{Virtual Coffee}

Oh my goodness, it's Tuesday, time for coffee and considering the late hour I am making mine a decaf.

If we were meeting for coffee today/tonight you would be doing the two-cheeked kiss with me because yesterday was my birthday. I would tell you I got to have a good old fashioned lay-in yesterday morning to the ripe old hour of 8:30 a.m. and I would tell you it felt fantastic. As I made my way downstairs I was greeted with my first birthday wish on the stairs

If we were meeting for coffee I would tell you I had an unusual birthday and a really fine one. The weather was kind of crappy but after a whole summer of one hot, sunny day after another I really didn't feel as if I had missed anything. I would also tell you that the first part of our long weekend Riley and I spent at our cottage doing end of the summer things like taking a last kayak paddle on the lake, a last peddle in the peddle boat and our last few swims. We (finally) finished off our last jigsaw puzzle and this shot is for The Queen of Arts who did her fair share of the 101 alligators when she visited us. (There is Riley putting in the last piece.)

I would show you the pot of pansies that greeted us each time we arrived, the first real planting of annuals I have done in many years and I would tell you how much joy I got each time we walked down the driveway to see their happy faces

I would tell you that I couldn't leave last week's mushroom theme alone and will show you a few more specimens we uncovered like these first ones close to our house

they are all so huge, my toes almost got full refuge under these umbrellas. Then there were these spikey ones I didn't notice last week

and the one I wanted to time-lapse photograph, but had to settle for just two photos taken a day apart, Day 1:

Day 2:

These little puppies have incredible growth rates and it is as if you could almost sit and watch them grow.

I would tell you we had to say a few difficult good-byes to some of our favourite things and this little/big guy was so sad all he could do was wave two of his eight legs at us in the hope to antagonize us again next summer.

If we were meeting for coffee tonight I would be sporting the top I bought for myself for my birthday (with benefits to charity which makes it all the better) and which I would tell you arrived just today in the mail.

I adore it but fear for its wash ability as it was hand made in Nepal but the earthy scents of organic pigment are rich and I haven't wanted to take it off since I tore off the packaging.

And I would end by showing you a rock (hand painted by the Rock Fairy)

we left on a neighbour's garden monkey last week which is still there despite horrid weather and I am thinking they either haven't noticed it or keep propping it back up so that we and others can keep getting a thrill every time we pass by.

And then I would say that I am so utterly knackered that I don't think I can even call up the energy to stop by Amy's Lucky Number 13 to score one of her Hillbilly Lattes and will just call it a night and hope that next Tuesday I will be up bright and early with bells on to be a little more entertaining.