The Post Intended for Yesterday

Yesterday my s-l-o-w server bombed before posting this ... so even though it is no longer my father's 101st birthday, no longer June 15, here it is.

Happy 101st, Opa. I wish you were here to see that I am finally taking your advice and slowing down long enough to smell the flowers and paint this funky furniture. I have learned since your death just how much wisdom you tried to pass on to me.

Speaking of smelling the flowers, the trip to the Montreal Botanical gardens was fun ... but I needed a day to recover. I enjoy the gardens (any kind of sightseeing, actually) in small doses and at my own pace ... alone or with a congenial friend. Because we had to jam everything into a short day, we decided to take the tour with a " friend of the garden" who raced us through so that we had little time to stop and smell the flowers ... or to take photos. (My favourite photos were of the fish.)


Just before it was over, Sharon and I escaped into the Japanese Tea House for a break. No tea ceremony ... not till next Saturday ... but we discovered a wonderful exhibition of lacquerware ... and the bonsai collection. Then we hopped on the train with Shirley, another neighbour at Pike Lake, for a leisurely ride back to the ice cream cone stand and the peony display where I took many almost identical photos before returning to our bus for the long ride home.



Today is a busy chore day ... Costco, wine bottle return, and banking in Ottawa and then phone calls to set up appointments and check on things that have not arrived yet. A Costco trip is a major excursion for me. The drive into the city, the deadly experience of shopping in a warehouse, the drive home ... and then the multiple trips down the hill with a loaded wheelbarrow, followed by the individual re-packaging of the meat and storage of the other groceries. I may not get to the phone calls. But then ... it is always easy for me to put off a phone call till another day.

Tamarak and Carlos brought three dogs when they came to look after Kenya on Saturday. When I got back, Tamarak and I took the dogs for a walk and watched the funniest scene unfold. Kaiah (the five pound wonder) was dashing after the big dogs taking twenty steps to their one, and having a wonderful time. Kenya was carrying two large sticks as she bounded along. Teddy wimped out and returned to the house to stay with his daddy, and Shea was up ahead looking for an adventure, so it was really just Kenya and Kaiah interacting. Kenya is very possessive of her sticks and normally would never drop them near another dog, but I guess she figured it was perfectly safe with a a dog the size of a rat. She went into the woods for a few seconds and when she came back out discovered that Kaiah was dragging one of her sticks (one that was ten times her length and half her weight) away. The look on Kenya's face was indescribable. She stopped dead and and did a double take ... so astounded by this development she didn't make a sound. When she recovered, she grabbed the stick from Kaiah who laughed and ran after her again. I don't usually like small dogs, but this one is a spunky little girl with lots of personality.

I have two chairs on the go right now and will have lots to keep me busy for the next while. Must run. Have a great week, everyone.

P.S. I didn't get the phone calls made so that is on my list for today.