A much needed restorative day

If you were paying attention yesterday you will know I stated an intention of sleeping in. This is one of the limitations of text. You probably did not get the impression that plan was as solid as the foundations for a great big dam.

It's been a busy few weeks at work, and stuff on the weekends, plus a raspy throat that didn't turn into a cold, but really took it out of me.

So I intended, so I did. I didn't actually sleep all that much later than usual, and I was up at the usual time, but I drifted off again. Being able to lie there, thinking inchoate thoughts that occasionally rose to the level of semi-coherence, not having to get up, is wonderful.

Up. Coffee. Sitting outside in the shade, watching the bees already hard at it in the garden. Massaging the novels more, Curtis glaring at me through the window. Knowing I didn't have to get up and actually do anything till I felt like it.

Then this happened. I'd got the kit last week, but didn't get around to it till today. My bike will join hers when it returns.

BBQ chicken in a specialty marinade, on fresh buns, outside in the beautifully warm day. Not hot, just a nice warm day, with a slight bit of a breeze.

Some errands, then a walk through Fish Creek. Through, as in, my feet were wet, and the water was delightful. I sat in the shade at one point listening to the river do it's thing. So peaceful and soothing. Hardly anyone was around. I contemplated the bicycle infested with weeds, thinking of how it came to be here, wondering if some poor kid was missing their bike and saving up their allowance to get another.

No idea what I'll do what I hit publish on the blog, but it will almost certainly involve a glass of wine.

Creamy

Indulge me for a bit of database geekery here, just for a moment. Maximo. Functional locations and assets loaded to PROD. Zero errors. Yes we're pleased. Only two months after the first schedule I was shown, but holy doodle it's been a tough road.

Let's not go into how much work it's been, and some of the complications behind the scenes. I know a few of my readers understand, but everybody else would be bored. Let's just say the load was creamy smooth, no lumps.

The other thing that's creamy is the backgrounds on these two photos. Yes, sort of a tortured reach, but it's Friday after a long week. I'm planning on sleeping in tomorrow.

You might be thinking you've seen that second shot before, and you're almost right. Check out the differences here.

The ruffly pink peony

The red and white peonies out front get lots of action, but the pink one in the back patio puts forward some spectacular blossoms. Some of these are in the running for image of the month. The pink doesn't show off as much as the red or the white, but the ruffles are amazing, particularly when wet. I think these are all the same peony, but I'm not completely sure about number 3.

The garden seems to be carrying on after Linda half filled the green cart with debris. That's really about the only choice we have, since there isn't much that can be done to protect the garden from hail.

A reminder of rosy times

Here we go. This is one of the roses from out front, nicely lit up.

This is from the side bed. For a while it had a huge number of blossoms, and was a bit of a neighbourhood attraction. I saw several groups of people walking past detour from the main street to admire it. One couple even unreeled a selfie stick to have it in the background.

Even before the hailstorm (see here for the sadness if you missed it) the roses were taking a break. Linda had thought there might be a second round of blossoms in a while, but we aren't so sure now.

There's lots of other flowers coming along, and they'll get their turn here. Stay tuned!

In work news I'm now half way through my contract. My manager is probably having heart palpitations just reading that, so I'll probably have to buy the coffee next time. It's gone quick, and I'm pretty sure the rest is going to go even quicker. Some of the ground work is beginning to pay off.

In workout news, my legs are feeling less cranky, so I'm actually thinking about cautiously starting a walk run program, and see if I can get up to 5 K without injuring myself again.

Well, crap!

This photo pretty well tells the whole story.

A before and after.

Yes, they're day lilies, but we prefer we get to enjoy them a little longer than that.

Here's a before and after of some other lilies.

This one sort of made me sad, the two blossoms consoling one another or the older dying one trying to shield the younger one

There are still many lilies with buds that have not been shattered, and we expect will bloom. We hope. There are other plants still blooming and I will continue with the photos. We've had hailstorms much worse. Some storms have stripped the leaves and bloom from the stalk. As long as this is the only one for a while, the plants should be good, knock wood. An hour later the sun is shining and the streets are drying off, in between the mounds of vegetation blown from the trees.

A polyptych for you

There was a photo ramble today with my buddy Sean starting at the traditional time of oh-dark-30. Exactly so, as it turns out.

It's easy to tell where we started. Just behind us was a medium sized motorhome that was rocking a little as we pulled up. Sorry buddy if we interrupted something. Yes, my version of these photos have stars.

We had a lovely drive down sort of towards Chain Lakes, and stopped several times when the mood or view took us. Sean has talked several times of how images placed near each other provide context, and one has to consider the relationship between them. I finally got it, on a simplistic level today with these two images. Neither works particularly well alone, but together I was quite charmed. Yes, the two are looking at each other. It's kind of a pity my blog format doesn't really let me display photos side by side. You'll just have to arrange them that way in your mind.

This will amuse several of my readers, if they look closely. Of course there was coffee in it.

The light was kind of odd, mixing in with some mist on the ground, and some atmospheric haze to producing some ugly sky in the HDR shots. So ugly I took it right out of several of the shots. This is the only one where I left it in, since it's at least a little bit believable.

These were tough edits, and I'm still not entirely pleased with what the camera captured as opposed to what my eyes saw. I was thinking of the fog shots in Arrival, and trying to go for the same thing.

I'm not sure if I should show this photo. This is merely a scouting photo. I think in the right light it will be stunning. I'll have to return to this.

Finishing with the traditional Alberta landscape canola shot, and then breakfast in Turner Valley.

Over breakfast we spoke, as always, of many things. One of them was the apparent waning popularity of blogging, and if blogging was easier in retirement. I suspect it is. In any case Sean wondered if my blogging frequency had changed. As it turns out, I'm blogging a little more frequently than my traditional blog every day and a half.

........................................Blogs...........Days......................Days per blog
Oct 27, 2007 to today....2755............3921...........................1.42
2017 (mostly retired).......322..............365............................1.13
May 2018 to today............69.................82............................1.18

I strongly suspect my word count per blog is way down, so the fans of my wall'o-text blogs are likely pining a little. Yearning for the days of a rip snorting rant. And what are they getting? Flower shots. They probably think I've gone soft and they've defected to some red meat blog.

As I said, a perfectly lovely morning.

The red peony finale for this year

The red peony kind of plays second fiddle to the white. The light doesn't hit it quite the same, and it's a deep brooding red that doesn't photograph well, especially in the blog versions. Still, the blossoms are just as nice, if much more difficult to get a backlit shot.