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.

Molybdosis Monday

molybdosis ~ lead poisoning

I’m going to warn you up front that this is going to be a short post. Normally I write this, or at least start to write this, on the weekend, but I was away this weekend at the Kingston Writersfest. If you want to hear more about it, you’ll have to wait until tomorrow and then check out the post on my writing blog.

I will tell you one story about it though, the saga of my mouse. Mouse, as computer mouse.

After settling in at the hotel I unpacked my lap top, plugged it in, and could not find the mouse. Apparently it was sitting on the hassock at home, where I left it.

Fortunately, Google promised that there was a Staples near the hotel, and there was just enough time to get there before it closed. I chose a cheap, pretty blue mouse (and a mouse pad, and a mechanical pencil, and some screen cleaner – I can’t be trusted in an office supply store) and went back to the hotel.

I unpacked my pretty blue mouse and plugged it into the computer and . . . nothing. It didn’t work. And Staples was closed. And I had Writersfest stuff all day the next day. To say I was not a happy camper was an understatement.

The following day, after the Writersfest stuff, I Googled the directions again and . . . that whole section of Kingston was red. It had been blocked off for some Princess Promenade stuff and there were barricades all over the route I needed to take.

Desperate for a mouse, I walked. It was drizzling out and I was in such a rush I forgot the defective mouse in the hotel room. Once again I got to Staples just before closing. I may have been a tad cranky with the sales people when I insisted they try out the new mouse before I paid for it to make sure it worked. I was frustrated, wet, and my feet hurt – I’m sure they thought I was nuts. But I did manage to get a working mouse.

Now all I have to do is return the old one to our local Staples.

Toddler Gobblers

Everyone knows kids love to put things in their mouths, especially things they find outside. With all the damp weather we've had the last several years there's been a proliferation of fungus growth to be found in lawns and gardens. The son-in-law came up with a unique idea to keep the grandbaby away from them - he called them "toddler gobblers" and told her they'd eat her up if she got too close. LOL

Despite the weather being a little on the cool side off and on, it's still been rather damp and we had a crop of mushroom spring up on the front lawn. Despite the fact they were growing in a semi circle, they did not invoke the sense of a fairy ring in me. These particular mushrooms look more like a ring to repel magic rather than draw it in. Still, I couldn't resist taking a picture of some of them.