Happy Canada Day...July 1st

A symbol of Canadian identity
"The flag is the symbol of the nation's unity, for it, beyond any doubt, represents all the citizens of Canada without distinction of race, language, belief or opinion."

Happy 12th Anniversary, Caroline and Larry for June 30.

oxox

Happy Birthday....

Today is our SPCA rescue dog, Pebbles's 11th birthday. She has been with us for 6 years, and we are her 4th and final home. Here she is when we lived on the lake in Nelson, she always wants to be as close to me as possible. When you have two older dogs like Cookie (13) and Pebbles @ 11, it is both a happy and sad time. Happy that you have had the love of these pets for all these years, and sad because they are the age that they are. Both are in good health and it is our wish they stay with us as long as they are well.

Also, not to be left out, Happy Birthday to our wonderful brother-in-law Richard. Have a great time @ the Ram Creek party, and we will have a drink for you and the other birthday boy, my brother Steven (June 22) here for you in the Okanogan.

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The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes.

~William James

Marbles

Another summer image, aren't these lovely.? Do they remind you of your childhood?

Love it.

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Memory... is the diary that we all carry about with us.

~Oscar Wilde, "The Importance of Being Earnest"

Summer morning....

These are the flowers that are blooming in my garden now, Hydrangeas, Nasturtiums, and Blue Saliva . It is a lovely sight to see all these colors.

~Flowers seem intended for the solace of ordinary humanity. ~

John Ruskin

Happiness...

My happiness is always evident when I am able to be with Jeremy and Julie. Here we are having lunch at our favourite spot, "Bridges" in Vancouver, at Granville Island. The time spent together is always too short.
Rained all night back here in Kelowna. There was fresh snow on the highways, so I am glad to be back home with Jim and the "dogs". All this rain is great for the lawns and keeping the forests wet, as once again we are in for a hot summer with major forest fire concerns.

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Can miles truly separate you from loved ones?... If you want to be with someone you love, aren't you already there?

~Richard Bach

Charlotte Lyons..

I just realized that I have been an admirer of Charlotte Lyons for quite some time, so as I was reading her blog today, http://housewrenstudio.typepad.com/ I remembered that I had her books, so here they are, great reads and re-reads...thank you Charolotte for continuing to inspire us. Mary Engelbreit and Barbara Elliott Martin aren't bad either...

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I think, at a child's birth, if a mother could ask a fairy godmother to endow it with the most useful gift, that gift should be curiosity.

~Eleanor Roosevelt

Baby Nicole...

This is Nicole, our friend Kim and Andrew's baby girl. What a sweet little 3 month old she is. Thanks Kim for taking the photo.

It has been wonderful to see Jeremy and Julie again last night. Meeting them for lunch at Bridges today. I am sure to have more photos later of them. Vancouver is always a busy exciting city to visit.

Happy Birthday, Steven for June 22. Miss you.

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When babies look beyond you and giggle, maybe they're seeing angels.

Eileen Elias Freeman, 1994

Fresh Lavender...

Freshly cut Lavender from my garden this morning. What a beautiful day it is here today. My good friend Christa, along with her husband Mike and their friends are staying overnight with us. They will do a tour of Mission Hill Winery, we will have dinner, tell some tall tales and have a few glasses of wine.
Tomorrow I am heading to Vancouver for 3/4 days to see Jeremy and Julie before he leaves for most of the summer to the U of Oregon to work on his Masters in Science.

A dream is a microscope through which we look at the hidden occurrences in our soul. 
~Erich Fromm

Shapes and Textures....

Some people, no matter how old they get, never lose their beauty - they merely move it from their faces into their hearts.

~Martin Buxbaum

Happy Father's Day.....Jim

Happy Father's day Jim, I am so glad that you had such a good day.

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It is not flesh and blood but the heart which makes us fathers and sons.

~Johann Schiller

Ironworks...

Life is like a game of cards. The hand you are dealt is determinism; the way you play it is free will.

~Jawaharial Nehru

Thornhaven Winery...

This is the symbol on the beautiful entrance to Thornhaven Winery in Summerland. It is an Adobe Santa Fe style Winery with a wonderful deck that overlooks the valley and the lake. You can have a picnic on the deck, and watch the Kettle Valley Steam train go by. A lovely way to spend an afternoon.

Jim on the deck of the winery with the lake in the background. It has stamped concrete floors, and wonderful seating to check out the scenery. Dogs are welcome, how good it that?


We also went to Dirty Laundry Winery and sampled some of their wines. It is also a must see on your wine tour of the Okanogan. Oldest Gewurztraminer vines in the valley, and you must get some before it is sold out.
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"I love everything that’s old: old friends, old times, old manners, old books, old wine."
Oliver Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer

Cindy's summer house...

What a lucky gal my buddy Cindy is. The lower photo is of her Summer Cabana, and her new Boathouse Winter Cabin on the lake... Her guy is a very talented builder of all things that Cindy needs. She has a "Honey Do List" that never seems to shrink. You go girlfriend. I am looking froward to enjoying a glass of wine, or two here this summer.

If you want a great Organic Beer, try their great line from "Nelson Brewing Company". It is more than just a breakfast drink.

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Summer is the time when one sheds one's tensions with one's clothes, and the right kind of day is jeweled balm for the battered spirit. A few of those days and you can become drunk with the belief that all's right with the world.

~Ada Louise Huxtable

All things Pink....

I'm a great believer in luck and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it. Thomas Jefferson

The Blues...

Having so much fun making these collages, and picking a color. Today it is BLUE. It really makes you look around and see what pictures you have and what is a good color combination.

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I think of life itself now as a wonderful play that I've written for myself, and so my purpose is to have the utmost fun playing my part.

~Shirley MacLaine

Red Hot!

Red, what a color! It reminds me of happy times, uplifting thoughts, being charming, carefree and young at heart.
I want those red and black cowgirl boots.

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There is no personal charm so great as the charm of a cheerful temperament. ~Henry Van Dyke

Trading card pockets.

These little scrapbook pages fit inside trading cards you can buy at the $ store. I make them up just as you would a scrapbook page, punch a hole through the plastic and the pages. and thread them together with a chain, ribbon, or ring binder clip. I carry them around with me, like a little brag book to show my friends and co-workers what it is that I have been working at and having fun with. They are so quick to make and it is easy to add to the collection.

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People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in their true beauty is revealed only if there is light from within.

~Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

Riverside Graduation 2007

This is Catherine and Jeremy at Riverside school where they both teach. Catherine is one of Jeremy's colleagues and she sent me this photo. You can just see how proud they are to be there for their graduating students, Thanks you Catherine for sending this on to me, so that I could see the happy event.

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You are educated. Your certification is in your degree. You may think of it as the ticket to the good life. Let me ask you to think of an alternative. Think of it as your ticket to change the world. ~Tom Brokaw