Malversation Monday

malversation ~ corruption in office; corrupt administration; misconduct

Well I don’t know about you, but I had a fun weekend. I got to go to Boo at the Zoo with the grandbaby and her parents. Admission was half price and kids wearing costumes got in free, so as you can imagine, it was pretty busy. The zoo was gussied up with Halloween decorations like these inflatable dragons near the front entrance.

Unfortunately, it was pretty cold (for October) and only got colder as the day went on. Some of the animals with outdoor enclosures chose to stay hidden inside. One of the first animals we saw were this momma and baby rhino:

The orangutans were one of the animals who were having their habitat revamped, but the grandbaby still got to pose with one outside:

The zoo has changed a lot since I last visited – I’m not even sure how long ago it was. The elephants were gone and a lot of the animals were in little buildings of their own. The giraffes we saw were inside, but at least they had a fitting backdrop for pictures:

We didn’t get to see a live hippo, but the grandbaby and her friend Griffy got to ride on one:

I was kind of disappointed that the tiger didn’t come close enough for a decent picture, but at least the lions knew how to strike a pose:

We were cold and tired and in my case a little foot sore by the time we were done, but I think I’m safe in saying a good time was had by all.

Winter's Coming . . .

Oops! I almost forgot I was supposed to post a picture today. In my defense, yesterday was crazy busy and it just slipped my mind (usually I pick out the photo on Thursday and schedule it to appear on Friday).

But the good news is, one of the reasons I was busy was that I attended my first photography class last night. At first glance the homework assignment seemed pretty simple, but it's really not. In fact, it's really hard. But I'm not going to tell you what it is until next week, when I post one of the six pictures I'm expected to produce.

In the meantime . . . I had to go back into the vault for this week's picture. I actually took it in April, but I think it could just as easily have been taken at the beginning of winter.

Multiflorous Monday

multiflorous ~ many-flowered

I thought the title of today’s post was rather apropos when paired with the above picture. :-)

These are the wildflowers that we planted in the spring for the bees. All summer long they looked like a weedy mess in our planters and suddenly, just a couple of weeks ago, they started blooming. It’s a nice splash of colour around the edge of the patio, but the patio furniture has all been put away for the winter.

The white ones have looked like that for the last several weeks, the blooms never fading. And now we have what look to be dark pink ones of the same flower starting to bloom in the planters along the other edge of the patio. Just. Starting. To. Bloom.

We’ve had several frost warnings and even a couple of bona fide frosts leaving their residue on rooftops, grass, and cars for the sun to burn off in the morning. What kind of flowers are these that they’re still blooming? I’ll have to be sure and collect the seeds from them for next year.

And isn’t it too cold for the bees? Maybe that’s why the blooms are still fresh. Of course without the bees to pollinate them, the blossoms won’t turn into seeds for next year. See why bees are so important?

In the meantime, the granbaby can enjoy picking them while they last.

Shades of Grey

At first glance, this is just a moth. But actually, it was a really, really big moth, and it was clinging to the door just outside my hotel when I was at Writersfest in Kingston a few weeks ago.

Believe it or not, this was a tricky picture to take. The door the moth was clinging to was an automatic sliding door, and every time I got close enough to get my shot, the door would slide open. I ended up using the action setting on my camera and just hoped for the best. LOL

Mellisonant Monday

mellisonant ~ sweet-sounding

Happy Thanksgiving fellow Canadians! And to all my friends south of the lake, Happy Columbus Day!

Like a lot of people, we do our big dinner on Sunday, rather than the Monday. It’s usually our family dinner day anyway, and it’s just easier. Plus who wants to have to get on with their lives in a turkey coma? This way we have Monday to recuperate.

While most people would post a picture of their beautiful table right before everyone digs in, I never seem to have the time to stop working in the kitchen for that. So I’m going a different way. I’m showing you what it looks like after dinner’s over and the table’s been cleared:

Looks like we’ll be eating turkey for a while. In retrospect, I think a 15 pound turkey for 5 people was a little much. LOL

And yes, the grandbaby counts as a full person this year. You should have seen that kid pack away the mashed potatoes and gravy! And she still had room for pie. But then there’s always room for pumpkin pie.

This year the glazed carrots came from my own garden, as did the green beans for the green bean casserole. Made it kind of extra special for me.

Now I’m off to stuff the daughter’s turkey (she won’t touch raw meat, even with gloves LOL). She’s having a “friendsgiving” dinner tonight – she provides the turkey and her friends bring the sides.

I think in a world where tradition often gets lost by the wayside, this is one of the best.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

Gateway

Despite the fact that we've been having some beautiful weather lately, I've been too busy doing other things to get out and take any pictures. So I'm going to have to go with an older one for this week.

This is one of the pictures I took at the west beach a few weeks ago. This is the entrance to the yacht basin, framed by the trees on the shore - a gateway to the world beyond, and the welcome home on the journey's end.

Multiloculate Monday

multiloculate ~ many-chambered

The daughter had a conference last week, so I got to spend some extra time with the grandbaby. It was kind of nice because we’ve missed her a bit since she started school full time, and it turns out she’s missed us too.

My parents died when I was fairly young, so my daughter never knew them. I’d like to think she’d have been as close to them as we are to our grandbaby. For sure my dad would have had fun building her things, just like the hubby does for the grandbaby.

Take his latest construction project – the grandbaby wanted a tree fort, so he built her one. And of course she was in on it from the very beginning. First, they had to pick just the right spot:

Then the grandbaby supervised while Grappy got the supports in place:

Of course even supervising is hard work, and when you work hard you need a break once in awhile:

But then apparently Grappy was working too slow, so the grandbaby had to pitch in and help:

Finally, for all intents and purposes, it was done. The grandbaby even got to pick out the colour it was painted. All that’s lacking in the picture is the roof, which went up later that week.

Looks to me like a job well done.

Writersfest

Sadly, I didn't get as many opportunities to take pictures when I was in Kingston on the weekend as I would have liked. Of course I never thought of it late Friday afternoon when I got there, and Saturday it rained most of the day. However, I did managed a few shots on Sunday.

This picture was the view from my hotel window. The room itself was awesome, the view was just icing on the cake.