White Christmas

Historically, there is a one in three chance that Nanaimo will have a white Christmas.  This is according to Bruce who is quoting a weather source somewhere.  He's much more weather dependant (and weather interested) than I, so I'll just call him an "expert source."  I can count on him, any time of day, to know what's going to happen with the weather today, in two hours, tomorrow or for the next 10 days.  Yup, he's that kind of interested.  I realize that weather is almost a uniquely Canadian chat topic since I chat with a lot of people from all over the world.  We love the stuff; be it rain, snow or sunshine.  Any chit chat starts with talk about it, as well as the quality and quantity.

That being said, December has seen the rain come down steadily, sometimes sideways.  We've had a few days of rare "Alberta sunshine" so bright that you forget Albertans travel with sunglasses even in winter.  The really unusual weather for us here has been the snow .. so I took pictures.  After all, its only fair that if I laugh at you poor folks cocooned in your homes at -30° (like Grande Prairie is today) .. you get to see what its like when the shoe is on the other foot.  Not that its -30° or even the -20° of Calgary.  It's a darned chilly 1°.  Yea, I know .. poor princess.  ::snicker::

Here's my photo lineup for the day.

I love wreaths.  My pal Bev and I enchanced one with a garland of sparkly
bits and a cheery red bow.

I'm surprised the birds don't like these berries.

Looking out my front room window onto Georgia Strait

Someday, you might see this on a Christmas card.  I love how it turned out.

These two are the same photograph, with different post-production treatments. The first reads as very cold and wintry, albeit pretty; while the second, more saturated photo almost looks like a magical fairyland..  That poor greenery on the left is my normally upright bamboo.

A 1960s color treatment created a surreal feel to this photo.

I hope today finds you in a cheery Christmas sweater, with enough rum n eggnog to not care about the pictures they'll circulate of you .. I hope you're surrounded by friends or family (maybe both) and have enough board games or puzzles or genial atmosphere to keep you entertained all day.   And I hope your Christmas dinner has at least one spectacular dish.  

Also .. get in a Christmas nap if you can; they're good for your soul.  That's where I'm going now.  ::big hug::

Seasonal decorations

My chiroptractor's office decorations .. well done, don't you think?

Heavy day in traffic

This time of year brings out Christmas mayhem in traffic.  All of a sudden, mall parking lots are full on Tuesday afternoons and just negotiating the parking lot at the grocery store can be tricky.  (Which says nothing about negotiating around blue-haired ladies who forget their carts in the middle of the grocery aisles .. which may or may not be one of my hot buttons .. and which may or may not be the subject of my own brand of in-depth journalism one day.  lol. snerk)  

Anyway, a raft of seagulls and a lonely crow decided to squabble over a loaf of bread someone had dropepd, and it was creating backed up traffic at the store as people tried to drive through the milling birds without actually either hurting them or the bread.  Hey, everyone's got a right to eat, no?

I know its not Calgary traffic, but it tied me up for five minutes and in Nanaimo, that's gridlock!

You've got to be shitting me.

Years!  Not one or two.  Not even three of four.  I've tried to grow freesia well over half a dozen times, probably edging closer to the ten mark.

The result .. a big fat nothing.  I fail at freesia, apparently.  I'm not sure what it is because they're supposed to be zone friendly for Calgary or Nanaimo.

This summer I even took a picture of the empty flower bed with its little popsicle stick markers looking so much like Boot Hill tombstones.  We've actually taken to referring to that area in the flowerbeds as Boot Hill.

So it was surprising to walk by the beds the other day and see this ....

Perhaps all I needed to give it, instead of love and encouragement, water and fertilizer, was the cold shoulder.  It hasn't flowered yet, so I may still be zero for ten.  If it does flower, I'll definitely be taking pictures of the triumph.

I'm not holding my breath.  I'm giving it the cold sholder now.

It's been a while ...

Before I pelted through our yellow front door yesterday to jump into my car, I'd scrounged through a batch of boxes marked "office" that are in the storage room and had managed to dig up my set of pencils.  The grade school lime green case makes me smile when I see it because I know the friends that are waiting inside.  I briefly searched for my coloured pencils, but gave that up because I was a bit late, having forgotten the date I'd set.  Thank you, my husband who often reminds me of things I can remember quite well on my own, thank you very much anyway.  In this case, however, it was a good thing he did.  I was having one of those "I know I'm supposed to be somewhere" days, but thought it was for my workout that was getting pushed back farther into the day as I sat at my computer and got lost in time, as I often do.

Cécile and I sat down at her big teak dining room table where we'd planned to spend the afternoon drawing a still life. She set up a beautiful stargazer lily and then wandered off into her artroom, coming back with treasure after treasure in the form of art media.  I settled down with a cup of herbal tea and my pencils, but before the first half hour was out, my fingers were covered with pink chalk.

Four hours later, the result was this piece of work.  As it goes, its got a batch of faults, but I'm happy to have my hand back and having produced a semi-respectable piece.  As a starter piece to remembering my art, its acceptable and I'm happy.