Watercolours or...

......photographs? Photographs actually. I took both of these photos late this afternoon through the 100+ year old windows in our house. Most of our windows have a degree of waviness in them.

This first photo is of the veranda posts and roof of a house across the street.
The one below is of two crows tree sitting in our backyard. Both photos are SOOC (straight out of camera).

PHOTOHUNT Saturday - furry

I photographed these lovely furry llamas (I'm sure someone will correct me if they're alpacas) one summer morning when I was on my way to the dentist. I pulled over on the opposite side of the county road, rolled down my window and took a couple of shots. Yes, that's a benefit of living in a small city in an agricultural area - you get to see and photograph lots of lovely sights within a few minutes drive from home.

Please visit PhotoHunt Saturday. Thanks to tnchick for the ideas every week.

Thistle Theatre - Dancing in Poppies

Thistle Theatre of Embro is staging Dancing with Poppies January 30th and 31st and to quote the professional critic/reviewer I'm married to:

"Even when they're confronted by the daunting assignment of tackling a work of such depth - both in plot and characterization - the three member cast never wavers. Such poise and confidence are rare commodities even in professional circles, much less amateur ranks."

Based on the novella 1919: The Love Letters of George and Adelaide, Dancing in Poppies examines the physical, emotional and spiritual damage inflicted by war.



Geoff and I saw the play opening night last Friday, January 23rd and his review was in The Ingersoll Times yesterday, January 28th.

It's a wonderful night out and the ambience of the Embro Town Hall and the refreshments provided by the local Girl Guides added to the experience. Support local theatre - go to see Dancing in Poppies. A word of caution though, bring a tissue or two.

Skywatch Friday

early morning view at work, 01/09/09

Please check out Skywatch Friday

thanks to

the Skywatch® Team:Klaus Sandy Ivar Wren Fishing Guy Louise

Wordless Wednesday

Jack Frost

ABC Wednesday - B

...is for bronze bust. This bronze bust of Georgina Pope is part of the Valiants Memorial near the National War Memorial in Ottawa. In 1899, Pope led a group of nurses in the South African War. She was the first Canadian to receive the Royal Red Cross, and in 1908, she became Canada's first Nursing Matron having charge of all Canadian military nurses. At age 55, in poor health, she went overseas once again in 1917 to work near Ypres, one of the battlefields of the First World War. Pope was a native of Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island and a graduate of the Bellevue Hospital School of Nursing in New York.

B for buttons as well - lots of them on her uniform.

To take a look at more "b" words, please visit ABC Wednesday.

The view from here

I'm fortunate enough to work in a building which affords views like this as I start my day.

My World Tuesday

Okay, so it's "Gray's World Tuesday". This is his favorite perch, sitting on a chair by the kitchen window, watching the birds come and go from the feeder.

Game for it?

One popular pass time for winter lovers here in Canada is snowmobiling. And, while there isn't a snowmobile in this photo, there's proof of one or more - the tracks in the snow.

PHOTOHUNT Saturday - Chipping

Anyone not familiar with the various songs/sounds of the Northern Cardinal, wouldn't realize that one of the Cardinal's sounds is a "chip-chip-chip"-ing sound. Quoting from the website Learn Bird Songs "the common call is a metallic chip, given as a contact call and in situations of alarm"

I photographed this Cardinal near our feeder on a stormy afternoon in December 2007. Most people who look at this photo think it would make a good cover for a Stephen King novel......one with a giant menacing bird theme......poor little guy.

For more information about the Cardinal and to see the very distinct differences between the males and females, visit the Cornell Lab of Ornithology website.

Skywatch Friday

Downtown Woodstock, Ontario

early evening, September 27, 2008

Skywatch Friday is possible due to the hard work of

Klaus Sandy Ivar Wren Fishing Guy Louise

The site host this week is Jo'Ann D'Eyes

Imposter

When my better half first starting showing an interest in hawk counting during our travels he would often mistake a sitting crow to be a sitting Red-tailed Hawk. He quickly dubbed crows as "imposters". He's now very familiar with the differences in the profiles of the two birds but still calls the crows by their new given name. Of course, this does come from the man who refers to squirrels as "rats with good P.R.".

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless no longer, I'm now adding words in response to a query by Judith. The bird pictured here is a Blue Jay or Cyanocitta cristata, Family: CORVIDAE. Judith mentioned that her friend sees reddish coloured jays at her feeder in England, these would be Jay - Garrulus glandarius - Family: Corvidae. So, they are from the same "family" but look very different from each other. Our North American Blue Jays are large and noisy but also incredibly beautiful.

This is the Jay familiar to the English countryside:

Here endth today's lesson.

ABC Wednesday - A is for Alison

I met my friend Alison quite by accident (more likely fate) when I was 16 and she was 50. Thirty-seven years later she's still one of my best friends. Everytime I go home to Newfoundland I pop by to see Alison at least twice. There has never been a conscious age difference between us, we've always been able to sit at her kitchen table or in her livingroom and chat about everything from politics to the state of the English language (Alison hates catch phrases). Of course there's never been an age difference because I think she holds the secret to the Picture of Dorian Grey. I swear, that today, Alison only looks about two years older than she did in this photo I took of her and her darling Bill in the early 1980s.Alison still keeps in touch by hand-writing wonderful letters, so she won't know she's made her internet debut. I wanted to share our friendship story anyway - everyone should be lucky enough to have an Alison in their life.

For more words compliments of the letter A, please visit ABC Wednesday.

That's My World

This is the Grand River as it flows through Paris, Ontario. This photo was taken in June 2007 on a day when my friend and I were there puttering in and out of the shops (like Chocolate Sensations) and having lunch. Paris is a short 25 minute drive from Woodstock and the Grand River flows 300 kilometres through southwestern Ontario from the highlands of Dufferin County to Port Maitland on Lake Erie.

If you'd like to peek at more interesting destinations, visit That's My World . Thanks again to Klaus Sandy Ivar Wren Fishing Guy Louise.

Bob Banfield

we hardly knew ye

Bob Banfield (age 17) playing the grand piano backstage at the then Grand Falls Arts and Culture Centre in November 1975. Taken during a rehearsal for The Wizard of Oz, directed by Shirley (Hollett) Morrow - a very young George Morgan looking on.

Bob is lost to us now but will never be forgotten.

Winter sunset

Saturday Photo Hunt - Hat

This wonderful canoe sculpture, Spirit of Haida Gwaii is by the late Haida artist Bill Reid and sits at the end of the figurative river in the Grand Hall of the Museum of Civilization in Gatineau, Quebec. It represents a Haida canoe crammed with a bewildering variety of paddlers and passengers.


The white sculpture is the original plaster pattern used to cast the bronze sculpture at the Canadian Embassy in Washington, D.C. The prominent central figure wearing the big hat is a shaman, the Haida chief Kilstlaai. As a symbol of authority he holds a speaker's staff; on the top of the staff is Killer Whale.


The Spirit of Haida Gwaii features Raven and Eagle, the two principal Haida lineages that are coequal and represent two halves of a whole. The sculpture encompasses mythical creatures, animals, men and women, who together symbolize not just one culture but the entire family of living beings. The canoe is filled to overflowing with creatures who bite and claw one another as they doggedly paddle along.


The photo is a scan of a 35mm photo I took in 1999.

Skywatch Friday

The nearly full moon on January 9th as viewed from our street.

The steeple of First Baptist Church on the corners of Adelaide and Beale Streets in Woodstock.

A sky view.....sort of.....the lowering sun is reflected in our neighbour's windows.

Please pop over to Skywatch Friday to see what others have to offer. Thanks to Klaus Sandy Ivar Wren Fishing Guy Louise for their dedication to this meme!

Newfoundland and Labrador Tourism

There's a man being towed around by two young girls in fancy dresses in this Newfoundland and Labrador Tourism Ad - many a moon ago I used to babysit him and his sister! How old does that make me?!

You can't possibly look at this video without realizing why I get so homesick sometimes.

Wordless Wednesday - Fort Amherst, Newfoundland

scan of a 35mm photo circa 1988(ish)

Watery Wednesday

Both of these photos were taken on Twillingate Island, Newfoundland and are scans of 35mm photos.

The first photo is quite simply a view from the shoreline through the water (Atlantic Ocean) to the rocks just below the surface.


Can you see the woman sitting on the bench? And yes, that's the Atlantic in the background.


Visit Watery Wednesday for more liquid shots.

ABC Wednesday - Z is for Zorra Township

Zorra Township is located here in Oxford County, Ontario and encompasses a number of communites including Embro and Thamesford. These photos were taken along Braemar Road in the Township.

Thanks again to ABC Wednesday - Round 3. Look out for Round 4!

My World Tuesday - Hoar Frost

When I left for work this morning the world was decorated with hoar frost - kind of hard to explain if you've never seen it - looks like something you'd see in Narnia. The atmospheric conditions have to be just right for it to appear: It's a deposit of interlocking ice crystals (hoar crystals) formed by direct sublimation on objects, usually those of small diameter freely exposed to the air, such as tree branches, plant stems and leaf edges, wires, poles, etc., which surface is sufficiently cooled, mostly by nocturnal radiation, to cause the direct sublimation of the water vapor contained in the ambient air. At least that's what the National Snow and Ice Data Center website says about it.

As I write this at 9:40pm it's -7 degrees celsius, can't complain though, where Jimmy C. lives in Hay River, North West Territories it's -26C at the moment with a daytime high tomorrow of -28C. Keep warm Jimmy!

To travel a little more visit My World Tuesday. Thanks to Klaus Sandy Ivar Wren Fishing Guy Louise for all your hard work on the site.

-17 degrees celsius this morning

even the bird feeders were wearing hats in an effort to get warm!

Saturday Photo Hunt - Aftermath

The wheat had been harvested and was being loaded on the flatbed. Note the Red-tailed Hawk still on the bales on the right taking it all in.

PhotoHunt Thanks tnchick.com for hosting.

Are you talkin' to me?

Only a cat can give an insolent look like this. It's like Gray is saying "whut?"

On another front, Cousin 1 has a dog who sings along with Christmas songs, take a look.

Skywatch Friday, January, 2009

It's a marshmallow world in the winter, when the snow comes and covers the ground......
It was a snow-filled sky as I arrived home from work today. In the photo below the trees and sky make a sneaky appearance in the bottom right corner - reflected in the window of a vehicle

For more interesting takes on the Skywatch theme visit Skywatch Friday.

Thanks to Klaus, Sandy, Ivar, Wren ,Fishing Guy and Louise who make it possible!

Watery Wednesday

Great Blue Heron

Brick Ponds, Woodstock, Ontario

July 2008

Visit Watery Wednesday for more aquatic fun

Wordless Wednesday - Lake Placid, NY

Wordless Wednesday

ABC Wednesday - Y

Y is for yesterday. When I look at properties like this I wonder who lived here in the past. What crops did they grow? Did the back of the barn collapse over time or did a wind storm or tornado give it a nudge?

Visit ABC Wednesday for more photos on the "Y" theme. Thanks to the ABC team for managing the site.

My World Tuesday - you know you live in the country when....

you don't blink when you see a tractor pulling a manure spreader down the the road. Taken on Highway 59 near Tavistock, Oxford County, Ontario, Canada January 3, 2009.
To explore other neighbourhoods visit My World Tuesday. Thanks to Klaus, Sandy, Ivar, Wren, Fishing Guy and Louise for running this great site.

I've received a blogging award from Judith of Judith's Quiet Moments ! Thanks Judith/

"This blog invests and believes the PROXIMITY - nearness in space, time and relationships. These blogs are extremely charming. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please visit these writers! If you would like, please pass this award to more bloggers who, in turn, might also choose to pass it on please include this text in the body of their award."

My choices for this award are:

1. Gone to the Dogs

2. Little Orange Guy

because they help keep the cousins in touch

3. Promote Thanet

because Don's is in touch with his world/community even when he's away from it for awhile.

a walk in the country

On our way from London to Tavistock via Braemar Road today I took this drive-by shot (Geoff was driving) of three people and a dog walking a snow-covered farm field. I've decided that it was a father and his two teenagers out for a stroll with Rover or Fido or Maggie.....