Happy New Year

Hope you have a year full of a rainbow of blessings:

Red: the excitement of new adventures
Orange: gardens of flowers and vegetables
Yellow:  the warmth of family and friends
Green:  good health
Blue: time spent on or near rivers, lakes , oceans
Indigo: peace and hope
Violet: fun creative activities

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas and wishing you all a very good New Year.

Shortbread

Years ago I did lots of Christmas baking. The kids helped, too.  I often bought a magazine that featured Christmas cookies and other goodies, and we would decide what yummy stuff we would make. The kitchen would turn into a disaster zone as we listened to Christmas music and made our masterpieces.  Some of the baking was used as gifts, the rest we enjoyed over the holidays.

Now the kids have all moved on, and my husband and I don't really need the extra calories of Christmas cookies so I have given up the Christmas bake-fest - except for shortbread.  It's such a simple cookie but, oh so, delicious. I will probably make some extra and tuck it into the freezer so I can have a little piece in the depth of winter when I need a treat.

For the first time since we've been married, we won't spend Christmas at home.  We are going to our daughter's home where everyone will get together.  This year we have three new additions - a new granddaughter, a new daughter -in-law, and a new significant other for our other son.

I'm looking forward to being a guest, instead of a host.  Just a little more wrapping to do and I'll be ready.   Right now I am listening to the podcast of the CBC sing-in that happened in Montreal last week.  Lovely music.

I hope you  have special moments over the holidays, and if it is a sad time this year, I hope you have happy memories of other years.

Joy

Joy

The precepts of the Lord are right,
Giving joy to the heart.
The commands of the Lord are radiant,
Giving light to the eyes.

Psalm 19:8  NIV

God's Marble

God's Marble

God's marble,
Emerald and sapphire,
Swirled with white,
Is flicked spinning
Towards a black hole.

Love

Love gives us a window into people's hearts.

Hope

Hope is God's hug of encouragement that enables us to pop out of the sands of worry.

A Bright November Day

 "More, please!"

 "The (Sweet) Old  Grey Mare"

 Should I horse-nap him?

 The beavers have been hard at work. The larger tree is about 5" in diameter.  Amazing how they can handle such large pieces of wood.

 They have made two dams that show in this photo and another one further down stream.

 A ghost leaf.

For some strange reason, this bi-colour phlox hasn't frozen like the other phlox.

Some thoughts: no government lasts forever,  no war lasts forever, no storm lasts forever.
History is a gift to us to help us with perspective. And as the Friendly Giant use to say, "Look up, look way up!"

Last Shots of Colour

 I saved some photos from October as I thought the colour might be pleasant to see in dull, drear November. 

 A  cottage not far from a ski hill and close to the walking trail. You could actually ski straight from the house to the cross-country ski trails.

Hoping for the best for our neighbours in the US.

Open Arms

              Open arms,
 to float buoyed over the dark stones,
   and flow into new territory.



We went to see "Queen of Katwe", a movie about a chess prodigy from the slums of Kampala.
I am not a big fan of movies, having a very small collection of ones I like, but I liked this one.
I thought the young actress who played the lead role was very convincing, and I found the movie had a balanced feel to it which is not something I encounter very often.
Now I want to read the book that the movie was based on because the book is always better:)

Enjoy poetry?  Try out   "Snail Trails" by Christine Duncan.  It's a Kindle download. Good variety of subjects and tones.

Ornamental Cabbage

 

This spring I accidentally bought ornamental cabbage instead of regular cabbage. Now I am glad that I did as I am enjoying the extra bit of colour at the end of the season.  The slugs did a number on the lower leaves but the top leaves survived.

 A pearl in an oyster

 A dainty cup

A scoop of ice cream

 A cotton handkerchief

A delicate fan

Seaweed
Hope you've all found your favourite sweaters, hats and mitts.
Time to cozy up with a good book.

Watery Rocks

 Even branches blocking, catch the sun.

Stepping stones clear in the drought.

 Stuck to a rock together.

To keep from falling, lines of light.

 Dark and hard: light and soft

Splash!

From the Dark Ground

From the dark seemingly dead ground come beautiful fragrant roses.
Let's not be discouraged by the news.

Watery Colours

 Some photos I took along the walking trail in Morin Heights.

The autumn colours were reflecting in a variety of interesting ways.

The water is shimmering like metal, or, not so pleasantly, like an oil spill. Thankfully, the water is, in reality, very clean.

A bright red maple reflects beautifully in some still water.

A flash of bright yellow glows in a shadowy spot.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving , Canada.  We are having lovely weather and the fall colours are at their peek.
I took a few photos as we drove into the hills to see my mother.

(click on this one for full width).
Now to eat up all the leftover turkey and find the warm hats and mitts as the weather is turning colder.

Vines and Leaves

 Here we are in October and there is still a lot of green around. 

Some Virginia creeper has made berries.  The red stems really set the blue berries off nicely.

The Virginia creeper is not as brilliant as it can be - quite dull in most places, actually.

Here and there, a bit of brighter colour shows up.

Grape vines and Virginia creeper are turning some trees and bushes into leafy mounds.

Grape vines are falling out of sumac which is also not as colourful as normal at this time of year.

An old barn makes a good support for vines.

 Here's another one. Soon it will be all covered except for the roof.

Spots of bright colour stand out against the green leaves and the blue sky.

A good frost often makes the colour more dramatic and we haven't had a hard frost yet.  I can't say that I am minding the pleasant weather, though. The cold will be here soon enough.