Where the River Meets the Sea

If you read between the lines, you can see that the weather was not very promising today. Nevertheless, I decided to get out for some fresh (and moist) air. I packed up my camera and drove out to “where the river meets the sea.” I was met by a slight fish pongy smell and the cries of many birds and a snort or two! Perfect :)

Various Views

This was the view from the bottom of my street yesterday when I was out for a little walk ~ snow on the mountain in the distance and interesting cloud formations!



This morning on the way to work, the sun was just coming up, lending a golden glow to the start of my day...



On my way home today, the sun was highlighting the remaining leaves on the tree of autumn colours :)



Tonight is a clear cold one with bright twinkly stars ~ I wonder what the weather will highlight tomorrow??

Moody Blues

First for the Moody part ~ photos from during the week which I quite liked.






Before we raked the leaves, we found faces like this peering through the litterfall ~ There were many other fungi but this one was particularly grotesque looking...in a cute sort of way.



And here come the Blues, Stellar Blue Jays, that is ~ Today I saw these two out of the window and quickly grabbed my camera ...



I needed to get a better viewpoint without distracting them, so I ran upstairs and tried to get a clearer shot ~ That's more like it!



And here is one of them in the cherry tree! See the buds already :)





Yes, this was a much better viewpoint ~ and what else did I see at the bottom of the garden doing a little bird watching ~

November Moon

Today was glorious! Bright blue skies, strong seas, and a full moon to top it off! Here are some photos of the day and evening.

The branches still hold colour:


So invigorating!




Eagles overhead ~


The full moon reflects ~

Ten Bags Full!

This past weekend was full of unexpected excursions and visitors. Whenever I seemed to want to relax, read, or blog, something would occur that would intervene with my plans! In retrospect, I enjoyed myself and being flexible and grateful for what does come my way is important!

Today, Remembrance Day, is marked by a national holiday here in Canada. Last week at school, we held a wonderful assembly where the choir sang songs of peace, a grandparent shared poems received during the war from her father, and representatives from the Royal Canadian Legion and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police were in attendance.

Having a holiday on a Tuesday is unusual and will probably throw me for a loop for the rest of the week. I had three things on my "must do" list today:

• Assist my son in replacing a headlight on his car. They can be beastly things (headlights, not sons) to remove and replace.
  
• Replace the toilet that leaked in the laundry room.
  
• Rake up the leaves on the front lawn. I thought this was an optimum time since my son was also home :)
  
  The headlight was a snap! Luckily there were only two screws to remove in order to get the old one out, so we were done in about 10 minutes!
  
  The toilet proved even snappier! I cautiously turned on the water tap to see where the toilet was leaking, and nothing dripped...so I looked into the tank and realized that the little spurty hose had become dislodged and was spraying water out rather than in! Once I had repositioned the little devil where he belonged, all worked like a charm.
  
  Now, on to the leaves. It took the two of us about two hours to rake up and bag the leaves. Recently, my neighbour, equipped with proper ear protection, has been walking around with a leaf blower and for the past two weekends I have been gritting my teeth whenever I heard the drone of this gas powered machine (the leaf blower;). However, the other morning when I went outside, I noticed that my sidewalk and driveway were completely cleared! Hmmmm...just goes to show you! Today, as we were bagging all of these leaves, the same neighbour happened by, and I thanked him for clearing the sidewalk and driveway. He said that since he had it on, he thought he'd be helpful. He then offered to take our bags of leaves away in his truck along with his own as he takes his to a farm. So from now on when I hear a drone of a lawnmower or leaf blower, I will smile, and either put on some music...or put in ear plugs...and be grateful :)
  
  After a well deserved bowl of hearty soup and some homemade biscuits, the rest of the day was ours to enjoy at our leisure :)
  
  
  

Birthday Bouquet update

I brought the flowers home for the weekend ~ still looking lovely ~



Just thought I'd share the beautiful bouquet that was adorning my desk when I arrived at work on Monday!

A breath of sea air

Today, I drove to the hardware store, and took the opportunity to stop on the way back at the beach for a breath of sea air. It was a bit cloudy and windy, but quite invigorating and just what I needed to blow the Halloween cobwebs away!



Some remnants high and dry left over from a warmer day ~



A bit of a break in the clouds ~



Can you spot the eagle in this next shot?



I notice this gorgeous tree each year as it changes colour so gradually that every shade of autumn is on show.



A closer view:



When I got home, there were gusts of wind sending leaves flying everywhere...check out the cherry tree in the back garden ~



I really enjoyed the weekend ~ starting with Halloween, then my birthday, and a nice relaxing Sunday :)

A New Month

Here we are at the beginning of a new month ~ November 1, my birthday. Thank you Flighty for giving me such a lovely surprise post, and for the delightful birthday wishes from my Blog Friends...:) I had a lovely day with many phone calls from family and friends. There turned out to be nine of us gathered for my birthday dinner treat ~ great way to start off a new birthday year. This is also the night we turn the clocks back one hour, so a little bit of extra birthday time :) LOL

Here is a glimpse of the ins and outs as I awaited the Halloween goblins ~











In England where I was born, we did not celebrate Halloween, but I do remember the bonfires and fireworks on Guy Fawkes Day each November 5. When I arrived in Canada, I was quite delighted to find out that my brother and I could wander the streets the night before my birthday and collect a bag of treats...We called out "Halloween Apples" rather than "Trick or Treat" in those days, although we really preferred the candies to the apples! My mum always baked an apple pie or two with the apples as an extra birthday treat. I must say that the goblins who came to our door last night were very polite and happy little souls. It was a treat to see and talk with them :)

I am looking forward to Flighty's daily postings on his Looking Skyward blog ~ he's already taken off with his first post of the month!