[Newfie]

This thread comes from some comments CID made elsewhere about savoring the time we have remaining. I think he makes a very good point. We spend so much energy here pondering some very dark concepts. We don't have any good spot to share those things that give us you and make life meaningful. I know that, occassionally, something occurs I find special, and I would like to share it.

So, I decided to creat a soap here on PO dedicated to smelling the roses, savoring them, sharing the bliss. A place where we can share the little bits of joy, as we wish.

I'll start.....the other morning I saw a beaver next to the dock. He didn't see me at first, but when he did he just kinda floated for a bit, decided I wasn't any good for food or sex, and slowly moved on. I called the Wife. The beaver ignored us, and hauled his fat tush out on the bank to do a little light cleaning before moving on. We got a real good look at him.

That evening, I was returning to the boat and encountered a Great Blue Heron in the dock, standing his ground. It was dusk, and the Wife was again on the boat, the other side of the heron. I called her and she came out and slowly approached the heron from the other side. He was between us. He stood his ground for a long time and she got to within about 20 feet before he finally took off.

Later talking to a dock mate I found out he saw a whistling swan flying low down the canal the same day.

I count that a good day to suck air. Made me happy.

[Shaved Monkey]

I have had a baby echidna walking around our house for the last few days.
We havent seen one for a good 5 or so years.
It does make you happy

[Newfie]

image.jpeg

Had to look that up. M

[WildRose]

There is a community close to me where I walk with my dog. It's one of those places with large homes built around man-made ponds. The ponds have been allowed to have quite a margin of natural plant growth around them, and they are home to some ducks, geese, and mud hens, etc. The geese came back to Edmonton quite early this spring, I assume because of the very mild winter. Anyway, a few weeks back while walking with my pooch I noticed the first of the spring's goslings, born very early in the season, quite a few of them. Two or three days ago, upon returning to that pond, I counted 24 goslings between 2 sets of parents, and they are so big already I could hardly believe it. They don't have to worry about the hawks anymore! The pond is clean and healthy-looking, and able to help these goslings thrive. That made my day.

[Newfie]

The other evening I was sitting with my Son in his backyard. We saw a very unusual object in the sky, very bright and fast moving but died out soon. Turned out he was able to identify it as an "Iridium flare" (sunlight reflecting off a satellite solar panels) through an app called SkyWalk.

Very cool app that helps you identify stars and constellations.

[Shaved Monkey]

I learnt how to set up my satellite dish with a motor to catch 5 satellites.
It took ages to get it dead accurate using a cheap $20 beeper sat finder.
But now I can look out of my balcony and recognise every satellite on my horizon.
For one to flash quickly it was probably military,TV ones stand still or move at the same rate as the earth spins so they appear to stand still.

[Newfie]

Yeah, the Iridium constellation is not stationary, they zip around pretty good.

[vox_mundi]

The mosquitoes haven't come out in force yet, so I have time to watch the honeybees and solitary bees that are pollinating the brambles and the citrus. Very peaceful.

Sampled the first strawberries of the season. (Along with some strawberry-rhubarb pie - yumm)

Watched the ospreys build their nest in our local microwave tower. Earlier, saw some bald eagles in the spring doing their mating flights over the river. Beautiful birds.

About a week ago a Black Swallowtail laid it's eggs on some of my perennial fennel. (no problem; got tons).

Now I have a half dozen little caterpillars munching away - soon to be butterflies in another month.

There is something to see every day - all you have to do is look.

[Milret2]

One of my savory things is smelling my compost barrel every so often. It has a wonderful odor sorta like old forest undergrowth when I have not screwed up in some way by adding something I should not have and that makes me feel wonderful thinking about the next years spring when I will be adding last years load of compost to my garden soil. This is balanced by the fact that my wife often reminds me that I could buy the vegetables I plant in my small patch in a much less costly and laborious way but that matters not to me as I like playing in the dirt. (and what I grow tastes so such better then something from the store;-)

[Newfie]

Nice posts.

I'm in our boat, it's 2am, we are motor sailing to NY to go up the Hudson. My Wife stood watch till midnight, now she is below asleep. Clear night, NJ e steady breeze, not quite enough. Bright moon. Cool, no cold. A few others are sailing this path tonight, shiloetts in the dark.

[SeaGypsy]

Living that vision Newfie
Funny since I've been stuck in the burbs the last 18 months I have cleaned up my credit rating. The wife wants to buy land where I fully believe will be hell on earth, sooner than later, in the Philippines, I ain't having it. My mother will pay the deposit on a $300k AU house, wanting her grandkids close. I could pay off the house in 10 years. Or I could be true to me & buy a $30k yacht, own it outright in a year & raise my daughter's as seafarers. Or end up in divorce court. Winter here, introspection time.

[Ibon]

This morning at 6:30 am a troop of Spider Monkeys wandered their way to the canopy of a Mexican Elm and sat there as the sun rose above the ridge behind them. The troop hung there enjoying the morning sun, pruning each other, babies jumped off their mother's backs and played 140 feet above the ground swinging back and forth on small branches. I was taking my coffee and watching them through a spotting scope. A lovely moment shared with my fellow primates.

[WildRose]

SeaGypsy, wish you the best with all of that.

My daughter received her Bachelor of Science degree, specialization in animal biology, yesterday. We attended her convocation and the whole family went out for dinner last night to celebrate. She went through tough times and a lot of adversity to earn this degree, starting with doing academic upgrading while working full-time and living on her own. She always wanted to do it on her own. Every summer, she worked from the day school was finished until the day she had to go back in the fall, one summer spent working for a cement construction company doing really hard physical labor. She also worked part-time through every school year, as many hours as she could handle. To say that she is tenacious is an understatement. To say that I am very proud of her doesn't quite say it all.

[yellowcanoe]

Wildrose, seeing our children succeed is certainly a highlight in our lives.

My daughter, after dropping out of two university programs was finally able to start focusing on her career after getting into the Religion program at the university I work at. After completing her degree she started the Archival program at our community college. During this time period she worked in the archives at the Anglican Cathedral church for the Ottawa area and a couple of part time jobs at the university. After applying to archival positions all over Canada and US she was hired by the Provincial Archives in Edmonton in April. She is a pretty capable young women, very frugal and cheerful even when things are not going well. She flew to Edmonton at the end of April with only one piece of luggage to start her new life. There have been a few challenges -- the power in the apartment she rented had been turned off for some inexplicable reason and she lived there for a week without power before someone from the hydro utility showed up to turn it back on. She is pretty happy with the people she is working with and finds the people in her neighbourhood to be friendly. By coincidence, I am attending a conference in Edmonton next week so I am going to be her first visitor. We are both excited to be seeing each other. Her stepmother and I are really proud to see her moving forward with her life though we are a little sad that she is now living so far from us.

One thing that really helped my daughter was her involvement with the Anglican church. We see plenty of postings on PO where religion is blamed for many of the bad things in the world. The reality is that religion can also be a really positive force in peoples lives.

[Plantagenet]

Its going to hit a sunny 80° today here in central Alaska. I'm rebuilding my deck, wearing shorts with my shirt off in the sun, hammering and sawing and drilling and having a grand old time. The deck is about halfway done and the new wood shines in the sun.

Yellow canoe is so right about the joy of seeing our children do well, often going in directions we could never have imagined.

My son was a science nerd in college, but now he is a climbing guide on Denali. Each evening his climbing party makes a satellite call in to the company office, and one of the clients gets on the phone and says how the climb is going and sends out messages to his friends and family. The sat-phone calls get put on-liine at the company website. This morning there was a recorded call from my son's climbing party. The client said how incredible the views were and what a great day of climbing they had, and how exhausted they were from hauling supplies up Denali. Then the guy said how fantastic the dinners were that my son was cooking for the climbing party.

Wow. I was amazed. I didn't even know my son could cook.

[WildRose]

So happy for you and your daughter, yellowcanoe, both for her success and your upcoming visit. Also glad that for her, religion has been both a stabilizing and driving force. I am personally very quietly spiritual, my daughter is an evolutionist. We are different in some of the ways we find peace and the same in others.

Cool that your daughter has "landed" in Edmonton. It is a city that really has a lot of opportunity for those who go after it, and its diversity is certainly one of its strengths.

[WildRose]

Wow. I was amazed. I didn't even know my son could cook.

Right on! That really made me smile, Plant.

[Newfie]

Sitting here at a deck bar in Vallyfield, Quebeck. We have had a long stretch of great weather and got in some wonderful sailing, all the way across Lake Ontario and down past the Thousand Islands. It's the first time my Wife has had the opportunity to do some really decent and comfortable sailing where we covered ground.

Valleyfield is a lovely town, obviously on the water and very connected to it. Nice and clear, hot days but with a bit of cool in the breeze. An old canal goes through town and they are making the most of it. We will take a bus to Montreal Trursday, projected to rain all day! Oh well.

Last night I was chilling in the cockpit after sunset and watched a spider build a web in our dodger while planes were leaving contrails that were lit by the setting sun just over the horizion. This morning i found a few webs that were not there yesterday, each one just filled with little flies. Bon appetite!

[WildRose]

That sounds lovely, Newfie. Years ago, in the early 80's, my hubby and I traveled up the Rideau canal with my aunt and uncle, who at that time had a nice boat and their boating was a big part of their life. We stopped to visit them on our way to Cape Cod that summer, so they took us out on the canal one day, and I remember it as a beautiful area with some stunning properties along the way. Thousand Islands area is gorgeous, too. Of course, we don't have anything like that in Alberta.

Our weather here in central Alberta has been much more like our "typical" summer weather of late; gone is the long, hot, dry stretch we had in April and May. With all the thunderstorms of late I've been re-engaged with watching the sky, something I love to do. I could watch cloud formations for hours on end, and if I can combine that with a walk with my dog, well, that pretty much makes my day. Clouds on a land-locked stretch of topography.

[Newfie]

Funny, we were talking about that the other day. May wife was looking at clouds and describing what she saw. I asked her when she last had done that. Many years ago. It's good to be quiet and reintroduce yourself to yourself.

I'm sitting in a cafe across fro Quebec City killing time while my Wife has a couple of sessions.

This week was bitter sweet. We moved from Mintreal to QC. the river is opening up and getting less picturesque. I managed to hit a bit bout the other day. It's about a smart and explainable as running into a Stop sign on your bike. Tore up th pulpit, that'll cost a bunch of money and time. It killed my appetite, I am stuffed full of humble pie. I'll get over it, eventually.

We will visit old QC tomorrow.

We have never been through Quebec before. I have been to St. Pierre three times. I was surprised how much French culture the retained in St. Pierre. It is the same here only more so. We frequently run into folks with no English. Supposedly English nearly disappears East of here. I would guess that in the rural areas English is no better than in rural France. it is really striking the differences between the USA and here. While I admittedly see only a small slice of the region I see NO sign of poverty or the emotional desperation so prevelant in the USA, even in small towns. The USA #1 chest beaters really need to visit and see what things could be like.

Also the obesity seems much less, folks just seem fitter in general. And the ladies!