20 Minute Makeover

Our city is having a 20 minute makeover today. The idea is that everyone is supposed to go outside at 2 pm and pick up garbage for 20 minutes. Since the afternoon is naptime, we decided to go this morning. The Nuthatch decided he wanted to get the garbage at the edge of the road. He was quite interested to learn that the street sweepers will come by one day and clean up that garbage.

The Bluejay picked up some garbage, but for the most part was just happy to walk along in his own little world. He was rather distracted by the backhoe loader that was repairing the street, and forgot what he was doing.

Last year I picked up some gardening gloves for both the boys. They are wearing them to protect their hands. The Bluejay called them his 'garbage picking gloves'.

At the end of our trip around the block we had a bag full of garbage.

The Nuthatch took this photo and was quite pleased with himself. I was pleased that the subject that he chose was his sister. Very sweet. I think the blur in the middle is where Chickadee moved her hand.

The Many Faces of Mount Rundle

I'm back! I've just returned from a two week vacation in Banff National Park. For obvious reasons, I did not want to announce my departure online. I was able to get in a post or two while I was away, although I didn't have access to my photo software and wasn't able to upload photos until the end of my trip when I posted the sneak preview.

The sneak preview photo was a bank of spruce trees growing on a mountainside in Kootenay National Park. I took a drive up the mountain pass from Banff into Kootenay one morning after a fresh snowfall. It was spectacular.

While in Banff I managed to take a whopping 900 images. Banff was so amazing I felt like I could wave my camera wildly around my head while pressing the shutter and I'd have a ton of great photos.

This is Mount Rundle. It is located next to the town of Banff. It took me several days to get over my sense of disorientation and start to figure out which mountain was which. They looked different depending on what side of the mountain you were on and even what time of day it was and whether or not they were covered with clouds.

I became particularly fond of Mount Rundle. On the western side (see the above photo) it was gently sloping and covered with trees.

View of the western side of Mount Rundle from the top of Sulphur Mountain.

In the Bow Valley, near the town of Banff is an area of marsh land called the Vermillion Lakes. Mount Rundle is on the left, and Sulphur Mountain is on the right.

And on the eastern side, it was a face of steep cliffs, striped with layers and layers of sedimentary rock, lifted and exposed for all to see. The Bow River can be seen as the frozen white patches in the foreground.

Mount Rundle (left) is separated from Tunnel Mountain (right) by a U-shaped valley carved by a glacier.

This is a view of the peak from our hotel room early one morning.

Sneak preview

I have lots of fantastic photos that I will start posting next week. Here's a sneak preview of things to come. In my world it is still winter. I am going to miss it when it's gone.

Subtlety in Nature

I've been thinking lately about where you find nature. It truly is everywhere. Sometimes it is there in a hit you over the head, wow, isn't that amazing, National Geographic special, picture postcard type of moment. Other times it is more subtle, and you have to look carefully for the grey lichen on the grey rock, or the weeds growing in the pavement.

Nature is always changing. Depending on where you live, there might be a particular season when nature is at its most spectacular. Don't skip getting out in nature because the weather is extreme or it looks dull outside and you're certain you won't find anything interesting. Challenge yourself to discover something new.

After looking at the subtle things in nature for awhile, if you happen to find yourself in that take your breath away setting, the moment will be all the richer. You'll appreciate the lichen and the squirrel tracks as you hike along the shores of a mountain lake, listening to the songs of cedar waxwings in the lodge pole pine forest.

Nature doesn't always wear her wedding gown, you need to hang out with her when she's in her housecoat and slippers to really get to know her.

Relaxation for sale

Yesterday I spent the day at a fabulous spa. I don't go to spas very often, so it was quite a treat. While I was there I overheard a woman saying "Now, this is a good reason for working!" What she was saying was that she worked so she could make enough money to be able to afford to go to this particularly expensive spa and relax.

I started thinking about this concept, working hard so you could relax. It seemed like a bandaid approach to me. The spa experience was wonderful while I was there, but it didn't carry over and have any lasting effects after I left.

I am always secretly amused at the array of products and their long list of pseudo health benefits.

...created to revive vital energy, uses the essential oils of: lemongrass, refreshing and uplifting; ginger, invigorating, stimulating, incites courage and confidence; and sandalwood, centering and grounding.

Taken from a brochure of products
available at the spa I visited.

Can you buy courage and confidence? Somehow I doubt it.

As a homeschooling mom to young children, I have chosen a lifestyle that does not usually result in trips to the spa. I do, however, get exhausted, frazzled, and easily irritated. It would be nice to think that a trip to the spa could cure all of that.

It's easy to blame my exhaustion and irritation on the kids, and the obvious solution would be to get time away from them. I have fantastic inlaws that watch the two older boys for a day or two every week, and this gives me a chance to recharge, but it is not the answer.

The real problem is that I stay up too late after the kids go to sleep, trying to have a moment of precious 'me time'. It sets up a vicious cycle. I need sleep, or I become grouchy. The kids pick up on this and become more challenging. At the end of the day, I need more 'me time', away from the difficult kids, and I stay up too late. Repeat, repeat repeat.

Next time I visit the spa I am going to pick up a refreshing bottle of "Go To Bed Early". I'm sure it will do just the trick.

I don't have access to my photo software at the moment. I'll have pictures again soon, but for now there are only ramblings and musings available.