So, about the Christmas photos...

I brought my camera -- actual camera -- to Dad's place for Christmas. It hasn't been out of its bag, I'm afraid. There's a couple of reasons for that, really. The biggest was that it's been very, very cold (right now my phone says that it's -30C. Yes, that's a minus. That's -22F, for those who find that measurement easier to comprehend. I don't, but that's what Google's for. Needless to say, it hasn't made me especially enthusiastic to wander around taking yard pictures.

The second reason for the lack of real camera is that it's too damned easy to pick up the phone, and yes, that makes me lazy. Ah well, here's a few random phone camera shots from the past week, at least.

Christmas for cats

Do I really need to caption this?

Looking at this, you'd think that the Turkey Brothers get along.

One of the two pictures I took outside, a few steps from the back door. I needed a photo for a work post. This is wild Purple Clematis, even if it is growing in the yard.

Random photo of my ear, to show my uncle what his studs look like. Nothing like wearing someone else's cast-offs. When they're diamond studs, at least.

Let's end the blog's year with a tea photo, since it was a bit of a theme.

Well, that's it for the year, I guess. I'm going to scan a couple of doodles for the other blog since I've been pretty lax at that, go upstairs to find some lunch, and then... well, probably make more tea. Did I mention that baby, it's cold outside?

Good luck with the new year,everyone.

Around the yard, pretending that I like snow

Had the camera out yesterday in Dad's yard. As much as most of my, like pretty much everyone else's, picture-taking is by phone these days, there's nothing that compares to the feel, sound, and effect of an actual SLR. Or dSLR now, because very few of us putterers can afford the expense and bother of film. Even if I do have a really nice film camera.

Anyway.

We've had a lot of fog lately, and that led to a bunch of frosty branches. Hey, as much as I hate winter and cold, I can make myself like frost flowers. Here's a bit of what was out there.

Frozen tarragon

I like the clumpy way that snow makes patterns on branches sometimes.

More clumps, this time on cotoneaster.

Frosted Blue Spruce

Icicles on honeysuckle

This isn't frozen or in the yard. It's Tom in a duffel bag.

In the interests of equal time, Bob in a cat house.

Knowing me, that's probably it for at least another month. Ah well, at least the blog is semi-used occasionally.

Pointless photography, yet again.

I should just call the blog Photo Dump at this point, since I haven't felt much like spouting off lately. Ah well.

I got the real, actual camera out yesterday for a bit, as opposed to being lazy and just using the cell phone. Let me tell you, phone cameras are getting pretty good, but they're never going to beat a dSLR if you really want to compose things. I'm not saying that I worked especially hard at composition yesterday -- I was pretty much just taking snaps -- but playing with the bokeh on a prime lens is somehow just plain satisfying. Let's see what we've got, then:

Buds on the apple tree that produces big apples.

Buds on the apple tree that produces small apples.

Double-flowering Plum. It doesn't actually glow; that's just from the sun's angle.

Saskatoon flowers.

These next few are from the phone, because cats. And Forsythia.

The Forsythia wasn't clear on the camera (bad angle), so here's the phone version.

I used this for a catsandbirds.ca post on work's FB. Nice of the Turkey Brothers to pose.

And finally... the usual. One in a basket, one figuring out chairs.

That's it for today. I'll see if I can come up with a blather sometime in the future so that this place can be a bit more bloggy again.

And for those interested, http://catsandbirds.ca/

Pointless photos; now including philosophical cats

Didn't bring my camera with me to Dad's this time, so it's all phone pics all the time. Let's see what's up:

What's literally up are the tulips and daffodils. It's a bit of a cheat, though. This corner gets warmed by the dryer vent, so it gets a head start on spring. 

March 30th was Pencil Day, in honour of the first end-of-pencil eraser. Here are some (some, yes) of my art pencils which, ironically, never have erasers on them.

Two cats outdoors. One enjoys it; one doesn't. Guess which is which?

Cat philosophy. The yin yang of sleeping in a too-small basket together.

Look! More pointless photos!

Purple Clematis seed heads

Shrubby Cinquefoil

Do you think that there might be a bird feeder nearby?

I know. It looks like a bad photo of my car. Look closer, though, and you'll see that the car is just reflected in the window that two cats are watching me through. Nosy Turkey Brothers...

Pointless cat photo of yesterday:

I'm Bob, and I'm a doofus.

And just because yesterday was World Cat Day, but only in Europe:

Pointless photos of the weekend:

There aren't too many today, because it was boring and foggy outside yesterday and the cats were being sedentary when I had the camera out. Ah well, here they are in their completely unedited glory:

Thanks for folding the laundry, Dee.

Somewhere down in the fog is my home town.

Circle of Bob.

T'was the day after Christmas...

Otherwise known as Boxing Day here in Canada (and the UK, and probably other Commonwealth Countries as well. I'm too lazy to check, to be honest).

To the left, you'll see my annual slow shutter speed photo of the Christmas tree, because it's more fun that way. Plus, you can tell by the dotted lines up top and the solid lines below that Dad has one string of LED lights and one string of old-fashioned incandescents, and that appeals to the nerd in me.

And that implies that there are parts of me that aren't nerd, I suppose. I'm not entirely sure that it's true, but we'll roll with it.

And how was Christmas? Not too bad, actually. Dad didn't think that the gifts I gave him were too stupid (gifts, plural, only because he got a few little things this year instead of one big thing), I made out nicely myself, I was (as usual) spoiled by my brother and sister-in-law and will have a shopping trip to blog about when I get the chance, and the turkey was pretty good.

We didn't go out to view the Christmas lights this time, as we often do, because it was bloody cold out there. Ah well, I was inside so that's all right. I managed to make it into town just before a heavy snowfall and will leave (probably tomorrow) as it's warming up, so my timing was pretty good for a change.

And as for Boxing Day sales? Just online ones this year for me. I don't exactly have to budget to find more things than I need, anyway.

I'll leave you with a few shots of... well, any cat owner can guess who enjoys Christmas the most, I guess.

Hope you had a merry/happy whatever.

Pointless cat photos

Because the internet needs more cat photos, really.

This is me not apologising for not blogging, by the way. Life has been busy. I recently officially took on social media management at work, and since that's becoming more and more a part of our marketing it's keeping me on my toes.

I don't really have any other news. Dad and I went out for Chinese food last night because we both have upcoming birthdays and I won't be home for either of them. He was pretty quick to agree to supper when I suggested it, because as a Legion member Remembrance Day is always fairly busy for him. I also had to give him his birthday present early, because it was perishable. What did I give him? Sausages. No, I'm not kidding. I gave him sausages from Big Bend Market, which makes them in-house from local meat. They have other fantastic local products as well, and a great lunch counter. If you're in the Red Deer area you should look them up.

I of course didn't give him the sausages at the restaurant. You know, in case you wondered.

Anyway, that's all I have at the moment. Oh, except for the fact that Dad's washing machine is sounding like it's preparing for take-off. I think he needs to start looking at the sales flyers. Now onto the Turkey Brothers:

Tom was unimpressed with Dad's towel mountain.

The "don't hate me because I'm beautiful" pose.

Bob, chillin'.

Add me with a face cloth and you'll know what it's like to wash your face here. Yes, he stands right in the sink.

Actual new pointless photos

The problem with Dad having a cat named Bob (the tabby that you sometimes see on the blog) is that I sometimes think that Tom here should have been named Jesus. Then the other cat could be Jesus' Brother Bob...

Everybody needs a bit more Arrogant Worms in their lives, I figure.

One thing to note about the picture, by the way. It's hard to see here, but this cat is on a leash and wearing a harness. We used to let our cats roam free during the day when I was a kid, but I'm very much against it now. Free range cats kill millions (no, I'm not exaggerating) of birds, and often have much shorter lives themselves because of fights, illness, and injuries. Check out Cats and Birds for some good reasons to either keep your cat indoors or only let it out tethered and supervised.

On another note, Tom's a handsome dude, isn't he?

I'm going to do a couple of quick scheduled posts after this of a couple of things in the yard (once again, I didn't keep too many of the photos that I took yesterday. Thank Whomever for digital when it comes to bad photography), but here's one to start off with.

I'm honestly not entirely sure what this is and I'm too lazy to find out, but I thought that the speckled pattern was kind of cool. On the photography side, I love the bokeh I get from this lens. Cameraphones just can't do that.

Yet.

I'm sure that they will at some point.

Anyway, scheduled posts and then lunch. Type at you later.

Congratulations?

Just a quick post (as usual) in "celebration" of the Turkey Brothers officially making it to Cat Shaming on Instagram.

Yep, Tom sitting on Bob because there wasn't enough room in the laundry basket was post-worthy.

And no wonder...

Pointless cat photo of last month or whenever

Looking out on September? Not at the time I took the picture, no, but I guess you can look at it that way.

Tom, who isn't allowed out unless he's on harness, has apparently decided that he needs to be out ALL THE TIME. Winter will cure that for a while, but I don't think that any of us are in a hurry for that kind of cure.



Anyway, there's a quick post. Bet you thought that I'd forgotten how to do it, right?

Pointless photos of the day:

 The cat's a bit out of focus because the cat was hunting bees in the Veronica. Smart, Tom.

Incidentally, notice the harness? Cats SHOULD NOT roam free. It's harmful to wildlife, and it shortens the life of the cat pretty drastically. Build a cat run, screen in a porch, or train them to harness like Tom is. Just don't leave them unsupervised. They tend to get into trouble.

Dad's road is almost a road again. It was torn up and rerouted because the town built a new bridge. The old green one you see in the distance will be demolished.

The road's not open yet (they just moved the barricades for the construction equipment), but shortly after I took this picture they started painting in the crosswalks and stop lines.

Not long now, then.



And that's it for the scheduled posts. See you... next time I have time, I suppose.

Pointless cat photo of the day:

Shooting people at a mall. Suicide bomber at a bistro. Shooting teenagers at a nightclub. The US's increasingly scary-to-the-world-in-general election.

Oil spill on the North Saskatchewan. Church burning at Saint Isidore. Rail station canopy collapse in Chicago. California wildfires.

Have I missed anything? I'm sure I have.



The news sucks.

Let's look at a cat watching bugs on a screen door. Complete with instagram filter, even.





Yep. Much better.

Back in the saddle, sort of. With random photos that have nothing to do with anything.

Bob sits this way by choice, remember.

By the way, these photos really do have nothing at all to do with the blather. Nothing. No false advertising here. Shall we begin?

Back in November of 2014, I was in pain. Lower abdominal pain. I though it was just a nastier than usual period, which sometimes happens as you approach all that menopausal irregularity fun. The problem was, I had an interpreter who hadn't done planetarium for a while and asked me to take her first of two that day so that she could have a review.

That didn't help the pain.

I did it anyway, but asked a coworker if she could watch the second program because I just didn't think that I could handle it.

That night the pain got even worse, and at a certain point in the sleepless night I decided to run a hot bath. It helps a little when I have kidney stone pain. Well, it became obvious as soon as I got in the tub that it wasn't going to work and that something was really wrong. I got dressed and walked to the hospital. Yes, walked. I live close enough that I would have got there well before a cab or a friend would have arrived to pick me up.

Road construction for the new bridge at Dad's place.

 After a longer than necessary wait in an almost empty ER waiting room (I think they figured that it wasn't serious because I walked there. All I know is that I was given an incredibly flimsy excuse when they finally came for me) during which I developed a fever, x-rays basically led to the medical equivalent of OH SHIT when they found gas in my abdomen.

It turned out to be a ruptured diverticulum, and meant emergency surgery, a week in hospital on some pretty heavy antibiotics, and over a year with an ostomy.

Needless to say -- for anyone familiar with mobile planetariums, that is -- I didn't do planetarium for a while.

For those new to the program, I had ostomy reversal surgery at the beginning of April this year. Recovery's been a little harder than I expected, but I'm getting there.

Tom's pose is to remind me that he hates the camera.

This past week I was pulled out of the last day of our Nature School week to do some other programming, including two hours of edible plants and... oh come on, you've guessed... a planetarium program. A program for a youth group that we also used as a training opportunity for a couple of the new interpreters.

Planetarium. First time in over a year and a half. First time since I ruptured. Training. Was I nervous? Not really. I was pretty much too busy being scared to death to be nervous.

But how did it go, Dee? Oh, all right, I suppose. I didn't explode again, which was a good thing. I felt like a bit of a helpless femme because I had to get my interpreters to do most of the heavy lifting (it doesn't hurt very much to lift things now, but I find that I get winded really quickly), but that's partly because I have a hard time accepting help when I should be able to do things myself. As for the program, I guess it was ok. I had a couple of memory lapses, but when it's been over a year since you've used some of the terminology I think that's forgivable.

Back in the planetarium saddle.





I'm not sure if that deserves a YAY! yet or not, to be honest.



I'll let you know.

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I'm going to schedule a few garden photo posts now, since that seems to be the only way I manage to post during the week anymore. Watch this space, as they say.