"BOOKS" PHOTO CONTEST

This month's theme is "BOOKS" over at Stardom Awaits!, so if you would like to help us out by heading on over there, you can choose your ONE favourite photo and place your vote.

The voting will be open for approximately 2 weeks, and then the winner(s) will be announced.

Thanks to all of our voters! Good luck to our entrants. :-)

PEACE!
Love Jude

TERRIFYING!

I hate these little muthas SO much, they terrify me! LOL

Click on the link:
Hippie Chick's Wasp Problem


PEACE! NO WASPS!
Love Jude

"SOFT" PHOTO CONTEST WINNERS!

Congratulations to Fullmoondolphin, Cyber and Shilo for some beautiful photos! The two winning shots tied, and the runner up shot was only ONE vote behind. :-)

You can now go back to the contest post and see the names of all photogs beside their pictures.

Thank you to our voters, without you we can't do this. Next up: end of September will be "BOOKS". Stay tuned!


PEACE!
Love Jude

BLOG BIRTHDAY

Wow, I can't believe that this week marks the 7th. year of Showers and Sunflowers!


[This was my very first template, a "sample" is all I can show you as I don't have a screen shot of my first one.]

Admittedly, the last while this blog hasn't been as "busy" as it used to be. So many of my previous blog buddies and readers have flown the coop and are now Facebookers only. I had Facebook for quite awhile but only used it to check up on those friends and stay in touch. Over the last several months I finally caved in and now spend more time there as EVERYONE I know is there and not blogging anymore, except for a few of you.

I just can't close down the blog or stop blogging even though my posts here are few and far between. A lot of blood, sweat and tears went into creating and making changes to it over the years, a lot of fun and friendships made here.



[This was my second (and long running) template, my very first attempt at learning how to change backgrounds, colours, fonts, pictures etc. with html coding.]

I still post something occasionally, but mostly it is an announcement site for the Stardom Awaits! photo contest blog. I know I've put the question to my readers here in the past couple of years and always got the same response" I read your blog please don't shut it down" and although I only ever get about 3 people who ever comment here anymore ( used to be many, many more) I will keep it going. Showers and Sunflowers is my blogbaby. ;-)


[Ah and now I cannot show you a picture of my 3rd. long running template as the template itself has been deleted from the account of the person who created it! This however, is the heading picture I used, some of the subtitles that I made for the blog, and the colour scheme. Some of you who have been with me for a long time here may remember this colour scheme from back in those days.]

7 years ago! Wow I was only 52 years old. I was 7 years farther away from ever *!#*!! retiring, and I had more teeth than I do now LOL! (I am getting fitted for a "partial" upper plate with 2 molars in it to replace a gap I now have since having another extracted almost 2 weeks ago) 7 years ago I was, as always on vacation at home in September and decided to start my own blog as several of my friends just had, and it seemed like fun. It has been!

Blogging made me much more computer savvy, learning all about html coding (which is a hoot!) and I made SO many more online friends. THAT was the very best part of it all. Thank you all for the friendships. It had made my life richer for certain!

Happy Birthday Showers and Sunflowers!!

PEACE!
Love Jude

VACATION PHOTO SHOOT

On Saturday my sis Pammie and my young friend Shilo from work went on an annual "When Jude is on vacation" photo shoot. This year we went to Fort Edmonton Park (was there with Pammie 3 years ago) and got all 3 streets done. (1885 Street, 1905 Street, and 1920 Street) Hopefully next weekend we'll be able to go back and shoot the Fort itself. :-)

We had the most PERFECT day for walking around outside. The temperature was just around 70F and it was sunny with a slight breeze. The only time we got a bit "hot" was upstairs in one of the less airy buildings, I believe it was the miliner's shop.





One spot where we started out there is a farm, and the chickens and turkeys followed us around everywhere. Especially the chickens.... about 2 hours into our day we decided to go sit on one of the many park benches under a shady tree and get off our feet for a half hour. A couple of the chickens even followed us there, and one of them jumped up on the table looking for us to feed it. Too funny!

There were no mosquitos and no wasps (this time of year is usually bad for wasps and I'm terrified of them) so it just couldn't have been a more perfect "outdoor" day.

All 3 of us are entrants on the Stardom Awaits! contest blog, so we all enjoy our photography hobby immensely. We've been talking about and looking forward to this outing for a couple of months now.

Fort Edmonton Park is a great place to see original old buildings like houses (my fav!), school, churches, and businesses like hardware store, bank etc. etc. And there are TONS of animals like horses, pigs, sheep etc. and there are always horse drawn wagons and stagecoaches to ride on, and plenty of old antique cars.

There is also a little fair with kiddy rides and a carousel that has hand crafted and painted horses. The horses are crafted right on site.

The only thing disappointing this year was the steam engine train was shut down for the year for maintenance so we took the old trolly instead.





Nearer to the last 3/4 of our day we stopped at a bakery in an old hotel which was CRAZY busy. I can see why too, their daily fresh baked goodies are delicious. I got myself a date square to take home, and a cinamon bun to eat there. Once again we found a nice shady spot under a tree and sat at a picnic table to enjoy our treats and some raspberry lemonade.

All in all I took only 281 photos this time, as I'd been there only 3 years ago I didn't want to take any of the same shots. It was easy though, there's so much to see and shoot. In the end I only decided to keep 91 shots which I posted on my Facebook page. I'm only posting a few here on my blog, but here is a "Public" link to my Facebook photo album. Anybody (apparently) can access this link. I hope you enjoy looking as much as I enjoyed shooting!

Jude's Facebook Album

I hope all of my Canadian and American friends and family have a good Labour Day weekend!

PEACE!
Love Jude

HAPPY LABOUR DAY WEEKEND!

Yesterday was the first day of my 3 week vacation, something I look forward to in September all year long. As always I'm not travelling anywhere, but enjoying time at home catching up on rest and sleep, having some get-togethers with friends, going on a couple of photo shoots, and getting some small projects done around the house. I love it! Wish I could retire and be on a permanent vacation.

The only bummer is that I had to have a tooth pulled that is very close to the front of my mouth on Wednesday, and have to get a partial plate. My first fake body part! Sucks!

In a week I go back to the dentist to have a mold taken, then it's about 2 weeks before I get the partial. Hopefully all before I go back to work.


Tomorrow sister Pammie and my friend from work Shilo are going on a photo shoot to Fort Edmonton Park or "Fart Edmonton Pork" as I call it, heh heh. Shilo and Pammie are both entrants on our 'Stardom Awaits!' contest blog and we all enjoy getting out with our cameras. In addition to the huge old Fort itself, the park has 3 streets which all have homes and businesses to browse through, 1885 Street, 1905 Street, and 1920 Street. I LOVE going through old homes! The weather is supposed to be perfect for this outing (a lot of walking) around 70F and sunny.

Thank God the hot weather we're supposed to get doesn't happen until a couple of days later!

Fort Edmonton Park sits right on our city's river, with some gorgeous scenery all around it. Pammie and I were there 3 years ago with our cameras but we look forward to heading back again tomorrow.




I've been thoroughly enjoying my new android phone, it's a Samsung Galaxy and has more bells and whistles than you can shake a stick at. I love that I can text normally, or text using their "Swype" feature, or actually "draw" the letters on the screen. And I can access Facebook, blogs etc. from my comfy chair instead of having to sit at my desktop. Love it!

In both Canada and the U.S. this is our Labour Day weekend and I hope everyone has good weather to get out and enjoy it. Have fun!

PEACE!
Love Jude