Drama in the Sky

 
The morning sky a couple of weeks ago. The whole world outside seemed to glow with a golden light. I dashed out onto the deck with my camera. Within a couple of minutes the sun had risen just a little bit more, the clouds had rearranged themselves, and the sky was grey for the rest of the day.

Morning Light

 
The sky this morning, as I sipped the first cup of coffee of the day. The weather was very cold last week.... -16C at night.... but much milder now. A little bit of snow on the ground, just enough to cover the squirrel superhighway that runs along the top of the fence.

SuperMoon

 

Not a very super photo.

March 17 ART plus

 I've been using up pre-painted canvas boards and playing with paint again, with varied results.  None of my efforts are any where near anything I might like to frame and hang on the wall, but it keeps me sane and busy and otherwise out of trouble during the endless Covid days. Although the restrictions here are easing up quite a bit, there are still too many new infections reported, many of them attributed to the variants, and new deaths every day.

I've also completed the needlepoint project that I started sometime in the 1990s. It sat in a sewing bag in the basement for a long time before I retrieved it. Now I have to decide what to do with it. Perhaps a 12"x12" frame?

Now that the clocks have changed to the daylight savings, I was up early enough to see the sun coming up behind the trees. That doesn't happen often. I mean me seeing the sun, not the sun coming up. That seems to happen on a regular basis whether I'm there to see it or not.

And today is a big day for me.... the hair salons are finally open and I am going to get my first proper haircut since the middle of November. I can hardly wait!

Pot of Gold?

One rainy/sunny/rainy/sunny day last week I looked out of my back door and saw a rainbow. I grabbed the camera before it disappeared. (Not the camera, the rainbow!).

 Then I thought I'd use my "colour enhancement" button on my little point'n'shoot Canon, and see what happens.

 Oooooh that's really spectacular! So I went to the front of the house to look up into the sky before the sunset faded.

 A nice sunset highlighting the clouds, but let's try the "colour enhancement" button again.

WOW!  And they say the camera never lies.
Well.... perhaps that used to be true but no longer. The camera can't be trusted to tell the truth at all!

Random This Week

Summer is coming to an end. It's been a "Back to School" week. My grandies all have new teachers who they seem to like. My Thursday Art Group is starting up again, Tuesday Line Dancing is back. It's still warm and sunny during the day, but nights are definitely chillier.

 A stunning sunset reflecting on storm clouds and a flock of Canada geese flying back to the pond where they roost for the night.

Here's Spidey: A huge spider (a bit out of focus, sorry!) who has been living on my geraniums for the past couple of weeks. It's been fascinating watching him (or her) repair the web each morning and every time an unfortunate fly or insect gets caught, he scurries over to the victim and wraps it up in spider web to save for dinner later.

A handmade quilt quoting the words of our national anthem, "O CANADA", by Canadian filmmaker and artist Joyce Weiland.  I saw many pieces of her work exhibited at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection in the picturesque little town of Kleinberg, Ontario.

And the view from one of the windows at the McMichael. A painting in itself! The gallery is situated in ten acres of scenic wooded land with public trails through the trees. The building itself started as a four room log house built with salvaged pioneer hand hewn logs, but has since been enlarged, housing an extensive collection of Canadian art, including many works by the Group of Seven.

Sunset on Steroids

The sunset reflected beautifully on the cumulous clouds on the horizon so I grabbed the camera and went to the nearby church parking area.
This is how I saw the clouds....

....but with the function selection turned to colour enhancement, this is how the camera saw the clouds.

Which one do you like best?

Sky Show

Did you miss me? Awwww, thanks! I've been a wayward blogger for a few weeks, partly due to extreme laziness, and partly due to the fact that I have spent too many air-conditioned days hiding from the hottest July and August recorded, and recovering from hip surgery at the same time, therefore not being inspired to blog.
But now I'm out and about and determined to mend my ways.
The sky..... a couple of evenings ago.
First this:

 Then this:

 And three minutes later, this:

White, Orange and Green

Some random observations of the past week or so.....

WHITE
First Shift is a program sponsored by Bauer (sports equipment) to encourage youngsters ages 6 to 10 into the game of ice hockey, specifically targeting families who don't have a history of playing Canada's National Game.
For a very nominal fee of  $125, Isaac got the full equipment needed for hockey including skates, stick, helmet, facemask, gloves, all the padded protective gear, and a huge sports bag almost as big as he is to put it all in. Six weeks of introductory skating skills with accredited coaches at the new ice arena, followed by weekly practices and games until March 2016. Bargain!

 One shift waits on the bench while the others play a game. Each player is on the ice for about 5 minutes, then they change over. Isaac's in the middle. His dad put a black electrical tape stripe on his helmet so we could tell which one he is..... they all look the same buried under all that equipment.

When he started the program in October, Isaac couldn't even stand on skates. He still ends up in the horizontal flat-on-his-back position quite often, but he can get back on his skates without help, and now he can skate forward pretty fast, he can stop, and he's learning to skate backwards. Terrific progress.

ORANGE

I was up early one morning last week just as the sun was coming up. Had to go out with my camera on the back deck while still wearing my jammies. Froze my toes but the view of the lovely sky made up for it.

GREEN

I really enjoy watching the British TV show Grand Designs hosted by Kevin McCloud... who by the way, seems to be so nice and is terribly handsome (IMHO) and has such an infectious smile, I'd love to invite him to tea! Anyway, tea invitations aside..... the show is all about elaborate and unusual architectural home building projects. And the opening credits end up on this landscape. I don't know where it is located but I really like it, so I took a pic of the TV screen and decided to paint it.

I love to paint but it's very hard to discipline myself to get on with it, so I have joined a local Artist Group. We gather once a week in a nearby Community Hall, and I'm finding it very inspirational to be with others who are like minded. Everyone has a different style and a different pace of working, some with watercolours, or acrylics, or pencil or pen and ink.  
Once a month we have a "Show and Tell" and critique each other's work.... I'm learning so much!
The group hosts an annual art exhibition and art sale the first weekend in May, so it remains to be seen if anyone will be interested in my work. Plenty of time to improve my technique!

Art Class

After a break of a couple of uninspired weeks, I've taken up my paintbrushes again. This is the view of the entrance to St Johns Harbour from Cape Spear. Part of a bigger photo that I took when I was in Newfoundland last September.

Still lots of work to do on it.
The colours are not right yet and the coastline in the distance should be softer. And the sea is never that delightful blue colour, well, maybe in the Carribbean, but not the North Atlantic. And I want the sky to be stormier, even though it was a lovely sunny day.

The canvas was underpainted in Cad Orange, and some of the orange is bursting through on the actual painting giving it some energy, but it doesn't really show in the photo.

I'll keep painting, and I'll post a pic when it's finished.... but is a painting ever finished? It's so hard to tell, there's always something extra to add. The trick is to know when to stop!

Meanwhile, my friend V and I have signed up for another 8 week landscape painting class, with a different teacher this time. And he has a completely different approach to art from our previous teacher, which is giving me nightmares! I think it will be hard to adapt to his way of thinking, but I'm willing to try. But I've already abandoned what we did in this week's class, and started again.... not a good sign!

The Light at the End of the Road

The Equestrienne took this photo with her cell phone yesterday.
 

Red Sky at Night.... Sailor's Delight

Ahhh... that's better! A little cooler yesterday and today. A welcome reprieve from this summer's endless high humidity and heat.

And yesterday evening.....

.... this fiery sunset lit up the sky! The promise of another lovely day in store.

Mission Home Improvement - STS-126

It was truly spectacular!

NASA Mission STS-126 "Endeavour" carrying seven astronauts lifted off from Cape Canaveral on Friday evening right on time at 7:55pm. It's heading to the International Space Station to make a few improvements to make life easier for the occupants.

And we were there to witness it! WOW!

The night before the launch, The Space Cadet spent about an hour looking at Google Earth, planning the best vantage point to see the launch. He decided Hwy 1 in Titusville, so we headed south on Friday afternoon. People and cars were everywhere, tremendous excitement in the air. We asked a group of tough looking bikers the best place and they said "Right here... just park and we'll show you where to go".

They were right, it was a bit of vacant grassland at the back of Wendy's Burgers, about 200 people had already assembled with chairs, radios, TVs, cameras, telescopes, children, etc., with a clear view across the Inland Waterway towards the launch gantry, which was lit up like a Christmas tree. You couldn't miss it.

We scrambled over a rusty fence and joined a group (including the bikers) sitting along the river bank. We had over an hour to wait, but time passed quickly, with so many people to talk to. After all, everyone was there for the same reason.

And as we waited, a gorgeous full moon rose into the clear sky.

Finally, the countdown... five... four... three... through my binoculars I could see smoke or steam billowing up... two... one... a huge burst of orange flame lit up the sky and the rocket started lifting into the night. I could hardly breathe. What an incredible sight. And a few seconds later the sound of the rocket reached us across the water... a huge rumbling boom, such power!

Cheers, applause, lots of whooping and hollering, people were celebrating a successful launch.

I followed the rocket with the binoculars as far as I could. I could even see the red hot booster rockets fall towards the sea. Incredible to think that seven human beings were sitting on top of that fiery rocket, trusting their lives to technology (and perhaps keeping their fingers crossed, knocking on wood, etc.).

Speed reached 1,000mph in just a few seconds.
It's going 1,500mph within 5 miles from the launch.
By the time it's gone 73 miles, the speed is 4,000mph.
By the time it reaches 10,000mph, it's 64 miles up.
By the time it reaches 16,000mph, it's 66 miles up, and has travelled 760 miles.

Space shuttle vapour trail lit up by a beautiful full moon.

What a sight.

First pic borrowed from NASA web site, other pics taken by The Space Cadet.

Storm at Sunset

Pictures taken 5 minutes ago in my back yard....

.... of a very ordinary sunset reflected in storm clouds to the east.

Around the World in 90 Minutes

Tonight, the International Space Station was scheduled to pass directly over the Toronto area at precisely 9:55p.m.
At 9:50p.m. we were out in the back yard, craning our necks to look up into the night sky, not knowing what to expect. There were a few high clouds, but most of the sky was clear.
"What's that?"
False alarm... a V of Canada geese flew overhead, their white bellies lit up by the lights on Main Street.
Then I spotted it..... a bright light, bigger and brighter than any of the stars, high up, moving rapidly across the sky from west to east.

It didn't look quite like this. Not from where I was standing.
But there it was, carrying it's complement of three astronaut scientists, travelling at 27,700 km per hour, 350 km above my back yard!
And it circles the earth precisely 15.77 times each day. We stood and watched until it disappeared behind the trees.

We live in astonishing times.

Total Eclipse of the Moon

Were you outside staring into space between 10pm and 11pm last night?

If you were, you witnessed a Total Lunar Eclipse. Here's what NASA had to say about it.

"Eclipse Predictions by Fred Espenak, NASA's GSFC"

Looking up through the bare branches in the back yard, I could see that the full moon was gradually turning dark orange. But it was really cold, about -12C, and not a cloud in the sky. Too cold to stay out there very long. I braced my little Nikon Coolpix2100 camera on top of the bird feeder and zoomed in to take some shots. Most of them suffered from a bad case of the shivers, but this was the best one.

No detail, but what a cool colour!
I'll have to wait until December 21, 2010 for the next Total Lunar Eclipse visible in North America.
Maybe I'll have a better camera by then.

Take it Easy

A lazy sunny summer weekend and I'm taking it easy under the garden umbrella. Foot up on a chair, pile of books beside me, cool drink on the table.

And when (if) I feel ambitious, I sit myself down on the grass and start weeding... tons of this purple Self-heal, or Heal-all, in the lawn, growing in huge clumps. The only islands of green in a sea of burnt yellow grass.

Haven't seen any fairies yet though. I hope I'm not destroying their natural habitat.

I love these Flower Fairies books, I have them all from my childhood. Poems and pictures by Cecily M. Barker.

When little elves have cut themselves,
Or Mouse has hurt her tail,
Or Froggie's arm has come to harm,
This herb will never fail.
The Fairy's skill can cure each ill
And soothe the sorest pain;
She'll bathe, and bind, and soon they'll find
That they are well again.

Just what I need for my foot!






YoungerSon came by on the way to a Volvo meet with some of his Volvo aficionado friends






And the Day Lilies are in bloom....

Father's Day, Red Hats, and a Sunset

Breaking away from the Alphabet theme again (only Y and Z to go, folks!), Sunday was Father's Day.
The Space Cadet and his younger son D headed for Timber Creek, the local driving range.





I joined them, and hit a few balls, but Tiger Woods has nothing to fear from me! I don't think I was cut out to hit a little white ball into a hole, unless of course, you're talking about Mini-Putt, I'm pretty good at that!










D was fully equipped with golf shoes and a golf bag full of expensive clubs, obviously a keen golfer. He and his brother are planning to take The Space Cadet out for 18 holes next weekend.

D could whack that ball for miles, The Space Cadet wasn't quite as skillful, but he hadn't played for ages.... or at least that was his excuse. I thnk they'd better rent a golf cart next weekend for sure.

A fun way to spend a sunny Sunday Father's Day afternoon.

Well, that was the excitement on Sunday.... on Monday the Whistle Stop Red Hat Ladies met at Janette's for a Strawberry Tea! I wish I had taken photos of all the strawberry treats.... so yummy! Janette's husband has a strawberry farm.... more about that in the future.

Every year the Red Hat Banner is presented to a deserving Red Hatter.... here's Queenie making the presentation speech...

.... and here's the recipient for this year, our lovely hostess Janette.

And tonight.... Tuesday.... a huge violent thunderstorm, and then a wonderful sunset.

Back to the Alphabet theme tomorrow!

Zipper in the Sky

If I unzip the zipper, will the sky fall?

End of the Day

This was the view on the way home from work today. The sun sinks below the horizon so early now, but of course, it's not the sun leaving us, it's us on the Earth spinning away from the sunlight into the darkness.