Mother's Day 2014 Mom's Book

Well, it was a journey, a project, and a pleasure treasure to do. It started as an idea in November and came together Friday night May 9 when I presented Mom with her very own "Quilt Show".  

 

She couldn't quite believe her eyes as she opened her special Mother's Day surprise.

I think the "Mission Impossible" turned into "Mission Accomplished" - but only with the help of everybody involved...

Ange was tickled as much as Mom was and wasn't about to give up her perch as Mom made her way through her book ...

... and it'll be the topic of conversation for awhile - at least until everyone gets to see it for the first time...

Once again - it was a great idea, brought together with a lot of team work - all for a really good cause... and thanks to all who contributed - hope your piece of the family history is satisfying for you ...

Our kiddies on Mother's Day

Terr's reading to Eloise...

 

AJ loves to have Grampie "fly" her around the house... Who wouldn't... Not much longer though.

 I could just eat this little one up !!! She's "in the zone when it comes to Dorah...

Holden's showing off his brand new teeth ...

Here's Eloise and Holden in their grinning contest...

Swapping whispers about us !!!

 



 

Hey - time to chow down !!! Visiting is hungry work...

Then it's time for some Dorah and some entertainment.

 Eloise loves to have her feet rubbed ...

 

... and Grammie would have had all four if Holden wasn't snoozing !!!

 

We had a tremendous Mother's Day weekend visiting Mom in New Minas, Ruby in Annapolis and with our family at Sarah and Chad's in Morristown. Home at a decent hour and we're good to go ...

Various Spring like Things ... well maybe ...

Here are some flowers from other years. We take these fragile masterpieces for  granted at times, and yet they are only fleeting. We grew fabulous Black Eyed Susans at our last house and can't seem to get them to grow here... for some undiscovered yet secret... We'll try again this year - hoping for the right batch of seeds to come our way so we don't lose them totally...

 

 These are my favourite Forget-Me-Nots. The daintiness under extreme conditions are an amazing characteristic...

And of course this time each year the tulips come for a too-short period. These are our neighbours next door...

 

 

 Even some black ones - who'd a figgered you can create these things???

 

 

 

... and then there's my darling wife's favourites - the daisies. We have a nice supply of these and they are also amazing. In a breeze the petals shudder like a shiver back and forth - very difficult to shoot them at this time...

 

 

Not many pictures being taken right now, as I complete my latest WAR with gout. First time in my knee so we were a little late in figuring out what it was. But after some medication adjustment and lots of rest my annual bout seems to be subsiding and the return to normal is imminent...

Everyone is starting to make their nests and ...

After the rain yesterday Terr was gazing out the back window when she quietly beckoned me over to have a gander ... but you have to be quiet and not scare him...

 

 

Here was little squirrely doing his little routine... First he'd check out to see if any other squirrels were about and were on to him - the others were all over by the feeder filling their pauches up ... "OK - safe to go ..." . He'd scurry over to the lawn, scratch and scrape the old dead grass from last year's growth - stuff as much as he could into that huge satchel he has and head back under the barbeque deck. Be there for a second for a drop - and then right back at it again ... and again ... and again.

 

 

 

 

Back and forth, back and forth he went... constantly scurrying, scratching, scouting in a perpetual dance of Spring... He, or she - we may find out soon enough, is planning the nest for more little ones - right under the barbeque deck. We'll have to see how that turns out... We can co-habit as long as they don't become a nuisance... 

The first red winged black birds have started to appear and just after spying that new visitor a big old blue heron came gracefully flying down into the bay - with the ever so slowly paced wing flaps - looking over his newly de-snowed territory for a suitable summer home.. ahhhhh, Spring has arrived... I think, I hope...  and it feels good - for we have survived yet another northern winter - one of the snowiest and coldest on record recently - some places faired a lot worse than we did - and still have the banks to prove it ... The spring melt and floods are on the watch list now... Ohh - and yesterday Terr spotted Sammy (the Snowy Owl). We hadn't seen him since the Snow-icane two weeks ago and I had thought that he had retreated back North. Sticks out as a big white blob now ...

All the kids !!! Yipppeee ...

Sarah came down last weekend (Apr 4) to attend a baby shower for one of her "growing up" friends. Yes - now the old crowd have had or are having babies and getting quite "old"... The whole crowd spent Saturday and Sunday together... AJ picked up the newspaper for Grampie while she was "outdoors" to play with Allie and her Frisbee...

 



 

They had to visit Ann and Darrin's to see if "Grammie fixed the tree" that had fallen down ... but Grammie hadn't gotten around to fixing the tree yet...

Eloise was her regular smiling happy jack face... David and Eva (Chad's parents, PEI) were over this week to visit them and Chad sent along a short video of Eloise giggling/laughing. She started it awhile ago but really put together one of those little baby giggling runs that make everyone smile...

 ...and of course Holden was his regular smiley face self again... These kids really are happy babies -a tribute to their Mommies and Daddies to see they have what they need... A child's smiling and/or wondrous gaze is an amazing thing for the soul... and of course our living room was "baby-central" with a tornado thrown in... Thank goodness summer is coming where all these little ones will be outdoors playing in the sun and water and crawling in the grass - pretty soon.

Grammie did up an Easter "practice" cake for everyone - and Norah just loves the icing... It's really  hard to not take a finger swipe or two ... Easter is next weekend and there's lots to do around here to get ready for that Easter bunny...



Eloise welcomed into the Church

We all attended Eloise's welcoming into the Church last Sunday up in Morristown. Afterwards Sarah and Chad and AJ and Eloise hosted a large luncheon and play time.

 

Here's Eloise wondering "What's goin' on around here anyway?

AJ woke up from her nap in a great mood, ready to go back hard at playing with everyone, especially Holden, Norah, Eloise, Grammie, Grampie, and the rest of the party-goers...

Holden was having so MUCH FUN with all the action going on - he just didn't know what to do with all that positive energy ...



 

AJ was busy listening and checking out everybody's heartbeat...  including Eloise's...

 

It was sad to see everyone leave and AJ gave Holden a special kiss and hug to get him safely back to the city. Everyone was in  a good mood all day and everything went very smoothly... (as expected)...

Norah was very happy when Ruby could stay over until the end of the party. They had many new things to get straightened out - which always takes a lot of time when you start new friendships. The front window perch was "the place to be", complete with the pretzel bowl ...

 

But it was Eloise's day !!! She managed to survive all the attention and now has the whole congregation looking out for her - and who wouldn't - with a cutie pie smile like that.

You gotta admit - we've got a pretty happy-to-be-together crew here - thanks to their Moms and Dads and Grammies who go the extra mile to make their lives wonderful and meaningful ...

Another Wednesday Winter Storm (last Wed)

 

We had another big storm all over the Maritimes on Wednesday. All of this stuff came in this one storm - we were bare in the morning. You can see 10' behind my big green how much the cut was... It would have been more except it rained half way through and compacted a lot of the snow... 

 

 

It seems the only one having any fun is our Allie. She absolutely adores the winter and can lay out in it for hours... Her frisbee is her thing too... 

 

Her favourite strategy is to get close and say: "Bet you can't get it Len" ... and most of the time you can't... She knows exactly how long your arm is ...

 And then the day after calm and 10C temperatures to start the melt !!!! It didn't all get melted...
We need the Spring to start soon... It has been a long cold winter... Here's how our little piece of heaven looks in winter ... (Nice and green in summer)...

Sunday Juncos in the blind

Sunday, it was also very nice out and warm so I set up our blind in the backyard and let the birds get used to it for a bit while we visited. I then spent some time trying to get whatever came along. Once unloaded - perhaps the most exciting time for a photographer - besides being in an actual exciting shoot of something special... the first run through...

 

 

On this day, I was hoping for my favourite little white throated sparrow, but they only hung out with the Blue Jays at the other feeders and didn't come over to where I had my blind set up over by the garden shed and fence... so when I ran through these juncos - thought they would be tester birds for practice - I was pleasantly surprised they turned out to be the stars of the day.

 

There were plenty of chickadees but they didn't show as well as some of the chickadees I already have - so I'm particular about those guys... There are a few "stager" trees that the birds come to before hopping onto the feeder. and then there's a good distance from some trees over to the ones in behind for some nice background depth.   

 

 

I like the range I can shoot - but I have some work to do to get ready for the nice weather - like a nice platform for the tent and chair, the right chair, replace the wooden racks with more natural perches...

 

 

...and it was fun watching and listening and trying not to miss them. The only down side is my little Allie wanted to bark and chase up the squirrels - so in the house for her - and she can't figure out why I'm outside and she has to be inside. I'll have to take a picture of her watching me out the window... and I did take her for a little walk later. It'll be better when I am retired and we can do both things every day... It was a great day to get back in the mood for Spring and Summer and nice weather.