Friday Haiku

The "lice" note came home.

Meaning someone in Riley's

class has lice. Oh Joy.

So, now I'm scratching

like a bear on a tree (sh*t)

and picking through scalps.

Wordless Wednesday

{Virtual Coffee}

Hello Tuesday, it's time for Virtual Coffee!

If we were meeting for coffee today I would ask how your Halloween planning is going. I nagged poor Riley so early on in the month that we are quite ahead of the game for his costume. A few small details to create/add and we're on.

If we were meeting for coffee today I would share with you one of my truths and that is it is much easier to get up regularly at 5:00 a.m. when it isn't so flippin' dark out. I've been struggling to not hit the snooze bar lately and when I succumb I'm often grumpier for that bit of extra sleep.

If we were meeting for coffee today I would tell you that crow followed me all the way home from school this morning.

And then I found this nifty stick that reminded me of a bird claw.

I might share with you some more orange colour that graced us this week. I'm still harvesting some tomatoes - unbelievable.

And I adore these orange lentils.

It looks like a control freak stacked these pumpkins

but it wasn't long after a few kids passed through that they looked like this.

Even though they had a pretty good guard over them.

I would also show the one heavenly blue that tried its best to make me smile

this was as far as it could get though and I must admit I admire its tenacity. And don't you just love the colour of the water after steaming artichokes?

If we were meeting for coffee today I would show you what an 8 year old will get up to when left unattended in a store with a large mirror.

And least week after we got stuck in this most frustrating traffic jam one exit from our house, I found this on my phone.

Which is a darned site better than the fact that I've had to move on to these

as my prune juice just wasn't making the grade. And you would know then we were coming to the end so I would say let's go over to Amy's Lucky Number 13 because she is going to show us how she makes those Cinnamon Hillbilly Lattes.

Friday Haiku

An example of

the bane of my existence,

or my nemesis.

{Virtual Coffee}

Hello there! If we were meeting for coffee today you would be laughing at me. My hormones have been wreaking havoc on my system and I've had to pull out the heavy artillery.

If we were meeting for coffee today I would say that today is almost all about colour. Like the first bag of clementines I bought and the collard greens I have been craving

and the chinese lanterns I picked out of the bin

and the spectacular leaves that jump out at me.

I love the words on the random pages of the dictionary I opened to like, "hobgoblin", "Cornishman" (in honour of Kate from The Catalan Way who wrote me a lovely email this week) or "purge" - like tiny moments of kismet.

I might show you a few neighbourhood sightings like the sock monkey

or some diehard flowers that are keeping my spirit alive during these darkening days

How about this newly decorated garage door? It's on the house down the street, you know - the one that looks like the Brady Bunch lives there.

I would tell you how the wind blew so hard on Sunday I had to laugh at the canopy from Eyesore Number 1 that got washed and hung on the line (I was half hoping it would blow off and defeat the purpose of constructing the base layer next year)

I might show you a few scary things in our front yard

but this is the scariest - how much damage one squirrel can do in a few hours.

We've decided to give this one over to him in the hopes he leaves our other pumpkins alone.

If we were meeting for coffee today I would confess that my first favourite place for hiding Christmas gifts is now full.

And in an act of utter selfishness I made myself an earring this weekend. Actually, I made myself the companion earring to the pair I started to make a few years ago.

It may have been as short as one year ago, but it's more likely it was two years and it's kind of hard to tell in the photo but those small silver beads from Bali have tarnished, but only on the one earring that has sat on my table for so long. I guess I could be accused of procrastination.

If we were meeting for coffee today I would want to thank everyone who supported my dirty kitchen floor last week by the confessions about their own kitchen floors. I realize now that I really could have let my own go for a few more weeks, maybe even months. And then I would confess something I did since we last saw each other. Last Friday Riley came home with his first grade 3 report card and, according to his teacher, he is failing reading. I can't believe it, Riley can't believe, nor can anyone else who knows him. For the last three years he has been at the top of his class in this subject and all of a sudden he is incapable of reading and understanding text? So I kind of fired off a few rather aggressive comments in response, also questioning why he performs so much differently at home than in the classroom. I could have understood if she said he was struggling with writing (which is abhorrent and we are working on neatness) or in math since he is having a hard time getting his head around logic problems but reading? I sense something else going on here that is uglier than ugly and which is something I won't talk about here.

If we were meeting for coffee today I would tell you we went shopping for winter boots and discovered that Riley's feet have grown two sizes since last winter. I know it's natural and normal, but it still kind of freaks me out.

And before I go I would show you these gorgeous swatches of material I picked up for some upcoming projects. I already know what I am going to do with the red piece

and the rainbow roll of batik was too delicious to leave behind.

I might just hang strips of it all around the house like prayer flags.

I am going to send you over to Amy's Lucky Number 13 and ask you to save me one of her hillbilly lattes while I and google "how do I make a ninja headdress" since seeing all this orange has got me in the spirit for making a halloween costume.

Friday Haiku

I have tomatoes

hot peppers and cilantro.

Hot salsa tonight!

Simplicity -vs- Abundance

Something struck me this past weekend, the weekend that represents the harvest, the abundance of produce and stating gratitude for all on our plates, and that is how I really march to my own drum. While the rest of the country was travelling to be with others, laying tables with a glut of food and drink, I spent the days alone with my boy up at our cottage, taking the bare minimum in what we would need in food and clothing. Less than one shopping bag for what we would consume and one change of clothing, thumbing my nose at the "what if"s of getting dirty or wet. Instead we feasted heavily on nature then came back to a simple dinner with friends, people who are becoming my village.

I saw this shot as the moon came up, realizing how filled I feel. Lately I have often felt filled with anger, irrational waves of venom and victimhood. Seeing my fear of losing control behind these episodes helps me to process the emotions. Pixie Campbell has been talking about Releasing Ceremonies and the value and richness of letting go.

I live in The House of Stuff, my son the most learned of Stuffologists. He hoards not just much loved toys but every stone, twig, leaf, bottle cap, jagged bit of metal that comes his way. As much as I try to cull and recycle and gift away both of our stuff, it must be coming in the door faster than I can get it out. The Art of my letting go is including letting go of the need to keep the house organized, tidy, free of dog hair, washing the kitchen floor (simply because I can't remember the last time I did), finding my focus for what I want and need to do with my time. After months of going inward, letting go of old rituals to go with the flow, I now need to do the opposite. Instead of hibernating in these darkening days I need to get myself out there. I need to unclaim this limbo. Right after I eat about a half a dozen of these:

{Virtual Coffee}

Another Tuesday, another sunny day. Oh my, but we have had this string of unseasonably warm and delightful days. So, if we were meeting for coffee today I would tell you that all kinds of wildlife came into our lives this past week. I would also have to mention that if you are squeamish about creepy crawlies or slithery slimers, you should read no further.

If we were meeting for coffee today I would tell you we had a four day weekend and I really needed that time "off". Off from early morning schedules, filled backpacks and homework done on time. Instead our week centered around bright splashes of colour and some unusual animal surprises. Our first surprise was a dragonfly in the house

We did our best to get him back outside but we feared we may have damaged him in the process, so delicate are his wings.

We also took a trip up north and were met again by these smiling faces

It was so warm we sat on our dock and if we were meeting for coffee today I would show you the view.

We felt surrounded by orange

in more ways than one, then because we were sitting on the dock, I would slip in this shot of one of the dock spiders with a ginormous egg sack under its body.

To get that image out of your mind, I would share some more splashes of colour that don't seem to want to go south, just yet.

There were masses of ladybugs and we discovered it was prudent to keep our mouths shut, especially on the bike trail.

We stopped to eat lunch here by these rapids

and I would tell you it felt more like June than October, except with less biting bugs than June usual brings.

If we were meeting for coffee today I would tell you I had to suffer this face for a while on Saturday morning.

Riley had a sleepover with the wolf cubs and during that time one of the other cubs stole a toy that he had brought - a little green pig head from the angry birds game - and it irks me more knowing that it was another cub and not just another kid. For some reason I was under the impression that a boy scout would be less likely to be a thief.

If we were meeting for coffee today I would tell you that early Saturday morning I looked out my window and saw a neighbour's dog on my front lawn tailing the long cord she is usually tied up with and nobody on the other end of it. I ran outside in my skivvies to corral her in my backyard.

Mia is an escape artist and I thoroughly enjoyed my 7:00 a.m. phone call to my neighbor:

ring ring

Neighbour: "Hello?" (groggy and little grouchy)

Me: "Hi Todd, it's Kim."

Todd: "Yeah?" (quite annoyed now)

Me: "I, uh, have your dog in my yard," (again).

hee hee

This is not the first time I have either found Mia in my yard or caught her running loose and I've lost track of the number of times I've called Todd to come and pick her up. I suspect she found herself in quite a bit of trouble when she got home.

If we were meeting for coffee today I would tell you we had one last gasp at Wild Willy's ice cream parlour yesterday

then came across this in the park

and I was fascinated with how it side winded its way back into the grass.

If we were meeting for coffee today I would share a link with you that gave us endless fun a few days ago and see if you don't find it as addictive as we do.

Then we would go over to Amy's at Lucky Number Thirteen and see some more of her weekend photos.