Pocketful of Memory Cards

While taking out the garbage yesterday I noticed how many different little tracks and footy prints there are all around our front yard. Pulling the recycling to the curb  The quail march all over our lawn through every season. Wouldn't you fly over the stairs if you were a bird? Me and the birdies back and forth along the path as we go about our daily tasks. Big doggies walking past the house. Our kitties running down the driveway. A racoon whose footprints stop at... ...a broken mirror waiting to be tossed.  I would love to have  witnessed what happened when they saw their reflection. Lots of dog tracks at the corner by the Wishing Tree.  Someone lost the their.. "thing that you hook on your boots when you're walking on ice".  Looks like it  could match the print near the cat feet once it was stretched over a boot.

I used to think I was pretty quick.  Lately it seems to take my brain days to sift through my experiences and make the connections it used to make in seconds. I hiked with the dogs to Paul's Tomb on Wednesday while listening to Q on my iPhone.  Jian Gomeshi played clips of Rita McNeil singing some of her hits and asked his guests to share their reactions to the death of the Cape Breton songstress Tuesday night.  It took me until this morning to realize the coincidence of what I was photographing at the time.   Thought I'd share some of the photos I took of a the red tailed hawk we saw, along with the Lyrics to Flying on Your Own .  Rita was a lovely singer/songwriter and by all accounts a lovely person.  She will be missed. You were never more strong girl You were never more alone Once there was two, now there's just you You're flying on your own You were never more happy girl You were never also so blue Once heartache begins, no...

I was flipping across the channels on Sunday morning after we watched the movie "Unknown" and I discovered we get the Game Network or whatever it's called.  An old episode of the Pyramid was on, hosted by my first love: Donny Osmond. (Well, it's actually a toss up between Donny Osmond and Elton John). I couldn't resist watching the show even though I had no idea who those 1990's celebrities  were.   For those of you who don't know the rules of Pyramid, the finale of the show happens when the celebrity says a bunch of phrases and the contestant guess what they all have in common.   I thought just for fun I'd do this week's Gratitude Monday in a similar way.  I think you'll figure it as we go.   Clues for Number One: ...because they are cheerful ...because they are tall ...because they re-seed themselves ...because they provide food for the birds Answer:  Why I'm grateful for the sunflowers in my garden Clues for Num...

Here's a few of the creatures that made their way through my Dad's backyard this afternoon. Nest with three baby robins Proud mom or dad

Castanet promised rain for the week and I was rather disappointed to miss my hike yesterday.  Thankfully they were wrong about the rain today.  The dogs and I enjoyed beautiful sunshine at the dog park this morning and I'll be climbing Knox again this afternoon.   While leaving the park I spotted this beautiful blue heron staring intently into the swamp.  The bird was oblivious to the cars, and people passing by.  It didn't seem to notice me snapping away, nor was it disturbed by hearing me curse Max as he bounded out of the car window and crossed the street to let me know I was taking much too long.   After standing as still as a statue for ten minutes the heron wandered a few feet away, gave a great flap of it's massive wings and took off. In my excitement to capture a photo, I couldn't hold the camera quite still enough, or make the necessary adjustments quickly enough before it disappeared into the bullrushes across the way.   ...

March has been it's typical roller-coaster of a month.  We've had rain, we've had snow, we've had bright sunshine and great gusty winds. Yesterday a layer of crystalline snow coated my car.  I wedged my scraper under a crunchy corner and peeled it off my windows like the shell off a giant hard boiled egg. The dog park was a mess  with a river running from the parking lot through the entry way, settling in dips, making for a very brief visit and a trip straight to the laundry room when we got home. This morning, somehow the park was relatively dry and I got my first sight of my personal harbinger of spring.  Each March, when  I see a red-winged blackbird , it reminds me that warm weather and blooming flowers are just around the corner. 

What a gorgeous day it was today.  The temperature hovered around the zero degree mark, but the sun shone all afternoon.  While I was running some errands downtown I decided to wander over to Stuart Park to see what was going on.  Oh how I wish I'd had my skates with me.  Starting this afternoon, I'll be storing them in the car.  The ice on the artificial outdoor rink was like glass and there weren't that many people around.  I'm trying to keep my photos down to one per day so out of all the photos I snapped this afternoon, this was the one that made me smile.  The Yacht Club marina is opposite the rink and I was tickled by the sight of these seagulls walking on water. For more photos of what I saw today, follow the link to my travel blog "From the Valley and Beyond".

I am not ready to leave.  Last year, when we left Tahiti after two weeks, I was more than ready to leave.  I would have left earlier, as beautiful and charming as it was.   We were talking to a tour operator on the beach this morning after we'd taken our final stroll along Playa Del Agua and I felt a sudden pang in my chest at the thought of not being able to spend the day under a beach umbrella with a "coca-lite" clutched in my hand and a paperback flipped open in my lap. I think it has to do with the people.  Many of the homes and business are run down and sometimes it's frustrating to see the garbage lining the roads and piled up on the beaches. It's frustrating to see because Venezuela is such a rich country but the current government doesn't want to pass the wealth on to the people. It's a complicated situation that you can't really make clear in a brief blog, but despite this, there's something about the friendliness of the Venezuelans...

We had only arranged to spend one night at Waku Lodge and as much as we would have loved to stay it turned out to be a good decision as it rained on and off the most of this morning.  We walked around the property, taking pictures and returned to the reception area with our books.  As my husband speaks fluent Spanish he was able to have a long discussion with Isaac who was waiting for the next group to arrive. A charter group arrived and registered while we read our books.  I watched with much anticipation as one woman broke off from the group and walked in the direction of the view.  She stopped suddenly and turned back to her friends.  The look on her face was one of wonder and joy.  Oh how I wish I'd had my camera at the ready.  I'm sure her face mirrored the awe I had displayed yesterday and I think both of us would have enjoyed being able to look back on that special moment.   We left shortly after lunch and Ang...