My World was in a few places for a few weeks

The Netherlands
March, 2011
Ten days aboard the Viking Pride, with Viking River Cruises.
Left, Hoorn.
Right, Kinderdijk.

Belgium

Left, in Brugge.

Right, here I am at the Atomium in Brussels.

France

Left, Marseille.


Right, Paris.













April, 2011
The south of France
We rented a condo at Malibu Village (right) in Canet-en-Roussillon. For day-trips we took a bus to Perpignan train station.
From our bus stop (above), we could see Mount Canigou in the Pyrenees.



In the very south of France, we visited Collioure, where the artist Matisse found inspiration.

© Photos by Kay Davies and Richard Schear    

Switzerland
Left and right, St. Moritz, the terminus for the Glacier Express train.

Posted for

My World Tuesday

To see other worlds on our planet,

click HERE!

Magpie Tales 73: unthinkable, unsinkable

Benton — The People of Chilmar — 1920
Picture provided by Tess as inspiration for Magpie Tales 73.

The sinking of the RMS Titanic, by Henry Reuterdahl,
based on wireless description. (Wikipedia)

There was very little cooperation between passengers and crew, whether man, woman or child. Panic reigned, because the ship was said to be unsinkable. No one had thought of hitting an iceberg. No "iceberg drills" had been in place before the catastrophe. None had been deemed necessary by the White Star Line, or by its captain.
The water, of course, was unbearably cold, and anyone not in a lifeboat died almost immediately as a result of hypothermia.
The unthinkable had happened, as it continues to do today. Unthinkable, unspeakable, unbelievable, unbearable...all the words we throw around so carelessly until it is too late. Much too late.

Posted for Magpie Tales, hosted each week by Willow.
Thanks, Willow!
To see how the prompt picture inspired other writer-bloggers, please click HERE!

Yellows here and there in house and yard

Our two old cats are still with us in spirit. The china cat on the chair looks like my old Ava, while Dick's Igor, who lived to be 20, is carved in Mexican ironwood, lower right.

© Photos by Kay Davies

The former owners of our house put sunflower wallpaper inside the shed window, facing out,  probably to add a flowery touch of cheer during winters such as we had this past year. Everyone in Alberta is very grateful summer has arrived.

Posted for  Mellow Yellow Monday, hosted every week

by Drowsey Monkey. Thanks, Drowsey!

To see more (maybe mellower and yellower) yellows, please click

HERE!

Succinctly yours — renegade

THE  RENEGADE

The others always went in together, but Mya was the renegade of the group. The others would be out past their knees when she came running down the beach toward them. By the time they were up to their waists in the water, worrying about the waves, she would be swimming past them, worrying about nothing.

(56 words)

Grandma of
Grandma's Goulash
hosts a weekly meme called
Succinctly
Yours
wherein she asks a question:
"How low can you go?"

Use the photo, provided, as inspiration for a story of 140 characters OR 140 words, she tells us. It doesn’t have to be exactly 140, just not more.
Want more challenge? Use the word of the week in your story. This part is optional, she reminds us. The word this week is renegade.
To see how Grandma's photo inspired other writer-bloggers, please click HERE!

Lindy likes to be out of the shadow

Posted for

Shadow Shot Sunday

hosted every weekend by Tracy at Hey Harriet! Thanks, Tracy!

and

Pet Pride

hosted every week by Lindy's friend Bozo in Mumbai, and his family at Pets Forever.

Lindy says, "Hi, Bozo. See, my hair is starting to grow back!"

© Photos by Richard Schear

Camera Critters of the winged variety

Above, a robin seen from below.

© Photos by Richard Schear

And here on a concrete post, a Cedar Waxwing, with worm.

Posted for Camera Critters, hosted weekly

by Misty Dawn. Thanks, Misty. I know you're very busy these days!

To see other critters captured by other lenses, please click

HERE!

Weekend Reflections: in many metal spheres

The Atomium, in Brussels, which we explored with our new friend, Gattina.

  

© Photos by Kay Davies and Richard Schear    

Posted for Weekend Reflections, the meme

that makes us reflect. Hosted each week by James of Newport Beach.

To see the reflective work of other photo-bloggers, please click

HERE!

Book Blurb Friday: Typing no More

Retired reporter and now licensed private investigator, Leon MacLeod recognized the old typewriter immediately. It had been his father’s.

Looking at it, he knew his father hadn’t moved to the Hebrides in 1968, leaving his mother with three children and an infant to feed and raise alone.

He knew his father was dead. He wouldn’t have left without his typewriter.

That meant the farewell letter had been typed on the old machine, with its characteristic twisted T, by someone else.

It meant the money that came every month until the youngest child reached adulthood had come from someone else.

Who would murder his father but then provide for the widow and children?

He couldn’t ask his mother, now in a care facility with Alzheimer’s Disease.

Who else could he ask?

You will ask yourself the same question as you read Sydney Harmen’s great new novel, Typing no More.

148 words

Posted for Book Blurb Friday, in which

Lisa Ricard Claro, of Writing in the Buff, provides a picture and asks us to use it for inspiration as we imagine a book and write a back-cover blurb for it in 150 words or less.

To see how other writer-bloggers used the photo to help them write a book blurb,

please click HERE!

SkyWatch Friday: three of them in two days

Taken during Dick and Lindy's daily walk recently, and

posted for SkyWatch Friday, hosted

every week by Klaus, Wren, Sylvia, Sandy and Fishing Guy. Thanks, team!

To see other skies from other parts of the world,

please click

HERE!

© Photos by Richard Schear    

The first two photos were taken on the same day, the third photo on the next day. We don't often see planes flying over our neighborhood, and three in two days was a bonus for my intrepid photographer and his faithful canine companion, Lindy, especially the biplane.

Magpie Tales 72, wheat fields

 Posted for Magpie Tales, hosted weekly

by Tess of  Willow Manor, "for the enjoyment of poets and writers, for the purpose of honing their craft, sharing it with like-minded bloggers, and keeping their muses alive and well".

My contribution is below. To see how Tess's posted picture (this week a Van Gogh)
inspired other writer-bloggers, please click

HERE

Wheat Field with Rising Sun, Vincent Van Gogh, 1889

Never Quite Satisfied

When I first moved to the prairie, I missed the mountains most. My husband would point to a dim, low row of blurry blue on the horizon and say, "The Cypress Hills are just over there," but, to me, everything looked flat. Then he would take me into the old part of the city, down into the river valley, where stately and sometimes frivolous Victorian houses are built on hilly streets. I liked that. I could see the river down below as we toured up and down, looking at houses with shady verandas and gingerbread balconies. He'd find the steepest hills carved out by the river hundreds and thousands of years ago and, after half an hour or so, I wouldn't feel quite so homesick. I'd sigh, and thank him, but then I'd start to miss the ocean.

© Copyright Kay Davies 2011

Every baby loves Thursday Theme Song

Every baby loves a bunny
That's why Baby sure loves you
Bunny honey,
Honey bunny,
Baby also loves a penguin, panda bear and kangaroo,
And cuddles all the time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uSPJzrY-oU

Posted for Hootin' Anni's musical meme, Thursday Theme Song.
To see what songs have other bloggers humming this week, please click
HERE!

ABC Wednesday: Y is for Yucatan

© Photo by Richard Schear.

© Photo by Clint Davies.

In January, 2010, Dick and I went to the Mayan Riviera with my brother Clint and his wife Maria. One of our side trips was to the Mexican state of Yucatan to visit the Mayan city at Chichen Itza. If I look less than enthusiastic (or downright miserable) here, it is because my back was hurting. I wasn't prepared for Clint to take my picture, or I'd have smiled because I was very happy to be there.

© Photo by Richard Schear.

Clint's irrepressible enthusiasm, however, more than made up for my missing smile.

Posted for
ABC
Wednesday
hosted by Mrs. Nesbitt's talented team of alphabetical photo-bloggers.
To see how others have used the letter
Y please click HERE!

© Photo by Kay Davies.

© Photo by Clint Davies.

Dick and Maria strolling through the ancient Mayan ruins.

© Photo by Kay Davies.

My world: waiting for the eagles

There I am, on the left, waiting for the bald eagles to come out to play at Camp Kwomais
in the lovely Ocean Park area of south Surrey, British Columbia.

Photos courtesy of Penelope Puddle ©

When the slightest bit of sun shows itself, up goes my 'Monet Parasol' because my skin breaks out in painful red spots when exposed to sunlight. My parasol doubles as an umbrella on rainy days, but I didn't get it wet at all during my recent visit to my family on 'the wet coast'.

Photos courtesy of Penelope Puddle ©

It wasn't easy for my friend aka Penelope to capture a shot of the big, beautiful birds. They were soaring and floating on the breeze, the adults occasionally diving for fish to feed their late-hatching young, and the 1- and 2-year-old juveniles playfully swooping down toward the water without catching anything at all. Here are three of them, and we saw several more.

Posted for My World Tuesday.
To see other worlds from around this planet, please click HERE!

Around the world with mellow yellows

Southeastern Alberta, Canada

Kapaa, Kauai, Hawaii

Galapagos Islands

Posted for

Mellow Yellow Monday

hosted by Drowsey Monkey.

Ocean Park, BC, Canada

Galapagos Islands

To see yellows from other places around the world, please click

HERE!

Dick in a sack race, Dominican Republic, 2004

Las Vegas, Nevada                                                                    Photos by Kay Davies and Richard Schear, copyright 2011.

Shadows on Genovesa (Tower) Island, Galapagos

Photos by Richard Schear and Kay Davies during our 2006 visit to the Galapagos Islands. Copyright.

Posted for  Shadow Shot Sunday, hosted every week by

Tracy at Hey Harriet! Thanks, Tracy!

To see other shadows as other people saw them, please click

HERE!

Camera Critters down by the coulee

Dick and Lindy like to take their daily walk at the coulee, where they meet other dogs out walking, and usually see many other different kinds of critters.

Photo by Richard Schear, copyright Kay Davies and Richard Schear

There are at least three of these critters in this photo, maybe five or six. We call them gophers in southeastern Alberta, but their real name is Richardson's Ground Squirrel. They come out in early-to-mid-spring for what seems like the express purpose of running around on our roads. They have underground burrows, many of which seem to be in the BMX bike park a block from our house. So far, they haven't caused too much havoc with the cyclists there. Lindy would chase these little fellas if she were allowed to do so, and more than once last year she put her head so far into a gopher hole she frightened her dad, who was walking her. He was afraid she wouldn't be able to breathe. She didn't do it at all this year.

Posted for the Camera Critters meme, hosted

each week by the very busy Ms Misty Dawn. Thanks, Misty!

To see other critters captured in the lenses of other cameras, please click

HERE!

Pets and reflections: dog, dog, and dog again

Photos by Kay Davies, copyright.

Lindy loves to visit Cypress View Veterinary Clinic in Medicine Hat, Alberta, so she didn't know why her mom suddenly took her right back outside and asked her to sit for photos, just because of a reflection in the door. People are funny.

Posted for Pet Pride, hosted by Lindy's friend Bozo in Mumbai. Click HERE!
Posted for Weekend Reflections, the meme that gives us "paws" to reflect, hosted every week by the indomitable James, now of Newport Beach, California.
Thanks, James!
To see what made other photo-bloggers pause to reflect, please click HERE!