Inspired

Yesterday found us roaming the country roads of nearby Salt Spring Island.  This is a long weekend in Canada with each province celebrating it’s own history and heritage so it’s probably the busiest weekend of the summer.  It was a warm, sunny day and the 30 minute ferry ride to Fulford Harbour was such a treat, although we just squeaked on…we were the second to last car aboard. 

Even though Salt Spring Island is very near to where we live on the Saanich Penninsula of Vancouver Island, and looks so close, it’s hard to believe that it’s a separate island…we hadn’t been there for 7 years.  A visit was definitely overdue and it was a perfect day for an adventure!  There's been no particular reason why it’s been so long since we visited but so much has happened in those intervening years, not the least of which has been building a new home, moving, and those never ending ongoing landscaping projects.  We’ve focused so much on “doing”, just putting one foot in front of the other and have…at times…forgotten how important it is, to simply “be”.

I needed to get out of town...I needed to not have an agenda...I needed to play!

The beautiful bottles pictured above were for sale at one of the stalls at the Ganges Market and I meant to go back and pick out one or two to take home with me (how could I resist these colours?) but by the time I made it through the market, I was on people overload and ready to leave the bustling little village

Salt Spring is a picturesque island of musicians, artist studio’s, organic gardens, sheep farms, wineries, B&B’s, cyclists, boaters, and kyakers.  It’s a visual feast for the eyes and oozes charm from every nook and cranny.

We lunched by the ocean as we watched the sea planes take off and land in Ganges harbour… 

We sat and sipped a beautiful glass of light summer wine at a local winery, while overlooking a peaceful, pastoral valley…

We sat on the edge of the Fulford Harbour dock in the sunshine, licking an ice cream while waiting for the ferry…

and we arrived home tired and weary…but in the very best possible way.  

I don’t plan to wait another 7 years until I return!

 

There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged, to find the ways in which you yourself have altered.

Nelson Mandala

And I'm hoping that you too can take the time to play when you need to...or better yet, BEFORE you need to!

As always...thank you dear friends, for stopping by,

Five Senses Friday

 

A quick summary of this week's five senses:

Seeing:  bright green leaves on a blue sky backdrop…a sparkling clean home (and no, I can’t lay claim to cleaning it…I treated myself!)…a brown eyed child…pink, green and turquoise paints…very, very yellow farm fresh eggs…clinging purple starfish…pink/red/grey dragon fruit.  I love this world of amazing colour.

 

Hearing:  summer sunday music in the park…laughter with brown eyed boy as we played hide and seek and he found his papa hiding in bed under the covers...birds complaining about an empty feeder…the ever present cawing of the crows and the what-ever-that-sound-is-called that seagulls make.  I love the sounds they made for the seagulls in the movie Finding Nemo.

 

Smelling:  the salty sea air, lavender, lavender and even more lavender (it’s blooming everywhere right now) I wish there were scent links on the internet!

 

Tasting: those very very yellow, farm fresh eggs…a leisurely lunch with friends…take out sushi…the nutty flavour of almond milk…and even more almond but in dark chocolate…dragon fruit (which is disapointingly tasteless.  I wonder what it tastes like tree ripened?  Anyone ever had it that way?) and sweet/spicy rich chili.

 

Feeling:  WONDER.  A wonder too big for words.

 

We live on the leash of our senses.

Diane Ackerman

 

Wishing you a marvelous and heady weekend of truly absorbing life through all of your senses.  Blowing kisses...

 

Inspired Colours

I’ve loved generating colour palette’s ever since I started digital scrapbooking about 10 years ago.  The scrapbooking has long since gone by the wayside but my love of creating colour palette’s hasn’t.  I often play around with my pictures by picking out several colours within them that I like and then saving them along with the photograph.

While I was drooling trolling around Pinterest the other morning, I ended up on Design Seed’s page and almost jumped out of my chair…here was someone doing (and posting) the same thing I’ve been doing all these years (and not posting)!. 

I’m not sure why this get’s me swooning the way it does…but who cares “why”…it just does.  I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE making up colour palettes from my photographs.  And I don’t know why it never occurred to me before to post them, as I know there are lots of you who are just as infatuated with colour as I am. 

Anyway, here is my colour palette for the Sea Holly growing at the front of my home.  This is a lovely plant…it comes up green but as it matures, it turns a blue/mauve. It’s a bit spiney like a thistle and thrives in well drained, dry and even poor soil (that’s my kind of plant).  I think I'll be posting more of these!.

I’m still painting a canvas, although getting closer to finishing.  There will come a point where I'll just have to sit on my hands and stop, but I’m not quite there yet…just adding a bit of text at the moment. 

And right now I’m off to the local deli where they make the world’s best ever chili. Oh yes Texas, it’s true!  (Maybe I’ll generate a colour palette for that!)

 

Life is about using the whole box of crayons. 

RuPaul

Hugs to all of you, dear friends…I hope life is both kind and colourful for you…

Revisiting Grateful

Beautiful parking lot roses at the local grocery store…taken with my phone camera.

I know I’ve written many times about how important the practice of gratitude has been for me but I’ve recently been having a lot of light bulb moments and one of them has been about gratitude and what it's really all about. (I feel so excited about gratitude that I want to shout it out in caps but I’ll refrain!  I’ll just use lots of exclamation points and italics…lol)

In the past, I’ve understood gratitude from the perspective of appreciating the positives in my life; the things that make me happy…almost as though by counting up the positives, I cancelled out the negatives.  If I focused enough on what was positive, then I wouldn’t obsess think about the negative.  And that’s true…to a point.

I’ve recently begun to understand that feeling gratitude includes being grateful for everything….everything…even those things that are unpleasant and not what I want in my life. 

My life is my creation and it’s all here “for” me (rather than being done to me) and with my awareness of this, everything is leading me to where I want to be.  Every aha, every understanding, shifts me…either slightly or profoundly…with a new course direction. If I can be grateful for it all, there’s no resistance…and we’ve probably all heard that “what we resist, persists”. 

These thoughts have been swirling around in my head for the past several weeks, and I love how the universe lets me know I’m on the right track…

• Yesterday I listened to an interview with Lilou Mace (of Lilou’s Juicy Living Tour) where she said exactly the same thing.  At a time in her life when she was out of work and her fridge was empty, she learned to be truly grateful for her empty fridge.  She found out then, who she really was at her core and what was important to her. 

• Today when I checked in at Roxanne’s blog In the Transition (you might know her from her Vlog Beach Walks With Rox) I found more of the same in her most recent post…Grateful for everything....yes, everything.

My understanding of gratitude; what it really means and what it requires of me, has shifted profoundly and in that shifting, my life is also shifting...away from the good/bad, better/worse, right/wrong mindset to appreciating and loving all of it. 

Of course, the moment I think I’ve finally “got” something, I’m immediately tested with all kinds of buttons being pushed and yes, there are times when I simply forget all of this and “react”, but…as soon as we’re aware of something, it’s easier to pull back and remember there’s another way. 

It’s a new paradigm…and it’s our choice.  The rewards for choosing gratitude-for-all-of-it, are pretty amazing.

 

All that we behold is full of blessings. 

William Wordsworth

 

(we’ve been away this week with our oldest grandson…who at nine has brought us up to date with Angry Birds and electronic gaming…who knew that the Nintendo ds has a built in camera with the capability of manipulating photos!  We’ve been visiting my dad (and grandson’s great-grandpa) and heading back to the coast tomorrow.  Thanks to everyone who stops by…I am truly grateful for you all…blowing kisses!) 

Five Senses Friday

 

I’ve been doing “five senses friday” sporadically for a few years now and I don’t know if I ever actually said where it came from. I found it at Abby Try Again and although I just do my own thing when the spirit moves me, Abby does it every week.  It’s a great way to sum up the week.

 

 

Seeing: My beautiful red poppies.  Last March 1st…the day we arrived home from Mexico…Mr. I went out into the garden which still had a skiff of snow lying on it, and scattered all the poppy seeds we’ve been collecting for the past few years.  These are what came up.  We also have pink poppies, white poppies and salmon coloured poppies.  Yup, I love poppies!

 

Hearing: Listening to this…and loving the lyrics…

“Maybe you're the reason why all the doors are closed,
So you could open one that leads you to the perfect road.”

 

 

Tasting:  fresh fruit…sweet cantaloupe…chai tea.

 

Smelling: I came across the most amazing sweet peas this morning and buried my nose in them for ages...and kept coming back for more. Mmmmm…heaven. 

And the smell of wet earth from two days of warm summer rain (as you can see by all the rain on the poppies).

 

 

Feeling: like summer is slipping by before it actually starts!  We're heading to the interior next week so, fingers crossed that the weather is warmer and drier there than it has been on the coast.

 

 

Thanks for stopping by my friends and I wish everyone a happy, and relaxing weekend!

 

"Smile, breathe, and go slowly"

Thich Nhat Hanh

A flock of Blessings

 

One grey spring day several months ago, I decided to pull out my sewing machine and get crafty.  I hadn’t touched it for several years so this isn’t something I do very often…it came right out of the blue...and I completely immersed myself for 2 days with cutting and stitching. I made a small flock of “blessing birds” as small gifts and it was fun, but after two days of very picky and tiny stitching, I’d had my fill!  I think my tumble down the stairs a few weeks earlier must have affected me more than I realized! Sewing just isn’t my “thing”.

 

 

I found a pattern online at Spool and started cutting…

 

 

I loved the idea of making a bird mobile (as shown in the photograph on the Spool site) but after gifting my birds they’ve all flown the nest and I really enjoyed doing that with them.  The one thing that I did that was a little different from the Spool birds was that I wrote a blessing on a small piece of paper...

 

 

…rolled it up and inserted one in each bird before I stitched them closed.

 

 

If you’re handy with a sewing machine, they make lovely gifts.  I also made a blessing heart with a ribbon attached to hang over a door handle and have kept that for myself.

 

 

I’ve been enjoying myself outside this summer. The weather is still not settled, but warm enough to work in the garden which finally…finally...is starting to look like a garden. We…and I use the royal "we" here, as I’m not actually doing any of the back breaking, manual labour…are steadily eliminating more of the gravel pit that has been our back yard…Mr. I is busy right now as I write this, laying a path of interlocking pavers. Slowly, slowly, it comes together.

And I’m also painting again…lotus flowers this time…I just love the feeling of slipping into “the zone” that happens when I paint. It’s like stepping into another reality…a time of no time.  It’s difficult to describe…almost as though I slip out a window and then slip back in when I get up and step away from it.  It’s a peaceful and blissed out feeling. (not at all like sewing!) Sigh.  I’ll post a photograph when I’m finished.

Thanks to all of you for stopping by…I hope life is good and you’re finding your own “zone” this summer.

 

Field of Abundant Potential

 

It’s July!  We’re half way through the year (already!)…and summer is here for those of us in the northern half of the world.

With the earth bursting in a riot of new growth, it’s a time of abundant potential.  When I think about it, I realize that there are so many possiblities, so much potential, so many flowers in life that we don’t pick.  That’s not necesarily a negative thing…we can’t pick every flower that blooms…but the potential is still there.  There's so much potential and for most of it, we either don’t see it, ignore it or we choose to pick others blossoms.

 

And I’m asking myself at this mid point of the year, what blossoms am I choosing?  Is my bouquet small…a single bloom…and am I looking in just one corner of the field?  Can I open my arms wider and embrace a bigger bouquet?  I must admit, I’m feeling drawn to choosing new blossoms, new varieties…and wandering out a little farther out in the field to see what’s there.  What potentials have I been ignoring?

 

The poppies and daisies are in full bloom now and their cheerfulness brings me so much joy…and joy must certainly be where potential blooms! I'm reminded of this digital piece that I created several years ago.

 

 

So we meet you on the edge of this field (of potential) and we ask,

“Shall we go into the past and remember

or shall we be in the moment and explore?”

…as received through Veronica Torres

 

I’ve been featured this week as a guest author on Veronica Torres website…Eloheim and the Council…talking about the impact that working with Eloheim has had on my life. Hop over here if you’d care to check it out.

Thank you dear friends for stopping by and if you’re new here…take a moment to say hi…I’d love to meet you!

Five Senses Friday

 

Seeing: 

This morning we went to our, very “small town” Canada Day parade. Lot’s of red and white in the parade as well as in the crowd.

 

 

Hearing: 

This…amazing!

One track of cricket “chirping” has been slowed down and the other has been left as we normally hear it.

 

Tasting: 

Mr. I made yummy gluten free scones for my birthday and I had THIS instead of birthday cake…oh my goodness…

 

 

…scones with a hint of orange zest, Devonshire clotted cream and Bonne Maman Strawberry Jam.  YUM!  This is a once a year treat that I swoon over. 

(Be still my heart.)

 

Smelling: 

(Still obsessing about the above dessert…my taste buds have overwhelmed the scent buds!)  We have a deep pink climbing rose that bloomed today with a lovely sweet scent.  I wish I could remember what it's called but the tag was removed when we planted it last year.

 

Feeling:

a) Warm for a change.  I was decidedly chilly this morning, standing at the parade but the sun is shining this afternoon…sweet! 

and b) love…

 

 

…sitting on the curb, waiting for the parade to begin.

(my daughter and my grandson)

 

I hope your weekend is off to a great start!

 

Focal Point

This is obviously a theme I’m on these days as I've just realized I wrote a post with the title “Focus” not long ago.

 

 

Although I photographed these Irises several weeks ago, I didn’t care for the composition, so didn’t post it at the time.  I haven’t had my Nikon out in awhile so as I was trolling through my files today for something I might have missed, I checked this one out again. (Maybe it improved with age?  Maybe my eye wouldn't be quite so critical?)

 

 

I did a little cropping to look at it from different aspects…first the blossoms…and then the vertical alignment of the leaves…

 

…when I noticed this…a cocoon…attached to a leaf, unnoticed until now.

I love little surprises like this and wonder how many things slip by me unnoticed everyday.  It’s impossible to see everything of course, but I find that taking the time to appreciate and enjoy the often small and sweet gifts of nature is a quick way to balance my energy and put life in perspective.

camera + time + focus = delight

(the Kate equation for contentment)

 

When words become unclear, I shall focus with photographs.  When images become inadequate, I shall be content with silence.

Andsel Adams

 

Wishing all my Canadian friends a wonderful Canada Day long weekend.  My American friends…have an equally fabulous Independence Day weekend…and for the rest of you…celebrate life and enjoy!   (I'm taking my camera out with me this weekend!)