town of Bon Accord

Friday May 6th

Good morning!  Here are a few shots of the slough, er, pond in Bon Accord.  It’s at the corner of my street and I love walking by it in the morning.  The red-winged blackbirds are busy nesting and making all kinds of trilling sounds as they flit from branch to bull-rush.  They go into survivor mode the instant they spot an intruder.  Tons of fun to watch.  Right now we’ve got some very healthy looking duck families swimming about.  They’ve got their nests in the reeds and at the sound of anyone approaching they all start swimming out into the middle of the water.  The one semi-close up I got is blurry on enlargement, so I’ll have to try again when I can get out with the tripod.  Anyway, the pond looked beautiful this morning so I thought I’d share.

On a totally different note. . .

WAY TO GO CANUCKS!   I don’t want to jinx anything by saying anything too positive, but they’re up in the series 3 games to 1.  They’re on home ice Saturday and Nashville will be looking for some major pay-back, so it’s bound to be a nail-biter.  I think I’ll make a crock-pot lasagna (thank you Jenn — it is very good), grab a couple of cold beers and settle in for some good entertainment on Saturday.  I’m lookin’ forward to the weekend!

Well, it’s that time again — time to get ready for work.  TGIF

Oh, but I wanted to share this too, from my garden:

Primroses emerging from decay of last year
Advertisement

A beautiful morning this morning

6:30 a.m. October 6th -- a sliver of moon over the fields of Bon Accord

When Heather and I stepped out this morning at 6 a.m. for our walk the air was still and mild, there was a ribbon of barely visible cloud just above the horizon and no sight of the moon.  High up the sky was clear and several of the constellations seemed near enough to touch.  It was, in a word, beautiful.

Later, as I approached home I could see a faint glowing sliver just barely visible above the line of trees in the distance.  It was the moon — the last tiny bit of it before the new moon.  I rushed in the house to get my camera, knowing my paltry skills probably couldn’t capture it, but I was going to try, anyway.  I’ve posted what I was able to get.  It really was lovely, wish I could have done it justice.

Wishing everyone a lovely, gorgeous autumn day — those of us in the northern hemisphere, that is.  The rest of you — enjoy spring!

Had one of ‘those’ days

It started out fine.  I was happy, joyful even, to be at work.  And then. . .

. . . well, we just won’t go there.

Suffice it to say I was glad, glad, glad to be finished work today.

Highlight of my day, though, was ‘interviewing’ Ms. Austin’s class.  A bunch of Grade 5-er’s who were inspired enough by a video about the evils of bottled water to ban the stuff from their classroom.  So, I thought, this will make a good human interest story for our CUPE newsletter, I’ll just do that.

They were delightful!  There were some serious kids in that class, and I can only hope that they stick to their pledge to drink tap water from now on.  We had a great little chat about other ways to save water and I shared some of my tips and tricks.  They seemed kind of amazed that I was that serious about saving water.

In a country like ours, there is absolutely no good reason for people to be drinking bottled water, unless of course you live in some polluted wasteland of a reserve or next to an abandoned mining pit.  Yes, these places exist in Canada.  But, for the rest of us, we have access to clean, abundant supplies of fresh drinking water.  It drives me crazy when I see people buying bottled water.

I take a stainless water bottle with me wherever I go (I have several).  And if it gets empty I find a tap and I fill it up.  Simple. Inexpensive. Smart.  Nothing to throw away, no petro-chemicals burned needlessly.  Hopefully, I’m keeping my carbon footprint as small as possible.

Personally, I’d like to see all major cities ban the import of bottled water — but, of course, that will never happen.  Somebody’s rights would be violated for sure.  Never mind about mine, and my desire to live in a world not cluttered up with millions of tossed water bottles.

I won’t go into this too much, because it is such a BIG issue — how all that plastic is creating havoc with our planet — the oceans, the ground, the air, the animals, birds and insects — just search the web, you’ll find all the horror stories you could care to read.

I’m grumpy tonight — didn’t intend to go on like that.

My walk this morning was very nice.  Got some pics of a magpie in the top of a tree, and a different view of ‘lake’ Bon Accord.  Hope you enjoy them.

Good night all.

Monday Morning– just another day in paradise

Well, the weekend was wonderful.  (I love alliteration!)

No, really. . .

the weekend was pretty good.  The garage sale went well — made about $100 — so can’t complain, and I got rid of a bunch of crap.  I actually feel guilty calling it crap when I took people’s money for it and they left with smiles on their faces, but at any rate, it’s not in my house anymore and when it was here it only had nuisance value, hence it was crap.

Hailey and Timothy arrived on Sat. afternoon and Hailey immediately decided she needed to have some of my ‘pretty stuff’.  So I let her shop.  She made off with a couple of bracelets, an old compact and a few other trinkets.  It made her happy — how could I say no?  Timothy wasn’t interested at all, he’s still too little.  He just wanted to play with the old video re-winder that looks like a car.

Then, of course, it started to rain, so we had to hustle everything inside, thereby ending the garage sale about an hour early.  I was ready for it to be over, though, the wind had kicked up and I was starting to get stressed about losing Heather’s tent.  The minute we had everything inside the rain and the wind stopped.  The sun came back out; I said a few choice words under my breath and went and had a shower.    Left everything strewn about my kitchen and my living room to dry.

The kids and I ate supper in the living room because the kitchen table was covered in the a-fore mentioned crap.  It was fun, we watched UP while we ate — they thought it was neat, anyway.  However, picking rice out of the carpet after Timmy had finished wasn’t neat, but what the hey, it’s only rice and dust mites gotta eat, too.

Yesterday was a beautiful day — warm, sunny and no wind.  We planted some pots up, watched bees gather pollen, stomped on ants and visited with our neighbours across the street.  All in all, a very good day.

Today, it’s back to work.  Only 3 weeks left and then vacation.  I am definitely counting the days!

Thursday, June 3rd

I suppose I should just call this Ramblings instead of Daily Ramblings, because that’s really what it is, and, it’s never daily.

I’m supposed to be getting my crap ready for the big Bon Accord town-wide garage sale this Saturday.  I did look through a bunch of the boxes my husband dragged up from the basement and wound up rescuing a bunch of kids books.  They were all Landon’s and I refuse to let them go.  I read those books to him when he was just  little red-headed boy.  I remember how he enjoyed being read to, how he enjoyed hearing the same story over and over again.  Maybe my grandchildren will enjoy hearing them as much as he did.  So, those books, they’re staying here with me.  Forever.

or at least until senility sets in.

When I look at all those boxes strewn throughout my house I can’t help asking:  Where in hell did all this shit come from?  And why is it that I have so much to get rid of, and yet my house is still crammed with crap?  What kind of lunatic am I?  Maybe we’re candidates for one of those television shows where they help ‘hoarders’ de-clutter their homes.

For instance — I’m getting rid of travel mugs, but when I open up my storage cupboard, guess what’s in there?  About a dozen more travel mugs!  Seriously, all we need is one each!  And yet. . .

. . .we have six each.  And the really crazy part?  We only use one — the same one, every day, because as you well know, we develop favorites when it comes to the things we use.  So, I guess I’m going to add some more travel mugs to the garage sale.  Somebody else’s cupboard can runneth over with the damn things!

Then, there are the wicker baskets.  About ten or fifteen or twenty years ago I went on a wicker binge.  If I saw a basket I bought it.  Got to the point I had nowhere to put them.  They lined the tops of cupboards, they filled cupboards, they held newspapers, magazines, wool, picnic supplies, toilet paper, towels, socks, soap and candles.  They held everything.  And then one day I got sick of having all these baskets to move any time I needed to vacuum or dust (plus the baskets themselves needed dusting, and I hate to dust so they never did get dusted).  So, other than a treasured few (and the really expensive ones) they all got relegated to the basement.  I’ve given some away, taken some to the Sally Ann, and held on to a few others for some reason I can no longer recall.  These are now garage sale fodder.  They’re nice baskets, really.  And, they’ll be a good price.  I’m sure someone will have a good use for them.  If not, they’ll make good kindling.

My grand-kids, Hailey and Timothy, are coming to help me with the garage sale.  They’re 5 and 3.  I can hardly wait.  Hailey is not going to want to get rid of anything.  Already she’s been asking me if there are any toys she can have!

Whenever there is a lull in traffic (nudge, nudge, wink, wink) I’m going to get them helping me in the garden.  They both love being in the garden, though they tend to be more fa

scinated by th

e bugs they disturb than by the weeds that need pulling.  “Gramma, Gramma!  You’ve GOT to come see this one!”  Followed by a screech and a giggle.  It’s pure delight.  I’ve got some seeds for them to plant, so we’ll do that, too.

Garage sale, grand-kids and garden — it’s gonna be a great weekend!