Amaryllis

Barnie's flower :)

Canada Day Custard Cake

Ok, so it's really just a pie but I was trying to keep with the 'C' theme :)

Today I tried out a new recipe for a strawberry (red) custard (white) pie in celebration of Canada Day. The plan was to share with our neighbours but we didn't end up seeing them (too bad for them) so there's that much more for us. With all new recipes I test out on Brannon I always watch for a reaction but today I didn't even need my eyes - he made sounds I've never heard him make before (heads out of the gutter people!!) so I knew it was a hit!
We're both looking forward to 'seconds' later on!

HAPPY CANADA DAY EVERYONE!!

And for the record, I made it all from scratch, even the crust!

Here's a link to the recipe.

Hello Dahr-lings!

Check out my new darlings!
I work in a lab so fancy shoes are not high-priority items for me in terms of every-day fashion. HOWEVER, I've wanted red shoes for as long as I can remember. I even purchased a pair online last year (unavailable in store) and, sadly (ok, devastatingly), they were a tad too small. I still get to see them all the time though since one of my friends adopted them from me :)
Anyway, I'm going out for a night on the town on Saturday and I decided that now was the time I was going to splurge. These may not be the "prettiest" shoes many of you have ever owned but most of my fancy shoes still have to have some degree of practicality and lots of wear-ability (as a student, I am broke all the time!) so they are usually simple, nice but simple. These just scream 'FUN' to me and I cannot wait to wear them! Let's hope I can actually walk (and dance my @ss off) in them!

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!

If these aren't vibrant...

...than I don't know what is!

Happy Canada Day!

For Monday

If all goes according to plan I should have cable up-and-running again on Monday but just in case I get busy I thought I'd go ahead and put up a couple more photos before officially signing off for the weekend.
I found this tennis ball in the garden.....what an interesting spot for it to be :)
I like this photo because I really like the texture of the weathered ball!

It's almost peony season! These are hands-down my favourite flowers and I can't wait until they're in bloom so I can *really* photograph them. We used them for our wedding last summer and I'm so happy to see them coming back. This is a dark variety, unlike the baby pink ones we used and I actually think I like these better. What I like most about this shot, excluding my anticipation of their beauty, is that the late-afternoon sun against a red brick house make the colours look very rich.

Circle of Life

You may have noticed that I'm a bit of a colour junkie :)
I almost always prefer to look at colourful photographs rather than black and white ones. You can understand, then, why I love these photos! I didn't get a chance to photograph the tulip festival this year but these ones are still in bloom around the corner from where I live. I know there are definitely a lot of photos today of the same flowers but I liked them all for different reasons, couldn't decide which to post, and then decided to just post them all! Also, Jenn's theme, "A Picture is Worth 1000 Lyrics" is sorta stuck in my head and this song (my title) popped into my head when I was looking at the vibrancy of both the living and dying flowers. So, enjoy my happy flowers for today!

I had to post this one too....only because most people want these to die.

Red things I love

Just a few randoms for today...

Columbine

Neighbour's fence material

I think it's time to scrap this boat...or at least give it a paint job!

It's 13 degrees today!

I don't want to jinx it and say that a new season might be peeking out from behind the snow banks....but.......it was so nice out today! I didn't like my plan for our theme this week so I walked around outside at home after work this afternoon and this is what I came up with. We're under extreme flood warnings...go figure....

It's hard to tell what the first one is but it's water POURING off a neighbouring balcony; it was really dark under the balcony but the sun was shining just outside so the water is quite bright against a really dark background.

I love the colours of this hydrant (the beaming sun kinda helped too!); it was kept mostly uncovered during the winter and it was always nice to see such vibrant colours even under the mountains of snow!

Lastly, the snow is melting really fast! I hope the sewers can keep up!

Welcome Spring!!!

Valentine's Sushi

So Brannon and I celebrated Valentine's Day together tonight - one day late.
I left our plans entirely up to him and he didn't disappoint. He's not a big fan (actually he's not a fan at all) of sushi but I really enjoy it and don't get to indulge often so that's what we had. He strategically chose a place where he could find lots of cooked things too :)
We had a lovely dinner at 'Festival Japan' and really enjoyed the service we received from our waitress, Metallica (yup, that was her name). I had a sushi/sashimi assorted platter and Brannon opted for steak and scallops...lol. We even had dessert - deep-fried green tea ice cream. An interesting dish to say the least......
Anyway, here are some pics from our dinner out. I could only take a few since Brannon was embarrassed of me and my camera...lol.

Dominican Decor

Brigitte and Craig brought home a gorgeous painting from the Dominican Republic; it has the most brilliant colours. It does not, however, have a name so in the name of fun we will call it "Mamajuana" - it's an inside joke :)

Tyler's Flower

Another flower - I know, it's getting old - but that's my best inspiration these days. Not only do I love these flowers (but I haven't a clue what it's called) but this one is especially special because it came from the arrangement sent by the driver of the other car that was involved in my grandfather's accident. The accident was in no way his fault and my family is wishing for him a very speedy recovery.

I'm back to using my point-and-shoot since my Nikon is currently out-of-commision so the quality isn't great. Hopefully I can get my other one back soon :)