Spring is finally here, we made it!

On the last official evening of winter this year, we were treated to a “supermoon.”  A moon that was something like 17% bigger, 30% brighter, and only a mere 355 000 kilometers away from our lovely planet, Earth.  Anyone who knows me, knows that I could not resist the photographic opportunity of this rare occurrence.  The last time we way a “supermoon” was in 1993, the next time we’ll see it will the year 2029.  My husband and I packed up the kids along with the tripod and camera, and headed down to the lake to find the perfect spot; one that gave us a good view, and that also sheltered us from the wind.  We found our spot just as the moon had started to crest the horizon, it didn’t take me long to set up and start snapping pictures.  Unfortunately there was a ridge of clouds just above the horizon that the moon did slip behind for about 15 minutes, which of course, felt like hours out in the cold; and then,the moon rose again.  We were trying to think back if the kids had ever seen a moon rise and we couldn’t think of a time that they had, so this made it extra special.  The kids, albeit cold and bored, thought the experience was well worth freezing for.

Now that it’s officially spring, bring on the flowers, sunshine and nice weather.  My crocus’ are up, as are my daffodils.  Happy Spring to all.

~ Linda

Lemon Thyme

Happy Family Day weekend to you!!

I went to the garden centre this past week to pick up some fresh herbs.  I’ll admit that I am the worst at growing herbs indoors, I kill them every single time, but I keep trying and I always will until I learn to do it right.  So, why am I blogging about herbs?  Because I don’t think herbs get enough time in the spotlight.  Fresh herbs, when grown correctly are plentiful, and delicious!  I have always found that the store-bought “fresh herbs” are just not fresh enough for me, and they are expensive.  In my case, when I buy fresh herbs in the store in those convenient little packages, there is TOO much in one package and I end up throwing out more than half of it.  What a waste!  My advice…go to your local garden centre and pick up a few of your favourite potted herbs, learn to grow them, and then use what you need as you need it.

PIctured above is my absolute favourite herb of all time, it’s lemon thyme.  It has such a beautiful flavour.  I find with a lot of lemon flavoured “things” it usually tastes like lemon pledge…yuck!  Lemon thyme on the other hand has a subtle lemon flavour that compliments many dishes, it’s not too strong or too weak, it’s perfect!  I will make pasta for my children, add some olive oil, salt and pepper with some freshly grated parmesan cheese and a healthy sprinkling of lemon thyme and they gobble it up like it’s the greatest thing on earth.  I used it in scrambled eggs this morning with some chopped mushrooms delicious!!  NO butter or added fat needed.  Herbs really are a life saver for people who are on limited diets or are trying to just eat healthier.  Fresh herbs give all the flavour without adding sugars or fats.

If you haven’t tried lemon thyme yet, please do so, you won’t be sorry!

Until next time…

~Linda

Hi everyone!  Hope you all had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

The new year is well underway now and I have not taken any pictures at all, mostly because there’s nothing to take pictures of.

I’ve learned a few very important lessons from my “picture-a-day” project and I’m going to take the opportunity to explain as best I can in this post.  The most important lesson I learned is that you can’t (or at least I can’t) force photography and have it be great.  That would be having my cake and eating it too and more often than not it doesn’t work.  For me, photography is definitely a hobby, when I say that what I mean is that last year showed me that I don’t have what it takes to do photography for a job, it would drive me crazy to have to sit in a studio and take boring pictures all day of people or things I didn’t care about.   I like taking pictures when I want to, when something particular catches my eye, or I wake up early in the morning with a great picture in mind that I would like to try to create.  I don’t do well with pressure, and pressure is something that I often felt with my project along with guilt.  To harbour such negative feelings while taking pictures it seems that the negativity goes into the photo and when I see it I remember the feelings I experienced.  All in all, not good.  A lot of people suggested that it just wasn’t the right time in my life; young family and lots of responsibilities.  This is all true.  When my husband and I are older, if we are fortunate enough to have the health and the means to travel around the world we both will journal our travels through photography, now that sounds exciting to me, to go to foreign places discovering the world and then bringing back all the pictures to share with family and friends.

At the beginning of this project I said I wanted to “broaden my horizons”, go beyond taking pictures of flowers, and I did!  I took many pictures of many things, some I am proud to say “yes, I took that”.  At the end of all this I still really like taking pictures of flowers, and I will continue to do so.  Everyone has a style, and I just wanted to find out what mine truly is.  Some people like landscape/nature, while others like children, and some like abstract.  I have always said I love macro (close-up) photography, and through this I’d have to say that it is my “style”.  I don’t want to put any labels on myself though.  If something is beautiful to me than I’m going to take a picture of it, regardless of what it is or what style it is.

The picture I posting above was taken in April 2010.  This is the picture that I am most proud to say is mine.  This is the picture that I think broke my boundaries, I showed myself that I was capable of taking a good picture that wasn’t of a flower, or my kids, or my pets.  Out of many favourites, this is one of them.

And so with that I will end this chapter.  I’ve learned, and grown in many ways.  I will take my camera with me when I feel like it, and I will take pictures when I feel like it.  I will keep this blog going so I can share my pictures and adventures with all of you.  Thank you so much for following me and being supportive throughout 2010, I would have given up on it a long time ago if it wasn’t for all of you encouraging me to keep going.

I look forward to 2011 and the adventures it has in store for me and my family!

Until…

~Linda

Hello everyone!  Yes, it’s been a long time since my last blog post.  The weeks have flown by at warp speed and by the time the weekend comes I just want to do nothing.  Weeks have gone by and my poor camera is sitting in the corner, bagged and abandoned.  I have been busy putting up Christmas decorations, Christmas shopping and Christmas baking.  Now that I am done all my Christmas duties I am ready to enjoy all the hard work it takes to make this season special.

As my project for this year nears its end I am having some bitter/sweet feelings.  I have to be honest, my feelings are little more on the sweeter side than bitter.  I did not realize how much of a commitment this was going to be when I started it on January 1, added with the guilt of not meeting my at first daily and then weekly goals I just started to feel guilty and bad and ultimately giving up.  Everyone tells me that I am too busy for a project like this because I have a big family, but truthfully I really am not that busy, what it came down to was that I just didn’t know what to take pictures of, so I didn’t take pictures at all.  Another sweet part of this project ending is now I can be casual again with my camera and taking pictures “just because”.  When I do take pictures I will definitely share them along with a story here on this blog.  Now for the bitter part; this part is just the reminder that another year has come to an end, and I swear this one has gone by the fastest of all my years.  I always get a little sad this time of year because me and my husband are getting another year older, and our children getting another year older.  I really try very hard to not put too much thought into it and when January comes I set new goals for the year and work hard to try to meet them.

Okay, so this picture that I have included in this blog is of some nutcrackers that I purchased a couple of years ago at my local Zehrs grocery store.  I have all my Christmas decorations out along with a fully trimmed tree and I thought it would be nice to make this my picture for this blog.

I will be blogging again by the end of the month to finish off the project.  After that who knows what comes next!

Until the end of December…

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas!  Enjoy your families and your holidays, however you celebrate them.

~ Linda

Happy Thanksgiving to my fellow Canadians!  I hope you all have a nice weekend full of eating turkey and potatoes and pie, oh my!!

On Friday the kiddies had a P.A.Day so we grabbed our passports and headed south of the border for some geocaching and sightseeing.  This was the first time our kids have been to the USA so they were pretty excited to see how things are different or the same as Canada.  One thing we all noticed was the amount of American flags there were, on every house, every building, every guard rail post, and even right out in the middle of nowhere.  Americans sure are patriotic, something Canadians only practice when it comes to the Stanley Cup playoffs or the olympics.  We headed over to Letchworth State Park, I got the idea from an old friend of mine from highschool.  She is very much an adventuress, there is nothing she won’t do and no place she won’t go,  she inspires me to get outside and see what the world has to offer.  April, if you’re reading this…thank you for inspiring me to be more adventurous!

So off we went, driving down country roads through quaint little towns clad with American flags and faded swags hanging over the porch railings, I’m guessing left over from Independence Day.  The country side was absolutely breathtaking, rolling hills and valleys with all the warm beautiful colours autumn has to offer.

The picture above is of one of the many waterfalls that Letchworth State Park has to offer.  I can’t wait to make another trip there, the park is so big that there is no way we could have done it all in a day.  We’ve had an awesome weekend and I hope all of you have too.

I am sure I have mentioned it before but I think it’s worth mentioning again; my other hobby is geocaching, it’s fun, adventurous, good exercise and gets your family working on something together, and best of all it’s CHEAP!   If you would like to know more about it go to www.geocaching.com …all you need is a GPS (not the kind that you suction to the windshield of your car, the other kind), a computer so you can search for the geocaches in the area you’d like to go to, and believe me you’ll be surprised at how many caches there are all over the world, don’t forget to pack a snack and some water because you get hungry fast when your out in the wilderness.

Until next Sunday…

~Linda

So it’s been over a month since I last blogged.  What can I say?  I have 4 boys, all of whom I had to get ready for the upcoming school year.  A few days after school started my husband of 13 wonderful years and I took our very first trip together, we went to Las Vegas.  We didn’t have a honeymoon and shortly after getting married we welcomed our first of four beautiful boys, we simply have not had the time nor the money to travel.   My husband turned 40 in September and I really wanted to make his 40th extra special, so I booked a trip for 2 to Las Vegas for 4 days, we had a wonderful time.  Las Vegas is a very busy place as well as very hot and very dry.  My husband has always talked about seeing the Hoover Dam so we were sure to book a tour, it’s gargantuan, there are no other words to describe it.  Even though I took pictures you could never begin to grasp how huge it is through a photograph, you have to see it in person.  We had a nice time together and we’re glad that we went, but honestly I don’t think we’ll make a return trip.  We’re looking forward to seeing some other places, and seeing them with our children; we were not even 48 hours into our trip and we desperately missed them.

The photo that is above is of the turbines at the bottom of the Hoover Dam on the Nevada side.  There are 8 turbines here, 9 turbines on the Arizona side.  We were standing on a mezzanine floor over looking this room.  Please take note of the transport truck that is on the floor beside one of the turbines about half way down, if it wasn’t for that truck being there you would have absolutely no clue as to how massive these turbines really are.  The tour was good, except you don’t get to go outside at the bottom of the dam and look up, this was the one part of the tour that we were really looking forward to but unfortunately is not part of the tour.  There are two bronze angel statues at the dam, they represent the first and last man to die whilst working on the dam.  The first man died on December 20, 1922 of drowning while surveying where to put the dam, exactly 13 years to the day his son died while working on the dams construction.  People believe that if you rub the feet of the angels it will bring you good luck.  You can find the picture of one of the angels in my Flickr account in the file titled “September”.

October is here and we have some road trips booked for this month to capture and enjoy the scenery that comes with fall, I am expecting to have many pictures and stories to share with all of you.

Hope everyone is well.

Until next Sunday…

~ Linda

Hi everyone!  First I want to say that there is only 15 days till school starts!  I’m just a little excited about this.  I think the kids have finally gotten to the point now that they are equally excited to get back to school.  As any parent would agree, 2 months is far too long.  I’m sure they will implement all year schooling the year after my youngest son graduates.

I didn’t take any pictures at all this past week.  The kids and I have been just hanging around the house, we did go to Canada’s Wonderland with friends of ours.  We spent the day and had a ton of fun.

Since I didn’t take any pictures this past week I am going to take the opportunity to talk about my other hobby; running.

I downloaded an app for my iPhone that is called Couch to 5K.  It literally takes you from being a couch potato and turns you into a running machine over a 9 week period.  You start the course with a combination of running and walking; actually more walking than running.  Gradually it increases your running time whilst decreasing your walking time.  The goal is that by the end of the 9 week course you are running 5K without any walking.  I will be doing my last run on this course tomorrow…I made it!!!  I can actually run 5K without stopping.  This is very exciting for me as I have always wanted to be a runner but I didn’t think I had it in me; turns out I do.

My friend told me about a race that takes place every December in Burlington.  It’s called Santa Jingle Bell.  It’s a 5K run with all participants wearing Santa Claus suits.  I signed up for it yesterday!!  I’m so excited!!

Although it is optional, I chose to raise money for a charity of my choice.  I chose the Sick Kids Foundation.  Thankfully I have never had to use their services, I have been blessed with very healthy children.  Some children and their families have not been so fortunate.  There has always been a very soft spot in my heart for these families and children who are faced with illnesses and who have to make the Sick Kids Hospital their home.  It absolutely breaks my heart, children should never have to face these obstacles, but unfortunately they do.  So this year when I do my very first race, I’ll be doing it for all the sick kids and their families.  I’ve set up a donation page at the SickKids Foundation website and at the Running Room website (where I signed up for the race) both under my name, where anyone and everyone can sponsor me on my first race.  I will include all the websites at the end of this blog.

This is a great cause to donate to and I’m thrilled to do it.  I’ve explained to my kids what I’m doing and I actually get teary eyed when I talk about how it feels to give, especially to something like this,  and do it purely because you want to.  So if you want to sponsor me follow the links below.  Any amount you have to give is greatly appreciated and I truly thank you.

This is the link to the Santa Jingle Bell race incase you’d like to sign up…

http://www.events.runningroom.com/site/?raceId=5128

Here is the link to my charity page through The Running Room, you can also just go to the running room website and choose “sponsor and athlete” and then type in my name, or just follow this link…if the links don’t work copy and paste it into you browser’s address bar.

https://www.giving.runningroom.com/hm/index.php?sub=3&charity=17&id=UjJWZAZrAmA=&enuserId=VDACMwRpB2AAa1Jn&item=8

Here is the link for the SickKids Foundation website where you can also sponsor me through…again you can go directly to their website and search for me there.

http://my.e2rm.com/personalPage.aspx?registrationID=936563

Hope you all have a beautiful week.

Until next Sunday (I promise to get back to pictures)…

~Linda

Got Milk?

Hey everyone!!

So I’ll start by saying that the kids and I went to my mom’s farm last week.  They live on a dairy farm 2 hours from where I live and I don’t get there much so I took my camera to take advantage of the different surroundings.  I lived on the farm for a few years and although farm life is not for me I do enjoy the farm animals.  It was nice to get out of the city for the day and head to the country where the air is fresh and the city noise if far behind, we had a great day!  My mom quickly put the boys to work in her garden after making them breakfast.  After picking some weeds we started to collect the bounty from all the hard work over the summer; tomatoes, beans, peas, carrots and onions…delicious!  Thanks for sharing mom!

As we head into the last couple weeks of the summer holidays I find ourselves scrambling to do all the things we had planned for the summer…going to the beach, Canada’s Wonderland, cleaning and purging the house, with only 3 weeks left we’d better get to it.  I’ve probably had the most fun this summer, due in part to my new friendships that I’ve made over the last year and because my boys are not little-little anymore, they are much easier and fun to travel with or just hang out with now.  I can only imagine that summers from here on out are just going to become more fun and adventurous.  For so long I was home with a combination of  babies, toddlers and beyond; trying to keep a group like that happy and entertained is nearly impossible.   I’m finally starting to enjoy summer again.

This Friday Ginger (my pooch) has to have dental surgery.  I’ve neglected her teeth for ever and now it’s finally caught up with me.  She has two teeth on either side of her jaw that are so badly decayed that one of them has actually broken in half, so she’s getting them both pulled.  The vet suggested that we could do root canal and repair the teeth and then gold cap them; I laughed and then told her to just pull them out to which she agreed.  I appreciated that the vet let me know what my options were, but seriously I wouldn’t even gold cap my own teeth why would I do it for my dog?!  So the lesson learned this week is to brush your pets teeth because beef flavoured tooth paste is a lot cheaper than doggie dental surgery.

Have a nice week everyone!!

Until next Sunday…

~ Linda

Is this Alvin, Simon or Theodore?

Wow!!  Two blogs in one week, I’m on a roll.  I had so much fun this morning with my husband and our children.  We went to Starbucks to grab a coffee (adults only) and took the kids to a local park that has a trail that walks along the bay.  I was a beautiful morning, not hot and not cold; perfect.  I brought my camera to take some candid photos of the boys which turned out amazing, I will definitely be printing and putting on the wall.  After we let the boys run around and burn their energy off by running up and rolling down the hills we took to the walking trail to see what we could find.  Luck would have it that there were some very friendly, hungry chipmunks along the path.  I have never in my life come so close to a chipmunk.  We came across a man with his two kids, I took pictures of the chipmunk the was eating right out of the little girls hand, we asked for his email address so I could mail him the pictures.  There were at least 10 of them running all around, the kids loved it.  It’s times like today that I wish I had two cameras; one with a regular lens and one with a zoom lens.  I always seem to need the lens that is not currently attached to my camera and therefore I lose the shot in the time it takes me to switch lenses, frustrating.  Perhaps one day I’ll upgrade to a bigger camera and my husband and I can each have a camera with a multitude of lenses, then we’ll be ready for anything that comes our way.

All in all I think I had a productive week with my camera, I will of course load the pictures on to Flickr for your viewing pleasure.   This coming week the kids and I will head out for a day trip to my moms dairy farm where they will have a chance to feed some calves and raid grandma’s garden.  I may need a bigger memory card!

Only 30 days till school starts…

Have a wonderful week!

~ Linda

Sunflowers

Hi everyone, it’s Thursday and I’m only writing my blog now.

The kids are done camp, July was a fantastic month for both them and me.  The kids are home now and the days are long and very hot and therefore boredom is at its peak.  The shelves at Wal-Mart are stocked full of school supplies and it’s just a matter of time now before my all-time favourite commercial hits the television set.  Any parent who has school aged children knows what commercial I’m talking about; Staples (It’s the most wonderful time of the year)!!!  Before we know it it’ll be the first day of school, but what to do until then?

My husband called me excited on his drive home one day last week because a field of sunflowers was in full bloom, the sun was bright, the sky was blue and the side of the road was packed with people taking pictures with everything from cell phones, point and shoot cameras to full on paparazzi lenses and tripods.  I made my way out there two days later to find that a lot of the sunflowers had already wilted, I’m assuming due to the extreme temperatures we’ve been experiencing.  I did manage to get a few good shots though.

I haven’t taken any pictures yet this week, I will come up with something before the weekend.  Next week I’d like to head to my mom’s farm with the kids.  Plenty of fantastic photo opportunities not only at the farm but also on the drive up there.  Weather permitting, that will be the plan.

Hope everyone is well.

Until Sunday…

~ Linda