My Mama told me..

never to speak with my mouth full!

Space to work

Friday it rained ALL day! Although in truth I didn't really notice. I spent a productive morning downstairs typing up several reports for Lovely Man's nursing registration. Also I had a very long conversation on the telephone with the lovely Kassie and made a yummy steak and kidney pudding for supper. But..... Lovely Man excelled himself and put up the shelves I needed to hold my craft stuff, sewing machines, books and so on. Ooooh I was just SO pleased! So...supper was late. I spent ages faffing about moving stuff here and there, dusting and sweeping and generally 'moving in to my space'. It's not finished by a long stretch. It needs some things on the wall, pictures, a notice board and maybe a few more shelves, but at least it's fairly organised and I have a space to do some work!

Hold on to my bumper baby...

Our troubles of a vehicular nature were not over it seemed.  You may recall that during our recent trip down south our Dodge Durango  broke down twice...in two days.  Well we got home and a week or two passed when suddenly we had another strange noise.  A sort of grinding rattle that came and went from time to time.  So on Saturday morning Lovely Man set about giving the car an inch by inch inspection in the hope that he could find, and cure, all it's little problems once and for all.  He started with the wheels. Almost immediately he discovered that the passenger side wheel bearing was seized.  This wasn't causing the grinding noise.  No that, he discovered, was a plate holding the rear end of the exhaust which had come loose and simply needed a screw.  So!  There we were, noise cured, but now needing a new wheel bearing.

Today the new part arrived.  Lovely Man disappeared out into the car port with trusty toolbox and shiny new part.  I was summoned from my cleaning, typing and phoning from time to time to put my foot on the brake, or supply glasses of coke.  Chippie came to observe the proceedings.  Actually I don't think he was really interested in the mechanical expertise but rather he hoped that there might be some peanuts available.  Apparently he ran circles around the tools and sat looking expectantly whilst Lovely Man struggled with wheel nuts and rusty metal.  Well at least they kept each other company.

And so around 3 o'clock a cheerful announcement from the back door "It's fixed!"  Great.  Then "Ro...QUICK".  Then again "RO! QUICK" this time with just a tinge of panic.  As I looked out the back door all I could see was a Large Black Dodge trying it's best to get away down the slope with a rather red faced man in blue overalls holding on to the front bumper!  And get this....in my panic I ran to get to the driver side....behind the car...it was going backwards down the hill?!  Doh!  Anyhow I managed to do a La Mans start style leap into the car and put the brake on! So, all's well that ends well.  The Dodge, for the time being, lives to see another journey!

I know I shouldn't, but.......

get distracted that is. This morning I had a plan.  Shower, breakfast, finish the basement, do the housework, do the shopping...in that order. So what happened?  I tell you what happened.  Lovely Man, a bag of peanuts and a chipmunk is what happened!  It is beautiful and sunny....again...and so Lovely Man took some nuts and went out on to the deck because Chippie had arrived.  Half an hour or so later I am still out on the deck, with my camera, playing with Chippie and Stumpy!

Chippie meets Buddha!

 

 

Chipmunks are very territorial and will not often tolerate another chipmunk feeding at the same table as it were.  At first their visits were quite well timed with one leaving just as the other arrived.  This, however, did not last.  At one point they both arrived together.  I should point out that one has a nest somewhere on the back hill (Chippie), the other has a nest in the garden across the street from us out front (Stumpy).  So I was sitting there camera in hand when Chippie came up from behind and Stumpy arrived on my lap with a plop.  For a second or two there was a sort of Mexican Stand off, each trying to stare the other one into submission.  Then there was a flurry of tails and squeeks which resulted in Stumpy taking refuge down the front of my tee shirt.  This did concern me a little.  I have no objection to one of them down there but I certainly didn't fancy the two of them sorting out their differences down my cleavage!  Stumpy, however, jumped out (probably in need of oxygen) and climbed up onto my head.  There he sat watching Chippie with utter contempt until he took his share of the booty and set off along the path.  Stumpy then took a couple of nuts, allowed me to stroke him for a few minutes before disappearing off across the street.  Unfortunately in all the commotion one of them sat on top of the camera and altered the settings which meant none of this escapade was caught on film!  Never mind.  I got some nice pics of my favorite boys once I reset the camera.

Chippie takes a nut whilst Stumpy watches with contempt!

Stumpy stays awhile!

Law of Attraction

I have been reading lots about the Law of Attraction.  It's one of the seven Laws of the Universe.  It's all about vibrations.  Put very simply, when you want something you have to think and behave as if you already have it.  The energy and vibrations working within the universe then cause a manifestation of the desired outcome.  Hey I thought it would be simple to explain!  And you guys are thinking it's all jiggery hokey pokey!  It's nothing new.  It's been around for years apparently.  Maybe it's simply believing in yourself so much that you actually get past the fear of failing, get off you butt and actually do it!  Either way I believe it works.  One day I'll explain why.  For now though let me just say that I have met some very nice people, both here on blogger and the new town where I live.  They have been bought to me, by the universe, and they have all, in one way or another, given me help and support to realise my dream.

For years I have wanted to write, I also wanted to paint and craft and earn a living from it.  It started with my good friend Lorrie  who encouraged me to start painting, sketching and blogging!  Then I got to know about a lovely lady Kassie who is an inspirational writer.  Her column in the Manitouwadge Echo reminded me to believe in myself and to behave and think more positively.  Then came Lisa, her blog inspired me.  It felt like I was listening to myself, the me that thought I wasn't good enough to call myself a writer or an artist.  But Lisa decided to invoke some positive thinking.  Instead of saying "I want to be"  she now says "I am".  This was the kick up the ass I needed.  It's so empowering.  I am.  I am a writer.  I write everyday.  I am an artist.  I create every day.  When you say "I want to be" it simply implies that you might be one day if you ever get around to doing something about it!

Lastly, Lisa put me on to a super duper person, Jamie Ridler, who was giving away these fab buttons for people to use on their blogs.  I love them!  Thank you Jamie.  Also thanks to Lorrie for helping me, once again, with the technical stuff!

So from now on guys I am officially referring to myself thus....I am a writer....I am an artist...I REALLY AM!

Sunday Stroll

Thankfully another sunny day!  Hydro One scheduled a power outage from 8 am till gone 3 pm so there was nothing for it but to take to the streets!!  Well actually we had to walk to the Friends Cafe for a hot drink!  So we went via the Perry Lake Walking Trail.  Some lovely views although I have to confess I was a little nervous as this end of town has had numerous sightings of bears!  We didn't come across any, thankfully!  I love the bears I just don't fancy meeting one face to face right now while they are trying to stock up for the big sleep!

Perry Lake Walking Trail

After coffee and a lovely Butter Tart we walked back through town and decided to take a hike along Wilroy Road, a bush road which runs from the beach up along the edge of the bush behind our garden and on down to Caramat Road which is the road to the landfill and beyond!  On the way up we stopped to see the two horses at the local stable.  I haven't got to know them or their owner yet but already have a plan to take the winter sleigh ride which they offer.

Wilroy Road

About 3.30 the power finally came back on and I finally got out my new sewing machine.  We now have net curtains in the kitchen!  And I am working on the lounge ones.  Yesterday we triple glazed our windows with this neat stuff.  You stick up this sheet of plastic with double sided tape to the window frame and then...you heat it up with a hairdryer!!  It sort of stretches and becomes invisible and more to the point it's supposed to make quite a difference to your heating bill!  Sounds good to me!

The colors of Fall

This morning we ditched the morning run in favor of a light breakfast followed by a three hour walk around the lakes, the town and beyond.  I needed to take some photo's of local landmarks for a project I'm doing and we needed shopping so it seemed an all round sensible idea!  It has been an absolutely glorious day here, the sun has shone and there hasn't been one cloud in the sky!  Although we started out in sweatshirts it wasn't long before they came off and we were in our vest tops!  The colors around us right now are becoming quite spectacular.  The leaves on the shrubs outside the post office are the color of a good claret, and some of the other leaves have turned the color of cinder toffee.

And the lake is a beautiful bright blue.

Lunch, again, was taken on the deck.  With rain forecast for tomorrow we thought we just needed to make the very most of this wonderful sunshine.  Looking out over the gardens it just confirmed how lucky we are to have this opportunity to live in such a beautiful setting.

Hopefully on Saturday, if the forecast is correct, the sun will shine again and we will go on an adventure into the bush at the back....there is a trail leading to yet another lake which is just begging to be found!