Nuts

Several trips to Beaudry Provincial Park lately have yielded numerous photos for me. Some of these I've posted to my Flickr page. Here's one that I saved for this post.

Just an acorn maturing on a bur oak. It's often the little simple things that catch my eye when I wander the trails with my camera.

Fantasies

I got to thinking about fantasies today for some reason (?).  I wasn't thinking about fantasy novels. I gave up on them when they became just a never-ending series of books. I hate it when you get to the end of a fantasy novel only to discover it's "to be continued".

I wasn't thinking about sexual fantasies either (although that might make an interesting post). I was simply thinking about the "what if's" in life.

What if I had become a skilled carpenter? Or a wood carver? Or a chef? Or an English teacher? Or an automotive mechanic? Or a historian?

What if I had born a different colour? What if I lived in New Zealand? What if I could eat anything that I wanted to and never gain weight?

What if I was filthy rich? What if I won a huge lottery? What vehicle would I buy if I could buy make/model that I wanted?

What would my dream house be like? How many rooms would it have? Could I have a special room for each of my hobbies? Could I hire someone to keep it spotless?

What if I loved to travel? Where would I go first? Would I take a lavish round-the-world cruise? Or fly to a country and stay there until I thought it was time to move on to another exotic location?

I guess this probably sounds more like a wish list than a bunch of fantasies. I'm fortunate that, over my the course of my life, I've seen many of my wishes come true. Not all by any means, of course. But, a lot of them.

I think I'll go to the store now and buy that lottery ticket.

Final Farewell

Yesterday, we said our fond farewells to a wonderful woman, mother, grandmother  great grandmother, and great great grandmother. Although a deeply religious person, she never tried to convert you to her way of thinking. Rather, Anne Zacharias lived her 96 years through example.

Friends and family, right down to those great great grandchildren, gathered at Winkler EMM Church, to say their final goodbyes. Some of her children gave eulogies and some grandchildren were pall bearers. We all, in our own way, paid our last respects to her.

A delightful end, at the cemetery, was the handing out of helium-filled balloons to the grandchildren as the casket was lowered. The balloons were released on cue, as we looked heavenward, feeling the symbolism of the act.

A reading by David Harkins, "She is Gone", seems appropriate.

"You can shed tears that she is gone
or you can smile because she has lived.

You can close your eyes and pray that she will come back
or you can open your eyes and see all she has left.

Your heart can be empty because you can't see her
or you can be full of the love you shared.

You can turn your back on tomorrow and live yesterday
or you can be happy for tomorrow because of yesterday.

You can remember her and only that she's gone
or you can cherish her memory and let it live on.

You can cry and close your mind,
be empty and turn your back

or you can do what she would want:
smile, open your eyes, love and go on".

Another Good Weekend

We've had wonderful weather this weekend. Sunny, light breezes, and 'normal'  temperatures. Yesterday, we went back to the local farmer's market and loaded up on fresh vegetables. Maybe enough for the coming week. We'll soon miss these visits for farm-fresh produce.

Later in the day, we headed out to Beaudry Provincial Park with the mutts. While Marg tired them out on a long walk, I took some photos of ripening hawthorn berries, something I've wanted to capture for several years now.

Today, I had more opportunities for photography there, making images of various weeds and wildflowers and other subjects near the bank of the Assiniboine River that flows through the park.

One of the flowers that I photographed today was a roadside aster. They are called smooth asters and they are quite pretty.

Next time I go there, I'd like to get some close-ups of these flowers. I think they'd look great in my perennial flower beds.

The Latest Show

We attended the opening of the latest Celebrations show on Friday night.

Judging by its opening night, this show really seems to have the right combination of professional actors, great singing and dancing, well made costumes, cool sets, and fantastic light and sound.

So many of the songs that were sung were familiar to me. One of the best was done by Ian Kehler. He sung "Hey, Jude" so well that I think that Lennon and McCartney would have been proud of his performance. Certainly, his mother, Elaine, who was sitting with us, was proud.

Even the four-course dinner was above average. The lemon meringue pie was a great ending to the dinner. Now, if only the coffee had been better, it would have been perfect.

Rules for Writers

George Orwell wrote in 1946 about the importance of precise and clear language in his famous essay, "Politics and the English Language".  He argued that vague writing can be used as a powerful tool of political manipulation because it shapes the way people think.

Orwell gave us six rules for writers:

1. Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
2. Never use a long word where a short one will do.
3. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
4. Never use the passive where you can use the active.
5. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
6. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.

During my 14 years as City Entomologist for Winnipeg, I wrote countless letters, memos, and reports. I followed rules 2-5 above almost religiously.  But, I believed that the most important rule for me (then and now) was rule 2.  I sometimes joked that I'd rather use a 1-cent word rather than a 50-cent word any day.

This rule also helped me when I was trying to explain a technical subject to senior administrators, politicians and reporters.  When speaking to these people you really had to follow the KISS principle (keep it simple stupid), long promoted by the military.

I'm writing about these rules right now because, over the past few days, I've been researching some technical subjects relating to photography on the Internet.  So many writers broke all of the rules of good writing.  Often, I had to read many different writings on the same topic to begin to understand how to do something.  I sometimes read 6 or 7 different articles before I came across one that clearly explained something in easy to understand words.

I hope I didn't break too many rules in this post.

Warm Days ... But Cool Nights

Our warm weather continues.  But, the evenings cool down quickly and we're able to open all of our windows for sleeping.  I'm convinced I sleep much better when the indoor air is cool and fresh. August is a great month for this kind of weather.

I'm taking advantage of the fine weather to photograph more flowers.  On the weekend, we went back to Beaudry Provincial Park again.  We'd been staying away from this park because of the extremely high tick populations we encountered there, back in early June.  While Marg took the mutts for an enjoyable walk in the grassy fields, I played around with my camera on a woodland trail.

This is a photo of yarrow, a plant many consider a weed but which I think is quite beautiful (I even have some of these in my perennial gardens at home).  I've also posted this image to my Flickr page.  It's actually 3 images, taken at different exposures, that have been combined into one image, using special software that I'm learning to use.

As summer slowly comes to a close, I'll be spending more and more time capturing flowers and insects with my camera.

And, yes, I'm happy to say that the ticks were gone from Beaudry on this visit.

One show closes ...

... another opens.  Last Saturday, we attended the close of Celebrations Dinner Theatre's show, "Ghost Busted".  I noted a big improvement in the cast's performance from its opening to this closing.  I really enjoyed the singing and dancing.

And, this Friday, we'll attend the opening of the next show, "NCIS: Canadian Affair".

Apparently, the set is currently being transformed from the haunted 100-year old hotel of Ghost Busted to a set for the Naval Criminial Investigation Service show.  I'm looking forward to more great singing in this show.