Snowy Serendipity Sunday

Early May. Still snowing every now and then, which isn't a surprise. 

In the current binge news, we are still going hard on Grey's Anatomy. Rolling our eyes a bit (a lot) in places. Still, if you take it for what it is, relax, and go with the flow, it's pretty amazing in places. Sometimes the back and forth, will they or won't they, gets on our nerves and we want to scream 'get on with it!' or 'Tell them!', but that's a sign you're invested in the characters. 

Not all of them are likeable, or even trying to be likeable. Some of them are jerks or worse, at least some of the time. We are constantly amused by the 'man-whore' (and that's what he calls himself), but he's good at what he does, and he is growing up. As well, some of the guest stars make us perk up and go hey! Like one of the characters in some scenes with him, from Sarah Conner Chronicles.  Or like Cynthia Stevenson, who was Joy Lass in Dead Like Me, pondering a cow or a pig. 

We woke up to some light snow this morning. Not a surprise for May in Calgary. Normally daffodils are pretty cheerful in the snow, but these don't look too happy about it.

I liked the snow almost sliding off the truck, but first, not one, but TWO serendipity! The first from fall 2016, and the second from 2017. These may have been blogged and not tagged as such. 

Yesterday was bottling another wine kit, the Double Noir. Enough was left so we had a sampler. It's really tasty right out of the carboy. Some bottles got washed yesterday, and more today. Maybe I'll work on some of the boxes and glass shots that I almost have in mind.

Of the Day

Driftwood, though I suppose it could also be a micro-landscape.

Flower

Well I guess, almost a flower. First rose shot of the year.

Celina

Front Garden, but first yet another serendipity. I can't believe I didn't blog this, one way or another. Like I said, maybe I just forgot to tag it. I like seeing these. It's one way of going back and revisiting shots. 

Artsy

Flowery Friday 1

Last year I got so far behind on flower photos, and knowing many of my readers like to know what's going on in the garden, I started doing a weekly catchup of flower photos that hadn't yet made the blog. I'm thinking I'll do much the same this year.

There's not a lot of rules to let you know what to expect. Generally it's flowers from our garden that haven't been blogged for whatever reason. They'll be in date order, oldest to newest, and might be quite  behind the times, depending entirely on how many photos I take vs how many get blogged. There's no rule about how many get posted, but generally it will be all up to whatever date seems appropriate. I probably won't tell you what they are. Beyond a few that I know, like rose, lily, tulip, daffodil, peony, it's all Latin to me. That might mean only a few photos, or it might mean many. You'll just have to wait and see.

This has been a long break in blogging by my standards, nearly a week. I've been thinking. I'm pretty sure that aside from the possibility of a few hours here or there between now and the end of June to wrap things up in a neat bow and hand them off, I'm done paid work in oil and gas. I might get paid for photo or writing projects, but I'm not out pounding the pavement looking for 'work' in those areas. Just my own projects, for my own amusement, and whatever money happens is a happy surprise.

I've had lots of breaks between contracts, of course. Every contractor does. But most of the time you're hustling for the next contract. Well, except for me over the last several years. I haven't looked for work since May 2012. In fact, potential employers have tracked me down, once even when I was in New Zealand. It's flattering. But this one is coming to a close, and there's an air of finality about it that's hard to describe. Before, I'd said I was done, but left the door open for something interesting. Now, just on the walk today, I was thinking, 'what would it take to make me accept a contract?' 

It would have to be something pretty special. I don't enjoy the work as much as I used to. My financial advisor tells me I don't need to be doing it for the money. Excel has become an anger inducing experience, and let's not even talk about Word, or (gasp) MS Access. With COVID I don't even get the pleasure of seeing actual people, and no idea when that will change. Even then, I'm not going to miss the commute, though going downtown made it very convenient to keep a Repsol membership to swim. 

I've been making lists for a while, but it's coming time to dive into the actually nitty gritty and start getting them done. COVID permitting, of course. Don't get me started on Alberta being the worst jurisdiction in North America for infection, and right up there with the other bad boys of the world. Kenney is to blame, trying to pander to his idiot base.

So, a happier topic. Flowers, starting April 12, going to April 20.

Of the Day

Driftwood

Celina

April Image of the Month

This was a difficult month for photography. Near the beginning of the month I was still feeling kind of run down from the work contract. Plus, spring in general is a tough season in Calgary. You never know what's going to happen with the weather. Nothing is green yet, just winter guck. There's still patches of snow and ice amidst the mud, and this isn't the pretty snow either. There isn't much real colour anywhere, unless you get lucky with a sunrise or sunset. 

So yeah, today's choice for Image of the Month is driven by that hit of colour.

Runner up

Image of the Month

Something about that yellow, and the water drops are just doing it for me. I've been a bit colour starved this month.

The garden art

The garden is emerging from winter. The daffodils are out now. Some of the roses are putting out new buds. The famous Dread Alberta Rose by the garage is leading the way, like usual.

The garden art has been installed for another year, though some of it lives outdoors year round, and shows up in other photos, so not a surprise there.

Of the Day

Driftwood

Celina

Flower

Artsy

The bees are back

Regular readers know that I like to photograph bees. It's quite a challenge with a regular lens, and gets harder as the magnification goes up. These are the first shots of the year, and it's pretty obvious I'm out of practice. Stay tuned, there will be more, especially once the mint plant gets going. The bees love that, and that purple shows up so well on camera.

We try to have a bee friendly garden, so it's nice to see them out. We worry there isn't much for them to feed on so early in the year. The hyacinths are just about the only blooms on the go just now. A couple of daffodils are just about ready to burst out. They're a little tougher to photograph now as Linda has had to put the green netting on to protect the tulips from the rabbits and deer.

Of the Day

Driftwood

Same chunk as here, but different composition. I think I had been intending to merge them into a wider image, and either I forgot, or it didn't work out.

And in fact, because I'm almost retired again, I went back and tried. Here you are. Several panorama merges that hadn't worked out then, now do since I put more memory in the computer.

Celina, another of the recent series of her writhing in the sun.

Flower

Artsy, not a shell.

Sunday morning blither

More snow. Enough of that. The little yellow crocuses are closed up shop waiting for nicer days, and Linda is looking over the front beds, encouraging the plants to hang in there.

It's kind of funny. Weird almost. We've both had our first AZ shots two weeks ago. We aren't sure when the second shot will happen. Supposedly we are mostly protected against the virus, but we're behaving like we have not been vaccinated, just in case. 

More and more people here are getting vaccinated, but it seems like I hear about more and more cases. We are deep into a third wave here, with the number of new cases still above the 7 day moving average, and most of them are the new variants. We are somewhat more worried about catching it now than we were a year ago. Other than our house, the only indoor spaces for us these days involves shopping for food.

A year ago! I don't think anyone dreamed we would still be here now. And yet, here we are, and there are still people denying that COVID is a serious problem. More than a dozen Alberta politicians are publicly denouncing the various measures as being too harsh, while the science suggests that the measures are about half-way to adequate and implemented too late. Nobody knows how big the anti-vaxx problem is going to be going forward, but anecdotal evidence suggests they will ensure the virus survives and continues to mutate.

The current TV binge is still Grey's Anatomy. We just finished season 4 and going strong. With the library closed there is no new supply of books. I've been doing some comfort food reading of Georgette Heyer's regency romances. That might sound strange, but she's an awesome writer.

In a little while I'll head downstairs to bottle another wine kit. Next week I'm off to Red Deer for the remaining kits in our order. I've been playing with lighting, glass, and the kit boxes, but have not yet achieved a satisfactory result. This is merely one of the ideas.

Of the Day

Driftwood

Celina, from several photos taken the other day as she writhed in the sun. But first a serendipity from 2018.

Once again

Here we are again, another round of summer, winter, and kind of spring. Day before yesterday was warm enough to go hiking in K Country wearing a light sweatshirt and traction aids. Yesterday was warm enough to barbecue both lunch and supper, though we didn't actually eat out on the patio. It was warm enough that we could have, but the patio furniture is still covered in winter guck and needs to be pressure washed. Today it's snowing off and on, with a raw wind making it not nice at all to be outside.

The hike with Sean was fun, though I didn't take all that many photos. The footing was treacherous enough to make following the creek rule a good idea. What's that rule, you ask? Wading through the creek in search of photos are two completely separate activities. One wades, or one looks for or takes photos. Never both at the same time, unless you want to find out how waterproof your camera is. I'll have to go back there when the weather is nicer, even though it's a popular spot, and likely to be overrun with bike riders.

Sean had some problems with his traction aids along the way. At one point I hung out at a picnic table while he backtracked a bit to find one that somehow fell off his boot. For a time there was complete silence. No human made noises. No wind in the trees. No birds. It was lovely.

So far the flowers in the front beds seem to be hanging in there. 

One of the newest flowers, blooming in between snowfalls. It doesn't look so happy this morning.

Construction has started on the sound wall beside the new highway. I feel for the people living along the berm. The next couple months are going to be noise and dust, just as the weather is getting nice. They've been living with construction for several years now. It must seem endless. I'll be taking photos from this vantage point over the next little while.

In binging news, we finished off season 3 of Grey's Anatomy. We cheered at how the wedding scene ended. The main show writer seems to be working from the rule 'what's the worst thing that could happen to this character?' So far we've been thoroughly entertained.

Of the Day

Driftwood

And because it's such a crappy day out, I wanted a reminder of the sunny warmth of New Zealand. 

Flower

Celina

Front Bed

From the 19th.