Surprise sunflowers

 

Condo living is OK, just OK, sharing laundry facilities with an entire floor, noisy 2 am neighbors that don’t care about how sound carries.  And all the rules that it seems everyone ignores, no laundry after 10:00, no noise after 10:00, don’t park in your neighbors spot, those boring kind of rules.

Along with the nosy neighbor in the apartment across the street who “you hooooo’s“ me when I am bafffed out on the couch.  Startling the stuffing out of me, “where did that voice come from, and who is she calling, ME?  I don’t believe it, it’s over a 150 feet, and she can see me?  OH, no!

We are pretty respectful of all the rules, with one small exception. “Don’t feed the birds”

As far as breaking the rules, it’s pretty small in my estimation, and since my neighbor who is elderly, and a very decent woman does it, I am thinking that it’s while not OK, it’s not a true biggy.

So we feed the birds, and have been doing it for sometime.  I am almost hanging my head in shame here - not!

I obey every road rule, I am quiet, and respectful of everyone else. 

My babies, the birds need something to eat on a regular basis. We were feeding them mixed bird seed, and not realizing that they didn’t like it.  They were picking through and only eating the black oil sunflower seeds.  Once we changed over to sunflower seeds, it was perfect. No more spilled seed, no unsightly cream colored hulls, that showed up all winter against the black soil.

And now we have a surprise bonus of sunflowers. They are so cute, and only 2 feet tall, with tiny little yellow heads. They are just babies, and not quite open yet. But a real bonus instead of the weeds that used to grow there.  I am definitely going to be feeding the birds black sunflower seeds when we get our farm.

Jen @ Muddy Boot Dreams

A one rule breaker...

 

Bloggers Beware!!!

 

 

I have already received 2 emails from fellow bloggers email accounts. 

Telling me that they have just purchased a iphone and got a great deal

on it.

It goes on to say the link is safe, IT’S NOT!

Don’t click on it, mark it as spam, let’s shut

whoever this is down fast!

Let your fellow bloggers know about this nasty scam.

Jen @ Muddy Boot Dreams

Summer in all of her faded beauty

 

 

 

I’ve been rather wordy lately, so I think that I will

let these photos speak for themselves.

 

Jen @ Muddy Boot Dreams

20,000 stinky people

 

 

White Rocker’s are dealing with a small inconvenience, but it’s one that could easily make anyone with a compromised immune system very ill. Since we are one of the only communities in the Lower Mainland not to chlorinate our water, and it looks like a animal or bird has gotten into the reservoir, they have had to drain, and sanitize everything.

White Rock is under a boil water advisory, because of the increased e-coli count. And everything from restaurants, to hospitals, to homes are affected. Bottled water is flying off the shelves.  It takes a lot of water to rinse your veggies, bet you never thought about that didn’t you?  Hot water doesn’t do a really great job of washing lettuce, it wilts it, so all the boiled water has to be cooled first.

Part of the advisory states that the water is still safe to shower with, well I guess that’s a good thing right?  Could you imagine, 20,000 stinky people?  We would all have to go down to the beach for a quick dip in the only slightly cleaner ocean each morning.  The beach would be packed with everyone trying to scrub a dub dub, before leaving for work.  Hey, who stole my soap?

 

Brushing your teeth?  Don’t forget to use boiled water, rinsing off that luscious piece of just picked summer fruit?  Don’t reach for the tap, bring out the boiled water.  It’s only a slight inconvenience, but it certainly does make you think that we take the water from the tap for granted.  There are many communities in British Columbia that have been under a boil water advisory for years. We are lucky that this only lasts for a little while.  And still, we are under the mistaken knowledge that we have one of the purest waters around.

We made the front page of the 2nd biggest paper in Canada. And we were the leading story on many a day last week. While the fervor had died down a little, taken over by another “hot off the press” story, it’s still showing up on the news.  And it looks like that story is old news, since we will have this advisory until at least next Monday.

So White Rock, you are famous.

Only problem, it’s for all the wrong reasons.

Pass me the bottled water please!

 

Winner of the cards

 

Congratulations to Linda, of Crafty Gardener, she was the winner of the Muddy Boot Dreams gift pack of 4 cards.  Although not quite the same collection as the one above, it is a very assortment of cards.

Everyone who placed a order before the deadline of Wednesday night had a chance to  win the 4 pack of gift cards, and Linda was the lucky winner.

Congrats Linda, and your order is on it’s way to you now.

Jen @ Muddy Boot Dreams

 

It was purple, I had to buy it

 

I was at my local big box store the other day hunting for something hardwarish that I needed, and ran across these gorgeous eggplant/aubergine color or if you choose purple watering cans.

I had been eyeing them all spring, but at $19.99 they were way out of my league. Watering can collector that I am or not.  Great news, they were clearing them out at half price, who could complain? 

It was purple, I had to buy it

So somehow it made it’s way into my car, and we happily drove around all day running errands together. And now, it sits on my deck, waiting to look useful.

Ain’t life grand? 

Jen @ Muddy Boot Dreams

The results of that creative streak

 

During the recent heat wave I was holed up in my work room pounding on the computer keys.  Mostly from frustration at how slow the hard drive was to upload the finished product, but it was worth it.  Every drop of sweat that accumulated behind my knees, and each one dripping off of my nose contributed to the finished card...

OK, it wasn’t that melodramatic, but I wanted you to think that I was working really hard at these cards.  And I was, having a creative streak is really good, it forces you to concentrate, and create.  You end up feeling really blissed out by all that energy.  Kind of like a runner feels after a good run, well, I am assuming that, since I don’t run. But I have seen Gar’s face after, the endorphins rushing about, and he always looks happy.  This is my kind of marathon.

Just before I dashed off to work at the last minute yesterday the door bell rang, and there were my finished cards.  Now it was a hard split second decision, stay and take a really quick peak at them, and then rush to work, sliding under the wire which I never do.  Or leave them until I finished a full 8 hours of work, not knowing what they looked like, or if they had turned out as well as I hoped. Wondering what they looked like, and how they would reflect all the work I had done.

I peeked, and was I glad that I did.  I was so excited to see them I more or less floated all day at work. They look great, and I am very happy to have taken the giant step of having them printed locally.  Since my shoulder [rotator cuff tendonitis of all things] problems, making them from scratch has been difficult and I was down to limited inventory.

So now I have 20 images in my Muddy Boot Dreams art cards line, and more to come. There is a wedding card, a baby card, a happy birthday card, and a few others that are new.  I kept some of the more popular older images, some are favorites of mine.

Muddy Boot Dreams is offering bloggers special introductory pricing on any purchase made before the end of August.

So if you are interested in the cards, let me know and I can email you the details.

Jen @ muddybootdreams[at]gmail.com

If you would like to see Muddy Boot Dreams art cards line, click here.

Or just click on the link to my website, on the right hand side of my blog, once on the website click on galleries, and choose Art Cards.

Take a look, let me know what you think, I would love some feedback.

Please leave your comments on this blog, I don’t get to see the ones you leave on

the Picasa Albums that easily.

Oh, and here’s a little incentive to order.

Everyone who places a order before August 25th will be

entered in a draw

for a pack [4 cards]of Muddy Boot Dreams art cards.

A perfect gift for Christmas, or birthdays... I am sure you can think of someone to give them to, or maybe keep them for yourself.

 

Jen @ Muddy Boot Dreams

 

Look, we are NOT hosting the Bachelorette!

 

This is the time of year that I wished I lived in a all white house, with white pickled wood floors, white carpets, white furniture, white everything. Now maybe the first thing through your mind is, white is cooling.  But there is a much better reason for a white decor at this time of year.

I want to live with white decor because of all the dark wolf spiders who will show up like the great big hairy monsters that they are.  Who decided August is the month to run rampant through my ground floor condo looking for a date?  And why my place? This is no bachelor pad, and frankly we are not hosting the Bachelorette!

For some reason I am hosting my very own bachelor/bachelorette party, and the prize if you are unlucky at love is a close encounter with a can of hairspray, which works wonders if you are overcome by screaming fits when you see a spider. Nothing like a permanently frozen glistening little lump of bug eater on your carpet to calm down those fears.  Not that I do that any more, honestly, I am just threatening them, and I am over the screaming fits, ah..really, I am.

Single dark [handsome hairy fella], seeks SFWS [single female wolf spider] for mate, must have fuzzy legs, and voracious appetite for insects.

Let’s meet at Jen’s place.  NO WAY BUDDY!

Looking for love, and finding the can of hairspray is not what these contestants had in mind when they slithered through the smallest gap of the screen, oozed through any available crack, skipped over my bare feet, and scuttled through the towels as we reach for them while blinded by water from the shower.

Shivering yet?

If not, I envy you, really.  Tell me how do you cope?

Hey, did you just pick up your bare feet and perch them on your chair, admit it, you just spent a few seconds looking at the floor, didn’t you?

I know only that I look everywhere before I reach, every step I take, every chair I sit on might have a contestant, and as the hostess it’s my job to set them clear. 

You belong outside, not in my bedroom, nor my tub, no I don’t care if you were thirsty, stay away from my clothes, stay out of my living room!

And don’t eat Bootsie! I mean it!

This is a outdoor only venue, you are free to hang out on my deck, lurk under my planters, perch between the rocks, and skitter through the hosta’s, I know you will anyways. You might give me a heart attack when I see you, but at least I know where you are, outside, where you belong.

i won’t squirt you with water, I won’t spray you with pesticides, [much as I so do desire to drench the place, I won’t], and I won’t squish you, inside or out. 

You don’t belong in my living room, during this month of loooooooove.  The other night I was watching TV and there was a great big honking one running across the floor.  Gar offered to squish it, [I do love him so] but I declined thinking it would leave on it’s own accord.  It’s still there somewhere, and I am stocking up on hairspray.

So contestants, if you are looking for love, please compete outside. This is one party you don’t want to win the grand prize of hairspray at.

Jen @ Muddy Boot Dreams

 

Bloom where you are planted Jen, bloom.

 

It’s hot, and I was running around with a long lens, and heavy camera in hand sweating. I don’t like sweating, nor do I like the humid heat of this Lower Mainland.  It’s too hot, did I mention that?  Muttering to myself, “can’t find a old board in this stinking city condo to save my life,” well, it was hot, and I was on a mission, and not enjoying it one bit.

My goal was to find some old weathered surface to use as a background for a shot that was pounding in my head.  You know the kind, they are hammering to get out and onto the computer, or made into a project so loudly, that you can visualize it finished. 

This was no vague fluttering butterfly in my dreams, this was a “do it, and do it now, before summer is finished” kind of vision.  The hydrangeas were the perfect shade of lime green and blue, the starfish was waiting on my work desk, and I had to get motivated to do this, before the hydrangeas faded.

There was only one problem, we live in a city condo, where would I find weathered old grey boards? 

Well I certainly knew one very good stash of all sorts of fence posts, knotted old barbed wire, birds nests, and fence boards, acres of them. My sister’s farm in Armstrong, a haven of textures, colors, patinas, and a photographers dream, one that was 5 hours away from this hot plastic condo world I currently inhabit. 

Armstrong is also where my heart is, and somewhere out there is a farm for us. 

Bloom where you are planted Jen, bloom. 

You might not like it, but this is where you are in this stage of your life, and learn to be grateful for that.

Lesson learned, not liked, learned. But thank you very much.

Now help me find a weathered old board for my background. 

And there it was, not one surface, but two. Right in front of me all this time.

Here I had been lamenting the lack of good blooms to shoot, complaining because everything on my deck was sad, tired, and hot, the beach was too crowded, and there was no parking. 

But right in front of me is the perfect old weathered potting tray, and out in the community garden is a gorgeous grey, weathered, rickety old table.

Life is good, again.  Bloom where you are planted, and learn to be grateful for what you have Jen, you have so much more then you realize.

 

Jen @ Muddy Boot Dreams

 

Easier to plow around the stump

 

I found this column in my local newspaper, John Gormley had mentioned that it does circulate the internet frequently, but I haven’t seen it before.  It’s interesting, and definitely words to live by.  Of course since our Muddy Boot Dreams are headed up country one day we are thrilled to have some farming advice. 

Especially the part about plowing around the stump.

It’s creation should be attributed to a cowboy humorist called Steve Arwood,[a.k.a. Texas Bix Bender.] who wrote a series of books including Don’t Squat With Yer Spurs On.  Might have to go out an look for that one. That’s pretty good advice.

• Your fences need to be horse-high, pig-tight, and bull-strong.
• Don’t interfere with something that isn’t bothering you.
• Live is simpler when you plow around the stump.
• Most of the stuff people worry about isn’t ever gonna happen anyways.
• Don’t judge folks by their relatives.
• Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.
• If if doesn’t seem like it’s worth the effort, it probably isn’t
• Words that soak into your ears are whispered…not yelled.
• Meanness don’t just happen overnight.
• If you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is stop digging.
• Sometimes you get, and sometimes you get got.
• The biggest troublemaker you’ll probably ever have to deal with watches you from the mirror every morning.
• Don’t corner something that you know is meaner than you.

 

• Forgive your enemies, it messes up their heads.
• It doesn’t take a very big person to carry a grudge.
• You cannot unsay a cruel word.
• Every path has a few puddles.
• When you wallow with pigs, expect to get dirty.
• The best sermons are lived, not preached.
• Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment.
• Letting the cat out of the bag, is a lot easier then putting it back in.
• If you get to thinking you’re a person of some influence, try ordering someone else’s dog around.

 

• Live a good and honorable life. Then when you get older, and think back, you’ll enjoy it a second time.
• And live simply, love generously, care deeply, speak kindly, and leave the rest to God.

 

Those last two are my all time favorites.

 

 

Jen @ Muddy Boot Dreams

.

 

Oh peas, now it’s tooooo quiet

 

Hard to believe but after months of raucous caterwauling there was actual quiet for extended periods of time the other night. 

And that’s what woke me up.

The sounds of silence. Can you honestly believe it?  I kept waking up because there was no sound, no chattering, no screeching, no screams.

Coincidence? After I write a blog post called Some Peas and Quiet Please complaining about the 24/7 screeching of the gulls that has been going on for the last many months?

That noise that sometimes threatens to drown out conversations, and the TV?

Well, I have my suspicions, and there was much circling of seagulls the day after I wrote that post, many long keening voices as they gathered, swirled, and then took off in various directions.  I think that they held a meeting, a “let’s make Jen think that she is hearing things all night” kind of meeting. Ha! I have witness’s, both Gar, and Bootsie have heard them. So take that you darn seagulls.

But the meeting broke up the way that a disagreeing group of NIMBY’s usually does.  Typical White Rockers, they can’t agree on anything, other then it’s not going to be in my backyard, uh eh.  No way!

Now everything is back to normal, sweet peas are blooming, the sun is shining, and the seagulls are overtaking White Rock once again.

Life is good. 

Jen

OK, which way did he go?

 

We had the best soft drizzly rain the other day, and everything was perfect.  Lush, sweet, scented greens wafted on the breeze, the flowers looked fresher. The spider webs were covered in diamonds.  No problem right?  Well...

For someone with a wee little phobia of “bigger” spiders, knowing where the one that is happily ensconced in her sweet peas, is a really good thing. Not knowing is not good.

When I went out again to pick them later that day, the spidery guy was gone.  Now we have a problem.

  

It’s huge, honking big, gigantic enormous, spectacularly overwhelmingly oh my, and I purposefully blurred the photo where he is hanging out so I don’t startle anyone that might be just a little “oh my, OH MY OOOOOOOHHHH MYYYYYY! 

Not that I have anything other then a small problem, or anything like that, I am just, well, better at knowing where he is, then imagining him crawling in to my bed in the middle of the night, or hanging out there somewhere in the doorway, so he can jump into the back of my sweatshirt, and crawl down and bite me where I can’t reach him, and send me screaming, or hide in my teacup. And don’t you dare tell me he won’t hurt me, he is just out there waiting for me to turn my back, and he is… oh what the…where’s the RAID?  Anything, hairspray, bring me chemicals now!!! 

[I’m joking, I don’t do anything to them, just freaking out here.]

So, did I mention that I have a slight phobia about overly large, [and I don’t care if it is a he or a she] spiders?

Who me?

Jen

 

Some peas and quiet please

 

It’s a fine line, that moment between sleep, and wakefulness.  The spare seconds that your brain allows you before it starts the midnight ramblings.  The two o’clock wanderings through memories, and to do lists.  The four am wakeup call from Bootsie, who clearly telegraphs by scratching the carpet, I want to go out NOW! 

And during all this, the seagulls.  Ranting, raving, screeching, roaring, squawking, shrill, strident, and the loudest continuing noise we have ever heard from them before.  Something is disturbing their sleep, not that we ever thought they had time to do that, and they in turn are interrupting what little we get.

Do you live near the water, by a lake, or the ocean?  Have you noticed that there is very little peas and quiet where you live lately?  Actually this has been going on since early winter. It’s unusual,  continues all day and night, and is very noisy.

Keening, and calling the seagulls are all the way up our street, loudly letting everyone know that they are under some sort of disturbance.  In all the years that I have lived here, more then the fingers on three hands, it’s never been like this. Is there a population explosion?

 

No room at the ocean, maybe the Bed and Breakfasts are holding midnight feedings for them?

And they certainly do sound like they are having indigestion, all night.  “ooooohhhhh  eeeeeeee,  aaaaaa oooooohhhhh.  Keeeeeeee,  ooooohhhhh.  nnnnnnnoooooooo, shouldn’t have eaten those last 5 french fries.

I am thinking of taping a few hours of it, and using to deter the raccoons off of my deck.

 

The heck with the french fries, the seagulls, and the noise, I just want some peas, and quiet please. At least up country, all I have to deal with are the coyotes, and the magpies.

Oh, and the bears, and the possums, and the mice…bliss.

Jen

.

Baby Steps

 

Life doesn’t always want to go the way we think it should. I guess we all know that.  We could not have expected that Gar would loose his job, and not find another for a great length of time. We were experiencing life taking baby steps getting back on track. While we had expected that Rose would eventually succumb to Alzheimer’s, it was just not that she would fight it so valiantly for over 15 years.  Nor did we realize how hard it would be when it finally took her away from us.  Taking baby steps in learning to deal with our loss.

Then when we eventually started to remake plans to move forward on our dream of living on a small farm up in the Okanagan, another thing is happening to us. 

I had hurt my back at work in June, I was off of work for a while since it was rather painful. 

It seems to have triggered something else in my body. For the last few months I have had a very visible, itchy, red rash all over my face.  Hard to hide, not easy to deal with.  Nothing but steroids help, and they are not the ultimate solution, besides they make me cry at the drop of a hat.  Lovely isn’t it?  Gotta laugh, or I will cry. Silly me. Baby steps Jen, baby steps, deal with it one day at a time. This is not life threatening, this is just a inconvenience.

One of the worst parts of dealing with this, is while it is flaring up, I can’t go outside.  Can’t water the garden, can’t stand to be out there, it makes things even more itchy. Can’t go and take photos, I look terrible.  People stare, it’s obvious something is wrong, and makeup will not hide it at all.  I wasn’t going to say anything, but finally decided to. I am not asking for sympathy, just explaining what is going on in my life behind the blog. 

How am I going to have a farm, if I can’t work outside?  Baby steps, deal with it one day at a time.

Now that the doctors are looking into what it could be, they have given me some “maybe’s.”  Anything from food allergies, environmental sensitivities, to Auto-immune diseases.  Guess which one I am dwelling on, wondering, worrying about, yes the absolute worst one. We don’t know what it really is yet.  Slow down, and take those baby steps, things will improve.

For the past two weeks, I have been living a foodie’s worst nightmare, no good tasty summer food.  No dairy, no wheat, no soy, no corn, no spicy, no seafood, no nothing. It was all rice, rice, baby.  No summer tomatoes, and I would love to have some homemade salsa, some basil, some spicy sausages.  Ice cream anyone, or how about blueberries? It all seemed to make it worse. 

So I am trying a rotation diet, one where you eat only non allergenic foods, and introduce once every four days a new food that might be a trigger.  I will try anything, but the doctor told me yesterday that he didn’t think it would make any difference to my body.  That was a kicker, here I am depriving myself of everything I love, and forcing myself to indulge in rice pasta, rice spaghetti, rice cakes, and the ultimate indignity, rice ice cream….LOL. 

I mean all this time I could have had shrimp, salsa, basil, chili, pizza, CHEESE? Ah life, put that rug back under my feet, I need to start taking baby steps again.  Thank goodness it doesn’t look like I am allergic to Bootsie, that thought just makes me cry even more.

Bring on the cheese, the salsa, the spicy,  this woman maybe taking baby steps, but she is moving forward.

  

Jen

 

How to decorate when you have a cat.

There are many books, blogs, and post out there explaining how to decorate when you have kids.  But not that many explaining exactly what your cat requires in order to be comfortable in your home.

Bootsie has decided to remedy that problem, and do a cat decorating post of his own.

Always have a comfortable spot available for the cat.  The main chair is perfect.  If it is not available, then you should be having a spot nearest the clicker, and the TV.  Cosy, and warm is best.

Or if that is not available, the cat should have the couch, after all, he is the cat.  You can find a spot somewhere else in your limited seating arrangements.

 

Next time Bootsie will tackle that age old problem, which side of the bed goes to whom, his answer, it’s his choice, not yours.

Jen

Strength in numbers

 

I am sure that you have received one of those emails from a friend, “angels are looking over your shoulder” pass this on to 12 friends in the next 37 seconds..  I have always found them rather annoying, glitzy, shiny, and the flashing screen makes me hit the delete button right away.

But the other day I realized that there is more than a shred of truth to them.  I saw it in action myself.

I had a bag of canned cat food that Bootsies tender tummy couldn’t take, and it was too good to dispose of.  I decided to knock on a neighbors door to see if her cats would like to indulge themselves.

We live in a condo with a previously older set of owners, gradually giving way to younger. Scooter, as I will call her, was a Navy Chaplain, and is 88 magical years young, she is still wonderfully intact, both in memory, and wits. Her family all lives on the other side of the country, she has few compatriots left now.

As I knocked on her door, to ask if she wanted the cat food, she slowly and painfully made her way to let me in, and told me that she was just home from the hospital.  The pain from her sciatica made it nearly impossible for her to get around, and although she did have home care coming in for personal aid, and food delivered weekly it was the small things that she needed help with.  In passing, she mentioned that she was unable to sleep in her bed, because the mattress was too uncomfortable, and currently was sleeping in her recliner chair. 

After getting a list of what was needed, I headed out her door, into the lobby to find some more people to add to her support team.  The first person I ran into, told me that there was a perfectly good hospital bed, ready to go to the first taker.  Great and he could help my husband move it upstairs for her later that day.

Not ten feet later, I ran into two other women that live in the building, “I have someone that needs our help” I told them.  I introduced them to Scooter, and told them what was needed, they wholeheartedly agreed.  I then found another 3 people to join the Scooter team, and she now has a wide circle of friends that can check up on her, run errands, or just be there for her.

It amazes me how helpful, and kind people are.  Many of them said, that they hoped they would never be in that same position.

And while I hope that I am never either, if I am I just hope that someone can help me out, like we could help her out.

I believe, because there is strength in numbers, and there were definitely angels looking over her shoulder that day.

Jen