Ken and I went down to Southern Alberta, to kayak the Milk River. We stayed the Friday night in a tent (!) at Writing on Stone Provincial Park. In the morning we got up and headed to Coffin Bridge, where we "put in". We floating to Weir Bridge with a lunch stop at Poverty Rock. Great trip. The water was more technical then I expected; given that I did not expect technical water - it was a bit of a shock. We didn't go in - but boy - we got soaked - you wouldn't know the difference. One of the best little surprises, was being taken to see some early Blackfoot people petroglyphes on the rocks. These are outside of the park - and without going with someone who knows where they are - you would never see them. This is a deer, which has been killed - the arrow can be seen in the deer's heart. My favorite picture of the weekend - is sage in bloom - but I thought I might spice up my blog - by foregoing yet another flower picture.
And while I take pictures in Victoria, and I am more than technically capable of blogging from Victoria - it didn't/doesn't happen. I am back. I am tired. And I go to Victoria - again on Tuesday.
For future reference, these are the flowers in Celeste's front yard - name to be determined at a later date. Since Thursday - dinner in Olds until today - it has been non-stop. A great day in Olds, followed by a day setting up the garage sale, followed by the garage sale, and today - catching up to fly to Victoria - barely time to catch my breath.
Today, I ran by myself, trying to catch up on some miles, because I was light training last week. I ran my route through the university, x Crowchild, down 24th - instead of turning at 19th St - all the way to 14th - start heading back - sure that I have run close to 10k - chart it out on google earth - 7.53km - Ugh! (Well on the positive side - all the way 5 and 1 - and a lot of sweat!)
Celeste and I ran into this good looking mallard, as we ran east from Eau Claire heading towards the zoo - on our optional Tuesday run - 6 kms - nbd!
This is Ken's boathouse - at end of day 3 of construction. We spent last weekend, in the rain - working for one day. This weekend, there were 6 of us, and it was sunny and hot. Currently the boathouse is looking exactly like the plan. Looking forward to seeing the finished result.
I walked into the bathroom and caught the cat sitting on the scale. As soon as I grabbed my camera, she did walk towards me, and I did have to coax her back on the scale - for the shot. She is strategically covering up the fact that we think she weighs in the neighborhood of 14 pounds. One of the ladies in my bookclub pointed out her weight, and when I tried to duck any responsiblity for the sloth-y-ness of my pet - she kindly reminded me - that I am the one feeding the cat!
Yesterday, I came flying out of the garage, and straight into my friend the local rabbit, who has taken up residence in my vegetable garden. Apparently, this year, is going to be a bad year for gardens with an aggressive bunny population staking claim, early in the season. And talk about bold - this specimen, just ignored me, whilst I grabbed my camera and took multiple photos. In actuality, this is probably not a bunny, but a hare. And, it is either a snowshoe hare or a white-tailed jackrabbit. Apparently white-tailed jackrabbits are keen on the local university, and given my proximity to the university, I am going to go ahead and say - pesky white-tailed jackrabbit varmint.
Nazar boncugu - the evil eye - from turkey. A gift from one of my ESL students! Love the evil eye symbol! Interested in more information:
Celeste and I ran at lunch - well it was 1:00pm - the regular route. It looked a little ominous - as we headed out there were some geniune raindrops; yet we made it through the whole route and had forgotten all about the threat of rain, until I was driving home and we had a hailstorm! Here is Sven surfing the storm on 16th Ave!
Celeste and I ran today - the regular route - through Crescent Heights. We ran past a house with a great yard and the sprinklers on, and a flicker having a bath. He took off before I even had my camera out of my pocket. We ran on to the almost half way point, and there was another (the same?) flicker trying to get some food from the grass. There was enough time to get a decent photo while Celeste held off the rest of the walkers/runners from scaring the little guy and ruining the shot.
Every night this week, there has been a frost warning - not for Calgary - but for the surrounding area - how crazy is that - in June. So, for the first time ever, I started some of my seeds - in these little peat pots. And I have from right to left: Labrador beans - 2 rows, zucchini's - 1 row, pickling cucumbers - 2 rows, and ornamental pumpkins - 1 row. The biggest plant so far - is one pumpkin plant. The second runner up - is one massive bean plant. These need to be planted before the weekend - so here's hoping they survive - both until they get planted in the real garden - and once they are there!
The Tervis Tumbler bag continues to provide significant pleasure to Samantha. Makes you wonder about all the money you pay out in toys for cats/pets/children.
I have many things to say today. Like, yesterday, I forgot to post - and yesterday was a monumental day - in that I ran 9.18 km - yup - nbd. I think I immediately came home and lay on the couch and had a big sleep - but I did indeed run it - no stopping - no whining - no - I'll just walk this little bit here - and go back to running. (As I was focused on the running thing - no pictures were taken - even though their was picture worthy graffitti on one power pole that I ran past - twice). The second thing I want to say is that I did not take this picture today. I get all "tense" with myself, if the picture doesn't happen on the day - because as I work with this - this is about celebrating the small things - in any given day - that I can celebrate - and this picture was actually taken on Saturday. Now, about the irises - they bring me joy - each year, when they bloom. First, of course irises bring joy - look at them - what is not to love? The joy with these particular irises - is their color - they are purple. I bought these irises, by their name, with the expectation that they would be red - like the color of my house - red - not purple - clashing with the color of my house. Their name - "Berry Red Bearded Iris" and if you could see the picture - from when I bought them - RED! Yet, when they bloomed - PURPLE - I loved them - I loved that they were messed up - by me, by the greenhouse - whatever. These blooms peaked out on Friday - and were in full bloom Saturday - and it was crazy beautiful warm on Saturday and Sunday and so - they have bloomed - and been magnificent - on a very quick timetable - which is so fleeting - that it sometimes make me wonder about blooms - yet, I did smile - at the purpleness of it.