Frolicking Birds and a Fence

I was lucky to catch a male Mallard Duck flapping its wings in the water.

The detail and the colouring on the feathers is simply amazing and beautiful.

Not to be outdone by the ducks, the Canada geese were making their presence known.

Joining in with

 Eileen at Saturday's Critters
 Anni at  I'd-Rather-B-Birdin
and
Judith at Lavender Cottage come the last Monday of May.

Thank you to each of them for hosting these fun memes.
Thanks for stopping by!

On the Road Again

On the road again
Just can't wait to get on the road again
The life I love is making music with my friends

And I can't wait to get on the road again

"On the Road Again" by Willie Nelson

Another whirl wind trip has been completed.
I got home very late on Wednesday and was quite tired but had some missions business to attend to in Kenya.

That done, I tried to do a number of things: call my mom to let her know I arrived safely home, partially knit a new dishcloth, view & cull  trip photos and prepare this post.
I thought it would be nice to share a lot more photos this time of the road trip especially since the weather was quite variable throughout.


I'm not sure what happened but it took several tries before the mosaics were successfully saved.

Starting out in Vancouver it was raining. I didn't start taking photos until almost in Chilliwack. Here is a map just to help situate you if you are not so familiar with the Province of British Columbia.

 A map is always nice to situate oneself. We travelled from Vancouver through Burnaby, Surrey, Chilliwack, Hope, Merritt and Kamloops (Merritt is located just south of where it says Logan Lake).
Clicking on the collages/mosaics will enlarge them a bit.

Highway & weather between Vancouver and Hope

The weather conditions in both directions was much the same each way; raining in the Lower Mainland and 

scattered cloud in the Interior. 

The gusts of wind were quite chilly. Most definitely not like the past few months.

Highway and weather between Merritt and Kamloops

A small group of 5 enjoyed a combination of Chinese cuisine topped off with sodas and white cake as per my mother's favourite cake. It was all quite the starch overload today. 

I compensated by having water and a chicken Caesar Salad for dinner as well as the requisite road beverage, coffee!

The tops, skirt and care package here were all gratefully received but the telephone has to be exchanged since the new set didn't have clips to attach to clothing.

As always I managed to tidy the dresser drawers and closet, cull the clothing and put away all food snacks.
It is always a quick journey requiring days of preparation to make sure everything is done just right.
This trip went very smoothly and enjoyably.

I hope your week is going well.

Skywatch Friday

and
Mosaic Monday

Beauty of Birds

"Use those talents you have. You will make it. You will give joy to the world. Take this tip from nature: The woods would be a very silent place if no birds sang except those who sang best."

Bernard Meltzer

*You can click all photos to enlarge for better viewing.*

Beautiful macaws

Beautiful orchids & a finch. Can you spot it?

Beautiful little finches

Joining in with Saturday's Critters.

Thank you to Eileen for hosting this meme.
I'll also be linking up
Judith for Mosaic Monday.

Thanks for stopping by.
Have a great weekend!

Humility in Yellow

I haven't taken any macro shots for a long time. I thought I better practice once more but it was a bit windy and I had no tripod. I got a few decent shots anyway.
(click on the photo for a slightly larger image).

I'm interested in the humble, happy dandelion right now because I'm drinking Dandelion Root Tea for it's medicinal properties. I'm not sure it will agree with me for the longer term as I seem to be having a few reactions but it is always good to try something new.

I thought the tea might help with my blood sugar levels but it is giving me stomachache and heartburn.

If you drink this tea please let me know what you've experienced.

If you missed my post about Baby Fidelis yesterday, please read and share the post widely. You can find it here 

 http://www.snapthatpenny.blogspot.ca/2015/04/saving-angel-fidelis.html

The more people who know of the baby's situation, the more people who can help. Thank you so much for your help!

Joining in with Macro Monday 2,  Nature Notes,   i heart macro and Mosaic Monday this week.

 

 

Pink Eye Candy

Each year I look forward to trees blossoming in the Spring.

 

However, the last two years we have had very strange weather. 

It makes it very difficult to get many good photos. 

These particular trees on a busy city street don't seem well cared for at all. 

I have never see anyone from the City of Vancouver pruning them, or otherwise looking after them. 

Nonetheless their happy and generous pink blossoms give me a lot of pleasure.

 Especially when I can take photos and view them again and again.

Such precious gifts  I get every year for free and I look forward with anticipation to the time when they will arrive.

I feel so blessed to be the recipient of these glorious gifts that are given so freely.

All I have to do is be outside to savour their beauty.

  I can enjoy them in the rain too.

But to share them with you, I like to photograph them on a sunny day.

 

 Today I'm sharing these blossoms at Our World Tuesday
and Mosaic Monday.

 

Have a wonderful Easter Monday and thanks for stopping by.

Fleeting Tree Blossoms

Hi friends,

We had a reasonably good winter with hardly any snow and the rainfall seemed less than normal too.

But now it is Spring and I'd like to get in the garden. 

However it has been raining cats and dogs!

How is the weather where you live?

 Manure and topsoil was purchased and bit of potting soil for the container plants. I also purchased some pansies to plant and a new patio umbrella stands at the ready but none of it has been used yet.

 

I hope the rains will stop soon though I don't complain too loudly. 

On the few nice days we've had without rain, I hardly had an opportunity to get out to take photos of the tree blossoms.  I hurriedly snapped a few once or twice while out running errands and happened to have my camera along.

I have so few photos of the tree blossoms compared to previous years.  The blossoms came out very early this year but with all the rain falling it hasn't been the best time to take photos and I was busy on the few really nice days we've had.

I am glad that I did manage to capture a few tree blossoms late last week on different errands around the city.

If I had more time I would go to another neighbourhood or two and capture some blossoms where I know they have lovely trees.  But time is limited right now and because a lot of the blossoms started early, many of them are already gone though a few new ones are coming out. Such a strange season this year. Or should I say, stranger than usual as  the weather has been getting unusual all around the globe for some years now.

I hope you are all enjoying good weather wherever you live. 

It looks like a movie was being shot on this street in the eastern part of town. I love the old building!

I have also been enjoying my new pressure cooker. So far I've made vegetable soup and now I've made some navy bean soup. It was sure thrilling to wait for only half an hour to have fully cooked (and softened) navy bean and vegetable soup! This sure beats the overnight soak or 1 hour quick soak method. First I put the navy beans in the pot just covered with water. I let those cook for about 15 minutes before I added a colourful array of veggies. In this case I purchased a bag of cleaned mixed veggies from the produce market. You know the kind they clean because they don't want to throw it away? I purchased one large bag and used about 1/3 of it. I chopped the veggies more finely in my food processor.  I didn't mince them too finely just gave them a coarse chop and put them in with the beans along with some herbs. Another 15 minutes and the soup was great. Next time I make soup it will likely be vegetables and some meat. If you like Italian food I think the pressure cooker would be ideal for making chicken cacciatore.  Well I'm off to enjoy some navy bean soup right now for a spot of late lunch.

This photo was taken right downtown at Hastings & Granville.

I will be joining up with Mosaic Monday & Our World Tuesday this week.
Our World is a very fun meme which I've participated in for years already. How time flies!
Mosaic Monday is a new to me meme, hosted by my neighbour in the far east of Canada.

Enjoy your week!

Anticipation

 

Anticipating the warmer temperatures ahead and beautiful gardens.

Linking up with Mosaic Monday
Today's Flowers
I Heart Macro 
Roses of Inspiration
and Our World Tuesday.