Happy Halloween

Tonight is the night
When dead leaves fly
Like witches on switches
Across the sky,
When elf and sprite
Flit through the night
On a moony sheen.

Tonight is the night
When leaves make a sound
Like a gnome in his home
Under the ground,
When spooks and trolls
Creep out of holes
Mossy and green.

Tonight is the night
When pumpkins stare
Through sheaves and leaves
Everywhere,
When ghouls and ghost
And goblin host
Dance round their queen.
It's Halloween.

~ HALLOWEEN ~
By Harry Behn

Saturday Photo Hunt

This week's theme is "Dark"

A couple of years ago there was a large fire on the property just up the road from us. It started in the late afternoon and went into the "Dark" of the night. I was so impressed with the forestry fire fighters, they did an amazing job and were so calm!

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What kind of consumer are you?

The other day I was shopping with my eldest daughter in order that she could buy her sister a present. One of the items on youngest daughter's list was clothing from a store called lululemon athletica. It's a store that sells yoga clothing and active wear. This company is a huge success story, in that it started out in Vancouver in 1998 and now has over 100 stores in Canada, USA, Australia and Hong Kong. You can click on the link if you would like to know more.

This, however isn't the purpose of my post. My purpose is to you as a consumer what kind of consumer are you? Are you the type that shops all around looking for the best price, do you only buy name brands or will a knock off do?

When do we as consumers say enough is enough. Case in point, when we were in the store my daughter purchased a "wee" and I mean "wee" little yoga top and headband for her sister. The yoga top on sale was $44 regularly $68 and the headband was $12 add our 12% sales tax and these two pieces cost $63.84! Is your chin dropping? If it isn't it should be. If you can get out of that store for under a $100 you have done well. I think it's criminal, and as consumers we should just keep our wallets shut, but we don't. Why, because this store is "Trendy". This company espouses to promote community awareness and healthy life style. Well that is all well and good, but should I be paying for their advertising and community programs? If they truly wanted to do something for the community why don't they make their products more affordable. It's a darn piece of stretchy material for goodness sakes! A headband for $12! Give me a break, silly of my daughter for paying that price, I told the clerk in the store that their products are way over priced and that I thought my daughter irresponsible for purchasing it....but she wanted it for her sister, so what to do.

Well what I have chosen to do is write this post as my public notice and I won't shop at their store and I have written to the store itself to voice my concerns regarding their prices, whether it does any good I don't know.

So I ask you, what kind of consumer are you?

Let's talk about this....

I watched a movie the other night staring Al Pacino called "You Don't know Jack" In this HBO movie Pacino plays Dr. Kervorkian.

Dr. Kervorkian also known as "Dr. Death" was tried and convicted and sentenced to 10 -25 years in prison. He was released in June 2007 after serving 8 years in prison for his role in patient assisted-suicide. What an interesting man. A man of conviction and willing to put everything on the line to change what he considers an unjust law. He's the kind of man you either admire for his convictions or hate him for his beliefs.

In the state of Michigan where Dr. Kervorkian was practising they didn't have laws which would allow him to participate in patient assisted-suicide. He challenged the law on many occasions. In 1998 he was accused and then convicted — of murder after injecting lethal drugs into Thomas Youk, 52, an Oakland County man suffering from Lou Gehrig’s disease.

Dr. Kervorkian now 81 years old still believes that people have a right to choose when they want to die. He is a advocate for terminally ill patients right to die via physician assisted-suicide.

I listened intently to the movie and then did my own research on Dr. Kervorkian and physician assisted-suicide. I personally don't like the term assisted suicide, to me it immediately implies criminal activity. I don't believe it is and here's why.

Let me play devils advocate for a moment. We already have in place "Advanced Directives" and "No Code" orders. Some of you may argue that Advanced Directives and No Code does not mean that the doctor's assist you in your dying process. Well let's look at that. A No Code order means that if you heart stops or you stop breathing the doctor or health care practitioner is not going to stop that process and they will allow you to die. So how is that any different than saying ok..... you have a terminal illness the medical field has done all it can for you the outcome will ultimately be death....you may die today, tomorrow, next week, next year who knows...but you will die from your disease.

Let's imagine your disease is Lou Gehrig(ALS) or MS or even something like advanced emphysema where you struggle for every breath you take, how long would you fight this battle?

Prior to any of the 130 assisted-suicide Dr. Kervorkian participated in he interviewed the patient and the family to assess their mental well being, he wanted to make sure they understood what it was they were asking him to participate in. He video taped his interviews. From what I could tell all of these people had done everything the medical field had asked them to do and they were just biding their time on this planet before nature took their last breath. These individuals felt that their quality of life was gone.

Now the anti Dr. Kervorkian activists felt he was playing god and feared that by legalizing physician assisted-suicide you were opening the door to the possibility of doing away with people prematurely.

On a personal note I can remember when my mom was caring for her dying husband at home and I asked her about his pain, or what he wanted with regards to death. He had extremely advanced cancer had undergone chemo, radiation, surgeries you name it. He had led a full life and he knew his time was coming. The doctor overseeing his care had written him a prescription for a liquid morphine. My mom told me she asked the doctor how much she should give him, the doctor's response to my mom was pour him a tumbler full leave it at his bedside he will take what he wants...and so that is what she did. He drifted off to sleep, only to wake briefly the morning of their anniversary to say his good-byes and he was gone. So you tell me....did the doctor assist with his dying process?

This is definite food for thought....what do you think?

Saturday Photo Hunt

This week's theme is "Miniature"
This was a hard one. The first thing that came to mind was miniature figurines. Well I don't have any of those nor do I have photos, then I started thinking about something the same that is big and small, but again I didn't have anything. Then it dawned on me. When my sister got married as part of the table favours at her wedding we put miniature champagne bubble bottles.

If you would like to join in on the fun please check out tnchick for all of the instructions. Happy Hunting!

SkyWatch Friday

I took these photos on Thanksgiving morning as I was getting ready for work......

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Words......

They say a picture speaks a thousand words. Well you didn't know my mother.

When I was growing up my mother had what I would have considered an extensive vocabulary. At times I swore she was making words up. I loved listening to her stories and how she spoke, I could always imagine the places she spoke about and the adventures. There were certain words that my mum(that's how she spelt mum)used frequently, and to this day I use many of these same words, even though I may get a quizzical look from the recipient.

What sparked this flashback of memories you might ask. Well I'll tell you. Are you familiar with Reader's Digest? If so you will know they have a section in there called "Word Power". It tests your vocabulary IQ or Word Power. I love that section. You go through the words pick your answer and see how many you got right and then you are rated fair, good or excellent. Some months I am just so pathetic, I haven't a clue as to what most of the words mean. Each month they present the words based on a theme. The July issue was "Manly Man" celebrating all things manly. In another edition they did it on newspaper names and their meanings. This month's theme "Words of Yesteryear". Of course my curiosity was piqued so I quickly looked down the list and out bounced words I haven't heard of in a while nor had I used since my girls were little.

Here are a couple of the words.....Ragamuffin(I love that word and how my mum made it sound), Lollygag(again another of my favourites it use to remind me of Lollies{lollipops}) of course that isn't what it meant. Or what about Rapscallion.....awe yes that was one of my mums all time favourites. It's funny you know even as a little child I knew what those words meant only because of the tone and the situation in which the words were used. I still use those words to this day, however, as I said I do get the odd look as if I made it up.

If you want to know the answers to those words check out Reader's Digest September 2010 edition.

A Thanksgiving Poem

TWAS THE NIGHT OF THANKSGIVING,

BUT I JUST COULDN'T SLEEP.

I TRIED COUNTING BACKWARDS,

I TRIED COUNTING SHEEP.
THE LEFTOVERS BECKONED -

THE DARK MEAT AND WHITE,

BUT I FOUGHT THE TEMPTATION

WITH ALL OF MY MIGHT.

TOSSING AND TURNING WITH ANTICIPATION,

THE THOUGHT OF A SNACK BECAME INFATUATION.

SO, I RACED TO THE KITCHEN, FLUNG OPEN THE DOOR,

AND GAZED AT THE FRIDGE, FULL OF GOODIES GALORE.

GOBBLED UP TURKEY AND BUTTERED POTATOES,

PICKLES AND CARROTS, BEANS AND TOMATOES.
I FELT MYSELF SWELLING SO PLUMP AND SO ROUND,

'TIL ALL OF A SUDDEN, I ROSE OFF THE GROUND.

I CRASHED THROUGH THE CEILING, FLOATING INTO THE SKY,

WITH A MOUTHFUL OF PUDDING AND A HANDFUL OF PIE.

BUT, I MANAGED TO YELL AS I SOARED PAST THE TREES....

HAPPY EATING TO ALL - PASS THE CRANBERRIES, PLEASE.


MAY YOUR STUFFING BE TASTY,

MAY YOUR TURKEY BE PLUMP.

MAY YOUR POTATOES 'N GRAVY HAVE NARY A LUMP.

MAY YOUR YAMS BE DELICIOUS.

MAY YOUR PIES TAKE THE PRIZE,

MAY YOUR THANKSGIVING DINNER STAY OFF OF YOUR THIGHS!!


HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL!

Nature at it's finest....

Oh I am long past due for making a post. Holy cow how time flies. Summer is over and we are well into fall.

This weekend Canadians will be celebrating Thanksgiving. As a child I knew we celebrated our thanksgiving earlier than our neighbours south of the border, but I never understood why. In simple terms, Canadian Thanksgiving is all about celebrating the harvest.
Being farther north we harvest our crops earlier and we give Thanks for their bounty.


I have always loved fall. I love the smells, the crisp leaves the beautiful colours it's so gorgeous that I am in awe of it's beauty and at times it takes my breath away and draws me to tears.

Last weekend my youngest daughter and I went on a lovely walk/hike to a place called Seal Bay. The trails as Seal Bay are on both sides of the road. If you

Melda's Marsh

go to the right you make a long steep trek down to the water...it's great going down but can be challenging coming up. If you go to the left you follow along a lovely trail which takes you to a marsh and you can observe so much of what nature and fall can bring to such wooded areas. My camera was misbehaving, and hence I didn't get as many photos as I would have liked. It would appear by the photos that I did take that I was in awe of the variety of mushrooms and how and where they grew. My daughter and I walked both sides ....the marsh and the water......

My peace plant in bloom.....

And with that I leave you.....Peace Out!!