Only her shadow knows....

Look closely......"only her shadow knows..."

Something new

I

I have always wondered what a dragonfruit was like, so I finally broke down and bought one yesterday. That makes it sound like it was a massive, huge amount of money; I "broke down and bought one", but it was $2.47, which is sort of a lot of money for one piece of fruit.

To me it looks like something Spielberg-ish, or James Cameron-ish, a "thing" that someone finds, and it eventually either comes to life and burrows it's way into your innards, or you have to help it find its way back to the depths of the ocean.

In either case, I decided that it would be better off if I sliced it open and ate it. So, after a bit of Google-ing, I sliced it in half and scooped out the insides. I guess it's like a cross between a kiwi and a very bland strawberry...sort of crunchy (the seeds) and pulpy. Not a lot of flavour, I think it would be especially nice diced up and added to a fruit salad.

If nothing else, it certainly is beautiful.

3 reasons to stay home.

Things that are good about today: I can look outside and watch this amazing bluebird who has been hanging around all morning.

It's Feb 1st, so that means it's Calendar Flipping Day at my house! I have about 13 calendars, I'm a bit addicted to them, ever since my mom bought me my very first "real" one when I was about 12. Not a bank freebie calendar, but one with stickers...and I was hooked. I still have that one somewhere, I should go and dig it out and see what things I have written and noted on it. Every year, ever since then, my Mom and I made a point of finding a special calendar to buy for each other at Christmas. Sometimes we lived in tiny airforce bases in the middle of nowhere, and it wasn't always easy to find a decent one, but we always managed.

The year that I was hooked on The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings (ahhh, yes children, that was years before the movies were even dreamed of...)she managed to find an amazing one with visions of Gollum and Frodo. The year I read Watership Down, she found one with dreamy, watercolour-style pictures.

And one year it was maps...ancient maps, maps from the 1400's with "Here there be dragons" and "terra incognito" in places that i would someday go.

*sigh* The notations are little slices of life, Shane's first tooth, Scott's first step, doctor appointments, and birthdays. Births of babies, deaths of loved ones. Anniversaries and messages to take out the garbage and pay a the taxes. Buy insurance.Weddings and funerals. The good and the bad, all marked down there, year after year after year. My calendars are a journal of my life.

Well, this turned into an ode to calendars, I tend to sidetrack and digress so easily.

The other good reasons to stay home today? I can read my Kindle, which has a newly downloaded Stephen King that I haven't read yet (he's my favorite author, well, him and Agatha Christie.) And if I don't feel techno-savvy, I can read the tried and true hardcover of his that I also have.

It's a good day just to be here.

Led Zeppelin said it best..."We come from the land of the ice and snow..."

My favorite new piece of technology is this Kindle. I'm not really one for new and modern items, I still eschew cell phones, although I can more and more see their place in certain peoples lives. I can't get the hang of the place-finder thing...what's it called? In your vehicle? It escapes my mind right now, but you know what I mean, however I really need to get mine set up and working because I do have quite the knack for getting lost. Of course, I get lost while on foot, not in my vehicle, thus the lackadaisicle effort in hooking it up.

But, I am digressing. I am here to wax poetic about the Kindle. I am a very tactile person, and I love books...the actual book, I love to touch them, smell their booky-scent and above all, to read them. I love to flip the pages and close them as I ponder the adventures yet to come in the pages unturned. So, for me to love my Kindle is something that sort of surprises my family and friends.

I love that I can download a book in less than a minute, and as I read it it, I can take notes, look up definitions of new and unknown words, I can see what passages other readers have thought memorable and I can even quickly send highlighted passages to my Facebook or Twitter accounts. (I don't Twitter, but I could if I wanted to....)

I love that there are thousands and thousands of free books, many of them classics that I always mean to read, but I never quite get around to it. Now I can download them in seconds and read them whenever (and where ever) I get a moment.

I love that I can hold 3,500 books in the palm of my hand.

Little Miss Gypsy

The death of a dog is not a trivial thing. I am finding the loss of Gypsy to be much more poignant and upsetting than I had possibly imagined. To think that I am now living in a world without her seems hard to believe.

I was going to write an eulogy of sorts, but the words just won't flow properly, so I'll just put up this picture, which is one of my favorites.

Gonna miss you , my little Gyps.

Signs of Christmas.

A new Christmas item is the sushi that my friend from South Korea makes me...mmmm~~

Kids are home.

Ornaments are up; both new & old

It snows real snowflakes.

Little things.

I was just wandering through the house today, trying to look at things with new, fresh eyes. Can you even guess what these items are?

Remember to click on each picture twice to enlarge them even more.

*sigh* Beautiful.

We went for a drive in the snowy hills behind our house the other day. I always forget how stunning it is here in BC.

Ahhh, Nature.

Just look at what Nature can do...simply exquisite.

Sheesh.

Geez Louise, I can't believe it's been so long since I've posted anything here...things just seem to be rolling along "same old, same old" as they say, and I've had nothing to write about.

No holidays, no great sales to report upon, nothing overly funny or depressing...I keep thinking I must have something to talk about, but I've had writers block I suppose.

However, both boys and both dogs are on the road as I type, heading home for the Holiday! Hooray! The turkey is thawing, tarts and cookies are done, presents are wrapped and i feel my creative writing "juices" starting to flow.

Hopefully, I'll have some tales to tell in the next few days.

What an absolutely stunning day. You can see how much snow fell overnight, and then to go for a walk with the fresh white snow and the vivid blue sky...breathtaking.

I love this. It reminds me of Narnia...a lampost in the middle of nowhere. (of course it isn't really in the middle of nowhere...but almost...)

Then walking to a small, icy pond where you expect to see something like a winter unicorn. It was a phenomenal walk. How can people dislike the snow?

The difference a day makes...

These pictures were taken just a few weeks apart. I'll take another when the snow falls and then again in the spring. I've always liked pictures that show the same scene in the different seasons, so I'll start my own!

November Walk

The weather is oddly warm for November, blue skies and in the low 40'sF. The trees have lost their leaves, but a few apples still remain, up too high for the deer to nibble on. If you walk early enough in the day, you can see the unfortunately named hoar frost on the grasses and tiny tree limbs. Remember that you can click on a picture to enlarge it, and click twice for even more detail.

A little memory.

Yesterday was my birthday, and as I was rummaging through some boxes, I came across this, in some of my Dad's stuff. Geez Louise, what a sentimental guy he was, although he'd never want anyone to know it. The little wristband barely fits around my thumb. Look how happy my Mom looks. My Mom passed away 13 years ago, and my Dad just over 2, and I still haven't gone through their things...it's still really hard, so it was sort of strange that I found my birth announcement on my actual birthday!

I had an excellent birthday, started out with a visit to my dentist. Now, that doesn't sound like an auspicious start to any day, never mind a birthday, but he is young and cute and called me beautiful. Well, to be honest, he said that my gums were beautiful, but at my age, I'll take any compliment and run with it.

I received lots of cards, both via Facebook, email and snail mail, as well as phone calls and a lunch with a friend (the BEST coconut-lemon noodles EVER,) and supper with a friend who came up from the States for the evening, and we treated ourselves to a very special dinner..wild salmon with ginger-cranberry sauce, vegetable risotto and creme brule for desert. Plus it was my day off, so, all in all, a wonderful day.