and then there’s Chrissy’s summer home

Her man’s family has land right smack on the banks of the Fraser River in Yale, so every summer is spent fishing from the banks with nets, net dipping, or poles. Oh, and swimming and sucking in as much Vit D as they possibly can.
I went there yesterday and it was hard, no, near impossible to leave. I loved it.








Where the muddy Fraser River meets at the opening of the creek














There were many pockets of Garnet Sand, but I didn’t see anything bigger than coarse sand. :(

I very stupidly wore jeans…what the fuck was I thinking?? It was sweltering hot! But, I did dip my tootsies in.

A friend of Chrissy’s dip netting

A Brown Bear across the river came out of the bush for a moment, but quickly headed back in.

I was walking to my car and turned around…and almost returned. I could swear I heard my chair whispering for me to come back and set myself back down.

Bye Chrissy, and thanks for the invite..I absolutely loved it!

Logan Day!

This past Friday was one of those days that will be indelibly imprinted in my brain. Logan is laughing. And smirking. And lifting his lip in a sneer, with disgust. He’s been doing this for quite some time, but it was the first time I’ve seen it!

Listening to Dad ( check out the lift and sneer of the lip at the end, it's a family trait hehehe )

Fantastic hand to eye co-ordination

Smiling all the time!

He’s teething! Already at only 3 and a half months!! Poor little baby…big rocks trying to break through his gums…so very very unfair.







I’ve got a plan in place, and if it all works out, I will be living a lot closer to my grandbaby. Oh my…I miss him. Once a month visits are just not cutting it.

What did we do before computers??

I was image searching for imaginative ways to paint a small bookshelf and came across this funkalicious shelf. I adore this!!  Totally solves the problem with what to do with the digest books that are of no use anymore doesn’t it! Check out the artisan’s site for more funky stuff here: This Into That.



I’m thinking on heading to the thrift shops and find older animal digest books and make a shelf for all of my canine and other critter reference books/novels etal. I wonder how he did this? A specific glue? screws? a combination?


And, surfing for a particular German word, this popped up:

I came across this photo while organizing my folders, can’t remember what site I was on when I saved it though. I really liked the camaraderie of the women, so today I digitally put a frame on it and liked it even more.

I was reading about Gadhafi’s latest terrorist acts and was struck by the photo that accompanied the article. It showed, what looked to be, is that he is a very vain man. Was that eyebrow pencil??? I found a larger photo from CNN and yup, he used eyebrow pencil!
Then I started doing an image search on CNN and found another that made me laugh. Any woman who uses liners or powders to define areas will see what the jackass was trying to do in the top photo. ( definitely NOT photo-shopped )

Maybelline will not be seeking out a contract

This next photo I didn’t find surfing, it’s my Henry! Taken immediately after he and Ticket were wrastlin’…he’s a happyhappyhappy boy!

This and That

Ticket and I had some personal space/girl time away from the thugs boys and walked around our area yesterday.

She’s so different when all alone with me. Introspective in some ways. I wonder if she is relaxing in the differentness of the mood, or wondering why they aren’t here. Regardless, I know she is enjoying herself for all the uninterrupted meandering she does.

She does a lot of flitting about and smelling here and there so it is difficult to get a good photo of her unless she is focused on something.

Yesterday I got a lot of these:

So I focused myself on the flowers that were screaming to be photographed.

Wild Sweet Peas

There were pink ones

And white ones

Not sure what this one is…I used to know the name but my memory of it has gone blank!

These are wild snapdragons, sometimes called Monkey Flowers

I’ve never know the name of this one…maybe you do?

I have a HUGE Wild Pink Rose bush behind the house, in the early summer the smell is absolutely intoxicating. Here’s what they looked like a month or so ago:

and here’s the rose hips yesterday. I’ll be harvesting them after they go through one frost. Or when their stems are brown…whichever comes first. I know a couple of people that make jams and jellies out of them but I find it too bland, but they make a helluva great cuppa tea!

Queen Anne’s Lace

 

Last evening I visited with Kelsie…we had a couple cups of tea and chatted. Nice visit. As I was leaving I spied these boots!!

LOVE THESE BOOTS!! But alas, they belong to this little girl, and I don’t need a 6 year old girl pissed at me. So I didn't steal them.



That’s the perfectly delightful Brianne, Kelsie’s gorgeous daughter. She just learned to ride her 2 wheeler! Congrats Brianne...that's a huge accomplishment!

I had some extended family camping not far from here and they drove into Hope to visit with me for bit. Met them at our beautiful park downtown and took a few photos that I'll put up tomorrow, but here's one of Ticket that Wendy took with her phone.

K, I need a nice cuppa Red Rose. Hope you are enjoying today, it was super sunny and warm with a much loved gentle breeze. Perfect!

My Dirty World ~ Part II

Oh ferfucksake man.

A week or so ago I spread a huge bag of shavings in the yard to keep the dogs from bringing the dust in. ( teeny yard, no grass ) But seemingly, it wasn't helping. Vacuuming every 2 days didn't help at all. Frustrated!

So, yesterday I am again vacuuming and turned around to tell Ticket to shut the fuck up please be quiet ( she wants to eat the vacuum ) and I see this effing plume of dust coming out the back end of the effing vacuum heading straight at the JUST vacuumed kitchen area. What the ???

I empty it, clean it out, put it back together and try yet again. Same damn thing. My eyes and brain glaze over wondering how long this has been happening. There I was blaming the dust from the trains and the dogs. And again, oh ferfucksake.

I go online and google "why the eff does the vacuum blow dirt out of it's rear end" ( but nicer ) and find out that this can be easily fixed by buying paper filters. And this blows me away.

It's a shop vac ferfucksake. Aren't they supposed to be all powerful, so fantastic they suck up water and it's all good? But dust knocks it out? One of the reasons I wanted the shop vac was it's reputation for it's toughness and apparently as it is written on their guarantee that it does not require filters.

But according to a few message board shop vac *experts*, after time they no longer do the deed they used to do so well. So, I guess I need to buy filters ferfucksake.

Tomorrow I shall rent a pressure washer and hose this tin can out of the meter of dust that a-hole blew out..

On to a more positive topic; ( and less with a potty mouth, although I can't promise there will be absolutely no swearing ) I've made some changes in my life lately. Most of them having to do with standing up for myself more and not allowing myself to be run over. 

And what comes hand in hand with that? Some people think you have become a bitch. To them I say, I'm not being a bitch, I'm just being stronger. C'est la vie...

Not wanting to miss one moment of the big fight....

Ticket and Watcher warming each others bums

Pee break on the way to Manning Park last fall

I hope you are enjoying these last days of summer. We had a lousy one here, and I feel bad for my sunaholic friend Chrissy. So to her I say, get out there and soak up that sun...snow will be upon us in no time! (ducking from all the useless suntan lotion she's throwing at me )

Flowers everywhere!

My Shamrock plants, a purple and a green that I planted together, lovelovelove camping outside in the late Spring and entire Summer. Technically, it's a Wood Sorrel called Oxalis Triangularis and can live outdoors in our area if protected. I have had mine for 10 years or more and have divided it up ( it has teeny tiny bulbs ) dozens of times and given them away. It goes through a dormancy period in the winter...all the stems and leaves gone...quite pitiful. But then pops back up in March or so if we have plenty of light. It's also edible! RV99F3HHMYF5

Visited a friend’s garden the other day. Just in time for the Loganberries. My timing is perfection.

I ate so many I was burping Loganberries.

My Sage is going through it’s final stages for this year. The seeds have dropped, and it’s more yellow than green. I like the following photo of it as it shows all stages and the flowers are still beautiful.

And mmmmmm!! Chocolate Mint! I’ve never done anything with it…except walk by and squish a leaf and drown in the aroma daily.

When I had a garden ( waaay too many moons ago ), I had Pineapple, Orange, Chocolate and both Spear and Peppermint Mints on both sides of the door. Whenever the dogs came in or out they would brush themselves on it and the smell that came wafting from them all was so closeyoureyes and relax with it all….I miss my mints.

This is a St John's Wort living behind my home. It is rampant around here…dots the meadows and runs alongside the highways and byways right next to the Chicory and Golden Rod.

Mmmmmm, Blackberries. My very favourite berry. This year I plan on making a few goodies with them. Jam, pies, some juice to add to Olive Oil for salad dressings ( omg yum! ) and just a helluva lot of frozen berries. Just an FYI…Blackberry Daiquiri's in the winter months are especially favourited. 

Johnny Jump Up wildly growing among the bush and trees behind us.

And a photo of Henry from almost 2 years ago…geez, hard to believe he was ever this teeny!