Happy Anniversary to Us

Posted by Ellie
A young couple stand together on a staircase in front of a brick wall, with the man behind the girl and his arm around her. She is holding his hand. She is dark blond with shoulder length wavy hair and is wearing a rusty red dress with smocking and embroidery on the front, with a part button front, open a short way to show a small necklace. He is wearing a brown sports jacket with a pale open neck shirt. He has mediukm length slightly curly brown hair and a beard. Both are smiling and look happy.
Happy 42nd Anniversary to us!

It’s hard to believe that this young couple is us, 42 years ago today. There’s been a lot of water under all kinds of bridges since then, but we have sailed, paddled, rowed, poled and occasionally motored along them together all the way. Yes, we’ve had to use buckets to bail at times, but we always managed to stay afloat because we had each other. Thanks for all these wonderful years, Steven.

Evening Grasses in the Sun

Posted by Ellie
A bright foreground scene of long grass seed heads standing tall in a wild field, with the sun highlighting the fluffy tops. Around the patch are various wild flowers including vetches, clovers and other grasses in blues and purples. There are dark trees behind the scene.
Wild Grasses in the Evening Sun

We don’t always need the glory of a sunset or sunrise, or the majestic landscape of mountains to thrill and excite us. Sometimes, we need the still, calm peace that the sight of a patch of wild grasses, surrounded by simple wild flowers in the sun brings. Looking back on this older photograph, I found myself recalling the same gentle warmth of that long ago summer evening, despite the bitter cold and snow outside my window today. I hope this gives you, too, my readers, a similar memory of warmth and happy times.

What a Save!

Posted by Ellie
A young black and white border collie is standing on the green grass of a football (or soccer) pitch in front of a goal post. Her tongue is hanging way out and her black ears are half raised. She has a big red ball in front of her on the grass.
What a Save!

When Joni was this age, we couldn’t take her off the leash near any ball game that might be happening nearby. She would (and did) run in and get involved. And, trust me, you’ll not easily get a ball past her. This is what she was born to do (with sheep, not balls, but you get the idea). The first time this happened was at a school tryout and she was accepted for the team as a goalkeeper. Joni! Joni!

The newest thing, it seems, is a game called Sheep Balls, where the balls represent sheep, with her playmate (me, I guess) moves the balls (at least 3) in such a way as to exercise her natural herding ability and blocking skills, as well as disciplining her to follow instructions rather than acting randomly. I will have to wait for spring to try this one out, but am grateful for a reader who told me about this great new game, invented specially for border collies. It looks as if it’s a great exercise for her trainer, at the same time. Just what I need!

Fingers of Light

Posted by Ellie
The bottom 10 percent of the frame is a landscape with gold and brown fields, a few dark green trees and, in the distance, a hazy low range of hills. The rest of the image is taken up with the sky which has a few low dark clouds, then the top two thirds is a burst of white sun in the middle, with white rays of light radiating outwards from it into dark grey clouds.
Fingers of Light

Nova Scotia skies often delight and sometimes astonish me, like this one did. The valley landscape with the low, understated mountains in the distance are the perfect foil to this drama. Have a lovely week ahead, friends.

Thanks to Nova Scotia Weather Guy Jim Abraham on Mastodon for telling me the name of the cloud formation is probably cirrocumulus.

You can see my Landscape Photography gallery here.