April Shower of Photos : : Day 30 Finale...

April Shower of Photos
Day 30

Woohoooooooooooo!

I am celebrating tonight; yes I’m dancing to the beat of the “April Shower of Photo’s” celebration song as I cross the finish line tonight.

I’m celebrating the reality that I actually rose up to the challenge of posting a new photo (or several) each and every day for the entire month of April.

Always allow time for enjoying the beauty of flowers...

The idea seemed so entertaining to me, and as a bonus here, my husband actually reads my blog more than ever before, curious about which photo gets delegated and posted for the day’s assignment. In fact, he reads it every day, and is now inputting his own ideas into what I need to blog about, or which photos my camera should steer and focus to before shooting the pics from his viewpoint.

If you are a blogger, does your husband entertain the idea of placing “yours” in his bookmarked favorites? I feel so lucky to have my own husband loving the blogging world I’m involved in, and I knew I was up to this pleasurable idea Jennifer presented and challenged everyone with.

Alas, I hate to see the photo fun come to its close, though I have to plead guilty over remaining behind in other special posts, mainly written, though evidently not uploaded, just sort of hanging around in the archives of my computer.

Out my kitchen window the past few days....

My children were completely engrossed in this month long project, as my husband. Between them and my reliable friend - the camera, most were in attendance or tagged along everywhere I went. My camera was serenaded often, and was granted a placement of importance upon the upper corner of the computer desktop for a quick grab by everyone aboard here (though all the photos uploaded were mine...hee hee), helpers and such (wink). Do you have these in your home - helpers that is? smile

Here’s where I’ll send your jaw sagging towards the flooring underneath you now. I am so in devoted to digital photography and marvel how I would EVER afford to keep up with photo finishing if I chose to print off each photo ever snapped on my camera these days. I’ve uploaded all the photos for the thirty days of April, all 1281 of them! See! Told ya your jaw would fall, maybe just even a smidgen!

She was looking for a "pocket money" assignment. And she not only chose her own task, but also persevered through a cold snap picking a plethora of dandelions by the bucketful.

When the sun came out again today, many more dandelions suddenly opened up, overwhelming her for only a moment, observing the yellow polka dotted contrast within the much greener grass.

Yellow everywhere!

Actually, we’re down a few hundred shots this month when compared to others this past year. (grin) Good thing I’m a scrapbooker huh, a compulsive attachment to making memories. I am, I am.

Thank you Jennifer! What fun we all had!

April Shower of Photos : : Day 29

April Shower of Photos
Day 29

How fun it is to present something to nibble on while the children sip a hot cup of tea during schooling hours.

Italic penmanship and tea cookies, they go hand in hand don't they?

Not very sweet, but they love their little goodies with tea.

April Shower of Photos : : Day 28

April Shower of Photos
Day 28

Like I've been mentioning often here lately, it feels as though summer is already upon us here and the abundant warmth of the sun has been enticing us all outdoors. What do we do while outdoors? Why we think of gardening of course, and flowers, lots of flowers!

Like a kid in a candy shop, this was my kind of candy shop this day, not some consumer location promoting the sale of forbidden delectable sweets held in fancy glass canisters, rather today's candy shop for me was a floral nursery.

The visit was prompted by the necessity of a wee bit of color for a few outdoor patio pots all in dire need of being potted for summer. I've already fluffed up the soil with a rich overlay of potting soil, so it was off for a floral feast for us today, well at least for me and my girl.

Isn't it amazing how brilliant and amazing the color palette is on such a trip to a local nursery garden? Once my eyes completed scanning the vast selection of colorful floral displays, it seems to me the most tempting thing in the world was to choose much more than was noted on my wish list this day.

Wouldn't it be great to be blessed with seasonal "gift cards" to such places in advance, but honestly folks, where oh where to begin with such a splurge shopping binge here?


Today, my young daughter and I behaved for the most part, but wait until I confess this is our second visit there this week. I (ah-hem) needed a few more items to fill up my last pot, and besides it was my daughter's idea to visit today while her older sister was in her horse riding lesson just down the road from here.

So, we browsed the floral displays. once more, and then my daughter wondered around a bit, suddenly stopping because she not only found the water/pond plants, but she was drawn to a sign advertising "Koi fish for sale". In a quick jiffy, she was excited about the prospect of owing the little guys and decided we should really just forget the plants/florals and buy a fish instead. Never mind that we have no pond to place it in, let's just buy a fish she reasoned, or several and take them home. We'll work out a solution she assured me, but you know, I wasn't going to give in, NO WAY! We came home with what we shopped for...flowers! :-)

In deep thought pondering if it is better in sun or shade

Enjoy this photo visual of floral beauty, if only to remember the blessing of these things in our lives. Happy is the man who loves simple pleasures, and flowers are such a simple thing, so easy to love, offering us so much pleasure. Yeah, and I know it's much more than one photo of the day, sort of over the top, but I couldn't resist. Forgive me...LOL

A baby's fascinated play,
tugging at his mother's ear,
exploring ears, mouth, nose,
and the softness of her skin,
brings a smile to those who watch.

Lovers, even little ones like this child,
deck the beloved with lovely things,
tuck flowers in her hair,
make wreaths to bring her joy.
Mary, nourish my love for Jesus.

Flowers have an expression of countenance
as much as men or animals.
Some seem to smile; some have a sad expression;
some are pensive and diffident;
others again are plain, honest and upright,
like the broad-faced sunflower
and the hollyhock.


~Henry Ward Beecher, Star Papers: A Discourse of Flowers

'Tis my faith that every flower
Enjoys the air it breathes!

~William Wordsworth,
("Lines Written in Early Spring," Lyrical Ballads, 1798)

April Shower of Photos : : Day 27

April Shower of Photos
Day 27

There's something about the change in weather between the seasons of winter and spring. It's then when the sun begins to shine and the chill in the air dissipates to much warmer temperatures. All this week we've enjoyed lovely summer weather, highs to 26 degrees celsius.

There's also something this time of year that affects all my big girls! Each time we rotate to this season, someone manages to obtain a "farmer's tan"! It's a funny thing you know because they think they look all healthy and wonderful with their (painful) summer glow, sunscreen and all beforehand loaded onto their skin. But shhhhh, don't tell them, it's really a red burn!

Farmer's tan

April Shower of Photos : : Day 26

April Shower of Photos
Day 26

Twins photos? Nope!

The fleurs below are from my garden, and there are many groupings of these around the property offering their beauty, and a little bit of sunshine to our world. Today, with scissors in hand, I went outdoors to gather a bunch and brought them inside, placing them in a vase on my kitchen windowsill. Lovely!

Beautiful!

April Shower of Photos : : Day 25

April Shower of Photos
Day 25

As Peter Sellers would say, we filled up our "Birdie Num Num" feeders today... (grin)

We have had pesky black grackle issues here, birds who are relentless and hog our bird feeders. We were told in order to rid ourselves of them, we should revert to primarily using white seed, so all eight feeders were filled with ONLY white seed today.

It's strange to see the pecking order of the birds flocking nearby; the morning doves, the red winged blackbirds, robins, and even the Northern Cardinals fighting for a place on a feeder bar to nibble awhile.

But, those darned grackles have all but scared away all the wee birdies we love so much. Hope this works!



Our little birdie oasis, at least a bit of it is shown here. Just look at how much our willow tree has grown on the right side of these pictures! It's now taller than our maple tree nearby. Wowza!

April Shower of Photos : : Day 24

April Shower of Photos
Day 24

Okay, I'm off to read with my evening cup of tea now, and I can hardly wait to devour the two items below I've been savoring my moments for tonight.

I'm anxious to delve into the book called "Picture Perfect Childhood" by Cay Gibson, and my newest Victoria magazine. (Mom, this month's issue of "Victoria" has a cover that just screams you and your blue/white world. Hugs!)

These await me now, so my friends, I will bid you adieu

P.S. Sending birthday wishes to Dad B. tonight, hoping you have a very blessed and splendid day! Thinking of you from here... Happy Birthday!

April Shower of Photos : : Day 23

April Shower of Photos
Day 23

We need to find God, and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature - trees, flowers, grass - grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence... We need silence to be able to touch souls.

~ Mother Teresa

A wee little nature house, complete with swimming pool.

Fine summer-like weather (24-26 degrees C) produced strong desires to work outdoors all this week. Assigned duties of weeding garden flower beds took on a whole new meaning this week when thoughtful interruptions occurred, resulting in continued desires to explore imaginative play within the world of nature before them.

The path home...or is it the perimeter fencing of a yard.

P.S. Heh Adam! It's your birthday....TODAY! Sending you hugs and kisses son.

April Shower of Photos : : Day 22

April Shower of Photos
Day 22

When modern technological inventions are used for advancing greater care in preserving energy consumption, all are lauded and invited into our world, gifts perhaps to society at large.

One has to wonder though when encountering farming countryside scenery such as the one below, where technology comes to reside on farm lands. I've often scratched my head over how this occurs near livestock and residential housing on someone's farmland property. The wind turbines themselves don't look as big as they are, until you get nearer to the towering 80 meter heights, and then they look massive, shrinking the gigantic barns or housing and making them look puny!

Technology welcomed by countryside farmers?

To me they are complete eyesores, and I'm hoping there isn't a bit of bureaucratic bullying going on to capture all the wind power these wind turbines are supposed to generate for the benefit of each country by appearing in a neighborhood near you. Apparently there are 23 of them coming closer to us in the near future, all plopped onto (you got it) farm lands in the countryside. Do you also have some in your local area?


These wind turbines are becoming more popular both in Canada and the USA. Take a read through the newspaper article I found here titled; Grow renewable energy on farms.

Here's another interesting article titled; Tutting at wind farms, about the turbines besieging the countryside in Scotland and Britain.

April Shower of Photos : : Day 21

April Shower of Photos
Day 21

After observing the morning dove's bird nest for most of the day, we all came to an easy conclusion that the two little white eggs are now permanently abandoned.

I was able to get up close and personal with it, snapping this photo, though not wishing to disturb the nest inhabitants in any way. We've decided it's best to leave them be and see what becomes of them over time.

What would you do with these? Disturb or leave them alone?

The morning dove's abandoned eggs

April Shower of Photos : : Day 20

April Shower of Photos

Day 20

Birdie, Birdie in a tree
Won't you sing your song for me?

Look up. Look way up to see the little birdie in the tree

Warm weather and sunny skies offer us amazing landscape changes, nature changes here have been incredible over merely a one week time period. Thoughts of summer are filling my head again.

An Osprey was perched in this tree eating a fish

If you look closely at the upper center area to the left a bit, you'll recognize a rather large osprey sitting there. We watched him arrive very suddenly, flapping around to obtain his balance mostly due to having a huge fish in his talons, weight adjustments were necessary occasionally while perched there. He remained for some time feasting mightily on his prey.

These hawks must be experiencing severe hunger at present, because we also witnessed a hawk charging into a small fir tree in our front yard, scaring a dove into flight. The poor morning dove slammed into our library window really hard, leaving a large oily mark, and then it fell to the ground. We ran to the window and thought just one bird was on the ground, white feathers flying everywhere, when in fact it was the two together, a hawk swiftly began attacking the stunned dove and then whisked her away.

Two doves were visiting us daily on the back deck, eventually gathering items for nest building. With this attack, the dove's poor little nest with two eggs was involuntarily abandoned.

Our daily visits with Mr. & Mrs. Dove were sweet.

Later in the evening, we noticed another the male dove resting on the two eggs, but shortly afterwards he too disappeared, never to return. Hawks are fairly territorial creatures, so we're thinking the birds are fair game here as they return to the now known nests to capture their next meal. It was sad for us to see, though the way nature was intended.

April Shower of Photos : : Day 19

April Shower of Photos
Day 19

As the west witnessed a strange snowfall in April, we here in the east had soaring temperatures of 26 degrees yesterday and today! Temptation grabbed us when it was time to bring our son to his activity, that of taking a more scenic route near the water's edge, stopping for a moment to drive onto the sandy beach's causeway, a favorite thing to do for me. I found myself clapping my hands loudly, totally overcome with joy, feeling simply delighted to be at the water's edge dreaming thoughts of summer - soon to come.

April Shower of Photos : : Day 18

April Shower of Photos
Day 18

So, poking fun the other day I was telling a few ladies this "April Shower of Photos" has been hilarious around here. Instead of my husband asking "What's for dinner?", early in the morning, he now asks "What photos did you place on your blog?".

I've waited years and years for a distraction like this one, but yesterday not only did he ask which photo, he also commented on the upload the day before, saying the sunset photo was (meh) merely okay. He gave me a little critique by saying in actual fact I'd missed the real sunset, the blazing orange sun just before it crested. Admittedly it was a little dark, but I liked it what I snapped! For me, it was lovely. And besides, that's why people have the option to click onto the photo to enlarge the scene before them, right? Maybe it's a guy thing?

So, about today's photo....you just knew it had to get around to something 'hockey' again didn't you? grin

NHL hockey season is on its way out, at least for this loyal family fan club for the Vancouver Canuck team. Yes, folks, this hockey fevered family is loyal to the end, although recently the Atlanta Thrashers and the Pittsburgh Penguins are looking not too bad for the eastern regions.

When out west this past visit, three of our children acquired new Canuck hockey jerseys, on sale for a fraction of the cost, or at least these former team logo jerseys were. No matter to our children here, they wear their Canuck jerseys proudly, and show them off for the diehard fans they still are.

Go Canucks Go! But do a whole lot better next year will ya!

One jersey and four chocolate hockey pucks,
gifts from family back home.

April Shower of Photos : : Day 17

April Shower of Photos
Day 17

Of sunsets and springtime clotheslines

Something so very beautiful at the end of the day, like a gift from God for sure, is a colorful sunset. Last night, this was the view from my family room out the back of the property, and my clotheslines are inviting me to use them once more.

April Shower of Photos : : Day 16

April Shower of Photos
Day 16

The children are begging for some more crafty moments, so I'm off to curl up on the couch in my sunny library window, with my afternoon tea and the book below.

A Year with God; Living the Liturgical Year by the folks at CHC

April Shower of Photos : : Day 15

April Shower of Photos
Day 15

We woke up and felt a bit confused at first when noticing the sheen of ice on the back patio and throughout the fields on the back property. However the sun was already out and on its way up into a lovely blue sky, and the day soon soared up to temperatures of 68 degrees, melting the ice in not time at all.

It's always amazing to me how the back porch changes with the weather, but then that's likely only me noticing the difference it makes. I gave you a photo of the rain falling on it already, so here's one with the icy bits glimmering with the light glow of winter still upon it.


And just to show you all how beautiful the day was here, how very lovely it was - here "in the east". This is what everyone raced through their schooling for...because there was NO SNOW on the ground!