Lists of 2013 - #22 - Favourite Smells

Listography 2013 - #22 - Favourite Smells

1.  Flowers - especially lilacs, sweet peas, dahlias and peonies

2.  Freshly mowed grass

3.  Cured hay in the field that is ready to bale

4.  Apple pie baking

5.  Cinnamon in anything

6.  Wood fires, especially campfires

7.  The Christmas tree when it comes in the house

8.  Strawberries, just picked

9.  Babies

10.  Little ones right after they've had a bath

11.  Rain

12.  Coconut

13.  Baking bread

Five on Friday

1.

2.  Because It's Time and You Can Change the World on Ann Voskamp's blog, A Holy Experience,  are amazing and you really need to reach them both!  We can make a difference in the lives of others, not just by giving things but by giving love and hope.

3.  Today's Capture Your 365 photo prompt is "photograph purple".  My morning meander around the yard made me happy!  And then I ate breakfast outside before tackling more weeding.

4.  Do you ever agree to do something and then wonder "What in the world was I thinking?!!"  Yeah - that's me with a project I'm working on right now!

5.  Photo of the week:  Glimpse from the past - a very old - and blurry! - photo of our kids taken at Expo 86.  There are so many memories attached to this - I am flooded with emotions!

Lists of 2013 - #21 - Ways I Am Like My Father

Listography 2013 - #21 - Ways I Am Like My Father

Checking the Grain Crop

1.  We adore and love to be with our grandchildren.

2.  We are both thoughtful and non-confrontational.  But we stick up for what we believe in.

3.  We share a love of growing things.

4.  The farm and country life is in our blood.

5.  Sometimes being by one's self is bliss.

6.  We love to read.

7.  We have been strongly influenced by our fathers.

8.  "If there are no leftovers, someone went away hungry" is a bit of a motto when we entertain.

9.  Flowers make one happy, especially sweet peas and pansies.

10.  Chocolate is a food group, right?!

11.  When driving we often take the road less travelled.

12.  We love curling - and lots of other sports.

13.  Our faith and church are hugely important to us.

Lists of 2013 - #20 - Green Things I Love

Listography 2013 - #20 - Green Things I Love

1.  Green leaves on trees, in all their shapes and sizes

2.  Freshly mown grass

3.  Alfalfa hayfields that are dry for hay baling

4.  Green shirts - I have a whole chunk of them in my closet

5.  The stripey green rinds on a box full of watermelons

6.  Fresh lettuce from the garden

7.  Really little cucumbers for making dill pickles

8.  Hosta plants with their variety of greens

9.  Little green apples growing on trees

10.  Ferny leaves of dill

11.  The bright green tips of growing evergreens in the spring

12.  Fields of green as different crops grow and wave in the wind

13.  Green mint leaves, waiting to be picked and dunked into jugs of lemon water

Five on Friday

1.

2.  We had quite the weather week here with 2 funnel clouds touching down just miles away from our farm.  One was on the lake and the other was over farmland.  Luckily there was no damage from either.  And the showers just keep coming, which is good for the cabbage transplants :)

3.   Here's something cool to watch!  

4.  I've decided to move the 3 spaghetti squash I have growing in bags back in to the greenhouse.  The wind and cold weather have beat them up rather badly and they look quite forlorn.  They will love the heat in the greenhouse and come fall they will be protected for longer too.  

5.  

"Contentment"

2013 Joy Dare

#737 - #776

- gifts found in today's work - the joy, laughter and energy of our grandchildren, the great outdoors as we spend more time outside than inside, coming home to greenhouse and garden
- gift at 8 am - Maëlle reading Pinkalicious on the couch
- gift at 12 pm - lunch with Blake and Maëlle while Naomi heads to sleep
- gift at 8 pm - safe at home, chickens fed, plants watered
- gifts blue - blue skies for a little while at the Children's Festival, tattoos for the adventurous, a new dough "Bubber" to press and play and experiment with

- gifts you gave today - advice on essay writing, time to cover classes, Gramma time
- gifts orange - orange Tigger pyjamas, orange juice to go with vitamins, carrots for salad
- gift of generations - time with my Dad and my grandchildren, watching them play together and learn from him
- gifts funny - Great Grampa and Silas reading the newspaper together, tickle fest, fun in the swimming pool
- gifts from today's conversation - talk about the new piano and her improvements, conversation with our daughter, being the pupil while we played school :)

- gifts found in Christ - He creates everything good, with Him all things are possible, He will never leave me nor forsake me
- gift of peace - flowers and trees blooming
- gift of hope - wrapped up in every seed planted
- gift of love - hugs from our grandchildren
- gifts ugly-beautiful - weeds growing - I know the soil is good, black storms clouds - God is powerful, long days in the field - the crop is being planted

- gifts in what I am reading - reminder of what it was for my grandparents to immigrate, the bounty of the garden and work done by women through the ages, reminder what it means to clear the land and put up buildings- from "Under This Unbroken Sky" by Shandi Mitchell
- gifts empty - favourite mug with just the smell of hazelnut latte' left, bottle of last year's apricot syrup, shelves in the fridge cleaned off

Five on Friday

1.

“There is no such thing as a 'self-made' man. We are made up of thousands of others. Everyone who has ever done a kind deed for us, or spoken one word of encouragement to us, has entered into the make-up of our character and of our thoughts, as well as our success.”

George Burton Adams (1851-1925); educator, historian

2.  This poor little blog has been majorly neglected lately!  I need more hours in my day and more days in my week.  There's so much to do at this time of the year and it looks like November might finally be quieter!

3.  Have you seen the movie Girl Rising?  Watch it on CNN on June 16 and 23.  Now I need to find a friend that has cable :)  I love this quote from the website!

4.  My idea of doing a Friday photo share from my iPhone pictures is going by the wayside - at least for now.  I'm taking about 100 pictures a week and the choosing and editing process takes a long time.  Right now there are so many things needing my attention that this project is way, way down on the list. I did like the reflecting and reviewing process so maybe I'll do it once in a while.  (I thought of a month in review but then that means I'm looking through 400 pictures - and the project got even more overwhelming!)  Kudos to those who can maintain this Friday Photo Dump!

5.  Photo of the week:

Grampa Gus and Helayna

(my Dad is so good with kids -

and they love the tickle fests!)

Lists of 2013 - #19 - Places I Have Gone This Week

Listography 2013 - #19 - Places I Have Gone This Week

1.  Airdrie to stay with our grandchildren while their Mama and Papa went off to the mountains for a day.

2.  Red Deer to fill the gas tank on the van with gas.

3.  Ponoka, on my way home from Airdrie, to pick up some flowers to give to our granddaughter at her piano recital (because I forgot to do it in Airdrie or Red Deer!).

4.  Calmar to the high school for 1.5 days of subbing.

5.  Leduc to No Frills to buy groceries.

6.  Leduc to Winners to browse and buy a gift or two.

7.  Calmar to the elementary school for 2 days of subbing.

8.  Thorsby the the library to pick up a book I had on hold.

9.  to the greenhouse - many times! - to water and transplant tomatoes.

10.  to the chicken coop to feed, bed, tuck in and otherwise enjoy the chickens.

11.  to the garden to hoe weeds, which are growing faster than any of the vegetables!

12.  to the kitchen to make meals and lunches - and then to quickly leave  for the next project, before doing all the dishes.

13.  back and forth to the field, ferrying Bob to move tractors and trucks while he tries to finish seeding, in between rain showers.