A Good Walk On The Sabbath . . .

While Sherwin and his brother went for a drive in the country to visit their ancestral home, my sister and I went for a long walk in the local Zoo.

As children we loved to go there when we came into Calgary and I probably have not been back here for about 40 years.

Great improvements have been made and the animals enjoy large enclosures with lots of privacy.  Almost too much privacy, for photographers looking for a great photo, but I am very happy for the animals.  They come before my photo file!

These Bengal Babes are gorgeous...very charming and handsome, mostly because there are two fences between them and me.

Here and there, wooden sculptures are placed to make the photographer's job easier!

Hmmm...we did love to ride the train back in the day.

After checking out the Dancing Ganesh Stone Statue (they especially liked the belly button) these little fellows sat down to have their photos taken.

If you are interested in having a copy of this statute for your garden, click here.  It will only cost you a mere $25,000.

Some animals have a more difficult time staying slick and polished ...something to do with the coat they wear.

Lots of good memories of the Bow River that wends its way through Calgary and is joined by the Elbow River just west of the Zoo.

This young man came along just as I was trying to figure out how I was going to capture this 'bear'.  He was most interested in the teeth...

He turned to his patiently waiting father and said, "He moved, I know he moved.  He did, Dad!!"

I didn't mention to this fellow that we had just enjoyed Bison Chilli the evening before for dinner...wasn't about to make him nervous.

And then on to the Dancing Birds...

Isn't he extraordinary?

There were many more animals, asleep in one dusky corner or another, that I could not get close enough to successfully capture.  But it was a great 3 hour walk and reminded me of a good golf game.  I golf for the walk and the ambience...similar reasons for doing the zoo!

At the end of our walk we enjoyed this bed of tulips...nice to see them still blooming here.

This will likely be the last blog for a month.  We know from previous experience that it is very frustrating to blog on a cruise ship but we are hoping to get a photo out on Face Book once a day as we wend our way through the Mediterranean.

God bless you all and be well.

Memorial Day Weekend . . .

Memorial Day Holiday in the USA is traditionally a time when the Goerlitz, Jr. family make their way north to visit the grandparents (us)!

Early Sabbath morning while Maizy and Lucy and I were in the hottub waking up together, Maizy mentioned that she would like to build a fort...a little house in the woods.  Great...but then I promptly forgot and made breakfast and we went on with the day.  It was a beautiful day!

Sherwin and Shelby had a great lazy day until part way through the afternoon they both came alive and said, "Let's go out and do something..."  Aha! here was Maizy's opening.  After presenting her idea to the men they all went at it with great zeal and by the time I got out there to see how things were shaping up they had made great progress.

When those men decide to tackle a project they both go at it...

And they had a great supervisor!

While we stood about watching them work so hard, Maizy and I compared shoes...

And I admired her t-shirt message...

Before the afternoon disappeared Maizy had a house of her own...

In the finished framed up house you can see a door and windows, even side walls!

Thanks, Kim, for this photo...I missed the chance to get a photo of the nesting process...little rugs, chairs, 'curtains', wooden boxes were added to make this a dear little nest.  When Maizy and Lucy come back we will be awake to grab the opportunities for photos.

"A girl should be two things...classy and fabulous."

-Coco Chanel

"A girl should be two things...who and what she wants."

-Coco Chanel

Leaving Home...

Before I left home this week for points east, I spent some time working in my gardens and taking snaps of flowers and points of interest to me...

This most unusual peony was moved last fall and seems to love its new location.  My camera did not capture the colour accurately...have to figure out how to do that but it is rather variegated and different from other peonies I have grown in the past.

We left early Friday morning on the first ferry out, under grey, pregnant skies!

We resolved to travel more lightly than in the past so we each have one carryon and one small check-in bag hoping to be able to move around more easily and still look respectable.

We are two people who are always happy to be at home but we love this opportunity to get out and go. 

The view from 22F...

And so we are off and flying away.  You all have a great month while we wander the face of the earth.   As often as possible I will post and let you know where we are at the time.

In the meantime, be in touch via emails and be well.

A Pleasant Little Book Review . . .

"this is a book about something"

-C S Lewis, The Magician's Nephew

What a treat!  The Magician's Nephew by C S Lewis was first read in our home when we lived on Robin Way in Kelowna.  Shelby and Sherilee were in grade school and I can still see them listening to that first reading.

Since then I have read some of the other books in the Narnia series a number of times and of course watched the BBC series and the movies more recently made, but probably not this particular volume.

The Magicians Nephew is the beginning of it all, the founding of Narnia by Aslan, the lion, and I felt that if I were to read the entire series again, since I installed them all on my Kindle, I should start at the beginning of the story.  And I did.

The story grabs you and within hours sitting at or on the ferry, I had read the entire little book.  It was great to be reintroduced to Digory and Polly and the horse named Strawberry along with an array of very interesting people.  This is the story of two children looking for an adventure which they sure enough find.  But, I promise you, you do not have to be a child to see the wisdom in these pages.

This is not just another fantastical story of another world.  Warnings, examples and wishes all show up here.

"What you see and what you hear 

depends a great deal on where you are standing.  

It also depends on what sort of person you are." 

And one of my favourite...

"Look for the valley, the green places, 

and fly through them.  There will 

always be a way through."

Please remember...

"Awake  Love  Think  Speak"

This book is an easy, pleasant read that will warm your heart.  And tell me, who doesn't need a little heart warming these days?

Be well and stay in touch.

Progress, Part 2

Yesterday evening after a long day outdoors battling the weed syndicate around here, I decided it would be good to snap some photos before the lighting was gone.  I grabbed my camera, turned my head towards the ocean and couldn't believe what I was seeing...

it appeared that the tide was coming in, with style?  Why the dramatic difference in the colour of the water?  Spring?  I called Sherwin and we watched the phenomenon with interest. In just a few minutes...

it travelled quite a distance.  But since I was there to capture some of my garden before dark I turned away to other sites.

Two of my raised beds required tilling so I took out my little baby rototiller in the morning and gave my shoulders more of a workout than they had for a few weeks.  Phew!  But am happy to have peppers, tomatoes, beets, dill, zinnias, marigolds, nasturtium, and my canna lilies planted.  There are some permanent plants out there that are flourishing...

like the fennel which looks so lush.  Rhubarb has just not worked here so I ripped out my pathetic little plants, never to try that here again.

As we work at spring clean-up on this hilltop it is rewarding to wander around at the end of the day and see what is working, though.

The clematis has never looked better, probably because I gave it a royal whacking last fall before we left.  But, on the other hand, it maybe gave it's all this year because there has been a mother robin nesting within it's branches.  

Love the flowers on this Brunnera...wish they would last all summer.  You can see the light is fading on the north side of the house so it was time to call it a day but I heard the noisy clatter/buzz of the rock saw and had to capture Sherwin preparing to lay the heavy wires for the generator.  

He spent the morning ridding my garden walkway of weeds...very encouraging to have him help me.  

You all have a great new week...be well.

Progress in the Garden

On Friday I was able to get my overhead garden in before it started to rain again and today has produced more labours of love in the veggie garden.  Just wishing you all a great new week...

"If you look the right way, 

you can see that the whole world is a garden."

-Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden

Enjoy your world around you and be well.

Absolutely Amazing . . .

You cannot imagine my surprise when I read a comment, on my most recent blog,  from Lisa over at Diary of a Square Toothed Girl.   (Pop over to her blog and read.  Very inspiring.)  She has listed me as a recipient of the Sunshine Award for my blog!

Thank you so much, Lisa...you are most encouraging.

The rules of this award were as follows:
You have to post the picture of the Sunshine Award on your blog.  Done!
You have to answer 10 random things about yourself.  Harder than you think...
You have to nominate 10 other bloggers to receive this award and then you have to link to their blogs to let them know they have received it.  My privilege...

Here are 10 random facts about me that you may not know...

*  I think I have the most interesting dreams.  My dreams are in colour, the stories are vivid and sometimes quite scary.  I have been known to have laughed in my dreams so hard that I wake myself up and I have to wake fully before I can quit laughing...

*  Speaking of dreams...I have had the delight of having a recurring dream of a house...it is the most wonderful house full of twists and turns inside and out and secret passages with lots of surprises...it is always very sad for the dream to end because I love this house.  I have dreamt this maybe half a dozen times in my life.

*  My favourite current ad on TV is the new Omega ad...so cool.

*  This year my favourite colours are a sharp green and a dusky purple.  I am known to change my mind on colours on a whim.

*  The country I would most like to visit is India.

*  Opera is the music of choice for cleaning house.

*  Christmas is my favourite holiday but Easter gives meaning to Christmas...love the significance of both.

*  When I cannot sleep at night I used to plan flower gardens in my head...now I imagine weeding flower beds and that puts me right back to sleep.

*  My favourite flowers are all the big, full-blown blooms.  Peonies, roses, double blossoms on most any flower really.  Actually I have a great weakness for flowers.

*  I tend to freak out when I find myself working around a messy project area.  I simply cannot move forward until I have the mess cleaned up enough to be able to function.

And now for 10 blogs...

Rachel at A Year in the Life of an Art Journal
Junelle at Yes and Amen
Sherwin at Shower Wisdom
Sherilee at Sweet Tea and Sunshine
Shelby at S1GN
Brent at Blogan
Terrill at Creativepotager
Julie at Balzer Designs
Rachel at All I Did Was Listen
The Painting Gardener

These are all blogs I have enjoyed over time...they all inspire me and bring me joy!  Looking forward to see what you all have in the future.

Enjoy the read and be well!