#PhotoADayMay

I followed Fat Mum Slim's #PhotoADayMay list.

If you are interested in seeing the photographs, I've included the links for Facebook and Pinterest.
Please keep in mind, however, I don't do Instagram, I use my camera. As as always we are free to interpret as we see fit.
I find her prompts get me thinking every day ( quite often as I'm in the process of waking up ) and it forces me to pick up my camera on a daily basis. So once again, Fat Mum Slim, thank you!
( I do her challenge every second month,it is quite a task if you've never done it.)

So here you go, click on the link and go have a looky see. :-)

Facebook

Pinterest

Regards,
Jamie

Photographic Post- Kananaskis Overnighter

Hellooo? Camera's this way, Lad.

I'm Aquarian. I. Love. Water. 

There's G forces in them there waters

Mini Hoodoos

Rocky Mountains

Always prettier when snow covered 

Pretty wee waterfall 

Again.. me and water. 

A fish's joyride. Yeehawww!

That had to be some chunk of ice to cut through those rocks.

Heli skiing

Oh hello.. 

The sun managed to break through

An elf's stool?

Or an elf's umbrella? 

Late start pussy willows

Mr & Mrs out foraging

I hide behind tree, you can't see meeee

Word of advice:
Make sure you pack an extra battery or at the very least the stupid battery charger when you head off somewhere to photograph.. because, you know, you might be a dumbass like me and end up coming back home after the first day.
:-/

It's Okay!

It's Okay

...to try to grow from seed. Tomatoes, cukes, green onions,peppers. The wait for fruition, however, is looooong. 


...to have a tattoo removed. I'm excited to claim my back as my own,unmarked. But believe everything they say, it's hurts way more to take off than to put on. The back being a more painful area.
Much.Much.More. 


...to sell stuff that's just gathering dust. And it's priced to move. But that's not good enough for you, no. You want it for next to free and delivered some 40 clicks ( 25 miles ) away? Either you think I'm stupid or you clearly suffer from that affliction.  


...for the rain to fall. We desperately need it. The birth of gazillions of mosquitoes afterwards, however, isn't. Not at all. 


...to wear heels. But do you notice how many women actually don't know how to walk in them? Seriously.. some of you? Flats. Now.


...to be sad another one of the Bee Gees died. They were the bomb back in my day. R.I.P. Robin. 


...for the season finales to air. Big Brother's coming. I know, I know.. but it's my guilty pleasure.


...to be an on air news personality.But, honey, quit your nerve grating back teeth gnashing giggling already.  Is professionalism not a job requirement? Why are you not fired? 


...to have the cajones to call a spade a spade. There are.. delicate cases when I have to shut my mouth or be pc correct, I know this. What is not okay is those that are two faced. On a daily basis. Aren't you , in essence, living a continual lie? That can't be easy. 


...to stare at appreciate the look of my husband. He's a looker, isn't he? I know, I know. What's not ok ( for you ) is when you spill coffee all over yourself because you missed your mouth by a country mile. I will apologize for the belly laugh, I couldn't help myself.




What about you, my bloggy pals, what are YOU okay with?

Musings of This, That and Other Things.

Ahh the things you find out and can do when your adult children live with you.Things like:

- My eldest eats like my father. S l o w...zzzzzz . One food group at a time, thank you very much. One has to be all gone before starting in on the another.
- My youngest. God love her. We have this trigger happy fire alarm (not a bad thing) that starts screaming when we semi burn our toast. It sets off the one upstairs which is very loud when one is trying to sleep.(again, not a bad thing)
Sure enough the other morning one daughter burns her toast and the youngest stands at the doorbell chime,(situated on the wall) fanning for a solid minute. The eldest walks up to her, grabs the dishtowel, walks over a foot and a half fanning the actual fire alarm. (situated on the ceiling)
Sigh.
She meant well...
- They are adults but given the chance, they can fight like teenagers. Only with the benefit of age and razor sharp arrows. Yowza! Wiping away a tear of pride. sniff.
- They can get me to do to their bidding way faster. They use much more effective logic. Smartasses.
- I have the ridiculous pleasure of flipping them off at will now. I. Love. It. Bahahahaha
- We're able to sit and enjoy a glass of wine together. ( some of us more than one, lightweights like me, less than.You get my drift. )
- I find out what they did behind my back as teens. I laugh about it. Now. That's called smart play on their parts.
- Sex is but a fond memory. :-/  ( Mostly I put that in there because I know they are going to read this, I can hear the 'EWWWWW'. Payback is petty but fun my pretties.. BAHAHAHAHA. )
- I can walk away from the supper dishes, I can safely ignore the phone without thinking it's one of the kids in dire straights and I've walked away from the housework. (speaking of smart plays)
- Thanking the powers that be for a big enough house because two adult women with a 4 yr old in tow and two cats added to two dogs with two adults already here sucks up a lot of space.
- I'm here to tell you that three women can make it with one vehicle. It just takes a whole lotta juggling.
- Regulating sucks. Major bad week once a month. Steer clear. You've been warned fair and square.

This kind of garbage scares me and I'm powerless to do anything about it. :-(
We all check our stats ( oh don't even try to tell me you don't. ) Once a week I check mine, curious to see the search words used leading that person to my page.Today was my weekly venture in and what did I see that made me want to hurl?
'Very young, very naked'
I wish with every fibre of my being there was a way to neon highlight for the cops the people who search this type of thing. My stomach lurches and I feel an instant rage at the sickness walking free in this world. Whoever you are, you bottom feeder of slime, I hope you meet a horrible and very painful death. Soon.
But you didn't bargain for what you got did you?
Whoever you are, I hate you.

On to lighter things...
Sometimes I just gosh darn impress myself. I really really do.
Yup,tootin' me own horn, I am.
I recently purchased a new camera body which I am still doing a happy dance over. I like it that much. But as with anything technologically new it takes me a bit to stop being 'scared' of it. I dug in and bite the bullet. And bite I did. I went into the guts of it,played with every button,changed options while adding others. I really got into it's core. I found out what makes it tick.. all except for one thing. Drove me clean nuts. I spent the day yesterday googling for a solution, got nowhere. And when I get nowhere, I get frustrated to the point of tears. And I was on the cusp.
BUT ha ha! just before I went to bed, I googled it once more, the next step was to call one of my favourite photography places and pick someone's brain which I don't like doing.I prefer to figure it out on my own.
So I googled it one more time and there, in the smallest of typing, in some obscure link I. found. it.
I found it! Score!
 Boo to the YA!...then spent the next hour trying to fall asleep. Wide awake, stupid me. Stupid self induced frustration headache.
Should of gotten dressed and went night shooting because you know.. I rocked my problem, I can do anything.
Bah.. just laid there congratulating myself instead, listening to the night sounds outside. ( which can be anything from coyotes howling to screeching tires to 4 year old meltdowns. I as graced with all three. )

And what about you, my bloggy pals, what are your musings of the day?

The Best of 700

My daughter joked that I can take 700 photographs and be happy with only six. Hence the title of this post.

Jelly Bellies

Comfort Zone

Small birds, huge squawkers 

Shadows

Water Trails

Silk Flows

Rocky Edge

Stone Paths

Photograph or Painting?

Strength

The Curl

Depth

Beauty in the eye of the beholder. He finds me lacking I think

Garden Zen

Sun Worshipper 

Trust

His Crib

One lens looking into another.

Open Letters

Open Letters

Dear FB chick,
I'm pretty sure you aren't supposed to advertise what you are selling using my picture to do it. Even if you are charging 6 times what I am.
Logical selling etiquette 101, dumb-ass.
Signed,
Jamie-selling MY thing, not yours. 


Dear High School Reunion Alumnus, 
I apologize ahead of time. I don't think I will remember you :-( If you see me going for a wine refill more than twice, stop me. I'm actually just trying to cover my embarrassment at not remembering by becoming inebriated thus embarrassing myself even further.  And yes, that is Donna G I will be hiding behind. It was pre-arranged. 
Signed, 
Jamie Class of  um ahh errr - Hey Donna? What year again??' 



Dear Body, 
Quit changing your bloody mind on how you want to work mmkay? I'm trying to keep up but you keep changing the rules. Not fair. And I don't like your game plan much. 
Signed, 
Forced to play your way. 



Dear Car Owner, 
Did you or did you not see the signS ( indicating more than ONE ) stating they were going to do street sweeping on my road today? And yet, here you are parked in front of my house which they will bypass because  of your stupid piece of SHIT .
If you come across your car in the future, windows down, I will apologize now. I was walking with my box of road shit, trying to find somewhere to throw it away, tripped and fell against your Precious. Well you can imagine what happened to the box with no resistance to stop it. It propelled forward and inside. Oopsy. Sowwie. 
Signed, 
Front of House Parking Police


Dear People, 
A head's up. I'll be turning 50 in 9 months. No, I'm not happy about it but I am learning to slowly accept it. However, a few changes have and will occur. 
In bullet form: ( feel free to print it out and tuck it in your wallet for reference )  
• I am learning to live for myself more. Less for you.
• My patience isn't what it used to be. I'm trying to stretch it but I'm not always successful. 
• I refuse to be sucked into your drama fest. Go find like, I ain't it. 
• I need my 1/2 glass of wine. Every day. Stops me from blurting out things some people should be hearing. You're welcome. 
• I will walk away from you quicker now. I am worth more than just in a time of need. I don't have it in me anymore. 
• It takes a lot for me to reach out and be sociable so celebrate it if you are the chosen one that week.  
• Should you venture forth on the day I turn 50 to wish me a good one, check with my girls first. I have no way of knowing if I'll be human that day. Good luck, may the force field be with you.   
• If I misplace my iPhone and a public alarm bell sounds, drop everything and come help me find it. I live by iCal, it tells me what to do. Without it I am lost. Like a puppy out in the rain.  
• I have little regard for ignorance, selfishness or ego. If you are presenting any of these stay away. Stay far far away. 
• If you notice I look tired, for pity's sake, shut your pie hole. I already know I look like that.
• If you see I'm in a good mood, call everyone we know. It's time for a gathering complete with food and wine. This should happen once a month. Watch for signs, like.. I'm smiling or something odd ball like that.
• If you see me looking like I need a friend and I haven't managed to push you away yet, then come closer and give me a hug. I probably really need it. 
• If, after all that, you still want to be my friend, then you can consider yourself a solid lifer. Lucky you. 

Musings of This, That and Other Things

Ever come across someone so sickly sweet your teeth hurt? I did. And I'm not sure how I made it through the encounter without reaching out and tripping her. Just for shits & giggles.
Not that I'm a bitch, or grumpy. Well.. I can be both, but that's besides the point.
My husband and I went to grab a bite to eat and had the misfortune of running into a cross between Pollyfreakin'anna and an adult Shirley 'Lollypop' Temple.
Omg my shoulders are almost touching my ears just thinking about it..
Just how does someone like that live in their own skin?
I hope she sheds that persona when she walks out her work doors because if she lived on my street, I'd run her out inside a week.
Give me sarcasm, stress or grumpy. I know what to do with that.
Take your extreme Pollyannas and drop them off on a remote island somewhere. I'm sure with their 1000w mega smiles they'll be able to find their way around in the dark.
And just think of what a HAPPY place that would be.

Question: How do you drive? Laid back, two fingers on the steering wheel? Your wrist casually draped over the top of it? 10 to 2, 11 to 3? Fingers interlaced?
Or do you drive wrapped around the bloody steering wheel?
Honestly, I have no idea how some do it like that. It's a danger. Flat out. How do you do a left or right hand turn without elbowing yourself in the stomach? How can you have a quick reaction time when your arms, elbows and hands tie themselves in a knot, looking like a dog pawing at something when you are yarding on the wheel?
Um and yeah.. do you realize you don't look 'cool' whatsoever? It looks like you are having a terrified white knuckle hanging on for dear life moment.
Seriously.

What started as making room for a new treadmill ( You're welcome Lance, I helped contribute to your Cancer cause :-)  ) turned into a four day cleaning out/selling binge.
That's what hubby called it, I called it a 'never freakin' again' binge. I was hubby's 'grunt', gopher, phone answering service, seller. On top of daily groceries, cooking, laundry, motherhood and grandmotherhood.
I had people calling me steady, ringing the door bell . (Thus ensuring a crescendo of high pitched barking from one dog and a non ending stream of short extremely loud barking from another. )
I'm thisclose to ripping that damn ringer thing out of the wall, I am.
I'm NOT a seller, I DON'T like strangers in my house, I don't like my peace and quiet blown to absolute bits.
However, I like the $$ we made. ( and are making ) I like watching my husband overcome his packrat tendencies. ( Don't believe me? Well, what does one do with 14 tape measures, 11 hammers or 7 pry bars ??! I mean... really. And sure enough, someone like my husband bought the whole enchilada. His wife was just shaking her head. I gave her the number to the 'Tool Therapy' class hubby just graduated from lol)
I have made enough to cover the new treadmill and on my way to starting my new camera body fund. Boo Ya! Hubby's after buying a boat. ( he'll do it too, just on the sheer volume of ... crap stuff he's selling. )
But I will be happy when this is over. I'll have the quiet of my house back, I'll have room in my basement ( with both girls moving back in , I have, on top of hubby's stuff, two apartments worth of their, er..things. sigh) and I have a new treadmill.

Which, by the way, I've had zero time to use :-/


What about you, my bloggy pals, what are your musings and thoughts?