Saturday Photo Hunt - Dark!

To be honest was unsure whether to post today as tnchick's prompt seemed to conjured up my unfortunate present dark mood rather than an image, but then I recalled this happy memory photo of Little Buddy barbecuing me my steak supper on a dark evening back in '07...It was taken @ one of my favourite spots on Vancouver Island, CA - the Shorewater Resort, located over looking the Straits of Georgia on Qualicum Beach's foreshore, became my home from home on four lengthy vacations - I'd take up residence & LB would commute from the mainland, in between his flying job & going home to wifey!

Looking back now wonder which time I enjoyed the most - my alone time beach combing/exploring the delightfully artsy area where I could so have happily lived or my time with LB when we always had to drive somewhere & ended up in a bar - dark hindsight reflections indeed!

Coloured Thursday - PUMPKIN ORANGE!

As the nights grow decidedly cooler & with Halloween this weekend, I've been thoroughly enjoying the perfect seasonal comfort food aka soup from the New Covent Garden Food Company's cauldron - it's described as a 'wickedly tasty PUMPKIN soup blended with tomatoes & mixed beans' - called 'Witches Brew' there's no 'wing of bat or eye of toad' involved but I love the hint of garlic to warn off the unwelcome... Heading through the Covered Market to that cake shop, came across these ornimental PUMPKIN coloured gourds...Plus this wonderful Autumn floral arrangement featuring ORANGE lilies...And for my cake - this is as good as it gets re PUMPKIN ORANGE & it perfectly expresses my wishes for everyone...My original meme 'True Colours Thursday' is now hosted by friends, the fun pups Doyle & Mollie @ Blue's Coloured Thursday, with me as Colour Consultant :)
Please do join in again!

Ruby Tuesday - Rosehip Time!

Not as pretty as the rose blooms that came before them but these huge hips do add great autumnal colour...

Monday Blues - Labradorite Magic!

When first seen the mineral Labradorite, not surprisingly originally mined in Labrador, Canada - seems an uninspiring dull, dark grey to black stone, hardly a suitable material for jewellery but it has hidden depths!
In the world of Crystal Magic it's believed to encourage patience & perseverance - rightly so for if one uses both and turn a piece in bright light or natural sunshine, in certain directions a magical play of colours called labradorescence suddenly appear.

This pendant of mine produces flashes of vibrant blue...Labradorite is also thought to protect & balance ones aura, which seems appropriate as it always reminds me of the Aurora Borealis / Northern Lights as it shimmers brightly then disappears, only to reappear & dance again.

Saturday Photo Hunt [& Camera Critters] - Orange!

As tchick's prompt this week is a colour had to play along.

Butterflies fascinate me, they are the only reason I retain a Buddleia Bush in my garden since it attracts them & Bees .

So given the opportunity to visit the Victoria Butterfly Gardens whilst on Vancouver Is. in BC, Canada, I jumped @ it.

An Orange beauty, a Julia, native to Central & South America, thrived in the humid glass house atmosphere, which was heady with fragrance from it's favourite blooms rich in nectar...

Coloured Thursday - COFFEE!

When I came to post re COFFEE, realised I'd struggled back in May this year, it's last outing, but as due to my ever increasing short term memory I'd re-listed, had to give it a go!!!

This little fellow spotted on a shopping trip is showing all shades of COFFEE through Expresso to Latte'...At home I usually take my ground COFFEE black, but my local convenience store currently has on offer... Regrettably the end results aren't quite a good as this one was...And, on a few of my longer planned walks by the river I've been known to take along my multi COFFEE coloured mini flask filled with said beverage...
For the cake I'm reprising one of the Celebration Cake Shop's most famous pieces - the Radcliffe Camera with it's Latte' brickwork [my previous post which shows the various stages of the cakes construction and the actual building it's based on in Dreamingspires can be seen HERE]...
My original meme 'True Colours Thursday' is now hosted by friends, the fun pups Doyle & Mollie @ Blue's Coloured Thursday, with me as Colour Consultant :)
Please do join in again!

Bye-Bye 'twinny' Snowball - 10/05/98 - 19/10/10!

Once upon a time I was an extremely active blogger, with lots more dog friends than I have now, hence being invited to join DWB [Dogs with Blogs] as a 'honorary' human pup!
It was on an anniversary 'Chat' of the groups, that I first encountered/met Snowball, a darling Maltese Terrier in Singapore, who always looked pretty in pink...She informed me straightaway, we had a personal connection ie being both born on the 10th of May!
My birthday 'twinny' & I became firm friends - even once hosted a 'vitual' joint pawty for both of us!
Hence, despite knowing she was poorly, has been for a while now, it was heartbeaking to learn yesterday, that she had gone to sleep, to happy & run pain free over @ the Rainbow Bridge with so many our other loved ones.
Snowball - you will always be a 'Princess' to me...Jie jie - you did everything you could to help your 'girl'.
I genuinely share your loss.
[Images courtesy of Snowball's blog]

Ruby & Two fer Tuesday - Raindrops on Dahlias!

The days are certainly getting cooler and @ the weekend we had our first frost - quite a sharp one too, as it wasn't just the car windscreens that were throughly iced over but vehicles themselves were too - Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

Such a chill night will certainly have taken it's toll on the last of the Summer blooms.

I haven't been to inspect the damage, preferring to remember these pretty Dahlias, as they were last week after a shower...

Monday Blues - Beautiful Blue BC!

Every blogger deserves a stylish mouse mat and coffee cup coaster.

Needing new ones a while back I decided to support a fellow blogger Michele @ Rocky Mountain Retreat; an enthusiastic & talented photographer based in BC, Canada, she has a Cafe Express Store.

Having explored her locality of wonderfully mountain & lake scenery where river ferries take the place of roads & there's amazing natural Hot Springs, I was spoilt for choice re images but being Blue this was my final selection...

Camera Critters Sunday - Remembering Crunchie!

I'm not fond of rodents.
Despite being an animal/wild life lover - they, mice & rats are vermin in my eyes & deserve all they get re extermination especially if they foolishly invade my domain as the former have done in the past to their cost!
Hence it is totally beyond my comprehension why anyone would want to keep them as a pets.
I feel the same way about Gerbils, as once bitten, twice shy!
Guinea Pigs & Hamsters I can tolerate - the latter I had to regrettably bisect as part of a Science exam :(
But it wasn't until I stayed @ terrier's Molly, Taffy & Monty's home, did I encounter a Chinchilla - called Crunchie, he bowled me over & won my heart with his cute friendly nature, long delicate whiskers, incredible soft soft coat & bravery - he'd do nose pokes with Airedale 'sister' Molly, showing no fear @ all, no matter how enthusiastic/volatile her greetings were!...
Although by nature nocturnal, this little fellow was often about in the day time & we'd share a word or two.
Every visit, I couldn't resist touching his fur, so so so soft, one could barely feel it!
Hence, it was with sadness that I learnt last Thursday that he had crossed to the Rainbow Bridge .
Due to his very well pampered life style of very specialist food, 3 hand feed plump raisins each evening and regular 'baths' in his sand jar, he'd lived to the remarkable age of 17 years & 4 weeks!
I know he is being greatly missed by his human & doggy family.
Run free & happy Crunchie!

Sky Watch Friday - Beware!

The old saying goes...

"Red sky @ night, shepherds delight,

Red sky @ morning, shepherds warning" ...

Coloured Thursday - BRISTOL BLUE!

Now with BLUE being my colour, Doyle & Mollie thought this week would be a 'piece of cake' for me but not necessarily!
Having listed this vibrant BLUE shade by many different names, many times before, I was nearly driven to drink this week re Harvey's Bristol Cream Sherry in it's iconic BRISTOL BLUE glass bottle...However it is a tad too sweet for my palette but the coloured glass I do of course love & collect.
Quoted from the BRISTOL BLUE Glass companies 's heritage page...
"Nobody is exactly sure when Bristol Blue Glass was first made but we do know that the dazzling combination of the fine cobalt oxide with the recently invented lead crystal in the late 1700's gave the most remarkable deep, rich blue – the like of which had never been seen before".
This is a favourite piece of mine & the ONLY wine glass that I process that I never ever use as it's one of a kind...
Vibrant BLUE glass doesn't only come from Bristol, Venetian Glass often features it too.
This is my special pendant, purchased on my very last visit to Rome with Little Buddy in 2000...By rights he should have bought/given me the piece as we always star gazed when together!

But, he didn't, so sentimental me couldn't resist spending all her Italian Lira, as the design of the Stars & quarter Moon had another significance re our relationship @ the time.

It's summed up by this time quote from the final scene in the classic 1942 Black & White movie 'Now Voyager' starring Bette Davis... "Don't let's ask for the moon, we have the stars".

Enough nostalgia, moving on to this ballerina in her tutu - she is Christmas Tree decoration of mine... And finally bears Woodstock & Master Bruge' wanted in on the act...

For my cake courtesy of the Celebration Cake Shop 's window I have Grandad in his BRISTOL BLUE jumper...
My original meme 'True Colours Thursday' is now hosted by friends, the fun pups Doyle & Mollie @ Blue's Coloured Thursday, with me as Colour Consultant :)
Please do join in again!

Monday Blues - Blue Hotel!

Short of inspiration today especially with BRISTOL BLUE looming up on this weeks 'Coloured Thursday' meme, have opted for a sound track!
I was introduced to the artist Chris Isaak whose music has elements of Elvis & Roy Orbison, in 1985 by friend/business partner & Springer Spanial Hero's original owner Simeon, and DJ 'Whispering' Bob Harris who always had an ear for new talent.
After his, Simeons departure from Dreamingspires, we later met up in 1988 & went together to a foot tapping, all standing concert of Chris Issak's @ the London Hammersmith Theatre, he sang this track, obviously a favourite of mine, even before I became blogger Blue...

Coloured Thursdays - AQUAMARINE!

AQUA or AQUAMARINE is a difficult colour to define - its name translates as 'water of the sea' and it ranges from light blue through turquoise blue to a deep blue green!!!

Because the colours of the ocean are truly captured in the gemstone AQUAMARINE, it was believed that wearing it would give protection on sea voyages, hence it being carried by sailors as a talisman to give them courage & save them from the perils of the deep!

Sadly, despite my time in the jewellery trade and the 'Myth & Magic' world of Crystals I don't own a single piece, which is unfortunate as it is thought to provide emotional & intellectual stability and clarity & peace of mind, all of which I could do with :)

Onto my photo's - this very AQUA period ceiling...

And these interesting stained glass windows with hints of all the shades come from my stay @ the Ty'r Graig Castle in Barmouth, North Wales a couple of years back...

The dragon mosaic is from Barmouth too - their Arts Centre...

And finally me in Aqua - the dear, late WFT favourite Jackson was never allowed on the Red Sofa, so thought he was in trouble re this photo shoot, hence his reluctance to cuddle as we were good friends...

This week the Celebration Cakes Shop's window failed me!
Their website did have suitable images but regrettably of too poor a photographic quality for me to reproduce here.
So, as a last resort had to look else where - this wonderful creation is an image from Flickr ...

My original meme 'True Colours Thursday' is now hosted by friends, the fun pups Doyle & Mollie here @ Blue's Coloured Thursday, with me as Colour Consultant :)
Please do join in again!

Monday Blues - Name the Flower?

Blue flowers are regrettably few & far between, found this one during the Summer...Once upon a time, thought I was reasonably good @ the naming of blooms, but of late not so.
So, am relying on you, especially Sue, who has never failed me yet :)

Postscript - 05/10/10
It seems this flower is a bit of a mystery - it's certainly not a Hollyhock, though the colours right!