Showers & Sunflowers: May 2010

THRIFTY FINDS

Do you love some good bargain shopping like I do? This past weekend was the Victoria Day long weekend here in Canada and sister Pammie and myself had for weeks planned an outdoor photo shoot somewhere. Cemeteries? City parks? We weren't sure but were going to play it by ear when the weekend came. And the timing would have been lovely, because all over the city the fruit trees were in full flowering goodness.

Well it came, and it was cold, rainy and windy as hell all weekend. Until the last day of course. So, instead we decided to do something indoors, and headed to a large flea market here in the city. Uncharacteristically for us both, we left there without any purchases though. We went for "lunch" at the Cheesecake Cafe by our house and had good strong coffee and a "Rustic Apple Tart", YUM. After that sustenance, we then hit up 3 thrift shops nearby for a browse around the household sections. I found this pretty chrome folding dessert tray for $2.00, and brass cone incense holder for $1.00. Oh and I also got a bag full of used paperbacks for my nightly reading material.

Not a bad day's browsing for a Toonie and a Loonie huh? We both really enjoy this kind of shopping, and most of all we LOVE browsing around in Antique Shops. The furniture, the old kitchen gadgets..... love it!

Unfortunately all 3 of the Antique Shops here in our end of the city have closed down over the last several years, they were our favourite haunts. There are still many here in our city but they are waaaaaay hell and gone on the South side and too far to make the trek most days. Still, maybe one of these days we'll head to that area and make an entire day of it.

As for the thrift shops we visited here, one was small but two of them some of you may have in your areas too: Goodwill and Value Village. Their kitchen and household areas are quite extensive and fun to browse through. And we often find something for a dollar or two that we can certainly use and will grab it up.

I burn a lot of candles and incense, but for years I've been using the stick incense. Way back in the early 70's in my hippie chick days I burned cone incense in a little brass holder much like this one. Now I'll have to get myself some cone incense too! :-)

For my American buddies, I hope you all have a great Memorial Day long weekend coming up!

PEACE!
Love Jude

SPRINGING TO LIFE

For this wee moment in time, for just a week or so, it smells like heaven in our yards. In fact, in our entire neighbourhood. As you can see here in this "dreamy" photo, looking out off our back deck and down the alley everyone's back yards have trees abloom!

This is the time of spring for us where all the lilacs and fruit trees are awash with beautiful flowers, and all around them birds are flitting and playing and blessing us with their song, from dawn until dark. It's the most glorious time of year for scent and sound!

You can see on the right, our MayDay tree is in full bloom and believe me it smells soooo beautiful......

....almost as beautiful as the scent of lilacs. Ours, as you can see, is just starting to bloom and though we've had buds peeking out at us for a few days now, today some of them are beginning to open up. Even on a cloudy day like today, spring is springing to life!

When these lilacs have been open for awhile and before they are done, I will definitely be bringing some into the house. Who needs air sprays? Once completely bloomed, this one is a "blue" variety, a purply shade of blue depending how the light catches it.

Out in the front yard, our Pear and 2 Cherry trees are blooming as well. You can see here the largest of the Cherry trees, and our little Pear tree on the right. That tiny tree gives us pears every year, although it is too young yet to give us any that are very edible.

With the exception of Autumn which is my favourite and the prettiest season, this is the time of year that I think comes a close second. For the last 2 days we had some pretty hot temperatures and as usual I was suffering from heat exhaustion because of it. But today it clouded over and the temperatures are down to a more normal springtime level.

This May long weekend promised to be rainy and cool, but for the last day or so that forecast has been slowly changing. I'm glad too, because I'm hoping on Saturday to grab my camera (and my photo-partner-in-crime sister Pammie) and head out somewhere for a Spring shoot. A favourite cemetery perhaps? Or maybe a park? We shall make that decision in a few days.

In the meantime, I'm just going to keep enjoying the view from my kitchen window.

Happy Victoria Day weekend to my Canadian friends!

PEACE!
Love Jude

"STILL LIFE" PHOTO CONTEST WINNERS!

It was a close race, with the runners-up tied shots only ONE vote behind the winning shot.... congrats to the winners!

And a huge thank you to the voters for making this possible for us. Stay tuned for the end of May, when the next contest theme will be "EARTH".

A question for my readers, how many of you vote in these contests? We are finding we could use more voters but I'm unsure as to how to accumulate more.

PEACE!
Jude

"STILL LIFE" PHOTO CONTEST

Time to go vote again folks! This month's theme is "Still Life" and promises to be a good one. If you'd like to participate in the voting process, please go over to Stardom Awaits! and check out the photography. Thank you!

AAAAARGH! Man it was tough this time deciding on only 5 entries!!! Still Life is one of my favourite subjects to shoot, and I had to actually stop myself from doing any more because I already had waaaaaaay too many to enter! LOL

As usual, here are some of my entries that I had to leave out... *sniff*

1. Reading Time