Day 149/365

My newest ring from Avon - where else?  Isn't he adorable?  A little alligator/crocodile.  I never could tell the difference.  One's snout is rounded, one's snout is long and pointed.  But I could never remember which was which.  But aside from that, I think this little guy is just SO cute!  I like him better than my turtle ring, and I really like the turtle ring.  This crocogator even has little sharp teeth in his mouth.  When the sun hits him, there are sparkles everywhere!!  And, as we all know, I LOVE sparkles!!  :)

Day 148/365

Flowers from my B/F.  He gave me a dozen the weekend before this past one, then added another dozen this past weekend.  I stuffed them all into one vase, and got a nice, full bunch.  They're beautiful.  This is how roses should be given to a woman.

Day 147/365

The moon 2 nights ago.  It was just coming over the roof tops, and was catching the glow of the B.C. fires.  It was just too beautiful not to get a photo of. 

Day 146/365

Major hail storm this afternoon.  Came down in buckets.  It got so dark, the street lights came on!  If you look closely in this picture, especially where the street light pole is, you can see the hail as it bounces back up.  I was glad to be able to capture those bounces on camera.  After the storm, it looked like it had snowed.  There were drifts of hail against the fences.  Fortunately, my b/f was on top of things, and put my poor, previously battered begonias in the shed, so they survived this monster.  Happy, happy.  All in all, it was a hell of a storm, with thunder, lightening, black clouds, rain and hail.  Everything a storm should be.  Next time, I'd like to do it without the hail, though.  :-)

Day 145/365

This picture was taken by one of my grandbabies.  It shows how smokey it is here from the forest fires in B.C.  It's been like this for 3 days now.  I heard that it's worse in Edmonton.  Another good reason not to live there.  Don't know when this smoke will end.  Makes it hard to breathe.  There's an advisory out for people with lung issues.  They're urging people to stay inside as much as possible and keep the windows closed.  Lucky for us, we have an air filter in the house, which helps keep the inside air a bit cleaner.

Day 144/365

The fires in B.C. have sent their smoke to us in Alberta.  It's hard to breathe, and there's a constant haze in the sky, as well as the stink of the smoke.  It's hard on the lungs.  This is a picture taken of the moon last night (August 19), which is glowing red from the fires.  It's amazing how something several hundred miles away can affect us so much.  I'd hate to be in B.C. right now.  It must be horrific.  This shot was taken with a 300 mm lens. 

Day 143/365

These are the condos outside my gym in Braeside.  A few weeks ago, when we had that monsoon blow through here, this parking lot was a couple of feet under water.  My gym flooded, and the condos you see in this picture also flooded.  You can see the waterline on the garage doors.  The parking lot is still a mess.  Last time I was there, though, some sort of paving crew was in the parking lot.  Maybe they're taking the huge dip out of the parking lot, so the water doesn't pool??  Have no idea.  Ironically, when I was looking to buy a place, I actually looked at buying one of these condos.  As it turned out, I didn't like the layout of the living room, so didn't buy one.  Good thing!

Day 142/365

Another pic from last weekend when we went looking for Lake MacGregor.  This is the sign at the town limits of Blackie, Alberta.  It's a beautiful sign, lots of detail.  I am impressed with the amount of work that went into making it.  We were taking back roads, and found our way to Blackie.  We drove through town twice, and only saw 4 children out playing the second time we drove through, but no one else.  Kind of like a Stephen King book.  It was such a small town, but very peaceful.  It had a restaurant, a food store, and that was about it.  The library and fire hall were in the same building and the sign said "Blackie Library & Fire Hall".  It amused me.

Day 141/365

We went to Vulcan last weekend.  I've passed by it many, many times, but have never stopped to look at the USS Starship Enterprise.  I'm a Trekkie, an original from the '60s, so it was great to finally stop and check it out.  It was pretty cool!

Day 140/365

This is MacGregor Lake, south east of Calgary, just past Mossleigh.  It's a huge lake.  Very big.  Man made, apparently, because it's been damned at one end.  It's quite pretty, very busy with campers and boaters and water skiers and jetskis, etc.  Fishermen, too.  (Okay, fisherwomen, too, to be fair to everyone.  And fisherchildren.  Have I covered everybody?!?!)  We stopped at the north end of the lake first (not this picture), and the smell of the wild flowers around was so beautiful.  I could have stayed there all day, just smelling the flowers.  Then we drove to the south end of the lake, some 20 or 25 km further.  That's where this picture was taken.  If you look really closely, the white dot in the center of the picture is a pelican.  A pelican!  Just sitting there!  It was incredible!  Then a boat came roaring past, scaring him, and he took flight and flew almost over our heads.  It was quite the sight!

Day 139/365

This is another card I made.  I had a model I was trying to follow, but I decided to make my card smaller, so had to dump a bunch of things from the model.  Then I decided that the model was way too "busy" for my tastes, and I cut out a bunch more things.  What I ended up was this.  I'm pretty happy with it, actually. 

Day 138/365

Great start to a great day.  Took my kids out for brunch this morning.  Because of everyones varied schedule, this is a rare treat for us, but is so special when it does happen.  I'd like to do it more often, and will work toward that goal.  Unfortunately, the grandchildren couldn't make the brunch, but hopefully next time.  Missed you, kids!!

Day 137/365

This is a little place in Red Deer we like to go to.  We've been going there since 2004.  They have the neatest things in this store.  Every time we go, there's something new, or something we didn't see before.  They've got beautiful china, lots of teapots, Christmas stuff, silly stuff, etc.  Very interesting.  This time, we were looking for flowering tea balls.  They had them, of course.  It's definitely one store we really like.

Day 136/365

A while back, I went shopping with my two beautiful granddaughters.  It was a GREAT day!  I love being around them, and we can be as goofy as we want to be.  They're definitely a high point in my life.  I love all my grandchildren, they bring so much to me.

Day 135/365

This poor little guy was found under my friend's tree after a crow attacked the nest and threw out him and another baby.  Sad to say, the other baby didn't survive.  It was quite traumatic to see both these poor babies out on their own.  When we approached this little one, he thought we'd be feeding him, and opened his mouth, waiting for food that never came.  Very sad.  The good news is, his dad found him, and came down shortly after and fed him, so there was a happy ending for him.  :-)

Day 133/365

Our neighbor decided to have his pine tree taken down.  This was the tree that lost the top half of itself when that storm hit last week.  They also took down a tree that had been dead for about 5 years (see it in the left of the photo), which was about time.  It's strange to see the house without the pine tree.  As it turns out, because it doesn't block the sun/moon anymore, it provides more light for us in our house.  Also, because their house is very light in color (cream), there's more reflected light, which makes it brighter out there.  I like it.  A lot.  Now we just have to get rid of the pine trees in our other neighbor's yards to the left and right of our property!!  :)

Day 132/365

Went to Timmy's for coffee and an Ice Cap and a good, long visit with an old dear friend.  Well, she's not "old", but she is a friend from many years back.  Haven't seen her in 7 years, since we're in opposite ends of the city.  But sometimes you just have to break out and see the people that matter to you, and that's what I did.  Felt great, and it was good to see her after all this time.  Family and friends are important.  Don't let them slip away.  Lesson learned.