Tag: summer

AWOKEN BY THE SMELL OF RAIN

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Being a heavy sleeper has its advantages when the Professor and our pup get up pre-dawn for their daily constitutional but lately it has been the sound of thunder and sudden torrential downpours rather than any absence of warm bodies in bed that have signalled to my unconsciousness that another day has begun. This unusually cool spell has meant we have been lucky enough to be able to open the windows at night and this morning’s reveille of raindrops was a sweetly clean yet heady fragrance reminiscent of simpler times.

Two Cents Tuesday Challenge: Blooms

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blooms

lucky are the bees

We swore blind that we wouldn’t do any more gardening the frosty day the realtor hammered the for-sale sign into a snowbank on our lawn. Those of you who have been following the saga of where we wind up next will know that we are none too happy going forward knowing that we have prettied up our rental landscape and won’t be able to enjoy it for too much longer. All those plants nurtured over time, the Asian lilies, the unexpected daisies, the delicate mauve blossoms on the hostas – all these we will dig up in the fall or spring before they begin to flower again in earnest and whisk off to some more deserving garden.

In the meantime, Nature is playing the temptress and flashing her charms at us from every available venue, calling out for us to weed so that passersby may also enjoy the view and asking us to prop her up with a bit of twine so she doesn’t droop in all the wrong places. Our neighbour is concerned that we are not engaging quite as enthusiastically with the small plot where the veggies usually grow and has leaned over the fence with pots of “just a little something” to plant to ensure that we have something really fresh to add to our salad a month down the line. The Two Cents Tuesday Challenge is reminded every time we put out the recycling that hollyhocks, like tomatoes, can indeed be transplanted and grow to incredible heights whether we like it or not. The rain and the sporadic sprinkler system, the bugs and the bees are all doing their part (even if we are not) to make sure we are surprised by the most magnificent – Blooms.

“Tell us about your blooms?” – are they flowers or fruit, a vegetable patch, clover in the field or a roof of thatch, babies and puppies, a store full of hats, a sky full of parasols or basket of cats.

We would love to see your vision..

For all those who are new readers to Across the Bored, here are some guidelines for the challenge: HOW DOES THIS WORK?

  1.  I will post some commentary on a random topic that pops into my head (such as the above) and then ask you to respond on the same.
  2. Your point of view on the current week’s challenge can take any form: a quote, a motto or saying, an essay, poem or opinion of yours or attributed to someone else, a piece of music, a song, a video, a work of art, photograph, graffiti, drawing or scribble – but it has to be about the topic!
  3. Please, don’t just link to an old post… challenge yourself.
  4. The Challenge will be open for 14 days (there will be a reminder post at the 7 day mark) after which I will post another.
  5. ENJOY, have FUN and TELL your friends and fellow bloggers.

 SO – Create your Two Cents Tuesday Challenge post

  1. Then add a link to your blog in my comment box.
  2. To make it easy for others to check out your post, title your blog post “Two Cents Tuesday Challenge” and add the same as a tag.
  3. If you would like your reader to see what others are presenting for the same challenge, add a link to the “Two Cents Tuesday” challenge on your own blog.
  4. Feel free to pick up your badge on the Two Cents Tuesday Challenge page
  5. Remember to Follow My Blog to get your weekly (hopefully) reminders.

 

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Fire or Season of Summer

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summer fire

it must have seemed a good idea at the time:
keep the jollity flowing well into the new year
until crisp as tinder
where but a breath
sends needles spiralling to the floor
like lost good will
fanning the flames of disaster
the task at hand is well nigh
forsooth, ’tis christmas in july

♨︎

Heat things up with the entries of
Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Fire or Season of Summer.

Two Cents Tuesday Challenge: It’s up to you, again…

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well, that went quickly…

Hard to believe that another year has whizzed right by and we find ourselves in the middle of another summer: a summer that crawls in after a too-short spring, gains momentum and then leaps from one week to the next like some housebound feline that has found the catnip growing wild in the garden. At any moment we expect it to just roll over exhausted and suddenly it will be autumn.

We are, sadly, stuck in town for a while longer, our usual jaunt to the West Coast for some badly needed battery recharging delayed for the moment. It is the first time in over a decade that we haven’t found ourselves lazing on the beach under a broiling July sun so we have been busy pounding the pavement like a good tourist in our own city, taking photos of street art, buildings sans snow and other tourists. The Two Cents Tuesday Challenge needs to put its feet up for the afternoon so a retrospective is just the thing, scroll through the archives by clicking on this link or on one of the topics below and pick something, anything  – It’s up to You.

Heat    Surprise    Silly    Expectations    Lost    Abstract     Grateful     Bliss     T-shirts     Shoes    Loyalty    Painting    Cook    Wishes    Paths    Writing    Birthday    Wonder    Harvest     Size    Words     Routine    Calm    Curious    It’s up to You    Toys    Clean    Bold     Random    Heritage    Special    Happy    Gifts    Graffiti    Brilliant    Funny    Habit    Resolution    Relax    Sweet    Illumination   Decoration   Morning   Style    Home   Pressure   Temptation    Manipulation    Compromise    Procrastination

We would love to see your vision..

For all those who are new readers to Across the Bored, here are some guidelines for the challenge: HOW DOES THIS WORK?

  1.  I will post some commentary on a random topic that pops into my head (such as the above) and then ask you to respond on the same.
  2. Your point of view on the current week’s challenge can take any form: a quote, a motto or saying, an essay, poem or opinion of yours or attributed to someone else, a piece of music, a song, a video, a work of art, photograph, graffiti, drawing or scribble – but it has to be about the topic!
  3. Please, don’t just link to an old post… challenge yourself.
  4. The Challenge will be open for 14 days (there will be a reminder post at the 7 day mark) after which I will post another.
  5. ENJOY, have FUN and TELL your friends and fellow bloggers.

 SO – Create your Two Cents Tuesday Challenge post

  1. Then add a link to your blog in my comment box.
  2. To make it easy for others to check out your post, title your blog post “Two Cents Tuesday Challenge” and add the same as a tag.
  3. If you would like your reader to see what others are presenting for the same challenge, add a link to the “Two Cents Tuesday” challenge on your own blog.
  4. Feel free to pick up your badge on the Two Cents Tuesday Challenge page
  5. Remember to Follow My Blog to get your weekly (hopefully) reminders.

 

Two Cents Tuesday Challenge: Routine – Week 2

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routine 2is it hoarding if it’s organized?

☍

Half of our horde has been back in the academic grind for a week now with great success.  The courses are inspiring, the professors better than expected and the schedule, well, not everything can be perfect but it is only until December when the collegial masses get a 6 WEEK break. Nice to be young. Across the Bored took the opportunity of one less body in the house to put all the paperwork lying around from the summer in order, file the bills, catch up on correspondence and get back to the arduous process of going through 20 years of accumulated boxed ephemera that has been sitting in the warehouse.  Multitasking was going relatively well until the computer stated in no uncertain terms “Unable to save – Memory scratch disk full”. What? How is that possible? Didn’t we just go through this 2 months ago?

Odd that these files seem to take up an inordinate amount of space and much like all of that stuff in the physical storage facility, must be gotten rid of.  Story of our life that we save so much that only we are ultimately interested in and then heart-wrenchingly have to dispose of like stale left-overs or unwanted houseguests. Would that there was an easy, Zen way to deal with this phenomenon and not have to wrestle with the body-numbing paralysis that sets in whenever we turn that piece of paper or fiddly bit over and over in our hands wondering “Are we going to need this 3 months after we throw it out”?   Or worse still, the dreaded terrors of not being able to find that one thing you really really needed because in a fit of disposal anxiety you didn’t do one last triage on that box you dropped off at the Goodwill….

Do we ever learn from those things that we seem to do over and over again or does it just transform into something different but similar as time goes by? Like this fortnight’s Two Cents Tuesday Challenge, we might need to change our – Routine.

Last week we asked “How does routine appear to you?” –  The drive to town every morn, that pair of shoes always worn, wake-up calls or favourite malls, superb meals or special deals, meditation, daily prayer, yoga mats or just a love of all that …

We would love to see your vision.

For all those who are new readers to Across the Bored, some great entries and the guidelines for this fortnight’s challenge can be found here. Need more info – Have a look at HOW DOES THIS WORK.

Two Cents Tuesday Challenge: Calm – Week 2

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2 calm

zen and the art of the tourist

∀

Glorious sunshine after a cold, grey dawn brought out the masses along the waterfront yesterday and we decided to join them in a decidedly un-local move.  Having come to this summer destination for as long as we can remember, we have become inured to the throngs spilling off the cruiseships and the ever-changing spectacle of festivals and street shows designed to please.  There were a few faces that had been around for a while who put on a great show for families with small children and posed good-naturedly for photos with random people they would never see again and so we waited until the crowd had moved on, threw some coins into the sturdy white bucket and asked if we could take a photo. Not only were we rewarded with a smile and a bit of conversation but a couple of hugs thrown in for good measure. Just what the doctor ordered to lift our spirits.

The life of the busker has been co-opted by local government to become an intrinsic part of the summer tourist trade. Licenses for prime harbour real-estate and the bustling shopping strip now require an initial outlay of hard-earned cash; paperwork and schedules replace once easy decisions to just get up, out to make visitors to the city smile and perhaps scrape together a few bucks in an afternoon. All inclusive vacations have made it hard for those who earn a living with their talent on the streets. Once-a-year travellers don’t always understand the art of outdoor entertainment, they see it and the artists who perform as just another part of the scenery, a living, breathing bit of pleasant backdrop and rarely as people with families, dreams and often, a mission in life. Just like us.

When faced with unbending rules and regulations and those events in our daily existence that give us pause, we must, like this fortnight’s Two Cents Tuesday Challenge and Plasterman, attempt to stay  – Calm.

Last week we asked “What does calm look like to you?” –  A placid lake or crystal snowflake, curled up cats, meditation mats, denim blues or an afternoon snooze…

We would love to see your vision.

For all those who are new readers to Across the Bored, some great entries and the guidelines for this fortnight’s challenge can be found here. Need more info – Have a look at HOW DOES THIS WORK.