snow boot snivel (is snivel really a word?)

I am well aware that most of my fellow Canadians are still stuck in a deep freeze, anxiously waiting for spring. But folks, I live on Vancouver Island, where it is balmy and warm and wet.

Spring comes early, we gloat and we we brag for a couple of months. We take pictures and post pictures of spring blooms and sunshine. We start to prepare for the heat and to talk about summer holidays.

Everyone knows around these parts that after Easter we can bust out the sandals and capri pants. I even got my spring pedicure (the products are just for show - I went to the spa). I'm ready. My feet are ready. My sandals are ready. So would someone please explain this?

Record snowfalls today. The most snow on March 28th since 1962. I won't tell you what else happened in 1962, but it was a good year. A snowy year, but a good one.

My sandals are still in the closet. They want out!!!!

(But doesn't the snow on the blossoms make for beautiful photos?)

this week in 22 minutes

I thought it was time to catch up. I think it's been at least a week since I've checked in - spring break is over, the kids are back in school and we are finally back into routine. Here's a synopsis of my week. Get a snack and a blanket and settle in.

I can't stop taking pictures of blooms and spring flowers. After a grey winter of dead berries, it is all too exciting to have colour options. My dearest husband keeps yawning when I demand "Look at this picture!". "Flower pictures are pretty but boring", he says to me in the most loving but disinterested of voices. I have to agree. But I can't stop with the flower pictures. I cannot. They are so colourful and symmetrical and...flowery. I never really noticed them before I got behind a camera. Not in the same way.

We had cousins here for a week. Rock climbing, sight seeing and silliness abounded. It is amazing to me how big all the kids in our family are getting. Where are the babies? They were just here.

We took a day trip to Victoria on good Friday. Did some shopping, and admired the springyness. Victoria is about a week ahead of us, season wise. That's what you get for being about 80 kms south. This is our provincial parliament, as Victoria is our capital. Need I explain parliaments for those of you south of the border?

See? Definite springyness.

I took this photo this week, too. It's a robin's nest with plastic eggs in it. I know - robins don't lay plastic eggs. The real baby robins flew away last year. The nest looked lonely this year and it was Easter. This photo became the Icon of the Day in The World Through My eyes. Don't ask. Flickr stuff. It was a compliment. A big one.

We went to Maggie and Jamie's birthday party. They turned 5. Bouncy castle, face painting and cake. You only turn 5 once. Or twice, in their case.

I took more flower photos. In Victoria I splurged on some macro filters. Cheaper than a lens and harder to use, but fun to play with. I'm learning how to use my tripod, too. Who knew using a tripod required practice?

We coloured eggs. ~Eggs before.

~In colour process.

~After.

We went to the annual Easter egg hunt and family brunch at my friend Nancy's. We collected leavings from the Easter Bunny and ate quiche and baked french toast. I made raspberry and white chocolate scones.

Are you still hanging in? Almost done.

I took pictures for my photo scavenger hunt. One of the topics was "milk mustache". Notice the lack of frontal chompers.

Last but not least, more flowers. White ones.

Pink ones. There's a long season of flowers ahead, but it won't last forever, I promise. And they are better than dead berries, aren't they?

crazy

I have to digress from my usual sane, somewhat mundane business to this - just in from Susan over at Trout Towers:

"Sweet Home Alabama
I tried to resist posting this video, but finally gave up, in hopes that someone else will get the song stuck in their head and I can stop humming it. It is the Finnish rock band Leningrad Cowboys with the Red Army Choir (the real Red Army Choir - balalaikas and all) performing Sweet Home Alabama. It is currently my most favorite thing ever."

Mine too.

fun with penelope

Last Saturday I took a course on close up photography at Milner Gardens, which is near Qualicum Beach here on beautiful Vancouver Island.

I have to confess to never having been here before, although my Mom goes a lot and I have been meaning to. But going for this course seemed the perfect excuse. Above is the main house. Queen Elizabeth has hung out here. We took the course in the room she slept in. The bed was gone, though.

Honestly? The course wasn't that great. Nice guy, good photographer. Not much to say. I was surprised to find that he didn't really have any new info for me. Maybe because I've been so immersed in learning about taking pictures for the last six months. I'm passionate. I don't leave home ever without my camera. At night I kiss my family goodnight, then I kiss my camera. It doesn't have a name, though. I'm kind of keen on Penelope.

Anyway, I digress a bit. Even though there wasn't much to learn on Saturday morning, we still got to spend lots of time snapping in the gardens. and that was magic. They are such an amazing combination of old growth forest and cultured gardens. There were little surprises. These iris are so small, about half an inch.

There were little parches of these babies. Wild cyclamen grow in little patches on the grass and under trees. They are tiny, too. White and purple and pink.

Funky Chinese witch hazel trees are starting to bloom. I love them. I have no idea if these are blooms or left over fall stuff. I should have looked closer.

I've been learning lots about photo editing, too, and have discovered Actions. Which means I keep wrecking perfectly good photos with special effects. But really, what else do I have to do at 4:00am? I'm too tired then to even write an e-mail. My apologies to peple I owe e-mails to. I plan to catch up over the Easter weekend.

I could move right in. Front porch looking over the ocean, cove ceilings, original hardwood and all. The house wants me to. It called me. Isn't it seriously beauteous?

It was so springy there were even bumblebees everywhere. I'm a bit jaded when it comes to bumblebees. I spend lots of time at 4:00am on flickr and pictures of bees are a dime a dozen there.

See? Spring, spring and more spring. Katie goes every month to the gardens with her class for their Roots to Shoots program. Last month they dug up winter potatoes and a couple of months ago they learned how to stay safe in the forest. Something to do with hugging and kissing trees. Is that better than kissing my camera Penelope?

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Took this shot this afternoon. See that one tooth gap in front? It's now a two tooth gap. She definitely can't say "she sells seashells at the seashore".

Have a drink of green beer on me!

if i don't crack, I'll be back

I'd write something interesting but my rhodos are dying...

And I have to work extra hours to pay for bird food.

Oh, and I have to host book club, finish a whack of reports that are already past deadline, get Katie to gymnastics and Aidan to the doctor because he has an ear infection, visit with my sister and family who are arriving in a couple days (that's a good thing), take a macro photography course, get a pedicure with my sister, and plan for Easter. That's all before next Monday. Seriously. I'm glad Jamie is doing the rest of the stuff. I hope the Easter Bunny brings me something good. See you in a couple days. XX00

Spring is Sprung

Well~I couldn't be later, but here goes with my Spring photochallenge. After checking out tod, dilling and cindydianne, I feel a little like an underachiever, but hey, it's the best I could do with 5 minutes free time a day right now.

Blogger has been giving me some serious grief, too and won't let me move my photos around once they're up...grrr....

Spring means we get out into the yard, gardening, sidewalk painting, and hanging off the deck taking pictures of people gardening and sidewalk painting.

Snowdrops. Spring on the island first appears in the form of snowdrops. they pop up in ditches and under trees.

Anybody know what these are? Pretty pink somethings. It is so exciting to have colour to take pictures of. I was getting so tired of dead and grey. We don't get a lot of sparkly and white here in the winter.

Herring are running by the island. Lots of fishing boats and seiners lurking in wait. They haven't got here yet, any day, I would expect. The water turns frothy blue silver with the roe and there are birds and seals and sea lions. The run is always in the spring around this time.


The best and brightest blooms are outside city hall. I spent time before work crawling around looking for my favourite bulbs and blossoms. Nobody paid any attention to me. I wonder if they thought I was a homeless person just waking up?

A few houses down from mom's place is this tree. It is always the first to flower. You can see it's still chilly by the smoke from someones wood stove around it....

Pretty, huh? I love fruit blossoms, although I think this is ornamental.

Here come the crocuses. They are not to be resisted. It is the most colour I've seen in months. It was frosty. I find it strange that the frost doesn't seem to harm the petals.

The frost had melted into teeny tiny droplets on some. I didn't even see them until I processed the pictures. More crocuses to follow, what can I say about them?



They're springy.

March Randomness

I am working hard to meet a couple of deadlines this week, so here are a few of my favourite photos from the past couple of weeks...I should have things under control by Friday.....

Katie and a friend heading for the school to play at the playground. I played around a bit with Photoshop and made it a little arty...

Handstand girl....more Photoshop fiddling. I taught her everything she knows.

I took this for a monthly photo scavenger hunt I do on Flickr. Nanaimo Bars. Not good for the MBI, but sooo good. I think that if you eat Nanaimo Bars in Nanaimo, they should be calorie free.

More scavenger hunt. Closer to Easter you can look forward to a complete look at Katie's eggcup collection. I kid you not.
I took this guy's picture from the Horseshoe Bay ferry dock. I just love him, blurriness and all. He looks exactly how I feel this evening.

Randomness out. See you Friday for the spring photochallenge!