the actuals

I especially love these first 2 photos of the 15 posted here from yesterdays joy filled "actuals"

you have the shoulds and then there are the wants but for most of us compulsive, anal, list making, over achieving wanna-be's ... you nearly always end up with a bunch of actuals or Hey ! there's a Prince in my backyard, transforming the overgrown jungle into a parkesque like setting. Oh my ! cheer the red winged blackbirds & Hooray !! from the chattering grackels plus lots and lots more. Snip, clip, dig, plant, walk, smile, cook ... and all those darn books waiting patiently
til bedtime. That c-r-a-z-y, zany gal spontaneity grabbed hold of me yesterday, early on, and she wouldn't let go. A sunny much warmer, blue sky day spent without the expected shoulds or the wants but instead happily hanging out with a bunch of, just dropped in to say Hi ! ... actuals.

And thank you John for this happiness ... and speaking of dogs with smiles please look here

* bottom photo orange pineapple chicken (adapted from here & here) with tumeric basmati rice

shoulds & wants

a few more blooms from our terracotta gardens

Goodness, 10:00 am already. I'm late ... I'm late.

Shoulds & Wants
subtitled - Far Too Many Great Books

Missy D and I had our lovely long walk up a few streets, cutting through the elementary school playground, down a street, up a street, down a very big grassy hill that edges a marsh filled with red winged blackbirds awake early, busy and singing madly. Down onto the crescent beach with soaring, floating gulls and whitecaps, climbing up a few rocks, and another favourite grassy hill to cross, then around the dining hall and into the park and along the boardwalk back toward Black Street. Miss D knows the route by heart, and trots along practically at a run at the very farthest length of her retractable lead - without ever pulling, she has very good manners my Missy D. I have to almost run to keep up with her - hooray Winnie Dixon !

Bird feeders filled, breakfast made for D & for me - soft boiled eggs, wheat toast & a clementine.
Now, if I had it my way I would finish this post and spend my day whiling away tucked under the covers in the chocolate brown room, with my recent fantastic pile of books from the library, deciding in what order they should be read. Three novels the stories all set on islands (one of which I'm almost finished), a memoir or 2 about living with Autism, 3 books about composting, a great book on spending & living with much less, 2 other new novels, Dorie Greenspan's new big, fat, wonderful cookbook (borrowed from my library a second time), a book on green living & a new favourite Peterson's guide to the Atlantic Seashore - sigh (a book I must have my own copy of). A big pot of tea, a cat or 2 or 3, a down duvet ...

I won't bore you with my nasty shoulds list. We all have them, they're endless, often uninspiring, chore-like to dos & must dos. Yawning. Days like today I try my best to cut a deal with myself. Go mad, as mad as mad can be (sadly my mad as can be in this department is barely mad at all) with a few shoulds, say til 1:30-2pm & then Bonjour ! bring on those lovely wants.


common red seaweeds, mostly Northern - Plate 7 - Field Guide to the Atlantic Seashore

soaring

oh my geranium - lit by the gorgeous golden light of the setting sun - how I do love you

Understanding that heavy things can't fly,
she let go of what was weighing on her heart,
the things she could no more control than carry,
and she gave herself a chance...

a chance to reach into the unassuming blue,
to embrace the possibility of an open sky,
and with an open heart.
She gave herself a chance to soar.

Jodi Hills - An Imperfect Life

Soaring. Letting go of my own heavy heart, releasing my cramped grip on another life ...
a life rushing away from me now, a life that seems but a speck on the horizon.
Letting go, can be such a plodding slow process at times ... you barely feel it happening.

But I am letting go. Moment by moment. I can feel it. Thank goodness.
And I'm making room for lots more good things.






and Malay Eagle Owl - Kitty - oh my such sweetness

a grand plan

a beautiful map of the Maritime provinces the star indicates where we live now

excited !!

excited ? - far too small a definition to explain this feeling.

We're planning a road trip to an island in the Bay of Fundy. A 3 day excursion scouting out a potential new tiny life location. We're building our intinerary currently which will include visits to the local library, hardware store, grocery store etc. Grand Manan Island is a big rock in the middle of the ocean, part of an archipelago of other various sized rock islands, and is most famous for whale watching, sea birds, dulse harvesting and odd reclusive artists types and does sound very much our cup of salty tea. So ... we're off soon to check it out. Me, the Prince, Handsome Handsome and my girl Winnie Dixon. Mr. Bossy Pants - Oliver plans to host a cat boot camp with Bleet & Virgil in our absence (Bleet & Virg are begging to come with us).


check out some of the amazing place names like Whale Hole in the Wall - sighing ;-)




hopefully our ferry trip will be a little smoother than this one - yikes !! - doggie life jackets √

smiles & gratitude

handsome, handsome (Sam) + Missy D (Winnie Dixon) + 1 Prince OATG* + me + a hayfield

+ waves of rippling gold
+ a sky as blue can be
+ a red & muddy just plowed field
+ field mice to hunt
+ scrunching grass to roll in
+ too many enticing scents
+ a tree line of spruce & birch
+ racing clouds, puffs of white
+ ravens & crows soaring
+ plenty of smiles & much gratitude

* of All Things Good

listen here fields of gold by Eva Cassidy - thanks Chez Caesar

bloomin'

always the first to bloom at Black Street tiny vivid pink beauties, gorgeously fragrant - Daphne

Courage is a resistance to fear, a mastery of fear
not an absence of fear

Mark Twain

Oh my, Fear - you do get on my nerves. I'm getting much better at fighting with fear - and winning - but some of our tiresome squabbles go on for days & days. Fear loves me ... and I guess I have to admit I kind of like her too, she & I have been together such a very long time.

And this masterful pop song has me bouncin & a boppin' in my spinny office chair - tres catchy !

sowin'

I love starting seeds inside + sowing things like peas & sweet peas in the ground early

some things I've been sowin'
many tucked snug in little pots in our sunny sun porch windows

hollyhock
cosmos
morning glory
butterfly mix
wildflower mix
sweet peas
peas
zinnias
a peach pit (I've been drying it for ages - an experiment)
various poppy seeds (madly strewn about hopefully)

also & of course !! a big pot of kitten grass ;-)



Oliver tending his crop in our sunny office window

gotta thing for ...

Lately ... I've gotta thing for portraits. Amazing & tres inspiring.

1. portrait - be happy now - 2. harmonies - maison paulette - 3. scotia - be happy now
4. lovely - tastes orangey - 5. lillian - tush tush - 6. nature boy - lizzy stewart

Hey !! watch out big sunny Saturday !

sweet solitude + grace

Les Gang enjoying a nearby beach, we're finding more places to walk in our sweet solitude

I'm becoming more and more myself with time.
I guess that's what grace is.
The refinement of your soul through time.

Jewel

My darn soul has been doin' some high speed refinement of late. So many things just seem to be falling into place. Falling into places, that especially with hindsight, make such perfect sense.