Moose sighting

We've been blessed by several moose sightings right here in the campground! Yesterday we saw this female and her calf.

I had already gone into the trailie to download my pics and I missed a great commotion outside. The baby lost (thought he lost) his mother and he hauled across the campground just about eight feet from my husband and ran in and then out of the forest looking for his mom. He was really upset. He found her a minute later but it was a long minute to him! She wasn't far away but the baby would start eating and forget to follow her. Mom was calm, unperturbed, the whole time. And she didn't mind people with cameras around although no one ventured too very close! You never, never want to find yourself between a mother and baby in the wild, and everyone froze while the baby was running around. Even all the kids in the campground froze!

Broke my earring

Yesterday one of the first pair of earrings I ever made broke. My brown set. They do pull on my jacket sometimes and that's exactly what happened when they broke. The place where they loop through the ear wire broke.

They lasted about a year but I need them to last longer of course. I'm going to try Fireline instead of Nymo on the next pair. I've heard it can get twisty so you have to be sure to straighten it. I'll cut apart the brown pair and keep all the beads.

It's just love

Last night while brushing my teeth my ten-year-old son reached across the sink. Totally accidentally I dribbled a slobbery blob of spitty Colgate onto his forearm. I apologized profusely through a mouthful of foamed up toothpaste and he smiled so sweet and calmly rinsed off his arm. Knock me over with a feather. If anyone, especially one of my parents had spit toothpaste on me I'd have had a complete spaz.

After dinner I told my husband what happened and how mortified I was to spit on my kid, and our son piped up with "Aw, it was love." He said he knew he was taking a chance when he reached across the sink! When he was a tot we used to say baby drool was angel water and I think his reaction is somehow related to that.

I don't know how we ever ended up with this child but he gives us a lot of joy.

Real Age test says I'm 53

Well I'm really thrilled with my test results at realage.com. Not. I took this online test that asked a bunch of questions and it says I'm 53.1. That'd be great if I were 54 or 55 or 60 or something, but I'm 47 on the cusp of 48. My email notification says "The results are in! Your RealAge calculation and personalized plan to grow younger are ready. To view your results, click here."

Fifty-three, my eye. My sister gets a physical once a year and this year her doctor said she's just like 36 in physical years (her chronological age is 44). She went on and on and on (help me I thought) about how she was even younger this year than last year. I had to listen to it politely, which I did. I didn't even roll my eyes. I'm not even telling her about my test. These tests are such garbage. They can't tell doodly why some people live long lives and others don't. Even the oldsters themselves are known to give contradicting answers for what they attribute their long lives to. Why I oughta. We used to say better to die young and leave behind a good looking cadaver, but I can't do either now.

Besides which I now read that Americans have to worry about inside fat. As if outside fat that you can see isn't bad enough, now inside invisible fat is killing us. That's just great.

Tell me, do I look 53? Do I look 53! Fifty three point one to be exact. And what's up with the .1? What a bunch of garbage that test is.


Think I'll go exercise and eat a banana and have salad for dinner just in case there's anything to it. But! What to do about the rest of my coffee and cinnamon roll?


I was thinking after my last hair photo that this is some pretty ugly hair and I ought to cut it back to waist at the very least. But before I cut it I decided today to take a couple three photos, snapped by an objective observer of course, to be sure it's what I wanted to do. What was I thinking? There's nothing wrong with my hair. It's okay hair as hair goes. And I'm almost to classic length. Maybe by the end of the year my hair will be to the bottom of my bum! I hope my bum isn't lower by then too.

Wednesday again

What can I do with a foggy day? I've never photographed in the fog before. I went out and photographed anyways and am glad I did.

This little tree is on the Atlantic coast of Cape Breton Island. Cape Breton (pronounced Britain) is actually part of Nova Scotia but they like to think of themselves a bit separately and have their own flag even. In 1955 a causeway was built to connect the island to the mainland peninsula of Nova Scotia, so it's easy to drive here now. The Strait of Canso is the deepest natural harbor in North America and the causeway is the deepest in the world. What's a causeway I wondered. It's a raised road or path supported from the bottom instead of from the top like a bridge. The rock quarried for this one amounts to over ten million! tons from nearby Cape Porcupine. Maybe I should have a photograph of the causeway here instead of a tree? Hey, don't bother me with details!


Second fog picture. Lobster fisherman putting out lobster pots at Lakies Head. Lobster season here is May and June. They go out in all kinds of weather.


The Roman Catholic Saint-Pierre church (St. Peter in English) in Cheticamp, Cape Breton Island, on the famous Cabot Trail. Built of stone in 1892.

Today we're going back to the St. Lawrence side (west side is on the Gulf of St. Lawrence) today and I hope to go inside the church for a look.


Taken from the distance last week when we were on the mainland - the most photographed lighthouse in the world - Peggy's Cove Lighthouse.

Lighthouse at Peggy's Cove

It was a beautiful! We spent a couple hours there, went home and ate dinner, then went back for sunset. Had to have a sunset photo! The place is actually named after a tiny inlet with boats and buildings which are known as Peggy's Cove.  Very quaint.

So this is my SOOC photo (Straight Out Of Camera). I wanted do something special with the RAW image but I failed. Since it was getting dark I set my camera to ISO 1600 and it came out a bit grainy. I'd like to get the noise out of it if possible.

I have a couple more to add, one that shows the long bit of rock that the lighthouse stand on, but I have to go to bed now.

Peace out. (I've just been waiting for a chance to use that phrase on somebody.)

It's Wednesday

I am here by myself! The men have gone to the flag shop in the city. I had two cups of coffee and two (two!) custard filled, chocolate covered Bavarian donuts. Mmmmm.

I'm getting ready to choose a lighthouse image to upload. I bracketed, now I have to figure out how to blend the bracketed images. You take a standard photo, then one underexposed and one overexposed, and you can blend them for highlight and lowlights. Theoretically speaking. And I have them in raw format too which should help if need be. I worried terribly about being at a one time location (I'll never be there again) with one chance to get a decent shot and blowing it. I'm not confident with my dSLR yet. It's so much to learn. I feel like a slow learner.

My husband drove me all the way back to Peggy's Cove for a sunset shot. We got home and then I went to sleep with sweet dreams last night thinking about post processing them. It was as good as my pink and purple floating hearts dream!

My husband was surpised by the number of photogs with tripods who were there for the sunset. I was too. We drove up to the parking lot and saw they were scattered all around the rocks with their "spots" scoped out, tripods at the ready! Waiting. Waiting for the sun to go down. I smiled at a couple of the photographers but they didn't smile back. Two out of two didn't smile back. There are a lot of men photographers. Grumpyish men. A nice couple asked me to take their photo with their camera and I did. The lady laughed and asked if I knew how to operate their little camera and I laughed too, but seriously I was worried about whether I'd do it right! The first one, the sky was blown out (that means all white) and I said it was not going to look good, so they asked me to take another and the second one showed them and the sunset colors in it. Good. I hope it turns out for them and isn't blurry. They said they were sorry to bother me and would let me get back to my work, and I felt embarrassed. It's not work! I guess they see tripods and big lenses and they figure you must be something or someone which I am not.

The sunset was not spectacular, but there was some color. I must go to my digital darkroom now! Wish me well. I will never be this way again. (Reminds me of a song...)

Return of the removed vids

This is a lil' gal playing bagpipes in front of the Visitor's Center in Nova Scotia. It was the best visitor center stop of the year.


This one promises to become a Top Ten at YouTube. Eighteen seconds of blurred cement ending with a shot of my lens cover blowing in the breeze. I accidently pushed the Record button as I walked towards her to give her a tip. I know how much effort goes into practicing an instrument and perfecting a song and how much courage it takes to play in front of people so I really wanted to tip her. I think it made her day. It bought her a lunch at least! Her folks should be proud!

Uh oh

I deleted my two videos.

Because I thought nobody looked at them.

But afterwards I found there's a COMMENT on one! A comment?!

Wow.

Now I have to put those videos back up. :)

We are in Nova Scotia!

I am here! It's beautiful and everything I'd hoped for. I have to qualify that by saying I've only gone to the Visitor's Center and the Superstore and this campground. Haha! I crack myself up. But tomorrow we will take a drive down the south shore and we'll be seeing a famous lighthouse and fishing village. I saw one lighthouse already, Cape Enrage, and though I'll always remember it as my first, Cape Enrage is not impressive. It's small and has lots of electrical wires going to it. This is bad for photography. Nevertheless.

When we were at the shopping center a lady walked right up to us and welcomed us to Nova Scotia. It was so nice, wasn't it? I kept checking the parking lot while we were in the supermarket to be sure our rig was okay. You know that joke (Hi Mermayd!) that says if you make eye contact with a Californian they take it as an act of aggression? Heh. I am too careful, but that's okay.

We are thinking of taking the Cat (that's a giant catamaran ferry boat) from Nova Scotia back to Maine instead of driving. And we're thinking of not going to Newfoundland at all, and going to Cape Breton National Park. Our plans change like the wind. Hopefully we'll have the bulk of what we want to see up here seen by next month and can head back to the states...before fuel prices rise. My husband thinks they're going to rise to $4.00 per gallon this year. I don't want to be up here when or if that happens, eh! Better to be closer to home base.

The visitor center was great. There was a young girl playing bagpipes in front. What a nice touch. I bought a tee shirt that's brown for $16.00 and says a bunch of funny stuff about what a pirate says. This area has a history for shipbuilding because it's a maritime province.

The photo today is from Fundy National Park, the Dickson Falls hiking trail. The day was both sunny and cloudy and warm. Muggy warm if you're hiking and there were bugs flying about. The walk was still worth it, and lush green all through it. You hear the waterfall before you see it and then the trail follows the stream and you are surprised by a bigger waterfall than the first one! My photo, I am disappointed with it. I wanted dreamy, artsy water but it came out in between dreamy and real life. And if I had it to do over, see the tree branch on the right? The one hanging over the wooden bridge? If I did it over again I'd stand behind those branches and have them crossing in front of the falls in the frame. Ah well. Live and learn. Next time, next waterfall.

Myspace, ewww

I went to a page at Myspace. I got a bad stomach ache. I will never go to anything on Myspace again.

Besides which prior to this day every Myspace page I ever visited was a mess to try to read. There should be a law.

Fundy National Park, New Brunswick

This was the view from where we took our walk today. We saw a waterfall too. Lots of clouds as you can see but the sun did peek out now and then. We once saw some Canadians swimming in a freezing cold lake with no sun and they were singing this song:

Sun, sun
Golden Mr. Sun
Won't you please shine on me!

I've been singing the first two lines in a sweet sing-song voice and the last one I belt out in a big yell. Haha! Mr. Sun is not paying me any mind.

I did some beauty stuff tonight and it didn't turn out. Boo. I think my hair turned out pretty well though. I used white vinegar rinse because the water here is a little brown. I wonder why. Rust? I don't know. It tasted fine in my chicken noodle soup and added nice color. I think I can tell it's humid here. My hair is a little different. It's soft, the ends not dry in the least. I always put in a bit of leave-in but I'm not sure if I should put any tonight. The shower is the kind with no temperature knobs and I had to push it every 15 seconds to keep water flow. They have no idea who they are dealing with. This is me, Liliana! I will push that knob ten billion times if I have to to wash and rinse my hair.

We're debating going to Halifax (that's next door in Nova Scotia), or Newfoundland, and/or P.E.I next. Took me half an hour to figure out P.E.I. stands for Prince Edward Island. It is a province unto itself!

Each time we move I worry that the satellite dish won't work. This time my husband spent literally all day getting it going. He just persevered. Technical support is non-existent because we're mobile. Their idea of help is to send a tech person within three months. I'm afraid the farther north we go it will stop working soon.

Tomorrow is Sunday. I miss my pastor.

Red squirrel

The squirrels here aren't grey, they're red and awfully pretty. I like squirrels and chipmunks - as long as they don't go postal. I used a flash and he's not very sharp but he's still a cutie.

It's sunny!

After two weeks of overcast, no three, there is sun today. We must go out in it!!!!!!

Dreaming

Too late! Ugly photo DELETED.

Rainbow

A golden light was coming in the trailer. Odd and beautiful. I was getting ready to go outside to investigate and my husband hollered that there was a rainbow. A little odd I thought, a rainbow, so late in the day. The sun was setting but there it was. A rainbow over the forest! This is a place of salt and fir they say. We're a mere couple miles from the coast. The Atlantic! I will update this title with the exact location after we leave.

A joke complements of my husband

My husband gets e-mail jokes from a few friends from work from before he retired. They're all retired now. I think his friends are peculiar because they all trade joke e-mails and write a real e-mail to each other about once a year! This one I think is kind of cute. He sent it to me tonight, so he thinks it's funny too. (I can't sleep so I'm reading jokes.) My husband likes to josh and say I'm the oldest woman he's ever been with. He was married twice before me, and we've been married 22 years. One of his previous wives has passed on, and the other is a few years older than I.

When I was married 25 years, I took a look at my wife one day and said, 'Honey, 25 years ago we had a cheap apartment, a cheap car, slept on a sofa bed and watched a 10-inch black and white TV, but I got to sleep every night with a hot 25-year-old blonde.

Now we have a $1,500,000.00 home, a $95,000.00 car, several motorcycles and a nice big bed and a plasma screen TV, but I'm sleeping with a 50-year-old-woman. It seems to me that you are not holding up your side of things.'

My wife is a very reasonable woman. She told me to go and find a hot 25-year-old blonde, and she would make sure that I would once again be living in a cheap apartment, driving a cheap car, sleeping on a sofa bed and watching a 10-inch black and white TV.

Aren't older women great? They really know how to solve your mid-life crises!


Haha! I'm almost 48. I can't believe 50 is so close! When I was very young I did put up with a philanderer. Two philanderers. No, three! Then I met my husband and life has been so wonderful. If I was with a philanderer now, at my advanced age, I would never stay. I'd say sayonara without batting an eyelash. Life is far too short to spend it in misery with a rotten human being. It only took me one lifetime to learn this.

Tomorrow is a traveling day.

Jean color Ficcare

This is my everyday 'do. I make a bun, I squench it together, it makes kind of a bow shape.

Today

Meh! about sums it up. I took crummy pictures of cows today, crummy pictures of neo-gothic architecture today, crummy landscapes.

I haven't used my new boar bristle brush because I want to keep it really clean. That's one way to go about it, eh? Never use it.

Otherwise, it was a pretty day. Sunny and lovely. The park has lots of children for the week-end and that's good. Husband phoned his eldest sister and had a nice conversation with her. She's a sweet lady. But she said she's unhappy and that makes us so sad. Her husband, who was a delight I must say, passed on a few years ago. Now she has arthritis so painful that she uses a walker. I feel so bad for her. She used to work as an administrator for the public school and they live in a tiny house in an upscale community. When we visited her last she said our son was very mature. Hehe! He was a good boy while we talked at length and that impressed her. I wonder when we'll see her again. She wrote down my husband's email address with great difficulty. The arthritis has gotten her fingers too. It breaks my heart to know she she is unhappy and in pain. My husband is writing her right now.

New BBB brush

I bought a new boar bristle brush today. Had to. It's a Goodie and I found it by accident at the Superstore. Superstores are in Canada and they're pretty nice. My old one of two years stinks. I've washed it with hot water and soap and let it dry out but it still stinks. Plus there's lint all through it. I picked all the lint out once. I'm not doing it again. I don't know how people keep the link out of a boar bristle brush.

And my husband asked why did I buy it. What kind of question is that? Because I need it, of course. I need it to smooth my hair down and distribute the leave-in oil, I told him. Heidi says so. I didn't tell him that. When he was out I put the old one in the trash and pushed it way down to the bottom so hopefully he won't see it and won't pester me about it some more.

This one I'm not using on dirty hair, only on clean hair. That's my new plan.

I bought new reading glasses too. Number 1.50. My old ones have been lopsided for a month. Every time I put them on I'd be fighting them to try to make them straight. Very annoying. But that's all over now. They cost $9.99 but at home they would have been $5.99.

I found a trail

I waited till my husband and son would go with me and we walked for about 45 minutes. I was scared to go by myself! When we were at Custer State Park we talked with a couple who volunteered and I admired the wife because she walked a trail every day by herself. She was in her fifties and had great legs. I figured I'd do the same thing some day, but here I am chicken hearted. Oh well.

There's a stream in these woods but not much in the way of wildlife. I guess there's so much space that the critters figure, why be where the people are. I saw some deer poops (I'm such the pioneer) so I know they're here. Other than the poops, we saw three teensy squirrels and four crows. We have to hold down our excitement. It seems that Canada doesn't really open till June 22nd. We're a bit early for the parks! You'd think we'd know by now but we just storm on through. I should be careful what I ask for. One day it's crowded where we are and the next day - not. I will photograph the campground before we leave. It's big and beautiful but only a handful of folks in the 225 sites! Today was sunny and tomorrow is supposed to be too. Sun is good. Need sun!

New leaves

End of today's trail

It's strange how dark the woods can be when the sun is so bright outside.

Link - Women in Saudi Arabia

This is the best article on the subject that I have ever read.

In Saudi Arabia, a view from behind the veil
As a woman in the male-dominated kingdom, Times reporter Megan Stack quietly fumed beneath her abaya. Even beyond its borders, her experience taints her perception of the sexes.

Rain, rain, rain

We had lots of rain on the coast of Maine today. Tomorrow will be a driving day. We stayed here today rather than drive in the weather.

We went out for Chinese tonight and I had the biggest bowl of wonton soup I've ever had. It was not bad either.

Drove by a restaurant that had huge boilers steaming outside. They were full of lobster! I don't like lobster though. Alaskan King Crab is my favorite. I do like clam chowder and I had some last week that was very good. I had fish and chips that were good too. But I ate so much I got a tummy ache that lasted all night. I really did eat like a piglet. Shame on me. Now I don't want anymore fish or chowder.

We've been closed in all day and because of it homeschooling went really well. It was one of those enjoyable homeschooling days when the world seems far away and it feels so good to be a family. Son did a week of math in two hours with my husband, and we did Bible, history, grammar, literature and spelling. I like grammar a lot.

802

I haven't laughed so much since 1988 - Will Smith's "Parents Just Don't Understand". I admit, I had to look up fustigating in the dictionary for this one...


Up in Vermont this is how we do
We got one area code and it's 802
802
802

Green Mountain State where we roll on skis
Don't mess with our cows or we'll break your knees
State of Vermont where we make Ben and Jerry's
Sweet like syrup and our streets aren't scary

Cell phone service is questionable
Farmer's Market is our biggest festival
We got out of staters creepin' when the leaves are changing
Our eggs are jumpin' cause our chickens are free ranging

State capitol might be 200 years old but our dome is so bling in that it's plated with gold
MHS: our mascot is a Solon
Saturday night we don't go drinking, we go bowling

802 (4x)

We got seven different places to buy a pizza slice
But don't go to Village 'cause that dude ain't nice
Cross off Angeleno's 'cause their pie is overpriced
What about Girasole's - yeeah, that'll suffice

Hippies always loiter when on city steps
We got to First in Fitness and do mad reps
One one thousand, two one thousand, three one thousand, four
Here comes X10 knocking at your door

Mud season makes the roads real slow
Go hunting with our compound bow
We got creamiest milk in the 50 states
We go on picnics and dine on paper plates

Rednecks in jail we are always hatin'
We cruise into town and we start fustigatin'
I like my Cabot's cheddar extra sharp
Our roofs have leaks so we patch it with a tarp

802 (4x)

Got the biggest snow plows in the USA
Yeah we made it legal it's okay to be gay
Our official shoe is the Birkenstock
The only thing we hustlin' is the granite rock

Up in V-T this is how we do
We got one area code and it's 802

A new widget!

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

June gloom?

I've got the jimmy finger tonight. I uploaded my photo then I deleted it and now I've uploaded it again. I have to control my mouse hand so I don't jab that delete key again.

Son's mouth is healing well.

We drove to see the lighthouse, and drove and drove and drove. We were saying, "Hey, I remember that store, and that corner, and that sign. We've been here already." The signage was a fright. We went on a loop that looped around and brought us back where we started. We finally came home. The light was poor anyway. I wonder if they have cloudy weather through June like San Diego does.

I did see a sight that stood out. We were driving through a ritzy neighborhood. The homes were owned by the ultra wealthy. They're right on the water with architecture and landscaping that is spectacular. Well, we drove by a field on a bluff that stood out visually because it was all hay colored and had bumps as if there were miniature piles of hay uniformly about. The blue of the ocean was in full view and a gorgeous view it was, including a harbor to the left. In the middle of the hay colored field (surrounded by a sea of some of the greenest, lushest foliage I have ever seen and this is why it stood out) was a slim, young woman with short hair. I noticed her hair, yes. She was sitting yoga style facing the ocean, hands on her knees, wearing a white tank top, and as we were 3/4 past I could see she turned her head to the side. Her dog, a golden retreiver sat obediently about 20 feet away, and I think she was telling him something. He was sitting and gazing at the ocean just like she was. You can tell me I'm wrong but I think they were meditating together. Maybe our truck was a distraction and she was reminding him to stay. She must have been very, very, very, very rich but she had arms and legs and a head just like me! Why was she meditating today? It was a pretty sight. Three seconds of eye candy that makes you sit back in your seat and think of other people and their lives - until the next sight catches your eye.

Do you think I saw this piece of trash in a state park on the U.S. side or the Canadian side? Answer: U.S. side. Canadians have a reputation for having no trash on their roads or parks. There's not much garbage on the roadside there and rarely in the provincial or national parks. Since we work as volunteers in a campground part of the year we're used to picking up trash. We don't mind doing it, but it's a shame folks drop their garbage on the ground. The trash can was only a few feet away. Yeah, shucks, of course I put it in after I took the pic!

The Dandelion

The jury is in and we're staying in Maine a couple more days! Then we're going up to Canada. :)

We shopped around and found a campground for cheaper, that's nicer, and what? It's right on the coast with a big, giant, beautiful ocean view!

Today our son fell off of a fence he was walking on, with my husband watching, (don't ask why for there is no good reply to this) and his top lip is so swollen he looks like Donald Duck. No broken teeth, so that's good. Hopefully the swelling will go down a lot overnight. I think he looks kind of cute but he's not too happy. The inside has an imprint of his teeth and will take probably a week to heal.

I don't have any worries of my own so I worry for other people and now I have a herpes sore on my nose. It's supposed to at least be on my lip, but no, strangely, it has chosen to make its appearance upon my nose. So it hurts and I also look like Mrs. Santa Claus. The end of my nose is a little puffy in a weird way and a little red and now it's getting a sore right barely on the outside of my nostril. Guess it's a good thing I didn't get that nose piercing last year, eh.

Tomorrow I think I will see a real lighthouse. It's not red and white and blue, just white. But it is a lighthouse.

Today we pray

Many of us pray for Fox's mum this first day of June.

I pray that in all things the Lord will be glorified.

The Lord's Prayer

Our Father which art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done in earth,
as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
as we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil:
For thine is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory,
forever. Amen.

From Matthew 6:9-13