Flying high

Doing the countdown to the engines starting..

 Last Friday afternoon, on a gorgeous, cloudy/sunny, breezy perfect afternoon, i was visiting Mom and Dad for a coffee.  Now, anyone who knows our family, knows that when airplanes go by overhead, we all go trotting (or sometimes tearing) off to see what kind of plane it is, where it's heading and to marvel at the sight of them.  We grew up in the shadow of the airport and since Dad's been involved in volunteering at the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum (gotta use the full name eh?), we've been that much more interested.  So, after chasing out of the house for the fourteenth time, nearly breaking necks to see these crazy planes, i suggested to Dad that if he had nothing else to do, that we might head up to the airport to watch the planes coming in for the airshow.  He agreed, pulled out Mom's volunteer tag and we headed off.  And boy, what a great decision!!  The weather was absolutely perfect and we found a perch on the observation deck of the museum and parked ourselves there for a good couple of hours whilst we basically got our own private airshow.  All the working planes at the museum were outside and we could watch the hustle and bustle of the planes being parked here and there and moved back and forth.  We watched all the guest airplanes coming in for landings and going out again to practice loop-de-loops and other crazy maneuvers.  And all from our birds-eye vantage point.  We chatted to a fellow next to us for a while about airplanes - he is a pilot and he was able to fill us in on details of planes and we were able to tell him some stuff about the museum so that was kinda neat too.  You always learn from every interaction you have, i think... maybe little things, maybe facts, maybe deep things...
But for now, sit back and scroll to your heart's content to see some shots from the afternoon.  I'm totally heading there again next year!!!

I'm afraid i'm terrible with names, but this guy had a beautiful plane - and it was so neat to see flying

The Lancaster had already flown by the time we got there, but the Mitchell was heading out followed by the Helldiver!  Such fearsome names for these planes, though i did feel kinda bad for the Faerie Firefly...hardly a name to strike awe into your enemies but it was a really cool plane!

The Nanchang... a little Chinese plane who did some pretty cool acrobatics and made a lot of noise for a little guy!

This tiny little guy did some pretty crazy acrobatics, pouring on the smoke and making loops and flying upsidedown and really low right over the runway - it's a Pitts Special .

The Avenger...it's still in pieces, but it's getting there, but a bit more work to do before she's airworthy!

The Westland Lysander - this plane took off so quickly, it was neat to see... looks like a giant bumblebee!

I don't really know who this guy is, but he was pretty cool!  Might be called a Skyraider!

It's kinda hard to get overhead shots, mostly doesn't work but here's the Mitchell nonetheless!

The Helldiver!  His wings would fold up so he takes up less space on a carrier... really neat to watch that happen!

One of two Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses  that flew in...this one was called Chuckie...not sure if i like that name, but the plane was really cool!  The other one was called the Memphis Belle - kinda neat to see it since i've watched that movie!

Oops...but i still like this shot, the Lysander getting his five minutes of fame, heading for a wing-over of the museum!

The Mitchell, it's a very picturesque plane!

The World War I planes - i think these might have been my favorites of the day - they were pretty cool to see flying all together!   From top to bottom, the Fokker DR1, the Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.5.a, and the Sopwith 11/2 Strutter...

Someone wants to fly badly but has been without essential parts and wings for a while...the Bolingbroke...restoration is ongoing...and ongoing...

The Red Baron (Kees is piloting - he's the one who took my mom on her Harvard ride - nice guy!) leading the two bi-planes into the hangar!

The Fokker again - looked like such a little toy airplane but it's actually not that small when you stand next to it.  This is the kind of plane that the Red Baron flew in WWI

Three Harvard Trainers doing acrobatics over the airfield... i think you would have to have a lot of trust in your fellow pilots in order to dare to do this!

And the Harvards again...

Nope,don't look for any airplanes, it's just the amazing cloud formations all afternoon, it would threaten rain and then clear...made for some cool shots!

An old propellor...so neat to be surrounded by this history!

A hangar full of yellow warbirds!  Kinda scary how tightly packed in they were, but it was all done with precision and care! 

Easily a great day!

Lois' masterpiece!!

My mom is super crafty.  Anyone who knows my mom will likely concur.  And i love that she is that way - always makes neat things to admire and lend interest to the garden and house.  I always thought that by some genetic fluke, the artistic genes somehow skipped myself and trailed off somewhere else - likely to my sisters who are both quite creative.  I probably should have read the writing on the wall when in kindergarten, my paintings were just blobs of colour - or maybe that was my abstract period.  If it was, then my whole life's artistic career has been abstract.  So when two weeks ago (i believe, if my memory serves me okay - but it might even be three weeks ago now, how time flies), we gathered at my parent's place to have a "craft day", i wasn't entirely sure how things would go.  See, my mom had concocted this beautiful easel made of curly willow branches and had made a "living" painting to sit on the easel.  I just thought it was the coolest thing since sliced bread and mentioned to my friends soon thereafter, and they sure liked the idea as well and thought  it might be fun to have an "easel workshop".  So rather easily (sorry, had to, there's an art to word placement, heehee), Laura, Lois and I managed to come up with a day that worked for us all and we descended on Mothers Street to see what would happen.
First we had to pick out branches for our easels, haul them to the patio, cut them to size (how fun to use tools!!  Saws and drills and such), and piece them together.

It sure was handy to have Dad around, he put most of our branches together (we got to drill in a few screws) and he kept Laura and Lois' kids entertained and well fed - freezies, pineapple, sandwiches, and numerous other goodies!  I think Opa might need some granddaughters to spoil!!

  After the easels were assembled, it was time to move onto the pictures themselves.  I will fully admit that this was the part i was kinda dreading since we would have to compose something like art.  With quaking hands and a stressed out brain, i started on my project.  I had a metal frame from a mirror i purchased in Haiti a few years ago and thought it might do for a frame - it worked out well and now everytime i look at it, i'm reminded of Haiti!  Plus it's metal, so it'll rust and look kinda cool in a year or two... must be a Mussche, fond of rusty metal.  When composing my picture, i found i had to really stop myself from making it too literal - i started off in gradeschool with a tree and the sun... but that morphed into other things thankfully.. i was a little worried it would be too typical.  I am pleased with the way it turned out and it was so fun to work at the table with Laura and Lois, feeling rather creative (and empowered - Lois found the staple gun was a real favorite!!).

After raiding Mom and Dad's garden for plants, we were set to create!

Where should this go??

Cara and Anna kept themselves busy catching worms and bugs and mooching food off my dad...

The "children" weren't neglected at all...

My finished "piece de resistance", i was quite pleased with how it turned out!

Sadly, we didn't get a shot of all of us together with our easels, but Laura and I were pretty happy to be done... and done we were, we were all so tired that evening, it was kinda pathetic - mentally and physically wiped out - all that sawing and thinking and fresh air and sun... but a good tired to be sure!

3:35 pm

Alrighty then, it's 3:35 pm and it's time for a quick little update on things going on around the Meadows in the last few days (alright weeks).  I was reminded ever so gently the other day that it had been some time since i last updated, and rightly so.  I guess it's been hard to sit down and write about things when there's been so much going on in the outside world that has kept me out of doors and away from the keyboard and writing.  I think i might have a bit of blogger's block, but we'll see what might trickle out of my fingers in the next 15 minutes... i have to go to bed shortly so this will be short and sweet, but hopefully informative.  Boy, i don't even remember what my last post was about...let me go check....
Okay, back again... i think i was melting on my back porch.  Sadly, not one soul came to see if i ever totally melted away and seeped through the cracks of my deck.  Crazy!  My dear blogging public might never have heard another word from me and yet they left me to fend for myself.  Fortunately, i moved myself inside and managed to chill out enough to survive the day.  Of course,I set up my camp bed in the basement and made myself a little cozy plekkie down there to hunker down and avoid the humidity and then the weather decided to cool right off so it was redundant - i'm sure it will be used at some point but not now.  For now, the evenings are cool with nice breezes to provide ideal sleeping conditions, though at times interrupted with strange and wacky dreams.  I can't seem to remember any of them lately but judging by the state of my bed linens in the mornings, it must have been interesting.  Speaking of which, they are happily flapping in the breeze after taking a wash.  I love laundry on the line (might have said that once or twice before, but i'm getting old so forgive me).  The temperature has been so lovely the last week or so, not too hot, not too cool, cool, cool at night and in the morning...IDEAL in my books.  I'm starting to take on the brown hue of summer which is nice too... a little at a time.  Gotta be careful in the sun eh?
So what have i been up to?  Nothing too major, i suppose.  Life...visiting, card-writing (a bit curtailed due to Canada Post's lack of cooperation), laundry, walks with Timothy, crafting, gardening, gardening and more gardening (i think it's finally done now, but there's always room for one more), reading and oh yeah, working once in a while too (gotta do that to pay off bills, sad eh?)  I am very thankful that my job is flexible - i am able to participate in many things because of it, conversely i do miss things also because of it, but there's a reasonably good rate of trade-off that i can totally accept. 
Well, the minutes have ticked away and i must go and rest my weary little head (i'm trying to convince myself i'm weary, i'm not really but i should for the benefit of my patients and co-workers, attempt to sleep for a little while to ensure that i'm not a huge grump all night).  Pictures will hopefully come, maybe tomorrow, but maybe Wednesday...

Strength is sapped...

Today, i'm being a sap.
I've done the sum total of emptying out my flower vases, eating fifteen freezies, helped my neighbour rehang her curtains, watered my plants, got dressed (yes, that gets to be on the list since i'm being pathetic today) and pulled about 10 weeds out of my garden as i went out there to observe if there was any damage from the latest severe thunderstorm.  Thankfully things seemed to be in place,other than one rather weak-minded plant, and i was even impressed to see plants that i put in a few days ago strengthening up and looking more alive than dead.  From where i sit on the back porch trying to catch a little breeze on this sweltering day, i can see the gerberas that i bought poking their bright pink, yellow and orange heads up and greeting the sun with all their cheery faces.  I love colour.  I think maybe that's all i want, colourful plants to brighten up my day (and others as well!)  I think weather like today's is turning out to be is perfect growing weather and you can almost hear the plants growing (and the weeds for that matter!)
But i think today is destined (i know, i know) to be a lazy hazy day - i get to have a nap this afternoon before nights - i'm even thinking of blowing up my guest bed (not destructively, but with an air pump) and putting it downstairs so that i can sleep in the coolness of the basement, though at this point i'm not entirely convinced the monster centipedes down there wouldn't attack me with all their hairy-legged vengeance.  We'll see... i really, really should do a few things around the house - iron my uniforms since i was too lazy to fold them when they were dry and now they are all wrinkled, empty the green bin, clean out the fridge, close the curtains to keep the sun out, tidy up and vacuum...it remains to be seen whether those things get accomplished or i simply melt into a messy puddle of Danielleness on the back porch - if there are no posts in the next few weeks, you'll know where i am and you can come over with a spatula to get me going again...

Another beautiful day

I know, behind again, my lot in life... but hey, the good news is that the weather's been so nice that i've been outside and that's why no posting... so there's a good side to each thing.  You might have no idea what's going on in my life but i'm still here and breathing.  Hmmm...what have i been up to the last few days?  Monday - hmmm... yep, hmmm...check the calendar... i think I finally had Prunelope into the doctor's for a checkup and thankfully she passed with flying colours, cause i wasn't looking forward to big repair bills, but it would have been my own fault since i kept putting off getting her in there...always one excuse or another.  Finally,  Monday dawned and i was there bright and early.  That job done, i came home and did some cleanup from the weekend since it was a bit disastrous in the house and i worked in the garden for a few hours until it got too hot out there.  Then it was off to bed to sleep before a night shift.  I really don't mind night shifts, despite what people say about sleeping and your routine being all off - i don't really have a routine in my life, sadly and so having a messed up sleep schedule is nothing new.  I will confess (as i did to someone recently) that sometimes i even forget to brush my teeth!!!  Shock Horror!  I've gone out and realized that i totally forgot that essential part of grooming.  Don't worry, that doesn't happen often but every once in a while, i find myself driving and i'm too far from home to turn around and remedy that situation.
Tuesday... well, that was a bit of a disjointed day - i had prebooked a checkup of my airconditioner, a timely thing since i believe Tuesday's high was somewhere in the high 30s with 40s humidity...when i called to see if rescheduling was an option, the lady told me that they were booking into July... so i thought i'd better just suck it up and take the appointment.  He was due to come "between 1230 and 1630" as per usual with appointments like this...so i wasn't sure just how much sleep i was actually going to be able to steal before he arrived.. thankfully, he showed up right at 12:30 and was done in a short while as well - the good news is that the air conditioner works!  The bad news is that a) it costs money to run it  and b) there's a part that's starting to wear out but i think i'm going to avoid changing that as long as possible - i know, i know, preventative maintenance and the like...but i didn't have the mental capacity to think in such a hot and foggy state of mind.  Shortly after he left, i dived back into bed but sadly was awakened every hour or so by my bladder who had no intentions of letting his poor master sleep well.  Needless to say, it was a tiring night at work - i think i fell asleep at work about 4 times...each time for just a few minutes but i'd be doing something and the next minute i was gone... silly... how fast that can happen!  But that evening, i was starting to get inklings that i might not be feeling all that great - my chest was tight and i was coughing a bit and just feeling kinda blah...As i headed to bed after a nice little bike ride home, i was hoping against hope that i would be cured by a sleep.
Wednesday afternoon i got a wake up call from dear Helen who was wondering where her promised chauffeur was... chauffeur was still laying in bed all curled up and then bolted out of bed to perform morning ablutions at an accelerated rate in order to get to her passenger on time.  I nearly, oh so nearly, got a speeding ticket on the way there... the cop stepped out on the road in front of myself and my fellow driver, both of us travelling at speeds a little too quick on city streets...he got taken and i was left...boy was i thankful and boy did i slow down!  It wouldn't do to get my first speeding ticket in such a manner.  "But officer, my friend is waiting for me and if i don't hurry, she'll miss her flight and her friend's wedding and there will be great sadness in the land"... nope,  don't think it will wash!  The drive there went tickety-boo... the drive home took a lot more concentration as it was stop and go - never fun to drive in and i saw a couple of accidents on the way.  Thankfully CBC radio (my favorite) had some interesting music and talk shows on that kept me amused and focused.  Then it was dinner with my friend at a little Mexican place - we could even sit outside and take advantage of the lovely, lovely weather!  It felt almost european to do that - sit on a terrassje (?sp) and enjoy our food in  the great outdoors (avoiding the puffs of smoke from our nearest neighbours - grr).  Wednesday evening was the first game of the Stanley Cup finals and though i will confess to not being a hockey fan for most of the year (i don't mind it, i just don't have a favorite team but i will watch the occasional game if i'm visiting someone who has t.v.), i'll admit to being caught up in play-off fever and since it's kinda U.S. vs Canada rivalry (i know Vancouver has the least amount of Canadians on the team but it's the name that counts and where they play!!), it's fun to get aboard and enjoy that tussle!  So we enjoyed the hockey game - two girls that we are.  Stood up for the national anthem, hand on heart, cheered at all the near chances, groaned at all the penalties that were handed out and generally enjoyed ourselves.  Unbeknownst to me, Deb fell asleep during the last few minutes of the game and was rudely awoken by my shout of disbelief and joy as Vancouver managed to slip the puck into the net with 26 seconds to go!  Incredible!  Poor girl didn't know what hit her i think!  Game One to the Canucks!
And yesterday... how do i describe yesterday... I felt pretty awful in the morning, coughing and snotty nose and super sore throat... i called in sick to work and that was a good call since by last night i was coughing up a lung again so i wouldn't have wanted to be anywhere near my patients.  They'd be asking me if i needed meds, not the other way around.  I thought i had left this being sick business back in April but apparently, it was time again.  But enough bout that sad state... on to better and bigger things... oh, yeah, the whole reason i was going to make this post... to share some nice news... you know, back seven or eight weeks ago, i was fretting about an exam that i had to write... and then it was written and we had to wait... well, the results are in and survey says...
I passed!!!!!!  
Nice eh??  It was kinda scary to see the envelope in the mail poking out over my bills but even scarier to open it... but when the small piece of paper explaining how to "renew" fell out first, i was a little heartened since why would they put that in there if i failed!  So now, you can officially say you know a person who passed the Oncology Nursing Exam... sadly, it doesn't come with extra pay or bonuses or anything... but i certainly learned a lot and can say that it was a valuable experience (looking retrospectively at it).  
Anyways, i'm outside on my front porch in the sunshine, thinking maybe fresh air will clear out my stagnant lungs...but my computer battery is dead...so i must retreat inside...  Have a lovely day and stay away from me!