69:365 She missed me.

Anna:
I am a night owl. It's not unusual for me to be up until 1 or 2am, simply because I know better than to try and go to sleep. My daughter's cat tends to keep me company when I'm up. If I'm on the computer, Tiger will often curl up on her pillow on the desk (it's a large desk, with both sides usable), or sit perched on the back of the chair. When I do finally go to bed, she'll often get comfortable on my hip before I finish lying down. Sometimes, she'll noof her way under the covers and cuddle up beside me. In the morning, I've got in the habit of feeling around with my feet before I get up, as she's usually curled up in a ball somewhere near them, and I've accidentally clocked her in the head more than a few times.

Last night, I had my first shift in almost 2 weeks at my new job as a banquet server. I don't start until 6pm and, depending on the event, I might be done by 11:30, or could easily stay until 1 or 3 am. In last night's shift, I was the only banquet server that was able to stay late - all the others had to leave to catch buses or because they had other jobs to start in the morning. The event ran late and I wasn't able to phone Philippe for a ride home until past 2am.

I'm told that, while I was gone, Tiger was seriously missing me. As everyone else was getting ready for bed, she was wandering around, meowing and searching. She didn't want anyone else's company, I'm told, but was restless and meowing. At 2 am, Philippe woke up, realized what time it was and, concerned that I hadn't called yet, got up. Tiger immediately came over, meowing her displeasure. She kept hovering around, being quite vocal about it. When I finally did get home, she stopped fussing and complaining. It wasn't long before she was draped across my shoulder while Philippe and I talked. When I climbed into bed, she curled up on my hip immediately. In the morning, she was again at my feet and stayed there until I got out of bed. When I took this picture, she was taking a nap on my pillow, and looking so very content.





Philippe: I'm raising funds for the Canadian Cancer Society; usually, people shave their heads. Me? well, people have seen me with a shaved head time and time again so it wouldn't have been a great draw. I've come up with another angle. All will be made clear with tomorrow's post :D

68:365 Starting

Anna: Yesterday's park day doubled as a yarn and fabric exchange. Among our finds is this ball of yarn (and the fabric it's sitting on, though you can't really see it). I didn't know what I'd use it for when I grabbed it, but I've got an idea I'm going to try out. If it works, I'll be sure to post a photo of the finished product. :-D

67:365 A really good photo day! (updated)

Anna: Park day again today, and what a lovely day it was! Philippe and I both took lots of pictures - I'm sure he'll post a few later on. I managed to narrow mine down to these three.


Lost:
As I walked past a nearby pond, still kind of scummy from the dregs of spring's melt, I found this fading rose. Perhaps from a weekend wedding party? Or last week's May Day celebrations? No idea.

On a side note, it wasn't until I opened this image in PSP X2 to resize it that I noticed the water bug next to the blossom. I love finding surprises like that!







Hunting:
I'd gone around the lake to see if the nests I'd taken photos of before were still there (they weren't - the park staff move nests if people won't leave them alone - not sure how they convince the geese to go long with it). On the way back, I saw someone had stopped to take pictures. Until then, all I could see where a few mallards, some far away goldeneyes, and more seagulls than I've seen in ages. It took me a few moments to spot this guy, hunting among the clouds of insects along the shoreline. I was able to get quite a few pictures of him, and was surprised that they pretty much all turned out. He was pretty skittish about me as I moved around, so I was taking the pictures at my maximum optical zoom (I don't use the digital zoom - it always comes out looking horribly grainy).

update: I now know that this bird is called a Greater Yellowlegs. Thanks, Inspíderwiht.


Bottoms Up!

On the way back to the playground, I stopped to chat with a couple of people sitting by a dock. Which is probably the only reason I was able to see this - had I kept walking, they would've swum farther from the water's edge. The pair of mallards kept dunking down in tandem. It was really quite funny to watch!














Philippe: Couples, and couple-wannabes were out in force today.











Philippe: This guy was chased off by a more dominant male as he was trying to chat up the locals.















Philippe: Couples everywhere.. They do everything together, including landing :D.














Philippe: There was a guy feeding the geese as I was walking by; this goose decided I was going to feed her, so she followed me around for a while :).











Philippe: I could hear this guy for a while but we ended up playing hide and seek for a bit. He finally showed up and let me snap this.













Philippe: Now *THIS* guy wasn't shy.. He warned me away from his tree, and kept an eye on me as I left.












Philippe: This one loved fishing, and spent most of the time underwater.














Philippe: I've *no* idea what he was doing; it looked like gargling, complete with head shake and spit.

66:365 Another view

Anna: Sometimes, insomnia comes in handy. After another sleepless night, I decided to go for a walk in the morning air. My lark of an older daughter was up early and came with me, so 6 am found us wandering some higher level paths in the river valley.

As we were going along, I saw a jackrabbit on the path ahead of us, so a take up my camera, turn it on... and see a "no memory card" message flash across the screen! I'd had Philippe upload my pictures from yesterday, but I could've sworn I saw him put the memory card back again! *L* My daughter had her G2 and let me use it, but of course, the rabbit was gone by then.

Instead, we found ourself at a spit of ground overlooking the paths and river below us, and giving us a panoramic view of the valley. This is looking back at the complex we live in; two towers joined together up to the fourth floor. At the top of the one you can see on the left is where I took yesterday's pictures.

Too bad our apartment is on the far side. *L*

65:365 It helps to know the right people.

Anna: We're on the third floor, facing mostly north. We get some good sunsets out here, but our views of them are marred by power lines and buildings. Seeing what looked to be a beautiful sunset in the making, I headed to the 4th floor lounge, hoping to get a better line of sight.

Unfortunately, the north side of lounge has even less of a view. There's another apartment building completely blocking the sunset in one area, and the 4th floor townhouses blocking the rest.

So I thought I might be able to get some good river views on the other side. Still no luck. The reflections where nice, but nothing I really wanted to take.



As I headed back into the lounge area, I happened to run into one of the security guards. Philippe first got to know him when he first moved out here 6 months ahead of us and spent a fair amount of time in the lounge. We don't go to the lounge that often, but when we run into him, we always stop for a friendly chat. Seeing my camera, he asked about it, and I told him about my frustration, trying to get a good picture of the sunset. So J., being the sweetheart that he is, took me up to the 20th floor patio in the south tower - and area normally available only to those in the penthouse suits!





The view of the city from up here is amazing! He told me how he likes to come up there in the mornings and look down into the river valley parks below, where sometimes he'll even see deer coming up near road level, searching for new grass.











There' s even a good view of the stadium. When Philippe was out here ahead of us, he had a 13th floor bachelor's apartment below where I was standing to take this. He was able to watch concerts and games projected on the big screens from his balcony. J. was telling me about how great the fireworks look from this height, too.










Philippe: She took over her favorite leaning post and stretched out.
:-)

64:365 Phoenix

Anna: It's been a long time since I've used the light box.

I'm not big on cross stitch. Not my preferred style. Still, I'm always wanting to learn new crafts, so I gave it a go and made a few cross stitched pieces. Like so many things I've made over the years, I usually gave away the finished products as gifts, leaving me with very few samples of my own work. All the more reason I make a point of taking pictures when I make things. *L*

Somehow, I ended up keeping this one. It's brightly colored and mounted on a circular frame edged in lace. So not only is it in a style of embroidery that doesn't normally attract me, it's flashy, vibrant and feminine. Other than bright hair colors every now and then, I'm not at all like that. Yet for some reason, I kept this for myself. I actually had it stored in the closet, along with a number of other items waiting for us to move somewhere more permanent to be hung up. In other words, it's been sitting in a closet for over 2 years. *L*

Perhaps I can find an open piece of wall somewhere and hang it up, anyways.

63:365 Testing

Anna: The kids had their eye tests today. I sat in with our younger daughter and got this while we were waiting for the dr. to come in. I've always been fascinated by the feaky looking gadgets eye doctors get to use. :-D

He walked in as I was talking the picture. There was a time when I would've been embarrassed by that. Heck, I wouldn't have had the nerve to take the picture in the first place. Instead, I laughed while my daughter told him I was weird. :-D