It Works!!!!

Alright and Ok already.....it is working....thank you Barb and Mike!

So I am going to continue to work with this..it is really much faster as everyone has told me...and I think you are all right it is simpler....once you get the hang of it.

My girls were here this weekend. We had another stormy weekend. Power went out again today but only for about 6 hrs. Douglas got out the generator again so we were able to make coffee and yes I was able to vaccum. I know, I know who really cares about vacuuming when the power is out. But well I guess I do. I have very bad allergies and need to dust and vaccum on a daily basis.

Anyhow, on Friday when the girls arrived, I told them I had purchased "Boggle" It is one of our favorite games. They wanted to get right at it....and well, Candice...the Birthday girl won every time...dang she is good.

Douglas figured it was a good photo op.....

Candice is the one with the toque, my brother, my youngest Roisin and my eldest Siobhan and then me. Still in my uniform after running the flu clinic that day.

On Saturday after taking it easy in the morning, the girls and I decided we wanted to go for a nice walk. I remembered my camera this time.

The eagles were out again, these are not the greatest shots but gives you an idea as to the abundance of eagles that are around here.

This eagle was in a tree just behind someone's house. Amazing birds aren't they?

Well I am back at the flu clinic again tomorrow. I haven't had any one break down into tears yet. As a matter of fact, a lot of them asked me when I was going to give them the shot...they didn't believe me when I told them they had already had it. That made me feel good.

Well that is about it. Hope you all had a fantastic weekend and I will chat at you tomorrow!!

Cheers!

Just a quickie

Hello my blog friends...just a quickie here....Douglas
my hubby from http://www.qualicumlife2.blogspot.com/ Has done a post of things that bring him pleasure. If you have a moment drop by and pay him a visit.

Still struggling with this transfer stuff to beta!!!

I just don't get it. It all looks the same to me. The dashboard looks a little different. And yes it was easy to incorporate "Adsense" to the blog. Go figure on that one eh! The terminology is killing me! Page elements maxwidgets, class, Id and so on and so on...I am overwhelmed to say the least. Maybe I need to sit back and read and reread the instructions over and over again!!! Urgh what have I gotten myself into. There has to be a simpler way.....Isn't there?

Just call me computer loser!!!!

Have a grand day all!

I've changed to Beta

Just a quickie here....I have changed to Beta....now I have to add my links. OMG.....I feel like I have just taken steps much bigger than baby steps. But here goes nothing. Nothing ventured nothing gained...Right?.

It's Friday!!!

It's finally here. Friday, and it couldn't come soon enough. I have had a tough week. I caught this head cold. I think I am on the mend. Actually, I am sure I am on the mend. Not sneezing as much, the nose stopped running like a faucet my husband forgot to fix, and the eyes aren't watering as much as Niagara Falls.

Today, I am running the "Flu clinic" at my doctor's office. I have been given the heads up that there will be little one's at this clinic today. Ouch! I have no problem giving needles to grown ups, but there is something about putting that big needle in such a small little person. I would never have made it as a pediactric nurse. I cringe when a little one gets a needle. You know when the nurse tells you to count to three? Well I think I do that for myself in order to psych myself up for poking the little tyke.

Now don't get me wrong, I don't get pleasure out of giving the needle to adults either, but for some reason I have convinced myself that as adults we can handle it better. Mind you, I did have to give the "teddy bear" to a couple of grown ups last week!


This evening my girls arrive. It is my middle daughter's Birthday on the 25th of this month, but she will be working so we decided this weekend would be it. My brother who is a fabulous cook has volunteered to bake the cake.

Yeah hooray!!! So early happy birthday to my girl!!!!!

The weatherman is saying we are in for some more bad weather! Ouch. The next 5 days are forecasted for rain, rain and more rain.

So if you have your umbrella or are a duck, you'll do just fine.

Well I hope you all have a fabulous weekend.

OBTW, I went to a little camera course the other day and learnt some nifty things I can do with my camera. I hope I will be able to get out and practice what I have learnt, so I can share with you all!!

Cheers!!!

What a storm!!!

I can't believe it the weatherman was right! Oh boy was he right. They were predicting all day yesterday that there would be this big storm coming in late in the evening. Winds 60 - 100 km/hr. and the rain fall was predicted to be 100 - 130 mm. That's a lot of wind and a ton of rain. Now I am not complaining about the rain we need it. But oh my gosh.

At 0600 this morning I was awoken by the loudest thunder I have ever heard in my entire life. I swore the roof was caving in. Then came the lightening. It was crazy. Douglas got up early as he wanted to batten down the hatches. He was outside in the torrential down pour, getting out the generator, the lanterns, getting wood for the the fire. He was preparing. He wanted to get extra gas and propane as well so we knew a trip to the gas station would be in order. Well we ran out of time. The winds took out the power. This meant there would be no power at our local gas station.

I am still sick with my head cold and really didn't want to venture out, but I knew I should help however I could. So we loaded up the trunk with the tanks and off we went looking for an open gas station. We had to go all the ways into the other side of Parksville which is about 20 km away. Oh I can't believe I didn't have my camera with me. The ocean was angry. The waves were crazy. The bald eagles were loving it. We had to drive past a bird esturary and what should we see but no less than 30 bald eagles flying around and nesting. One tree we looked at had 10 count'em "10" bald eagles in it. It was amazing!!!
Our drive took us to the waterfront. The waves were crashing in. Big rollers. At one point I just pulled my car over just to watch the power of nature. There is something so exhilarating about watching the power of the waves. I love them!

Then came the flooding. Lots of the roads were getting washed out from the creeks overflowing and the ditches being plugged from leaves. Nature.

Well we made it back home and I looked up on the porch and asked my hubby where the Bar-b-que was. No idea he says. I look a little forward and you know that wind was so strong it had blown our bar-b-que off of our deck and down into this area that leads to our crawl space. Well if that wasn't it enough. The bar-b-que landed on the septic pipes and broke and disconnected the septic system. OMG!!! So there was poor hubby out in the pouring rain trying to repair the septic. He did bless his heart. He and my brother hauled the bar-b-que out of the pit, with a full propane tank and all. Got the bar-b-que going...got the generator going, which gave us enough power so I could use the microwave and light lamp.
We had a lovely dinner of bar-b-que roast pork, garlic and onion roasted potatoes, corn and carrots with red peppers and onions. Yummy!! all done by generator power. The power finally came on just after 9pm. But we are still leary as to whether it will stay on. Seems like there is another front coming in.

You be the judge

The other day I was running on this trail that I love. It is very wooded and there are some old growth trees in there. Anyhow, I am running along with Bert my loyal companion when this bird swooped down in front of me.

This is a Barred owl.

Looks fairly similar to this owl which is also common to this area.

This is a Spotted owl.

Being the amateur birder that I am, I wanted to be able to distinguish between the two. When running it is difficult to get a really good look at what just swooped in front of you. I am leaning towards it being the Barred owl. Their behaviour and I am not lying here, is for them to swoop down on joggers primarily female joggers with ponytails. This sounds funny I know but it's true. They think the ponytail looks similar to a squirrel. Thank god I don't have a ponytail. But really for a bird who is suppose to be so wise, do I really look like a squirrel whilst I am running? I don't think so!!! As for the Spotted Owl, I think the bird actually looked more like the Spotted owl than the Barred, but as I said the antics of the bird were very similar to the Barred. So I am not sure what I should put in my bird book....maybe I will just reference both, and when I go for a run again, I might have the fortune or misfortune of this bird swooping down on me again!!

Anyhow, it made for a very interesting run. Bert my fearless dog didn't seem to be bother by the owl at all.

Come on a drive with me and let's see what we can see!

A little tour of my surroundings. I decided today I was just going to take a little drive up to Fanny Bay. That is just about a 20min. drive from me. From my home to Fanny Bay and back this is what I saw.

A golden eagle. I saw this majestic bird at a place called Nile creek. There are both golden and bald eagles seen here frequently as they feed on the salmon going up stream to spawn.
This is the road leading into Rosewall Creek Provincial Park. This is a favorite swimming hole of my boys, and Douglas and I.
The picnic area in this Park is dedicated to Lieutenant Ian Philip McDonald. It seemed appropriate to photograph and post this today.
This is the log we cross to get to the little beach and picnic area on the other side. We also tend to jump off this log during the summer. I know it doesn't look deep but in the summer it is about 12 feet and in the winter is is about 20 ft. deep and cold. Mountain fed. Douglas and I have been known to go skinny dipping off of that log in April. Brrrrrrr.


There are trails that follow along this creek and it goes for many kilometers. It makes for a good afternoon walk. I took a lot of pictures of Rosewall as I just find it so peaceful and beautiful, as I said it is my favorite swimming hole. Just down the road from Rosewall you come to open water, and here is a glimpse of what I saw.


The mountains in the distance are the Island inland mountain range. We have just had our first snowfall on the mountains this past week.


This is Chrome Island Lighthouse. The last lighthouse where the lighthouse keeper still lives.


This is just a shot to show you how far away I was from Chrome Island...that's it in the middle of the picture. That tiny little island.


This bald eagle was soaring overhead preparing to dive into the water to get dinner.
Just another angle from where I was standing as all this was going on around me. Still lots more shots but maybe I will save those for another day. My next destination was a place called Fanny Bay. This time of year the sea lions arrive and make their home on the log booms.It's a great tourist attraction but for the locals these sealions can get very loud, especially at 1:00 in the morning. Some of these sea lions get to be over 2000lbs.
I just liked the seagull in this picture with the sealions. Fanny Bay and surrounding community are well known for their seafood and one of them being oysters. There are many oyster farms.


The white you see on the ground is not snow. It is crushed oyster shells.


I turned around and started my drive home at this point. I pulled into the community of Fanny Bay and took these last shots.
Inland Island mountain range. On the other side of those mountains is the Pacific Ocean and the Pacific Rim National Park. I will save pictures of that for another day.

Oops this one is out of order. This is a shot at the oyster place in Fanny Bay. I am looking south towards my home.

I hope your enjoyed spending a little time with me and allowing me the opportunity to share some of the wonders of nature that I feel blessed to see every single day!!!

Hope you all are having a good weekend. I am off to work tomorrow so won't be posting for a couple of days.

Remembrance Day

November the 11th. Remembrance Day in Canada and for my friends to the south of me it is Veteran's Day.

In Canada we have a flower that marks this day and it is the poppy.

I remember as a child learning about the poem "In Flander's Field" it was written by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918) Canadian Army. He was a surgeon attached to the 1st Field Artillery Brigade. He was a new doctor and he wrote about his experience as a field surgeon.
In Flanders Field. I remember reciting this poem every Remembrance Day and as a class we would draw and colour pictures of poppies, and tape them to the class windows. We often would have a visit to the class by a Veteran, who would share stories of the war with us.
The poppy
Today thousands of veterans and families will gather to celebrate their loved ones lost in battle. We will dedicate a moment of silence in their remembrance. Our fellow country men and women who so bravely gave their lives so that we all my live in lands of peace and harmony.

I also think of our loved ones who are on current tour of duty and pray for their safe return home. I especially dedicate this blog today to my dear girlfriend Phoebe Carantes currenty stationed in Kandahar.

"Lest we never forget"

A day out with my bro

It was a busy day. My brother had to do things in town...like get a new Canadian citizen card. What a hassle. His last set was lost and to renew stuff is an absolute nightmare. My brother has been a Canadian citizen since 1953 ....he has a Social's Insurance number, a BC ID number ,a medical number but because it has all been lost he has to apply for Canadian citizenship....yet again....omg!!!! The beurarcy!!! Then again you have to pay for all of this, and the photos..and of course the photos have to be a certain size. It is incredibe what we have to go through....and yet ....for some reason....we still get the terrorist in our country....someone please tell me how does that happen?

After having dealt with all of that my bro and I decided we needed some R &R. So I took my bro to a little pub at a marina close to home. Here is what we saw.

So after
This is my bro...looking out at the marina....do you see the Heron on the right side of him? That is the Heron that I have the close up of in the picture above.
This is a shot of Qualicum just at mid afternoon. The Bro and I were going for a libation.

And goodness here I am just before we go in for our last taste of the day. But we have the treat of looking out to the water....my goodness I feel blessed.

Hope you all had a fabulous day....Cheers!!!!

My mother always told me...

I was driving home from work yesterday morning and there was this ad on the radio, which started with a joke from Homer Simpson. Marge was asking "What ever happened to please and thank you" Homer replied " They killed each other " At first I thought is was funny and such a coincidence to hear as a colleague and I had just been talking about a couple of the patients and wondered where their manners went.

I realize that if you are in the hospital you aren't at your best. If you were you wouldn't be there. Just because you aren't feeling doesn't give you the right to be constantly rude and to forget your manners. I ask you, is there any reason why a person can't say "may I please, or would you please" or something along those line. Rather than "get me this or that" or "why haven't you done...." or "Where have you been , I have been waiting..."

I don't know it just seem so strange. There are those patients who I am convince think I am their personal attendant and that I should be at their beckon call. I have never been rude to a patient who has spoken poorly to me, although I do confess I have been extremely tempted sometimes. I must admit that I have had to be firm with some of them on an occasion and to remind them that they are not my only patient.

My colleague is of the opinion that it was mostly elderly who behave in this way whilst in the hospital. Her rationale is that she believes the seniors feel it is there right to be "waited on" they've worked hard done their time....etc. I tend to disagree. I think bad manners has become universal, and I think it is any particular age group or culture. I just think they either were never taught about manners or they chose to be down right rude.

There was this one lady who was in the 4 bed room who insisted on being up at 0200 to wash up. My colleague went in to tell her what time it was and that it wasn't really time for that and that is was disturbing the other patients. Her response was, I don't care I do this at home. Well sorry lady you aren't at home you are in the hospital and sharing a room with others who are unwell. Out of consideration for all please just go back to bed and wait till morning when day staff would be more than happy to help you get set up for your wash. Then there was who I call Mr. Grumpy pants. He didn't give a hoot who was in the room he wanted this and he wanted that and he wanted his curtains open and on and on. He was so rude not only to us but inconsiderate of the other patients in the room.

My mother always told me:

You get more with honey than you do with water.
What goes around comes around.
Remember your manners.
Be mindful of your elders.
Speak kindly to one another, who knows that might be your future in law
Hold the door open for someone.
Offer to help carry a parcel when you see their arms are full.
Do what you can to help out.
Think of others before you think of yourself.

I guess those folks forgot to attend that class!

Hope you all have a grand day!!!!

Nice Wedding

Well I had the pleasure of attending my hubby's niece's wedding last evening. It made for a long day as I was up at 0500 worked an 8 hr shift and then tootled off for the festivities.

It's funny, you know how on the day of a wedding everyone hopes for nice weather. Well yesterday was so stormy, rain and high winds. Actually, hubby tells me the power went out for awhile. Anyhow, I started thinking. If you plan on getting married in November, you got to just expect for bad weather and if you get nice weather, what a bonus. Well as I said it poured. But just before the wedding the rain stopped the wind eased off and the sun actually came out. Amazing!

Weddings you always try to prepare and anticipate something going wrong. Right. There was many opportunities for things to go wrong. Especially seeing as the brides mom and dad were traveling from Colorado, making plans for the wedding from there etc. Well the brides mom told us that everything went extremely smooth. She was so pleased. But then something happened. You'll never guess. They had bought the brides dress in Vancouver cost them an exorbitent amount of money. They got it over the the Island and had it taken to the cleaners to have it steamed for the wedding. You getting an idea of what happened. The cleaners burnt a hole right in the front of the dress. It's like the melted a hole in the lace covering the gown. Can you OMG!!! The bride was surprisingly calm about it. I think I would have freaked! She just went with it. Used her bouquet to cover it during the ceremony and pictures. In actual fact, it wasn't noticeable from a distance. I was so proud of how she handled it.
The happy couple! My hubby was so sweet. He cried the whole way through the ceremony. His little niece married.
Mr and Mrs. O'Gorman
I think this is a great picture of my hubby(back row left) and his brothers and sister and mom and dad. The brother on the right is the father of the bride. He is in the military and currently stationed in Colorado. The family don't have a chance to get together very often so this was a very special moment.

Here is one of me and Douglas aka hubby. A good time was had by all. We opted not to make the long trek home and stayed at a lovely resort right on a golf course. It was a huge suite could have had a big party in the suite itself. But by the time my head hit the pillow it was 0230 in the morning and I had been up for almost 22 hrs. I am off to work tonight and gosh that is about the last thing I want to do!

Hope you all had a grand weekend!

It's raining

The weatherman was wrong. Surprise, Surprise. The rain has come a day early. Was suppose to go for a run with my girlfriend. Chickened out. Called her, told her it was an indoor exercise day. So onto the stepper I must go.

Still a bit sore from yesterday. I was busy taking down some Halloween decorations and well one thing led to another. I ended up giving my kitchen suite a polish. You know using the fine wool pads and then using the oil and polishing. That is a job. Well if that wasn't enough. I decided to get a head start on some of my pre-Christmas cleaning and I washed the walls in my main bathroom in anticipation of painting it before Christmas. I don't know why I do this to myself. I am just looking at my work schedule for November and it is full. Not only I am working full time but I have taken on a temporary assignment to run the "Flu clinic" for my doctor's office. Silly girl!

I hope today finds you all well. And don't let the weather keep you from doing what you want to....ok!

The seasons change

Halloween is just over and it is as though father winter knew this as well. Woke up this morning with a very heavy frost on the ground. I was reading a blog today and she was saying how she experienced her first snowfall just recently. The area in which she mentions is notorious for extreme weather conditions and sudden weather changes. It is a well travelled route for people travelling from the interior of the BC to the mainland and a major trucking route. It is very beautiful, I have gone through that route and the snow piles from the ploughs has been over 20 feet high, it's like going through a tunnel.

I was listening to the weather man this evening and he was saying we are in for some wet weather. Which is the norm for us this time of year. However, he went on to say how our rainfall was far below average all over the island for Ocotober. Tofino, which is surrounded by a rainforest was under it's average rainfall by almost 200cm(1 cm= 2.54 inches) so that is a lot of rain. Where I live our rainfall was down by about 75 cms. It has been really dry, and sunny. We have been spoilt, but we do need the rainfall.

That gets me thinking...is this part of the global warming they are talking about. All this climate change? I have noticed the changes in our weather ever since I was little. I remember school being cancelled because of the snow or the flooding from all the rain. We don't seem to get much of that anymore. We still experience all the seasons, but summers seemed to be hotter, fall is warmer and lasting longer....and when winter comes it comes with vengence. Doug tells me that in 1996 they got 54 inches of snow in three days. Now that is a lot of snow!!! Have any of you notice this at all where you live? The climate change. What's going on in your backyard? Or should I say neck of the woods?

Halloween Package

My Halloween package arrived!!! I was going to give up on the postal service when lo and behold when I went to the mailbox yesterday it was there waiting for me.

I don't know who was more excited, my husband or me. We were already on our way out, but he really wanted to open the package, not having a pocket knife with us he used the very next best thing....you got it...a key.

He was like a kid in a candy store....he tore open that package faster than a puppy chewing on a new shoe. I had to pull over and examine the contents. Here are pictures of what was inside:
To the left of the picture is a kitchen witch...for those of you who don't know about the powers of the kitchen witch, let me tell you. She's the witch in the kitchen who keeps away the bad karma when you are baking...wish I had her when I was baking the other day!! Then on both sides are spider candles holders with candles...aren't they neat. What about the cute little ghost and kitty hanging decoration. Then there were a package of orange tea lights those great cookie cutters, one was a cat, a witch and a ghost and they are all sitting on a lovely autumn placement.

This wonderful package was compliments from my blogger friend Martie at "grandmamocha" site. Thank you so very much. I am sorry the postal service took so long to deliver this wonderful parcel. Bee from Muffin53 can tell you stories about the postal service...can't you Bee!

I must apologize for the delay in posting this today. I have been trying since this morning to post pictures with blog but it just wouldn't happen. I have a couple more I want to share but I fear it will take forever to have blog post more pics. So I leave it at this and again thank you so very much Martie everything is just wonderful!!!!!