What an delightful but odd country I live in.  At least, my neck of the woods is odd when it comes to the weather.  We've had some very hot days this summer - far too hot for me.  I don't do well with the heat.  I used to love it when I was younger, but the older I get, and the worse the fibromyalgia gets, the less tolerance I have for hot weather.

However, it's been a fairly decent summer from my point of view, as we've also had more rain than usual, which has brought some cooler spells to keep things bearable.  We've had some wonderful thunderstorms.  I love them, but my youngest dog doesn't share my enthusiasm.  There's nothing like being woken up at some ungodly hour of the morning, feeling four little paws crawling over my head, pulling my hair out by the roots, as the little one tries to get as far away from the window - you know, the window that the big bangs are coming from! - as she can yet still stay close to me.  I can get her settled a bit, but there's no chance of going back to sleep, because the bed is shaking so badly from her trembling that it feels as if I'm in a minor earthquake.  One morning the shaking bed woke me up - she hadn't even started crawling over my head yet!  I do feel sorry for the poor wee girl, but I can't help but be amused.

She's always been afraid of loud noises.  I remember when a friend of mine bought my dogs toys for Christmas one year.  She got the eldest a squeaky hamburger - a very LOUD squeaky hamburger.  Lady (the eldest) loved it - still does, as a matter of fact.  Misty (the youngest) was so terrified of it that she would race frantically from the room as soon as Lady started playing with it.  Misty would run to the kitchen, to the far wall - the furthest point in the house that she could get from the Hamburger From Hell.  She would suck herself up against the wall as if she were hoping to osmose herself through it!  I took pity on her and didn't leave the Hamburger From Hell out all the time.  I would give it to Lady to play with occasionally, and Misty finally got to the point where she could stay in the same room with it - although she still doesn't like it.  But Lady is like a wee puppy again when she gets hold of that thing - she loves it so much that I refuse to not let her play with it now and then.

But I digress.  The weather has been quite toasty for the last few days, so I was delighted to wake up to heavy cloud cover and rain this morning.  It rained all day, and it was such a nice break from the heat.  There was no thunder though, which was very good as far as Misty is concerned! However, tonight it's actually cold - almost cold enough to turn the furnace on.  I refuse to turn the furnace on in July though!  (I may have to soon, as I heard we might get snow.  THAT can take a hike, as far as I'm concerned!)  I usually refuse to close my windows too - even if I'm shivering!  It's far too cold tonight to have them open, so I bowed to my sensible brain cells and kept the windows closed.

The odd bit about the weather here is how we can go from very hot temperatures to weather that's suited for late autumn/early winter in the space of a day.  Heck, around here we can go to those extremes within the same day!  I recall one day, many years ago, when we had a temperature drop of about 20 degrees celcius in the space of four hours.  Of course no one had dressed for it, since even the weathermen weren't prepared for that little gem.  It was amusing to watch the entire downtown working population go from being nice and warm in the morning to racing frantically for their various parking lots by lunch time.

The cold temperatures were made even colder with the windchill, which is especially bad in our downtown core.  The wind whips around all the highrises, so even the slightest breeze ends up being a bit of a gale there.  Word to the wise - don't EVER go downtown here wearing a knee-length or shorter full skirt, especially if you have your arms full of papers and stuff from work that you're carting around.  Trust me on this.  Been there, done that, gave a good majority of the downtown workers a free rush hour show!  If you don't have an ankle-length skirt - or at least a tight-fitting skirt - then wear pants in the downtown area!

I see I've digressed again.  Who, me?  Digress?  I would never do that, would I?

I really don't have anything else to add, though.  I was sitting here shivering, refusing to turn the furnace on, and decided to ramble a bit about our wacky weather.  I did break down and make a lovely warm cup of tea, so at least the steam has thawed my nose out.  I'm quite cozy, sitting here sipping my tea, looking out at the storm clouds, and nattering to my friends on the Hill.  It's a lovely way to spend a stormy evening!  I am in no way complaining about the cold either.  I'd far rather have this weather than the heat, and I am hoping for more of this tomorrow!

Take care, everyone!  Have a safe, cozy, and peaceful night!

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Well, after having some much needed time off, I started a new job on Monday.  This is a seven week assignment through the temp agency, and so far I think I will love it.  I'm not thrilled with the work itself, although it's not too bad, just boring.  I'm having a blast with the people though - they are a lot of fun, and one of the nicest groups of people I've ever met.  So even though the work doesn't excite me, I'm going to enjoy seeing this group every day.

I usually pick my sister up after work, as her office is on my way home.  However, with this new position, I am off earlier than normal.  I wasn't sure how long it would take me to get home (the location I'm working at is a long way from my house), so I decided to drive to my sister's workplace when I got off yesterday.  I was there about half an hour early, but decided to hang around and wait for her.  There's a bookstore next to her location, so I opted to wander around in there while I waited.

Now, I should know better than to go in there.  I LOVE books, and this store always has several sales tables.  You can get brand new books - often in hardcover - for $5.00 - $10.00.  Sometimes they are even cheaper than that.  So I always head for those tables, and it's very rare that I manage to leave the store without buying something.

Yesterday I found three wonderful books, each for just under $5.00.  They are compilations of old horror stories, most of which I haven't run across before.  I was quite pleased to get them, but decided to keep poking around to see if there were any other treasures.  I came across a sales section that I haven't looked in before.  It consists mainly of puzzle books and games, and while I do enjoy those, I can usually get the types I like at the local Dollar Stores, so I never look at that section in the book store.

I don't know what possessed me to go there yesterday, but I am quite pleased that I did.  At least, I'm pleased now - I might not be so pleased as I get further into my new purchase.  I came across one lone copy of a set of CDs.  This set is a language instruction series - for learning Japanese!  I've been fascinated with Japan since I was a child, and would love to go there one day.  I've often thought it would be fun to learn the language, but never expected to actually attempt it.  However, this set of CDs was on sale for $8.99 - how could I pass that up?

Way back when I studied French for seven years, and I took a year of Ukrainian.  Unfortunately since it was so long ago, I've lost a lot of what I learned, due to not using it.  However, I loved studying languages, and I'm still very intrigued by it all.  So I'm hoping that will help in this case, since I am told that Japanese is not an easy language to learn.  I may not ever use it, and may not be overly successful with learning it, but I figure that at the very least it will be very good exercise for my brain, and with mentalpause rearing her ugly head, that's not a bad thing.

So please wish me luck, and hopefully I won't drive myself to new levels of insanity with this new venture!

Have a wonderful night, all!

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I went to lunch with the gang from the old workplace on Friday.  Another gentleman had quit and it was his last day,  so they had the big send-off lunch for him.  We had a good time, and it was nice to see everyone again.  I don't miss the reasons I quit, but I do miss the people.

After lunch, I decided to drop by my favourite cemetery (which is very close to my old workplace) and wander around a bit.  Of course I brought my camera!   It was a lovely afternoon - overcast and cool at the start, which suited me fine, and then the sun started coming out about half-way through my visit.  I found a statue that I'd been looking for ever since my second visit there.  I had read on the cemetery's website that there was an angel statue standing guard over the children's section, but in all my many visits I had not yet discovered it.  I parked in a location that I normally don't go to - I usually start at the other end of the cemetery.  I just happened to glance over in the new section and I spotted what appeared to be a small monument, so off I went to inspect.  Lo and behold, it was the angel, with two urns on either side, both holding a small stuffed toy.

It had never occured to me to look in the new section.  It consists of mostly those soulless flat headstones, and while there is one angle statue way on the other side in there, I did not think there was anything else of interest.  I thought the children's guardian statue would be somewhere in the older section, as there are a few children's areas in there, and that is where the majority of the artistic headstones and monuments are.  I have to admit this particular statue is not my favourite, but I'm still very glad that I happened to glance over and find it.  I also decided to stroll through to the other side of the new section to get a picture of the other angel statue (which is gorgeous) that I knew to be there, and I was happy I did as I found a couple of other lovely tributes - a hand painted rock on one lady's grave, and a sweet small cherub figurine near some other graves.

Even in the older section I found some stones that I had not noticed before.  The place is so large that it doesn't matter how often I visit, there is always something new to be found.  That's one of the reasons I never tire of going there.  Plus, the atmosphere is so wonderful - it's the most peaceful cemetery I've ever been in, so it's a joy to simply wander around in there.

Being so old, there is a plethora of very old, therefore very large, trees in the cemetery.  This not only adds to the beauty and peace of the place, but it provides homes for a large number of birds and squirrels, and there is also a large jack rabbit population in residence.  Some days I see a lot of critters, other days they seem to all be in hiding.  On Friday I ran across more critters there than I ever have before - it was amazing.

It began with the squirrels.  As I was walking away from my car, I spotted a squirrel bounding along in the grass.  He would stop and start, keeping a wary eye on me, but not getting too nervous.  I tried to get some pictures, but of course he would dart off to a new spot every time I'd start to snap the shot.  I finally admitted defeat and toddled off to focus on the graves.

There wasn't much activity in the new section - but then again, the trees are very sparse there.  Of course I was not going to leave without visiting at least part of the old section again, and as I began walking through, the birds were flying all over the place, the crows and magpies making their usual rather jarring music, with the more melodious birds providing soothing accompaniment.  As the trees are in full leaf, I didn't manage to get any pictures - the little imps simply tease by landing on an outer branch, then they hop further into the leaves just as I'm about to shoot, laughing at me all the way!

I wandered further along, picking up a few stray pieces of garbage.  Suddenly I came upon a rabbit, but unfortunately he was just as startled as I was, so I only managed to get one shot as he was hopping away.  As I wandered even deeper in, looking for some different headstones, I was stopped dead in my tracks when I spotted a rabbit laying half in the shade of a headstone.  I was amazed that I'd gotten so close without the poor thing running off, but he simply laid there, seeming quite unconcerned.  I got several pictures of him - he was magnificent.  He kept a sharp eye on me, but was loathe to interrupt his lazy afternoon nap for my sake.  He began nibbling on some grass, then got up to nibble on another patch, then laid back down again, all the while watching me and daring me to make him move.  Of course I was thoroughly delighted, and had a wonderful time moving around and snapping pictures from various angles!

After I felt I'd spent enough time with him, I headed off in another direction, watching quite a number of squirrels darting to and fro, never stopping in one spot long enough for me to take their portraits.  Most of the squirrels are pretty nervous, but there is always the odd one who is braver and will hang around, just out of reach, watching visitors.  I spotted one perched on one of my favourite stones - he was in the perfect position for an awesome picture.  Of course he darted off as soon as I snapped!  However, he was of the braver variety, and kept darting around the area, watching me and getting closer with each move.  I suddenly noticed that he had a friend with him, who was also fairly brave, although not quite as much so - he kept a bit more of a distance.

I had a fabulous time playing with those two!  They would dart from stone to stone, stopping and staring at me, letting me aim and focus - then they would dart off as soon as my finger hit the shutter release, chattering at me as they did so.  Sounded suspiciously like squirrel giggles to me!  However, since they were content to continue to play photographer hide-and-seek, I persevered and  managed to get a couple of very cute shots of the little brats.  I must have spent about twenty minutes playing with them - they were so adorable, and so brave.

As I went back to my car, there were a couple more squirrels playing around near it.  They were not quite so brave though, and flitted around too quickly for my camera and I.  One of them, however, took a liking to my car, and kept darting all around it.  He startled me immensely when he ran out from underneath - right towards me!  Unfortunately I was too startled to remember to snap a picture.  He was about two feet or so from me at that point, and he was frozen to the spot as he was quite startled too, so it would have been an awesome picture!  However, he came to his senses before I did and bounded around to the front again.  I decided to leave the poor little guy in peace, so off I went, very pleased with my afternoon's efforts.

It's funny, because I have a few friends that get a bit creeped out about me wandering around cemeteries and taking pictures.  I would love to take them with me, just once, to show them how peaceful it can be, and how much fun.  I haven't yet come across any other spot where I can play with the rabbits and squirrels like that!  Ah well, we all have different interests, and I doubt that these friends will ever consider paying a visit to any of the cemeteries with me.  So I shall simply be happy that I am able to go there myself to enjoy the peace and quiet, and to play with my feathered and furry friends.

May you all have a peaceful evening, and a wonderful day tomorrow!  I shall post a few of the pictures in my gallery for anyone who is interested.  Take care, everyone!

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Yes folks, I am planning on voluntarily jeopardizing my sanity and stressing out every last brain cell that I possess.  Why?  Mainly because I've found a brand spanking new (well, new to me) way to get back into something that I used to love doing.  It can be challenging and involve a lot of picky fiddling around, but it's also enjoyable and the end results are worth the aggravation for me.  Plus, I think I need a new challenge in my life - to learn something new to go along with what I've already learned in this area.

Several years back I started teaching myself how to design web pages.  I loved doing it, and made several little sites.  A couple of them were personal sites for myself, others were private sites for groups that I belonged to.  I used either the tools that came with the hosting sites, or Microsoft Front Page Express for hosts that didn't have site-building tools.  Front Page Express came with my old computer and Windows 98.  Once I switched to XP, it no longer worked, and I didn't bother finding a new (and better!) editor to work with, so it's been awhile since I've designed any new pages.

One of the sites I had made was a group site in which I had done many different pages, including a large Hallowe'en section and a large Christmas section.  I had put many ours of work and love into those pages, but due to the site not being used for awhile, it ended up being deleted by the host.  Fortunately I had saved copies of all the text - although unfortunately I can't find them now!   However,  I shall keep hunting!

I keep thinking that I need to re-do those Hallowe'en and Christmas segments and set them up on a new site - with a host that won't delete them!  I just never get around to finding another program, and while I know I can do it in Word, I haven't gotten around to figuring that out properly either.  Awhile back I downloaded the Open Office suite, which I am quickly falling in love with.  It's the free and open source answer to Microsoft's Office suite, and is truly wonderful, in my opinion.

But I digress.  (Who?  Me?  Digress?  Nah, couldn't be...)  Yesterday I began looking around for a new HTML editor to fiddle with, and in my search I found a site where a gentleman had listed his favourite alternatives to Microsoft Front Page.  Lo and behold, one of his picks was a function in Open Office - a function that I was not even aware existed.  Of course, that excited the heck out of me, so off I trotted to fiddle with my Open Office programs.  Sure enough, I found what I needed, and it looks like it's going to work beautifully for me.

So I'm planning on starting to work on the new Hallowe'en pages this afternoon.  I will start off by fiddling with what I know, and then I shall start looking around for some tutorials to learn some things that I've always wanted to learn about web design.  I can make some very nice basic pages, but there are so many neat and wonderful things that I see on more advanced designs that I would love to know how to do.

Yes, it is going to be fun.  Yes, it is also going to drive me around the bend at times.  I've decided that I need to find another stress reliever aside from pulling out my hair - due to some stress in my life in the past, it's a bit thin on top to begin with, so I can't afford to lose any more!   Wish me luck, and hopefully one of these days soon I'll have some pages designed and put up somewhere that I can show you!

Have a lovely day, everyone!

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I was sitting here thinking about what a pleasant weekend I've had.  Two of my sisters and I went to some garage sales on Friday night, and I found a few items that I was very happy to come across.  Saturday was a bit of a lazy day, which was fine with me.  Today was errand day - grocery shopping, mainly.  I usually take my sister shopping on Sundays, as she doesn't drive and that's the best day for her to go.  Every now and then we decide to make an extra stop or two, and today was one of those days.

When I left my job, I was given a gift certificate for $250.00.  This was a huge surprise, as I've never seen them do that before.  I ended up buying myself a rice cooker (which I love!) last week, and picked up some new curtains and a new wok today.  I love to cook, so of course I've been having fun with the new rice cooker, and had to try the new wok tonight.

So all in all, I've had a very pleasant weekend.  But the whole cooking thing got me to thinking back on some of the meals I've made in the past, especially those for family and friends, and it brought to mind two particular incidents that never fail to set the family laughing!

Many years back, my ex-husband and I used to host a New Year's Day supper for both his family and mine.  Of course this meant I had to make a LOT of food, so timing was everything with one stove and oven.  One year, a friend of ours who lived downstairs from us was out of town, and we were watching over her place for her.  We were welcome to make use of anything we needed.  So I figured it would be wonderful to make use of her oven that year.

I had the turkey roasting nicely in my oven, and decided to pop the ham in hers.  Off I trotted to pre-heat her oven, then I whipped back up to my place to finish getting the ham ready.  Once done, I toddled back downstairs, ham in hand, and headed to her kitchen.  To my horror, flames were burning merrily in her oven - it looked kind of like a fireplace in the midst of the kitchen.  I quickly turned the oven off, and raced back upstairs to get my baking soda.  I had no idea where she kept hers, or if she kept any - she wasn't exactly into cooking.  So I figured it would be much faster to run and get mine.  I grabbed the box, and raced back to the door, with a houseful of people yelling after me to inquire as to what the trouble was.  I simply said "fire!" and kept on going.

Of course, that prompted a few people to follow me down, but by the time they got there I had doused the flames and opened the patio door to let out the rather sickening stench that was coming from inside the oven.  I took a closer look and discovered that there was a great deal of Tupperware in the oven - although I must say it wasn't in very good shape at that point!  Odd shapes, yes...

Ascertaining that there was no longer a worry about fire, I marched back upstairs with the ham, retinue in tow, and managed to make enough room in my oven to squeeze the ham in alongside the turkey.  Suddenly I could smell quite a strong odour of burning hair and meat.  I knew that the ham and the turkey didn't have hair on them, and they certainly weren't burning, so at first I thought that I was simply imagining things, being a tad edgy from the oven fire.  However, I could still smell it, and began to feel a little alarmed.  I quickly finished adjusting the roasters for the ham and the turkey, and started to close the oven door.  That's when I looked down at my arm, and realized that it had been MY hair and flesh burning - I'd got my arm stuck on the top element, and oddly enough didn't feel a thing.  That is, until after I'd pulled my arm out of the oven.  THEN I felt it, let me tell you.

The element had burned quite deeply into my arm, but I realized it was not life-threatening, nor the end of the world.  I would likely have one heck of a scar, yes, but in the grand scheme of things that wasn't something that upset me overly much.  (Yes, I do have a scar to this day, but it's not nearly as bad as I'd expected it to be.)  I was trying to be fairly quiet about it all, and get some cool water over the burn so that I could stop any further damage and get a loose bandage over it.  Of course, with a houseful of family members, and a kitchen filled with all the women, I was not successful in keeping it low-key!

Amidst cries of "put butter on it!" and "put Ozonol on it!" (my Mother-In-Law's favourite remedy), I did my best to get things calmed down and keep everyone back - I was NOT about to let anyone put butter or Ozonol on a burn!  Once that was out of the way, I began to finish getting dinner ready, only to find that all of the women had decided I was to take it easy and they were going to take over.

Now, one thing you need to know in this scenario is that I am not fond of anyone doing anything in my kitchen.  If I am cooking, stay the hell away from the food, thank you very much.  You can sit and talk to me, keep me company, do cartwheels through the kitchen (as long as you don't get in my way while doing so), but do NOT attempt to slice, dice, chop, bake, cook, dish up, or otherwise interact with the food until I've got it on the table and it's time to eat.  You can even offer to help, but if I say, "no, thank you" then that's exactly what I mean.

So you can imagine the scene as I have about six women in my kitchen, all insisting that they are going to take over and finish getting dinner ready.  (Bear in mind that they are all VERY well acquainted with my feelings about people fiddling with the food!)  However, I finally had to admit defeat and let them have their way - after all, I was a wee bit outnumbered.

Of course, once dinner was done with, talk turned to how on earth the fire started.  Not everyone had been informed about the Tupperware at that point.  Our friend had cats, and those cats ended up with fleas.  On one of my checks of her apartment, I had discovered several fleas on my ankle - they were so bad they were breeding in the furniture and the carpets.  So I had to get an exterminator in, and of course we had to keep the cats upstairs with us from then on - giving them regular flea baths, which is a whole other topic.  At any rate, the exterminator had requested that we remove everything from the bottom cupboards in the kitchen.  My ex had decided to put the Tupperware in the oven.  However, when we cleaned the cupboards after and put everything away, he forgot to take the Tupperware out and put it back in the cupboard, unbeknownst to me.

After spending the next day scraping and cutting melted Tupperware out of the oven (thankfully my Mother volunteered to help me with that, bless her soul!), I decided that I had learned a very valuable lesson - always look in the oven prior to pre-heating it - especially if it's someone else's oven.  For years, I faithfully followed that procedure.

Then one night, many, many years later, I turned my oven on to pre-heat.  I suddenly caught a whiff of a scent that brought back memories from about 20 years prior.  Yes, the horrid, acrid smell of burning plastic.  I raced to the oven, wrenched open the door, and found several dishes, including a couple of plastic mixing bowls, in the oven.  I'd had unexpected company a few days before, and had tossed a few dishes that I hadn't gotten done in the oven - then promptly forgot about them, since I'm not in the habit of putting things in there.

One of the bowls had melted slightly on to the side racks, but there was nothing major, and it certainly didn't account for the smell.  After I'd taken the dishes out of the oven, a glint of metal caught my eye on the very bottom.  I reached in with my oven mitt, and pulled out the blade of a steak knife.  That's when I realized that the knife had fallen through the rack, and the plastic handle had melted - in a lovely, glossy, thin, even layer - all over the bottom of the oven.

Over the course of about two years I tried various tricks to get that thin layer of plastic removed, but nothing worked.  Finally a friend from work informed me that she was getting rid of her old stove, and I jumped at the chance and bought it from her.  Thankfully my old stove had been used, so it hadn't been expensive, and my friend sold me her old one for $75.00.  So far this oven has escaped having anything melted in it.  Of course I now take the precaution of keeping an oven liner in the bottom of it - that way if I ever do decide to throw a steak knife in there again, it will simply melt on the liner.

I've learned the lesson all over again, but I must admit that I'm a bit worried about the timing.  Mentalpause has reared its head, and I'm thinking that if I have the memory issues that my older sister and some of my friends have had, I might end up mistaking the oven for a cupboard, and who knows if I'll even remember if I have baking soda, let alone where I keep it?  Maybe I should just keep a box of baking soda sitting on top of the stove, and plaster sticky notes on the oven switches to remind myself to look before turning them on...

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Yesterday evening I took the camera for a walk around the neighbourhood.  It was quite lovely, and I got what I thought were some great pictures.  Unfortunately, zoom and low light often don't go as well together as one would hope, so some shots did not turn out well, which was not totally unexpected.  I was puzzled by how some of my last shots turned out, though.

We had a stunningly beautiful sunset, and by about 10:00pm the colours in the sky were amazing.  I snapped several pictures, and thought I'd have some wonderful shots.  I was a bit concerned as they appeared darker than they should have on the screen, but I figured they might look better once I downloaded them to the computer.  Not so - they were still very dark.

This morning I went out with the dogs, taking my camera with me.  I almost always take the camera, as there are often opportunties to catch neighbourhood birds, and I've got a patch of poppies that the bees are always playing in during the morning hours.  I've gotten a couple of good bee shots, but I'm determined to get that "perfect" shot, so of course I headed over to the poppies while the dogs were about their business.  I was pleased to find a bee flitting around, and started snapping pictures, only to discover that they were also very dark on the screen.  This had me immensely puzzled as the sun was shining quite brightly on the flowers, so there was no reason for the darkness.

My first thought was that there was something wrong with the camera - which was a horrifying thought in itself, as I love my camera!  Then I decided to check the settings.  Due to the lower light levels yesterday evening, I'd had to start using my flash for some shots by the end of my walk.  I can adjust the strength of the flash, which I had done.  I decided that even though I wasn't using flash this morning, I'd re-adjust it anyhow, just on the off-chance that it might have caused some glitch.  As I popped in to re-adjust the flash, I discovered that at some point last night I had re-set my exposure levels by mistake, instead of just re-setting the flash.  So that explained the problem!

I was quite annoyed, as there were some great shots that I missed, but I still have to laugh at myself.  Each time I had made flash adjustments I'd been double-checking to make sure that the menu was still on flash, but since it was fine each time, I finally got too cocky and stopped double-checking.  Unfortunately the flash scale and exposure scale look exactly the same on my camera, so when for some reason it changed (likely by me hitting the wrong button at some point) from flash to exposure, I didn't even notice.  So this whole experience was a reminder to me not to get too cocky!

At any rate, I thought I'd share this little experience, just in case anyone else is having wonky camera issues.  Always remember to double-check your settings, because quite often that can be the issue.  If worse comes to worse, and you can't remember which settings you were using, there should be a menu item allowing you to re-set the camera to factory default settings.  I've had to do this a few times, when I've been fiddling with manual settings for night shots, especially, and could not get things back to where I wanted them afterwards.  It does mean that you have to start all over again if you've been using special settings, but I find that's occasionally a lot less frustrating than continuing to fiddle, and not getting the results I need.

Of course, this may not apply with some cameras.  My camera has manual settings, but not all do.  If you have a basic point-and-shoot camera, you likely won't have the option to manually adjust things.  Having less things to fiddle with means less settings to get messed up!   Even so, there are still usually some settings, as most cameras now come with pre-configured settings for things like night shooting, snow scenes, etc.  So if your pictures are looking a bit abnormal all of a sudden, check to make sure which scene setting you're using before panicking about the camera.  It might just save you a lot of worry!

Happy shooting!

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I have always loved cemeteries.  With the exception of one or two that I've come across, I've always found them to be very peaceful, calming places.  As photography is one of my biggest passions, it only stands to reason that one of my favourite places to shoot is in a cemetery.  As I'm sure anyone who's seen my page will notice, since I've just put up a new slideshow with some of my favourite cemetery shots!

We have some beautiful cemeteries where I live, and one in particular that I adore.  It's one of the oldest in the city, and has some incredibly beautiful tombstones and monuments.  They are works of art, and it saddens me that we do not see that type of craftsmanship in this day and age.  Many of the newer cemeteries insist on those horrid flat stones, which makes for a completely soulless place of rest, in my opinion.  Of course I do understand that as with any other business, it's all about money, and the flat stones enable the cemeteries to cut costs by making it easier for the groundskeepers to maintain the lawns.  Still, it's a shame.

In my favourite old cemetery, there has been a great deal of vandalism.  Several years back, some people went through the old section of this cemetery, and the one across the street from it, and badly damaged many of the old tombstones.  Restoration attempts were made - some more successful than others - and it is very sad to go through and see such desecration.  I would love to get my hands on the people (and I use the term loosely) that did this, but I take solace in knowing that karma will catch up to them eventually.

I went to the cemetery last week to look around and bask in the serenity.  I didn't end up taking very many pictures, mainly because I spent a great deal of time following some very playful robins around, trying to get some good shots of them.  I can't say I was very successful, as they were too energetic and quick for me.  It was incredibly hot out that day, so I certainly did not have the energy to keep up with them!  Plus, there was a certain crow that decided early on that he was not happy about me being there, and he followed me all through the cemetery, giving me a very stern lecture the whole time!  It was quite amusing, but between his racket and the heat I finally gave up and decided to head home.

I have a favourite tombstone there.  It's the grave of a little boy who passed many, many years ago.  There is a beautiful statue of a young boy on top of his stone.  That statue was one of the stones that was badly damaged by the vandals, and I have to say that the repair job on it was not the most stellar.  Still, they made an attempt, and that was good.  However, I was horrified on my last visit to discover that there had been yet more damage done to this beautiful, sad, little statue.  The head is completely missing,  and it's apparent that other damage was done, as it has been repositioned - not well, I might add.

I never see any signs of visitors to this little one's grave.  Possibly there are no family members left in the area.  I truly wish that I had a good deal of money, so that I could have this statue restored.  Not only this one - there are several others that I would like to see restored as well.  There are also several graves that no longer have stones - some of them being broken so badly that only the base is left, so the monuments are gone.  It is sad to see these unmarked plots, and I would love to be able to at least put up some simple stones to honour these souls' memories.

I honestly do not understand the mentality of those who would desecrate graves in this way.  How would they feel if this were done to the graves of their own loved ones?  Possibly they wouldn't care.  But it upsets me greatly to go into a cemetery and see the results of this kind of vandalism.  Not only have these cretans destroyed some beautiful works of art that can never be replaced, they have shown great disrespect to those who have passed, and to the loved ones of the deceased.  It is very unfortunate that these horrid people were never caught, although even if they had been, they would likely not have received more punishment than a slap on the wrist.

This type of behaviour has led to many cemeteries keeping their gates locked, especially after dusk.  This is unfortunate, as there are many people who enjoy going to the cemeteries in the evenings, be it to simply wander respectfully through and enjoy the tranquility, or to visit the graves of their loved ones.  When I was in high school, a couple of my friends and I used to love going to our little town's cemetery at night, as it was very serene and soothing.  We would simply wander about very respectfully, talking quietly and looking at the various tombstones, seeing which ones we had known, or at least the family names that we knew.  It was certainly time better spent than at the various bush parties that many of our other friends used to go to.

These days, it is not so easy for people to do that, thanks to the vandals that have given many cemeteries cause to keep their gates locked at certain times.  I understand that some cemeteries have gone so far as to keep gates locked at all times - no one can enter them without making prior arrangements, and it can only be to visit graves of family members or friends.  Thankfully we don't have any of those around here.  I find it so incredibly sad when I hear of this type of thing.

There are several graves in my favourite cemetery that are obviously not visited by loved ones, and I like to stop by them when I am there and pay my respects.  At least to let their spirits know that someone still acknowledges their life here.  Of course I know that they are not hanging around their graves, waiting for someone to visit, but I still feel better knowing that I've spent a minute or two paying respects.  If this cemetery ever does decide to go with the locked gate system, then I will no longer be able to do this, and that saddens me.

Another thing that annoys me to no end is coming across garbage in the cemeteries.  There are trash receptacles all over the place - discreetly placed, but not so much so that one cannot see them.  Why someone has to be so lazy that they cannot walk a few steps to put their garbage in the trash bin is beyond me.  I have found wrappers for all sorts of candy bars, and I will usually pick them up and put them in the trash when I come across them, unless there is something on them that gives me cause for concern.  With all the drugs and diseases these days, I do tend to think twice about picking things up with my bare hands.  I do understand that some of these wrappers could have blown out of the garbage, or may have been pulled out by birds or squirrels, as there is an abundance of both that live in the cemetery.  However, not all of them find the ground in that manner.  Plus, I have found beer cans and pop cans on the grounds, and I can pretty much be assured that those did not get there via the wind or the animals.

I did not intend this blog to be a rant about how people desecrate cemeteries, but apparently my last visit, as well as going through all of my pictures, disturbed me quite a bit.  I just wish that people would have more respect - it seems to be sorely lacking these days in all areas.

In spite of all the damage, I still very much love visiting that cemetery, and it amazes me how peaceful it is there.  With all that damage, I would half expect the energy to be a bit disrupted, and I'm sure it probably has been at the time the damage was done.  But it is a very calming place, and I find it's a good place for me to go when I need to recharge my own energy and just relax for a bit.  My sister started going there with me, and now she loves it too, and she has a couple of friends that have also fallen in love with it.  So I thought it would be fun to put together a slide show to share it with all of you.  There are some pictures from a couple of other cemeteries in this area, but most of the pictures are from my favourite old one.  So I hope that you enjoy them, and that they convey some measure of the tranquility that is to be found there.

Have a wonderful day, everyone!

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I am sitting at the computer, listening to the gentle rain, being serenaded by the neighbourhood birds.  It's actually quite chilly today, but after the opressive heat we had last week, I refuse to close the windows.  I am very much enjoying the fresh scent wafting into the house - there's nothing quite like the smell of rain.

We've had a fair bit of rain this week, ranging from severe thunder storms to this morning's soft, gentle showers.  My youngest baby is terrified of thunder storms - poor Misty's spent a fair bit of time shaking in her wee little paws this week!  I love them though - I love the lightning, the thunder, the wind, and the wild downpours.  Of course, the threat of tornados is never good, but fortunately where I live we don't get too many tornado watches.

As much as I love the rain, and I really have been enjoying it this week, I have to admit that I'm feeling a tad disgruntled by it this morning.  I recently left my job - I hadn't been able to take vacation in over a year and a half, and I was not going to be able to take it any time soon.  This being the third time this has happened to me in the last six and a half years, I decided I'd had enough, and that it was time to move on.  So I've been enjoying some time off at the moment, and was very much looking forward to getting out with the camera, which I haven't been able to do nearly enough of in the last year.

Last week it was very sunny, but extremely hot.  I did sneak out to my favourite cemetery one day, but I don't handle the heat very well, and I finally decided it would be prudent to head back home.  Plus, I was so tired from not having had vacation time that I was finding I needed to spend most of last week simply resting and napping.  I was very pleased to hear that this week was supposed to be cooler, and I've had a lot more energy, so I had planned to head out with the camera.  However, the rain has put quite a damper on that notion!

I know that there are things I could do to protect the camera and take photographs in the rain.  I'm sure that I could get some very lovely shots in this weather too - I can just imagine the wonderful mood this would create in my favourite cemetery, for example.  However, I am loathe to risk my beloved camera - I would be horrified if it were to be damaged from the moisture.  Although I do have a hankering to experiment a bit, so perhaps I might end up wandering out for a bit anyhow.

I find it ironic that I am usually hoping for rainy days during the summer months, yet here I sit, enjoying the rain, but wishing that the sun would come out.  I must admit, though, it is quite cozy at the moment.  I am fiddling on the computer (one of my favourite things!), having lovely cups of tea, one wee dog stretched out on the floor beside me, the other curled up peacefully on the bed.  It rather makes me want to crawl back into bed and cuddle up with them!  Since it's so chilly in the house (but no, I am NOT going to close the windows!) that idea is becoming more appealing by the minute.  Maybe this would be a good day to just have a nice breakfast, then crawl back into bed with a good book and two warm, sweet bundles of fur to snuggle up to.  Plus, I've been playing with my personal page here, and still have a few things that I want to fiddle with, so this would be a good day to do that.

Hm.  Cuddling with my baby girls, reading, napping a bit, fiddling on the computer, drinking nice cozy cups of tea - maybe this rainy day isn't such a downer after all!  I do believe that I can find a silver lining in any cloud, if I look hard enough, so I think I shall choose to just take advantage of this weather, and not worry so much about the photography plans I had.  After all, plans often don't turn out as expected, and it's so much less stressful to be flexible and just adapt to the situation.  Who knows?  Maybe after some fiddling on the computer and napping, things will have cleared up a bit out there, and I can get out with the camera after all!

So here's wishing that you all enjoy your day, whatever the weather and circumstances.  Peace to all of you!

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I signed up here awhile back, but I haven't been very active.  I had lots of stuff going on in life that got my energy levels down, but lately I've been working on eliminating some things, so I'm now getting to some of the stuff that I enjoy doing.  This looks like a very fun place to be, and I think I will enjoy it immensely here, so I'm glad to finally be getting started at NOTH.

I've done up my personal page, although I can't say I'm totally happy with it.  However, I shall have fun tinkering with it in the days ahead!  I already have plans for it - changing themes with the seasons, and that type of thing.  Of course, you know what they say about all good plans!

At any rate, I'm quite pleased to be here, and I've been having fun poking around to see what all there is to play with.  I love browsing through the galleries - there are some wonderfully talented photographers here.  As that is a particular passion of mine, I will be uploading a few more pictures in the days to come.  I've also been perusing some of the groups that are set up, and I am thinking of joining the digital photography one.  There are so many things to check out here, though, that it might be awhile before I get settled down!

I'm not sure how much I'll be blogging, but I thought this was a nice feature of the site.  I do have a blog elsewhere, but I admit I don't use it very much.  I really only started it to help my sister out when she was trying to figure out how to set up a blog, so it's not something that I ever intended to do much with.  I did have fun setting it up though!  I haven't seen a blog that works quite like this one here, so I hope I'm not infringing on someone else's blog space with this post.  If I am, please let me know and I'll get off your blog!  It seems to me from what I can see that one simply starts a new post, and it goes under that person's blog - hopefully I'm not mistaken on that!

I don't have much to say at the moment - especially since I've just finished typing all sorts of stuff on my profile!  So this is really more of a hi-I'm-here-and-how-are-you-all type of post.  I hope everyone is well, and that you are all enjoying your summer, and I hope to meet people around NOTH as time goes on!

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