a little night light

I guess there must have been a bit of sun today - because when i finally pulled into my driveway late tonight, the outside lights were glowing brightly and so gezellig in their snowbeds that i had to take a few pictures... they didn't all work out well, but you get the idea. I think i like the "non-flash" image the best - captures the mood of the evening much better. Enjoy!!1

Pics of the day... yesterday... well, okay, two days ago now since it's midnight...

I was sitting in my living room the other day and was enjoying the sunshine and blue skies and happened to look at my coffee table and from the angle of where i was sitting, i saw a neat reflection - so yes, more sky images but they're at least creative this time!!

Now you see her...

So Rachel and I no longer have fingerprints... just saying... we spent the afternoon scrubbing the bathroom at Lauren and Tom's new abode in Cayuga and as a consequence, i think if we ever decide to commit any crimes, we would be the perfect criminals or have found the perfect way to do crimes. The moral of the story is : always spend four hours with your hands immersed in Vim, Lysol and Shaklee before robbing banks or stealing cars! The point of the story is more this picture down below. Once our scrubbing time was over, we decided we needed a job that required no h20 involvement, so we slipcovered Lauren and Tom's furniture in the basement as requested. We MIGHT have gone a little crazy with that idea - in the end, the vacuum was no longer visible, the t.v. was covered, the coffee table matched the couch and love seat and somehow i had lost my companion in the process. Any ideas? Hopefully she'll turn up one of these days!

Cold

You know it's cold when your boogers freeze - that's a line from Calvin and Hobbes - one of my all-time favorite cartoon characters. And yes, that certainly was the case this morning. A co-worker warned me as i bundled up like the michelin man that the windchill was -27! So i'm sure, if you passed me tromping down Concession Street this morning, you would not have recognized me in all my winter finery! But the world was beautiful, i love walking home on Sunday mornings, especially after it has snowed. There is something so still, special and magical about being the first one to make footprints on a sidewalk, to slide on the neighbourhood ice rink for a few minutes by myself, to watch the sun peak through the gray clouds and cause sparkles on the snow. Most people are still tucked into their beds and sleeping and here's little old me, putting foot in front of tired foot, slowly progressing towards warmth, pajamas and my waiting bed! Yes, you all have to get up and greet the day, but i've greeted it and said "I'll see you later!"
And so, I bid you all adieu, you diurnal denizens, from the nocturnal nurse!

The countdown is unofficially on... for what you might ask? Until my eyes start drooping, my head starts bobbling around and i'm on the way to dream land. I am just a little more awake than i usually am post-nights thanks to the bracing cold air outside. I am kinda stubborn, i refused several offers of rides home which would have delivered me to my door quickly, effortlessly and likely with a warm butt (thanks to friends with seat-warmers in their vehicles). But i really do cherish (usually) that time to decompress and unwind after a shift. It was a busy one, lots of orders, admissions on the day shift and other general chaos, including chasing naked patients down the hall trying to find their way out of Alcatraz, answering call bells for a lady who kept forgetting what she wanted and emptying out juice cups full of (sorry, any squeamish people) pee... Hmmm.. i'd almost think it was a full moon if i didn't know better, cause we seemed to have some interesting behaviours happening! Such is another night at good old work. I guess sometimes you just have to laugh and get on with the program.
The sky was lovely as i walked - i love walking into the sunrise, feels so hopeful somehow. And it's always amazing how fast things change. The streetlights wink out as i walk under them, finished doing their work for another day. The sky glows in brilliant shades of pink and orange and red, peeking through the wintry silhouettes of the trees along the mountain brow. I watch the man who faithfully floods the "rink" at the park on my way home - i think that i should stop and talk to him, find out who he is and why he does what he does - he seems to be very faithful. The snow crunches under my boots and every once in a while, i manage to misstep and nearly do a header as my boot hits some hidden ice, just waiting to trip me up and break my knee. Once again, today i arrived safely home, accompanied by my music - Titanic, Band of Brothers, Casting Crowns, Starfield, Simon and Garfunkel - oh, the mix is random but it keeps me going. And when i'm tired of the same old songs, i tune into good old CBC and get a good dose of eclectic music - never know what you're going to get there!
Uhoh... it's starting, i feel the burn, aaahhhh... still more thoughts to go but i'm losing the battle... fade...

Picture of the week???

So, my nice little resolution for a "picture of the day" has devolved into "picture of the every-other day or even picture of the week" so i must admit i'm failing... but these are two shots from yesterday that i liked very much - one is taken in the front lawn of my friend Tanya's neighbours - hmmm... sun and trees and skies... how common is that to see on Danielle's blog? The shot below is taken in Caledonia - i thought it was a pretty ingenious way to fix a hole in a window... when in doubt, use gloves!!

The Measure of a Man... and a Woman and the wall...

Dad "seriously Danielle, do you really need to travel this much? Can't we forget about a few of the places you've been?"
Mom "It's not quite straight yet hon... gotta put that nail in a little farther..."
"If you do it this way, you have to measure from this point and then this will not match up and this will hang crooked..."
So, a while back, i was inspired by a design magazine and my own pictures, to create a photo travel wall. Initially i wasn't really sure how to go about this project. I have traveled quite a bit and my idea was to choose one picture, iconic or simply reminiscent of each country in which i had travelled. I ran into difficulties on several accounts. Number one, sometimes, i didn't really have one great picture of the country - for instance Switzerland, crazily enough, despite the Alps and men in lederhosen, i didn't manage to get a really memorable shot - what to do - did i just pretend not to have been there? Number two, some countries had yielded a variety of wonderful shots, how would i choose just ONE to go on the wall? Italy for instance yielded a plethora of great pictures - i ended up ironically choosing one that could really have been anywhere! Number three, places like Canada and the U.S.A. are so huge, that one picture to encompass the great vastness would be near impossible - so i allowed provinces and states to have their own images. So, not total consistency but i tried to stick to some rules.
I eventually chose all the images, had them developed, bought frames, installed the pictures and was ready to hang them up when i ground to a complete halt with the knowledge that this was far beyond my abilities - being completely illogical when it comes to planning things out. It was time to call in the pros! The pros were Mom and Dad, who worked together well as a team in this complicated venture - surprisingly enjoying even a few laughs along the way! I thought i'd caption the pictures using "their" thoughts...

Okay, i've measured from the top and it's 45.5 cm and from the side, it's 76.2 cm and the nail needs to go right at 34.1...
Mom and I spent a long time figuring out even how to lay out the pictures.. it was a bit confusing with balancing out horizontal and vertical pictures and black and white frames, but eventually we came to a good arrangement, despite 20 admonitions "don't slip on the super-slippery Tyvek (mom's favorite painting surface and a handy way to see all the images laid out)

Dad "It's still not straight, argghhh!"
Mom "I'm going to get another few pictures - hang on, i'll be right back!"
"I'll hold my thumb right there, over the 4th pencil mark on the wall" - oh so complicated!
You'd think there was major brain surgery going on here - the whole house was upside-down trying to hang these pictures! And there were supplies of all kinds - levels, drills, nails, sticky-tack, tape, glue, toilet rolls...
"Please tell me i'm done... i'm hiding in this corner and you can't make me come out anymore. My poor head is sore from all that figuring and measuring and my poor pencil has no more lead in it. But i'm done!"
The finished product! It looks pretty neat - the chandelier also went up that day so it really feels completed in that corner of the room!!! Thanks so much, Mom and Dad! You did a great job and i'm so happy with it! Thanks for infinite patience, skill and good humour in this mammoth project!

O Captain! My Captain!

O Captain! My Captain - Walt Whitman

O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done;
The ship has weathered every rack, the prize we sought is won;
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring:

But O heart! heart! heart!

O the bleeding drops of red,

Where on the deck my Captain lies,

Fallen cold and dead.

O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;
Rise up—for you the flag is flung—for you the bugle trills;
For you bouquets and ribboned wreaths—for you the shores a-crowding;
For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;

Here Captain! dear father!

This arm beneath your head;

It is some dream that on the deck,

You’ve fallen cold and dead.

My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still;
My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will;
The ship is anchored safe and sound, its voyage closed and done;
From fearful trip, the victor ship, comes in with object won;

Exult, O shores, and ring, O bells!

But I, with mournful tread,

Walk the deck my Captain lies,

Fallen cold and dead.

I must be in the mood for poetry - i found a little, very old book of poetry on my shelf yesterday when i was supposed to be studying, and i spent some time leafing through the poems there. I don't profess to understand poetry well, though i like playing with words myself, i am no great poet. But it brings memories of pieces studied in school, pieces read in plays and movies, and pieces which simply are great to read, either silently or out loud (preferably when i'm home by myself and no one can hear me, then i can read as loudly or as passionately as i want! Hopefully the mail lady doesn't think i'm nuts!)
So today, i'll share Walt Whitman's poem with you, first introduced to me in the movie Dead Poet's Society. It's about the death of Abraham Lincoln and has such beautiful writing, such profound sadness at the death of this monumental leader, that it touches me and makes me wish i could write so!

4:30 am Dreamtime

So.... I woke up around 4:30 this morning, with my poor arm fast asleep - must have been sticking out at a funny angle - and completely disoriented, confused and scared. And why? I had been minding my own business, dreaming away about this, that and the kitchen sink, when all of a sudden, i was in nice place, talking with some girlfriends, their husbands and kids, we were having a great time, going on hikes and hanging around taking pictures together. Somebody suggested a ride in a birchbark canoe (for those of you who know me well, this would not normally be something i would agree to, being quite petrified of flimsy watercraft!). But foolishly, i acquiesced and there we went, about eight of us - must have been quite the canoe, eh? We were paddling along, and things were getting a little rough, we seesawed back and forth through some pretty heavy eddies and currents, and i was getting pretty nervous (no mast for me to put my fingerprints in however, my dear sisters).
All of a sudden, we were swept across the middle of a HUGE vortex and our poor little watercraft was sucked in and down and down and down and people were flying everywhere and i was spinning and falling and falling... i eventually ended up, somehow, miraculously with no broken bones or crushed skull, at the empty bottom of the waterspout... and i was all alone, except for a random crab and i was trapped and screamed and screamed (maybe that's why my poor throat doesn't feel too great this morning!), screams of pure terror!
Eventually i collected myself, deciding that screaming for rescue wasn't going to work and that i'd better go looking for a way out of here. I wandered around my little cave, with super high walls(yes, it had turned into a giant concrete "box" of sorts), eventually finding a doorway out and ran straight into a man whose legs looked like stilts and who was just walking around the area, minding his own business - i never did quite figure out what he was on about. Things sort of deteriorate from here, i don't seem to remember anything much else with any clarity - other than that i did wake up, vaguely remember wandering to the bathroom and then crawling back into bed, hoping for a few more hours rest, sans crazy dreams, and thankfully that was granted. I was left with thoughts on meanings and interpretations... maybe, perhaps, a cup of coffee and a cup of tea, then looking at pictures of all the flooding in Australia right before bed are not a good idea???

A few words from the wintry world...

Just a few words from the wintry meadows... before i head off for a nice little mid-afternoon nap before another night shift... it's been a week of night shifts - oh, i don't mind, they tend to be quieter than day shifts, but it sure makes for interesting sleeping patterns! A few friends of mine have been taking up the challenge of taking a picture a day for a year - my uncle did that a few years ago and it was really neat to see his images... i will admit to being intrigued by the idea and started off valiantly... for the first day... and haven't been very faithful since then - oh, maybe every two days or so now. I know, it takes dedication and i've got to make sure i've got my camera with me at all times - and my picture-taking eyes open - since it doesn't really matter what the images are of - just my daily life... so i'm going to keep trying and we'll see what comes of it all! That first shot is of my little house in the city - after a windy, snowy, wintry night - kinda cozy to go to bed on a night like that, all snug and warm in bed with the wind howling around the house, seeking to get in but being denied by the walls of the house - i'm thankful for the walls of my house (silly eh, but true!)
This was Saturday morning - i had to take this shot to prove to several people that we were indeed receiving snow - it stopped in the afternoon but was coming down pretty good at the time this was taken - it looked oh so pretty - i don't always like it when i end up with soggy pant legs because of wet car mats and snow piles, but i'll take the good with the bad!
Hmmm... my computer has all of a sudden changed fonts and now has decided to underline everything - not sure what i did there - but sorry, you'll just have to put up with it... this shot is of my neighbour's tree in the backyard - always provides interesting shapes and shadows in contrast with the sky for taking pictures - i just loved the sky... i realize that i might be at risk of taking 365 pictures of skies and trees - hopefully it doesn't turn out that way!

Hmmm... back to normal typing again - must be the ghost living in my keyboard causing havoc and mischief for the poor uneducated computer-illiterate writer. I didn't know if this was cheating to take a picture of a picture - but hey, there are no rules right? This is a shot my sister Lauren took and which hangs proudly on my living room wall - i love the colours and as you can see, it's still decorated for the Christmas season (see the previous blog about tinsel and decorations for further ideas!)
A bird of paradise flower - aren't they amazing - taken in the greenhouses at the RBG - some really neat plants there to be sure!
Ummmm... cookie! I got all "domestic" the other day and rustled up some cookies to take to a church shower - they were pretty yummy - a little crispy since i seem never to be able to take them out on time - i have to remember a few minutes before the buzzer goes off! But they still managed to be tasty! Thanks Rachel, for the recipe.
And my dinner - yep, it was worthy of a picture - looked pretty tasty - and it sure was - warms you up to the core - i love hutspot (stampot wortels as we used to call it). It's such a good winter meal - a good stick to your ribs food! I made enough for a bunch of meals so now i'm set for a few shifts - handy! I thought i'd include a little history of the dish - since i love history - and i was just in Leiden, apparently the home of hutspot in Holland! The article is from wikipedia (fount of all wisdom - haha)

According to legend, the recipe came from the cooked bits of potato left behind by hastily departing Spanish soldiers during their Siege of Leiden in 1574 during the Eighty Year's War, when the liberators breached the dikes of the lower lying polders surrounding the city. This flooded all the fields around the city with around a foot of water. As there were few, if any, high points (and September in the Netherlands is not exactly a warm month), the Spanish soldiers camping in the fields were essentially flushed out.

The anniversary of this event, known as Leidens Ontzet, is still celebrated every October 3 in Leiden and by Dutch expatriates the world over. Traditionally, the celebration includes consumption of a lot of "Hutspot met klapstuk/stooflap" (Hotchpotch with chuck roast/beef shoulder chops).

The first European record of the potato is as late as 1537, by the Spanish conquistador Juan de Castellanos, and it spread quite slowly throughout Europe from thereon. So the original legend probably should refer to what the Dutch call a 'sweet potato' or pastinaak which is a parsnip; this vegetable played a similar role in Dutch cuisine prior to the use of the potato as a staple food.

During the Nazi occupation the dish came to represent freedom from oppression since its ingredients could be grown beneath the soil and thus somewhat hidden from sight, and the carrots gave the dish an orange colour, which represents the Dutch Royal Family.

Did you see what i saw???

Did you see what i saw?
a solid band of gold ringing the horizon...hinting of the splendor of the day gone by and foretelling the darkness to come...
amber-orange-red-yellow fire all blended together in a celestial masterpiece, crafted by a master painter
Did you look up from your busyness?
A glow nearly hidden under looming clouds
heavy with promise of snow
yet brilliant and warm and brave
radiating a small bit of hope and light into my afternoon
My heart was happy and i was moved
i watched it
A few short minutes and then the sun sank away
and
was
gone

Just a few pics from the last week or so...
Apparently, the boys are not just content to play with the toys in the bedroom, but must sit in the drawer and play with the toys there! They LOVE playing with trucks and animals and are pretty funny when i come over to visit - i can barely get through the door and it's "Aunt Dell, can you play with this or that?" These boys truly know how to charm their aunt thoroughly!
On Christmas Eve, i stole a little snuggle time with my youngest nephew, Nathaniel. He is a pretty special little boy, such solemn blue eyes that can change in a minute to twinkle with delight when you bounce him up and down or pay any attention to him. What a sweetie!
Aunt Dell and Nate enjoying the "fire". He liked the sounds of the fire crackling and the lights flickering. Pity that it can't be a real fire, but the video people have done a pretty good job!
The view from my front window three mornings ago... it was spectacular!!! The whole sky was lit up from end to end...What a beautiful sight!

It's 2011...

Well, made it through the first day of 2011 without bumps, bruises, flu, carpet burns or a hangnail so i suppose today can be called a success! It was a good day, to be sure - i spent it hanging out with my friend Carina, who was a whole lot more skillful than me at playing Settlers and consequently beat the pants off me three times in a row - thankfully we took a break after the third game to allow my poor battered spirit to revive a little... next time, it'll be Boggle, and there will be no holds barred! I apparently just have very poor strategical skills and made some very poor settlement placements so no city planning in my immediate career future.
I sit here this evening, still basking in the glow of the still-burning Christmas lights, and am thankful for the year behind me... i think that at times i can't remember very well but as i look over my blog from the past 365 days, i see that so much has happened, so much water has flowed under the bridge and my path has changed directions, subtly at times and more drastically at other times. I have been affected by many things in the year just past, in my life personally and probably, mostly in the lives of those living around and close to me. There have been major events such as earthquakes and accidents which have huge impacts on those who live through them and whose lives are directly affected by the effects of these events, but i haven't lived through them personally, yet part of me sticks with those who i know who have gone through these things. We can't possibly go through everything in life, to empathize truly with the victims, but we can do our best - to try to understand, to be interested and to lend a shoulder and an ear when needed. We can laugh together, cry together, rejoice and praise God together for the blessings He has bestowed, even praising Him for things that didn't seem to be or still don't appear to be part of His plans, trusting that He knows infinitely better than us what we need or require to serve Him at that time and place.
It is my earnest prayer that He is my guide, my leader, my shelter in the storm this year coming, as He has been thus far. I pray that I may seek new ways to serve Him, to bring glory to His name, to always keep Him as number one. I pray for strength to stand back up again when i falter and for the faith to praise God each and every day of 2011!