Fog. Lighthouse. Beach.

 Wonderful ,foggy, misty day looking across to Quadra Island. Just like fall. Oops. It's May, almost June.....well, we DO live in a rainforest.  Better look out the scarves, just in case...

 Stories Beach, shrouded in grey. This is Salmon Point, in the distance..............

 Tide was out when I was there. Algae, logs, rocks, crabs, everything but people.  This is just before noon. You can see the Canadian flags whipping in the breeze.

 Other half of Stories Beach. People bring their dogs down to run on the sand.

 Looking north to Campbell river. Again, on a few people braving the wet sand, in the middle of the day.

 Doggies found their ball. They were ripping across the sand like wild things: " Look at me! Look at me!" they were saying, I am sure.

                     Stories Beach outcropping. Tons of algae at this time of day.

 Silver grey and blue to the sand..........

More fog looming over the lighthouse on Quadra island........could even hear the foghorn cutting through the surf.

In the Light

 Eight months of work.....it's finally here. Yay. Celtic Crossover.  Now comes the fun part. We get to play everything on the CD at church services, weddings, the local coffee houses, etc. ad infinitum. So much rehearsal, so much time spent recording, till it was just right. So much time arranging, thinking, pondering, wondering how the melody would  work with  guitar. Trying to find music, then having to transcribe it ,since a lot of it was unpublished, reinventing the guitar part .
        Then when in two months of recording, having to go from room to room to find the right acoustics, good lighting, and quiet....always searching for the quiet.  Then more thinking, weighing each part of the recording, overdubs, underdubs, re-recording to get the right sound..... The list was exhausting. But so worth it. 
        I have finally figured out that I like ...no LOVE.....this type of music. It speakds to me. It has a languid quality that can be quite mournful. It's perfect. All that struggling musician talk is quite true. It's great if you do find the right music. It's even better if the music finds you.......

 The guitarist: Chris Coon, worship director at the local Baptist Church, plays guitar, mandolin, flute, penny whistle and a few hundred other instruments, and still sings and directs choir and theatre for the church, plus plays in the community with countless others.

The music: Lough Erin Shore, Gift of Falling, Mary Did You Know, Border Country, Rose of Bethlehem, A River Runs Through It, Stars and Midnight Blue, When Love was Born, Meeting of the Waters, The Patriot, God is With Us, May it Be......................yes, there are some Christmas pieces in the mix.     The music kind of plays itself. Like I said, it's even better when the music finds you......

Bees and Romantic Cranesbill

 I  love bees. I love to sit and watch them. They are indeed very busy. Right now they love to pay attention to the Cranesbill. It is flowering like crazy. It is considered a hardy, perennial geranium and will grow anywhere. Doesn't seem to like humid weather.

 Full sun or partial shade, it tends to overpopulate. You will have to keep track of it, or it will take over your garden.

 It is good for the rock garden as well as pots. I tend to keep mind in pots, some on the ground. It attracts bees  as long as it flowers.

  If you pinch the ends of the spent flowers you will get more flowers.

 Almost pest free. Spider mites will bother some varieties, but not many. Good as a cut flower.

 Certain diseases will attack it, like powdery mildew and black rot. but I've never had any problem with it in the garden. 

 Good companion flowers to have near it would be Campanula ( bellflower), Lady's Mantle (Alchemilla), and Coral Bells ( Heuchera)

 When the plant has done flowering it must be cut down all the way to the ground to help stop any self seeding. Though, every year I tend to find baby cranesbill here and there.

 The experts say it is good to have a wide variety of flowers, perennials, and annuals, in your garden to attract the bees as much as possible. Some flowers have become sterile and do not heop out the cause of the bee. Never use peticides, always have a variety of colours in the flowers you choose, planting them in groups, rather than individually.

 Bees prefer sun to shade, and areas that are protected with trees and walls or fences. Heirloom varieties of herbs and flowers can provide excellent foraging for bees. You'll be able to sit in the garden and hear them hummm and buzzzzz all summer long.

Thunder over the Mountains

 Panorama x300 filtered.......storm over the mountains. Could hear the thunder deep within the clouds.

 Raining on us with light behind,then hail, then wild wind, then heat, then cold...........can't make up its mind.

 Mt Washington range being bombarded...................

 Low lying ranges bathed in blue and white snow, melting in the spring run off......kind of cool today, you'd never really know it was spring.

New growth on fir ( panorama x300 filter)........fresh and clean from the hail and rain.........

SUPERMOON 2nd NIGHT

Second night of the Supermoon. This time it is closer to the earth and big like a harvest moon. Filtered at x300 at 11:30pm May 6th, 2012.

HYMN to the NIGHT ( Henry Wadsworth Longfellow)
"I heard the trailing garments of the Night
Sweep through her marble halls!
I saw her sable skirts all fringed with light
From the celestial walls........"

SUPERMOON

                              Supermoon at midnight, at x300 magnification, filtered.

THE MOON by Emily Dickinson

"The moon was but a chin of gold
    A night or two ago.
      And now she turns her perfect face
        Upon the world below.
          Her foehead is of amplest blond,
             Her cheek like beryl stone.
               Her eye unto the summer dew
                 The likest I have known.
                   Her lips of amber never part
                    But what must be the smile,
                      Upon her friend she could bestow.
                       Were such her silver will!
                        And what a privelege to be
                          But the remotest star!
                            For certainly her way must pass
                             Beside your twinkling door.
                               Her bonnet is the firmament,
                                 The universe her shoe.
                                   The stars the trinkets at her belt
                                      Her dimities of blue."

Guardian

Too cold , too wet, too much of anything to even venture up to the window. Bo guards the fire, with her blazing blue eyes fixated on the flames. It's supposed to be May....spring, flowers, etc......too cold to plant, too cold to  do much but huddle against the wet.  And the greenhouse is stuffed with flowers, ready to plant. Guess I will have to be like Little Bo,and wait ....and wait.......and wait....