Wordless Wednesday - Morning Dew

Morning Dew
August 27, 2007

Lunar Eclipse

The alarm was set for 4:30 am this morning. When it went off I scurried to the dock, camera in hand in eager anticipation. After two return trips to the house to get warmer clothes and something warm to drink I was ready to settle in to see the lunar eclipse. It was very cool and damp sitting on the dock. Absent minded, I wondered where all my neighbours were. They should be out on their docks taking in this marvel of nature but no, they were snuggled in their nice warm beds! A large what I think was a blue huron landed two docks over almost as if he was watching the eclipse to. His calls kept me company as did the occasional jump from a fish. Other than that the water was very still almost glass-like except when a freighter went by but it quickly returned to the glass state.

I sat quietly snapping pictures of the lunar eclipse and reflecting. The eclipse itself happened quite slowly until the moon was gone yet there was a hint of the moon as it took on a light red-orange glow that my camera couldn't capture. Reflection brought a few profound thoughts one of them about how we as humans tend to deal with relationships. If we don't nurture and encourage them, then tend to become shadowed until they do longer exist except in the imprints of our minds always leaving a mark on our soul.

As the eclipse sunk behind the clouds much to my dismay and the sky lightened with the rising sun my attention turned to my avian friend who had kept me company. I hoped for enough light to be able to get a picture but he had other plans. He gave one last call then spread his might wings circling once almost directly over me the flew north. I so wanted a picture! Instead I sat quietly listening to the awakening world around me. What an absolutely beautiful time of the day, greeting a new day full of anticipation of what is to become.

Blog Your Blessings Sunday - New Grandbaby

It's official! Please see the estimated time of arrival for our second grandbaby. We couldn't be happier as our family grows. What a true blessing!

Possible Funnel Cloud

Possible Funnel Cloud
August 25, 2007 7:15 pm

Last evening the skies darkened so we went out to take pictures of the approaching storm. At 7:10 pm I took a photo of an artifact in the clouds that I thought looked interesting. By 7:11:32 pm the artifact looked like a possible small funnel cloud so I kept on snapping photos as the cloud developed. At 7:12 and 7:14 I took two video clips to capture the swirling and sounds of the storm. This photo was taken at 7:15 pm. By 7:16 the cloud appeared to almost touch the water. The winds picked up further along with the strange almost like a train noise. As the cloud approached us, we ran for cover barely making it indoors before the rain hit. We watched from indoors as a wall of rain quickly approached. The last video showed the wall of rain just before it hit our house with an annotation by me of "Oh my God!"

Storms

Stormy Skies
August 23, 2007

Yesterday the temperatures soared and the humidity became stifling so we took the boat out for short ride while dinner was cooking. My husband declared it too hot to grill! It was no surprise when an evening thunderstorm blew through. We sat in the sunporch listening to the roaring thunder while watching the lightening flash as Zeus and Thor fought out their battle once again. The whipping winds drove the rain with a furry while the waves crashed into the shore amplifying the sounds of the storm.

This morning the lawns were soggy but there was little damage from the high winds in our immediate area. There was a bit of wind damage and flooding away from our shielded area. Today the high is to be 31ºC but with the humidex it feels like 45ºC. Thunderstorms are predicted for this evening with showers overnight. We went from everything being so dry to so wet with no in between.

As I type this post the skies have been getting progressively cloudy with the humidity increasing. The air feels stagnate and the trees are eerily motionless. The conditions are perfect for severe thunderstorms. Normally this type of weather would send me scrambling to disconnect the modem. For the past four years we have had dial-up only because high speed simply is not available here. A couple of years ago one internet provider started offering wireless high speed but because of the abundance of trees we could never get a line of sight. Another company came out again Tuesday but couldn't get a line of sight either. So we called another company who offers a newer wireless satellite internet service. It was hooked up Wednesday! Ladies and gentlemen, I now have high speed internet so am now up to the speed of the rest of the world.

Boat Watching - The Kaye E. Barker

Kaye E. Barker
August 17, 2007

Living on the Great Lakes waterway provides ample opportunity to enjoy a wide variety of sights aside of the amazing wildlife. The shipping industry is a large part of the economy in our area so each year we buy a copy of Know Your Ships, Guide to Boats & Boatwatching on the Great Lakes & St. Lawrence Seaway. This wonderful little book is always nearby at home and travels with us on the boat. We make a game of learning about the lake freighters and ships we see throughout the year. Each sighting is carefully ticked off as we see them. We can now identify several of the ships from a distance based on their colours or horn sounds.

The Kaye E. Barker was unloading gravel the afternoon we decided to spend on the boat last week so we took the opportunity to get a few close-up shots. We've seen a lot of smaller pleasure craft get quite close to the ships as they are moving but that can be dangerous because of the undercurrents these large vessels create so we keep our distance. The Kaye E. Barker is owned by Lakes Shipping Co., Inc.. of Richfield, Ohio. It is a division of The Interlake Steamship Co. also located in Richfield. This vessel was originally built by the American Ship Building Co. in Toledo, Ohio and christened the Edward B Green. From 1952 to 1985 she* was the flagship for Cleveland-Cliffs Steamship Company fleet. She was lengthened by 120 feet in 1976 by Fraser Shipyards in Superior, Wisconsin to an overall length is 767'00", breadth is 70'00" with a cargo capacity of 25,900 Gross Tons. There are larger ships in the fleet but she is still impressive especially up close when in a pleasure craft. In 1981 she was converted by American Ship Building Company of Toledo, Ohio to a self-unloader. She joined the Rouge Steel Company fleet in 1985 under the name Benson Ford. In 1989 she joined the Interlake fleet as was renamed Kaye E. Barker in honour of the Chairman of the Board and President's wife.

That's as much as I know about the Kaye E. Barker other than her crew are a very friendly bunch, always waving back at us. My husband jokes that they are likely muttering under their breath "dang tourists!" but I don't think so. We had a very enjoyable day on the water heightened by the news that our second grandbaby is on the way. Estimated arrival date is April 6, 2008. This is another one of our kids not the parents of the first grandbaby who is now crawling and chatting up a storm. Spending a bit of time with them on the water was wonderfully soothing. We took a lot of pictures (thank goodness for digital cameras), did a lot of laughing and enjoyed our family time together. It reminded me of the times we would take one kid out just for a bit of alone time as a special treat to all involved. It's evolved to a special couples time alone away from the hustle and bustle of a busy household and still growing family making each one of these times a true treasure.

*Boats are always referred to in the feminine.

Wordless Wednesday - Funnel Spider

The Spider

August 22, 2007

Monday Funnies - Nanobots

Maybe I should hire out these nanobots to help get my homemaking blog back online. It's going onto day 5 that I've been locked out of my own blog because of blogger (Adsense?) bots. Hopefully these nanobots are a little more accurate than the bloggler ones!

Family and Friends Celebrating a Milestone

Family of Ducks
August 17, 2007

Yesterday morning I was still pretty frustrated at being locked out of access to one of my blogs so I didn't feel much like blogging. The other three blogs have been mirrored but not activated on the other site yet. I bought two domains, one for my cooking blog and the other for my gardening blog. Now I have to figure out what to do with them. I will likely buy domains for this blog and the homemaking blog as well. Lots of fun all due to a spam bot that is capable of giving false positives apparently due to Adsense! The funny thing is I don't advertise on any of my blogs.

The kids are home again this weekend as we have a wedding this afternoon. The day after our anniversary party we got wonderful news (more on that after Tuesday) so having the all kids home feels good. I must share that a few days after the anniversary party several people gave us the loveliest complements on our kids. Words included: awesome, fabulous, very caring, loving and you must be so proud. We knew all that :) but just had to tell the kids as well. They have matured into beautiful adults each with their own unique talents and gifts. They are a true blessing in every sense of the word!

Yesterday we took our son and daughter-in-law for a boat ride. She hadn't been on the boat yet due to timing and weather. Our first stop was for gas and in case you hadn't heard, gas for boats is more expensive than gas on land. We no longer flinch as the price for a fill-up nears the $200 mark knowing that it will likely last us if we are really lucky another trip out. Seriously, we took one son and his two friends water skiing then to the swim hole last year and calculated the cost to run the boat just in gas was $140! Boats are not cheap to operate and the phrase "hole in the water" does ring true sometimes. But enough about cost because for us boating is a way to spend time with our family and friends.

As we came out the cut from re-fueling we saw this family of ducks sunning themselves on a rock while the daddy duck stood guard. We stopped to take pictures. It reinforced my philosophy of the importance of family. The nurturing, guiding, supporting, loving is eternal. Sure there will always be some rough spots but as a family we always get through them. So today as we celebrate our true friends' daughter's wedding and watch their family grow, we will hug ours a little tighter. Once again family and friends will celebrate a milestone. May she and her new husband always experience as much love and laughter as we have and may they always be blessed with the loving support of family!

Blogger Difficulties

Sunset
August 12, 2007

Note: For those readers following my homemaking blog, Blogger's spam bots flagged it as a possible spam blog. I have requested it be unlocked but apparently that can take as long as a week. Until it is unlocked the blog will show a 404 Error. I will let you know when it is unlocked. As of now, I am in the process of mirroring my blogs to prevent this type of thing happening again!

Today I realized how at the mercy of others blogging can be. Imagine my surprize when I logged onto Blogger only to find that I had been locked out of one of my blogs! I have no access to any of the content until someone at Blogger views my homemaking blog and sees that it is not a spam blog. I realize that this is a free service and I agree to the TOS but I hold copyright to any of the material I have written. To disallow posting to that blog while I wait for a human to review it I could understand. To deny me access to my copyright protected posts and images, I cannot. And to think this is all done by an automated robot! Essentially you are guilty until proven innocent :( In the meantime I lose readers who enjoy that blog some who may not return. It looks bad on me as well. I sincerely apologize to my loyal readers who follow one or more of my blogs. As mentioned above, I am taking measures to mirror all of my blogs as I type this. This type of thing should not happen whether it is a free service or not.

Wordless Wednesday - Sunset on the St. Clair

Sunset on the St. Clair
August 11, 2007

Monday Funnies - Admin

cartoon by Dave Walker

Tagged Again :)

Billowing Clouds
July 18, 2007

Dana over at Southern Gal Goes North tagged me for this meme. Goodness, I tempted to use Gnome. In the spirit of the meme I followed the rules so there are five tagged bloggers :)

RULES: You have to post these rules before you give the facts. Players, you must list one fact that is somehow relevant to your life for each letter of your middle name. If you don’t have a middle name, use the middle name you would have liked to have had. When you are tagged you need to write your own blog post containing your own middle name game facts. At the end of your blog post, you need to choose one person for each letter of your middle name to tag. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged and to read your blog.

Here goes:
Mac user :)
Amateur photographer
Really enjoys Harry Potter books
Independant
Establishing a gnome empire ;)

I've tagged:

1. Mike from Mike's Blender - Japan
2. Castaway from Run-a-bout
3. Sandy Carlson from Writing in Faith
4. another mac user (sorry can't find their name) from The Loquacious Curmudgeon
5. Jade from Jaded Sunburns
   

Have fun!

Wordless Wednesday - Sun on the Water

Sun on the Water
June 6, 2007

I've been tagged...5 links

Clouds
March 25, 2007

This picture was taken earlier this year. It almost looks like angels floating through the sky from the effects of the darker clouds. At the very least something mystical was happening when I took this shot.

I've been tagged by Chef Cherylann for five links. Here's the rules:
-----

Just copy paste this and everything below up until my Five links:

Tami thought it would be cool to have a meme where we post links. We can post up to five. Then we tell five more people to share their links. If we all share who tagged us, our links are sure to be seen!

They can be business links, favorite sites, affiliate links, whatever you want…

There are Five Rules:
1. MUST be clean. No R rated sites.
2. Only FIVE links.
3. MUST tell 5 people.
4. A link back to the person who tagged you
5. Lara’s Place is the meme originator. (an active link would be appreciated)
———– end copy paste ———————————–>

My Links:

1. Just a Flip Flop Mom
2. MuggleNet
3. The Harry Potter Lexicon
4. The Family Homestead
5. Graphics by Irene
   

I am tagging:

1. Otilius
2. Blue Panther
3. Jayedee
4. Steve
   
5. hotdogman
   

Have fun with this one :)

Thinking Straight

Clouds
July 29, 2007

Have you ever had so many things on the go that you can't think straight? Of course everyone has this happen from time to time in their lives. So you know the feeling. With the quickly approaching anniversary party there are so many things happening it's hard to know where to begin and what to do next. Getting the house and yards ready as well as menu planning along with the logistics of a large party has not been without a few set backs.

Tuesday I was making progress with painting. The family room is now finished so I've moved to the upper level landing and lower level bathroom. At the same time the upper level family room has been prepped for painting. So after painting Tuesday afternoon, I decided to take a quick swim before doing more work. The water was wonderful...then it happened. The waves had washed up something likely a rock or broken glass that found its way into the archway of my foot. Eight stitches later and hobbling around, things came to a bit of a stand still Wednesday but I was back at it yesterday. A lot of progress should be made today with the help of my husband and our son.

Wordless Wednesday - Evening Sky

Evening Sky
July 23, 2007