This and That and Other Stuff

Playing with the macro lens

Sea urchin on a hill

Tree roots

My Pony Jigger

Yes he's mine!

A tree stump with moss

Yeah, I caught it!

It's October first and we should be deeply embedded into all of the cool air and frosty mornings that the autumn usually brings.  However this morning broke to a hot orange sun spilling on to a topaz blue harbour with temperatures again rising into the mid-twenties(centigrade) giving rise to the sentiment, "global warming so what?" as the reversal of the weather such that it favours our normally chilly locale is to our benefit and great delight.

Appreciating the bonus days of summer that have heated the hills and shorelines of our scenic province is easy.  A bright scarlet and orange evening sunset does the soul as much good as its dawn brilliance.  Life is a comfortable thing these days, quiet and fulfilling with my fingers spending more time on the keyboard, children successfully enrolled in school, dance, piano, fiddle and guitar.

I just completed an interview for a blog(I was interviewed) that will publish Thursday, I'm a third of the way into my new book and I'm writing for the newspaper still and adjusting to the most disconcerting thing of all, being recognized.

Just purchased a new camera for all of the photo journaling I've been doing lately.  I'm having a lot of fun with it, learning how to use the lenses I purchased.  It's a considerable investment but well worth it.  I'll have fun practicing at my cousin's wedding in Harbour Grace, Newfoundland this Saturday for sure.  I used it above.

Also, went cod jigging for the first time. Had a lot of fun and caught the fish I was allowed to catch, five per person to a maximum of fifteen. There were three of us aboard so we got our entire fifteen and I caught my fair share.  Not bad for a rookie.  It was a lovely morning with just a few bumps on the water.  The entire weekend on Change Islands was once again brilliant and warm.  I love being able to go there on a whim like I did last week.  Left to go take photos and decided to catch the ferry and spent three or four hours there.  I am deep in appreciation for how close I live to home now.

Yesterday I attended a local concert at my regular spot and a fellow--a former English teacher no less--made point of introducing himself to me during the intermission and was quite complimentary on my writing and said he has expressed to his wife how impressed he is with my descriptive work particularly.  It's rather gratifying certainly.

But having people know who you are when you don't know them kind of leaves you somewhat bewildered.  I remember when I was in Ontario  people would come chat to me and I would be sure I hadn't seen their face before.  It started to worry me that I was heading into some sort of early dementia(peanut gallery carry on) and happened to mention it to my friend who was also my producer for the news magazine I was on. She laughed at me and said, "they recognise you from television."

It was a relief that I wasn't losing my mind(again--take a shot).  Now that it's happening again and with increased frequency I'm better prepared but it's a bit of a balancing act not to get caught up in the opinions of others.  I guess I'm just waiting for the day when I'm accosted in the grocery store over some opinion piece I've written, though thus far, nobody has had gumption enough to post my more sarcastic and opinionated political pieces that now wait in queue for a political blog I'm working on.

Meanwhile I'm loving my life, my family, my ponies and the weather.  I'm also excited to head into St. John's tomorrow for a book launch by Bill Rowe, host of Open Line on VOCM. The first line in that book, The Premiers; Joey and Frank was written by me.  True story.  I reviewed the previous book of Bill's and I'm quoted there.

The subtitle does not lie, power, lust and greed abounded during those times in Newfoundland's history.

Now I'm off for a walk in the sunshine on this first day of October and last day at home before I head to St. John's for a five day vacation.  It's good to have mothers in law nearby.