ToadMama – Page 35 – ToadMama.com

July 4, 2016

I May Need a 12-Step Program

Hi, my name is Kathy, and I am a photoholic. I take pictures. Lots and lots of pictures. But, even worse, I am a photo hoarder.

That flower image is one of hundreds of gigabytes of images that I don’t need to keep. I mean, it’s pretty, but why do I need to keep it? Like, for years? I don’t. I really need to concentrate on keeping only those images that mean something to me.

Unlike many people, I don’t store the images on my camera and/or phone forever, I actually upload them to my hard drive in a pretty timely fashion. That’s where they tend to sit. For like a year or more.

Recently, over the past six months or so, I have noticed my computer getting slower and slower. I’m not really inclined to buy a new one at the moment, so I just grit my teeth, do what I have to do on the pokey-ass thing, and then get off of it.

That slowness is probably one of the reasons you haven’t seen much of me lately.

The weather this holiday weekend has been rather wet. So I spent the day on Sunday deleting and moving image files. I think it has helped. Yay!

All is well here. I haven’t been riding as much as I’d like, but other stuff — good stuff — has been keeping me busy.

Remember my quest for LOVE? I haven’t given up. Even though I am chasing a moving target — more LOVEworks keep getting added — I really enjoy getting out and see the sculptures.

Guess how many I have captured so far? Forty-six! That’s a lot, right? This is a big state!

Unfortunately, the Virginia tourism folks don’t keep the master list up-to-date, so I don’t know how many there currently are. Whatever… who really cares about statistics? I like looking for LOVE. LOL.

Here are my latest captures…

Early Mountain UNK — LOVEwork in Madison, Virginia

I’m not sure if the Madison LOVE is official or not. It’s not listed on the web site, so I have no idea who it belongs to. I suspect, however, that it might be on the Early Mountain Vineyard property. I captured that image from Wolftown-Hood Road (VA-230).

The last image is just a few minutes from my house. I guess Airlie is technically in Warrenton, but it’s not in the downtown area where I live. It’s less than four miles away, though, which is cool.

And it’s actually a pretty place. I should go there more often.

I’ll try to catch y’all up on what’s been happening ’round here. The exciting stuff, anyway. Like visits with grand kids, a trip to my friend’s rose showcase, a few rides we’ve done, etc. Oh, and a few craft projects. Another reason I’ve been away from the pokey computer.

Yes, that stuff is exciting to me. I’m getting old.

TTFN, peeps!

June 2, 2016June 2, 2016

Victoria’s Beacon Hill Park

Hi there! In case you haven’t visited in a while, this post is basically the second half of the pics I captured during a recent visit (April 20, 2016) to Victoria, BC, Canada. You’ll have to be sure to see the first installment if you haven’t already. There were so many pretty park pics to share, I decided they deserved a post of their own.

Anyhoo… I really didn’t have much of a plan beyond meeting up with Dar in the late afternoon. I knew Victoria was pretty, based on my previous, very quick visit and posts I’d vaguely remembered seeing on Dar’s blog and Brandy’s blog. I was excited to just have a few hours to myself to just roam, sightsee, and do whatever I felt like doing, or NOT doing as the case may be. I grabbed a Victoria map on the ferry and, upon seeing that Beacon Hill Park looked to be relatively close to the harbor, I decided to go there. (Here’s a link if you want to learn more about the 200-acre park.)

Remember, you can click on any image to see a larger version.

Since Richard asked, I had to check and see how far I actually walked that day. It appears to have been roughly six miles (9.5 km) give or take. I criss-crossed the park a lot, so it’s hard to tell for sure. I was walking slowly and stopping a lot for pics and also just to enjoy some peaceful spots in the shade.

It was a beautiful, sunny, warm Spring day. There were lots and lots of flowers in bloom. And a bunch of other interesting stuff to see. I could have gone to a museum and/or shopping, but it was such a pretty day and it was just so darn gorgeous that I sort of just ambled around the city all day.

Here are some of the many images I captured.

I didn’t enter the park through the main entrance pictured in that first shot. I’d just walked in the general direction of the park and entered on the first convenient path that I saw. And I didn’t have a map of the park, so I don’t remember what the various areas were called. Sorry. I was just ambling about.

8_IMG_0144 — The biggest non-wild rhododendron I’ve ever seen.

Same bush, different side. The bench helps give a sense of scale.

I may or may not have squealed aloud when I rounded a corner on a wooded path and saw this…

I LOVE The Moss Lady.

20_IMG_0261 — There were pretty colors everywhere.

I am a visual, nature-loving person, so I was completely and utterly in my element.

14_IMG_0212 (2) — Such a peaceful place.

The view would be all green and serene, maybe with a pond or two. And ducks. Loads of ducks, geese and such. Then I’d round a corner and, BOOM, more color.

Not that I am complaining. Trust me, I was absolutely delighted.

Some of my pics are a bit washed out because the sun was so bright, which is a shame. But I think you get the idea just how lovely a place it was.

Winding path lined with many varieties of tulips, daffodils, and similar flowers.

This one was in the shade, so you can see it’s form better.

Do the colors on this one make you swoon? I gasped aloud when I saw the thing in person.

One of the many spots I chose to just sit for a spell.

I was so overwhelmed by all the loveliness that I actually forgot ScooterBob was with me. DOH! I can be such a dunce sometimes. All oohing and aahing about the stunning natural beauty around me instead of snapping opportunistic photos of my little globe-trotting wooden friend.

17_IMG_0252 (2) — ScooterBob at the wildflower meadow.

I never did get an image of that meadow good enough to do it justice. It was a veritable sea of purple before me. There was just too much sun at that time of day.

Look closely and you’ll see a snow-capped mountain framed by those trees.

18_IMG_0254 (2) — Tiny pond with bust of Queen Victoria (I think).

19_IMG_0260 — Peacock (they are noisy suckers)

21_IMG_0264 (2) — Yet another pretty pond. And ScooterBob.

This is my favorite duck capture of the day.

Finally, my favorite nature scene of the day. A bunch of turtles on a floating log.

I actually stood there watching for a while. And laughing. While I have seen my share of turtles on logs, I’d never actually seen turtles on a floating log. It’s different, trust me. You’ll have to watch at least the first 45 seconds of the video I included below to see why.

That was my day at Beacon Hill Park. Yes, I’d go again in a heartbeat. Even if I had just one more day to spend in Victoria. Of course, I’d ask Dar to meet me there with a picnic meal, and perhaps an alcoholic beverage or two. 🙂

June 1, 2016June 1, 2016

My Day in Victoria, BC, Canada

As we were planning our recent trip to visit family in Washington, one of the things I really, REALLY wanted to do was take a side trip to Victoria, BC. Not because I hadn’t been there before or because I just wanted to say I’d visited another country. I wanted to get to Victoria to meet Dar.

I’ve known Dar, aka Princess Scooterpie, for several years via her blog, and wanted to meet her in person. The last time I was in Victoria, I’d been traveling with three other people. We were on a tight schedule and I just didn’t feel right carving out time for myself. Of course, I’d regretted it, and I was determined not to make the same mistake twice. If you’d like to read about the meet-up with Dar and two other moto-blogger buddies (on a different day), you can do so here.

Victoria isn’t exactly in the same neighborhood, but it was close enough that I knew I could probably swing a visit, with proper planning and a little bit of luck. The planning part meant figuring out how to get from Auburn, where Amy and family live, to Victoria, which is sort of close on the map, but just happens to be on an island. And that meant the logistics — time and money — were a bit of a challenge. Luck came into play when there was a day with no grand kid sporting events, which meant I didn’t have to be in Washington for chauffeur service. I was free!

I had several choices, but finally settled on the Victoria Clipper passenger-only ferry from Seattle.

IMG_0325_Vic_Clip — Victoria Clipper Ferry

I only had to drive into Seattle for the ferry’s 8:30 a.m. sailing to Victoria, a 2.5-hour ride away. I love ferries. I especially love ferries that travel in and around Washington. It is such a beautiful place. And that day was absolutely gorgeous.

Oh, we saw Orcas en route, too. Not very well, but we did see their fins.

I was to meet Dar around 3:30 or 4:00 p.m. The ferry docked at about 11:00 a.m. That meant I had four or so hours to explore the lovely little city.

Supposedly, Victoria is Canada’s most-British city. I can’t say I know for sure as it’s the only city in Canada I have ever visited. Not counting a brief trip to Niagara Falls, which is not really a fair comparison.

British-like or not, it’s gorgeous. There are Victorian mansions and flowers galore, which I discovered as I ambled about, with no real plan beyond visiting the city park.

Here are some of the images I captured in Victoria that day.

3_IMG_0091 — Parliament Building (Victoria is the capital of British Columbia.)

9_IMG_0129 — Pretty lilacs with lichen-covered branches.

25_IMG_0303 (2) — Interesting Architecture

29_IMG_0328 (2) — Looking over the harbor.

30_IMG_0355 — Looking over the harbor from the opposite side.

IMG_0332_wall_map — Wall mural of Vancouver Island (Victoria is on the SE tip.)

I couldn’t decide which sunset image I liked best, so I decided to post three

I think #2 is my favorite. I like the colors.

As usual, I shared a ton of pics in this post. So many that I decided to share pictures captured in Beacon Hill Park in a separate post.

May 30, 2016

Playing Catch-up. Again.

It’s been a month since my last post on this blog. Sorry. I haven’t been completely absent from the blog realm. I was playing host to my pal ScooterBob, who I introduced you to here. If you’d like to see our escapades, check out these posts on Bob’s blog:

ScooterBob’s tour of Warrenton
Meeting a local celebrity
Down for repairs
Hubby did a masterful job on ScooterBob’s facelift
ScooterBob enjoying some of VA’s oddities
ScooterBob on Skyline Drive
Happily, we made it to two must-see places: Skyline Drive and the Blue Ridge Parkway
We shared an up-close-and-personal bovine experience

So that’s why you haven’t seen much of me here.

ScooterBob left Virginia last week and is now in New Hampshire. You should be seeing more of me here. I have lots of pics from our latest trip to the Pacific NW and many images from my travels with ScooterBob that I saved for you all.

Here are just a few teaser pics of things to come.

I visited Victoria, British Columbia, Canada while out west. There’s an absolutely gorgeous city park — Beacon Hill Park — where I captured lots of pretty flower pics.

I have quite a few other pics to share, too. Many are in the category of “weird images I capture just because.”

I’m a sucker for fun reflections. I can’t help it.

There are quite a few Virginia pics, too, like this one.

Finally captured a pic of this cool old stone silo.

That’s it for the preview. It’s Memorial Day. I don’t have to work. The sky is clear, for now, so I need to get out there and experience the world instead of sitting indoors, staring at my computer, writing about it.

Ta ta for now (TTFN)!

April 30, 2016

All About the Girl

Hubby and I were in Washington State visiting family April 15-24. Our daughter and son-in-law, Amy and TJ, had to go away for a few days, and needed us to supervise the grand kids. They’re good kids, so we really only needed to be there to chauffeur them around to various activities, make sure they ate, bathed, slept, didn’t kill each other, etc. Most evenings were pretty busy.

Tuesday evening, Brianna had a lacrosse game in Bellevue, roughly 30 miles north of their home in Auburn. Depending on timing, the drive could take 45 minutes or two hours. The game got pushed back to an 8:00 PM start to avoid traffic delays.

We didn’t have to go, since she had to ride the team bus, but I wanted to go. I know nothing about lacrosse, but hadn’t seen her play for several years. They’ve lived in Washington for three years already!

The last time I saw Brianna, now 15 and in her first year of high school, play any sport was for a recreational/club team. It was really quite surreal seeing her playing lacrosse for her high school. They have real uniforms, and coaches, and play in fancy stadiums with lights and everything. And since she’s just a freshman playing on the varsity team, which is awesome, she looked so young out there playing amongst the older girls.

Mentally, it doesn’t seem like that long ago when I was playing high school sports, and now my granddaughter is playing? Weird. But cool.

Brianna's lacrosse team. — Brianna’s lacrosse team. That’s her in the middle, fiddling with her mouth guard.

I mean, how’d she grow up so fast?

Look at this cute pic from 2008.

I didn’t get many decent pics that first night, but she also had a daytime game on Saturday in Tacoma.

030 — Brianna is the second girl from the right.

She was on the sideline when I reached the stadium, about halfway through the game (I don’t even know if there’s such a thing as half-time.) Apparently, she scored in the first part of the game before I arrived.

Brianna_LAX_action — She’s young and thin, but she holds her own!

I’m really proud of Brianna. She’s right on the cusp of womanhood, and is turning into quite a nice young lady.

There’s so much we miss, with the grand kids living so far away. Little things they wouldn’t think to tell you about. Like, when a teammate got taken out by the opposing team, Brianna was the first one to run over and ask if the girl was okay, retrieved her teammate’s stick, and talked to her ’til the coach arrived.

Or when, after practice one night, I overheard Brianna giving an older teammate, who I gathered was feeling quite discouraged about her recent on-field performance, a pretty grown-up sounding pep talk. She’s really becoming such a lovely person.

As I’m sure her Mom would say, she has her moments. Don’t we all? But persevere, do your very best as a parent, and give a kid a strong foundation, as Amy and TJ have for all of their children, and they will eventually grow into amazing adults. Just like our kids have.

The grand kids were on their best behavior all week. Really. Their parents must have laid down some pretty hefty threats to get them to behave for poor, old G (that’s me) and Pop. LOL.

Here are some pics of the super-cool stadium where Brianna played on Saturday.

The game was at Stadium High School in Tacoma. (Click that link if you want to read a bit about the history of the very cool-looking school.)

Stadium overlooks Puget Sound's Commencement Bay. — Stadium overlooks Puget Sound’s Commencement Bay.

The grand kids will be coming here for a visit in June. I’m already looking forward to that, but really start need to thinking of things we can plan to keep them busy! Being busy is key. 🙂

April 26, 2016April 26, 2016

Girls’ Day Out – Part 2

In my first post about the day-trip Amy and I took to Port Townsend (PT), I said I’d show you more pictures of the town itself, and how it looked from land. If you missed the first post, make sure you go back. There are some nice pics there, if I do say so myself.

The ride to PT was gorgeous. And it was beautiful sitting at the little waterfront cafe while we ate a small lunch and enjoyed an adult beverage or two. The town itself — at least the downtown area on and around Water Street — was chock-full of cool, artsy shops, interesting buildings, and other stuff that caught my eye. Plus, the weather was beautiful, even if it was a tad too much on the warm side for my taste (close to the 80s!).

The Pacific Northwest is supposed to have cooler temperatures!

Anyway… here are the images from Port Townsend I feel are worthy of sharing.

IMG_0449_Otter_Log — Otter Log on shore of Port Townsend Bay

There were lots of other cool buildings in town, too. Some with what Fuzzy refers to as ghost ads.

IMG_0454_Main Street — Along Water Street in Port Townsend

IMG_0403_Sign — Taylor Street at Water Street

IMG_0402_Sign — Close-up of sign (Taylor Street at Water Street)

IMG_0404_Water_View — Heading toward funky-cool antique shop on Taylor Street.

IMG_0405_Bunting — As seen from just inside doorway of funky-cool antique shop on Taylor Street.

IMG_0407_Sign — On side of building along Water Street (between Quincy and Taylor).

IMG_0409_Sign — On side of building along Water Street (between Quincy and Taylor).

IMG_0394_Old_Hotel — The Bishop Victorian Hotel on Washington Street

IMG_0391_Old_Station — Old garage on Washington Street.

IMG_0424_Waterfront Park — Part of Pope Marine Park on Water Street.

Amy and I both thoroughly enjoyed our girls’ day out, but we both wished that Shannon could have been there, too.

Moms and adult daughters should hang out more often, when you can be friends and don’t have to act like a parent. It’s sooooo much more relaxing and rewarding.

Shannon and Amy both turned into lovely young women. They are awesome daughters and all-around nice people, too. Most days. LOL.

We all had our ups and downs when they were younger — parenting is HARD work — but I don’t regret any of it. Well, I do regret some parts. In hindsight, I could have been a much better parent, but I was young and growing, too.

I am a very lucky lady. Any woman would be proud to be a parent of these two now-grown kids. Hubby and I really have been blessed.