
~ John Oldham





D'mar and Gill
"It doesn't matter whether or not you have a head, you must wear the right sort of hat" ~ Kazantzakis

There were a lot of hat-wearers in the crowd at the South Side Shuffle - a blues and jazz festival which is held every year in Mississauga. Members of the band D'mar and Gill were also sporting head-toppers and so was the "dawg" logo.





on our way out2
The whole shadow of Man is only as big as his hat.
~ Elizabeth Bishop






turquoise cowgirl2
Shabby gentility has nothing so characteristic as its hat.
~ Oliver Wendell Holmes
This lady seemed to enjoy steppin' out in her turquoise hat.





sombrero A hat should be taken off when you greet a lady and left off for the rest of your life. Nothing looks more stupid than a hat.
~ P. J. O'Rourke




feather weight
We may say that many, if not all, of the personality traits which we have called masculine or feminine are as lightly linked to sex as are the clothing, the manners, and the form of headdress that a society at a given period assigns to either sex. ~ Margaret Mead

Time for a tip of my virtual hat with the POTWs.

And now, without further delay, here are the Posts of the Week. The icon below is yours for the taking if if your blog post is named as a POTW.










***

HEROES

Hero
by Rae
at Grams Cracker Crumbs

Hero Cat
by Jim
at Suldog



PHINE PHOTOGRAPHY

Puffin (and Blowing)
by Bob
at Birds and Nature in the Forest of Dean

Morning in the West Country
by Leah
at The Goat's Lunch Pail

Early Morning Cottage Photos
by Anvilcloud
at The AC is on

Fearless (This blog auto-plays music.. adjust speakers accordingly)
by Lisa
at Red Willow

The Deep Green Sea
by Kerry
at Ed and Reub

Milford Sound, New Zealand
by Karen
at What Karen Sees

Watery Depths of Granville Island
by Lynne
Glimpses

***

A GOOD READ

Lifetime Friend
by Cloudia
at Comfort Spiral

Transformation
by DS
at Third-Storey Window

An Open Letter to a Rapist
by Dhara
at My Cactus Dress

A Home for the Swifts
by Stephen
at The Chubby Chatterbox


***

YOU'LL LAUGH

Wrong Number....Again
by Chicken
at The Chicken's Consigliere


***

Please drop by their blogs for a visit and leave a kind comment if you have the time. Also, please feel free to add your own choices (for any blog except this one) for a specific blog post in the comments section below, where others can see them.

Thank you

Monday, September 16, 2013

For Kate




For Kate.



Thank you for this lovely idea, Karen.

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Beautifully Blue

Aside from a couple of days here and there, I've not spent much time blog visiting. It's been about ten days since I've spent any time up at our new place as I'm still focused on getting the old place ready for sale. We came close last week. The house hasn't been listed yet but my agent had someone in mind whom she thought might be interested. There was a conditional offer which was accepted but he backed out in the end. Back to the drawing board. 

Except for this preamble, this post was prepared a while back. I hope you enjoy.


Oh! `darkly, deeply, beautifully blue', / As someone somewhere sings about the sky.
~ Lord Byron

blueberry2
A lone blueberry, sitting atop our deck rail, waiting for someone to come along and claim it.




blueberry4
And this sweet chickadee obliged. But that berry is far too big to fit in its little mouth.





blueberry5
Clever wee thing.





blueboy
Frank happened to notice our pal, the Great Blue heron resting on the neighbours' raft. He looked this-a-way.





blueboy3
And that-a-way.





blueboy4
And then flew off to share his magnificence with nearby kayakers.





patient young jay
A young Blue jay waits patiently for mama to return with a morsel of food.





jay and peanut
Do you think mama will share her bounty?





evening view
I can't complete a blue post without showing you the lovely blue skies, late in the day, over Blueberry Island.

More photos coming up soon.

Friday, September 6, 2013

Pure Randomness

So much of life, it seems to me, is determined by pure randomness.
Sidney Poitier 


Just as the title suggests, I have a few random photos for you from late spring and early summer, which don't really fit with any other collection of photos, so I'm sticking them here.

picnic family3
The northern shore of Lake Ontario is only about fifteen minutes from my place in Mississauga. Frank and I headed that way one day, in early summer. After lunch, Frank sat by the water while I went for a walk. I took a few distant photos of this family. A mother walks her restless child over to other family members. The woman on the rock appears to be in deep thought while another one prepares lunch. It's the lovely turquoise and orange colours and serene atmosphere that drew me in.





picnic family2
Mama settles her baby as a couple of gulls watch on.





radio drop
While we're people watching, this man was hoping to find the radio he had just dropped while fishing by this dock near my home. It was unlikely that he found it - at least not in working order.





sign
Someone must have stepped in it one time too many. This was a outside a low rise apartment building. The yard space is not enclosed and leads right into the park.





on branch serviceberry
Most of its leaves are their usual green but a couple of the branches of the serviceberry bush turn scarlet very early on in the growing season. This photo was taken in May. The tree had produced blossoms but not the berries by this time. It produces just one sprig of red leaves like this every spring. I know not why.





sumac pink2
Until this spring, I never noticed how very pink the young shoots of the fuzzy sumacs are. I shot this at a fast shutter speed so the colours appear a bit more intense than in reality but not by much.






survivor tree
This poor tree. A couple of years ago, its branches were removed and the bark marked with a florescent orange X, as an alert for its eventual removal. It wasn't removed. Instead it gave off the slightest growth by the end of that summer. Last year, it had a slightly larger selection of leaves and it still escaped the buzz saw. This year, its leaves filled out more and we were beginning to believe that it was bringing itself back to the land of the living.

We've had a lot of rain and strong wind recently. On one such day, my neighbour Caroline and I went out for a walk shortly after a storm. We discussed this tree and how it seemed to have such a will to keep on living, and how we hoped it wouldn't be cut down. We were still talking about it when we reached that point in the path where we encountered it. We both fell silent. All that new growth which you see above, was lying on the ground beside the tree. It had all extended from a single branch which was narrower than my wrist. Its growing weight combined with the turbulent weather was too much for that branch to bear. I still hope they don't cut the tree down.





droplets
Getting up close and personal with an iris leaf after a rainfall.





near home
I'll leave you with this image of the highway just before where we turn off to drive the last ten minutes to our new home. Eventually, I'll be sharing more photos from there. I just need to move in for good, first. ;)

More photos coming up in a few days.

Monday, September 2, 2013

Angry Skies


Rainbows apologize for angry skies.  ~Sylvia Voirol


It was a hazy, hot and humid July afternoon. We were sitting outside on the front step (back at Frank's old place) watching the clouds gather in the sky. Weather was coming.


storm rolling through
The sky was spotty - grey in most parts but here and there, the sun shone through, spilling across the field.





angry swirly clouds
Directly above us, angry clouds were slowly churning. It wouldn't be long.





storm approaching
The clear spots became fewer and farther between and the hues became subtle. You might think that I desaturated this photo but the day had taken on its own black and white effect.





benny watching the rain
It thundered, lightninged and poured profusely. Benny wisely decided to come in out of the rain (where he had been squinting madly to avoid getting water in his eyes) and watch from the sheltered overhang. (Gayle, you recently asked about Benny. How could I not oblige you with a photo?)





after the storm
Once it was over, the sun warmed the skies with lovely rays of light.





sunlight on wet trees
Moistened trees glistened in the sunlight.





rainbow2
And all was well in that magical space between rain and sun.

This was another scheduled post so that you know I haven't forgotten you. I'm just keeping busy while setting up one house while trying to sell the other. More coming up in a few days.