Puttering through life

This week's You Capture photo challenge was happiness.

Happiness is universal and yet personal. My son came home with a project from school today. It was a piece of paper with a star at the top and a "poem" underneath it. The star had the phrase "I Wish" written on it. The poem read

Star Light, Star Bright
I Wish I May
I Wish I Might
Have the Wish
I wish tonight

Many of us have looked upon the vast night sky and recited this phrase, sending up a wish to the universe. My son's wish was "I wish I had presents all the time". A purely materialistic wish but it clearly spells out when he feels happiness.

For myself, my star wishes are simply for the feeling of happiness (honest). I experience happiness when I look upon the smiles (impish or pure) of my family. I'm filled with happy contentment when my husband's arms are wrapped around me. I delight in watching people letting loose and being a little silly. I'm giddy when delving into chocolate...cake, cookies, bars, beverages (you get the idea). I feel happy when I am close to nature.

This week I captured the smiles of my family.




But today on my bike ride to work, I felt happy. The air was crisp and smelled of fall. The trees are starting to display their glorious fall colours. The sun shone upon the earth making the dew twinkle and my heart rejoice. This picture captures the morning for me. My bike and nature.

SORRY if I sent you on a wild goose to find this week's Happiness photos, please go here

I want to take my photography one step further. My goal is to truly understand and utilize apertures, shutter speeds, ISO, etc. Thankfully I have a very adept husband who is willing to share his passion (and camera lenses) with me.

My desire to make some changes in my photography have been further peaked from all the information I find on different blogs. I specifically like some of the challenges out there. So I've decided to take the plunge and I will be attempting to keep up with the weekly challenges from



This week's challenge: Macro. Get up close to the object.



This is a close up of a spider web attached to our peony and lily plants in the front yard. I tweaked the pic in lightroom with a preset titled Velvia and played around with the brightness. I love playing with effects. Lightroom along with photoshop are becoming my new favourite tools. Hope you like my macro picture. I do.

The weather this summer has been downright crappy. More rain in July than normal and cooler temperatures for August except for one horrendous week that forced everyone into air conditioned buildings. September is upon us already and with the last rays of sunshine basking our land we embarked on a trip to a beach on Saturday afternoon. We piled the kids into the car and drove a mere 30 minutes to Rideau River Provincial Park. We dragged our friends into the adventure and found that we practically had the beach to ourselves. It was warm but not overly. The water was still and inviting. The kids and J plunged themselves into the water. They floated, swam, played, chased gulls, and tried catching minnows in the shallow waters. An elaborate moat system was created on the beach and overflowed from the buckets of water. We capped the afternoon off with a picnic supper. It truly was a wonderful homage to summer.

Spent most of the day orientating myself. First there was a session with human resources where I signed my name on the dotted line too many times to count. Next I meandered into the library and what may be the locale for the next chunk of my working life. I'm not sure what to make of my decision now that I have taken the plunge. I was so excited to remove myself from an insane situation and take on a new challenge that I forgot how taxing it is to try to absorb new material and figure out your place in a new place. I met with my new boss, received a brief run-down of library, took a library tour, and spent time with another person getting an overview of one aspect of position. Then the day was done. It was weird not actually doing specific work. I felt a bit out of my element.

It was also odd to be constantly introduced to people as Pam, the new reference services administrator, she use to work in interlibrary loans, do you remember her (egad that was 10 years ago and at the time I holed up in the ILL office). Makes you wonder if they were trying to justify my hire and make me an instant part of the climate. I think that may have been part of the case since there are two contract people on staff who applied for my new job, currently work in my new job but didn't get it. The reason is that they do not possess the Lib tech diploma, while I do. Talk about a potentially awkward situation, especially since I will be trained by one of them. Oh well, one day done and a few hundred more to go before I can retire.

I think the stress of the day was compounded by my lil bug having a nasty cold and fever. It was hard to leave her all day and not be there to comfort her. Thanks to J, she was in good hands though and managed to have a 4 hour nap...yep she must be sick cuz this girl does not normally nap. Ah, the joys of parenting while working. Not always the most ideal but a decision I have made for my sanity.

Attention, I would like to have your attention. You are now reading the blog of a Reference Services Administrator at a university library. I am no longer a federal government employee reduced to losing her job for a business model of shared services. I no longer need to worry about becoming bilingual. I am no longer stuck in a job with no room for upward mobility.

I'm a little anxious about adapting to a busy work schedule versus a laid back one. I'm quite worried that I may become overwhelmed with juggling work and home. But really I'm just plain EXCITED. I'm moving up in the world. I'm going to be in a interesting position dealing with reference staff and a learning disability centre. My salary has increased and the benefits are decent. Okay, maybe not as sweet as the government but hey I reaped those rewards already.

Wish me luck! I start on Sept 14th.

I've been desperately seeking out time. Time for household chores, time for me, time for the kids, time for hubby, time for friends, time for projects, time to breathe. Returning to work has been good for me. I thrive on routine. Work forces me to better manage my time. Yet I begrudge how little time is left for moments of pleasure.

I've had some good times:
*family trips to museums: Pinhey's Point Historic Site, Canada Science and Technology Museum, Canada Aviation Museum, Cumberland Heritage Village Museum (for Classic Car Show)
*strawberry picking on July 1st in the Ottawa Valley countryside
*weekend at a real Ontario cottage with some dear and amazing friends, which included a visit to Santa's Village, ice cream, Gaymer cider, wine, and two nights of playing Carcassonne
*brunch at the Chateau Laurier with 3 fun friends
*beach moments: Lac Philippe, Mooney's Bay, Britannia Beach (all within easy driving distance)
*day at Saunder's Farm
*morning bike rides to work
*Friday's off from work and parenting
*movie at a theatre with a friend to see the latest Harry Potter

I've had bad times:
*work as I know it is to come to an end due to a shift to a new "business model" of "partnerships"
*mounting sleep-deficit (mostly due to a young lady who is possessed and requires momma)
*feeling depressed, overwhelmed, angry or something or other and having hard time handling this emotion

I will continue to hunt for the elusive element of time and remember to enjoy the moments of fun.

I often think I want to live in a hip urban neighbourhood. It would be great to walk out your front door and mosey on down to the local bakery, farmer’s market, coffee shop and quaint stores. Perhaps we could live more environmentally such as both of us cycling to work, walking to nearby parks or simply just reducing the size of our footprint. However, an urban neighbourhood in Ottawa is out of our price range.

We live in a old suburb. Our house was built in 1966. It is in dire need of some updates. The street is busier than we would like but we remain within the green belt. We have a kick ass sized lot with old trees. There is a mix of ages and a small mix of ethnic groups in the neighbourhood. The neighbours are super nice, friendly, observant and protective. We can let the kids play in the front drive-way (under parental observation of course) and enjoy waving and talking with people, their dogs and kids. I guess it isn’t so bad.

Owning a sizeable lot in the burbs means we must partake in some significant yard maintenance. Our front lawn consists mostly of weeds. There is clover, dandelions, crab grass, plantain, mallow, chickweed, wild strawberries, etc. J thinks it can be kind-of pretty as there are purple, white and yellow flowers. I, on the other hand, am slightly embarrassed by the composition of our lawn. Thankfully our surrounding neighbours seem to sport the same type of lawn. So I’ve come to embrace the nature of our lawn.

I am a vigilante when it comes to mowing the lawn. I LOVE a freshly mown lawn. It causes anxiety and frustration to see the lawn to grow for more than 7-10 days. I especially love hauling the gas powered lawn mower from our rotting shed (even with the knowledge that I will be polluting the environment). I delight in quickly starting the mower and hearing the engine roar into life. I revel in the idea of making a pattern in the front lawn. I tend to alternate between mowing the lawn vertically, horizontally and diagonally. This pattern change is a technique I learned from my dad.

My dad is a zealous lawn guru. He would not put up with the number of weeds I have. I’m sure he would be sporting his lawn weeder daily and would not hesitate to use chemical means to eliminate them. Nor would he baulk at the idea of re-sodding the lawn or at least adding topsoil and fresh grass seed to the lawn (a project that I am too lazy and cheap to undertake). I did learn from him to take great pleasure in mowing the lawn. I remember standing back with him and just enjoying the view of the lines cutting through the lawn. To this day, I admire my handiwork at mastering nature. The accomplishment and satisfaction of mowing a lawn pulses through me and I can’t help but feel a smile spread across my face and a desire to jump for joy.

My desire for a mown lawn must irk the neighbours. After I am done, the sense of obligation to keep up infuses the neigbourhood. It always makes me secretly giggle to see neighbours hauling out their mowers within a few hours or a day after I tackle my yard. It is funny to think that I am promoting a suburban ideal and forcing others to conform. Too bad they don’t seem to revel in the chore.