Autumn decor

So, this week's theme is "Autumn Days" but autumn isn't really here yet. One of my neighbours has decorated her front step already though, so I snapped a shot today after work. Here's hoping this doesn't end up as my contest entry :(

Tracy's gettin' hitched

From time to time I mention Kevin and Tracy (we went camping with them a couple of weeks ago and I posted pics); they're good friends of ours who are getting married at the end of November. Tracy's bachelorette party was last night and among the festivities was a pole dancing class! I took several hundred pictures so here is a very small fraction of them. Tracy surprised me and was such a good sport; I'm pretty sure she had a fantastic time!

Fun mail!

Surely not as interesting for you as it is for me but....I love fun mail! I could guess what was in the package before even opening it because of the yummi-ness that was emanating from the box! I'm going to look accessorized and smell GREAT!
Thanks Linds!

Montreal's Chinatown

My hotel while in Montreal was in Chinatown. I was expecting it to be similar to the Chinese District in Toronto but this was oh so much smaller. It really only takes a few minutes to walk throughout the whole area. Despite it's quaint size, it still has a lot of character. Here are some of my favourites :)

This is built on the roof of the hotel I stayed at; I took the shot from the roof the 'Palais de Congres' (Congress Centre), where the conference was taking place.

MS conference in Montreal

So, I've been in Montreal all week for a conference; I always have a great time at them and usually come home pretty excited to get back to my job of "curing" MS and this time is no exception. I won't bore you with the conference details though; instead, here are some of the pics I took on the few breaks I found to slip away...

With the exception of the last shot, these were all taken in and around Old Montreal.

Can you guess what this is??? Please humour me and try....

This was taken on my walk down Saint Catherine Street yesterday afternoon. I found a great dress on sale for 50% off at BCBG and I actually bought it!! It'll be perfect for all the weddings Brannon and I are attending this fall!Tomorrow I'll post a few shots from Montreal's Chinatown, which is where my hotel was. I fell in love with an Asian 'patisserie' and practically lived on pastries for the week! :)

In lieu of sunflowers

One of my neighbours told me about a sunflower field that she thought I might like to photograph; she told me about it ages ago but I just never found the time to drive all the way out there. I still see a lot of sunflowers in yards so I thought I'd go out this afternoon in search of this field. I definitely found it but unfortunately I was a bit late to capture them while they were alive; but to prove I did go there I took a photo of some dead ones anyway :(

Since I was driving around anyway, I stopped a few times to take pictures when something caught my eye. We had strange skies today; mostly cloudy but every now and then the sun would peek out. I liked how this field looked - dark but with a bright sky!

There was barely enough room on the side of the road to stop to photograph this spectacular red barn (the colour is spectacular, not-so-much the barn) but I did manage to get one. I LOVE buildings that are falling apart!

There were 4 horses in this group including this little guy who decided I was more interesting than eating :)

I have a soft spot for cattle so when I stopped to photograph something else (what I think I'll use as my contest shot this week) and saw this I had to shoot them too. This little baby, when lying down, looked more like the size of a cat. He's still a bit wobbly :)

Reflections of Bon Echo

I realize that those of you on facebook have already seen these but I'm posting them anyway :)
On our way back from our hike the water was so calm I was able to shoot some near-perfect reflections.

This one is kind of a fluke. When I took the shot I initially cut off the tops of the trees so the reflection didn't look right; I decided to crop it down to just the reflection and it's not so bad now.

I just wish this one was a bit brighter.

I uploaded this to blogger by accident but the program wouldn't let me delete it. Weird!

Bon Echo 2008

We joined our good friends, Kevin and Tracy, last night at a campsite they've rented for the week at Bon Echo Provincial Park. We did it last year as well and had such a good time then that we juggled our usual schedules to make it up for a visit again this year. The park is renowned for Maziaw Rock; last year we merely looked at it from an opposite shore but this time we actually hiked up to the top. I took quite a number of photos so I'll post a few today and I'll save some for tomorrow as well.

From the top of Mazinaw Rock...

We got there by boat and I took this from the boat.

This offers a bit of perspective as to how high these rocks are; notice the kayakers :)
From the boat, I couldn't even get far enough away to manage to capture the top of them!

I tried really hard to photograph Kevin and Tracy on our hike but they were so fast I didn't really get much.

They have the BEST dog; meet Floyd :)

Blue and Bailie's new bed

I've been having one heck of a time keeping our cats off our new furniture in the living room (cream coloured couches). Pam will appreciate this as she's been caught in the web of double-sided tape on the couches that's "supposed" to work! Today I saw a great deal on a small dog bed and thought maybe just maybe I could coax them onto the floor if they had something comfy and cozy to sleep in. Blue is the major problem because she has so much more dark fur than Bailie - and claws - but Blue would have no part of it. Bailie, on the other hand, won't let it out of her sight. I think I have a winner! We already have another comfy bed made by Grandma Black that Blue adores; unfortunately, she would still prefer the couch.

**Update: No sooner do I post this and they're fighting over the new bed; like big-fluffy-tails fighting...bahaha...guess I should stop and purchase another one!

Nuts and Fruit

I'm sure I need not say more...

Holiday Monday

Ok ok so I know it's Thursday already but I've been busy and am only getting around to posting these today. I would have done it yesterday but I stayed out late with a bunch of great WB girls (we closed the joint in fact!) and just didn't have the energy to post when I returned home.
Anyway, so Monday was a lazy-day for me; well, except for all the muskrat stalking. My father (and helpers) took out the dock at the lake that morning because the water levels are starting to drop; it seems a muskrat (family?) was displaced and several of them kept popping their little heads up close to shore. My mom managed to capture a really great close-up but they weren't so cooperative for me. This is the best I could get. I do like how the water looks around him though.

Where there is gunk in the water, there are frogs to be found! I'm more than a little curious about his interesting colouring; his head blends perfectly with the muck and I have to think his legs would help camouflage him when on land(???).I haven't the first clue what this is but they're everywhere at the lake right now. I'm really beginning to appreciate the season-ality of flora....

Just a burr

Chippy here was super-cooperative; he stood up and looked right at me, posing :)
Look how long his "fingers" are!